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Facebook Marketing

Social Media Case Study: Burt’s Bees

March 28, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social media selling is all about engaging with your audience, and Burt’s Bees has managed to build an engaged Facebook audience of 1 million fans and convert quite a few of them into paying customers.

Facebook was one of the first social networks that businesses sought to take advantage of. As a result, Facebook adapted and created pages. Burt’s Bees, the notable personal care product line, saw Facebook as the perfect medium in which to engage with their audience, and the result has been a growing, highly engaged audience that converts to paying customers.

How did they do it? Burt’s Bees uses Facebook as a place to not only build an audience and share great content, but promote their products in a fun, engaging way that does not turn people away from the brand, and actually converts them into customers.

Selling on social media is a tricky grey area. People do not necessarily want to be bombarded with promotional content, but at the same time, many people follow a brand because they either use it, their friends use it or they want to keep up to date with specials and promotional offers. Burt’s Bees recognized this fact and modeled their Facebook marketing and sales strategy accordingly. In this social media case study, we aim to showcase the lessons social media marketers can extract from the Burt’s Bees brand in order to build an engaged audience on Facebook and convert that audience into paying customers.

1. ‘New’ is Intriguing

People are often curious about new products. There’s a certain mysterious quality about ‘new’ that tends to intrigue people. Burt’s Bees saw this and capitalized on it when it came to Facebook. One of the most prominent features of the Burt’s Bees Facebook page is their promotion of new products in fun and engaging ways. For example, one of the main ingredients differentiating their products is Cupuaçu. Nothing special about that. But when they wanted to emphasize the benefits of the new product, they took to social media to promote it by creating a video wherein they interviewed New Yorkers, asking them to try and pronounce the word.

The video is short, funny and the word stays on your mind. And there is little more than a branded sign off at the end. However, Melissa Sowry, Social Media and Content Manager at Burt’s Bees stated, “Through Facebook, we can introduce new products more interactively than in print or banner ads…and provide a space where [our consumers] can connect with one another.” So, what is this new product? People might like the word and the video, but they were starting conversations to find out more.

Lesson: Find a creative way to introduce new products and your audience will engage with your brand to find out more.

2. Social Media Selling

Burt’s Bees has integrated “Buy Now” buttons into their content and features coupons for Facebook fans. The result? Dramatically increased sales through social media.

Unlike many brands that may feature a product and a link to a store, Burt’s Bees allows users to click through to an e-commerce site from a product post that already has the product in a shopping cart. This may take a little customization on the part of the Facebook page and app designer, but any hurdles (e.g. clicking to the store, finding the product, adding to the cart, checking out, etc.) you can eliminate from the buying process means higher conversions.

Lesson: Help facilitate the buying process for your fans and you will see your conversions skyrocket.

3. Engaging and Influential Content

In addition to fun content like the video post above, one of the cornerstones of Burt’s Bees success on Facebook has come from their ability to engage with their fans in conversations. In an interview with eMarketer, Sowry said, “We also create opportunities for consumer education around skin care, for example, and sampling offers. We ran successful sampling programs on Facebook for our relaunched body lotions and new tinted lip balm.” Furthermore, the brand also asks questions and directly responds to user comments.

An active Facebook page is one thing, but to be engaging directly with your social media audience (particularly when that audience is nearly 1.5 million people large) will mean a returning audience, and that makes the social media sales process that much simpler.

Lesson: Engage with your audience and your products will sell themselves on social media.

4. Educate Your Audience

Burt’s Bees has increased their conversions on Facebook through education. By educating their fans on products and informing them as to which product best suits their needs and why, people want to buy from Bert’s Bees, and they don’t need to do too much research on their own.

The easier it is for a lead to learn about your product, compare it to the competition and ultimately make the decision, the higher the likelihood that you will see social media conversions when it comes to sales.

Lesson: Social media selling should be more about teaching people why your product is the best as opposed to simply telling them.

Burt’s Bees is one of the few examples out there of brands that has mastered social selling. It is not an easy task; not by any means. People do not necessarily want to be sold, but if it is done in the right way, your fans are more than open to the idea of buying from you through social media.

With regards to social selling, Facebook has been around a long time. But people still seem to struggling when it comes to engaging with their Facebook fan base and converting those fans into dollars. Burt’s Bees is a great example of social media selling done right.

What is your Facebook strategy with regards to social selling? Have you seen positive results? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media ROI: 10 Examples [INFOGRAPHIC]

March 26, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social media ROI is one of the most highly debated topics of conversation in the realm of social marketing.

People are constantly talking about social media ROI. There are those who say that social media ROI is among the most transparent of measurements when it comes to benefits reaped from marketing efforts, and then there is the (still very large) school of skeptics that believes that social media ROI is a fantasy of social marketers, and that it is not a return that is properly measurable.

Last week, Coca-Cola released a statement saying that their efforts on social media have been “crucial” to sales. That’s a word with a lot of implications. But Coca-Cola is just one example of a major brand that has witnessed tremendous growth and success when it comes to social media ROI.

Below is a set of 10 examples of social media ROI from brands around the world. These brands used a variety of channels and different types of campaigns to reap these rewards, but each one experienced measurable, financial gains from their efforts on social media.

How do you measure social media ROI? What campaigns have you launched on social media that generated positive returns? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Case Study: KLM Airlines

March 21, 2013/by Corey Padveen

This week’s social media case study focuses on one of the most socially innovative airlines around: KLM.

When it comes to social media case studies, airlines often prove to have some of the most impressive, influential and trendsetting results. Yet, despite all of the data that supports the adoption of innovative social media marketing initiatives for airlines, few seem to be as willing to go the distance as KLM.

KLM’s social media program is brilliant…and they know it. When it comes to converting social media fans into paying customers, KLM is among the most successful brands around. In fact, on the KLM Facebook page, there is a section that breaks down their social media campaigns, explains how they went about executing them and posts the results. Effectively, they are their own social media case study as to why social is important to business. But our focus is a little deeper than that when it comes to our weekly case study. We aim to pull out the lessons marketers can learn from the KLM social media program as a whole.

The Campaigns

Featured on the KLM Facebook page are seven of their most successful social media campaigns. These campaigns include everything from “KLM Surprise” whereby special gifts would be presented to passengers who checked into flights using Foursquare or Twitter, to the “KLM Tile & Inspire” campaign whereby Facebook fans were asked to convert their Facebook profile picture into a Delft Blue tile and complete that tile with an inspiring message to be used as part of a mosaic design on a KLM aircraft that would travel across the globe. Below are two videos breaking down these campaigns.

KLM Surprise

KLM Tile & Inspire

Each campaign was equally inspired and generated similar results. For the two campaigns above, KLM reaped some considerable social benefits. The breakdown of the two featured campaigns by the numbers is below:

KLM Surprise Analytics

Foursquare	17.528 followers
Youtube	154,722 views
Twitter	1.597 followers
Tweet reach	2,6 mln

KLM Tile & Inspire Analytics

Created tiles	120.000
Number of countries where tiles were created	154
Views of the 2 videos	1.3 million
Number of destinations the 777 flew to	23

While the analytics are impressive enough as it is, the fact that KLM went on to further convert many of these fans is all the more notable. But what we wish to focus on is what KLM did that was as innovative and bold as it was simple and calculated.

The Lessons

Be Bold (But the Right Way)

KLM has had far from a conventional approach to their social media program. From presenting new meal options using Facebook videos that introduce the “chefs” (the “KLM A La Carte” campaign) to the controversial “KLM Meet and Seat” campaign that gave passengers the ability to preview their seat mates based on social profiles, KLM has dared to be innovative with each of their social media campaigns. But it is important to keep something in mind: the marketing execs at KLM knew exactly what they were doing, and these risks were as calculated as any.

By understanding the lead to conversion process, the KLM executives were able to put these campaigns together using careful market research, amalgamated and improved data from their own failed exploits (discussed below), and a clear understanding of the sales process for both the customer and the brand. You don’t garner new customers from social media by doing the same thing as everyone else (hence, the “Be Bold” part of the lesson) but you certainly won’t find them if you scare them away (and that covers the “Right Way” aspect). So keep in mind that for a social media campaign to work, you need to impress your audience and have the data to support your seemingly daring decisions.

Never Be Afraid to Try Something New

Social media is still in its infancy, and social media marketing even more so. There is no shortage of innovation out there, and with the ever-changing landscape of social media, you should never be afraid to be first to market. Your first-mover advantage will be huge when people see you doing something that no one has done before. KLM understands that and they have capitalized on it at every turn.

The airline only jumped into social media in 2009, but in these short few years they have managed to try their hand at virtually every campaign available on social media. Whether it is a Facebook campaign, a Foursquare promotion, a YouTube contest or a Twitter “Live Reply” campaign wherein the airline responded to user tweets using up to 140 REAL people to spell out the message, you should never be afraid to try something that has never been done before. When it comes to social media, people want something they have not yet seen.

Try, Fail, Fix, Repeat

No one knows failed experiments better than KLM. Sure, they might have the budgetary luxury of making these mistakes, but over time they have learned exactly what they should not be doing in order to perfect their social campaigns. And on a smaller scale, you should never be afraid of the mistakes you make when it comes to social media. As we noted above, this is an incipient form of marketing; people are bound to make mistakes. But when you do, note your errors, redraft your campaign taking that into account, and start again.

For KLM, one of their big blunders came in 2011 when they offered a promotional gift to the first 50 male and first 50 female “Likers” of a post. Within minutes they had 1,500 “Likes” and no way of knowing which came when. Oops! But what is important is that KLM recognized their mistakes, fixed them and, more importantly, accepted their failures. And that brings us to our final lesson.

Humility is an Underrated Trait

People appreciate humility. It is a humanizing trait, particularly when it comes from a company as large and reputable as KLM. That is why the last important lesson to pull from KLM is that, while you might be a big brand, social media is a place for you to simply be a voice in the conversation. While an image needs to be maintained, you can be a little less corporate and little more fun when it comes to social (respecting professional boundaries, of course). As we never tire of pointing out, social media is about exactly that: being social. Not only does KLM have a post on their blog detailing some of their yearly bloopers, but they also make an important point in their step-by-step guide on running their social media program:

“Not that campaigns always need to be global and spectacular. Many of our establishments have successfully launched their local pages, and we’ve learned that the power often lies in simplicity — like showing the interior of a cockpit, or thanking someone for notifying us about broken lighting on our KLM sign. Our creative editorial board delivers a daily dose of captivating, engaging posts through our various channels.

Social campaigns have won us several awards, but it hasn’t been one success after the next. We’ve certainly had our share of bloopers. But rather than hushing them up, we decided to make them public and take them as a learning experience. And as it turned out, people liked us even more for it.”

Well said.

What lesson do you think is most important in the case study of KLM? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Hints: Best Times to Post

March 20, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social media is a worldwide network, but every aspect of that network – from Facebook, to LinkedIn, to Twitter – is different, and as a result there will be different posting strategies employed in each.

Social media marketing is all about expanding your reach at every turn. Considering the vastness of your audience, it would be devastating to waste a solid piece of content on a dormant audience. As we like to say, if a post falls on social media at the wrong time, will anybody see it?

We thought that it might be helpful to break down where and when you should be posting based on best times to post by network. Before you can employ these tips, however, you need to answer two questions. First, what are the features of the audience you are hoping to target? In other words, what demographics are you targeting? Second, where does you content best fit when it comes to social media? Once you have established answers to these two important questions, then you can apply these tips and see your reach skyrocket on social media!

Best Times to Post

People are constantly asking what the best times to post on social media are, and the reality is that the easy answer is, “It depends.” Who are you looking to target? Night owls? Then these general data will not apply to your niche. However, based on amalgamated survey data, these are the best times to post to different social networks.

Facebook

For Facebook, traffic hits a peak between 1p.m. and 4p.m. The best time for traffic on the social network is Wednesdays at 3p.m. On the other hand, posting first thing in the morning (as people are getting to work) and between 8p.m. and 8a.m. will leave your post stranded on Facebook with few, if any, being reached.

Twitter

What is important to note for Twitter is that business hours are key, with an emphasis on the afternoon (1p.m.-3p.m. more specifically). After 11a.m., traffic on Twitter begins to build and by mid- to late-afternoon, it reaches its zenith. However, posting in the late afternoon on Fridays, or between 8p.m. and 9a.m. will, once again, leave your tweets with few users engaged.

Leading up to and away from business hours is when you stand to see the highest exposure on LinkedIn. From 7a.m.-9a.m. and 5p.m.-6p.m. is when your reach will be maximized on the social network, while 10p.m.-6a.m. will generate the least exposure. Traffic also tends to fade during business hours on LinkedIn, and Mondays and Fridays are statistically a little quieter than the rest of the week.

Google+

Google+ is most active during business hours, with a peak being hit between 9a.m. and 11a.m. However, as you head out of the business day, traffic tends to slow and doesn’t pick up until the following morning. Evening posts generate the lowest reach on Google+.

Pinterest is where the night owls show up. (Well, also the afternoon owls.) Traffic on Pinterest begins to build after noon, and peaks between 2p.m. and 4p.m. and again between 8p.m. and 1a.m. However, avoid posting to Pinterest during dinner hours! Between 5p.m. and 7p.m. is when your exposure stands to be the lowest, and the same holds true for the couple of hours leading up to dinner. But Saturday morning is the Pinterest gold mine – this is the point in the week where the network has its highest traffic.

Now, these are all the hours where your content stands to garner the most exposure due to the traffic on the social networks. However, consider in your strategy whether you want to be competing at peak hours, or if you would rather be one of the few competing for attention in non-peak hours. For example, the weekend may not be the busiest time of the week for Facebook, but there is still a large audience on the network and very few businesses posting to it. Furthermore, there is a higher share ratio on Facebook on the weekend. Think about it!

When have you found is the best time to post to different social networks? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter! And don’t forget to ‘Like’ us on Facebook!

Social Media Case Study: Kotex

March 14, 2013/by Corey Padveen

The use of Pinterest and social media by Kotex proved to be one of the most successful and innovative social media campaigns run to date.

With the major announcement yesterday that Pinterest would now provide analytics to its business users, we thought an appropriate social media case study this week would involve the use of the social network. And what better Pinterest-themed social media case study than its use by Kotex last year to celebrate women’s inspiration.

The Campaign

As the world of social media exploded with the introduction of Pinterest last year, the first network of its kind, dominated almost entirely by women, Kotex and their social media marketing team had the brilliant idea to run a social media campaign centered on the women of Pinterest.

The brilliance lay in how they decided to design the program. Effectively, Kotex sought out the 50 most influential women they could find on the social network after reviewing thousands of accounts and their followers, and began searching through their boards to determine what inspired them. After that, they put together customized gift boxes inspired by these women’s boards, and reached out to these influencers on social media to share these gifts with them. They asked for only one thing in return: to repin the gift.

The results were far greater than what Kotex could have hoped for. Not only did nearly 100% of the 50 women comply with the simple request, but they went above and beyond. These women posted pictures of each component of the gift on both Pinterest and Instagram, made comments on Twitter, Facebook and reached out to their extended networks to tell them all about this wonderful gesture by Kotex.

By the end of the campaign – well, the end of Kotex’s analytics of the campaign, without measuring the extended secondary reach that the virality of the campaign created – Kotex had measured over 2,200 interactions and nearly 700,000 impressions. That’s quite the reach from contacting only 50 people directly!

Take a look at this video for a more comprehensive breakdown of the campaign:

The Lessons

There is a lot we can learn as marketers from this campaign. But when we consider the fact that this social media campaign relied heavily on a viral effect, we think the best lessons to pull from the Kotex social media case study relate to the importance of influencers.

Find Your Influencers

Kotex knew their demographic and the audience they could reach, but they knew that referrals are so much more powerful than direct marketing. It was for that reason that the marketing executives at Kotex went looking for their social media influencers on Pinterest.

These were women who had a reach far beyond that of Kotex alone. And they were women with an audience that filled two vital criteria: the audience was made up of the right demographics and the audience was highly engaged with these influencers. When you can turn influential people into brand advocates, you can rest assured that you are going to generate quite a bit of new business. But in order to find these influencers, you need to keep this next lesson very much in the forefront of your thinking.

Influencers Can Be Anybody!

The women to whom Kotex sent gifts were not on any Forbes power list, they were not First Ladies and they were not Manhattan socialites – they were normal. (Well, that is not to say that these other women are not “normal” but you know what we mean.) These were every day women who happened to build a large and highly engaged following on Pinterest by simply being active and posting content their followers loved to share. It took a lot of insight for the marketing executives at Kotex to understand this.

When it comes to social media, industry influencers are no longer part of a closed off group comprised of the economic and social elite – anyone and everyone has the ability to be an influencer. Marketers need to keep this in mind.

Small Gestures Go A Long Way

The gift baskets sent by Kotex did not include fancy electronics, or high-priced jewelry. They were simply made up of small knick-knacks that Kotex knew these women would love because they did their research. Kotex could easily have sent them gift certificates for a lifetime supply of Kotex products, but rest assured, the returns would have been far fewer.

The reason why there was such a high response rate and such a viral effect was because Kotex customized these gifts to the tastes of the recipients. They did not need to include lavish, overpriced items because they knew that what they had included was worth much more. A little research into their industry influencers resulted in the numbers you see above. So remember, a little thought can get you a lot further than the easiest option.

Create Limitless Campaigns

Kotex asked these women to do one thing: repin the gifts. A simple request. But the beauty of social media is that these women decided, on their own accord, to take the Kotex campaign to the next level, and involve virtually every avenue of social media they had access to. Kotex created a campaign that had an inherently viral element to it; by giving these women individually-inspired gifts and making them feel unique, it was only a matter of time before they shared the experience with their communities. Furthermore, Kotex did not give these women an ultimatum. The gifts were not a bribe, they were simply gifts with one small request. Giving these women the freedom to do what they wished with regards to sharing the gifts and experience with their communities led to them immediately taking the opportunity to boast about how special they felt thanks to Kotex.

Don’t Hope to Go Viral – Work Your Way There

Kotex was lucky that the campaign was as innovative and original as it was. At the time, Pinterest was the newest, hottest social network and Kotex was the first brand to take advantage of it in the way that they did. First-mover advantage worked wonders for the Kotex brand, but we cannot all hope that our social media campaigns will go viral the way the Kotex campaign did. So, when putting together your next campaign, reach out to your influencers, but don’t neglect the average customer or social media fan. After all, by targeting influencers, the ultimate audience whom you hope to reach is the average user, so make an effort to reach out to every person you can. Brand loyalty is brand loyalty wherever you find it.

The Kotex example is one of the finest uses of Pinterest and social media to date. As marketing on social media continues to evolve, it is certain that we can expect other campaigns to catch on as virally as this one did, but with regards to the use of influencers, it is hard to think of another example as perfect a social media case study as this one.

How are you reaching out to your influencers? What methods do you use to determine who your industry influencers are? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Equity: Having a Facebook Presence

March 1, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social equity comes in many forms, and a Facebook presence can greatly enhance your business.

What value does a Facebook fan page and community add to your social equity? This is an important question that must be answered if we are to delve deeper into the social network to measure other features of Facebook and determine how they impact social equity (e.g. campaigns, offers, promotions, etc.).

In today’s post about social media equity, we are looking to explain exactly what it is a Facebook presence offers your business in the way of value added.

The Value Lost Without Facebook

Measuring social equity and the return of social media is not as conventional a measurement as other forms of marketing and business. In fact, due to the fact that every aspect of social media marketing can be measured, it is quite different (in a much better way). So, to understand what value a Facebook presence adds to your business, we may want to consider, first, what value is lost (or overlooked) if our brand does not have a Facebook presence.

Let us first look at the added search engine optimization (SEO) value that comes with Facebook. In a post a little while back, we explained how social signals factor into SEO. Below is the graph that shows some of the most heavily weighted criteria when it comes to SEO:

What are the top five criteria when it comes to SEO and social media? Four of them relate to Facebook. So the first aspect to consider as far as social equity of a Facebook presence is concerned is SEO. We lose some of the most important SEO criteria without a Facebook presence, rendering many of our other SEO efforts much less viable.

Second, a Facebook presence is as important as a web presence. Early on in the age of the Internet, there were those who believed that a web presence was only viable for those high tech-industry businesses. Over the course of the last few years, every business, large or small, has taken to the web to promote their businesses to both a local and international audience. The same is true for Facebook today. The ability to tout your business across a multitude of markets and expand your business drastically is as true with Facebook as it is with a website, if not more so. Facebook is all about being social. And, more importantly, unlike the seemingly endless web, Facebook has boundaries in which users are confined when using it. So, unlike a website, where people may not find you at the speed at which you may have hoped, the ability to become a viral sensation in the world of social media is much easier.

Furthermore, Facebook pages have undergone dramatic overhauls in the last few years. Facebook was the first social network to recognize its own importance to businesses, and has made adjustments accordingly. So in addition to SEO opportunities that reach outside of Facebook, there is also the ability to showcase every aspect about your company and build a corporate personality with which a customer base want to engage.

What is the Social Equity of a Facebook Presence?

As we can see from the lost value above, the social equity of a simple presence on Facebook is tremendous. So in addition to the SEO opportunities that come with Facebook, and the ability to showcase our brand, what else is added with regards to social equity when it comes to Facebook?

Perhaps the best way to determine the value added of a Facebook presence is through the use of statistics. 20% of Facebook users have purchased something because of ads or comments they saw on the social network. In a market of one billion accounts (with hundreds of millions of regularly active users) those are strong numbers. Second, in a recent survey conducted by HubSpot, they noted that 77% of B2C companies acquired a customer through Facebook while 43% of B2B companies acquired a customer through Facebook. (NOTE: For brands in the retail industry, over 90% of those with a Facebook presence reported acquiring a customer from the network.)

According to that same HubSpot survey, 80% of social network users prefer to connect to brands on Facebook. Lastly, the two areas in which brands saw the greatest benefits from Facebook in the last year were in increased brand exposure (nearly 90%) and increased traffic (nearly 70%).

Not all of us are as lucky as a Coca-Cola or a Harley Davidson; we do not have lifelong brand loyalty, or are internationally recognized and respected brands. We need to work hard to retain customers, build loyalty and increase brand awareness. So where does the social equity of Faceobok lie? It has to do with increasing your brand awareness, reputation and loyalty.

Where do you see social equity fitting in with your Facebook efforts? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Facebook Marketing How-To: Optimize for Graph Search

February 26, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Facebook marketing is experiencing some changes as Graph Search rolls out across the social network, so how can you optimize your Facebook fan page for the new feature?

At first glance, Facebook Graph Search does not look like it will have much of an impact on your Facebook marketing efforts. We noted in a post a little while back a few small changes your Facebook marketing strategy might experience as a result of Graph Search. Frankly, as it stands, Graph Search does not appear to be the monumental change in search the social network seemed to hope for. That notwithstanding, Graph Search still has an impact on your business, and we have a few tips listed below that you should be paying attention to when putting together your Facebook marketing strategy in an effort to incorporate the impact of Graph Search.

Focus on Being Local

One of the biggest benefits of Graph Search is the impact it has on your listings when it comes to local searches on Facebook. Thus, your Facebook marketing should now have a focus on check-ins and encouraging locals to engage with your brand on the social network. This can be done with promotions for check-ins, or other Facebook marketing campaigns that engage with a local audience and get them to engage with your brand both online and on site.

The local element is the real bread and butter of Graph Search for businesses. One of the hottest aspects of the Facebook search feature is the ability to search for terms such as “restaurants in Boston my friends like” and see results that fit that category. That, however, is only one of the areas in which you can be optimizing your Facebook marketing for Graph Search.

Pay Attention to Your Business Details

As we have noted in the past, there are a few hidden gems when it comes to SEO for Facebook. Well, now that Facebook has integrated its own search capabilities with Graph Search, SEO becomes all the more important.

Perhaps the two most important sections when it comes to optimizing your Facebook marketing for Graph Search are the categories and About section. Businesses can be searched in Graph Search by “Type,” so it is important that your business is categorized in those areas where you wish to be found. This is also important for your subcategories, as these factor into Graph Search as well. Furthermore, your About section must be optimized, as it is for SEO keywords, for Graph Search capabilities.

Say Cheese!

Photo sharing, as we all know, is one of the most prominent features of social media. Thus, it is safe to assume that somehow, in some way, Graph Search is going to emphasize photo sharing in some way or another. Well, no surprise then that it is. Encourage visitors to tag themselves and your location. These tags and images rank quite highly in Facebook Graph Search, and will impact your business rankings as well.

As we have seen with all of the changes to social signals factoring into SEO, shares with your business and links influence your overall rankings, so encourage your visitors to tag themselves and your business in their pictures.

Have you been using Facebook Graph Search for your Facebook marketing? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Marketing Statistics: Where Is Your Audience?

February 20, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social media marketing success means knowing where you audience is, and a recent study shows those statistics.

The Pew Research Center published a study recently entitled “The Demographics of Social Media Users – 2012”. The study looked at Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr in order to determine where audiences were. As marketers, we need to know where we can find our audiences in order to find success when it comes to social media marketing.

Some of the figures in this study are surprising, considering all we hear about social networking statistics. Below are a few of the key takeaways from the study, and some tips as to how these statistics can be incorporated into your social media marketing strategies.

Facebook Is Still in Charge

Of the population surveyed, 67% say they are on some sort of social media. As expected, Facebook reigned supreme with that entire population stating that they were registered with the largest social network. Coming in second was Twitter, with 16% of the surveyed population claiming to use the micro blogging social network. And in a very close third was Pinterest, with 15% of the population. The growth of Pinterest has been no secret, and these numbers prove it.

With regards to social media marketing, the demographics were rather impressive as well. Have a look at the table below to see a breakdown of the most popular networks and which demographics use them the most.

An In-Depth Look at the Users

When it comes to social media marketing, we need to make sure we are targeting the right audience. In order to do that, we need to know where our target audience is talking. Moreover, we need to know if our target audience would even respond to our efforts when it comes to social media marketing. Below is a breakdown of the surveyed population based on demographics and the proportion using social networking sites in some way.

Perhaps the two most interesting figures arise when looking at minority statistics. When it comes to Race and Ethnicity, the Black, Non-Hispanic and Hispanic population have a higher proportion of social media users than the White, Non-Hispanic population. Furthermore, a surprising 32% of the 65+ population claims to be using social media in some way. Have a look at the table below.

Highlights by Network

The study breaks down similar demographics to those above for each one of the five networks observed. When it came to Twitter, there was a slight edge of male users (17%) over female users (15%) and the most popular Race/Ethnic demographic using the network was Black, Non-Hispanics.

On Pinterest, female users (25%) far outweighed male users (5%), which is to be expected considering the overwhelming data that has been produced showing that Pinterest is a network dominated heavily by the female population. But perhaps what is most interesting to note is that the two income brackets that were the most popular when it came to Pinterest were $50,000-74,999 (23%) and $75,000+ (18%).

On Instagram, women once again out edged men 16% to 10%, respectively. What was interesting about the statistics from Instagram was the fact that there was a fairly consistent makeup of users from nearly all demographics. The same can be said about Tumblr, the least popular of the networks reported.

Finally, Facebook showed yet another favor for the female population (72%) over the male population (62%). Though when it came to the rest of the data, there was little prejudice for one demographic over another in most categories. Based on the study, it would seem that regardless of your socioeconomic status, Facebook is where you want to be. Thus, we can conclude that when it comes to social media marketing to any demographic, Facebook is always a viable place to start.

Click here to read the full report. What have you found to be most surprising? Will any of these statistics influence your social media marketing strategies? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Facebook Marketing: Increase Your Shares [INFOGRAPHIC]

February 19, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Facebook marketing is all about exposing your brand on social media, so how can you increase your number of shares?

We all know that great content is what drives a successful Facebook marketing campaign. People want to engage with brands that are active on social media and posting content that intrigues and excites their fans. But, while we might know that the backbone of great Facebook marketing is great content, it might not be so easy to get your share count up. Luckily, there are a few tips and tricks in this infographic that will help you get the most out of your Facebook marketing efforts to increase your shares and showcase your brand on Facebook.

There is a lot to remember when putting together your Facebook marketing campaign, but if you adhere to the suggestions in the infographic below, you can expect to see those numbers jump pretty quickly.

How are you increasing your shares when it comes to Facebook marketing? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Best Mobile Tools for Social Media Marketing

February 12, 2013/by Corey Padveen

When you’re on the go, what are the best mobile tools you can use to manage your social media marketing?

Social media marketing is no 9-5 gig; far from it. When we’re on the go, we need to have access to our dashboards and accounts, because social media is all about real-time engagement. If we miss an opportunity to engage, we might be missing an opportunity to acquire and possibly convert a new customer.

With that in mind, what are some of the best tools we can use when it comes to mobile social media marketing? The app store is filled with some great (and almost all free) business apps that can help us efficiently run our social media programs when we’re out of the office. Have a look below for a list of some of the social media marketing apps we think are the best.

Facebook Pages

The Facebook Pages app is an excellent tool for monitoring your company or fan pages on the go. The app allows for nearly all the same insights and features as your admin when using your Facebook pages on a desktop. You can view insights, receive notifications, and even monitor the success of campaigns as they are executed. This is a particularly great tool for marketers managing client pages. This allows you to be away from the computer and still engaging with your clients’ customers and fans in real time.

HootSuite Mobile

HootSuite is a favorite among marketers when it comes to social media marketing management. It is an easy-to-use, efficient dashboard that incorporates the majority of the most popular social networks. Considering the vast number of users, it is no wonder that they have developed an excellent mobile app. The HootSuite mobile app allows users to manage a number of profiles from their phone. Granted, there are not as many options available on the mobile version as there are on the desktop dashboard (it is effectively just Facebook and Twitter at the moment) but it does give you some of the same capabilities as the desktop version.

iDashboard

Google Analytics is a vital tool. And while we may not necessarily need to constantly access it in real time on-the-go, it is still nice to have the option. And the option of using iDashboard is a nice one. The Google Analytics app (paid version) has a ton of great features. Not only can you access all of your Analytics accounts, you can also look into specific data regarding traffic, referral data, social monitoring, and much more! So when you need a quick bit of information when you’re on the road, the iDashboard has it for you.

Foursquare for Business

The Foursquare for Business app allows owners of a business (or businesses) and marketers to claim locations, and create and monitor campaigns as the move. As they expand their business frontier, Foursquare is looking to make it as easy as possible for marketers to access the social network for business purposes wherever they are. It is for that reason that they developed the app. So whether you’re monitoring your own location or a client’s, you can do it from anywhere with the Foursquare for Business app.

These are just a few of the great apps available for running your social media marketing on the fly. There is no shortage of other apps, including stand alone apps for Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn and more. What are some of your favorite social media marketing apps? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

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