social media Archives

Super Targeting Your Social Ads: Reaching the Right Audience

February 28, 2014/by Corey Padveen

When it comes to targeting your social ads, what should you consider in order to find the perfect audience?

Perhaps the greatest evolutionary feature that has resulted from the recent history of advertising is the specificity with which you can be targeting your social ads. By properly targeting your social ads, you can significantly increase your reach and decrease your cost-per-acquisition, whether that is new followers, clicks or something else.

But so few publishers are taking advantage of these advanced targeting capabilities and it is hard to understand why. After all, one of the greatest benefits of running a social business is increasing efficiencies, and this is one of the ways in which that can be done.

So next time you decide to run a social advertising campaign, keep a few of these important criteria in mind for targeting your audience.

Interests

This seems like an obvious one, but it is so rarely used. Instead of A/B testing ads on social media to find the right audience, most brands simply throw out a net and hope to catch something.

The ability to target users by interest is extremely valuable. You can craft ads around these targeted interests in the hopes of finding higher engagement (often achieving that goal). People are out there telling you what they like; why not listen?

Age

People of different ages have different priorities. More importantly, your key demographic of customers might fall into a particular age bracket.

The ability to target by age means that you can specify whether you want your ads to reach an already engaged audience, or try to penetrate a new age demographic. Again, targeting by age allows you to test different copy to see what kind of rhetoric resonates with a young or older audience.

Job Description/Title

While this is a feature unique to LinkedIn, it is extremely valuable when trying to reach decision makers.

Often, we do not have control over whether or not the people seeing our ads are decision makers at their respective companies. We simply have to hope. On LinkedIn, however, we can not only see the job level of our engaged audience, but target an audience by seniority. This makes it much easier to reach decision makers and get your message out to the right people.

Location

Again, this is a demographic that seems obvious, yet publishers are not using it in the most effective ways.

As with age, people in different locations (even within the same country) have different priorities. If you sell skiing equipment, you won’t want to target people in South Florida. (In fairness, that’s an oversimplification of the issue, but the easiest way to convey the message.) Craft your ads according to the priorities of the people in specific locations and change the message for others.

Commonalities

One of the most valuable features of Twitter and Facebook advertising is the ability to target users who follow or like similar brands on the network.

When someone likes other brands in your industry, they are all the more likely to be interested in your brand. By targeting your ads and sponsored messages to these users, you can be sure to see your clicks and conversions rise.

Remember, even if your super targeted social audience is small, it is a group of people that are more likely to engage with the content you are sharing. Would you rather have ten million impressions, or an engagement rate ten times the industry average with a sensationally low CPA?

What are some of the target audiences you hope to reach with your social advertising strategy? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Some Big Predictions for Social Business in 2014

January 6, 2014/by Corey Padveen

We can expect to see social business become even more popular in 2014, and these are some of the biggest predictions for social business in the coming year.

Considering social business is still a relatively new phenomenon, it is constantly evolving and we can only speculate as to where it will go next. 2013 saw the rise of the concept, and these predictions for social business suggest that we can expect to see it get even bigger and more widely understood in 2014.

Mobile as the Focal Point

We saw the rise of mobile in 2013, and that trend is sure to increase in 2014. As mobile devices become users’ primary devices (around the world) the importance of optimizing your mobile strategy for search and social is crucial.

Google’s Eric Schmidt admits that mobile has now won the race for the most important medium. For brands to succeed in the social and digital space, they need to be everywhere. This no longer simply means well-placed ads. Today, being everywhere means having a comprehensive mobile strategy in place that allows customers and leads alike to reach out to your brand and start a conversation.

Big Data into Actionable Items

A major buzz term in 2013 was ‘big data’. We all heard about it, and more and more people began to understand what it was, but leveraging big data was not on every brand’s radar. Why? Well, effectively, most brands just saw big data as a tool for large companies, and not something that SMBs could use. This will all change in 2014.

We can expect to see a major shift in 2014 towards the use of big data by brands of all sizes. At t2, we coined the term and concept of Responsive Branding, which is in effect the leveraging of big data in order to create campaigns and marketing strategies that cater to the tastes and preferences of your audience. We can certainly expect this trend to increase as (simplified) big data provides brands with insights they would have never had.

Imagine knowing what your audience wants without ever having to ask? This is where big data is headed this year.

Repercussions of Social Media Marketing Myopia

Slowly but surely, social media has become a necessity. Brands – from small to large – that want to grow can no longer ignore the importance of social. A while back, we introduced the concept of Social Media Marketing Myopia. What is it? Essentially, the concept relates to brands that refuse to adopt to large-scale change, thinking that their company or industry does not need it. The results can be detrimental.

Now that we have arrived at an age where social business is becoming the norm, we can expect to start seeing companies face the effects of Social Media Marketing Myopia. Those slow to adopt will now be forced to expedite the process and implement a strategy in order to catch up with their industry.

A Rise in the Importance of Micro-Video

Microblogging started with Twitter. Twitter bought Vine – a micro-video publishing network. After Facebook bought Instagram, Instagram introduced Instagram Video, another micro-video network. Brands have warmed to the idea of micro-video marketing and audiences have started to enjoy it as well.

In 2013, we saw brands like Dunkin’ Donuts create commercials made entirely from Vine videos. As we head into 2014, we can surely expect to see micro-video marketing increase in importance.

Google+ Will Skyrocket

We have long said that Google+ can be a brand’s best friend. Why so many refuse to work with it is quite surprising. After all, search rankings are still of great importance, and we know that social signals factor heavily into improved search rankings. So, logic would suggest that the social network owned by the largest search engine on the web would be of pretty significant importance to improved search rankings.

This is going to become even more true in 2014. With the Hummingbird upgrade now in full effect and the age of traditional keyword search behind us, social and soft search will dominate the playing field. This means that signals from Google+ will become all the more important. Google has long said that they intend to shift their focus on the social layer of their model. This means Google+ (and YouTube) will be a brand and SEO’s best friend.

And there are our five big predictions for social business in 2014. What do you expect to see in the realm of social business in 2014? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

10 Great Resources to be Reading Over the Holidays

December 27, 2013/by Corey Padveen

If you have some down time, have a look at these ten excellent resources that every digital marketer should be reading over the holidays.

1. Mashable

It’s no secret that we love Mashable. There is a ton of great content constantly being uploaded to inform marketers about updates to networks, as well as how-to guides and industry news. It is definitely a resource to check out periodically over the holiday season. We have even included it in a list of great resources for sourcing blog content.

2. Hubspot

Another blog that every marketer should be reading over the holidays (and during business-as-usual) is the Hubspot blog. The largest inbound services provider is always sharing great information that can be used by a marketer in any field.

3. Social Media Today

If your looking for a great set of content being shared by social media industry experts, then Social Media Today has you covered. With articles being published regularly, you can expect to find some brand new content over the holiday season.

4. Search Engine Journal

If you want to know about search, then Search Engine Journal should be one of your top stops. There is always a selection of great content to choose from covering everything from organic SEO to paid search tactics.

5. Alltop

Guy Kawasaki’s content curation site is always pulling in some of the best content from around the web. While it is not limited to industry content, you can easily filter your searches to include only results in search or social.

6. Moz

The Moz blog is a little more technical, but highly informative. Though the core discussions of the blog are primarily search-based, you can expect to find a lot of information about social as well.

7. Social Media Examiner

At this point, most social marketers know about Social Media Examiner. The website won’t miss a beat over the holiday season, continuing to share great content every day that marketers can really use.

8. Occam’s Razor

Although Avinash Kaushik’s blog is not updated on a daily basis, there is plenty of content (relaying information at a very high level) that marketers can use. Why is this a good resource for reading over the holidays? Well, simply put, articles are not easy reads. There is a ton of information here, but with this down time it is a perfect opportunity to absorb what he has to say.

9. Jeff Bullas

Again, Jeff Bullas is not publishing new content every day, but what is available is years of published content with a ton of great information. Jeff Bullas focuses primarily on lists and statistics, and what you can find on his blog can lead you to more great content all over the web.

10. Top Rank Blog

Lee Odden’s blog is another great resource being updated regularly over the course of the holidays. Be sure to stop by to see what great new information he has to share.

And there you have it. Ten great resources that you should be reading over the holidays. We hope you are relaxing and getting some much deserved R&R. Enjoy!

Legal Implications of Social Media: Where is the Line?

December 11, 2013/by Corey Padveen

The legal implications of social media might not be written in stone (just yet) but they do exist and you, as a business or individual, need to know about them.

It is no secret that employers are using social media when researching prospective employees, or business partners. In fact, 1 in 5 recent graduates has reportedly been denied a job because of something a prospective employer found on social media. That relates to the social implications of these new media. But what about the legal implications of social media? Surely, with something as clearly defined (for the most part) as the law, they cannot be nearly as severe, right?

Wrong.

There are plenty of legal implications of social media, and your social business needs to be aware of them.

Your Workplace is Now Online

In 2009, a Philadelphia police station was sued by a group of individuals who felt that a discussion online between coworkers was creating a hostile work environment.

As noted above, your personal online activity can cost you a job, but you need to realize that if you are not paying attention to your employees’ habits online, you are as at fault as they are. It might sound like an extra workload, but ignoring social media is not an option – neither internally nor externally.

As a social business, you need to inform your employees of your expected best practices. The reputation and credibility of your firm might rest on it.

Know Your Limits

It is no secret that your best brand advocates can be your employees. You know they are loyal to your brand, and there is nothing legally or ethically wrong with asking them to share your company’s content in an effort to increase your reach. But you need to know just how far you can take that.

You are not allowed to require your employees to provide you with access to their social channels. The law might not have caught up to technology entirely, but the right to privacy is still alive and well. It might seem obvious for most business owners and managers, but for some, that is not the case. Understand your limitations when it comes to your internal process.

Words Matter

For a social business, anything written online is representative of your brand’s culture. For better or worse, people formulate opinions based on what they see. Now, objective comments and status updates are (usually) harmless, but it is in your best interest to stay away from touchy or potentially harmful subjects.

From an internal perspective, you do not want to create that hostile work environment mentioned above. You also do not want to use employees’ social channels as a means of blackmailing them. This can lead to a discrimination suit.

From an external perspective, the laws of libel and slander are still in effect. Not only is it bad form to criticize competitors on open forums – your best way to get past them is by providing a better product or service – but if you are not careful, you could wind up saying something that is not true. When that is in writing, you open yourself up to a world of unpleasantness.

The law is still catching up to social business. There is quite a ways to go, and each industry is going to have different standards when it comes to the medium. There exist, however, certain elements that we already know about, and these should be considered when you are putting together your social business strategy.

What stories can you think of that relate to the legal implications of social media? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

How to Create Effective Email Subject Lines

November 22, 2013/by Corey Padveen

When running an email campaign, you need to ensure that you create an effective email subject line to get your audience to read on!

The first thing people see when they open up their inboxes are the subject lines of their emails. Generally, these are going to be the deciding factors in whether or not someone is going to open an email or delete it. If you want to find yourself on the better side of those two options, then you need to make sure that you are crafting effective email subject lines.

There are a few best practices when it comes to creating effective email subject lines that should be followed. Take a look below to see what you can do to increase your open rates with a few small tweaks.

Be Clear

People don’t want mystery. It might seem logical: entice your audience with an aura of mystery and they will be more inclined to open your email and read through your content. It is actually the opposite.

Roughly 84% of emails sent are spam. Yes, that’s an actual figure. When you are not clear about what people are going to see when they open up your email, you fall into that 84%. The subject line, “These 5 Facebook Marketing Tips Will Help Drive New Engagement” is much better than, “Want to Make More Money?” The latter screams spam, and you’ll be lucky if you don’t see a large unsubscribe rate as a result.

Avoid Certain Words

Email marketers should know that words like ‘free’ tend to trigger spam filters, but research has shown that there are other words that tend to lower open rates.

MailChimp conducted a study and found that there were three seemingly innocent terms that had generally lower open rates: help, percent off and reminder. If this is the content of your email, include these words in the copy and keep them out of your subject line.

Change Your Newsletter Subject Line

The tricky thing about newsletters – everything from daily to monthly – is that they all eventually start to see diminishing open rates. One way to avoid seeing a drastic drop off is to keep your subject lines fresh with every new email. If you are always sending out an email with the subject line, “My Company’s Weekly Newsletter” it will not be nearly as captivating as, “Major Discoveries Found in New Research This Week”.

The 50 Character Rule

We have to learn to work within tight spaces. If you look at your inbox and an email subject line is a lengthy sentence that ends with an ellipses (…) is that really going to interest you? Are you even going to read the full subject line? Probably not.

With so much we can be doing, reading, watching and working on, we need to capture the attention of our recipients right away. Keep your subject lines short, 50 characters maximum is optimal.

Avoid Flash

“You need to BUY NOW!” is horrible. So horrible. And anything like it is also horrible.

Nobody wants to read whatever is in this email. In fact, the only reason why you might see some opens is because people wanted to click on the unsubscribe link. Avoid flash like CAPS, exclamation points, multiple punctuation (!!!) and anything that might “grab the attention” of your audience. It does, but for all the wrong reasons.

Stick to these best practices and you will certainly see some better performance with your emails. One of the best questions to ask yourself is, “Would I open this email if it came to me?” That question will generally give you the answer you’re looking for.

How do you craft effective email subject lines to increase your open rates? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

15 Amazing Social Media Marketing Statistics (in Pictures!)

November 11, 2013/by Corey Padveen

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!

Find out what a social business looks like here and let us know how your company is social! Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

What’s the Difference Between Paid, Owned and Earned Media?

October 22, 2013/by Corey Padveen

We often hear about paid, owned and earned media, but what is the difference between media types and which one is best, if any?

There is a lot of discussion around paid, owned and earned media, but not everyone knows or understands the difference between media types or which one generates the greatest degree of Social Equity for a brand. While every brand will find that one of these media types may be better than others for achieving certain goals, there are qualities to earned media that far outweigh those to paid and owned.

Paid Media

Wherever you are investing resources in order to have your brand featured – from a multimillion dollar Super Bowl ad to a five dollar ad campaigns on Facebook – you are using paid media.

There are a few great things about paid media. For one, the results are very easily measurable. In order for media companies to charge brands for advertising space, they must provide them with clear metrics of performance and reach. While the response depends on your content, you know how broad of an audience you can reach. Second, the results are more or less immediate.

When you are trying to break into a noisy market, waiting for organic traffic to build can take some time. When you pay to place your ad in front of hundreds, thousands or even millions of potential clients, you can rest assured that your presence in a market will be felt much faster than if you wait for that presence to be felt organically.

While paid media was once the end all be all of marketing and advertising, the social evolution of markets has led to a few issues resulting from the use of paid media. For one, it is not entirely credible. When people see a brand paying for ad space, they tend to ignore it compared to, say, a recommendation. Paid media has also become a very loud marketplace, and with that comes increased expense to make an impact.

Owned Media

Do you have a corporate website? Are you publishing content on a blog or branded social channels? These are forms of owned media. Your brand holds all the cards.

Your owned media are not only going to be a source for sharing original, branded content, but these media will be hubs in which your leads and customers will congregate. Owned media are great spaces in which you can engage your audience and, ultimately, work to generate new clients. These are also cost-efficient, since all expenses are under your control. There are a few downsides, however, to owned media.

As I mentioned above, it is going to be a lot harder and take quite a bit longer for your audience to find you when they you are looking to generate organic traffic. There is also the same issue as with paid media in that people tend not to trust the word of a company over a friend, relative, or former customer. And that brings us to earned media.

Earned Media

Considering the increasingly social nature of the web, earned media is going to be the most fruitful for a brand. Forrester Research defines earned media very simply: “When customers become the brand.” Customer loyalty is going to be your greatest source of growth. If you are able to create brand advocates that speak on behalf of your brand, you will see your business increase dramatically.

Today, 91% of people trust the recommendations of their friends and family. This is earned media. Independent blog articles that talk about your brand positively are going to hold much more weight for prospective buyers than a piece of paid advertising that you are using to generate business.

Of course, there are some risks associated with earned media. You do not have any control over the content, and it may not be entirely accurate. There can also be negative earned media, which is never good. (Although this does give your brand an opportunity to showcase how much you care.) And while it might be hard to measure the exact returns earned media provides, you can rest assured that they are there in some way or another.

Now that you understand the difference between media types, is there one you think is most valuable? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

4 Features Every Blog Post Should Have [VIDEO]

October 19, 2013/by Corey Padveen

There are some features, simply put, that every one of your blog posts should have.

4 Ways to Reach a Big Audience Fast

October 16, 2013/by Corey Padveen

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

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

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

Your Employees are Your Best Brand Advocates

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

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

Share Content Aggressively

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

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

Promote Your Best Content

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

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

Answer Questions

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

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

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

How to Track ROI on Facebook in 3 Easy Steps

October 11, 2013/by Corey Padveen

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

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

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

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

Step 2: Set Up a Conversion Tracking Pixel

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

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

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

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

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

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

Step 3: Load the Pixel Onto Your Conversion Page

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

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

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

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

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

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