The number of social media users is increasing at an alarming rate. As obvious as it may seem, being active on social media plays a major role in business strategy. Every business or business owner is trying to devise a unique way to reach out to their audience and improve their social media engagement metrics.

While creating unique content is important, one needs to pay special attention to engaging their audiences too. Having good content should be a major part of planning your social media marketing.

This is where most businesses have a problem. Engagement with your audience shows you or your business is liked, and subsequently, it makes it easier to convert them into potential leads for your business. Audience engagement can go a long way in deciding and strategizing your business goals.

Social media is a lot like real life. People make connections and share ideas. Like real people, your audience tends to trust people and businesses they have known, liked, and trusted over the years. Expecting someone to trust you without interactions is a lot like expecting the bus man to lend you money. This entails making long-term relationships that grow over a period of time.

There are times when you could have great content posted on social media, but you do not have a lot of engagement. Anyone who has worked in social media knows that this struggle is real.

Finding fresh content on a regular basis becomes a major hindrance while trying to engage audiences. One needs to post content that resonates with their audiences perfectly for them to stay around.

7 Ways to Boost Your Social Media Engagement Metrics

1. Connect your content with recent news and updates

Your audience is full of real human beings doing real things in life. They watch the news and are aware of things happening around them.

Connect your content with the festivals or the major things happening around you.

For example, if it’s Christmas and you are a toy store. You can connect your content with the occasion, by suggesting how you can help them shop for the occasion.

2. Respond to audience queries and issues

Social media is just not about promoting fresh content anymore. Social media has become a major channel for customer service.

Most people seek customer service on social media. Sadly, most companies fail at this. Customers expect a fast response to their queries or issues on social media. Your immediate and appropriate response shows you care. This will make it more likely for your audience to trust you and see you as a dependable business.

3. AMAs, or Ask me anything, is a hit

Reddit has become a major game changer in the social media world lately. The site has a very great audience with people dedicatedly following it. It is known for its excellent audience engagement.

The coolest thing they have, by far, is their AMA sessions. People can ask the person hosting a session anything they like. It helps both parties to have a more personal and true connection.

This is available on Twitter and Facebook too.

4. Promote your audience-generated content and hashtags

Your audience and your users always have something to say. You don’t necessarily have to repeat what they say, but promote what they post.

This is a great conversation starter. Not just that, it makes your business seem more believable and relatable.

#Hashtags are also popular. This is usually a word (or words) related to your business preceded by a #.

Businesses today are creating their own and making use of others in their genre. You can do the same and build an audience. You can also search for people who have used a certain hashtag and respond to connect with them.

5. Use other influential content

You can’t survive long by only posting about yourself. Some believe that sharing other peoples content means routing their audience to them. Yes, that’s right!

Businesses need to have belief in their content. If your strategy is right your audience would always come back to you.

You are on social media to provide your audience with information for their use. It’s not possible to cover everything under the roof… and it’s not advisable either. Sharing other content that is meaningful and useful for your audience promotes authority and trust. It shows you are confident and willing to share.

6. Share quizzes, infographics, memes, contests, and surveys

Though mainstream, these types of content are evergreen. Not only are these great ways to engage your audience, but also a great way to learn more about their preferences.

Use Infographics to summarize a large dataset into an interesting pictorial representation.

7. Implement videos

Videos can be a great way to tell a story you want to convey to your audience. Make use of your behind the scene videos or product videos etc, to engage your audience.

The rise of the internet gave birth to changes in education, marketing, and nearly every aspect of our life.

 

This is a guest post by Swaraj Das Mohanty. He is a Content Marketer at PagePotato, a graduate in Journalism from Bangalore University, and a former radio jockey. He helps brands put their best content online, is a bookworm who knows to cook… and likes to drive in search of lip-smacking street food. Follow him on Instagram at @BoredBelly.

If you go back in time two decades ago when social networking sites were nonexistent, you would see what great an impact they have been to the marketplace. Today, thousands of businesses owe social media to their rise and continued growth.

Social Media for Small Business

Practically, all business enterprises that exist today have enjoyed the opportunities that social media has afforded them. While there are dozens of networks that exist today, these are the top six social media for small business platforms that brands love.

1. Facebook

With two billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social networking platform in the world. It is an extraordinary platform for business promotion where business owners can connect with customers from all walks of life.

The platform remains the easiest social media site to manage as well as conduct laser sharp ad targeting. Unlike other networks, anyone can use it. It allows sharing several types of content including video, links, and photos.

If you want to get shares and comments on your posts as well as in-depth data about the people who interact with your business, then Facebook is the platform to use.

2. LinkedIn

This platform is perfect for people in the B2B space. The social site brings together business professionals in different industries, allowing them to connect and network. Therefore, if your business targets business executives, LinkedIn might be the platform to use.

You can target these decision makers based on their job titles, industry, company size, etc. The social network is centered on building business and work relationships, making it the perfect platform for job seekers, business leaders, and recruiters.

It uses an old-fashioned approach to networking in the digital age.

3. Instagram

Instagram is the perfect social networking site for visual-centric brands. These include food, lifestyle, personalities, luxury, and fashion brands.

When you have visual content to share like photos and short videos, Instagram provides an ideal platform.

With tools like Growr now helping brands increase their organic followers at an accelerated speed, brands with a lot of visual content to share have an opportunity to grow faster within a short time.

4. Twitter

To make the most of the opportunities that Twitter presents, you must find shareable content with the potential to go viral.

Retweeting is a big part of growing on Twitter, meaning that your ability to create content that Twitter users will be more than glad to retweet determines how fast your business increases its following. For additional momentum of your posts, use relevant hashtags.

Remember, Twitter is about starting conversations, participating in ongoing ones, and ensuring you are at the fore of every relevant conversation that takes place on the platform.

5. Pinterest

Many brands have been frustrated on Pinterest because they have no great images to share. On this platform, it is quite hard to get a low-quality image to go viral. Create images that people with a huge following would find interesting enough to pin. This multiplies the visibility of your image to incredible proportions.

Pinterest is also an excellent platform to promote products. Unlike Instagram, you can add clickable links to each image you publish.

Because most of the active Pinterest users are women, brands that target women do better on this platform.

6. Google+

Perhaps more than any other reason, Google+ has maintained relevance because it is a product of Google. While it may not give you the social juice that Facebook can, it is a great platform for a business that wants to improve its search engine optimization (SEO). That is why many small businesses prefer it.

In addition, hashtags and keywords on Google+ have more search value than on Facebook.

Which of these social networks makes the most sense to you and your enterprise? Is there any social network that you have neglected and would want to know how you can leverage it for your business? And are there new social networking sites that you think will take over the scene in the near future?

Share your thoughts with us in the comments section.

  This is a guest post by Monica Wilson at Social Growr. 

I’ve wasted so much money on Facebook ads through the years. First, it was me not knowing what I was doing. Then I learned but still thought an expert would help me. Three experts later, more money was wasted.

Today, I’m so thankful I have Monica Louie – a true Facebook ads expert. In this video, she breaks down the seven steps you must follow to make money by posting ads on Facebook. Click here for even more to make sure you don’t waste another dime on Facebook ads.

Make Money by Posting Ads on Facebook

1. Install a pixel

Do this first. Even if you’re not ready to start advertising yet. A pixel is how your website communicates with Facebook. You know how when you search for something online, then for the next few days, that thing you searched follows you around? That’s because you were pixeled. Now, it’s time to start pixeling people so when you are ready to advertise, you can target a warm audience, not a cold one.

2. Give away a great offer

What does your audience want? Really want? When you have that figured out, create it! It could be something in the form of an eBook, a checklist, or webinar. Remember, our attention spans are a lot shorter than they used to be, so if you’re going to make someone click on something and take the time to leave their name and email address, it better be good. (There are many things you can offer depending on your business and your goal. For the sake of this blog post and video, we went with building an email list.)

3. Determine a budget

What are your business expenses monthly? Now, what can you take away to put towards Facebook ads or how much can you add? Monica suggests starting with a budget of $30-$35 per day.

4. Select your audience

This is the biggie. Remember we talked about the $30-$35 daily budget? To start, this amount should be distributed among a few different audiences. One audience could be a lookalike audience of your email list. Another could be website visitors we’ve found using the pixel. Another could be people who interact with your Facebook page. Another could be fans of a competitors page. The possibilities go on and on.

5. Create your ad

Now, you get to be creative. Monica suggests using an image that is bright and eye-catching. You can also use a video or a series of images in a carousel that explains the benefit of your offer. You can even turn a Facebook live into an ad. This is also something you can test after you know what audience is best. Just like choosing the highest converting audience, you can choose the highest converting ad.

6. Let the algorithm work

This means wait. After three days, you’ll start to get an idea of what’s working and what’s not. Monca says your first day will be a higher cost per click then the second day. Then, the numbers will get lower and that will help you refine your audience and ad to get the biggest bang for your buck. When you find that winning audience and winning ad, go all in and see the emails start to add up!

7. Build a relationship

Now that you’ve got prospects on your email list, it’s time to build a relationship with them. Be sure to let them know you are there to help and you have a lot more where that original freebie came from. After they get to know you a little better, this is the time where you can introduce some paid offers to your new, improved email list. Don’t forget to visit MonicaLouie.com/Christina to grab her guide that walks you through this process, step-by-step.

Facebook is the biggest social media platforms. The social media giant is rapidly becoming a force to be reckoned with in the marketing industry. Earning billions a year (Yes, you’ve read that right!) in advertising revenue, you can’t help but ask, who uses this service?

Since Facebook has many users all over the world, it has been the perfect stop for companies to advertise their products or services to a targeted audience. The social media platform’s massive reach attracts many big and small companies to use their ads because they make it cost effective and hassle-free.

Who Advertises on Facebook

Some of the biggest companies spending money on Facebook are:

• FORD
• McDonalds and Starbucks
• VISA and MASTERCARD
• Nike
• JPMorgan Chase and CITI Bank
• L’OREAL

There are thousands of giant companies who are not included in the list. Aside from these well-known brands, there are millions of small businesses that use Facebook advertising as well.

Facebook is a platform for everyone and everything. Local restaurants use Facebook to gain attention and the increase in online shopping is, in large part, thanks to the platform.

How to Advertise on Facebook

If you’re thinking only big companies can benefit in advertising on Facebook, then you’re wrong. Whether you’re just starting out with a small, medium, or a large scale business, Facebook ads are a great way to promote what you offer. If you’re strategic, you can turn your small-scale business to a popular and trusted brand worldwide.

Here are six easy steps to set up your first Facebook ad.

1. Choose your objective

Before anything else, you should know your advertising objective. It could be leads, or brand recognition, or anything that best fits the goal of the ad.

2. Select your audience

This is the most important step. Choose the demographics like age, location, interest, job title, etc. of the people you want to reach. If your audience isn’t right, the ad won’t work so really concentrate on this.

3. Decide where to run your ad

Whether it be on Facebook, Instagram, or the apps and websites in Audience Network – or across all of them, this is where you make you selection. After your ad start running, you can see how it’s performing across all these places.

4. Set your budget

This step is actually self-explanatory. All you need to do is set the duration of your advertisement and how much your daily or lifetime budget is.

5. Pick a format

In this stage, it’s your time to customize! You can choose to show a single image, a video, or multiple images. You can also choose to create a slideshow or canvas ad. This all depends on your preference and how you envision your ad. (Use a video – they convert the best!)

6. Measure and manage

Once your ad is running, you can keep track of its performance using the Facebook Ad Manager, Power Editor, or Business Manager. You can also some of its features to edit and adjust your campaign to get the most bang for your buck!

Obviously, there is a whole lot more to running ads than this, but these are the basics to get started.

Since the world is now connected through social media, people have tried to grow their presence online, both personally and professionally, by joining active social networks.

For marketers, Twitter is Godsend because it has a large base of active users, many of them in media tweeting.

Anyone can tweet, but not everyone can write a tweet that moves people to action. Also, few people possess the skill to write tweets that have a high click-through rate.

With this in mind, this guest blog post will give some killer tips to write tweets that have a massive click-through rate.

1. Ask Questions on Twitter

The use of questions is a great technique to attract more people with your tweet. It is almost second nature for people to respond with answers whenever a question is asked.

The answer may not be necessarily right or wrong, but the satisfaction of most people lies in the action of answering a question. People react to such opportunities with great zeal since it offers an avenue for them to give their views, perceptions, dispositions, thoughts and opinions on the matter at hand. Whenever you pose a question to someone, you automatically engage his or her mind. This engagement is what will ultimately earn that click, even if the issue that you’re asking might be commonplace.

In another sense, posing a question arouses curiosity. Your tweet may get lots of clicks by curious people who would possibly want to see the answers that have been prompted. Others just want to see what you are up to.

You can pose questions such as: “Does social media have any essence in content marketing?” The answer is yes… and it’s obvious. However, some curious people, even when knowing the answer, will just click through to see what you are getting at and what others are saying.

You can also ask viewpoint questions such as: “What’s your opinion on… ?” or “Any thoughts on… ?” A lot of people will automatically feel inclined to respond and will ultimately click your tweet to answer the questions.

2. Use Viral Words in Tweets

Of course, every marketer wants to use their own set of words to voice their brand. But sometimes, all that is needed for a tweet to have a massive click-through rate are strategic words that have mass appeal. These are the so-called ‘viral words’ which when used anywhere on Twitter, will elicit reactions from a large group of people. Thus, it makes sense for any person to use these words and phrases if they intend to spread their content.

When these words are used, it has been noticed that the number of retweets drastically increase.

The common characteristics of these words include:

• They tell people to perform a specific action. For example, see, look, hear, etc.
• They are generally in the superlative form, for example, the best, the ultimate, the clearest, the fastest, etc.
• They reference a certain audience. For example, them, you, etc.
• They explain or elaborate on a certain problem or process. Most of these start with the phrase “How to…”.

Social media strategists have also noted that the word ‘retweet’ is actually a viral word. When one asks their audience to retweet, they are bound to get a higher click rate than those who don’t.

3. Focus on Clarity on Twitter

At times, it doesn’t require high intellect to come up with a great tweet. Most marketers tend to sound smart by using some pompous words. They have the false perception that the use of jargon could impress and attract massive traffic. Every online marketer can relate.

Unfortunately, trying to impress with pomp and jargon never works. It makes you lose a massive following. The reason behind this is because most people will feel disconnected with your content. They may think that it is not relevant to them, so they’ll ignore it. You will also lose others since they initially got confused with your tweet.

Focus on being clear in your content. Use simple language that resonates with most of your audience. To ace this, use words and expressions that are used in daily conversations.

4. Employ Numbers and Data in Tweets

Numbers are considered to make statements more specific. To illustrate, let’s consider these two sentences:

A lot of money was used in the construction of the school.

The construction of the school cost $500,000.

The first sentence, even though is grammatically and logically correct, does not present any specifics of the monetary cost of the construction of the school. However, the second sentence is more specific and gives a monetary figure.

The same case applies to tweets. Let’s consider these two tweets:

“Tips to earn more money this month.”

“5 great tips to earn $ 900 in just 30 days”.

Which of the two do you think will have more clicks? The second one will for sure have more clicks. It stands out as it explains precisely how much money one stands to make and in what time frame. It is also quite enticing to any reader that might come across it.

When using numbers, ensure you place the actual figures without spelling it out. Your tweet is bound to have more impact when the numerals are used in place of words.

5. Include a Call to Action in Tweets

Every content needs a call to action for it to be considered complete. Your tweets are not exempt. They should have a clear call to action that shows the steps one needs to take to benefit from your proposition.

Also, people need to be told what to do sometimes. It isn’t right to assume that people know what to do. Others may have a rough idea; all they need is an affirmation. Therefore, tell people what you want them to do after reading your content.

For example, if you were promoting something that ultimately needed to be downloaded, ensure that your tweet expressly tells people to download it. To illustrate:

“Want a free nature wallpaper? Download it here…”

When writing a call to action, ensure that you do not place too many actions or offers. It may confuse people on the most probable action to take. Just write single actions, and you will see your click-through rates increase.

6. Use Short and Appropriate Hashtags on Twitter

Well, we cannot talk about tweets and forget to mention hashtags. Everyone on Twitter lives for these hashtags. They are more like movements and they take Twitter conversations to another level.

However, don’t just use any hashtag. Your objective is to increase the click-through rates of your tweet, hence, your hashtag should be a strategic one. The most followed hashtags are usually short and easy to follow along. Thus, you are better off using one that embodies these characteristics. You can use about two hashtags in your tweets to elicit more engagement from people.

You can also decide to leverage an existing hashtag. If you use an existing one, make sure that you are contributing to the conversation positively. Post relevant content that will genuinely add value to the already initiated conversation.

Leveraging social media platforms like Twitter is a great move that can guarantee marketing success.

 

This is a guest post by Christina Battons – a creative and content strategist who helps people and students succeed at self-education, writing, motivation, professional development and more by sharing her knowledge. In addition to contributing to other blogs, she writes at EliteEssayWriters.

If you’ve heard of Facebook custom audiences then you probably know how useful they are for business owners who use this social media giant to promote their products or services.

If you’ve never heard of it, a Facebook custom audience is created from a customer list or email list. It’s a type of audience you can create using your existing customers.

With this, you can also create a lookalike audience. The idea is to target people like the ones who have already done business with you.

Before you start creating your own custom audience, make sure that the customer file you plan to use is ready, like your email list for example. Now, let’s get started.

How to create Facebook Custom Audiences

Step 1:

In your Ads Manager, click “Create Ad”.  After you select what kind of ad you want to use, click continue. Depending on what kind of ad you select, you may need to answer a question or two before moving on to audiences.

Step: 2:

When it’s time to choose your audience, which is the most important aspect of creating a Facebook ad, click “Create Audience”, then select “Custom Audience” from the drop-down. You’ll notice you can also create a lookalike audience based on your customer list or email list here as well.

Note: You need at least 100 people to create a custom audience or a lookalike audience.

Step 3:

Upload the contacts you already have by clicking “Customer File” and adding your CSV file.

Step 4:

Follow the prompts. The first one will show you a green check mark. The green check mark means Facebook thinks it knows what type of data this is, but you can correct us Facebook if it’s wrong. This is what it will be using it as a basis to find people on Facebook.

The light orange exclamation point means Facebook is not sure what type of data this is or you’ve asked them to leave it out without matching.

The red exclamation point means the data type has been identified but the format can’t be detected. You may have to reformat the file in order to solve this problem or just tell Facebook to go on without it.

Step 5:

After Facebook is done creating your custom or lookalike audience, it will generate a list of next steps that you can use to get the most of the feature. You can continue to take the next steps immediately or move on to creating your ad.

Customer service has always been an integral part of any business due to the fact that, no matter the size or industry, businesses all have to deal with customers at some point – mainly for inquiries, concerns, complaints, or suggestions.

Years ago, customer service had to rely on the technology at hand, and they had limited capabilities on how the business could reach customers and vice versa. Personal meetings, snail mail, and telephone calls had been the only known form of communication between a business and a customer… and not all attempts to talk with the business and the customer were successful.

In the age of digital communication and vast technological advancements that has connected the world far wider than ever before, both businesses and customers are now able to communicate with each other more effectively, more efficiently, and with a reach that far exceeded what has been in the past decades. Gone are the days of when businesses had to stick with the old, time-consuming, and rather expensive methods of customer service.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Businesses can easily gain access to their customer base through #socialmedia.” quote=”Businesses can easily gain access to their customer base through social media.”]

Nowadays, businesses can easily gain access to their customer base through social media.

How to Utilize Social Media for Customer Service

In one JD Power survey of more than 23,000 online consumers, 67% of the respondents reported that they have contacted a company via social media for customer service. Reasons for this preference can differ, from the easy connectivity to the convenience of being able to leave messages at any time and be assured that the business will still receive it, even when they are currently off hours.

However, being present on social media alone is not enough. To utilize it effectively, a business must be careful regarding how they listen, and more importantly, how they respond to the questions and concerns of their customers. These factors are very important to consider, as a Gartner study found that companies who ignore support requests on social media see an average churn rate that’s 15% higher than companies who don’t.

Learn about how you can utilize social media to deliver great customer service, whether you’re just getting started or are taking your social care to the next level, with this infographic by Global Outsourcing AU.

Are you using hashtags when you post on social media? If your answer is yes, you should know how to maximize your hashtag exposure. If you don’t know how to gain the eyeballs of online traffic, these five hashtag strategies will help.

Before you understand the usage of hashtags, let’s learn what a hashtag is.

It’s a number or pound sign (#) used in tweets, for example, to engage in conversations and organize them in a simple and easy way. People use hashtags that are unique and not too common to avoid getting mixed up in other conversations.

5 Brilliant Ways to Use #Hashtags in Social Media Marketing

1.    Choose unique hashtags

Your aim should be reaching your targeted audience using a hashtag. Therefore, you must have a hashtag that is unique and not too common or simple. This will help you to stand out from a crowd and highlight your strategies. It could also assist in going viral on the internet while avoiding confusion with other same hashtags.

If you are running an event, webinar or Twitter chats, reaching a community is a must. Choosing a unique hashtag will make sure you are reaching your audience and are easy to find be your ideal audience.

Verizon Wireless is a company that knows how to choose unique hashtags that helps them stand out of crowd and be recognizable. When you search for #vzw, you will see a crowded tweet stream. Some people use this hashtag when talking about Verizon, so the brand makes sure to use the detailed hashtag for their webinars and other events.

2.    Hashtags must be easy to remember

Choose a hashtag that is easy to remember. With many hashtags being used in the virtual world, some people end up creating a hashtag that is not easy to pronounce or spell. Many users will end up using a wrong hashtag, defeating the purpose of using one.

3.    Spread hashtags on different social media platforms

Once you decide the hashtag that will be used for a campaign, make efforts to spread it across multiple social media platforms. Remember, the use of the hashtag is not just limited to Twitter but is also used on Instagram. This facilitates the user to target the specific audience on a variety of platforms.

4.    Research a hashtag before you start using it

It would NOT be worth the effort to use a hashtag for a campaign if the same hashtag is used for a different purpose by someone else.

This may be the case if you use a hashtag without proper research. Make it a point to search the hashtag to see if it’s being used already. If it is, what is the purpose? This will avoid hampering the campaign before it starts.

5.    Make use of effective hashtags in your social media strategy

When you use hashtags in social media marketing, it is important to make use of the right hashtags, in the right place, to reach the targeted audience in a positive manner. Who knows? Your campaign could go viral and be a great revenue generator.

 

This is a guest post by Ankur Aggarwal. Ankur is a Digital Marketer, Entrepreneur, Traveler, Blogger, and Foodie. He has multiple websites but IncomeBoy.com is his most recent venture. The purpose of IncomeBoy is to share accurate and genuine information about making and saving more money either online or offline in India. Write to him at contact@incomeboy.com.

Nailing your online marketing campaign is one of the best ways to put your business on the path to success. Yet, with so many avenues to choose from, where should you focus your efforts, and how do you ensure that you are reaching the right people?

For many businesses, whether they are brand new start-ups or larger firms seeking to establish an online presence, social media marketing is an important part of their marketing strategy. After all, the audience is already in place, well-connected, and ready to be engaged.

However, a poor social media presence can sometimes be worse than none at all. If your business has few followers, negative interactions, or stale content, it could be enough to deter a potential customer.

Rock Your Social Media Marketing

It is vital to hone your social media skills and make sure you are getting the most out of your marketing. Here’s how.

 

1. Choose Your Platforms Wisely

While it may be tempting to create a presence on every social media platform available, this is not always the best idea. By overstretching, you will offer a lower quality service across the board, with no guarantee that you’ll reach more people.

It is far more efficient and cost-effective to identify those platforms on which your target audience is most active. Tools such as Twitter Analytics and Google Keyword Planner are particularly useful for determining how and when people search for things related to your industry and on which platform.

By focusing your social media marketing on a select few channels, you will be able to give more time to your audience and create more valuable engagements with them. This is a great way to build trust, and show that your business is active, interested, and up-to-speed with modern media.

2. Plan Ahead

Every great marketing campaign begins with a plan. Not only do you need to know whom your product or service is aimed at, but also the specific message you want to deliver. Careful planning not only enables you to prioritize more effectively but also enables you to identify potential obstacles before you encounter them.

This can save you time, money, and reputation in the long run, as you will be able to take all factors into consideration when determining your schedule, budget, and short-term goals. You will also be able to develop an effective contingency plan, so if things beyond your control go awry, the rest of your hard work need not go to waste.

3. Advocate Employee Advocacy

Online consumers no longer want to deal solely with faceless enterprises. They are curious about the people behind the brand and they want to know their stories. This is where employee advocacy can be a particularly winning strategy.

Buyers are more inclined to trust recommendations from people rather than companies. Furthermore, when employees are seen talking positively and genuinely about the organization that employs them, it gives the impression that the business is fair, and enjoyable to work for.

Encourage your staff to share your brand’s content, give honest feedback about your products and services, and to give insights into the day-to-day happenings behind the scenes. This doesn’t mean giving away trade secrets, of course. But if a team member shares a snapshot of the new coffee machine or the view from their office on a sunny day, it adds to the humanity of your brand’s image, while also allowing your staff to be creative in their promotion of the business.

Take some time to set ground rules regarding what should and should not be shared, and keep track of which types of engagement have the most success. Over time this can even help to inform future marketing decisions, as you will have collected a valuable pool of data about a wide range of interactions.

 

4. Listen, Learn, and Evolve

At the heart of social media marketing lies the relationship between your brand and its audience. As such, your marketing campaign, along with your business itself, will need to grow and change in accordance with the needs of your customers.

Listen to feedback, and consider inviting followers to send in questions, or even participate in a live Q&A. If a popular suggestion is simply not viable for your business, don’t simply brush it aside and ignore it. Address the topic and explain your reasoning. You don’t need to go into great detail; your customers will appreciate your transparency even if they disagree with your reasoning.

You can’t please everyone, but the role of social media marketing is to enable your audience to feel that they are not only engaging with your brand but also helping to shape its future. This sense of agency is incredibly powerful when it comes to building trust and causing individuals to feel invested in your brand.

5. Embrace Automation

Of course, one of the things that make social media so appealing is the direct interaction between your customers and your business. However, no matter how great your team might be, they can’t be everywhere all the time. Yet if someone feels they have been ignored or neglected by social media, they will not only form a negative opinion of your business, they are also likely to be quite vocal about it.

Make sure your social media accounts state when someone will be available to respond, and consider setting up an automated reply for direct messages, informing the user of when they can expect a full response. This is especially helpful if you are using an automated content delivery system, which could cause followers to believe someone is active on the account when they are not.

Effective use of automation frees you and your team up to focus on creating more valuable engagements, starting conversations with your audience and fostering positive dialogue across your social media profiles.

6. Make It Amazing

This might sound elementary, but really this should be the foundation of your marketing strategy. Once you’re done your keyword research, pinned down your target demographic, and come up with the message at the heart of your campaign, you have all the tools you need to embark on a truly powerful marketing endeavor. 

However, the toughest part of marketing can often be ensuring that your message is actually seen. By targeting existing customers, incentivizing sharing, and making sure your social media presence is mobile and interactive, you can greatly increase your brand’s visibility.

Many platforms also provide an option to boost your content’s visibility for a fee. For example, Facebook advertising and sponsored posts allow you to reach people beyond your existing network. Moreover, the algorithms that determine when to show a particular ad or piece of content are extremely sophisticated. This means these additional views should come from individuals who are likely to be interested in what you have to offer.

Bear in mind that these ads may be a buyer’s first point of contact with your brand, so it is important to make it count.

There is no one-size-fits-all strategy for social media marketing. After all, its strength lies in its versatility as a means of truly expressing your brand’s personality. By engaging productively with its audience, your brand is able to develop a unique voice and identity, which your customers will come to recognize.

To remain relevant, your brand will need to keep up with the times. However, once you have established its identity, and gotten your team on board, this will soon feel intuitive. The early days are the hardest, but with perseverance, diligence, and enthusiasm for your cause, you will soon develop the following your brand deserves. It is simply onwards and upwards from there.

 

This is a guest post by Victoria Greene, a writer and e-commerce entrepreneur. When she’s not traveling back and forth between the USA and the UK, she’s geeking out on any new social media news she can get her hands on. She loves sharing her marketing experience with other entrepreneurs and gets a real kick out of helping people improve their businesses.

Aside from LinkedIn being the most popular and trusted social media platform to connect with people on a professional level, it also has many different features you may not be taking advantage of.

One of its features allows you to export contacts and download them as a CSV or VCF file. That includes contacts you’ve made while using the service, as well as any you have manually imported into LinkedIn. 

CSV files of your connections can be exported from the “Contact Settings” page on the LinkedIn desktop site by following easy steps below.

Note: Only the contact’s full name, email address, current employer, and position are exported.

How To Export Contacts From LinkedIn

1. Click the “My Network” icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.
2. Click “Your Connections” on the left side.
3. Click “Manage Synced” and “Imported Contacts” near the top right of the page.
4. Under “Advanced Actions” on the right side, click “Export Contacts”. (You may be prompted to sign into your account.)
5. Now, click “Request Archive”.
6. You will receive an email that will include a link to download your list of connections.

If you’re using Internet Explorer and you see a yellow pop-up blocker across the top or bottom of the page:

1. Click the yellow bar.
2. Select “Save As”.
3. Save the file in your desired location.

Keep in mind, the CSV and vCard formats don’t support all characters. As a result, Chinese, Japanese, or Hebrew are not supported.

You can’t currently export a list of your contacts that are not 1st-degree connections.

If you’re exporting your connections because you have a duplicate account, remember to close your extra account. To import your connections to another LinkedIn account, make sure you’ve saved the file in a location you can find, then follow the instructions for uploading contacts using a CSV file.

A list of your connections can also be downloaded by requesting a download of your LinkedIn account data.

LinkedIn is the place to be if you want to connect with people on a professional level. This social media platform offers a wide array of services you can use to help you build connections.

One of its great features is LinkedIn Premium. LinkedIn Premium gives you access to Premium features like InMail, premium insights on job postings, and the full list of “Who’s Viewed My Profile”.

However, if you decide to cancel your Premium subscription and return to a free Basic account, you can still keep your profile, connections, and other data without the extra services.

Should I Cancel Linkedin Premium?

I had a LinkedIn Premium membership for about a year. While the extra features were great, I just didn’t use them enough to justify paying for it each month. If you send a lot of inmail, if you do in-depth searches to find people, and if you love LinkedIn ProFinder, keep it. If not, it may be time to cancel and put that money somewhere else.

How To Cancel Linkedin Premium

1. Click on the “Me” icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.
2. Select the “Premium Subscription” setting from the drop-down menu.
3. Below “Account Type” on the left, click “Cancel Subscription”.
4. Choose the reason for your cancellation and click “Continue”.
5. Click “Cancel my Subscription”.

Canceling LinkedIn Premium on iOS:

You can cancel your subscription using your iPhone through the LinkedIn app.

Canceling LinkedIn Premium on an Android:

When this blog was posted, there was no option to cancel a Premium subscription directly through an Android device. You’ll have to access your account using your laptop or computer to cancel your subscription.

Things to Remember When you Cancel LinkedIn Premium

• To avoid being charged for the next billing period, you need to cancel at least one day before the billing date listed on LinkedIn.
• Cancellation will end billing and remove your access to any Premium features at the end of your current billing cycle.
• Your access to all accumulated InMail credits will be lost at the end of your billing cycle and can’t be granted back.
• If your Premium account was on a plan, promotion, or price that is no longer offered, you won’t be able to re-purchase that same plan again or re-purchase it at the promotional price.

Aside from being a great platform to find and connect with different people who share the same professional interests as you, LinkedIn also saves you the chance to search for jobs that have been posted by others on the site. It’s so easy to find a job that suits your set of skills and experience perfectly.

You can also increase the credibility of your LinkedIn profile with your academic and professional qualifications, skills, certification, achievements, and etc. So, if you’re someone who wants to start your career in a bigger and more professional scope, LinkedIn is definitely the way to go.

One of LinkedIn’s great features is that it allows you to upload your resume for other professionals to see and it’s only a few clicks away.

Personally, I haven’t done this before. Instead, I use LinkedIn’s template to input the information. I think this looks cleaner, but sometimes people want to save a PDF or just want it in a different format.

How To Add a Resume To Linkedin

If you’re interested in uploading a resume to LinkedIn, this should help.

1. Sign in to your LinkedIn account using a web browser.

Using mobile while trying to upload a resume can be a little tricky. For bigger jobs like this one, I suggest sitting in front of your laptop or desktop.

2. After signing in, click on the Profile menu from the menu bar at the top page.

3. On the profile page, click the down arrow and button located right next to the Edit Profile button.

4. When you find the expanded option, look for “Import Resume” and click.

5. After clicking, you will see a resume popup box then make sure to click the “Choose File” button.

Note: The resume you should upload must be in Microsoft Word, PDF, Text, or HTML format only and up to 500 KB in size. (Mac users – no pages!)

6. Now, look for the Open popup window and double click the resume file that you want to upload.

7. Then, click on “Upload” on the Import resume popup box.

8. On the area of Review Experience and Education interface, add the fields and modify the information according to your preference if and as required.

9. Finally, just click on the “Save Changes” button that can be found on the bottom of the save the changes area.

The popular professional social media site LinkedIn has a feature that lets you endorse a skill that can come in handy in meeting new professionals that have an interest in you and what you do.

How to Give and Receive LinkedIn Endorsements

Skill endorsements are a brilliant way to recognize and exhibit your skills without too much effort. This wonderful feature also lets your connections validate the strengths found on your page. This way, people can see your strengths and validation from other professionals.

This is a very simple and effective way of engaging your network, building and creating your professional brand, and increasing your credibility at the same time. 

Receiving Endorsements

If you already have a LinkedIn account and want to see if you have received any Skill Endorsements, all you need to do is scroll down to the Skills and Endorsement section that can be found on your own LinkedIn profile.

You can also add any skill to this section and when you accumulate a high number of endorsements for a skill you have in your profile, it will automatically increase your credibility.

Remember, you don’t need to ask someone to endorse you in order for you to receive an endorsement because you will be immediately notified via email when you receive an endorsement.

Giving Endorsements

Giving endorsements to your colleagues is a great way to give recognition to the skills you’ve seen them demonstrate. Endorsing your co-professionals can also help you keep strong connections and rapport with the people in your network. This can also result in having an easier reach to the people you endorsed because of the appreciation you’ve shown to them.

Because so many people use LinkedIn to start and execute business to business dealings, having endorsements that act as referrals for your entire network to see is a great thing.

Are we connected on LinkedIn yet? If not, click here!

Being one of the most popular social media platforms today, LinkedIn is the social media for professionals who want to showcase themselves as experts in their industry to other professionals.

It is a place where business owners, marketers, accountants and all the other professions in the world come together to connect, create new opportunities, and share ideas.

So, if you’re thinking about meeting new people who you can connect with professionally, LinkedIn is definitely for you… and LinkedIn Inmail credits will serve you well!

 

LinkedIn Inmail Credits

One of LinkedIn’s popular features is Inmail messages. Inmail messages are the messages you can directly send to other LinkedIn users even if you’re not connected to them yet. This of it as Facebook messenger or a DM on Twitter.

LinkedIn Inmail is a great feature because it widens your ability to start a conversation with people you think you can work with in the future.

If you have a basic LinkedIn account, or free, then you may need to upgrade to a Premium account to use Inmail whenever you want.

3 Ways to use LinkedIn Inmail Credits

Having the ability to send Inmail comes with a lot of perks. First, you can reach both passive and active job candidates on the LinkedIn network. Second, Inmail allows you to send messages, even if you don’t have the person’s email address. Third, can also track down the effectiveness of your Inmail to receivers so you won’t have to wait and guess about their level of interest.

These types of messages have a specific limit called Inmail credits that can change according to the subscription you’re currently in. You can also check your available Inmail credits in the top section of your “Manage your account” page.

Are we connected on LinkedIn yet? If not, click here.

Snapchat is a widely used social media platform. I remember when it first launched, I thought it was an app for kids to send dirty pictures to one another. Sad, but true. Now, it’s a little different.

It offers a wide range of filters that can make any selfie more fun and creative. (My kids love them!) The app also allows you to send snaps to specific friends or to all your friends and it disappear within 24 hours.

But, it’s not as user-friendly as other popular social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. It can be a little tricky. Due to its unique interface, many users have a difficulty in figuring out the whole magic of Snapchat and look for easy hacks to make the struggle easier.

Three Must Know Snapchat Hacks

Here are three of the best Snapchat hacks you need to know if you love snapping.

 

1. Use three different filters at the same time

You did not read that hack wrong. You can use three different filters in one picture. You can add a sepia filter, add your location, and current temperature if you want… and its very easy.

This is how you do it: Take a picture using the app as you would normally then swipe left pick your first filter. After choosing the filter you like most, hold your thumb anywhere on the screen to secure the first filter. After that, use your other hand to swipe through other filters and do the same thing you did on the first filter until you achieved the effect you want in your picture.

2. Add a background music to you snap

This is very easy to do and perfect if you want a little jam in your snaps.

This is how you do it: Open a music app on your phone you usually use and play the song you want in the background. Then, go back to your Snapchat and start recording.

3. Pin an emoji in a moving snap

Have you ever had a great snap, but was ruined by a photo bomber? If so, this hack is for you. You can add an emoji to a moving object you want to cover in your snap.

This is how you do it: Record a video from the Snapchat app. After filming, tap the emoji icon at the top of the preview screen and select the emoji you would like to add. Resize the emoji according to your preference. Tap and hold the emoji over the moving target. Hold it over the object you want to cover for a moment. Snapchat will then reload the video and the emoji will follow along the object you want it to cover.

For other Snapchat hacks, click here.

Happy snapping!

With the constant trend in changing social media handles, big companies like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook give you the ability to change your name according to how you want it. This is not the same case for Snapchat usernames.

Snapchat Usernames

Currently, the username on an existing Snapchat account cannot be changed, but if you really want to change your username, you can follow these simple steps.

STEP 1

Delete your old Snapchat account.

• Swipe down from anywhere on your screen. This will open your Snapchat account page.
• Tap the settings icon. (It’s in the upper-right corner of the screen.)
• Scroll down and from the “More Information” section, tap “Support”.
• Scroll down and tap “My Account and Settings” in the last section of the screen.
• Tap “Account Information”.
• In the center of the menu, tap “Delete My Account”. It will launch a new page explaining how to delete your account.
• In the second paragraph, tap the word “Page”.
• Enter your password.
• Tap “Continue” to deactivate it. It will be deleted after 30 days. If that scares you, don’t worry. You can reactivate your account if you change your mind by signing into Snapchat within 30 days of deactivation.

STEP 2

Create a new Snapchat account.

• Open the Snapchat App. If you’re not automatically logged in, enter your username and password.
• Swipe down from anywhere on your screen.
• Tap the settings icon. It’s in the upper-right corner of the screen.
• At the bottom of the menu, tap “Log Out”.
• Then, tap “Sign Up”.
• Enter your first and last name in the provided spaces.
• Tap “Sign Up and Accept”. Enter your birthday and tap continue.
• Enter your new username. Choose the new username you like carefully so you don’t need to repeat step one above.
• Enter an email address. The email address should be different from the one associated with your old Snapchat account.
• Follow the rest of the onscreen prompts. Here you can add new or old friends from your contacts.

I’m on Snapchat, but I don’t use it a lot. I do like to play with the filters though. I’m at @MediaMaven_CN. I don’t use that handle anywhere though. Maybe I should change it.

Perhaps, one of the most loved thing about Snapchat is its creative, interactive, and fun filters that can make any selfie experience anything but ordinary. These filters range from cute dog and cats to specific effects that sometimes associate with our favorite movies, tv shows, and cartoon characters.

[Tweet theme=”tweet-box-shadow”]Most people use #Snapchat because it’s hip, trendy, and it helps us look our best using some of its #filters.[/Tweet]

Most people use Snapchat because it’s hip, trendy, and it helps us look our best using some of its filters.

How to use Snapchat Filters

Because of Snapchat being new and having a different interface from other staple social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, many people still find it confusing – how to use Snapchat, then how to use Snapchat filters.

For those who don’t know how to use the Snapchat filters, worry no more!

STEP 1: Take a photo

To use a Snapchat filter, you’ll have to take a photo on either of your phone’s cameras on the Snapchat app and swipe left or right once you’ve taken the image.

Note: Before you take your picture, you can also wait for the face filters to load. Then you can choose between all of their animated effects that can detect your face movements and go along with it.

STEP 2: Choose your filter

After taking a photo, all you have to do is swipe right to look at the different filters available to you, including options that pull through the current time and your current speed.

There are also geofilters available to use for your pictures. These overlays cover famous locations and cities and/or events. Most big urban areas now have a filter of their own.

STEP 3: Send your snaps

When you’re finally finished taking the best photo, you can simply post it by clicking the blue arrow that’s on the bottom right corner of your phone. Then, you can choose “my story” to make it visible to all of your friends or choose a specific friend to send your snap.

There is no denying that Snapchat’s interface can be difficult to figure out especially if you’re new to the application. With its wide variety of fun and creative activities to do and share with your friends both publicly and personally, there is no denying that Snapchat is one of the most successful apps in this generation.

Still having trouble understanding how to use Snapchat? Luckily, I have a Snapchat tutorial and a video that will cover you here.

 

How do you Replay a Snap?

One of its unique functions that most people find hard to do is replaying a snap.

STEP 1: Update the latest version of Snapchat.

If you still have not updated your app, then you definitely should. The Snapchat versions 9.29.3.0 and later have a replay feature, allowing you to replay every snap once instead of limiting you to one replay of a certain snap a day.

STEP 2: Watch a snap you have received.

Before you can replay a snap, you have to watch it first by tapping into the message. If you have a couple of unopened snaps, it will automatically play continuously once you open one snap.

STEP 3: Don’t exit the Snapchat inbox immediately.

If you want to replay the snap sent to you, then don’t exit the inbox to your Snapchat camera because you will lose the chance to replay the snap. So, stay put!

STEP 4: Press and hold the snap you just finished watching.

All you have to do is press and hold the snap you just opened to see the snap icon refill and say “tap to view”. Just do what it says and then you can replay the snap!

STEP 5: Replay the snaps you received

Now, you can enjoy replaying the snaps you’ve received from your friends following the simple steps above.

Have fun snapping… and replaying snaps!

If you’re into taking fun and creative selfies and love to watch the day to day life of your favorite celebrities or even friends, then you will love Snapchat.

How to Use Snapchat

Snapchat is a social media app that allows you to take picture or videos with a wide variety of filters. It’s one of the most popular social media platforms today and has 150 million users worldwide.

But, if you’re new to Snapchat and confused with its interface or find it overwhelming, then consider this your personal tutorial.

[Tweet theme=”tweet-box-shadow”]If you’re new to #Snapchat, consider this your personal tutorial.[/Tweet]  

STEP 1: Learn The Snapchat Language

Before you can start posting pictures or videos, it is best to know the app’s language first. Some words have a different meaning, like:

Snap

A snap is a picture or video you can send to one or more people using the app. It will last 10 seconds and can be only be repeated to view once.

Stories

A story, or stories, is the section of Snapchat that lets you showcase your photos and videos to your friends. You can view your friends’ stories by swiping the Snapchat camera screen left.

Snapchat Score

Your Snapchat score can be found under your profile name and is based on all of the snaps you’ve sent and received.

STEP 2: Make Friends

Adding and accepting friends in Snapchat is as easy as 1, 2, 3!

To add friends

1. Click the ghost icon
2. Go to “Add Friends”
3. Search your friends using their username, names, or even snapcodes

To accept friends

1. Tap the yellow ghost icon
2. Go to your profile
3. Click on ”Added Me”
4. Tap the (+) sign to confirm

Step 3: Create and Send Snaps

1. Take a picture or video by tapping the circular button at the bottom of the screen. Tap it once for a photo or hold the capture button to record a video.
2. Use filters by pressing the image of your face on the screen.
3. After taking a snap, click the blue arrow icon on the bottom of the screen then select the contacts you’d like to send the snaps by checking the box beside their names.

Happy Snapping!

Thanks to social media, acquiring new customers and followers in geographical areas anywhere is possible today.

Social Media and its Impact on Sales

Whether it’s liking their post or tweets or replying to mentions and comments, social media platforms have taken customer experience to a whole new level. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and other networks have made it possible for many businesses to interact with their target audience with greater precision and accurateness. This brings their brand closer – at a more personal level – to consumers.

[Tweet theme=”tweet-box-shadow”]#SocialMedia brings your #brand closer – at a more personal level – to #consumers.[/Tweet]

Here are the key takeaways from the infographic below from Healthy Business Builder which presents the top actionable and effective social media selling techniques that you can implement in 2017.

1. Choose the social platform relevant to your prospects.

Identify which social media sites your target customers are spending their time with and create your profile.

2. Join or establish a community.

Create a persona your prospects will like and join groups where you can be a great provider of useful content related to the products or service you are trying to sell.

3. Connect with the right individuals. 

Find people who are talking about your brand, and start interacting with them.

4. List relevant companies and follow them.

Create a wish list of big brands you want to work with and follow their social media profiles. Keep track of their latest updates and news while interacting with them regularly.

5. Join a discussion.

Join relevant discussions and conversations to familiarize your audience with your brand.

6. Share relevant contents.

Provide in-depth case studies or premium white papers to help your target prospects see a better purchase decision.

7. Get the information you need, at the right time.

Turn on instant notifications to know when it’s the best time to engage with your prospects.

Following these tips, you will receive more qualified leads that convert into paying customers using only your business’s social media profiles. 

If you have never tried Periscoping for your business, it may be time to consider it!

Periscope Definition

Periscope, the live streaming app owned by Twitter, has completely evolved social media sharing. You can make the most out of your social media this year by learning how using Periscope can help grow your business.

What is Periscope

Periscope is an app that allows users to share and view live video broadcasts from their smartphone or tablet. The app was purchased by Twitter for $100 million in March of 2015. Viewers stream 350,000 hours of video every day. Over 200 million broadcasts have been created since its launch, with 10 million registered accounts and 1.9 million daily active users. [Tweet theme=”tweet-box-shadow”]#Periscope viewers stream 350,000 hours of #video every day.[/Tweet] Because of this, the app’s popularity and convenience make it a fantastic platform to promote your business.

How to Use the Periscope App

Using Periscope is simple and accessible. To sign in, you can use a phone number or a Twitter account. There are four primary tabs.

1. The first tab displays lists of people that the user follows that are currently “live” and a list of broadcasts that the user attended within the past 24 hours.

2. The second tab displays a list view and a map view of live public broadcasts the user can join.

3. The third tab is the broadcast booth.

4. The fourth tab shows the user’s profile and settings.

The first setting enables the user to turn notification on or off. 

The second setting enables the user to select preferred languages public broadcasts.

The third setting enables the user to save videos to a mobile device.

Broadcasting on Periscope… or Periscoping

Here comes the fun part – the actual live video streaming!

If a user has his or her notifications turned on, the user will be alerted to live broadcasts when someone he or she follows starts a broadcast, shares another user’s broadcast, or invites the user to a private broadcast.

In order to watch a live broadcast, select the list or map version of the global broadcast tab and touch an existing event. The broadcast will begin immediately, and comments in bubbles and hearts floating on the screen will appear from users along with the number of viewers on the lower right.

The same goes for replaying a broadcast, minus the comments and hearts.

To send a broadcast, select the broadcast screen and enable all three options and the setup screen will open. Choose all your settings, notify Twitter followers that the broadcast is starting, and begin the broadcast.

Why You Should Use Periscope for Business

Periscope creates a community between your business, loyal customers, and influencers. You’re able to interact with others by

• showing up regularly to their broadcasts,
• making insightful comments,
• asking intelligent questions, and
• sharing their broadcasts on social channels.

Periscope is also great for posting how-to videos. By Periscoping, or scoping, you’re able to demonstrate how to use a product, share tips on using it, and upload the video to YouTube after the live stream. Share product demos when launching a new product by

• sharing details with the audience,
• doing an interactive demonstration, and
• showcasing product features.

You can also share news in your industry with the online community before anyone has a chance to write about it, or build a mailing list by asking viewers to leave their email address in the comments to sign up for something great.     This is a guest post submitted by Farah Zamora, a journalism student at Florida Gulf Coast University.

It’s no secret social media has become one of the most popular forms of marketing in the world. Get ready, because these eight social media trends are sure to dominate 2017. If you want to see the amazing infographic that goes along with this post, just scroll down!

8 of the Newest Social Media Trends

[Tweet theme=”tweet-box-shadow”]These eight #socialmediamarketing trends are sure to dominate 2017.[/Tweet]

1. Live Streaming Video

Smartphones have made it possible for anyone to use their devices and capture live events, so they can bring their social media followers along with them. Social media networks like Twitter’s Periscope, Facebook “Live”, or Instagram’s Stories are making it possible for businesses to share their products and services with the world in real-time in a different, easy and personal fashion… and people love it!

2. Chatbots

Chatbots have made quite the sensation in 2017, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to stop. A chatbot is a computer program which conducts a conversation through auditory or textual methods. Some of the most popular chatbots are the ones that are embedded within Facebook Messenger. This nifty service is a great tool for improving customer experiences, retrieving data, and automating tasks with a personal touch.

3. Expiring Social Content

Snapchat has been popular for years. People love the concept of short-lived web content and it gained more popularity when “stories” were created. Many companies have adopted this method of marketing. With millions of active users, platforms like Snapchat and Instagram are great tools for getting content out in a fun, quick manner.

4. Merging of Social Media Platforms

You’ve seen it everywhere – different social media platforms coming together in holy matrimony. Facebook has WhatsApp, Instagram, and Oculus Rift. Twitter has Periscope, and Microsoft has LinkedIn. This year, keep an eye out for more tech and social startups trying to keep up with these trends. This is especially important for marketers because it will have a huge affect on the performance of the social media channels used to distribute content.

5. Harder Acquisition of Organic Social Traffic

Don’t you miss the good ol’ days when all you had to do to gain organic traffic was post updates on a regular basis? Now, most social media networks have changed their algorithms so that updates are no longer in chronological order, but based on relevancy. [Tweet theme=”tweet-box-shadow”]#Marketers can’t just rely on #socialmedia alone anymore.[/Tweet] Marketers can’t just rely on social media alone anymore. Now they have to pursue multichannel strategies to maximize their digital marketing campaigns.

6. Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

We’ve all seen the amount of popularity that virtual reality and augmented reality has gained in 2016. This year, there’s a good chance that Facebook will be the frontrunner of AR application in the world of social media with its experimental lenses and masks in Facebook Live. This will be an interesting trend to watch, as it provides a whole different experience for users worldwide.

7. More Personalized Content

In 2017, expect to see more personalized and relevant content and advertising delivery. The days of traditional advertising are fading away, and these new trends will help consumers call to mind a brand, and it will lead to interaction with the company on a more personal level.

Click here to pin this on Pinterest!

Facebook’s retargeting has become very useful for marketers because it makes it possible for them to craft advertisements and content based on the audience’s preferences and interests.

8. Increased Usage of Social Influencer

Many brands have turned to using “Instagram-Famous” influencers to create authentic content for their brand to gain prominence. After all, word-of-mouth has always been an effective form of marketing. This year, count on seeing more social media influencers working with brands. [Tweet theme=”tweet-box-shadow”]This year, count on seeing more social media #influencers working with #brands.[/Tweet] This infographic was shared from CJGDigitalMarketing.com. This is a guest post submitted by Farah Zamora, a journalism student at Florida Gulf Coast University.

The first rule of social media marketing is to have a presence on social networking sites. The second rule is to make sure your social media profiles are bustling with activity so that you improve engagement. [Tweet theme=”tweet-box-shadow”]Make sure your #socialmedia profiles are bustling with activity![/Tweet]

5 Best Social Media Monitoring Tools

There are several social media monitoring tools that can help you manage the activity of your accounts. Each tool is suited to certain tasks. Here are five tools any serious social media marketer should incorporate in their strategy.

1. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is one of the most popular social media marketing tools. (I use it!) It currently supports  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Google+. With Hootsuite, you can quickly plan social media campaigns and keep track of the latest trends. The company offers four plans; Professional, Team, Business and Enterprise, priced at $9.99, $34.99, and $99.99 monthly, respectively for the first three plans. The Enterprise plan is designed for large teams, departments, and regions and comes with a custom pricing structure. A summary of this tool’s features include:

• Ability to manage up to 50 social profiles
• Advanced analytics with data exports
• Publishing approvals
• Unlimited app Integrations
• Unlimited social campaigns
• Multiple custom branded URLs
• Platform & social marketing certifications
• 24/7 priority support
• Extended 1-on-1 training

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2. Buffer

Buffer is all about simplicity. It is a simple tool with an easy learning curve to help you schedule your posts. It will save you a lot of time! Many people are extremely busy with businesses to run, so scheduling posts is a great idea so you don’t have to worry about updating daily… or multiple times a day. In addition to the web application, Buffer is also available as an iPhone/iPad App and also an Android App. There are three plan options. The free plan allows one user you to manage one social media account at Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and Instagram. They also have a paid plan for individuals priced at $10 monthly and an Enterprise plan that comes with custom pricing.

3. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is hands down the best social business networking platform on the planet. It is a great place to find leads and to establish yourself as an industry expert. Unfortunately, most marketers only use the free version of LinkedIn. If you really want to improve your connections and generate more leads, you must upgrade to the premium version. It’s really is worth every cent. With the premium version, you can accomplish a number of things like,

• InMail messages
• Advanced search filters
• Unlimited searches in your extended network
• A lead-builder tool, lead recommendations and real-time insights on existing accounts and leads

4. Commun.it

Commun.it is one of the easiest ways to drive traffic, increase engagement, grow followers and likes, and save time on social media. It currently has over a million users and is available on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Some of the features include:

• Managing your Twitter relationships
• Managing multiple profiles and schedule posts
• Focusing on your influencers and customers
• Know who to follow and what content to share
• Free Twitter analytics

Commun.it has a free plan and four paid plan options. The business plan goes for $24.99 per month and allows you to manage eight Twitter profiles, has 60 days access to reports, 40 monitored items, and unlimited engagements. It also offers a 14-day money back guarantee and if you’re not 100% satisfied.

5. ManageFlitter

With ManageFlitter, you can track the people you follow on Twitter. This is especially useful if you follow a large number of people. Tracking people you follow manually can be quite tedious and cumbersome. It also shows you the people who you’ve followed who don’t follow you back, are inactive, have no profile image and much more. When building up your Twitter account, one of the best tactics is to follow relevant people. Relevant people are more likely to follow you back. But, finding relevant people can be a daunting task without a tool like ManageFlitter. It’s search tools allows you to dive deep into the Twitter universe, filter by followers, keywords, location, account age and many more criteria.

Why You Need Social Media Monitoring Tools

Generating a positive buzz on social media builds your credibility and brand. These are some of the best social media monitoring tools to help you get the most out of your marketing efforts. [Tweet theme=”tweet-box-shadow”]Generating a positive buzz on #socialmedia builds your #credibility and #brand. [/Tweet] There are hundreds of other tools but these five have established themselves as among the best in the industry. This is a guest post submitted by Tim Hamilton at Find Media Partners.

I’m not a huge fan of selfies, but of course, I take them! Who doesn’t?!

The key to a great selfie (besides looking good) is what’s happening in the selfie.

But first, lemme take a Selfie

Unless you’re using a fun Snapchat filter or showing off a new hat, I really don’t understand the look at the camera and smile selfie, that’s captioned with “Happy Monday” or “Off to work!” Selfies are a big part of social media and social media is a big part of marketing. In marketing, I believe everything you do should be strategic… and that includes your selfies and selfie marketing campaigns.

Selfie Marketing Campaigns

If you’re going to take a selfie, take it for a reason. [Tweet theme=”tweet-box-shadow”]If you’re going to take a #selfie, take it for a reason.[/Tweet] I love the idea of a restaurant or bar having a “selfie contest” with a customer posing with their favorite food or drink. Then, the customer can upload it to Instagram, tag the restaurant, and use a certain hashtag. The best selfie could win a free meal once a week for a year… something like that! Now, there is an incentive to take a selfie! Then, if you use it in future marketing materials, the selfies, tags, and hashtags will overflow. Try it! If you are a small business owner, try to implement a selfie marketing strategy. I mean, it worked for Ellen at the Oscars.

The Selfie Trail

One business using selfies for a reason is Discover the Palm Beaches. In case you haven’t noticed, a lot of marketing content is user generated content. It’s what people want to see, so yes, your selfie counts.

Click here to pin this on Pinterest

On a little something the Palm Beaches is calling “the selfie trail,” you help promote Palm Beach County with pictures of yourself in popular tourist destinations across Palm Beach County. The Selfie Trail features 30 of the county’s most photo-worthy spots, but I’m all about adding some to the list. (Have you seen this place?! There is a hot spot on every corner!) When I was having lunch with a friend on Worth Ave., I jumped on the #SelfieTrail and helped promote the Palm Beaches on Instagram. I think selfie marketing campaigns are genius for a few reasons:

1. People are already taking selfies, so why not use them?
2. When a business shares an image from an outsider, the outsider will re-share -leading to even more exposure.
3. For followers of the users generating content, and the business, it’s a learning experience – seeing new things, from a new person, in a new way.

Now, how are you going to use selfies to promote your business?

The topic of Facebook ads cost is a popular one. Nearly every business, small and large, is turning to Facebook ads… and why not? Even if you think your audience isn’t on Facebook and they’re on Instagram instead, guess what? Facebook owns Instagram! Not to mention the low budgets you can set, specific targeting, etc. It’s the only advertising I do.

Facebook Ads Cost

Yes, you can set low budgets! So many people ask, “How much do Facebook ads cost?” The answer is as much as you want them to! Yes, Facebook ads pricing is completely up to you. [Tweet theme=”tweet-box-shadow”]So many people ask, “How much do #FacebookAds cost?” The answer: As much as you want them to![/Tweet] There is just one catch. You need to commit to one dollar a day. Just $1.00! When Facebook changed its algorithm and started making you pay for your content to show up in newsfeeds, I started boosting posts.

Boosting Posts

It seemed easy enough. The “boost post” button was right there and choosing who you wanted to boost it to was pretty easy – just pick your target location, your audience’s interest, and your budget. It’s easy enough, but it’s not the most effective Facebook ads choice… and you have a lot of choices. Instead of booting a post, you should create an ad, but what kind? There are so many – promote your page, increase brand awareness, get video views, collect leads, increase conversions, promote a product, etc. So how do you know what’s right? Well, first you need to ask yourself what the purpose of the ad is. What do you want people to do when they see it on Facebook? Is it to get more likes? Get more traffic to your website? Collect email subscribers? Use a pixel to retarget later? (Don’t know what a pixel is? It’s your money maker. This is why.) Decide what you want. That’s step one.

Types of Facebook Ads

From there, you will select the best objective based on your goal. Because there are so many options, you may need to dig deep here. Do you want more likes on your Facebook page? Why? To get more leads? Then, you want more leads, not more likes.

Click here to pin this on Pinterest!

For me, I want to convert people. I want you to go from a Facebook viewer to a Facebook action taker. For this reason, I almost always choose to increase conversions on my website. I want people to go from Facebook, to my website, and take a certain action. I like to see what’s working and what’s not working, so I need to see numbers. [Tweet theme=”tweet-box-shadow”]I like to see what’s working and what’s not working, so I need to see numbers. #advertising[/Tweet] You’re able to see a cost per engagement. The term “engagement” is pretty broad. It could mean a like, share, comment, click, etc.

Successful Facebook Ads

If you want more specifics, you want to know the cost per conversion. The “increase conversions on your website” option really breaks down how much you’re spending to get that email address, webinar sign-up, or whatever your objective is. Based on that information, you can see what’s working and what’s not. Maybe you need to tweak your audience, your wording, your image, your video, etc. Facebook ads are like a science. It kills me when people say they hire their nephew on spring break to manage their Facebook account for this reason. Just understanding how to create an ad, then test it to get those most of it takes a lot of learning and understand. [Tweet theme=”tweet-box-shadow”]#Facebook ads are like a science.[/Tweet] Luckily, Facebook shares all of that information here, but make time to read it all. Like I said, it’s a lot.

Want to know something kind of nuts? Over 90 percent of my social media traffic comes from Pinterest. Yes, Pinterest. The social media app that you use to pin outfit ideas, motivational quotes, and recipes (that, if you’re like me, you’ll never try). Except Pinterest isn’t really a social media platform anymore and people aren’t just using it to waste time save inspiration and ideas.

5 changes you can make today to get more traffic from Pinterest

Pinterest is actually a search engine. More and more people are skipping Google to find what they need on Pinterest. You can type any phrase or keyword and something useful (usually many somethings) will pop up, which means Pinterest is a great traffic-building strategy for any niche. [Tweet theme=”tweet-box-shadow”]Pinterest is actually a search engine. People are skipping Google to find what they need on #Pinterest. [/Tweet] To help give you a head start on boosting your traffic from Pinterest, here are five things you need to update on your blog to help your posts be pinned, re-pinned, and clicked.

1. Image sizes

Pins need to be tall. Period. Because this is the norm, pins that are horizontal or square just don’t take up enough real estate to be effective. The more pins get re-pinned and clicked, the more often they’ll show up on Pinterest. Small images end up being ignored. The best size for a tall image will be somewhere around 800x1200px. If this doesn’t work with your blog design, you can always add a hidden image by using this code. This way it won’t show up right in your post, but when people click to pin they’ll have the option to use that image. See?

2. Image design

There is A LOT of content on Pinterest, so it’s important to create images that stand out. Choose a photo for the background instead of patterns or colors and add large text and enough white space to separate your pins from everything around them. Thin, small, or script/handwriting text can be difficult to read and will keep your pins from getting clicked or shared.

BONUS: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A FREE PINTEREST CHECKLIST TO MAKE SURE YOUR PINS ARE PRIMED TO BECOME POPULAR

3. Image descriptions

The description on your pin is searchable, so it needs to describe exactly what your post is about and include relevant keywords. Adding a description to your alt text ensures that when readers go to share your content, the description YOU want included with the pin shows up. Don’t leave this up to your readers. If you skip adding a description, Pinterest will grab your image’s title, which might be something like emaillist123.jpg. That is not going to garner many clicks or re-pins!

4. Share buttons

There are three problems I run into when going to share other people’s blog posts . . .

1. They only have share buttons at the bottom of a blog post.

What if someone only reads to the middle of your post? What if they just scan for relevant information? Are you really going to bank on them making it all the way to the bottom in order to share your stuff? Sharing needs to be beyond effortless so adding buttons to the side of your post, that stay glued to the screen as they scroll, is the best way to not only remind them to share, but make it a two second process. (I use SumoMe.com share buttons for this.)

2.  They have six different sets of share and follow buttons.

Here’s the thing, adding too many buttons or share options and leaving it up to the reader to discern what is what is probably going to net you ZERO shares. One set on the side of your posts and one set at the top and/or bottom is enough. Make it obvious and easy and I guarantee you’ll see a boost in share numbers almost immediately.

3. They have share buttons all over their site.

Share buttons should only show up on content that is beneficial to share (aka blog posts). If your share buttons show up on the homepage or archive pages, pins will link to those pages. Personally, my homepage only displays my three most recent posts, so if someone clicks that pin in six months the post they were looking for is going to be long gone. Adding share buttons only to your blog post pages guarantees that every pin links back to the correct information. (Generally, you can adjust this in your share button settings)

CLICK HERE: HOW MUCH TRAFFIC ARE YOU MISSING OUT ON? GRAB MY FREE CHECKLIST TO MAKE SURE YOUR PINS BECOME POPULAR

5. Pinning more often

Lastly, you probably need to be pinning way more often than you think. I’m pinning around 30 pieces of content every day (which is on the low side of what you could be sharing). In order to not spend my entire day on Pinterest I use the scheduling app TailWind (tailwindapp.com) to schedule content in advance. This way I can spend a few minutes each day pinning content from my own blog and from other blogs and TailWind takes care of the rest. Because I’ve created lots of my own boards and joined a bunch of group boards, most of my blog posts will be pinned to about 20 boards over the course of two or three weeks. With these adjustments to your blog design, your post design and your pinning strategy you’ll make it easier for others to share your content and start boosting traffic from Pinterest in no time.

Yes, there’s more!

If you’d like even more Pinterest strategy feel free to join my Pinterest Powerhouse e-course to learn how I use Pinterest to choose pinnable blog post topics, create and join group boards to grow my audience, and turn all that blog traffic into email subscribers!     This blog post was contributed by Sarah Morgan – a digital strategist teaching creatives, bloggers and small business owners to build a kick-ass online presence. In 2012 she escaped the clutches of a corporate web design job to run away with the circus (literally!) and strike out on her own. She strives to help people build a home online that not only provides a stable income but fuels their passion for what they do without busyness and stress getting in the way. Check out all of her blog-building secrets at XOSarah.com and on social media @xosarahmorgan.

If you are in business to business sales or marketing, you should be using LinkedIn to grow your business. Social media channels like Facebook and Twitter are great to show potential customers and clients you have an online presence, but with B2B, you can start a conversation and close a deal on LinkedIn… if you use it right. [Tweet theme=”tweet-box-shadow”]If you are in #B2B sales or marketing, you should be using #LinkedIn to grow your business.[/Tweet]

Here are seven FREE ways to use LinkedIn to Grow your Business

Creating an all-star profile

First things first… and that means your profile. Thankfully, LinkedIn tells you what’s working and what’s not working as you create your profile with the “profile strength” circle. What makes for a great profile? Well, a few things.

    1. Pictures. You have two spots for pictures here. One is a professional picture of you. When I say professional, I mean don’t pose with your dog. (The only time that’s okay, is if you’re a vet.) I suggest a standard headshot that shows what you do professionally if you can show it. Then, there is the commonly forgotten cover photo. In mine, I placed my logo on either side. I did have another image in the middle, but it wasn’t compatible on mobile. Your cover photo will look different on a desktop vs. a mobile, so before deciding on one, make sure it looks centered on both devices.      2. Your professional headline. This is probably the most important part of your entire LinkedIn page. I suggest making your headline eye-catching and exciting. Many people have titles that sound complicated… or need further explanation. For example, if you’re an “account executive” or “support manager,” I’d elaborate a little more so when someone sees your headline, they can visualize you at work and how you can help them.      3. Summary. This shouldn’t be too short, but it also shouldn’t be too long either. Some people prefer bullet points while others like to write this section in sentence form. This is no right or wrong way, but I think of it as an elevator pitch. Here, you want to tell prospective clients you can solve their problems and this is how and why you are the person for the job.      4. Posts. The post section is like your blog… but it’s your blog on LinkedIn. While your LinkedIn profile exists for you to promote yourself as an expert in your industry, the post section lets you take it one step further by offering your expertise to help others who may stumble across your post. How can someone find it? Well, after you write your post, spell check it and add a picture, you can add up to three tags. I usually use tags like “public relations,” “media relations,” and “public relations and communications.” Depending on the post, those tags may change. Just by using this method, I’ve earned public speaking opportunities and have been published in industry trade publications.      5. The rest. While it is time-consuming, you should not skimp on completing the rest of your profile. Some of it shows up at the top as an abbreviated version – like your current employment, work history, education, etc. Don’t forget to include your skills, organizations you’re involved with, volunteer work… the list goes on – and it is all important to creating an all-star profile.

Searching for leads

LinkedIn offers a great “advanced search” tool. It’s right at the top of the page, just to the right of the search bar. You don’t have to be a premium member to use this. As a premium member, you can really advance your search, but the free version works well too. I think it’s best to start by clicking “2nd connections” under the “relationship” tab. This way, you aren’t only connecting to someone who knows a person you’re already connected to, but you are allowed to add them as a connection. When you make your way down the relationship tab, it’s more difficult to grow your connections. On the left-hand side under “people,” you can narrow your criteria to exactly what you’re looking for by using keywords, the person’s title, company, or even someone in your zip code. It’s not just people you can search. You can also look for leads for jobs, through companies, in groups, by industry, etc.

Discovering who’s interested in you

Just like you can view other people’s profile’s, LinkedIn shows you who’s viewed your profile as well. With the free version, you can only see so much of this information, but still, sometimes that little bit is all you need to make a connection. You can find out who’s viewed your profile, who’s read your posts, and even how you rank for profile views among your connections. The most useful part of this feature, in my opinion, is to see who’s viewed your profile. This is where creating an all-star profile comes into play. I look at the person’s picture and professional headline to decide if I want to click on their profile to learn more. If I do, I’ll take a look and see if he or she looks like an ideal client of mine. If so, I’ll send a message and open it with, “Hi. I noticed you stopped by my page this week. I was just looking at yours too and noticed…” But beware! There are many lurkers on LinkedIn as well. I have clicked on a person’s profile after seeing they’ve viewed mine only to find a lot of my information copied and pasted to their page. It happens. If and when it does, you just have to take it as a compliment and continue doing business on LinkedIn, ethically.

Including a call to action

If you have created an all-star profile, your call to action should already be in place. If you want people to call you, is your phone number easy to find? What about your website? Or your email address? There are a few ways to post this information. One is right at the top of your profile under “contact information.” You can also give connections another option in the “additional info” section in your profile. It can’t hurt to use both. After all, with websites, emails, phone numbers, and countless social media channels, we have lots of ways to drive people to a specific call to action.

Asking for recommendations

Recommendations on LinkedIn is just like your references on your resume, expect you don’t need to call them and ask questions. It’s all right there! After you’ve created your all-star profile, you should have at least four to five different places of employment. Hopefully, you’re connected with some professionals you worked with at those businesses. If you are, you can click the button that says “ask to be recommended.” LinkedIn will prompt you to select how you know that person. Then, that person will get a notification you’re asking for a recommendation. After they write something nice (hopefully) it will be placed on your profile for all to see.

Using your news feed

Your news feed is what you see as soon as you log on. It’s the homepage and it’s news you choose to see based on who your connections are and the groups you follow. It’s no different from Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram… but it’s all business related (or should be). Just like on those social media platforms, it’s important to interact with your connections in your newsfeed. Like, comment, and share content you appreciate and is relevant to your business. You may notice some posts from people you aren’t connected to or companies you don’t follow. These are sponsored posts that you may be interested in because the person behind the advertisement targeted you.

…and what I don’t do

When you’re using LinkedIn to grow your business, don’t try too hard. That’s when it doesn’t work for you. Some things I’ve noticed, that I don’t like…

• Right after a connection is made, the person who requested the connection doesn’t wait longer than five minutes to send a message with a sales pitch. We’re not on LinkedIn to be pitched left and right. We’re on LinkedIn to build relationships with like-minded people, and if relationships develop through strategic interactions, then maybe a sale will be made… eventually.
• Automated messages on any social media platform drive me nuts. Usually, it’s a person asking for a sale, but once it wasn’t. Yes, once.

Brandon Gaille with The Blog Millionaire is the only person I’ve seen automate messages perfectly. In his automated response after following him, he asks to help you, then he tells you how he can do it, and he actually does it. He is offering value by taking time out of his day to help you one on one. Guess what? That turned into a sale for him. About a month later, I shelled out $400 to him to help me with some business coaching.

• I don’t have time read long messages on any social media platform, so I wouldn’t recommend opening a conversation with more than three to four sentences. Sometimes, I get messages that are so long, I don’t even start to read it.

Here is an example of all of these things wrapped up into one: I’m not sure if this is an automated message, but to give this woman the benefit of the doubt, I’m going to assume it is. Not only did this message come right after a connection was made, but it’s too long, and this person is pitching me with a sale… to do exactly what I do! If she took three minutes to look at my profile, she would have seen that we would be great collaborators and possible referrers for one another. Maybe a message like, “Hey, I’m so happy to connect and see we do similar things so probably have the similar clientele. We should get together…” Instead, she’s trying to do too much at once, and by doing that, she isn’t really doing anything. Just like any other job, but especially with public relations and social media, being strategic is vital. Yes, it takes more time, but you will have a lot more success when you take the time to do things personally, with meaning, and an end goal in mind.  

Just like any other job, but especially with #publicrelations and #socialmedia, being #strategic is vital. pic.twitter.com/21LGSrOewR

— Christina Nicholson (@MediaMaven_CN) August 2, 2016

Do you have any success stories of using LinkedIn to grow your business? Are we connected? If not, click here to connect.    

For marketing your business online, Facebook is perfect because nine times out of 10, it’s where all your buyers are and the targeting that can be done is amazing. That’s why I love Facebook, but it has changed in the last year or so and has made things a little challenging for business owners, hence why I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. As I explain, I’ll show you some examples with images from my own Facebook page.

Facebook limits your reach.

Before, you could post anything on a fan page, or business page – whatever you want to call it, and everyone would see it. Now, Facebook only shows certain posts to people who it thinks wants to see it. If it seems promotional, for example it includes a link to your website or has text like “buy,” it will limit your reach even more. Take this post for example. I have more than 6,400 likes on my page, but Facebook has decided to show this post to just 184 people. It’s shared from a very popular page, features the star of a national TV show, includes four tags, and is getting lots of engagement on my page, but still, Facebook makes it visible to ONLY 184 people in my feed. This is the most frustrating part of Facebook as a small business owner and social media manager. At the bottom of the post, you can see Facebook suggests I boost the post to get more results. That’s why Facebook is not a free platform for these kinds of pages. (And why it’s worth more than 18 billion dollars.) To reach people on Facebook, you need to boost posts and/or create ads. Facebook makes it very easy to target your audience this way. For example, I could choose to boost this post so only people who like the show I Am Jazz see it, to only people who care about LGBT issues see it, or only people in my geographical area see it. You can also choose a budget for as little as $1 a day to much more. When you choose your budget, Facebook gives you an estimate of how many people you will reach. You can play with these factors (audience and budget) to reach a higher amount of people. In my experience, three kids of posts work best when it comes to the amount of people you reach – pinned to the top, videos, and Facebook live.

• This is an example of two – a video that I pinned to the top of my Facebook page. Normally, posts just appear in a feed, then they are gone. When you pin one to the top of your Facebook page, it will always be seen when someone visits your page, thus increasing your reach.
• Videos get more reach just for the simple fact they are videos and that’s what people want to watch online. This video will automatically start playing when you visit my page. To hear the audio, you just make one click or tap. In this post, you can see the organic reach is the lighter orange and the reach that I paid for by boosting the post is the darker orange. The little orange tag in the top right just shows it’s been pinned to the top of my page.

• This is an example of Facebook live… well, more like a screen grab of it. It reminds me of when I would do live shots in news. It’s just a live recording of what you’re doing at that time. Like a post, you can still check in to a location, type some text, then hit record and create your live video. People who follow you and are on Facebook at that time will get a notification you are live, can watch, and even interact with you by commenting. When you’re done, the “live shot” just stays on your page like any other post.

Okay, now that I’ve described the basics regarding my love/hate relationship with Facebook, let’s get into a little social media management 101.

As I mentioned, it’s important to use tags on Facebook.

(Hashtags don’t work too well on Facebook. I’d save those for Twitter and Instagram.) When you check in or tag another page, it will get a notification and may respond which could also increase your reach. This is also why it’s important to react to every comment you receive on your page. (It’s called social media… so be social!) [Tweet theme=”tweet-box-shadow”]Hashtags don’t work too well on #Facebook. I’d save those for #Twitter and #Instagram via @MediaMaven_CN.[/Tweet]

It’s also important to have a goal when you create an ad.

You will have a variety of call to action options when creating an ad. In my opinion, the most commonly used are the top four you see on this list. When you choose the option to increase conversions on your website, you can add something called a pixel to your website so when someone visits your site, it sends a message to the Facebook ad to target them again… because research shows that if you see the same thing 6, 7, or 8 times, you will buy it.

Speaking of call to actions, make sure your homepage has one.

You can create a button on your cover page to ask your audience to do something. This is an example of mine. I want people to sign up for an online course. I also created my cover page photo to show this with an arrow. Many people see this image on a phone, so you will need to make sure it looks centered and works on a phone as well. [Tweet theme=”tweet-box-shadow”]Don’t focus on promoting your business when you post. Instead, focus on entertaining your audience.[/Tweet]

Finally, don’t focus on promoting your business when you post.

Instead, focus on entertaining your audience. I use the 70/30 rule – 70% for my audience, 30% promotional… but it’s all brand appropriate. Take a look at this post. I’m not talking about me or what I do. Instead, I’m sharing some nice pictures of a meet-up I did with others in my industry. And do you see the great engagement and little reach?! 52 people out of 6,400+. (Come on Mark Zuckerberg!) …and just when I think I’ve got my finger on it, this one gets a higher than an average reach. It’s a video of Mr. Bean dancing for crying out loud!

If you are a business owner, the inventor of a product, or have a brand – maybe you are your brand, you must be on social media. I recently explained to one of my social media clients, a personal account compared to a business account is like night and day. You really can’t compare the two, so don’t compare apples to oranges if you’re on the fence about getting your business on Facebook.

Social Media Marketing for Small Business

What started as social networking has turned into social media marketing for small business. It is a necessity. [Tweet theme=”tweet-box-shadow”]#SocialMedia allows you to promote your #brand and #communicate w/ customers while bringing in new ones.[/Tweet]

Social media is a powerful tool that allows you to promote your brand and communicate with customers while bringing in new ones in real time. It’s an amazing customer service tool… if used correctly. If not, it has the potential to break your business.

Click here for more on why it’s important to choose your social media manager wisely.

Your business needs social media for a lot of reasons, but here are my top five:

Communication.

You need to be able to communicate with your current and potential customers. This is the best way because it’s so accessible. It’s also great because others can see that communication, unlike in an email or on a phone call. Show off your skills as a business that cares about communicating with customers.

Accessibility.

When Facebook launched, it was only accessible to college students. That’s when I joined. Now, everyone is on it, so your business should be on it too. Every generation is represented. Name a demographic and you can target them and reach them through social media.

Customer Service.

In my opinion, great customer service is the most important thing any business can offer. If I loved a product but found the customer service to be bad, I’m not going to be a repeat customer. It’s that important! With social media, you can respond quickly to customers questions, concerns, and needs. You’re not only building a relationship with customers, but others are seeing that as well.

Transparency.

In my opinion, this is the best part and why social media works so well. It’s also when things can get ugly… so again, choose your social media manager wisely. If you see a company responding quickly to customers concerns online, then you see a company who ignores customers concerns… which one are you likely to choose? Every time I go out to eat, I tweet or instagram a shout out to the restaurant. Some respond right away. Others never do. (Bad move.)

Relevant.

In 2016, it’s expected your business has two things: a website and at least one social media account (depending on your business.) It shows you are active, you are busy, you are engaging… and you are relevant because you are online and you are online where it matters. Remember when I said your business account is not like your personal account? This is exactly why you don’t want to hire your niece to post on your behalf while she is on summer vacation. If you are going to spend the time and money (yes, time and money) to market your business on social media, you need to have a strategy that will give you a return on your investment. Do not hire someone to post once a day and call it a day. Again, it’s not a personal account. It’s a business account for social media… something that should be making you money! Today, social media marketing for small business is one of the most important pieces of marketing you need to pay attention to. Do you want to promote your brand? You can! Sign up for my online course to learn how you can by doing PR yourself. Click here to master your PR. For more, or try a bit out for free, e-mail me at Christina@MediaMavenAndMore.com.

If you care about your career or you want to grow your business, chances are you are on LinkedIn. If not, you should get an account. Here, you will create and grow relationships with people in your industry, build your credibility by creating and sharing professional content, and expand your reach when it comes to earning new and more business. There is no better place to promote yourself and what you do! Here are five tips on getting the most out of your LinkedIn page, whether it be your personal page or your company page:

Complete your Profile.

First things first. Fill in as much of your profile as you can. You want to be found, and when you are found, you want to blow people away! So, don’t use a picture of yourself at a bar as your profile picture. This isn’t Instagram. Keep it professional. Go back as far in your work history as you can and share as much of your expertise as you can. This is your resume!

Blog on LinkedIn.

On LinkedIn, it’s called “posts” not “blogs”, but it’s basically the same thing. I believe blogging is important for any business to do on its website. (Hello! That’s why you’re reading this here!) The same goes for a person on LinkedIn. Use these posts to show your network you are an expert in your industry and to further promote your brands message. Educate and entertain. Don’t forget to include a nice picture to go along with the post and to include three tags at the bottom of your post. These tags will help your post be found by professionals searching that topic.

Ask for Recommendations.

You can talk about how great you are all day, every day, but when someone else does it, it means so much more. That’s the power of public relations! You need to be part of this “word of mouth” marketing strategy to get a referral. LinkedIn makes it easy to ask people in your network for these referrals. Once someone says something nice about you and how you operate professionally, it’ll be on your page for all to see!

Show your Work.

On Facebook, people share pictures of their kids and their dinner. On LinkedIn, people share pictures of their successes. Post a link, a short paragraph, or a video. Don’t be afraid to promote yourself. That’s exactly what this is for!

Make Connections.

Take time to look for people you want to connect with. LinkedIn makes it easy by giving you recommendations based on your work history and common connections, but it’s also easy to search for people as well. Don’t be shy! You can search for people based on the industry they work in, college they graduated from, and so much more. Find those people and “connect.” Using LinkedIn to grow your business? Using LinkedIn to find a job? Use LinkedIn as a marketing strategy for both! It works! What to connect with me? Personally, I’m right here and you can click here to follow Media Maven. Do you want to promote your brand? You can! Sign up for my online course to learn how you can by doing PR yourself. Click here to master your PR. For a free tester, email me at Christina@MediaMavenAndMore.com.

Like all forms of social media, making it work on Twitter goes way beyond posting. Posting is great, but it will only get you so far. I think the best piece of advice I’ve received that has helped me continuously grow my Twitter following is to…

Be engaging.

Before I cared about growing my fan base, I never responded to people who would follow me or tweet me. Now, I respond. I am engaging. I RT and favorite too. That’s my #1 tip. Some other advice:

Participate in Twitter chats.

When you start following people in your niche, you will notice when these chats take place. Join in and make new friends.

Tweet.

When it comes to posting, remember the average tweet lives for about 20 minutes. If you are posting every 20 minutes, no, you are not tweeting too much. For the reason above, I schedule most of my tweets. Instead of logging on to post something numerous times a day for weeks, I spend 10 minutes scheduling the posts that last days, weeks, or even months long.

Use hashtags.

Don’t go overboard and has tag everything under the sun, just keep it relevant to what you are talking about. Many people get on only to search hashtags, so take a look at what is trending. (This is also a great way to find people in your niche you want to follow… search that hashtag!)

Keep it short and sweet.

You get 140 characters, so it’s hard to make it that long, but if you use up all of those 140 characters, it’ll be difficult for others to RT or RT with an added comment.

Tweet good content.

Tweet something that gives people a reason to click your link, retweet you, respond to you, or favorite your tweet. If your content isn’t there, then what’s the point of tweeting in the first place? [Tweet theme=”tweet-box-shadow”]What’s the point of #tweeting in the first place?[/Tweet]

Tell me who you are.

Get rid of that egg picture and give yourself a nice headshot or logo. Also, put something in that cover photo spot. Don’t leave it empty. Also, use that bio space to the fullest extent you can. Who are you? What do you do? Think about your goals and reasons for being on Twitter and put it out right there so when people read your bio, they will want to follow you. Are you on Twitter? Follow me! I’m @MediaMaven_CN.