It can be scary stuff. Let’s say, for example, that you own the most popular restaurant in a place called “Anytown”. You get loads of web traffic that regularly converts to a return on investment via people finding out about you for the first time online, because you’re always the #1 result whenever someone types “Anytown restaurants” into the Google search bar. No matter how popular and highly-trafficked your site is, Google may very well demote your high ranking because it looks terrible on a smartphone or tablet.

You’ve probably experienced it before; visiting a website on your iPhone only to discover that the text is way too small to read without zooming in, and a bulk of the content is cut off on the right-hand side. Put simply, this is not an ideal user experience, and due to the ever-increasing importance of mobile search to Google’s search product, it seems like they’re now taking matters into their own hands to ensure that your site is ideally suited for those browsing on the go.

Don’t panic, because this isn’t exactly a bad thing. If trends continue, mobile will eventually become the dominant force in online search overall, and you’ll be happy that the majority of your potential customers will have a clear, easily-browsable experience when deciding whether to buy your product or service.

There are many options for making your site mobile-friendly, and the best thing to do is talk to your local creative agency to explore them. In many cases, a full site rebuild isn’t even necessary: there are several ways to upgrade yours existing site at minimal cost.

Klout is a powerful aggregating tool that indicates your overall social media effectiveness based on a score of 1 to 100. By plugging in all of your various platforms into its algorithm (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google Plus etc.), you can get a better idea of how influential your business is on the web, and plan future posts accordingly based on what worked and what didn’t. In addition to helping you decide on what kind of content to post, Klout also recommends other popular accounts to follow based on your business’s field of interest, allowing you to see how other pros in your arena are getting their message across.

Invest In Multi-Platform Dashboard Software

There are loads of software examples, both downloadable and in-browser, that offer you the ability to post across all your social media platforms at once, alleviating the annoyance of having to log into them individually to share what could be the exact same content. A great (and popular) tool with which to do this is HootSuite, which currently has the ability to integrate up to 35 different social media platforms into its dashboard functionality. Most of these types of software will also give you enhanced analytics that go beyond those of the social platforms themselves, so you’ll have extra data to show your clients and/or management.

Add Social Media Buttons To Your Email Signature

This is a simple, yet effective change that can actually have a significant impact on your overall social media views. By adding link buttons to all of your various platform below your name, title and contact info, you’re essentially letting each email you send act as an advertisement for your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or what have you, and interested parties will have yet another way to reach your pages. Ensure that the links to your pages are added with corresponding graphic buttons so that the email signature itself is more visually appealing.

The Bermuda Heart Foundation (BHF) is a high profile charity tasked with spreading heart health awareness across Bermuda. Given that the island has an alarmingly high rate of heart disease and diabetes, the management style of their Facebook page requires a mix of blunt, succinct medical facts, positive messaging and information regarding upcoming events/initiatives etc. Since they’re not pushing a specific “product” and aim only to promote cardiovascular health, we’re afforded a level of creative license in coming up with post ideas. Often, we’ll use Google News to find the latest news articles pertaining to heart health, read them to assure relevance, then thematically link the contents of the article to the work that the Bermuda Heart Foundation is doing. Of course, given the seriousness of Bermuda’s heart disease problem, it’s important to strike a balance somewhere between sobering and upbeat, transcending the sentiment that “even though its a big problem, we can and will work through it”.

S.C.A.R.S. (Nonprofit)

Saving Children And Revealing Secrets (S.C.A.R.S.) is a non-profit organization dedicated to combating child sexual abuse in Bermuda by educating the public on how to recognize it and respond potential warning signs. Given the extremely sensitive nature of their area of focus, our strategy for managing their Facebook page involves a mix of inspirational messaging, promotions of their various educational initiatives and an overall sentiment of “hope”. Since the content we promote can sometimes be unsettling for an average Facebook user (ie. sexual abuse statistics), it’s important to caption each potentially “controversial” post with a message that acknowledges it’s sensitive nature, but supports its sentiment regardless.

Department For National Drug Control (Government Branch)

The Department For National Drug Control is a branch of the Bermuda Government that falls under the Ministry Of National Security. Running their Facebook Page requires specific adhesion to their desired messaging, which involves educating the public on the dangers of various illegal substances. Since we’re speaking under the voice of the Department itself and are essentially acting as a Government representative, we have to follow their guidelines very closely and ensure that the posts mirror the Government’s official positions. For this page in particular, we’ll scrutinize the content we find even more so than usual to ensure that we’re following the client’s plan.

The point I want to drive home is that as a client, you stand to get tremendously more value from your social media contract if you make the effort to reach out to your manager on a semi-regular basis. Granted, the reason most people outsource their SM in the first place is because they simply don’t have the time to do it themselves, but the impact of even a 15-minute meeting can be quite impressive and have implications that last for months.

Let’s say, for example, that your business has several upcoming promotions over an imminent 6-month period. If you have the promotional material at hand, you and your SM manager can iron out the full posting schedule in one meeting, saving you both time and giving the manager the means to find supplementary content that could help your offer(s) “pop” even more.

Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, the more one-on-one time you spend with your SM manager, the better he/she will be able to understand you as a person and business owner, thus leading to clearer messaging being delivered on your behalf. In our digital world, the human connection still remains the most powerful tool in your social media marketing arsenal.

Image Credit: elycefeliz (flickr)

Share Original Content In Local Facebook “Groups”

Unlike the “business page” format, Facebook’s “group” format is a more personal medium that prioritizes engagement based on the most recent comment on a given thread. This in mind, if you have an interesting blog post/whitepaper/list of tips that you can promote with a holiday-themed message, members of a given group will be more likely to click through than on a business page, where the post will automatically be pushed to the side (depending on the page settings).

Theme Your Content Holiday-Style

If you happen to have an existing piece of content that you want to push out, you can theme it in the style of the holidays regardless of whether the content itself has any relative significance. With a few simple graphical tweaks, any digital whitepaper can become Christmas-ey, vibrant and more likely to catch the eye of somebody who already happens to be in the holiday spirit.

Don’t Overdo It

While people are generally open and receptive to holiday-themed content, it’s important not to push it so far that it seems like you’re marketing yourself cynically. When creating your content, don’t make it overly obvious that you’re pushing for a sale, but rather space out useful material in a scheduled fashion so you don’t overdo it. If your content is truly valuable, this probably won’t be an issue, but annoying your potential customers isn’t something you want to risk.

As anyone who’s spent time on YouTube knows, most videos are preceded by short video advertisements that typically make you watch for 5 seconds, then give you the option to skip the rest. Though potentially annoying to some, this type of in-your-face functionality allows the service to stay free, and eventually becomes the inoffensive “norm” to most users. SnapChat would have to do things a bit differently, though: since their videos are personalized between friends and can be no longer than ten seconds, it’d make sense that the preceding ads would have to be even shorter than five seconds. This could prove creatively difficult, but if the SnapChat developers have proven anything about their platform so far, it’s that they’re up to the challenge.

Self-Destructing Promotional Codes

One cool thing about SnapChat is that unless you specify otherwise, all photos and videos sent to your friends will disappear forever after a maximum of ten seconds. This dynamic raises some interesting possibilities in terms of exclusive promotions. It could be something simple as a business sending a photo from their official account to their followers along the lines of “Quickly! Write down this code and enter it on our website for a discount.”, so that the users have to really be paying attention in order to catch it in time. This type of client interaction would be unprecedented of sheer speed, and wouldn’t be difficult or expensive for businesses, even small ones, to adopt.

Photo/Video Contests

Businesses, particularly ones that sell physical/tangible products or services, would be wise to encourage their users to advertise their wares for them by offering some form of incentive. For example, if, say, a fashion label is releasing a new seasonal line, they could offer their customers the opportunity to model their clothing in a public SnapChat forum in exchange for some form of discount or stipend if the photo happens to be selected. This would create an atmosphere of competition and visual flare that would benefit both the business and the end user.

Use Google News

Let’s say, for example, that you manage the Facebook page for a real estate agency in the Cayman Islands. Since you typically want the posts on a given page to be a mix of direct self-promotions and indirect industry-related information, it makes sense to search for recent, relevant news articles that speak to the theme of your page. This in mind, it makes sense to type in “Cayman real estate” (or related keywords) into the Google News search bar and pore through the articles that come up to find the one that best suits the tone of your business’s “voice” on Facebook.

Speak Casually

When under a time constraint, it’s easier and more effective to write under a casual posting “voice” than to confine yourself to rigidity. The nature of Social is somewhat relaxed compared to traditional media, and you can get away with making posts that are more freestyle in nature. This is not to say that you should ignore the tenets of good grammar and punctuation for the sake of appearing casual, but when you can find the magic sweet spot between “professional” and “laid back”, your posts are likely to attract more engagement.

Keep An Emergency List Of Post Ideas

Let’s be honest: some days you’re just not as sharp as others (lack of coffee etc.). For times like these, it’s a good idea to have a backup list of pre-prepared post ideas to keep your business page fresh and relevant. Though these planned posts are more likely to be non-topical, it’s better to post something useful, even if old, than nothing at all. It’s very noticeable to the public when a business page loses momentum, and looks very unprofessional when someone comes to your page and sees that you haven’t posted in months. With a little bit of research and forward planning, you can avoid the need to deal with this, and always have an extra one in the chamber.

Image Credit:  Massimo Barbieri (Flickr)

But what about the equally important, yet oft-forgotten concept of “disconnecting”? With businesses having to concentrate on so many different platforms at once to keep up with their online marketing, it’s easy to to experience “burnout” and lose focus. Should this burnout become demoralizing, it can potentially affect public perception of your business, particularly if you quickly go from being active to passive. We now present you with some helpful tips that will help you avoid stress amongst the noise of the internet:

Schedule Posts

One great thing about most web marketing platforms is that they give you the ability to schedule your posts/advertisements in advance, allowing you not only to take advantage of peak viewing hours, but plan strategically to avoid undue stress. Mediums like Facebook, Twitter and WordPress (amongst many others) let you spread out as many posts as you want, as far ahead as you want, so there’s no need to constantly jump back and forth between your marketing and day-to-day operations.

Take Breaks

While there are arguments for and against “workaholism”, one thing is undeniable: We need breaks to recharge. It’s a widely acknowledged point, but in this blogger’s opinion, goes doubly in a digital marketing context. Studies confirm that spending too much time on the internet, whether it be Facebook, the back end of your website or your Twitter account, has the potential to make you feel alienated and stressed out. Since any digital marketing campaign worth its salt requires a substantial time investment, its extremely important to set guidelines for your self allow for periods of relaxation and disconnect.

Know What To Take Seriously (And What Not To)

The advent of anonymous commenting has created thousands upon thousands of what are known as “trolls”: Essentially, people who exist solely to provoke emotional reaction on the internet and “rile people up” about various issues. An example in a business context would be a person using a pseudonym to write nasty comments on your company blog. There’s a fine line between constructive criticism and unhelpful irreverence on which an effective troll knows how to dance. Remember that some people are genuinely just there to cause trouble, and it helps to know how to spot them.

Image Credit:  jenny.morros (Flickr)

Determine Legitimacy

Determining the legitimacy of the complaint being directed at you is important to proceeding in asituation involving an upset customer. With anonymous commenters, trolling and fake reviews becoming more and more prevalent online, you must use your best judgment to figure out whether the user in question has a genuine reason to complain or is simply trying to stir things up. Always be polite and patient, even if the user becomes rude: So long as you’re offering calm, reasoned responses to the complaints, onlookers and other customers will be able to see that you’re doing everything you can to alleviate the situation. If a particularly pointed complaint is directed to your business in a public forum (eg. your Facebook wall), it’s best to reach out to the user privately and give them the name of someone they can speak to directly: As personal as social media is, nothing beats one-on-one dialogue with a real person.

Respond Quickly

In a scenario where your business makes a mistake and the upset customer deserves some form of vindication or compensation, mediums like social media make it easy to respond to the wronged party swiftly. Letting a customer know that you’re conscious of your error and are working to fix it offers peace of mind, even in situations where you can’t right the situation immediately. If the dialogue happens to take place in a comments thread (eg. on a Facebook post or someone’s Twitter feed), other users witnessing the conversation can “Like” or “Favorite” your business’s individual responses to indicate that they agree with your approach, too.

Never Lose Your Cool

While this is a fundamental rule of customer service in general, it’s doubly important for online. Internet users love a good flame war, and if you ever respond to someone in an irate manner, you lose the advantage/responsibility of professionalism that comes with speaking under your business’s name. Whether you’re in the right or not, using condescending or inciteful language in any form is likely to make onlookers side with the person making the complaint, so it’s just not worth it.

Photo Credit: The Nunez’s Group (Flickr)

Respond In A Timely Fashion

This may seem obvious, but its a best practice ignored more often than you’d think. If a client or potential customer reaches out to you with a specific inquiry or comment, they’re expecting a timely reply: Don’t leave messages sitting in your inbox, particularly if your page is public and is seen to be regularly posting. Its also important not to ignore comment threads on individual posts, which can be easy to lose track of as they’re replaced with new ones. Even if you don’t have an immediate answer to a question you’re posed, its always advisable to let the person know that you’re in the process of following up. Punctual response is always appreciated, and is simple as a few keystrokes.

Remain Calm

One arguable drawback of social media’s personal nature is that things can get publicly (and easily) combative in the event of an upset customer. When put on the spot by someone unreasonable , it’s important to keep your cool and remember that your entire base of followers are watching. Show your audience that you’re able to deal with conflict in a collected manner, and they’ll respect you for it. If all else fails and the person is antagonistic, you can always block or report them to the platform administrators. The key is to always be aware of your audience and never risk presenting yourself as unhelpful or rude.

Speak Succinctly

The reason platforms like Twitter are designed around brief messages is because they operate on the assumption that web users have short attention spans. If you can transcend your point in fewer words without losing key details, you’re in a better position for your audience to stay engaged throughout a given post. Its fine to expand on customer queries during a private message exchange, but it’s best to write your public exchanges in an uncomplicated manner, under the assumption that your answer will be useful to many people watching.