social media goals

Social media gives you the opportunity to connect and engage with people with minimal effort and limited budget. If you are on the lookout for a creative means of launching your product, you might want to consider using social media.

In this article, we’ll give you a list of ways on how to use social media in launching a new product. Read on as we give you a few suggestions that will help you with your next launch.

Teaser campaign

Before the launch, try to think of creative ways that could hint your followers that something big and exciting is coming very soon. This will spark the interest of your audience.

Months before the launch, you can post random images that could be associated with your product. Also, feel free to use code names in all your updates in order to create a buzz within the online community.

Create a video

Social media provides business owners to easily connect with their target audience. Why not take advantage of this opportunity and create a video that is focused on the need you wish to address while providing a hint at the solution you wish to offer.

Create a founder’s list

Create a list of people who shows interest in your product and would want to learn more about your launch. Create a special page where you can direct these people to. On this page, consider placing an option where they can sign up for special updates.

You main goal is to gather a group of people who have shown interest on the teaser and video that you have posted. You can ask for the help of these people to spread the word about your product later on.

Behind the scenes

After creating a founder’s list, it is important to provide them something substantial that would keep them interested in your campaign. Creating a personalized video and giving them a peak of what’s happening behind the scenes will get them excited about the launch.

Encourage people to spread the word

Building a loyal fan base is one of the key advantages of social media. When the time is right, you can ask for the aid of these people and encourage them to spread the word.

The simplest and fastest way of doing this is by creating a clickable tweet. You can use ClicktoTweet to do this.

Every marketing channel has tools that can make your marketing tasks more
effective and efficient. Social media marketing is one of them.
For the past few years, several social media marketing tools have been launched.
However, not all of them were created equal. So, before choosing which of these
tools you should use, it is important to have a clearly defined objectives and
measurable outcomes. This will help you determine if your social media marketing
efforts are successful.
Listed below are some of the most popular monitoring tools. Read on and decide if
these tools are the ones you need.

Viralheat
One of Viralheat’s most interesting features is that it allows business owners to
compare their overall brand mentions against their competitors. The data is then
presented in a pie chart or graph.
This is advantageous as it helps you determine if your marketing efforts enables
you to increase brand buzz across social media platforms.

Sysomos
Sysomos is especially useful for larger companies. With a $550 monthly plan, you
can throw in a few bells and whistles as it includes a dedicated account manager, 5
users and unlimited data.
Sysomos provides management of your company accounts and social media
account monitoring as well. Data Visualization is one of its best features. This allows
users to get to the root of conversations in order to understand the factors that
influence them.

UberVU
UberVU provides its users with actionable insights. When providing listening and
monitoring data, it sources the most social media networks. This tool monitors a
variety of networks such including Picasa, Youtube, Blogger, LinkedIn, Twitter and
Facebook. It also has a feature which they refer to as “Signal”, which scans all the
conversations and mentions relevant to your brand. They also detect dozens of
signals such as trending stories, spikes in sentiment and volume and influencer
mentions.

Sprout social
This is a modestly priced tool that can help you monitor and manage your company
profiles on the Internet. With a $39 monthly plan, it allows you to manage a
maximum of 10 profiles.
In terms of monitoring your brand metrics, Sprout Social only provides results from
Twitter and Facebook. However, this tool has the ability to monitor brand mentions
from other sources like news sites and blogs.

There are a lot of blog posts and articles which stresses the importance of
integrating social media into your marketing strategies. Most people believe that
social media platforms provide a great impact on a business’ lead generation and
sales.
Listed below are some of the benefits of social media marketing. Keep in mind,
though, that these benefits may not be seen overnight. You have to put in a great
deal of effort and wait for a few months in order to see significant results.

Communication
Social media platforms are created in order to share information and interact with
other people. To maximize your marketing efforts, it is best to develop a social
media marketing strategy that would encourage your followers to interact with you.
This has to be a two-way communication.

Networking
Social media does not only help you extend your reach and build new relationships.
It’s also a great place where you can deepen and maintain the existing ones.

Build a reputation
As a business owner, you know that having a good reputation is one of the most
important ingredients to success. While your marketing efforts are focused on
maintaining what has been created, social media marketing makes these benefits
more pronounced.

Drive traffic
While driving traffic to your site is the main reason why you decided to create a
social media account, this comes as a great bonus. You can post a link to your
newest post and see people click the link and visit your site.

Promotion
Social media platforms are also a great avenue for promotion. Promote your brand
or your newest products, provide information about them and increase awareness
about your brand. You can also use social media to promote your events. Capture
people’s attention, create buzz and invite them to attend your event.

Extend reach

There are millions of users who access their social media accounts on a daily basis.
With this, it would be easier to reach as much people within a single post.
With over 150 million registered users, Twitter has been named as the 9th most
popular website on the Internet as of May 2011

Social media marketing is beneficial for small business owners as it helps them build awareness about their business and products or services through different social media channels. With the right tactics, you’ll be rewarded with increased product visibility, a new batch of potential clients and bountiful sales as well.

As a beginner, building a social media presence may not be that easy. We have compiled a few tips to make the process easier for you.

Choose a social media platform

As a beginner, it would be best to choose 1 or 2 social media platforms and stick with it. This would be easier instead of working across different platforms at the same time.

A great way to determine which platform is best for you is to follow the influencers and learn about their success story. Follow the leaders in your niche and check out their Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and other social media accounts.

If they have 50,000 Facebook fans but only 5,000 Twitter followers, then Facebook may be a more suitable social media platform for your niche.

Optimize your social media platforms

Decide which social media tools you’ll be using and optimize your profiles. You are more likely to get more followers and boost your SEO efforts by optimizing your profile.

If you wish to have a trusted profile, then using a real photo would be of great help. Social media is all about connecting with people, so you have to show the people who you are in order to get their trust.

Connect your social media accounts with your blog or website

If your social media profile is ready, connecting your blog or website to your social media account would be the next step. Each platform has a certain set of procedures to follow. So, you have to abide by these rules and do it correctly.

Add social media buttons to your blog or site

Adding social media buttons on your blog or site is beneficial as it could help reader share your content easily.

For increased exposure, it is best to place the buttons above the fold. Also, larger buttons are more visible and are more likely to get you more clicks compared to smaller buttons.  

With the popularity of social media, there is an increasing demand for business owners to market their products and service via social media. In accordance to this, the number of tools and technology to support this marketing strategy is also abundant.

Mention

This is a reasonably priced social media tool that allows you to track mentions of your brand or keywords across social media channels and over the web. Mention would also provide you with a list of mentions and enables you to respond or delete these mentions.

Scoop.it

People use this tool in order to share and find contents in boards regarding a particular topic. If you do not have time to write contents, you could find someone in scoop.it to write it for you. Plus, it is a great source of traffic. So, you might want to try it out.

Google Analytics

Through this app, you could easily check your traffic and see how well it’s doing. Plus, you could also determine how many people have read your blog post.

Evernote

This is a great note taking app that you could use on your phone or computer. This app could capture images, texts and videos. It could also come in handy if you come up with an idea that you might need for your blog and need to jot down notes.

Nimble

This app is especially designed to help build and manage relationships via social media. This is becoming a popular app among business owners since it does not only help you interact with your followers; it also allows you to build relationship with them.

Hubspot

WordPress is a popular platform that most bloggers use in creating blog posts and content that could be optimized for search engines. If you are in need of a tool that covers both marketing functionality and blogging, this is the best option for you.

 

Facebook has more than 1 billion users from all over the world and majority of which log in on a daily basis and spends a few hours on the network. So, if you are a business owner who is planning to advertise on Facebook, this could be advantageous since everyone is there. You just have to tweak your strategy a bit in order to start seeing great results.

In this article, we’ll give you a few tips on how to maximize your Facebook ads. Follow these guidelines and you’ll be rewarded with a higher conversion rate.

Use the newsfeeds

Nowadays, majority of Facebook users are accessing their accounts through their mobile devices or tablets. This has a great impact on the part of the advertisers as mobile users are unable to see the right hand column. So, it is important to divert some of your advertising on the newsfeeds.

In a study which was conducted by SocialCode, they revealed that Facebook mobile ads earn up to 2.5 times more compared to desktop-only ads.

Custom Audiences

Most advertisers have one simple goal – to sell more. In this case, it would be better to focus on people who are already leads, like the ones who are included on your email list.

With the introduction of the “custom audience feature”, you are now given the option to upload your email list on Facebook. This is especially helpful as you can easily choose them as a custom audience when targeting a certain group of people.

Stick to the 20% rule

Facebook has made a revision on their guidelines regarding ads that appear in the news feeds. Now, all ad images that appear in the news feeds can have a text overlay. However, advertisers should take note that the text should not take up more than 20% of the ad image.

Make sure that you adhere to this rule so you won’t get penalized.

 

  1. Facebook is one of the most popular websites on the Internet. With approximately 250 million unique visitors each month, Facebook is the 2nd-most visited website on the Internet (behind Google). All those eyeballs mean plenty of exposure for your ads.
  2. Facebook offers targeted advertising. Facebook allows advertisers to target a specific group of people based on age, personal interests and more. Facebook can even comb through user profiles to place your ads only on pages that mention a specific keyword.
  3. You can increase customer loyalty through a Facebook fan page. Countless businesses have created Facebook fan pages that users can join. These pages allow your business to interact directly with your customers so that you can build loyalty and brand image.
  4. Offer special promotions through your Facebook fan page. Your fan page can also be used as a platform to promote new products or ad campaigns. Updates on new product launches keep your customers more informed and up-to-date on what products or services you offer.
  5. Facebook ads are more flexible than Google AdWords. Compared to Google AdWords, Facebook offers additional character length for ad descriptions. The ability to create image-based ads also adds flexibility.
  6. Facebook users offer heightened audience engagement. Facebook users visit the website not only to consume information, but also to create it. This results in a higher retention rate that improves ad visibility.
  7. Facebook facilitates multiple ad views. Your ad has a better chance of getting noticed or having a positive effect when seen multiple times. A high number of Facebook users visit the site several times a day.
  8. Choose between PPC and CPM pay structures. Facebook allows advertisers to purchase ad space on a click-based or impression-based fee structure. This allows you to tailor your ad campaign based on budget and other preferences.
  9. Advertising on Facebook can be inexpensive. Thanks to the targeted nature of Facebook advertising, your online campaign can reach your target market for a fairly affordable price. Range of packages for impression-based campaigns is also fairly large, allowing you to reach as many users as your budget allows.
  10. Ability to reach smart-phone users. Facebook is accessed via smart phones worldwide every single day. This fact means advertisers not only have the ability to reach computer and laptop users, but people out in the world as well.

When working in an industry like social media you can’t create strategies for the present. By the time you complete your marketing strategy, all the tools and networks you rely on will have changed. In order to be strategic and be ahead of your competitors, you have to look into the future. What trends are on the horizon for social media? What’s coming next that we need to prepare for? Here’s what we think:

Step 1: Build an Ark

Nobody should “own” social media strategy in your organization. Social impacts all corners of the company, and should be more like air (everywhere) than like water (you have to go get it). Thus, the first step in the process is to create a cross-functional team to help conceive and operate the rest of the strategy.

 

Step 2: Listen and Compare

It’s an old social media strategy chestnut by now, but “listen” is still good advice that’s often ignored. The reality is that your customers (and competitors) will give you a good guide to where and how you should be active in social media, if you broaden your social listening beyond your brand name.

 

Step 3: What’s the Point?

Yes, you can use social media to help accomplish several business objectives. Butthe best social media strategies are those that focus (at least initially) on a more narrow rationale for social. What do you primarily want to use social for? Awareness? Sales? Loyalty and retention? Pick one.

 

Step 4: Select Success Metrics

How are you going to determine whether this is actually making a difference in your business? What key measures will you use to evaluate social media strategy effectiveness? How will you transcend (hopefully) likes and engagement? Will you measure ROI?

 

Step 5: Analyze Your Audiences

With whom will you be interacting in social media? What are the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your current or prospective customers? How does that impact what you can and should attempt in social media?

 

Step 6: What’s Your One Thing?

Passion is the fuel of social media.

It doesn’t matter who you are, or what you sell, your product features and benefits aren’t enough to create a passion-worthy stir. How will your organization appeal to the heart of your audience, rather than the head? Disney isn’t about movies, it’s about magic. Apple isn’t about technology, it’s about innovation. What are you about?

 

Step 7: How Will You Be Human?

Social media is about people, not logos. 

The mechanics of social force companies to compete for attention versus your customers’ friends and family members. Thus, your company has to (at least to some degree) act like a person, not an entity. How will you do that?

 

Step 8: Create a Channel Plan

Only after you know why you’re active in social at all, and how you’ll measure social media strategy success should you turn your attention to the “how” of Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and the rest. This channel plan should be distinct, in that you have a specific, defensible reason for participating in each.

 

Smart content marketers know that constantly producing content can feel like trying to feed a beast with a nearly insatiable appetite. If long-form content like ebooks and whitepapers is a meal, then short-form content is like a snack, providing bite-sized information that’s easily digestible.

Both long- and short-form content should be part of your marketing menu, but the beauty of short-form content is that it lends itself to a variety of formats and can be repurposed into longer pieces. On top of that, short-form content can often be produced and distributed more quickly than longer pieces that require extensive planning and research.

Here are some examples of short-form content and tips on how to use them:

  • Blog posts and articles: Blog posts and articles can take a variety of forms including round-ups, reviews, or Q & As. For instance, Eloqua posted a round-up post of marketing tips from the Content2Conversion Conference in New York City earlier this year. Publish content on your own blog or provide it as a guest post with a link back to your blog or website. When posting on your own blog, make sure there’s an easy way for readers to subscribe via RSS or email so they’ll stay engaged with your content. Blog posts and articles published on your own site or elsewhere can be easily shared on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and email newsletters.
  • Curated content: Finding and sharing outside content that’s relevant for your readers helps position your brand as an industry thought leader. You could share links on social media or link to other sources on your blog with added commentary explaining why the topic is relevant to your readers. Companies in virtually every industry find curation useful. The Oregon Wine Board curates news on the state’s wine industry, including tasting events, legislation that’s applicable to growers, and more. And in its news section, Lawyers.com shares infographics, quirky news items, and other links of interest to the legal profession. Our Content Curation Look Book contains several other real world examples of companies large and small that use content curation effectively.
  • Podcasts: Not everyone wants to consume content through reading, so offering content in an audio format like a downloadable podcast lets them listen in as they’re driving, cleaning, working out, or otherwise going about their daily lives. Marketing expert Heidi Cohen lists the benefits of podcasting for content marketers, among them extending your content’s reach beyond your blog. One format that works well for podcasts is having a conversation or question and answer session with an expert guest. With the right host, a solo podcast works as well. Podcasts can be posted on your blog and made available as a free subscription through iTunes such as theContent Marketing Podcast by Rachel Parker.
  • Videos: A growing number of internet users now watch videos on their smartphones or tablets, making this a great format for relaying information to users on the go. Post videos on YouTube or Vimeo and include relevant tags and keywords so users can easily find them. Videos can also be embedded on your blog, pinned to Pinterest, posted on Facebook, and shared in a variety of other ways. KnowledgeVision posted a video of a skype interview and also weaved highlights of the video into a blog post.
  • Webinars: Webinars are a great way to drive email signups and demonstrate your value to current and prospective customers. Content for a webinar can be repurposed from other formats such as a blog post or ebook and polls or surveys completed during the webinar can provide fodder for new content pieces. Create a hashtag for your webinar and encourage attendees to tweet tidbits from the webinar to help build buzz. We hosted a content marketing webinar with Eloqua last year and wrote a blog post as a follow up to the webinar.
  • Infographics: Thanks to popularity of big data and visual platforms like Pinterest and Visual.ly, infographics are all the rage. You could create an infographic based on data your company has collected or synthesize data and other information from a variety of sources to tell a compelling story. Include your company’s logo in the infographic so that the original source is clear when it gets shared. Post your completed infographics on Pinterest and Facebook and encourage other bloggers in your niche to share the graphic with their readers.

Tell us! How have you used short-form content to build brand awareness and engage readers? Any other formats you’d add to the list above?

Using a variety of marketing platforms can compliment your marketing strategy.. If PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising is one of the platforms you are considering, you’ve probably contemplated Google Adwords.  There are a few elements that make Google AdWords worthwhile.

With Google Adwords, your campaigns are completely customizable. You can target your campaigns to reach the audiences you want too. You have the ability to narrow your audience by the time of day, location, and device type (after all, there is no point in your ads reaching those in England if you are promoting a weight loss seminar in Colorado).

One of the clear benefits to online marketing is that your results are measurable. As a marketer, one of your biggest priorities is determining if your campaigns are working and returning ROI. PPC Advertising through Google Adwords is one of the most measurable online mediums. Adwords provides a variety of metrics that allow you to evaluate what is working and what is not.

By using the right resources in AdWords you can see results immediately. You can monitor the clicks and impressions. In doing so, you can determine if your keywords are working. If you are not seeing the results you want after a certain amount of time, changing or adding key words is simple.

Once you have established your PPC campaign is working, there is not a huge amount of maintenance thereafter (although you should always be monitoring the campaigns and results).

It is no secret that visually appealing ads get results. Google AdWords provides new ad formats, so you have options to differentiate your ads – ad extensions are a great resource as well!!