10 tips for social media marketing success for business

The internet has become the most powerful medium today. With the launch of the hand-held gadgets like the smartphones and the tablets, the effect of social media campaign has become even more viral.

Businesses which need brand promotion and social advertising are harnessing the massive potential of social media on the web for their enhancement in business communication. Here are 10 points that will give you useful social media marketing tips for your business.

Observe first before anything

Before you produce any action or speech, you should first observe. Go through the online content of your target customer. Try to take part in the online discussions and get to know what matters to them the most. And which are the right social media platforms where your target audience hang out. This will help you in producing impactful social media marketing plan and effective content.

Be focused on approach

If you are more focused on using social media for business then analyzing the social media sites for your business and social networking approach, will pay you higher dividends.

This will render a strong image to your brand. Going wayward will not help. A broader approach will only mess up things for you. Concrete on specific media plan and use the right tools for social marketing as per your content requirements.

Make quality connects

Quality any day is more welcome than quantity. Try to make effective contacts that can make a real fan base of yours. They will help you by reading, commenting and sharing your content matter. The quality sharing of your content can create a bigger customer base for you. The connectivity should continue to build the brand loyalty.

Keep your patience

Keeping one’s patience is one of the basics of social media marketing for getting effectual results. If you have to reap the benefits of this mode of marketing, you need to wait. You cannot have the desired results overnight. Being committed in the long run will pay off for you.

Ensure quality content

Another very vital point in social media marketing rules is the creation of quality social media content. It should be eye-catchy and unique. Once it catches the imagination of the audience, they will pause, go through and further share the content matter with the insertion of personal comments. These can help your page with higher rankings through search engines on the net.

Connect with opinion makers

Do some research on the internet and identify the influencers who can make a difference to your business. They may be having an excellent fan base. Try to connect with them first and nurture a relationship. Try to supply them with interesting information which they can pass on to their contacts and you can discover a huge range of new probable customers.

Add value to communication

If you want social marketing ROI to be promising, try out some tactics. Do not go for the blunt promotion of your brand. Your content should add value to the readers. Try to create more meaningful and impacting content.

Don’t forget to acknowledge

Remember to acknowledge who contact you directly. This will help in nurturing the relationship. The person will also feel encouraged to maintain the connectivity with you in the future. After all, marketing is touching of human emotions.

Maintain your connectivity

After the uploading of your social media content, be present to your target audience for communication. Your absence from the arena may spell doom for your business prospects as you may be outrightly rejected.

Be reciprocal

Reciprocation will pay back in social media marketing. If you spend some time on the social media, go through the content matter of others and make comments and share them, they will do the same with your content.

If you can follow the above –mentioned guidelines you can be certain about making a mark in the social media market with your valuable content matter.

4 Benefits Of Outsourcing Social Media Marketing Tasks

Thinking of outsourcing social media marketing activities to get a grip on ever-evolving platforms, algorithms, and audiences?

You’re not alone. SocialFresh says that only 57% of social marketers, at brands, are doing all their social advertising in-house.

And with most companies looking to ramp up efforts on social media this year, there’s more evidence that businesses may need to consider outsourcing social media marketing tasks.

A recent survey by American Express noted that:

“…four in ten business owners (43 percent) say they plan to increase their company’s focus on social media over the next year.”

Social media marketing is outsourced for a few reasons — let’s look at why and how and see if the benefits make sense for your business or team.

Outsourcing Social Media Marketing: The Why

In an effort to work smarter and not harder, companies are pushing internal teams to focus on what they’re good at and hiring outside for the skills that are missing.

This is especially true with social media marketing because:

• It’s expensive to hire top-tiered, experienced roles
• The tasks for social media roles are time-consuming
• Strategies and tactics change rapidly
• The skills needed are often considered “specialty skills” (like advertising or audience development)

Combine the above with lack of time, resources, or know-how and you can see how internal teams are overburdened with executing social media duties.

Outsourcing Social Media Marketing: The How

How do companies choose social media agencies to help achieve social media marketing success? Shopping, of course!

Outsourcing social media marketing to a well-qualified team takes a little homework.

We suggest the following six steps to find an agency that will fit your needs:

1. Know thyself first. 1) WHY do you want to use social media? 2) WHAT problems are you trying to solve; WHAT goals are you trying to accomplish? 3) HOW do you define success (which leads to WHICH KPIs and metrics will measure success)? 4) WHO is responsible or in charge of social media internally? 5) HOW much are you willing to spend?
2. ASK. From questions about their experience to their client base, to the skill-set of their team and core competencies, ensure your agency isn’t a jack of all trades and master of none. What platforms or abilities do they focus on? How is their team certified to professionally manage your work?
3. Understand. What deliverables (reports, stats, etc.) will be provided and at what frequency?
4. Obtain. Get recommendations from outside vendors or consultants, as well as past and current clients.
5. Make sense of the scope of work, terms and conditions, and negotiate from there.
6. Be curious. Ask questions and remain an active partner in the development and execution of your social media marketing strategy.

By doing your homework, asking questions, and checking references, you can drastically reduce the risk of hiring an agency and outsourcing social media marketing duties.

Outsourcing Social Media Marketing: The Benefits

1) COSTS

Compared to hiring an employee (who requires payroll taxes, sick & vacation time, benefits, training, overhead costs, etc.) hiring an agency can be much more cost effective. With B Squared Media, and probably most other agencies, you’re getting a whole team of people rather than just one employee (who probably doesn’t work after hours, weekends or holidays).

Other costs to consider for savings are:

• Ad buying
• Software
• Photography

2) TRIED-AND-TRUE SYSTEMS

The right social media marketing agency will have systems in place that can immediately improve efficiency.

A huge benefit to outsourcing social media marketing means your new partners have already researched the best processes and workflows for scalable results.

Here at B Squared, for instance, you don’t need to rely on vague indicators of success. Our system pulls from thousands of data points and relies on only the most useful metrics, allowing us to work with you to make pinpoint adjustments and always continue to improve.

3) TIME SAVED ( = MONEY EARNED)

The biggest pain point we hear is, “I don’t have the time.” And trust me when I say, social media strategies and executing related tactics is a full-time job.

Too many businesses spend huge amounts of time and money on social media without the assurance of results. When you outsource your social media efforts, it’s not your job to dabble and see what works; it’s the agency’s responsibility.

Your partner should not only figure out the most efficient strategies for performance, they should implement and manage those strategies for you.

Not to mention, as algorithms change (like Facebook’s latest blow to brands) and demand a new game plan, your internal team can focus on driving the business forward while your agency tests new workarounds.

4) SPECIALTY SKILL SETS

A social media manager needs an incredible amount of skills to be successful.

Some of those skills may be considered “special” skills, like:

• Audience development
• SEO (search engine optimization)
• Advertising certifications (example: Google AdWords certified)
• Content curation
• Analytics & pattern recognition (beneficial for finding our clients’ “seesaw metrics“)
• Visual thinking

A good agency will have employees who possess these special skills. And again, you’re saving time by allowing the agency to implement their system for finding and hiring these skilled workers.

Is Outsourcing Right For You?

Outsourcing social media marketing strategies and tactics can be a daunting decision for any company.

But if you do your homework and find the right fit, you can reap the benefits of putting your organization in expert hands.

Do you think outsourcing social media marketing tasks to an outside team is a good idea? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

4 Changes to Make to Your Social Media Marketing Campaign

Social media marketing is highly popular for both small and large businesses nowadays for a reason. Not only is it effective, but it’s also incredibly affordable when compared to many other advertising methods, even those that don’t have nearly as much of a reach. However, there is a chance that you are making a few mistakes with your social media marketing campaign. Consider making these changes so that you can see an improvement with your campaign.

1. Find Out Where Your Customers Are And Target That Channel

You don’t have to be on every single social media channel out there and sometimes it’s best to focus your attention on one particular medium – at least in the beginning. Do your research, identify your customers, find out where they hang out the most, and start right there. Once you have established yourself on 1 or 2 channels, you can diversify and promote your brand across various other channels too. Similarly, if a platform just isn’t working for you – despite your best efforts – it may be best to dedicate the bulk of your time and resources to the channel that is working.

2. Communicate More

One of the main joys of social media is the fact that it allows you to connect with your audience. If you aren’t taking advantage of this, now is the time to do so. Make an effort to respond to comments more frequently; it’s a great way to find out what your customer base wants and to build strong relationships with your readers. Literally have a conversation with them, retweet them, like and comment on their posts, and directly ask them to interact with your content.

3. Don’t Be So Promotional

Take a look at all of your recent social media posts. If they all seem promotional, it’s time to change your strategy. Obviously, you’ll want to promote some of your products and services, but some of your posts should be educational, humorous or otherwise appealing for your customers.

4. Always Be Human

There’s nothing worse than a social media channel that looks like its being operated by an autobot. The key word is in the name – it is ‘social’ media, after all. Make sure that your interactions on accounts such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest, are personable and genuine. Say hello to people in the morning, update them on your work day and share stories that will be of interest to your target audience. Yes, you should advertise your brand/product – but this is an essential part of doing that.

Customers (both existing and potential) want to know that when they are asking a question, complaining or praising, that a real person is on the other end interacting with them. Your social media channels should always feel like they’re being operated by an interesting, intelligent, and funny human being. Be real.

As you can see, there are a few social media marketing changes that you may need to make to your campaign.

Social Media Marketing Essential, But Difficult, For Marketers

According to the 8th annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report from Social Media Examiner, summarized by Marketing Charts, 9 in 10 marketers say that social media is important to their business, with the most commonly cited benefits being increased exposure and traffic. Based on a survey of more than 5,000 marketers, the study offers insights into the directions social media marketing will take in the near future.

Social Media Marketing, Platform Trends (65% Market B2C; 35% B2B)
Social Media	% Planning Increased Efforts	% With No Plans
Facebook	67%	3%
YouTube	63	16
Twitter	61	10
LinkedIn	61	14
Instagram	57	28
Pinterest	42	33
Google+	35	28
Forums	25	52
SlideShare	22	62
Snapchat	16	74
Vine	11	72
Source: Social Media Examiner, June 2016

 

Social media does present some difficulties for respondents. For example, respondents were more likely to agree (40%) than disagree (33%) that social media marketing has become more difficult in the past year. While two-thirds analyze their social media activities, just 41% agree that they’re able to measure the ROI of those activities, a figure that hasn’t improved in recent years. But, only 46% agree that their Facebook marketing is effective, with more than one-third unsure.

A quick summary of primary findings from the Social Media Examiner Industry Report, shows that:

• Video has become essential : A significant 60% of marketers use video in their marketing and 73% plan on increasing their use of video
• Live video is hot : A significant 50% of marketers plan on using live video services such as Facebook Live and Periscope, and 50% want to learn more about live video
• Facebook and YouTube hold the top spots for future plans : At least 63% of marketers plan on increasing their use of these social networks
• Snapchat is on a growth trajectory : Only 5% of marketers are using Snapchat, yet 16% plan on increasing their Snapchat activities and 28% of marketers want to learn more about Snapchat
• Facebook is the most important social network for marketers by a long shot!  When asked to select their most important platform, 55% of marketers chose Facebook, followed by LinkedIn at 18%. Plus, 67% of marketers plan on increasing their Facebook marketing activities
• Many marketers are unsure about their Facebook marketing : A significant 40% of marketers don’t know if Facebook traffic has declined in the last 12 months and 35% aren’t sure if their Facebook marketing is effective
• Facebook ads dominate : A surprising 86% of social marketers regularly use Facebook ads, while only 18% use Twitter ads
• Tactics and engagement are top areas marketers want to master : At least 90% of marketers want to know the most effective social tactics and the best ways to engage their audience with social media

Social channel use and importance varies among B2C and B2B marketers. B2B marketers continue to favor LinkedIn to a greater degree than B2C marketers (86% and 58% using, respectively), with B2B marketers also much more likely to be using Slideshare (21% vs. 6%), says the report. B2C marketers are more apt to be using Facebook (96% vs. 88%), Instagram (51% vs. 33%), and Pinterest (45% vs. 34%).

Those differences show up in marketers’ most important platforms, also. About 2 in 3 B2C marketers name Facebook their most important platform, with Twitter trailing distantly in second (11% share). Among B2B marketers, 40% cite LinkedIn as their most important platform, narrowly ahead of Facebook (37%), with Twitter third.

Despite already being the platform with the broadest adoption among marketers, Facebook (67%) emerges as the one for which the largest share will increase their efforts, says the report. Likely a reflection of its status as the most important platform overall, with B2C marketers (70%) being more likely than their B2B counterparts (61%) to see increased Facebook efforts on the horizon.

Beyond Facebook, 63% of respondents plan to increase their use of YouTube, with Twitter (61%) and LinkedIn (61%) close behind in terms of planned increases. Meanwhile, B2B marketers are more likely to be upping their LinkedIn efforts than B2C marketers (76% and 52%, respectively).

Results for other platforms likewise reveal differences in B2C and B2B marketers’ plans:

• More than 6 in 10 B2C marketers look set to increase their Instagram activities, compared to fewer than half (48%) of B2B marketers
• Pinterest is also an avenue for increased efforts more for B2C (47%) than B2B (35%) marketers
• B2B marketers (33%) are more than twice as likely as B2C marketers (15%) to put more effort into SlideShare.

While only 5% of respondents say they’re currently using Snapchat, 16% expect to grow their activities, more than double the proportion in last year’s survey. Also, 28% want to learn more about Snapchat this year, up from 19% last year, evidence of some growth but marketers are not adopting the platform at quite the same rate as youth. When asked how they respond to new social networks, 51% said they are skeptical and wait and see what happens, says the report.

Currently, there is one and only one leader in paid social media: Facebook. In fact, almost 9 in 10 respondents said they regularly use Facebook ads. Only 39%, are using Google ads, then:

• Twitter ads (18%)
• LinkedIn ads (17%)
• Pinterest ads (15%)

Signs point to Facebook maintaining its dominance in social advertising, says the report. However, it is the only platform in which a majority of respondents expect to increase their paid social media use. By comparison, fewer than 4 in 10 plan to make more use of Google ads.

Social Media Marketing-Paid Advertising Trends
Social Media Ads	% Planning Increased Efforts	% With No Plans to Utilize
Facebook	57%	23%
Google	37	45
Twitter	33	55
LinkedIn	31	56
Instagram	31	59
YouTube	28	61
Pinterest	19	70
Source: Social Media Examiner, June 2016

Turning to social media content types, 74% of marketers identified visual content as their most commonly used, followed by blogging (68%) and videos (60%). Blogging and visual content were essentially tied in terms of the most important content types, though with differences by target audience. Those marketing to businesses name blogging their most important content type, while for B2C marketers visual content is the most important.

When it comes to the near future, though, video gains ground. Almost 3 in 4 plan to increase their use of video content in the near future, just ahead of the 71% planning the same for visual content and leading all content types.

Finally, says the report, while only about 1 in 7 marketers are currently using live video, 39% plan to soon increase their live video efforts, and only 49% say they have no plans to utilize live video.

Social Media Marketing – Content Trends
Content	% Planning Increased Efforts	% With No Plans To Utilize
Video	73%	13%
Visuals	71	8
Blogging	66	13
Live Video	39	49
Podcasting	26	60
Source: Social Media Examiner, June 2016

 

 

 

4 Step Social Media Marketing Strategy That PAYS

Some trends are so hot that they take off right from the starting gate, dragging us along with them. Social media is just such a trend. In fact, social media is more than a trend as it is here to stay.

But because social media has grown so fast, most marketers have been forced to learn how to use it “on the job.” Is it worth it – the learning curve? According to the 78 percent of salespeople who regularly outsell their competitors by effectively using a social media strategy, it sure is!

In this post, learn how to develop a social media strategy that pays.

Social + Media = Sales

There are two key aspects to understanding, how social media is designed to work.

– It is social. The social aspect is about developing ongoing authentic relationships with people.

– It is informational. The media aspect is about using web tools to share accurate, useful information.

When you develop a social media marketing strategy that is both highly social and highly informational, it becomes easier to cultivate relationships that in time can lead to sales.

Nurture Your Leads

Because social media is actually attempting to replace face-to-face human contact with posts, pictures, stats and charts, this isn’t a medium where you can expect to “just click” with a prospect, make a sale and be on to the next sales call 5 minutes later.

Rather, you will need to be patient as you nurture relationships with prospects with an eye towards making a sale or gaining a referral for the future.

In other words, you can’t rush the sales pitch via social media – not if you want to make the sale!

Know Which Channel to Use for What

Different social media channels can be more effective for different purposes.

For example, 80 percent of social media users state they prefer to make contact with companies and brands via Facebook as opposed to other social channels.

With Twitter, longer tweets produce more link click-through than their shorter counterparts.

And a full 43 percent of salespeople have used LinkedIn successfully to find new clients (for Twitter, the same holds true for 36 percent of salespeople).

So here, it is critical to study each channel and play to its strengths when you are nurturing leads with the aim to generate sales.

Use Landing Pages Effectively

Where many talented and otherwise well-educated social media marketers still mess up is during the phase when the prospect is redirected from the social media channel to the business’s website.

You want to design a landing page that has two options: buy or leave. This simplifies the prospect’s options without sacrificing the still-developing relationship.

The Bottom Line

By understanding how social media is set up to work, what each channel’s unique strengths are and how to use landing pages to play to those strengths, you can join the growing ranks of businesses successfully using social media to sell products and services, generate referrals and cultivate customer loyalty over the long-term.

A Reminder: Social Media is Not a “Marketing Tool”!

There’s no let up: the “10 ways to get 20,000 Instagram followers” articles are replacing the same ones for Twitter, advocating similar techniques. A whole new batch of small business owners and marketers are being instructed in the magic arts of marketing domination via social media.

Those techniques are mostly variations on a theme, involving a combination of (at the simplest end) buying followers, and (at the more labour intensive, and masquerading as a genuine marketing skill end) following large numbers of more-or-less-carefully targeted users in the hope that they’ll follow you back. Usually not just following them, either – often you’ll be told to Like or Favourite multiple images or posts, or comment in some generic way to suggest a real interest in that user.

Meanwhile, an increasing number of marketers are arriving on all these platforms. Whilst growth has slowed a little on Facebook, Instagram is definitely flavour of the month (year, probably!) among businesses wanting to be part of its relatively responsive and active community.

And even though we absolutely think that businesses should be part of these communities, we can’t help wondering whether their presence is a benefit overall. Because the problem with “techniques” like those I mentioned above, is that it’s all fake. You don’t actually Like those images, or have any interest in what that user is going to publish in the future. You don’t care about the answer to the superficial questions you ask. It’s all about getting attention.

Now multiply that by hundreds and thousands of others all doing the same thing, and throw in the spammy “follower collector” individual users too, and what you end up with is an entire ecosystem of users who couldn’t care less about anything being said or done on the platform, so long as their web stats go up.

In case we really need a reminder, this is NOT what social media is about. It’s not what made it exciting when it first arrives, and it isn’t what keeps people coming back.

When we see how many businesses are working this way on Twitter and Instagram, we feel genuinely sorry for those marketers who are slaving away, day after day, clicking through user lists in a desperate bid to get their numbers up. Once that’s done, often by gaining reciprocal followers from other marketers doing the same thing, both of them are in the miserable position of trying to get genuine engagement from the other…see how this goes? It’s futile, exhausting, and massively dilutes the value of the social media site.

Back to reality

The cure for this is really pretty simple: stop looking at Social Media as a “tool”. It’s not. It’s a channel to allow other people to find and interact with you, and the thing about other people is that they’re unpredictable. No matter how much you’d love a 200% increase in followers / web visits / whatever, you can’t force it to happen.

If you step away from that perspective, and shift your focus to other things, it’ll be more enjoyable for everyone concerned. So, here are the top activities those businesses should do in the time liberated from hours of mindless clicking:

One: RESPOND. Look out for mentions of your business or brand, and be appreciative. Deal really thoroughly with questions, don’t just refer users to your website. Celebrate user generated content that’s relevant to what you do.

Two: CREATE. Be as creative and critical as you can of what you’re adding to the huge pool of content already out there. Make it worthwhile. The best possible images, the most thoughtful features. Share as much of the “behind the scenes” of your business as you can.

If you need a third activity, and want to get back into the numbers comfort zone a little, EVALUATE. There’s nothing wrong with spending some time analysing what type of content (articles, videos, images) and what topics, seem to please your audience most. That’s really part of being responsive.

But quit the manipulative stuff. In the long run, it won’t work. And in the short term, it’ll make your job tiresome as hell.

Do’s and Don’ts to Succeed in Social Media Marketing

Are you just getting started with social media marketing?

Or have you been on a site for awhile but you’re not getting the results you want?

You need to learn the do’s and don’ts so that you can maximize your efforts on these sites. You’ll minimize the time and resources you invest on your social media marketing, and you’ll get more results in less time.

Here are the top do’s and don’ts to succeed in social media marketing:

Content

Creating the right content is a cornerstone of your social media campaign.

Some do’s for content creation include:

• Post often. The rules vary by the site, but you should aim to post on Facebook three to five times per day and on Twitter eight to 10 times per day.
• Share your own content. If you don’t have enough to keep up with your social media publishing demands, write more content.
• Share reliable sources. When you are curating content, make sure you read it first, and make sure it has something valuable to offer your readers and is from a reliable source.
• Share a variety of posts. Don’t create the same post type too often, and don’t share the same links too often. If you do share the same link (at all), make sure the posts are spaced out.

Some don’ts for sharing content include:

• Share too much. You want to stay top-of-mind, but you don’t want to look like a spammer. Post too much, and you’ll annoy and alienate your followers.
• Share irrelevant information. Don’t share filler content just to have something to post. Make sure that everything you share is narrowly focused for your target audience.
• Share other people’s content too frequently. Content curation is valuable, but oversharing other people’s content too often just promotes other brands over your own. Make sure you are maintaining the right balance.
• Be inconsistent. Don’t post a lot one week and then not at all the next. Your followers won’t know what to expect, and they won’t feel engaged with your brand.

Audience

Your audience is your core focus in your social media marketing.

Here are some do’s for how you should approach your audience:

• Define your target audience. Don’t go after likes and followers just for the sake of numbers. Make sure you are getting the audience who would actually be interested in your products and services.
• Create goals. “Get more followers” is not a great goal. However, “get 10 more followers per week” is a good goal because it is specific and easily measurable. Set and track goals for audience growth and engagement.
• Follow back. If someone follows you, follow them back to show that you are serious about relationship building. Also follow people who are likely to follow you back.
• When someone comments, comment back. If someone tags you, comment. If someone shares or retweets you, thank them. Engaging your audience will encourage more interaction, which will help you get more exposure.

Some don’ts for your audience include:

• Buy followers. The followers are almost always fake profiles, and they offer no real value to your company. Even if you use those inflated numbers to sell ads, you’ll lose your advertisers once they realize they aren’t getting the results they thought they would.
• Focus on sales. Sure, you want to increase your sales, but your audience wants to be entertained or educated. If you are always trying to sell them things, they will leave.
• Limit yourself to social media. Encourage your followers to go to your site, which is where they’ll become leads or customers.

User Engagement

User engagement is key to your success on social media.

Here’s how you can encourage it:

• Ask questions. Open-ended questions promote conversation, which will get your users talking and make them feel invested.
• Ask for opinions. People love to share their thoughts. Give them an opportunity to do it, and they will feel more committed to the conversation.
• If you want your followers to be engaged, you also need to be engaged. Respond to comments and encourage a real back-and-forth.
• Say thank you. When people share your content or retweet you, say thank you. People are helping you out by promoting your content, so be sure you show your gratitude or else they may not do it again.

A few things you should not do include:

• Asking for promotions. Again, no one likes to deal with spammers. If you ask people to share your content or promote your business, most will ignore you and stop following you.
• Ignore messages and comments. People go out of their way to send you a direct message or to comment on your posts. Ignoring these efforts tells followers that you don’t care.
• Get into fights. Always maintain a professional demeanor. Being rude or getting into a verbal sparring match will only make you look bad, no matter how poorly the other person is behaving. Hold up your reputation by rising above.

Use these tips and you’ll be well on your way to social media success!

4 Best Practices in Social Media Marketing

These days, everyone has at least one social media account. Social media is often the first source people turn to when seeking local products or services, so it’s crucial for your business’ social media marketing strategies to work. Yet how do you know if your social media campaign is successful, and how do you change what might not be working without sacrificing what clients want to see? The answer may lie in analyzing the following four best practices in social media marketing of 2016.

Use Demographics to Drive Quality Traffic

There is a difference between traffic and quality traffic. Your website can have thousands of visitors daily, but if they aren’t interacting with your content in the right ways, they’re actually driving your SEO rankings down. When it comes to social media, quality traffic comes from the sites that engage the most unique visitors. In other words, 6,000 views from 6,000 different people are better than 60,000 from a small core group.

Statistics from YouTube show a high number of highly engaged visitors. This is because YouTube centers on videos, which are visually and audibly engaging. In addition, YouTube is the most popular social media network because it can reach such a wide demographic base. Unlike Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks, YouTube doesn’t restrict access with age requirements and other limitations. Everyone can find something to view there, from the four-year-old watching PBS with a parent to the senior citizen learning how to use the latest technology through video courses.

If you want your website to generate quality traffic, you’ll have to reach a broad demographic as well. This isn’t to say that you can’t have an ideal audience member or group; you can and should. After all, even the most popular YouTube videos were once aimed at specific people. However, your ideal audience member can’t be the only person you reach. Your content must vary enough, and be of good enough quality that almost all clients will be interested in one type or another.

Pay Attention to Social Referrals

Social referrals are exactly what they sound like. They occur when users refer each other to social media sites. No website starts out with hundreds of referrals. Like friendships in real life, they take time to build. That being said, you should take advantage of the social referrals you have, and tailor content so it generates more. Talk to your audience through online polls, newsletters or emails, or in person, to find out what kind of content they want to see or the issues they want it to address. Additionally, find out what types of content your core audience responds to. If you have a great number of visual people in your audience, focus more on pictures, videos, and social media sites like Pinterest or Instagram. If your visitors enjoy reading, you can use blog posts, photos with captions, or sites like Snapchat or Twitter to keep their attention.

Remember that numbers are not always the most important factor when it comes to social referrals. The Share-a-Holic study that found YouTube was so popular also found that Google+ and LinkedIn received few referrals overall. However, they received higher-quality visitors. Researchers discovered that visitors spent over three minutes at a time “diving” into the subjects that interested them. This is because LinkedIn and especially Google+ have mastered the art of organizing their subjects and data so that users from several niches can always find the information they want. For example, Google+ users who love crime shows can find thriving communities, but so can people who prefer one specific type of show, like Monk or NYPD Blue. If you organize your content similarly, you will likely generate more social media traffic.

Be Realistic and Cost-Effective

There is no point in launching a social media strategy that looks great if your resources can’t back it up. Many business owners get in trouble because they do exactly that; they plan a content calendar too big for their writers and editors to handle, or they promise massive amounts of content when realistically, their writers can only handle 5 to 10 posts per writer per week. It’s tempting to want to try every social media strategy available, particularly when you’re a new business owner eager to prove yourself. Instead, sit down and make a social media plan first. Choose one or two new strategies to try, or think up ways to improve on or retool old ones that still work for you. Consult with employees and investors to determine where your resources are, as well as if you can afford more and where to find them. Additionally, make sure your goals are measurable. “We’re going to become the leader in online book marketing” isn’t measurable because you haven’t defined “leader” or given yourself benchmarks that tell you if you are making progress. A better goal might be, “We’re going to generate X number of posts, centered on Y type of content, per week. This will allow us to sell Z amount of books by June 2016.”

Base Your Strategies on Facts – and More than One Fact

Talking to your audience is a wonderful way to start improving your business. That said, much of what you’ll hear about your content from a core audience will be based on opinion. You need to ensure your social media strategies are backed up with facts. Your team should ideally have marketing experts that are constantly researching trends, content strategies, financial planning and other factors. Consistently ask these people for up-to-date reports, and use what you learn to create the content you need. Finally, make sure your marketing team is spending equal time on different facets of business and using best practices in social media marketing. If the team knows all it can about financial planning but not enough about content strategy, you will miss several opportunities to grow.

6 Tools to Develop an Outstanding Social Media Marketing Strategy

In today’s technological world, it seems that social media dominates everything. This can make it difficult for a company to stand out. Big companies as well as smaller companies and entrepreneurs will be all over social media, trying to gain the attention of customers. All of this can make it harder for the less social media-adept companies to get a foothold among their competitors.

All of these companies want to get in on the social media craze and use it to their advantage, to advertise and market themselves to all the users out there. But there are so many different social media channels out there, and so many different ways to market on social media. What can a company do to make themselves stand out among the crowd of other companies on social media? What strategies are there they could use?

1. Twitter.
Twitter is a very popular social media channel. It’s a great way to build a following and keep in contact with your customers. However, it can be tricky as it limits your posts to 140 characters, and it’s fast-paced. It’s demanding in that it requires constant communication with your followers. If you can handle that, one way to stand out on Twitter is to send a thank you any time your company gets mentioned. Try to respond to questions the same day, or within the hour if possible. Add symbols and emoticons for a fun twist to your posts as a way to cultivate interest in your posts while also making them shorter and easier to read.

2. Facebook.
Facebook recently changed up their algorithms, so brands are getting less exposure. This makes it more important for them to stand out. One way for this is make short and simple posts. Longer posts tend to not perform as well. Also, asking questions rather than making statements tends to increase interaction.

Pinning posts is also a good tactic, especially for drawing attention to current specials or important information. Experiment with Facebook ads, too.

3. Images.
Use images when you can. It doesn’t matter what it is — a photo of a favorite celebrity, a pretty landscape, a cute animal, a colorful infographic or a fun GIF. A photo or animation will catch the eye and more than likely make them stop browsing long enough to look. It will also help with your SEO optimization. Videos also work well for this.

4. Content.
Content is king. Remember that. Once your image has caught their eye, the viewer will be looking for the content behind the photo. What they read will determine if they click through. So provide content that will make them want to click. Be sure to keep your target audience in mind when creating your content. What will catch their attention? What are they looking for from you? What answers can you provide to their questions?

5. Build a community.
Don’t just look for followers. Build a community with them. Put some personality and humor into your brand with your posts. You want to be “social”, after all. That means you need to entertain your followers once in a while. And remember to converse directly with your followers. Interact with them. Like and respond to their posts. Retweet them. And ask them to interact directly with your posts.

6. Campaigns.
To keep your audience engaged, you need to be engaging as well. One way to do that is run cross-channel campaigns on all you social platforms. But while anyone can run a contest or campaign like this, to stand out you need to make yours have a charitable, inspirational, or emotional component to it — something that will tug at the heartstrings of whoever is reading about it. If your company is already involved in some sort of volunteer work, this is a good way to inspire and engage followers. How do you do this across channels? 1. Tell a powerful story. Use short quotes about if you have to, and link back to your website so they can find out more. 2. Brand your campaign with a unique name and hashtags to make it memorable and stand out.

These are just a few ways to make your social media marketing stand out. Good luck!

Solving the Most Common Social Media Marketing Challenges

Today, there are 2.307 billion active social media users around the world. That’s nearly one-third of our planet’s total population of 7.125 billion!

As social media marketing professionals, we’re lucky to reach even .000001% of that population with any one of our posts. This can feel a bit underwhelming for businesses and marketers looking to demonstrate the true value and ROI of social media.

Everywhere we look it appears that brands and companies have it all figured out on social media. With each new post to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter comes thousands of likes, comments, and shares.

Even Grumpy Cat has earned more than $100 million dollars since 2012!

This leaves the rest of us wondering, “What are we not doing right on social media?”

1. Authentic connection with the audience

We’ve been seeing a massive shift in what it means to be effective on social media over the last few years. One challenge that marketers are facing in this new era of social media marketing is connecting with audiences on an individual and personal level.

Connecting with your audience helps to humanize your brand and build real, authentic relationships.

Solving this challenge:

Connect with your audience by utilizing free or low-cost brand monitoring tools such as Respond, Mention, or TweetDeck and respond to every single comment on Twitter.

Monitor all additional social media channels and respond to each comment in an authentic way. You can do this by asking questions, linking to other blog posts, providing insights, or offering help with a problem.

You may also consider creating and growing a niche forum or group on Facebook or LinkedIn, or even creating your own dedicated community site similar to inbound.org or GrowthHackers – this gives you the opportunity to engage with users as well as let them indulge their passions and connect with like-minded people.

2. Creating a social media marketing strategy

You may know what you want to accomplish and why, but without a social media marketing strategy, you won’t have a specific plan on how to get there.

Think of your social media plan as a roadmap to your goals – Sure, you can stop off and check out landmarks along the way (experimentation), but you’ll want to return to the road that gets you to your destination in the shortest time and distance (goals).

Solving this challenge:  Creating a solid social media marketing strategy doesn’t have to take weeks to put together. For me, it helps to have 3 key things written down on paper:

 

Why we’re on social: Simply being active of social media channels for the sake of being there is one of the quickest ways to burn valuable time and resources. First, answer the question of ‘why’ your business is on social and what you would like to accomplish.

How we’re going to succeed: Next is to ask the question of how. This can be specific social channels, paid advertising budget, video or image creation, partnering with influencers.

How we’ll measure success: Key Metrics, Goals or OKRs that you would like to accomplish broken down into days, weeks, months, and the year. Breaking it down like this will allow you to focus on day-to-day activities while also keeping the big picture in mind.