Posts

Hashtag Hacks – Understanding the Hoopla Behind Hashtags

What’s all the hoopla about hashtags?  When it comes to social media, hashtags are a BIG deal!  They are the key or more appropriately, the “link” to helping your target market find you.  

How “#” Hashtags Work:

If you click on any given # in a social media post or enter it into a social media search bar, instantaneously, you will receive all of the most recent posts and content that have been “tagged” with the hashtag word or phrase you clicked on or entered.  For example, if you are using Instagram and you type in the search bar: #SocialMediaRocks you will see there are over 1,200 posts you can read that are all about the topic “Social Media Rocks.” This same practice can be used on all the major social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.  Fun Fact: Twitter is considered to be the “birthplace” of hashtags. Due to the way Twitter operates and the enormous amount of “Tweets” that are posted every second, hashtags are critical in order to keep up to date and track the content available surrounding a certain topic, trend, conversation, event, or issue.

How Should You Use #s For Your Business?

This is a common question we get asked…a lot!  The good news is, we have answers for you! We recommend you break down your hashtags into 3 major categories.  Those categories are:

  1. Branded Hashtags – certain words or phrases that specifically describe your brand.  Stumped on what you would use for branded hashtags? See if you can guess the brand behind these hashtags:  #ShareACoke, #ShamrockShake, #MacchiatoMondays
  2. Industry Hashtags – use hashtags to describe the industry you are in.
  3. Trending Hashtags – use hashtags that are trending as long as they are relatable to your business or the content of your posts

Hashtag Research

Finding industry hashtags and trending hashtags requires some work but we have some resources to help you.  Below is a list of resources to help you find the perfect hashtags for your posts:

  • Be a stalker – this is the one time it’s ok to stalk people on the internet.  Find out what industry influencers are using as hashtags in their posts. Chances are if an industry influencer is using the hashtag, it’s trending!
  • Hashtagify.me – is a great tool to see what is trending in your niche and to get hashtag suggestions
  • Hashtags.org – use this tool to find trending hashtags
  • RiteTag.com – this tool will provide suggestions and tell you which social platform the hashtag will perform its best on

The best way to optimize your hashtags is to really understand your business, who your business attracts and how to speak your tribe’s language.  Once you figure that out, you can design and craft the perfect hashtag words and phrases to attract them.

Hashtag Best Practices & Tips:

  • Create 3 types of hashtags for your business (branded, industry, and trending)
  • When using hashtag phrases, use capitals to separate words, example:  #SocialMediaRocks
  • Avoid including #hastags in the #middle of #sentences as it #makes your #content #difficult and #unpleasant to #read
  • Instagram will accept up to 30 hashtags per post, post these in the comment section below your post content
  • When posting hashtags on Instagram, avoid using the same hashtags over and over again as it will hurt your rank.  The Instagram algorithm treats repetitive hashtags has spammy practices (a.k.a. “shadow banning)
  • Always include content in your post.  Refrain from just posting a string of hashtags.  Your followers won’t appreciate it and they will begin to unfollow you

Download our hashtag organizer by clicking HERE

Happy Hashtagging!

/by
, ,

How LinkedIn Can Help Your Business

Since LinkedIn went public in 2011, the social media platform has grown to be the center for making connections, developing careers, and many other business related activities. With 2 million new users joining every second, and with 107 million users in the US alone, LinkedIn is continuing to skyrocket in the world of social media. Why should you your start making LinkedIn a priority for your business? It helps to attract new clients and accelerate market opportunities, while also allowing you to create and become a part of online communities and groups, helping your business to generate rewarding leads. LinkedIn has become a power tool for helping to strengthen millions of businesses around the world. Here are some tips on how to use LinkedIn to your business’ advantage:

Using Sponsored Updates:linkedin

Sponsored updates help raise awareness about your brand, build relationships, and drive leads. One of the greatest things about using sponsored updates is that it allows you distribute your content to the right audience, including those outside of your following. Sponsored Updates allow you to target your audience by geography, specific companies, industries, company size, job title, and more. You are also able to determine how effective your updates are with the help of the detailed analytics provided by LinkedIn. But, if not carefully planned, investing in sponsored updates could cost your business instead of benefiting it. To ensure that you’re getting the most out of this investment, make sure you are sponsoring posts that will be perceived as valuable to your target market. Focus your energy towards careful planning and great content, and this tool will help your business gain credibility and become more established in its particular industry.

Optimize Your Personal Profile:

When putting your business out there on LinkedIn, it’s important to make sure you are also building your personal profile. Having an equal focus on your personal profile and your business profile will help put a face to your business, help you gain credibility, and grow your relationships with your consumers. By optimizing your personal profile with related keywords and rich media content such as videos and presentations, this will help your business generate more leads. Make sure your personal profile is professional and not a “business logo”. Steer your focus towards grabbing the attention of your “perfect” audience. Also, remember to make sure your LinkedIn profile links back to your business website and blog.

Develop Relationships:

One of the greatest parts about social media for your business is being able to strengthen your relationships with your consumer. LinkedIn is especially great for this because it allows you to precisely choose who you want to connect with. Instead of worrying about the quantity of your connections, it’s important to focus on the quality of the relationships with your connections. Decide which of your contacts you’d like to know better and start reaching out to them periodically from your personal profile and business page. Share information, ask them questions and learn more about them. The bond with your customer is one of the most crucial aspects of growing your business. When you continuously reach out to your audience on LinkedIn and strengthen your bond over time, you’ll eventually become a go-to source if your customer needs help or has a question.

/by
, ,

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.

/by
, ,

5 Ways to Improve Your Twitter Marketing Results

1: Turn a Pinned Tweet Into a Feature Box

The Feature Box is an email form you place at the top of your homepage, which offers your website visitors a freebie in exchange for signing up for your email list.You can add a similar feature to your Twitter profile page by combining two of Twitter’s native features: a lead generation card and a pinned tweet. Simply create a Lead Generation Card that includes an incentive for people to opt in. Offer regular email updates, a special freebie or a subscribers-only discount. Pin the tweet to the top of your Twitter profile and you’re all set.

2: Communicate Less and Tweet More Links

A recent study by Dan Zarrella looked at the “reply rates” of about 130,000 random Twitter users and discovered that highly followed accounts tend to converse less. Keep in mind, the study results don’t suggest that Twitter conversations have a negative effect on your following, just that conversations aren’t what motivate people to follow you on Twitter. According to another study by Dan Zarrella, the way to get more followers is to invest more time tweeting relevant links to your followers, rather than communicating directly with them.

3: Ask Twitter Influencers for Help

According to BuzzSumo who recently studied the share counts of more than 100 million articles, when influencers share your content, the reach increases substantially. If one influencer shares a piece of content, it will get 38.8% more social shares. Three influencers double the social shares and five influencers quadruple them. It’s crucial to network with influencers and develop relationships with them. Then, when you have an important piece of content you’d like to get seen, you can ask the influencers you know to share it.

4: Use Twitter’s Recommend Feature

Recommend is a new feature of Twitter’s tweet button that many people don’t pay attention to. After a visitor tweets an article from your blog, the window recommends they follow you on Twitter, if they don’t follow you already. This is an excellent way to grow your Twitter account, since people who just tweeted your article are likely to want to follow you. Look at the code of your tweet button and make sure the recommend field contains your Twitter username. To double-check you’ve set up the feature correctly, ask a friend to unfollow you on Twitter and then tweet an article from your blog. If the recommend field contains your Twitter username, you’re all set.

5: Repeat Article Tweets

According to a study by Wisemetrics, the second tweet of an article gets as much as 86% of the performance as the first tweet. Clearly the performance will fade with each new tweet, but considering your followers are probably in different time zones, you still need to tweet your most valuable content more than once. Your new followers will appreciate it, since the content will be new for them.

 

/by
,

Visual Content in Social Media

In today’s technological world, visual marketing is becoming a very popular trend. Marketers have begun to use visual marketing to their advantage through social media. Strengthen your business by catching the eye of your consumer with visual content. Below are a list of the most popular social media platforms for visual marketing and how to use it effectively:

Twitter:

What many people don’t know is that Twitter is not limited to 140 characteristics to get a message across. In fact, you can add up to four images in just one tweet, making Twitter a great platform for using visual content. This is a great way to showcase an event or tell a story that would be difficult to do with only one picture. Using an inforgraphic is also a great way to add visuals to the message you’re trying to get across through twitter. Some tools to create infographics are Visualize, Easel.ly, and Piktochart. Videos are also a great way to catch the attention of your consumer. Time-lapse videos in particular are a great way to tell a story or show a product in just a short amount of time. The Hyperlapse app allows you to create time-lapse videos in a simple manner. Once you’re done with your video, you can upload it to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.images

 

Instagram:

With Instagram, it’s more about the quality of your photos than how many you’re posting. With each Instagram, it is crucial to make sure they are capturing your consumers’ eye in a creative way that will make them want to learn more about your business. The 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report by the Social Media Examiner found that over time, marketers with more experience prefer Instagram when it comes to visual content marketing. Using hashtags can have a huge impact on your growth. But, knowing the right words to hashtag is crucial in making sure you’re reaching your target market. There are many tools that help you find the perfect hashtags to use. Webstagram helps you find find the most popular hashtags and with the search feature you can find more relevant hashtags to your post. Also, using Populagram can help you find the popular hashtags, filters and people which you can follow to stay on top of Instagram community.

 

Facebook:

Facebook can be used for visual marketing in a variety of ways. What makes Facebook so great is that you aren’t as limited when posting content as you would be on other social media platforms. A great feature of Facebook is that you can upload video directly to your posts. Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income recently did an experiment comparing views and engagement of natively embedded Facebook video versus embedded YouTube video and he found that Facebook performs better overall. Facebook is also a powerful tool for graphics. You can create a graphic and then upload it to Facebook including the post URL in your caption, or you can share a link directly to Facebook. No matter which way you choose to use it, Facebook is a MUST for businesses who are trying to reach their consumers through visual marketing.

/by