Taylor Tomita
For those of you paying attention to the news, there has been a terrifyingly mysterious creature wandering the streets of Milwaukee over the past few days. The community has given this sly, cat-like animal the name ‘The Milwaukee Lion.’ Since the first sighting of the Milwaukee Lion, social media has exploded with curiosity of the whereabouts of this “creature”. The story is seemingly taking the world by storm, but what can your new business take from this?
Time and time again we see new businesses arise,which is fantastic. However, there are many reasons why new businesses are failing. In addition, failing to gain success on social media can cause a business to miss an opportunity to create a trustworthy name behind their brand. The Milwaukee Lion should serve as an inspiration to small businesses. No, I don’t mean to crawl out of the depths and terrify an entire town, but a new business needs to spread awareness of themselves on a near-viral basis. Let’s talk how you can use the internet to benefit your business!
Get Noticed
In today’s era of technology, a business has a chance to create a lasting online presence. Marketing, customer service, and sales (for most businesses) are all transitioning into being much more reliant on the existence of the internet. Why? Because it is what customers are demanding, and quite frankly, it’s an easy way promote your business’s brand in a way that your customers will find valuable. Now, there are two things every business should be doing online; let’s talk about these.
Social Media – If your company is not online in today’s business world, you are essentially “shooting yourself in the foot”. Starting a social media campaign is vital to the success of a small business and can be done even on the smallest of budgets. Look – even the Milwaukee Lion has a growing population of Twitter followers, and nobody even knows what it is. Therefore there is no reason why your business should not be on here too! Social media will grant your company the ability spread the knowledge of your existence on a huge scale, in addition to allowing you to provide easy customer service to your current customer base.
Engagement – Aside from social media, the internet offers many opportunities to engage with the industry. Online engagement can mean a couple of different things. First off, engaging means a business should participate in webinars and conference calls within their industry; similar to social media, this allows a company to share their insight on a wide scale while creating a positive name for themselves. The second meaning of engaging is that a business can use the internet to keep up with trends and news within the industry. This is important because combining basic conference etiquette and sharing well-informed insight can be a surefire way to build your brand’s reputation.
Create a Wow! Factor
With internet access being available to nearly anyone, a business owner with access to the web and a bit of dedication can do exactly what we just talked about above. With this in mind, you must stand out to your customers. Be the business that is wandering the (metaphorical) streets and creating a buzz around what you’re doing! In today’s internet driven world customers are granted with a nearly endless void of businesses offering exactly what you do. So why should they choose you? Well, you must give them a reason to choose your services over your competitors. Let’s review a couple of tactics a business can employ to wow their customers among the online world.
Content – When it comes to small business marketing, there is one strategy that is growing constantly- inbound marketing. As this trend becomes exponentially apparent a small business can benefit greatly by jumping aboard this train now – rather than later. Creating truly informational, sharable, and evergreen content on a regular basis is the key to content marketing. Quality content is a requirement for online success, and will help create trust behind your business – leaving your community wanting more.
Customer Service – As social media conquers the business world, customer service is becoming incredibly fast-paced and you must ensure that your business is there to answer any questions or concerns that arise among your community. Keeping up with customer service inquiries on social media will not only keep your existing customers happy, but it will also open a window to showcase your trustworthiness to potential new customers. People are inclined to jump online at the sight of a negative customer experience, which is ultimately shaping the statement, “Any press is good press” to, unfortunately, be less and less true as time passes. After all, consumers want great customer service – if you aren’t offering just that, they will go to someone that is.
Be Cheap
Although I am almost positive the main motive of the Milwaukee Lion is not money – it proves that anything can become recognized on a global level at the cost of virtually nothing. It is important to understand that businesses nowadays are granted a large opportunity to operate frugally, without coming off as a phony get-rich-quick scheme. The internet offers a plethora of online tools and resources available to show you how to strategically decide on a website builder, and this grants a huge leg up for businesses today. A blossoming business can create a professionally optimized website that includes a small online store for just over $ 500 per year. Today is the prime time for businesses to explode into global proportions with the help of the internet. Who knows, maybe your business will be the new “Milwaukee Lion” of the news!
Conclusion
If there is anything for a business to learn from the Milwaukee lion, it would be that no matter what your business is – being online is a fantastic, cheap, and greatly effective tactic to maximize the potential behind your brand and your business! Thank you so much for reading!
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