Facebook is about more than checking to see what your online friends are doing. Numerous businesses maintain an official page to help expand brand awareness and drum up new leads.

However, with all of the users and businesses currently on Facebook, you’ll need to spend some time on your page in order to build your audience. Here are some tips to help you get your business page noticed.

Use Photos and Videos

In a sea of potential posts, visual media can help your content stick out. According to a study from social media analytics site Quintly, videos and photos earn more interactions on average than other types of posts.

By keeping some of your posts shorter and utilizing images and videos, you can get the point of your post across quickly and effectively. 

Targeting and Timing is Important

Facebook gives you the ability to target your content to a specific crowd. If you have a post that would only apply to a certain cross-section of your audience, you can narrow down your targeting by age, location, and other details. The same goes for Facebook advertisements, which can also be a powerful selling tool.

Posting your content when your audience isn’t on Facebook will lead to less engagement and exposure. Time your posts to go out when your followers are most active, such as right at the end of the work day and in the evening. If you’re not sure when your audience is online, you can find data in your Page Insights on Facebook that will provide the information in a simple chart.

Promote Your Platform

Once you’ve established a presence on Facebook, you should continue to promote it. Placing social media buttons and calls to action on your online properties will direct people to your official Facebook page and other social platforms. Calling out your social platforms in emails and newsletters can also direct your current audience to go and support you on Facebook as well.

Growing Your Business

With over 1 billion active users each month, Facebook has plenty of potential for businesses. However, building up a social presence takes time. Group Management Services can help you grow your business by managing HR functions while you focus on growing your company. 

Contact us today to see how partnering with a Professional Employer Organization can benefit you and your business.

SlideShare may not have the same notoriety as Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, but the social platform can still be a valuable tool for businesses. As a visual medium, SlideShare gives you the opportunity to show people your message in addition to giving them something to read. Here are some tips to help you use SlideShare as a social selling tool for your business.

Entice Readers with How-to Guides, Lists, and Industry Information

People like reading easily digestible content, which is why lists work so well. Slide presentations are a great format for how-to guides and lists, as you can use each slide for a different step or number. This way your audience can easily read your presentation one part at a time and won’t feel overwhelmed.

Useful industry information is something many businesses will actively search for. If you make it easy for your audience to find what they want, you’ll increase your chances of finding a potential new customer or client.

Make it Look Great

This is a point that seems obvious, but it’s worth stressing. SlideShare is a very visual platform, so you want to make an effort to have your slides look good. If you notice that parts of your slides could be improved with small adjustments, take the time to make sure that everything is in the right place.

Don’t be afraid to try something new as well. An eye-catching design is a lot more intriguing than the same old slide formats that people have seen time and time again. Visually striking imagery and bold looks can get someone to give your slides a chance, which is all you’ll need if the content is appealing.

Try and Get Featured

Getting on the front page is a surefire way to boost the amount of exposure your slide presentations will receive and help your following grow. While it may not seem all that likely, an enticing, well-made presentation can make its way to SlideShare’s front page.

SlideShare hand picks every featured presentation, so by following some guidelines for your slides, you’ll improve your shot of getting picked by the platform. We’ve already pointed out how a visually-impressive presentation with engaging content is key, but here are some other elements SlideShare looks for in a featured presentation:

• Write an attention-grabbing headline

• Create a powerful cover slide

• Fully communicate your message without going too long

• Create a presentation related to a recent news item or trending topic

• Don’t be afraid to start a trend in either content or design

Growing Your Business

Your time should be spent on projects that can help you grow your business. Group Management Services works with you to provide proper HR management. Contact us today to learn more about how our experts can make your business simpler, safer, and stronger and while you can focus on growing your business.

Unlike other massive social networks like Facebook or Twitter, LinkedIn is dedicated to professionals. Over 40 million users in a variety of industries have profiles on the network, giving you potential access to several new business leads.

Build Your Profile

Before you start reaching out to other professionals, you’ll want to make sure your own profile is up to snuff. Take some time to completely fill out your profile, with detailed experience listings and an inviting avatar photo. The people you connect with on LinkedIn will want to look at your profile before doing business with you, so a professional presentation will reinforce the idea to them that you’d be a good potential business connection.

Grow Your Network

An easy way to build up your connections is importing your address book and finding people you know. Your friends, coworkers, and business associations are more likely to accept your invitation to connect and could lead to other, less obvious connections.

Once you’ve established a base of connections, you can use advanced search to find other potential leads. This tool allows you to narrow down your search to find professionals that are more likely to turn into a lead. If your company mainly deals with a specific level of employee, you can search by job title. If you’re trying to find a contact at a specific company, search the company name to find relevant people at that business.

Find Your Groups

LinkedIn groups are a great way to find potential business leads. A quick search can result in several groups for just about any industry you can think of. 

Group insights can show you important details about a group, including how many members it has, the average level of seniority, and a breakdown on locations. If you are a member of a professional association offline, which can even include something like your alumni group, there’s a good chance that you can find that group on LinkedIn.

Contribute to the Conversation

A big benefit of LinkedIn is the ability to share content with your network. Writing a regular blog post about your industry and sharing it on LinkedIn can add to your influence. Building your audience and providing useful information can help set you up as a thought leader, which can help put you in a position to draw in potential business connections.

Once you find a few groups that appeal to the audience you are trying to reach, don’t be afraid to contribute to the group as well. Jump into conversations that you feel you can contribute to and share relevant content with your group. You never know just who in that group may check out your profile and reach out to connect or even ask about your services.

Free Up Time For Your Business

Your time is best spent on ways to grow your business, but you still need to dedicate a lot of time to proper HR management. Group Management Services can partner with you to make your business simpler, safer, and stronger while freeing you up to focus on building your business. Contact us today to talk to our experts about how GMS can benefit you.

Hundreds of millions of people use Twitter, offering you plenty of potential to find customers in need of your services. Due to the volume and variety of content shared each and every day, Twitter can be overwhelming at first, but a little guidance can go a long way. Here are some tips for finding potential opportunities on the social platform.

Cutting Through the Noise

Even if you tried, you can’t read everything on Twitter. Thousands of new tweets are sent out every second, leading to a lot of content that you can sift through.

You can’t go through everything – nor would you want to – but you can narrow down your search to include tweets from people that are more likely to become potential customers by using certain hashtags. Millions of people use these little pound signs to organize their tweets for you, allowing you to target people who are tweeting about needs that your business can help with. 

Personalize Your Search

What you search for is entirely dependent on what services your business provides and what type of customers you are trying to draw. For example, if your business is aimed toward helping people with home improvement projects, #HomeownerProbs is a hashtag where potential customers are openly sharing content about certain needs, such as painting a room or a broken sink.

Not every hashtag will be a winner, but through some creative searching, you could find several opportunities for business.

Offer Help to Those in Need

Once you narrow your search down to people tweeting about needs that suits your services, you can jump into the conversation. 

This doesn’t mean that you should necessarily sell them on something right away, as an overly aggressive approach can scare off potential customers. Instead, contributing to the conversation with helpful advice or striking up a chain of interactions about what they are looking for can provide valuable information for them and build up their trust in your company.

Growing Your Business

Hard work can help you grow your business, but it can take a lot of time. As your company grows, so do your HR needs. GMS can give you more time to focus on growing your business while we partner with you to manage your employees’ payroll, benefits, and other internal services. 

Contact us today to see how partnering with a Professional Employer Organization can benefit you and your business.

Having a good employee leave can come as a shock. However, some workers show signs when they are thinking of moving on to a new company. Here are six signs that a good employee might be on his or her way out.

They’re Overwhelmed

It’s no fun feeling like there’s no end in sight. Employees who are overwhelmed with work thanks to having too many responsibilities might see a new job as their best opportunity to get out of the situation.

Decline in Quality

Good employees typically have good work habits. When good employees start to get sloppy, it can be concerning. Occasional mistakes happen, but a downward trend can be a sign of an employee who doesn’t care anymore. Even if it’s just an employee going through a tough time, a bad stretch might mean that an employee could be looking for a change of scenery.

Change of Schedule

People take time off for any number of reasons. If an employee starts using a lot of personal time out of nowhere, it may be a sign that they’re looking to leave. Some employees maintain odd schedules for completely valid reasons like dropping their kids off at school or regular doctor’s appointments, but a worker who starts leaving early or coming in late for no explainable reason may be meeting with another company.

They Dress to Impress

Depending on your company’s dress code, you may be able to get an idea of whether an employee might leave by his or her attire. If you notice an employee start to dress up more than usual – such as frequently wearing a tie when they never used to – they may be trying to impress at interviews. Combine this with the scheduling habits mentioned above and you might have an employee who is looking elsewhere.

Distancing Themselves

Once again, this sign can depend on the employee. However, if you notice that a formerly social employee stops engaging with his or her coworkers, you could have a problem. An apathetic or disinterested employee isn’t one that will be interested in the future of a company.

Big Life Changes

Events like marriage, the birth of a new child, or long-term illnesses can change a person’s priorities. They might start looking for jobs closer to home or with different hours. 

GMS Solutions

You never want to see a good employee leave, but it can happen. If you see the signs, you might be able to talk with the employee about what they need to succeed at your company or prepare for their departure. 

One way to help keep your employees happy is by partnering with GMS. GMS can help strengthen your human resource environment and give you access to better benefits all while increasing the bottom line. Contact us today to see how working with a Professional Employer Organization can benefit you and your business.

No matter how long you’ve been in business, it’s never too late to learn. Fortunately, other business people have shared secrets to success over the years. Whether you’re looking for inspiration or need some gift ideas for the holidays, here are 11 books that all small business owners should read.

The Common Denominator of Success

Written by Albert E. N. Gray in the ‘40s, this book identifies a single trait of successful people: the willingness to for the habit of doing things that others do not want to do. It’s a message that’s still relevant today long after Gray passed away.

The E-Myth Revisited

Ideas are great, but your business needs to have a regimented plan in place. Michael Gerber’s book stresses the importance of systems in business and teaches you how to install them.

Traction

If you’re not careful, issues and frustrations from your business can feel like they control you. Gino Wickman’s Traction details how you can strengthen your business so that it leads to growth and enjoyment.

The Advantage

In The Advantage, Patrick Lencioni argues that most organizations have the experience and knowledge to be successful, but they still need to aim for organizational health. Lencioni covers four steps to help your business’ health.

Book Yourself Solid

There’s more to sales than just getting just any potential client in a meeting. Michael Port explains how you can look for the right fits for your business.

Out of the Crisis

Quality control is key in business. W. Edwards Deming’s Out of the Crisis points out where quality problems are started and how you can institute a management style that will help improve products and service.

The Goal

Unlike the other books on this list, Eliyah Goldratt’s The Goal is set up as a novel. This thriller focuses on operations management and show how fixing bottlenecks can save a company.

How to Run Your Business So You Can Leave It in Style

Exit planning is something that small business owners should consider when they begin to think about retiring, selling the business, or stepping away and John Brown helps you take the steps to make it a happy ending.

Every Family’s Business

If your business run in the family, this book is for you. Tom Deans lists 10 question that family business owners should ask to figure out the best course of action for future success.

Switch

Change is hard. Chip and Dan Heath guide business owners on how you can overcome the resistance to change and achieve results.

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

Just because something worked for you in the past doesn’t necessarily mean it will work for you now. Marshall Goldsmith’s book emphasizes looking at situations with a fresh perspective to adapt when necessary.

Big Ideas for Small Business

There are many areas you have to focus on as a small business owner, and sometimes a little advice can make a big difference. Another way to benefit your business is to make the move to a professional payroll and HR company.

You don’t need to be a huge company to get big business benefits. Contact GMS today to learn more about how our experts can make your business simpler, safer, and stronger when you partner with a Professional Employer Organization.