Social Media Marketing Replaces Traditional ads for small businesses

Social Media Is where your business needs to be

A majority of small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are looking forward on improving their social media presence according to a 2013, a survey. At least 58% of those questioned have plans to expand their brand on social media with the overriding aim of enhancing business activity.

A further 28% of SMEs want to improve e-commerce processes this year, while 17% intend to better support social media channels. In order to achieve a better social media presence, businesses are willing to reduce spending on the traditional marketing tools.

For instance, some 26% plan to cut back on local directory inclusions and 24% will reduce local advertising activity including billboards and posters. A further 20% propose a reduction in sponsorship in favour of digital channels including m-commerce and email marketing.

Overall, just 8% of SMEs will reduce spend in m-commerce and email marketing this year.

According to Malika, A social media marketing guru in Kenya, “Social media has changed the relationship between the consumer and brands. It's more about interacting with the consumer, instant access and trust rather than just offering a service or product.”

"Treating the consumer as an individual and not as part of an audience is increasingly important to a good social media presence." She says

She further added that SMEs must get the right balance between marketing and communication requirements if they are to survive and remain competitive. Furthermore, deciding on when to interact in person or use alternative channels is also a crucial factor.

The survey further reveals that 24% of SMEs would like to engage with consumers more regularly in order to build the relationship, while 28% regard targeting promotions via these newer channels as an important way of keeping customers on side.

However one in every seven SMEs is missing out on the benefits of social media channels as they admit that they are unable to structure these promotions accordingly.

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Facebook is the top social network. We also have Google+ picking up

Place your product on Facebook

That Facebook is number one, with its 1.11 billion members, is no surprise. EMarketer believes that just over half, 51 percent, of all internet users visit Facebook at least once a month. The company also stated that worldwide Facebook penetration will only continue to grow higher, reaching 60 percent of internet users by year's end.

Behind Facebook, things get more interesting. There are numerous companies fighting it out for second place, with Google+ out front at 26 percent of internet users. Google+!? Yes, Google+. As eMarketer stated, "In the US, Google+ gets limited attention, though its user base is growing. Worldwide, Google+ has been much more successful."

This analysis agrees with GlobalWebIndex's numbers. GlobalWebIndex found in January 2013 that Google+ had moved into second place, with approximately 343 million active users.

YouTube, which both analysis groups now consider a social network, is right behind Google+ with 25 percent. Combined, eMarketer concluded "that Google, which owns YouTube, is giving Facebook a run for its money in the global social network space".

Of the other major Western social networks, only Twitter, with 22 percent in fourth place, was above 20 percent. Twitter, by eMarketer's count, is growing quickly. "Between Q2 2012 and Q1 2013, active users of Twitter rose 42 percent globally."

The other most popular global social networks, those with more than 10 percent of the global social network market, are all regional Chinese networks. The top three, in order of popularity, after Twitter are Sina Weibo, at 21 percent; Qzone, at 21 percent; and Tencent, at 20 percent.

Of the other Western social networks, only LinkedIn, at 8 percent, and Pinterest, at 4 percent, broke into the top 15 global social network list. A better way of describing these networks isn't with the word "Western", but non-Chinese.

As eMarketer described the global social network market, "Chinese social networks garnered among the greatest percentage of users worldwide, a reflection of both the vastness of the social audience in China and the limited availability of foreign properties, like Facebook, in the country." At the same time, if you look at the countries with the greatest rate of growth in social networking, you'll find, in this order, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the US, and Russia. Much of this new growth is being driven by smartphone and tablet users.

What all this means for business is if you're going to spend marketing dollars on social networks, the biggest bang for your buck in most countries will be from either Facebook or the Google+/YouTube pairing. Twitter would be your next choice. As for the other social networks, unless you're looking to the Chinese markets or want to reach business people on LinkedIn, they're far in the back.

Source: ZD Net

Top Viral Marketing Tactics to Get More Customers

Your content can do wonders.

If you are like other motivated entrepreneurs, viral marketing plays an important role in your online marketing strategy. When successful, viral marketing has the ability to skyrocket awareness and hence profits.

What Is Viral Marketing?

Viral marketing is content that captures the attention of the mainstream consumer. It is that content that people will bookmark, forward, post on social sites and link to. It has the ability to spread from one corner of the globe to the other like a virus and can change a business overnight.

Top Viral Marketing Tactics

Let us be clear. Viral marketing is content marketing. However, when you are creating your content, your goal broadens. You want to offer value to your prospects and customers. However, you also want to go beyond offering basic value. You want the content to be very compelling that it goes viral. There are several types of content that can help you reach your viral marketing goals.

Lists

People love lists. In fact there are many popular books that are nothing more than a long list. For instance: 10 business ethics lessons from Isaac Nasong’o. Lists are easily downloaded and shared, and are often linked to. They make great viral content. Think about your audience and the value they are seeking. What lists can you provide that might go viral?

Quizzes

Have you realized that just about every magazine has some sort of quiz inside? That is because people like their content to be interactive. Quizzes offer the opportunity to learn something about yourself or reinforce something you know about yourself.  Quizzes, like lists, can be funny, interesting and informative for the user or interesting and informative for you. You can use a quiz to learn more about your prospects and customers.

Tools

Tools are things people can use. One great example of a tool might be an iPod application or a downloadable worksheet. A tool is also something that makes your prospect’s life easier. It offers value.

Video

Video may be the most popular type of viral content. Most often the videos that go viral are funny, but they can also be informative or heart wrenching. You however need to identify your audience and their preferred tastes. 

Images

Photos and cartoons are common viral images. They can capture an idea, make people laugh, or inspire them to take action.

‘How to’ content

When it comes to standard content forms, it doesn’t get better than the ‘How To’. Your ‘How To’ content can be video, audio, or print. Whatever your audience responds to positively.

Funny/meaningful/touching story

Humor is the most popular type of viral content online. However, a touching case study, life lesson, or an inspirational story also spreads quickly. If you have a story to share, craft it well, then make it public and share.

Controversy

Loud opinions about situations will always stir up a controversy. Many people would like to weigh in and share their opinion on the same. Reports are a great way to create viral marketing content that is controversial. 

Blog posts work quite well too because they provide people with a format to respond. One way to capitalize on controversy is to create a free report, promote it and discuss it on your blog. This way you are reaching your audience quickly and the viral report will spread quickly.

Sweepstakes, contests and giveaways

The last type of content that can easily go viral is a contest or sweepstakes because everyone likes to get something for free and everyone likes to win. The bigger the prize, the more quickly word will spread. For instance, if you are giving away a phone on your blog, the likelihood of getting a ton of traffic is very high.

People will be linking to your blog and there will be quite a commotion. Give away a free report and you are not going to have as much activity. The key to capitalizing on this type of viral content is by building your opt-in list at the same time.

Creating viral content is the first step to a successful social media campaign. You will also want to integrate it into your overall marketing strategy. Use every tool available to get the word out quickly.

Taxation on SMEs Remains a Major Global Task

International experience has proved that taxation of the Small and Micro Enterprises is a challenge to all tax administrations world wide. The case is more challenging in the developing countries which indeed host the lion’s share of SMEs .

 From available global statistics, the revenue yield from the sector is minimal, compliance is made difficult due to the cash based nature of the sector and further by virtue of having a very large number of players the probability of an enterprise being audited is remote. Compliance cost in the sector is thus high both for industry players and tax administrations.

 The traditional approach to taxing the sector is to use a presumptive tax system. This strategy has however failed to yield expected results in most cases. This therefore calls for new initiatives to raise the revenue yield for the sector, a factor which was alluded to in the recent report by the Parliamentary Budget Office. The principle objective of the initiatives is to unlock the vast revenue potential in the informal sector.

 In addressing the issue of taxation of the informal sector, the government introduced Turn Over Tax in 2009. This was aimed at drawing the informal sector into the tax net by simplifying tax procedures, record keeping and tax computation for small and micro enterprises, thus making it easy for them to file tax returns and reduce compliance cost.

Further, a deliberate effort was made to reduce the number of taxpayers in the designated VAT regime, which is more demanding and complex, by raising VAT threshold from three million to five million and subject them to turnover regime at three per cent of gross sales.

 Since its introduction, Turnover Tax has experienced mixed fortunes. Whereas there has been considerable increase in the number of taxpayers recruited, there has been no corresponding increase in its share of revenue contribution.

Several strategies have been put in place to address this shortcoming including enhancing enforcement effort to detect and deter non-compliance, educating Small and Micro Enterprises, further simplification of registration requirements for TOT, expanding scope for mobile phone based tax transaction, building sector specific capacity through the establishment of the Medium Tax Office and establishing linkages and partnerships with stakeholder organizations and financial institutions.

 In spite of all these efforts, revenue growth in the TOT regime is yet to compare favourably with growth in registration, This brings to focus the general low level of compliance in the sector.

The way forward for ensuring that TOT performs to expectation is continuous review and enrichment of strategies with the aim of ensuring capacity building in audit and inspectorate services, leveraging on emerging technology to provide a one-stop-shop for tapping vast revenue potential in the sector, participative setting of realistic targets and aggressive education of the sector on its tax obligations.

We are pleased with public enthusiasm to register for TOT but as expected, we are concerned about the revenue yield. We will work with industry players to reverse the latter.