Blog | Page 67 of 78 | Social Speak Network Social Media + Digital Marketing Education

Using Hubspot to Measure Your Social Media Marketing

How to Use Your Values to Create Exceptional Content for Your Business

Hubspot, an inbound marketing company based in Boston, has developed a comprehensive suite of marketing automation software tools to assist companies in managing their online marketing efforts efficiently.

Hubspot provides an all-in-one solution to connect your business to prospective consumers who may be interested in your product or service, helps drive leads, and ultimately increases sales. By creating multiple tools to integrate your online marketing with your social media, Hubspot is making company’s online experience easier than ever.

The helpful analytic tools that Hubspot provides users with lets companies measure the results of their online marketing AND social media marketing-one of the unique benefits to Hubspot.

Many businesses are new to social media and are just starting to realize the importance of the tool in online marketing. And because social media is a digital medium, it is very easily measurable.

There are several major marketing analytic tools to use on your social media accounts. Important analytics include measuring your social media reach, how your audience views your brand, how much traffic your social media is driving, as well as the number of sales and leads your traffic is generating.

You can use Hubspot to measure these important metrics so you can effectively measure your social media marketing efforts.

1. Social Media Reach

The larger your social media audience, the greater your social media reach. That is why it’s critical to track the number of people on your social media channels who are engaging with your brand. If your company has a broad social reach, you will be able to pump up your brand’s content and messaging.

You can measure all the various interactions among all your social media channels with Hubspot’s software, from your YouTube video views, to you’re your Facebook “Likes” and blog comments. Then, this data is integrated into real-time graphs that you can download into Excel.

You will find how to modify your content in order to reach your target audience by analyzing your social media reach.

2. Social Media Traffic

One of the main reasons companies use social media marketing is to drive traffic to their website. This leads to generating more visitors, leads and sales.

You can track the percentage of visitors to your sites that come from your social media channels with Hubspot’s software, which records the referring sources within your web analytics platform.

3. Social Media Conversions

Conversion is the ultimate goal of social media. Hubspot’s platform lets you analyze the percentage of visitors from your social media sites that convert to leads and sales. This tool is completely necessary when measuring your social media’s overall value.

Track visitor-to-customer, visitor-to-lead, and lead-to-customer conversion rates across all of your social media platforms then compare it to your conversion metrics from your other marketing channels. This allows you to accurately measure your social media ROI. Give Hubspot’s software a try and if its analytic program is right for your business!

May 7, 2012/0 Comments/by Caitlin McDonald

Mobile Marketing

Successful Mobile Marketing With The Right Software

In today’s fast-paced lifestyle, mobile marketing is becoming more valuable. Mobile marketing is a great tool for businesses to get in to, however lots of businesses are not using mobile marketing in the most efficient way, just yet. You must go into mobile marketing with strong mobile marketing software so you can see what how it works, and what is working.

Here are some key tasks your mobile marketing software should do.

1. Segment Your Subscriber Base

A very useful way to segment your subscribers is by interests and location. This is especially useful if your company has lots of locations or offers a wide range of products and services.

To effectively segment your lists, use a short code service and make different keywords for each promotion type or location. This engages your customers with the promotion or location they’re interested in, and they will end up automatically segmenting themselves. Then, you can use this information to share location based offers, events and promotions with those consumers.

Additionally, the segmentation of your Facebook opt-ins from your site opt-ins will become more crucial as mobile signups are becoming more relevant and mobile forms are starting to include more marketing platforms. You will be able to give out the same offers to each group so you can then look for differences in conversions, response rates, and long-term customer value based on origin. Over time, your marketing campaigns will become more targeted and you will have greater ROI.

2. Integrate Your Social Media

Social media marketing is a great way to inform leads about your mobile offers/list and carry them further into your business’s growth and success.

Different social media platforms bring in leads with different and unique qualities to them. To figure out which are best, you need mobile marketing software that uses list segmentation along with the proper analytics and tracking tools. Within any business, cross channel integration is becoming increasingly essential. And with digital marking software becoming increasingly intelligent, its performance will improve in near real time. But you must get involved ASAP so you’re business can grow with this technology.

3. Tracking

To help you understand how to create an overall more profitable marketing campaign, use mobile marketing software that will track your data across every marketing channel, including email marketing, social media marketing, blogging platforms, SMS, applications, mobile and others.

It is vital that you are able to see how your mobile marketing efforts are working together with your cross channel marketing efforts. Use the Internet to drive people to your SMS lists. And be sure that you’re not only tracking your results, but are also interpreting those results!

April 30, 2012/0 Comments/by Caitlin McDonald

Mobile Marketing

Successful Mobile Marketing Software

In today’s fast-paced lifestyle, mobile marketing is becoming more valuable. Mobile marketing is a great tool for businesses to get in to, however lots of businesses are not using mobile marketing in the most efficient way, just yet. You must go into mobile marketing with strong mobile marketing software so you can see what how it works, and what is working.

Here are some key tasks your mobile marketing software should do.

1. Segment Your Subscriber Base

A very useful way to segment your subscribers is by interests and location. This is especially useful if your company has lots of locations or offers a wide range of products and services.

To effectively segment your lists, use a short code service and make different keywords for each promotion type or location. This engages your customers with the promotion or location they’re interested in, and they will end up automatically segmenting themselves. Then, you can use this information to share location based offers, events and promotions with those consumers.

Additionally, the segmentation of your Facebook opt-ins from your site opt-ins will become more crucial as mobile signups are becoming more relevant and mobile forms are starting to include more marketing platforms. You will be able to give out the same offers to each group so you can then look for differences in conversions, response rates, and long-term customer value based on origin. Over time, your marketing campaigns will become more targeted and you will have greater ROI.

2. Integrate Your Social Media

Social media marketing is a great way to inform leads about your mobile offers/list and carry them further into your business’s growth and success.

Different social media platforms bring in leads with different and unique qualities to them. To figure out which are best, you need mobile marketing software that uses list segmentation along with the proper analytics and tracking tools. Within any business, cross channel integration is becoming increasingly essential. And with digital marking software becoming increasingly intelligent, its performance will improve in near real time. But you must get involved ASAP so you’re business can grow with this technology.

3. Tracking

To help you understand how to create an overall more profitable marketing campaign, use mobile marketing software that will track your data across every marketing channel, including email marketing, social media marketing, blogging platforms, SMS, applications, mobile and others.

It is vital that you are able to see how your mobile marketing efforts are working together with your cross channel marketing efforts. Use the Internet to drive people to your SMS lists. And be sure that you’re not only tracking your results, but are also interpreting those results!

April 30, 2012/0 Comments/by Caitlin McDonald

Internet Marketing, Social Media

6 Ways To Make Real Connections With Social Media, Email Marketing and PR

Human-to-human contact is original social marketing. When it comes to marketing, this is one of the most important connections to make. However, human-to-human contact through social media is not a one step process. Making connections with your consumers can take time and money.

Luckily, social media, email marketing and PR are great resources to use for businesses trying to humanize their company and connect personally with their consumers to increase engagement.

Here are six digital marketing tools to start using today to make real, valuable connections with customers.

1. Blogging
Blogging is not a one-way communication tool. Blog posts should create new conversations and debates which will assist in discovering the next “hot lead” to tackle. In addition to being a great resource for social media and email marketing, blogs are the perfect SEO tool. Blogs can also be used to increase social media engagement and drive email by adding subscription forms, as well as social media buttons to every page.

2. Live Events
While events can be a very expensive way to market to current and potential consumers, there is no doubt that the live environment of an exciting event creates lots of buzz around a brand. Some ways to lower the cost of hosting an event could be to run it at a local library, college or university. These types of venues offer facilities that are similar in resemblance to traditional venues, such as hotels, which are much more pricey.

3. Webinars
Webinars can be a great solution when trying to reach a large amount of prospects without even having to leave the office. Webinars are an opportunity for potential consumers to listen in and learn from others’ questions. Push your attendees to discuss your business’s insight in the webinar by promoting a Twitter #hashtag throughout slides in the presentation. Afterwards, encourage guests to reach out if they would like further information.

4. Social Sharing
By including social media sharing buttons within email marketing campaigns, subscribers will have much more of an incentive to share information. These buttons couldn’t make it any easier to spread quality content with others. This is an extremely simple way to see an increase in consumer engagement.

5. Different Levels of Email Subscription
While marketers strive to increase leads into a business, sales managers often want fewer leads with a better insight into the quality of potential consumers. The solution to these different goals is to provide multiple levels of subscription. Offer subscription forms for newsletters that are short and sweet; just a name and email address. Then use these addresses to re-market more detailed campaigns and promote events, webinars, white papers, and more. By offering highly perceived value, you can then get more details, like company names, positions and turnovers. By using sites like LinkedIn, it is not hard to reach potential consumers.

6. SEO With PR
Try using services like PRWeb to compose a strong press release and get the message out to thousands, and maybe millions, of viewers. This will also increase social media engagement and conversions. Additionally, it’s an efficient way to promote new product launches, upcoming events, webinars or announcements to prospects who may not be well aware of your company.

April 23, 2012/6 Comments/by Caitlin McDonald

Internet Marketing, Marketing Event, Social Media

6 Ways To Make Real Connections With Social Media, Email Marketing and PR

Human-to-human contact is original social marketing. When it comes to marketing, this is one of the most important connections to make. However, human-to-human contact through social media is not a one step process. Making connections with your consumers can take time and money.

Luckily, social media, email marketing and PR are great resources to use for businesses trying to humanize their company and connect personally with their consumers to increase engagement.

Here are six digital marketing tools to start using today to make real, valuable connections with customers.

1. Blogging

Blogging is not a one-way communication tool. Blog posts should create new conversations and debates which will assist in discovering the next “hot lead” to tackle. In addition to being a great resource for social media and email marketing, blogs are the perfect SEO tool. Blogs can also be used to increase social media engagement and drive email by adding subscription forms, as well as social media buttons to every page.

2. Live Events

While events can be a very expensive way to market to current and potential consumers, there is no doubt that the live environment of an exciting event creates lots of buzz around a brand. Some ways to lower the cost of hosting an event could be to run it at a local library, college or university. These types of venues offer facilities that are similar in resemblance to traditional venues, such as hotels, which are much more pricey.

3. Webinars

Webinars can be a great solution when trying to reach a large amount of prospects without even having to leave the office. Webinars are an opportunity for potential consumers to listen in and learn from others’ questions. Push your attendees to discuss your business’s insight in the webinar by promoting a Twitter #hashtag throughout slides in the presentation. Afterwards, encourage guests to reach out if they would like further information.

4. Social Sharing

By including social media sharing buttons within email marketing campaigns, subscribers will have much more of an incentive to share information. These buttons couldn’t make it any easier to spread quality content with others. This is an extremely simple way to see an increase in consumer engagement.

5. Different Levels of Email Subscription

While marketers strive to increase leads into a business, sales managers often want fewer leads with a better insight into the quality of potential consumers. The solution to these different goals is to provide multiple levels of subscription. Offer subscription forms for newsletters that are short and sweet; just a name and email address. Then use these addresses to re-market more detailed campaigns and promote events, webinars, white papers, and more. By offering highly perceived value, you can then get more details, like company names, positions and turnovers. By using sites like LinkedIn, it is not hard to reach potential consumers.

6. SEO With PR

Try using services like PRWeb to compose a strong press release and get the message out to thousands, and maybe millions, of viewers. This will also increase social media engagement and conversions. Additionally, it’s an efficient way to promote new product launches, upcoming events, webinars or announcements to prospects who may not be well aware of your company.

April 23, 2012/0 Comments/by Caitlin McDonald

Internet Marketing, Social Media

Hospitality Marketing With Social Media

With consumers spending more of their time on social media sites, companies everywhere are trying to reach them by social networking. There’s now a common expectation that a strong online marketing strategy is necessary for any company trying to see an increase in their marketing efforts. Lately, those companies in the hospitality market have been really utilizing social media to see an increase in sales.

Why hospitality? It’s an industry driven by recommendations and reviews. People make purchasing decisions with different criteria in mind, yet peer reviews and recommendations are among the most popular ways to persuade. With the popularity of social media and the growth of the Internet in recent years, consumers jump online to give their positive or negative reviews of brands.

Hospitality is an industry where customer service is crucial, so it makes sense that the industry would want to develop the greatest customer service experience possible. Social networking is being viewed as a new and improved customer service platform for a variety of companies. Social media provides online visibility and lets companies market their products and services online to people everywhere, increasing their reach and exposure to potential consumers.

If you’re in the hospitality industry, there are some things to keep in mind when developing a social media strategy.

Consider what your goals and objectives are with social media. This will assist you in choosing the perfect social media platform to start with. If your company is new to social media, start with setting up just a single platform. Once you get more comfortable using this platform, record how much time it takes you on a daily and weekly business to manage the site then consider making other presences on different social media sites.

Also, have a content strategy. Think about what you want to put out on your social media sites and how often you’ll put it out there. Keep your customers in mind at all times when choosing content. Think about if your consumers want to view constant promotional messages, or if they would prefer to view interesting articles you found and shared.

To make social media work for your business, you must use it regularly and be constantly engaging in conversations with your consumers!

Carefully choosing the right social media platform to start with is very important. In considering Twitter, know that it lets companies connect with consumers, and other companies on both a local and a global scale. If it is important for your company to have fast customer service, Twitter can be used to respond quickly to questions, comments or complaints consumers might have.

Immediate, real time customer service is marketing in itself. It should generate positive emotions from your fans and followers and lead to influential word of mouth recommendations for your company.

With Facebook, your brand’s page acts as the online “headquarters” of your company. It’s like a marketing hub for consumers to come and see what your brand has to offer. You should give your Facebook fans exclusive information about your latest specials and deals, as part of your online marketing strategy. Also, think about making Facebook check in deals to reward consumers for checking into your business by giving them coupons or discounts.

Blogging can also be used in your marketing strategy. You could set up a company blog on your website, and also find influential bloggers who can review your products and services then direct readers to your site. A business blog lets you position your company as an expert in the industry. Blogs are also good to use for sharing company milestones which consumers would be interested in knowing, like if your company has changed locations, or opened a new office.

YouTube is another great site to consider. It’s a great platform to show off important and fun events happening in your company. It gives consumers insights into your company and promotes curiosity, which can lead to an emotional connection with your brand. You can increase the effectiveness of your videos by posting them on any other social media platforms you might have.

There’s also Pinterest. It’s the latest trend in social media, allowing users to “pin” their interests onto boards that they create. For your marketing strategy, you could create a board to show off your products, or pictures from company events to catch the interest of users. A great benefit of Pinterest is providing consumers a visual appeal to your brand.

While there are many options available to develop your marketing strategy, remember to start small, then become comfortable with how your strategy is working, then build your social media presence gradually to provide quality customer service to all of your consumers!

April 16, 2012/0 Comments/by Caitlin McDonald

Internet Marketing, Social Media

Hospitality Marketing With Social Media

With consumers spending more of their time on social media sites, companies everywhere are trying to reach them by social networking. There’s now a common expectation that a strong online marketing strategy is necessary for any company trying to see an increase in their marketing efforts. Lately, those companies in the hospitality market have been really utilizing social media to see an increase in sales.

Why hospitality? It’s an industry driven by recommendations and reviews. People make purchasing decisions with different criteria in mind, yet peer reviews and recommendations are among the most popular ways to persuade. With the popularity of social media and the growth of the Internet in recent years, consumers jump online to give their positive or negative reviews of brands.

Hospitality is an industry where customer service is crucial, so it makes sense that the industry would want to develop the greatest customer service experience possible. Social networking is being viewed as a new and improved customer service platform for a variety of companies. Social media provides online visibility and lets companies market their products and services online to people everywhere, increasing their reach and exposure to potential consumers.

If you’re in the hospitality industry, there are some things to keep in mind when developing a social media strategy.

Consider what your goals and objectives are with social media. This will assist you in choosing the perfect social media platform to start with. If your company is new to social media, start with setting up just a single platform. Once you get more comfortable using this platform, record how much time it takes you on a daily and weekly business to manage the site then consider making other presences on different social media sites.

Also, have a content strategy. Think about what you want to put out on your social media sites and how often you’ll put it out there. Keep your customers in mind at all times when choosing content. Think about if your consumers want to view constant promotional messages, or if they would prefer to view interesting articles you found and shared.

To make social media work for your business, you must use it regularly and be constantly engaging in conversations with your consumers!

Carefully choosing the right social media platform to start with is very important. In considering Twitter, know that it lets companies connect with consumers, and other companies on both a local and a global scale. If it is important for your company to have fast customer service, Twitter can be used to respond quickly to questions, comments or complaints consumers might have.
Immediate, real time customer service is marketing in itself. It should generate positive emotions from your fans and followers and lead to influential word of mouth recommendations for your company.

With Facebook, your brand’s page acts as the online “headquarters” of your company. It’s like a marketing hub for consumers to come and see what your brand has to offer. You should give your Facebook fans exclusive information about your latest specials and deals, as part of your online marketing strategy. Also, think about making Facebook check in deals to reward consumers for checking into your business by giving them coupons or discounts.

Blogging can also be used in your marketing strategy. You could set up a company blog on your website, and also find influential bloggers who can review your products and services then direct readers to your site. A business blog lets you position your company as an expert in the industry. Blogs are also good to use for sharing company milestones which consumers would be interested in knowing, like if your company has changed locations, or opened a new office.

YouTube is another great site to consider. It’s a great platform to show off important and fun events happening in your company. It gives consumers insights into your company and promotes curiosity, which can lead to an emotional connection with your brand. You can increase the effectiveness of your videos by posting them on any other social media platforms you might have.

There’s also Pinterest. It’s the latest trend in social media, allowing users to “pin” their interests onto boards that they create. For your marketing strategy, you could create a board to show off your products, or pictures from company events to catch the interest of users. A great benefit of Pinterest is providing consumers a visual appeal to your brand.

While there are many options available to develop your marketing strategy, remember to start small, then become comfortable with how your strategy is working, then build your social media presence gradually to provide quality customer service to all of your consumers!

April 16, 2012/3 Comments/by Caitlin McDonald

Video Marketing

Capitalizing On Video Marketing

Video marketing can truly be a social way for businesses to engage with consumers. In today’s social networking environment, consumers want to share their opinions with the community and brands like never before, and video marketing caters perfectly to this desire.

The most important aspects of video marketing include conversations, content and the community. You want your video marketing campaign to distribute quality content that gets people excited and entices them to share what your brand has to offer with the community. In addition, video marketing can help brands deliver better customer service to their consumers. They can respond to consumer comments and questions, strengthening the consumer-brand relationships.

Social videos give consumers more power to be involved with the brand. They feel as if they have a meaningful relationship with the brand because they can share each other’s ideas and information.

YouTube is the second largest search engine. Consumers go to YouTube for information and entertainment; a perfect place for brands to show-off products and services. But, to find success with video marketing, you must rank well on YouTube. So make sure your video has a strong title, and a quality description of the video. Furthermore, you must make sure the video is generating comments, that people like the video and are sharing the video.

Social video marketing is all about marketing your brand’s message with an interesting video that will increase your consumer engagement. To do this, you need to get your video seen by the largest, targeted audience possible to get your message seen and heard.

Here are six video marketing issues to consider when creating videos with a social mentality:

1. Service
Your brand’s social videos should not come across like an advertisement. Ads are made to sell something, while social videos should be about building relationships. A consumer should feel no pressure, and if they do make a purchase, it should feel natural.

2. Dialogue
Don’t talk at people through your social videos; talk with them. Use your videos to interact with you consumers on an equal level so that no corporate barrier divides you from the consumer.

3. Engagement
Always remember that social video is not about how many views you get; it’s about the amount of enthusiasm and quality feedback you receive.

4. Participation
Don’t just make a video and put it on the Internet; you need to participate with your viewers and check out their own content as well.

5. Community
You must have an ongoing relationship with your consumers and always keep the community’s interest in mind when developing your videos.

6. Be Real
You should feature real people in your campaign videos. Share real stories and show the human side of your brand.

April 9, 2012/5 Comments/by Caitlin McDonald

Social Media

Important Features of Facebook’s Timeline Format

Yesterday, Facebook’s Timeline format took over, turning all brand pages into the Timeline format. This change is mandatory on Facebook and the format is definitely a new, exciting way for brands and followers to interact.

The Timeline format will be a great way to encourage fans to add user-generated content, which ultimately will increase user engagement. Furthermore, brands can talk directly to consumers, so it’s a great opportunity for businesses to show off their brands in a humanized manner, with a personal touch. In order to find the most benefit out of this new Timeline format, you must understand its structure, as it can be an extremely useful marketing tool.

Here are just a few important factors to note about the Timeline to get your business prepared!

1. The Newly Constructed Wall
With the Timeline format, you will notice a more visually appealing style that allows brands to act like publishers. So, all the content a brand shares on the page should encourage followers to add and share their own content.

For mobile marketing in particular, this visual style will be hugely important. It follows in the footsteps of sites like Instagram and Pinterest, which found success though visual images. So, Facebook’s upgraded wall entices followers to share videos and photos. And any of this content that highlights a user engagement with the brand can go viral immediately, with the click of the Share button.

Additionally, the Timeline format has a Wikipedia factor to it. Important milestones or events regarding the brand will now be highlighted so that followers become more informed about the brand and have more of an incentive to share their favorite aspects of the brand.

2. The Bold Landing Page
With the Timeline, brands can post a prominent image on the façade of the Timeline to give fans a clear, distinct image that connects them to that brand. Businesses should choose a photo that embodies the heart of your brand, and clearly shows off your specific product or service.

This cover photo will be the banner image, and the profile picture will show up on the lower left side of the page. It’s important to write quality copy to present your brand in an exciting way to potential fans. And the more visual you can make your page, the more it will stand out and will gain more views!

3. New And Improved Tools
The Timeline format comes with new analytics tools, which will be a huge help in monitoring for page admins and brands. One unique tool is that any fan can directly message the brand. This is important because in the case of a consumer complaint, the consumer can send the complaint in a message to the brand, instead of posting it on the brand’s wall. This also adds more of a personal connection consumers can have with brands, as they can be heard by the brand as a real, individual person, and not just a customer.

Once you understand the format of the new Facebook Timeline, use it to your advantage and your consumer engagement will quickly increase!

April 2, 2012/1 Comment/by Caitlin McDonald