Tag: social media

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Social Media

5 Ways to Use Pinterest to Strengthen Your Brand

Many businesses think of platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn in relation to marketing products and services. The reality is that consumers today are incredibly visual, and these sites alone may no longer be enough to keep their interest.

Enter Pinterest.

While it started out as more of a personal indexing site where people swapped recipes and craft ideas, it’s far from only that today. Pinterest has veritably exploded, attracting viewership (sharer-ship?) from all over the world.

That’s exactly what makes it such a compelling choice for businesses who rely on heavily visual content (like video or images). Using Pinterest can strengthen your brand and improve brand awareness, too.

Here’s the secret to Pinterest success!

What’s Pinterest?

Pinterest is a social media platform that relies heavily on visual content. Users can create “boards” with themes and then save content they find on the web to their Pinterest accounts. The boards operate similar to an index or file folder. It’s easy to go back, skim the photos, and click through until you get back to the main article or blog post you originally “pinned.”

There is a social aspect to Pinterest, too. You don’t necessarily need to search the broad web for a topic. The Pinterest platform is effectively a search engine, giving you the ability to browse the items others have already found and saved. From there you can add them to your own boards. Boards can be public or private based on how you set them up from within your profile.

As a business owner, it’s important to not only pin your own content, but to share related content from others as well. You’ll also want to make sure your website has social share buttons so visitors who like what they see can “pin” your pages to their own boards right from your website.

Complete Your Profile

Once you’ve created a business account, take some time to complete your entire profile. Update your logo or photo, make sure your username makes you happy, and write something short but engaging for your “About You” section. The more detail you include, the easier it will be for people to get to know you and your brand. This is a great place to throw in a couple of your main keywords so you’re easy to search.

Once you’re done with the “About You” section, Pinterest will ask you to confirm your website. This is critical as it confirms and proves you are actually related to the business you claim to own. You’ll need to paste a short piece of coding into your website’s index page. Pinterest will give you instructions, but you can also ask your web developer to handle this step for you.

(Extra hint: you can also embed Pinterest images on your website using this embed guide. This is really useful for driving traffic to your Pinterest page).

Setting Up Your Boards

While your business account will be an ongoing project, one of your first goals should be to set up boards for each of your product or service categories. Think outside the box, though. Let’s say you sell t-shirts. Set up boards for shirts for men, women, children, babies, and even unisex designs. Then, create different boards for different themes – shirts for readers, artists, sports enthusiasts, etc.

How deeply you drill down into a specific niche is entirely up to you. You may find different boards get attention throughout the year. Baseball season may mean you’re pinning new designs to style boards for men, women, and children, or sports. You might even find it’s time to break out a separate “baseball” board.

You don’t have to sell a product to be successful on Pinterest; services can do very well here, too! Don’t be afraid to flex your services in the same way.

Are you a graphic designer? Create different boards for the types of work you’ve done, uploading samples of your business cards, pamphlets, or website layouts. Are you a photographer? Create separate boards for school photos, maternity photo shoots, and wedding photography.

Consider the SEO Impact

You can sometimes upload images directly to Pinterest instead of grabbing pins from outside websites. No matter what method you’re using to populate your board, you should always consider how what you share impacts search engine optimization (SEO).

Remember: the end goal is traffic to your website, phone calls, and purchases. You don’t want to drive traffic elsewhere unless you have to.

Make sure you write descriptions for each item pinned, complete with details about what the person is seeing and how they can find out more information. Don’t be afraid to plug in a related keyword, but only do this if it fits into your text naturally. Don’t forget to include a URL to the related page on your website.

Partner with a Strong Designer

You may have a great graphic designer on your team already. If not, consider hiring someone to take professional photos or create stunning visuals for your website and social platforms. Brands doing well on Pinterest typically have amazing, eye-catching photos pinned.

This means overhauling what’s found on your website as well as what you might pin independently. Show your products, events, staff at work, or samples of your finished pieces. Certain photo styles work better than others. For example, lifestyle photos do really well on Pinterest; so do photos of completed crafts. This doesn’t mean you can’t show your products, but it means you need to stage your photos so they don’t scream “catalog” or “sales pitch.”

Don’t Forget to Engage

Pinterest’s feed is different than the feed on either Facebook or Twitter.  Business owners tend to shy away from engagement here more than on other sites, usually because they don’t understand how to approach it.

(If this is you, hey – we want to help! Hit this link to find out more).

Here’s the good news: you don’t have to spend hours per day on Pinterest to get real results from it. Instead, just set aside a short block of time to visit people who share your original pins. Thank them! Follow people in related niches, create a few non-branded boards and repin other people’s content, and ask your customers to pin content related to their purchases. Consistent effort in this area will bring results.

Pinterest is a really fun platform that lends itself really well to many different content styles. Millions of people turn to the platform daily for ideas and inspiration. Will they find you there? If not, you may just be doing your brand a disservice.

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Social Media

Why The Best Influencers Aren’t Only on Instagram

How many sponsored ads did you see the last time you scrolled your Facebook or Instagram feed? Quite a few, I’m sure. Now, more than ever, I’m seeing brands partner with celebrity “influencers” as they work to create a new sense of brand awareness.

But here’s the thing: influencers come in all shapes and sizes. They’re definitely not all celebrities – in fact, very few qualify for this classification. I’ll explain in today’s post.

What are Influencers?

An influencer is, by definition, someone who has the ability to influence another person’s decisions. In the marketing world, this translates into strong brand awareness and increased sales.

Influencers spend a great deal of time creating their own personal brand by sharing unique personal experiences, including interests, hobbies, or even favorite products and services. By describing experiences, or sharing specific talents and skills, they create a unique bond of trust with audiences; this can be immensely compelling. Most good influencers are deeply creative, credible, authoritative, and trustworthy.

What makes influencers so useful is their transparency and close bond to a cultivated audience or fan base. Because followers trust them, they’re more likely to carefully consider their recommendations over, say, a simple commercial or social media ad.

Types of Influencers

Take a look at Facebook and Instagram and you’ll see influencers of all different sizes and status. The idea that the only true influencers are celebrities is long gone; these days, anyone can become one with the right effort.

Influencers fall into these categories:

  • Celebrity influencers – These are big names you likely recognize from television, movies, and sports. They’re usually incredibly expensive to hire and, in many cases, carry the least credibility because people do tend to associate them with their paid status.
  • High-Level Influencers – Very popular and have a large audience. They generally have a broad niche audience and can easily touch on a wide variety of different products within the same general niche. They’re popular and they’re serious about what they do, often looked upon as industry experts.
  • Mid-Range Influencers – Have slightly smaller audiences; yet, their niches are not quite as broad as the higher-level influencer. Instead of “health and wellness,” this type of influencer might be more focused on “nutrition” or another narrower subtopic. This includes crafters, and beauty enthusiasts.
  • Micro-Influencers – Tend to have smaller audiences (10k+). However, they’re often consistent and maintain excellent engagement. These influencers are hyper-focused on specific niches, like make-up products or a certain type of fashion (such as plus-size or kid’s clothing).

No matter how they’re categorized, the most effective influencers are always incredibly creative. You should work closely with your influencers, but never be afraid to give them creative license – if they’re good, they already know what they’re doing. The one caveat here is that you need to feel comfortable knowing they’re going to design great visual content that speaks to their brand and audience first. This is where research comes in.

Micro-influencers are often willing to work in trade for product, but be cautious about over-utilizing this option. The truth is that influencers are, in fact, a type of freelancer or business; it’s more ethical to pay them well for the services you request. Moreover, respecting and valuing your influencers will almost always net you better results (assuming the influencer is effective).

Where to Find Influencers

When asked about influencers, what do you think of first? If you said Instagram, you aren’t alone. This incredibly visible and visual platform is full of creative people with engaged audiences. But don’t assume this is your only option for making connections; modern influencers are starting to branch out to other platforms, too.

This is where I drop a little truth bomb.

The best influencers for your brand are already hanging out with your audience.

Is your audience a 20-something Millennial with an iPhone attached to their hip? Then yes, you probably need to take a pretty close look at Instagram. Maybe Snapchat or a similar platform, too.

Is your audience made up of 30 to 50-something adults who move at a slightly slower pace? These are the people who love to keep in touch with family and friends. You’re likely to find effective influencers in this category on Facebook.

Do your audience members love to read informative, long-form content? You may need to find major bloggers or even well-known writers working in your niche instead.

Here’s the thing, though. You don’t have to limit yourself to one audience or platform.

You do need to know which segment of your audience exists on each platform. This lets you ensure your chosen influencers cater to your campaigns in the right way.

For example, there’s no reason to waste resources advertising a senior-silver vitamin supplement on Instagram. That segment of your audience is much more likely to be found on Facebook, instead. You can still advertise health and fitness supplements from the same brand on Instagram — a known hangout for workout enthusiasts.

What to Look for In an Influencer

Ready to start partnering with influencers as you work to create a stronger brand image? Don’t settle for just anyone.

The best influencers are:

  • Likeable – Audiences enjoy their posts (no matter what the platform). Followers are constantly liking and engaging. They’re relatable.
  • Engaged – They aren’t just soaking in their fame. They’re regularly engaging with their audiences, replying to comments, or even addressing them in their posts and videos.
  • Consistent – They don’t disappear for days or weeks at a time. They maintain a regular publishing schedule.
  • Passionate – They love what they do, genuinely love the ideas they share, and are determined to give honest feedback.
  • Relevant – To their audiences, and to your audience. You need to make sure your influencers are the right fit in terms of niche and values.
  • Creative – They’re awesome at creating high-quality product photos, action shots, and even videos.
  • Authentic – They will never review things dishonestly, and likely won’t review anything they’re not truly interested in. They stay true to themselves.
  • Honest – They never take part in sponsored posts without disclosing their relationships (this is important if you don’t want to get slapped by the FTC).
  • Experienced – They didn’t just pop up out of nowhere overnight. They’re good at what they do and have a genuine following.

It doesn’t matter if you’re looking for high-end bloggers, Facebook superstars, or traditional Instagram influencers. These criteria are important for any platform and will ensure your brand’s message is shared carefully and consistently.

Remember, knowing your audience is paramount. Once you know where they are hanging out, finding influencers becomes easier. Customizing your influencer strategy to your audience’s behaviors ensures your campaign will be effective! You can always reach out to me for help, too – just hit this link.

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Social Media

9 Social Media Trends to Watch for in 2019

The New Year is right around the corner. With it will come brand new advice from every social guru you follow. While you want to keep up with upcoming trends, you don’t have to throw your entire social strategy up to this point out the window. Make sure you go into 2019 with the following ideas in mind:

Video to Text Ratio

Video will continue to be a huge part of social in 2019. Right now, a combination of video and text is a great strategy. Tipping the scale a little more toward video in the first quarter is suggested. Video should be a priority, with text coming in at a close second.

Live video will become more important than ever, so you’ll want to create a strategy that incorporates regular live feeds on both Facebook and Instagram. Even though live video comes with its own set of technical issues, followers are more likely to accept errors because the real-time aspect makes brands more relatable.

Long-Form Content

Video aside, make sure the content you are creating is valuable. This means taking more time to focus on long-form content that provides a valuable punch as opposed to short nuggets of information. Many publishers are focusing on content at least 1,000 words long; most only publish content at 1,500 words or more. Experiment with long and short form blogs to see what works for your audience.

Data Security and Trust

This year saw an endless number of scandals due to security and data breaches. Earlier in 2018, the Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed that Facebook allowed unauthorized third-party access to the personal data of more than 85 million users. Just this month, they announced a second breach that accidentally exposed private user photos.

While you can’t do much to control the security of major social networks, you can make sure your own message is crystal clear. Communicate with your fans without always clamoring to collect data on forms. Social networks are asking business owners to be more transparent than ever in social marketing. With Facebook, anyone who visits a page can now see ads run by the page whether they are targeted or not.

Artificial Intelligence is Here

Are you using messenger bots to communicate with your customers? If not, you are likely falling behind. While the technology is still new, these tools can increase your response times and customer service turnarounds – when properly implemented. This method of communication is particularly appealing to millennials, who find it easy and engaging compared to the frustration of waiting.

Hootsuite recently predicted that more than “85 percent of all customer service interactions will be powered by AI bots” by 2020. Facebook and WhatsApp are now paving the way for integrating these technologies.

Personal versus Business Branding

To clarify, personal branding doesn’t mean you have to open your personal profiles to the public. It means that consumers are becoming more curious about the faces behind the brands they know and love. The public wants to know your company’s CEO is real and involved, not just a talking head.

What does this have to do with your marketing efforts? You need to become more visible about who you are and what you’re all about. Create separate brand pages for your business owner or public leaders, and cross-promote them along with your brand’s main social platforms.

Hiding behind your logo is a thing of the past. Real people and honest human interactions on social media, within guest blogs, and through public appearances (online and in person) are what build trust.

User-Generated Content

Brands are already deeply involved with UGC, but we should see exponential growth in this area throughout 2019. You should let your customers share photos and experiences, and then share them yourself to your own channels (with permission and credit). Most consumers perceive this type of content as authentic. It’s also a terrific boost to organic engagement in a marketing world that focuses on paid strategy.

Social Stories

The stories function on Instagram and Facebook continues to gain traction. Both show remarkable results compared to Snapchat because they allow brands to share quick snippets of information in a format that piques the interest of curious followers. The quick turnaround time from publication to disappearance creates a sense of urgency. Stories are cheap (sometimes even free) to create and allow you to generate regular content without overwhelming your main feed with too many posts.

Paid Strategies

Like it or not, Facebook and other social media platforms are pay-to-play in reach and exposure. We looked at a Facebook page with 100,000 “likes” the other day; some of their posts had as few as nine reactions. NINE!

According to HubSpot, brands saw around 16 percent organic reach in 2012. By 2018, that number fell to six percent. Brands seeking success on Facebook will need to set aside at least a small budget for paid promotions.

Some Users Share Content Privately

Users are still sharing content, but they’re sending content via private messages and text instead of sharing to their public timelines. This makes it harder to track how much engagement your content really achieves. This doesn’t mean you can’t continue to create and share great content, but it does mean you must pay attention to platform changes, so you can adapt to (and create more of) the things your audience reacts to most.

If there’s one thing you can rely on, it’s change. 2018 has been a year of change; a whirlwind of sorts. 2019 isn’t likely to be much different, but you can put yourself in a better position to deal with it. Spend some time each day reviewing social media and marketing updates. Staying on top of changes as they play out makes it easier for you to adapt your strategies as the year progresses.

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Outreach

9 Obsolete Influencer Marketing Practices to Avoid in 2019

Influencers spend a lot of time building an authentic voice that followers can connect with and relate to. The public views them as trustworthy sources of information. These influencers have built reputations for honesty and accuracy in reviewing products and services. It’s very “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” – so to speak.

Partnering with people who are considered influencers is a sure-fire way to generate interest in your own brand. That said, it’s time to review your own influencer outreach strategy and make some changes that will propel it to the next level in 2019.

Having Loose Guidelines

Gone are the days where you should choose an influencer simply because they work in your niche (or even a closely-related niche). You need to take some time to find influencers who have values and voices that closely match your brand. A good influencer isn’t going to do a one-and-done review of your product or service, they’re going to get involved with your brand because they like it.

If you have a strong plan, your influencers will become brand ambassadors that people recognize as related to your brand. Those influencers can’t be just anybody; you need to build relationships with them, as you would with any other business partner or customer.

Caring About Follower Counts

The influencer’s follower count isn’t the end-all-be-all test of their marketing power. In some cases, it’s not even the right measuring tool. What matters is how much engagement your potential influencer gets on their posts, especially in terms of likes and comments, because that’s what drives conversion.

When you take that number and compare it to the total number of followers they have, what percentage of people are engaging? That percentage is the number you should be looking for. Anywhere around five to 10 percent is usually decent.

As for larger followings – sure, they’re awesome. But those smaller micro-influencers are worth investing in, too.

That said, make sure you are taking a close look at the type of engagement. If you see a bunch of responses that are just emojis, or a lot of accounts posting very similar comments, you may be looking at an account that has purchased followers.

Not Researching Your Influencer’s Followers

Yes, you do need to spend a little bit of time analyzing your potential influencer’s followers. It doesn’t matter if they identify with your brand if they’re not old enough to buy your products. Worse yet, imagine setting up an entire influencer campaign only to find that most of their audience is in foreign market- and you don’t even ship there.

Don’t assume a female beauty blogger has a primarily female audience. Don’t assume that all of an influencer’s followers are real (hence, checking engagement rates). Go deeper and tuck in to create a firm persona of who’s following.

Using Cold Outreach Strategies

Cold outreach is like cold calling or cold emailing. It’s likely to get your inquiry tossed in the trash. And can you blame them? Good influencers get several emails per day and they can’t deal with them all. You need to warm your potential influencers up by following their pages, engaging with them, and showing interest in what they do. By getting involved, you become less of a “stranger” when you ultimately do try to pitch your company strategy.

Giving Influencers Exact Instructions

Ok, yeah — you should still give your influencer instructions, but they need to be needs-based in a way that addresses both your preferences and how your influencer gets results. You can’t just send out an influencer kit, give them strict instructions for what they have to do, and hope for results. Even if they agree, the attempt will come off fake and make it seem like they’re reading from a script.

What to do instead? Build better relationships and create marketing plans tailored to each influencer. We guarantee you’ll see a better ROI if your influencer is given some flexibility in choosing how they showcase your product into their own brand’s voice.

Winging It

It’s time to stop flying by the seat of your pants with influencer marketing. Yes, it’s cool to have influencers promote your products, but what’s your actual plan? Are you having them promote your product and run a contest to give a few away for free? Are you giving samples in phase two and then a coupon code in phase three? How are you going to roll out your product in a way that generates interest and creates a trackable end goal for sales and marketing?

Focusing on Instagram Only

Zzzzzz. Instagram is great, but you’re limiting your audience by only focusing on a single platform. It’s time to branch out. You don’t necessarily need to work with influencers who are popular on multiple platforms. You can focus some on Instagram and find others who are strong on Facebook, Twitter, or wherever else you feel is appropriate. 

Lacking a Solid Compensation Model

How are you paying your influencers? Are you giving away free product or are you paying them for each post they create? Maybe you’re paying for each click your links receive or commission per sale. You have options!

Paying per post may mean you have a lot of upfront costs but little ROI. Paying per click, on the other hand, may land you with a lot of leads, but few real sales (and a big bill due to the influencer). Each of these payment methods can be effective depending on the situation. Experiment to figure out what type of compensation is fair for both of you.

Hiding Your Relationship

Knock it off. Knock it off right now. Not only is it shady, it’s straight-up illegal to not disclose that an influencer has received your product for free or has been paid to review your product. We care about you and don’t want to see anyone go down this path (plus, we know there’s a better way).

FTC endorsement rules (or failing to comply, in this case) could get both you and your influencer into trouble. Your influencers have worked hard to maintain decent relationships with their audiences, which includes not reviewing products they don’t appreciate or want to support. An influencer is more likely to refuse a relationship with you than s/he is to lie to his/her audience or break the law.

Influencer outreach is here to stay for the long haul. Focus your 2019 outreach efforts on building stronger relationships and creating tailored plans for each influencer you partner with. You’ll be surprised at how well these relationships work when it comes to strengthening your brand’s awareness and sales.

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Social Media

Mastering Reputation Management on Social Media Platforms

Social signals – how many collective shares, mentions, likes, and follows your business’s social media profiles have on an ongoing basis – are a big deal right now. They hold significant weight in determining rank because Google sees a high degree of positive interactions as indicating that you’re reliable, trustworthy, and ultimately, sharing content your fans and followers find useful.

That’s exactly why so many businesses now consider Social Media Marketing (SMM) an absolute must for staying competitive in SEO. Without social signals pointing to your business, you’re left trailing behind everyone else who manages to get it right, but that doesn’t mean SMM is without risk.

The Risk of a Negative Rep

The problem is that Google considers social signals so important for overall rank and reach. Negative reputations on social media sites have the potential to harm not just your social media presence, but your entire rank and reach right across the board.

Complicating matters even further is the fact that negative reputations can be warranted or unwarranted. On the business side, you may share a joke or post something that seems innocuous, yet has stereotypical, racial, or political overtones, leading to an avalanche of outrage in response to your well-intentioned content.

Or, maybe you really did manage to mess up with a customer or guest. Maybe you went out of your way to repair that relationship, offering refunds or fixes, but they refused them and prefer to complain on your wall instead.

On the other side of the coin is malicious reputation attacks. These are the instances where someone, either a customer or even a competitor, drops by your social media accounts with a well-fabricated story, drops it on your wall, and attracts attention from your fans and followers. Within hours, you’re getting slammed with negative reviews and calls for boycotts. It doesn’t even necessarily matter whether or not you actually completed whatever atrocity they’re claiming; it only matters how loud and visible they are.

Then you have the true public relations disasters – like this post where Adidas congratulated people on surviving the Boston Marathon, or this post from  McDonald’s that slammed Donald Trump. Your thoughts on Trump or the Boston Marathon aside, these posts both obviously needed more consideration before they went live.

Proactive Prevention is Best

Obviously, preventing problems from occurring in the first place is the best way to prevent yourself from developing a negative reputation. Serve your customers well, strive for greatness, and carefully review posts before they go live. It seems like common sense, but there are enough businesses breaking these three critical rules that it bears repeating again and again.

But what about when you’re already struggling? What if you’re being maliciously attacked by a follower? If you’re in the midst of a scandal, prevention isn’t going to fix the slide downward. Instead, you need to address the issue with negative reputation recovery strategies to restore your good name.

Truthfully, negative reputation recovery can be immensely frustrating. It’s time-consuming, complicated, delicate, and often, expensive, but it’s a must if you’re already embroiled in a scandal or negative viral campaign.

In the rest of this article, I’ll outline the steps you should take to avoid making it worse. The goal? Pulling your profiles back into neutral territory without being eaten alive on the way.

Step Away from the Keyboard

Yes, this sounds counter-intuitive, especially when you have a scandal unfolding right in front of your eyes. But rapid responses filled with emotion, especially anger and indignant frustration, won’t do you any favors. They’ll just make your business look unprofessional and convince people there’s a good reason for your negative rep.

Whether your situation is unfolding slowly, or you just woke up to a massive PR disaster, the first (and only) first step is to take stock and figure out what happened. This means deep analysis of the situation – how it started, how it’s unfolding, what people are saying, and who is affected.

It is extremely important that you don’t jump in when you see “dog-piling” – negative conversations that tend to build on themselves. Although it may be hard, set aside your desire to break it up and let it be for now until you have a plan. No matter how logical your argument, you won’t win.

Respond to the Right People

Who you respond to (or where you respond) makes almost as much difference as how you respond. If the issue started with a single customer, and mostly expanded with supporters dog-piling on and sending the issue viral, address the customer directly and publicly by apologizing.

It’s best to invite customers to speak with you privately while also treating them like a human publicly. Encourage private communication, but don’t be surprised of they refuse or if you’re accused of attempting to “hide” the problem. This is immensely common in today’s social media world.

Let’s say the issue is bigger than just one person. Maybe you inadvertently re-shared something with subtle racial overtones or a sexual innuendo you completely missed before you shared it. In cases like these, a public post with an apology and an outline of how you intend to fix the problem in the future is better. ‘

If the situation has already exploded, it may be better to release an all-points press release or apology on all channels. Save this type of response for when all other measures have failed.

Start with an Apology

Let me be clear: apologies are an absolute must. Without them, you have virtually no chance of coming back from a disaster.

Apologies should feel genuine, should be empathetic, and should never use cut-and-paste standard responses. Followers see through copy-pastes in seconds, and will usually just point out your lack of effort.

Make it honest, transparent, and genuine, and speak like you were speaking to a colleague or friend. Never include phrases like “didn’t really mean it that way” “sorry you were offended” or any form of sarcasm; this is social media suicide.

Think of your apology as the beginning of your recovery story; your plan for the future is how you reach your happy ending. Don’t just say you’re “taking steps” to resolve a problem – so long as it doesn’t further jeopardize your reputation, tell your followers that those steps are and how you plan to implement them.

Fix the Problem and Move Forward

The next step is to identify whether you can take action to fix the problem. There are no magic solutions here; the best “fix” depends on variables like your business, your niche, your following, and even the scope and category of PR disaster you’re experiencing.

Ultimately, “fixing the problem” generally involves correcting a process or changing your business’s policies to prevent further irresponsibility or issues. And that starts with acknowledging your role or responsibility; then, you need to showcase how you will evolve and grow from it.

In the final section, I’m going to highlight two instances where brands overcame social media reputation disasters to bounce back.

Brand Examples

Sometimes, it’s easier to understand just how good (or bad) things can go based on a single reaction. Let’s review a few major social media disasters and see where past brands got it right.

Entenmann’s Hashtag Snafu

During the culmination of the Casey Anthony trial, when #notguilty was trending on Twitter in reference to the case, Entenmann’s made a major blunder. The company, who sells baked goods, tweeted “”Who’s #notguilty about eating all the tasty treats they want?!”

Of course, what ended up happening is that Entenmann’s appeared as if they had taken advantage of the currently-trending #notguilty tweet to drive home more sales. Naturally, the public reacted swiftly and angrily, accusing them of everything from greed to irresponsibility to making light of the verdict. Sure, that wasn’t their intention…but it didn’t really matter at that point.

Entenmann’s took responsibility of the scenario quickly. They deleted the initial tweet and reposted another:

“Sorry everyone, we weren’t trying to reference the trial in our tweet! We should have checked the trending hashtag first” and added “Our #notguilty tweet was insensitive, albeit completely unintentional. We are sincerely sorry.”

What worked so well here wasn’t just the apology – it was the fact that Entenmann’s addressed their failure directly, acknowledged their role, and identified exactly how they would prevent if from ever happening again (checking trending tags first).

Chrysler’s Media Company Debacle

This issue with Chrysler several years ago is a great example. The company contracted a media agency to handle their posts. Someone from the media company ended up firing out an f-bomb through what he thought was his own account, but was really Chrysler’s account. It slammed Detroit drivers for being unable to drive.

“I find it ironic that Detroit is known as #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to f#*!ing drive.”

What made this scenario especially difficult is that Chrysler is an iconic Detroit car manufacturer; they’re deeply tied to the area and the immense struggle it’s experienced over the last 50 years.

Which is exactly why Chrysler didn’t just apologize; they took action by breaking their contract with the media company:

“Chrysler Group LLC will not renew its contract with New Media Strategies (NMS) for the remainder of 2011. NMS has agreed to support us with an orderly transition until a new agency has been named. We thank them for the work they have provided to us and wish them the best as they move forward.”

New Media, the company responsible, also took action by firing the individual and aligning themselves with Chrysler’s innocence by taking responsibility. In short, they did the right thing.

Can’t seem to get on top of your reputation issues? We use advanced strategies to address reputation and PR concerns from a holistic perspective. Let’s come up with a plan to get you back on track and positively regarded by the public.

Categories
Social Media

Is a Job Working in Social Media the Right Fit for You?

According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) social media specialists are grouped in with other types of public relations specialists. In 2015, their median annual wage was $56,770, which is higher than the overall median wage of $36,000 for all workers.

Social media specialists are the ones who are posting content on various social networks for brands – so it seems fairly simple, right? It’s far more complex than most people know – unless they’re in the industry.

That said, it’s not the right kind of job for everyone. If you’re running a business, you know the importance of being on social. But that doesn’t mean you should be handling it yourself – it’s completely okay to hire someone else to handle it for you. Here’s how to tell if you’re on the right track in choosing to do it yourself.

 

How Familiar Are You with Social Media Channels?

Not all social media channels are the same – even though they may have similar features and end goals. I’m a big advocate of only spending time on the channels where you know your customers are. This way, you don’t spread yourself too thin, or invest time in trying to be everywhere because you feel like you have to be. At the least, you’ll need to be familiar with the ins and outs of Facebook, as 95% of Millennials expect a business to have a Facebook presence. It’s not just them, either – 87% of Gen X’ers, and 70% of people between ages 45 and 60 think you should be there, too. Only about 50% of people expect your business to have a presence on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, or Google+.

Regardless of your level of experience, posting the exact same updates on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks is not just a lazy strategy – it’s an ineffective one. Twitter limits you to 140 characters, where Facebook lets you be more verbose. Pinterest and Instagram are highly visual networks, so if you lack images, you’ll struggle to gain traction. Instead, adapt the same content for each channel.

If it’s going to take you a substantial amount of time, or trial and error spending money on ads, then you may be better served by hiring someone who has a solid background and experience in social media. Of course, if you’re eager to learn, and want to take those social media skills to a business working in social media to help other businesses, then by all means – get in the trenches and learn.

Do You Have Good Relationship Building Skills?

Social media is all about relationships – and the greater the quality of those relationships, the better your results will be. Stop with the sales pitch about how awesome your business is, and focus on really building connections with your potential customers. Use your social channels as a customer service platform for your audience, and take the time to help them.

If you think you can post on Facebook once a week and tweet a couple times a month – that’s not going to cut it. You’ll have to carve time out of your schedule to make sure you can dedicate attention to not only creating and curating content to post, but to respond to what people are saying when your audience starts engaging.

Remember, building relationships and engagement takes time. If you’ve got a small following, run some ads to help increase the number of page likes – focusing on building a highly targeted following. If you don’t know who your customers are, stop what you’re doing and build out customer personas for each of the major segments of your audience. Then, build ads that target those personas.

Can You Stay on Top of News, Tools, and Trends?

Social media is constantly changing. Even though there may not be a new hot network popping up every time we turn around, Facebook, for one, makes changes to their newsfeed algorithm quite often. If the idea of keeping up with what’s going on makes you want to crawl into a hole and hide, then it’s a good idea to look to someone else to handle your social. If not, then set some Google Alerts to keep up with news and trends.

 

Are You Able to Balance the Personal and Professional?

Your personal and professional online presences are going to blur to an extent, no matter how hard you work to keep them separate. Customers want to know there’s a human on the other end – no one likes dealing with automated systems. Use social media as a chance to humanize your brand. Do you want to post on your business page about your daughter taking her first steps? Unless you’re in the business of baby products, probably not. Would you share those funny cat memes you secretly love? Unless you’re in the business of selling products to cat lovers, no. But it’s okay to relax and be light-hearted, especially if that’s the voice you’re cultivating for your brand.

It’s possible to find balance between personal and professional, though it may take some experimentation to find out what your audience responds to best.

 

Can You See the Big Picture?

What you post on social media today needs to fit into your long-term goals and social media strategy. It’s important to go into social with some sort of plan, or you’ll never be able to achieve your goals. If you’re having trouble developing a strategy, you can hire someone to help you with that, if you’re comfortable with the implementation.

 

To Work Your Own Social or to Hire a Professional to Do It For You – That is the Question

If you’re just starting out and building an audience, or don’t have the funds to hire a social media manager, trying social media on your own is better than neglecting it all together. Set yourself a schedule, use a scheduling tool like Buffer or Hootsuite to build up your queue of content, and use a tool like Feedly to find content to share that doesn’t originate with you. Then, take time every day to be present on the network to respond to engagements, find new followers, and share content from your followers.

If you’ve reached a point where you feel like you don’t have the time you need to properly focus on your social media, and you have the funds to hire someone, pass it off to an expert. You can then use the time you would spend on social to grow your business in other ways that you excel at.

 

Categories
Social Media

11 Tips to Increase Facebook Engagement

 

In the early days of social media, there was major focus on the number of fans you had, which lead to an onslaught of craziness where people thought it was a good idea to buy fans. (If you don’t know why that’s a bad thing – I talked about it in this post. There’s also a bit more detail about post timing and frequency there, too, which I cover briefly below.)

Now that Facebook is the number one most visited website and everyone is there, the competition is heavy. Simply having page likes isn’t enough to gauge a real return on investment, and that’s where engagement comes in.

What exactly is Facebook engagement? It’s the number of post likes, comments, and shares. It’s the action your fans take. They engage with you – which shows your brand’s ability to capture attention and connect with your content. But perhaps most importantly, Facebook uses your post engagement metrics to determine how much of your audience sees your post. One study shows that Facebook pages show a net 2.6% organic reach as of March 2015. Other data shows on average, Facebook organic reach is down 52% in 2016.

With all that out of the way – here are some ways you can boost your own Facebook engagement rate. Depending on your current level and niche, some methods may provide better results. Some may not be practical. You may decide to try something and find out it’s not for you. That’s okay. Do what works for your business.

 

Ask Questions

If you want to hear from your fans – ask them something. Ask them anything. If you can relate to your brand, great, but it’s not always necessary. If nothing else, use questions to learn more about the audience you have – so you can tailor your content to them better.

Can’t think of anything to ask? Try these:

  • Are you a saver or a spender?
  • Would you rather stand or sit all day? Why?
  • If you had a million dollars, what would you do with it?
  • What’s your favorite way to relax?
  • What’s the first thing you notice when you meet someone new?
  • Are you an introvert, an extrovert, or an ambivert?

Beyond those types of questions, you can also use fill in the blank options like these:

  • When you think of [our brand], what’s the first word that comes to your mind?
  • The first [brand] product you purchased, I ever bought was….
  • My favorite thing about [industry/niche] is…
  • If I could be anything when I grow up, I’d be….

The options are nearly limitless, and you can plan them as far out as you need to fit your strategy needs.

 

Stay Responsive

If you’re asking questions and getting responses from your audience, then you need to show them you’re paying attention to what they have to say. If they don’t think you’re listening, then they don’t have any incentive to keep engaging with you.

If they have questions of their own, answer them. If they have creative responses, reply to them. Thank them for their time and for being a valuable part of your community.

42% of consumers who complain in social media expect the company to respond to them in 60 minutes. And 32% of consumers expect a response in 30 minutes or less. And what may come as a surprise is they still have these time expectations outside of normal business hours at night and weekends. What happens if you don’t respond?

 

User-Generated Content (UGC)

UGC is hot. UGC is 20% more influential than another type of media with Millennial purchases. 93% of customers find UGC helpful when making purchasing decisions, and UGC gets 29% higher web conversions compared to campaigns or websites without it. Social media is built on sharing and building relationships. Share content from other people online that’s relevant and useful to your audience. This helps you stay in line with the 80/20 rule so your content doesn’t always toot its own horn, while staying in line with providing value to your audience.

To get UGC, you have to involve and interact with your fans. This can be difficult for those who are just starting out, but, these are strategies you can use to build a library of UGC to work from:

  • Ask your fans to upload photos around a certain theme.
  • Use photo/video uploads to host a contest or giveaway. Starbucks launched the “white cup” contest where customers were asked to doodle on a white cup to create a design that would be mass produced to create a product for coffee lovers. The contest was such a hit that it received nearly 4,000 entries in only three weeks.
  • Ask your audience to share photos/videos using your products/services. Fashion designer Marc Jacobs knew their customers would be taking selfies with their products. They hosted a casting call for their next advertising campaign through Twitter and Instagram, asking people to post their images using the hashtag #CastMeMarc. Within 24 hours, more than 15,000 entries were received.

 

Pay Attention to the Timing and Frequency of Your Posts

Timing and frequency is everything. If you post too much, you risk turning your audience off. They’ll start ignoring you or may even unlike your page. If you don’t post enough, there’s the chance your fans won’t see it enough to engage at all, which will of course make visibility even harder.

There’s no hard rule about how often to post and when to post on Facebook. Clearly, it’s going to vary from niche to niche. However, several studies show guidelines you can use to get maximum Facebook engagement potential, with the best times to post being:

  • 12 to 1 pm on Saturday and Sunday
  • 3 to 4 pm on Wednesdays
  • 1 to 4 pm on Thursdays and Fridays

People use Facebook at home, and at work, on their desktops and on mobile devices. You’ll need to factor all of this in as you craft your strategy.

But what about the various time zones? How can I make sure I’m reaching everyone across the country without posting too much? 50% of people live in the eastern time zone, and when you add the central time zone, you’re covering 80% of the population, so you can stop stressing the time zone factor if you’re targeting a national audience.

 

Use Photos

Skip the stock photos and focus on real, candid photos. The old saying, “A picture is worth 1,000 words” rings true across social media channels. Use images to tell stories about your company – culture, products, services, office space, customers, and more. Images tend to get more engagement, and as such will get more exposure in the newsfeed.

Plus, if you take a few seconds to brand your photos with your company’s logo, using a watermark tool, anyone who sees the image on Facebook will know it’s coming from you, so you can help foster more brand awareness.

 

Use Facebook Video

YouTube is a popular video platform, and can help Facebook, but if you’re really looking to amp up your Facebook engagement rates, use Facebook’s native video platform. Even though YouTube is the second-largest social network, it doesn’t really help Facebook much.

Why go with Facebook’s native platform? One study showed that the native platform had two times more likes, three times more shares, twice the reach, and seven times more comments compared to hosting the same video on YouTube and posting it on Facebook.

 

Host a Contest

Contests can help you increase engagement because they reward loyal fans, while also creating excitement to have them checking regularly to see if they’ve won. Platforms out there allow you to create a variety of types of contests, such as a vote to win for likes, and more challenging contests for more comments.

Take for instance Eggo, the well-known waffle brand. In 2013, they launched The Great Eggo Waffle Off. They launched a recipe contest, in partnership with ice cream brand, Bryers, inviting people to submit their best waffle recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, or dessert. Then, they invited their fans to vote for their favorite recipes. The winning recipe submission won a $5,000 prize.

 

Run Facebook Ads

Facebook ads can help boost engagement, if you need a starting ground to work from. You can choose a post engagement ad type, and then from there, choose from a photo, video, text post, or an Instagram post. Facebook will provide design recommendations for each of these formats, so you can optimize your ads for the best possible results.

The ads can give you a boost to get the Facebook engagement machine running in the first place. You don’t have to run the constantly until the end of time, because as your engagement grows and audience grows, the momentum you establish with ads should sustain itself, as long as you continue to foster the engagement with tactics like this.

 

Call-to-Action

Adding a call to action can help guide your audience. People like to be guided to action online, so if you want people to like the post, share the post, or comment on the post, tell them to do it. People are inundated with content everywhere, online and off. Studies show they only read 20-28% of the words in your posts, so being clear about the engagement you’re seeking is never a bad idea.

 

Have Fun With It

There’s nothing wrong with a little experimentation and a bit of fun. Showing your personality is one of the best ways to connect with your audience. If you’re just starting out and don’t really think your business has an established personality yet, think about what image you want to project to the audience, and then go from there. Post funny memes and ask random questions… it’s okay.

 

Check Your Analytics

Unless you’ve literally just started your Facebook page, look at your analytics data. There you can see which posts have the most engagement, and the type of engagement. Look for patterns in that data. Are your most popular posts all similar topics? Were they posted at a similar time of day, or day of the week? Just because you have all this advice here to work from doesn’t mean it’s going to apply exactly.

Everyone has their own audience, their own value proposition, and their own niche. What works for one person isn’t going to work for another. Your analytics data gives you insight into your specific audience, so you know the best types of posts that work for optimal engagement, and you can learn the times that your audience is the most responsive. Then, you craft your Facebook engagement strategy based on the results.

That said, analytics data is in ebb and flow – and will change often. So, use it as a basis and be prepared to change a bit as the information changes. Then, add in the other tactics I’ve talked about here as appropriate.

 

Putting it All Together

Your business needs a social media strategy, of course, but an often overlooked part of that strategy is a Facebook engagement strategy. If you want to start getting more attention, it’s not going to do you any good to start publishing posts like crazy, and hoping for people to like, comment, and share. Create a plan for what you want to post, when you’re posting, and then outline the steps you’re taking to increase Facebook engagement.

What Facebook engagement methods are you finding the most effective for you? Were you surprised by any analytics data? Sound off in the comments.

Photo credit: Adobe Stock

 

 

 

Categories
Social Media

Top Annoying Social Media Habits to Avoid

 

These days, having a stellar social presence is essential for online business growth, but simply creating profiles, getting followers, and posting whatever you want, whenever you want, isn’t enough to get there. There must be strategy, of course, but even when you operate within a strategy, there are a few things you can still get wrong. These are the top annoying social media habits I’ve seen brands committing regularly across social media – and I’m here to tell you to stop, right now. Even if you think you’re doing your brand some good, believe me, you’re not.

 

Posting Information Without Fact-Checking

If there’s ever a place full of misinformation that looks real, it’s social media. Tons of memes are floating around with false data, contributing to the dumbing-down of our society. If you see anything you think may be worth sharing to your audience, do everyone a favor and fact check it first. One of the best places to check is Snopes – but you can always go to Google, too. If people figure out the falsehood of what you’ve posted, you’ve knocked your credibility down a notch, and possibly lost a follower or two… maybe more.

 

Posting All.The.Time.

Fear of missing out (FOMO) is a real thing online, and that’s why we see teenagers posting everything from what they ate for breakfast to the movie they’re watching right now. You may think that because you have to compete with everyone else out there, the best way to do that is to post all the time. But, if you fill your audience feed too much, they’ll start to ignore whatever it is you’re saying, or worse yet, unfollow you all together.

There are many studies on the best time to post on social media to guide your efforts. On Facebook, the data shows:

  • Sunday: 32% higher engagement
  • Thursday: 18% higher engagement
  • Friday: 18% higher engagement
  • Saturday: 32% higher engagement
  • 9 am
  • 1 pm: Get the most shares
  • 3 pm: Get the most clicks

On Twitter, however, it looks a bit different:

  • Wednesday is the best day to tweet.
  • The best times are 12 pm, 3 pm, 5 pm, and 6 pm.

Posting on Wednesday and noon and between 5 and 6 pm is optimal, though to increase retweets and clickthroughs, you can also tweet right at noon and 3pm. You can safely experiment with 2-3 am, 6-7am, and 9-10 pm.

Use Pinterest? Take a look at this:

  • Sunday: Best for Food
  • Monday: Best for Fitness
  • Tuesday: Best for Gadgets
  • Wednesday: Best for Quotes
  • Thursday: Best for Outfits
  • Friday: Best for GIFs
  • Saturday: Best for Travel

The best times to in are 2 pm, 9 pm, and 2 am. Avoid Pinterest during work hours, and for best results, include a call to action, and try to match the best topics of the day.

The data for LinkedIn shows the best days to post are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The best times to post are between 7 and 8 am, noon, and 5 and 6pm.

The data for Google+ shows you should avoid posting in the early morning or late evening. The best time to post is between 9 am and 11am, or between noon and 1 pm, especially on Wednesdays. The majority of people there are lurkers and will not interact with what you post.

The data for Instagram shows people are engaged throughout the week, but Mondays and Thursday tend to get a bit more attention. Avoid posting between 3 and 4 pm on those days. Videos do best every day between the hours of 9 pm and 8 am. Generally speaking, the best times to post to Instagram are between 8 am and 9am, 2 am, and 5 pm.

Factoring in time zones sounds complex, but it doesn’t have to be. Half of Americans live in the eastern time zone, and when you add the central time zone, you’re accounting for 80% of the population.

So, now that we have the best times to post for optimum reach and exposure, that still doesn’t answer the question about how often you should post to your business accounts. And just like each network has ideal times, each network has ideal frequencies.

Conventional wisdom says you should post to Facebook twice a day, but this only works if you have a following of 10,000 or more. Posting twice a day with a smaller audience translates to 50% fewer clicks per post. Those with less can post one to five times a month and see clicks per post double.

In terms of Twitter, there’s no clear cut answer, because it depends on your goals, according to this study. If you want to want to get the best engagement from each tweet, then stick to one to five tweets per day, but if you want to get more responses overall, tweet as much as you want… with up to 50 times a day having no negative effect on your account.

For Instagram, it’s not the frequency, but the consistency that matters. You can start posting multiple times a day, even up to 15-20x a day on your account without negative effects, but setting that standard means you have to do it consistently. Changing to posting just a few times a week will translate to lost followers and less engagement for each post.

For Pinterest, post between four and 10 times a day to get maximum engagement, but some studies show pinning up to 30 times a day is okay for brands with lots of content.

And while we’re at it – let me take a second to say – don’t post to your social profiles apologizing for a lack of posts recently. It’s pointless – and because posting more often doesn’t really offer any benefit, just jump back in to posting regularly. Take time to curate some content and get it queued up and ready to go so you can avoid gaps in the future.

 

Constant Self-Promotion

People don’t use social media to be sold to constantly. Yes, they use it to discover new products and services, but they want do so on their own terms. Constantly tooting your own horn will lead to followers ignoring you, or completely unfollowing you all together. Some self-promotion is okay, but focus on providing content that educates, entertains, and informs. “Interesting” content ranks as one of the top three reasons people choose to follow a brand on social media. If you’re creating interesting and useful content, getting that content in front of the right eyes, the rest will fall in line.

There’s no real hard and fast rule about how much of your social content should be about your brand, but the consensus seems to be to apply the 80/20 rule. This means only 20% of your social content should be about your brand, and the rest of it should be focused on building relationships with your followers.

 

Automated Messaging

The automated direct message on Twitter, to say “Thanks for the follow!” or “Check out my new…” may seem like a good idea to connect with followers who catch you when you’re offline, but really, it defeats the purpose of social media. Social media is a platform, regardless of which channel you use, to connect with people you wouldn’t otherwise be able to meet… on a personal level. The automated message approach is highly impersonal, and can turn off new followers.

 

Informal Posting

Social media is fun to use among friends and family for your personal account, but it is fast becoming a powerful professional tool, and should be treated as such. It needs to be considered a conversation with a client you’ve known for a while. It’s okay to be conversational and casual, but don’t use that as a reason to be informal. You still want to show respect and leave an impression. TyPiNg Lik DiS, Or This, OR THIS, won’t do that.

 

Hopping on All the Trends

If you see something trending, your instinct may to be jump on the train and get in on the action. After all, if it’s tending, thousands of people are talking about it, so you’d get massive exposure outside of your current audience, right? Before you jump on that hashtag, do some research.

What’s the hashtag really about? In 2014, well-known pizza brand, DiGiorno taught the world a valuable lesson about hopping on trends without doing due diligence first. The brand jumped on the “#WhyIStayed” hashtag, with what ended up being an offensive tweet. The hashtag was actually in response to Janay Rice’s decision to stay with NFL player Ray Rice, after he’d committed acts of domestic violence against her. Thousands of women used the hashtag to share their stories, and DiGornio didn’t take 10 seconds to figure out what the hashtag was about before tweeting. As soon as they realized their error, they deleted the tweet and began issuing apologies.

Is the hashtag relevant to your business? If not, skip the trend. You don’t need to waste time talking about anything and everything. It could confuse your audience, and especially any new or recent followers.

 

Buying Likes and Followers

Okay, so this one should be dead obvious, and many of us know better. And yet, there are still countless services out there offering to get you likes and followers on any number of social media networks for a fee. It can be really tempting for an unsuspecting business owner to get a start that way, because they’re worried about having high numbers to make themselves look good.

The problem with this approach is – number one, these followers and fans are likely just spam accounts – up to 11.2% of Facebook accounts are. If they are actual user accounts, chances are they’re not targeted users, even if the service says they are. So, you end up with hundreds, if not thousands of followers who don’t give a flying hoot about what your business and what you have to offer.

Your business is far better served by 50 followers who are actively engaged in what you have to say and genuinely interested in your product – part of your target audience – than it is with 500 random people. Social isn’t a numbers game, no matter how much it looks like it. Quality over quantity is definitely true here.

 

Excessive Use of Hashtags

Hashtags are used on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook as a way to categorizing information, curating content, and ultimately, reach a specific audience. Two to four hashtags is best – two for twitter, and more for Instagram where the image could easily appeal to a wider audience. Keep it simple, and don’t make up crazy ones.

 

Syncing Cross Posts

You think, “Hey, this is a good update for Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, so I’ll just save time and sync them all to each platform automatically.” It sounds good in theory, but take the time to do it manually. Each network has its own style and the audience expects content to be delivered in a certain way. When you automate the process from one network to another – you’re sending the message that you’re lazy… and followers on all platforms see the same thing over and over.

 

Ignoring Requests from Your Audience

When someone sends you a message on social media, don’t ignore it. Do what you can to respond as soon as possible. 32% of customers expect a response within 30 minutes, while 42% expect a response within an hour. Think that’s rough? 57% of them expect the same response time outside of normal business hours, including nights and weekends. If you need to, have a team of people who can respond quickly. It’s okay not to be on top of things all the time, but make sure to include response time into your schedule so your audience can see you’re paying attention. One study found failing to respond to customers on social channels can lead to a 15% increase in churn rate for existing customers.

Putting it All Together to Create a Solid Social Strategy

Pay attention to your audience analytics on social media channels to see when your audience is most active. Use that data to determine the types of posts and topics they share and respond to the most. Focus less on how much you post, how many followers and fans you have, the hashtags you add to the content, and more on providing quality content, and responding to your audience. Remember your goals, and make sure everything you post fits into helping you accomplish them.

What other social media habits do you find annoying? Share them with me below.

Photo credit: Adobe Stock

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Categories
Social Media

How to Leverage Social Media for SEO

 

Social media development isn’t a Google ranking factor, simply because anyone can create a social profile on any number of networks at any time. A mere social presence would mean everyone would rank highly, but with the number of spam accounts out there offering zero value, it’s easy to see why the search engines don’t directly consider social media.

That doesn’t mean you should completely ignore social media for SEO, however, because it still has the power to influence ranking through increased visibility/brand awareness and increased linking potential… social signals do matter.

Google may not be telling us the true value of social signals, but there’s no doubt it plays a large part in SEO. It should be clear that social has a significant role to play when it comes to launching and maintaining a successful SEO strategy. – Dario Zadro

How to Set Up Social Media for SEO

It’s not enough to create profiles on your chosen networks, slap some content on there, and wait. To see

To see real benefit, it’s an extensive, on-going process involving multiple steps.

We’ll start as though you already have social profiles set up with a relatively decent following, but if you’re starting from scratch, you’ll want to do a bit more homework to develop a content strategy that will attract the right kinds of followers, and you’ll have to hit it hard with promotion to get your brand and social activity in front of the right eyes.

Even if it means investing in paid advertising across social platforms, you must start the ball rolling.

Step One: Create Contagious Content Related to Your Products and Services

Notice we don’t say “viral” content – everyone has a different definition of viral, and there’s no guarantee your content will ever reach that level. We say contagious because it’s the kind of content that people

We say contagious because it’s the kind of content that people want to spread. Could contagious content become viral content? It’s always possible, but setting out with going viral in mind could lead to disappointment later.

How do you create contagious content? The STEPPS Formula, found in Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger is the best place to start. According to this theory, your content must hit on one or more of the following:

  • Social Currency: Something about the content makes people either look or feel good by sharing it with their audience. Remember the old Tempurpedic commercials where they showed someone jumping on a bed with a glass of red wine, that didn’t spill? You respond with amazement and want to order one – then tell your friends about it.
  • Triggers: It’s easy to remember so it keeps your idea, products, or services at the forefront of the reader’s mind. Think slogan, jingle, logo…
  • Emotion: Invokes some sort of emotion. Emotional value statistically means the content is more likely to be shared. However, certain emotions are shared more often than others. A 2013 study from Moz revealed positive emotion was more common in viral content, with the top emotions being: amusement, interest, surprise, happiness, and delight. The bottom emotions were: anger, politeness, frustration, doubt, and embarrassment.
  • Public: Share something people will imitate. If you create a campaign that will advertise itself, people will eagerly participate. The Lay’s Do Us a Flavor contest where people are asked to submit their own flavor ideas for a chance to win full production and a monetary prize is a prime example.
  • Practical Value: Something informative and useful.
  • Stories: Telling a compelling story should generate buzz. Take a look at the TOMS Shoes. The brand story tells customers the company was born after seeing children without shoes while traveling in Argentina in 2006. His company matches each purchase with a new pair of shoes for children in need. See how that story also hits on emotion? The company since went on to launch TOMS eyewear, to give the gift of sight to children in 13 countries.

Keep it related to your products and services so you attract targeted audience members. You can totally make people laugh with a funny cat video, but unless you’re selling products to cat owners, it doesn’t belong in your social media development campaign.

Dove is well known for their success with their 2013 Real Beauty Sketches campaign, where FBI sketch artists drew faces based on the individual’s description to demonstrate how overly critical of ourselves we really are. The campaign was shared over 630,000 times on Facebook within 10 days. But since then, they have sought to change the language of social media to transform it into a more positive place with the #SpeakBeautiful campaign.

Step Two: Listen to Your Audience

After you’ve developed the contagious content, it’s time to listen to what people are saying about it. Watch your social channels, and use social listening tools to keep your ear to the ground. Schedule time to be present, engage, and respond. This will go a long way in making your customers feel heard and appreciated. In turn, this reinforces a positive brand image and encourages further engagement.

Take airline JetBlue for example – they are highly responsive to tweets from their customers, as shown in the screenshot below. Aim for that level of responsiveness with your own accounts, and you’ll no doubt see a rise in customer satisfaction.

 

 

Step Three: Monitor and Adjust

Use your analytics and other SEO tools to monitor how the social activity is impacting your backlink profile.

Your social profiles and content posted there will be indexed, so your social media development campaigns have a better chance of helping increase ranking. Go beyond the basic social status update to include multiple types of content, such as video, images, and reviews.

These forms of content are often syndicated by other outlets to further spread the message in your campaign.

As you gather more data about how well your social campaigns are performing and how that performance is affecting your SEO, make adjustments as you see fit. Use the lessons learned from one campaign as a way to improve the next, and so on.

Although social media for SEO may not improve the ranking of your website directly, it definitely matters to the success of any online marketing for your business. Instead of worrying about the implications of each and how they affect your desired outcome, focus on the value you provide your customers and keep them in the center of any campaign. It is that consistent customer-centric approach that will translate to success.

Photo Credit: Adobe Stock

Do you have any first-hand experience impacting your SEO results with social media activity?  If so, please share it in the comments section below.

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SEO Social Media

Organic Search and Social Networking – The Great Crossover

Not long ago, there was a clear separation between organic search results and social media channels. Recently, that has changed dramatically. The line that used to separate these two online elements has become blurred.

Google’s very advanced algorithms are picking up on what we call “Social Signals” and those signals are impacting organic search results and rankings.

This all started with Google + and has now bled into Facebook, Twitter and various other social media channels. The basic theory is this:

If your friends like something, you will probably like it too – makes sense right?

At Sachs Marketing Group, we do our best to capitalize on this concept and we wanted to share with our clients and site visitors what we have been doing that seems to be working well:

1. We conduct detailed research into our clients’ audience – the people who are listening. We learn who they are, where they are and why they are listening. If we can determine what they like, we are better able to give it to them!

2. We identify the people who are influencing the topics in our clients’ industries and follow them on social media channels. We also follow the people who follow these influencers. Finally, we follow the people whom these influencers are following. We do our best to get all of these people to follow us.

3. We design and implement apps on Facebook. These apps are designed to engage our clients’ fan-base. Our apps provide a platform for us to run contests, sweepstakes, group coupons and other incentive-type elements that encourage people to share our content on their personal social media platforms. We also share white papers, informative lists and other content that we believe our clients’ audience will find useful, interesting and relevant.

4. We integrate a social media analytics platform into our administration of social networking campaigns for our clients. This allows us to determine how often our Facebook posts and Twitter “tweets” are being shared, re-posted, liked, favorited and clicked. We use Bufferapp.com for this process. We track our progress and try to capitalize on any trends that become evident to us.

All of these efforts are aimed at leveraging the tremendous power of social networking, sharing and social signals.

 

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