Does all this talk about data and sharing on social media have you confused? Is your feed too noisy and you’re not seeing posts from the people and brands you care about? Social media should be a fun place for you to have meaningful interactions with friends and family. Here are three simple steps to..
There are so many videos that are promoted on YouTube on a daily basis. Unfortunately, only a very small number of these enjoy a little over a hundred views and an even smaller number succeed in creating a viral buzz. Is your video among this very small number? If not, why? Focus on quality and..
Here is a simple guide to use the popular social networking site Pinterest to work for your businesses’ advantage. Having already attracted 10 million users in just 10 months and being used by more than 100 brands, Pinterest is sure to become every business’s need for social media marketing in 2014.
Posting on Facebook, tweeting, sharing pictures on Instagram, or creating a LinkedIn profile; all of it seems very easy, but when it comes to doing it for your business, it becomes challenging. When it comes to social media marketing, organizations and individuals need to know their game as conventional marketing techniques may not work on..
Let’s set the stage: Need a refresher on what was going on 5 years ago? Let’s take a trip down memory lane!
To be successful at selling, brands need to make emotional connections. The technique used to accomplish this is learning the specific words and phrases that your buyers use. These keywords provide a powerful way to make an emotional connection with your buyer. You know the term, “the customer is always right.” Well, these keywords prove..
Users now use Twitter, Facebook, and apps such as Zeebox to draw attention to TV shows, the social tools have inadvertently killed traditional TV advertising. Television stations have transitioned their ads to audiences on Facebook, Twitter, and Zeebox. As a result, television advertising is dying out. It’s important to note the types of programs that..
Are you on LinkedIn? If you answered no, you made the first big mistake. LinkedIn is an absolute must when it comes to your business’ social media marketing strategy. LinkedIn is a social network where you display your professional profile, display your company profile, and connect with colleagues, clients and friends in your industry. You..
While the practice of marketing your content becomes mainstream, you’ll see a lot of marketers use it in a way that won’t work – forgetting that educating the audience is the primary goal. Make your content marketing better If you look at each platform as the traditional classroom and that you’re the teacher, you can..
Twitter users use acronyms or abbreviations in their tweets. For those of us who are not avid Twitter users, may not know what they mean. Some of the abbreviations and acronyms may be common on all social media sites, but others are unique to Twitter. Here’s a list of terms you may see in tweets..
In a recent study by Custora, which measured the purchasing habits of 72 million online shoppers, it was discovered that customers who find an online retailer via organic search spent more money and shopped more frequently than customers who originate from other channels, such as Twitter or Facebook. In fact, in 2013, less than one..
Having your content or post go viral on social media means that it’s exploding in popularity and getting passed around by people on various sites. Typical viral posts include a great meme, a funny video clip, or a facepalm-worthy story. Here are some tips for creating a viral post:
Adding useful real-world elements to your brand messaging will connect your customers to your brand. Reality marketing is customer-generated content that delights your customers. In order to be real, you need to add elements of storytelling to your online marketing. This is part of humanizing your brand – appealing to your customers emotions. Following are..
Karen Leland, author of Ultimate Guide to Pinterest for Business, gives advice to help you drive website traffic, build your brand, and increase business on the Pinterest platform. To optimize your appearance in search and attract more traffic, give each pin a perfect description and include relevant keywords. You can be deliberate with what you..
If you’ve heard it once over the last couple of years, you’ve heard it a million times – if you’re marketing strategy doesn’t include social media marketing, it’s time to add it. Even though the majority of people in the US still use traditional search engines to find anything they’re looking for online, users, especially..
Social Media Marketing strategies continue to evolve and marketing professionals are constantly having to change their methods. In addition, Google’s algorithm continues to be updated. So it’s important to improve your content marketing strategy continuously. Stay focused on producing high-quality content that works to engage your audience. This way you will remain relevant in your..
On July 1, Facebook silently removed the 20 percent text rule required for Page Cover Images from its page guidelines. However, the 20 percent rule for Cover Images remains in two sections of Facebook Help. It’s possible that these sections haven’t been updated to reflect the change yet. In Facebook Help the sections are: What..
In a recent article on Yahoo, a social media expert gives advice on “How to Quench Your Social Media Thirst in 60 Minutes a Day.” I know you’ve heard this before and it may get old, but Social Media is an important aspect of any business. If you’re not on it yet, now’s the time..
Do you remember when teens left MySpace to join Facebook? Shortly after, adults also joined Facebook. Even though adults didn’t really join MySpace, they joined Facebook by the hundreds of millions. This resulted in the Facebook platform not being as popular for teens. So what social media platforms are teens joining now, and what can..
Utilize your employees in your social media marketing strategy. Don’t let your Facebook posts go unnoticed and unshared. Ask your employees to help share your content. Employee social sharing can be done with automated features that are triggered by each post or blog publishing. The value of employee social sharing isn’t only about the likes..
Facebook’s popular photo-sharing app ,Instagram will now have video. Facebook is trying to stay competitive, since Twitter’s video-sharing app, Vine is growing. On Thursday, Kevin Systrom, Instagram’s co-founder said users will now be able to record and share 15-second clips. All they have to do is tap the video icon in the app. Users will..
A new study published by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EUI) and sponsored by Lyris, found some noteworthy information about purchasing decisions and preferred marketing channels. Here’s what consumers had to say:
Recently, Christopher Litster, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Constant Contact shared the top 10 reasons that people don’t like your Facebook status updates. Here is the advice that he gave: Questions that are too broad or personal According to a recent Inc. article, Twitter messages with a question mark had 52 percent..
Consumers are now using social media and emails to voice their concerns. In addition to getting promotions/free gifts, one of the major reasons people like a brand’s Facebook page is so they can voice their complaints online. Using an online forum to deal with customer service is a fast and easy way for otherwise shy..
Today, everyone is using smart phones. Do you know how to connect with them using mobile social media marketing techniques? You can use the social media tools that you’re already familiar with to create mobile marketing ideas. LinkedIn Mobile You can connect with customers and prospects with LinkedIn mobile. Use the LinkedIn mobile application to..
Social Media Examiner recently released its annual Social Media Marketing Report. The study reflects that 80 percent of marketers aren’t planning to use daily deal sites in their future campaigns. In this study 3,025 marketers were surveyed. The most significant points determined by this report will be highlighted in this article. There’s been a decrease..
Twitter limits its tweets to 140 characters. However, you should not look at this as an issue. Instead look at it as an opportunity. It may be hard to get your point across within that limit, and getting people to act on your tweets might be even harder, yet if you use the right approach,..
Social Media Today recently interviewed Ted Shelton, a strategy consulting leader at PwC and author of Business Models for the Social Media Cloud to discuss topics that will come up at the Social Shake-Up Conference where Ted will be speaking. When asked to describe why companies should focus on how they use social, mobile, and..
Now that Facebook allows you to include calls-to-action (CTAs) on your cover photos, you can use your cover photo to drive actions and conversions. Following are a few ways to turn your cover photo into a CTA that converts: Promoting a Facebook Page Tab Based on Facebook studies, users on Facebook want to stay on..
Does your website look like a brochure and nothing more? Websites should have coherent site structure or some form of rational organization. Otherwise, site visitors will be lost. Are you thinking about interoperability, interactivity, and social share buttons? PC users have a hard enough time with certain websites, imagine how that affects mobile users. Your..
Developers and tech-geeks nationwide attended the annual Google I/O Developer conference in San Francisco for three days this week. This is where Google rolled out the new updates for its Google+ platform. The company added 41 new features. Even though Google+ has 190 million monthly active users, it’s still not as popular as Facebook, Twitter,..
One of the most important questions that brand marketers ask themselves is “How do I sell with social media?” This is a question that is commonly asked and repeated with every marketing campaign. In order to sell your product or service, you have to convert a follower into a customer. Last month, Matthieu Chereau, cofounder..
You need to know which platform will work best for your business in order to have a successful social media marketing campaign. So what social media platform is right for your business? According to the 2012 social media marketing industry report, businesses need to get the answer to this question right. In this report, 85%..
Social media marketing presents a challenge to all businesses. It seems that as soon as you learn how to do one thing it’s evolving into something different. So, what are the most effective social media tactics? This is what every brand looks for in the analytics of their social campaign. Following are seven social media..
Today businesses use social media to enhance their marketing efforts and to meet other objectives such as brand recognition, sales, increasing customer base, improving their customer service and increasing loyalty. However, the majority of companies activate social media campaigns without a clear strategy. According to new research, 72% of businesses don’t have a clear strategy..
Are you ready to jump on the social marketing bandwagon but you’re wondering how to target your market on social platforms? Today we’re going to discuss the Facebook platform and what tools it offers to help you target your market. There are three ways to build your target market on Facebook that will cost you..
To engage your audience on social media platforms, you need to understand how to use each platform. If you don’t know how to engage your audience, you can actually hurt your business. You need to learn how each platform works and how the audience uses each platform. There are books available that can help you..
Have you asked yourself this question; how do I measure social media marketing? Are you concerned with how you learn the metrics to measure your social media campaign? Don’t worry because there are tools available to help you measure the success or failure of a campaign. Social marketers typically launch marketing campaigns and tend to..
BIA/Kelsey a consulting firm in the local media industry, is projecting that US social media advertising will increase from $4.7 billion in 2012 to $11 billion in 2017. This would be an 18.6 percent in the compound annual growth rate (CAGR). The company believes that social media networking companies will continue to improve targeting and..
Google is ready to release the much-anticipated Google Glass, wearable computers that can connect to the Internet using your mobile phone or Wi-Fi, in 2014. With these glasses you can take pictures and HD720P video and use Google services such as Gmail, Google+ and Google Maps. The device uses Google’s Android operating system and is..
#Socialmedia has transformed the way people communicate and live their daily lives. Who would have thought that with the internet becoming available to the public in 1995, it would have evolved to everyone including businesses living their daily lives through social networks? Today social media has such an influence on everything and its platforms contribute..
In 2012, it was revealed that time spent on mobile devices to access Facebook increased 85 percent, LinkedIn 114 percent, Pinterest 4,225 percent, and Twitter 140 percent. That’s an overwhelming increase. With 46 percent of social media users using their smartphone and 16 percent using their tablets, it’s time to focus our marketing on optimizing..
Organizations continue to experiment and learn about new approaches to engaging customers. However, a company can suffer on social media when unflattering posts are shared within platforms. The reality is that even if the company was justified in the post or if a story is false, the only thing that matters to consumers is how..
Social media has proven to be an effective marketing tool for businesses. Having a presence on all the major social media platforms has become essential for any business’ marketing strategy. So how do you manage all these accounts without going crazy? The tools that social media masters use to manage their multiple accounts are: Hootsuite,..
A big shift that’s underway with YouTube’s ranking system is to rank videos based on being watched longer. If videos keep people watching longer, they will be given a higher ranking over those that only get clicks. According to YouTube’s head of content partner marketing, Eric Meyerson, this should motivate contributors to create high-quality content..
Facebook released a mobile device today. According to Facebook, it’s not a phone, but it’s more than an app. It’s similar to a digital skin that you slide your phone into so that it’s covered in Facebook. Android phones will come with Home pre-installed or you can download it from Google Play. Basically, it provides..
The trail you leave behind for others to find on the internet every time you upload a photo, share anything, publish videos, or get tagged on social media platforms is your social media footprint. Companies and people alike are realizing that some of the things they posted or shared in the past are not what..
Noreen Hertz a British economist and author used social media conversations to predict who the winner of X-Factor would be. Hertz believes you can predict real-world outcomes using social media sites. She believes that using chatter from social media platforms will become a predominant tool for business forecasting. Hertz told CNN at Names not Numbers..
Up until a few years ago, the words “social media” and “marketing” were never used in the same sentence. Today, marketing is not marketing without social media and networking. Brands attain more recognition and advocacy through social media platforms. Engaging followers and appealing to their personal senses are essential elements to successful social media marketing…
Google announced it will be shutting down Google Reader on July 1, 2013. Google is trying to consolidate its services. In 2011, Google rolled up Reader and Picasa under Google+. Then in 2012, Google shutdown a lot of services. Now, comes the shutdown of Google Reader. Google Search continues to be the leading revenue generator..
Google has been driving local results since 2007. The world’s largest search engine influenced the shift to local internet marketing services. Because Google pioneered SEO, the company has always had the attitude that you either “play the game, or get left behind.” Over the last couple of years, Google has been promoting its local business..
Technology and social media professionals from all over the world attended this year’s South-by-Southwest conference. A collection of experts attended and spoke at the various SXSW sessions. The following insider tips for brand marketers were concluded from the various sessions:
Real-time marketing is a new phrase that came about in the last month. It’s an extension of content marketing. Brands need to adjust to a new 24/7 marketing model, according to social media commentary. A prime example of real-time marketing in action is Oreo’s tweet, “dunk in the dark” in response to the power outage..
