Tag Archive for: social media marketing

Social Equity: Thought Leadership on Social Media

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What is the value added to your business from thought leadership on social media?

thought leadership on social mediaEarlier 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

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Greenpeace – among the more high-profile charities – recently took to Pinterest, and with some impressive results.

greenpeace social media case studyCharities 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!

t2social social medis marketing strategies

3 Fatal Social Media Engagement Mistakes

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Social media engagement is at the heart of any good program, but a few seemingly harmless mistakes can mean severe repercussions.

social media engagement mistakesAre 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!

t2social social medis marketing strategies

Social Media for B2B Companies [INFOGRAPHIC]

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Can there be a place for social media for B2B companies?

There is a lot of debate over whether or not there is a use of social media for B2B companies. Why? Because many people do not see just how important social media is – for any industry!

There is a very important place for social media when it comes to businesses in the B2B world. The reason there are so many skeptics is simply due to a lack of understanding of how to properly use social media, a hesitancy to take on the task and, most importantly, not knowing the phenomenal results that other B2B brands are already achieving!

In the infographic below, some insightful data is provided by Clearpoint that illustrates just how important social media is for B2B companies. Perhaps the two most interesting sections of data are the reasons why B2B companies are using social media, and how they are measuring their results.

So many marketers – particularly those in the B2B field – fail to see the benefits of social media marketing outside of brand awareness. While this may be the top reason for the use of social media by B2B companies, the four additional uses are extremely important, particularly thought leadership.

With regards to measurement, there is no shortage of criteria that can be used to measure your success on social media. Again, this applies to any industry.

Take a look at the infographic and let us know which data you find to be most interesting. Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

social media for b2b companies

Social Equity: Crisis Management on Social Media

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Crisis management on social media can help prevent devastating consequences to your brand.

crisis management on social mediaNot everyone engages in crisis management on social media. Many brands choose to remain silent until an event has passed, and prefer to deal with it in a more conventional manner (e.g. press conferences).

While it may be a little nerve-racking to deal with a crisis in media as public, active and real-time as social networks, it can be a very valuable feature that should not be ignored.

Get a Handle on the Situation

The ability to monitor conversations on social media about your brand means that when a crisis does break, you will be able to know about it at the same time as everyone else. After all, social media is one of the first avenues people are using to spread the word nowadays.

Waiting until after the issue has evolved beyond your control can be far more detrimental than engaging at the outset of a crisis. Thus, you have a much better chance of quelling issues by taking control of it with an active, live audience.

Show People You Care

It might be for legal or PR reasons that you are not engaging with an angered audience on social media. But whatever it is, your brand stands to sustain far more damage when it does not engage.

People tend to think that when they are ignored by a brand on social media – particularly when they are speaking specifically to that brand’s social personality – it is because that brand does not care about the small, singular customer. That is not only an insult to the customer, but a bad representation of your brand to the customer base as a whole.

It is important to plan for crises on social media in order to know how to engage your audience when one does come up. (No brand is immune to these sorts of issues!) In this way, if a crisis should arise, you can have a legal department-approved approach to handling the issues.

This will show your audience that you care and will go a long way with them.

Social Equity of Crisis Management on Social Media

So where is there value added to your business? The Social Equity derived is both in the form of long-term value to your company and in terms of what your brand stands to lose without such a plan.

In the long run, your brand will have a carefully laid out strategy that can be applied to prevent issues from shooting beyond your control. With regards to what stands to be lost without such a strategy, think of crises you have witnessed in the past where brands did nothing to engage their audience.

In a recent case study about Nutella, we pointed out that the backlash which resulted from doing nothing to handle a crisis that broke out on social media meant some significant repercussions for the brand. Don’t let the same thing happen to you.

What other incidents can you think of where crisis management on social media has helped (or could have helped) a brand? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

t2social social medis marketing strategies

Social Media Case Study: Standard Life

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Standard Life provides savings and insurance services and has been doing so for nearly 200 years – nothing so exciting to warrant a social media case study, right?

social media case studySocial media is everywhere. Whether you are a major cutting-edge tech firm or a staple of the insurance business, social media has a place in your industry. Despite the long standing of Standard Life, Craig Johnston, in an interview with econsultancy, explained how and why the insurance giant decided to dive into the world of social media marketing.

Though the company took a crack (with some success) on Facebook and YouTube, they have found their true social media calling on Twitter and LinkedIn. Why? The marketing team took the time to develop a strategy, target influencers and reach out to very specific audience. The results have been outstanding.

Standard Life wanted to use Twitter as a means of providing additional resources and to engage with influential advisors. Well, after creating a functional content strategy and targeting the 30 users they deemed most influential to their target audience, they managed to garner nearly 67% of them as followers, and are now sharing content with them (and their clients, future prospects) on a regular basis.

On LinkedIn, Standard Life also wanted to reach out to influencers, so they created a private group for advisors and reached out to several they found to be most influential. By speaking to these individuals on a personal level, they managed to persuade many of them to join the group, which prompted several others to join (without an invite) as well.

There are quite a few great points that marketers can learn from this program.

Find Out What Works

This goes for both your industry and your brand. Facebook has a billion users so it must be the best network for you, right? Not necessarily! Maybe you will find that YouTube is where you generate the most referrals and social media success.

What is important is testing each market (with a clearly defined strategy, of course) in order to determine which one is going to work best for your business.

No One Is Bigger than Social Media

This is not saying that social media should replace your other marketing efforts. However, as we pointed out in an article about Social Media Marketing Myopia, thinking your brand is above the consumers’ preferences will leave you clamouring for business you once took for granted.

Insurance may not be the most exciting field, but there is still room for a social media presence. Johnston and his team realized this, and it is important that other marketers realize it as well.

True Value Rests with Brand Loyalists

The longevity of a company rests with its brand advocates. When word-of-mouth spreads far beyond product evangelists, you can feel safe in the future success of your brand. As Johnston notes, “The funnel has now changed so we are always trying to drive advocacy. Companies have to offer customers free stuff, such as information and advice, to add value and help encourage a purchase.”

Showcase your expertise and keep them coming back and wanting more.

What other examples can you think of where companies in relatively unsocial industries found room for social media? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

t2social social medis marketing strategies

The Biggest Social Media Mistake Companies Are Making

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There is one major social media mistake companies are making and it can cost them big time.

social media mistake by companiesYou have no doubt seen it. Posts listed on sites like LinkedIn, Craigslist or other job searching hubs. Wanted: Social Media Manager (Internship). Then, there in the details are some vague “goals” and desired requirements, like a Bachelor’s in Communications and little or no experience.

What is the biggest social media mistake companies are making? It is not misspelled words or sharing unprofessional content (which are both still bad, by the way). It is leaving their social media marketing efforts in the hands of unpaid interns.

Like it or not, social media is a very serious part of a marketing strategy. No – it does not replace your other marketing initiatives; those are still very important. It does, however, compliment them considerably and add an entirely different and important feature to your marketing efforts.

A recent graduate’s ability to share content to Facebook or tweet statistics about their favorite athlete does not qualify them to run all of your social branding initiatives. A major airline would not ask a video game enthusiast to pilot a passenger aircraft across the Atlantic – for free. Sure, lives may not be at stake when it comes to social media marketing, but your brand’s reputation and perception are. Now, marketing departments are not entirely to blame – a lot of executives simply do not understand the power of social media.

Why They Make the Mistake

For some companies, they have limited budgets. For others, they simply do not understand how powerful this platform can be and are therefore willing to entrust it to the most junior of staff.

Take Taco Bell’s recent social media hiccup, for example. A picture leaked of an employee doing something somewhat distasteful to a stack of taco shells. Bad for business and what’s worse, it went viral. As if the picture were not bad enough, many of the comments went beyond the one incident to criticize the establishment and its practices in their entirety.

‘PR crisis’ does not even begin to describe what this was for Taco Bell. Considering the fastest means of communication is to talk to everyone where they are in real time, it would make sense that for any brand, social media would be the right avenue to use when dealing with this kind of issue. How would things have turned out for Taco Bell if an intern with no marketing experience, no financial dependency on the company (unpaid intern, remember) and no understanding of brand and crisis management had been in charge of their social media channels?

Social media is not a fleeting phenomenon with no staying power. The proof is in the (ever-growing) numbers. Companies need to take their social presence seriously – that is where their customers are. Take the situation offline: you wouldn’t rely on a home printer to produce thousands of product catalogues.

Treat your social media efforts the same way you would any other aspect of your marketing initiatives. It is much more important than a lot of people give it credit for.

What are your thoughts on having an unpaid intern in charge of your social media initiatives? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

t2social social medis marketing strategies

What Makes Good SEO Copywriting? [INFOGRAPHIC]

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With so many changes to Google, it can be hard to tell what makes good SEO copywriting.

There was a time when keyword density was the key to SEO copywriting success. Then came the day of the backlink (still in existence).

With so many ongoing changes to Google’s much feared and praised algorithm, it is always hard to tell what kind of copy will land your page in the top spot, and what will have you scraping the bowels of Google’s tenth page in search of light.

Luckily, the folks at ContentVerve have put together an excellent infographic detailing the features of high-quality SEO-friendly copy (at least, so far in 2013).

Among the great tips to note when drafting your content with SEO in mind are the social implications of search today. It is not secret that Google+ weighs heavily in search rankings on Google. After all, Google have described themselves as a social company, and their changes have concreted that statement.

Take a look at these ten tips and let us know which one (or ones) you think is most important to SEO success. Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

seo copywriting tips to success

Social Equity: Real-Time Marketing

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What makes real-time marketing such a valuable asset to business?

real time marketing social equityReal-time marketing is a phenomenal tool and one that is severely under-utilized in business. According to David Meerman Scott, real-time marketing is only practiced by 28% of Fortune 100 companies, yet these companies saw significant growth in their stock prices over a designated period of time while other that do not engage in the practice saw a 2% drop.

So how exactly does real-time marketing generate Social Equity for your business?

Increased Lead-to-Buyer Efficiency

Imagine the ability to engage with a lead the moment they express an interest in a product or service you offer. Then imagine the value of reaching out to that user before any of your competitors in the hopes of beginning the nurturing process, leading to a conversion.

That is real-time marketing.

By monitoring social media effectively, you can find conversations as they are taking place and engage with users on different platforms in real time. Thus, as the intent to buy is made clear, there is little time lost in nurturing the prospective client. This helps to make the conversion process more efficient and much faster.

Increased Market Share and Presence

As with the point above, the ability to actively participate in conversations surrounding your industry as they are taking place opens an entirely new opportunity to increase your brand’s presence and share in the market.

If, as users of social networks are discussing industry keywords, you (appropriately) participate in conversations and make them aware of your brand, you gain a significant competitive advantage over other industry brands.

Now, it is important to ensure that you are engaging properly, and not deterring potential clients from your brand. However, if done the right way, the results can be your brand coming to mind before any other when buyers are faced with a decision.

Increased Brand Loyalty

People prefer a humanized brand. The big corporate image simply does not work for people. They want to know that the company with which they have decided to do business will care about their needs, help them in any way they can and present themselves as more than a logo or a product.

Real-time marketing offers potential clients that kind of security. By responding to comments, questions and concerns in real time, or engaging in conversations around your industry across the social web, you can reassure prospective clients that your brand will out-serve any of your competitors.

Real-time marketing can have tremendous benefits to your business. Though the advantages are clear, few brands are properly participating in the practice. Be among the first in your industry, and see your success levels increase dramatically!

Is your brand engaging in real-time marketing practices? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

t2social social medis marketing strategies

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