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Social media managers on how to effectively handle a crisis

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Social media campaigns are an integral part of brand marketing strategies. A good post can elevate awareness and reaffirm the coolness of a brand, but what happens when you go viral for all the wrong reasons?

When it comes to PR disasters and brand blunders, it can be easy to forget there’s a person behind the post. Brands and social media managers alike will inevitably make mistakes.

From poorly timed tweets, to questionable GIFs and insensitive comments – these mishaps come in many different forms, in any type of industry and in companies of any size.

In today’s ‘cancel culture’ climate it can be difficult to weather the storm of a social media disaster. So, we asked our Twitter community for some practical advice on how to handle it in style.

Feature Image Credit: The Drum’s Twitter audience share tips on managing a social media crisis 

By Amy Houston

Sourced from The Drum

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Three Ways To Increase Engagement On Social Media

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By Jonathan Durante

It’s no secret that creating engagement on social media is not as easy as it used to be, and even those who are successfully sparking quality engagement on social may be missing out on key strategies that could increase engagement further.

Whether they’re posting high-quality content or not, it’s common for brands to distribute organic content and see little to no social engagement as a result. As more businesses turn to Facebook and Instagram for social media marketing, it’s becoming more difficult to spark engagement (likes, shares, comments, saves, direct messages, etc.) with your accounts.

Drawing on my experience with social media advertising, here are three powerful ways to increase engagement going into 2021.

1. Create Compelling Contests

Holding a contest in the form of a giveaway with a cheerful narrative and appropriate call to action is an effective method to instantly increase engagement on social media. The goal is to spark engagement by directing users to take action in order to be entered to win the prize. For example, you could direct users to tag friends in the comment section, share the post on their personal news feed and, finally, follow your page, which opts them in to staying connected with your brand and viewing content that you publish in the future.

The reason contests work so well is because those participating are obviously interested in the product or service being offered, and they are most likely in a position to redeem the offer, emotionally and geographically.

2. Run Engagement Campaigns

Running paid engagement campaigns on Facebook and Instagram is a sure way to increase engagement on social media. By running campaigns with the engagement objective, you can target your ideal clients based on their niche-specific interests, demographics and behaviors and consistently get qualified users to engage with your page, content or ads. Best of all, you can do this for just cents per engagement. We often get qualified engagements for less than 10 cents per unique engagement.

3. Leverage Influencers

Collaborating with notable influencers is another way to trigger social media engagement. Local influencers — especially those who have a genuine community of interested and niche-specific followers — work great. Many people believe that influencers are more helpful and trustworthy than brands, which is a compelling reason to use influencers to cross-promote your product or service. Not only are influencers a great tool to help increase overall client engagement, but they also can help boost opt-ins and, most importantly, sales and profit.

Compensation normally depends on the size of the influencer’s following and how well known they are. Some solely exchange products or services for promotion, and others charge high prices.

At our agency, we aim to partner with influencers who we believe will help drive meaningful engagements for our clients. To get started on this yourself, reach out to influencers and be clear about the opportunity you’re offering, and establish an agreement on collaborating that mutually benefits both parties.

So there you have it: three effective ways to increase engagement on social media. If you want to attract attention and spark engagement on your pages, consider employing these strategies in your upcoming marketing campaigns. Creating compelling contests, running engagement campaigns and leveraging influencers can all help increase quality engagement on social media.

Feature Image Credit: getty

By Jonathan Durante

Co-founder at Expandify Marketing, a leading digital marketing agency. Read Jonathan Durante’s full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

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Refocus Your Social Media Efforts During The Pandemic

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By Christina Hager.

Many marketing executives, social media managers and business executives have been struggling to adapt their marketing and branding efforts so their social media content remains relevant and appropriate during the pandemic.

In a previous article, I addressed how you can use social media to communicate during a time of crisis, but now where do we find ourselves? The sheer length of the pandemic means we can’t continue to function in full-scale crisis mode, but many of us simply aren’t “business as usual” yet. How do we move our efforts forward in smart, meaningful ways that are sensitive to this ever-changing climate?

According to the “Digital 2020” report, released at the beginning of the year, 4.54 billion people worldwide were using the internet. That’s a 7% increase from the previous year, and we’re nearing 60% worldwide internet penetration.

Once the pandemic hit, internet and social media use increased across demographics. More time is being spent on social media sites, but the ways people are using social media has changed. Here is what marketing executives and social media managers need to know now:

1. Logging In For News

It’s no surprise that back in March and April of this year, people flocked online to get updates on Covid-19. Many chose to visit specific social media channels, and they used those channels’ internal search engines to find updates, news and information. We had started to see this trend in news consumerism over the last few years. Last year, for example, 55% of Americans got at least some of their news from social media. But reliance on social media for news seemed to really take off in response to the pandemic.

With so many people using social media for news, it’s important that your content stay topical and also sensitive to the news cycle. While your brand may be fun or sarcastic, you’ll need to understand how your content might be viewed in a user’s feed when sandwiched between two news stories.

That said, embrace this trend and share news about your business! Your customers and even your employees might be looking at your social media for updates — to see if you’ve made modifications to your services during the pandemic or find out if you’re still in business.

2. Best Times To Post

In January, I would have said that while key times to post vary by industry, channel and demographic, we commonly see surges in use at lunchtime, in the early afternoon and between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. However, that’s all changed since the start of the pandemic.

With so many people working from home, using Zoom for conference calls instead of in-person meetings, I’ve found that social media peak times have shifted to the morning. In fact, one key window is from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., with much less use in the evening. Maybe we can assume that by that time, many people are seriously “screened out” and want to relax.

So, in order to target most segments of the population, I recommend focusing on distributing your content and key engagement in the morning. Don’t make the mistake of trying to reach your demographic when they aren’t online.

3. Give Them An Escape

When it comes to the kind of content users are consuming, I find that content that is inspirational, educational and fun (as opposed to just sales-pitching) always does better on social media. This applies even more right now. According to a recent study on consumer sentiment during the pandemic, “43% of survey respondents said it’s reassuring to hear from brands they know and trust.”

So keep posting, but stop trying to sell (this is great advice for content creation efforts anytime). Tell a story about how your organization is contributing to the greater good or about an employee who has overcome adversity. Share how your product or service can make life a little easier in the current conditions, or post a nice graphic that will make people smile. Such posts help link your brand with good feelings and entertain people who are hungry for entertainment. Remember, many may want an escape from the reality of their daily lives.

Also, be sure to share how your company is handling issues related to Covid-19. Are you open for business? And how have things, in general, changed for you? The same research mentioned above found that 40% of users want to know what brands are doing to adjust during the pandemic. Giving a glimpse behind the scenes is a good way to keep people interested in your organization.

At the very least, post regular updates. That might be a daily LinkedIn update or a quick video from a senior leader. Or choose to go live on Facebook so you can “talk” with your customers. Going live can also help you get good placement in people’s feeds.

4. Adjusted Ad Spend

Ad spend is always a hot-button question: How much money on a particular channel will lead to how many views and what kind of engagement? Or how many leads? While that’s different for each social media channel and each industry, it’s safe to say that ad spend is down at the moment.

In short, your social media ad dollars can go pretty far right now. Start by boosting your organic posts that already have the greatest engagement. Then, you can create micro-targeted ads and run an A/B test to see how your audience responds. This is a great way to test the waters if you’re new to social media advertising.

To stay relevant, business leaders, brands and organizations of all kinds must adjust to the new online landscape. People have shifted their use of social media, and your strategy, content and distribution efforts must shift with them. Don’t get left behind because you’re using best practices from before the pandemic. Meet your consumers where they are. Stay open to the next wave of changes, and keep telling your story. And remember, if you don’t, your competitors will.

Feature Image Credit: getty

By Christina Hager

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website.

I help transform individuals and brands into industry leaders through social media strategy. President, Ovations Digital. Read Christina Hager’s full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

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5 Ways to Organically Grow Your Social Media Presence

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By Syed Balkhi,

It’s not always easy to grow your social media channels. There are a ton of factors that come into play and determine how consumers perceive your business.

There are plenty of ways to connect with consumers in today’s digital landscape and get more conversions on your website. One of the most effective ways people just like you are growing their business is through social media marketing.

An impressive 3.81 billion people use social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to talk to their friends, engage with content, and buy products. Business owners and marketing teams know that whatever target audience they want to reach, it’s possible to find them on social media.

Despite the advantages, it’s not always easy to grow your social media following organically. There are a ton of factors that come into play and determine how consumers perceive your business. If people don’t know that you exist, there’s no chance that they will ever follow your account, visit your website, or become a paying customer.

Today, we are going to take a look at five of the best ways to organically grow your presence across various social channels.

Get to know your followers

Before you can get more followers, it’s recommended that you learn everything you can about your existing subscribers. The people who found and actively followed your channel are interested in your products and what you have to say.

Understanding the mentality of your followers can help you find new ways to generate more traction. For example, adding a poll can help you learn about common pain points and goals that users face in your industry. Using this information, you can start planning new content and marketing campaigns designed to help consumers overcome these issues and reach their goals.

If people who haven’t followed your page face similar problems, seeing someone share a relevant post could be the deciding factor when the user can either keep scrolling or click your profile.

You should also take the time to engage with followers in the comments section of your posts. People on social media are vocal about what companies are doing right and where they can improve. Responding to these folks is a great way to build trust with your existing audience while finding new ways to organically reach more prospects.

Host interactive events

Have you ever attended a live online event, such as a webinar? Most people have, and for a good reason. These events are excellent opportunities for learning and connecting with likeminded people.

Businesses host interactive live events to educate potential customers while connecting with them on a deeper level than occasionally responding to comments. We know that events like webinars work to organically grow email lists. In fact, 20% to 40% of webinar participants eventually become leads. By this logic, you can expect to see plenty of people follow your brand after signing up for a webinar.

If you’re running an e-commerce storefront and don’t plan on hosting webinars, there are other interactive events you can create for your social media channels.

Giveaways, for example, are an excellent way to build your social media following organically while getting people excited for your business. On average, giveaways have a conversion rate of 34%. In other words, a staggering 34% of people who see your giveaway on Facebook or Twitter will enter.

You can choose to give away anything from your most popular product to a gift card for your store. Let’s face the facts; people like getting stuff for free. The chance to win something for taking a simple, free action is enough to convince many people to follow your profile and engage with your brand.

The key to using giveaways to grow your social media presence is the rules. You should establish rules that encourage people to follow your profile and join your email list for two ticket entries. Using this strategy, you can dramatically grow your social media channel and email list.

We also suggest that you encourage participants to share your contest for a third chance to enter. Sharing is the best way to ensure that everyone can participate in your event, even if they are already following your channel and subscribed to your email list.

Share visual content

Visual content is the foundation for many social media platforms. Without images and videos, platforms like Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube would be obsolete. However, sites like Facebook and Twitter also rely heavily on visuals to keep users engaged.

Content that features professionally made images and videos is more likely to be shared by consumers who are already following your brand. If someone is scrolling through their timeline and sees one of your graphics, they may pause to look at the image or watch the video.

When this occurs, the user may get curious and navigate to your profile. If you can impress these people with interesting content and an irresistible value proposition, they could become followers on the spot. At the very least, they will see your brand name and recognize you in the future. This type of exposure eventually leads social media users to follow brands shared by their connections.

Focus on creating high-quality videos that are jam-packed with valuable content. You can create guides, reviews, infographics, and much, much more. More people are using their smartphones to access social media, so we expect this format to grow in popularity over the next several years.

Connect with other companies

Did you know that 55% of buyers research businesses using social media? This statistic is telling because it shows us that while many people use these platforms to have fun, many use it to look for product and service recommendations.

Put in all of the work, and you’ll see more organic traffic. But there’s another way to boost your followers by reaching consumers outside of your network.

Connecting with other companies in your industry is a great way to spread brand awareness and grow your following. There are plenty of products and services that work together. For example, an email marketing firm might partner with a hosting company. Both businesses can benefit from reaching a similar target audience.

Why?

Because in most cases, customers looking for one service are also looking for the other. Merging your marketing efforts and posting content that promotes both companies is a great way to expand your network. There’s a good chance that the consumers following the partner brand you choose don’t know about your company, and vice versa. The result is a win-win situation for consumers and both businesses.

Analyse your performance and make changes

Finally, don’t forget to review your social media performance and make changes to your marketing strategy. Learn about your posts that see the most engagement, and find out why this is the case. Usually, enhanced traffic occurs on specific posts because they address common problems people face in your industry.

So, if you see a surge in traffic on posts about a specific sub-topic, you can assume that consumers are interested in that subject. Creating and sharing more related content can result in more social engagement and shares, which leads to new organic followers.

You can also test elements of your campaign to see if you can achieve stronger results. Let’s say you see low engagement on your scheduled 7 p.m. post. Try changing the time to 9 p.m. to see if this results in more engagement.

It’s possible to test virtually every aspect of your marketing to see if you can get more shares and comments. Experimenting with headlines, images, and content topics are three more of the most common ways to use your analytics to improve your performance in the future.

These experiments are based on your performance and worth pursuing if you want to get maximum value from your social media marketing strategy.

By Syed Balkhi,

Hello, I’m Syed Balkhi, a 27 year old award-winning entrepreneur with a strong 8 figure online business. I was recognized as the top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by the United Nations. I was born in Karachi, Pakistan. At age 12, my family immigrated to the United States. Ever since I can remember, I have been extremely competitive which makes me hustle at everything that I do.

Sourced from business.com

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A Beginner’s Guide to Turning Followers Into Customers with a Bio Link

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If you’re using social media for business in 2020, specifically Instagram or TikTok, you need to have a bio link.

Social media is no longer just about gaining lots of followers and posting the most trendy photos. While both of those things are still good to do, you need to have a plan to get people off of your social media platform and onto your website.

You can’t control social media. We could wake up tomorrow and all of our followers could be gone. (Hopefully, that won’t happen!) So, what’s your plan for bringing your followers to your website, your email list, your online shop, or even your other social platforms? If you don’t have one, here’s the secret: it’s a bio link.

Social platforms like Instagram and TikTok don’t allow you to have active links in your posts. (Although, Instagram might be changing that eventually… but you’ll likely have to pay for clickable caption links.)

Instead, you can have one clickable link in your bio. How many posts do you see that end with “link in bio for more information” or something to that effect? Probably a lot.

That’s the only place you can consistently direct your followers to access content from Instagram – and the same goes for TikTok.

The benefits of having a bio link

There are a few key benefits to taking advantage of the link in your bio.

Drive Traffic

You can use your bio link to drive traffic to the pages you want to promote. Maybe this is your online shop, or maybe it’s your latest freebie. No matter where you direct them, though, your bio link can help you bring your followers off of social media and onto the pages you control. This gives you the chance to capture their contact information so you can better connect and follow up with them in the future.

You can promote any page you want with your bio link. If you’re trying to grow your followers on another platform, you could promote that account. You could also link to your blog, podcast, or YouTube channel if you want to talk about the content you created recently.

Or, link to your product page, online shop, or services page to make sales directly. Finally, add a link to the contact page of your website, or any resources you’ve found recently is helpful for your audience, too.

For example, here @asboldasbritt uses a direct link to promote her newest freebie.

Benefits-of-Having-a-Biolink

Convert Followers to Customers

Social media is a marketing tool. All good marketing tools should have a strategy and way to convert those who see it into customers.

In this case, you want to use your social posts as a way to warm up your followers and then encourage them to make a purchase.

While there are ways to sell directly within Instagram, you might not meet the necessary criteria. Instead, bringing people off the app and straight to your shop or services page is a much better way to sell.

You can talk about your product or service in an Instagram post and then end with “click the link in my bio to learn more” or “head to the link in my bio to grab yours now.”

You can also talk about whatever you’re selling in your Stories or Live videos and always direct your audience back to the link in your bio to purchase.

Here, @_thetaylorlee has the link in her bio pointing to her private coaching landing page, where interested people fill out an application for coaching.

Convert-Followers-to-Customers

Track Traffic

Analytics and tracking are critical in marketing and sales processes. After all, you want to make sure you’re putting your time, energy and money into the right platforms.

You want to be able to see what kind of traffic you’re getting from Instagram and other social platforms. Unfortunately, tracking your traffic can get a little tricky.

There’s one way you can make it much easier: use a bio link tool and sync it with your Google Analytics. You’ll be able to see how much traffic came from social media and what they did once they landed on your targeted pages.

Optimizing your bio link

Now, there are a couple of different ways you can use this link. You can link it directly to the page you’re promoting. If you do that, though, you’ll need to remember to come back and change the link whenever you change your promotion or whenever you mention a different link in your most recent post. And, because of the algorithm, someone might not see a post until a few days later. If you’ve already changed your link to match your newest post, they’ll be out of luck.

I briefly mentioned your other option earlier: use a bio link tool.

Implementing a tool like this can help you in a few different ways. First, as I said earlier, you can link it to Google Analytics to track your traffic. Beyond that, you can use a bio link tool to include multiple links in your bio.

No more deciding which blog to include, and you don’t have to worry about what people who see your post in the future will have to do. You can include your most popular links in your tool so you can easily refer to your blog, services page, contact page, YouTube channel, podcast, or anything else you want to promote, and your followers will know right where to go!

Optimizing-your-Biolink

The 12 best bio link tools

Now that you’re ready to choose a bio link tool, let’s take a look at the best tools you can choose from.

1. url.bio

Free and unlimited links? With url.bio, it’s not too good to be true.

You can add as many links as you’d like, so there’s no shortage of promotions. Url.bio is also highly customizable, so your landing page can look like it fits your brand’s voice.

You can also track your analytics directly within your dashboard so you know which content is performing best.

Best-Bio-Link-Tools-URL-Bio

2. Lnk.bio

Promote your best links, and even temporarily pause certain links, with Lnk.bio. Get started in under a minute, and choose from over 50 icons to make your link look unique.

You can link to your social platforms easily, and it’s all web-based, so you won’t need to download anything.

Begin with a free plan, or upgrade to $0.99/month for a custom URL, tracking, and external analytics.

Want to only pay once? For $9.99, you can get those upgrades permanently. If you’re looking for more, the most advanced plan is $24.99 and offers the removal of the Lnk.bio logo, the ability to change colors, and add a background image.

Best-Bio-Link-Tools-Link-Bio

3. Bio.fm

If you’re looking for a more robust bio link tool, consider bio.fm. You can add multiple types of content to your page, including links, information about you, your social media feeds and more.

With a drag-and-drop software, you can move your email collection form to the top, or choose to highlight your Facebook Group instead.

Use bio.fm for free and get four content blocks, or upgrade for $10/month for a premium account to add unlimited blocks and types of content to your profile, remove their logo and create a custom URL.

Best-Bio-Link-Tools-Bio-FM

4. Linktree

Another bio link option is Linktree. Drag-and-drop your links to create your ideal layout. Make sure your favorite or most important link is on top and easy to see.

Join for free to get unlimited links and a QR code. Or, upgrade to the PRO account for $6/month and add priority links, link scheduling, video links, thumbnails, social icons, and more.

The PRO account also gives you more detailed analytics, while the free plan shows you your total views and link clicks.

Best-Bio-Link-Tools-Linktree

5. Sked Social

Sked Social is more than just a bio link tool. It’s also an Instagram scheduling platform that offers full analytics, Story scheduling, and more.

Its link in bio tool, only available for Instagram, lets you add buttons to your layout so you can easily capture your viewer’s attention. You can even add a shopping link to make sales sooner.

Add your branding and view your analytics so you’re in complete control. Because they offer so much more than just the link, Sked Social’s Fundamentals plan is $25/month, Essentials is $75/month and Professional is $135. You can get started with a 7-day free trial.

Best-Bio-Link-Tools-Getskedsocial

6. Link in Bio by Later

Another multi-use platform is Later, which allows you to schedule your posts, plan hashtags, and view analytics. Along with it, though, you can turn on the bio link tool to take advantage of those benefits. You can even link specific Instagram posts to particular articles or web pages, so your audience will know right where to click.

Create a shoppable Instagram feed within your link, and monitor your analytics so you know what’s working. Begin for free at linkin.bio to get one link per post, or upgrade for $12.50/month to the Growth Plan or $25/month for Advanced to add multiple links, remove the Later banner and add a Shopify integration.

Both of the paid options offer additional features in the scheduling portion of the platform.

Best-Bio-Link-Tools-Link-in-bio-by-Later

7. Link in Profile

Set up your Link in Profile in seconds, add to your existing workflow, and watch your ROI grow. It works with your Etsy, Shopify, Amazon, WordPress, or other existing accounts.

Begin with a free trial, and then after 30 days continue with a $9.99/month personal plan. You’ll get a dedicated, branded landing page, easy management, and integrated commerce links.

Best-Bio-Link-Tools-Link-in-Profile

8. Campsite.bio

Create a simple, beautiful landing page with Campsite.bio. Add it to your social media accounts or even your email signature.

Control how your branding looks so your followers know they’re in the right place. Upgrade to Campsite Pro for use on other social media sites by adding images, removing the branding, and adding your own domain.

Its basic plan is free forever, and Campsite Pro is $7/month.

Best-Bio-Link-Tools-Campsite-Bio

9. Contact in Bio

Here’s your one-stop-shop for a micro-landing page. With Contact in Bio, you can add multiple links, enjoy the rich features offered, collect leads, and send followers to your social media accounts.

Give your followers access to payment links, music services, and contact forms, as well as messenger options.

Choose from the free starter plan, the $7/month business plan with added benefits like video uploading, shoppable feeds, and more, or choose the $28/month agency plan to manage up to five accounts.

Best-Bio-link-Tools-Contact-in-Bio

10. Tap Bio

Create your own Tap Bio easily and choose your cards. Add a profile card, easily link to many different sites and show your followers exactly what they want to see.

The basic plan with one card is free or upgrade to the Silver plan for $5/month or $36/year to get three cards or unlimited cards with the Gold plan for $12/month or $96/year. Silver and Gold plans also offer stats.

Best-Bio-link-Tools-Tap-Bio

11. Milkshake

Milkshake lets you create a mini website for your Instagram account quickly and easily. Share more and use your Insta Site to jumpstart your business.

Pick a card, add your content, and customize your look. Then publish your link and monitor your analytics and insights. Your followers can swipe through the cards of your site like Instagram Stories. Milkshake is a free app available on iOS and Android.

Best-Bio-link-Tools-Milkshake

12. Shorby

Finally, Shorby is designed to supercharge your YouTube and Instagram. Automatically feed your most recent posts, videos, and blogs into your Shorby page. Add messengers, a title, blocks, and social links to create your custom look. You can even add a countdown to create a feeling of excitement.

Pricing for Shorby begins at $12/month for the Rocket plan, $24/month for Pro, and $82/month for Agency. Pro and Agency both have more pages, 5 dynamic feeds per page, Google Analytics, and a custom domain. Agency also allows more projects and teams.

Best-Bio-link-Tools-Shorby

Convert your followers to customers with bio links

Now you’ve seen the 12 best bio link tools that are currently available. Each one is a little different, but one of them is sure to offer just what you’re looking for in your business.

Adding a clickable link to your bio, and especially using a tool to expand the number of links you can have, is a great way to grow your business and convert your followers to customers.

By

Rafaella Aguiar is the Marketing Manager at Kicksta.  She specializes in content and social media marketing.  You can find more daily marketing tips from her at @kicksta.co.

Sourced from Jeff Bullas

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Digital Marketing Tactics All Businesses Should Use

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By Zohaib Hassan Patoli

If you’re a business owner, people have probably been talking to you about digital marketing for ages — whether it’s a well-meaning friend or an ad agency on the prowl, you’ve heard endless suggestions on everything from SEO to PPC and every other three-letter acronym. And all that was in a pre-pandemic world. The sudden, jarring shift to an audience more frequently online will leave behind many lasting effects on how businesses reach their target audience.

In a post-pandemic world, 56% of business leaders that utilize digital tools report that at least half of their sales occur online. While many businesses plan on decreasing spend, depending on the channel anywhere from 40-59% of large national brands intend to increase their ad spends across digital channels. That’s just the big guys.

But with all the financial stress facing small business owners, you may be worried about adding yet another cost to your budget. And marketing agencies can often seem like sharks circling businesses.

However, you don’t need a dedicated agency or a large advertising budget to make your mark in the digital realm. Here are some digital marketing tactics that all businesses, regardless of size, can benefit from:

Update Your Google My Business Listing

To some, this suggestion may seem obvious; in fact, if you otherwise don’t do anything else on the digital front, you most likely still maintain your Google My Business listing. But how quick are you to update your listing when you make changes to your business?

Of course, if you’ve changed your hours of operation, address, phone number or website, you need to update your listing right away. Google My Business is also a great place to show off your menu (for restaurants) or products and services. And don’t forget to update your photos. If you don’t maintain your photo section, your listing will be at the mercy of uploads from random visitors.

Bolster Your Social Media Presence

Everyone, even B2B companies, stands to gain from an involved social media presence. Of course, it’s important to utilize the correct platform. For example, a Main Street clothing boutique might find little use for a LinkedIn profile, while a steel bar fabricator might feel out of place on Pinterest. Make sure your message is appropriate to the platform you’re using and the audience you’re reaching.

Much like with your Google My Business listing, you need to keep your social media accounts current with any changes in your operations. You also need to be sure to have quality, high-resolution imagery for logos, banners and other photos.

And if you’re in a visually driven industry such as food, cosmetics or clothing, or have a younger target audience, you may want to experiment with platforms like TikTok or Instagram.

Respond To Reviews — Properly

Reviews are crucial to a small business’s existence, and a stream of poor reviews can be crippling to an upstart business. Conversely, positive reviews are one of the best ways for a business to organically grow their clientele. But there are a few things you should keep in mind when responding to reviews, including timing and messaging.

When you receive a positive review, you should respond right away. An immediate response shows your customers how much you truly appreciate their patronage, and reinforces the quality of their experience.

On the other hand, when you receive a negative review, you need to respond soon — but not too quickly. While you can’t let it linger and give off the impression that you’re ignoring the customer’s experience, you still need to give it enough time to show that you’ve considered their feedback. You also need the time to craft your message properly; too much emotion is off-putting, but a generic response is insulting. About 24 to 48 hours is an appropriate length of time for a negative review response.

And whatever you do, do not incentivize positive reviews. That may seem like an easy way to generate a large swath of positive feedback, but you’ll find that platforms like Yelp, Google and Facebook penalize accounts that are reported for incentivizing reviews.

Digital Marketing Is Here To Stay

While social distancing will eventually relax and foot traffic will pick back up in stores, digital marketing will have a lasting place in the business world. If you want to keep up with your competitors or even remain an active part of your community, you must maintain an active, involved digital presence. If you intend to hire a firm to manage your marketing, that’s fine — but by using these simple tips to improve your online presence, you’ll have a better understanding of what a firm brings to the table and will be more prepared to take the next step.

Feature Image Credit: GETTY

By Zohaib Hassan Patoli

Follow me on LinkedIn. Check out my website.

Zohaib Hassan is the CEO/Founder of SnapWeb Services, an ROI driven, data-obsessed full-services digital marketing agency. Read Zohaib Hassan Patoli’s full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

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4 Smart Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Social Media Ad Budget

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By Zeke Cohen

By focusing on your quality score, using videos as sponsored posts, creating your own graphics, and speaking the language of your consumers, you can stretch your ad dollars even further.

The cost of Facebook ads has increased by 90 percent year-over-year. Twitter is already more expensive than Facebook. And, Instagram is fast catching up. What can we do as marketers to survive in such a hyper-competitive environment? You’ll need to learn to make the most of your marketing budget moving forward.

Here are four tips to help you get the best bang for your marketing buck.

FOCUS ON IMPROVING YOUR QUALITY SCORE

Each ad platform has a quality score that dictates your cost per click or cost per impression. Facebook refers to this as the Relevance Score, while Twitter calls it the Quality Adjusted Bid. Formalities aside, the biggest thing to note is that a higher quality score means the platform is going to show your ads to more people. Conversely, a lower quality score means you will have to pay more. The quality score is determined by engagement. So, the more your target audience clicks on, likes, and shares your advertised content, the lower you pay.

Previously, it was the norm to rapidly test out different creatives and then promote the winners. But, doing so now can be extremely expensive and ineffective. Fortunately, you can figure out which content has the highest chance of good engagement without even running an ad campaign.

Your website, for instance, is a gold mine of creative ideas perfect for your social media marketing campaign. Here’s an awesome way to find your top-performing content using Google Analytics and a spreadsheet.

(Image Source)

Your best content attracted engagement for a reason. It clicked with your target audience. Use this creative to come up with fresh ad ideas. For example, each subheading in an article can be turned into a sponsored post with a bit of work. Start with organic posts first. See which posts perform the best, then sponsor them across the ad-network. By the time you hit play on your ad campaign, you’ll already have most of the hard work done.

USE YOUR AUDIENCE’S INSIDER-SPEAK TO STAND OUT

Creatives that deliver the most value will always attract more engagement. But, you can take it even further. As social creatures, we tend to belong to cliques and groups with specific lingo. This insider-speak serves as an “Identify Friend or Foe” test, which separates the group members from the outsiders. Suffice to say, using your audience’s insider-jargon will help you break the ice and establish an instant rapport with them.

For example, Millennials and Gen Zers are more likely to use chat acronyms on social media. You can strategically insert abbreviations into your sponsored content to get it to resonate with them. Even images are awesome places to use them! Check out this US Marine Corps ad for a marathon.

(Image Source)

The ad is targeted to millennials and Gen Z since it starts with an acronym they likely know.

The same principle can be applied to virtually any demographic or audience group, be it baby boomers, coders, or artists. (Even social media professionals have their own jargon!)

CREATE YOUR OWN GRAPHIC

There’re plenty of stock photos and graphics online, which can certainly take one huge step off your checklist. The problem is, everyone’s doing it. Using stock photos or graphics comes with three deal-breaking disadvantages.

Primarily, your audience may have already seen it, so it won’t have the first-impressions effect. Second, it comes across as lazy and unoriginal. Finally, it will never completely match your content unless you write it around the picture, which is self-defeating.

There are some cases where stock photos may work, but their utility is very limited. Instead, spend some time taking your photos or creating graphics that complement your post perfectly. You will have more freedom and will be able to better express your ideas. The images don’t have to be Picasso grade either.  Any basic design or photo that gets the idea across will do for the most part. For example, check out this graphic from Manly Wellness:

(Image Source)

Notice that this image doesn’t illustrate the point – frequency of contact as much as it supports it. It may seem counterintuitive, but images don’t always need to be central to your social media strategy. They can play a supporting role while letting the text do most of the heavy lifting. Images and custom graphics can be used to capture your audience’s attention before they start reading the text, and eventually, clicking the ad.

USE VIDEOS AS SPONSORED POSTS

If a picture speaks a thousand words, then a video speaks a million. The power of video is undeniable. For example, LinkedIn users are 20 times more likely to share a video than any other post. And with YouTube now being the second-largest search engine, you would not want to miss out on creating video ads.

While your chosen video depends on your marketing goals and KPIs, the following types are good places to start:

  • Behind the scenes videos
  • Live videos
  • How-to videos
  • User-created videos
  • Informational videos

Even so, it’s worth noting that videos don’t perform that well just because they are videos. It’s high-quality video content that accounts for most of the “video effectiveness stats” that populate the internet. And those certainly require some investment. That being said, it’s best to have a combination of different types and quality videos in your social media mix.

That’s exactly what Freshbooks does on their #imakealiving campaign. They amplified the power of video in social media through sponsored partnerships with successful entrepreneurs.

(Image Source)

These videos are submitted by the entrepreneurs themselves, therefore the production and quality vary.

It’s generally a good idea to make videos that directly represent your brand and/or product as professional as possible. But, more affordable, Go-Pro type instant and user-generated videos can be used for social proof and building credibility.

The bottom line? Running a social media ad campaign doesn’t need to cost you a lot. Most end up turning expensive solely because it takes so much rinse and repeat to find the winning creative copy, graphic, colour combo. Once that truth is established, your ads can start paying for themselves. The idea to reduce your ad spend is to do as much of the research before while keeping your ads looking spectacular.

By Zeke Cohen

SEO & Marketing Expert, Freelance Writer, –

Sourced from Social Media Week

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How To Turn Your Social Media Into A Lead Funnel

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By Joel Goldstein.

In today’s competitive landscape, companies need to use every available method to increase their earnings. However, many neglect to maximize the value of their social media accounts. In my experience, platforms like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn offer massive upsides to businesses across all sectors. When leveraged properly, they can be an almost limitless source of lead generation. Here’s how to maximize social media’s income-generating potential.

Building a social media following.

The first step toward turning your social media into a revenue stream is building a social media presence and follower base. There are certainly plenty of users to attract on the most active social media websites. Twitter reportedly has approximately 330 million users, while Facebook has an astonishing 2.7 billion users. Even if only a tiny fraction of these users are interested in your industry, that’s still a massive audience for your business.

Companies who implement a comprehensive social media strategy typically do better than ones that approach their social media activity without foresight. If you’d like to develop a better strategy for building your social media following, you should start with an understanding of your desired audience. Who are they? What do they like? What platforms are they on? Answering these questions will give you the information you need to get started.

Once you understand your target audience, you can begin reaching out to them in an attempt to win their attention. The best way to do this is by regularly posting content they find relevant. This may include interesting statistics, contests and giveaways, engaging videos, and company news. Provide your audience with high-quality content consistently to start growing your social media following.

Use social media to increase web traffic.

As you build your social media following, you’ll want to start implementing strategies that allow you to profit on the increased attention. The first step in this process is getting users to move from the social media platform you found them on to your website. They aren’t going to do this on their own, so your company needs to come up with ways to incentivize their click.

One of the most proven ways to achieve this is with blog content. Posts with snappy titles and the promise of engaging content give social media users a real reason to visit your website. You may even want to consider promoting your blog posts via social media ads to get more eyes on them. Not sure how often you should be blogging? It depends on your goals, and experts suggest experimenting with your publishing frequency to find your “sweet spot.”

Optimize your landing pages.

Once a user has reached your company’s website, it should be extremely easy for them to take the next step in the conversion process. Marketers refer to this as a sales funnel. Essentially, you want to move the users who visit your company’s website toward your ultimate sales goal, which could be signing up for your service or purchasing one of your products. To accomplish this, you’ll need to optimize your website’s landing pages.

Landing page optimization means enhancing each element on your landing page in order to increase conversions. There are a few different ways you can accomplish this. For example, you may want to use a heat map to show you where users are clicking on your website. Or, maybe you want to track each visitor’s behaviour to see why conversions either succeed or fail.

Additionally, you can optimize your landing pages by completing the following steps:

• Make your offer clear.

• Simplify your page.

• Introduce clear call-to-action buttons.

• Add contact information.

• Add testimonials from satisfied customers.

• Utilize search engine optimization tools.

Utilize social media as a public relations tool. 

According to the industry report from RepResearch, sales reps value a brand’s reputation above all when deciding whether to take on a new line. Your company should also explore how social media can be used as a tool for public relations.

PR is something that every company does in one way or another. It involves deliberately managing the release and spread of information between a business and the public. Put another way, it is a strategic communications process that should allow for a mutually beneficial relationship between a company and its clients.

Social media has made PR more accessible. This presents its own benefits and challenges. When done well, PR on social media can be used to get more people interested in your business, define your brand’s image and drive more traffic to your website. These are all outcomes that have the potential to increase your company’s revenue.

One of the most effective methods of PR on social media is collaborations with other brands. This may involve curating content for other companies in your industry, or even guest posting on their blogs. Another opportunity you may want to consider here is asking C-level executives and social media influencers to publish posts that serve as PR for your company.

Remember that a new revenue stream is the end goal. 

Social media presents companies with exciting ways to generate new leads and increase revenue. The most effective way to accomplish this is by using your social media posts to attract users to your website. Your business can achieve this by regularly posting engaging and industry-specific content to its feeds, as well as by engaging in PR efforts on its social media accounts.

Once a user has reached your website, continue the conversion process by optimizing your landing pages and making it obvious what you want the visitor to do. Following these steps could be just what your company needs to turn its social media into a new stream of revenue.

Feature Image Credit: GETTY

By Joel Goldstein.

Joel Goldstein is the President of Mr. Checkout Distributors. Read Joel Goldstein’s full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

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Top 10 Reasons to Use Social Networks for Advertising

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By Thomas Glare.

Description: Despite the constant traffic in social media, some businesses still think they are better off not using this amazing and largely low-cost resource for advertisement. We have a few reasons why they might want to reconsider that opinion.

Introduction: Social media platforms are everywhere. If you have a smartphone and Wi-Fi, you have access to everyone you know and everyone they know every second of the day. And, while using it to reconnect with old friends is a pretty solid way to utilize such a versatile medium, it can also be a great resource for marketing.

These days, it seems like everyone has social media accounts. From toddlers to grandparents, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have kept us connected, for better or worse, and allowed us to know everything about everyone. It is even possible to win real money by clicking on an ad or doing a social media quiz.

Marketing in the Age of Social Media

In the past, ad traffic was expensive and could only come from television, radio, and newspapers. Promos run maybe once an hour to as little as once a week, and the target audience was only listeners, watchers, or subscribers. And advertisers hoped their target market was tuned at just the right time, but it was essentially a gamble.

These days, social media advertising has almost overtaken all other forms of marketing. As a matter of fact, when a marketing firm lists their services, if the phrase “social media campaign” isn’t mentioned, a lot of businesses will move on. It isn’t the niche market of ten years ago, but a living, breathing animal of its own.

Your Next Marketing Strategy

White pages do work, and emails are still a heavy hitter in the marketing game. But if you want to get the most eyes on your product or service, you can’t beat the endless traffic of the big three. These social media networks have made a killing based on this knowledge. So, why shouldn’t you?

Here’s how:

1.    Ready and Waiting

Your customers are on social media. You want to connect with them. So, like AT&T used to say, “Reach out and touch someone.” They are waiting for you to tell them what you have to offer. Don’t leave them in suspense.

2.    Branding

You aren’t just a business but a brand. And your brand is the face of your company. People recognize big brands because they stand out, and there is something special about them. Get your brand out there and introduce yourself!

3.    Improving Relationships

Online reviews have replaced comment cards, and access to business owners has become commonplace. Using social media to stay connected with your customers is the best way to know whether your business is doing well, and what to do to fix it if something is wrong. Instantly.

4.    A Wider Net

Any social media manager will tell you not to aim at small but launch a large campaign to draw big attention. As far as social media plans go, this is a valid idea. You may inspire new business just because you took a chance on an untapped market for your niche.

5.    Low Money Down

Let’s say you are a casino. Your business is to bring in people with money to spend. But how? Free coupons! You put a free coupon for slots free spins on Twitter, and the traffic flows into your site. And you paid next to nothing for it. Social media marketing is the most cost-effective medium for product promotion.

img alt: social media marketing

6.    Competition

Everyone has a business out in the world that is trying to take your customers and your dollars. And guess what? They already have a website and tons of followers, subscribers, and valued customers. They aren’t taking your business; you are giving it to them by not having a social media strategy.

7.    Loyalty

People like to know who they are buying from. A bad social media brand can kill a business, just because of the owner’s improprieties. But if your customers are aware of your story, and it garners trust and makes you seem like a quality human-being, they instinctively want to support you.

8.    Drawing a Bullseye

While you can throw out a huge campaign that blankets the entirety of social media, you can also target specific people, catering to your most fervent customer base only. It is similar to fishing with a bait that only certain fish like. Sure, you will get some outsider nibbles, but you will hook what you came for.

9.    Up the Ladder

Along with knowledge of SEO, traffic algorithms have a hand in search engine rankings. The more people visit you, the higher you are on the list when customers search for your business. Typically, the average web surfer will pick one of the top five links when looking for just about anything.

10.Reaching and Grasping

Just like the Internet is global, so is social media. And that means you can now advertise all over the world from one or more platforms with ease and speed. Customers in Estonia can buy your product, receive it, and give you feedback in a matter of days, not months like in the past. It has connected the commerce of the world.

Conclusion

Social media management may seem a little odd to those with old school marketing ideas, and that makes sense. So many advertising fads have come and gone, it can be puzzling if getting an account for your business might just end up as a waste of time. But the upshot is that advertising on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are so quick and easy that you’re actually wasting more time trying to come up with reasons not to.  Do you advertise your business on social media? Has it helped your bottom line and customer traffic?

By Thomas Glare

Thomas Glare runs a marketing firm and believes in the power of advertising through social media platforms. He recognizes it as a vital tool in promotional mediums and uses it on a regular basis for his clients to promote his own business interests.

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Zooming In—Should SMEs Invest In The Personal Brands Of Employees?

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By Trevor Clawson

Suddenly, we’re all stars of the small screen.

OK, perhaps that’s over-egging the pudding but it’s certainly true that increasing numbers of us are having to get used to the sight of our pixelated faces staring back at us from laptop and tablet screens as we communicate with peers, talk to our bosses and pitch to clients via video conferencing tools.

And the rise of the Zoom/Teams/Skype meeting has come as something of a culture shock. Once upon a time, you either connected face-to-face or on the phone. Ahead of face-to-face situations you probably took time to prepare, if only by dressing for the occasion. On the phone, dress didn’t matter so much, if at all. You could talk to the CEO of a multinational corporation and potential customer while dressed only in jeans, t-shirt, and your favourite baseball cap. Only you would know. This is why, of course, employees in call-centres aren’t always noted for their sartorial elegance.

And here’s the thing. When video conferencing began to pick up traction at the beginning of the pandemic, it was essentially replacing meetings that would otherwise have taken place in person. Now – in some cases at least – it’s becoming a default. For instance, until fairly recently when I arranged to interview an entrepreneur, it was usually done on the phone. Today, more than 50 percent of my interviews are done via Zoom or Teams. Consequently, I get to see my interlocutors. I see how they are dressed, what their offices look like, and whether they look relaxed and confident when answering questions. As such, maybe I’m getting a better sense of their personal brand – and, worryingly, they of mine.

Upsides and Downsides

If you happen to run an entrepreneurial business, there are upsides and downsides to this new visibility. If your staff come across well, a video conference – say, with a customer –  can enhance the brand of the business. If on the other hand, members of your team look uncomfortable, haven’t dressed for the meeting and are shrouded in shadow due to poor lighting, an audio/visual encounter can have a negative impact.

The same is true on social media. If you use Facebook, Linkedin or Instagram to interact with stakeholders, then a lot depends on the perception that you and your team create. Get it right and social media pays dividends. Get it wrong and you, potentially at least,  have problems.

So maybe it’s time for relatively small businesses to pay attention to personal brands. Certainly, that’s the view of  Carlene Jackson, founder of Cloud9 Insight, a cloud CRM provider based in Brighton, England. Although the company is relatively small – around 35 staff – Jackson is encouraging everyone, regardless of role, to develop their own, visible, personal brands.

As Jackson explains it all started with an assessment of her own role as company CEO.  “A lot of organizations are headed by guru brands – people like Richard Branson and Elon Musk. I realized that as a business owner, I needed a personal brand.”

Everyone Has a Brand

A lot of company owners probably feel the same way. As leaders, they are the faces of their businesses, attending networking events, talking to major customers, and perhaps also doing some public speaking.

But owners and founders are by no means the only people who represent their companies. Sales staff certainly interact with customers on a daily basis, but even in the so-called back-office departments, individuals have a profile. “My lightbulb moment was that everyone has their own personal brand,” says  Jackson.

What does that mean in practice? As Jackson sees it, the brand of employees is manifest in their networks,  their presentation and how well (or badly) they are thought of by those who interact with them. Often, however, an individual’s brand has quite a limited reach – maybe only colleagues are aware of it and, to be honest, they probably don’t think of it as a brand.

But this is the age of social media. There is scope to build the brand of the company by leveraging the personal profiles of employees. “I thought it would be amazing if everyone had a voice. If they could tell stories,” says Jackson.

So Cloud9 Insight brought in consultants to teach staff how to develop their personal brands. Teams have been coached in using social media, how to present themselves on video, and how to dress. Equally important, they are encouraged to share stories. For instance, employees make videos. These are passed onto the marketing team, who in turn create blogs around them.

Social media is an important element – not just the usual suspects of Twitter and LinkedIn but also Instagram and personal Facebook accounts.

The latter is potentially tricky. We all have work and play personas. How we present ourselves to colleagues and stakeholders in a work situation is often fundamentally different from how we talk to friends about hobbies and(ahem) wild nights out. So isn’t there a risk that that work version of a personal brand will be at odds with the image an individual presents in a non-professional situation?

Jackson says some staff members could create separate Facebook accounts for work and play – but more generally she argues that anything posted on social media should be informed by the knowledge that future employers may well look at it and make hiring decisions accordingly. Thus, she says, there should be no inconsistency between the work and play brands. That’s possibly true but it has to be said that it could make Facebook a very dull place.

Why Invest? 

Personal branding coaches are familiar figures in big companies, but perhaps not so much in small organizations. Jackson says, there are good commercial reasons for investing in training.

“People buy from people,” she says. “On the delivery side of the business, people will always look up your employees, so it’s important that they have accurate profiles on LinkedIn. At the same time, there are opportunities to share thought leadership.” This creates opportunities to boost sales. Since June, the business – which serves more than 600 customers – has grown 70 percent, with referrals playing a major role in driving new business.

“It has also been fantastic in HR,” Jackson adds. “On the recruitment side of things, candidates are coming directly to HR.”

All of this begs a question. What is a good personal brand?. “It should be authentic and shouldn’t come across as too scripted. And the brand should be relatable” says Jackson. On the technical side photography (on social media) should be high quality as should the cameras and lighting used for video conferencing.

Jackson acknowledges that some employees were nervous at first and the training sessions (which have included a private Facebook group) have involved out of hours “homework.” With coaching, however, confidence has grown. And as Jackson sees it, marketing has become more crucial than ever during the lockdown. personal branding plays an important role.

Feature Image Credit: Carlene Jackson, 2019 ANDREW HASSON

By Trevor Clawson

Sourced from Forbes

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