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Hashtag Strategies That Will Benefit Your Business

Hastags are everywhere these days. We see them on Instagram, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and
Facebook. But do you know how to use them strategically?

Hashtags can improve you SEO, get your content found, target your market, amplify your brand and
expand your content reach. That being said, it is important that you know how to implement them
properly in order to fully enjoy all these benefits.

In this article, we’ll give you some of the most important hashtag strategies that you should take note
of. Read on to know more about it.

Create your own hashtags

Brand and campaign hashtags are the ones you make for your own business. Create a brand hashtag
that is unique to your business and make sure that it defines your business. Use it as your signature tag
and use it on all of your social media accounts. Encourage others to use it as well.

You’ll want people to remember your tag. So, keep it short and make sure it’s easy to spell.

Include a relevant yet specific hashtag

By using the right hashtag, people will come across your content even if they are not following you.

When we say relevant, it means that you should either use a hashtag that has already been searched for
frequently or something that was already been designated for a certain event. However, be sure to
make them as specific as possible so your message won’t get buried.

Trending hashtags

You have probably heard some of your friends talking about what’s trending now. They’re referring to a
hashtag topic that has become very popular and or the most talked about topic as of the moment.

If you come across a trend that relates to your business, take advantage of it by using the tag in your
content update. In a way, you can think of this hashtag strategy as a way of getting your “15 seconds of
fame.” This is beneficial as it will help you get your message to a massive audience.

Be careful not to spam trending hashtags, though, especially if they are not related to your business.

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Need Help Clarifying Which Social Network Does What?

Staying on top of social media marketing can be difficult for business owners, especially as new networks pop up daily. Here is a great graphic to help you choose which of the top social media networks your business should pursue!

which social media networks do what

As always, please contact the BIMS Team to let us know how we can help!

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Solutions to Common Lead Generation Problems

Generating leads for your business is not an easy task. It requires a lot of work. If it would make you feel better, we’d want to let you know that there is a ton of other marketers who are also struggling with the same troubles.

In this article, we have rounded up some of the most common lead generation problems along with the solutions to help you get things rolling in the right direction. Read on and we’ll tell you more about it.

Low traffic

Your ability to produce a steady stream of traffic is important as it affects your ability to turn visitors into leads and leads into paying customers.

If your traffic is leveling off, then optimization is necessary. That being said, you might want to conduct keyword research. On-page SEO practices like the use of keywords in your title tags, headers, meta-description, links and URL will help you boost your search engine results ranking.

Unqualified leads

Producing tons of leads is great, but it’s the quality of incoming leads that will influence the success of your business.

The best way of addressing unqualified leads can only be summed up in 2 words: buyer personas. In order to capture the right leads, you first have to determine your target audience and capture their attention.

Tight budget

If you think lead generation is challenging, it could be even more challenging if you are working on a tight budget. When the money tree shrivels up, you should have a plan in place in order to sustain lead generation.

If you are focusing on traditional methods or PPC, we’re not surprised why you are sweating profusely. Well, we’re not insinuating that inbound marketing is free, but there are a lot of methods that you can use without sucking up your entire budget.

Lead generation doesn’t always have to be costly. This is especially true if you think smarter, not harder.

 

 

 

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Using LinkedIn As A Marketing Tool

After learning the tricks to social media marketing tricks, it is time to put these concepts to work. If you are in need of business to business networking, then LinkedIn is the best place to start.

Of all the social networking platforms, LinkedIn is considered to be the most professional. Used by more than 135 million business professionals worldwide, this should be a part of your social media marketing strategy.

If you are like most people, you might be using LinkedIn as an online resume. Take advantage of this platform and use it as a marketing tool. Read on and incorporate these recommendations into your marketing campaign.

Status updates

This is one of the best ways in keeping your connections informed about what is happening to your business. Post status updates on a regular basis in order to appear active to the LinkedIn community. You can also use links and drive them to your site. Sharing contents that is related to your business may also be a good idea.

Blog posts

Every time you post a blog on your website, important details like the title, abstract and the link to your post will automatically be posted to your LinkedIn profile.

Events

If you are organizing an event or are speaking at an event, you are free to create a LinkedIn event in order to help you promote this event and generate interest.

Presentations

If you have posted a Powerpoint presentation in Google docs or SlideShare, you can also attach this presentation in your LinkedIn profile.

Twitter

If you are an active tweeter, you can always integrate your status updates with your tweets in order to keep your followers and connections informed.

Creative portfolio

Users with a creative portfolio are given the chance to post it to the Behance Network. Once you’re done, you can showcase your work in your LinkedIn profile.

Recommendations

You can easily request recommendations from your LinkedIn connections. A collection of recommendations that highlight your experience and expertise would significantly enhance your profile.

 

 

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How to Use Social Media in Launching a Product

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.

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5 Social Media Marketing Tools for Your Business

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.

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Benefits of Social Media Marketing

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

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Tips in Using Video in Social Media

The Internet is filled with content and information. With the surplus of information, it may be difficult to entice people to read your contents or watch your videos, unless they’re actually in need of that information.

In this article, we’ll give you a few tips on how use video content on social media. Read on and get your message across your audience.

Introduce your company to the online community

Since you are on the Internet, it is best to introduce your company to the online community in a fun and creative manner. While fan engagement is encouraged, this does not mean that you have to post cute photos in order to gather likes. Instead, spend enough time to plan your video content and make sure to highlight your company’s strengths.

Capture the attention of your target audience

There is no denying that social media provides great benefits to business owners. However, most business owners find it difficult to capture the attention of their target audience and get them to view these videos.

Please bear in mind that the description that you include with the video actually makes a big difference. When writing a description, make sure to convey the message in a matter of 2-3 sentences.

Most importantly, be sure to grab the attention of the viewer, especially on the first 10-15 seconds. If you fail to do so, then there’s a greater possibility that they won’t finish watching your video and look for something more interesting. Your goal is to convey the message quickly and efficiently.

Video quality

You don’t need to create a video with the same quality as a cinematic trailer. However, please make sure that your video comes with a decent quality. A video taken from a shaky camcorder may not do well.

Meanwhile, an HD video with boring content may not attract as much viewers as well. So, we recommend a combination of both – creative and informative content matched with decent quality.

Length

A study which was conducted in 2011 revealed that viewers are more likely to watch videos ranging from 5 to 8 minutes. Longer videos, on the other hand, tend to turn people away.

 

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