Not every brand is right for the major social networks, and not every one of those networks is right for a specific brand.
When a brand gets started with social media marketing, the initial thought process is something along the lines of: “I need to be everywhere, all the time, no matter what.” Considering the massive presence that some of the most successful brands have had on major social networks, this is a natural rationalization. But to really find success when it comes to social media marketing, you need to understand two things above all else. The first thing is crucial not only to where you want to have a presence, but to the success of your program as a whole: you need to set your goals. Your goals will be a defining characteristic of virtually every decision you make, and the process that led to that decision. Second, you are going to want to have a fairly strong understanding of the benefits and the drawbacks of every one of the major social networks. For this discussion, the networks that make up that group are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Google+.
One common benefit is obvious: they are popular. You want your brand to have a presence on networks where people are talking. Considering the mass of users these networks have garnered, you are more than likely (in most cases) to find members of your target audience on these platforms. That said, depending on your brand’s message and the social persona you create for your brand, it might not be all that beneficial to have a presence on every one.
In this article, we’ll look at some of the greatest strengths and weaknesses of these five major social networks. Of course, there are others (dozens if not hundreds, depending on what you consider a social network) on which you might want to have a presence. The likelihood is, however, that these five will be among your pool for consideration, hence our decision to look closely at them.
Facebook
As the largest of the bunch (with an audience size well over 1.2 billion users) this is almost a guarantee to be added to the “Yes” column. The page layouts are simple and effective. Other networks can be easily integrated. And there exists a world of possibilities when it comes to apps and plugins as well as a huge mobile audience. Everyone is familiar with the “Pros” list when it comes to Facebook. But what about the “Cons”? What is it that brands should be wary of when venturing to use Facebook to grow their social presence?
First of all, if you don’t want to make an investment, don’t waste your time with Facebook. The network has made it abundantly clear that they have no intention of doing brands any favors when it comes to organic growth. Recently, it was made public that Facebook intends to decrease the organic reach of Pages – reach without any ad dollars spent – to roughly 1%. What’s more, certain tactics that have been used to game the system for some time (such as the “Like” vs. “Share” posts) will soon be penalized. So for brands thinking that it will be easy (or, for some foolish reason, free) to grow their brands on Facebook, they will not find the network particularly beneficial after just a short while.
Twitter
Twitter has made a lot of strides when it comes to the benefits for brands. The introduction of Twitter Cards has made interactive content much more readily available and inspires increased engagement with target users. Twitter also recently announced over a dozen new ad features, which will certainly be beneficial to brands. Then there is their most recent announcement about real-time communications (like Facebook chat). Twitter is going above and beyond when it comes to providing new ways for brands to use the platform. But what might hinder your desire to use the network?
Well, for starters, everyone is thinking the same way you do: I can just share my brand’s message a thousand times a day and get people to click through to my page! While it’s true that this is an option, no one will see what you have to say. And as more brands go with this approach, fewer users care to follow brands at all. The most difficult part about Twitter is the content strategy. 140 characters can be used extremely well or very poorly. It all depends on how you plan on getting your message out. What is going to entice the audience you wish to target? And when it comes to targeting, the same problems exist on Twitter as they do on Facebook: you’re going to have to be willing to spend money. A lot of those benefits listed in the paragraph above are really only apparent if you’re using Twitter’s ad platform (which is an excellent one). So if you won’t invest, you won’t succeed.
YouTube
Obviously, if you plan on sharing videos, you don’t have a choice but to share them to YouTube. You might prefer Vimeo or some other video sharing platform, but the reality is that these other platforms aren’t owned by Google. (One of the benefits of owning the Internet.) Sharing videos (that are properly optimized) on YouTube can mean increased search rankings, and linking your other networks, website and Google profile to your YouTube channel can mean some incredible benefits to those rankings. And all of that can happen very fast.
The drawbacks to YouTube are in the numbers. The longer your video, the less likely it is that people will watch it. The more boring your video (i.e. all corporate videos) the less likely people are to watch it, and the more likely they are to make snide comments. With so many hundreds of lifetimes of content available on YouTube, you need to really pull your audience in right away. Anything more than eight seconds, you’ve lost them. YouTube also cannot stand alone. Without the help of your other channels and your website, it is unlikely that your YouTube audience will grow. Again, with so much content available, people simply are not going to find your videos organically. At least, that is the case for most brands. Lastly, video sharing networks in general are not for every brand. Videos are (or can be) expensive and time consuming. And much like a blog or website, you’ll need to continue producing new content in order to find your channel on top. If you don’t feel like this is something your brand can do, don’t create a blank YouTube channel; that’s a worse option.
LinkedIn
The professional network that every eager entrepreneur or seasoned veteran is using has some pretty obvious benefits. For starters, it’s full of professionals, many of whom have common interests. For individuals, it provides an excellent platform on which to build out your professional network, and for brands, it means garnering support and exposure within your industry or from potential investors. The latter item in that last point is especially true for B2B brands looking to make a splash and reach decision makers.
There are two problems, however, with LinkedIn. First, their ad platform is a little archaic. Targeting capabilities are excellent, but people have become accustomed to ignoring right column ads, and that’s where the majority of your ad dollars will go. Second, LinkedIn hasn’t quite yet figured out how to create value for Company Pages. Sure, they’re great to feature your brand and some of your services, but there is nothing to really pull people in. To their credit, LinkedIn is now in the process of revamping Company Pages (they just removed the poor-performing Products & Services tab) and have been working to make it a content publishing platform. That said, while the network is an excellent resource in which individuals can share content and expand their network, it still has not found that “it” factor for the brand itself.
Google+
Google+ is an invaluable (yes, as in has so much value, you can’t even assign it a number) tool when it comes to increasing your exposure. Why? Much like YouTube, it is a Google product so it has to be used and it has to be used well. It also has a huge customer base outside of the United States, so brands with an international presence can leverage the platform to reach a global audience. The Communities feature on Google+ also offers users a great way to connect with like-minded individuals, and allows brands to share relevant content to an already engaged audience.
The biggest problem with Google+ is that everyone knows they need to use it, but a lot of people are having trouble figuring out how to use it. As such, much of what you see on Google+, particularly in Communities, is self-promotional. Only the truly devoted Community Managers keep their networks clean from spam. But it still makes its way in there. There is also a lack of strong analytics with Google+ Pages. Of course, Google Analytics is designed to be integrated with the network, but unlike Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and even YouTube, another Google-owned property, Google+ doesn’t provide much more than superficial data. So if Analytics are important to you – as they are to most people – you might find yourself a little disappointed with Google+.
Conclusion
Every major network has its positives and its negatives. And depending on your brand and what it is you want to accomplish by leveraging social media, your choices are going to be different. But it’s important to remember that a successful program does not mean a presence on every single network. A Pinterest board (and yes, Pinterest was a consideration to be added to this list, but frankly, the article was running a little long) with a handful of images that is infrequently updated has less value to a brand than no Pinterest presence whatsoever (in many cases).
So to sum up, consider your goals, the strengths and weaknesses of each of these networks and what the best course of action is in order to achieve those goals in the shortest timeframe possible.
What network is your most beneficial for achieving your goals on social media? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
5 Important Google Analytics Reports and Features (That Most People Overlook)
/by Corey PadveenWe sometimes forget about some of the most important Google Analytics reports – and they can be extremely valuable.
Google Analytics reports come in all shapes and sizes. We can generate some broad, basic reports that provide us with insights into the activity that takes place on our site, but there also exists a world of highly targeted Google Analytics reports and extremely valuable features that can be quite useful when it comes to crafting strategies both on and off our website.
These five Google Analytics reports and features often go overlooked by the 95% of tracked websites that use Google’s site tracking software.
Secondary Dimensions
Often times we populate reports in our Google Analytics Dashboard and completely neglect the secondary dimensions capabilities that allow for an even deeper understanding of our audiences and the effectiveness of our content.
Screenshot taken 6/6/2014
By leveraging the insights provided by secondary dimensions, we can begin to compare actions, audiences and content, which will help us optimize certain content sharing strategies outside of our websites. We can also begin to develop a streamlined approach to our Google Analytics Dashboard, connecting as many reports as possible to one another in an effort to simplify the robust platform.
Trackbacks
Generally, most social media marketers will be familiar with the value of monitoring Trackbacks in Google Analytics, but the average user might not even be familiar with what a Trackback report is, and why it can be so useful to, once again, building a more effective content marketing strategy both on and off of our websites.
Screenshot taken 6/6/2014
So what exactly are Trackbacks? Any time that an external resource links to a piece of content on your website (a ping, pingback, or, as many of us understand it, a backlink) it may register as a Trackback. The difference here is that these reports also include referrals from different social media. So in monitoring your Trackbacks and, more importantly, who posted the link, you can see potential prospects, leads or perhaps even the oft-sought after brand advocate sharing your content on the social web.
Users Flow
The Users Flow report can be found in a number of different places within Google Analytics. It is housed under the Audience, Social and Behavior report sections, and each one is equally valuable.
Screenshot taken 6/6/2014
The Users Flow chart showcases exactly where users originate, where they land on a website, what pages are visited during a particular session and what activities, or perhaps actions were taken during said visit. Essentially, your Users Flow report can tell you quite a bit about how well your content resonates and what content leads to second or even third impressions within your website. This helps you further optimize the content strategy you have built for your brand online.
Goals and Filters
Goals and filters do not necessarily have to have an e-commerce focus. Goals can be created for a number of different reasons, ranging from economic conversions to a certain number of pages visited per session. Yet so many users tend to overlook the goals feature if they do not plan on selling any product on their websites – and that’s a true opportunity missed.
The same holds true for filters. Creating filters can provide some additional insights into the actions taken by users originating from a specific source. Say, for example you want to know more about the audience referred from LinkedIn. By creating filters specific for the LinkedIn URL, you can see only the activity and engagement of visitors that arrived from this source.
Now how can goals and filters be used together?
Imagine yourself an investor in social advertising for your brand, and you want to optimize your target audience based on the likelihood that they will convert. This research process is accomplished much more easily with the help of goals and filters, as you can now filter for each social network, set goals for a specific type of conversion (maybe a newsletter signup) and see where your ad dollars will be best spent.
On a side note, you can also assign monetary values to abstract goals, like a newsletter signup, based on the value you perceive each conversion possessing.
Cost Analysis
For AdWords users and advertisers, a lot of time is spent looking at AdWords reports, but not enough time is given to Google Analytics reports focusing on AdWords campaigns.
The Cost Analysis report in Google Analytics provides some great insight into where dollars were spent, what events took place and helps advertisers compare channels, keywords and campaigns in order to optimize programs (both in real time and on an ongoing basis). The reports produced allow users to see costs of individual campaigns compared to revenue (which can be tacked on using the conversion tool in AdWords or goals in Google Analytics) in order to understand the performance of campaigns and avoid making any costly mistakes the second or third time around.
Google products are intended to be used with one another, and this is a perfect example of how AdWords and Analytics can help advertisers work more efficiently (and more economically).
Conclusion
Google Analytics reports are varied and a lot of them are extremely useful. Though 95% of websites that track their data do so with Google Analytics, so few are really using the tool to the best of its abilities. It can be so much more than a means to monitor site traffic!
Start using some of these reports and watch as the effectiveness of your online strategies very quickly begins to increase. It won’t be long before you see your website performing just as effectively as social networks when it comes to building relationships and generating new business!
How to Stop Bleeding Money with Digital Ad Spends
/by Corey PadveenDigital and social advertising are exciting platforms, but there is a lack of understanding that is leading to overspending and underperforming.
Advertising on social media and other digital platforms has always been exciting. Between the measurability, the reach and (in most cases) the affordability, marketers and advertisers have had a field day with these platforms. But as the market has grown and become more complex, a lot of advertisers have decided to forego the very necessary training that helps avoid losing digital ad spends to carelessness.
Optimizing your campaigns in order to ensure that your digital ad spends are not being wasted is an important area that is often overlooked. These are a few tips that can help marketers when it comes to ensuring that every dollar is going towards achieving your goals.
Incremental Bidding
Bidding best practices is often something that gets the best of marketers and advertisers. It’s great for Google and Facebook – not great for the value of your dollar. We often rely on selecting the much simpler “Optimize Bid for Clicks” option instead of setting the bid ourselves. The danger there is that if you’ve allotted yourself a handsome daily or lifetime budget, that means that a click will come at any cost.
Though incremental bidding takes some time and understanding of target audience, it is hugely beneficial when it comes to squeezing every last drop out of your digital ad spends. Starting with a sensationally low cost per click bid won’t result in much success. That’s a guarantee. But there is some opportunity that can be derived from this practice. See what can be squeezed out of your bare minimum, then start working your way up. In this way, at every level, you’ll be able to pull the results that exist for that bid.
Hypertarget Your Audience
If you’re not familiar with the concept of hypertargeting on social media, read up on it here. Essentially, when it comes to targeting your content and, more importantly, your ad dollars, there is a virtually limitless set of criteria that can be used as a filter when determining whom you would like to have see your content.
Image Credit: Shutterstock
Of course there are the obvious choices, like age, gender and location. But really dig deeper and start targeting by interest, job title, even employer. If you know that your ad has been designed with a specific audience in mind, don’t run even the slightest risk of not getting that ad in front of those eyes. Take the time to build very specific audiences on any network where you plan on advertising.
Use Custom Audiences
Building off of this idea of hypertargeting your ads, why not get your ads in front of people that have already been in contact with you for some reason or another? That’s the idea when it comes to custom audiences on networks like Facebook. What are custom audiences? Essentially, a network like Facebook, for example, allows you to upload data – either in the form of data sheets, email lists, websites or apps – into Facebook, and it matches emails from your lists with users online. From there, you can select this as a target audience for your ads.
This is a group of people that is already familiar with your brand. If they see you pop up, they’re more than likely to take notice. This is also a great way to maintain your brand as top of mind. Maybe you reached out to some people who weren’t yet ready to make that purchase. Targeting your ads to a prospects list can work wonders when they find themselves at that stage in the funnel when they need to make a decision.
Go the CPC Route
There’s a reason why a network like LinkedIn doesn’t offer a CPM option for advertising, and it’s pretty simple (and good for the advertiser, believe it or not): CPM is worthless. At this point, considering the vast amounts of ever changing information available to us on the Internet, an impression is meaningless. Unless you are running a remarketing campaign on Google’s Display Network, eyes aren’t worth money.
Image Credit: Shutterstock
What does that mean exactly? Well, you can get your content out into the socialsphere and all over the web for people to see, the goal is to get them to take action. If Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter all plan on showing your ads to thousands of people in order to charge you for a handful of clicks, why not let them? It is, by definition, the best of both worlds. Of course, the CPC model is slightly more expensive, but by following the other tips outlined here, it is well worth it.
Never Ignore Your Analytics (Not Even for a Second)
From the moment you launch a digital ad campaign your analytics are providing you with valuable insights that can help you optimize your digital ad spends. Look at the performance of each ad in your set, of each keyword and, of course, of each of the selected criteria for targeting. What’s working? What is leading to the lowest cost per click? Which image is generating the most engagement? What activities are people taking on your website once they have clicked through? All of these are important criteria.
Insights are delivered in real time for the first time in the history of marketing and advertising. Previously, we had to launch a campaign and simply hope that it resonated with the audience with which we had intended it to resonate. Now, not only can we launch a campaign targeted to a very specific audience, but we can also launch multiple campaigns at once and select the one that is performing best, removing the wasted cost from the others.
Conclusion
Slowly but surely, the notion that “social media is free” has begun to die off. People are now realizing that, as with anything related to the world of growth, an investment is needed in order to succeed. The value of digital and social media advertising can be huge, but in order to ensure that every dollar can be recouped in return, it is important that you engage in these best practices.
Which network do you think is most useful/valuable when it comes to social advertising? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
t2 Marketing International and NexLevel Sales Partner to Offer Unique Services
/by Corey PadveenIndustry leading digital marketing consultancy joins forces with Forbes Top 30 Social Sales Influencer
Two internationally recognized thought leaders and industry experts combine skills to provide a unique consulting, coaching and training program in digital marketing and social selling strategies.
See the official press release here.
t2 Marketing International’s Director of Global Social Business Strategy, Corey Padveen, and NexLevel Sales Founder, Julio Viskovich, named by Forbes as one of the Top 30 Social Selling Influencers in the World, will combine their expertise by providing consulting, training and coaching to corporate clients in North America and Europe in the areas of Advanced Digital and Social Media Marketing Strategy, Social and Big Data Analysis and Social Selling.
The joint program provides businesses with a complete suite of digital marketing and sales strategies ranging from data mining and analysis techniques to social selling strategies, social care best practices, content strategies and full-scale social media program development, coaching and training.
The group provides a number of distinctive benefits and solutions including:
About the Consultants
Corey Padveen, t2 Marketing International
Corey Padveen is the Director of Global Social Business Strategy at t2 Marketing International. Corey is Google AdWords and Analytics Certified, a Certified Inbound Marketer and a principle theorist on the notions of Social Equity and ResponsiveBrandingTM. He is also a regular contributor to leading industry publications, such as Search Engine Journal and Social Media Today, and a keynote speaker at digital marketing and social media conferences around the world. t2 Marketing International has a rich 25 year history in integrated marketing solutions working with leading brands in the United States, Canada, Europe, Latin America and Asia.
Julio Viskovich, NexLevel Sales
Julio Viskovich is a highly sought after social selling consultant, trainer and implementation specialist. Julio was named by Forbes as one of the Top 30 Social Selling Influencers in the World and is the author of Sellarketing – a tweetable book to help sales and marketing leaders embrace and adopt social media as part of their process. After being the internal social media trainer and the face of social selling to HootSuite’s 9 million plus users, he founded NexLevel Sales to help organizations adopt social media through carefully planned strategy and policy along with support from marketing. Julio has worked with a number of Fortune 500 brands to develop, implement, and build local social selling programs, and social communications strategies, and adopt social media strategically throughout the entire organization.
For further information or to schedule a consult, contact:
Corey Padveen
T: (1) 800-607-4550 ext. 4
Email: corey [at] t2marketinginternational.com
Julio Viskovich
T: (1) 604-209-3001
Email: julio [at] nexlevelsales.com
An Infographic on Sharing Infographics [INFOGRAPHIC]
/by Corey PadveenPeople respond to infographics on social media differently based on the network they are using.
It is important to be aware of certain best practices when it comes to sharing infographics on social networks. Pinterest is easy: simply pin it up and watch the engagement begin. But to ensure you will see that same level of interest from your audiences on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, it’s important to be aware of some of the best practices on each of those networks.
This well-titled infographic from Lemonly showcases exactly what you need to pay attention to when planning to share your infographics to a few major networks other than Pinterest or Tumblr. Take a look and see if you can’t spot a few best practices you might have overlooked in the past.
How to Manage Your Risk Averse Brand on Social Media
/by Corey PadveenSocial media can be a tricky domain to master, particularly for more risk averse brands.
If you run or work for a risk averse brand, you know that social media is a difficult beast for a number of reasons. The concept of ‘real-time’ takes on a whole new challenge when you are constantly concerned with your brand’s perception in the public eye. The catch is that social is very quickly becoming less of an option and much more of a requirement – for all brands. So what can those brands that are afraid of the platform do to conquer it?
These are a few best practices that a more risk averse brand should adopt when it comes to transitioning into a social business.
Plan, Plan, Plan
The best way to ensure that your brand is protected in any case and to minimize the risk that it is not, requires you to plan for virtually every single possible scenario that might arise. Lots of issues can come up (in a very public way) on social media.
Early on in the planning stages of a program or campaign, there should be an evaluation of every piece of content (or style of content) you plan on sharing in order to see if there is any way it might be misinterpreted or backfire. Create scenarios and figure out how those scenarios would be addressed. Remember, deleting a post or a tweet because it resonated poorly is not an option. The moment it is shared, it is seen and captured forever. Plan for exactly that reality.
Strategize
It sounds an awful lot like a plan, but your planning is a minor part of the overall strategy. If you plan on transitioning into a social business, your strategy will be the cornerstone of operational success. You are essentially trying to shift your company’s culture, and that is not a simple task; particularly when there is no guideline telling you what to do.
Your strategy should encompass everything from a content calendar to the aforementioned planning for various scenarios on social networks (good or bad). The strategy will prove to be a useful guideline (and risk minimizing) resource as you make this transition.
Start Counting
Since social has become a part of business, the question everyone seems to as is whether or not “social media” can be measured. Social media is a communications tool; you don’t need to measure it. What you need to do is measure your progress and see how your use of social media is making an impact.
Providing clearly laid out key performance indicators (KPIs) and benchmarks (either internal or competitive) is a great way to showcase the values to a risk averse brand or board. Explaining exactly what is being measured, how you plan on measuring it and what metrics will be used as indicators for success or failure will make even the least social savvy individuals more comfortable with using the platform.
Teach
Assuming that people know how to properly use social media for business is somewhat ignorant. Yes, there are roughly two billion people with active social profiles. But that still leaves about five billion without any. And while there might be over a billion users on Facebook, there are only about 30 million businesses and a fraction of advertisers on the network. Teach your teams how to use these networks.
Provide training, introduce concepts slowly and send out refreshers so that people can truly familiarize themselves with using these networks from a business standpoint. Again, when trying to change a culture, it is best to start incrementally and work your way out.
Play It Safe
If you are worried that providing customer service on Twitter will open your brand up to negative backlask, there is a simple way to ensure that this does happen: don’t provide customer service on Twitter.
Just because there are a thousand different places where your brand can be “social” doesn’t mean that it has to be. If you are uncomfortable with a particular feature on a social network, or perhaps you don’t trust the security measurements that have been taken in order to protect private conversations, you simply do not have to use them. Do not feel as though you need to have a presence on every network. It is better to have an excellent presence on two or three networks, than a mediocre presence on a dozen.
Conclusion
These are just a few ways in which more risk averse brands can begin adopting and integrating social media. It can be an intimidating playing field at first, but the incremental involvement and the education process can help even the most reserved brands make an impact.
Would you consider your brand to be risk averse? What have you done in order to conquer social in that case? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
6 Social Media Best Practices You Probably Aren’t Doing (And Should)
/by Corey PadveenWith the constantly changing social media landscape, it’s hard to keep up with trends.
There are a lot of hugely beneficial and fairly simple social media best practices in which brands and individuals should be participating, but most people simply don’t know about them. Social moves at such a high speed, that it can be difficult – and for some, even tedious – to keep up. So, with that in mind, these are a few of the more valuable things that most people should know about when it comes to social.
Leveraging Employee Advocacy
For brands, something that often goes overlooked is the fact that your first set of brand advocates is much closer than you might think. Within any company, there exists an entire workforce of prospective brand advocates. It’s important to take advantage of the opportunity that comes from leveraging this audience.
While a best practice would not be requiring that your employees share your content (in fact, this would like backfire in an extraordinary fashion) it is certainly wise to consider adopting an internal culture whereby employees are invited to share content, create content and involve themselves with the brand on social media. It might surprise you to see how much faster your audience can grow when capitalizing on this opportunity.
Taking Advantage of LinkedIn
For most people, LinkedIn is seen as nothing more than a large network in which to share your virtual resume. The truth of the matter is that LinkedIn offer a tremendous amount of opportunity if you are using all of its features.
First of all, LinkedIn’s rich media feature (shown in the image below) allows users to integrate much more than a simple resume. You can link videos, upload images and a little further down, showcase some of your publications. It is really a one stop shop for every bit of professional exposure you have received.
Screenshot taken 5/2/2014
It’s also important to take advantage of Groups on LinkedIn. Whether you are an individual or a business owner looking to increase your personal or brand exposure, LinkedIn Groups can do wonderful things. Take note of the groups that are meant for discussion, and those that are meant for articles, and build a content strategy on LinkedIn that you see resonating with your audience.
Use Google+…A Lot
It’s still surprising that so many people ignore Google+. On the personal side, Google Authorship is an outstanding way to increase your content’s exposure. For the brand side, sharing content to your Google+ Circles and Google+ Communities that generates clicks and +1s is a more powerful practice than virtually any other when it comes to SEO. And that’s SEO in total, not just SEO with regards to social signals.
Source: Searchmetrics. 2013 US Search Ranking Factors.
Write About Your Competitors (in a Good Way)
If you go to Google and type in “Best Social Media Listening Tools” one of the first items that pop up is an article from monitoring tool Brandwatch. The thing is that this isn’t a page on the Brandwatch site that talks about how it is the best tool in the marketplace. It is actually a blog post wherein they list ten competitors that offer free social media listening capabilities and do it quite well.
Often, business owners are afraid of touting competitors. After all, why would you recommend a competitors products when you are trying to reap the business for yourself. But people respond to useful information, not self promotion. If you’re an ad agency, you have a far better chance of having an article seen that showcases the ten best commercials of the year rather than a simple case study that features your own work.
A mix of the two is an important component of any strong content strategy and content marketing campaign.
Use a Suite of Technologies to Help You Execute a Strategy
There is no such thing as the perfect tool. People are looking for it, some applications claim that they have created it, but the reality is that to really execute a strategy effectively, you’re going to need a suite of technologies to help you.
Evaluate different tools that offer different services and see which ones will a) provide you with the greatest value and b) work well in conjunction with one another. It’s better to have several tools doing each task exceptionally well than one tool that is mediocre at everything.
Conclusion
These are just a few of the social media best practices you might not have known about. Considering the fast nature of the evolution of social media, no one can be expected to know everything. But as you try to build out your brand – whether it is your personal or professional brand – these are a few of the items you might have overlooked.
Can you think of other social media best practices that are not all that well known? Tell us about them in the comments below or on Twitter!
Turning Big Data Into Smart Data
/by Corey PadveenBig data is an exciting concept and we hear a lot about it, but we need to get our data working towards achieving business goals.
Big data is exciting. We hear about it everywhere we go. There are virtually limitless applications for these kinds of data, but when it comes to our businesses, we need to ensure that our own big data is working towards achieving the goals we have set for ourselves. This is the difference between your average big data, and smart data. But how exactly can we get our data working for us? Not all of us are mathematicians, and with the exception of a few of us, not everyone is all that well versed in mass data analysis. So what are we to do?
The beauty of social data is the fact that it is delivered to us in about as useful a form as data can be presented. We simply have to deduce what our social data is telling us, and turn that into an effective strategy or set of strategies.
The set of strategies listed below are easily optimized through the strategic leveraging of big data from your owned social media. Take a look at the process and see if there is any opportunity you might have missed out on!
Content Strategy
If there is one thing that your data is telling you it is how you should optimize your content for increased engagement and conversions. If you’re wondering what exactly a content strategy is, and how it differs from content marketing, click here. The gist of the concept is that your content strategy is the reason why your audience engages with your brand, based on the types of content and the messages that you are publishing. Your content marketing is the process of leveraging that connection in order to acquire new customers.
Your data is providing you with a world of insight into what types of content will resonate best with your target audience. Look for spikes in engagement and reach, correlations among those spikes and identify exactly how you can craft content that you know will increase overall engagement with your brand.
Think about it this way: say you analyze your data and notice six spikes in the last month where reach and engagement skyrocketed. You look at the content shared at each of those six points and note that at each point in time, your content was shared in the afternoon, featured an image and was posed as a question. These correlations help determine exactly how to structure the content you want to perform best on your social networks.
Social Ad Spend
John Wanamaker is credited as telling the world that half of his ad dollars were wasted, he just couldn’t tell you which half. That’s no longer the case when it comes to the powers offered by social data.
Your social data is telling you not only what demographics make up your largest audience, but also which demographics are most engaged with your content.
Screenshot taken 4/28/2014
Based on these engaged audiences, consider how you want to spend your ad dollars. The targeting capabilities that exist within social advertising platforms are unparalleled. Never before have such detailed audiences been targetable. You can now pinpoint audiences by much more than age and location. Go as deep as interests, political affiliations, marital status and even pages with which they have connected. There are virtually no limits to how targeted you can get, or you can go as broad as ‘everyone’. Use the social data you have at your avail in order to effectively target those audiences that have been most active with your brand (or your competitors).
Social Ad Optimization
For the first time in the history of marketing and advertising, we do not need to wait for a campaign to conclude in order to see our results and optimize a program for better performance in a future campaign. We can now make all the necessary changes in order optimize our performance and results in real time.
The data presented in your social ad campaigns tells you exactly how well a campaign is performing as it is taking place. This data should be used as often as possible in order to ensure that the ad spend discussed above is at no point being wasted. As you begin a campaign, several target demographics should be tested and tweaked until you have found the ideal target audience. You never know where it might come from!
Operations Efficiency
On a much higher level, your social data can help you improve the efficiency of your digital operations. It might sound like fantasy, but it isn’t.
When looking through your activity on social, connecting that to your website and observing the dynamic between the two, there are certain key indicators to pay attention to that can help improve efficiency of your overall marketing efforts when it comes to digital. Using an analytics platform like Google Analytics, you can see how your activity on social media extends to your website. Leverage the insights in your social dashboard to see where your most engaged audience is coming from. You can create goals and filters to see which members of these audiences are most likely to convert.
Screenshot taken 4/28/2014
One added benefit with the recent rollout of Universal Analytics out of Beta is that you can now get additional insights into your website’s audience members on top of the activity in which they are engaging, like gender, age and interests. All of this is hugely valuable when it comes to fine tuning your digital strategies in order to ensure that everything you do is geared towards growing your business.
Conclusion
Big data is exciting on a number of levels. Maybe one day it will be able to predict things like natural disasters, epidemics and change society for the better. On a smaller scale, there is a lot of value to your big data on social networks that most brands are not leveraging.
These are just a few of the ways in which your brand can get some value out of your big data. Perhaps the most exciting aspect is that we still don’t know what all of these data can do!
Have you used your social data in a creative way in order to drive business goals? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
Combining Content Marketing with SEO [INFOGRAPHIC]
/by Corey PadveenContent marketing is the process of telling stories through your content shared to social media; it is also a great way to improve your search rankings.
Content marketing has been a rising star in the realm of social media and digital marketing in recent years. As social business has moved to the forefront, marketers have started to realize that their audience members want to engage with stories. Creating a content strategy and adapting it into a marketing initiative can be challenging. But if it is done correctly, it can provide a world of benefits to your brand.
Among those benefits is search engine optimization. Through the strategic use of your content on social platforms, you can quickly improve your search rankings. This infographic from Blog Most does a great job of showcasing just how effective your content marketing initiatives can be when it comes to improving your search results.
The Best and Worst Features of Major Social Networks for Brands
/by Corey PadveenNot every brand is right for the major social networks, and not every one of those networks is right for a specific brand.
When a brand gets started with social media marketing, the initial thought process is something along the lines of: “I need to be everywhere, all the time, no matter what.” Considering the massive presence that some of the most successful brands have had on major social networks, this is a natural rationalization. But to really find success when it comes to social media marketing, you need to understand two things above all else. The first thing is crucial not only to where you want to have a presence, but to the success of your program as a whole: you need to set your goals. Your goals will be a defining characteristic of virtually every decision you make, and the process that led to that decision. Second, you are going to want to have a fairly strong understanding of the benefits and the drawbacks of every one of the major social networks. For this discussion, the networks that make up that group are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Google+.
One common benefit is obvious: they are popular. You want your brand to have a presence on networks where people are talking. Considering the mass of users these networks have garnered, you are more than likely (in most cases) to find members of your target audience on these platforms. That said, depending on your brand’s message and the social persona you create for your brand, it might not be all that beneficial to have a presence on every one.
In this article, we’ll look at some of the greatest strengths and weaknesses of these five major social networks. Of course, there are others (dozens if not hundreds, depending on what you consider a social network) on which you might want to have a presence. The likelihood is, however, that these five will be among your pool for consideration, hence our decision to look closely at them.
Facebook
As the largest of the bunch (with an audience size well over 1.2 billion users) this is almost a guarantee to be added to the “Yes” column. The page layouts are simple and effective. Other networks can be easily integrated. And there exists a world of possibilities when it comes to apps and plugins as well as a huge mobile audience. Everyone is familiar with the “Pros” list when it comes to Facebook. But what about the “Cons”? What is it that brands should be wary of when venturing to use Facebook to grow their social presence?
First of all, if you don’t want to make an investment, don’t waste your time with Facebook. The network has made it abundantly clear that they have no intention of doing brands any favors when it comes to organic growth. Recently, it was made public that Facebook intends to decrease the organic reach of Pages – reach without any ad dollars spent – to roughly 1%. What’s more, certain tactics that have been used to game the system for some time (such as the “Like” vs. “Share” posts) will soon be penalized. So for brands thinking that it will be easy (or, for some foolish reason, free) to grow their brands on Facebook, they will not find the network particularly beneficial after just a short while.
Twitter
Twitter has made a lot of strides when it comes to the benefits for brands. The introduction of Twitter Cards has made interactive content much more readily available and inspires increased engagement with target users. Twitter also recently announced over a dozen new ad features, which will certainly be beneficial to brands. Then there is their most recent announcement about real-time communications (like Facebook chat). Twitter is going above and beyond when it comes to providing new ways for brands to use the platform. But what might hinder your desire to use the network?
Well, for starters, everyone is thinking the same way you do: I can just share my brand’s message a thousand times a day and get people to click through to my page! While it’s true that this is an option, no one will see what you have to say. And as more brands go with this approach, fewer users care to follow brands at all. The most difficult part about Twitter is the content strategy. 140 characters can be used extremely well or very poorly. It all depends on how you plan on getting your message out. What is going to entice the audience you wish to target? And when it comes to targeting, the same problems exist on Twitter as they do on Facebook: you’re going to have to be willing to spend money. A lot of those benefits listed in the paragraph above are really only apparent if you’re using Twitter’s ad platform (which is an excellent one). So if you won’t invest, you won’t succeed.
YouTube
Obviously, if you plan on sharing videos, you don’t have a choice but to share them to YouTube. You might prefer Vimeo or some other video sharing platform, but the reality is that these other platforms aren’t owned by Google. (One of the benefits of owning the Internet.) Sharing videos (that are properly optimized) on YouTube can mean increased search rankings, and linking your other networks, website and Google profile to your YouTube channel can mean some incredible benefits to those rankings. And all of that can happen very fast.
The drawbacks to YouTube are in the numbers. The longer your video, the less likely it is that people will watch it. The more boring your video (i.e. all corporate videos) the less likely people are to watch it, and the more likely they are to make snide comments. With so many hundreds of lifetimes of content available on YouTube, you need to really pull your audience in right away. Anything more than eight seconds, you’ve lost them. YouTube also cannot stand alone. Without the help of your other channels and your website, it is unlikely that your YouTube audience will grow. Again, with so much content available, people simply are not going to find your videos organically. At least, that is the case for most brands. Lastly, video sharing networks in general are not for every brand. Videos are (or can be) expensive and time consuming. And much like a blog or website, you’ll need to continue producing new content in order to find your channel on top. If you don’t feel like this is something your brand can do, don’t create a blank YouTube channel; that’s a worse option.
LinkedIn
The professional network that every eager entrepreneur or seasoned veteran is using has some pretty obvious benefits. For starters, it’s full of professionals, many of whom have common interests. For individuals, it provides an excellent platform on which to build out your professional network, and for brands, it means garnering support and exposure within your industry or from potential investors. The latter item in that last point is especially true for B2B brands looking to make a splash and reach decision makers.
There are two problems, however, with LinkedIn. First, their ad platform is a little archaic. Targeting capabilities are excellent, but people have become accustomed to ignoring right column ads, and that’s where the majority of your ad dollars will go. Second, LinkedIn hasn’t quite yet figured out how to create value for Company Pages. Sure, they’re great to feature your brand and some of your services, but there is nothing to really pull people in. To their credit, LinkedIn is now in the process of revamping Company Pages (they just removed the poor-performing Products & Services tab) and have been working to make it a content publishing platform. That said, while the network is an excellent resource in which individuals can share content and expand their network, it still has not found that “it” factor for the brand itself.
Google+
Google+ is an invaluable (yes, as in has so much value, you can’t even assign it a number) tool when it comes to increasing your exposure. Why? Much like YouTube, it is a Google product so it has to be used and it has to be used well. It also has a huge customer base outside of the United States, so brands with an international presence can leverage the platform to reach a global audience. The Communities feature on Google+ also offers users a great way to connect with like-minded individuals, and allows brands to share relevant content to an already engaged audience.
The biggest problem with Google+ is that everyone knows they need to use it, but a lot of people are having trouble figuring out how to use it. As such, much of what you see on Google+, particularly in Communities, is self-promotional. Only the truly devoted Community Managers keep their networks clean from spam. But it still makes its way in there. There is also a lack of strong analytics with Google+ Pages. Of course, Google Analytics is designed to be integrated with the network, but unlike Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and even YouTube, another Google-owned property, Google+ doesn’t provide much more than superficial data. So if Analytics are important to you – as they are to most people – you might find yourself a little disappointed with Google+.
Conclusion
Every major network has its positives and its negatives. And depending on your brand and what it is you want to accomplish by leveraging social media, your choices are going to be different. But it’s important to remember that a successful program does not mean a presence on every single network. A Pinterest board (and yes, Pinterest was a consideration to be added to this list, but frankly, the article was running a little long) with a handful of images that is infrequently updated has less value to a brand than no Pinterest presence whatsoever (in many cases).
So to sum up, consider your goals, the strengths and weaknesses of each of these networks and what the best course of action is in order to achieve those goals in the shortest timeframe possible.
What network is your most beneficial for achieving your goals on social media? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
The Fallacy of Social Media ROI with No Investment (or “I”)
/by Corey PadveenThe idea of generating social media ROI without investing in social media is a novel concept; that’s mostly because it is completely irrational.
One of the favorite sayings of economists is as follows: “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” Some attribute the adage to a practice that started in the Old West where patrons at saloons could receive a “free lunch” upon the purchase of a beer. This lunch, of course, would consist of salty ingredients, which in turn would lead to the patron buying several more drinks. (Why do you think there are peanuts, pretzels and popcorn given out for “free” at most bars?) From an economics point of view, the saying relates to hidden costs and externalities; even if you think something is free, there are economic costs that go into it.
This has been true in business for generations. So why do marketers and business owners now think that they can reap the benefits of the “free lunch” offered by social media marketing?
When it comes to running a social business, there are several costs that a corporation will incur. These can either be material costs – like ad spend – or immaterial costs – like adaptation time. All that to say is there are costs we need to consider when undertaking a social media initiative, and we need to accept that these costs are unavoidable if we wish to reap the benefits that social media can offer.
The four costs listed below are by no means the only ones that businesses will incur over the course of a social media campaign or program. That said, these are fairly standard, and businesses should be ready to factor them into the cost of doing (social) business.
Time
So often this is an investment that is quickly overlooked. It is hard to imagine why. What happened to the self-confidence of the average businessperson? Your time is an extremely valuable asset. Take it into serious consideration when determining the costs of running a social media program.
How much would you be making per hour if you were not toying away with Facebook marketing or writing your blog? Is the return going to justify how much time you are investing in these activities? Too often when calculating costs, individuals forget about all the time that needs to go into effectively executing a strategy. Give this cost serious consideration whether you are a one-person operation or a large organization.
Tools & Technologies
OK – this is an easy one. While some tools and/or technologies are free – generally those integrated into a social network or larger company, like Facebook Insights or Google Analytics – the majority of social media tools are standalone companies. That, of course, means that they need to make money in order to stay in business. So with the exception of a few, you are going to need to make an investment in tools.
With so much happening in the world of social media – and so much happening so fast – a tool can be a wonderful complement to a strategy. But the key thing to remember is that your tool is a complement, not the program. Though many technologies boast themselves as being the godsend application to rid you of all your social media woes, most simply offer a solution to one (or a select few) issues. You still need to put in the work.
Social Ad Spend
Another fairly simple one. But it is one that, again, is completely forgotten. Not because people do not realize that they have to invest in advertising, but because they think that they to not need social media advertising. This is a key component behind many brands having trouble finding success with social media. It also relates closely to the concept of the “free lunch” and the misconception of the true cost when it comes to investing in social media.
The Golden Age of social media marketing, where brands could generate huge awareness and boost sales without so much as a penny spent on ads is, sadly, dwindling. Of course, this is still possible – but only to an extent. Much like the tools discussed above, networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are businesses. These businesses all have (hugely inflated) valuations and need to find a way to justify those price tags to investors. The answer? Charge businesses to access their huge reservoir of potential clients. This is why we are seeing things like the near-extinction of Facebook organic reach. Brands are going to have to pay-to-play. There is still a tremendous amount of potential when it comes to social media marketing. You’ll just have to invest in advertising in order to reap that social media ROI.
Adaptation
Much like time, adaptation is an oft-overlooked cost that businesses will have to incur whether they notice it or not. Transitioning into a social business is no easy feat. It requires dedication, perseverance, and perhaps most of all, willingness to change. Social business is not business as usual; it is a whole new way of conducting yourself in the marketplace.
Image Credit: Shutterstock. Used under license.
This is something that takes time to adjust to and that time needs to be factored into your costs. The decision to become a social business is a smart one, but one that needs to be undertaken methodically so that you do not become overwhelmed by everything that needs to be done. Figure out what you know and what you need to learn based on the goals of your strategy, and determine the cost of adapting to this new way of doing business.
Conclusion
One of the greatest values of running a social business is that virtually everything is measurable; while some criticize traditional operations for its lack of exactitude, every last detail can be attributed in social thanks in large part to big data. What’s more, communications and overall business costs are reduced as a result of becoming an effective social business. That said, there are still costs, and we can’t forget that costs are a natural part of doing business. Don’t be afraid of the “I” in ROI – that is what is going to generate the “R”.
What other costs have you noticed when it comes to running a social business? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!