Reasons to Schedule Your Social Media Posts

It’s Friday afternoon. Within a few hours, your target audience will be logging in on their social media accounts to post updates or see what their friends have been up to. Now is the perfect time to post something and remind your followers about your upcoming event. Unfortunately, you haven’t prepared anything yet. You hurriedly write a blog post, posted it on your website and shared it on your social media account. Whew!

We commend you for coming up with good content fast, but wouldn’t it be better if you prepare your posts in advance and then coordinate them across different social media channels? Scheduling tools such as Sprout Social, Buffer and HootSuite can help you with this task.

There are tangible benefits to scheduling your social media content. Here are some of them:

Target your audience

Scheduling your content allows you to post, even if you’re busy or away. Since you can choose your publish date and time, it will be easier for you to reach your target audience. Schedule your post at times when your followers are online.

It saves time

Let’s face it. Social media can be a big distraction. You log in to your account to post an update and the next thing you know, you’ve spent half an hour browsing through your newsfeed.

Scheduling your posts saves time since you can schedule up to 10 posts at a time. This is especially advantageous if you are managing a number of accounts. Plus, scheduling tools like HootSuite, Buffer and Everypost allows you to schedule posts through different platforms; hence, freeing up time.

Consistency

Sharing high quality and valuable content will ensure that your audience keeps coming back. In order to turn your visitors to regular readers, you need to be consistent in your posting schedule. Committing to a social media scheduling helps you stick to your publishing schedule.

People are counting on you to provide them with fresh, unique and interesting content every day. Make sure that you post at the same time every day. Eventually, you will notice an increase in engagement.

Reasons to Schedule Your Social Media Posts

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4 Reasons Why You Must Have a Mobile Friendly Website

Take a look at the people around you and you’ll notice that majority of them are using their smartphones. According to a study that was conducted by Deloitte, most Americans would check their phones within 5 minutes of waking up and continue to do so throughout the day. In fact, a huge percentage of Americans check their phones 46 times per day.

If your website isn’t mobile optimized, it will look cluttered and unreadable on a 5-inch screen. With our fast evolving digital landscape, websites that aren’t mobile friendly are becoming defunct.

Here are 4 reasons why your business must have a mobile friendly website:

Mobile users make frequent purchases

Ask a business owner what they’re business goals are, and we bet majority of them would say “increased sales”. According to studies, mobile users buy more and spend more as compared to their desktop counterparts.

While tablet usage is comparatively lower than smart phone use, tablet users are said to be the biggest spenders. In fact, they spend 50% more per purchase than smartphone users. Take advantage of this by making sure that your website is mobile optimized. Otherwise, you’ll be missing out on revenue-generating opportunities for your business.

Over half of the web traffic is mobile

As mentioned above, the number one goal of business owners is to increase sales. Next on their list would probably be more traffic to their website. If your goal is to drive traffic to your site, you need to be thinking mobile.

As of 2014, over half of all web traffic is via mobile. In fact, studies suggest that mobile media consumption as of this year was 21% higher than that of desktop.

Improve user experience

People are more likely to return to your website or purchase your products if you offer a satisfying mobile experience. Since mobile users are always on the go, they have limited time to wait. They want to get what they need fast. If you can’t give it to them, they’ll leave and move on to your competition.

You might be offering the most unique, valuable and useful products on the market, but people aren’t going to purchase if your site’s mobile experience is poor or non-existent.

Everyone is on mobile

More and more people are spending more time on their mobile devices. After all, it’s more convenient. It allows us to check our emails, log in to our social media accounts, check the news or research something even when we’re on the go.

4 Reasons Why You Must Have a Mobile Friendly Website

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Best Tools to Manage Social Media Posts

Aside from your website, social media provides an effective way to increase your web presence. It provides a way to generate PR for your company, build your brand and drive traffic to your website. You need to be active on social media if you are serious about achieving these goals. After all, you can’t expect any results if your page is inactive. The problem is that, social media marketing takes time.

If you are a business owner, you can’t afford to spend all day hopping from network to network, managing your social media accounts, planning future posts and checking analytics.

Are you looking for a better way to manage your social media posts? Here are 4 social media tools to add to your arsenal.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is one of the most robust social media management tools around, and social media managers swear by it. The tool has a feature called Autoschedule. If you have multiple accounts, you can use this feature to manage your posts and make sure that they don’t appear on different channels all at the same time. It also shares your updates at the best possible time of the day to give them the greatest chance of being seen. Hootsuite also allows you to monitor and analyze your performance on your main social networks.

Buffer

Buffer allows you to easily distribute your content across multiple accounts. Just drop your updates to your Buffer queue and you don’t have to worry about when it will be posted. These posts will be posted for you well spaced out throughout the day.

Buffer also allows users to schedule up to 10 updates at once. The paid version, on the other hand, allows unlimited scheduling.

SocialOomph

Twitter has become one of the must-have marketing channels for any business. If you are interested in automating your Twitter marketing, SocialOomph is the best tool for you. It has a feature called Twitter unlimited, which allows you to manage your Twitter followers and direct messages box from within the app. The free level also allows you to work on up to 5 Twitter accounts. It helps you track keywords and schedule tweets.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social allows you to manage all your relationships, interactions and customer support from a single dashboard. This tool also analyzes your audience to determine the optimal times to deliver content. Because it’s not free, this is recommended for larger businesses that are looking for an all-in-one solution to manage their social media presence.

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How to Stay Safe While Using Social Media

Social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter have become an integral part of our online lives. It has become a way of life. Most people log in to their social media accounts to communicate with their family and friends and keep them updated about what’s happening in their lives. But as the popularity of social media grows, so do the risks of using them.

With the amount of information you share on social media, scammers, con artist and identity thieves see it as the perfect place to set their traps. As such, we should all take the necessary steps to protect our identity.

Social media is supposed to be fun. Let’s keep it that way by protecting yourself when using these sites.

Separate accounts, separate passwords

According to studies, 55% of users use the same password for most, if not all, of their online accounts. But with the increase in malicious softwares and phishing attacks, this puts you at risk of falling victim to internet fraud. Use different strong passwords on different website where you have an account. This will help keep your accounts and your identity safe.

Keep personal information personal

Your social media profile can be a gold mine for online thieves. Avoid posting personal information such as your phone number, address, schools, old workplaces, where you were born etc. Many sites ask you to enter these information in security questions. If these information are readily available on your social media sites, then you’re practically giving scammers easy access to your accounts.

Be careful what you disclose

Sharing has always been a prominent part of what the internet is. But please exercise caution when posting on social media. Think about the people who could see what you have posted. Also, remember that the internet is permanent. Once you put it out there, it stays there forever.

Don’t post the dates you are away on a holiday, issues with your parents, drama with your friends, complaints about your boss.

Ignore messages from strangers

Social media is a great place to connect with their family and friends and even meet new friends. But many of these sites have become haven for scammers, con artists and identity thieves. For your safety and security, we recommend that you ignore or delete messages that you receive from an unknown sender. Also, be cautious when accepting friends on social media.

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Tips for Creating Awesome Visual Content for Social Media

In today’s mobile-driven world, producing content on a regular basis is a must in order to maintain a strong online presence. But with so many creative minds joining the social media sphere and great blogs emerging on almost a daily basis, capturing the attention of your target audience has become extremely difficult.

How do you cut through the noise and stand out in the online world? Visual content can help. Don’t believe us? Studies show that content with relevant images get 94% more views, likes and comments as compared to those without.

Here are some tips for creating awesome visual content for social media.

Customize stock photos

Stock photos have been tremendously helpful for those who don’t have a sizeable design budget and those who need them fast. But in order to stay with your brand and visual identity guidelines, it is important that you customize these photos. Plus, you wouldn’t want your audience to see the exact same photo in other sites, right? Tweak and customize stock photos to make them your own.

Use online editing tools

Creating visual content can be challenging. The good news is that you don’t have to be an expert in photo editing to create great images. There are several online editing tools like Canva, Picmonkey and RelayThat that can help you create stunning visual content that looks like it came from a professional graphic designer.

Add a call-to-action

Ideally, great visual content should eye-catching and entice people to take action. Now that you have successfully captured people’s attention, let them know what you want them to do. Do you want them to share, like or comment on your post? Or do you want them to click through your content? You can either add a call-to-action on the image, in the description or both.

Be consistent

Colors can help make your visual content pop. It can help you capture the attention of your target audience and provide amazing results. But it is also important to stay consistent with the type of visual element you use like colors.

Choose 2 to 4 colors and stick to them when creating visual content. Use it in your logo, texts, images etc. Remember, having a consistent color palette is a must.

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Things You Can Do to Improve Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

Social media is big and continues to grow and evolve. According to Fast Company, 93% of marketers use social media to promote their business and reach their business goals. Converting followers into paying customers is the ultimate goal of every business. To achieve that goal, you need to have a good social media strategy in place.

If you are a marketing professional in charge of your business, read on. Here are some tactics you can implement to help you get started.

Choose your image wisely

Visual is king in digital marketing. Thanks to the availability of camera phones and social networks emphasizing visual elements, the ease of taking and uploading photos has increased dramatically.

Marketers who use visual content get more followers, more leads and more customer engagement. But to get that attention, you need to connect with the person on the other side of the screen. Choose images that appeal to your target audience, but make sure that it also fits your brand’s voice, style and mood.

Focus on platforms where your customers are

Just like everyone else, most small business owners are pressured to have a presence on every social media platform. The problem is that a hot, new social media tool hits the scene almost every few months, making it extremely difficult to manage all those social accounts.

To make the most out of your social media marketing efforts, you need to focus on platforms where your customers are. Fish where the fishes are. Don’t waste your time, energy and resources fishing in an empty pond.

Get the attention of influencers

An influencer is someone who carries influence over others. In the new world of digital relationships, people are receptive of recommendations from people they trust and respect. In fact, one study revealed that 40% of consumers had made a purchase because of an influencer’s recommendation; while 49% seek purchase guidance from an influencer.

One of the easiest ways to get an influencer’s attention is to share their content. Go ahead and share those contents without asking anything in return. Link out shamelessly and unceasingly. When you do, they are likely to take notice.

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New Year’s Resolutions for Better Digital Marketing

New Year’s Resolutions for Better Digital MarketingThe New Year is a great time for business owners to reflect on the things they have accomplished in the previous year. This is also a great time to list down your business goals and what you plan to achieve this year.

Most people resolve to lose weight, eat healthier and to quit smoking. Why not make some for your business as well? Resolve 2018 to be the best year for your business and make it happen.

Here are 3 resolutions for better digital marketing. Get your head start this year with this list of resolutions.

Improve mobile optimization

With one-quarter of global web searches conducted on a mobile device, you are ultimately losing sales if you aren’t optimized for mobile.

In order for your business to achieve its highest potential and profit, make the user experience clear and pleasant. Remember that your visitors are viewing your page on a device with a smaller screen, so be sure to keep your site simple, consistent and easy to navigate. Page speed is also important for mobile users. They are on the go and aren’t willing to wait. In fact, studies suggest that 57% of mobile users will abandon your site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.

Start a blog and update blog constantly

Whether you’re running a multinational company or a small business, blogging is important for your business.

Updating your blog on a regular basis and providing your audience with fresh, well written articles will help position your brand as an industry leader. In addition, you can use this marketing tactic to drive traffic to your site and increase your SEO ranking. If you still don’t have a business blog or aren’t posting new content, now would be a great time to start.

Understand your site’s analytics

Understanding your site’s analytics allows you to track the effectiveness of your online marketing campaigns. You want to know how your customers have reached your site, how long they stay on your site, as well as how they are navigating your site. You need to be able to track these behaviors to help you determine which features of your website are actually driving revenue and which aren’t.

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4 Keys to Growing Your Small Business

4-keys-to-growing-your-small-businessEvery business is different, yet all have common goals – to grow and expand their business. The problem is, a lot of business owners them give up even before they reach goal. As an entrepreneur, you need to understand that growth is a long-term, ongoing and always evolving process.

You can be highly successful in your business if you live by these simple ideologies.

Look for new ways to wow your customers

As we welcome the New Year, you should take this opportunity to think of what you can do to impress your customers. Think about the different ways you can really delight, thrill and surprise your customers. Take the time to think of new ways to wow your customers.

Delegate some daily responsibilities

According to studies, 70% of small business owners prefer to do everything on their own. You need to understand, though, that running a small business is no small task. If you try to do everything on your own, you may find yourself swamped with work, stressed and exhausted. Worse, you may be missing out on a lot of business opportunities and time with your family.

As your business grows, you need to start letting go of day-to-day responsibilities and delegate some of these tasks to your team. This way, you can focus on tasks that have the biggest impact on the growth of your business.

Create high quality products

In today’s highly competitive business environment, the only way to thrive and survive is to attain and retain customer satisfaction. To do that, you should consistently deliver high quality products and services to your customers.

In the business world, quality is everything. Customers will continue to buy from you if you deliver quality products. If you do not, they will quickly look for alternatives.

Professional development

We live in a world that is quickly changing. None of us can afford to be stagnant in our knowledge. Regardless of the industry you’re in, make a commitment to continue learning and growing. Knowing the latest trends will help your business stay relevant and stay on top of these changes. Remember, learning is essential to stay on top of things.

The key to your future can be found in ongoing commitment to learning. After all, where you are today is a reflection of the skills and education that got you there.

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4 Social Media Habits to Avoid

social-media-habits-to-avoidSocial media has been an integral part of our lives. Since most people check on their social media accounts several times a day, having a stellar social presence is essential for your business’ growth. Most business owners, however, tend to develop some bad habits that prevent them from growing their audience.

Start by determining your bad habits and try to correct them before they cause any more harm. Here are 4 social media habits you need to stop doing right now.

Too much sales pitch content

Most people follow your brand because they find your content informative, valuable or entertaining. Either way, these people are interested in the content you share. Although we understand that you are running a business and you are looking to increase your sales, it’s definitely not a good idea to bombard your followers with advertisements. If you do so, you are likely to lose your followers.

For your brand to succeed on social media, you need to develop a good relationship with your fans and followers. Focus on engagement, rather than selling.

Posting too much

Being active on social media can help you build a strong online presence. You need to post consistently to keep your followers engaged and to stay relevant, but that doesn’t mean that you should post about something every hour. If you do so, people are likely to unfollow you because of the torture you put them through.

Post at least once a day and focus on content that your fans and followers are interested in. Eventually, you’ll be making friends and earning followers fast.

Not determining your brand

In order to build an online presence, you first need to define your business’ personality. Ask yourself how you want people to envision you. Also, define a consistent brand voice to drive consistency in your content creation efforts. Even if people view your content on different channels, you want to make sure that they could identify the content as coming from your brand.

Abusing the hashtag

Hashtags are a great way of categorizing content, providing context or curating information. Sure, hashtags can be powerful when used correctly. They generate attention and help you gain more followers, but too many hashtags in a single post can be distracting. Plus, it takes away from the message you’ve posted. Stop hashtag abuse!

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4 Ways to Inject Holiday Spirit into Your Social Media Campaign

4-ways-to-inject-holiday-spirit-into-your-social-media-campaignThe holiday season is an exciting time for online marketers. With more and more people realizing the comfort of online shopping, online retail sales increase during the holiday season. All those online shoppers are ready to splurge.  Your business could be missing out on a lot of business opportunities if your company isn’t getting into the spirit yet.

Create a social media campaign that reflects the holiday season and it will definitely lead to marketing success that will make your holiday merry. Here are 4 ways to inject holiday spirit into your social media campaign.

Show the magic of giving

Christmas is a time when everyone’s thoughts turn to giving. This holiday season, let people know that you’ll be donating a portion of your sales to charity. Clients love to see this good will passed on and will definitely be supporting your program. Helping those in need will not only help you build a positive image; you’ll also feel good about yourself.

Create a very merry Christmas offer

The holidays are a time for gift giving. Most people go on a shopping spree during this time of the year to buy great gifts for their family and friends. Instead of visiting their favorite shopping destinations, more and more people are turning to their mobile phones to look for the best deals.

Get your audience in the holiday spirit and trigger Christmas shopping by offering Christmas vouchers, special festive discounts, buy one get one free or one-day sales. Christmas countdown sales are also a great idea because they create a sense of urgency, encouraging customers to buy on impulse.

Give freebies

People love free stuff. Since people are likely to buy more this holiday season, you might want to offer some freebies as a way of saying thank you. You don’t have to give a gift to every customer, though. Let customers know that they’ll be receiving a free gift for a minimum purchase. This will encourage them to buy more than what they have originally planned.

Sparkle up your cover photo

While it’s good to add some Christmas sparkle into your cover photo, it doesn’t necessarily have to be about Christmas gifts, red and green decorations or Christmas trees. Rather, it should showcase some special holiday products or some special holiday deals your followers and fans would be interested to know about. Try to think of your cover photo as your billboard.

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