By now you should have given some thought to your social media domination, and decided which channels will suit your business well. These five steps will help to take you from a social media rookie to a power user in practically no time: 1. Set ‘em Up You might have decided to hit the social media circuit hard, but you can’t get started until you’ve set up your accounts. Taking the relatively unexciting couple of hours to set up (or, if you already have them, rebrand) your social media accounts will enable to you to establish a consistent ...

There’s no two ways about it: spreading your brand effectively in the online environment requires the use of multiple social media channels. But you just got done creating your new brand, you say? Little good it will do you without hittin’ the streets and spreading the word, my friend. And because we’re tech-y, by streets we mean social media channels. Like a faithful companion, wherever your customer base goes, you must follow. Choose Wisely With literally dozens of options to choose from, selecting the right social media channel can see ...

If you’ve been paying attention this past month, you’re getting to know a little bit more about small business branding. As you saw in last week’s infographic, branding begins at the customer’s fundamental choice between your business and the competition, and it ends with the variety of channels used to disseminate your brand. “But Jack,” you’ll say, “I have a product that rocks. Do I really need to bother with all this branding stuff?” Ideally, your product speaks for itself, but other factors matter too – the customer migh ...

Taking your branding to the next level is this month’s mission. Now that we’ve discussed some general strategy, some specifics, and a real-life example, we wanted to follow up and give you a visual representation of brand development workflow. Starting with you against the competition, and ending with the variety of brand tactics, this chart will likely become your most treasured possession. ...

Once you’ve devised a great brand for your small business, you need to go into action mode and spread that message as best as you can to give your small business a fighting chance at success. When marketing guru’s worldwide say “live your brand”, we get what they mean is “care about your brand”. Few people actually undertake the task of living their brand (when they do they tend to be very successful). Leah Chavie is one of those people. Of course, living your brand is easier when you’re the owner of a luxury skincare boutique. Le ...

Once you’ve spent the time to come up with a unique brand for your small business that will resonate with your potential customers, it’s time to set the wheels in motion and put that brand out there for your adoring fans to see. This week, we’ll address the first two promotional materials your small business brand needs, the logo and the slogan. Logo It is an unspoken rule that you will need a logo for your business. A good logo allows people to know your brand instantly, without having to labor at reading anything. It will anchor the upp ...

Now that we’ve made your small business findable and gotten some customers to take action,  it’s time to talk about branding. “Why branding?” you might ask, “If I’m providing value, why do I need gimmicks to get customers?” The truth is, while we stand by our statement that value always comes first, it is truly rare that a business will be the sole provider of this value. Often (as a matter of fact, if your business idea is any good, always) there will be other businesses that offer the customer something very close to what you o ...

Dear Readers, believe it or not, this is our 100th Fist Pump Friday. What a long and strange trip it’s been, indeed! Two years ago, a social media marketing underdog by the name of Little Jack took on the mean Chicago streets to dish out his own personal brand of “don’t take ourselves too seriously, we take providing value seriously” magic. It hasn’t always been easy, but now that we’ve made it this far we are bigger and better than ever. Here are some of the things we learned along the way, which might help you on your small busine ...

We’ve now been through the ringer on the topic of boosting customer engagement. Last week’s infographic summarized our takeaways, and we’d like to wrap things up by going back to our cornerstones of value and clarity. You can talk about the most complicated analytics, but it really does come down to these two essentials, and every marketing effort you do should keep them in mind. The sooner you build them into your marketing philosophy, the sooner you’ll start seeing results. Short Attention Spans Despite many people’s ins ...

We’ve spent a month talking about getting the customer to take action. After four weeks, we thought it would be a good idea to give your left brain a break, and summarize all this good stuff in an infographic. As usual, creating a poster out of this brilliant work of art is encouraged! ...