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6 Social Media Myths That Need to be Busted

6 Social Media Myths that Need to be Busted

In the last decade, social media became the most influential marketing tool. Every business, big and small, has incorporated social media into its marketing campaign.

While the practice of social media marketing has evolved over the years, there are still a lot of myths and misconceptions around it. Worse, a lot of people are still holding on to them simply because they find it hard to stay up-to-date on what’s really going on with social media.

To help you separate facts from fiction, we listed down some of the most common social media myths you need to leave behind in 2021. Believing these myths will only cripple your marketing campaign.

Social media is only for young people

Some people think that social media is just for millennials and the younger generation. That’s not really an accurate picture of social media users today. In fact, studies suggest that a huge majority of the U.S. adult population is on Facebook. 52% of adults aged 55-64 have a social media account.

Almost everybody is on social media. Having a business account will help you reach your target audience. If you don’t already have one for your business, then you’re losing a lot of great opportunities.

Set up an account in every social media channel to maximize reach

We all know that social media makes it easier for businesses to connect with their audience. But that doesn’t mean that you should set up and maintain an account on every platform. If you do, you’ll only be wasting your time.

In order to yield great results, you need to know which platform your audience frequently uses and then focus your marketing efforts there. Maintaining a presence across different platforms can help your business, but if it isn’t helping you out, just cut it loose.

You need a lot of followers to succeed

Most people think that more is always better. Sure, having millions of followers is great. It means that people are familiar with your brand. But more than the number of followers, what’s more important is the type of followers you have.

Let’s say you have 100,000 followers. Sure, that’s a great thing. But it won’t benefit your business if the majority of these people are not reading or responding to your posts. What you need to focus on is interaction. It doesn’t matter if you only have 1,500 followers, just as long as these people are actually interested in what you’re selling. Having lots of likes is only valuable if you have the right people following you.

It’s okay to use the same posts on all social media platforms

Most businesses publish the same content on all their social media platforms to save time. That’s understandable. However, you also need to understand that different platforms cater to different types of audiences.

LinkedIn, for instance, is a professional platform. The majority of LinkedIn users are business owners, executives, and professionals. That said, your posts should be tailored to appeal to this group.

Instagram, on the other hand, caters to younger audiences. Since it’s a visual platform, you need high-quality images and a strong brand message to succeed on this platform.

Ignoring and deleting negative comments is the best way to get rid of them

Social media is an open platform where your target audience can give you direct feedback after using your products and services. Whether you like it or not, you’ll receive some negative feedback at some point.

It might be tempting to just delete the negative comment, but this will only make the situation worse. Instead, contact the person directly and deal with the problem. It will show your audience that you care about them.

Talking about your business all the time

Social media is a great place to connect with your target audience. But that doesn’t mean you should bombard them with posts about your business.

Social media’s main purpose is to engage with your followers. Talking about your business all the time won’t do you any good. Post content that your audience will find valuable and interesting to capture the attention of your audience.

Keep the 80/20 rule in mind when creating social media posts. That means 80% of your posts should informative and entertaining, while only 20% should be about the products or service you’re offering.

6 Social Media Myths that Need to be Busted

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6 Social Media Myths to Avoid for Your Mental Health Practice

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Social Media Audit

Social Media Audit

How many of you created your business Facebook page well over a year ago? Or have had a Twitter account for more than a couple years? With social media being around for over 10 years, it is important to make sure your profiles are updated with your current brand image and message. It is key to be consistent in the digital marketing world from your website, social media profiles, to your marketing materials. Everything should have your brand colors, brand message, website, and logo.

In this video, we run through each platform on how to check your profiles to make sure they are updated!

Interested in learning more? Take a look at these videos: 

Tools for Entrepreneurs

Setting Your Business Up On Autopilot

Setting your Social Media Goals [Video]

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APPS – These Are Our 5 Favs!

It goes without saying that apps are a Social Media Manager’s BFF!  They help us plan, analyze, stay creative, efficient, productive, curate content and SO MUCH MORE!  One thing is for sure, we couldn’t survive without them!

When challenged to share our favorite 5, it was tough to choose!  There are so many quality apps available today and new ones are emerging every day!  Below are 5 of our favorite go-to apps that you will want to get your hands on right away!  To grab these apps, head over to your devices app store to snag them.

Get Creative with These Apps

As a Social Media Manager or anyone who manages a brand’s social content, you need to be creative.  One of the goals of the content you post is to “Stop The Scroll”.  This requires interesting and engaging posts.

  1.  Adobe Spark Post!

Why We Love It:  

This app is great for creating anything from a social media post graphic to posters, and custom sizes.  Not only does this app have loads of size options available, its library of free stock photos is HUGE!  Not only does Adobe Spark Post make amazing images, it also animates images.  Fun Alert!  Once you start with Spark, you may not be able to stop!

  1.  Animoto

Do you have a bunch of pictures that tell a story about your brand, service or product?  Let’s face it, sometimes static images just won’t do the job.  Our solution…Animoto!  Animoto is a great resource for turning images into animated video.  Not only does it create a great video but it also has amazing stock music to help you hit the right vibe.

  1. Typorama

A good Social Media Manager knows that you can’t just have one resource for creating social media graphics.  If you only use one tool, your posts become predictable, and, well…boring.  To create a wide variety of post types, you need to have a wide variety of apps.  We love Typorama because it has a large selection of font styles you can use for your graphic posts.  

Pro Tip:  Check you Typorama’s sister app, Videorama.  This is a super cool app that has a large selection of stock video for you to use.  Get creative with Videorama by adding text overlays, music, and filters to your videos.

 

Get efficient and save time with these apps.

4 & 5.  Yes, we said “these”.  

There are two time-saving apps we adore which wouldn’t allow us to choose just one.  Here’s why…Social Media Managers are a busy lot!  We are always creating content, posting and tracking the engagement of our posts.  In order to be effective at all of those things simultaneously, we need a tool to help us.  

So, numbers 4 & 5 on our list are Buffer and Hootsuite.  Both of these apps have web-based and mobile device platforms which are designed to help you schedule the posts you create.  

We love Buffer for its ease of use when it comes to scheduling posts on multiple accounts.  Hootsuite rocks when it comes to monitoring the social conversation surrounding your posts.  Both have similar functions.  We encourage you to dive into each to decide which is the best fit for you or maybe it is a combination of the two!

Honorable Mentions

Yup!  It was hard to pick just 5 favorites.  We couldn’t leave these out because they help to keep your posts and feeds uber interesting!  Make sure you check out:

  • Boomerang for repetitive, looped animation.  Try it once and you’ll be hooked!
  • Ripl – Great for animated video
  • Hyperlapse – Speed up a long video using this time-lapsed video app. Great for instructional type videos
  • Vont – Edit and trim videos right on your smartphone with this easy to use video editor

Pro Tip:  One of the best things you can do for your social media accounts is to keep them fresh and exciting.  Take the time to get to know new and different apps to help you achieve this.

Have fun and stay social!

 

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Knowledge is Power

You’ve got questions, and we’ve got answers! “Knowledge is Power,” and every week on Social Speak Network, we’re going to offer powerful resources to keep your brand fresh, on track and help you ramp up your social media marketing so you stand out from your competitors!

Branding

So what the heck is brand identity?  Hmmmmm…..scratching your head?  Well, you are NOT alone. Branding your business is imperative. There are a lot of informative websites, blogs and beyond that are chock full of information. Here is a GREAT resource to take a peek at:

https://99designs.com/blog/tips/brand-identity/

Pinterest

Neil Patel is a New York Times best selling author.  The Wall Street Journal calls him a top influencer on the web! You’ll want to read his blog post: How to Generate 67% More Customers With These 3 Pinterest Hacks!

https://neilpatel.com/blog/pinterest-customer-acquisition-hacks/

Twitter

Looking to find the BEST Twitter hashtags that will help you increase your social reach and brand awareness?  Check out this link to find out 9 tools that you can use!

https://sproutsocial.com/insights/twitter-hashtags/

Facebook

If you have not been utilizing the power of Facebook Insights, now’s the time to dive in and learn who your audience is!  Insights is an awesome analytical tool that will help you understand your audience and how to steer your marketing efforts in the right direction!  

https://www.facebook.com/business/a/page/page-insights

Video

Gary Vaynerchuk is founder and CEO of VaynerMedia, and one of the world’s leading marketing experts. As Gary says, “The single most important strategy in content marketing today is video. Whether it’s video on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat or Youtube, the content you need to be thinking about creating and marketing on social for your business is video. Period.

Learn how to take your video marketing to the next level!

https://animoto.com/blog/business/video-marketing-for-business/

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You created your social media accounts, now what?

You created your social media accounts, now what-

A lot of people are so excited to get started on social media, they set up their social media accounts and this just sit back and wait for the magic to happen. Well, I hate to tell you that is not really how social media works, all networks won’t work for every business, so it’s important to do your homework first! In this blog we will help you put together that strategy for a good social media marketing outcome!

First, you need to define your goals to accurately understand what “work” means for you.  

We start this off with what we call a Social Media Audit:

  • Set Your Goals – SMART
  • Understand your Customers and Competitors
  • How Utilize Social Media
  • Where is your audience active at

Where is my audience active & where are they searching:

Every minute, people are conducting millions of queries on Google, Twitter, and Facebook. If you are active on these social media platforms, then you have a chance at appearing in social media search results.

Any Niche sites? Just because 1 business gets leads from a site, doesn’t mean you will.

4 Questions to ask Yourself:

1.Where is my audience?

2.Where is my audience active?

3.Where is my audience searching?

4.What niche social media sites are right for me?

Second, we will look at the profiles you have had for awhile or the ones you have just set up. This will help determine where you need to spend your time, remember not every social media platform works the same for each business.

Examine your social media profiles

  • Locate and document all your social media profiles, official and unofficial
  • “Why are we using this social account?”
  • “Why do we want to use it?”
  • “What are our goals for this social media platform?”
  • “Are our target markets using it?”
  • If you no longer have a good reason to use the account or you find that your target market is elsewhere, don’t hesitate to cut ties and focus your effort where it is better spent.
  • Check for completion of all details on these profiles and for consistency in imagery and message

Third, now that you have your social media audit done and you have examined your own social media platforms, now we get to take a look at your competition and see what they are doing. In this case, we don’t look at them as competition, but more of industry leaders.

Examine those who do it well

Find 4 to 8 niche influencers and examine how they manage their brand on social media Observe imagery and branding on each of their profiles. 

Measure key metrics like followers and engagement:

  • Branding: How does their overall look promote the brand? Can visitors get an accurate sense of their personality or culture? How have they chosen to use images in header and avatar?
  • Popularity: How many followers/likes does the page have?
  • Frequency: How often do they post? What do they do on weekends?
  • Engagement: What is the number of people talking about the brand compared to the number of fans?
  • Types of posts: What topics do they frequently discuss? What types of posts do they use: photos, questions, videos, chats, text? What is engagement like for each of these post types?

Make an action plan for improvements and goals for your profiles

Fourth, now we will need to put in place the correct tools to measure your ROI (Return on investment). This can be a little tricky with social media, and is one of the more frequently asked questions that we get!

When measuring your ROI there are a few things to think of that mean social media are working for you:

  • Monitoring the insights that the social media platforms give you
  • Have custom coupon codes for social media platforms
  • Increasing repeat customers
  • Create a custom phone number through Facebook to monitor how many people are calling you through Facebook
  • General branding or exposure – are your brand follower numbers increasing? Facebook likes, Twitter and Instagram followers?
  • Increased organic traffic (SEO) – Monitoring Google Analytics, are you getting more people to your site from social media?

Some tips about the Social Media Platforms:

Facebook

  • One of the largest social media networks
  • Nearly ½ of all users are active each day & connected to 80 pages, groups, or events.
  • Don’t expect sales right away
  • Sponsored ads actually work
  • Share content from other pages

Twitter

  • 85% of Twitter users “feel more connected” to a business after they follow them
  • Not necessarily a lead generation platform
  • Post Often (as in multiple times per day)
  • Use # (Hashtags) and @ (Mentions)
  • Follow the Followers of like-minded companies

Pinterest

  • More popular content-sharing platform than email
  • Highest revenue per click than any other social sharing network
  • Post pins your target market with enjoy
  • Add custom images to your blogs
  • Join as a business & use Rich Pins

LinkedIn

  • User base of professionals
  • Typically most suited for B2B marketing
  • Complete Your Profile and Your Company Profile
  • Build your connections
  • Participate in posting to your profile, company page and groups

Instagram

  • All photos and videos
  • Powerful for promoting both one’s personal brand and a business
  • Post Often and give value
  • Comment and engage on others pages
  • Use Hashtags and Mentions

Google Plus

  • Integrated with Google Search results, the world’s dominant search engine.
  • Complete business brand profile
  • Link to YouTube and add your other social media links
  • Solicit Reviews

YouTube

  • The second largest search engine in the world and reaches more U.S. adults than ANY cable network
  • Create both instructional and fun videos
  • Have clean videos that look professional and authentic
  • Consider Overlay-Ads on videos

Tools (FREE!)

Buffer.com

Hootsuite.com

Feedly.com

Canva.com

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10 Ways To Build Your Online Reputation

This post is updated from December, 2010.

Social media presents a unique opportunity for anyone to develop a personal or business reputation to build their careers, boost sales and increase relationships. The key is to leverage the tools of the Social Media to effectively build your online reputation. You need to understand what your goals and intentions are in order to be successful.

Here are 10 ways you can be successful in this journey, so you can achieve your short and long term goals rather than waste time:

1. Be aware.Continually listen to conversations happening across the Web related to your career or business and learn from the content you read, listen to, or view online. Social media success depends as much on listening as it does on publishing.

2. Be focused.Define your niche and focus the majority of your social media participation on conversations and content related to that area of focus. A focused brand is more powerful than a broad brand. Always lead with your strengths on the social media and be consistent in your content and conversations in order to successfully build your online reputation.

3. Be authentic.Your social media participation is useless if your content and conversations read like corporate rhetoric or a promotional brochure. Instead, be real and be human. Imagine you’re speaking with your audience in person rather than online and adjust your content and tone to match your target audience’s needs and expectations for you based on your brand promise. This is where videos can be a great tool for people to really know who you are.

4. Be trustworthy.Honesty is an essential part of building your online reputation using the tools of the social media. Transparency isn’t just a buzz word, it’s a strategic imperative, which should apply to your social media participation as well as all other aspects of your career or business.

5. Be meaningful.The content you publish on social media must be useful and meaningful to your target audience or there is no reason for them to read it or start a dialogue with you about it. Furthermore, if your content doesn’t add value to your audience’s lives, they won’t talk about it and share it with their own audiences.

6. Be “non-self-promotional.”No one will want to read your content or interact with you on the social media if your content and conversations read like a marketing pitch. Follow the 90-10 rule of marketing and spend 90% or more of your time in social media activities that are not self-promotional and only 10% or less on activities that are self-promotional. When you do want to directly try to get more exposure to build your online reputation, you can do so without annoying other people.

7. Be accessible and responsive.An important part of building your online reputation via social media participation is understanding that it’s not all about you. Instead, you need to spend a great deal of time acknowledging other people on the social media in order to build a relationship with them. In other words, they need to understand that you care about them, too. You need to respond to questions, comments on your blog, tweets, and so on.

8. Be reciprocating.You can’t expect people to reach out to you and share your content on the social media and not return the favor. If someone engages with you on your blog, Twitter, Facebook or another social media destination, then you can’t ignore that person — just as you wouldn’t ignore someone in a face-to-face situation. For example, you also need to leave comments on other people’s blogs, share their content on Twitter and Facebook, and more. You can’t operate in a silo on the social media and expect to be successful.

9. Be uncontrolling.The thought of giving up control and letting your content, conversations and name spread across the Web can be frightening. However, without the sharing of content and interactive dialogue that happens on social media, your online reputation cannot develop. You have to be willing to give up control and let people share and talk about you and your content in order for your online reputation to grow. Don’t worry about negative buzz about you, your brand, or your business. There is always a way to react to negativity on the social media.

10. Be involved.Don’t spend all of your time in one place. While quality is more important than quantity when it comes to building an authentic reputation online, you do need to spread your wings and be social. Focus on other avenues such as a blog, YouTube, Google Buzz, Backlinks, and much more. You need to use all aspects of Internet Marketing in order to see return.

10 ways to build your online reputation: 10 ways you can be successful in this journey, so you can achieve your short and long term goals rather than waste time.

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Putting Together a Social Media Schedule

This is updated from a post on Oct 26, 2010.

One of the most important parts of being active in the social media world is taking responsibility for your Facebook, Twitter, and any other internet marketing outlets you have. When we put our posts out and we like other peoples posts that is a good start to taking responsibility. When we send out Newsletters or email marketing campaigns we want other people to read them right?

Well it is a two sided road; I mean we all have to put in our efforts to read other peoples stuff as well. My tip for that is picking your inner circle of people and people you have made a power partner and start by reading their newsletters and/or emails. The same thing goes with our social media posts. We want people reading our post, tweets, events, questions etc. also emailing us wanting to work with us or learn more about what we do. We have to do that with others. The one thing I always say about social media is it brings people, communities, and companies together all over the world.

So how do we do that? It is easy . . . we put together a weekly schedule and then we implement it into our routine just like checking emails, and making calls.

Monday- Using www.Hootsuite.com schedule your posts to go out onto your Facebook personal page, Facebook business page, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, and Ping.fm. Using my post before this one to help first create your strategy so you know what you need to post on your social media profiles and when. (Schedule an hour and a half to start)

Tuesday- Login to Facebook and add 10 people into your business list, research these people. Find people that have common interest or maybe looking for your services and put them into the business list you created. Then get onto Twitter or Twellow and search for your Keywords or location. You can search for people using keywords or type in keywords people would use to find YOU and add 50 people. (Schedule about 45 min to start, once you get the hang of it you can probably get it done in 30 min)

Wednesday– Spend some time on LinkedIn checking emails and finding people you may know and ask them to connect with you. (Schedule 45 min)

Thursday- Login to Facebook and add 10 people into your business list, research these people. Find people that have common interest or maybe looking for your services and put them into the business list you created. Then get onto Twitter or Twellow and search for your Keywords or location. You can search for people using keywords or type in keywords people would use to find YOU and add 50 people. (Schedule about 45 min to start, once you get the hang of it you can probably get it done in 30 min)

Friday – Repeat what you have done Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We are going to add another step into today, Once you are done adding people on Facebook and Twitter you want to go back to Facebook and go to your page, under your logo you will find a tab that says “Suggest to Friends” Click on that and then click the drop down tab to your list you made once that list pulls up on the top right hand side it will say “Select All” hit that and then send invitations. What this is doing is asking all the people you have been adding as friends to become a fan of your page!

Now this is what I do and share with people you are more than welcome to move it around however it works for you. Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions of things that have helped you. I look forward to hearing from you.

Putting together a weekly social media schedule: ne of the most important parts of being active in the social media world is taking responsibility for your Facebook, Twitter, and any other internet marketing outlets you have. When we put our posts out and we like other peoples posts that is a good start to taking responsibility. When we send out Newsletters or email marketing campaigns we want other people to read them right?

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Creative Ways to Repurpose Content into Something New

Creative Ways to Repurpose Content into Something New

Many of you have probably spent a lot of time creating those high quality blog posts. Despite the effort, most of your blog posts are aging like milk, not wine. Now, no one is interested in them because it has been years since you published them. The good news is that you can make your old content valuable and relevant through the process of re-purposing. The key is to spice up each piece of content and making it a bit different than the last.

Repurposing content can be beneficial for your business. It’s a second chance at content promotion. People who weren’t able to read your post will have a chance to read about it. It also ensures that great content is never forgotten. Ultimately, reformatting your content helps you reach a new audience.

In this blog post, we have listed 3 different ways to repurpose old content. Read on and we’ll breathe new life into your existing content.

Write an ebook

One of the best ways to repurpose old content is by turning it into an ebook. While writing an ebook requires a great deal of effort, they are often considered as high-value pieces. There are dozens of tools that can help you design and publish your ebook. Papyrus, for instance, can help you create a beautiful cover page within a few minutes.

You can either distribute it on the Amazon Kindle Store or as a free giveaway for those who would subscribe to your newsletters.

Create a video  

Online videos continue to grow in popularity with web users. A lot of people prefer watching a one-minute video than to read a 1,000 world blog post. Contents that you have previously published to your site can be a great jumping off point for a larger discussion. This allows you to open up a whole new way to connect with others, especially for your audience who prefers content they don’t have to read. You can post your videos on Youtube or Vimeo for maximum exposure.

Create an infographic

People love visual content. You can repurpose your content as an infographic and then share it on social media. Take boring information like statistics or raw data and turn it into an infographic. This is effective because it provides a fun and creative way to present complex information quickly and clearly.

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Signs You Need to Outsource Your Digital Marketing

Online Marketing

As a founder of a growing company, you may feel that you need to do everything yourself to ensure that it is done right. We understand the buzz of excitement that keeps you going, even when you’re exhausted. We understand the passion you feel for what you do. But sometimes, outsourcing certain parts of your business is the way to go, especially if you have too much on your plate.

Here are some strong indicators that you need to outsource your digital marketing.

You don’t have the right skills

Many of you are probably familiar with social media marketing and search engine optimization. But the question is, do you know how to use them to grow your business? If not, consider getting professional help to harness the power of the internet and grow your business. Yes, you may have to spend money, but hiring an experienced marketer will help maximize the potential and profitability of your business.

You’re overexerted

As a small business owner, you have grown accustomed to doing everything on your own. As your business grows, you try to put in more hours hoping to tackle everything on your to-do list. After a few weeks, you show up to work feeling defeated because you know there is no way you you’ll be able to get all of those tasks done. You’re overexerted. It’s time to find someone who can help you manage your digital marketing.

You get a lot of traffic, but your sales are not increasing

If you’re not witnessing any growth in your sales, it isn’t always due to a poor sales force. In most cases, this is due to ineffective marketing. Maybe you should look into hiring an outside agency to help increase your sales and revenue.

An experienced marketer can help by looking at your current strategy, letting you know what you’re doing wrong and providing some suggestions on how to get your sales back on track.

 

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Social Media Tips for the Holiday Season

BIMSThe holiday season is the busiest shopping time of the year. According to the National Retail Federation, the average American adult usually spends about $810 during the holiday season. Because of that, retailers and brands are fighting for consumer’s attention to drive up their sales.

Incorporate the excitement and spirit of the holidays into your social media campaigns. Here are some tips on how to take advantage of the holidays with the help of social media.

Help your customers get into the holiday spirit

Most people are sprucing up their homes and putting up lights and ornaments around their home. Why don’t you do the same and add some seasonal touches to your website and social media pages? Update your Facebook cover photos, Youtube channels, Google+ images and Twitter backgrounds where possible.

Holiday promotions

While the shopping season usually starts in September, most people don’t start until November. Others would wait until the first week of December before they start shopping. It’s never too late to capture a holiday shopper.

Share holiday promotions with your followers and give them something to look forward to.  Take advantage of social media advertising options such as Twitter sponsored tweets and Facebook offers if you really want to bank on your sale.

Give back to the community

Truly get into the spirit of giving by adding a charitable element to your holiday campaign. Use your platform as a business leader to draw attention to a cause. Get your employees on board and give back to your local community.

Give away prizes

The holiday season is a time for giving. Since people interact with businesses more frequently during the holiday season, this is also the best time to run a contest.

Contests and giveaways are a great way to create buzz around your product. They also help increase social sharing, engagement and fan base. Ask for shares and likes for entries into the contest for a chance to win. The monetary value of the prize is totally up to you, but make sure that you provide them something they will value and appreciate.

 

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