I was watching the Super Bowl (#GoHawks) when my wife asked me about hashtags. Granted, I was writing down every hashtag that came up on the screen for an analysis I did later that night, but her question surprised me.
"What do you mean 'what is this?' It's a hashtag." I said, amazed by my wife's unfamiliarity with the topic (#DoYouLiveUderARock). "You use it to tag your tweets or other social media posts."
Now, my wife's social media activity revolves around reading other people's updates on Facebook and Instagram, so I wasn't mad or anything, just disappointed when she asked me "Why would you want to tag your posts?"
To be fair, it wasn't always that obvious that hashtags will change the way we use Twitter and other social media channels.
Hashtags were a user-innovation that was later adopted by Twitter as an actual feature when Twitter decided to hyperlink hashtags to search results. The rest of the socialsphere followed in its own pace, and Facebook, my wife's go-to social destination, only recently decided to give in and add hashtags as a feature. It's no surprise that for the masses over the age of 30, hashtags are still a novelty.
So whether you're in that group, or just want a short social history lessons, here's the brief history of hashtags. Then we'll look at a few recent examples of brilliant marketing uses of hashtags.
A Brief History of Hashtags
There seems to be a consensus on the origin of hashtags and most people attribute the proposal to use hashtags in tweets to Chris Messina, through a tweet dating back to August 23, 2007.
But the first time a hashtag was used extensively as a way to categorize tweets and was adopted by the public was during the San Diego fire on October 23, 2007, when Nate Ritter used Twitter to report on the fire and included the hashtag #sandiegofire.
On July 2, 2009, Twitter officially embraced hashtags and hyperlinked them to search results. Tumblr was one of the early adopters of hashtags when it launched hashtags on August 18, 2009. A few months later, on March 30, 2010, in another homepage redesign, Twitter moved Trending Topics to its homepage, formalizing hashtags as a conversation driver on Twitter.
As Twitter users adopted hashtags as a normal part of the Twitter conversation, in a typical fashion to Twitter, hashtags stared in popular culture like TV shows, celebrities' promotions and mainstream media.
The pop-culture adoption of hashtags helped push hashtags into other social networks. Instagram adopted hashtags on January 27, 2011, Flickr added hashtags on March 17, 2013 and Facebook finally broke and adopted hashtags on June 12, 2013.
Hashtags Adopted as a Marketing Tactic
An analysis of the Interbrand 100 list (the world's top 100 brands) and their activity on Twitter, reveals that the world's top brands have adopted the use of hashtags almost completely. In Q4 of last year, 97 percent of the brands posted at least one tweet that included a hashtag. Out of the 34,707 regular tweets (tweets that don't include an @ reply or a retweet) that the Interbrand 100 companies posted, 45 percent included at least one hashtag and more than 67 percent included one or more hashtags.
1. Drive Engagement: # + Link = More Engagement
These companies have realized that hashtags help drive engagement. When compared to Tweets without a hashtag, tweets with hashtags showed 12 percent more engagement (RT, favorite or @ reply). Tweets that included a link anda hashtag, showed the highest engagement rate of any other type of tweet.
2. Test Your Messaging: #SOTU
During the last State of the Union address (#SOTU), the White House media team prepared content and tested 26 different hashtags.
#SOTU
#StateOfTheUnion
#OutOfManyWeAreOne
#OpportunityForAll
#CollegeOpportunity
#MadeInAmerica
#ActOnClimate
#ActForOurVets
#RebuildAmerica
#ActOnJobs
#InvestInSTEM
#ActOnCIR
#ActOnUI
#ActOnPreK
#ConnectED
#EqualPay
#RaiseTheWage
#ActOnTenTen
#GetCovered
#ACA
#PeopleOverPolitics
#RightToVote
#ActForOurKids
#SaluteOurTroops
#Iran
#TeamUSA
#ActForOurTroops
#SOTUChat
The next day (January 29) the White House focused on only seven of these hashtags and the vast majority of its tweets promoted the top three hashtags:
#OpportunityForAll
#RaiseTheWage
#EqualPay
#ActOnJobs
#ActOnTenTen
#CollegeOpportunity
#MadeInAmerica
They did so because those hashtags resonated the best with audience on Twitter.
As evident by these charts, the White House team used Twitter to test the messages in the president's speech and the following day applied their lessons to emphasize and reinforce the ones that stuck.
The #SOTU campaign is a master class in digital media campaign management, and this was one of the best lessons from it.
3. Tie Activity Across Multiple Channels: #SB48
During #SB48, ads included more hashtags than any other social signal including Twitter handles and Facebook account names. Brands used hashtags because of their cross-channel nature.
Since most social media channels adopted hashtags as an identifier, brands can now run cross-channel campaigns with one common identifier, virtually making hashtags the global connector of the social web.
4. Create a Story: #esurancesave30
Following the Super Bowl, Esurance ran an ad promoting the hashtag #esurancesave30. Within minutes, the hashtag got tens of thousands of mentions and within an hour it racked over 1.4 million mentions. With a simple, albeit expensive, campaign, Esurance created a story that was featured the next day on media outlets, blogs, and last Wednesday on TV.
The hashtag brought to Esurance more than just attention, it gave them a list of people who actually engaged with their story and brand.
In the minutes following the ad, the Esurance Twitter account added more than 40,000 followers, more than doubling its followers in a matter of minutes. And in the days following the ad, the account added more than 250,000 followers, almost 10 times it's audience size prior to the ad airing.
5. Track Results: #Whosgonnawin
Leading to the Super Bowl, the NFL and Verizon created a campaign to allow fans to vote on who they think is going to win the Super Bowl. By tweeting the team's name with the hashtag #WhosGonnaWin fans voted for their favorite team.
Verizon and the NFL created a special website to track the results in real time http://www.whosgonnawin.com/ every day a new question was posted and fans voted using Twitter. By the end of the day, the team with the most mentions got to light up the Empire State Building.
Summary
Hashtags have become more than just a way to categorize posts or add a narrative to your updates. Marketers have found new, innovative ways to use hashtags as a mean to drive conversation, harness the public support, and garner attention to their brands.
The money might well be in your list, but what if you haven’t got one?
Well, then it’s time to start building.
I recently helped a client build a list from zero to 2,000+ in just under a week. And guess what? The list is already driving leads and will soon be driving revenue.
So how did we do it?
A Great Offer:It all starts with a great offer. In this case, it was incredibly useful content that demanded attention. Not only did the client offer great content providing real value (do your white papers always do this?), we backed it up with a really cool competition. The prize might have cost a fair bit of money – but it couldn’t be ignored.
List Rental:This is not to be confused with purchasing a list (remember, we don’t like that). List rental is when you pay another organisation (normally a magazine publisher or a blog) to send a campaign on your behalf. Renting lists can be expensive – so you better make sure you convert as many opens and clicks to your own list as possible. This means having a great email, a great landing page and a great offer.
Social Media:Next, we hit Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn – hard. We didn’t just broadcast. We encouraged debate, asked questions and pointed people back to our really great landing page, complete with great offer and cool competition (see points #1 and #2).
PR: We put the message out there viaPRWeb(part of theVocusfamily), which generated a ton of buzz on social media and helped generate press coverage for our content and our giveaway. We also phoned or emailed every blog writer and journalist we had a personal relationship with to give the story wider coverage.
Blogging:The client blogged about the offer on its own site – providing additional content for its social media activity.
Asked to Share:We asked people (colleagues, clients, prospects – in fact, anyone who would listen) to share the news – and they did. In fact, the campaign went viral, and that’s when the list really started to grow.
Building a list isn’t easy and it isn’t always cheap – but the potential return can be fantastic.
If you haven’t got a list, isn’t it time you started building one today? Share your advice for list-building strategies below:
How effectively do you use Google+?CircleCount is on a mission to help you better understand Google+ and improve your performance on the network. This week in the Social Media Toolbox we take a look at why you should be using Google+ and how CircleCount can help you use the platform more effectively.
Why Google+?
Despite a tentative start Google+ is growing in importance as a social platform. At the end of October 2013 Google reported there were 300 million monthly active “in-stream” users. These are people that see or visit the Google+ content stream.
Marketers and SEO agencies have found that Google+ helps improve SEO results. Google+ posts are indexed by Google very quickly and they are treated like any other web page; hence the posts gain page rank, give page rank and appear in search results.
Content creators understand the importance of Google+ in terms of authorship and authority building. Google+ is the backbone of the Google eco-system, which is seen most clearly through Google authorship, wherein Google+ validates your profile and helps you gain authority. Authorship also places your Google+ profile picture next to your posts in search results.
Those trying to build communities are finding success with Google+ Communities and increasing interaction through plus ones, sharing, comments and Google Hangouts. According to CircleCount, there are now over 200,000 Google+ communities.
As a consequence, Google+ is growing in importance as a social platform. The challenge is to make sure you are using it effectively.
How CircleCount Can Help You
CircleCount is a free tool that helps you understand Google+ and provides you with extensive statistics on your performance and influence.
Circles are one of the key features of Google+. You can create circles and include people in your circles to follow them. However, you can only have a maximum of 5,000 in your circles even though you may be followed by, say, a million people. CircleCount.com tracks these Google+ circles.
CircleCount shows you the most active, most followed and most influential people on Google+ for pre-defined categories. These tend to be the people with really large followings, and I personally think it would be more useful if you could search for influencers in more specific topic areas. However, you can filter by region, which helps narrow your search.
CircleCount provides a wide range of extensive Google+ statistics, including the highest ranking profiles, pages and communities on Google+. It also shows the posts that are the most reshared and which receive the most plus ones. However, for me the real benefit is in the personal data and insights that it provides. You can add your Google+ profile (using the URL of your Google+ profile or your custom Google+ URL) and CircleCount will track the circles you are included in. It will then provide you with detailed information about the following:
Your profile and followers
The performance of your posts
Your engagement and interaction
Your profile and followers
CircleCount provides you with a detailed overview of your profile, including a chart that maps the growth in your followers. I suggest you start with the Dashboard, which gives you your ranking in your local country and globally.
There are also a range of useful profile statistics about your followers, sharers and communities. You can also now get statistics for your Google+ pages. One of the many features is ‘Your Follower Map,’ which provides you with a nice heatmap of where your followers are located. Mine is shown below.
Performance of your posts
CircleCount helps you assess the performance of your posts and your influence on Google+. It does this by tracking your posts and the activity they generate, such as comments, plus ones and reshares.
I like the grid report it provides, which gives you a clear visual picture of the performance of your posts (see below). The red bar shows no activity, such as no plus ones, no comments, etc. You can easily re-sort the table by column for a more detailed analysis.
Engagement and interaction
CircleCount shows who has shared circles that include you, who is following you, and who is sharing your posts. This enables you to reach out to people that already like and share your content.
CircleCount also provides useful charts showing when people engage with your posts. By reviewing these charts you can schedule your posts at a time when you are likely to gain more engagement.
How well did you use Google+ in 2013?
CircleCount introduced a nice new feature for the new year, which is your own profile infographic called “Your 2013." Click this option and you will get a complete summary of your activity in 2013, including:
how many public posts you made
how many plus ones they received
how many reshares they received
how your followers grew over the year
I suggest you start here, review your CircleCount infographic and then consider how effectively you used Google+ last year. If, like me, you need to be doing more, then CircleCount is a great tool to help you.
Courtesy of Social Media Today LLC JPC does NOT rely solely on Google Analytics to provide website traffic reporting and analysis for their clients. We use companies like CircleCount, Web-Stat and many more for FULL reporting!! Contact us and visit:http://www.janetpennconsulting.com/website_traffic.html
In a marketing world filled with social media and information
overload, content marketing has always been an important ingredient for
success. Now, most industry experts have predicted that 2014 will be the Year
of Content Marketing—and that Google+ will be essential for a strong online marketing strategy.
The search engine giant’s social network, launched in 2011, is
still young compared to the other big players on the social scene. But there
are already more than 340 million active monthly members on Google+, a number
that’s second only to behemoth Facebook’s 1.2 billion.
Still, what makes Google+ so important for marketers in a
content-driven era?
Here are three compelling reasons to
integrate this platform into your 2014 online marketing strategy.
Content is for Searching—and Google Dominates Searches
The primary goal of content marketing is to increase your search
engine rankings—for your website, your social media pages, and your shared
content. Of course, there are other search engines besides Google, but there’s
a reason “Googling” has become the most popular way to say “searching for
something online.” According to the latest comScore data,
Google holds 66.7% of the search engine market share. Microsoft’s Bing, the
second-place search engine, doesn’t even come close with 18.1% of the market.
While Google doesn’t outright confirm this, it’s clear that
content on Google+ is viewed favorably by its parent search engine. Active
Google+ users enjoy higher rankings on the biggest search engine in the world.
Local SEO + Mobile Search = More Business
Some social networks have been late to the party with this
feature, but Google+ has always offered a strong local component since the
rollout of the network. Business pages on Google+ have evolved from the initial
Google Places to the integrated Google+ Local, which provides plenty of helpful
features for businesses.
Perhaps more importantly, these pages tend to rank high in local
search terms—an essential consideration for mobile search since Google
dominates even more than browser-based search with over 90% market share. And
mobile search not only brings people to your business, it keeps them there: Search Engine Watch reports
that 82% of shoppers use mobile phones to help them make in-store decisions.
Google+ Gives Your Content More Authority
When it comes to content marketing, it’s important that your
potential customers view you as a trusted source. With Google+, you can lend
your content more authority through Google Authorship.
The Google Authorship program lets you link content you publish
anywhere on the web to your Google+ profile. This not only enables easier
sharing, so your content gains more traction—it also heightens your visibility.
Content that’s published using Google Authorship shows up on Google search
results alongside your photo and bio from Google+, making your results
instantly noticeable and boosting your authority.
Do
you think a solid content marketing strategy exempts your brand from needing to
do outreach? Sorry, but it doesn’t. Check out these 25 awesome outreach tools
for your smash business strategy. We’re living in an era of content saturation.
Over 2 million blog posts are
published each day. Research by Technorati has found that digital influencers are quickly outpacing
traditional media in terms of ability to win consumer trust. The world’s
best-known bloggers have the ability to make or break their brand’s reputation
with a simple Tweet to their massive audience. Perhaps most notable is the fact
that blogs fall just behind retail websites in likelihood to influence purchase
decisions.
Traditional
PR just isn’t as effective as it used to be. It’s time to discard traditional
outreach tools and tactics, and focus on connecting directly with digital
influencers!
Outreach
isn’t just important–it’s crucial for brands who hope to expand their audience,
develop credibility, and gain notice in a crowded online world. To streamline
your entry into this practice, we’ve reviewed 25 of the most powerful outreach
tools:
This
product is the secret behind the viral content of many notable brands,
including Home Depot, GoDaddy, and Groupon. The software acts as a one-stop shop
for digital influencer outreach, allowing content marketers to quickly
identify, contact, and manage communications with thought leaders.
Designed
especially for agencies and PR Pros, InkyBee is a product for managing your
influencer outreach and communications – with the added benefit of visually
rich, easy-to-consume reporting.
This
product is robust enough to handle and track social media outreach at major
enterprises, thanks to its unique feature of collaborative list-creation and
maintenance. Even large outreach teams can communicate remotely with prospects,
customers, and influencers thanks to its organized interface.
This
free service sends emails on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays featuring guest
content requests and offers, products for review, and interview opportunities.
Membership allows you to both subscribe and submit requests to other content
marketers.
This
company’s stellar outreach tools help connect brands and bloggers. Users are
able to perform detailed searches on content marketers, using qualifications
like reach, categories, and demographics.
Persistence
can be key, which is why outreach tools that remind you to follow-up are
important. Boomerang allows Gmail users to schedule outreach, and reminds you
if it’s time to follow-up on a message.
If
you’re starting to outgrow Google alerts, it may be time to invest in Mention –
a tool which allows real-time monitoring of any keyword, from industry terms to
your brand’s name.
Gmail,
Salesforce, and Outlook users can closely monitor their outreach with Signals,
an app that informs you minute-to-minute when your emails are opened, read, and
forwarded.
It’s
hard to define Klout – is it a social network? Or is it better categorized as
outreach tools? Regardless, it’s the world’s leading measure of the digital
influence and reach of people and brands.
With
a tagline of “free publicity,” Haro is a free subscription service that
features interview requests and media opportunities from entities as big as the
Associated Press and ABC News. Submit your own request, or keep close tabs on
their thrice-daily emails for publicity opportunities.
Founded
by social luminary Guy Kawasaki, Alltop is among the world’s largest content
repositories. Sort by category to connect with well-known blogs in your niche, or
syndicate your own work for daily republication.
Notable
SEO blogger Ann Smarty is the brains behind MyBlogGuest, one of the largest
forums dedicated to connecting would-be guest bloggers. Threads are separated
by industry, so you can easily find the right authors and requests for your
brand.
Do
you really know who’s following you on Twitter? FollowerWonk is one of the
sharpest ways to analyze your social following, including the demographics and
top influencers of your audience. These outreach tools also come with gorgeous
visual reporting.
If
we had to select just one option from these outreach tools that every blogger
needs, it would be Google Alerts. This notification service is free,
easy-to-use, and takes just minutes to set up.
Brands
worldwide are still learning how to leverage competitive intelligence and
thought leaders for marketing, which is why Little Bird can help you stand out.
The service offers rich social research and content curation capabilities.
Though
these outreach tools are still in Beta, there’s no doubt this is going to be
epic. Outreachr retrieves lists of invaluable contacts in response to your
searches around keywords.
These
outreach tools are a platform for ethical link exchanges – allowing you to
connect with other content marketers to provide outbound links that offer a
high chance of links in return.
This
tool is essentially a search engine for the “social web,” which provides users
with the opportunity to explore social trends, viral content, and influencers.
Much
like Klout, Kred is a measure of digital influence, but their outreach tools offer
the additional benefit of content promotion and social networking.
This
platform integrates with your Salesforce or calendar to allow you to set
reminders as easily as including a time and date-specific note in the BCC field
of your emails.
Ahrefs
site explorer is something of a search engine for backlinks, allowing you to
scope out page authority of competitor’s domains and their best-performing
content.
Product-oriented
brands can connect directly with bloggers through OXO, a service which
specializes in being an intermediary for relationship-building.
It’s
easy to centralize your strategy with RavenTool’s extensive list of outreach
tools, which range from social monitoring to easy reporting on your paid
advertising.
Google has definitely made it much harder to rank naturally via SEO. Not only their algorithms have become much better at detecting unnatural links and SEO tactics, but also the layout of their search results have changed so that there are more components resulting in natural results to show up lower. In addition, the discontinuation of keyword data in the Google Analytics has created further issues in tracking success based on keywords.
The success for an SEO campaign should not be measured by having many #1's but should be measured on overall visibility and traffic to the website. SEO should be done not only for the website, but also for your social media sites and Youtube videos. The more content you can get in the search engines the better your results will be. Sometimes Youtube videos or social media content may rank highly for your keywords, which may result in traffic to your site.
The goal should be to get traffic to your site any way you can via any channel, not just SEO. Google is now looking at social activity as a factor, so not only social activity may result in traffic by itself, but also it may result in better natural rankings.
In some cases it might be easier to make a YouTube video rank for a keyword than a regular site, especially if there are very little videos about the subject that already rank in Google. If you create videos for this purpose, make sure to include links to your website from the description of the YouTube video and have a call to action in the video itself, which may be asking visitors to call you or visit your website.
If you search for a local business with a city name, you would most likely see a mix of 7 results from Google Local, which means natural results are pushed even further down. If you are a local business, you have to also optimize your Google Local profile and get as many reviews as possible. Local SEO has its own techniques, so make sure to hire someone that knows how to do this or do further research if you are going to do it yourself.
Since Google discontinued providing keyword data in Google Analytics, it has become much harder to track SEO success based on keywords. Therefore, here is another reason why marketers need to think of other ways to track success.
Ultimately the goal of each site is to get as much traffic as possible and also have descent conversion. Therefore, tracking traffic and conversation is probably the best way to measure SEO success going forward. Web stats need to be carefully analyzed to see where exactly the traffic is coming from. For social media, use tracking URL’s such as goo.gl or bit.ly to see exactly how many people are clicking on certain links.
Courtesy of Clarity Digital Group LLC d/b/a Examiner.com
JPC does NOT rely solely on Google Analytics to provide website traffic reporting and analysis for their clients. We use companies like Web-Stat for FULL reporting!! Contact us and visit:http://www.janetpennconsulting.com/website_traffic.html
Did you know social media is the number one daily activity among Americans, topping time spent on email and Google?
According to Fast Company, 93% of marketers use social media to promote their business.
Social media is BIG and only getting bigger. If you are not marketing on it, you are likely missing a large chunk of your target consumers.
As a product of the Mark Zuckerberg generation, it is easy to understand why people are so obsessed with social media; for marketers, the potential to grow their business via these networks is endless. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+ – these are some of the prime networks every company, big or small, young or established, needs to have an active presence on. It is now inexcusable for any business that wants to thrive to not be tweeting!
And now we are being exposed to more and more social advertisements. As I complete my morning ritual of sipping coffee and scrolling through my Instagram feed, I now notice sponsored ads appearing in between filtered pictures of scenery and food. It is impossible to visit one’s Facebook news feed without popping into a few compelling ads along the way. And I’m not going to lie, I’ve fallen victim to several of these ads, and been captured and clicked through to their site, sometimes even converting – shameful, I know.
But before diving into paid ads it is important to build out your social channels with rockstar content, quality customer service, and eye-catching visuals. Once you optimize your social channels for success, you will not only gain loyal brand promoters, but you will begin capturing leads and converting visitors into customers.
For those of you who have let your social channels develop cobwebs and cockroaches over the past year, here are six social media strategies to take control of your social channels and give them a much needed facelift in the New Year.
Social Media Marketing Strategy #1: Create a Game Plan & Stick to It
If you have no execution strategy, your content is likely going to fall through the cracks. Set a limit on how many tweets you have to publish per day. This number can be adjusted as needed, but having a number you have to hit, even something as small as four tweets per day, gives you a benchmark and a goal at the very least.
TIP: Investigate how often your competitors are posting and conduct industry research to see the ideal amount of content to publish per day on each channel. You want to be active, but not overly active.
Compile all content in an easy-to-read editorial calendar. Google Excel Docs is a good place to start. Set up a weekly, shareable publishing calendar, then separate by social channel, and provide columns for co-workers within your content team to provide their feedback before posting. Plan ahead, but continue making additions as necessary, for example if a great PR hit is published cover this in a timely manner even it was not on your original posting schedule.
Look into social media management platforms, like Hootsuite, Buffer, and TweetDeck, to help schedule posts ahead of time, monitor and manage your social feeds, and access performance analytics.
Social Media Marketing Strategy #2: Treat each channel as an individual entity
Each social channel needs to be treated as a separate entity. There can be content that is spread across all channels – for example if your business was recently acquired by a global company, this is likely news you want to share across the board, but you should adjust your strategy depending on the audience for that channel.
For example, LinkedIn tends to have a more business-focused audience looking for in-depth, educational content, compared to Instagram, which is likely to have an audience looking for engaging visual content. Pay attention to your follower demographic on each channel to publish content that appeals to them.
Social Media Marketing Strategy #3: Go above & beyond in customer service
If a visitor tweets at your handle or posts on your Facebook page and never receives a response, trust is lost. Due to your lack of communication, the dissatisfied potential lead is now turning to your competitors to seek answers to their questions. On the other hand, when you deliver a thoughtful response in a timely manner that visitor is flattered and intrigued by your brand. It’s humanizing to take the time respond to a personal inquiry, and it builds your authority.
Alexa, a friend of mine who formerly resided in NYC, commented on a picture on Instagram posted by her favorite city dive bar. The social media manager quickly responded by offering her a free T-shirt for the positive feedback. A few weeks, when later Alexa drove six hours from Boston to collect her free shirt (and visit a few friends), the bartender realized, “Wow! Social media does work!” She has in turn become a free promoter for the bar, and encourages her large network that still resides in New York to check out her former go-to spot – essentially free PR for this small, neighborhood bar. And this is one minuscule example – if you haven’t heard the Morton’s Steakhouse story about delivering a joking tweeter a free steak at the airport, I suggest you use this as a prime example of BOMB customer service that led to a ridiculous amount of free press.
Negative feedback needs to be addressed as well, preferably with patience and respect. But think of your social channels as an opportunity to display how awesome you treat your customers.
Take these four steps to boost the happiness of your Twitterbirds:
Assign a first responder to post and monitor each channel your brand has a profile on.
Create a troubleshooting library of common bugs or complaints that arise, and how to handle these issues. This will ensure the issue is addressed properly and in a timely manner. (NOTE: If the issue needs further investigation or requires confidential information, have the user email support, send a private message, or call your help line.)
Be creative – use giveaways, personality, and a sense of humor to engage followers and convert them into free brand promoters.
DO NOT IGNORE any comment posted to your account on social, whether stellar or critical. No need to create brand detractors!
Social Media Marketing Strategy #4: Embrace mishaps
We are humans, so mistakes are unavoidable. This is especially true when it comes to the fast-paced world of social media. Rather than flat out ignoring these hiccups, embrace them. I am not saying that when a comma is missed in a tweet you should announce this small grammar error, but DO NOT delete the tweet. It has already been published, and followers are more likely to notice if you are continuously re-posting. For larger mistakes, like a product error or multiple overcharges to customer credit cards, you’ll want to proactively respond in an apologetic, actionable manner, and send out content from your social accounts apologizing and addressing how the error is being handled so customers are aware.
But what happens if a BIG, truly embarrassing mistake is made? Personally, I love how Pamela Vaughan, a HubSpot employee, handled her baby bump mishap. Pamela accidently posted a picture of her growing pregnant belly to HubSpot’s company Twitter account, which has close to 350,000 followers. Instead of crawling into a hole of embarrassment, Pamela embraced her faux-pas and created this awesome blog post. The post has received a lot of love, with several shares and comments mostly showing respect for HubSpot’s human element – a key that makes them one of the most loved marketing companies out there.
Social Media Marketing Strategy #5: Track & Talk!
Tracking is often perceived as tedious and time-consuming. It can be, but it only needs to take a few hours each month. Set aside time to review metrics that are important to your business on a monthly basis (preferably the first day of the month). Here are some stats to focus on: number of posts, follower growth, clicks to your site/products, pageviews, post likes or shares, impressions, etc. Look at each channel separately, and compare to your largest competitors to get a sense on how you’re matching up (or how you’re CRUSHING them!).
If you’re crunched for time and analytics is not your thing, invest in software to help track data. A lot can be tracked using free tools like bit.ly, Google Analytics, and Hootsuite. Diving in to see which content received the most clicks, shares, etc. will show you what to repurpose in the future. Look for common themes in your analysis, for example if advice posts with numbers in the title perform wonderfully on Facebook then up these on that platform.
Share your results and set monthly strategy meetings with your different marketing forces within your company to plan for the future. Working collaboratively and taking a step back to brainstorm and reevaluate your strategy can drastically improve your social efforts. Also leverage other departments within your business. Various teams like client services and sales might have stellar ideas for social since they are the people who communicate with prospects and customers on a daily basis.
Social Media Marketing Strategy #6: Stay active on Google+
Many of you may be raising an eyebrow, but Google+, often viewed as the Facebook wannabe, is not going away anytime soon. In fact, it’s only becoming more and more important for businesses to actively engage and grow their circles on this platform. When you search on Google you will notice that Google+ is everywhere. If your business is actively posting on Google+, you will receive essentially free ad space when users search for you on Google.
Notice when I do a search for Salesforce not only does their Google+ follower number display, but there’s a call-to-action to follow their brand, as well as recent posts on their Google+ page, on the right side of the SERP.
According to a Moz.com survey, leading marketers believe the number of Google +1’s plays the second largest part in determining search engine rankings. This isn’t proven to be true, but clearly marketers are seeing that Google+ is affecting the visibility of their content on Google.
Google+ is also integrated with YouTube, so users are unable to comment on the platform without being opted into Google+. Essentially Google is making having a Google+ account pretty much essential.
Once again, Google has changed the size of Google Plus cover images. The change rolled out yesterday, and we’ve got to say – finally Google did something right.
The last version was ridiculously huge – and since Google only displayed the bottom of the photo, most of the image was never seen. Everyone complained, and for once, Google has listened and created a better solution.
The new image retains the 16:9 aspect ratio, but it’s displayed at a much smaller size. Since the display ratio is the same, you don’t have to change your image – it’s automatically updated. So what’s the size, you ask? The maximum image dimensions are 2120 x 1192, but you can upload a cover image as small as 480 x 270. The recommended image size is 1080×608.
Your entire image is visible when you land on the page, so businesses can provide a much better branding experience. The ugly dark gradient that was added to the bottom of the cover image is gone, so your photo looks exactly the way you want it to look.
Your business info now appears to the left, over a blurred background – so it’s much easier to read and doesn’t cover any of your photo. The blurred background is created using the center of your cover image, so the colors match nicely. It’s a much more modern look, and the info display is much more user friendly.
Check out a comparison of the old cover image size vs. the new:
That’s the same cover image in each photo – you can see how the new display shrinks the image down and adds the blurred info display background on the left. Here’s a larger sized shot of the new cover image size:
Make sure you check your business page and see what the new cover image size looks like. Many businesses had their important info near the bottom of the image to try to take advantage of the old display style – if your image has everything crammed into the bottom, you’ll need to upload a better image immediately.
You can’t talk content marketing, strategy or return on investment (ROI) without mentioning CALLS TO ACTION.
You’ll find these little beckoning words on websites and billboards, ads and posts, blog articles and marketing materials. So what exactly are calls to action (CTAs)?
“Words that urge the reader, listener, or viewer of a sales promotion message to take an immediate action, such as, “Write Now,” “Call Now,” or (on Internet) “Click Here.” A retail advertisement or commercial without a call-to-action is considered incomplete and ineffective.”
I’m constantly looking for effective and innovative CTAs, because let’s face it, “Click Here!” gets old after a while.
So, I’ve compiled a list of some smart and savvy CTAs just for you. Thank me later!
THE BEST CALLS TO ACTION I’VE SEEN
Here are twenty of the BEST CTAs I’ve seen, accompanied with tips or [LINK] – meaning that is the link placement for the user to complete the CTA and visit your content/blog/event/site/etc..
Grab Yours Now –> [LINK] (yep, it had that little arrow leading me right to the link)
Will You Be There? [LINK]
Hope To See You Soon! [LINK]
Please Share With Your Friends And Fans: [LINK]
What Are Your Thoughts On This (Topic)? [LINK]
How Would You Handle ______? [LINK] (asking for responses; tie it in with your topic)
Read This Post: [LINK]
Have You Ever ______? (enticing comments or engagement)
What’s YOUR Favorite ______? [LINK] (tie it in with your topic)
This Article Will Teach You How To ______: [LINK]
YES or NO? ____________ (see example below from Amy Porterfield)
Seriously, SIGN UP! You’ve Got Nothing To Lose: [LINK]
Save Your Seat! [LINK]
Limited Seating Available: [LINK]
View This _____ To Learn How To ______: [LINK]
Want A Sneak Peek At ______? [LINK]
QUICK QUESTION: Do You Prefer A, B, Or C? (enticing comments or engagement)
You Don’t Want To Miss _______! [LINK]
This Is THE Solution For ______: [LINK]
This List Is Filled With Resources For ______: [LINK]
WHY ALL OF YOUR CONTENT SHOULD COME WITH A CTA
Whether it’s an ad, blog post, tweet, or update, each piece of your content marketing should have quantifiable goals. What are you hoping to accomplish? What do you want the reader to do?
Without this critical step, you’re using the loathed (by me, anyway) “post and pray” method – which is fruitless when trying to measure ROI. If you’re a real marketer looking for real results, you will have a goal in mind for your content. And with it, some sort of call-to-action. Slapping a post on Facebook and waiting for ‘likes’ is SO 2010!
Are you wondering how to use images and short video to enhance your customers’ experience?
Have you considered creating a brand profile on Instagram to make your brand visible to a new market?
Simply sign up for an account (e.g., use the same name as your Twitter handle), add a profile photo (e.g., brand logo) and a link to your website, connect your account to Facebook and let your followers know they can follow you there.
It’s what to do next that presents a difficulty for many brands.
What follows are 26 tips and brand examples, an A-Z guide, for capitalizing on a business presence on Instagram.
#1: Acquaint Yourself With How to Use Instagram for Business
Businesses have been flocking to Instagram in droves. In response, Instagram started the Instagram for Business blog, which offers tips, brand spotlights, API examples and news from Instagram HQ.
Instagram's blog will help keep you in the know.
Check it out and add it to your reader to keep up to date on some of the coolest ways to use the Instagram platform for business.
#2: Balance Fun Images With Pictures From Your Business
Rachel Sprung writes, “Take advantage of the increased real estate you have with the Instagram web page to tell a story with the images. Have a healthy balance of fun images and business pictures.” Anthropologie has struck a good balance with their images. Their followers like fun images as well as business ones. A puppy picture received 7,640 likes and a picture of their personal shoppers posing at a company luncheon event received 3,457.
One of the ten most engaging posts mentioning #Anthropologie.
Track the engagement on your images to find out what your followers like best!
#3: Cultivate a Following
Tim Sae Koo offers 3 helpful tips for getting more followers on Instagram:
Connect your Facebook account
Use relevant, popular hashtags
Engage by following others and liking their photos
Cross-post selected images to your Facebook page with a hashtag that aligns with your campaign or brand image to help people who don’t know you’re on Instagram to find you there.
#4: Debut Videos
Instagram’s recent Video on Instagram has given Twitter’s Vine a serious competitor to contend with. Most notably 15-second, filter-enabled, editable video functionality compared to Vine’s 6.5 seconds. Jordan Crook charts the differences between Instagram and Vine in the image below:
Jordan Crook charts Instagram vs. Vine.
Honda debuted an Instagram video by making a joke out of the choice. Fun idea!
#5: Embed Instagram Video in Your Blog or Website
Last month, Instagram released a new embed feature for its desktop web browser version. Mike Gingerich provides helpful instructions, in addition to examples for when and how to use Instagram videos.
Since you never know who will see your shares on a social networking platform, embed your Instagram video in your blog or website to extend the reach of your content.
#6: Follow Your Followers Back
The people you follow on social networking platforms make all the difference in the world. Curiously, many brands on Instagram (some with very large followings) don’t follow back.
To create strategic relationships on Instagram, find the brands and people you enjoy and can learn from in your followers and follow them back. We’ll talk more about this in #23.
#7: Generate a Flexible Posting Plan
Carley Keenan offers the following advice on the frequency of sharing on Instagram:
“You don’t need to post on Instagram every day. The ‘feed speed’ on Instagram is still mostly laid back. If you start posting a lot, you might saturate your followers’ feeds, and you don’t want to force yourself into the noise too often. Decide what you have ready to post and create a schedule to help you remember what to post when and to track what is working once you get going.”
#8: Harness the Power of Apps
Kay Tan put together a list of 20 apps that will enhance your photo-sharing experiences. There are apps that let users print images, search tags and keywords, subscribe to Instagram profiles via email, download all Instagram photos in a single archive folder, plus many more.
Use these apps to make Instagram a significant part of your social media marketing strategy.
#9: Inspire Potential Customers
Anna Colibri suggests you post photos that are relevant to your brand and potential customers. Whole Foods Market posts representative photos to promote healthy, wholesome food products, store events, sustainability and their active community of customers and employees.
Whole Foods Market's photos are relevant to their brand.
Attract your target market with images that share a compelling and inspiring story.
#10: Juxtapose Use of Filter Types and No-Filter Images
Instagram provides a number of filters to change the look and feel of your photos.
A study conducted by Simply Measured earlier this year found 59 percent of the world’s top brands are now active on Instagram.
Their findings also shed light on choices around filtered photos: “Lo-fi is the filter of choice for 14 percent of brands’ filtered photos, followed by Valencia with 12 percent, Rise with 12 percent, Amaro with 11 percent, Hudson with 9 percent, Sierra with 9 percent, X-Pro II with 8 percent and Hefe with 7 percent.”
Simply Measured Favorite Filters: The Most Engaging and the Most Used.
Marketo also suggests that filters are more than a question of aesthetics, they can say a lot about you!
Shake things up a little every now and then, and try out a new filter or go the no-filter route.
#11: Kickstart Instagram Efforts With a Change in Perspective
Russ Meyer recommends that for brands to be successful on Instagram, they need to get past their inherent interest in selling and instead:
Share a distinctive view of the world
Cultivate a unique visual sense
Capture things that are interesting to the brand and to the core target customer
Train your eye to focus on what makes a great, provocative, engaging image
Entrust your Instagram presence to someone in the organization who understands how to align images with the interests of your target customer.
#12: Leverage Photo Contests on Instagram With Facebook
Businesses can host photo contests on Instagram using hashtags to organize submissions and an RSS feed to follow along with new photos as they’re added. Samsung Camera used the hashtag #LiveInTheMoment to successfully promote their Instagram photo contest on their Facebook page.
Over 17,000 fans saw the status update and 336 commented on it.
Use Facebook status updates to encourage your fans to enter your Instagram photo contest.
#13: Market Your Brand Using Trends
Remember when Twitter’s #followfriday seemed somewhat avant-garde? Instagrammers can use a number of trending hashtags to join in a bigger part of the visual community storytelling. Charles Mazzini takes us through the days of the week beginning with #ManCrushMonday and ending with #SelfieSunday.
#WayBackWednesday viewed on Statigram.
Find a trending hashtag that’s relevant to your marketing strategy and participate with images from your brand.
#14: Network on Instagram
Kim Garst writes, “Instagram connects people through photos” and suggests 3 essential ways to create a network:
Engage—like others’ photos and leave comments
Follow your already established followers from other social media platforms
Include your hashtags—if your brand uses specific hashtags on Twitter or Google+, use them on Instagram as well
#15: Optimize Your Profile
Instagram profiles—like their counterparts on Twitter, Facebook and other social networking platforms—need to include brand information in specific ways (e.g., maximum number of characters, specific image sizes, attention to branding). Brandon Gaille has a helpful list of what to include in your profile and Gerry Moran provides an easy-to-digest graphic illustrating where everything shows.
Gerry Moran shows how to build the perfect Instagram profile.
Complete your profile with all of the information customers might need to find you and do business with you.
#16: Promote Your Business on Both Facebook and Instagram
Great things can happen when a platform is purchased by an entity such as Facebook. Instagram and Facebook as a duo offer brands a unique opportunity for promotion. James Borow explains, “Brands create Instagram videos, share them to their Facebook pages and then boost them into paid media that hits the Facebook news feed, in the same way that they boost text or photo posts. This enables brands to reach Facebook’s 818 million monthly active mobile users, which dwarfs Instagram’s 130 million. It’s profiting from Instagram without having to advertise on Instagram… For now it’s all about capturing and sharing the world’s moments—and paying to distribute them on the world’s largest social network.” Capitalize on Facebook’s integration of Instagram to reach a wider audience.
#17: Quantify and Qualify
Want to know how your brand is doing on Instagram? There are image analytics tools such as BlitzMetrics and Curalate that will provide detailed insights. Tim Peterson writes, “Curalate is able to track an Instagram post’s likes and comments so that a brand can see how that popularity translates into added followers, but also capitalize on the popularity. Denim brand 7 For All Mankind used the platform to identify that an image was resonating on Instagram. It then pushed that out as a Facebook ad, resulting in the brand’s most engaged ad on that platform to date….” Use image analytics to identify images and video that resonate with your fans and followers.
#18: Reward Followers
Collins Paris describes how American Express “offers its followers backstage entries to events such as fashion shows, concerts and even the U.S. Open.”
He recommends that retail brands reward their followers with discount codes and promos.
Follow American Express for insta-access to exclusive experiences, news and rewards through our lens.
Deliver perks to your followers so they will make viewing your feed content a priority.
#19: Showcase Photos of Employees
Showing your employees at work not only gives a behind-the-scenes view of your company, it’s also a way to celebrate staff and show them how much they’re valued. A great example is Beaucoup Bakery, which shares pictures of their staff with the hashtag #beaucrew.
A member of #beaucrew at Beaucoup Bakery.
Acknowledge staff members’ skill sets, successes and milestones on Instagram.
#20: Treat Followers to a Visual Experience
Sharpie shows followers how their product can be used to “start something” creative. The majority of their photos in their feed show drawings in a myriad of colors.
Grab a Sharpie and start something.
Find a creative way to showcase the use of your company’s products and services.
#21: Use Industry-Related Hashtags
If you’re at an event or location that’s designated by a hashtag (something like #smmw13), Jenn Herman recommends you add it to your photos so that event coordinators and other attendees can find them.
10 most engaging photos mentioning #smmw13.
Track the relevance of your Instagram hashtags with Nitrogram, the Instagram analytics and engagement platform that provides key metrics on hashtags including contributors, content, engagement and context.
#22: Video Important Brand Moments
Tom Edwards suggests that “Brands can share unique branded experiences, highlight brand advocates, co-create content with audiences, preview products, highlight a specific cause, extend the brand’s persona via video, preview upcoming events by adding visual context, share important news, drive promotional awareness, leverage Instagram video for promotion and create videos that show fan appreciation.” Capture your company’s important moments in 15-second videos and share them with your followers so they feel included.
#23: Widen Your Exposure to Other Brands
As we covered in #6, it’s good practice to follow other brands on Instagram. Statigram is a great tool for finding brands and hashtags that relate to your brand. Simply enter the brand name or hashtag into the search box and click Search.
In this example, I wanted to see if Target had a profile on Instagram. They do!
Search for businesses and industry-related keywords on Statigram.
Use this tool to find, follow and research your competitors on Instagram.
#24: eXpose Something New
ABC World News often shares a photo about a broadcast they’ll be doing later in the day.
ABC News shared hours earlier that Robin Roberts would be interviewing Venus Williams.
Use Instagram to give your followers a first look at or sneak preview of an event, a product or news feature.
#25: Yuck it Up
Donna Amos writes, “While running a business requires dedication, sweat and sometimes tears, it should never be all work and no play. Instagram is perfect for displaying fun times in the office or when you’re out and about having lunch or dinner with coworkers. Sharing these types of images with followers speaks volumes. It not only suggests that you don’t take life too seriously while on the job, but instead you must be happy and successful in your career.”
All work and no play will make your brand a dull company on Instagram. Integrate images that show your human side to create stronger connections with your followers.
#26: Zap Between Instagrammers’ Images and Edit for a Longer Film
Lexususa had a cutting-edge vision with their #LexusInstafilm using 212 instagrammers’ images to edit together a 3:44 Instagram video to showcase the 2014 Lexus IS.
@Lexususa a brand who knows how to zap it to their audience.
As one instagrammer says in the video, the Lexusinstafilm is a great example of what Instagram is, “A community that comes together.” Transform crowdsourced images into a unique video message that features and highlights the creativity of your loyal followers. Over to You
These are just a few tips on how you can use Instagram to create a presence for your business. Check them out and see what works best to enhance your brand.
CircleCount is a free tool that helps you understand Google+ and provides you with extensive statistics on your performance and influence.
