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How to Use Pinterest to Attract Customers

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With over 70 million users, Pinterest is considered as one of the fastest growing social networking sites. Armed with that information, it is safe to say that Pinterest is just as important as Twitter and Facebook when using social media to reach your target market.

Since Pinterest is all about graphic images, your goal is to create visual images that your customers would enjoy. The more appealing an image is, the more likely it is to generate attention.

So, how can you use Pinterest to attract and engage customers? Here are some tips to get you started.

Build boards around your products

If you own a restaurant, there’s no better way to attract new customers by showing off your dishes. Be sure to create a collection of boards for each of your specialties. After all, food is the main attraction of your restaurant. So, focus on your menu.

Become an information curator

As an online curator, your job is to gather and organize all the best images related to your topic and present them to your virtual audience. When done the right way, people will see you as an industry expert and will eventually consider you as a go-to source for cool images and content.

Add compelling descriptions

If your goal is to capture the attention of customers, you shouldn’t stop at creating visually compelling content. Adding a description is just as important.

Since you’re using SEO to promote your site, why not use it as well to promote your Pinterest page. Use keywords in your titles, tags and pin boards. This is important as it makes it easier for people to find your content.

Engage with other users

The whole point of social networking is socializing. So, engage with customers, strategic partners and industry vendors by tagging them in your descriptions. Another way to interact with other users is to like their pins. This can be a way of telling them that you appreciate their content. Plus, it can help you build a following and convert fans into buyers.

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Best Tools for Finding and Connecting with Influencers in Your Industry

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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.

 

 

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4 Ways to Improve Your Social Media Engagement

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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.

 

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Customer Service on Social Media

Marketing your business through social media is way more than just attracting new consumers. Having your business out there on social media also means building strong relationships with your consumers. Social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, make it easy to connect with your customers and make sure they are satisfied with your business.

A lack in customer service is an issue that many people have encountered with businesses. Social media platforms give us the opportunity to reach out to our customers’ needs, but it isn’t always that easy. Here are some tips to make sure that you are making sure your consumer’s needs are met:

1. Make Sure Communication Is Immediate

With today’s technology, people no longer have to wait days for a response. Social media enables us to be in contact with our customers at all times. Customers expect immediate responses when posting on social media, so if your response team isn’t prepared, it could cost you. If you can respond within minutes of the post, you’ll be able to make your customer very happy.

2.  Give People a More Personal Brand Experience

Social media helps your business reach out to customers on a more personal level. People hate to be waiting on the phone with an operator and feeling like a robot is answering their questions. Social media platforms help us to be available whenever you may receive a question or complaint from a customer. This is something that people immediately recognize. Being available through platforms such as Twitter and Instagram help build strong personal bonds with your consumer ad making them feel like their problems actually matter to you.

3.  Have Social Users Spread the Word

If your customers are satisfied with your business, they are most likely to share their experience with others. Usually, if your customer is using social media to ask questions about your business, this means that they are avid users of social media. This also means that they are likely to spread the word about their positive experience with your business. This is a huge advantage to getting a good rep in the social media world, leading to more customers.

Making sure your customer’s needs are met should always be your priority in making sure your business succeeds. Social media enables us to easily reach out to our customers, strengthen bonds, and make sure they have a positive experience with your business. Following these crucial tips will ensure that your customers are happy.

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Best and Worst Times to Post on Social Media

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I know a lot of people who would log on to their social media accounts when they wake up in the morning. So, that’s probably one of the best times to post on social media, right?

But wait, I heard that most people also use it in the afternoon to mess around when they get bored at work. Or maybe they spend a few hours browsing through their newsfeeds after business hours. Okay, I’m officially confused.

Determining when to post on social media requires that you consider which platform your target audience is using. Remember, each social network has different users and their activities vary.

If you’re posting a status update when the majority of you audience are not online, then your time and effort goes to waste. Since you’re a busy person, you can’t afford to waste time.

Let’s get into the stats then.

Schedule tweets for lunch time

If your target market is on Twitter, be sure to tweet between 1-3 pm. During lunch break, a lot of people are checking in on Twitter. Traffic starts to build at 11 am, with peak posting days from Monday to Thursday. Avoid posting after 3pm on Friday.

Post Facebook status in the afternoon, when less people want to be at work

Engagement is one of the key considerations to a post’s visibility. An ideal time for engagement is between 1-4 pm.

Most people need some form of entertainment just to get through the afternoon slump, like around that 3:00 pm lull. For a lot of people, that means logging on to Facebook. These numbers hit rock bottom during the weekends, before 8 am and after 8 pm.

No one uses LinkedIn on a Friday

People are less interested in what’s happening on LinkedIn when they are winding up and winding down their work week. That means you shouldn’t bother posting on Monday and Friday. The best time for engagement is between Tuesday to Thursday, particularly before and after business hours.

 

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Tips for Finding the Right Social Influencers for Your Brand

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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.

 

 

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Tips to Maximize Your Youtube Marketing Results

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YouTube might try to wow you with the latest statistics by revealing that 48 hours worth of video are being uploaded every minute. By the time you finish reading this article, we’re guessing 3 days’ worth of videos have been uploaded on the site.

With the competition getting tougher, you’re probably thinking if someone would be interested enough to watch your videos. If you are doing this to capture the attention of your target audience, you have to make sure that your videos standout from the rest and focus on conversion.

Here are a few tips to help you get the most from your Youtube marketing campaign.

Keep it short

Whether it’s in TV or the Internet, no one is interested to watch ads anymore.

Most Youtube ads allow users to skip the ad after 5 seconds. Majority of the users would take advantage of this option and click on the “skip ad” button immediately and proceed to watch the video they came to Youtube for.     That being said, you only have 5 seconds to capture the attention of your target audience and get your message across. Otherwise, it’ll be out of the picture. Make sure to keep your ads short and watchable. Don’t go beyond the 60-second mark.

Selecting the right keywords

Youtube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world. And the fact that Google owns Youtube cannot be overlooked.

Videos appear on search engines. To make your video more findable, you have to make sure that it lands on top of the search results page. To do that, you need to select the right keywords and use them in the first few words of your title, description and tags.

Create compelling videos

When individuals are searching online, they are looking for quick information. That said, each one of your videos should be relevant, valuable and educational to your prospective and current clients. Create content that addresses your audience’s needs.

 

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How to Reach Your Target Audience Online

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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.

 

 

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Tips for Planning Your Social Media Holiday Campaign

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The holidays are just around the corner. With the Halloween rapidly approaching and Thanksgiving just a few weeks away, this means marketers are solidifying their holiday campaign for the most wonderful time of the year.

The holidays are the busiest time of the year. And you might find it difficult to stand out in the marketing frenzy if you don’t plan ahead. Since most people start shopping for Christmas presents after Halloween, it would be a good idea to start hanging the social media ornaments as early as now.

Incorporate these tips into your social media campaigns and make sure that your holiday campaign gets noticed.

Strategize early

The holiday season is slowly creeping up on us and will be there sooner than you think. The key is to plan ahead and get creative. Use social media to create a buzz around your brand leading up to the festive season.

Stand out from the competition

With the holiday season comes a horde of advertisers desperately vying for your attention. Think outside of the box. Remember, majority of marketers are planning to use some sort of promotional offers to capture the attention of their target market. Differentiate yourself from the competition and think of something that would get the public interested and excited to engage with your brand.

Offer coupons

Studies suggest that consumer spending increase by 11% during the holidays. Since it’s the most wonderful time of the year, give your customers a reason to shop by offering discounts or coupons.

Share holiday tips and tricks

Increase your social media engagement by throwing a bunch of informative and interesting content into your social marketing mix. With so many brands flooding the market with discounts and deals, sharing information about DIY home decorating projects or winter recipes for baking desserts will help you get noticed.

You can also ask questions to get people talking about their activities during the holiday, purchases and traditions.

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4 Ways to Enhance Customer Relationship with Social Media

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Your prospective and current customers are already online, and most of them are spending a few hours a day on social media. If your business is not active on social media, now is the right time to build a solid online presence.

Social media enables you to engage with your customer as never before. So, instead of relying solely on phone communication or email, consider reaching out to your target audience and existing customers through social media.

Here are a few tips on how to use social media to enhance client relationships, put smiles on customer’s faces and lead your business to growth.

Connect with your customers

If you are looking to build a social media presence, it is important to connect with your customers and make sure that you are having a two-way conversation with them.

Run polls. Ask questions. Turn your social media from a one-way channel into a two-way channel.

Encourage participation

Instead of supplying the information all the time, it would be a good idea to encourage your customers to share their photos and stories. As a way of saying thank you, take the time to come up with genuine individualized responses. This way, your customers will fee that you are truly interested in their experiences and are appreciative of their contributions.

Own your mistakes

Even big corporations are not immune to mistakes. So, when an unhappy customer tweets about a late order, take their complaints seriously, acknowledge the mistake and work on solving the problem fast.

Sincerity and humility goes a long way in social media in showing your customers that you respect and value them. While it is acceptable to make mistakes, owning up to your mistakes and saying “we’re sorry” is the best way to handle complaints.

Reward loyal customers

Highlight customers who take the time to consistently engage with your brand. Give them free merchandize or say thank you with simple personalized responses. By doing so, you can show them how much you appreciate and value their support. Mind you, that emotional component could turn a customer into a promoter.

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