Using Social Media To Improve Business Brokering
Dr. Matthew Loop, president of DCincome.
Social media expert Dr. Matthew Loop offered practical advice on using Facebook and other applications to boost your business when he spoke to the Georgia Association of Business Brokers (GABB) on June 28.
Loop offered highlights from his book, Social Media Made Me Rich, which offers a quick, practical, easy-to-understand, comprehensive reference guide for small businesses who want to learn how to generate income from the Internet.
Matthew Loop calls himself the highest paid social media revenue strategist in North America. He’s helped brands, celebrities, startups and small businesses increase their income, influence and impact through social media.
Loop discussed the pillars of social media outreach, including:
- Reputation / social proof management (Google Maps, Yelp, etc)
- Facebook organic –
- Pay per click advertising (Facebook, Adwords, etc)
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Online Video (YouTube) and live streaming apps (Periscope)
- Blogging / Microblogging
- Photo sharing (Pinterest and Instagram)
- Podcasting (iTunes)
- News releases and publicity
Facebook can be used profitably by small businesses who take the time to set up a page. More than 1.5 billion users, creating a page is free, and small businesses can purchase targeted advertisements inexpensively. Loop suggested these action steps”
- Create a Facebook personal account if you don’t already have one (after all, it’s 2016!) Then go to Facebook.com/pages to set up a “fan page” for your business, being very careful to create an accurate and descriptive title.
- Then go to Facebook.com/username to select a vanity URL
- Why is having a lot of Facebook fans important? It’s an indicator of popularity, immediately creates consumer trust in your business, and helps generate more website visits. Fan likes also boost SEO, or search engine optimization.
- To get lots of fans, have a promotion, give away items, or sponsor joint promotions with synergistic businesses.
How to get your first 3,000 fans quickly, according to Loop:
- Invite Your Email List and Subscribers
- Embed Facebook Fan Page Widgets on Your Website
- Add your URL to Your Email Signature Block
- Use Facebook as your fan page to like, comment, etc.
- Run Facebook Ads to a Your Facebook Page
- Run a Contest and Only Members of Your Fan Page can Participate
- Link to your social media profiles and post
- Use Facebook’s check-in feature and incentivize clients to participate
- Use Print Media, TV, or radio
- Timeline graphic branding
Action steps to improve your business’s prominence on social media:
- Update your social statuses on Facebook and other social networks at minimum of four times per day. Post high quality information, quotes of interest, pics, open-ended questions, tips, Facebook videos, blogs, and graphics to build liking and trust.
- GABB recommend members follow the GABB on social media, and you can easily repost information of interest to your clients.
- GABB on Facebook.
- Join GABB’s LinkedIn page
- GABB’s Twitter handle is @GABB_Brokers
- Send your original content to GABB, and GABB will repost it on its Social Media Account. Also, the GABB uses Buffer, (linked here), an application that allows a user to post frequently in minutes per day. Use this Buffer link, and you can get a free trial subscription that allows you to use a limited version.
Loop also said businesses should update your Google Maps profile. Google maps ranks business by the following factors, and a business who updates their status can immediately improve their ranking.
- Profile completed
- Proper category selected
- Keyword in business description
- Listing verified
- Citations
- Reviews
- Traffic to your business website
- Distance to town center
See Matthew Loop’s GABB PowerPoint Presentation.
The Georgia Association of Business Brokers (GABB) maintains a website that lists hundreds of businesses and franchises for sale throughout Georgia in a variety of fields, including automotive, business services, child care, cleaning, construction, electronics equipment, fitness, flooring, floral, food, gas stations, landscaping, manufacturing, medical, shipping, restaurants, retail, security, signs, and businesses related to the internet.
According to GABB President Greg DeFoor, selling a business is a complicated process with multiple steps and a lot of moving pieces. “Our broker members are licensed business brokers, whereas everyone in the industry may not be properly licensed,” said DeFoor, who owns DeFoor Business Services, Inc. “GABB members benefit from continuing education, networking, promotion of professionalism and ethics in the industry, research tools, and forms prepared by a team of attorneys specifically for our association.”
“We are the go-to organization for business sales and acquisitions as a result of our dedication to the profession and our members being among the best in the state at what we do,” said DeFoor. “Our members have represented probably over a thousand transactions, and we have a dedicated membership of business brokers, lenders, attorneys and other professionals to assist business buyers and sellers at every step of the process. We work behind the scenes and go mostly unnoticed, but we’re an integral part of Georgia’s business community.”
For more information about GABB, email georgiabusinessbrokers@gmail.com or call 404-374-3990.