Ever wonder how to embed a tweet on your blog? Follow these easy steps to do it today!
https://t2marketinginternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/logo-t2-300x138.png00Corey Padveenhttps://t2marketinginternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/logo-t2-300x138.pngCorey Padveen2013-11-16 06:15:142013-11-16 06:15:14How to Embed a Tweet on Your Blog Post or Website [VIDEO]
If you are not paying attention to your social data, then you are ignoring one of the most valuable assets you have in your social business.
With every action taken on social channels, social data is being gathered and analyzed behind the scenes. First, let’s dispel one rumour very quickly: activity on social media is measurable. You just need to know what to measure and where to find your social data.
Paying attention to these insights is going to be an integral part of running a successful social business. How will you know if your strategy is generating results and helping your business grow if you are not monitoring your initiatives’ performance?
Below are three types of social data you should keep a close eye on when it comes to your social business’s performance (and a few places to monitor that data).
Demographics Engaged
There are billions of people active on social networks every day. It is nice to think that every one is a potential customer, and a good way to overcome the fear of getting started, but the reality is that your real potential customers are making themselves shown every day – you just need to know where to look for them.
Look at your Facebook Insights to see what groups of people are consistently engaging with your content. The new Facebook Insights provide some great ways to do this. If you are running Twitter ads, pay close attention to those most actively clicking on your promoted tweets. On LinkedIn, look at your company page stats to see what groups of people find your company most interesting.
These are just a few of the easy ways you can monitor your most engaged demographics and understand how you can better align your business to target these markets.
Ad ROI
Social advertising is not being given enough credit (yet) as a legitimate source of advertising. Trust us, it is. But still, entrepreneurs running their own operations are often throwing a few dollars behind a Facebook as hoping that is generates some clicks and brand awareness. Not enough!
Set goals, target specific demographics and, both when it is over and while it is running, pay attention to your results! When looking at this social data, you might find that a user-base you hadn’t anticipated being so attracted to your offer is up there with the most active. Knowing your market’s wants and tailoring your services to provide for those wants is what keeps you ahead of the competition.
And it’s easy to find! In your Twitter Ads Manager, Facebook Ads Manager, LinkedIn Ads Manager and others, you can see all of this data in real-time!
Content Strategy
Once again, simply sharing content is not going to drive the results you hope to get as fast as you hope to get them. Every once in a while, we have a brilliant idea that helps our content go viral. And I don’t know about you, but those blue moons have been coming around less and less since the whole world has started trying to create their own viral video. Focus on how your content is being engaged with, and optimize your strategy accordingly.
Again, Facebook Insights provides you with some great insight into what types of content are generating interest. You can also look at your LinkedIn Page Insights, among other sources. This information is out there ready to help you succeed on social. Use it to your advantage!
Find out how t2 can help you leverage your social data here.
How are you leveraging the power of social data? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
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It is a misguided question often asked: “How much does social media cost?”
We hear it all the time. As marketers, a lot of us have even asked it or are asking it now. The question, “How much does social media cost?” is one that has surged in popularity as of late, but anyone who actively operates a social business knows why it is somewhat misguided.
So what makes the question misguided? The nature of asking why it is misguided might lead us to think that we are going to be given some convoluted, pseudo-existential response, but the fact is that it is quite simple. The question, “How much does social media cost?” is misguided because of the simple use of the term, ‘social media’.
What’s wrong with the term ‘social media’?
The buzzword on the tips of everybody’s tongue is ‘social media’. We know that it resonates when we talk to clients, and we bring it up because we know that clients expect to hear about it. While the media type is important, we have to step away from the term and look at the words and what they mean.
Social is self-explanatory. It is something that connects people. But media is plural. So basically, when we take a step back, we are saying, “How much does it cost to connect with people in different ways?” Now we’re getting somewhere.
What should the question be?
Now that we know that using the term ‘social media’ is misleading, we need to ask ourselves what the proper question is. We need to ask ourselves, “What is the cost of running a social business?”
A page on Facebook, boards on Pinterest and a Twitter account might look good, and they might be ‘free’ to create (if you don’t count the time it takes to create them) but what is the overhead of running a social business? This is where you have to think of ‘social media’ as more than a few networks – it is the new way of conducting business.
What is the cost of running a social business?
First of all, we need to stop thinking of social as MySpace, Friendster, Facebook and subsequent networks. Yes, these were new ways of connecting people, but the concept of social selling was nothing new. Blogs and email, even your website, were the original forms of social media; hubs in which people could connect. So what does it cost to apply that approach to your entire business?
First look at what departments are going to go social. If you are going to transition your customer service onto social channels – a more cost-effective, time-efficient and customer preferred way of doing business – how much will it cost per issues handled? Determine how much work will exist, how many people it will take to handle it and how much it will cost to employ those people. (NOTE: You might be the sole proprietor of your business. That’s great! But don’t sell yourself short. Your time is very valuable, and you need to figure out what your opportunity cost is to handling these facets of your business on your own.)
Most people are not looking at bus benches. They are spending hours a day looking at Facebook. They are sifting through billions of pieces of content on Twitter. They are conducting Google searches and clicking on results. They are looking for jobs on LinkedIn. You might hope to drive traffic organically. But these social channels need to make money, too. You are going to need to invest in your social business to see returns.
Advertising on social media is still young enough that it is affordable. Take advantage of that. Create highly customized ads that target your ideal candidates. Drive people to your website with your ads, or grow your brand’s market presence. Determine your budgets, as you have in the past, and test them to see what works.
There is no magic button or single answer. You might hear about a video that goes viral and figure, “I can do that, too!” You can try. But you might be sorely disappointed. Your social business is going to take a serious commitment, an investment and a new way of thinking.
So, how much does social media cost? Social media is your new business. It is not a standalone tool. Do not simply throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks. Take social seriously and invest appropriately.
Where have you invested most in your social business? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
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What can we do to get people to click on our links and increase our website’s traffic?
We all strive to get people to click on our links. Every day, we are sharing our content to different networks and actively promoting it in order to drive new traffic and, ideally, generate new business. But it can be frustrating when we write a great post or article, share it to every channel imaginable and simply see no new clicks through to our website. How can we change that?
There are a few easy steps you can take to get people to click on your links and increase the traffic you drive to your website. After all, what is the point of writing all this great content if no audience is lucky enough to read it?
Capture Their Attention
Have you ever been sifting through content online and come across a title you just had to click on? This is the first thing you should consider when trying to get people to click on your links. Consider two titles. The first reads, ‘How To Write a Blog’ and the second reads, ‘5 Ways to Write Viral Blog Content’. You will most likely be more interested in clicking on the second article.
Be Specific
Building off of that first tip, the best way to capture the attention of your audience is to be as specific as possible in your article’s title. Let people know exactly what they are going to get when they click on your link. Vague, cryptic titles are not as enticing as some people think. They also come off as spam.
When you see a link that says, ‘Want to Grow Your Business?’ you are more than likely thinking that you will be directed to a spammy sales page. Tell people what they are clicking on so your traffic is interested in what you have to say before ever arriving at your site.
Tailor Your SEO Sections
When you share an article to a blog post and you are trying to drive clicks to your site, you will definitely want to have information in the title and meta description relating to that specific article – not your site in general. On WordPress, a plugin as simple as Yoast will allow you to add these fields in simply and avoid generic descriptions showing up with your articles.
Having these segments complete is not only good for SEO, but good for clicks, too.
Recycle Your Content
The shelf life of a tweet is said to be about fifteen minutes. For a Facebook post, it used to be roughly two hours. With the new Facebook algorithm, it is likely less now if you are posting as your page. How far do you think your content is going to reach if it is only visible for a short while? Probably not very far.
You are going to need to share your content on an ongoing basis to every one of your networks. If you want to increase your brand’s exposure and get eyes on your blog, then you are going to have to share it’s content regularly. It might take some work, but with so much content being shared to the web on an ongoing basis, organic traffic is only going to come if you start by aggressively sharing your content – and sharing it often.
These are just a few ways to drive more traffic to your blog or website. How do you increase the clicks on your links? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
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These social media marketing statistics will make the case for the transition into a social business!
As marketers, we are all looking for that one piece of crucial information that will help us convince our clients (and, in some cases, our own management) that the need to become a social business is greater than ever. These fifteen social media marketing statistics are certainly impressive, and should help any marketer get over that last hurdle when it comes to proving that social is a necessity!
Now, if those stats don’t get you excited about the prospect of becoming a social business, little else will! Social media is quickly spilling over into every demographic and in big ways. The marketing landscape has been drastically altered by the presence of social, and it is time for your brand to become a social business!
https://t2marketinginternational.com/wp-content/uploads/t2fbff20131161-300x300.jpg00Corey Padveenhttps://t2marketinginternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/logo-t2-300x138.pngCorey Padveen2013-11-11 06:15:482013-11-11 06:15:4815 Amazing Social Media Marketing Statistics (in Pictures!)
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Managing your reputation on social media is an integral part of any comprehensive social business strategy.
If you are not paying attention to the perception of your brand by audiences, then you are forgetting about one of the most important features that makes a social business successful. The management of your reputation on social media is a living organism, and you need to pay it regular attention.
One of the realities of doing business is that the larger we grow, the more likely we are to encounter that individual that doesn’t like our product, our service, or simply has a bad experience. And what happens then? Well, a recent study by ZenDesk shows that 95% of customers who have a bad experience tell someone about it, compared to 87% who shared a good experience. Maybe we just like to tell others about our suffering, but the fact remains that you can be sure that a customer who has a poor experience with your company is going to go out there and tell the world. And it is now much easier than ever before.
And so we come to the title of this article: your brand is only as good as your worst public interaction. What did an angry customer have to say about your brand? How did you handle it? Your reputation on social media – on every platform from Facebook to Yelp! – is going to be affected in a much greater way by how you handle your unhappy customers than how you handle the satisfied ones.
The Intelligent Traveler
Put yourself in the customers’ shoes. Let’s say you are planning a trip and you are considering staying at one of two hotels. Assume the prices and amenities are all the same. Well, if you are like 65% of online travellers, then seeing a management’s response to comments on a social channel like TripAdvisor would sway you to book with the responding hotel. (Google, January, 2013)
People like the idea of accountability, and when you avoid dealing with issues head on, you are hurting your reputation on social media. Owning up to your brand’s mistakes, and showing people that you are taking strides to both remedy situations as they arise and prevent them from ever occurring again goes a very long way.
Nobody Cares What You Did Right
When you are buying a product on eBay, and you see that a seller has a rating of 99% from 100 buyers, are you going to care about the 99 people that said, “Great job! Fast delivery! Recommend seller!”? Or would you be more concerned with finding that one comment that reads, “Item was not as described. Seller did not respond to questions. Would not recommend.”? Probably the second one.
You can do something right a thousand times, but that one time that things go wrong, people will remember it. It is here that you need to shine. It is easy to handle happy customers. How you handle unhappy customers on public forums is what is going to influence future buyers.
The Ostrich Never Dealt with Social Media
Burying your head in the sand while people speak out against your service or brand might have worked back in the days of phone and mail. But now, when people can reach out to networks of thousands, you had better be ready to respond. Clearly, ostriches never had to deal with issues on social media.
Have a plan in place for every plausible scenario. You need to know the Dos and Do Nots for handling crises and unhappy customers before you have to deal with crises and unhappy customers. The last thing you want to do is learn from your mistakes when your mistakes have already resulted in consumers making up their minds. Read up and do the research on the mistakes of others and devise strategies for managing your reputation on social media from these.
It might not be an ideal situation, but the fact is that your brand is only as good as it’s worst interaction on social media. This is where people are going to do their research; consumers trust each other, not your brand. But you can change that by properly managing your brand’s reputation on social media!
Find out more about becoming a social business and managing your reputation on social media here.
Do you research products and services on social channels before making a decision? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
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Brands on Instagram are still relatively young, but there is still a lot marketers can learn from their successes and failures.
Instagram is about to roll out their sponsored ad feature, and based on the comments from Instagram users, it would also appear as though the world is about to end. Like every social network that burst onto the scene, Instagram needs to find a way to make money, and by charging brands on Instagram a fee for posting their images on users’ accounts, they might have found it. But if your company has a presence on Instagram, what can you do to ensure that your audience will stick around?
Below are five things you can learn from other brands on Instagram and apply to your strategy in order to get the most out of the network.
Quality is Better than Quantity
Have you ever scrolled through your Instagram feed and noticed a half dozen posts from the same user, all in a row, all with a message to follow someone, or double tap an image, or some other pseudo-promotional content? No one likes it, and it is a very easy way to lose followers that actually check Instagram regularly.
One of the things that attracts people to the app is the ability to make the ordinary look extraordinary. Focus on sharing something that people will love and it will go a lot further than sharing a lot of forgettable posts.
Have a Strategy
Like any other one of your social networks, Instagram is going to need a content strategy if you want it to work for you. ‘Getting started’ with Instagram means doing just that.
The same way you created a content strategy and schedule for your other channels, do so for Instagram. It will make the management of your account much easier and you will be able to find success much quicker.
Create a Brand for Your Brand
What content are you sharing that people are most responsive to? At t2, we have branded ourselves with dogs. What symbolizes your brand? Figure that out and share content that is immediately recognizable as your own. You want people to know that the image is coming from your account, and not have to look up at the user to see who posted it.
Set Goals
What are you trying to achieve with Instagram? Again, this is not a tip unique to the network; this is something that should be practiced on every one of your social channels. That said, it still needs to be done. Otherwise, who is to say that your work on Instagram is doing you any good. Work towards a goal and determine how you plan to measure the steps you are taking to achieve it.
Soft Sell
This is the most important tip of all. As noted above, reaction from users to the sponsored ads has been very negative. While some people don’t seem to mind it, those that do, mind it a lot.
Remember, Instagram is an app. You should be sharing images that increase brand awareness. This is not the place to solely promote your product or service. Familiarize people with your brand so that you remain top of mind. Then, when the time comes, you can leverage this brand awareness and drive sales from the network. Patience is a virtue – especially on Instagram.
How have you found success on Instagram? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
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Has your social business involved every department it can?
We all know that the marketing department is going to be among the first to adopt new media when it comes to social business, but what other departments can contribute to it? These three departments are generally forgotten when it comes to social business, and it is easy to understand why: a lot of people don’t know how they can be social!
Customer Service
Now, this is a little paradoxical. Yes, your customer service department is inherently a ‘social’ department per se. After all, it spends the day dealing with people. But when becoming a social business, your customer service department is going to become much more public then ever before. And that’s a good thing.
Social Care – or, customer service on social channels – is increasing in popularity and becoming a favorite among consumers. When evolving into a social business, you are certainly going to want to get your customer service team on the front lines. Just be sure you have a strategy in place for every possible scenario! Now, with social in the mix, your customer service team is a pseudo PR department. They are a direct reflection of how your company treats clients, so make sure they are doing it right.
Tech/Support
Has there ever been a department more suited for conversing on the web? Your tech and support teams need to be able to show that they can help with anything at any time. They are like an extension of your customer service team. In fact, they are your customer service team.
Think about it. When you call a customer service line, they are generally going to connect you with the department most able to assist you with your problem. By making these departments as easily accessible as your customer service team, you can help cut out the middle man and save time on all fronts. Let people deal with matters in the most efficient way possible, and your business will be functioning at optimal capacity.
Sales
If your sales team is not already on social, get them on there! You never know where you might find a new client, but you can rest assured that wherever you might find that client, there is a pretty good chance you will find them on social channels, too.
Your sales team should be listening to the conversation around your industry and involving themselves in the conversation when and where it is appropriate. Take a look at this blog post about cell phone carriers to see some great examples of Dos and Don’ts when it comes to social selling.
What other departments do you think would benefit from a presence on social media when you become a social business? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
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Have you put together an ad campaign using the Facebook targeting options?
Have you ever tried to promote your content to a broader audience by developing a Facebook ad campaign? Boosting a post is one thing, but if you know how to properly use the Facebook advertising platform, you can reach very targeted audiences and get a specific message across to groups you know will want to hear them.
Below are four Facebook targeting options that are going to be very important when it comes to putting together a successful ad campaign.
Location, Age and Gender
These are the most obvious targeting options. We all know that we have the ability to target by location, age and gender, but we often forget that when it comes to advertising, the more specific we are, the greater the likelihood that our campaign will find success.
With Facebook, you have the ability to target not only countries, but states/provinces, cities and, if you are running a campaign in the United States, by zip code. Why is this beneficial? Well, if you are a local business, this gives you the opportunity to target only those people who are potential customers based on location. It also means that if you are running a campaign in the United Kingdom, for example, you could filter out any users outside of the UK and prevent your ad (and your dollars) from going to users that cannot benefit from the offering.
As for age and gender, figure out exactly who is going to be most responsive to this campaign. Maybe you don’t know – that’s not a problem. Use these targeting options to test different markets. Maybe you create one version of your ad targeted towards males in the United States between the ages of 25 and 39, and another version targeted towards females in Canada over the age of 45. (On a side note, that’s one versatile product!) You might be surprised by what you find.
Precise Interests
Now we’re getting into the real value that exists with Facebook targeting options. One of the great features that a lot of marketers tend to overlook is the ability to target audiences by interest. For those familiar with AdWords, this is something that Google determines based on search history and other criteria, but on Facebook, this is determined by a user’s expressed interests. They are telling you what they like!
You are going to want to include as many Precise Interests or pages (yes, company or brand pages) as you can – just make sure they relate to your ad and landing page (whether it is your Timeline or a page off of Facebook). Just begin typing and you will see a drop down menu of interest options along with the number of people that have listed this item as one of their interests.
Broad Categories
Interests are great for getting right down to what a person might like, but perhaps you will find that you want to target people with a number of diverse interests and one commonality. This is where Broad Categories comes in handy.
Here, you are able to target users based on broader criteria. One of the best characteristics to consider targeting is precise mobile devices. Over 70% of Facebook users access the platform via their smartphone. Don’t miss out on a chance to target those users with your campaign.
Choose Your Users
Maybe you are running a campaign that is targeted specifically to people that are already your fans; this could be something along the lines of a loyalty program. Maybe you are only looking to target users that have not yet liked your company, and are offering something to new fans. In any case, you are going to want to specify whether you want your ad to target users that are already fans, or potential fans.
If you have not already done so, then definitely take a look at the Facebook targeting options for ads. You might be surprised at how much more effective it can make your campaign.
Have you found any surprises with your ads? Tell us what they were in the comments below or on Twitter!
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Social media turned the Old Spice brand into a personality with which people were eager to engage.
In the last few years, Old Spice has become a crowned jewel of social media. Their campaigns consistently skyrocket and the brand has developed such a distinct personality that anyone familiar with the brand can recognize one of their campaigns almost immediately. What is most fascinating about their branding, you ask? Well, perhaps it is the fact that, unlike Rome, it was built in a day. (Well, not a day, but you get the idea.)
In today’s Case Studies, we aim to explain how Old Spice used social media to quickly (and quite successfully) create a virtual personality that led to the explosion of their brand in new markets and demographics.
The Background
In 2010, Old Spice created the character that has widely become known as “The Old Spice Guy” and the campaign developed an instant following. When a second commercial aired with the same praise and hype, Old Spice decided to go the social media route, and did something brilliant: they never broke character.
Slowly, the proliferation of the Old Spice brand on social media began to pick up steam, and, as if by divine intervention, Old Spice did not seem to slip up in any of their steps along the way, creating a set of guidelines that any marketer should adopt when attempting to create a social media personality for a brand.
The Lessons
Be Original
People are always intrigued by something they have never seen before. Until their campaign, no one had ever seen a brand persona like the one Old Spice had created. Of course, since the dawn of marketing there have been mascots and spokespeople, but never a brand personality so bold that clients and fans were eager to engage with it.
Originality is much easier said than done, of course. It is not every day that you are going to wake up with an idea that no one had ever thought of before. Countless brands have attempted to do what Old Spice has done in the last couple of years, but few have been successful. But thinking outside the box is exactly what made Old Spice so successful, and that is the first step to creating a winning social media campaign.
Be Consistent
The second, and possibly the most important step that Old Spice took was maintaining brand consistency across every channel onto which they expanded. Have a look at the Old Spice Twitter account. You’ll notice that the witty, charming and larger-than-life personality they originally created a few years ago exists there as well. The same holds true for their other social media channels. Brand consistency is one of the most crucial aspects when it comes to developing brand loyalty. After all, how can fans recognize your brand instantaneously if there are major differences between your channels?
So remember, once you have that winning edge, maintain it on every level of your marketing, particularly in social media where you will be engaging with your audience. Which brings us to the next takeaway…
Never Stop Engaging
Commercials are one thing, but ongoing, personalized and genuine engagement with its fan base is what led to the ongoing success of Old Spice’s social media efforts. As with any campaign, Old Spice knew that eventually fans would move on and grow tired of the standard promotional commercials. So what did they do? They (once again) never broke character and engaged with their fans through personalized responses (whether they were tweets, videos or posts) in a timely and comedic fashion.
This kept fans coming back, asking questions or making comments in the hopes that “The Old Spice Guy” would respond to them. What did this mean for the Old Spice brand (as a company)? It meant increased brand loyalty through the strategic use of social media. As we noted above, people fell in love with the personality Old Spice had created on social media, and this kept them coming back to the brand on social media, and anxiously awaiting more content. As far as the business side of things was concerned, it meant a very quick 107% increase in sales.
Avoid Selling on Social Media
Last but certainly not least, Old Spice avoided selling their product on social media. Of course, posting commercials that are meant to advertise the product is different, but as far as engaging with fans goes, Old Spice kept to entertaining and shied away from selling. People like personalities, not salespeople, and Old Spice recognized that. And it was the right thing to do. After all, the personality they created took care of the sales, which is clear in the numbers above.
Old Spice showed that creating a personality on social media that engages with its audience (Old Spice was engaging with fans that ranged anywhere from celebrities to Twitter users with less than 100 followers) can build brand loyalty faster than any other form of marketing. Listening, engaging, consistency and originality were the four cornerstones of the success of Old Spice on social media. This is not to say that any idea is going to skyrocket the way Old Spice’s campaign did, but it never hurts to try something and see what happens.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z10Hrsx7FBY
Which of these lessons do you think will be most helpful in building your next campaign? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
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Social media can generate quite a bit of success for your brand, and for Ford, their strategy and the lessons they pulled should be adopted by any brand looking to succeed on social media.
At a recent conference, Scott Monty, the Global Head of Social Media for the Ford Motor Company gave a presentation detailing the success of Ford’s social media campaigns in recent years entitled, “Social Wheels in Motion: Ford’s Lesson in Social Media.”
Of course, with so much success in social media over the last few years, Ford was bound to pull away a few key lessons that any brand should adopt with regards to their social media program. Below are the five top lessons you can pull away from Monty’s presentation and apply to your social media program today.
Stand By Your Product and Let Your Audience Share
In 2009, for the launch of the Ford Fiesta, Ford allowed a number of social media influencers to drive the Fiesta and share their experiences online. The videos and blogs were posted in real time, with no editing or filtering by Ford. The confidence Ford had in its product resulted in a great deal of success on social media. The campaign resulted in nearly a hundred and fifty thousand requests for more information about the new car. What’s more, more than 80% of those asking to find out more were new Ford customers!
Lesson: If you have a good product, let your influencers tell your social community about it.
Commit to Your Social Media Presence
Running a successful campaign is great, but your social media presence cannot be relegated only to when an official campaign is underway. In order to find success on social media, you need to be committed to your program. Ford created a hub wherein Ford users could engage with the brand in real time. This phenomenon is referred to as social care, and it is a social form of customer service that nearly a third of social media users prefer to conventional customer service options (i.e. phone).
Lesson: Make a point to stay active on social media, because Ford has shown that consistency pays off.
Integrate Every Form of Media
Disjointed campaigns will result in confusion for your audience. Different channels and department working on different campaigns and promotions will mean a diluted audience responding to a multitude of campaigns as opposed to a convergence on one major one.
For Ford, they approached their 2010 Explorer campaign this way, integrating every form of media in order to drive the most traffic at the launch. The result? The day of the launch they received 100 million social impressions and 400 million browser impressions.
Lesson: Integrate all of your media under one roof to drive every potential lead to the same place.
Build a Personality for Your Brand on Social Media
As much as people might like a brand, they want to engage with something more. Your audience wants to engage with a personality. For Ford, this realization came when they were looking to rebrand the Focus. So, how did they create a personality? They created a sock puppet mascot named Doug. The goal was to engage with a younger audience and find a new customer-base for the rebranded Focus. The results were impressive, and Ford saw a spike in interest in the Focus with a 61% consideration rate. Not bad considering most people tried to avoid the Focus even as a rental prior to this rebranding.
Lesson: Build a personality for your brand and engage on a human level with your audience.
Find Your Audience Where They Are Talking
One crucial element that marketers often forget is that they need to be going out and finding their audience where they are as opposed to waiting for their audience to find them. Ford realized this and took action. When building a program last year, Ford created a video and distributed it among every one of their followers most popular networks. The results were quite successful, with the video receiving over 1.5 million hits.
Lesson: Find your audience and engage with them where they are, and not the other way around.
How can you apply some of these lessons to your social media strategies? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
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Twitter marketing can be an excellent resource, but only if it is done properly.
Time and time again we stress the importance of a strategy when it comes to Twitter marketing and other forms of social media marketing. Where Twitter marketing differs, however, is in the approach you take to promoting your brand. As we never tire of pointing out, Twitter is not a realm apt for self-promotion. And if you approach the social network as a place to simply tout your brand and aggressively pursue conversions, you will be disappointed with the results. So how can you go about conducting your Twitter marketing in an efficient manner so that you get the most out of all the social network has to offer from a business perspective?
Below are three pointers that should help you get the most our of your Twitter marketing efforts. Twitter can be an exceptional tool for driving business, but your strategy must be in line with Twitter best practices in order to see the best results.
1. Establish Your Goals and Measurement Criteria
There is an entire world of untapped leads and potential clients on Twitter, and heading into the social network blind may leave you stumbling to get on track. Therefore, before embarking on your Twitter marketing campaign, you should first define both your goals and how you plan on measuring said goals. If you jump into Twitter expecting that your first tweet will garner dozens of retweets and loads of conversions and followers, you’re going to be disappointed. (Unless of course you’re a celebrity, in which case we appreciate you reading our blog!) Your strategy needs to include a few key criteria. Below is a list of things to consider when launching your Twitter marketing campaign.
Who is your target audience?
Are you looking for followers in a geo-targeted area or worldwide?
Are you hoping for conversions on a website or at a location?
Once you’ve answered these questions, it is time to get a little more specific.
Do you already have a set of followers? If so, how would you categorize them? If not, how do you plan on acquiring them?
If you are looking for followers in a specific location, how do you plan on finding them?
What do you consider a conversion from Twitter? Is it s click through? A download? A subscription? A purchase?
Are you hoping to use Twitter to increase your current business or start something new?
The answers to these questions are essential before you begin marketing on Twitter. Once these goals are defined, you can establish your measurement criteria. This is a little trickier, because in order to measure the success of your Twitter marketing, you need to have answered the third question in the second set of bullet points above: What do you consider a conversion from Twitter? Once you have this answer, you can set up the appropriate criteria for monitoring the success of your campaigns.
2. Design Your Messages Around Your Niche
As you begin building your audience, you are going to want to keep them captivated. One devastating mistake many marketers often make is sending out nothing but self-promotion. While you might be the expert in a given field, constantly telling people about it and ignoring engaging content will get you nowhere. You will want to design your messages around the niche you wish to target in order to keep them engaged. Below are a few helpful tips to consider when drafting your messages and content.
People love advice and garnering knowledge, so share what you know to showcase your expertise as opposed to simply stating that you are the expert.
Quick, entertaining content is a great way to engage with your followers. Share fun facts and quirky anecdotes that people want to see.
Focus on a designated subject or theme that stretches across all of your messages. Keep your content on track so that the niche audience you build stays engaged.
Do not bombard you followers with links and promotional content. Once in a while a message like this is fine – but this should under no circumstances be your starting point.
Engaging content should be the focal point in drafting all of your Twitter messages. One goal that should always be present is to convert your audience members into brand advocates. We can’t all be Coca-Cola or Harley Davidson – we have to work to get our fans coming back. And, as with all social media, content is king when it comes to boosting your audience.
3. Narrow Your Audience with Twitter Lists
Twitter Lists are a fantastic way of segmenting your audience into appropriate categories. Say you have a thousand followers. Great! But not all of them will be following you for the same reasons. Some might follow you because they are in the same industry. Some might follow you because they are interested in your online product or service. Others might follow you because they live in your area, and are already physical customers. Each of these three categories will respond to your content differently. Lists will help you engage with all of them in the right way.
Once you have segmented your followers into lists, you will be able to design campaigns and messages to go out that are geared towards engaging with one of these groups specifically. The industry members might not be interested in your sales and promotions, but they might find some of your industry-relevant messages much more useful. Your physical customers may have no use for online promotions, but they might jump at the chance to collect in-store offers promoted via Twitter. Take this into account when setting up your campaigns, and use the Twitter Lists to your advantage.
These are just a few of the best practices when it comes to Twitter marketing. Over time, your Twitter strategy evolves and some of these points change and disappear while new ones are added. But to get the most out of your Twitter marketing when you are getting started, these pointers should certainly help.
Can you think of any other best practices when it comes to launching your Twitter marketing? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
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When it comes to social media success, knowing the best practices is crucial.
Time and time again, we stress the importance of following certain best practices when it comes to your social media strategy. Sometimes it can be hard to keep up. But, regardless of how much there might to keep track of, it is vitally important to the success of your social media campaigns that you follow best practices so as not to lose out on possible successes.
While these rules might be modified or discarded over time – depending on what you are looking to get out of your social media program – there are some that will always remain. The infographic below details 36 rules of social media engagement and conduct. While some of these may seem simple or even trivial, they are there for a reason. Over time, as your program evolves, these rules should be your constant. Keep in mind that while social media might be changing, people (your customers), in general, stay the same. So have a look at these social media rules of engagement and see if you could be doing anything differently.
Can you think of any social media rules that are not present here? Which ones do you think are the most important when it comes to business? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
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You might have great content, but if you are not choosing the right SEO keywords for optimization, you might not get anyone to see it.
There are plenty of SEO tricks and tips when it comes to getting found on search engines using targeted keywords, but the only way to ensure that your results are not only growing, but qualified, is to have an SEO strategy in place when it comes to selecting your keywords. One of the trickiest parts of building a social media strategy is that most people have no idea how search engine ranking positions (SERPs) are determined, nor do they know how to go about maximizing their efforts when it comes to increasing their SERPs. Below are a few of the best practices we have observed when it comes to choosing the right keywords for SEO on your website.
1. Don’t Go Overboard
While you might think that optimizing your site for dozens of keywords is your best option for maximizing SEO, the reality is that too many keywords will dilute your results and won’t help your SEO for any one category. We have found that optimizing for five keywords is the golden ticket when it comes to SEO. So, while your industry might have hundreds of keywords to choose from, try and keep it simple in order to avoid missing the mark entirely. Ultimately, you want a keyword density across all of your content between 2% and 5%. What is keyword density? This is the number of times your keywords are mentioned in relation to the total number of words in you content. So try to keep that in mind as well when drafting your posts.
2. Love Your Industry, Not Only Your Brand
Industry keywords perform much better than specific brand keywords. You might think that the more you mention your specific brand, the higher it will rank. While this is true, people might not be searching for “Acme Car Repair” – in fact, the majority of searches will not. So you are better off optimizing your content for the generic “car repair”, and other industry keywords as opposed to simply optimizing for your brand. While the ultimate goal is for people to be searching for your brand specifically, it may not start out that way. Not all of us are a Coca-Cola or a Harley Davidson, and may not have an internationally recognized brand name. So focus on the generic and allow your brand to reach the top of those results organically.
3. Do Your Research
Before choosing any one keyword, it is important to know whether or not you are choosing the right keywords. In keeping with the previous example, you might think that “automotive repairing” is the right keywords for your brand. But without the proper research, you might not realize that “car repair” has not only more global search results, but less competition density. How can you figure this out? The Google Keyword Tool allows users to search for keywords for free, and helps you choose the best keywords for you industry along with other suggestions for comparison.
The image above shows a comparison of these two keywords in terms of monthly Google search results along with some additional suggestions for other keywords. Studying this data will allow you to choose the best keywords when it comes to drafting your content for SEO.
4. SEO is an Ongoing Process
SEO is constantly evolving, and if you optimize for a set of keywords today, it might not be the same tomorrow. (Well, it might be the same tomorrow, but you know what we mean.) This holds particularly true for seasonal industries. Say you are living in the Northeast – the search term for “cheap winter tires” will be much higher during the winter months than in mid-July. So be sure to update your content regularly (corporate blogs are a great way to do this) and do your research on a regular basis in order to ensure that your site’s SERP does not drop over time.
5. Speak with the People
While your car repair company might be full of experts using complicated mechanic jargon throughout the course of the day, that does not mean that your average customer will have any idea what that means. As a result, he or she will not be searching for those terms when trying to find you. Optimize your results on a global level and avoid using complicated internal terms so that even the least savvy customer stumbles upon your page. Expertise is a great thing to have, and will result in increased business, but optimizing for terms that most people do not use will never help your SERPs.
Can you think of any other keyword selection tips that will help boost your SERPs? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
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When it comes to social media marketing, engagement is crucial, and Facebook is one of the best avenues to get the most out of it.
Despite the fact that Facebook is apt for social media marketing and a key source for customer engagement, several companies are not approaching the social network in the right way when it comes to business. Below is a set of 4 tips you can use in your social media marketing strategies to improve your Facebook engagement and get the most out of the social network for your business or brand.
1. KISS: Keep It Short and Simple
People, particularly experts in a given field, feel as though Facebook is the perfect place to showcase their talent and boast about their services over a competitor’s. While Facebook is a great place to capitalize on watchful eyes, it is the wrong place to bore potential leads to tears with long, drawn-out posts explaining what you do and how you do it. This is a step best left to the lead nurturing phase of a relationship, and it is the wrong way to approach social media marketing. In fact, a recent study shows that the optimal number of characters for an engaging Facebook post is 80. By keeping your posts short, to the point and full of engaging content (Point 3) people will feel more compelled to engage with your brand and find out more about you. While you may be able to write paragraph after paragraph of self-touting information, Facebook users are not looking for that. So, to sum up, keep it simple!
2. Nobody ‘Likes’ a Showoff
That holds true for both the real world and the world of social media marketing. Social media is about being social, and one of the least social things a brand can do is post content that is purely self-promotional. (This holds true for parties as well, by the way.) LinkedIn is a network designed around the concept of promoting services and expertise, and Facebook is not. Like we mentioned above, engagement arises out of commonalities, not from promotional posts. Share information, ask questions, and get visitors to your page interested in carrying on a conversation.
3. Engagement Only Happens if People are Encouraged to Enagage
We noted above that you’ll need to post updates with engaging content. Now you may find yourself, asking, “Well, how can I have engaging content that is short and simple?” There are two answers to that question that have proven effective and easy to use: questions and pictures. Images and questions prompting an answer have the highest engagement rates of any for of content on Facebook. By asking short questions or prompting a comment like, “Provide a caption for this image!” people are seeing far more engagement than they do with other types of posts.
4. Do Your Research
Those first three tips are a cakewalk. They’re easy to follow, easy to employ and do not require much more work than simply following the given steps. This last tip is a little bit trickier. If you want to capitalize on views, shares, comments and other engaging aspects offered on Facebook, you’ll need to do you research to find out when your optimal times to post might be. Luckily, Facebook Insights offers tons of great information that can help, but you will have to find it, study it and adjust your Facebook strategy accordingly.
If you follow these four steps you are sure to see quite a bit of improvement when it comes to your Facebook engagement. Can you think of any other helpful tips that will add to you engagement levels? Tell us in the comments below or on Facebook or Twitter!
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How can you go about maximizing your twitter marketing efforts to get the most out of the social network?
Twitter is a phenomenal resource for any kind of business. The real-time conversational aspect that it brings gives it a certain unique feel and a environment apt for engagement, but what are some Twitter marketing techniques businesses should adopt in order to get the most out of it? Below are some of the top Twitter marketing strategies businesses can employ in order to capitalize on all that Twitter has to offer to businesses.
1. Be Authentic
Don’t automate your posts – no one wants to hear what a machine has to say as it randomly generates messages using your pre-loaded content. People follow you to hear what you have to say, so tell them! If you decided to take the stage, and hundreds or even thousands of people came to hear you speak, would you simply play a recording a leave? Probably not. And if you did that, di you think they would stay? Also unlikely. So share what’s on your mind and engage with an audience that is eager to hear what you have to say.
2. Engage!
People like to converse and be heard. As a brand, it is your responsibility to listen to the customer and engage with them wherever possible. Nowhere is it more possible than on Twitter! As we noted above, Twitter is an avenue build for real-time conversation. So when someone is engaging with your brand, it is always in your best interest to address their comment, be it positive or negative.
3. Avoid Self-Promotion
Sure, the end goal is to convert these leads into clients, but endless self-promotion is nauseating, and the only thing you’ll succeed in doing is alienating your brand. We noted this in an earlier blog post and we are sticking by it. Social media is not for self-promotion, but for brand promotion thriugh engagement. When people are loyal to your brand, they will convert into customers.
4. Create a Relevant Database
It might be nice to see that you have thousands of followers and are following thousands of others, but this might not mean you have an account full of quality. If the goal is sales, then you will want to have as many targeted followers as possible, and the same goes for those you are following.
Can you think of any other best practices when it comes to Twitter marketing? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
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With every action taken on social channels, social data is being gathered and analyzed behind the scenes. First, let’s dispel one rumour very quickly: activity on social media is measurable. You just need to know what to measure and where to find your social data.
We hear it all the time. As marketers, a lot of us have even asked it or are asking it now. The question, “How much does social media cost?” is one that has surged in popularity as of late, but anyone who actively operates a social business knows why it is somewhat misguided.
We all strive to get people to click on our links. Every day, we are sharing our content to different networks and actively promoting it in order to drive new traffic and, ideally, generate new business. But it can be frustrating when we write a great post or article, share it to every channel imaginable and simply see no new clicks through to our website. How can we change that?
If you are not paying attention to the perception of your brand by audiences, then you are forgetting about one of the most important features that makes a social business successful. The management of your reputation on social media is a living organism, and you need to pay it regular attention.
Instagram is about to roll out their sponsored ad feature, and based on the comments from Instagram users, it would also appear as though the world is about to end. Like every social network that burst onto the scene, Instagram needs to find a way to make money, and by charging brands on Instagram a fee for posting their images on users’ accounts, they might have found it. But if your company has a presence on Instagram, what can you do to ensure that your audience will stick around?
We all know that the marketing department is going to be among the first to adopt new media when it comes to social business, but what other departments can contribute to it? These three departments are generally forgotten when it comes to social business, and it is easy to understand why: a lot of people don’t know how they can be social!
