5 Social Media Rules Brands shouldn’t be Afraid of Breaking

There’s nothing more cliché yet truer than the saying, rules are made to be broken. After all, humans have the ability to think of their own accord. 

In social media, this adage rings true. Most times, those who abandon the accepted social media marketing methods find success by bending the rules. With the changing digital marketing landscape, rules are bound to be broken sometimes.

In college, we learned a lot about marketing rules from books and saw how these rules work in the real world. However, when we were introduced to social media our perspective on marketing shifted. That’s where things got a bit shaky. If you’re a rogue marketer, there’s no surprise there. As brand and social media managers, how do we continue to work longer in this tricky and ever-evolving profession?

The answer: Learn the rules first before breaking them.

If you think breaking the rules can offset the risks, then that move might be all worth taking. Understanding how social media rules work can help you come up with strategies on how you can break them to your brand’s benefit. 

Here are the 5 social media rules that are okay to break:

1. The Pareto Principle

While there’s no magic formula to market your brand and have your customers engaged on social media, the Pareto Principle or the 80/20 Rule have become the doctrine of social media marketers.

The 80/20 Rule for social media states that 80% of your social media posts should contain non-promotional content and 20% should be about your brand. After all, people are not on social media to be sold to. 

It seems difficult to break this rule because you don’t want your audience to be bombarded with your pitches. However, if you plan on promoting your brand more, you might want to think hard on how to break this accepted rule first. 

Find out the reason why your fans have followed you. Is it because of your informative content, brand information, or the way you establish yourself as a thought leader in the industry?

If you think you’re not promoting enough of your brand and are constantly creating non-branded content, then you might want to bend this rule a bit to get your message out there. 

2. Thinking Twitter Isn’t a Social Network

Twitter has been dubbed as an information network rather than what it originally is made for: a social network. Since Twitter’s former VP of Engineering Michael Abbott made such notion back in 2011, people have thought this to be true.

However, many brands have turned to the opposite direction and used Twitter as a social network to engage their audience. If you value customer engagement more than impressions, then breaking this rule might be okay. 

Ask yourself how you use Twitter on a daily basis. Are you using it to provide and gain information, or as a way to engage your customers? 

3. Images Mean More Clicks and Engagement

We’ve always believed that content without images will never get the attention it deserves. After all, an image is worth a thousand words. One glimpse of it and you’ll have an idea what the content is all about.

But if you’re simply sharing images without a strong visual strategy, then all of your efforts will be for nothing. 

Don’t just share any images out there. Ensure that what you are going to share will perform well enough. Ask yourself if static images will solely do, or if the addition of GIFs will enhance your strategy. An example for this is Cosmopolitan’s website where they include images and GIFs into their blog posts. It worked well for them, so maybe it can for you as well!

4. Publishing Timely Content

Having newsworthy content is all about publishing posts in a timely manner. The concept is also applicable on social media as people get on social networking sites to also make themselves informed about current events. 

Although timeliness can be a factor to social media success, it may not always work owing to the fact that Facebook is constantly changing its algorithm. However, if you’re publishing evergreen content on Facebook, you’ll likely win in the organic search game. 

Assess if your posts are timely or evergreen and evaluate their effectiveness based on engagement opportunities. 

5. Branding Cohesiveness across All Channels

Ever since marketers have found out how powerful social media is in reinforcing brand recognition, they felt they had to be on every social networking site in existence. However, marketers have now been informed that each social platform has a different purpose and that one must use it strategically.

Ensure that before you break the rule of being cohesive across channels, you know too well how your company’s branding matches your chosen channels. Make sure that your branding makes sense when you use it on different channels. Lastly, ask yourself how many platforms you should be on instead of covering everything on the web.

If you don’t have any idea how to go about your branding strategy on social media, a virtual social media strategist might be the answer to that. We’ll help you find the right person for the job at a fraction of the cost local strategists in your area charge.

MVW will recruit and connect you with your perfect social media expert, be it a social media manager or a social media consultant. Are you ready to hire your new social right hand man today? We have Staffing-On-Demand and Full-time VA’s available. Our VAs can manage almost all social media platforms including, but not limited to, Facebook, LinkedIn, G+, Twitter & Pinterest.

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Brand Marketing 101: Four Expert Tips to Control Your Brand Reputation on Social Media

With nearly half of the world’s population using social media on a daily basis, chances are your business is being talked about somewhere in the digital realm. It can be good, it can be bad. Most consumers use social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, to express their feelings toward a brand, especially if they had a wonderful experience. Contrarily, when they are dissatisfied, they tend to vent out their frustrations where many can see it – and that’s likely to be on your company’s own social media pages.

Criticism itself cannot blow your business. But when someone searches for your brand and find your social profiles filled with bad reviews, complaints and negative content this can wound your online reputation, and eventually damage your business as a whole. Like it or not, it is the awful stuff that spreads around fast on social media. They go viral, and before you know it, they have already landed on the top of SERPs.

So how do you control your brand reputation in social spaces online? Building a personal brand takes time, but managing your online reputation can be plain sailing with these four steps.

Own Your Search Results

One of the best ways to control your reputation on social media and how consumers see your brand online is by “owning” the search results. By this we mean getting as many top rankings for your brand name as possible.

Since it is virtually impossible to control the content people are posting online and associating with your brand, start posting content with positive search results that you can control. Create amazing content and build solid relationships with influencers that have a strong user base that you want, then promote your content as well as the influencers’ across all platforms you own.

Keeping your reputation in today’s digital landscape has become more important than ever. Because if you don’t, someone else may spread flawed and humiliating information that could stain your reputation.

Claim All Your Brand’s Social Media Profiles

While not all social media channels can work for you, secure your username on as many channels as possible, and update them regularly. This intercepts people from stealing your brand name, helps broaden your digital presence, and gives you more spots in results pages.

Start with popular social platforms that do well in Google results, such as Google+, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. If you have already personal profiles for these platforms, open another account for the username or brand you have created. You may also consider other networks that work well within your niche or areas of interest like Tumblr and Pinterest. Complete all your social profiles and link all of them together.

You don’t have to become active on every platform, but don’t be entirely dormant either. It should be your goal to build an online presence that Google can exploit in order to lift your content to the top of searches. That said, add new content at least once a month.

Simply put, the more social networks you can secure, the higher the chances of your brand or business to rank multiple times on the main page.

Control Responses During a Crisis

How a crisis is handled online makes a world of difference to complications in the future. Monitoring and responding to your followers concerns is vital to the success of your customer service as well as to spiking your online reputation.

The adage, “you can’t please everyone” holds true when it comes to customer service and brand marketing – whether or not in digital space. While many of your customers seem to love what you offer, there can be far more others who loathe it. The trick here is to understand what is going on around your social communities, and reply to all inquiries in a timely manner. This will make your target audience feel that they are valued, and in turn, will speak highly of your brand to others.

On the other hand, if someone makes a problem known to public, try as much as possible to address the problem publicly. If the scenario becomes too sensitive for everyone to know, send a personal message or ask to be provided with a phone number so you can directly talk to the person on the other end.

Monitor Brand Engagement

Provided that you already have multiple social profiles running on behalf of your business, keeping them current can be a tad staggering. As such, use social media monitoring tools like Google Alerts to help you effectively manage your accounts. These softwares will serve as the first line of defense when controlling your brand reputation on social media. Not only will they track activities happening on your profiles, they will also monitor the metrics that you should know.

For that matter, your response will get faster and more efficient; the faster the response, the happier the customer. And with that, the better your customer service will appear.

Your reputation is what you make it out to be – online or not, so don’t damage it. We can discuss all the secrets, tricks, tips and strategies about reputation management all day long, but in  the end, you reputation all boils down to what you make of it.

Developing, building and protecting a reputation online is not for everyone and can be a waste of time for some. But, do it out of necessity and you’ll see it is all worth the effort.

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” – Warren Buffett

 

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The Five Secrets of the Most Successful Social Media Campaigns

Running a social media campaign can be a test of effort, planning, organisation, and implementation. Even the biggest companies with the most successful marketing strategies can stumble. However, it is through nearly a decade of transformation in the social media landscape, with countless of “hits and misses”, that CEOs and marketers have gotten the knack of what it really takes to have a successful social media campaign on different digital channels.

By delving deeper into how global brands are working on social media, we can reveal top secrets and tricks in social media as well as what these companies are doing within their own marketing department to make their social media strategy a success.

If you are eager to learn what makes for an attention-grabbing social media presence, what influences high engagement, and what pulls in thousands of leads and brand advocates, grasp these top social media campaign secrets that made a huge difference for some of the biggest brands across the globe.

Secret 1: Focus on the right channel.

Consumers have distinct preferences and characteristics they are attracted to; thus the tendency to choose one platform and ignore the other one. On that note, each social networking website has its own unique set of features that make them appealing to different brands and consumers. For instance, LinkedIn focuses on business-driven users searching for in-depth, educational content, whereas Twitter is the ideal channel for B2B brands with a mission to provide real time content and engagement. On the other hand, Pinterest is a great discovery platform that provides evergreen content, and best serves the female population, and Instagram are for those people looking for visually-engaging content. That said, target discussions on channels that is highly likely to produce results of your social media campaign, and not venture to those that is rarely visited by your intended market.

It is crucial as a brand to not blend in, and be a step ahead of your pack. This will put your customers in a better position to understand why you are much better than your competitor. Do take in mind all the time to treat each social platform as a separate entity, adjusting your strategy depending on the type of users for that channel so you can publish content that appeals to them.

Secret 2: Go above and beyond customer service.

Trust and engagement are the two most important things in social media. If a visitor posts on your Facebook page or tweets at your handle, and never gets a reply, trust is lost. This can lead your dissatisfied prospect running to your competitor’s side to seek for a solution to their problems. Contrarily, answering them in a timely manner will make them feel they are valued. While it is time-consuming to sift through and respond to all personal inquiries, it is an excellent way to build brand awareness.

Furthermore, addressing negative feedback is also essential when providing exceptional customer service. We cannot please everyone, and like it or not, mistakes are inevitable. So when an irate client fires back with unpleasant words for the whole world to see, embrace it and act on it with patience and respect. Proactively respond in an apologetic and actionable manner, and assure them that whatever problems they encountered are being noted and solutions are on their way.  Doing this displays how great of a brand you are in terms of treating your customers – whether they are happy or not.

Secret 3: Ensure daily dialogues.

Understanding the best approach of communicating with your intended audience provides a unique competitive advantage. Daily interaction with your customers should always be part of your daily priorities.

Make an effort to be active on your social media accounts in real-time. Engage your followers in dialogues not just because you want to promote an upcoming event or sale, but because you want to get in touch with them in a more personal level. Try as much as possible to not automate comments. Social media is all about social engagement, and an automatic responder will likely turn your followers away. Majority of online consumers expects an immediate response from real people within a reasonable amount of time on social media.

Consumers desire to be acknowledged and responded to, so the faster your reply, the more users will vouch for your business as engaged and responsive. Plus, more people will buy from you and speak about you to others.

Secret 4: Integrate touch points.

There is a multitude of touch points where users can experience your brand. It may be on your social pages, your business website, TV ads, mobile or in store. Relationship varies at every touch point, so be sure to make it valuable and significant. Strive to understand the emotional end benefit of each touch point to your audience, and keep it consistent across all channels to ensure a uniform brand message and image. Doing so not only helps you gain your audience’s trust, but also helps you establish their brand expectations.

To achieve consistency across several platforms, you may start by examining each touch point for a uniform visual identity, including logo, fonts, graphics, colours, and tone of voice. Getting customers’ insights or feedback can also guide you in determining which channels need urgent attention.

Secret 5: Track and monitor your performance.

Finally, track and monitor metrics that are vital to your business on a regular basis. Review the number of posts, follower growth, clicks directed to your website, pageviews, post likes or shares, and so on. Study each platform individually, and compare them to your biggest competition to know how you are matching up.

As the digital market continues to evolve and flourish, social media tracking and monitoring is indispensable when running a successful social media campaign. This is especially important if you want to discover relevant insights about your target audience, brand, competitors, and the success or failure rate of your strategy.

Five secrets are all it takes to create a difference to your social media strategy. Take these principles to heart and achieve success in your social media marketing campaign. Contact My Virtual Workforce should you need assistance in running your social media campaign.

 

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Six Social Media Tips for a Successful Digital Marketing Campaign

A social media marketing strategy is indispensable to the success of your digital marketing campaign. Whether you are new to the social media game or have already lingered for some time, a top-notch social media plan has high implication on your bottom line.

While it was easy to jump into the social media wagon a few years ago, things today are much different and complex. It is no longer just about creating a Facebook page or Twitter account and start following people, rather it is about producing relevant content, meeting customer expectations, engaging the audience with the conversation, and building brand awareness and loyalty.

Now that there are hundreds of social networking channels that matter to your intended audience and the competition continues to get tougher, cutting through the noise to grab their attention requires a gargantuan effort. If you find yourself in this situation, ponder on these tips.

Tip #1: Create a Social Media Game Plan

Social media marketing is not just about building a business page ground up. If you want to grasp the power of social media, start with a well-thought social media marketing game plan. This will help you create relevant content, deliver your message across, and reach your target audience.

Begin your marketing plan with definite goals and objectives.  Do you want to gain exposure, acquire leads or improve sales? Your goals and objectives will serve as the core of your social media game plan that will keep your activities and strategies on various social sites systematic and intact.

Tip #2: Develop a Content Strategy

Behind every exceptional game plan is a great content – and one cannot deliver a compelling content without a good content strategy in place. This includes an editorial calendar, a social plan, SEO techniques, engagement efforts, and many more. If you want your content seen by your followers, then a content strategy is your best bet.

Map a content strategy using past and current information. Vary the forms and styles of your content, too. You may write an article, post images and photos, create infographics, share links and videos, and the list goes on. Other than that, develop the tone and context of your engagement with the users. Do you want your content funny and light-hearted? Or you want it technical and educational? Regardless of the tone and context, make sure to incorporate whatever that will appeal best to your intended audience.

Tip #3: Send the Right Message to the Right Audience

You cannot produce the right content without knowing your audience first. Determine and examine your targets through their demographic segments, psychographic traits, social profiles, and buyer personas to help you assess what type of content, styles, and subjects would serve them well. This will also help you pinpoint the most suitable social networks where you can reach them.

Interact with potential customers on other online communities and forums by sharing or posting content related to your subject matter. This way, you can promote your brand, tell audiences at large about your offerings, attract leads, and foster relationships with your followers. With everything you do, make it share-worthy. Always create content that values your customers.

Tip #4: Treat Each Social Media Platform Separately

Every social media website serves a different purpose and attracts a distinctive audience. Keeping this in mind can make your marketing efforts go with ease.

There are many social media platforms available for your business. When you select multiple networks for your social media campaign, make sure you treat each of these platforms separately and as individual campaigns. A content that may be beneficial for one platform may  lose its relevance if used on another platform.

Tip #5: Keep the Conversation Flowing Smoothly

The social landscape is an excellent venue for companies and consumers to start a conversation. You can use hashtags, funny photos or hot topics as a first step to connect with your followers. Once they engage with your brand, acknowledge them by sending them personalised responses, liking their posts, or asking for their insights.

Pique users interest to bring them into your social circles and maintain quality engagement so they will stay in your customer base. Growing your social audience means building a strong community from which you can access social marketing ideas in the course of time.

Tip #6: Track the Results

Lastly, one of the most integral parts of your campaign is getting positive results. Use analytics and data monitoring to effectively track and monitor your social media marketing performance. This will provide you with valuable insights to help you modify your strategies so they can be more effective towards achieving your goals and objectives.

Latch onto these six essential tips and make social media work for your business. While running a social media campaign in multiple channels is daunting, a good social media manager and assistant can make the process less tedious. Do you have other tips about running a successful social media campaign? Share it in the comment section below.

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Everyday Twitter Tricks to Keep Your Followers Engaged

Twitter is not just a channel that will deliver your message across, it is more of an online community where you can engage your target audience in a conversation. For most businesses, Twitter and other social media networks are an essential and powerful tool that do not only grab engagement with followers, but also  establish trust and loyalty with past, current, and potential customers.

With a good Twitter marketing strategy in place, the platform certainly makes for a valuable investment. When followers start to get engaged, they are more likely to interact with your tweets and re-tweet your messages. This can make an enormous impact on your sales and marketing, even without becoming too “salesy”.

Consider these 4 Twitter tricks to help you reach your target audience and keep them engaged in the conversation.

Tweet relevant, thought-provoking messages

The number one secret to high engagement that will boost your following starts with a piece of information – a message that is relevant to your target audience. Unfortunately, instead of sending messages that are relevant to the everyday lives of their followers, a lot of brands make the mistake of selling their product by focusing on their company’s information.

If you want your business to be successful on Twitter, convey the industry’s message rather than your company’s. Most followers don’t want to read the details of your offerings unless you can turn them into something valuable, thoughtful or humorous.

When people see that you are an expert in your niche, they are more likely to trust and purchase from you. Put simply, build your brand as an industry expert to maximise engagement.

Tweet on time

It is crucial to time your tweets strategically to get the optimal potential for views. Studies have shown that late mornings and early evenings on weekdays are the best time to tweet and for brands to be seen. It is a bad idea to tweet in the middle of the night or randomly on weekends, as this will just drown your tweets in the ocean of messages by the time users open up their streams for viewing.

It just makes sense to time  your tweets the right way to make sure that most of your targets will see what you post. What is the whole point of tweeting when no one gets to read your tweets, right?

Take full advantage of #hashtags

Understanding how a hashtag works is paramount to a successful tweet. A hashtag makes topics and conversations easier and faster to locate on the platform since topics are arranged categorically.

When it comes to marketing and advertising on Tweeter, labelling your tweets allows you to create a unique opportunity to connect with your fans and implement new branding strategies. Hence, improving brand awareness and user engagement.

If you want to gain some traction, make sure to use hashtags that are relevant to your tweets. It is also imperative to be strategic and include them in different conversations. Your hashtags should not necessarily be part of the hottest and most trending topics all the time, what’s important is they are always relevant to your industry and followers.

Keep it simple

Twitter offers 140 characters at your fingertips to say what you want, but this doesn’t mean you should use them all. Twitter science reveals that tweets between 70 to 100 characters are retweeted a lot more.

In connection with this, it is an excellent idea to tweet bite-sized daily tips or fun facts to get a lot of engagement. You may also include attention-grabbing photos or ask interesting questions to your followers.

As with everything else, it always pays to know what works for you and what does not. We hope that these tips will help you get your Twitter marketing strategy up and running, and generate incredible results in the end.

 

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Simple Ways to Exceed Customer Expectations Using Social Media

Meeting customer expectations is the most meaningful component of customer satisfaction. However, to be able to achieve a high customer satisfaction, brands should first understand who their customers are and what they want. Exceeding your customers’ expectations using social media seemingly looks easier than what you think, but in reality, it is not. In fact, there is still quite a huge gap between what customers want from social media customer service and what businesses are delivering.

While social media engagement has shown to be one of the best opportunities for brands to tap into the recent years, many companies still fail to actively engage with the countless online consumers in the social landscape making their buying decisions, sharing brand experiences, and seeking customer support. The sad truth is, several brands keep posting freely while customers’ comments were given the least importance.

This begs us to the question, how do you meet or exceed your customers’ expectations?

Listen to Your Customers

Obviously, the first step to meeting your audience’s expectations is by listening to them. Before you get started, find out where people are talking about you. Hear their social voice, in short. Then, select the right social media platforms. It is better to choose two to three channels where you can serve well than doing on all channels poorly. Concentrate on getting together the social sites which matter most to your target audience.

To achieve this, you need to integrate all your social channels into a single platform where customer support can work across them effectively and quickly to establish fast response times. Supervising multiple platforms natively and cutting all the clutter to get to serious customer concerns is time consuming and ineffective.

Understand what your customers really want. Delve deeper into their comments to see why they are seeking for assistance, what their problems and immediate needs are, and what works well for them.

Respond to Client Queries Within the Hour

According to research, the majority of online consumers expects brands to respond within the hour and 28% of them are willing to wait within 24 hours. However, only a few brands are geared up to deliver on this expectation. Some companies either remain deaf or they just miss comment. Generally, consumers just want their voices to be heard, and a simple apology and reassurance is enough for them.

Let them know that you have received their query and you are looking for the best solution to their problem. Remember that it only takes a few keystrokes for brands to be found online. So if you miss to provide your customers with a swift and timely reply, they are more likely to feel neglected.

It is also crucial to monitor the peak time when customers contact you as this can help your support team to identify when to be available and get their act together. On that note, ensure that you have a structured response (i.e., “We strive to answer all customer issues within 24 hours.”) and have a systematic way of replying. But do take note to customise your message and deliver responses to customer within the established time frame.

Attune Your Services to Customer’s Changing Expectations

Each customer comes with his/her own personal expectations, and they are constantly changing. If you want to get a leg up on the competition, you should enhance the customer experience to exceed these new expectations.

For instance, some clients expect a free return policy. When they purchase your product under the assumption that you are meeting their expectation, they most probably will feel disappointed if you tell them they can’t return something after they have already paid for it.

If you don’t want to risk annoying your customers, and worse, losing profits, make sure that you have a proper system in place that will help you flex to the revolving expectations. One best approach to achieve this is by listening to customer feedback. This is an excellent venue that will tell you what buyers are expecting from your brand. If your business happens to not meet these new expectations, polish your service to enhance the experience and bring things back on track.

Invest in improving the customer experience and giving outstanding customer care to create a competitive advantage in today’s super-competitive market. Don’t just talk to social customers, hear them out, offer them solution in a timely manner, and earn their brand loyalty.

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Using Facebook to Advertise Your Business: Is It Worth It?

Social networking channels, especially Facebook, have momentous effects on any types of businesses across the globe. That said, if you want to promote your business to the digital world, Facebook might be an excellent outlet for marketing, without breaking your budget.

As people consume more and more digital content on a daily basis, it is important to be in the loop. Be equipped with the latest social media marketing strategies and up-to-the-minute technologies, like Facebook and its multitude of mighty features. While the thought of advertising on Facebook may seem time-consuming and impractical for many owners new to the platform, the rewards are actually well worth the investment.

If you are one of those entrepreneurs having a difficult time understanding the need to get in the Facebook game, this post lists 4 reasons why you should do so. Check them out.

Facebook Has an Enormous User Base

As of the second quarter of 2015, Facebook claims to have 1.49 billion monthly active users. That’s no small number for sure. And as such, you’ve got the assurance that whatever business you run in whatever niche, a large percentage of your target audience are likely dwelling on Facebook. Millions of users are foreseen to join the platform in the coming months and years, with a vast majority seeking to use Facebook primarily for business purposes.

While it can be challenging to deliver your message through in conventional work hours as people are too occupied to listen to you, Facebook employs sophisticated targeting options that have a great chance of making your ads seen by your consumers – especially, when they are out of their busy schedule. Also, through this social media website, you can advertise in a subtle manner without the pressure and time-constraints of a work environment.

Facebook Gives Your Brand the Exposure It Needs

You are taking advantage of social media because you want to gain online exposure, and that is what Facebook can do just for you. As what we’ve mentioned earlier, the platform houses a massive audience and thousands are signing up each day, which is exactly the reason why putting your business on Facebook is very important. In addition, Facebook pages have proven to rank high in top search engines like Google and Yahoo!, enabling consumers to locate you easily.

Furthermore, with the recent changes in the pay-per-click advertising system in the network, promoting your products or services has become much more cost-efficient because you can already target your current and potential customers, according to location, language, gender, interests, age, educational status, and even relationship status.  Narrowing your post to a specific group of people through the geo-targeting option on the social networking channel, puts you in a better position to offer what you have to those who badly need it.

Facebook Makes for Easy Monitoring of Performance and ROI

Regardless of how much you shell out for Facebook ads, the most important thing is you get what you deserve from it. Although social media provide a cheap, painless yet a significant approach to promoting a business online, measuring ROI can be difficult.

However, Facebook is one of the few social media websites that is very easy to monitor. With the help of Google Analytics or Facebook Adverts Manager you can get the clear picture of what you have spent and what results it has provided. You can track a wide range of performance metrics to help you assess performance and measure ROI. Through this data, you can then modify your page to better serve your customers. Also, it will be a good idea to regularly analyse your advertising performance and try out various ads and targeting so you can know which strategy works best and offers you the highest ROI.

Facebook Builds and Maintains Relationships

The social site acts like an instant gate opener where members can freely and openly interact with one another. By engaging in conversations with your audience, you can tailor your marketing and business services according to their expectations and needs. In return, they will be more inclined to trust, listen and value your insights. While they may not be easily captivated with what you have to offer at the present, they might change their mind in the future; and by that time, they know where to find you.

If you want to increase your following, get people’s attention, establish brand awareness and engage your customers constantly and consistently.

As dominating as Facebook’s advertising channel is, it’s still a surprise why a lot of companies are not using it. Gain an edge over your competitors or even the playing field by putting your business on Facebook. Don’t miss out on the opportunities this fantastic platform has for you.

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Four Non-Gimmicky Tricks to Market a Startup with Social Media

Whether you are an early-stage enterprise, a small-sized business or a well-established venture that has just jumped into the social media game, keep this in mind: It’s all right to start small. Today’s digital age offers the best opportunity for anyone to tap into social media. Small, tightly budgeted startups, more especially, now have the chance to compete against huge businesses because of those same platforms that facilitate the spreading of information.

In fact, the average person is more connected than ever before, making social channels to be more vital and beneficial for organisations. If you want to leverage your online presence and gain free media exposure as well as attention, then creating social profiles can be a great thing. While the competition is fierce and there is no absolute cookie cutter approach to launch and run a business in today’s market, being creative, informative, and relevant can give you an edge from your competitors. Whether it is about your product offering or your marketing strategies, you should make sure to stay ahead of things.

Social media is ultimately a crowded place, but with these non-gimmicky social media tricks on hand, you are sure to stand out in the crowd.

Where do you start?

There are probably hundreds of social networks out there, but don’t get overwhelmed, you don’t have to be on all of them. If you are not sure how Snapchat would help your brand, by all means avoid it for now. Quite doubtful about Pinterest? Skip it. No time for daily blogging? That’s okay.

Social media is undeniably time-consuming, but once you get the hang of it, it will all be worth your while. It will not only improve your search engine ranking, it will also give your brand a human voice and eventually, boost your earnings. This leads us to the question, how?

First thing’s first, do your homework.

A top-notch strategy is the reason behind every remarkable social media campaign. Social media, as its name implies, is all about connecting with your consumers on a personal level. To achieve that, be sure to intimately know your audience and prospects. You may start by determining your targets by their individual character profiles, including their age, gender, interests, and so on.

Once you have thoroughly distinguished your target audience, examine the pressing issues that you can solve and the social networks where they are mostly active on. It is crucial that you understand the differences among these channels so you can effectively expand your efforts on the right networks.

You’ve just got to try and try until you make it.

Keep posting on your pages before you even have a follower. No matter how silly it gets, you have to do it. By the time people flock to your page, you already have some things that can pique their interests – and this will encourage them to follow you.

If you are wondering what content to post when you are just starting out, get into the hottest and latest topics as these easily increase shares and engagement. So if someone who has 10k followers shares your post, their audience becomes your audience as well, providing you a better chance to turn them into leads.

Remember to tie in all your social channels.

Experts would never suggest to treat each of your social media websites as a stand-alone effort because this will make your success limited. By this, you have to make sure all your networks are coordinated – working together to bring your goals into fruition.

Your website should serve as your business’s home base. Meaning, all your channels should link back to your website where people can purchase your product or service. Also, it is important to display social icons in your website’s header or sidebar, so it can be immediately seen by visitors, urging them to follow your social profiles.  

Keep your handle consistent across all platforms.

While all social media networks are unique, one of the things that keep them alike is the requirement of a name or handle. This is a no-brainer actually, but many marketers or advertisers tend to leave this task behind. Make your handle or name consistent, and secure its availability on all channels. Whatever you use for Twitter should also be the same for Google+, Facebook, Instagram and the rest of the sites you sign up for. If your name varies from one network to another, it will be confusing or difficult for your fans to tag you or for potential customers to follow you.

When it comes to marketing in the social space, it all boils down to meeting your customers’ expectations and needs. Do not disappoint them by keeping these tips in mind. Do you have any tricks to share with us? Please tell us in the comment section below. We would love to hear them.

 

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The Perks of Integrating Visual Content in Your Social Media Marketing

Don’t you agree on the saying “seeing is believing”? Even from the beginning of time, people have been more interested in seeing information instead of reading it, and they were more likely to believe something when they could see it. Now, that we are living in a fast-paced world surrounded by videos and images, it is no surprise that this plethora of information has brought forth a wide array of visual expression.

In the age of tweets, snaps and pins, visual elements have started to build the framework of the internet’s new language. From selecting which products to purchase to communicating with friends and family through online channels, a large part of our lives are now filtered through images.

As the volume of digital content continues to flourish by 200% each year, long-established marketing strategies to reach consumers is turning out to be a more formidable challenge. Thus, the reason why more and more advertisers are integrating visual content into their social media campaigns. Digesting this phenomenon can help supercharge your digital marketing strategy in the social realm, keeping you ahead of those who markedly produce written content.

Draws Your Consumers’ Eyes

With the rapid explosion of web and mobile technology, it’s difficult for people to stay long on a certain page. Picking and choosing from a myriad of visuals becomes a real struggle for your target audience, more especially if each content strives hard to grasp their attention. Because of this, users tend to jump from one content to another before they settle on what they want.

If your post is filled with text, many of your visitors will likely shy away from it. Your consumers are busy, they need to get what they want as soon as they can – hence the lack of time to read through every line. On the contrary, using photos and images is a natural and an excellent approach to catch their attention. It’s a good motivating force that  will urge them to hang around and explore your piece of information in greater detail.

Increases Conversions

The truth is, you are in social media because of a mission to generate more conversions. With a captivating, well-thought visual content, you can absolutely turn prospects into buyers. A properly designed social media page, packed with useful pictures, videos and infographics, has a huge chance of leaving a good impression to potential clients, and boost earnings in return.

One study shows that 67% of digital buyers would rather go for a clear and detailed photo than a precise product information or high customer ratings. Primarily because visuals have a way of directly showing people what the product is all about, without the need of any discussion. This allows your target audience to freely make their assumptions about what you can provide.

Upgrades Your SEO Tactics

Implementing the right SEO techniques and strategies is vital to the growth and success of your overall digital marketing campaign. One of the best methods to get an SEO boost is by incorporating photos in each post along with relevant alt and meta tags. It is seriously significant also to include the image file name, title, alt and description tags. Labeling the tags properly enables Google to index your content and examine how relevant and useful it is.

Don’t forget as well to maximise whatever tagging system a social network offers every time you post, and include hashtags whenever necessary. Take note, every SEO trick you apply will pay off eventually.

Delivers Your Message Across

It can be challenging to effectively send a written message across. Your readers may misinterpret your tone of voice, or it may not be able to clearly explain what you are trying to say, particularly if it is something that is tutorial based. In other words, written content is one-dimensional, making your targets create their own perception of the content they are taking in.

This is where video content becomes essential, as it can visually demonstrate and effectively explains a subject without confusing your followers. Moreover, imagery builds a rapport with viewers; giving them the opportunity to interact with information that is stimulating, like a video.

Final Thoughts

Similar to books that children enjoy when they have colourful pictures, cyber users would love it too when they are constantly fed with compelling visuals. Integrating a visual content in your social media marketing if and when possible will speed up your content in today’s information-overloaded digital scene – helping you reach new levels of success today and tomorrow.

 

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4 Sneaky Tips for Creating Compelling Social Media Content

Truth be told, some of your content looks crappy. Yes, that hurts. Creating compelling content for social media is often one of the deepest trenches to pass through, yet you strive hard to create one, probably because you’ve heard from someone somewhere that “content is king”. Well, it absolutely is, if you get it right. But worry not, devising ways to build content that engages does not necessitate Herculean efforts or backbreaking measures.

Believe it or not, it can be as easy as a piece of cake if you fine tune your strategies, establish your goals, and identify your targets. When you’re done with the process, not only will you have a peace of mind that you have something shareworthy, but you also have something on top of every other authors’ content.

Time to wipe off the dust that has been lurking long on your page and squeeze those creative juices out, here’s what you should do.

Keep a Goal in Mind

Before you go above and beyond pushing your brand, have a purpose to begin with. Your first mission is to listen to those people with the loudest voices in your niche. Hear them out. Identify what their questions and concerns are, and how your products or services can work for them better than the others. With these things in mind, you can write longer pieces without staying away from the topic. In turn, you can show your readers you are not only an expert in your industry, but you also truly care for them.

Join the Bandwagon

If you want to bring your social media content on a higher level, learn the current and predicted trends, and follow them. While not everyone feels comfortable getting tagged along on the popularity bandwagon, tying trends and culture references in their articles is a great strategy for creating compelling social content.

Online studies have shown that a lot of searches lead to trending information and current pop culture names and happenings. Fusing those subjects into your content can leverage your exposure by pushing your content in the search results generated for many search queries. Plus, it can result in a piece of craft that is more likeable and shareworthy.

Become Active in Social Listening

Once you have identified your targets, figure out what each one likes to talk about. To achieve this you have to go through their posts, tweets and any other relevant information they have on their social pages. Being an active social listener means focusing on your target audience in a way that makes you super sensitive of their wants, needs, insights, opinions, ideas, and the like. When you fully pay attention to what your consumers require from you, you are better able to serve them through a personalised and streamlined content.

Write to be Engaging

There are no short cuts when creating a compelling social content, but there is always the right path that will make your audience want to read every post you make, leave comments, hit like or share button on social media.

Start by including a visual representation in your article. It only takes a snap of a finger for your followers to click through your post or ignore it. That said, it’s a good idea to have some photos or images with your article. Along with that, let your users know what the topic is about, why they should read it and what will they be missing out if they don’t.

You may as well write a content like you are telling a story. Use some of your clients’ testimonials and reviews. This will make your posts much more engaging to the readers, encouraging them to read more. Last but not least, leave your fans with questions. Meaning, end the articles with a question that will leave your fans wanting more. If you do it right, your audience will most likely leave comments or contact you directly.

And there you have it, four sneaky ways to take your social media content to a greater height. While it takes unrelenting efforts to survive and thrive in today’s cut-throat internet environment, these strategies can bring your online presence and content to the spotlight.

 

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