Social Media Marketing Archives

The Best New Features on Facebook Insights

October 17, 2013/by Corey Padveen

There are some great new features on Facebook Insights that should get marketers excited.

Facebook has done a lot in the past few months in order to ramp up their Insights feature. Remember the ‘People Talking About This’ feature on Facebook? No more! Some of the new features on Facebook Insights provide marketers with some real, actionable data, and we have outlined the highlights of these new features below.

Where are people coming from?

The old Facebook Insights gave you a very basic overview of where some of your most recent activity was coming from. Now, one of the great features on Facebook Insights lets you see exactly when people arrived at your Facebook page, and how they got there.

What is working with your content strategy?

Your content strategy is going to be among the most important features of your bigger social marketing strategy. That said, if you can’t measure how your content strategy is performing, it is going to be very hard to know what is working and what is not.

Among the best new features on Facebook Insights is the evaluation of your content by the system. See what types of content reach the largest audience, what drives engagement and even when your audience is online!

What time period are you measuring?

Let’s not sugarcoat it: the old Facebook Insights were very confusing! There was not much clarity with what you were able to measure, and you simply had to hope that you were looking at the right data when making an executive decision.

A great new feature is the ability to pick a timeframe in which you want to see your data. An easy-to-use slider lets you select the dates you want to monitor, and you can simply look at posts, reach and engagement in that period of time. This specificity is much needed to know how campaigns performed and what needs to be nixed or modified in the future.

There is a lot more to love when it comes to the new features on Facebook Insights, and every marketer is strongly encouraged to take a look at them. While Facebook might not be your primary network for traffic or business, a billion people can’t be wrong. Now, it is nice to know that there are Insights available to businesses to match the power that the network has on its surface.

What is/are your favorite feature/features with the new Facebook Insights? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

4 Ways to Reach a Big Audience Fast

October 16, 2013/by Corey Padveen

What can you do to reach a big audience very quickly through the strategic use of social media?

With so much happening on social channels, it can often seem difficult to grow your fan base and reach a big audience in a short time frame. In order to really capitalize on all that social media has to offer and reach a big audience, there are a few tips you might want to consider.

Below are four easy ways to reach a big audience very quickly through the strategic use of your social channels.

Your Employees are Your Best Brand Advocates

Don’t let the fact that they work at your company fool you into thinking they can’t be an integral part of your audience. Your brand’s employees have a ton to offer when it comes to reaching a broader audience.

For any company, the first fans and followers should be the brand’s employees. By sharing your content to their networks, you immediately find yourself with a larger reach than if you are trying to simply penetrate new markets without an established fan base.

Share Content Aggressively

When trying to figure out a content strategy and schedule, you are going to want to share as much of your original content as possible, and often enough that anyone and everyone gets a chance to see it.

While you might adjust your content strategy once you have determined where your most engaged audience is and when they are at their most engaged, you won’t be able to figure that out until you have shared your content with everyone. This is also going to be a great way to increase your content’s exposure and acquire new, genuine fans.

Promote Your Best Content

To truly succeed with your social marketing strategy, you are going to need to make an investment. Of course, there is the investment of time, but for real, measurable results in a short timeframe, you are going to need to expand that investment into sponsored ads and stories on your different networks.

As you begin to share content, see what is generating higher click-through rates and engagement than other bits of content and invest a little in promoting these stories to wider audiences. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and now even Pinterest make it possible to promote ads for a very low cost. You can even track your ROI on Facebook using Conversion Tracking. Investing in your social media is a must if you want to reach a big audience in a short period of time.

Answer Questions

Before you begin sharing content, it might be beneficial to do some research and determine what your target audience is talking about. Determine what questions are being asked in your industry and devise a content strategy that answers those questions.

People are inclined to engage with content that they deem helpful, and they are even more likely to share it with their friends and fans. Consider this when determining how your plan on reaching a large audience on social media.

What other tactics can you think of to reach a big audience fast on social platforms? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

5 Original Ways to Engage Your Fans and Followers

October 15, 2013/by Corey Padveen

You should always aim to engage your fans on social channels, but it is much more fun to do it in a creative way!

One of the most important goals of your brand on social media should be to engage your fans and followers. While this is a great quality for any brand to have, it is made a lot better when it is done in a creative way! Engagement, remember, is not just about responding to comments left by your fans; engagement is often about starting the conversation.

Below is a quick set of new, fun ways to engage your fans and followers on social media that can make the customer experience much more enjoyable!

Devise a Weekly Segment

Consistency is key on social media. Not only does it remind your fans that you are there and help keep your brand top of mind, but it can also be a great way to increase your engagement rates.

Consider having a weekly segment wherein you encourage fans to tune in to see what each week’s instalment is. For example, on the t2 Facebook page, we regularly end each week with a #DogWeekend picture to usher in the end of the work week!

Ask a Question

Not only do people love answering questions, they also help provide you with some great insights into the tastes and preferences of your audience. Think of the answers your fans give as small responses to a poll you put out.

“Caption This!”

The “Caption This” post is a great one for Facebook engagement. These posts regularly lead to a ton of engagement and can be a lot of fun for both your fans and your brand.

Compare and Share

The ‘Like’ for A and ‘Share’ for B approach can be a good one for two reasons. First, it once again can generate a lot of engagement with the right content. Second, like the questions, it can give you some valuable insights into what your fans and followers like and in which direction your branding and marketing initiatives should go.

Jump Into Conversation

It is always fun for a brand to see comments start to fill up on a social network. The mistake that a lot of brands make, however, is not jumping in there with their fans.

Involve yourself in the conversation and help it along. Nobody likes to have a comment go unnoticed – whether it is by other fans or the brand itself. By engaging with your fans’ comments, you not only help them feel good about leaving the comment, but you encourage them and others to continue engaging with your brand in the future.

These are just a few great ways to engage fans without a “hard sell”. Try some of these out and see what works for your brand!

Tell us what you do to engage your fans and followers in the comments below or on Twitter!

How to Track ROI on Facebook in 3 Easy Steps

October 11, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Tracking ROI on Facebook and other networks is always among the top concerns for marketers. This is one great way to track ROI on Facebook.

Despite all of the methods that exist to measure ROI on Facebook – some more complicated than others – there are still marketers and executives that refuse to acknowledge that it can be done! One great way to measure ROI on Facebook is with Facebook’s easy-to-use Conversion Tracking. Below is a step-by-step set of instructions on how to create goals on the network and measure ROI on Facebook.

Step 1: Go To Your Ads Manager (or Power Editor)

This is about as simple as steps get. Get started by going to either your Ads Manager and clicking on “Manage Your Ads” (the green button on the right of the header image) or the Power Editor (depending on how familiar you are with Facebook advertising).

Step 2: Set Up a Conversion Tracking Pixel

The next thing you are going to need to do is create a conversion tracking pixel. This is a small piece of code that you are going to place on your conversion page (this could be a checkout page, a download page, form submission, etc.).

First, go to your Conversion tracking in your designated ads platform.

Then you are going to click on the green “Create Conversion Pixel” button on the right hand side where you will see this box pop up:

Fill it out with the name of your goal (in this case, we are creating a goal called “View Blog”) and what category that goal falls into. Above, we have selected Key Page Views (essentially, the conversion is made when a user views a specific page) but other categories include Checkouts, Registrations, Leads, Adds to Cart and Other Website Conversions.

Now once you click “Create Pixel” you are going to see a small snippet of code pop up. You do not need to know any complex degree of HTML to work with this. In the code, you’ll see a line that allows to add a value to this conversion (the line with the red arrow next to it below). It is here that you can denote how much this conversion is worth.

Say, for example, you are sending people to a contact form for more information, and you have determined based on some fancy accounting work that any lead that fills out the form is worth $5.00. So, you would change this line to read five dollars (the currency is in the line just below it) and save the code.

Step 3: Load the Pixel Onto Your Conversion Page

Now comes the part where you might need the help of your webmaster or code-savvy friend.

Copy the code you have generated and place it in the header of your conversion page (detailed in the instructions before the code, above). Now, when people have clicked on your ads and found themselves at your website, Facebook will register that they have taken action (a conversion) based on when they land on that page with the conversion pixel uploaded.

And there you have it. Three simple steps to help you measure direct ROI from Facebook.

What other ways do you measure ROI on Facebook? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Find out more about measuring your ROI on Facebook with our Consulting Services here.

4 Social Media Quotes and Responses to Them

October 9, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Below are some popular social media quotes and my reactions and responses to them.

Like any popular social phenomenon, social media has spawned a number of great minds to share their words of wisdom with tweet-appropriate brevity. Below are four social media quotes from industry leaders and observers and my reactions, interpretations or responses to them.

“Social media has infected the world with a sickening virus called vanity.” -Kellie Elmore

Yes – it’s true that social has further engrossed the ego of the already self-absorbed Generation Y (among others). But I can’t agree with the fact that vanity is a product of social media.

Vanity has long been in existence. Consider The Portrait of Dorian Gray when considering vanity. Surely, Oscar Wilde was not all that active on Twitter. What social media has done, however, is provided the world with a self-publishing tool. The results are often going to be self-absorption. But is that always such a terrible thing?

People can now showcase talents, reach broad audiences and education is a tweet away. Social media has also shrunk the business world so significantly, that the largest brands in the world can now devote seemingly undivided attention to customers in need.

“Distracted from distraction by distraction.” -T.S. Eliot

Fine, so T.S. Eliot wasn’t talking about StumbleUpon when he wrote this. But can you think of a more fitting reference?

As noted above, the world is a much smaller place thanks in large part to the advent of social media. That does not mean, however, that there is any less activity taking place within it. Take a minute to research an article online, and you find yourself having devoted three hours to becoming the world’s leading expert on sounds foxes make.

Though we can easily waste days sifting through the endless sea of content shared to social channels, I like to think of it as the world’s most comprehensive library. Every article, page, blog or video offers something we have not seen before. (Or, in some cases, something we have seen many, many times before and just need to see again.)

“You are what you share.” -Charles Leadbeater

Few things are truer than this when it comes to social media. A perfect example of this ringing true is the polarity the world witnessed as a result of Facebook status updates reflecting political preferences during the last American election.

Reputation management, Social Care and content strategies are all infinitely more important than ever before when it comes to social media. One misstep could land you in water hot enough to burn away all the hard work you have put into building your brand. Companies and individuals need to remember that they are participating in conversations on a megaphone, and everyone can hear them.

“Create more value than you capture.” -Tim O’Reilly

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

What are some of your favorite quotes when it comes to social media? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

5 Questions to Determine if You Should Outsource Social Media

October 7, 2013/by Corey Padveen

When deciding whether or not to outsource social media, there are a few questions you need to answer first.

There is always a lot of debate over whether or not brands should outsource social media. For some brands, running a program internally is going to be the right call. Others might benefit from having an outside firm run the program for them.

In order to figure out if your brand should outsource social social media, you are going to need to answer five questions.

What will go into your social media program?

The first thing you need to determine is exactly what you are going to include in your social media program. For some, a blog is going to be where it all starts and ends. (Although for best results, some social sharing is encouraged.) For others, a profile on every existing network will be created.

You need to know what you plan on doing and where you plan on doing it.

What will your goals and objectives look like?

Whether you outsource your program or you run it internally, you need to have a clear set of goals and objectives that you work towards achieving. Setting your goals is going to make the decision to outsource much clearer. When you know what you want to accomplish, you know if it would be possible to let someone else handle the program.

How long will it take?

Social media is not a 5-minutes-a-day endeavor. Either you, a team member or an firm needs to be seriously committed to sharing content, engaging with fans and followers, monitoring data and modifying programs in order for your social media program to pay off. Figure out how many hours you will need to devote to your social media program and then…

What is your time worth?

This is an answer that varies from business to business. For some, it is easy to determine. If you are a professional, you probably charge by the hour. If you manage your own social media and you bill $200 per hour, 3 hours a day to manage your program costs you $600. You might hire someone internally at a much lower hourly rate but essentially this question needs to be answered in terms of opportunity cost.

You need to weigh this against the cost of an outside firm running a program for you and working towards the same goals. Maybe you find that your return on the three hours above is $500, while the outside firms generates a daily return of $250. Then, it probably makes sense to run the program internally. Before making this call, however, you need to answer this questions with some good-old-fashioned math.

Can you collaborate?

Some people like to micro manage. It’s not for everyone, but for some people, it is how they like things to run. To each their own. If this is the case, you might want to avoid including anyone, outside firms included, in the management of your social media program. It simply won’t work. There needs to be collaboration.

Answer these questions and figure out what is going to work for you. Maybe you want to outsource your entire program and let a team of professionals handle everything. Maybe you want to keep everything in-house and do it all yourself. Maybe you want to outsource some parts of it and run other aspects, like Social Care, internally. Answer these questions before making the call.

Have you outsourced your social media? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

To find out more about the consulting services offered by t2, click here.

5 Biggest Social Media Concerns for Executives

October 3, 2013/by Corey Padveen

There are five notable social media concerns that executives deal with when deciding whether or not adopting the concept of social business is the right move.

If you ask any marketer what hurdles they face when it comes to implementing social business strategies, many will tell you that there are social media concerns faced by management that are stopping them from executing efficient programs.

Below are five of the main concerns executives have when it comes to social media. Much of the information has been adapted from the MIT Sloan and Deloitte social business survey from 2013.

There is No Strategy

This is among the biggest concerns that executives are faced with. The burden of a carefully laid out strategy weighs heavily on any executive decision. Marketers need to be aware of this and need to have a clear strategy in place when presenting options to an executive committee.

For the marketer, there can be little success found with social media without a properly laid out, goal-oriented social business strategy. Keep that in mind and having something concrete put together before presenting the idea to an executive.

There is No Time

This is a big one. Efficiency is at the root of a successful business, and knowledge is at the heart of efficiency. For an executive that does not fully understand social business, they see it as more than a campaign or a program, but a learning curve that they will need to familiarize themselves with.

Focus on scheduling in order to appeal to this social media concern. If an executive sees that there in fact is time, they will be much more receptive to the idea of adopting a program.

There is No Proof

For anyone who is familiar with social business and has been following it for long enough, this one hurts. There is a ton of proof. And there are so many numbers that show it. Show up with examples of how a campaign similar to yours or in a similar industry has performed in order to ease this concern.

There is No Security

Whether it is the physical security of the networks that concerns executives or the security of brand integrity on social networks, security is going to be an issue seen often. Help reassure executives by showcasing how branding efforts are kept intact and that social networks can be highly secure when fully understood and configured.

There is No Room

There are a lot of priorities competing for the attention of your brand’s executives. Social media – a new venture – might not meet the criteria in the executive’s eyes. You need to make the case for why social business is a must and that there needs to be room. It needs to be conveyed that social is a top priority in any industry.

How do you deal with these social media concerns? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Fun Facts from the 2014 B2B Content Marketing Report

October 2, 2013/by Corey Padveen

These facts and figures from the 2014 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – North America Report showcase why content marketing is crucial – particularly when it comes to B2B.

For the fourth straight year, MarketingProfs and Content Marketing Institute have released this B2B content marketing report and the results are quite impressive.

Once again, the numbers have increased year-over-year and B2B content marketing is becoming both more widely used and more structured. Below are a few of the key findings when it comes to B2B content marketing and some analyses of these findings.

93% of B2B marketers are using content marketing

There’s not much to analyze when it comes to this stat. Long story short, if you are not engaged in content marketing in a B2B company, you should be.

66% of B2B marketers with a ‘Most Effective’ content marketing rating have a content strategy

A content strategy is going to be your best friend when it comes to content marketing. Every brand’s strategy may differ; you are going to need to test content across every channel to see what works best. At the end of the day, however, there needs to be a clear strategy in place in order to measure the effectiveness and success that your content marketing drives.

‘Less Effective’ marketers do not have a designated content marketing point person

86% of ‘Most Effective’ content marketing companies have one individual overseeing nothing by the brand’s content marketing initiatives. By contrast, only 46% of ‘Less Effective’ companies have a point person when it comes to this. This ties in closely with the need to have a strategy in place. If you are going to take your content marketing seriously, then do just that. Have a strategy and department (one or several people) devoted to making the program successful.

Social media is a key area of focus

To all those naysayers who speak out against the use of social media when it comes to B2B brands, the numbers are in and all signs point to the contrary. 87% of B2B content marketing programs use social media as a means of sharing content to broader audiences and driving results from a strategy. In fact, sharing content on social networks is the most widely used tactic when it comes to content marketing.

55% or more of B2B marketers are using five of the main social networks

91% use LinkedIn, 85% use Twitter, 81% use Facebook, 73% use YouTube and 55% use Google+. More importantly, LinkedIn is seen as the most important network with YouTube ranking second in terms of importance (not use).

‘Most Effective’ brands are using content marketing for revenue-generating goals

While Brand Awareness tops the charts (82%) for the most common goal among marketers, Lead Generation comes in second at 74% followed closely by Customer Acquisition at 71%.

Content marketing is not done growing

58% of B2B marketers plan on increasing their involvement and budgets for content marketing in the next twelve months. Compare that to only 1% of marketers who plan on decreasing their budgets.

There is a lot more where that came from in this year’s report, so take a look.

Let us know what you think is most significant finding! Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

What is a Social Business Audit?

October 1, 2013/by Corey Padveen

What is a social business audit and why is it crucial that any company have one?

Every day we hear about campaigns that incorporate social media taking off and driving new business for brands in all industries. Yet, so many companies still see their campaigns and initiatives fall flat when it comes to social media. In addition to knowing which networks are going to be best for your goals, it is important to take a step back and have a look at the program as a whole, completely objectively, to see what is going right, and where you might be going wrong. That’s what a social business audit is all about.

A social business audit evaluates every aspect of your social media strategy from top to bottom in order to get a clear picture of the working elements, the features that need tweaking and, most important, what aspects might be missing.

Below are five questions that should be among those asked when conducting an efficient social business audit.

Am I achieving my goals?

Before answering this question, take another step even further back; did you have a clear set of goals and objectives laid out when you decided to get started on social media? If not, you need to start from scratch. If so, are your efforts on social media working to achieve these goals? Find out how you are performing.

This may seem like a simple step, but a lot of brands tend to forget why they are active on social media to begin with. It is crucial that you keep your goals in mind from start to finish.

Is my business on the right networks?

Look at the activity your brand is generating on the networks where it is active. Are you in the right place? Not every brand needs to have a presence on every network. Some brands may benefit more from a Twitter campaign than one on Facebook, or maybe LinkedIn and YouTube should be included among your channels, among others.

There will be a unique mix that makes up a specific brand’s social business strategy. Take a step back and see if you might benefit from shutting down an account or two and maybe focusing your efforts elsewhere.

Am I sharing the right content?

Is you audience maintaining a conversation with your brand on social networks? Are you generating clicks through to landing pages and content from social? These are just a couple of the indicators you should be paying attention to when it comes to determining if you are sharing the right content to your networks. Again, every audience is going to react differently to different types of content. Find out what works best for you and modify your strategy accordingly.

Can I begin expanding my program?

To answer this question, you need to make sure that the three questions above have already been answered – positively. As your success grows – both in terms of your social media growth and your business growth – your social presence and activity will likely expand as well. Your profiles on social networks are extensions of your brand. They need to keep up appearances. As you begin achieving your goals, you need to start considering how you would like to expand into new markets and venture to achieve new goals.

Am I missing anything?

This is an ongoing question that can only be answered through education. You need to keep up-to-date with the changes and breakthroughs that are being announced every day in the world of social media. Social business is an ever-evolving landscape. You need to ensure that you are caught up on everything that is taking place in order to continue finding success with your social business and marketing efforts. Put aside 30 minutes or an hour each day to catch up on your favorite reference materials to find out what’s new and fresh.

Have you conducted a social business audit? You can always reach out to t2 to conduct a social business audit for you! Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

The Google Algorithm is Dead; Long Live the Google Algorithm

September 30, 2013/by Corey Padveen

‘Hummingbird’ is the newest edition of the Google Algorithm, and there is a lot to know.

In case you have not already heard, Google updated its algorithm last week. Now, this wasn’t some casual change to the Google algorithm. This was a complete overhaul of the program in its entirety. Naturally, there are some questions people are asking.

Didn’t the Google algorithm just change with Panda and Penguin?

All the talk has revolved around Panda and Penguin lately and a lot of SEOs and webmasters have spent their time getting used to that update. We need to differentiate between these updates and the new ‘Hummingbird’ algorithm.

Panda and Penguin are add-ons to the algorithm. Let’s put it in terms of a house. You own a home and buy couches and beds. These pieces of furniture are to the home what Panda and Penguin are to the Google algorithm. ‘Hummingbird’ is a new home.

Do I have to change my SEO strategy?

If you haven’t seen major changes to your traffic and search rankings in the last month, the likelihood is you won’t see any changes in the future; the ‘Hummingbird’ update has been live for about a month. Google just decided to announce it late last week.

What are the major changes?

The idea behind this update is to provide a more conversational aspect to Google’s search capabilities. Now, where you used to look up “Chinese food broadway” you might find better results if you conduct a search that reads, “Where can I find Chinese food near my office on Broadway?”

Presumably, this is Google’s way of competing with the Graph Search update from Facebook, which makes it easier to search conversationally on the social network. It is also designed to be faster and provide users with more accurate results.

So, are updates like Panda and Penguin out of the equation?

No. Going back to the house example, ‘Hummingbird’ is a new house with a lot of the same furniture. That said, Google updates its algorithm about 500 times per year. That’s an average of about one and a half modifications per day. It is very important that you keep up to date with the changes Google announces in order to keep your rankings high.

OK – what do I need to know?

The important thing to keep in mind is that Google has been trying to incorporate its social layer into search for a long time. The idea here is that the more active you are on Google products, more specifically, Google+, the better it will be for your rankings.

This conversational update is designed, presumably, to make conversations on networks like Google more relevant to search results.

Have you noticed any changes to the Google algorithm in the last month? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!