, ,

Best Tools for Finding and Connecting with Influencers in Your Industry

BIMS_4.8.15

Social media marketing is one of the most effective methods of growing your brand. However, it goes beyond creating an account, posting occasional updates and special offers.

To make an impact to your target audience, you need a steady supply of quality content and get them in front of as many leads as possible. One way of doing this is by connecting with influencers in your industry. Even a single tweet from a well-known name in your industry could give you 1,000 visits as compared to the usual 100.

There are several tools you can use to find your desired influencer. Here are some of them.

Keyhole

This tracking tool helps identify influencers and content, especially related to events using a hashtag.

It develops that context by analyzing users who are engaging with your competition and gives you an idea as to who is leading in the conversations at industry events.

Klout

Klout is one of the most popular influencer discovery and engagement tools.

Just type in your desired keyword on the search bar and it will generate a list of top influencers. Here, you will notice a number adjacent to their profile image. This serve as their Klout score. The higher the score is, the more influential they are.

Follower Wonk

Follower Wonk is a strong Twitter analytics tool that can be used for several things. The key feature I recommend is the “Search Twitter bios”. All you have to do is to type in the keywords and it will give you a list of all the Twitter users with the specified keyword in their bios.

You can also track who is following you, analyze and sort followers and compare users by the number of followers they have. You can also add a location filter to find Twitter users within a specific region.

 

 

/by
, ,

4 Ways to Improve Your Social Media Engagement

Bims_3.31.15

There are about 2 billion social network users from all over the world. That number is expected to grow to about 2.5 billion in 2017. So, if you want to reach your target audience more effectively, you need to be active on social media.

In this article, we’ll share with you some methods that have helped us boost our social media engagement. Hopefully, these tips will help you earn more shares, comments, likes and clicks for your social media content.

Ask for their opinion

Business owners should think of their target audience as a pool of unlimited resources. Your current and potential customers will appreciate it if you listen to what they have to say.

Feel free to create a simple survey, ask an open-ended question or a fill-in-the blank type of question. This is advantageous as it will not only increase engagement, you can also use their suggestions to address their needs and requests.

Educate

Business owners and marketers are often stumped as they sit down in front of their computer and attempt to post a status update on their social media accounts.

Remember, your goal is to get your audience to engage with you and your content. To do that, you need to provide them with great content. Write about what you know and what they don’t know. If you do this, people will eventually see you as an industry expert.

Call-to-action

It’s not enough to write quality content, sometimes, it also pays to ask. Always include a great call-to-action in your posts. Ask them to visit your site, answer polls, provide content ideas or simply hit like. People are more likely to act upon it if you tell them what you want from them. As they say, ask and you shall receive.

Share photos

If you are struggling to engage with your target audience through content marketing, you might want to consider including more visuals into your marketing efforts.

According to Social Media Examiner, 87% of the most shared posts on Facebook were photos. Sharing photos are a great way to boost engagement as it can easily capture the attention of people and are easier to digest.

 

/by
, ,

Tips for Finding the Right Social Influencers for Your Brand

BimsBlog 2.3.15

With the powerful combination of social media and word-of-mouth, businesses from all over the world are changing how they market to consumers.

As marketers, our first instinct is to create contents or videos that would allow us engage with our target audience and persuade them to buy our products or avail our services. But today’s buyers are smart and savvy. They start losing interest the moment they realize that you are selling a product. One of the biggest keys to connecting with your target audience is leveraging influencers.

With thousands of bloggers and Youtube stars in your industry to choose from, finding the right influencer to partner with may seem like a daunting task. Find out how to choose the perfect influencers to inspire trust from your customers.

Content

This is the most important characteristic when targeting the right influencer for your brand. Read through the blogger’s posts and determine how aligned their contents are with your brand message.

In order to stay relevant, you need to determine the type of content your audience is interested in. Take a moment to browse through the influencer’s blog posts, infographics or videos. This will give you an idea if the influencer will be a good fit for your brand.

Engagement

Engagement indicates how active an influencer’s social community is. Do they share, respond or comment on his posts?

Just because someone talks about your product, doesn’t mean that you should get in touch with that persons and turn him into an advocate. Your goal is to find someone who talks about your products or services and are earning high levels of engagement.

Reach

Part of what makes a social influencer is the fact that they have a large following.

In order to determine whether or not this influencer will be a good representation for your brand, it would be best to define your target audience and compare them to your potential influencer’s audience. There’s no point in partnering with an influencer with 200,000 followers if their audience doesn’t align with yours.

 

 

/by
, ,

4 Ways to Increase Traffic to Your Website

WebTraffic_1.6.15

Most business owners dream of driving relevant traffic to their site. Unfortunately, dreaming about it won’t get your there. You need hard work, consistent effort and high quality content to give yourself a boost.

Let’s take a look at some effective ways for generating high quality, organic search traffic to your website.

Content is king

Search engines are rewarding businesses that are generating high-quality consistent content.

To make your content appealing to different kinds of readers, it would help to vary the format and length of your articles. List blog posts also get more traffic than any other kind of post.

Write articles frequently

The longer you are in business and producing quality content online, the more likely are you to succeed. This will also increase your chances of showing up in search results.

Be sure to post articles on a regular basis so your readers know when to expect new content. Also, add fresh content a few times a week to keep your readers coming back for more.

Work on your headlines

Headlines are the most important parts of your content. When your blog posts are shared via social media, they are typically the first thing readers see. That said, it is important to create a headline that would pique the interest of your target audience. An effective headline would get you more views and shares than usual and will definitely drive traffic to your website.

Be social

It’s not enough to share your content across different social channels; you also need to participate actively in the community. Mind you, social media is actually intended to interact with your followers. So be sure to engage with your readers and respond to their questions and comments. Nothing turns people off faster than using social media merely as an advertising channel.

 

 

/by
, ,

Habits of Successful Social Media Managers

BIMS_12.16.14

The number of tasks a social media manager is expected to do can be quite overwhelming. Not only are they expected to engage with current and new followers, they also update several social media profiles everyday, monitor the effectiveness of their social media campaign and more.

While every social media manager would approach his or her job differently, successful social media managers share a few habits. Focus on these habits to reach new levels of social media success.

Reciprocate

Genuinely strive to help others succeed on social media. This attitude will help you build camaraderie, it will also help you stay on top of the game.

When you like or follow someone, they are more likely to reciprocate the gesture and like or follow you back as well. Alternatively, when someone shares your content, do the same for them.

Work with your team

As much as you would like to handle things on your own, you can’t do it alone. Do yourself a favor and build a team consisting of loyal and trustworthy people.

Collaborate with your team and harness a relationship that encourages partnership. This will help you build a strong social media presence and reach your business goals.

Prioritize

Prioritize your week’s plan based on priority rather than urgency.

Every business needs leads, traffic and sales in order to thrive. While having thousands of twitter followers can be beneficial to your brand, it would be a good idea to start by creating a webpage where you can create leads and connect it with your social media account.

Quick on your feet

A lot of things are happening on social media. Most of the time, it is happening pretty fast. Here, you have to be quick on your feet as you are not always given the luxury to take your time.

Negative comments, for instance, requires some quick, critical thinking. You should act quickly and know how to address the issue in order to avoid any negative repercussions.

Unplug

Some social media managers run ragged in an attempt to keep up with the “always on” medium. That said, you need to give your mind a break from time to time.

This may sound counterintuitive, considering that you don’t want to be inactive on your accounts for too long. However, unplugging at least once a week can help you recharge your social media spirit.

 

/by
,

Tips for Long-Term SEO Success

BIMSSEO_12.2.14

The world of SEO is constantly changing. SEO experts around the world are watching the search engines like a cast of preying hawks, taking note of what Google is going to do next. That being said, the tricks you are using today may not have the same impact a year from now.

What do you need to do in order to make sure that you are focusing on long-term optimization and results?

In an attempt to help entrepreneurs and marketers succeed, we have put together some tips that would guarantee long term SEO success. Here are some of them.

Create and manage a blog

Even if you think that your business is not the most appropriate platform for blogging, it is imperative that you create and manage one. This is because your blog will act as your command and control center.

Think of categories and topics that are related to your business and start writing. The best articles are the ones that answer your audience’s questions such as how-to guides, top 10 list, industry news, company updates etc.

A high quality blog is more likely to bring more leads and attract your target audience. Plus, it gives Google more contexts to index.

Create a social strategy

Search and social used to be 2 entirely different things. Now, having a strong social media presence plays an important role in high search engine rankings.

Don’t rely on just one social media platform. In order to expand your SEO reach and build network connections, it is important to use various social media platforms. As long as you stay active, you can reap the SEO benefits.

Encourage good reviews

Positive reviews are great strategy for any business. This is especially true if your business relies on local customers.

The more positive reviews you have, the more traffic you’ll get. Plus, you’ll have more authority in Google’s local ranking algorithm. The most effective way to get good reviews is by giving your customers a great experience.

 

 

 

/by
, ,

How to Reach Your Target Audience Online

OnlineAudience_11.18.14

In the competitive world of online marketing, it takes more than a persuasive copy and a beautiful website to truly connect with your target audience. Your brand’s competitive advantage relies on your ability to stand out from the crowd and develop a genuine relationship with your prospects and current customers.

But before this, your first have to determine where these people spend majority of their time online and make sure that your brand has a presence in those channels. Read on for tips on how you can reach your target audience and grow your business in the digital world.

Speak with your audience

Thanks to social media, communication is now two-way and asymmetrical. Join group discussions on Facebook, LinkedIn and other sites where people are conversing about a topic related to your business. Participate in these discussions and feel free to provide answers to certain questions or share your opinion.

Start local

To get your message out to potential clients, begin with the idea of narrowing down your audience. This is especially beneficial for starting businesses that don’t have enough advertising budget.

Limit yourself geographically. Choose a specific section of the city and focus your efforts there. As your business grows, expand your selected zone.

Blog about your customer’s interest

Blogging is one of the best ways of connecting with your target audience and driving them to your site. If you want to attract visitors, you need to create blog posts that are in complete alignment with their areas of interest. Pay attention to the comments section of your blog. If anyone throws a question, you can use this as an inspiration for your next blog post. Fill your blog with informative and relevant topics and position your company as a though leader and expert in your industry.

 

 

/by
,

Secrets to Highly Effective SEO Keywords

BIMS_SEO11.11.14

People are looking for information, products and services on a daily basis. When a person wants to find something online, they go to search engines like Google or Bing and start by typing keywords or phrase. Thanks to these keywords, it becomes a lot easier for us to find the content we’re looking for.

An SEO keyword is the heart and soul of your SEO efforts. Choosing an effective keyword for your site is both a science and an art. It’s about striking the perfect balance between the number of people searching for a particular keyword and how much competition you have.

Here are a few tips for choosing highly effective SEO keywords.

Focus on what you’re writing about

If you want to get a high ranking on a keyword, it would be best to focus on something that you frequently write about. If you only intend to write about it once, then you are less likely to succeed.

Before you decide on a keyword, take a look at the contents and articles that you have written in the past. Now, make a list of the keywords and phrases that are commonly used by people to find businesses like yours.

Avoid items that are too broad

Strike a balance between broad and specific. Make sure that the keyword you choose is broad enough that a lot of people would search for it; while specific enough that you have a decent chance of attracting potential customers.

Single-word terms are usually a poor choice for optimizing. For instance, the word “Internet” is too broad. It’s not going to be very useful for getting the results you want. Keywords with 2 to 3 words are your best option.

Do your research

To make sure that you come up with the best keyword, you have to do your research. Start by typing some of the keywords on your list on search engines and see if Google will fill in the rest of the search for you. Based on these suggestions, you can see which phrases are most commonly searched.

You can also use other Google tools like Google Insight for Search or AdWords Keyword Estimator.

 

/by
, ,

Social Media Tips for Bloggers

bims

While a lot of people believe that blogging is just about creating unique and interesting content, the truth of the matter is that you need to promote your content in order to ensure that each blog post reach its widest possible audience.

When it comes to driving traffic and building an audience, bloggers are turning to social media with record results. To get more clicks and promote their brands, successful bloggers know that need to develop a following on key social networks. It is ideal for accomplishing this goal since social media feeds on a never-ending stream of content.

Follow these tips and your blog will blossom in this new era.

Be on social media

You have done almost everything, yet you’re still not driving traffic. This can be quite frustrating, but you also have to consider all the links you have seen, but didn’t click on.

Spend some time on social media platforms. This way, you can find inspiration for that next blog post, keep up on industry news and build relationship with your followers and fellow bloggers.

Add social media sharing buttons on your blog

Make it as simple as possible for your readers to share your content by adding social media sharing buttons at the top and bottom of your blog. Reduce reader’s hurdles. If they have to hunt around just to share your content, then you’re hurting your content’s sharability.

Join blogger groups on Facebook

Participate on social media beyond sharing your own content. Join some active blogger groups on Facebook and become part of the community. Help others by answering their questions or sharing a link to a relevant blog post.

Once people get to know you, they are more likely to share your content.

Share other blogger’s content

Feel free to check out what other bloggers are posting and give them a repin, share or tweet whenever you can.

Be generous to your fellow bloggers by sharing their content. Hopefully, they’ll return the favor and share your content, too.

 

/by