Today, most marketers recognize the value of social media in promoting their products. Whether you design websites or own a cupcake shop, social media allows you to connect with millions of potential customers. Many businesses find that even a little work on a few sites can yield a high return on investment.
However, you may not be clear on how to best use social media to procure sales. There is often a fine line between not offering enough promotions and posting so often that it annoys your followers. While you do want to be noticed, you don’t want followers to unsubscribe from your page. Here are some tips for how to best use social media to procure sales.
Hold a Contest
Who doesn't love the opportunity to win free stuff? Contests are great ways to both attract new followers and engage your existing customers. Holding a contest may not boost your sales immediately, but it will help you in the long run. Whether you hold a one-time contest for playground equipment or give away small items each week, people love the idea of receiving something for free. Waiting for the results of a contest can be fun and exciting, and it's for that reason that people often share contests with their own friends and followers.
If you do hold a contest on social media, just make sure you aren't violating any of the platform’s rules. For example, on Facebook you can’t require users to like your page before they enter the contest. As long as you stay ethical, though, a contest is a fun way to boost your following.
Offer Special Sales or Promotions
Offering discount codes or similar promotions via social media is great incentive for users to follow you on the sites. People of all ages and demographics love sales. There's just something exhilarating about receiving a great product for a fraction of the original price. In fact, many users follow a brand on social media in the hopes that they'll receive a discount.
Interact with Users
Social media is primarily a communications tool. That’s why you need to make sure you're engaging with customers in addition to offering discounts and promotions. If customers are having a discussion, jump in, especially if it doesn't directly involve the promotion of your products. Personal interaction shows customers you care and are willing to listen.
Also, be sure to post high-quality, engaging content in addition to sales and discount codes. Posting a link to an interesting blog or news article will often pique a customer's interest. Sharing an article may not immediately lead to a sale, but it will build your relationship with your customers.
Time Your Posts
Timing is everything in the world of social media. If you post too infrequently, you won't be at the forefront of your customers' minds. On the flip side, you could annoy your followers if you post too much. How frequently you post content depends to a large extent on the type of platform you're using. On Twitter, it's fine to tweet a few times a day, but on Facebook a few times a week may be more than enough. With any site, be sure you're alternating promotional posts with those aimed at engaging your customers.
Keep these tips in mind as you continue to tweak your social-media campaign. As long as you’re patient, engage your customers and try to have fun while doing it, you’ll be successful at driving sales through social media.
Showing posts with label followers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label followers. Show all posts
Wednesday, 8 January 2014
Saturday, 28 December 2013
3 Ways to Become a More Visual Social Butterfly
More and more, it seems like people don’t use the internet to read. They use the internet to see. Whether they’re clicking through photos on their friend’s Facebook wall, pinning recipes they want to try, or watching cats do hilarious things on YouTube, users want visuals. And not just any visuals, they’re drawn to images that pop, images that make an emotional impact, images that are useful. It explains the popularity of sites like Pinterest and Instagram and apps like SnapChat. People just love sharing images.
But how do brands fit into this? According to Digital Insights, who compiled an impressive number of social media statistics for the year 2013, surprisingly well. According to a survey, 46% of web users turn to social media before making a purchase. While they’re on those networks, it is the visual information that stands out. Socially Sorted, who published an infographic on the subject of the increasingly visual social landscape, explains that users are more likely to engage with brands who post pictures more than any other type of media. In addition, photos on Facebook get 53% more likes than any other kind of content.
Okay, you’re convinced. Now how can your business become more visual? Keep reading for some great advice!
Less Words, More Images
Next time you’re about to post to your social media account, stop and think for a moment. Would this post be better-expressed or more successful with a beautiful image alongside it? The answer will be yes 99% of the time. Show, don’t tell.
But how do you come up with these images? If you don’t have a professional photographer or designer on board, try purchasing stock photos or using Creative Commons images. If those won’t do and you’re not a great photographer, slap a filter or some words over it and no one will be any the wiser!
Be the Source of Creative New Content
Did you know that 80% of all pins on Pinterest are re-pins? That means that 80% of the images on Pinterest are just re-shared images that somebody else pinned to the site originally! And although Facebook’s image sharing works in a different way, the number of content creators is still relatively small compared to the number of content sharers.
Take advantage of this by being the source of interesting content that people want to share. Quotes, memes, and videos share well on Facebook, and quotes, infographics, and tutorial-style images do well on Pinterest. Depending on where you want to grow your audience, keep in mind what does best on each platform. A highly-detailed image explaining pricing for web design might be extremely successful on Pinterest, where long and tall images have the advantage, but cropped and squeezed onto a Facebook feed it won’t do as well.
Crowdsource Visual Content
Some of the most successful social contests involve user-submitted images. In this type of contest, your fans and followers create an original image according to your guidelines and submit it to you. At the same time they share it with their own friends and followers. Their followers see it and may choose to participate as well, expanding the reach of your contest. Even after the contest is over and the prize has been awarded, you have a unique gallery of creative images that followers might enjoy.
To see an example of this, look no further than Colonel Meow’s “Cat Fro” photo album. Since he is one of the most widely-followed cats on Facebook, fans seeking their moment of fame were quick to stick their cat on top of their head, snap a photo, and start submitting images. Even though the collection is no longer being added to, the album is still full of cat afro photos to see and share.
Hopefully these three tips will help you become more visual on social media. Just remember, don’t tell when you can show, create instead of curating at least some of the time, and take advantage of crowdsourcing when possible.
Wednesday, 23 October 2013
How To Increase Brand Awareness With Retweets On Twitter
The Pew Research Center estimates that Twitter now reaches 18 percent of US Internet users, up from only 8 percent in 2010. Further, 33 percent of users follow at least one brand, and 67 percent are more likely to buy from brands they follow, according to Mediabistro. Small businesses have also caught onto the Twitter phenomenon, using the social network to grow their brands and gain new customers in the process.
The effectiveness of small business Twitter campaigns is directly tied to the number of followers you have. The best way to get more followers is to get retweets of your tweets. Though celebrities and athletes with millions of followers get thousands of retweets on any mindless drivel they publish, small businesses do not have the same luxury. There is simple science behind getting retweets, with most of it centred around cleverness and timing.
Retweeable vs Unretweetable Words
A 2013 Statcounters/Eircom B&A survey found that nearly 13 percent of participants who had recently left Facebook did so due to the shallowness of conversations. Facebook users are notorious for telling their "friends" what they had for breakfast, how frustrated they are while in a traffic jam and, of course, the proverbial "goodnight Facebook" salutation. These types of status updates on Twitter are the least likely to be retweeted or even acknowledged.
Not only is the text of the tweet important, but also the timing. Bit.ly, a URL shortening and tracking company, revealed that tweeting between the hours of 1:00 pm and 3 pm Eastern time returns the highest click rate among all time slots. The best time to tweet is during business hours Monday through Friday, with Wednesday afternoons having the highest click times of all days. Avoid sending tweets after 8 pm and on weekends (unless of course you're a college or NFL football-oriented business).
Know Your Audience
Twitter users do not necessarily represent the population at large. The Pew Internet and American Life Project estimates that 28 percent of US Twitter users are African American, and 28 percent are Latino. The study also found that nearly half of all US Twitter users are aged 29 or younger. Ethnicity and race can be sensitive subjects when it comes to advertising. Yahoo and Mindshare, who jointly conducted a study on ethnic marketing, advises small business to feature diversity in their ads, to be authentic and avoid stereotypes.
The effectiveness of small business Twitter campaigns is directly tied to the number of followers you have. The best way to get more followers is to get retweets of your tweets. Though celebrities and athletes with millions of followers get thousands of retweets on any mindless drivel they publish, small businesses do not have the same luxury. There is simple science behind getting retweets, with most of it centred around cleverness and timing.
Retweeable vs Unretweetable Words
A 2013 Statcounters/Eircom B&A survey found that nearly 13 percent of participants who had recently left Facebook did so due to the shallowness of conversations. Facebook users are notorious for telling their "friends" what they had for breakfast, how frustrated they are while in a traffic jam and, of course, the proverbial "goodnight Facebook" salutation. These types of status updates on Twitter are the least likely to be retweeted or even acknowledged.
iAcquire on Twitter uses its account to promote blog posts. The SEO company tweets links to its blog postings, and utilises relevant #hashtags to broaden its reach. Author and blogger Dan Zarrella analysed the text of more than 30 million tweets. Words such as "Twitter" "media" "free" "social" "blog" and "please" were among the top 20 retweeted words. Contrarily, "lol" "work" "home" "bed" and "night" were among the least retweeted words. Zarrella also has a retweetable word finder tool that can help you phrase tweets in a way that maximizes their retweetability.
Length and Timing
Tweets are limited by the 140 character limit. When tweeting links to blogs and other media, make sure to use a URL-shortening tool to save space. Any commentary you preface the tweet with should be short and concise. Many people want to add their own comment to a tweet that they retweet. If you utilize all 140 characters, that means the retweeter has to edit your message just to write his. The extra steps can cause them to simply skip retweeting it at all.
Length and Timing
Tweets are limited by the 140 character limit. When tweeting links to blogs and other media, make sure to use a URL-shortening tool to save space. Any commentary you preface the tweet with should be short and concise. Many people want to add their own comment to a tweet that they retweet. If you utilize all 140 characters, that means the retweeter has to edit your message just to write his. The extra steps can cause them to simply skip retweeting it at all.
Not only is the text of the tweet important, but also the timing. Bit.ly, a URL shortening and tracking company, revealed that tweeting between the hours of 1:00 pm and 3 pm Eastern time returns the highest click rate among all time slots. The best time to tweet is during business hours Monday through Friday, with Wednesday afternoons having the highest click times of all days. Avoid sending tweets after 8 pm and on weekends (unless of course you're a college or NFL football-oriented business).
Know Your Audience
Twitter users do not necessarily represent the population at large. The Pew Internet and American Life Project estimates that 28 percent of US Twitter users are African American, and 28 percent are Latino. The study also found that nearly half of all US Twitter users are aged 29 or younger. Ethnicity and race can be sensitive subjects when it comes to advertising. Yahoo and Mindshare, who jointly conducted a study on ethnic marketing, advises small business to feature diversity in their ads, to be authentic and avoid stereotypes.
Wednesday, 9 October 2013
5 Tips to Revamp Your Social Media Strategy
Savvy business owners know it's important to have a social media strategy - or at least, to include social media in your marketing strategy. But your social media strategy might be floundering, and you're not getting a return on the time, money and effort you invested in it. The solution is not to try harder and put more effort into it. Instead, revamp it altogether.
Here are five things you can do today to revamp your social media strategy:
1. Be a social media leader
The traditional view of social media (if we can call anything that's less than 10 years old "traditional"!) is that it's about conversations - with your customers, potential customers, influencers, and other important people in your network. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's a low-level activity. Workers have conversations around the water cooler, in the lunch room, and at cafes. Leaders make presentations before they engage in conversations. When they do have conversations, they often do it as a coach, mentor or facilitator.
Do the same thing online. Tell first, and then you can choose how to participate (or not) in the ensuing conversations.
2. Share ideas, insights, expertise, knowledge, and thought leadership
Broadly, there are three ways you can share information with your followers:
Curate: Share what others have created - videos, photographs, links to blog posts, Web sites, and infographics - perhaps with a brief explanation of why it's relevant and important.
Create: Share your own expertise and knowledge, in various forms - such as video, blog posts, articles, audio recordings, slide shows, and webinars.
Collate: Scan the environment for seemingly unrelated topics, and show how they are connected in a way that's relevant to your followers.
Of course, everything you share must be relevant to your followers, and must be consistent with your brand and thought leadership.
3. Choose your leaders and followers
Leadership is not the same as friendship. If you're my friend, then (by definition) I'm your friend as well. But if you follow me, that doesn't mean I follow you as well. So stop trying to treat the social media landscape as an equal space. It's not a democracy; it's a meritocracy.
For example, on Twitter, follow the people you want to learn from, not just everybody who follows you. And when you do follow somebody, don't expect them to "follow you back". That simply doesn't make sense.
When you're seeking followers, start by inviting people on the platforms where you already have followers - for example, your newsletter list, blog subscribers, podcast subscribers, and so on. They are already following you in these platforms, so they are more likely to follow you on social media as well.
4. Don't spread yourself too thin
5. Serve to sell
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7244552
Here are five things you can do today to revamp your social media strategy:
1. Be a social media leader
The traditional view of social media (if we can call anything that's less than 10 years old "traditional"!) is that it's about conversations - with your customers, potential customers, influencers, and other important people in your network. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's a low-level activity. Workers have conversations around the water cooler, in the lunch room, and at cafes. Leaders make presentations before they engage in conversations. When they do have conversations, they often do it as a coach, mentor or facilitator.
Do the same thing online. Tell first, and then you can choose how to participate (or not) in the ensuing conversations.
2. Share ideas, insights, expertise, knowledge, and thought leadership
Broadly, there are three ways you can share information with your followers:
Curate: Share what others have created - videos, photographs, links to blog posts, Web sites, and infographics - perhaps with a brief explanation of why it's relevant and important.
Create: Share your own expertise and knowledge, in various forms - such as video, blog posts, articles, audio recordings, slide shows, and webinars.
Collate: Scan the environment for seemingly unrelated topics, and show how they are connected in a way that's relevant to your followers.
Of course, everything you share must be relevant to your followers, and must be consistent with your brand and thought leadership.
3. Choose your leaders and followers
Leadership is not the same as friendship. If you're my friend, then (by definition) I'm your friend as well. But if you follow me, that doesn't mean I follow you as well. So stop trying to treat the social media landscape as an equal space. It's not a democracy; it's a meritocracy.
For example, on Twitter, follow the people you want to learn from, not just everybody who follows you. And when you do follow somebody, don't expect them to "follow you back". That simply doesn't make sense.
When you're seeking followers, start by inviting people on the platforms where you already have followers - for example, your newsletter list, blog subscribers, podcast subscribers, and so on. They are already following you in these platforms, so they are more likely to follow you on social media as well.
4. Don't spread yourself too thin
Invest your time in the networks that most value your expertise and knowledge.
Of course, you already know that Facebook is more of a social network than LinkedIn, which is more of a business network. So, broadly, if you're dealing with consumers, you might find Facebook a more profitable platform than LinkedIn.
But it goes deeper than that. If you've chosen LinkedIn as a target platform, choose the right sections in LinkedIn as well. Typically, these will be specific groups where your peers and clients are active.
Similarly, don't restrict yourself to the big platforms. If you find a small niche forum dedicated to your area of expertise, it can sometimes be far more effective to invest time there.
Of course, you already know that Facebook is more of a social network than LinkedIn, which is more of a business network. So, broadly, if you're dealing with consumers, you might find Facebook a more profitable platform than LinkedIn.
But it goes deeper than that. If you've chosen LinkedIn as a target platform, choose the right sections in LinkedIn as well. Typically, these will be specific groups where your peers and clients are active.
Similarly, don't restrict yourself to the big platforms. If you find a small niche forum dedicated to your area of expertise, it can sometimes be far more effective to invest time there.
5. Serve to sell
Finally, engage with the intent to serve your networks. Much of your communication will be one-way - through your blog posts, videos, webinars and other thought leadership - but never forget that you're sharing material for other people's benefits. So always ensure it's relevant and engaging.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7244552
Friday, 6 September 2013
How To Create A Great Customer Experience On Social Media
Creating the right customer experience is vital for every company using social media, both for existing customers and potential customers. In 2012, 77% of B2C companies and 43% of B2B companies used Facebook to acquire new customers. You need to make sure that your social media strategies engage and retain your existing customers, as well as attracting fans and converting them into new customers.
Thankfully, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter spend a lot of time getting the aesthetics of their pages just right. They provide companies with great tools to set up pages, profiles and communities, making themselves distinct from the competition and attractive to the right audience. However, you still need to perfect the right strategy in order to retain and gain new customers.
Know your Audience
If you want to create a great customer experience on social media you need to know all about your audience. You need to post content that will interest and attract the right people on social media – people who can be converted into customers.
Of course, you can’t forget about your existing customers either. Encourage your existing customers to follow you on social media sites. Put follow widgets on your website and put your social media handles in obvious places on your sales copy. If you have an email database, let your customers know about your social media sites by email.
Lots of companies use Twitter as a customer service tool, responding to customer queries and complaints with tweets and direct messages. I won’t go into detail about how to use Twitter as a customer service tool here, but you can check out our article it here.
You can use other social media sites to connect with your customers as well or, even better, provide a place where they can connect with each other. Create a Page/Group/Community so that you fans can discuss your company: a place where you can get involved yourself, engaging your fans with interesting content and questions.
Perfect your Pages
Make sure you post compelling, diverse, quality content on your pages. Don’t post too regularly but make sure you post frequently enough. Work out what your fans and followers like and work out a posting strategy which takes advantage of this. Make sure that you promote your products enough, but not all the time: fans don’t like being inundated with advertising, they want to see content that is of use to them.
Make sure that your profile images and descriptions are eye-catching, interesting and, most importantly, grammatically correct. Check all the spelling in your posts and tweets and only post images that fit within each social media sites’ image parameters. The content on your pages needs to be both professional and attention grabbing.
Respond to all the comments on your pages and retweets your messages get on Twitter. Be active and polite: you customers will appreciate it if you acknowledge them quickly and consistently. Analyse the sentiment of comments about your company online: if someone is negative about your brand you need to act quickly so that your reputation isn’t damaged.
Reward your Fans
Reward your fans and followers with exclusive content. Post information about new products and behind the scenes footage where only your fans can see it. Send out a new product to you Twitter followers before you send it anywhere else, or invite them to your headquarters to try it out for themselves. You could even give them discounts and vouchers for your products.
Find customers who are willing to be your social media brand advocates and provide them with a platform from which they can promote your products. Reward these influential people with discounts and products or, if they’re very good at what they do, a marketing job. Publicise the fact that you reward your fans and advocates: other people may be willing to follow you and promote your brand in the future if there is an extra incentive.
If you work in retail, introduce signage into your shop that encourages people to follow you. Take advantage of the mobile geotargeting options available to marketers. Target people who are close to your store or check-in there with advertising, or offer them special deals.
How have you perfected your customer experience on social media?
Five More Metrics You Need To Measure On Social Media
Last week, I published an article revealing five key metrics you need to measure in order to ensure that you get the most of your social media marketing strategy. There are, however, other metrics you should monitor. Here are five more metrics you need to measure to ensure success on social media.
1. Followers and Fans
Although this statistic is very closely related to reach, which I wrote about in the last ‘five metrics’ article, it’s still an important statistic to keep an eye on. You should monitor not only the amount of followers and fans your social media profiles get, but also the demographics they represent.
You need to make sure that your content is reaching the right sort of people, people that are going to be interested in your company and products. When joining social media sites, users are encouraged to share personal details, such as age, gender, sexual orientation and marital status.
Of course, social media sites won’t share this personal information with companies, but you can check out what demographics your fans belong to by checking out their profiles when they like your page, follow you on Twitter or share your content. It’s a good idea to keep an eye on your audience: I’m sure you have a target audience in mind, but you might be surprised by some of the people who take a shine to your company.
2. Influence
Influence counts for a lot online. If you can prove your expertise in a certain field, other social media users will flock to your blog articles and profiles to learn hints and tips from you. If people trust your opinion, they will more often than not trust your company and products. The products of a hardware store, for example, are more trusted if the hardware store displays a keen knowledge of DIY.
It’s also a great idea to surround yourself with influential people. Detergent company Vanish created a YouTube channel, encouraging people to share their own tips on removing stains. The channel shows off Vanish’s products and makes the company appear knowledgeable.
Klout, a really handy website for every social media user, measures your influence online for your, giving you a score between 1 and 100. Klout also helps you to improve your influence online by interacting with other Klout users.
3. Return On Investment
Although social media sites are free to join, it takes time, effort and, hence, money to get the most out of your social media marketing strategy. Social media advertising, though often very successful, also costs money. You need to make sure that the time and money you spend on perfecting your social media profiles is worthwhile.
Monitor and measure the return on investment (ROI) of your social media strategy: if your profiles are not driving worthwhile traffic to your website, or encouraging people to do business with your company, then it isn’t working.
Social media has a lot of useful applications for businesses: Twitter is a great customer service tool, businesses can promote their products with pictures on Facebook and Pinterest, and they can network on Google+ and LinkedIn. However, there is no point in spending time on social media if you don’t take advantage of the great marketing potential it has by promoting your company and products to a huge, active audience.
4. Views
I’m not just talking about YouTube views, I’m talking about Page views, post views and any other measurable social media view you can think of. Keep an eye on how many people view your content and then compare it to the amount of engagement your content gets.
If your YouTube videos are getting viewed a lot, perhaps because you’ve optimised them for SEO and posted them in a number of highly visible places, but no one is sharing or engaging with them, then they are probably not being viewed by the right audience (or maybe they’re not very good).
You want your Page, page posts and videos to get as many views as possible, so you need to make sure that you promote them. However, if no one is engaging with them, then you’re probably promoting them in the wrong places.
5. Virality
Virality is closely related to both reach and views, but it takes the content itself into consideration as well as how many people have seen it. The virality of content depends heavily on its quality: whether it will interest and excite people on social media.
Content can go viral very quickly. You need to make sure that you’re prepared for such an eventuality so that you can get the most out of it as possible. Although virality is difficult to measure, there are a few things you can do to your content so that it’s more likely to go viral:
Add share buttons: if your content doesn’t have share buttons no one will share it.
Make sure your content starts a conversation: controversial content is far more likely to get shared.
Make content that elicits a strong emotional response, one that people will want to share with their friends.
For more information on how to increase your content’s chances of going viral, check out our article on viral marketing.
What metrics do you measure when your using social media?
1. Followers and Fans
Although this statistic is very closely related to reach, which I wrote about in the last ‘five metrics’ article, it’s still an important statistic to keep an eye on. You should monitor not only the amount of followers and fans your social media profiles get, but also the demographics they represent.
You need to make sure that your content is reaching the right sort of people, people that are going to be interested in your company and products. When joining social media sites, users are encouraged to share personal details, such as age, gender, sexual orientation and marital status.
Of course, social media sites won’t share this personal information with companies, but you can check out what demographics your fans belong to by checking out their profiles when they like your page, follow you on Twitter or share your content. It’s a good idea to keep an eye on your audience: I’m sure you have a target audience in mind, but you might be surprised by some of the people who take a shine to your company.
2. Influence
Influence counts for a lot online. If you can prove your expertise in a certain field, other social media users will flock to your blog articles and profiles to learn hints and tips from you. If people trust your opinion, they will more often than not trust your company and products. The products of a hardware store, for example, are more trusted if the hardware store displays a keen knowledge of DIY.
It’s also a great idea to surround yourself with influential people. Detergent company Vanish created a YouTube channel, encouraging people to share their own tips on removing stains. The channel shows off Vanish’s products and makes the company appear knowledgeable.
Klout, a really handy website for every social media user, measures your influence online for your, giving you a score between 1 and 100. Klout also helps you to improve your influence online by interacting with other Klout users.
3. Return On Investment
Although social media sites are free to join, it takes time, effort and, hence, money to get the most out of your social media marketing strategy. Social media advertising, though often very successful, also costs money. You need to make sure that the time and money you spend on perfecting your social media profiles is worthwhile.
Monitor and measure the return on investment (ROI) of your social media strategy: if your profiles are not driving worthwhile traffic to your website, or encouraging people to do business with your company, then it isn’t working.
Social media has a lot of useful applications for businesses: Twitter is a great customer service tool, businesses can promote their products with pictures on Facebook and Pinterest, and they can network on Google+ and LinkedIn. However, there is no point in spending time on social media if you don’t take advantage of the great marketing potential it has by promoting your company and products to a huge, active audience.
4. Views
I’m not just talking about YouTube views, I’m talking about Page views, post views and any other measurable social media view you can think of. Keep an eye on how many people view your content and then compare it to the amount of engagement your content gets.
If your YouTube videos are getting viewed a lot, perhaps because you’ve optimised them for SEO and posted them in a number of highly visible places, but no one is sharing or engaging with them, then they are probably not being viewed by the right audience (or maybe they’re not very good).
You want your Page, page posts and videos to get as many views as possible, so you need to make sure that you promote them. However, if no one is engaging with them, then you’re probably promoting them in the wrong places.
5. Virality
Virality is closely related to both reach and views, but it takes the content itself into consideration as well as how many people have seen it. The virality of content depends heavily on its quality: whether it will interest and excite people on social media.
Content can go viral very quickly. You need to make sure that you’re prepared for such an eventuality so that you can get the most out of it as possible. Although virality is difficult to measure, there are a few things you can do to your content so that it’s more likely to go viral:
Add share buttons: if your content doesn’t have share buttons no one will share it.
Make sure your content starts a conversation: controversial content is far more likely to get shared.
Make content that elicits a strong emotional response, one that people will want to share with their friends.
For more information on how to increase your content’s chances of going viral, check out our article on viral marketing.
What metrics do you measure when your using social media?
Wednesday, 21 August 2013
Who to follow on Twitter for businesses
Following the right accounts on Twitter is just as important as tweeting the right content. Following certain accounts can increase your business’ profile, both on Twitter and in your area, by connecting your business with your customers and local media outlets.
By following trendsetters within your industry, you can stay abreast of interesting and important developments that may affect your company. Also, Twitter can be used to keep an eye on the activity of your main competitors, as well as the larger companies you want your own business to emulate.
You will be able to see all the public tweets of the people you follow in your stream. Follow a diverse group of accounts to ensure that you get the most out of the service.
Industry leaders
Look for some of the bigger businesses that work in your industry. If you are opening a bakery why not check out Millie’s Cookies, Cinnabon or Dunkin’ Donuts. If you run a sportswear shop, have a look at Nike, Adidas orPuma.
You can monitor the leaders in your industry by following their activity on Twitter . Perhaps they will use the service in a way that you hadn’t thought of to promote themselves. Imitate their more successful or innovative ideas.
Follow the companies that provide you with your stock. Big brands often tweet about new product releases. SayNike football boots are one of your sports shop’s best selling products, if Nike were to tweet about a new football boot you could retweet it on your business page, alerting your followers.
You could then make sure that your shop was one of the first in your area to get the boot in stock and tweet about it, attracting more customers to your store.
Industry Voices and the Media
Follow the accounts of those in your industry whose views are respected. Look for the accounts with the most followers in your network and, perhaps more importantly, those that are getting the most retweets and favourites.
Following these accounts could lead to interactions with them, making their followers aware of your business. Their tweets may also prove to be very informative and useful to your business, tweets that you could retweet yourself.
Search for the Twitter accounts of the media sources in your local area. To do this, you can use the “Browse categories” list in the Discover tab, or you can use websites like Wefollow, Muck Rack and Twellow.
Building a relationship with newspapers, magazine publishers and radio stations on Twitter could persuade them to feature your business in articles and reviews.
Customers
When your business is just starting out on Twitter, it is a good idea to follow some of your current and favourite customers. Ask for your customers Twitter handles or email addresses, then use this information to search for them on the site.
People use Twitter to interact with brands and business. Following your customers will show them that you want to interact with them on the site, making them feel valued. Following customers will also make them aware that you are on Twitter and, if they thank you for the follow, it will make their followers aware of your business’ Twitter profile as well.
Competitors
Use Twitter to keep an eye on your competitors. Many of your rivals will already have Twitter accounts on which they will post company information and updates. If you can’t find a competitor type their email address into Twitter’s search engine, or have a look for their Twitter handle on their web page.
If you don’t want your competitors to necessarily know that you are following them, use a private Twitter list to keep tabs on them. You can follow lists without following the Twitter accounts listed within them.
Followers
There are two opposing schools of thought concerning follow-backs. Some say that businesses should follow all the users (those proven to be humans and not robots) that follow them, while others argue that businesses should only follow those more active and influential on Twitter.
The people who think that businesses should try to follow as many followers back as possible argue that not only does it show potential customers that the company appreciates their support and cares about their opinions, it also provides users with a way to communicate with companies privately on Twitter via direct messaging – a fantastic customer service tool.
The opposing argument, though obvious, is a good one: too many followed accounts clog up a business’ Twitter stream and bombard it with lower quality information.
If your company is not already on Twitter, it is unlikely that it is well-known. I suggest following as many people back as you can (having made certain that they are people) as this will help build your profile on Twitter, as well as off it.
Suggestions
On your Business’ Twitter home page there is a small list of suggestions entitled “Who To Follow”. In this list, Twitter collates accounts that you could follow based on your interests, activity and the people you follow. Clicking “follow” on one of the suggestions opens up a larger list of options: Twitter encourages users to follow as many accounts as possible to increase engagement and networking on the site.
There is also a longer list in the discover tab with even more suggestions of who your business should follow. Often these suggestions are very good, so it is worth having a look at this list – which is constantly updating itself – every week or so.
Others
Of course, you don’t just have to follow those within your industry or the people who follow you first. Why not follow the accounts of celebrities or people who interest you? Following interesting accounts may provide you with inspiration when you can’t think what to tweet, while interacting with celebrities might lead to an endorsement.
You should be using Twitter to display how interesting and multifaceted your business can be, so following the right mix of people can really help imbue your company’s Twitter account with more personality.
By following trendsetters within your industry, you can stay abreast of interesting and important developments that may affect your company. Also, Twitter can be used to keep an eye on the activity of your main competitors, as well as the larger companies you want your own business to emulate.
You will be able to see all the public tweets of the people you follow in your stream. Follow a diverse group of accounts to ensure that you get the most out of the service.
Industry leaders
Look for some of the bigger businesses that work in your industry. If you are opening a bakery why not check out Millie’s Cookies, Cinnabon or Dunkin’ Donuts. If you run a sportswear shop, have a look at Nike, Adidas orPuma.
You can monitor the leaders in your industry by following their activity on Twitter . Perhaps they will use the service in a way that you hadn’t thought of to promote themselves. Imitate their more successful or innovative ideas.
Follow the companies that provide you with your stock. Big brands often tweet about new product releases. SayNike football boots are one of your sports shop’s best selling products, if Nike were to tweet about a new football boot you could retweet it on your business page, alerting your followers.
You could then make sure that your shop was one of the first in your area to get the boot in stock and tweet about it, attracting more customers to your store.
Industry Voices and the Media
Follow the accounts of those in your industry whose views are respected. Look for the accounts with the most followers in your network and, perhaps more importantly, those that are getting the most retweets and favourites.
Following these accounts could lead to interactions with them, making their followers aware of your business. Their tweets may also prove to be very informative and useful to your business, tweets that you could retweet yourself.
Search for the Twitter accounts of the media sources in your local area. To do this, you can use the “Browse categories” list in the Discover tab, or you can use websites like Wefollow, Muck Rack and Twellow.
Building a relationship with newspapers, magazine publishers and radio stations on Twitter could persuade them to feature your business in articles and reviews.
Customers
When your business is just starting out on Twitter, it is a good idea to follow some of your current and favourite customers. Ask for your customers Twitter handles or email addresses, then use this information to search for them on the site.
People use Twitter to interact with brands and business. Following your customers will show them that you want to interact with them on the site, making them feel valued. Following customers will also make them aware that you are on Twitter and, if they thank you for the follow, it will make their followers aware of your business’ Twitter profile as well.
Competitors
Use Twitter to keep an eye on your competitors. Many of your rivals will already have Twitter accounts on which they will post company information and updates. If you can’t find a competitor type their email address into Twitter’s search engine, or have a look for their Twitter handle on their web page.
If you don’t want your competitors to necessarily know that you are following them, use a private Twitter list to keep tabs on them. You can follow lists without following the Twitter accounts listed within them.
Followers
There are two opposing schools of thought concerning follow-backs. Some say that businesses should follow all the users (those proven to be humans and not robots) that follow them, while others argue that businesses should only follow those more active and influential on Twitter.
The people who think that businesses should try to follow as many followers back as possible argue that not only does it show potential customers that the company appreciates their support and cares about their opinions, it also provides users with a way to communicate with companies privately on Twitter via direct messaging – a fantastic customer service tool.
The opposing argument, though obvious, is a good one: too many followed accounts clog up a business’ Twitter stream and bombard it with lower quality information.
If your company is not already on Twitter, it is unlikely that it is well-known. I suggest following as many people back as you can (having made certain that they are people) as this will help build your profile on Twitter, as well as off it.
Suggestions
On your Business’ Twitter home page there is a small list of suggestions entitled “Who To Follow”. In this list, Twitter collates accounts that you could follow based on your interests, activity and the people you follow. Clicking “follow” on one of the suggestions opens up a larger list of options: Twitter encourages users to follow as many accounts as possible to increase engagement and networking on the site.
There is also a longer list in the discover tab with even more suggestions of who your business should follow. Often these suggestions are very good, so it is worth having a look at this list – which is constantly updating itself – every week or so.
Others
Of course, you don’t just have to follow those within your industry or the people who follow you first. Why not follow the accounts of celebrities or people who interest you? Following interesting accounts may provide you with inspiration when you can’t think what to tweet, while interacting with celebrities might lead to an endorsement.
You should be using Twitter to display how interesting and multifaceted your business can be, so following the right mix of people can really help imbue your company’s Twitter account with more personality.
Tuesday, 6 August 2013
Top 10 Tips To Increase Your Social Media Traffic (Part 1)
Using social media to generate traffic can be very effective. But a lot of people and businesses start using social media without researching into the best practices prior to their implementation.
By understanding and following the tips in this article, you too should not only be able to increase your traffic, but also increase your fans and online awareness. Building a successful social media community around your business and brand can take time, but persistence can pay off.
The great thing about social media is that a lot of the tips for one particular social network can be easily transferable to another, creating less work and helping you keep the same type of engagement style with your fans.
Right, enough with the introduction. Lets dive into those all important tips.
1. Profile completion
Having a fully completed profile is first and foremost the most important task that should be done. You are essentially filling out a form with all your business details to help attract people. Adding links to your website in the biography section is extremely important as this will be one of the first things a person will see when visiting your profile. An unfinished social media profile can easily put people off, and we all know that first impressions are important.
2. Graphic Design
Many social networks allow you to customise your page with your own branding. With this, you can become very creative and eye catching which can go a long way to securing your business another fan/follower. Try not to add too much information onto your graphic backgrounds as it can be overwhelming and confusing. Here is a prime example of a well executed Twitter background - Coca Cola.
3. Posting Regularly & Engaging
By understanding and following the tips in this article, you too should not only be able to increase your traffic, but also increase your fans and online awareness. Building a successful social media community around your business and brand can take time, but persistence can pay off.
The great thing about social media is that a lot of the tips for one particular social network can be easily transferable to another, creating less work and helping you keep the same type of engagement style with your fans.
Right, enough with the introduction. Lets dive into those all important tips.
1. Profile completion
Having a fully completed profile is first and foremost the most important task that should be done. You are essentially filling out a form with all your business details to help attract people. Adding links to your website in the biography section is extremely important as this will be one of the first things a person will see when visiting your profile. An unfinished social media profile can easily put people off, and we all know that first impressions are important.
2. Graphic Design
Many social networks allow you to customise your page with your own branding. With this, you can become very creative and eye catching which can go a long way to securing your business another fan/follower. Try not to add too much information onto your graphic backgrounds as it can be overwhelming and confusing. Here is a prime example of a well executed Twitter background - Coca Cola.
3. Posting Regularly & Engaging
Now that your social media profiles are complete, posting regularly and engaging with your fans will help increase your traffic significantly. A stagnant social media profile can turn people off and you will slowly lose the fans you have already acquired. Scheduling posts can be a great way of keeping your profiles active throughout the day, especially when you are not in the office to post manually. Ezeesocial is a tool that we use to keep track of all our scheduled posts.
4. Using URL Shorteners
Using URL shorteners can help a post look more sleek and inviting, and not just for Twitter (due to its 140 character limit). URL shorteners allow you to track the statistics from specific URLs to see where your traffic is coming from. There are many URL shorteners to use, it mostly boils down to preference. Bit.ly, Tinyurl.com andgoo.gl to name a few, are all useful and get the job done.
5. Photos are king
When it comes to social media, photos are king! Statistically, posts that are accompanied by a photo received 53% more likes than the average post on Facebook. Not only this, photo posts attracted a whopping 103% more comments than the average post. Its time to make a conscious effort to increase the amount of posts that feature high-quality photos. Don't be afraid to have fun with your posts.
To be continued...
4. Using URL Shorteners
Using URL shorteners can help a post look more sleek and inviting, and not just for Twitter (due to its 140 character limit). URL shorteners allow you to track the statistics from specific URLs to see where your traffic is coming from. There are many URL shorteners to use, it mostly boils down to preference. Bit.ly, Tinyurl.com andgoo.gl to name a few, are all useful and get the job done.
5. Photos are king
When it comes to social media, photos are king! Statistically, posts that are accompanied by a photo received 53% more likes than the average post on Facebook. Not only this, photo posts attracted a whopping 103% more comments than the average post. Its time to make a conscious effort to increase the amount of posts that feature high-quality photos. Don't be afraid to have fun with your posts.
To be continued...
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