Social media engagement is at the heart of any good program, but a few seemingly harmless mistakes can mean severe repercussions.
Are you taking advantage of the huge benefits that accompany social media engagement? It is supremely important that you are. After all, engaging with your social audience is the key to any good campaign. People are reaching out to you, and want to hear back. But be careful, there are a few mistakes that brands make when it comes to social media engagement, and they could be very costly.
Below are three mistakes that are easy to make but very costly to your brand.
Watch Your Grammar!
If you’ve ever watched your Twitter feed populate, or read through SMS threads among friends, you might come to the conclusion that good spelling and proper grammar are dead. Far from it.
A recent study by Disruptive Communications found that – get ready – 42.5% of customers felt that poor spelling and grammar on social media would damage their perception of a brand. This issue was, quite surprisingly, the most damaging to a brand’s image, with content being all about sales coming in second with only 24.9% of consumers finding it the most damaging to a brand’s image.
Grammar and spelling are still very important, particularly when you are trying to portray a professional image and convince potential customers to choose your brand when conducting business. Pay attention to those commas, and make sure you have the appropriate spelling of there/they’re/their, because your audience certainly is.
Sometimes You Have to Let It Go
Arguing is never fun. Arguing on social media is never smart. So why would you do something that is sure to be a no-fun-no-smarts activity?
It is more likely than not that at some point there will be a past, present or future customer that takes issue with your brand on social media. What is the best course of action? Well, whatever you choose to do, don’t blow it up – that’s very bad for business.
You would be better off acknowledging a complaint and rectifying an issue – even if you feel as though you are in the right – than getting into a public argument with a customer. Imagine how that would be perceived by other customers. Would you do business with a company that appears to have a ‘customer is always wrong’ mentality? Probably not.
Address issues in a professional manner and cater to your clients’ needs. Taking the conversation offline might be the best move in cases like these. But, while you might love your brand, don’t shoot yourself in the foot by berating the people that make it possible for your brand to exist.
Respect Your Social Activity and Audience
Sure, social media is a little more lax and informal than conventional marketing or communications channels. The idea of incorporating social into your business is to create a personality for your brand with which users can engage. But it is important to remember that while social media may seem a little less formal, it is still a serious part of your business, and should be treated as such.
You might create your social channels and hit the ground running. But a lot of brands tend to neglect their social networks after a while, and that means neglecting customers. People are talking to you on social media and leaving them without a response, feeling alone and unimportant can be harmful to your brand’s image online.
Treat your social customers like you would any other – they are really no different.
Keep these three mistakes in mind and you will find success on social media much easier to achieve.
What other social media engagement mistakes can you think of? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
The 3 R’s of Successful Social Media Marketing
/by Corey PadveenWhat does it take to have a successful social media marketing program in place?
Social media can help propel your business further ahead than you ever thought possible, and much faster than you ever thought, as well. However, in order to find yourself with a successful social media marketing program, there are a few important things you need to keep in mind.
Below are the 3 R’s of a successful social media marketing strategy, and should always be at the forefront of your campaigns.
1. Respect
It sounds simple enough. We all know that we should be respectful of one another online. That said, there is no shortage of examples where brands disrespect each other and, even worse, disrespect their audience.
There is never an excuse for rudeness online. Never mind the fact that it is simply improper etiquette, but from a PR standpoint, everything you say is seen by the world-wide web. When you publish something callous or inappropriate on one of your social channels, your entire online audience, and in all likelihood, some extended audiences will see your brand portrayed in this negative light.
Keep your brand in the good graces of your audience. You might find the socialsphere unnerving and, at some times, completely enraging. It is always important to take a step back and cool your head before responding.
2. Respond
We never tire of pointing this out: engagement is the cornerstone of any successful social media marketing strategy. People are online to talk. If you are leaving comments and questions unanswered, what service is your social marketing program providing for your brand?
It is important that you actively engage in as many of the conversations around your brand as you can. This is helpful for a number of reasons. It keeps you in the loop of what is being said, it shows your audience that you care and, perhaps most beneficial of all, it keeps you abreast of any unhappy customers and allows you to help them deal with their issues before they spiral out of control.
Engage with your audience and your brand will shine on social.
3. Routine
Social media can never be an afterthought. Not if you plan on driving business with it, anyway.
Your social media program needs to be as fully integrated in your overall marketing strategy as anything else. Like a blog, your website or a press release, you should have a content strategy, a posting schedule and an engagement manual that applies to each of your social channels. Taking your social media seriously will result in far greater results than simply posting content whenever you remember to do so, or whenever it is convenient.
What other important rules (not necessarily starting with ‘R’) can you think of when it comes to success with social marketing? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
Important Social Media Analytics [INFOGRAPHIC]
/by Corey PadveenBased on some of these social media analytics, there is no denying that social marketing is continuing to grow.
Despite all the evidence to the contrary, there are still naysayers out there who suggest that there is no significant value when it comes to social media. When you look through some of the social media analytics in the infographic below, it is very hard to agree with that viewpoint.
You have undoubtedly seen them: articles and blog posts talking about the ‘end of Facebook’ or the ‘death of social media’ and frankly, they simply do not match the numbers. Every year (heck, every week!) more and more businesses are involving themselves in social media marketing.
According to the data below, 94% of businesses are involved in social media in some form or another. 94%. And with each poll, it becomes increasingly clear that marketers from every industry – both B2C and B2B – are planning on furthering their involvement in social media. You simply can’t justify the argument that social doesn’t matter. It matters in a very big way.
Take a look at the infographic below and see just how important social marketing already is and see how its growth shows no sign of slowing down.
Which statistic do you find most interesting/important? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
Social Equity: The Benefits of a BizBlog
/by Corey PadveenThere can be some notable benefits of a BizBlog for your company, and you should certainly be taking advantage of them.
First, what is a BizBlog? If you guessed the most obvious choice and figured it stands for business blog, you are right. And there can be substantial benefits of a BizBlog for your company.
There are three main areas in which a BizBlog can add considerable value to your brand. First, there are substantial SEO benefits to a blog (and a BizBlog in particular). Second, unlike the majority of social networks, a BizBlog allows you to tout your company’s skills much more aggressively and, in essence, sell your readers on why your brand is the best choice for the job. Lastly, a BizBlog offers you the opportunity to not only showcase your company’s success, but your expertise more so than other social networks.
SEO Benefits of a BizBlog
SEO is still an important (and can be a very expensive) practice. Every business is (or, at least, should be) engaging in it in some way. A blog is an excellent way to boost your SEO success, and a BizBlog adds a few additional SEO benefits on top of the already excellent help a blog provides when it comes to improving your search rankings.
With a BizBlog, you can create links to other articles or pages on your site and boost their effectiveness with anchor text. If you are writing about the best social media marketing company in the business, you can link that to your homepage and help your search rankings. (See what we did there!) Sure, one little link isn’t going to skyrocket your website to the top of the rankings, but it certainly helps both in the short and long runs.
Self-Promotion
Self-promotion is one of those taboo issues that almost any social or digital marketer will tell you to stay away from on social media. Put simply, it is in bad taste. People are not sharing content on social networks to be sold a product.
On your BizBlog, however, people are landing on your content with the expressed intent of finding out more about you and what you do. At that point, it is acceptable to talk about why you are the better choice and why you should be chosen over your competitors to do a job. And that brings us to our third point.
Showcase Your Expertise
In telling your readers why you are the best choice for a job, you might want to highlight what makes you stand out.
A BizBlog is a great place to showcase how much you know, where you brand outshines others and, as with the point above, ultimately sell your readers on picking you for a job. People always want to work with the best, and a BizBlog is a great place to show them why you are that choice.
These three features are very powerful, and add a considerable amount of value to your brand. It is not hard to see how a BizBlog generates Social Equity for your business.
Does your company have a corporate blog? Tell us where we can find it in the comments below or on Twitter!
Social Media Case Study: Examples of Vine by General Electric
/by Corey PadveenVideo clips are becoming an increasingly popular feature of social media marketing, and there are several examples of Vine used both well and poorly by different brands.
Ever since Twitter’s acquisition of Vine earlier this year, we have seen different brands sharing examples of Vine – sometimes used in an innovative, excellent way, and other times we feel as though they missed the mark completely.
In some cases, when companies use Vine and other short video tools as part of their social media marketing, we can have both good and bad examples of Vine by the same brand.
General Electric tends to use Vine quite often. They have done some very unique and exciting things with the tool, but there have also been instances where they missed the target by a mile. Below is an example of each with some explanations as to why one works while the other falters.
Vine Used Well
On Pi Day (you know, March 14th, or 3.14) General Electric decided to wish everyone a Happy Pi Day with a quick Vine of an endless Pi-themed pie.
Why It Works
It is easy, clean and gets a friendly message across is a simple way. While there is a lot you can do in six seconds, you certainly don’t want to do too much. If you’ll recall, The Wolverine tried to pack a two hour movie into a six second Vine. This makes it hard to follow and instead of conveying everything, you end up with nothing that resonates. General Electric hit the right note with this Vine. People who knew what it was for were very appreciative, and it was clear enough that some people probably learned about Pi Day as well.
Vine Used Poorly
Even if you are right on target 99% percent of the time, that still leaves one in every hundred that will not work. This was the case with Inventor’s Day and General Electric’s attempt with Vine.
Why It Doesn’t Work
First of all, if you listen to this Vine with sound, you are wondering what in the world is happening. The biggest issue here is that the concept might make sense in theory, but the execution is all wrong.
The Harlem Shake videos were short to begin with, but they work on their own because of certain key features, namely the music and style. They cannot be condensed into six seconds. The issue with this Vine by General Electric is that it is clearly forced, and trying to take advantage of a popular concept for the sake of relating to a mass audience.
The idea does not work organically, and it shows. The key to a Vine is to do something intelligent that fits into the parameters. For this case, it simply did not work on Vine.
What other examples of Vine used both well and poorly can you think of? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
4 of the Best Content Curation Tools
/by Corey PadveenWhat are some of the best content curation tools that exist for bloggers and marketers?
If you’ve ever written a blog or managed social networks, you know how difficult it can be to consistently produce great, original content for your readers and fans. When publishing content on a regular basis, one of the easiest ways to facilitate the activity is to use one of the best content curation tools on the market.
Below are 4 of the best content curation tools that exist on the web. Take a look at them and see how they can help you find great content to review and share with your readers and fans on social media.
Curata
This enterprise-level content curation software scours the web for topic-relevant content. Though it is not for everyone – it boasts a starting price of roughly $1,000 – it does sift through a tremendous amount of content and produces only the most viable and high quality content to share to your social networks and blog.
There is also an option of hosting a microsite for those without a standalone blog.
Aggregage
Community building is one of the most difficult tasks faced by any social or marketing manager. To build a community around your content requires a lot of time and a serious commitment.
Luckily, Aggregage is designed to build communities around relevant content by sourcing it from around the web. You choose your niche, and Aggregage will find blogs, whitepapers, articles and other bits of content to share to your audience.
BagTheWeb
Have you ever found yourself on a website or blog with great content but no way of sharing it with your communities? BagTheWeb is designed to help you find great content, place it into your topic “bags” and share those “bags” with communities of interested readers.
The tool makes it very easy to collect content from anywhere and share it everywhere.
Eqentia
Though there are plans for individual users with Eqentia, this content curation and engagement platform is designed for serious enterprise users.
The enterprise version of the software allows users to mine for content, curate tens of thousands of items, edit the filters in real-time that bring the content to your portal, re-publish content, brand your curated content, integrate social media accounts and, lastly, monitor analytics to see how your content is being perceived by your audience.
All in all, Eqentia is designed for users that are very serious about publishing topic-specific content.
Though these are some great content curation tools, they are not the only ones. There are several other tools out there – free and paid – that can help you with your publishing efforts.
How do you source great content to share? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
3 Tips to Help You Benefit from LinkedIn
/by Corey PadveenEveryone knows LinkedIn as the business social network, but apart from posting your resume, what are a few things you can do to benefit from LinkedIn?
There are hundreds of millions of users on LinkedIn, but only a small percentage are using the network effectively. There are certain ways users can benefit from LinkedIn far more than by simply posting a resume online and allowing others to see their skills.
Below are three points to keep in mind when using LinkedIn. By incorporating these tips into your LinkedIn strategy, you can rest assured that it will not be long before you start to truly benefit from LinkedIn.
Follow Influencers
Influence is important on any social channel, but it is of particular interest on LinkedIn. Influencers on the business social network are industry influencers. They share great content, have large audiences of like-minded followers and provide lots of insights and wisdom.
Once you follow your industry influencers, be sure to check up on your LinkedIn profile regularly to see what great content is being shared by these folks. Read it, comment and engage and be an active part of the conversation.
Spend Time in Your Groups
Just as you do with your influencers, you should be commenting on, liking and engaging with posts in your groups.
Groups are an extremely important and beneficial feature of LinkedIn. While you should join and be active in as many as possible (the maximum is 50), you should pay attention to where you are finding the best content and where your content is most appreciated, and make those few your top priorities.
People are constantly engaging in group discussions and reading articles shared, and it is important to your LinkedIn success that you do so, as well.
Endorsements and Recommendations
Have you found someone’s content particularly insightful, or worked with someone that was truly an expert in their field? Endorse them for their skills and recommend their work to others.
Though endorsements and recommendations are fairly simple to give, they can go a long way and help you increase the power of your connections. Letting others know that you find someone to be particularly good at something can lead to both those you are endorsing and their connections looking at your profile and possibly endorsing, recommending or even reaching out to you to do business.
These three tips are important to keep in mind if you want to fully benefit from LinkedIn.
What other LinkedIn tips can you think of? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
20 Interesting Twitter Statistics [INFOGRAPHIC]
/by Corey PadveenTwitter has gone through some big changes and the value of the network has been shown in a remarkable way, and these Twitter statistics show just how important it is.
Last week, Carl Icahn sent out a pair of tweets worth approximately $17 billion. Why? He mentioned that Apple was undervalued and the company’s stock shot up to levels it had not reached since January of this year.
It is no secret that Twitter is an extremely powerful channel. As a pseudo broadcast medium, it allots businesses certain privileges that other networks do not, that the ability to direct network traffic to sales-oriented landing pages. You can also engage with audiences in real-time conversations very easily, and you can manage your brand’s reputation and prevent issues from spiralling our of control.
Of the statistics in the infographic from Wishpond below, perhaps the most interesting one relates to the fact that the last valuation of Twitter put it at a healthy $10 billion. One wonders how last week’s events will change the value of the company, and how the structure of Twitter’s model as it applies to companies might change in the coming years.
Take a look at the fun Twitter statistics below and let us know which one you find to be the most interesting/shocking. Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
Social Equity: Thought Leadership on Social Media
/by Corey PadveenWhat is the value added to your business from thought leadership on social media?
Earlier this week, Carl Icahn tweeted to the world that he saw Apple as being undervalued. A few hours later, Apple’s stock price shot up past $500.00 for the first time since January of this year. The perception of industry and thought leadership on social media can add value to your business in a very big way.
Not every tweet is going to result in a $20 billion increase in a company’s value. That said, your company’s value stands to benefit considerably in terms of Social Equity from increased thought leadership on social media.
Increased Virality
We all want our content to go viral. One of the goals of sharing content to our social networks is to reach as wide an audience as possible and increase the exposure and market share of our business.
When your audience perceives you or your brand as an industry or thought leader, the chances of that happening are far greater. People want to share relevant content to their networks from industry heads.
SEO Benefits
One of the most powerful ways to increase your search rankings is still through link-building strategies. Granted, those have begun to change with the increased importance of social media in search.
As a thought leader, your content will be shared, linked and promoted far more than the average individual’s. There are several benefits to your search optimization that might have taken much longer and cost you far more had you not been an industry leader on social media.
Create Brand Advocates
We often return to this point. The key to a company’s long-term success is the loyalty of your customer base and the advocacy of said customers for your product. This increases market exposure and ultimately grows your clientele.
As a thought leader, your brand’s loyalists will increase in number. People will want to hear what you have to say and encourage others to listen to your words as well. This relates closely to the virality mentioned above, and is an offshoot of that point.
People ultimately want to share relevant content wherever they can find it, and when they find a source that is full of knowledge, insights and expertise, it is that much more likely that they will enthusiastically share that content.
Becoming an industry thought leader does not happen overnight. It is going to take a lot of work to reach that point. It will also mean positioning your brand in a unique way, and offering concepts and expertise that are found nowhere else in your industry. Those are quite a few demanding criteria. The results, however, can mean great things for your brand.
Who do you consider to be a thought leader in your industry? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
Social Media Case Study: Greenpeace
/by Corey PadveenGreenpeace – among the more high-profile charities – recently took to Pinterest, and with some impressive results.
Charities and not-for-profits have been resorting to social media in a big way. This is in large part due to the fact that social media is a great way to share important information and quickly have it spread to interested communities.
Of the charities using social media, Greenpeace is among the more recognizable. Furthermore, the Greenpeace social media initiatives are not simple Facebook posts or tweets, there is a very calculated effort on the part of Greenpeace to use social media to their benefit.
Among the channels used by the Greenpeace social media marketing team is Pinterest. The popular photo-sharing network is not being used to simply share images, however. Campaigns are extended to the network and it is used to drive traffic to landing pages for specific campaigns and initiatives at the Greenpeace website.
The results have been outstanding for Greenpeace, with thousands of images on over 50 boards and over 7,000 followers, and there are three important lessons that social marketers can learn from the Greenpeace Pinterest strategy.
Plan Ahead
Never venture into a new network blind. Looking through the Greenpeace Pinterest page, it is clear that there is a well-defined strategy behind the initiative.
In order to find success on a network like Pinterest, you need to know what you plan on accomplishing and how you intend on achieving those goals. Though it is easy to use, a carefully laid out strategy is needed for Pinterest in order to generate your desired results.
Keep that in mind, as Greenpeace did, and you will find it much easier to succeed with the network.
Understand Your Audience
Though the boards on the Greenpeace Pinterest page focus on campaigns and initiatives, the images are carefully selected by the charity in order to generate interest and clicks. The focus of the images range anywhere from fashion and celebrities to nature and animals – all categories that are among the most-shared on the network.
It is important that you understand your audience on any social network in order to properly generate engagement with them. Pay attention to your demographics and understand network trends before incorporating them into your social media strategy.
Keep Your Goals in Mind
Pinterest is one of the leading social networks for referral traffic. Last year, it surpassed Twitter and its meteoric rise shows no signs of slowing. With that in mind, you always need to remember why you are using the network in the first place.
Click on nearly any image on Greenpeace’s boards and you will find yourself at the Greenpeace website. You may start to generate some traction, but if you lose focus of what you are doing and, more importantly, how you are doing it, that traction will quickly disappear.
Keep these pointers in mind next time you are using Pinterest for a campaign, and you will surely find success!
What else impresses you about the Greenpeace Pinterest initiative? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
3 Fatal Social Media Engagement Mistakes
/by Corey PadveenSocial media engagement is at the heart of any good program, but a few seemingly harmless mistakes can mean severe repercussions.
Are you taking advantage of the huge benefits that accompany social media engagement? It is supremely important that you are. After all, engaging with your social audience is the key to any good campaign. People are reaching out to you, and want to hear back. But be careful, there are a few mistakes that brands make when it comes to social media engagement, and they could be very costly.
Below are three mistakes that are easy to make but very costly to your brand.
Watch Your Grammar!
If you’ve ever watched your Twitter feed populate, or read through SMS threads among friends, you might come to the conclusion that good spelling and proper grammar are dead. Far from it.
A recent study by Disruptive Communications found that – get ready – 42.5% of customers felt that poor spelling and grammar on social media would damage their perception of a brand. This issue was, quite surprisingly, the most damaging to a brand’s image, with content being all about sales coming in second with only 24.9% of consumers finding it the most damaging to a brand’s image.
Grammar and spelling are still very important, particularly when you are trying to portray a professional image and convince potential customers to choose your brand when conducting business. Pay attention to those commas, and make sure you have the appropriate spelling of there/they’re/their, because your audience certainly is.
Sometimes You Have to Let It Go
Arguing is never fun. Arguing on social media is never smart. So why would you do something that is sure to be a no-fun-no-smarts activity?
It is more likely than not that at some point there will be a past, present or future customer that takes issue with your brand on social media. What is the best course of action? Well, whatever you choose to do, don’t blow it up – that’s very bad for business.
You would be better off acknowledging a complaint and rectifying an issue – even if you feel as though you are in the right – than getting into a public argument with a customer. Imagine how that would be perceived by other customers. Would you do business with a company that appears to have a ‘customer is always wrong’ mentality? Probably not.
Address issues in a professional manner and cater to your clients’ needs. Taking the conversation offline might be the best move in cases like these. But, while you might love your brand, don’t shoot yourself in the foot by berating the people that make it possible for your brand to exist.
Respect Your Social Activity and Audience
Sure, social media is a little more lax and informal than conventional marketing or communications channels. The idea of incorporating social into your business is to create a personality for your brand with which users can engage. But it is important to remember that while social media may seem a little less formal, it is still a serious part of your business, and should be treated as such.
You might create your social channels and hit the ground running. But a lot of brands tend to neglect their social networks after a while, and that means neglecting customers. People are talking to you on social media and leaving them without a response, feeling alone and unimportant can be harmful to your brand’s image online.
Treat your social customers like you would any other – they are really no different.
Keep these three mistakes in mind and you will find success on social media much easier to achieve.
What other social media engagement mistakes can you think of? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!