How many times have you seen a website that looked old and dated? Perhaps the site doesn't fill the screen entirely, or has an interface that is difficult to navigate. Or maybe it took you more than one click to find their contact info! All of these issues can turn new customers off, which means you've lost the potential income.

It's not all about social media! Websites are important as the anchor for your customers to find the general information they need. And keeping your website updated with new content and layouts is important as well.

Adding a page to your site with current company news is a great way to keep your site updated. Photos help as well, add them to your site with captions for a quick update.

Keeping your site up to date will encourage customers to return, and to know that you're active and open for business!

Check out this great blog entry from the Small Business Association for more great tips:
https://www.sba.gov/blogs/7-ways-improve-your-website-homepage

If you're using Facebook posts to communicate with your follwers, you may have noticed a sentence below your post saying how many people your post reached, such as "534 people reached". You may also have noticed that it can be lower or higher than the number of followers you have. Lower makes sense since you may not reach every one of your follwers with each post (due mostly to the way Facebook displays your posts). But how can the number of people reached be higher than your follwer count?

This is the holy grail of posting strategy - reaching more people than your follower count. And we have a couple of tips to share that we have used in the past to increase the reach of your posts without using the "Boost" option, which costs you money.

First, pay attention to the time of day you are posting, and how many people are reached. For one of our clients we noticed that if we posted on a weekday afternoon we reached more than 100% more people than if we posted in the morning. Our theory is that their followers are more likely to read and comment on our posts, and more likely to share them with their friends, in the afternoon. A simple thing like the time you post can make a huge difference in people reached.

Second, post items that are of interest to your follwers. While your message is important, if you're posting things your followers are not interested in reading and reposting, you will be more likely to reach less people. Pay attention to which kinds of posts garner the most responses and the most people reached, and tailor your posts to meet the expectations of your audience.

The bottom line is this: If you increase your reach, your message will reach more people outside of your follower circle. And as you reach more people, you will ultimately gain more followers, who are then more likely to become a member or client for your organization. That should be the ultimate goal of your social media strategy.