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Retweet With Class

As a small business, one benefit to using Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms is the ability to connect with your audience in an informal environment.However as a business, it is just as important to remain professional on social media. There are a few simple rules that should be followed when it comes to social media.

Be polite on Twitter.

When you are re-tweeting, credit your source. Twitter’s 140-character limit makes this a little bit challenging, but crediting the author and/or source with a simple ‘@username’ can go a long way. Let’s say you tweeted out a personal thought or opinion about a hockey game. If one of your Twitter followers agreed with you, it is likely they would simply retweet your original thought. Now, wouldn’t you want to be informed that someone supported your thought enough to retweet it?

Give shout outs when your blogging.

When you are blogging, simply include an “article source: (insert original article link) at the end of your post. This lets readers know where the information came from, and it gives credit to the original author.

The beauty of the Internet comes from access to information. In the same sense, the beauty of social media is the added ease and convenience of sharing that information. If we continue to share, and share politely, the social media world will continue to grow and develop in the big-hearted and giving way that it has already.

The Takeaway: Give credit where credit is due.

Article Source: http://socialmediatoday.com/chrissyme/1503106/social-media-etiquette-101-attribution

 

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Are You Paying Attention To Social Media Etiquette?

Social Media is one of the easiest and fastest ways to connect with your audience.However as a business, it is just as important to remain professional when engaging on social media. There are a few simple rules that should be followed:

Is your blogging content original?

When you are blogging, simply include an “article source: (insert original article link) at the end of your post. This lets readers know where the information came from, and it gives credit to the original author.

Use ‘@username’ on Twitter.

When you are re-tweeting, credit your source. Twitter’s 140-character limit makes this a little bit challenging, but crediting the author and/or source with a simple ‘@username’ can go a long way. Let’s say you tweeted out a personal thought or opinion about a hockey game. If one of your Twitter followers agreed with you, it is likely they would simply retweet your original thought. Now, wouldn’t you want to be informed that someone supported your thought enough to retweet it?

The beauty of the Internet comes from access to information. In the same sense, the beauty of social media is the added ease and convenience to share that information. If we continue to share, and share politely, the social media world will continue to grow and develop in the big-hearted and giving way that it has already.

Article Source: http://socialmediatoday.com/chrissyme/1503106/social-media-etiquette-101-attribution

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What Makes Your Facebook Contest Different?

Holding contests and campaigns on social media is more popular than ever, and we don’t see that changing anytime soon. Any company can give out free gift cards or electronics, so that really is not enough to hold the attention of social media users anymore. What is taking your contest to the next level? If you are running a contest, you must make sure your contest stands out among the rest. Here’s how:

As we know, consumers are constantly interacting with social media on their mobile phones. This means it is vital to take advantage of location. Urge users to check-in on social media when they are interacting with your company’s physical location. Offer some sort of incentive such as a discount, a charitable donation, a few points in a contest, etc. Getting social media users to check in not only allows you to generate more traffic, but also creates a deeper user interaction (physical and digital).

Do your users have a reason to keep coming back to your page? Include your fans and contest participants in every possible step of the contest. Brands often do this by allowing the fans to vote on a winner, respond to a question, or  answer a poll. Get creative here and choose what seems most relevant to your brand and product.

Although your contest is Facebook based, ask yourself if other social media platforms would enhance your contest. For example, say you are the marketer for a line of gluten-free butter and your Facebook contest asked users to post pictures and recipes of things they made with your butter. In this case, it would make sense to start a Pinterest board, displaying the recipes.  Using more than one social media platform can allow you to reach a larger audience. The key here is to make sure your second social media platform is relevant to your contest.

The general goal of Facebook contests is to allow users to interact with your brand. Anybody can make a Facebook contest, but your goal is to expand that user interaction as far as possible. Think of ways to take your contests to other social media platforms, physical locations, and beyond.

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Tips For Successful Social Media Marketing

 

 

 

 

Businesses everywhere are finding new opportunities to engage with consumers through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest. It’s known that Twitter gets about 460,000 users to sign up per day, and Facebook is expected to reach 1 billion users by August, so it’s easy for businesses to realize that each and every one of these users have the potential to be a customer.

But social media marketing is more than just making an account and adding friends and followers. It is critical to have a well-established strategy and to do your research so you can develop the best social media plan for your company.

Follow these tips before you hit the social media highway.

1. Have A Plan

Too often Facebook becomes littered with inactive company pages. These pages are the result of marketers making a company page without a goal in mind.

It’s important to understand your objectives. State what it is you want to accomplish. This might be to create brand awareness, to provide a platform for consumers to give input and ask questions, or to build customer loyalty with promotions and specials.

Also, you’ll want to make a plan for measuring your ROI. It’s very helpful to be able to tell if your efforts are paying off. If your efforts aren’t getting results, then you can have a plan set to help you modify your marketing tactics.

It’s also wise to know you’re target audience. Define the demographics of who would be most interested in your products and services so you can send your brand message to those specific people.

Finally, make sure you have the time necessary to run your social media marketing plan. If you can’t make the time needed for your social media marketing, your attempts will not get very far. Consider hiring someone to help you so you can have the time to make a successful social media marketing campaign.

2. Keep It Simple

After you’ve got a basic plan set up, don’t go overboard and try to join every social network site out there. That will only end up fragmenting your efforts. What you should do is focus on creating one or two accounts on social media sites and grow your audience there.

3. Don’t Spam

With social media, it can be tempting to start promoting your products and services like crazy, but advertising should not be the main focus of social media marketing. Facebook users don’t go on the site to just look for something to purchase, so make sure you’re engaging with followers and fans on a level beyond advertising and promoting.

4. Communicate

Silence is not golden in the social media world. Communication is a must for any business, especially social media marketing. If you are not able to maintain ongoing communication with your customers, you will lose the value of having a social media presence. So be “social” and make contacts and boost your reputation.

5. Build Your Fan Base

It’s easy to gain customers by building your fan base. If you communicate well through your social media sites, your fan base will grow, and the potential for more customers will grow as well. Be sure to post interesting and unique information often, and follow people who are relevant to your brand, and they might just follow you back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Tips For Successful Social Media Marketing

 

 

 

 

 

Businesses everywhere are finding new opportunities to engage with consumers through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest. It’s known that Twitter gets about 460,000 users to sign up per day, and Facebook is expected to reach 1 billion users by August, so it’s easy for businesses to realize that each and every one of these users have the potential to be a customer.

But social media marketing is more than just making an account and adding friends and followers. It is critical to have a well-established strategy and to do your research so you can develop the best social media plan for your company.

Follow these tips before you hit the social media highway

1. Have A Plan

Too often Facebook becomes littered with inactive company pages. These pages are the result of marketers making a company page without a goal in mind.

It’s important to understand your objectives. State what it is you want to accomplish. This might be to create brand awareness, to provide a platform for consumers to give input and ask questions, or to build customer loyalty with promotions and specials.

Also, you’ll want to make a plan for measuring your ROI. It’s very helpful to be able to tell if your efforts are paying off. If your efforts aren’t getting results, then you can have a plan set to help you modify your marketing tactics.

It’s also wise to know you’re target audience. Define the demographics of who would be most interested in your products and services so you can send your brand message to those specific people.

Finally, make sure you have the time necessary to run your social media marketing plan. If you can’t make the time needed for your social media marketing, your attempts will not get very far. Consider hiring someone to help you so you can have the time to make a successful social media marketing campaign.

2. Keep It Simple

After you’ve got a basic plan set up, don’t go overboard and try to join every social network site out there. That will only end up fragmenting your efforts. What you should do is focus on creating one or two accounts on social media sites and grow your audience there.

3. Don’t Spam

With social media, it can be tempting to start promoting your products and services like crazy, but advertising should not be the main focus of social media marketing. Facebook users don’t go on the site to just look for something to purchase, so make sure you’re engaging with followers and fans on a level beyond advertising and promoting.

4. Communicate

Silence is not golden in the social media world. Communication is a must for any business, especially social media marketing. If you are not able to maintain ongoing communication with your customers, you will lose the value of having a social media presence. So be “social” and make contacts and boost your reputation.

5. Build Your Fan Base

It’s easy to gain customers by building your fan base. If you communicate well through your social media sites, your fan base will grow, and the potential for more customers will grow as well. Be sure to post interesting and unique information often, and follow people who are relevant to your brand, and they might just follow you back.

 

 

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The Effects of Facebook Brand Pages on Purchasing Behavior

 

 

 

 

A recent report from Facebook and comScore looked at how using Facebook Pages effects consumer behavior and social media marketing. The report closely examined the impact of paid media exposure on Facebook Fans. Here are some of its key findings.

1. The Facebook Page has become the brand’s new website.

For several companies, Brand Facebook Pages are turning into the hub of the company. For example, the popular candy brand Skittles had 23,000 visitors in May on their website, versus 320,000 visitors on the Skittles Facebook Page during the same month!

This doesn’t necessarily mean that Brand Pages are the main source of brand engagement on Facebook, however. It’s known that Facebook users spend the most time on the News Feed, so the amount of brand exposure on the News Feed is greater.

Also, this does not mean that you should abandon your company site and focus solely on your Facebook page. Websites are important for focusing on lead capture and transactions. The popularity of the Facebook Pages is just a shift in consumer behavior, which should be understood by companies.

2. The number of Facebook Fans is not a major measurement of performance.

Many companies are still too focused on taking their number of Fans as the main indicator of their performance with social media marketing on Facebook. The more important measurement however, is how brands are delivering their message to make the most out of their consumer reach and engagement.

In order to increase reach, companies should optimize their posts so they will be more likely seen in all of the News Feeds of Fans. Additionally, the ad platform is another way to help brands increase their reach. By promoting a post, it is more likely that it will reach a greater percentage of the brand’s fan base.

3. Facebook Fans and Friends of Fans are spending more.

It doesn’t seem to matter whether purchasing decisions of Facebook Fans and Friends of Fans are truly influenced by earned media exposure because they are “substantially more valuable” consumers based on actual purchase behavior, according to the report.

The report found that Fans of Amazon’s Page spent over twice as much when shopping on Amazon compared to the average consumer. And Friends of Fans spent about 8% more in purchases.

4. In-store purchasing behavior is influenced by Facebook earned media exposure.

When looking at Starbucks, researchers examined the behavior of Fans and Friends of Fans during a 4 week period and found that on the fourth week after exposure, a test group had purchase incidences that were .58 percentage points greater than the purchase incidences in the control group. Furthermore, the fact that the normal lift in purchases rose with each week following exposure, which shows the effects exposure has in increasing purchase behavior.

 

 

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The Effects of Facebook Brand Pages on Purchasing Behavior

 

 

 

 

A recent report from Facebook and comScore looked at how using Facebook Pages effects consumer behavior and social media marketing. The report closely examined the impact of paid media exposure on Facebook Fans. Here are some of its key findings.

1. The Facebook Page has become the brand’s new website.

For several companies, Brand Facebook Pages are turning into the hub of the company. For example, the popular candy brand Skittles had 23,000 visitors in May on their website, versus 320,000 visitors on the Skittles Facebook Page during the same month!

This doesn’t necessarily mean that Brand Pages are the main source of brand engagement on Facebook, however. It’s known that Facebook users spend the most time on the News Feed, so the amount of brand exposure on the News Feed is greater

Also, this does not mean that you should abandon your company site and focus solely on your Facebook page. Websites are important for focusing on lead capture and transactions. The popularity of the Facebook Pages is just a shift in consumer behavior, which should be understood by companies.

2. The number of Facebook Fans is not a major measurement of performance.

Many companies are still too focused on taking their number of Fans as the main indicator of their performance with social media marketing on Facebook. The more important measurement however, is how brands are delivering their message to make the most out of their consumer reach and engagement.

In order to increase reach, companies should optimize their posts so they will be more likely seen in all of the News Feeds of Fans. Additionally, the ad platform is another way to help brands increase their reach. By promoting a post, it is more likely that it will reach a greater percentage of the brand’s fan base.

3. Facebook Fans and Friends of Fans are spending more.

It doesn’t seem to matter whether purchasing decisions of Facebook Fans and Friends of Fans are truly influenced by earned media exposure because they are “substantially more valuable” consumers based on actual purchase behavior, according to the report.

The report found that Fans of Amazon’s Page spent over twice as much when shopping on Amazon compared to the average consumer. And Friends of Fans spent about 8% more in purchases.

4. In-store purchasing behavior is influenced by Facebook earned media exposure.

When looking at Starbucks, researchers examined the behavior of Fans and Friends of Fans during a 4 week period and found that on the fourth week after exposure, a test group had purchase incidences that were .58 percentage points greater than the purchase incidences in the control group. Furthermore, the fact that the normal lift in purchases rose with each week following exposure, which shows the effects exposure has in increasing purchase behavior.

 

 

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Marketing With Pinterest

 

 

The social media site Pinterest has over 11.7 million visitors a month now, and about 17.8 million registered users! It has become one of the most popular social media sites for a few main reasons.

The visually appealing aspect of the site draws in viewers and keeps their attention. The fact that users sign into the site using their Facebook or Twitter account allows them to be automatically integrated into their existing social network sites. So, sharing across social media sites is already built into Pinterest. The site has a clean and simple interface, so people are able to use it easily, with little confusion.

However, compared to other leading social media sites, Pinterest does not offer as many discovery methods. It can take a little effort to trace a pin to the user who initially pinned it, making it somewhat harder to directly engage with fellow users. Pinterest also does not yet have a way of recommending or directing pinners to other pinners or boards based on activity. This can be a little inconvenient for brands trying to build and grow an audience.

Another key aspect of Pinterest is that its demographics are quite unique compared to those of Twitter or Facebook. Half of all Pinterest users are parents, and 68.2% are women. Facebook and Twitter have a more evenly split gendered audience. This means that for brands with a predominately female target market, Pinterest might be the best sight to utilize to engage with fans.

For companies who have passionate followers across several platforms, like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, you can bet that those followers will also engage with your brand on Pinterest. Pinterest can be a great site to engage on a personal level with followers because you share your own, personal interests with your users. While the site clearly helps build relationships, it is not so efficient in “selling” products to followers. But, remember that engaging, not selling, is the ultimate goal of social media!

Pinterest is also a great platform in terms of sharing. You can easily post pictures from your own site, or pin images from other sites. A “Pin It” button can be installed on the Safari browser, making sharing images and information across the web easier than ever. You can also place a Pinterest button that links to your Pinterest account on your website or blog. Facebook even allows you to add a Pinterest tab onto your timeline.

The fact that fans can pin your images onto their own boards is another way that fans engage directly with your brand. You can use the “Pin It” button next to images on websites that you would like to share with your fans. This provides a chance to make viral connections, as followers of your fans will see their pins.

Additionally, there are a few apps available to help you to build a community on Pinterest. The app, Shareasimage, converts text found on the web into an image that can be shared on Pinterest. The app also works for Facebook and Twitter. Another app, Url2pin.it, lets users “screenshot” a picture of a website then share it on Pinterest. This could be a great way to share interesting sites with your fans, or it could be used as a promotional tool for your own site.

Pinterest is a site that truly models the purpose of social media: to be social! The site does not sell; it shares. Sharing with your consumers is how you must market with social media in order to gain brand loyalty and expand your fan base!

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Marketing With Pinterest

 

 

The social media site Pinterest has over 11.7 million visitors a month now, and about 17.8 million registered users! It has become one of the most popular social media sites for a few main reasons.

The visually appealing aspect of the site draws in viewers and keeps their attention. The fact that users sign into the site using their Facebook or Twitter account allows them to be automatically integrated into their existing social network sites. So, sharing across social media sites is already built into Pinterest. The site has a clean and simple interface, so people are able to use it easily, with little confusion.

However, compared to other leading social media sites, Pinterest does not offer as many discovery methods. It can take a little effort to trace a pin to the user who initially pinned it, making it somewhat harder to directly engage with fellow users. Pinterest also does not yet have a way of recommending or directing pinners to other pinners or boards based on activity. This can be a little inconvenient for brands trying to build and grow an audience.

Another key aspect of Pinterest is that its demographics are quite unique compared to those of Twitter or Facebook. Half of all Pinterest users are parents, and 68.2% are women. Facebook and Twitter have a more evenly split gendered audience. This means that for brands with a predominately female target market, Pinterest might be the best sight to utilize to engage with fans.

For companies who have passionate followers across several platforms, like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, you can bet that those followers will also engage with your brand on Pinterest. Pinterest can be a great site to engage on a personal level with followers because you share your own, personal interests with your users. While the site clearly helps build relationships, it is not so efficient in “selling” products to followers. But, remember that engaging, not selling, is the ultimate goal of social media!

Pinterest is also a great platform in terms of sharing. You can easily post pictures from your own site, or pin images from other sites. A “Pin It” button can be installed on the Safari browser, making sharing images and information across the web easier than ever. You can also place a Pinterest button that links to your Pinterest account on your website or blog. Facebook even allows you to add a Pinterest tab onto your timeline.

The fact that fans can pin your images onto their own boards is another way that fans engage directly with your brand. You can use the “Pin It” button next to images on websites that you would like to share with your fans. This provides a chance to make viral connections, as followers of your fans will see their pins.

Additionally, there are a few apps available to help you to build a community on Pinterest. The app, Shareasimage, converts text found on the web into an image that can be shared on Pinterest. The app also works for Facebook and Twitter. Another app, Url2pin.it, lets users “screenshot” a picture of a website then share it on Pinterest. This could be a great way to share interesting sites with your fans, or it could be used as a promotional tool for your own site.

Pinterest is a site that truly models the purpose of social media: to be social! The site does not sell; it shares. Sharing with your consumers is how you must market with social media in order to gain brand loyalty and expand your fan base!

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Hospitality Marketing With Social Media

social media marketing experts

 

 

 

 

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!

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