Social Media

While social media marketing may seem relatively easy enough, believe me when I say, it’s not.

Tweeting about a sale you are having and one quick post on Facebook about your product is not enough to generate sales leads, no matter how many hashtags you’re using.

Digital marketing is, honestly, a lot like a science; it demands a lot of time, research, planning, experimentation, and resources. This can be tough for a business owner who is trying to juggle managing a business, serving customers, and developing a solid digital marketing campaign all at the same time.

Not all is lost, though. Throughout my years as a Digital Marketing Consultant, you start to pick up on some things that work, and a whole lot of others that don’t.

Listed below, you’ll find four timeless social marketing tips that your business can benefit from.

1. Keep Your Business Objectives in Mind

It’s no secret that a business must set achievable objectives in order to survive. It enables team members to rally and focus on a specific goal or metric, helps to improve general morale and teamwork, while also pinpointing areas that offer opportunities for improvement.

The same is necessary when it comes to your digital marketing strategy. You need to match your business objectives with your social media marketing campaigns. If you don’t match these digital marketing strategies to a specific objective, it’s going to be challenging to understand how well your campaigns are performing.

One of the most cited ways to set these objectives is through the SMART system. When your goals are SMART, they are:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time Related

Again, I really cannot stress the importance of setting social media marketing goals with your overall business goals. Do you want to increase sales? Or perhaps just improve your company’s online reputation? Perhaps it’s more important for you to grow your brand or increase lead generation.

Whatever your objective may be, it needs to be specific.

2. Bring Out That Best Ad Copy

Quality is important, and when it comes to digital marketing, pretty much everything is based on some sort of metric:

• You’ve got your Quality Score that helps determine the placement of your AdWords ad on a SERP.
• Google ranks your business website based on over 200 SEO contributions and metrics.
• You can bet that ads ran through a social media platform like Facebook and Twitter also have a quality score attributed to them.

The last bullet point is especially relevant to the discussion at hand. For Facebook, marketers need to be aware of a metric known as Relevance Score, while for Twitter, that metric is known as Quality Adjusted Bids.

One of the best way to increase these metrics—thus increasing visibility and the click-through rate of your ads—is to grab that A+ ad copy that you use for your high performing Pay-Per-Click ads in your other marketing campaigns.

This easy method is effective as it not only saves you time by recycling quality ad copy that is proven to get results, but it keeps your advertising message consistent throughout paid search and paid social campaigns.

3. Watch How Your Social Media Ads Perform Closely

Everything moves at lightning-quick speed when it comes to social media. What is popular yesterday is old and busted the next. That’s why, when it comes to social media marketing, you simply cannot afford to adopt a “set-it-and-forget-it” attitude. This is especially true if you are using Twitter to advertise.

To keep your head above water, figuratively speaking, you need to become familiar with Twitter Analytics. You need to understand what metrics matter in order to gauge for success, namely, the engagement rate.

An engagement rate is influenced by the total number of times users have interacted with the tweet. That could be anything from likes, follows, retweets, replies, hashtags, or retweeting of embedded media, to name a few. Keep in mind, however, as time passes, these particular tweets will become less effective, buried among thousands of other tweets into obscurity.

This is where a refreshingly creative ad becomes a necessity. A good way to ensure that your ad content remains fresh is to create a few different variations of the same ad. This strategy is sure to gain you more impressions—roughly defined as the number of times a tweet has been seen through Twitter itself—and increase your engagement rate.

And while we focused primarily on Twitter, the same could be said about any other social media platform you are using for marketing. Always keep an eye on all metrics related to any social media ad campaigns you have running. Otherwise, you could be losing money or opportunities to improve on them.

4. Twitter Can Be Your Content Marketing Laboratory

By day, Twitter may mask itself as a premium method of generating leads. But by night, Twitter acts as a laboratory for gauging how well a content idea might work.

To illustrate how this works, let’s assume that you found an interesting image detailing something of note in your particular niche. You end up sharing it with your followers and see—through your Twitter Analytics—that this particular image has done really well, increasing your engagement rate higher than any other tweets you’ve posted.

Because of this tweet’s success, you decide to cook up a blog post that talks a little more in depth of what was detailed on the image. Finally, you notice that this particular blog – which grew from a tweet –  did really well and was met with a lot of engagement.

The benefits that you reap from this one tweet aren’t limited. It may generate interest in your brand and may even get you a few leads. What this test teaches us, however, is that Twitter can be used as a content marketing laboratory of sorts.

Social media marketing is a delicate dance that many business owners don’t have time for (or even the skill to be successful). Recruiting a digital marketing consultant like me can help you get the quickest ROI and more. Contact me today at (956) 566-4998 to find out how we can turn your social media marketing into a lead-generating tool.

I know. Not everyone is a social butterfly. And it can be especially challenging to grab your audience’s attention on social media when there are so many posts and viral memes making their way through the digital world on the daily.

So, what’s the secret? Well, there isn’t just one way to get the job done. Successfully using social media for your digital marketing plan not only requires a bit of planning but also requires a real desire to actually engage with your customers (and any potential clients).

As a digital marketing strategist, I’ve had my fair share of experience in creating a viable social media marketing strategy, and I’d like to share with you some things I’ve learned along the way.

9 Social Media Tips That Can Grow Your Brand

1. Know What You Want

Just like any other aspect of your digital marketing plan, you need to have an idea of what you intend your social media marketing plan to achieve. Establishing achievable goals is essential and should be developed with only a few targets in mind, such as:

• Increasing brand awareness
• Driving in-person sales
• Using social media to target specific audiences to improve higher quality of sales
• Becoming more aware of your competition and their audience

Keep things simple, especially at the beginning, and try to grow your presence on only a select social media platform; ones relevant to your business:

• Facebook – Great for Business-to-Client (B2C)
• Twitter – Ideal for B2C
• Instagram –  Works wonders for B2C, especially for visual-heavy businesses (clothing stores, restaurant, luxury brands, etc.)
• LinkedIn – Growing your Business-to-Business (B2B) connections

2. Don’t Forget to Research & Track

I know you’re probably eager to get into the fun stuff, posting hilarious images that will make their way across the Internet, but we can’t get ahead of ourselves. Two essential steps – alongside making goals – should be to actively understand who your audience is (or who you want them to be).

There are plenty of social media insights that can be found with just a quick Google search, like this Pew Research Center study. Knowing this info will help you better understand the shopping and buying habits of specific age groups and how that can be used to your advantage.

Beyond knowing who your target audience is, it’s also important to track metrics that can let you know how well your social media marketing plan is actually working. Likes and followers are awesome, but they don’t always tell the whole story.

Some key metrics to take note of include:

• Engagement
• Reach
• Clicks
• Organic and paid likes

The more data you have available to you, the better informed of a decision you can make for future social media campaigns.

3. Don’t Stop, Won’t Stop

OK…so once you actually start posting, it’s important to remember that your brand/business won’t become an overnight sensation. Social media marketing – just like anything else – requires hard work and a dedication to seeing things through.

Facebook posting, tweeting, or sharing on Instagram once a month is not going to cut it, and while you don’t want to overwhelm your audience with a post on the hour, every hour, you need to remain active. Again, track that data for insight into the types of posts and time of day that you get you the most traction.

4. Make Posts Pretty

Getting your company’s visual brand identity is going to take some experimentation, but that shouldn’t stop you from including the right visual elements in each post. The truth is that visual content goes so much further than a post with nothing but text.

Make sure to incorporate relevant visuals into your posts including images, GIFs, and especially videos when possible. Just make sure it’s tied into your brand and/or post.

5. Don’t Be Afraid to Use Social Media Advertising

Maybe you have the perfect post that you really, really, want your audience to see. One of the best ways to ensure that you get their attention is by boosting your posts. Essentially all social media platforms offer the option to use their advertising to keep your post in a position where they can be easily found by users.

There are some costs associated with social media advertising so just know your budget and get a clear understanding of how the process works. And, of course, make sure the post(s) you are promoting is worth it.

6. Talk Back

Remember, it is social media. That means sometimes you have to be social! Shocker, I know.

Social media has always been about community and making connections with those who may be interested in the same topics, hobbies, lifestyle, etc. In order to really build up your brand and grow your following, you really need to engage with your audience. That means responding to comments in a relatively quick manner. While every company’s response time is going to be different, you’ll generally want to respond within at least 24 hours – especially when the comment relates to a serious issue or concern.

On the other hand, take the time to give a quick thank you whenever a positive conversation is happening around your post. Even use a little bit of humor if the situation calls for it. You are dealing with real people, and you’ll want your business to come off as genuine as well.

Just whatever you do, don’t ignore a customer that has viable concern or comment.

7. Take A Peek At Your Competitors

No, I am not condoning copying your competitor’s social media strategy, but it wouldn’t hurt to gain some inspiration and other ideas and tailor them to your own social media campaign’s specific needs. Look towards established brands in your industry and research why clients love to engage with them.

8. Use Social Media in Combination With Blogs

While not every social media post is going to tie in with a specific blog, you’ll still want to direct your audience back to your website, landing page, or blog that tells a story about your company or services.

Combining a social post with a link to your website or blog helps to generate more leads, which can ultimately end up in sales.

9. Localize Your Campaigns

Small businesses can benefit tremendously from localizing their social media campaigns. Platforms like Facebook not only give you the option to create advertisements but also to pinpoint who your audience is –  including where they live.

Social media is essential in today’s business world. Reach out to me today at (956) 566-4998 for more helpful hints, tips, and information about everything digital marketing.

Social media isn’t just for keeping up with friends and family anymore.

It has become one the best tool for marketers to use since, well, ever. Using social media with the right data mining tools can provide your business with so much valuable information regarding your audience, which can then be used to enhance your marketing strategies and generate more revenue.

As a Digital Marketing Consultant, I’ve seen first hand the amazing benefits of using social media to promote a business, build a brand, stay in contact with customers, improve sales, and remain competitive in today’s ever growing digital world.

If you haven’t already started using social media to grow your business, then consider the following five reasons why it is absolutely essential that you start using it. Are you ready to be a marketing genius on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram?

1. Social Media Increases Your Brand Loyalty and Awareness

Posting an image of a product you are selling or sharing useful information regarding services you offer helps make your business become more visible.

Your followers will also have the ability to view the content you post and share it with people that they know, in turn bringing your business more attention, helping to build your brand, encouraging brand loyalty, and bringing more potential customers to your website.

2. Social Media Helps You Quickly Connect and Bond With Your Target Audience

Social media bridges together the communication connection between businesses and customers, allowing the possibility for a two-way conversation to occur organically. With social media, your customers have a direct pipeline to share any feedback that they may have with your company – good or bad. This provides your company an opportunity to address their concerns by dishing out some Grade A customer service.

That in itself helps your business, as a happy customer is more likely to share positive views about your company. And as we all know, word of mouth is still one of the best forms of advertisement. Plus, some of the feedback you get may actually help you to improve your product, service, and/or marketing strategy, and that’s always a good thing.

Lastly, social media gives you the opportunity to humanize your business, and people really dig that. You become an entity that your followers and customers can relate to, which can facilitate brand loyalty.

Did your company just hit a huge milepost? Celebrate it with your followers. Hated the morning commute because of the back-to-back traffic? Share that with your customers (but of course when you aren’t behind the wheel). It also helps to use language that the general populace uses, minus the curse words or any inappropriate vernacular.

3. Social Media Helps You Retain Customers

Customers want their voices to be heard. That’s just good business.

We touched on this a little bit earlier, but it bears repeating. If your customers don’t have a proper avenue to take to voice their concerns or vent their frustrations, they won’t feel valued. If they don’t feel valued, they will leave.

That’s bad for business.

Social media helps your customers voice their feedback in a convenient way, giving you the opportunity to correct any mistakes you may have made or improve in other aspects to make your business better. Not only does it help your business in this fashion, it also helps forge a deeper connection with your company, strengthening customer loyalty.

And a loyal customer is a long-term customer.

4. Social Media Increases Traffic and Conversions on Your Website

If you are sharing a blog post from your website to Facebook or Twitter, usually a link is included in the post. This link within the post directs traffic from Facebook or Twitter to your website where leads can turn into customers.

It’s really that simple, but there are a bevy of other benefits that this brings.

One of the ways Google ranks websites is from traffic. The more traffic you get to your blog, the higher ranking it achieves with Google, becoming more visible in front page results. Social media can help in improving those results by doing what was mentioned above.

Being on the 1st results page on Google is a highly sought after position because when people search for the industry you’re in, the product you sell, or the type of service you provide, your website will be high on that list, bringing in more traffic as a result.

5. Social Media Helps You Keep an Eye on Your Competitors

Don’t worry, I’m not encouraging you to become a Facebook stalker, but following your competition is important to keep up with them in the realm of business and social media. Keeping up with them can also reveal new advances in your industry.

Following your competitors will also give you insight into their business actions, allowing you to compare it to your own and adjusting as needed. You can pick out what works best and implement it into your business actions and strategies.

Social media marketing is the lifeblood of a successful business. Reach out to me today at (956) 566-4998 for more helpful hints, tips, and information about everything digital marketing.