Social Media for Business Archives

How To: Get People to Click on Your Links

November 12, 2013/by Corey Padveen

What can we do to get people to click on our links and increase our website’s traffic?

We all strive to get people to click on our links. Every day, we are sharing our content to different networks and actively promoting it in order to drive new traffic and, ideally, generate new business. But it can be frustrating when we write a great post or article, share it to every channel imaginable and simply see no new clicks through to our website. How can we change that?

There are a few easy steps you can take to get people to click on your links and increase the traffic you drive to your website. After all, what is the point of writing all this great content if no audience is lucky enough to read it?

Capture Their Attention

Have you ever been sifting through content online and come across a title you just had to click on? This is the first thing you should consider when trying to get people to click on your links. Consider two titles. The first reads, ‘How To Write a Blog’ and the second reads, ‘5 Ways to Write Viral Blog Content’. You will most likely be more interested in clicking on the second article.

Be Specific

Building off of that first tip, the best way to capture the attention of your audience is to be as specific as possible in your article’s title. Let people know exactly what they are going to get when they click on your link. Vague, cryptic titles are not as enticing as some people think. They also come off as spam.

When you see a link that says, ‘Want to Grow Your Business?’ you are more than likely thinking that you will be directed to a spammy sales page. Tell people what they are clicking on so your traffic is interested in what you have to say before ever arriving at your site.

Tailor Your SEO Sections

When you share an article to a blog post and you are trying to drive clicks to your site, you will definitely want to have information in the title and meta description relating to that specific article – not your site in general. On WordPress, a plugin as simple as Yoast will allow you to add these fields in simply and avoid generic descriptions showing up with your articles.

Having these segments complete is not only good for SEO, but good for clicks, too.

Recycle Your Content

The shelf life of a tweet is said to be about fifteen minutes. For a Facebook post, it used to be roughly two hours. With the new Facebook algorithm, it is likely less now if you are posting as your page. How far do you think your content is going to reach if it is only visible for a short while? Probably not very far.

You are going to need to share your content on an ongoing basis to every one of your networks. If you want to increase your brand’s exposure and get eyes on your blog, then you are going to have to share it’s content regularly. It might take some work, but with so much content being shared to the web on an ongoing basis, organic traffic is only going to come if you start by aggressively sharing your content – and sharing it often.

These are just a few ways to drive more traffic to your blog or website. How do you increase the clicks on your links? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

15 Amazing Social Media Marketing Statistics (in Pictures!)

November 11, 2013/by Corey Padveen

These social media marketing statistics will make the case for the transition into a social business!

As marketers, we are all looking for that one piece of crucial information that will help us convince our clients (and, in some cases, our own management) that the need to become a social business is greater than ever. These fifteen social media marketing statistics are certainly impressive, and should help any marketer get over that last hurdle when it comes to proving that social is a necessity!

Now, if those stats don’t get you excited about the prospect of becoming a social business, little else will! Social media is quickly spilling over into every demographic and in big ways. The marketing landscape has been drastically altered by the presence of social, and it is time for your brand to become a social business!

Find out what a social business looks like here and let us know how your company is social! Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

How to Measure ROI on Facebook in 3 Easy Steps [VIDEO]

November 9, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Measuring ROI on Facebook is essential to knowing the success of your program, and it is much easier than you think.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel here.

Op-Ed: You’re Only as Good as Your Worst Interaction

November 8, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Managing your reputation on social media is an integral part of any comprehensive social business strategy.

If you are not paying attention to the perception of your brand by audiences, then you are forgetting about one of the most important features that makes a social business successful. The management of your reputation on social media is a living organism, and you need to pay it regular attention.

One of the realities of doing business is that the larger we grow, the more likely we are to encounter that individual that doesn’t like our product, our service, or simply has a bad experience. And what happens then? Well, a recent study by ZenDesk shows that 95% of customers who have a bad experience tell someone about it, compared to 87% who shared a good experience. Maybe we just like to tell others about our suffering, but the fact remains that you can be sure that a customer who has a poor experience with your company is going to go out there and tell the world. And it is now much easier than ever before.

And so we come to the title of this article: your brand is only as good as your worst public interaction. What did an angry customer have to say about your brand? How did you handle it? Your reputation on social media – on every platform from Facebook to Yelp! – is going to be affected in a much greater way by how you handle your unhappy customers than how you handle the satisfied ones.

The Intelligent Traveler

Put yourself in the customers’ shoes. Let’s say you are planning a trip and you are considering staying at one of two hotels. Assume the prices and amenities are all the same. Well, if you are like 65% of online travellers, then seeing a management’s response to comments on a social channel like TripAdvisor would sway you to book with the responding hotel. (Google, January, 2013)

People like the idea of accountability, and when you avoid dealing with issues head on, you are hurting your reputation on social media. Owning up to your brand’s mistakes, and showing people that you are taking strides to both remedy situations as they arise and prevent them from ever occurring again goes a very long way.

Nobody Cares What You Did Right

When you are buying a product on eBay, and you see that a seller has a rating of 99% from 100 buyers, are you going to care about the 99 people that said, “Great job! Fast delivery! Recommend seller!”? Or would you be more concerned with finding that one comment that reads, “Item was not as described. Seller did not respond to questions. Would not recommend.”? Probably the second one.

You can do something right a thousand times, but that one time that things go wrong, people will remember it. It is here that you need to shine. It is easy to handle happy customers. How you handle unhappy customers on public forums is what is going to influence future buyers.

The Ostrich Never Dealt with Social Media

Burying your head in the sand while people speak out against your service or brand might have worked back in the days of phone and mail. But now, when people can reach out to networks of thousands, you had better be ready to respond. Clearly, ostriches never had to deal with issues on social media.

Have a plan in place for every plausible scenario. You need to know the Dos and Do Nots for handling crises and unhappy customers before you have to deal with crises and unhappy customers. The last thing you want to do is learn from your mistakes when your mistakes have already resulted in consumers making up their minds. Read up and do the research on the mistakes of others and devise strategies for managing your reputation on social media from these.

It might not be an ideal situation, but the fact is that your brand is only as good as it’s worst interaction on social media. This is where people are going to do their research; consumers trust each other, not your brand. But you can change that by properly managing your brand’s reputation on social media!

Find out more about becoming a social business and managing your reputation on social media here.

Do you research products and services on social channels before making a decision? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

5 Tips for Brands on Instagram

November 7, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Brands on Instagram are still relatively young, but there is still a lot marketers can learn from their successes and failures.

Instagram is about to roll out their sponsored ad feature, and based on the comments from Instagram users, it would also appear as though the world is about to end. Like every social network that burst onto the scene, Instagram needs to find a way to make money, and by charging brands on Instagram a fee for posting their images on users’ accounts, they might have found it. But if your company has a presence on Instagram, what can you do to ensure that your audience will stick around?

Below are five things you can learn from other brands on Instagram and apply to your strategy in order to get the most out of the network.

Quality is Better than Quantity

Have you ever scrolled through your Instagram feed and noticed a half dozen posts from the same user, all in a row, all with a message to follow someone, or double tap an image, or some other pseudo-promotional content? No one likes it, and it is a very easy way to lose followers that actually check Instagram regularly.

One of the things that attracts people to the app is the ability to make the ordinary look extraordinary. Focus on sharing something that people will love and it will go a lot further than sharing a lot of forgettable posts.

Have a Strategy

Like any other one of your social networks, Instagram is going to need a content strategy if you want it to work for you. ‘Getting started’ with Instagram means doing just that.

The same way you created a content strategy and schedule for your other channels, do so for Instagram. It will make the management of your account much easier and you will be able to find success much quicker.

Create a Brand for Your Brand

What content are you sharing that people are most responsive to? At t2, we have branded ourselves with dogs. What symbolizes your brand? Figure that out and share content that is immediately recognizable as your own. You want people to know that the image is coming from your account, and not have to look up at the user to see who posted it.

Set Goals

What are you trying to achieve with Instagram? Again, this is not a tip unique to the network; this is something that should be practiced on every one of your social channels. That said, it still needs to be done. Otherwise, who is to say that your work on Instagram is doing you any good. Work towards a goal and determine how you plan to measure the steps you are taking to achieve it.

Soft Sell

This is the most important tip of all. As noted above, reaction from users to the sponsored ads has been very negative. While some people don’t seem to mind it, those that do, mind it a lot.

Remember, Instagram is an app. You should be sharing images that increase brand awareness. This is not the place to solely promote your product or service. Familiarize people with your brand so that you remain top of mind. Then, when the time comes, you can leverage this brand awareness and drive sales from the network. Patience is a virtue – especially on Instagram.

How have you found success on Instagram? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

3 Departments to Involve in Your Social Business

November 6, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Has your social business involved every department it can?

We all know that the marketing department is going to be among the first to adopt new media when it comes to social business, but what other departments can contribute to it? These three departments are generally forgotten when it comes to social business, and it is easy to understand why: a lot of people don’t know how they can be social!

Customer Service

Now, this is a little paradoxical. Yes, your customer service department is inherently a ‘social’ department per se. After all, it spends the day dealing with people. But when becoming a social business, your customer service department is going to become much more public then ever before. And that’s a good thing.

Social Care – or, customer service on social channels – is increasing in popularity and becoming a favorite among consumers. When evolving into a social business, you are certainly going to want to get your customer service team on the front lines. Just be sure you have a strategy in place for every possible scenario! Now, with social in the mix, your customer service team is a pseudo PR department. They are a direct reflection of how your company treats clients, so make sure they are doing it right.

Tech/Support

Has there ever been a department more suited for conversing on the web? Your tech and support teams need to be able to show that they can help with anything at any time. They are like an extension of your customer service team. In fact, they are your customer service team.

Think about it. When you call a customer service line, they are generally going to connect you with the department most able to assist you with your problem. By making these departments as easily accessible as your customer service team, you can help cut out the middle man and save time on all fronts. Let people deal with matters in the most efficient way possible, and your business will be functioning at optimal capacity.

Sales

If your sales team is not already on social, get them on there! You never know where you might find a new client, but you can rest assured that wherever you might find that client, there is a pretty good chance you will find them on social channels, too.

Your sales team should be listening to the conversation around your industry and involving themselves in the conversation when and where it is appropriate. Take a look at this blog post about cell phone carriers to see some great examples of Dos and Don’ts when it comes to social selling.

What other departments do you think would benefit from a presence on social media when you become a social business? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

4 Important Facebook Targeting Options

November 5, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Have you put together an ad campaign using the Facebook targeting options?

Have you ever tried to promote your content to a broader audience by developing a Facebook ad campaign? Boosting a post is one thing, but if you know how to properly use the Facebook advertising platform, you can reach very targeted audiences and get a specific message across to groups you know will want to hear them.

Below are four Facebook targeting options that are going to be very important when it comes to putting together a successful ad campaign.

Location, Age and Gender

These are the most obvious targeting options. We all know that we have the ability to target by location, age and gender, but we often forget that when it comes to advertising, the more specific we are, the greater the likelihood that our campaign will find success.

With Facebook, you have the ability to target not only countries, but states/provinces, cities and, if you are running a campaign in the United States, by zip code. Why is this beneficial? Well, if you are a local business, this gives you the opportunity to target only those people who are potential customers based on location. It also means that if you are running a campaign in the United Kingdom, for example, you could filter out any users outside of the UK and prevent your ad (and your dollars) from going to users that cannot benefit from the offering.

As for age and gender, figure out exactly who is going to be most responsive to this campaign. Maybe you don’t know – that’s not a problem. Use these targeting options to test different markets. Maybe you create one version of your ad targeted towards males in the United States between the ages of 25 and 39, and another version targeted towards females in Canada over the age of 45. (On a side note, that’s one versatile product!) You might be surprised by what you find.

Precise Interests

Now we’re getting into the real value that exists with Facebook targeting options. One of the great features that a lot of marketers tend to overlook is the ability to target audiences by interest. For those familiar with AdWords, this is something that Google determines based on search history and other criteria, but on Facebook, this is determined by a user’s expressed interests. They are telling you what they like!

You are going to want to include as many Precise Interests or pages (yes, company or brand pages) as you can – just make sure they relate to your ad and landing page (whether it is your Timeline or a page off of Facebook). Just begin typing and you will see a drop down menu of interest options along with the number of people that have listed this item as one of their interests.

Broad Categories

Interests are great for getting right down to what a person might like, but perhaps you will find that you want to target people with a number of diverse interests and one commonality. This is where Broad Categories comes in handy.

Here, you are able to target users based on broader criteria. One of the best characteristics to consider targeting is precise mobile devices. Over 70% of Facebook users access the platform via their smartphone. Don’t miss out on a chance to target those users with your campaign.

Choose Your Users

Maybe you are running a campaign that is targeted specifically to people that are already your fans; this could be something along the lines of a loyalty program. Maybe you are only looking to target users that have not yet liked your company, and are offering something to new fans. In any case, you are going to want to specify whether you want your ad to target users that are already fans, or potential fans.

If you have not already done so, then definitely take a look at the Facebook targeting options for ads. You might be surprised at how much more effective it can make your campaign.

Have you found any surprises with your ads? Tell us what they were in the comments below or on Twitter!

The Power of Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]

November 4, 2013/by Corey Padveen

We all know that social media is important, but have you really considered the power of social media for your business?

We’ve said it countless times before, and the evidence can be found all over: the power of social media is great, and leveraging the platform properly can mean big things for your brand.

There are a lot of very interesting statistics in this infographic from Buzzsmith. Every year, new data emerges that supports the adoption of large-scale social media strategies, and this year is no different. If we look at some of the data in the infographic below, we can see that, unsurprisingly, ROI is the major focal point for most marketers and businesses. This has long been the case. In order to justify the very real cost that social media incurs, we need to be able to measure ROI from social media. Considering this, we can see which statistic is most interesting of the data below.

For those brands effectively measuring ROI (and there are a number of ways to measure it tangibly) they are seeing a 153% return on their investment into social media campaigns! This further exemplifies the great power of social media.

What campaigns have you run that evoke the power of social media? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

How to Determine KPIs on Social Media

November 1, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Understanding your brand’s KPIs on social media is going to be crucial to measuring the success of your program.

ROI remains one of the key concerns for marketers and executives alike when it comes to social media marketing. While there exist a number of ways to measure your returns on social campaigns, few marketers know where to look in order to find them. The first place to start is by establishing your KPIs on social media – they are going to be invaluable down the road.

Think about it: how can you know if you are successful, if you do not know what your measurement for success is going to be? For those that do not know what KPI stands for, these are Key Performance Indicators, and they vary from brand to brand.

There are a few steps you are going to need to take in order to determine your KPIs for social media. Below is the set of steps to follow in order to figure out what, exactly, you plan on using as a criteria for success with social media efforts.

Establish Your Goals

Before you can determine how you want to measure your returns, you need to know what you want to accomplish. As it states above, KPIs are going to vary from business to business. Of course there will be some that are fairly general, and observed by almost everyone. But to know what you want to be measuring, you need to know what is going to contribute to achieving your goals.

There are a few goals your brand might have. Maybe you want to increase brand awareness, or drive direct sales. Maybe it is something in between those two. Whatever it is, you need to start by establishing your short and long term goals.

Understand Insights

When it comes to social media, insights are going to come in all shapes and sizes. They can also be assisted by tools and technologies. When looking at KPIs, you are going to need to sift through quite a bit of data. Conventionally, the top-down approach to measuring KPIs started with your goals and simply looked at the processes that led to results as the KPIs. This is not the case with social (well, not entirely the case). While you are going to be looking at processes as KPIs, you are also going to be looking at a number of other resources. Enter insights.

Know where your insights exist both on and off social networks. Look at your activity on Facebook Insights, and compliment that with data collected in Google Analytics. Knowing where all of your data is being collected (and yes, all of your data is being collected) is going to be extremely useful when determining your KPIs and where you can find them.

Simplicity is Not a Bad Thing

Sometimes, the simplest answer is going to be the best. Measuring your return on investment does not have to be some convoluted set of equations that generate a mysterious, variable-filled result. You can look at some of your more simple KPIs and find a whole lot of value.

Something as simple of your number of interactions – a hard, straightforward number – can be an extremely valuable KPI and you shouldn’t go out of your way to complicate things.

Some Helpful Starting Points

When it comes to KPIs on social media, there are going to be some standard ones. No matter what you are trying to achieve, you will ultimately want to keep at least a few of these in mind.

Cost-per-lead/conversion: You have to spend money to make money and social media is no different. Pay attention to how much you are investing in every one of your conversions in order to ensure that you are profitable.
Engagement: Look at how often your fans are interacting with your brand in order to see if your content strategy is successful. If you are talking to no one, how can you expect to drive any business from social media?
Referral traffic: This relates closely to your engagement KPI. How often is your content leading to users visiting your website? What types of content are leading to users visiting your website, or finding landing pages?
Network growth: It might seem trivial, but a lot of people tend to overlook the value of a large network. Whether that is an email database, a group of Twitter followers, or followers on your company’s LinkedIn page, a growing network can have a lot of value if leveraged correctly.

What KPIs are you using to track your work on social media? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Scary Fun Facts About Social Business and Commerce

October 31, 2013/by Corey Padveen

It’s that time of year again, and we thought we would share some ‘scary’ fun facts about social business to keep with the spirit of Halloween!

Wait, how can something be scary and fun at the same time? Well, for businesses that are leveraging the possibilities that social business presents, these facts are a lot of fun. For those that have not yet invested in social initiatives, seeing that they are missing out on these facts about social business is very, very scary.

The Pinterest Witch Has Cast a Spell

A spell on female consumers, to be exact. On Pinterest, 47% of women say that they have made a purchase based on a recommendation they saw on the network. Considering that women make up a vast majority of Pinterest users, you can see why that might be an opportunity one would be terrified to miss.

People Are Trapped on Facebook

People are spending over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook. Hours of time online is being devoted to one website. So the billions of other pages on the web need to compete for the attention of this Facebook user base. Rather than trying to direct their attention elsewhere, wouldn’t it just be easier to make your presence known within a community that is already active and highly engaged?

We Are Brainwashed By Cats

Over 6 billion hours of video are watched every month on YouTube alone! So whether you are creating videos for your audience or advertising in the video space, you know that there is at least one hour per person on Earth where you can be found on YouTube.

Shopping Zombies Hungry for Information (Kind of like Brains, I Guess)

Research shows that 40% of consumers compare prices on their mobile devices before making a purchasing decision. It also shows that 64% of consumers have made a purchase from a brand because of a digital experience (web site, social presence, email, etc.). Consumers are looking to the web for information and a positive user experience. If you do not have a presence there, you can rest assured that your chances of getting someone’s business decrease dramatically.

Scared yet? The importance of engaging with your audience and becoming a social business has never been greater. People are looking to each other and to brands in order to make purchasing decisions. If you are not a part of the conversation, you are not a part of the market. Now that’s scary stuff.

How are you conquering your fears and becoming a social enterprise? Find out how t2 can help you here.

We would love to know what facts you find interesting, and be sure to send us a picture of your costume on Twitter! Happy Halloween!