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Social Media Trends That Are Bad For Your Brand

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Social media marketing can be comparable to traditional media marketing. The only difference is that it is a lot faster. Trends waxes and wanes in hyper speed, going from cool to super lame in a matter of days or weeks. As a result, it is becoming more and more difficult to stay relevant.

Here’s a list of social media trends that can hurt your brand. Read on to find out which trend you should finally put to rest.

Facebook exclusive

Facebook may be one of the most popular social media channels today, but focusing your marketing efforts on Facebook is certainly not a good idea. Why? It’s because it has the most competition and advertising can be more expensive.

Focusing on one platform is like advertising on TV alone, and not using radio, print, billboards and any other channels to reach your audience.

Live blogging

During the SuperBowl event last year, a lot of people were active online, chatting and posting about the event as it happens. Some businesses took the opportunity to engage with their audience by posting something about the said event. If the brand is about sports, then this is justifiable. But if not, then there’s no sense talking about the SuperBowl.

Try focusing in topics that would be of interest to your target audience. They’re expecting you to provide them with content about specific topics, not some general world news.

Half-baked story

Social media is a great place to keep up with breaking news. We strongly advise that you check your facts first before sharing stories on your blog or business page. Do your research and make sure that the news is from a reliable source.

Sharing half-baked stories will affect your brand in a negative way. The last thing you want is for people to see you as an unreliable source.

Ignoring LinkedIn

If you’re not on LinkedIn, then you’re missing out on a lot of opportunities to get more branding for your business. LinkedIn is the best social media platform for business owners and executives to be in. Here, you can expand your network and meet people in the same industry.

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Social Media Facts Every Marketer Should Know

Social Media Facts

Social media is more than just a place where you can meet new friends and interact with people. Today, it is also considered an essential tool for marketers.

Most companies recognize the power of social media and understand that it’s not just a passing fad. As a marketer, you have to keep in mind that social media platforms are constantly changing and growing. So, it’s important to keep up with the facts and statistics in order to get the most out of your social media marketing.

In this article, we have compiled some important facts every marketer should know. Read on and keep these things in mind while planning your social media strategies.

Timing is important

Most companies use social media to reach out to consumers. If you want to reach more people, you have to plan and schedule your posts. Facebook posts that are published after working hours, specifically between 5 pm to 1 am, get the highest engagement.

People are spending more time on their smartphones as compared to other devices

Armed with this information, it is important to make sure that all the content you post on social media are mobile optimized. If not, then you’re losing a lot of prospective clients.

Facebook continues to be the champion of all social media websites

Despite the increasing number of social media platforms today, Facebook still remains to be the most popular choice. In fact, if Facebook were a country, it would have the 3rd highest population, next to India and China. Also, 67% of American internet users across all age groups use Facebook.

Consumer’s buying decisions are influenced by social media

According to a study that was conducted by a digital marketing agency, 74% of consumers rely on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to guide them with their purchase decisions. Meanwhile, only 17% of consumers trust advertisements.

 

 

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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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Ways to Attract New Readers and Keep Them Interested

Increasing traffic is one of the biggest challenges a blog owner face, but there is nothing more challenging than attracting new readers and converting them into regular visitors. Readers are fickle and gets bored easily. There is a whole world of entertainment out there, if your posts do not interest them, they’ll abandon your blog and start looking for something that would feed their curiosity.

Follow a posting schedule

The publish date of your most recent post is one of the first thing most people look at when they visit your blog for the first time. If the last one was posted a few months ago, then readers won’t even bother coming back to check for newer contents. If your schedule is loaded, keep a regular schedule and make sure to come up with at least one blog post a week or twice a month. This will keep your readers coming back for more. Also it’s a great way of showing them that you are committed to your blog.

Respond to comments

Visitors would be happy to know that you are taking note of your readers’ comments and is actually responding to them. Responding to comments is a great way of starting a conversation with your audience and making them feel appreciated.

Keep content relevant

Keeping your content relevant is the key to building credibility in your niche. Your readers will stop coming back if they cannot relate to your contents. While writing about a new topic may drive new readers to your blog, they may not come back once they realize that the post that caught their interest is only a one-time thing.

Start a series

Writing a series is a great way of capturing the attention of new readers and would keep them coming back for at least one more time. Also, first timers may be interested enough to click through your internal links.

Make sure to include a note in the first part of your series stating the schedule of when the second part will be due. Most importantly, don’t forget to link to the previous parts of the serious as your progress. Readers would love to follow the series and be able to click back to catch up on the parts that they have missed.

 

 

 

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Generating Leads through Social Media

If you are considering starting a lead generation campaign, social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google+ may be the best place to start. However, please keep in mind that it takes knowledge and practice to pull leads from the conversations that occur on these platforms.

In this article, we’ll give you a few ways on how to use social media in generating leads for your business. Read on and learn how to incorporate these steps into your marketing campaign.

Share useful and informative content

If you have a blog, feel free to share your content to different social media platforms. Make sure that the contents you share are valuable and informative as this will help increase your chances of getting more leads. Also, consider writing contents that your audience will appreciate and may find interesting.

Engage with your audience

Engaging with your audiences on a regular basis will help you create a great impression among your potential leads. By interacting with your audience, you will build a lasting relationship that could eventually result to more leads and sales.

Don’t wait for leads, look for them

In some cases, people use social networking sites to search for products or services they need. This is especially true for B2B, where a business may require the services of other company. In search for the best candidate, they use their social media connections and ask around.

Feel free to check on groups and communities from time to time and use certain keywords to find anyone who might be interested in your products or services.

Advertise on social media

Social media could help you reach lots of potential leads. Take advantage of Facebook’s Promoted Post feature. Use this to advertise your posts and watch as it drives traffic to your site, which could lead to conversions.

Regular advertising may also be of helpful. If you have a special offer that is ongoing, feel free to advertise it through social media.

 

 

 

 

 

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Gain Brand Loyalty with Email Marketing!

 

 

When you combine the benefits of email along with social platforms, you can promote any product, increase sales and build brand loyalty in more ways than ever.

Big brands like Starbucks, and daily deal brands like Groupon have found success from combining rewards and discounts with their social media strategies. But what about businesses that aren’t so well known, or don’t promise amazing daily discounts?

You don’t need to be a top name retail brand or have thousands of Twitter followers to get the most benefit out of your social media strategy this year thanks to combining email and social marketing.

By combining social media efforts with a well-targeted email marketing strategy, companies can easily gain customer loyalty. To do so, you must use the perfect incentive and target the perfect audience, at the perfect time. Use these three ideas to increase your word-or-mouth marketing and boost customer engagement by using both social and email strategies:

1. Offer an appropriate incentive

Discounts are great, but there are other ways to push your email subscribers to get social with your brand. Some techniques marketers use to increase engagement include altruism (the idea of people passing on information they find valuable) or use unique social games like engaging videos or fun quizzes. Whatever technique you choose, make sure that the content and tone of your incentive align with the interests of your target audience.

2. Look for the social butterflies

Doing some research to customize your social engagement strategies will end up being more successful than simply asking your email subscribers to “like” or follow your brand. Find the consumer “influencers”-those who are active social media participants. Market to these people so they can help influence potential clients and bring more customers to your brand. You must find how engaged certain email subscribers are to your brand and pick out the most active social members, most loyal to your brand. To do this, use social data, social monitoring and listening platforms to examine existing email files with information about subscribers’ social interactions. With this information, you can come up with email-marketing segments based off subscribers’ social profiles. If you discover you have an active group of subscribers, think about creating a referral marketing campaign to push those subscribers to recruit new potential customers.

3. Learn your consumers’ passions

The key element of social media is about people being brought together who share a common interest. If you try to force your brand on an audience not interested in what you have to offer, no marketing strategy is going to work. You must find out what your target audience likes and interact with them based on those likes.

You might find your audience has a common interest in your product or service, but you must dig deeper to find the best way to get them excited about your product or service. You can’t expect your customers to buzz about your brand just because they’re interested in what you have to offer. Come up with ways to market to your audience that involves their passions. If your company sells car parts, think about igniting your consumers’ passion for cars and racing. Don’t just make your marketing about car parts; be creative and think of ways that can get people who share the common interest in cars to be active with your brand.

A thorough marketing strategy that utilizes the benefits of email and social tools can provide new and exciting ways for companies to build brand loyalty and boost sales. No matter what your company has to offer, it all comes down to how you connect with your consumers!

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Social Media Marketing Strategies

With the influx of different social media tools there are now so many different ways to target your chosen audience compared with 10 years ago.

When using social media one strategy is to remember that you can do so much more than provide just text based information, you can post videos, photos as well as links to other interesting resources that might add value to your followers.

There are many different ways that you can make use of videos, with this and general internet marketing activities such as, visual case studies, how to videos or client testimonials.

Pictures of you, your staff and perhaps even pictures from company social events, can also be very positive as users like to see who they are dealing with, it’s easier to build relationships with the people in the company if they can see who they are and interact with them.

Also when producing videos use the staff that your clients would see if they came into your store or office, this helps to maintain familiarity with clients and can help to build better relationships.

Social media strategies only work if your target audience access the outlet. To make sure you clients and potential clients know that you’re on Facebook or Twitter make sure that you tell them. Send out a newsletter to your clients and contacts to tell them they can follow you on Twitter etc. and ensure that any printed marketing materials feature the URL’s for your various social media accounts. Social media needs the social part to work; therefore you need to have people join for it to be an effective tool for your company.

Once you have people following you on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Google+ you have to keep them interested. One strategy is to have promotions, small things like posting sales through you tweets or putting coupons up for friends on your Facebook page keeps people interested and attracts more to join.

Social media strategies are slightly different from print or person to person strategies. You have to remember that you need to update your information and promotions so that more people want to follow you. It only works if there are members in your online community so you have to promote yourself to your audience to make them want to be part of your community.

The great thing about Social Media Marketing is that not only is the opportunity vast, but it is also one of the lowest cost marketing activities available to businesses today.

Clearly the way companies use Social Media Marketing will vary depending on the type of business or target market, but businesses that are serious about competing in today’s markets need to ensure they are making use of these tools. Simply having a website is no longer good enough, you must promote your business in the online world and engage with your target audience.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6697852

 
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