Social media marketing has become an incredible power in the world of online marketing. With an estimated 65% of Americans reporting that they utilize social media sites, these types of networking hubs have become the perfect place to reach out to any type of audience you wish to target. Social media sites also allow businesses, big and small, to show a more personal side of their brand. These sites open up different avenues to creatively reach current and potential customers. Many brands put their own videos, photos, articles and even coupons on their social media sites to encourage engagement and boost sales. However, each of these sites feature different ways to reach out to a broad audience. In order to properly utilize this area of SEO, social media marketing must be approached in a smart and strategic way. Depending on the type of business you run and the overall goal you have for your social media campaign, not all of these sites may perfectly help you convey your business message and overall philosophy.
Many companies post photos and videos of new products, employee events and updates to their store.
Below are some brief outlines of what types of marketing campaigns each of these sites works best for, followed by some helpful tips to boost engagement on each specific social media site. Facebook is a social networking site that allows companies to create “Pages” to represent their brand. With the semi-recent transition to the timeline format, Facebook brand pages read almost like a yearbook of accomplishments for the company. Facebook is ideal for companies that are looking to create a more personal and open relationship with their clients. Many companies post photos and videos of new products, employee events and updates to their store. Facebook also allows brands to host contests and conduct polls. 1. Post at the Right Time of Day - Studies have shown that more people are active on Facebook during the weekdays. Many studies have also shown that posting between 11am-4pm EST is the most effective. 2. Ask a Question - Status updates that ask for the opinion of your fans typically illicit more likes and comments. People like to share their thoughts and feel that they have an influence on the brands they love.
3. Utilize Visuals, but Keep it Simple - It’s important to not just make posts that are purely words. Relevant photos, videos, and other graphics have been shown to increase fan engagement. But it is important to keep these posts simple. Fans tend to become less engaged if you post multiple photos in a row, so choose wisely, and give your fans time to enjoy each unique post. Twitter is a 140-character playroom for celebrities, brands, politicians and many others to express their thoughts and promote ideas in a quick and simple way. Twitter gives you the ability to design a personal page with a photo, 140-character biography and complete control over the background wallpaper. Twitter’s simplicity is why so many people use it to quickly catch up on news from friends, their favorite companies and even their horoscope. Twitter is ideal for companies that wish to share quick links back to their website or blog, promotions, and reach particular groups or people through the use of hashtags and direct messaging.
1. Pay Attention to Hashtag Trends - When you are exploring your Twitter homepage, pay special attention to the lower left hand corner of the page. ” and labeled “Trending Now.” These terms are called “hashtags” and they are used to group together tweets sent out on the same topic. Be sure to pay attention to these and when you see any that pertain to your business, include them in a Tweet with a link back to your website. 2. “RT to Support! ” - The “Retweet” is a great way to increase engagement and gain more followers. When someone “retweets” something you post, it becomes visible to all of his or her followers, and it can continue to move from there. Retweet will help encourage others to retweet your post and therefore lead to more retweets and visibility for your brand. In some ways, it works like Facebook, allowing you to provide status updates and post on your friends’ pages. 1. Use the “Circle” Feature - This feature allows you to group people on your friends list and send specific marketing messages to them. 2. Comment Often - Be sure to engage with others.
Social Media Landscape
When someone shares an article pertinent to your industry, thank him or her and share the link on your own page. Hopefully they will return the favor. 3. Be Sure to Checkout Hangouts - Different brands will host video chats or “live-streaming hangouts” to help connect better with fans. Attend often and consider hosting your own. By utilizing these social media sites for the correct purpose and in the right way, you can significantly impact your online marketing goals. Knowing the direction to go in will help you work smarter, not harder and put you far ahead of the competition. WebFindYou is a Search Engine Optimization company with over 20 years experience in Internet Marketing and Development. WebFindYou is a market leader in the production of SEO Websites with a professional SEO Web Design that create and sustain better online visibility than just a normal website resulting in increased business sales.
Also consider joining one of USC’s Alumni Association groups. There are several of them, based loosely on location and demographics: generational, multi-cultural, campus-based and women’s groups. 3. Attending conferences is an excellent way to network while continuing to build your skills and learning about cutting-edge practices in your field. You can consider attending conferences of colleague organizations, particularly those that offer workshops, seminars or continuing education in your area of interest. For example, the California Psychological Association has a calendar of continuing education offerings on depression, child sexual abuse, eating disorders, healthy aging and many other topics. The American Counseling Association may also provide networking opportunities and continuing education units for social workers to maintain their licenses. 4. Use your social media savvy to network with others as well. NASW hosts a LinkedIn official group page, Facebook page, Twitter feed and its own YouTube channel. Both the Social Work Alumni Association and USC alumni sites have social media options as well. Additional networking spaces online include social work community sites and Twitter influencers, such as Social Work Today, Social Work Helper and Social Work Social Care Media. 5. Volunteer opportunities can enhance your skills while expanding your social work network. Local social service agencies often rely on volunteers to run their food banks, read to or tutor children, staff thrift stores or prepare meals for the homeless. Well-known service organizations like the American Red Cross, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Catholic Charities or Big Brothers/Big Sisters usually rely on volunteers in their local offices. Organizations that can direct you to volunteer opportunities and may themselves have networking possibilities are the Corporation for National and Community Service, Idealist and Volunteer Match.
Businesses big and small are realizing the huge benefits of social media marketing and its increasing importance in the race to stay relevant and attract new customers. Long gone are the days when your secretary was the first point of contact between the outside and your company - that role is being replaced by websites and social media profiles. With people turning to their mobile devices and social media in the buying journey there are many reasons why your business should be active on social media. Social media will expose your company or service to new eyes. With one click your message is shown to multitude of people. Social media can help you find customers already talking about your business- information you can leverage to reach even more people. Social media gives you insights into what your audience is into (besides you, of course). Getting to know your audience can help you discover creative ways to reach them via advertising or content.
Catering and targeting to this degree will lead to increased conversions. Sometimes a customer won’t reach out to you if they have a problem, but will go ahead and post a complaint online. Many consumers now using social media as a point of contact with a brand, and expect a response The Social Habit reports that 42% customers who reach out to brands online expect a response within the hour. Social media allows for instant feedback from your consumers good or bad. The time between knowing if a product or a campaign is a success is shorter. This means you can respond and resolve mishaps in a faster manner. Social media can offer opportunities you may miss out on by not having a social presence. Negative comments and experiences can be addressed and adjusted - keeping customers happy and showing potential customers that you care (giving you a little more to love over the competition). In my own experience, clients I’ve worked with have been able to secure inclusions in digital publications - expanding reach and establishing authority - all from messages received on their social media profiles.
Social media can help you keep an eye (and edge) on the competition. You can use social media to target you competition’s fans, see what they may be doing that you can improve on - or simply identify ways to stand out within your industry. If your social media is done correctly it could help you increase sales. An audience that is truly interested in your brand or product will respond to sales messaging and convert. Having a social media presence can also allow customers “get to know” your brand, social media advertising cost giving you more chances to gain their business. Social media is a great inbound marketing tool that can help you collect leads and build your email list. Publishing and posting content that is relevant to both your brand and your audience is a way to attract customers who are truly interested in your brand and what you have to offer. Not only does this apply to how consumers perceive your brand, but a study conducted by INC revealed that “the average offer received among all of the businesses we analyzed was 3.7 times pre-tax profit. Part of staying in business is to remain relevant. What better way to remain relevant than to be in the thick of conversations your customers are having about their needs and wants? Social media gives your company or brand insight into how it can continue to evolve and deliver results for your bottom line and your consumers. This article was originally posted here. Social media & digital marketing have become my second love. Living and blogging from NYC. Co-Founder of Supremacy Marketing. Welcome to my adventures! This article was written for Business 2 Community by Dhariana Lozano. Learn more about writing for B2C.
How To Social Network
Qyao - set out to create the Social - Economic Network, harnessing the power of Internet-based social and economic networks to directly benefit the Members who help to create the community. Advertising: Banner network itself displays banner ads that are targeted based upon the websites you're visiting. When you click on an ad, make an impression and/or make a purchase, Qyao receives a referral fee, which we pass on to our Members. Classifieds: When you post small classified ads you'll make money. Ads around your classified ad will contain your ID so that Qyao knows who to credit. Post as many classifieds you like, more of them you post more money you make. Ads must be submitted in appropriate categories and for appropriate areas. Forums: When you post threads you'll make money. Ads around your thread will contain your ID so that Qyao knows who to credit. Blogs: When you'll post blogs you'll make money. Ads around your blog ad will contain your ID so that Qyao knows who to credit.
The New Social Network
Post as many blogs as you like, invite others to discussions. Referrals: Qyao pays you 1.00 per active Member you refer. You'll get paid recurring each month for every active Member (Members can't just signup with multiply accounts and have no activity). Qyao pays you 5% from all revenue from your referrals (10 tiers) from 10 levels below you. Refer your family, friends, neighbors and colleges. Just to be present with a little activity it can bring you easy couple of hundreds per month. Commissions paid by check or PayPal. BizzyBlogs - world best entrepreneurial business network - a global market for your business for FREE. Thomas Richmond here provides the best of both world, a social network that is functionally better than MySpace, and video uploading and sharing such as YouTube. Plus, he added custom glitters and graphics site, so you get everything under one name. Networking with thousands of users on other businesses in search of an affiliate network! Sign up, pay by further networking and 1% of the revenue the company will be paid to free accounts of members! Click here and find a NEW social network site that pays you to socialize and follow me on Twitter . Join and within each page looking for the club which is called Social Affiliantes Network or Social Affiliate Network. Follow the instructions and there you will learn how!
LINE’s Skype-like VOIP chat, by contrast, is free.
Despite having the world’s third largest economy, Japan’s social media ecosystem is perhaps the most unique in the developed world — and among the most difficult for Silicon Valley to understand, let alone capitalize on. It’s a semi-enclosed greenhouse where Facebook flounders behind Twitter, and where LINE, a social network dominated by cartoonish stamps, rules. With about 40 percent of Japan’s entire population using it every month, LINE is the undisputed leader. Launched in 2011, the mobile social messaging system first launched in response (so the typical explanation goes) to the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami that year. The disaster ravaged Japan’s phones and cellular networks, but left much of Internet connectivity intact, prompting NHN Japan employees to quickly prototype and release LINE as an alternate communication platform. LINE’s ascendance is also attributable to Japan’s telecoms, which make their customers pay for SMSes, and charge smartphone callers up to a dollar a minute. LINE’s Skype-like VOIP chat, by contrast, is free. Not only the default messaging app of Japan, LINE also rolled out a number of product features no one else had, like stamps — basically, high-resolution and high-concept emojiis. 247 million in Q3 2015 according to the recent earnings report).
LINE is expanding beyond stamps however, having recently added an Apple Pay-like service, a Spotify competitor, and an Uber-ish taxi feature. After some early stumbles, Facebook is finally getting traction in Japan and is now used by about 17 percent of the entire population, primarily by people in their teens and twenties and by Japanese who live/travel overseas. However, Facebook in Japan is not the Facebook we in the West are used to, due in great part to Japanese culture, which frowns on public expressions that may seem boastful (for example, posting selfies from a beach on Maui). Facebook’s insistence on real-name-only accounts makes Japanese even more reluctant to express personal opinions on the social network. Consequently, Japanese are much more likely to treat Facebook as their professional face, emphasizing their work experience and business connections — like LinkedIn. For that reason, it’s not uncommon for Westerners to get random friend requests from young Japanese users whose photos depict them in sober business clothes. They’re not actually seeking friendships per se, they’re networking. LinkedIn currently has 1.36 million registered users in Japan. Assuming 25 percent are active (probably a generous estimate), that’s less than 1 percent of the total population.
Social Media News This Week
Why has LinkedIn failed to succeed in Japan, where by contrast, it’s doing relatively well in China? That’s largely due to some stumbles at launch here: It took the company some 2-3 years to get fully localized for Japan. Even now, it’s impossible to send in-mail messages that allow users to add the “san” honorific to the addressee’s last name — terribly bad form, culturally, especially in a business context. At the same time, local competitors have aggressively attacked Japan’s market for business social networks: Bizreach in Japan has over 400 employees, Wantedly about 50. LinkedIn, by contrast, has around 10 staffers. With 26 million monthly active users (some 20 percent of the total population), Twitter is the largest Western social network in Japan. However, that comes after years of struggle against a local competitor, Mixi, which also offered a pseudonym-based microblogging network. The equation changed, however, when Twitter partnered with Joi Ito’s Digital Garage, which ran Twitter’s Japanese operations for a number of years. There’s a larger lesson for Silicon Valley here: Companies cannot expect to gain the kind of viral growth that’s commonplace in the West, but instead must focus their energies on partnerships.
In Japan, “growth hacking” isn’t about adding viral hooks to your product — it’s about old fashioned biz dev and partnerships, which often require beer and karaoke to seal the deal. As another example, mobile gaming company GREE only saw massive growth after partnering with a phone carrier that put GREE’s products on its homepage. I mentioned Twitter’s struggles against local competitor Mixi, and there’s an ironic coda to that: Once dominant in Japan, Mixi’s lead was rapidly chipped away at by Facebook and LINE, Social Media Marketing Strategy while it also struggled with its mobile strategy. As a social network, Mixi now barely exists (the company no longer discloses user numbers). 4 million dollars a day. GREE, which once had a popular social network attached to its games, is now developing (some would argue cloning) popular apps, while another fallen network, DeNA, recently partnered with Nintendo. This rise and fall of social networks is broadly applicable to the Japanese consumer market, which is intensely trend driven and often fickle, fiercely embracing a product one month and then suddenly rejecting it the next. Consequently, it’s often difficult for companies to maintain their staying power without being constantly ready to change course. This is not to say there aren’t risks. We see that with the failure of LinkedIn, which fell short by using a strategy that wasn’t agile or architected for the culture. But as we saw with Mixi, a failing company can also reinvent itself from disaster, suddenly redeemed by Japan’s enthusiastic (if faddish) culture. The underlying lesson is one Twitter finally learned the hard way: Find a local partner who can work with you, and don’t try to close that partnership on Skype.
So you’ve decided to make the leap and invest in social media sites for business - good choice! Social media is one of the cheapest forms of marketing available, and the ROI it’s providing to the business world is growing more and more every day. So it’s about time that you tap into it! But now the big question is which social media site do you invest in? Or do you invest in all of them? Which social media sites for business will provide the most ROI at the lowest cost? Before we dive into the best social media sites for business, let’s talk a little bit more about social media as a whole. 81% of the US population has at least one social media profile, and over half have two or more. So, no matter which social media sites you decide to invest in, you have a high chance of reaching customers that you may not have reached otherwise!
Furthermore, people aren’t just using social media, but they’re using social media specifically to make purchasing decisions! For example, 70% of business-to-consumer marketers have acquired customers through Facebook. 93% of Pinterest users use the platform to plan or make purchases, and over ⅓ of Instagram users have used Instagram to purchase a product online. Not only are people purchasing from businesses on social media, but they’re spending 20%-40% more money on companies that are using social media! And if that wasn’t enough, 71% of consumers who have had a positive experience with a brand on social media are likely to recommend the brand to their friends and family- growing your customer base even further! These numbers among others show that there is money to be made within the social media realm- but which one is best for your business? Today we’re going to touch on the top 10 social media sites for business to help business owners like yourself decide which is going to be the most profitable for you! It shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that Facebook is number one on our list of the top 10 social media sites for business.
Topic title: Engagement Tactics For Social Media
Topic covered: all social media, articles against social media, most popular social media sites, social media explanation, social media marketing solutions
