Tips for Getting Your Event Audience Buzzing on Social Media

Everybody wants the same things when using social media at events: a larger audience, and the right connections to potential partners. But one key detail that most people overlook is that it’s not just about how many connections you’ve made at an event, social media marketing strategy but how strong and genuine is the connection you’ve made with the right person.Real-time engagement is the Trojan horse of social media that allows you to cleverly embed your brand and message into what people are already talking about in order to create the ultimate viral package. The essential element here is that both you and the audience are sharing the same conversation. The common experience introduces to your content or brand to the audience in a way that didn’t start with a sales pitch.When people aren't being sold to they let their guards down and become more receptive to your message. That’s just the nature of conversation in general. To make the right impact with your event audience, provide a method for people to have those conversations. The best way to create those avenues is by adding an element of fun.For social to work in the C-suite, CEOs can use crowdsourcing software or new “actionable social” tools to solicit feedback from large groups. For example, department heads or sales managers can submit their own ideas and vote on the best ones to pursue for their group initiatives. This democratic format generates greater buy-in from constituents, which in turn leads to highly motivated individuals and better aligned teams.CEOs also need to manage which audiences participate in each initiative, doing away with the social free-for-all. social media marketing plan For instance, some crowdsourcing projects might invite internal employees to participate, while others would query only external partners or suppliers, depending on the project focus.Another important aspect of this process involves structuring crowd-sourced discussions around certain specific topics, and blocking out other subjects to be avoided by the group.

Show it to grow it

Hashtags are used to organize conversations on social media, especially on Twitter and Instagram. Today, it’s just a given that the good events will have an event hashtag. But the best, social media marketing companies most successful events use visual displays that stream the live social media content surrounding the event hashtag.Using this method allows you to give your audience a ‘highlight reel’ of the best-quality content from peers and provides visual reminders that everybody can, and should, join the conversation. Have a moderator go through the content so that you’re approving quality posts from the audience members that others are most likely to listen to and follow suit.Remember, the more observable you make content, the easier it is for your audience to imitate it.Businesses can also encourage customers to share their own experiences through Vine. If a picture advertisement is worth a 1,000 words, then Vine videos are much more valuable that traditional advertising. Reaching potential customers in six seconds is a challenge but forming that connection and catching their attention with the right video may be worth six hours’ worth of effort.A recent study by The 7th Chamber found that five Tweets a second contain a Vine link. Studies are showing that a branded Vine is four times more likely to be seen than a branded video. Businesses can capitalize on the popularity of this mobile app by sending out a Vine video featuring one of its products’ uses, a customer modeling apparel, a patron eating at your restaurant or drinking at your bar. This allows their friends to see them interacting with your business in a positive way, social media marketing services thereby increasing the chances that they will do so themselves.Leaders can also curate their social discussions by making some comments anonymous in order to solicit open criticisms, while requiring users to be clearly identified and accountable when voting on shared priorities.All of this so important to CEOs. Leaders need to get out of their boardrooms and escape their rigid hierarchies to engage with actual constituents.

Bring out the toys

Third-party platforms allow you to take the conversation to another level. Share social analytics periodically with your audience so they see how much impact their contributions are making. social media marketing university People will drive more posts around your event hashtag when they know they’re an integral part of an important conversation.Gamification can be your best friend. Track who is posting and highlight your event’s top influencers. You can create a visual leader board to give kudos to your social contributors while introducing some friendly competition. Give your audience the love and the credit they deserve. They’ll give it right back to you with continued positive exposure.Social media is becoming increasingly visual. This is evident by the rise of newer photo-sharing platforms, particularly Snapchat and Vine.Small businesses can leverage these platforms more intimately than Facebook and Twitter to establish a direct connection to send their customers special offers and deals directly. A restaurant could send a photo or video of their weekly special through Snapchat, capitalizing on the visual medium to encourage customers to come in and try it.It’s been more work than I ever expected but I’ve loved every minute of the campaign," Kart says. "It forces me to do all my marketing up front before the product is even done and I’ve received invaluable feedback on the prototype.It seems like her work might be paying off. what is social media marketing Kickstarter nominated that Adi campaign as a staff pick soon after the campaign's launch and Kart's campaign is 37 percent funded.Pricey Facebook advertising is simply not feasible for a number of SMB owners these days, but less expensive and effective opportunities are out there. SMBs that are adaptable and open to trying newer technologies and social media channels can stand up and fight bigger competitors on a daily basis without going bankrupt in the process.

Affordable Marketing Alternatives for Businesses That No Longer Like Facebook

Many small to mid-sized business (SMB) owners who once considered Facebook advertising a relatively inexpensive and indispensable “place to be” in social media now ‘dislike’ Facebook advertising because of the rising cost. how to start a social media marketing business Larger businesses with unlimited resources can justify being active on Facebook but SMBs are at a distinct disadvantage due to lack of funding, qualified staff and expertise. Social media advertising, including Facebook, is out of the question for SMB owners who can’t afford to spend hundreds of dollars a month on these programs.SMB owners who can’t afford Facebook advertising but need to spread the word about their brand and increase leads have options. In addition to the obvious tools like SEO, blogging and LinkedIn, here are three cost-effective digital initiatives to help SMB owners. LIKEtoKNOW.IT for Instagram is an example of a social-commerce platform that offers a “workaround” when a monetization option isn’t immediately available.Since users can’t click and buy directly from the Instagram platform, LIKEtoKNOW.IT is integrates Instagram with traditional email marketing. Companies sign up for LIKEtoKNOW and when their users “like” a photo, they receive an email with direct links for buying the products pictured on Instagram. This is not one-stop shopping but it's still quick and easy and relies on what marketers and consumers are already comfortable with. Email marketing has been tried, and LIKEtoKNOW.IT combines what’s new with what works. Those running a campaign should succinctly explain what crowdfunding is and why it was chosen as the path to capital. That type of explanation can make a difference in generating support.Most campaigns run only 30 or 45 days. how to social media marketingKart learned that using analytics is key to getting the best return on marketing efforts. By using Bitly and analytics from Facebook, Kickstarter and Google to track where pledges are coming from, project creators can know what’s working and what’s not and shift their efforts toward what's driving the most traffic. Members of Kart's team check their analytics daily to see if they need to switch gears.

Don’t forget about email marketing

For every $1 spent, $44.25 is the average return on an email marketing investment, according to Experian research cited last year. Email marketing is not only a powerful revenue vehicle but it's also a strong tool that social media marketing 2014 should be incorporated into social commerce and vice versa. Social platforms are a prime way to build an email marketing list.If your company receives customers via Instagram, Twitter or another social media channel, they sign up with their email addresses, helping you round out your lists and segment customers better. When a business entices users to share their content, in exchange for providing customers with special offers or deals, that’s called “incentive sharing.” For instance, let’s say a company publishes an Infographic and stipulates that the tenth person to share it with his or her followers will receive a free gift card. By asking each person to share the product or service with X number of friends in exchange for a special offer, it creates a self-sustaining chain of referrals for a small business.A great example of recent incentive sharing is the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, which to date has helped raised $100 million. This viral/social media campaign was arguably the most successful form of incentive sharing to date. SMBs can use the ice bucket challenge as a paradigm for an incentive sharing campaign. In theory, it’s no different from Candy Crush, where you receive extra points when your friends sign up and start playing.By motivating users to share content, it almost becomes a game or competition that is fun and relatively painless. The biggest winner though, is usually the business or cause being promoted. best social media marketing Facebook promotion has worked for the team but it’s hard to catch people’s attention on that platform amid all the activity. For this reason, members of the Adi team constantly strive to create engaging content and post a daily joke video. They found that as long as a post connects with viewers through humor or elicits an emotional response, it gets noticed and shared.

Slow and steady wins the social race

Social commerce is a cool and exciting emerging area, but it's not quite there yet, so take things slow. Coca-Cola and Starbucks can test the social commerce waters in the early stages because marketing by social media they can afford the millions of dollars to make mistakes (and waste money through a low return on investment).Coca-Cola hasn’t given up on social media and has taken a unique approach: The company recently launched its "Tweet-a-Coke" campaign, allowing friends to buy and send Cokes to one another at Regal movie theaters. Just remember, unless your company is a Fortune 500 company with money to burn, test what works and take things slow. Hosting demonstrations to promote your products and services is excellent way to educate your customers or potential customers about your business. The customer learns something while the small business is established as a thought leader and local expert in their field.Local businesses such as restaurants, hardware and liquor stores can especially excel when it comes to demonstrations. For example, a hardware store can hold a workshop teaching customers how to build certain things and which tools are best for the job. A restaurant can offer cooking classes and test tastings for potential new menu items. Liquor stores can host wine and beer tastings.With millennials embracing DIY projects, and consuming more wine and craft beer than ever before, these are great places to start. Demonstrations teach customers and promote the products your business is selling while encouraging consumers to visit your location.Event invites and pictures from the demo can be shared through social media accounts. social media marketing After viewing a friend’s picture, some of his/her social media followers might reach out to say “That wine tasting looked awesome – where did you do that?” When that happens, it is only be a matter of time before more people start attending these events and profits start rising.So far Instagram is not directly monetizing customers’ posts but it is pursuing social commerce.

With the Arrival of Twitter's 'Buy' Button, Is It Time to Move Into Social Commerce

Following pressure on social platforms to demonstrate their validity as powerful sales channels, Twitter recently started testing its "Buy" button. The button, which is embedded in tweets, lets users make purchases directly on Twitter and through its mobile app. social media marketing chicago Rather than users being redirected to a retail site, Twitter’s “Buy” button provides the ultimate one-stop social-media shop.Twitter now joins other companies like Facebook that are trying to prove that a return on investment can be achieved through social commerce. Social media has widely been known as a tool for building brand awareness and as a display-marketing vehicle rather than a social commerce platform, but companies like Facebook and Twitter are trying to change that perception. Previously, social-media tactics and results were measured by soft metrics such as increasing impressions and click-throughs, but the return on investment has been low or confusing. A Forrester report in 2011 found that 62 percent of retailers described the ROI from social commerce as “unclear.” With the “Buy” buttons, Facebook and Twitter are elevating the focus on ROI by targeting the most important metric: the number of people who purchase the products. Social commerce is evolving to meet companies’ needs but, as with any emerging technology, caution must be part of any social-commerce program.Attorney turned entrepreneur Karen Kart of San Diego thought studying for the New York Bar exam was tough. Now it's her Kickstarter campaign for her Adi the stay-put-plate invention that's challenging her to the max. “I’ve been prepping for about a year now and working around the clock for the past six months," she says.A mother of three, social media brand marketing she rises at 4 a.m. to work on her campaign before her children wake. She creates a priority list of everything that must get done that day and what she needs to delegate to her support team.When I asked her during a recent phone interview about the most time-consuming parts of the crowdfunding campaign, she admitted it's the writing. “It took me a lot longer to write copy than I ever expected," she says.

Be consistent in messaging. Don't overwhelm customers

Establish a centralized strategy: Approach customers across Twitter, Facebook, email and more just not at the same time. Test the waters gently to not alienate loyal and revenue-driving customers. cost of social media marketing Take a page from successful email-marketing campaigns by segmenting the market and testing. See what works and act accordingly. You don’t have to be Coca Cola to attack the projected $30 billion social-commerce market. Follow the rules above so that a social-commerce campaign is not confused with spam: Capitalize on posts and tweets, and have the social commerce world at your feet."I’m a lawyer so I had to learn to write differently from how I was trained as I never wrote a press release before. But it helped me sharpen my focus on the features and benefits of my product."Likewise Olive Branch, Miss.-based Cedric Burnside has found his current Kickstarter campaign to release a blues CD has taken a lot of time and preparation for him and his team. The biggest challenge was devising compelling rewards to appeal to everybody. "When you are running a campaign for a musician, it's tough," Burnside wrote in an email. "All we could think of was giving away music. Luckily we got creative and added a house party for $5,000. We had a contributor pledge at that level and it financed [two-thirds] of our campaign.If you’re not in front of your computer, sweating, your heart beating wildly, up until the very last minute of the campaign, you probably weren’t as invested as you should have been, and you probably didn’t do it right," said Los Angeles-based Gregor Collins who worked on a Kickstarter campaign for a film he was in called Goodbye Promise.You have to spend six months to a year building your audience through social media if you’re going to make full use of your campaign," Collins explained in a phone interview. define social media marketing "It’s about building an audience and genuinely connecting with people on a personal level, who will be your 'customers' for life and who will spread the word to their friends. If your goal is just finding people with money jangling around in their pockets, you’re missing the point of crowdfunding.

Align email marketing and social media

Typically, email is associated with the sales and marketing functions, and social media resides in the marketing-communications camp. These two areas should align to ensure consistent communications and coordinated campaigns. social media marketing plan pdf Take Mondays for example: The marketing and sales teams know that Mondays are the best day to make sales, so the social-media team shouldn’t contradict this sentiment by posting a cat GIF that says, “I hate Mondays” no matter how cute it it may seem.Along with emailing bloggers and media outlets and answering inquiries from backers, Kart meets twice weekly with her team: a campaign manager (recruited after hearing Kart speak about her product at a local mompreneur group) and three college interns.They discuss marketing strategies, do outreach via social media, create Facebook ads and review campaign traffic analytics. They're on the Kickstarter page each day to post campaign updates and be sure every single backer receives a personalized thank you.As is the case for most project creators, Kart was surprised by those who supported her dream and those who did not. “I’m touched by people’s generosity, especially those I know who are living paycheck to paycheck and still chose to pledge," she says. "On the flip side, I was surprised that a few people who have the financial means and who know I’ve put everything I have into this project have either not pledged or only pledged a small amount even though I’ve supported their projects in the past.Giving them the benefit of the doubt, she adds, “I’m only a couple weeks into my campaign so there’s still time for them to join the crowd!Finding that friends don't come forward -- or give at the level expected social media marketing best practices is a common experience and one for which project creators need to emotionally prepare. Some people are simply against the idea of soliciting for funds. But many people just need to be educated about crowdfunding. They don’t fully grasp the concept or know how to pledge.

How to Build a Strong Social-Media Presence

When I see article titles or headlines claiming that you can automate your posts and work smarter on your social network by doing this or that, I think to myself, Really?Running a social-media strategy is just like any other process: social media marketing course It takes time. There are no shortcuts, you just need to be agile.So when you decide to join social media, make sure that your strategy is not just “post and run”. Be active in the community, follow and reply to your customers. True, there are times when you do not have access to the Internet and you are just happy to be able to get a post out, but to me, that would be the exception. For instance, if you were traveling, you may not have access to the online world 100 percent of the time, but even then, you should check in and respond as soon as possible.The site's users can lead a "healthy, sustainable lifestyle" and "support socially responsible causes," according to Care2's description. By its accounting, the social action network has members in excess of 16 million. The site relies on stories, blogs and syndication to cover topics, leaving plenty of room for users to step in and position themselves as experts and help give their health and fitness company a boost.With all its crafts, quotes and kid-party ideas, Pinterest is known for its large female user base. Meet its male counterpart, Gentlemint. Men can seek and share the stuff that interests them, from craft beers to football.These are just a small sampling of niche sites. Whether your company makes tree houses or tennis equipment, b2b social media marketing a specialized online community will value what you have to say (and sell). When you reach a more targeted audience primed for your message, you’ll likely enjoy higher conversions of visitors to customers and quicker word-of-mouth marketing among a group with common interests and needs.

Put the work in to see the rewards

o me, social media is almost a round-the-clock enterprise. It takes me hours to read and gather tweets each day to share across my network. Over the years, I have been even more selective, social media marketing plans which makes it even harder for me to take on this particular task and this is just a fraction of my social-media undertaking for each day.The trick is that when you don't have time, follow people that are extremely selective with their tweets, put these folks on a list and share their content. If you do this generously, they will in return be happy to promote your work. Another one of my favorite social-media suggestions is to limit your tweets per day. I’ll admit that I used to tweet way too much, but I now post about one per hour on average. (That is, unless I am working on promoting an event or participating on a chat.) Do what works best for you but moderation is always a good rule to follow, as it is nice to give your audience a break.Also, you don't always have to broadcast from your social-media page; you can say your piece by commenting on others’ social-media channels. I usually hop on all my social channels and watch what others are up to and really engage with them. Try to comment rather than just like or re-tweet, because that does not open the door to starting a conversation.The invite-only indie social network, still in beta mode, is rapidly growing in popularity. The recent spike in interest has been fueled in large part due to widespread animosity over Facebook’s controversial new real names only policy, especially within the LGBT community.Ello co-founder Paul Budnitz, a serial entrepreneur and artist, social media marketing podcast says some 31,000 requests to join the social platform pour in every hour, as reported late yesterday in USA Today. Invite codes for the fledgling service are so hot they’re being auctioned off on eBay for up to $100 each.Vermont-based venture capital firm FreshTracks Capital injected Ello with $435,000 in seed funding back in January, according to Ello's CrunchBase profile.

Reconsider have all your social-media posts automated

If I hand-selected the content and want to share this with my followers globally but just can't do it right now, it is sometimes better to wait. I’ve noticed that my fans do not have a problem with me responding at a later time. real estate social media marketing We cannot possibly acknowledge, return or reciprocate every social-media transaction, but I do the best that I can.On the other hand, there are situations when scheduling some of your posts makes sense. By scheduling your tweets, you’re not flooding the stream all at once. By spacing your posts out, you are providing a variety of information at a variety of times for all to enjoy. Be fussy with what you choose to share and when you share it. I find that a mixture of automated and live tweets works well for me. I try to participate on different travel chats whenever I have time in my schedule.By implementing these simple steps, it has helped me stay at the forefront of the social-media sphere and it definitely has helped me grow my following across my social channels. In social media, absence does not make the heart grow fonder. The alternative social network's manifesto voices what most of us are thinking anyway: mainstream social media isn't "fun anymore" thanks to rampant advertising and privacy-thrashing data tracking and sharing.We built Ello because virtually all of the other social networks were cluttered, ugly, and full of ads,” the mission statement reads. “We came to realize that a social network that has ads is a social network created for advertisers, not for people. social media marketing blogs Every move we made was tracked and recorded, and every post we made was read and sold to other companies so they could show us more ads.On principle, Ello doesn’t require real names, sell ads, nor “sell data about you to third parties.” For now at least. It’s also currently free to join and, according to Budnitz, it will “always” be. “But some people want special features -- they will have to pay for that,” he said.

Ways to Get Business Recognition on Social Media

In our increasingly competitive world -- one in which we clamor for the right kind of attention for our companies the pursuit of "likes" can become an obsession.While experts work to define the return on investment, how to do social media marketing or ROI, of social-media attention and quantify the financial value of social media-fans and followers, entrepreneurs have an innate sense that there is power in gathering a following of likes for our brands.If being liked is an important goal, and if we measure our likeability by what our social-media fans are saying, how can we effectively gather that evidence of our likeability?While the current tools to collect and aggregate social-media feedback for a particular demographic are useful, they will only continue to get better and more detailed over time. Fairly soon, you'll be able to look at the score a service provider gets when servicing people who are just like you.But in the meantime, here are three simple but powerful ways to encourage your advocates to like you.Users can chat in forums on Goodreads about books, authors, characters, plots, and anything reading related. The site also offers quizzes and book clubs. This site has received a lot of recent press, as many Facebook users have migrated to the smaller, simpler Ello in protest of Facebook’s enforcement of its real name requirement. Ello differs from Facebook in that it allows for anonymous posting and offers an ad-free environment.Similar to Pinterest, Kaboodle presents images featured by users. social media marketing trends But this site is focused on shopping and lets users create style boards for their favorite looks. A fashion startup or related firm can tap into the more than 5 million monthly visitors.Consumers post questions on Quora about a vasty array topics, from car repair to wills. Find the inquiries that relate to your industry or specialty and then position yourself as an expert in the field. It’s an easy, free way to build a base of fans and followers.

Facebook fan page likes

If you haven't already, create a fan page on Facebook and ask people to "like" you there. It only takes a consumer two seconds to click on the "like" icon, so take advantage of this easy marketing tool on social media. social media marketing new york And don't be scared of the "ask." On blog sites, business cards and across other social-media channels (i.e. LinkedIn), ask people to like your Facebook page.According to Facebook, more than 1.2 billion people use its platform and in excess of 30 million businesses have active pages. Twitter is also growing quickly as a promotional platform with more than 4.5 million small businesses signed up, according to a Wall Street Journal article last fall. It has 271 million monthly active users and 500 Tweets sent each day. So with Facebook and Twitter commanding so much traffic, does it make sense to focus your time and energies on those sites?Well, yes and no. I’m definitely not suggesting that you neglect those social-media giants. But as with any investment, it makes sense to diversify. You don’t want to put all your marketing eggs in one highly fragmented basket.If you have a very specific target market (musicians, physicians or even zombie film directors, let’s say), your company might have a significantly larger impact on a niche social network. Although the overall pool of users is smaller, it might contain a higher ratio of people who might be interested in your product or service. You can then more effectively tailor your content to unique needs, interests and experiences.Plus, Facebook and Twitter are already saturated with posts and ads from businesses similar to yours, which means the audience might be already a bit tired of posts from this sector, social media marketing pdf if not ignoring them altogether. On a smaller, lesser-known platform, your social-media activity might resonate with a more receptive and perhaps less cynical, group of users.Want to reach more than a million moms? CafeMom is the place. All it takes is a few engaged users, and you could see your product or service featured on highly trafficked “mommy blogs” around the world.

LinkedIn skills and endorsements

Ask people to add your skills on LinkedIn. Similar to asking customers (advocates) to like you on Facebook, this is a great way to ask people who know and like and respect you to state what you are good at.social marketing media The reason this is so useful is often when people meet new collegues or associates in their industry circle, they Google their name and go to their LinkedIn profile, which provides a plethora of information about the person.When I am on LinkedIn, I read a person's summary, view her past jobs and look at what she is currently doing. I then look at the number of skills/endorsements she has and make sure these affirmations back up who she says she is. If there is inconsistency, I throw up a yellow flag. If there's major inconsistency, I throw up a red flag. I've had major success running a campaign asking for those that knew me to endorse my skills on. (If you want to read more about this tactic, I go more in-depth in my post Successful LinkedIn Endorsement Promotion Case Study.) Create an activate page on your website specifically asking visitors to take action on what's important to you. Every website should have explicit calls to action, as they help provoke an immediate response. So, don't make your visitors guess at how they can help you; tell them what positive action is. Examples of call to actions include subscribe buttons to newsletters or social channels, requests to follow on social-media channels or to join forums. For the Thought Leader Life show that I'm a co-host with Michael Procopio, we created an Activate page that has really helped drive consumer engagement with our brand. To be successful in business today, social media for marketing and certainly in the future, you need to be liked. The more you're liked, the higher you'll come up in the tools that sort by customer satisfaction and the more successful you'll be. To ensure your long-term viability, put a consistent program in place to increase your "likes."Designed for book lovers, this niche social-media site caters to more than 25 million bibliophiles.

Personal Branding Doesn't Mean Just Fixing Your LinkedIn Presence

Now everyone is free to muse on professional matters through LinkedIn’s blogging platform. Make sure that your personal branding efforts shine and are memorable. Don't limit yourself to just one platform.social media marketing training Too many CEOs and executives (and their PR handlers) think that if they have a great LinkedIn profile and are active on the site, their job of marketing themselves is done.That's wrong. Businesspeople can promote themselves in smart, creative ways beyond LinkedIn, both online and in person.There are some good people on the brand team at Taco Bell, and many of them credit marketing exec Tressie Lieberman with leading the charge in the social space.When she first arrived at the team from another division within the Yum Brands family, Lieberman said she felt that its social stance and brand voice was too sales-y. Her new approach was to humanize the brand and start connecting.After all, Taco Bell's "peeps" are teenagers and those who love fourth meal, so she set out to hang out with them and be friends. The new direction was a 180-degree turnaround. And Taco Bell's new brand personality didn't stop with fans. With twitter conversations like the now-famous one below, Lieberman and team proved they get social and are doing a lot of things right.Taco Bell is making great efforts to connect with Youtube visitors and the video-creator community through various activities, original content and collaboration. It seems to have a regular video-content strategy and are sponsoring things such as a documentary with Bethany Mota.Ever notice how once you google something or email someone about anything, social media marketing classes a stream of ads related to similar subjects pops up almost immediately? Doesn’t it seem like a ghost is just sitting there on your handheld device? For a boomer like me, it reminds me of my high school English class when I read George Orwell and thought, “No way!”Every time I open Facebook on my iPhone 5C, the apps suggested for me to download relate to the same sites I just looked at moments earlier.

Optimize speaking engagements

If you land a speaking engagement at a conference, make the most of it. Find out if the event is being filmed, ask for the footage and use it to create a show reel -- to use for pitching more speaking gigs. social media marketing news Offer to work with the event's organizers on articles or interviews in advance that will increase your reach. Note the event's hashtag and use it to engage with people on social media. Inquire whether if any members of the press will be attending and contact them to offer them a briefing about your company.You might be scheduled for only a 30-minute talk or panel, but you have an opportunity to squeeze way more of a return on the investment of yourtime onstage. Be thoughtful about optimizing and amplifying your presence before, during and after the show.And the Facebook prompts suggesting people whom I might know? Some of these friend referrals are for people I don’t like, havn't spoken with for 30 years for a reason or distant relatives with whom I have nothing in common. If Mark Zuckerberg is such a genius, doesn’t he know that nowadays people are very easy to locate?Those Facebook ads offering free shipping and returns and a 20 percent discount? Seriously, how many people at my age can really buy shoes without trying them on? As a 50-plus woman with a lifelong shoe fetish, I've ordered plenty of shoes online. Having returned about seven pairs of shoes in the past two or three years, I have finally realized I cannot purchase shoes online.This is caused by Facebook's ad retargeting achieved through the cookies data stored when the user browses other sites. The solution to this? Think before googling: When browsing another web site (not Facebook) social media marketing network use Google Chrome's incognito mode or Safari's or Firefox's private browsing. Spam in the email box is something most people are hard pressed to control. It comes from all over the world. Strengthen the spam filter in your email program or just delete the emails.But what about those darn ads that crop up online when using a web browser associated with an email service such as Google's Chrome browser is with Gmail?

Divide up your social media time

My strategy for online personal branding is to use a 60/40 rule. Sixty percent of my social-media updates are professional and 40 percent are personal in some way. This ensures my followers and potential connections get marketing through social media to know a little about me beyond just my work-related thoughts and opinions.Sharing my love of cricket and real ale and regularly talking about the trials and tribulations of being a parent to two young daughters adds a bit of color. These details might serve as positive conversation starters when I meet someone in person. Find something natural from your downtime to talk about or share on social media. Many people worry that their followers might not want to hear personal details, but the lines between work and play have blurred over the last 10 years, thanks to digital media, and you’ll be completing the circle of personal branding by giving your posts a human touch.For example, as a China product safety and sourcing specialist, I often google websites for info on a new Chinese supplier. The next thing I know, I'm bombarded with offers for products such as recycled tires, head lamps and other items I would never have the need to import -- all courtesy of Big Brother. Enough already with those ads for strapless, pure white wedding gowns! Yes, I’m getting married in November. And no, it’s not the first time so I’m planning to wear red and three-quarter length sleeves. And no, I do not need a minister and definitely not a limo. And I'm through with those ads showing hemorrhoid cream or the latest way to lose belly fat. Hey, I can watch TV for those. social media marketing certification The solution? Try creating an entirely different email account to use when web searching and visiting shopping sites. Use a different email address for sending emails to shopping sites or to respond to product ads. Maybe, but don’t give up: Deleting all email accounts altogether will unfortunately land you back in the Stone Age. And worse you’ll be the brunt of jokes from your kids at future family gatherings.

Factors of Social-Media Marketing Most People Don't Consider

This has long been a question brands have tried to definitely answer. It has been brought to the fore of late by a recent Gallup poll, the report from which states, "A clear majority of social media marketing for small business Americans say social media have no effect at all on their purchasing decisions."That may make it sound like social media marketing has little benefit, but the report's cursory dismissal doesn't take into account several other factors.It’s the perfect place to show off your beautiful new salon and the innovative hair designs created by your stylists.For example, it partnered with Charity Miles. Charities are a great way to give back, but they also offer a great branding partnership opportunity for your business.Partner with others to expand the reach of your content-marketing efforts. Tell your story in a way that gives others a reason to cheer for your success.Make yourself part of a community. Say that you’re “Proud to be part of [city, state, online group, etc.].” Then share your content and mention influencers in those communities. Hopefully, they will re-share your content.Ryan Grepper struggled to fund the Coolest Cooler. It’s now the most-funded Kickstarter ever.Grepper shared everything he tried shortly after his first effort -- everything from promoted tweets to Facebook ads and more. Grepper discussed initially that his personally-constructed press releases showed potential when he reached out to target bloggers.This time around, the Coolest Cooler rose up the press coverage ranks all the way to The Today Show during its record-setting run on Kickstarter.Get more shares for your content by starting small.social media marketing job description Find a niche blog. Then reach out to a larger blog and say, “We were featured on this blog ...” Then do it again, going bigger each time.It was created by designers who had already released some products. This gave them insight into how to build buzz for the campaign so they could easily reach their goal.On the Noke Facebook page, the team shared regular updates that built anticipation.

Search engine optimization

These days, marketers are increasingly aware of search engine optimization, the order that indexed sites are ranked by search engines. To companies and brands with any sort of online presence, SEO is very important. marketing and social media (The importance can be understood if search engine ranking is thought of as equivalent to being listed in a more prominent location in the Yellow Pages.) Even if social media marketing does not drive sales directly, the additional traffic and links that a site receives can give it a higher ranking on Google and Bing, which can, in turn, lead to higher sales.Yet another image-sharing site with great potential for savvy salon and spa owners. In addition to posting photos, you can use Flickr to upload videos up to three minutes long. It’s also said to have exceptional search engine optimization capabilities, meaning it’s easier for search engines to find your Flickr stash. You can use the site to show off your building, your products, and your staff, both in pictures and video.They would share a photo showing sneak peeks at the upcoming product.By the launch date, Facebook followers were in a near frenzy trying to figure out what the product was going to be.Start building your social audience now. Create content and share it using popular industry hashtags. Create guest content on popular industry blogs. Participate in industry podcasts.Build your audience now and when you launch a new piece of big content or a big product in the future you can build anticipation because your audience is already built and waiting.The memobottle is a sleek container that fits in your computer carrier.social media marketing salary The photos on the official memobottle website are fantastic. It makes such a huge difference when you use professional photography.Hire a professional photographer to take top-notch photos for all your content. To go to the next level, hire professional videographers.Start with freelancers on Fiverr. Find good people and pay them well to keep them around as you do more content marketing.

Specific marketing goals

Just as it is important to take a nuanced look at the context of the 35 percent figure, it is also important for brands to look closely at the intended results of their social media marketing. social media marketing statistics When many people (likely including those polled) think of marketing, they think primarily of things like consumer packaged goods, such as chips and soda, which are products that are not generally purchased online. This is significant, because the "next step" required to go from interacting with a packaged-goods brand online to purchasing their product in a brick-and-mortar store is significant. Other brands have marketing goals more likely to be met by social media, namely having customers purchase something online (where the marketplace is just a click away), or recruitment to join an online networking or community site. Those brands may find social media marketing more effective.This is just a microcosm look at the social media tools that are useful for salon and spa owners. If you’re hungry for more, just Google “best social media sites” and you’ll have plenty of reviews and lists to choose from. And by the way, while it’s not necessary to sign up with all of these services at the same time, they all should be on your radar.Every Kickstarter campaign needs great content -- videos, descriptions and more.But you also need great promotion. Each of the campaigns above had great content and great promotion to build their successes.If you have a favorite Kickstarter campaign please share in the comments section.Ninety three percent of businesses using inbound marketing increase their lead generation, a 2013 study by Hubspot found. top social media marketing companies With numbers like these, any and all advice for ramping up your inbound-marketing efforts is valuable, particularly if it comes from those who know the business.To get your lead machine running at top speed, we turn to nine time-tested tips and insights from Brian Halligan of Hubspot, Joe Pulizzi of the Content Marketing Institute and Brian Clark of Copyblogger.

More Reasons for Brands to Use Instagram to Boost Influence and Drive Sales

Instagram is a unique medium for brand advertising unlike any other platform in the social space. The visually driven community allows users to communicate in the universal language of photos and videos,social media marketing manager opening the world to the possibility of more "humanized'' content.Instagram’s growth and reach speaks to its massive appeal to the millennial audience. Instagram provides huge advertising opportunities to drive brand awareness and purchase intent to those brands that understand users want content made for users by other users who understand them best.The three components that are most important for brands to successfully campaign on Instagram are humanizing the content, utilizing influencers and harnessing the power of analytics.Working on your personal brand doesn’t mean you have to talk about yourself 24/7. Taking an interest in and heeding the comments of others will endear them to you and you’ll probably learn a few things that will help your professional development as well. Simply having empathy with peers who are facing professional problems will have a positive effect on your brand. Plus it just feels good to help people who are in a bind.Make a conscious effort to spend time in asking your peers about their work roles, what drives them, where they’ve had the most success and how they behave in adverse situations. No one knows everything, so allocating your time to fill gaps in knowledge can help your company and your personal brand.You may already have a Facebook profile for connecting with your friends, but it’s also a great tool for connecting with customers.marketing with social media What makes Facebook valuable to small-business owners is that the people who visit can post comments, which can be a source of excellent word-of-mouth advertising. A Facebook profile also allows you to get your brand out to a wide audience base in a short time. Once you start to accumulate a list of satisfied customers, you can use Twitter to keep them posted on your latest service specials and other beauty information.

Humanizing branded content

The key to success in today’s social space is insight into the audience base. Users today want content that speaks to their real interests in a genuine manner. Driving this concept is prioritization of the user experience. social media marketing software Always have the individual in mind. Anticipate and focus on what they want to see from a brand.With this approach, brands can implement diversely creative content that speaks to the user’s individuality and the brand’s understanding of the audience. That allows the audience to personalize the entity connecting with them through social media. The brand is no longer just another robotic, corporate voice.As you may know, Twitter is a micro-blogging tool that allows you to send brief (up to 140 characters) messages, or “tweets,” to anyone who follows you—which in your case, would be any client who agrees to let you tweet him or her. For this reason, you should start compiling a list of Twitter usernames that can be used for marketing. But don’t tweet too often, or the messages will lose their punch, kind of like crying “wolf” too often. Instead, if you see something interesting to bring to the attention of your clients (“Did you see Jessica’s hair on “Idol” last night? Now rocking Jessica’s ’do at Starlight Salon!) or if you want to inform loyal customers about specials or the latest beauty tips, you can send a tweet.This is a business-oriented social networking website, and as a small-business owner, you need to be here. LinkedIn has 227 million members in 200 countries and territories, most of whom won’t be dropping in for a haircut or a massage. how to use social media for marketing However, the site is useful for establishing new contacts, reconnecting with former acquaintances and even finding new business. In a way, it’s like an electronic chamber of commerce but without the monthly meetings.This site is designed for cyber collecting: Users “pin” things they love from various online locations to their site. In essence, they build a visual diary they can share with other people.

Amplification through targeted Influencers

The usual advertising tactics are essential whether a brand is looking to grow awareness or reposition themselves but audiences today demand personal interaction with brands. They want to speak to another person who understands them and speaks like them. social media marketing courses The best way to reach users with these needs is to generate content by like-minded individuals who understand the space. Instagram influencer marketing is a massive opportunity for brands to target specific demographics in a non-intrusive, yet effective, manner. These influencers know what drives engagement and interest in their audiences by understanding them as no brand could.The human factor has become essential to a successful social campaign. That personal voice behind a brand is what the audience wants to hear. Both brand science and artful advertising must converge to build the brand's connection to audiences an influencer has developed, studied and tended to for years.In fact, like Twitter, “pinners” can follow boards that have pins they like. This opens the door to exciting marketing possibilities for small-business owners like you. Sign up with Pinterest, add a “Pin it button” to your website, and pinners can add information from your site—say, a rock-and-roll haircut or information about a great new stylist—to their board. It’s great, no-cost visibility.Follow the world’s creators” is Tumblr’s motto, and the site lives up to its hype, hosting more than 180 blogs and more than 80 billion posts since its 2007 debut. Participants share whatever moves them -- text, photos, quotes, links, and more -- then follow others who share their interests. On a recent day in cyberspace, social media marketing b2b Tumblr enthusiasts posted nearly 94 million messages.This photo-sharing app has morphed from a social platform for friends and family to a serious contender for business recognition. Companies are using Instagram to build brand loyalty by showcasing their product lines, services and locations; posting photos of company activities, and much more.

Social Media Has Become Indispensable for CEOs

The current stampede to embrace social media as a valuable business tool has kicked up a big cloud of dust and created new layers of confusion for chief executives and other leaders. social media marketing tips Most CEOs sense that social media marks an important breakthrough for business communications, but they aren’t sure how to fully utilize the technology to gain a competitive advantage. This is because leaders often have trouble distinguishing between “actionable social” information and what I like to call plain old “social noise.” There is a substantial difference between the two.Think of actionable social as useful information that can be acted upon to improve business results. Social noise, on the other hand, involves a vast overload of data that drowns out the underlying message or meaning.Nearly three-fourths of senior executives in the U.S. believe that C-Suite leaders who use social media to communicate their core mission and brand values are more trustworthy than those who don’t adopt social media. This surprising finding comes from the 2014 Global Social CEO Survey by Brandfog, a social media consulting firm for CEOs. The Brandfog survey also shows that 82 percent of senior leaders think executive use of social media raises brand awareness and helps establish industry leadership.Social media offers a useful way to capture community knowledge and enhance group creativity. Yet many of the enterprise social media tools out there today allow everybody involved to interact with everybody else. This creates a dynamic in which the die-hard followers carry on and on to hear the sound of their own voices, causing many others to zone out and disengage from the process altogether. social media marketing tools This is the unfortunate situation at too many businesses today.To succeed as a next-generation social CEO, business leaders need to engage more with their internal teams, partners and customers. But this requires leaders to contain, control and curate such social media conversations, rather than hosting unwanted social free-for-alls. This is the challenge most CEOs face regarding social, whether they realize it or not.

Create Photo Galleries with an Instagram Hashtag

With a larger character limit than twitter and an equal propensity for hashtags, Intstagram offers many of the same tracking opportunities. And as a visually-driven medium, compiling photos into a gallery is a no-brainer. marketing social media Last year, JetBlue partnered with Instagram analytics service Totems to run the JetBlueSoFly campaign. Using Totems analytics, the team identified the best photos to be shown on a special section of the JetBlue website. The campaign was a resounding success for JetBlue, and also made for a nice case study for Totems.After surveying more than 120 social-media marketers, my client Offerpop found that Facebook still reigns supreme among ad dollar allocations, with 92 percent of marketers planning to spend the majority of their holiday social media marketing budget on Facebook, despite the platform’s plummeting organic reach. (Offerpop clients and participants in its educational seminars were surveyed.) Sixty-seven percent of marketers polled said that they will increase their spending on social media this holiday season with the direct goal of increasing sales.Oceanside, Calif.-based headphone company JLab Audio is also preparing to sell products online with the help of Facebook ads in a crowded marketplace (with competitors like Beats and Skullcandy). While the company leverages brand partnerships on social networks such as Instagram and Twitter, Facebook will be getting the lion's share of JLab Audio's holiday social-media budget, said marketing manager Jordanne Muldner. JLab plans to double this year's Facebook ad budget (over with 2013's level) and increase its social-media advertising budget for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. benefits of social media marketing The Gallup numbers show that 35 percent of Americans say that social media has some influence on their purchasing decisions. While 35 percent is obviously a minority, think about how many Americans say that advertising in general affects their purchasing decisions. If that number is also in the 35 percent range, social media and traditional advertising will be shown to affect the purchasing decisions of the same percentage of people.

Reward your followers

There is no lack for tools analyzing twitter content, but there are far less that provide data about followers. SocialRank fills this gap by providing intelligence about an account’s most valuable, most engaged, and overall best followers. using social media for marketing SocialRank data gives brands the opportunity to interact with followers that mean the most, and to create content surrounding the interaction. Muhammad Ali used SocialRank to give free t-shirts to fans. His tweet announcing the promotion was retweeted 100+ times and also resulted in press coverage from Business Insider.hardly an indictment of social media's clout.While not an apples-to-apples comparison, many marketers have reported less-than-satisfactory results from radio advertising, for example. Does that mean radio ads are totally ineffective? No. Perception can differ from reality.It's safe to assume that the majority of the people polled had no specific intent to allow social media to influence their purchasing decisions. Most people generally do not particularly desire to be the target of marketing. There are exceptions to all rules, however, and there are certain individuals who do actively seek out brand pages on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. By neglecting social media, brands are not providing content to audiences actively seeking it. Considering the extent to which brands go to gain clients' and consumers' attention, it is very unfortunate when legitimately interested parties are unable to find brand information they are actually looking for. social media marketing strategies A more basic issue with Gallup's poll is the issue of the validity of the question posed. The Gallup poll demonstrated that most Americans say that social media don't influence their purchasing decisions, but it doesn't mean that they are completely immune to it. Exposure to a brand may affect purchasing decisions subliminally, so the influence of social media may be more significant than we realize.

Content-Marketing Hacks Using Social-Media Data

Social-media marketing and content marketing are two of the best ways for advertisers to get a message across. But they can be even better together, especially when marketing content leans heavily on social media data. social media marketing jobs In the current media landscape, marketing decisions must be based and validated by data. But this data can be used for more than just informing future decision making. Utilizing social media marketing data in your content marketing efforts can provide a fresh and creative twist to online advertising.Social media gives leaders the power to greatly increase this level of engagement by really listening to the voices of stakeholders, then taking tangible actions based on those suggestions. Crowdsourcing also provides a constructive way to glean deep insights from the collective knowledge of an entire group, not just from an insulated leadership team.These important benefits make up the intrinsic value of being a social CEO, while raising serious doubts about any laggards who continue to shun social media. Which type of leader would you rather work for, or put another way, which type of leader would you like to become?Live-tweet and apply a consistent personality, so that people will want to hear the highlights from you specifically. Your personality allows people with similar traits to connect with you. Embrace that. By providing a consistent live-stream of content, people will look to you as a leader who can translate all the ins and outs of the event.When you connect with your audience on an individual basis, you can make each message more personal to instill a deeper, longer lasting connection.Twitter polls are not only a social media and marketing great way to engage with your followers and get immediate feedback, but they also represent an opportunity to create great content. When SAP conducted a twitter poll about self-driving cars using their social media analytics solution, they were able to cover the results in a Forbes article (which also serves as an example of native advertising for those keeping track).

Promote Yourself With a Data-Driven Blog Post

Buffer, the social media sharing startup, is well known for its exceptionally active blog. A recent blog post in conjunction with CoSchedule analyzed the impact that various social media headline tactics and had on traffic. social media marketing agency By diving into the data and creating a piece of useful and shareable content, Buffer and CoSchedule were able to both demonstrate product effectiveness and create publicity.It’s only a matter of time before your audience’s phones or devices run out of battery. To keep them engaging back with you in real-time, make it easy for them to charge their devices. That is a helpful show of gratitude for their participation.On the flip side, not providing something as simple as a charging station will leave your audience hanging. At that point, the possibility for engagement is over and feelings can shift. It’s a simple tip, but it gets your audience back to the social conversation faster and keeps them excited and focused on participation.Don’t forget that your hashtag can live outside the digital world! Besides sharing on social networks and your event website, you should be printing it on your banners, including it in the registration process, placing it on stickers in strategic places (even the mirrors in the bathroom work!), and much more.Twitter poll results can also easily lend themselves to simple charts and graphs, which can be crafted into microcontent for use all over the web.Instagram provides a simplistic user experience but provides vast amounts of data regarding users and content generated. When used correctly, this date gives brands the opportunity to leverage key metrics in support of their campaigns. social media marketing company By implementing Instagram’s data in analytical tools, the brand’s position is elevated, not only supporting their campaign direction but driving metrics around brand awareness, purchase intent, sentiment and so forth. These are all essential factors when proving ROI, an extremely difficult task in the social space, especially Instagram.

Take Advantage of Automated Visual Content

Want to create an infographic based around social media data but short on time? Visually’s create tools offer a variety of ways to plug in social media accounts and get a slick-looking infographic in seconds.social media marketing plan template Twitterize Yourself creates an infographic based on the content of your tweets, and Twitter Showdown pits two accounts against each other across a variety of metrics.According to the Brandfog survey, 83 percent of senior leaders think CEOs who actively participate in social media can build better connections with their customers, employees and investors.Verbal reminders also help to keep the flow of conversation. Hosts and panelists should remind your audience members before each session. There are tons of offline ways to remind your audience and encourage less socially-savvy members to join for the first time. Don’t leave out the people who may have missed the digital memo.Using social media to stand out at events is the same as socializing in person. To be truly in the moment, you need to make it less about you, and more about the common experience. When you can connect in a meaningful and fun way, people will respond. Real and powerful engagement is that simple.In a fast-paced world where social media is the driver for audience and consumer movement, Instagram continues to provide newfound opportunities. The three core elements of driving Instagram success for brands are humanizing the content, utilizing influencers and gaining powerful analytics. As brands grow in their understanding for these three invaluable elements, so will their social value and long-term growth.With a predicted growth of 8 percent as compared with last year, social media marketing world according to Prosper Spending Score, the 2014 U.S. holiday shopping season has begun. Many companies bank on the success of sales from November and December to wrap up their fiscal years on a profitable note, with Prosper estimating this year will be a $650 billion holiday retail season. Although Facebook and Twitter recently announced built-in commerce options, they’re being tested only by a handful of companies.

Reasons Why Social-Media Marketing Is Overrated

You’ve seen it, right? You log onto Facebook to see what your friends are up to and the sponsored posts promising to teach you how your business can make seven-figures through social media marketing.social media marketing blog You see the ads and you wonder if social-media marketing is the missing piece of the puzzle to help your business grow?First, I believe that social media can be a great way to get new leads for your business. You can’t deny the opportunity when you see the billions of users on the various social media platforms.However, social media marketing isn’t what it used to be. The landscape is vastly changing. As tempting as those sponsored posts are, there are some things you need to be aware of before investing your time and money in social media marketing, especially as the main marketing effort for your business.Social media marketing can help your business but don’t buy into the belief that it’s the most important part of your marketing efforts. Here are five reasons why social media marketing has become overrated.Branding starts with being active on social media. But Jayson DeMers writes that flooding your social networks with poor content can do more harm than good for your business (and personal brand).You can’t expect to really be social and not be present on social-media channels. These channels offer a great tool and medium to promote your own content as well as curate excellent content that your potential users may want to read. Build a following by sharing relevant content regularly.In this Google Hangout, DeMers offers tips on how to write grade-A content and deliver valuable resources to your target audience, even if you aren't a natural-born Jack Kerouac. Also, once you get the hang of publishing high-quality content, how exactly do you maximize its reach? social media marketing experts He discusses steps that you can take with any written content to get more value from it over time.There’s a huge community (with many potential customers too) out there waiting to give feedback and help spread the word about your app. All you need to do is to reach out to them through platforms such as Beta List, Product Hunt and Hacker News.

The organic reach is pretty close to zero

Look at the two largest social media platforms, Facebook and Twitter. According to the Moz Blog, the average life span of a tweet is 18 minutes. Jeff Bullas, a leading social media expert, social media marketing articles estimates the organic reach of Facebook is around 2.71 percent, or less.More and more, we’re seeing social media move to a “pay to reach” model. Many social media companies are now public. Getting your business to pay to reach your audience is how they generate profits for their shareholders.Many apps have gotten tremendous feedback and followers this way, and those followers acted as brand ambassadors that influenced other users to download the app.Potentially the best way to get traction for your app is through word of mouth. Not only does it create a viral effect, but people trust others to tell them about great discoveries. See my previous article on how to use word of mouth to influence users to download your app.Use these strategies to help you build credibility and influence your potential customer’s behavior even before they get to your download page. Any strong social strategy is predicated on two things: consistency and a deep understanding of its audience's psychology. Even Buzzfeed's popular GIF lists and cat collections manages to hit more than 7 million global unique visits per day thanks to 3.4 million Facebook fans and 1.17 million Twitter followers.A social-media savvy business takes a good hard look at its performance stats, demographic information and referral traffic every day. When the numbers for yesterday’s posts come in, the team looks at what went well and why. They adjust their strategy based on hard numbers, with special attention paid to long-term trends, social media marketing dallas so as not to get too hasty with adjustments.Businesses recognize social-media marketing isn't just about posting questions and images, but giving its audience information they want from products to sales to an inside scoop on industry trends. Company X meets with the content-marketing team daily to make sure that all ducks are in a row. Both teams discuss promotional priorities, opportunities and schedules.

Anyone can buy social media followers

Most of us have probably gotten the tweets that promise thousands of Twitter followers for only $30. It’s the same thing with Facebook and most of the other social media platforms. You can buy followers to inflate your numbers. learn social media marketing There is a video that went viral from Veritasium questioning the value of a Facebook like. The video makes a strong argument that paying Facebook to get more likes on your page is not worth the investment. The problem with buying followers is that you’re not marketing to real people.The content team conveys the creative or contextual significance of content, and the social team makes sure that everything is presented in a way that captures readers’ attention.Just like clockwork, Company X's marketing team has a carefully curated list of scheduled posts packed with useful information, ready to publish to all relevant platforms. Like always, these posts have great visuals, formatting and content and hit the social-sphere just in time for their readers’ lunch breaks.Social media works because it enables rapid conversation about anything and everything. An article or two that strikes a chord with viewers are not just hits, but opportunities to engage your audience and start a real dialogue.Company X knows what to look for in site-traffic statistics and keeps the momentum going with timely posts and promotions. Also, the team knows social media works best when it’s topical, so they spend some time monitoring what people are talking about on other sites and capitalize on the buzz.There are endless formulas involved in leveraging social media. A Google search for “how to write great Facebook posts” yields results so dense that USA Today is pushed to page 3. importance of social media marketing Needless to say, people feel that this stuff is pretty well figured out. But this team knows better. They know better than to look for a list of keywords. They rely on audience knowledge and creativity to grab attention instead of cheap tricks.The team sits down for a brainstorming meeting to discuss promotional ideas for the coming week.

Ways to Influence Users to Download Your Mobile App

There is a difference between "promoting to" and "influencing" users to download your mobile app a massive one.Promoting to users doesn’t put your app on the path for massive downloads. social media marketing campaigns There’s just too much noise in the market with too many apps vying for the same user’s attention.Now imagine, you put your advertisement out there what are the chances that you’d be able to get the user to notice and even download your app? You're leave it for the user to choose. Instead, think about this: What if you can influence the user to buy your app or product instead?You need to influence people even before they get to your landing page. Potential users should be convinced of the value you’re offering and your microsite, app-store page, etc., should essentially seal the deal!Let’s take a look at some of the ways that you can influence your user to buy and download your app.Not just any blog. There’s a blog fatigue with the number of people jumping onto the content-marketing bandwagon. You’ve got to write something that is attention grabbing and worthy of sharing. Make the topic current and give actionable pointers. I see many blogs that fail because they have no real meat to chew on. People notice good writing and also the people behind the blog or article. Be sure to include links to your landing page in the bio and see the clicks coming through. Readers value insights and opinions and these add to your product’s credibility.In the first year of its existence, Buffer added 100,000 users through staffers writing blog posts and contributing to other blogs and publications.According to The Verge,social media marketing service the post, which was written in Chinese, translated to "Microsoft’s latest OS Windows 9 is coming soon, do you think the start menu at the left bottom will make a come back?" This was something of a rhetorical question, since the company had already confirmed the return of the start menu, according to PC World. The post has since been deleted, but CNBeta noticed it and was the first to report the story.

Contribute to other blogs/publications

While you continue to write for your own blog, it can take time to build a reader base. Complement writing for your own blog with writing for sites from the industry that you’re app is catering to. social media marketing conference Look for the industry leaders (blogs and publications) in that category and approach them with an article pitch. These blogs or publications already enjoy huge traffic and immense credibility. Writing for them will add to your own credibility.This is another medium to build thought leadership and get attention. There are many examples of valuable insights shared by app entrepreneurs through a presentation hosted on SlideShare.Put your experience of your journey as an entrepreneur and talk about something spectacular within the category of your app or simply rework your blogs or articles as presentations.There's nothing like a third-party endorsement for your app. What's better then a publication of repute writing about it? Identify a journalist that has done similar category or product stories and write to them with a concise pitch, explaining why it merits a story. If PR doesn’t work well in your home country, try your secondary English-speaking markets.Whatever you do, make sure you keep your reader amazed and at times amused. So much so that they look for what you do and how it could help them.Besides confirming the as-yet-unmentioned operating system, the post was accompanied by a mock-up of a Windows 9 logo, which ExtremeTech.com was not happy with.Prior to the leak, Microsoft had been referring to the product as the codenamed “Windows Threshold.” A technical preview of the software was slated to be released at the end of this month, following a press conference, effective social media marketing and the final edition of the OS is reportedly slated to be released in April 2015, as CNET reports.A Microsoft spokesperson said the company had “nothing to share” about the events.Besides the start menu returning -- though not to its full, former glory -- Windows 9 (if we can officially call it that) is supposedly going to have features such as the ability to run Metro apps and Cortana voice assistant integration.

Actively participate on Quora

Build your credibility in your app’s category by responding to queries posted on Quora. Oliver Emberton’s response to one query got him a book deal and several film offers. The possibilities are endless if you focus on providing your users with value and not force-selling your app, social media as a marketing tool which is Microsoft’s response to Apple’s Siri. Also noteable is what the new system will not include, mainly the Charms bar.Now that the secret is out, people are talking. Many hope that this new version of Windows will be a sharp departure from Windows 8, which was intended more for tablets than desktops and was not well-received by the tech community.First and foremost, our hypothetical business (let's call them Company X) knows social media has become like a second arm, an arm that posts updates before we've barely gotten out of bed. But they know it's not just a way for individuals to share cat photos, it’s a chance to interface with customers, raise brand awareness and help solve their problems before they become bigger ones.A good social-media presence never sleeps and neither does your social following. Someone is always tracking what you're doing and ready for the next update. A successful social strategy is all about knowing your audience and preparing for their schedule. Every network goes through peak periods and doldrums based on the activity of users, and a successful strategy knows how to work around that.But Company X takes it a step further and intimately understands the fluctuations of its own user base. With a target demographic of entrepreneurs in their mid-to-late 20s,social media marketing pricing Company X knows that 19 percent and 71 percent of its target audience is using Twitter and Facebook respectively.With 79 percent of individuals ages 18 to 44 keeping their phones by their bedside, the team puts content on these platforms and in their hands when they first wake up. They also look to reinforce their efforts by planting blog posts, building their newsletter list and otherwise being everywhere their client is looking.

Creating a unique world within a social network

Survey data collected by GlobalWebIndex in in late 2013 demonstrates Tumblr’s impact on users between the ages of 16 and 24, a demographic that BusinessInsider has pointed out is difficult for brands to reach. marketing on social media Flooded by fashion companies, artists and indie musicians, Tumblr is a breeding ground for youth-oriented content.A common sentiment among social gurus is that those who want to make social-media networking succeed have to put in the time. Grand Ole Opry took every social network into account for its digital marketing strategy, a bold choice considering the time and content commitments companies take on with each new network engaged with.Rather than simply paste a Tumblr logo on its web page, Grand Ole Opry created a persona for the microblog labeled thecircle. It’s packed full of video performances and interviews, making visitors feel apart of a special backstage club with exclusive access to current stars and country icons.Your blog is a conduit for disseminating effective marketing content, Halligan says. Your culture, personality, modus operandi and idiosyncrasies are resources.Pay attention to what makes your workplace different and use it. Those quirky board meetings may be just what potential leads need to take the plunge.There is, however, a caveat to that point. Clark is quick to point out that while people appreciate a personal touch, almost no one wants to really see the nitty gritty that makes your company run.Personal quarrels, bad days and inside jokes that alienate your audience aren’t charming quirks -- they’re an uncomfortable look behind the scenes. Keep the private stuff private, social media marketing campaign for the sake of your audience.What many businesses don’t understand about inbound marketing is that it is a conversation, not a promotional stunt.Blogs, videos and social media chats are designed to engage customers around a central topic, according to Halligan.So the next time you consider cutting corners to get to lunch sooner, remember, the details matter, even if no one notices them.

Treating content as a reward

Signed posters are a great social contest prize. For Grand Ole Opry, using them as leverage garnered a ton of user-generated content and engagement between social media users and the organization. social media marketing degree But limiting fan rewards to such prizes places budget and creativity limitations, and while it’s still effective, it’s traditional, the opposite of Grand Ole Opry’s new marketing tactics. After all, there are only so many times that fans will post a photo to score a poster. Grand Ole Opry took an interesting approach to this dilemma via Twitter. Specific tweets from @opry requested 1,000 retweets by a certain time in order to unlock videos from stars such as Lucy Hale and Carrie Underwood. Fans responded in droves, requesting that their followers also participate to reach the goal. Rather than offering a typical prize, Grand Ole Opry engaged its fans and rewarded them with in-house content in exchange for engagement. Requesting shares, likes and retweets from fans is fine, but to do so and offer them something in return is full-circle marketing at its best.If these same individuals wanted traditional advertising, they wouldn’t be turning to content in droves.Your team works with highly specialized information every day. Whether you’re business-to-consumer tastemakers or business-to-business specialists, you are likely to be far more familiar with the jargon and nuances of your industry than your audience.What matters, however, is your audience. Your information is valuable, but only insofar as it enriches the lives of your loyal readers. Halligan suggests that, “it is better to ‘dumb things down’ then go over your audience’s heads.Let’s be honest here: attending to the details of your inbound-marketing strategy can become very tedious, social media marketing los angeles very quickly. Optimizing headlines, re-optimizing target keywords and micromanaging your social media schedule can tire even the hardiest marketer in a hurry.According to Clark, it doesn’t matter. The details matter. Even if your audience isn’t consciously affected by their presence, they are on a level that greatly affects your content’s performance and impact.

Not leaving behind faithful fans

Grand Ole Opry hasn’t forgot the loyal fans who helped the organization weather 90 years and all the changes in the country music industry. social media marketing strategy template Its Facebook page shares video performances from Dolly Parton and Wynonna Judd and takes the time to honor classic artists and mediums.An effective social-marketing campaign targets multiple audiences and engages on several levels while collecting additional data, user-generated content and increasing organizations' reach to new fans. This might seem straightforward for contemporary companies, but entities with a long history could find it hard to creatively deliver brand messaging and content to ever-changing social media users.Grand Ole Opry could have easily bitten the dust or just kept things simple and catered to a stereotypical demographic. Instead it has leaped into the digital future with tactics that other companies can learn from for their own efforts. The last word in our lineup is an important reminder for inbound marketers everywhere. Yes, the details matter and yes, inbound marketing takes time and effort, but it is only a piece of your holistic marketing strategy.Like any body of work, every piece must perform at its full capacity for the whole to benefit, but remember that blog posts and podcasts serve your business as a whole and the rest will fall into place.Clark, Pulizzi and Halligan are three individuals who “get” inbound marketing, and their insight can help you. From the mouths of the experts, use these nine tips and get your inbound marketing engine operating more efficiently, effectively, and reliably.Your young business can't afford to waste time marketing poorly, social media marketing resume so don't waste time looking for answers in the wrong places.In the modern age of constant connection and promotion, it’s hard to keep a secret. Microsoft had been doing a decent job of keeping its new operating system under wraps until this morning, when its Chinese division posted a question to users on the Chinese social networking site Webio.

How Facebook Is About to Get More Like YouTube

YouTube’s not the only big name in the viral video game. Facebook says it's crushing it in video sharing, too, to the tune of more than 1 billion video views per day on average.And, to further up its cascading video engagement cred, social media marketing firm the social media mammoth today announced that it's rolling out a set of new YouTube-like features this week -- view counts for videos from public figures and Pages, and related video suggestions that will appear after videos are watched.For the average user, the addition of public video view totals might not sound like anything to write home about, but it’s welcome news for metrics-happy, ROI-obsessed brands and marketers. The tallies will enable them to quickly size up how well a video is performing, along with what’s hot and what’s not content-wise. The fresh features are also geared to help Facebook users more easily discover emerging and popular video content.In teasing the new duo of basic but useful YouTube copycat features -- expected to debut after today -- Facebook crowed that its video views have grown more than 50 percent from May through July, pumped up in part due to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge soaking everyone’s news feeds, according to TechCrunch. Facebook also said that more than 65 percent of its video views pour in via mobile, a platform the social powerhouse is increasingly more focused on.Facebook also announced today that it will allow video publishers to add a “call-to-action” tool that will invite viewers to visit a specific website or to “learn more or make a purchase” after a video is done playing. social media marketing firms Page creators will also be privy to a more robust set of metrics designed to help them better reach their target audiences, including analytics on how long viewers watch videos before clicking away from them and how many unique views each video earns.Sure, Facebook’s averaging some 1 billion-plus videos view per day isn’t bad. The boom represents some relatively strong growth overall, but it’s not exactly astounding when compared to YouTube.

Information is not enough to make your content work

Frequently, an inbound-marketing strategy depends on building a perception of authority around your business. For this reason, providing meaningful factoids and insider tips can seem like the way to go.According to Clark, social media marketing books this couldn’t be further from the truth. Information is just the tip of the iceberg. The rest involves optimizing, promoting, engaging, monitoring and iterating to optimize that information into a vehicle for your business.It may sound like hyperbole to say that information must be “irreplaceable,” but when one considers that the top result on Google receives 33 percent of clicks, one thing is clear: your content has to be a definitive resource.In Pulizzi’s eyes, shooting for irreplaceability is the best way to assert your content as a go-to now and for the foreseeable future.You’re running a business, and your business depends on funneling impressions into leads, and then into conversions. While your well-crafted piece of prose may spur a few head nods, it is only truly great if it is sufficiently inspiring as to motivate email signups, purchases or product demos that ultimately help your business convert.According to the Aberdeen Group, only 32 percent of marketers said they feel that they are effectively executing enough content. That means that over two-thirds of all marketers are missing the mark on basic content execution. If your content marketing isn't working, this is probably a good place to start.Check your past two or more months of posts and note the day of the week and time of publication. Also, read these pieces and answer honestly: Is each one of consistent quality? If you're publishing at an inconsistent rate, social media in marketing audiences may be turned off by that unreliability. If the quality is inconsistent, you may be losing audience members to subpar content.Digital media is about carefully curating work that yields organic traffic as users return to it. At least, that's half the story. The other half involves creating relevant, topical hits that foster link building/discussion and raise SEO rankings in the process.

Seek and tap your sources of inspiration

Halligan takes naps during the day. Why? Because that’s when he comes up with his best ideas.At first blush, this may sound more like CEO quirkiness than strategy, but it touches on something very important. small business social media marketing Put yourself wherever inspiration arises. Becoming the best in your industry through fantastic content means pulling out all the stops, and if that means naps, trips to the library or standing on your head, then so be it.As new technologies, trends and practices emerge, people want to learn about them right away. Keep an eye out for emerging issues in your industry and capitalize on them. Doing so can garner more hits in the near term by tapping an uptick in organic search. It can also establish your content as an authoritative reference on the subject and earn inbound links that boost search rankings for future discovery.Suffice to say that if you're late to the party, you're going to get lost in the shuffle. Note the timing on content relative to the initial buzz of the related topic and see if you're being reactive instead of proactive.When things are going well, it's easy to identify your strengths. When things are going poorly, it can be difficult and even painful to assess your weaknesses, particularly when those weaknesses cause you to fall behind your competitors.However, your competitors can teach you more than you realize. Inbound marketing is a complex endeavor, working best when each contributing piece is performed in an optimal manner. Each team sees the process in a different way, executing some pieces better than others and offering insight into improving your own execution. When your numbers are down, check your ego at the door and learn something from those social media marketing plan sample who are objectively performing well.When your efforts aren't yielding the results you need, asking targeted questions that get to the root of your execution problems can turn things around and improve your long-term prospects. Focus on consistently delivering relevant content in a manner that reaches your audience and don't be afraid to tap your competitors for some valuable knowledge.