Amplifying Your Content

You could build (or have built) the best, most amazing piece of content – but if no one reads or views it, does it even really exist? Recognizing the right avenue for sharing your content and then finding the best way to amplify the message through social influencers and employee advocacy will ensure that you get your message out to your target audience and hopefully fulfill your purpose.

Best Social Media Avenues

• Twitter – Posts are limited to just 140 characters. This can be a good thing as it forces the message to be succinct, containing only the most important aspects. It also becomes the avenue from which to launch most campaigns. Your post, which is a form of writing in and of itself (thus content), is focused to your audience and the sharing begins with those in you and your employees’ networks – that is those following you on Twitter. Then they share, then others share and so forth, snowballing the message throughout the virtual community. Be careful not to lose your focus, though, which is easy with Twitter where all posts are viewed by anyone.

• LinkedIn – Designed for business relationships and thus is easy to maintain a highly professional tone. Businesses should have a page on LinkedIn, especially if they want to reach other businesses. The reach here is to business-focused individuals, so if not presenting a product aimed more at enhancing business, then it isn’t likely the best approach. This does allow a tighter niche for business focus purposes, with employees showing their personal business connection to a company.

• Slideshare – This network is becoming increasingly popular for SEO and image-based content. Recently, it was acquired by LinkedIn and is becoming one of the one of the most popular search engines for content. When your employees are on LinkedIn and connected to your company, they can easily share a Slideshare, making it a more viable option than Instagram for enterprise social media amplification.

• Instagram – An outlet for images and often links with either Facebook or Twitter for greater ease of sharing. If a visual is an important aspect of your content – this is a must for you to use. If the image isn’t a must, this may not be the approach to take. 

• Facebook – Without question, a business should have a Facebook page that they regularly update. If it just sits there, it isn’t helping you at all. From Facebook, you can share links to any style or form of content, but the image ends up being a driving force. Include a picture, then the link, and you will get more traffic from Facebook. That said, it may not be the best arena to share more technical jargon that is geared toward a specific and highly technological business audience. Another avenue may work better.

There are many other approaches than the above listed social media outlets. And new sites pop up every day. Again, weigh the needs of your purpose against the reach of your target audience to determine the best approach for your current campaign. Most important, don’t go stagnant with your contribution of content. Keep it constant, lest your audience will lose interest and move on to the next big thing.

Advanced Amplification Techniques

• Employee Advocacy – Employees are always the best starting point for sharing the content you have put so much time into creating. Not only do they know your company and products, but offering them the opportunity to share their thoughts, ideas, and opinions in the creation of the content inspire them to want to share it with their circle. Employee advocacy is an essential element for successful engagement with your customers. Your employees should be the one talking with customers and offering support for questions. But this shouldn’t be limited to just the marketing or customer service staff. Everyone in the company should play a role, from executives to sales to maintenance. They all have a stake in the company’s outcome, so encouragement to participate in advocacy efforts is a must. When employees feel like they are part of the process, they are excited to become engaged in the process.

• Customer Advocacy – Customers are the whole point of business, right? Businesses know this. Or they should. Without customers buying products, businesses would go out of business. And they are the best marketing voice you have when it comes to sharing the benefits your company has to offer. Word of mouth marketing will never go away – as people like recommendations from their friends, colleagues, and even admired strangers. The place where people share has been moved from the watercooler to the Internet, but the impact is still the same – people telling people they know what they should or should not buy. Customer advocacy cannot be overlooked. Rather, incorporate them into your amplification efforts, ask them to share your content. They already buy your product, so becoming an ambassador for it shouldn’t be a stretch.

Amplification comes down to how the message gets shared, no matter the content. If you have followed the steps above, created a purpose with clear goals, determined your target audience, selected style and form, chosen a writer, wrote quality content that includes a good title and SEO consideration, and decided who to share the message, then the next step is to find a way to reach the most people with the lowest amount of effort – you need to amplify your message.

Content marketing is getting more saturated by the day. Getting your content out there and in front of your target audience is arguably the hardest aspect of content marketing. Social media promotion and leveraging employees and customers are easy ways to ensure your content is reaching your target audience.

 Source:http://bit.ly/1NpyYIV

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Top 6 B2B digital marketing predictions for 2016

As we stepped in 2016, we looked back at the digital marketing landscape, which is evolving at astronomical rate in comparison at any other industry; that’s because the web, itself, is changing faster than ever.

With heaps of data pouring out of new devices, products and social platforms every minute, it is of utmost importance for marketers to understand how this data will impact their content & community marketing strategies in 2016.

Therefore, in this article, we try to boil down what changes are requiredfor tomorrow, what traditional strategies are no longer relevant, and what marketing trends will carry us forward in the coming year, especially for the B2B Businesses.

Here our 6 digital marketing trends to watch out for in 2016:

1. Be Mobile Ready –

This includes responsive websites, landing pages, mobile marketing, and mobile-specific content. With the number of smartphone users worldwide predicted to surpass 2 billion in 2016, this could turn out to be the game changer of marketing trends. In 2015, we saw brands allocating almost half of their digital advertising budgets to mobile, a 50% increase over 2014 spending.

In 2016, we expect location-driven mobile marketing to gain momentum through wearable technology, augmented reality, and the Internet of Things.

2. Be the veritable social butterfly –

It’s true, the importance of social media, social engagement, social networks and social sites can no longer be denied. The world has gone social, and marketing is the veritable social butterfly. In 2015, social media marketing was rooted in personalization. Brands can use platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter, to deliver targeted messages to their customers.

In 2016, in a bid to grab their share of marketplace attention, brands will need to connect with their customers in real time. Live social sites likeSnapchat will dominate the social media marketingdomain as Virtual Reality (VR) technology goes mainstream.

3. Watch out for content marketing as it continues to dominate –

As mobile and social media marketing takes over the more traditional forms of advertising, the demand for platform-centric content is going to get bigger than ever.According to CMI, 51% of B2B firms plan to increase spending on content marketing in 2016.

The biggest advantage of content marketing is that it helps prospective customers move through their Buyer Journey much faster because the brand is providing answers to questions that are being asked before the prospect is reaching out to the sales person.

In 2016, B2B firms will need to adjust their marketing budgets, increasing investment in content marketing– from people to vendors, to tech solutions, which manage, measure, and optimize content.

4. Be ready as search indexing evolves yet again-

Every year, Google comes up with almost 500 changes to their algorithms, so organic search is on a continuous cycle of evolution. Currently, we’re at the precipice of two major shifts in how people will be searching on the web, both of which will have a significant impact for B2B marketers to take notice this year.

The first major change will be in terms of how Google and other search engines index mobile apps. And the second significant change will be in the way that search engines incorporate virtual assistant app data, like Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Facebook’s M.

In addition to the traditional keyword-based, social signal-based, and link-based SEO, B2B firms will also need to re-examine how their content is being crawled and indexed for the always on-the-go user leveraging one of these assistant apps.

5. Be ready to embrace video content –

While 2015 was a significant year for online video, according to a report the medium will become an even more essential part of the digital marketing mix in the coming years. With many teenagers preferring YouTube to traditional TV, online video is particularly key to engaging those under 18, or Generation Z.

Where user behavior goes, so must your digital marketing strategies, and B2B marketers who start video early will gain the first-mover advantages with their prospects as well as with the media.

6. Ride the marketing automation wave –

Over the last year, we have realised that a business with any number of customers needs to have a CRM system to manage customer information, send those customers time-based or trigger-based email communications, and recognize when a customer might be ready to buy again. This will not only ensure customer retention, will also facilitate repeat purchase from those loyal customers along with positive word of mouth.

While most of us spent a majority of our time looking for the ‘Next Big Thing,’ B2B firms need to ensure that their strategies are adaptable to the changes happening in the industry, while still positioning their brandfor success by staying ahead of the most important digital trends.

In 2016, B2B firms should focus on creating a refined, almost personalized digital journey that is consumable on all devices, at all touch point, and can be attributed back to the marketing efforts of the brand.

Source : http://bit.ly/1TOTfhT

6 Guaranteed Ways To Become A Social Media Influencer

Since the entry of social media into the Nigerian space, many people have explored it to their advantage in various ways. One interesting way is becoming social media influencers. Many of them with thousands of followers use their platforms to drive engagement, promote brands, market events and fight for a cause. With these concerted efforts, quite a number of them are smiling to the bank. 

If you want to become a social media influencer in the future, here are a few tips from Jovago.com Africa’s largest hotel booking portal.

Focus

This is the first thing a budding social media influencer should do. He should select a particular field he has comprehensive knowledge about. This will help you narrow your research work to the subject rather than skirting around different fields.

Set Alerts

Tools like Google Alerts or Social Mention can help you to keep tabs on different topics or keywords in your field. Use these to write and contribute current information and opinion.

Be Unique

Your field is saturated with knowledgeable experts like you. They do almost the same thing you do. But, if you want to become a serious social media influencer, strive to be unique. Take time to conceptualise your messages, posts and tweets. In addition, avoid posting first drafts but edit to clear it of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.

Engagement

Building an online community takes dedication and constant engagement with your commenters, followers and fans. If you make the engagements regular and focus on a particular field such as economics or fashion, you will have a steady rise in your social media profile.

Share your blog posts

Whenever you write a blog post, ensure that you share it on all the social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. It keeps your account active.

Share other influencer’s content

If you admire the work of a senior colleague in your industry, share their articles, posts and tweets regularly. This will help you grow a relationship with them which can help enlarge your area of influence.

  Source : http://bit.ly/1VwyTYw

7 Skills Your Social Media Manager Should Have

The past ten years have brought us incredible developments in the field of social media – developments which have irrevocably changed the DNA of digital marketing; provided content marketers with a limitless landscape in which to showcase their efforts; and created a new profession of individuals who pretty much live and breathe social.

The beauty of social is that you don’t need to be a big name brand with an astronomical marketing budget in order to harness its power – even a modest-sized business can reap the benefits of connecting with and engaging consumers. In fact, it can even be argued that the smaller-sized business lends itself even better to social media as it tends to operate via informal, open communication – just the sort of style that works exceptionally well in the social sphere.

Brands have had to sit up and take notice of the fact that properly handling the social side of their business is becoming more important than ever. The role of social media management is no longer simply seen as an add-on duty i.e. the aptly named Joe Bloggs penning the odd, whimsical post to publish to Facebook as and when he thinks of it before hurrying back to his ‘real’ job.

However, hiring the right social media manager can be something of a minefield. In the dynamic and constantly evolving landscape of social media, it can be hard to figure out what the key skills are that you should be looking out for. So, to help you make the right call, we’ve compiled a little list…

1. Passion for social media

Bit of a no-brainer you might think, but just having a top-notch personal Facebook page doesn’t necessarily put your candidate above the rest. A great social media manager will be able to not only demonstrate expertise across a range of social channels but also show an understanding of what type of content best suits each platform and a passion for interacting within these online communities.

2. Customer service skills

An ability to communicate with customers and prospects from all demographics as well the organisational skills to provide timely and appropriate responses to queries or issues are essential attributes in order to gain and secure customer loyalty.

3. SEO expertise

SEO, content and social media all go hand-in-hand. Forbes once described a social media manager as “the gatekeeper and promoter” of content. This content needs to be properly optimised to grow your audience, drive traffic to your website and hopefully attract a fair few sales as a result.

4. Drive to learn

This is a landscape that is ever-evolving and consequently, your social media manager needs to be evolving along with it. To stay on top of the game in this fast-paced world, the ideal candidate needs to be reading as much as possible about social media and technological advancements and be able to discuss trends, tools and potential opportunities for the future.

5. Persistence

It takes patience, dedication and drive to achieve social media success. Growing an audience, building trust and establishing your brand as an authority in your industry takes time and the best social media managers maintain realistic expectations along with their big dreams – they are not afraid to experiment, make mistakes and come back stronger than before.

6. A top-notch toolkit

There is a vast array of useful social media tools at your disposable – do you really have the time to learn about them all as well as run your business? A social media manager should be able to show you their favourite features for tasks such as: monitoring mentions on social media activity; keeping track of and interpreting analytics; collaborating with a team on social projects; and scheduling activity.

7. An eye for words and pictures

As the majority of communications will be in writing, it goes without saying that a social media manager should have clear, concise and on-brand writing skills. However, in the digital world, particularly as the age of video dawns, a picture can be worth a thousand words – the right candidate will have an eye for great images and video when they see it and know when it is worth sharing.

Source : http://bit.ly/1JOZbnF

FIVE RULES FOR CONTENT MARKETERS IN 2016

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: 2016 planning. With the New Year around the corner, we know content marketers are looking for insights and trends that will shape the year ahead and help their content stand out.

This morning, we released findings from one of the industry’s largest and broadest global surveys of consumer views on digital content. We surveyed more than 12,000 consumers across six countries to get a deeper understanding of evolving consumer expectations and how they are fueling marketers’ challenge. The report, titled “State of Content: Rules of Engagement for 2016” sheds light on five rules for content marketers to follow in optimizing engagement with their target audiences.

Design for the Multiscreen Reality

Consumers report using five different devices and, on average, 83 percent use 2.23 devices at the same time. While the majority of consumers report feeling good about it (81 percent entertained, 80 percent connected, 76 percent productive), nearly half (47 percent) say they are distracted. As attention spans shrink, good design and optimization are paramount. Consumers ranked display (65 percent) as the most important aspect when it comes to content experience in their personal life, and 54 percent listed overall good design, such as appealing layout and photography as important. Content marketers can’t attempt to “get away with” a one-size-fits all approach to content distribution: content must be well-designed and optimized for each viewing device.

Don’t Fall Victim to #TLDR (Too Long, Didn’t Read)

Consumers report lower patience for sub-par content experiences – with length a key factor. Nearly 9 out of 10 digital device users would switch devices or stop viewing content altogether if it fails to meet their quality, length and formatting expectations. Sixty seven percent of consumers would stop engaging if content is too long, and 79 percent would do the same if the content doesn’t display well on their device. Marketers need to deliver content in the right format, get to the point and optimize or consumers might say #unsubscribe.

Humor Makes Brands More Relatable

Seventy percent of global consumers agree that humor makes companies more relatable, but just 14 percent rate company-created content as entertaining. Globally, “making people laugh” was identified as the top personal motivator for sharing content. Content marketers should work to create authentic activations that entertain to help drive brand engagement.

In Our Relationships We Trust

In an era of high skepticism, authenticity and trust are critical. Consumers are more likely to engage with content they trust, but many are highly skeptical of most content they view online: 50 percent of consumers question whether negative comments or reviews have been removed, 49 percent wonder if an author was paid or incented to write a positive review, and 48 percent question whether a news article is biased. However, consumer trust in content increases as their relationship with the source grows stronger. Only 23 percent of consumers trust content from companies whose products they don’t buy, but if the source is a company from whom they do purchase products and have a relationship, that number nearly doubles to 43 percent. Brands need to work on building trusted relationships with their audience, which includes disclosing any endorsements, sponsorships and affiliations.

Don’t Show Up Uninvited

The majority of consumers understand the value of predictive recommendations, with 73 percent noting they are willing to share at least one piece of information about themselves and 71 percent reporting they are open to predictive recommendations from brands based on past behavior. Among consumers not willing to share their information, 40 percent believe companies could do something to ease their concern and 25 percent suggested “asking permission to access data” would make them more comfortable. This maps back to trust; consumers are most comfortable sharing information with brands they trust.

In addition to these insights shaping content marketing in 2016, the study also unveiled interesting findings about online engagement and behavior. For instance, there’s a rising fear of digital footprints. Twenty-six percent of U.S. consumers have cleared their browser history to hide content they viewed from a friend or loved one, and 17 percent have hid or embellished the truth about the content they regularly consume.

Source : http://adobe.ly/1OYCQGA

16 Marketing Goals for Your Business in 2016

Every business needs to have goals. They could be financial, strategic or marketing in nature, but you still need to have them.

I have goals for my business. I’m heading into year 5 of ME Marketing Services and 4.5 years in I have reached a major goal/milestone, financially speaking. Looking towards this next year I need to have more marketing-focused goals to keep up that milestone, which lead to this post. It never hurts to take a look at the goals any business or business owner should have when it comes to the promotion and marketing of a business.

With 2016 rolling in, let’s take a look at 16 marketing goals for your business…

1. Focus on quality content. This year, focus on the quality, not the quantity of your content. Yes, you’ll need to produce a lot of it to make waves, but put some effort into sharing things that will be meaningful to your community. According to a study by the content marketing company Fractl, “64% of writers wish they saw more infographics, mixed-media, data visualizations, images, videos and interactive maps”. Share the steak, not the mashed potatoes.

2. Have a content marketing plan. This probably should be first, but this list is in no particular order. Content is a crucial piece of marketing. Roughly 80% of businesses will use content marketing in 2016 and beyond. This is what you publish on your website, share on Facebook, pictures you post to Instagram. You can’t go blindly into content marketing. Have a plan. If you don’t have one, start here.

3. Find new ways to distribute content. If you’re blogging – great! If not, this is the year to start! This year, find new avenues to get your content out. This could be signing up for Triberr or guest posting on other blogs. You could also tap into your alpha audience and have them ignite your content. BuzzSumo and Fractl analyzed the 1 million most-shared articles within a 6 month time frame in 2015 and found that the top million articles showed that the most engaged platforms, in order, were – Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.

4. Make something other than Facebook a priority in your social media efforts. Don’t get me wrong, Facebook is a huge player, but there’s more out there for businesses than the big blue brother. If you haven’t tried Instagram, try it. Maybe venture into Twitter. Branch out this year.

5. Go offline and do something in-person. You could spend your entire marketing budget and time on just social media and digital marketing, but that won’t reach everyone. Not everyone in your target audience is online, so go to some networking events or attend a conference. Go talk about your business!

6. Find strategic partners. This could be online or offline. Find others with similar mindsets and businesses that compliment yours. If you’re only handling social media for clients, align yourself with someone who does web design or SEO. I’m sure you have some common clients or potential clients you can refer each other to. Likewise, if you are a brick and mortar store, selling flowers for example, partner with a local furniture store to display some of your arrangements. This is free marketing people, take advantage!

7. Have realistic goals. Wouldn’t we all love to rake in six figures because of our marketing efforts alone? For some businesses, you may be able to. For some, that’s not realistic. Whatever you do, set a realistic goal. Sure I’d love to make $1 million this year, but realistically that isn’t going to happen. Setting up unrealistic goals will only leave you feeling depressed at the end of the year.

8. Give away something for free (if you can). Like a moth to a flame, nothing brings in potential customers like free stuff. This could be a 30-day trial or something with purchase, offering something as a bonus or benefit will extend your business. Keep in mind your bottom line though, you don’t want to give away the farm.

9. Outsource what you can’t handle or are not good at. Look, us marketing people (and business owners too) hate to admit we can’t do it all. We feel we should be able to do it all. Well, we could if there were more than 24 hours in a day and a had a maid at home, personal chef at home, live-in nanny, chauffeur, etc. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but outsource what you are not good at. This could be social media marketing, advertising campaigns, graphic design, etc. You’ll appreciate the time you’ll get back and the knowing someone who is capable is handling it for you.

10. Be proactive and ready. There’s nothing like having Thanksgiving Week slip up on you and you have nothing planned for Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Know what’s coming up for your business and be prepared. Likewise, if you see something brewing (an upset client or something that could be really bad or really good for your business) know what you are doing to do when it happens – have a press release or a campaign ready to celebrate or combat it.

11. Be prepared for the unexpected. You can always be proactive but there are times things will come out of the blue and throw you off-course, in both good ways and bad. Unfortunately you can’t plan for everything (a notion that drives me crazy, personally) so know the unexpected sometimes happens no matter how much of #9 you do.

12. Try something new for your business. If you’ve never really spent much time making videos, start! Wanted to advertise in something local – go for it! Go outside your comfort zone and try something new. Maybe it’s time to update your branding (stay tuned this June for ours!) or your website.

13. Find a business mentor. Having a mentor is something that is very underrated. All business owners and marketing professionals need to have someone they can look to. This could be for advice or guidance or for help in an area they are struggling with.

14. Be a mentor. If you have the knowledge and know-how, mentor a new business owner or marketing professional. I do this through the internships my business offers. It allows college students to get real-world experience before they actually enter the real world.

15. Make it a point to track everything. To see the full-scale results of your marketing efforts, you need to track the analytics (Facebook Insights, Google Analytics, etc.). Make sure you know what’s working and what’s not. Analytics is the first place to start.

16. Have fun. Marketing is fun. From campaign creation to seeing the fruits of your labor, no matter how small, marketing is the fun arm of your business. Enjoy it!

Whew. 16 is a lot, but all of them are attainable by any business, regardless of the size.

Source : http://bit.ly/1kSkqZY
 

5 Ways to Boost your LinkedIn Profile

“LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network—people are signing up at the rate of more than two members per second, with students and recent graduates being the fastest-growing demographic on the site,” she says. “With that many people joining, it can be hard to stand out from the masses to attract the attention you deserve.” Prepare to stand out.

1. Establish a cohesive personal brand

In competitive markets, you have to sell yourself, and LinkedIn makes it easy. Before you start updating your profile, decide exactly how you want to position yourself within your industry: are you a seasoned professional trying to find new clients or an ingénue with diverse experiences to bring to a new field?

After deciding how you want to brand yourself, make sure every piece of information you include reinforces this image. An easy way to do so is to include photos: I match my profile photo across LinkedIn, Twitter and my Facebook account to increase brand recognition across platforms. These photos should all be crisp, high-quality and professional—no party pics or selfies allowed! Including a respectable headshot can get you up to 14 times more clicks on LinkedIn.

Perhaps most important is your personal summary: while many opt to skip this section, they are neglecting to utilize all the tools at their disposal. This is the section to overtly state what makes you a rockstar in your field and throw in some good, SEO-friendly keywords so people can find you when they search. If you’re in a creative field, humor may be a good idea—use your best judgment.

2. Be thorough and accessible

Fill out as much of your profile as is relevant and make it public, because you never know what quirky detail may endear you to a recruiter—perhaps you share the same alma mater or belong to the same professional group.

Include your contact information in the appropriate section—you want it to be easy for recruiters, potential employers and clients to contact you, even if they aren’t LinkedIn-savvy.

3. Add value to your network and build professional credibility

Continue updating even when you’re not actively looking for a job. Many people join LinkedIn to find a job and then disappear until they begin the job-hunting process all over again. While doing this can find you results, you’re not truly using the site as well as you could be. LinkedIn profiles usually end up high in search results, making it a great site to create a cohesive brand. I use LinkedIn Pulse to publish posts about digital marketing, because that’s my expertise. I’ve accrued more than 8,500 followers, so my company and I are constantly in their feeds.

Remaining active on the site can also help you establish credibility within your field. Show off your knowledge by sharing industry-specific articles, original blog posts and by participating in groups.

List some skills and have contacts endorse you for them. While the recommendations feature is a bit more credible, those need to be solicited from previous colleagues, bosses or teachers. A quick way to get some is to endorse people in your network. Many will return the favor—but beware of endorsing skills that you haven’t personally witnessed; if your contact isn’t up to snuff, your own credibility will be damaged.

4. Avoid the generic

Customize your URL to a variation of your name. LinkedIn profiles are great for business cards, and vanity URLs are cleaner and easier to remember.

The headline is precious real estate on LinkedIn. By default, it will revert to your most recent job title and employer, but that’s redundant—not to mention bland! Instead, use this space as a concise summary of the skills that set you apart within your industry. This is a great place to drop some of those keywords. If you’re stuck, ask yourself: what do I want people to search for to find me?

LinkedIn is not a resumé, so don’t format it like one. Rather than listing 3-5 bullet points copied and pasted from your CV, use your words to tell the story of yourself. While it won’t work in every field, in more creative markets, humor can win you points with recruiters. Show that you understand the level of professionalism required as well as how to gauge the appropriate tone for your industry.

5. Leverage the platform to show off your successes

LinkedIn has a great multimedia section that allows you to upload your past work. You can include videos from personal projects, slide decks from presentations, articles you’ve written, websites you’ve created, essentially anything you’ve done professionally can go in this part of your profile.

Use the multimedia section as an abridged portfolio and show off 3-5 diverse examples of your work so future employers can see your potential before even speaking with you one-on-one.

Source : http://bit.ly/1MbnES2

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Socializing Your Brand is Not an Option but a Must.

With the increasing popularity of Facebook and Twitter, almost every single company that has a website is on social media. For some people, social media marketing is just a fad that can provide advantage while it lasts. And then there are others who think it’s a lot of hype around something that holds no advantage. However, socializing your brand has become more important than ever before. 

Is Social Really Important?

Almost a decade ago, marketers were pondering over the same question, thinking that it’s just a fad and will fade away in a few months or a couple of years. It didn’t. Social media is here to stay and has become even more powerful as more and more people network on it.

If you’re looking for one good reason to get social media services for your website, we have a reference list for you.

1. Two-way Immediate Communication

If your customers are upset over something, they don’t want to wait for 30 minutes while their call is put on hold. And they don’t want a 24 hour waiting period for your email. They want a quick response. Your social media service should be active on the network and reply to complaints as soon as possible. This lets other people see how helpful you are, and thus it increases your sales.

2. Transparent Communication

When a customer brings up a complaint regarding your products or services, others can read that. And when your team replies to their concerns, your fans can see how you replied to the comment. This builds a positive brand image. When communication is transparent, it helps both sides. While you build a positive image, customers get their complaints resolved quickly – so it’s a win-win situation.

3. More Conversions

You can’t make new customers with each new post, but when you solve a customer’s complaint, other people will start liking your brand. Also, your posts and replies will reflect your brand essence. Make sure that no matter what the customers say, you have to reply with a positive tone. This will build a positive aura around your brand that will encourage conversions.

4. More Followers 

When a fan experiences positive communication with your brand, they will share this experience with their friends on social media. This is the main reason this platform is called social – people discuss their good and bad experiences. If a person had a bad experience with your company, they will discuss it with their friends, and this will not be good for your brand image. When you get social media marketing services from a good company, you can turn all customer communications into positive experiences and gain more followers.

Remember, being on social media isn’t just about posting content, but also about resolving customer issues. As you answer their questions and resolve their issues, your business will be a bit more vulnerable, but if you have the right social media services, this risk is certainly worth taking.

Source : http://bit.ly/1KFfL33

The Latest Rules of Social Media Marketing

Social media is no doubt an ideal way for you to acquire new fans/followers and engage with them. It’s also an ideal tool to boost the reputation of your company/brand. In a way, social media has become an integral asset in marketing your business.

But how are you going to maximize its tools for your company?

Listed below are some new do’s that you should follow when it comes to your social media marketing so you’d be able to achieve your goals in no time.

Social Plan

Do you have one?

Most of us don’t.

Social plan is essential to make your social media marketing more powerful.

It’s a plan that compiles all fresh contents on your social media. You can create a daily, weekly or a monthly theme.

With a plan, you’ll have consistency. This will also allow you to send out your social updates at the right time.

When your audience knows when you’re going to post your content, they’ll go back to your site and wait for your next awesome piece of content.

Then again, what you post should provide them value. Else, they’re going to leave or unfollow you.

Even though you have a social plan, you should still monitor your channels.

Don’t just post and leave. You want your social media accounts to be as professional as possible as they reflect what your brand is.

That said, you’d want to monitor your channels and take out those spammy comments or inappropriate remarks.

Monitoring your channels will also help you find some comments and questions posted by your prospective clients.

When you’re there monitoring, you can make an instant reply and begin a real-time conversation with them.

Content Should Reflect Your Brand

It simply means that your content must provide value to your audience by sharing content that’s information and educational.

This gives them a sample of what they can expect when they visit your site. It also gives them a preview of what type of information is housed on your own site.

You already have followers. So, give them a reason to click through your link and visit your site.

But never assume what your audience wants. Just because you share your content on your social media accounts doesn’t mean that you’ll increase your CTR.

For that reason, you should know the profiles of those who interact with your content. In this way, you can share content that attracts attention to your potential customers.

Test the Times and Types of Content

A good social media marketer will always test the best time to post content in a social media channel. In this way, you’ll know what content works and what needs to be improved.

As you survey the activities on your social channel, you can generate useful pieces of information that may increase engagements and schedule your post during optimal times.

The best time to post is different from one company to another. That said, it’s necessary that you know your audience.

You can do so by using Google Analytics and check out your demographics, location and so on and so forth. Use these pieces of information to get to know more about your followers.

Source : http://bit.ly/1P7peIf