Five Creative Ways to Use Social Media More than a Marketing Tool Social media is more than just a marketing tool for your business. It helps us promote our products and services. As small business owners, social media is more than having presence on Facebook. It’s a place for us to level the playing field with the big brand companies. So you understand how to use this stuff and most likely, you know why you’re on certain social programs. You get all that stuff but how do you take your marketing to the next level. Related Resources from B2C» Free Webcast: Bye-Bye Solution Selling: Why Sales Teams Are Moving To Insight Selling Let’s get your creative on There comes a time when your marketing feels a bit boring. { trumpets sound – I had to write that in because I’m not sure how to write out what a trumpet sounds like but that noise keeps going off in my head as I’m typing this part. } 1. Are you promoting an event or a promotion with a specific hashtag? Whatever you’re promoting, add the hashtag into your promotional artwork. 2.
How to Find Your Social Media Marketing Voice and Tone 5.4K Flares Filament.io 5.4K Flares × Among the many ways to stand out on social media—killer content, amazing visuals, specific formatting, and more—one that often gets overlooked is voice. We don’t want brands talking at us as if we are dollar signs. We want authentic communication. Finding a voice for your social media marketing can be difficult because the concept is somewhat unlike other optimization strategies online. What is the difference between voice and tone? When you jump into the discussion of voice in social media marketing, you can’t help but touch on tone as well. Voice: Your brand personality described in an adjective. Tone: A subset of your brand’s voice. Essentially, there is one voice for your brand and many tones that refine that voice. Voice is a mission statement. Another way of looking at voice is through a four-part formula suggested by Stephanie Schwab, writing for Social Media Explorer. Character / persona – Who does your brand sound like? How to find your voice
Social Media Marketing World: 17 Super Tools to Optimize Social Media 1.9K Flares Twitter 906 Facebook 233 Google+ 233 LinkedIn 313 Buffer 192 1.9K Flares × Want to make significant improvements to your social media presence to-day? At the Social Media Marketing World conference in San Diego last week I presented to a packed room about a range of tools to optimize social media performance. It contained a range of really interesting and useful tools to help you target the right people, get better results with your content, convert more traffic and improve results. Here is a summary of the tools that I covered: Targeting the right people Social media is amazing for connecting with new people. Without a strategic approach you might end up wasting a lot of time connecting with people that may not benefit your business. Here are some tools that will help you identify the right people. 1. Tactics Cloud is a pretty nifty free Twitter search tool. Here is an example of the type of search: Apply your filters to find the right people 2. 3. This makes sense. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Deriving Value From Social Media Referral Traffic There are many who want to look at social media in the same way they might look at search. Some want to see the direct value in social media traffic and when the traffic doesn’t lead to any meaningful conversions they want to condemn social media and proclaim it as valueless. There is value in social media. Consider the image below of some recent referral traffic to this site. Stumblers clearly didn’t spend much time here. More Engagement There Leads to More Engagement Here The answer is pretty simple. While I do maintain a presence at StumbleUpon the mass of the people who found their way here did so when this page randomly appeared after stumbling. Referral traffic from Sphinn likely had a little more familiarity with me and so stayed a little longer and bounced a little less. Now consider both Webmaster-Talk and Teaching Sells. My brand and engagement is stronger in those communities and consequently the communities were predisposed to engaging with me here. The Value Of Social Media
The Social Media Frequency Guide: How Often to Post 2.1K Flares Filament.io 2.1K Flares × Subway has this sandwich with Fritos on it. I know this because their commercials play constantly on my TV and computer such that I nearly have the ads memorized. Every time their commercial airs, Subway is flirting with the fine art of frequency. How often is too often to share with your audience? Social media marketers face the same dilemma. If guessing is required for finding the optimal frequency, then at least we can be making educated guesses. Strike the balance between informative and annoying Good content can be found in a multitude of places, and once you find it all, the next question you may ask yourself is how often you can share. Our post on curating content sparked this exact question, asked in the comments by Ryan Battles. I’ve started tweeting content from Buffer, ranging from 3x per day to 7x per day. Informative versus annoying. How frequently Buffer shares to social media Twitter – 14 times per day, from midnight to 10:00 p.m. Predict.
Experts' Guide to Keyword Research for Social Media The foundation of search marketing is built on keywords. Search marketers know that conducting continuous keyword research and keyword analysis is critical to achieving success with organic and paid search advertising. But conducting and implementing keyword research is also highly effective for social media marketing. To be more specific, conducting keyword research for social media enables you to discover the needs and wants of social communities by: Tracking popular and trending topics on Twitter and other social networks Determining search/query frequency Gauging market interest for products or services Identifying demand for keywords Better understanding user intent Discovering relevant points of engagement By researching and identifying social media keywords, you gain a much clearer picture of how to construct and communicate your message effectively. Social Misconception: Isn't All Keyword Research the Same? Many believe that keyword research is a one-size-fits-all process.
26 Social Media Marketing Hidden Treasures You Never Knew Existed As more and more marketers have championed (or begrudgingly admitted) the importance of social media as part of a well-rounded marketing strategy , lots of cool tricks and tips have been published across the interwebs to help turn social media into a traffic- and lead-generating channel. But even with all that information, there is still some stuff that can't be gleaned without just taking the time to poke around in the social networks. But when you do take the time to investigate the nooks and crannies of popular social networks ... oh man, is there some cool stuff there for marketers! This blog post is going to take you on a tour of the most popular social networks marketers are using, and show you the little features you didn't know about -- but will help you meet your monthly goals just a little bit faster and easier! Things You Might Have Missed on Twitter 140 characters, replies, mentions, and retweets. Use Advanced Search Get More Visibility for Your Tweet Replies
The 5 Habits for Social-Media Success While social media can be entertaining, educational and a network haven, it takes a great deal of work, flexibility and consistency to be successful on social media. If you aren't careful, you can easily burn out. So how can you juggle growing your business without running out of steam? Carefully. Here are five ways to be engaging and productive on social media (without getting overly fatigued). 1. Related: The Ethics Coach on Handling Social Media Attacks When I travel, I take advantage of any alone time that I have by taking a stroll to explore on my own. 2. I use HootSuite to schedule my tweets and Twitter is the only platform that I automate. Related: Marketing Expert: The Best Tools for Understanding Your Social-Media Accounts One way I choose to interact is tweeting insightful quotes, as they seem to capture the most engagement. 3. You don't need to photograph and share everything you eat or drink. 4. 5. Use your gut instinct to align yourself with genuine harmonious crew.
Targeting Niche Social Media Sites: 7 Practical Steps for Success Most social media users tend to focus on the largest, most popular sites, like Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, etc. If you are using social media to market your own content, these sites are appealing because of the huge traffic potential that they present. These sites have far more users than smaller, niche social media sites, and they seem to get all of the attention. Although niche sites may not be able to offer the same traffic potential (in terms of numbers) as the major players, they should not be ignored by marketers. The smaller number of users means that it will be easier for you to achieve success and popularity with your submissions. While sites like Digg may be hit or miss, you may be able to get more consistent traffic with niche sites. Here are some tips for promoting your content with niche social media sites: 1. The traffic for one site may not be that significant, but if you can use several effectively it may add up to something more substantial. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
How To Write Your Social Media Plan In 8 Steps Maybe it’s because you’re in marketing. Maybe it’s because you’re from the younger generation assumed to be digital natives. Or maybe it’s because you’re already experimenting with social media and your success has been noticed. For whatever reason, The Powers That Be have chosen you to write your company’s social media plan. Or perhaps they haven’t asked, but you know social media is big and getting bigger, and so you want to write a plan to persuade your management to get involved. Where do you start? Here are some ideas on the main topics you need to cover in creating an impressive, yet realistic social media plan that garners executive buy-in and a clearer path to success. 1. Start your social media plan with some startling statistics and pithy quotes about the huge shift away from traditional publishing towards social media. If you wrote this plan two years ago, you would have leaned on the endorsement of old media with quotes like this: 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Social Media plan done?
How to Improve Social Sharing by 97% Are your articles getting shared hundreds or thousands of times across social media channels? Isn’t it annoying to see other people getting lots of shares when your content is better?! Social sharing is a great way of driving more traffic to your business. So, you’ll be glad to hear that there are some tricks, tools and tactics for increasing social sharing. Will it improve by 97%? 1. I read a recent report where it stated that, on average, over 28% of traffic to websites is from a mobile device. Even if your mobile traffic is just 15 or 20% at the moment, you can expect this to grow significantly. But do your social sharing icons work on a mobile device? This is an area that a lot of businesses ignore. One plugin that is commonly used on a mobile device is Digg Digg. We have social sharing using a plugin called Flare. Ensure it’s easy to share on a mobile device You can see in the example above that the social sharing icons are placed right at the top, and it’s easy to share. 2. 3. 4. 5.
7 Social Media Trends for Marketers: New Research | Are you wondering what the latest social media trends are for marketers? Want to make sure you don’t miss out on the next trend in social media? Fresh from the 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report (which surveyed 2,800+ marketers), this article will highlight some of the newest social media trends faced by marketers. Here’s what you need to know from the latest social media research. Latest Research Reveals Social Media Trends Not surprisingly, the use of visual content (infographics and memes) is set to increase over the next year—70% of marketers plan on increasing their use of these content forms. Speaking of infographics, here’s one that illustrates some key findings from the survey: Social media marketing trends for 2014. Let’s take a deeper look at some key findings from the survey. #1: The Written Word Rules Marketers were asked to select the most important form of content for their business. Key Considerations: As a content marketer, that should make you jump for joy. inShare1,105
9 Essential Social Media Tips for Beginners Plunging into social media for the first time can be a bit daunting for individuals or businesses. There is a learning curve when it comes to becoming more social online, and it can take a while to learn what works and what doesn’t. Here are a few of the best Do’s and Don’ts that can save you time and help grow your social media authority more quickly. 1. You’ll want to start small and try a couple services out at a time. Once you find the right ones for you or your brand, then start to narrow your focus on those. Start small, and then grow to other social networks as your confidence grows. 2. Put a widget up on your site for your social networks. Facebook has a widget generator you can use, and the Tweetmeme badge is easy to add to your site as well. 3. Start testing which social media profiles have the most impact, then drop the rest. Oftentimes you’ll see sites littered with tons of widgets and buttons. 4. Sounds like common sense, right? 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
Make The Social Connection - Huge List of Social Media Marketing Tips For Etsy Sellers Connecting your Etsy shop with Facebook and Twitter is only one piece to the social media puzzle. Learn how to grow a targeted social network that will help your shop thrive. Make The Social Connection – Huge List of Social Media Marketing Tips For Etsy Sellers Etsy has made it easier for seller to connect with their fans and followers right from their shop. Connecting your Etsy shop with Facebook and Twitter is only one piece to the social media puzzle. 5 Tips On How to Get the Most Out of Twitter’s Social Network Building a Social Media Empire : Remember Rome Was Not Built in a Day The Importance of a Facebook Landing Page How to Spend Less Time Marketing Your Etsy Shop With HootSuite A Simple Way to Gain More Facebook Likes and Twitter Followers at Craft Fairs Crafting Your Twitter Page – Twitter Tips from Craft Buds Facebook Questions – A New Way to Interact With Your Fans Simple How-To – Adding a Facebook “Like” Button to a Blogger Blog Tips For Growing a Targeted Twitter Following