February 2014

Super Targeting Your Social Ads: Reaching the Right Audience

February 28, 2014/by Corey Padveen

When it comes to targeting your social ads, what should you consider in order to find the perfect audience?

Perhaps the greatest evolutionary feature that has resulted from the recent history of advertising is the specificity with which you can be targeting your social ads. By properly targeting your social ads, you can significantly increase your reach and decrease your cost-per-acquisition, whether that is new followers, clicks or something else.

But so few publishers are taking advantage of these advanced targeting capabilities and it is hard to understand why. After all, one of the greatest benefits of running a social business is increasing efficiencies, and this is one of the ways in which that can be done.

So next time you decide to run a social advertising campaign, keep a few of these important criteria in mind for targeting your audience.

Interests

This seems like an obvious one, but it is so rarely used. Instead of A/B testing ads on social media to find the right audience, most brands simply throw out a net and hope to catch something.

The ability to target users by interest is extremely valuable. You can craft ads around these targeted interests in the hopes of finding higher engagement (often achieving that goal). People are out there telling you what they like; why not listen?

Age

People of different ages have different priorities. More importantly, your key demographic of customers might fall into a particular age bracket.

The ability to target by age means that you can specify whether you want your ads to reach an already engaged audience, or try to penetrate a new age demographic. Again, targeting by age allows you to test different copy to see what kind of rhetoric resonates with a young or older audience.

Job Description/Title

While this is a feature unique to LinkedIn, it is extremely valuable when trying to reach decision makers.

Often, we do not have control over whether or not the people seeing our ads are decision makers at their respective companies. We simply have to hope. On LinkedIn, however, we can not only see the job level of our engaged audience, but target an audience by seniority. This makes it much easier to reach decision makers and get your message out to the right people.

Location

Again, this is a demographic that seems obvious, yet publishers are not using it in the most effective ways.

As with age, people in different locations (even within the same country) have different priorities. If you sell skiing equipment, you won’t want to target people in South Florida. (In fairness, that’s an oversimplification of the issue, but the easiest way to convey the message.) Craft your ads according to the priorities of the people in specific locations and change the message for others.

Commonalities

One of the most valuable features of Twitter and Facebook advertising is the ability to target users who follow or like similar brands on the network.

When someone likes other brands in your industry, they are all the more likely to be interested in your brand. By targeting your ads and sponsored messages to these users, you can be sure to see your clicks and conversions rise.

Remember, even if your super targeted social audience is small, it is a group of people that are more likely to engage with the content you are sharing. Would you rather have ten million impressions, or an engagement rate ten times the industry average with a sensationally low CPA?

What are some of the target audiences you hope to reach with your social advertising strategy? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

6 Criteria for Identifying Social Influence

February 26, 2014/by Corey Padveen

What makes up social influence and how can you identify your industry’s influencers?

Building social influence can be extremely valuable. When people see you as a thought leader, your brand, personal and Social Equity all spike. But sometimes, leveraging other industry influencers can be just as powerful. But how can we identify social influence for a particular industry?

Though every definition of social influence might be unique – after all, influence is a pretty subjective concept – there are some criteria that, on social, are clear signs of an influencer. When determining the social influencers in your industry, keep a few of these aspects in mind.

1. Following

Virtually any marketer would tell you that it’s all about quality over quantity when it comes to an audience, and that, for the most part, is true. That said, quantity is important, too.

Your industry’s influencers will surely have a strong following. You don’t become an influencer when only a handful of people are interested in what you have to say. But keep in mind that black hat techniques are not all that penalized in the world of social (yet) as they are in search. So verify the quality of an apparent influencer’s large following by ensuring that audience members include other industry peers, and that engagement is consistent.

Speaking of which…

2. Engagement

People should be regularly sharing and talking about the content that an influencer posts. Keep in mind that engagement does not have to be measured in the tens of thousands of shares, tweets and comments. So long as engagement is consistent and relatively strong, you might just have an influencer on your hands.

Again, however, it is important to ensure that the quality of the engagement is positive as well. Note the audience members engaging with the content. Are they relevant to the conversation or industry? Are they employees of this ‘influencer’? If so, you might not be dealing with an individual as influential as they might want to be.

3. Message Consistency

True influence generally means thought leadership. Thought leadership often means that you start conversations that no one else has had and stick to your guns.

The message and rhetoric of an influencer should be consistent and sound. Going back and forth on a point is not a sign of a great thought leader. Sometimes an influencer might face criticism, and have to defend their point of view. That’s all well and good so long as they stick by the message that created the social influence they have.

4. Respect of Best Practices

True influence means understanding the platforms on which one is most active. This translates into a mutual respect for an audience and the adherence to a network or platform’s best practices.

If an ‘influencer’ on Facebook has a poorly designed page and shares nothing but spammy links, but happens to have generated a following, you might want to consider looking for thought leaders elsewhere. Best practices are in place because the industry has spoken and the majority has expressed their wants. True influencers understand that and abide by those guidelines.

5. Up-to-Date

When a major change, breakthrough, deal or update is announced in your industry, your influencers should be among the first to comment, discuss or simply bring up the news.

Having influence means keeping your ear to the ground and being first-to-market on social platforms when there is something important to discuss. This does not mean that an influencer should be breaking the news, but they should be aware of it and, depending on the industry, have an opinion or an analysis of what that means for the industry as a whole.

6. Practitioner of Own Advice

If you are reading an email marketing influencer’s blog and they tell you to keep your subject lines clear and concise, then proceed to send you emails with spammy, cryptic subject lines, you are likely not dealing with a thought leader.

Building influence means that you have done the leg work and found what works in your industry. Therefore, an influencer should be practicing what he or she preaches.

What criteria helps you determine social influence in your industry? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

15 Social Media Fun Facts (in Pictures!)

February 24, 2014/by Corey Padveen

These social media fun facts are sure to impress even the biggest skeptics.

Considering the whirlwind of news that has been floating around the socialsphere lately (particularly a story involving two companies you might have heard of, Facebook and WhatsApp) it seems appropriate to share some social media fun facts that would wow anyone. And what better way to wow a crowd than with some fancy pictures with impressive numbers!

Have a look at some of these new stats and figures and see if there is something interesting you can bring to the next board meeting.

BONUS:

Which of these do you find most interesting? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

(Stats courtesy of Pew, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Social Media Today, Jeff Bullas, Search Engine Journal, Forbes)

7 Ways to Turn a Boring White Paper Into Great Content

February 21, 2014/by Corey Padveen

A corporate white paper can be turned into a ton of great, highly engaging content for your social audience.

Share your latest, lengthiest white paper on social media, and you’ll be lucky if it gets any clicks. If it does, you’ll be lucky if people stick around to read it. The fact is simply that people are not all that interested in sifting through page after page of boring facts and figures. The irony is that they are, all the while, very interested in all of those facts and figures.

Some of the most engaging, highly shared content on social media (depending on the industry) relates to content that can be found in many white papers. Studies, findings, best practices and other white paper-friendly content has been converted into flashy, fun content on social and generated a ton of interest from audiences in several industries. So how can you do the same with your latest white paper?

These seven methods of turning boring content into engaging posts are just a few of the great ways you can take a white paper and turn it into loads of wonderful content to share with your social audience.

Infographics

People love infogrpahics. They are fun to read through, fun to share and generate a ton of engagement. A branded infographic is a great way to turn the data you have into an engagement feeding frenzy. Think about it for a second: aren’t infographics just studies published in colorful form? Consider creating one with the stats you have in front of you.

Images

In the same vein as infographics (but not as lengthy) images with a simple stat or finding can generate a lot of success on social. We have long known that images perform well with social audiences. Optimize them for size and appearance and watch your content reach broad audiences.

Blog

If you have a 10,000-word white paper, you have 10 1,000-word blog posts (or 20 500-word posts, or 50…well, you get the idea). Take the segments of your white paper and turn them into short, informative blog posts that relate to your subscribers. If the data is universal, create examples that are relevant to your industry.

Video Blog

Videos are another great way to generate engagement with a social audience, and a great way to showcase fun facts. People might not want to read about your findings, but that does not mean they don’t want to be told what you found. TED Talks are a great example of content that the average person might not want to read about in a textbook, but loves hearing about from an expert.

And speaking of TED Talks…

Webinars

How many times have you been on a webinar and heard from an expert quoting expert sources. You have one of those sources at your fingertips! Running webinars and sharing your findings is a great way to get the information out to the industry and promote your work.

eBooks

Again, a lengthy, dull and aesthetically subdued white paper can quickly be transformed into one or several flashy eBooks. People love short, informative eBooks and no one seems to recognize that, with the exception of the graphical elements, they are (or often can be) essentially white papers. Turning your white paper into an eBook can be a very wise investment.

Teasers

Have you ever landed on a website, seen a newsletter popup or a great piece of information that enticed you to sign up for said newsletter? You can use some of the great information within your white paper as teasers to generate new blog or newsletter subscribers. Something like, “Did you know [FUN FACT]? Find out more by subscribing to our newsletter.” can work wonder for your subscription rates.

These are a just a few of the ways your white papers can be turned into highly engaging, highly lucrative social content.

How do you leverage the content from white papers on social media? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

State of Content Marketing 2014 [INFOGRAPHIC]

February 19, 2014/by Corey Padveen

We can expect to see a lot coming from the realm of content marketing in 2014.

Content marketing, simply put, is huge. We have seen plenty of brands – both big and small – experiment with the phenomenon, some great success and some with equally great failures. All that said, there is no denying that content marketing is a trend that is here to stay, and we can expect to see a lot of movement in that field in the coming year.

This great infographic from Eloqua and Oracle and Lookbook showcases exactly what marketers can expect to see in the world of content marketing in the next twelve months. One of the more interesting trends we are seeing when it comes to content marketing is the repurposing of content.

Say, for example, you have a white paper that is long, full of numbers and simply not something people want to read. Smart marketers are realizing that this is a goldmine of content and creating several pieces of social-friendly content that can be shared to several networks, several times.

What are you doing when it comes to being innovative with your content strategy and content marketing? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

The Difference Between Paid, Owned and Earned Media [VIDEO]

February 17, 2014/by Corey Padveen

There are plenty of media types out there, but they all fall into one of three categories: paid, owned or earned media.

So what are the differences between paid, owned and earned media? We hear about them often enough. Every one of us uses them whether we think we do or not. But not too many of us have taken the time to really understand what the differences between these media types really are.

The video below makes it pretty clear what the specifics are when it comes to paid, owned and earned media. For a more detailed account, you can refer to this article. Otherwise, enjoy the visuals!

How to Leverage Social Insights for an Optimized Content Strategy

February 14, 2014/by Corey Padveen

When brands find themselves becoming involved in social, they need to answer a simple question: why?

Why are people interested in what you have to say? Why will they bother clicking on your links, liking your pages or posts or sharing your content to broader networks? The answer to this question rests in the content strategy you have created for your brand, and there is no better way to find that answer than by leveraging your social insights.

Where can I find these insights?

Within several networks, there is a world of insights available about your audience. Find out what types of content your audience shares most by looking at the ‘Posts’ section of your Facebook insights. Learn about your audience’s interests in the ‘Followers’ section of your Twitter Analytics. But to really take advantage of social insights about not only your audience, but your industry’s audience, you’ll want to use a higher end social listening tool.

Data gathering tools like Radian6, Sysomos and Crimson Hexagon provide you with actionable reports with data pulled from hundreds of millions of sources across the web; essentially, if people are talking about your industry, you’ll know about it.

Look at where and when conversations take place, what topics people talk about most in your industry and the sentiment around those topics to know where to insert your brand in a positive way.

What do I do once I have collected the data?

Creating your content strategy is all about sharing content that is going to resonate with your audience. This data is going to be the starting point to helping you do that and enter your brand in the industry conversation.

Based on what you have collected, determine the tastes and preferences of your audience by what they are actively discussing.What matters most to them? More important, from a business standpoint, how are you going to position your brand in this conversation in order to appeal to this target demographic?

There is going to be some significant testing involved. You will want to try different types of content and approach the discussion from a number of different angles. Ultimately, your goal is to share content with which your audience can empathize. Then they partake in conversation, share your brand’s message and help expand your reach.

Can you give an example?

Let’s say, for example, you run an office products retailer and one of your key services is that you offer your clients a free return of used ink cartridges for proper recycling. You know that this is a noble cause and a valuable asset in terms of marketing to eco-friendly businesses. Your data collection is going to be all about where people are talking about the benefits of recycling and, perhaps, why businesses should have green initiatives.

From the data you collect, you will want to begin sharing content within these conversations that relates to what is being discussed as well as the service you offer. Once you have caught the attention of your audience, it is time to employ some marketing initiatives in order to boost sales as a result of your content strategy (i.e. content marketing).

It’s a time-consuming process, but it is certainly worth the effort. The value of a well-developed, data-oriented content strategy should never be underestimated.

How are you leveraging social data in order to develop a successful content strategy? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Also, have a happy Valentine’s Day!

What is a ‘Soft Search’ and Why is it Important?

February 12, 2014/by Corey Padveen

We constantly wonder about the most important factors when it comes to increased search rankings, and soft search is one of them.

A few months ago, we were introduced to Google’s latest update: the Hummingbird algorithm. With the evolution of how we conduct searches online, Google needed to adapt. The result was a new base algorithm that focuses much more on the conversational aspects of modern search. The not-so-technical term: the soft search.

So what exactly is the soft search and why is it so important when it comes to SEO?

What is the soft search?

Imagine you’re in a new city and absolutely need to know where the best Thai restaurant is located. There are a few ways of finding out.

The first option is to conduct a traditional search whereby you open up Google, type in something along the lines of, “Great Thai restaurant in [CITY],” and wait for search results to populate the page. Those are traditional search results and still one of the most popular ways of finding information.

The alternative – one that has increased in popularity among millennials and is slowly catching up with older generations – is to conduct this new type of search. While you might get a decent set of results on Google alone, you know that no one knows better than your friends. So, instead of conducting a traditional search, you log on to Facebook, or Twitter, or Google+ and update your status to something like, “Can anyone recommend a good Thai restaurant in [CITY]?”

The results that populate in the form of comments are referred to as soft search results, and they are now more important than ever.

Why do these results matter?

It has long been a point of debate between traditional SEOs and social marketers as to the value of social signals in search. Google provided an answer at SXSW in 2013 when they made it clear that Google’s social layer is of great importance. Hummingbird has reinforced that position.

The soft search is all about conversations about brands and business that are happening outside of owned media. No longer is it about your blog alone, but about the number of people that have given a post a +1, or a like or a retweet.

Take a look at the chart below and see exactly what now contributes to your increased search rankings:

Whereas there was once a time when keywords reigned supreme, we now see them falling far down on the list of important criteria. That is nothing new; we saw a major shift away from keyword density with the introductions of Panda and Penguin.

Now, however, conversation about and around your brand on social platforms is an integral part of being found. No matter in which industry your brand finds itself, there is no shortage of value that can be added from leveraging the power of the soft search by starting conversations on these social platforms.

So how do I get these conversations started?

This is all going to be a result of your content strategy. Why is it that people are going to want to engage with your brand? What kind of content are they sharing with one another, and how can you make your way into the conversation? These are questions that need answering in order to capitalize on the benefits of soft search.

Take some time to understand your audience and actively take part in the conversations that are taking place within your industry.

Have you started taking advantage of the soft search? Has it helped your search rankings on Google? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

8 Criteria for Determining Your Target Audience

February 10, 2014/by Corey Padveen

To find success with social, you need to cater your content to a target audience.

Finding your target audience on social can sometimes be a challenge. We know whom we are targeting when it comes to selling our product, but what are our goals when it comes to social, and what audience do we need to target in order to achieve those goals? This is where the challenge comes into play.

The targeting capabilities that exist with social are so advanced that they allow you to create a target market right down to the specific interest. Therefore, we need to evaluate a few key criteria when choosing our target audience so as not to send out our message to an inattentive audience.

These 8 criteria are some of the more important ones to consider when it comes to selecting a target audience for your content on social platforms. Some might seem obvious, but remember that with the exactitude with which we can target our message on these media, they are important to answer with as much specificity as possible.

Age

Though it seems like an obvious criteria to consider, knowing the specific age range of the audience that you are looking to target will help you build your social presence on networks where you know your audience is most active.

Gender

Men and women are not necessarily engaging in the same activities in the same places on social media. Building a successful content strategy will be heavily influenced by the gender with which you are trying to engage.

Education

You will not be drafting the same content for PhDs as you will for college freshmen. They are simply interested in different things.

Industry

This can be broad or highly specified, but it should certainly be a consideration, particularly if you are creating a content strategy as a B2B.

Job Function

If you want to engage the C-suite, you’ll need to appeal to the issues they care about most. To craft a successful content strategy, figure out exactly who you are targeting in the organization and craft a strategy designed to target their needs.

Interests

Take a step back and look at the content you are trying to share. What category of interests does it fall into? Figure that out to properly position that content in front of the eyes of the right audience.

Influence

Are you looking to target industry and thought leaders or would you prefer to establish yourself as the industry leader? Both have their benefits.

Marital Status

Priorities change when family comes into the picture, and you should decide if your product or service is better marketed to single or married consumers.

Building a target profile is also a very helpful exercise. Determine your ideal customer based around these criteria and build a content strategy geared towards peaking his or her interests.

For Example

Jane Smith is a 41-year-old married woman with 2 children and 18 years of experience in the field of product marketing. She has held a job at the Manager level for over a decade following the successful completion of her MBA. She is interested in running and hiking and likes pages and accounts on social media with a focus on branding. She does not have a blog herself, but she often comments on influential blogs in the field of marketing and advertising.

Try it for yourself. What does your target audience member look like? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Why You Aren’t Finding Success with Your Social Media Tools

February 5, 2014/by Corey Padveen

Social media tools can be very helpful, but only if they are being used correctly.

This week, I have the privilege of presenting a few sessions at the Social Media Strategies Summit in Las Vegas, one of which discusses some of the best tools in the market when it comes to mining and understanding your analytics. I thought I would share some insight into what I have noticed when it comes to why so many people – from marketers to business owners – are having trouble when it comes to getting the most out of their social media tools.

The Tool Is Not Right For You

Sometimes a tool can look great and a company representative can do a fantastic job of pitching it’s benefits for your brand. This might make you sign up for a trial or even buy into it. You might find, after some time, that it isn’t doing all of the amazing things you thought it would. Maybe it’s just not that into you.

Tools – from freeware to enterprise levels – are designed to accomplish certain, specific goals. They are not right for every brand despite them looking like they have a universal applicability.

It’s important to take advantage of the trial versions of these tools in order to get an honest look at what they can do for you, and whether or not it is the right fit for your goals.

You’re Trying to Do Too Much with It

For many applications and technologies, there are a few things that they do exceptionally well. On the other hand, there are a few things that they might not do too well, or even not do at all. That’s ok – these tools are not technological miracles.

Many tools are designed to provide a solution to a specific problem. Sometimes additional functionality is added, but the core benefit of the program is to help users overcome a specific obstacle. It might take a combination of technologies in order to effectively do everything you want to do with social.

The thing we need to keep in mind is that there is no one-tool-to-rule-them-all solution out there. (At least not yet.) There are some great ones, but it might take a few of those working in tandem in order to properly execute a comprehensive strategy.

You Haven’t Taken the Time to Master the Application

This is the biggest issue that users face when it comes to not succeeding with these tools. All too often, people see one of these technologies, think that it is the perfect fit for their brand, sign up for it and wait for it to ‘work its magic’. That’s a recipe for disaster, plain and simple.

These tools take an investment of more than money, they take time. This is particularly true for enterprise level tools. If you are not willing to devote the time necessary to really understanding and properly using a tool, then it will never do all of the things you want it to.

Before making the investment in one or many of these social media tools, ask yourself if you are really going to take the time that is necessary to making it work for you. If you simply can’t afford to put that time into it, then save yourself a sunk cost and look for something else.

Social media tools can be huge complements to a social business strategy, but they need to be treated with respect and fully understood in order for users to get the most out of them.

What are some of your favorite social media tools? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

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