Want to win a free ticket to the industry's largest social media marketing conference of the year? Social Media Examiner has been working hard to bring you our fourth annual physical conference. And we've come up with a fun way for you to get involved. First, what is this event? Social Media Marketing World 2016 is the world's [...]
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- Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle
Couples in love are not the only ones looking forward to Valentine's Day.
Florists, restaurants, jewelers, e-shops and many other businesses are counting on this holiday to bring their business a significant boost in the first quarter.
To see how significant this day really is, we checked statistics from the National Retail Federation and found out that this holiday brought around $19 billion in sales last year, with average spending of $142 dollars per gift. At this rate Valentine's Day is second only to Christmas so it's quite understandable how no one wants to miss this business opportunity.
According to Facebook research, users in the US start their Valentine's Day planning 1 week in advance, but shopping continues to the last minute with 37% of men and 28% of women still planning on the actual day. More than 50% will use their smartphones and tablets to research gifts or compare prices, while 26.1% plan to shop for Valentine's gifts online. This makes targeting social media platforms and sites an obvious solution to achieve even better results.
If you still have no idea how to communicate your Valentine's Day message, here are few ideas that will help you spread the love on social media:
Embrace the color scheme of the holiday at the beginning of February so that red and pink can start reminding your fans that Valentine's Day is just around the corner and they should start looking for that perfect gift. Play with hearts, roses, cupids and other icons and give yourself a Valentine's Day facelift on all social media platforms.
Start by downloading free design application Content Creator with dozens of beautiful, love-inspired templates that can help you create special Valentine's Facebook Cover photos or a Twitter Header. Use them to communicate your most important Valentine's Day offer, as that will help your business stand out and show you have something special to offer for the holiday.
Create social media posts that will engage your fans in a conversation about their Valentine's memories or plans for that day. For optimal engagement, try to come up with original questions and present them in a fill-in-the-blank format that encourages conversation. If possible, try to get the slightest bit of personal information from fans as it could help you draw attention to your Valentine's Day offering.
If you want to save time but maintain visual harmony, develop layout templates for this type of post using the Content Creator app. It will help everything look more professional and polished. For example, if you want to have several Question Posts, use simple backgrounds and script fonts on all of them, as that will help your fans, during the Valentine's week, to spot and recognize your posts easily. Make sure that you place your logo on designed posts, as that will additionally increase your brand recognition and let fans know who is asking the question.
Remember that this holiday does not just celebrate romantic love but also love for friends, family, pets, nature or even yourself. So why not have a "Love a deal?" sale and attract attention to your business during Valentine's Day week, even if you have nothing romantic to offer.
If you are designing a banner ad to promote this type of sale, remember to create an order in the way you arrange your text. Greater size indicates greater importance so use one size for the main copy and another for additional copy or call to action. As your text should be adapted for smaller mobile screens, do NOT use extremely thin or overly embellished fonts but simple sans-serif fonts that are easy to read.
Always have a clear call to action that is positioned at the end of the message or at the bottom of the ad. Don't forget to follow through, as the ad must be linked to a landing page that looks and feels like your ad.
Telling people to buy your product may look a bit pushy, but including your product in a gift guide that helps people with inspiration is a much smoother way to showcase your Valentine's offer.
Try to stand out by being specific with your gift guide, so create a list for targeted audiences (for example "for men who like to look posh" or "for women who like to explore the world") or a specific price point. Since titles of these gift guides can be lengthy, try to choose a photo with a lot of empty space.
In this way you will avoid clutter and communicate your message clearly. Start by uploading the photo to Content Creator where you can crop it, adjust brightness or contrast with available filters and then choose one of the available Valentine's templates to communicate the title of your gift list.
Make sure you preserve the level of visual interest and not place text over some important part of an image, but rather follow a natural flow and make the best out of the available space.
If you have a bar or a club there's no reason why you shouldn't use this opportunity to celebrate the ones that are not in a relationship.
Throw a fun mixer for singles and celebrate the whole "Cupid is Stupid" idea in style. If you want to design a social media invitation, remember to limit the number of fonts to two or maximum three. Chosen carefully they will not only separate certain parts of your text but will actually compliment each other.
If you are using Content Creator try pairing decorative fonts such as Bilbo, Dynalight or Grand Hotel with serif fonts such as Trabajo, Stanislav or Libertinage. Decorative fonts are fun and effective but you should use them mostly when their strong personality helps communicate a casual and relaxed tone of message.
Valentine shoppers are looking for products that will make a perfect gift, so showcase your on-trend products and combine them with an offer that will engage visitors and peak their interest.
The attention of indecisive shoppers can be captured with information about your returns and refund policies while your coupons, discount and sales will push them over the edge to become customers. To bring attention to the massage place your text on a background that will not be too distracting and accentuate your design with Sale templates you can find in the Content Creator app.
Be sure that the message is concise and easy-to-digest so that it can be understood in a matter of seconds. If you need to additionally reinforce your brand, place your logo in the corner of the photo where it will make a quiet but consistent statement without being too distracting.
Acknowledging Valentine's Day is a way to make your business more personal. You can keep it short and sweet with a simple "Happy Valentine" or you can extend your message to include thoughts about love or relationships.
If you want to stand out from the crowd avoid having dominantly red or pink colors in your post but choose a darker background that will make your design stand out.
How about you, what are you planning to do this Valentine's Day on social media? Do you believe that social media and Valentine's Day are a match made in heaven? Let us know in the comments below!
Guest Author: Aida Gadzo is a Social Media Strategist at contentcreatorapp.com. She helps small and medium businesses master the "what", "why" and "how" of producing and delivering engaging digital and social media content that will activate audiences and drive sales.
Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post for Content Creator.
The post 7 Valentine's Day Ideas That Will Win The Hearts Of Your Fans appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.
The influence of social media is present in nearly every aspect of your lives…
Especially when it comes to business, where it is arguably changing the game each day. In the past, companies could use their influence to convert potential consumers through paid ads or some other marketing strategy. Social networks have changed all of that, which is best evident by the recent emergence of influencer marketing.
People no longer turn to companies to inform them about what they want or need. They look to other people, people whose influence and expertise regarding a certain industry is valued among the users. Take for example, YouTube vloggers. They have millions of followers, their videos have hundreds of millions of views, and companies are lining up to collaborate with them. And it’s not just YouTube. It’s pretty much the same story when it comes to Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest.
As you can see, the focus has shifted to individuals, and people respond better to being addressed directly, as opposed to being served some marketing strategy by a faceless company. This is definitely the era of influencers, so let’s take a look at 11 ways you can make influencer marketing work for you in order to attract more visitors and boost your conversion rate.
Since your ultimate goal is to convert your visitors into paying customers, it’s only logical to build your marketing strategy around them. This means you should literally focus all of your efforts into getting to know your audience first and anticipate how they might react. It will also help you figure out which influencers they would follow and the type of content they would prefer. That would also include checking out appropriate blogs, articles, tweets, YouTube channels, or forums.
People are more inclined to value the opinions of actual people, in this case influencers, instead of those of a company, because they are more likely to be genuine. They are independent third parties, unlike the companies trying to sell them their products.
Here’s what Carter Hostelley, CEO and Founder of Leadtail, has to say about it:
"Building relationships with influencers can be a very effective way to reach your target audience in a more credible manner than simply buying advertising. With that said, "influencer marketing" is not an overnight process.
It starts with knowing who the most relevant influencers are in your industry segment. There are now a number of software tools available to help you do that. My firm Leadtail also puts out reports which are helpful if you're targeting influencers of the C-Suite.”
Once you’ve figured your target audience, it is time to decide what sort of influencer would best serve your campaign. There are numerous aspects to consider when doing this, such as the tone with which the influencer addresses the readers/viewers. Depending on your niche, you may need someone who’s efficient at getting them to take action, or a thought leader, or perhaps even an industry insider.
Aside from choosing the niche, the topics, and the number of influencers you want to get on your side, you also need to decide on what sort of reach you are after. Is your goal to use influencer marketing to drive traffic to your website or blog, or do you want to strengthen your social media presence and increase your reach? This one is highly dependent on what you think is best for your brand.
Ted Coiné, CEO of The Extraordinary Influencer Network gives his input:
"Once you've identified potential influencers, and you've vetted them closely for relevance (there is a lot of bad advice out there, and hundreds of tools designed to help you in this, not all of which are worth much), we're ready to address your two questions. I'll start with why it's important.”
After you’ve fleshed out the mythical beast that is your influencer, you can take steps toward establishing some sort of contact with them, and the best way to do that would be to pay attention to what’s happening on social networks. If you can manage to get an influencer to act as an advocate for your particular brand, your job is pretty much done.
While this seems simple enough in theory, in reality, you will have to work hard in order to line up your brand with the content that influencers are providing for their audience. Once you manage to pull that off, nearly everything else will fall into place by itself.
There is a flip side to that coin, too. You can use social media to find out which influencers are already spreading word about your brand, so you can fortify your collaboration.
Mark Fidelman, who is a managing partner over at Fanatics Media and Forbes columnist points out the following:
"For Fanatics Media it's critical that we get to know the influencers because of three main reasons. First, we typically get 20-25% lower rates than the average agency. Second, they are more likely to go the extra mile for us. Third, they'll help our clients better position the product based on their understanding of the market. Once the relationship is established, everything becomes easier"
Joe Griffin, co-Founder and CEO at ClearVoice shared his take on the matter:
“Influencers are at the top of the heap when it comes to social currency. You aren't going to gain an influencer's respect unless you are participating in the same conversation circles, and actually adding value to the narrative. Once you catch their attention, you can begin a relationship by becoming a contributor on their website, and requesting their contribution to yours. We're all about promoting the heck out of their content when they contribute to our site through both earned and paid social media. The more you can amplify their message, the stronger that relationship becomes, and the more repeatable their contributions can be.”
We are not just talking about content you’ll create, but also about content created by influencers and readers alike. It’s very simple: the more content there is out there about your brand, the more visible it is, which means more traffic, better conversion rate, and more leads. Now, there are several different ways you can get influencers and readers to generate content for you.
For instance, everybody is on Instagram nowadays. You can use this to your advantage by uploading images of users using your product to your brand’s official Instagram account. Also, with YouTube vlogging being all the rage nowadays, you can give away stuff for free, or coupons, and receive a mention that way. Take part in Facebook and forum discussions, and publish some of the user-generated content through your official channels. They will love it. Carter Hostelley, CEO and Founder of Leadtail, expanded on his previous comment by adding:
“The next step is to get on the radar of these influencers. You can do this by following, sharing, and referencing them on social media, and getting introduced via your LinkedIn network.
Now it's time to establish and build a relationship. This comes from helping them first. Make them look good on social media, provide them with quality introductions, use and purchase their services, etc. Overtime, these influencers will be more than happy to recommend and promote your company's brand, too.
At Leadtail, we've also been successful in building strong relationships by collaborating with influencers in crafting truly unique content pieces… since influencers have the same challenge as everyone else in developing quality content".
There is only so much a person can take in terms of ad exposure before they have had it, and with people’s reliance on TV, internet, and social media, all of which feature ads, that margins are getting narrowed every day. Naturally, people respond to this exposure by getting used to the ads, and tuning them out, which renders them almost useless.
What you should aim for as a marketer is providing useful content for the readers, because that’s the way they are getting their information these days. Instead of having services and products forced upon them through ads, they turn to those brands which are more subtle about their sales pitches and which provide information they can actually use. Those brands are also more likely to have influencers promote their product.
Brett Relander, founder of Launch & Hustle, talks about the importance of that approach in his article 5 Metrics to Measure Influencer Marketing:
"The main reason that an influencer campaign can be so successful is that it rests on the ability of the influencer to obtain buy-in from the audience. Consequently, it is vital that you measure the sentiment regarding your businesses marketing message. Through evaluating the way in which your brand is perceived by your target audience, you will be better positioned to identify areas that may not resonate as well with your target demographic and adjust your marketing message accordingly. Along the same lines, you can also see which messages receive the most favorable reaction, giving you the opportunity to increase awareness around that message the influencer is delivering".
Ted Coiné shared another crucial bit of advice:
“People don't trust marketers (do you?). But people trust influencers by definition – that's what makes them influential. If you want potential customers to buy from you, then you have to get their attention in such a way that they're open to learning more about what you might sell them. Influencers are the key to that. You tie your brand as closely with your influencers as these people will let you, and mindshare opens up among a whole population of prospective customers whom you probably had no "in" with before. Mindshare leads to marketshare. The why of influencer marketing shouldn't be much of a question by now.
The how, though, is surprisingly confusing for most of the brands I've studied. That's why there is so little engagement with influencers currently in a brand's program – they're on the rolls, but they aren't doing much for your brand. That's also why turnover is so mindbogglingly high among influencers – they practically quit as fast as you can recruit them.”
While you have no legal obligation to do this, a little thankfulness goes a long way. If you have influencers spreading positive word of mouth about your brand, the smartest thing you can do is to give them yet more reasons to talk about it. How? You can reward or compensate them for their efforts.
You can give them money, although be careful with that one, not because of the cost, but because you want the content they put out about your brand to be as honest as possible, otherwise it just turns into a paid ad, and that approach, as we pointed out earlier, has largely ran out of juice, because users can spot it a mile away.
You can also give away free products, discounts, commission, or share their content on your website and even publicly thank them for promoting your brand. Remember, nobody asked them to do it, so the decent thing to do would be to thank them and respond accordingly.
Michael Brenner, CEO of Marketing Insider Group, put it this way:
"The best way to establish strong relationships with influencers is to start by helping them. Share their content. Like and comment on their posts. Re-tweet their quotes. And write 5-star reviews for their books on Amazon. It's really important because influencers have established not just authority but also massive social followings. So if you can get them to want to share your content as well, you can gain some nice organic and social traffic and engagement with your target audience. One note of warning: don't ask influencers to do you a favor before you've built a relationship. If you follow these guidelines, they will be much more likely to come and speak at your events or participate in your content efforts. And then try to earn their support of your content marketing efforts".
Yet more advice from Ted Coiné:
“The same thing that would make a top-notch customer service professional would make an all-star influencer program leader as well: empathy, and the honest desire to serve. Want to know what will best motivate your influencers? Ask them! In as many words. Say, "What would make this relationship a big win for you?
Then shut up. Listen. Take notes. And give your influencers what they told you they want! Note that this will have to include financial compensation commensurate with their influence and the services they provide you, but you're a professional: you wouldn't do it any other way.
Simple, yes, but extremely rare. If you can pull this service-first habit off, you will have your industry's most influential influencers eating out of the palm of your hand for years to come. In fact, their friends will line up around the corner to join your program.”
As opposed to traditional advertising, which is focused solely on selling the product using not-so-subtle techniques, influencer marketing is more efficient because it places the brand, or a product, within a more organic context. The brand promotion is still there, but it’s not the only thing being offered to the readers. They are also provided with actionable and useful content they can read and apply the information they’ve received to solve their real-life problems.
Overall, it’s a lot more pleasurable and natural experience for the readers. It does require for some extra effort on your part, but it’s worth it, because you will earn their trust for real, and not through some convoluted marketing ploy.
And we’re not just saying this to get you riled up, either, because influencer marketing is the fastest-expanding method of turning visitors into customers, according to marketers. Its growth is faster than that of organic search. Email and organic search have been around for a while, which means if you are looking for a way to aggressively, yet naturally expand your influence, influencer marketing would be your best bet, which means you need to strike the iron while it’s hot.
This, of course, doesn’t mean you should neglect organic search and email. In fact, you should use them, just as you would use every other method out there which can help you elevate your brand’s recognition.
We are not talking about overcoming your fear of making a mistake. We are talking about the wide margin of error you are allowed when it comes to influencer marketing. Let us elaborate. According to research, influencer marketing is currently the most cost-effective marketing strategy there is, with marketers being able to generate revenue that is several times larger than their investment.
This means you have room to experiment and figure out what works best for your brand, because you are very likely to at least break even. And if you succeed, you will have a bigger budget at your disposal, which opens up even more possibilities. This is the best time to get in on it.
Although Google has changed its algorithms recently and shifted their focus to seeking out high-quality content, SEO is still a viable option. So in addition to creating content for your brand, you need to get both influencers and readers to participate in the process of content creation. The biggest brands in the world rely on user-generated content and social media mentions heavily, because it makes them more visible on Google. You can do the same for your brand.
One major advantage of digital marketing over its analog counterpart is that you can keep track of everything and use all that information to develop and fine-tune your marketing strategies. Not only can you immediately access every single post, share, or like, but you can analyze every single aspect of influencer marketing using software such as Google analytics, which is free, yet amazingly powerful. You can even monitor the demographic aspect of influencer marketing, and time of day/days of the week which have been the most fruitful in terms of visitors and shares.
Guest Author: Antonio is a New Jersey-based hopeless optimist who enjoys basking in the world's brightest colors. He loves biking to distant places and occasionally he gets lost. When not doing that he's writing for Edugeeksclub. He will be happy to connect with you on Facebook and Twitter
The post How to Use Influencer Marketing to Boost Your Traffic and Conversions appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.
The demand for online content continues to grow. Econsultancy reports that increasing online content is a top priority for both business-to-consumer and business-to-business companies in 2016, with a specific rise in native content. This opens up opportunities for writers from all industries to find work – and for that writing to help build personal brands.
Not all of those opportunities will come with a byline, though. Ghostwriting, where your words are attributed to someone else, is also rising – and presents an interesting situation for people who are trying to grow their expert visibility.
The answer is: Sometimes.
Part of the reason to develop online content is so your name is out there, preferably with a bio or byline with your headshot. This is how you build credibility and visibility in your industry. So if you don’t have either of those things, what’s the point in writing online content at all?
On first glance, ghostwriting seems like a bad idea but there are actually some subtle perks to ghostwriting that you should consider before you turn down the work.
While it isn’t customary to ask the credited company to say that you wrote the material, that individual or business could vouch for you in other ways. If you need a referral for a future job or to land a new client, see if the person or company you wrote for will give you referral that touts your professionalism and communication skills. They can praise things like attention to detail, adherence to deadline and overall knowledge of the industry without actually saying you ghostwrote something.
Is this a company or individual you’d like to work with again in the future? Perhaps you want to be offered something full-time. If so, ghostwriting could be a great way to get your foot in the door.
When all things are considered, the financial terms may be the deciding factor. If you don’t feel like your career will be advanced much as a result of the ghostwriting gig, but the paycheck is lucrative, it may be worth it to you to do.
Think carefully before you accept or reject any ghostwriting projects. Some may be worth more to your personal brand than it appears on the surface.
Do you ghostwrite to amplify your brand?
Republished by permission. Original here.
Ghostwriter Photo via Shutterstock
This article, "3 Questions to Ask Before Ghostwriting to Amplify Your Brand" was first published on Small Business Trends
Do you want to increase engagement on Instagram? Have you thought about Instagram contests? Instagram contests are a great way to get people talking about your business and increase your followers. In this article you'll discover tools and tips to help marketers run a successful Instagram contest. #1: Follow Contest Rules When you're hosting or [...]
This post Instagram Contests: Tools and Tips for Marketers first appeared on .
- Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle
5miles, the Dallas and Beijing-based challenger to Wallapop and Craiglist has secured $30 million in new investment as it celebrates its first year in business this month.
The 1-year-old 5miles mobile marketplace app has managed to attract more than 5 million users (averaging 30,000 downloads a day) and is continuously working towards becoming a major player in the local online classified advertising business that’s been long dominated by Craiglist.
Its list of investors now includes IDG, Morningside, Blue Lake, and SIG-China (part of the Susquehanna Investment Group). In addition, individuals who have worked with or have ties with e-commerce giants like eBay and Alibaba have also invested in the app.
“We can’t imagine a better way of celebrating our first anniversary than with renewed confidence and support from our investors,” 5miles CFO Garwin Chan said in a press release. “We’re proud of the operation we’ve created, and especially grateful for the loyal, growing base of buyers and sellers from all over the country who’ve been able to connect. We are excited to see them successfully transact with one another through our marketplace.”
5miles employs about 45 people in both its Beijing and Dallas offices and was able to use its last round of investment to expand beyond Texas. The company now serves New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Tampa, Los Angeles, Miami and Orlando. The company has also expanded its marketplace services to 12,000 services, and they are also trying to differentiate themselves from other mobile app competitors by allowing small businesses like used car lots to use the platform.
The mobile app essentially updates the concept of classified ads with newer innovations that makes it easy for users to engage with and purchase items. The app uses “Pinterest-style” grid layout to present items across categories like clothes, collectibles, cars, phones, and contracted services like housekeeping, plumbing and babysitting.
Buyers can view items by date of listing, price or distance from the location. They can as well ask questions, bookmark items, make purchase offers and even share and “follow” certain sellers that they like.
Sellers on the other hand can opt to attach voice descriptions other than text to a listed item.
The startup is positioning its app as a safer alternative to Craiglist by using multi-layered verification procedure for new sellers, cross checking people on social media and on email.
The new series of funding brings the total investment in the company to more than $50 million. In its first year, the startup attracted 4 million users and generated $1 billion in gross merchandise volume and in December alone, they facilitated $81 million in local transactions of secondhand goods. These record numbers do not include the startup’s unique offerings of services, job listings and housing.
“We have been following 5miles’ progress since the beginning of 2015, and have been very impressed with the company’s rapid growth and the innovation they have brought to local sellers and buyers,” said Alex Yin, co-founder and general partner at Blue Lake Capital. “We very much look forward to working with the company as they continue to expand.”
Image: 5miles
This article, "5miles May Challenge Craigslist as the New Online Classified" was first published on Small Business Trends
Your business website isn’t just a place for potential customers to learn about your business and potentially make purchases. It’s the face of your business, an arm of your online marketing plan, and so much more.
For some tips on making your business website as great a tool as it can be, check out these tips from members of our small business community.
Getting people to visit your website is a great first step. But if you want your business to succeed, you need return visitors. In this article on Target Marketing, Gabriel Shaoolian shares three simple methods for gaining return visitors.
Ecommerce platforms have gotten much more sophisticated in recent years. The amount of options that you have for different store types and features can be overwhelming. This post on Inc by Anita Campbell shares five eCommerce stores that are easy to add to your website.
The headlines that you use for blog posts and other parts of your website are incredibly important, since they can convince visitors to read or see what you have to say. This post by Ileane Smith includes some tips for writing great headlines. And the BizSugar community shared their input here.
You can use an exit overlay on your website for a variety of reasons – to get customer feedback, to encourage interaction, and to help solve problems with your website. In this post on the Exit Bee blog, Victoria Stamati discusses the various types of exit overlays and the benefits they can have for business websites.
You’re likely already taken some steps to secure your business data from outside hacks or similar threats. But people who have insider access to your data can also pose a threat. This post by Vadim Vladimirskiy on the ADAR PersonalCloud blog explains more about insider threats and how you can protect your onine data.
For years, .com was the king of domain extensions. But now some other extensions like .co and .io are making an impact on business websites. This article from Olivia Scala on Trellis discusses the growing trend of .co and similar domain extensions. You can also see discussion about the post over on BizSugar.
Including educational content in your website and other online marketing materials can help make customers see you as an authority in your industry, and have a variety of other benefits. Renee Teller discusses the benefits of including educational content in your marketing on the Carben Creative blog.
As a prominent arm of your online marketing efforts, your social media channels are sort of an extension of your website. So your social media marketing efforts should reflect your brand and the hard work that you put into your website. Gosia Letki shares some tips for boosting your brand on social media on the Brand24 blog here.
Failure is an inevitable part of running a business. But whether that failure relates to your website or other parts of your business, there are ways you can fail that will prevent your business from completely falling apart. In this Noobpreneur post, Chad Stewart explains how you can fail better. And BizSugar members discussed the post further here.
Whether you’re working on building your website, your marketing, or any number of other parts of your business, you’re going to need to try out some things that might not exactly work out. In this post from The Experiment, Danien Ndukwu shares some thoughts on using trial and error as an entrepreneur.
If you'd like to suggest your favorite small business content to be considered for an upcoming community roundup, please send your news tips to: sbtips@gmail.com.
Web Design Photo via Shutterstock
This article, "10 Ideas for Improving Your Business Website" was first published on Small Business Trends
