Author: Laura M. Donovan

Laura Donovan is President of The Word Pro, a nationally recognized, award winning Digital Media Marketing Firm. She is a graduate of North Central College with a degree in Organizational Communications, a discipline that has proved valuable in her Social Media endeavors. Laura been managing Facebook, Google+, Twitter, etc. since 2009. I have helped hundreds of small-to-medium-sized businesses, in a variety of industries, across the U.S. with Digital and Social Media Marketing and Advertising. At The Word Pro, Inc. you get one-on-one service that is customized to your business goals and specific needs. From the first conversation we have, I help to build your digital and social media solutions that are affordable and effective. I have provided training sessions, conducted seminars and webinars, and manage the entire process so all you need to do is run your business, my team and I take care of the rest!
April 22, 2016 / / Facebook

Local Businesses Choose Facebook as the Place to Market

Alignable  is an online networking site where small business owners gather to make connections, build meaningful relationships and collaborate to move their businesses forward.

They recently polled more than 1,200 of their users to see how they use Facebook for marketing.  Participating companies were located in North America, with fewer than 50 employees, encompassing both business-to-business and business-to-consumer companies, with even representation.

Alignable found that Facebook was the “social network for local businesses.” It is where small and mid-sized businesses have the most success.  The top two areas of success for these businesses on Facebook are generating awareness and generating new business. read more
April 20, 2016 / / Facebook

Please Stop Posting Your Bikini Selfie on LinkedIn

I opened my LinkedIn Page the other day and thought I had opened Facebook by mistake. Every post seemed to be a scantily clad young woman, a religious quote or a political commentary.

Facebook vs. LinkedIn

Before there was Facebook, there was LinkedIn. LinkedIn began its online tenure as the premiere business-oriented social network in 2003.  While there were other social networks already around, including Friendster and MySpace, LinkedIn was THE place for business people to connect and network online. read more
April 18, 2016 / / Facebook

Facebook’s 20% Rule – Gone, Not Gone

There are a lot of reports that Facebook’s “20% Rule” has been phased out and no longer applies.  While the technical “20% Rule” is no longer a measurement, there are still rules regarding text in ad images and Facebook has not completely ditched the 20% Rule.

What is the 20% Rule?

One of Facebook’s rules for advertising was the 20% Rule, ads with more than 20% text in the image would not be approved to run. There was even a grid tool that could tell whether or not an ad would be acceptable by the amount of text it contained. read more
April 15, 2016 / / Facebook

Social Media Myths Debunked – 2016 Edition

When Facebook announced in 2007 that it was giving businesses the opportunity to have Pages on Facebook, I was excited.  Facebook had only been around for a few years, but already had millions of members.  Many businesses were already using personal pages as marketing platforms.  Facebook was finally making it “legal” for businesses to connect with consumers.

I started talking to business owners about Facebook in 2008.  I told them that just being there was important.  At that time, it was still possible to have “fans” see most of what was posted. In fact, I warned about posting too much, as it would begin to annoy their audience.  Businesses could overtly advertise their products on their Timeline. (However, I suggested doing so only about 10% of the time.) read more
April 11, 2016 / / Social Media

It’s Not About You – Focus on Your Audience to Market Effectively

It seems that every time I open my Facebook News Feed I get the same ad for a local realtor.  Her ads are nothing but her picture with text that says, “If you are ready to buy or sell, contact me.” The ad does not specify that she is a Realtor. (If I didn’t know her I might now know what she is selling.)

A Millennial blogger recently published an open letter to real estate agents and states:

“Finding a real estate agent I can trust is difficult. And no, seeing your face on a billboard or a bus bench isn’t going to help.”

(REthink)

Using a headshot with a generic message is no longer enough for any homebuyer today, and this is especially true for Millennials. read more
April 8, 2016 / / Digital Media

American Idol Taught America to Text – And Other TV Firsts

Our electronic world has changed our lives at lightning speed. Can you even imagine a time when you didn’t have instant access to the world at your fingertips? From directions to price comparisons while shopping ‘in’ a store to instantly contacting your mom, best friend or child the world is literally at our fingertips.

Mainstream media has been slow to recognize and acknowlege new technology, however some TV programs were on board from the beginning.

First Television Program to Use Texting

Back in the early 2000’s some younger kids had begun using their thumbs to painstakingly hammer out a text message to a friend.  In 2003 American Idol, with help from AT&T (or Cingulair at the time) helped Idol set up a voting system using text messages. read more
April 7, 2016 / / Facebook

Social Media Advertising is Not a Magic Bullet

We often speak to people about the power of Social Media Marketing and Advertising – and it is powerful.  However, it might be time to clear up a few misconceptions.

Over the last week we were approached by two business owners, who had been hearing a lot about Facebook marketing and, specifically, the advertising opportunities.  During our conversation, it became clear that both of these people believed that simply posting updates to their Business Pages and running a few ads would cause an immediate increase in sales.  One of the owners actually wanted a guarantee of a 138% ROI! read more
March 31, 2016 / / Facebook

Is Your Website Sinking Your Business?

A few weeks ago, we were hired to do Social Media Marketing and Advertising for a small company.  As we do before taking on any new clients, we checked their website.  While it was readable on our desktop computers, it was impossible to read when we opened it on our cell phones.  It was not mobile-friendly.

During our first meeting, we warned the owners that over a year ago Google announced that it would no longer return sites that are not mobile-friendly for searches done on mobile devices. We explained that this was because so many people are using mobile devices to access websites. read more
March 30, 2016 / / Facebook

Reactions to the Reactions

In February Facebook rolled out the Reaction Buttons to everyone.  Users can now express more than just a “Like” on updates.  There are six different options – Like, Love, HaHa Wow, Sad, and Angry.

The idea behind the buttons are to give people more options to express how they feel when they see updates in their News Feeds.  The new buttons give people a way to express their “reaction” to an update quickly.

Users can only select one reaction per update.  You can either love something or like it, but you can love it and like it. read more
March 28, 2016 / / Facebook

Pester Power and the Influence of Children on Household Purchases

In 2003 I had my first child.  Back in those archaic times our cell phones were not smart and only made and received phone calls. (Although some could text, I did not have this feature.)  I was still using my Internet Service Provider home page to search the Internet. And I was ahead of most of the parents I knew.

I found a handful of parenting sites and parenting resources to help me figure a few things out with having a new baby. But back then, when we wanted to research products and information, we grabbed parenting magazines at the obstetrician’s office or signed up for a subscription.  We moms also relied on one another, chatting about new products or play places while waiting to pick up our kids from preschool or over coffee while the babies slept in their strollers. read more