4 Facebook Marketing Tips for Your Small Business

facebook marketing

Facebook Marketing

Facebook marketing has become essential for any business to have a strong social media presence in the digital world. With over 2 billion monthly active users, there’s no reason to leave this section of your audience potential untapped.

To get started, here are 4 of our favorite tips for your small business to succeed on Facebook.

Post to Facebook at non-peak times

Every time someone visits Facebook, they could have on average 1,500 potential stories to see from friends, people they follow, and Pages. A majority of these posts published during the day with peak times between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. ET.

Engage your fans by asking questions

One of the most popular post types on Facebook? Questions.

It’s one of the recommended strategies by Post Planner, and anecdotally it makes a lot of sense for getting more comments, likes, and interactions from the community. The thinking goes that as Facebook notices people engaging with your content, future content stands a better chance of reaching more people.

Facebook Advertising

Social networks aren’t always the first thing companies think while building local marketing strategies, but Facebook advertising is an exception.

It’s an inexpensive way to advertise your business to the target audience. Like Google, Facebook also knows to buy and click patterns of all their one billion-plus users. They are experts in putting the ads in front of a relevant local audience.

Visual Content is King

Facebook marketing has turned into a very visual realm. Pictures and especially video are gaining more reach on average than text-based posts.

As humans, we are much better at remembering pictures than words. When you post a text-heavy post, your customers will only remember 10% after a couple days. But if you add in a picture, they’ll remember 65%. Your posts will have much more impact if you included a relevant image or graphic with it.

Have any questions about Facebook marketing or your strategies on other social platforms? Contact us here!

How To Reuse Content For Your Business

reuse content

How To Reuse Content For Your Business

Content is a great way to convert visitors, but it’s hard to consistently come up with new and engaging content. But there’s still hope. You can bring in more traffic, and convert more leads by simply repurposing your existing content. Here are some of our tips on how to reuse content for your business.

Turn Written Content Into Infographics

Transforming a long blog post, short articles, or text post into a visually appealing infographic is a great way for you to get your audience to better engage with your content. Actually, it’s been found that an infographic is 30 times more likely to be read than a text article!

It’s less time for a reader to process your information visually with pictures and graphics than just text. Breaking down your current content into more visual posts will help you get more bang for your content buck. Plus, it will get you more engagement from your audience. Parts of the graphic can also be repurposed as multiple image posts for Instagram or Facebook.

Turn Videos into Blog posts and Vice Versa

After you’ve created a video, you don’t need to just upload it and move on. Take the script you created for the video, or write a transcript, and use it as a basis for a blog post!

Or on the flip side, taking key points from a blog post and turning it into an informational video is a creative way to reuse written copy.

Blog Posts into Newsletter

To really get the most bang for your blog post, consider promoting your blog posts in a weekly tips newsletter. You hopefully have a solid list of email subscribers, but even the most dedicated of fans won’t catch every post you write. That’s where your newsletter comes in!

A friendly tips-oriented newsletter can showcase your best blog posts of the week, providing an extra nudge to get users on your site and reading your cream of the crop content.

Webinar into Video Content

Turning one of your webinars into reportable social media videos is a great way to extend the life of your content.

Webinars are a great way to engage with members of your audience, but not everyone can make it to your webinar when you host it. Instead of letting the footage gather dust, you can save, edit, or upload the footage to Youtube to give it life. You can either post the whole webinar, or you can edit it down to multiple short videos on specific topics.

This way no one misses out on your information. Plus, it can be used as an assist to drive visitors to your website.

Turn Longer Posts Into a Series

Why create one long post that no one will read when you can create a series of shorter posts?

If you have a longer blog post, consider dividing it up into a themed series of posts. The posts can help drive engagement, while the shorter lengths allow your audience to fully engage with the posts.

Having any questions on how your business can reuse content? Contact us here. 

What Instagram In-App Payments Could Mean for Business

Instagram In-App Payments

An Instagram in-app payments feature was just added early this month.

This new feature allows social media users to make purchases on Instagram. How? Users can add a credit/debit card to their account, with a pin for security. After they set-up and verify the accounts, users can make purchases through their Instagram account.

Instagram hasn’t stated when it plans to roll out this service.

Weaving commerce more deeply into social media apps offers potentially huge rewards for companies behind the apps, as well as those with products to sell.

Instagram says that more than 80 percent of its 800 million-plus users follow a business on the social network. With numbers like that, the Facebook-owned company will be keen to build out its shopping services to draw in more advertisers and boost revenue even further.

What does this mean for businesses?

You’re able to show your product and store where your customers already are.

One of the biggest challenges businesses face is getting your customer to your store and check out.

While Instagram already offers shopping opportunities via tagged items shown in an image, making a purchase currently involves navigating a pop-out page and completing various steps, including entering payment details for each new merchant.

Instagram in-app payments are now erasing that hurdle for businesses. Your customers won’t even need to leave Instagram to purchase the product you’re showing on your feed. The more steps involved in the buying process, the more likely a customer is going to fall out of the funnel.

It might not seem like Instagram is the place for businesses to communicate with their audience, but Instagram reports that over 200 million Instagrammers actively visit a business profile every day.

How will Instagram in-app payments work?

One of the first equipped is a dinner reservation app Resy. Some of its clients’ Instagram Pages now offer this native payment for the booking. And in the future, Instagram says you can expect direct payments for things like movie tickets through the app.

A tap through to the terms of service reveals that Instagram Payments are backed by Facebook’s Payments rules.

With its polished pictures and a plethora of brands, shopping through Instagram could prove popular and give businesses a big new reason to advertise on the app. If they can get higher conversion rates because people don’t quit in the middle of checkout as they fill in their payment info, brands might prefer to push people to buy via Instagram.

The whole point of Instagram not allowing links in captions is to keep you in a smooth, uninterrupted browsing flow. Getting booted out to the web to buy something broke that. Instagram Payments could make impulse buys much quicker, enticing more businesses to get on board. Even if Instagram takes no cut of the revenue, brands are likely to boost ad spend to get their shoppable posts seen by more people if the native payments mean more of them actually complete a purchase.

How can businesses utilize Instagram in-app payments?

Whenever a new trend or update comes to social accounts, your first thought should always be “How can this benefit my account?”?

Once Instagram opens up the payment option to the general public, you’ll be able to enable your audience with the ability to purchase your products and services directly on Instagram.

Until then, there are things you can do to prepare for the upcoming update.

Make sure you have an Instagram Business account

Business accounts provide businesses a lot more flexibility when it comes to managing your account and presence on Instagram.

They allow you to have an office location and hours in a separate section from a regular Instagram bio. Business accounts also have access to helpful analytics and promotional tools.

You’re also able to boost specific posts that will help you reach a wider audience.

Make sure your site is mobile-optimized.

Since you’re wanting to drive your audience to purchase from you online, the first step is to drive them to your site and store. Instagram is a mobile app, so visitors will be accessing your site from their phone or another mobile device.

Giving them a poor first impression will seriously hurt your chances of ever nurturing them into a customer.

Looking to the Future

Overall, the Instagram in-app payments update is very exciting for businesses and customers alike. Instagram is helping streamline the buyer’s journey through their app, and we’re excited to see how this will pan out.

Do you have any questions about marketing on Instagram or other social sites? Contact us here!

3 Brands with Killer Social Media Strategies

social media

There are hundreds of social media platforms out there. Among the most common are Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.  People view advertisements and engage with content on these outlets daily.  Because of this, it’s important that brands make sure their content is memorable and unique with social media strategies.

Below is a list of a few popular brands that demonstrate successful social media strategies. Check out the list below to see what you or your brand can learn about social media from them!

  1. Wendy’s

In 2017, Wendy’s was recognized by its followers for their use of humorous sass on their Twitter account. In one example, a follower tweeted at Wendy’s, asking, “If the beef is never frozen, then how do you guys keep it fresh?” Wendy’s reply was smart and sassy: “R E F R I G E R A T O R S”.

Another instance where they clapped back happened when a user tweeted at them, “@Wendy’s How much does a Big Mac cost?” Wendy’s responded, “Your dignity”.

These examples show that Wendy’s social media strategy is different from other brands in that it is quirky and unforgettable. They also target other competing restaurants, like McDonald’s in this case. The whole point of their tweets was to get people talking. Clearly, it worked.

  1. Airbnb

Another brand that uses its content in a crafty, strategical way as Airbnb. Their Instagram is filled with beautiful images of different places around the world. They engage their audience by creating captions that catch their attention. For example, one photo states, “Forever is how long you’ll want to stay in the infinity pool at Lebah Villa. But – trust us – you’ll want to dry off and take the short walk to Ubud village, soaking in the Bali rice paddy view.” Each photo includes a storytelling aspect to it, which lets the viewer imagine that they are in that location.

In addition, Airbnb started a campaign using the hashtag #WeAccept. With this, the brand intended to show their audience that they support all types of people and backgrounds. This was an effective social media strategy to engage users and promote diversity.

  1. GoPro

Instagram has proved to be a successful social media platform, as it includes contests and other user-generated content. GoPro, a technology company that designs cameras for sports, activities, and travel, maintains an inspiring Instagram account for this reason. Each day, they run two contests called “Photo of the day” and “Video of the day”. Users from around the world can upload their personal photos or videos, and GoPro picks the best ones. Not only does this literally engage followers, but it promotes a lifestyle of adventure and fun for prospective customers. In a way, this is better than simply showcasing a certain product. This allows viewers to picture what their life would be like if they had that specific product.

 

These three brands are role models that anyone can look up to for social media tips and ideas. If you or your company is out of ideas for your social media strategies, we can also help!

Videos and Your Content Strategy

videos

People decide whether or not they are interested in something within the first 10 seconds of viewing it. In advertising, that leaves no time for anything else. The 30-second to 1-minute commercials we see on TV and the Internet are rarely watched all the way through. Fortunately, there is a solution for catching your audience’s attention: ultra-short videos.

What They Are:

Short-form videos last about 10 seconds or less. They try to get a message across to its viewers, whether it be an advertisement or just a simple story that encourages a certain behavior, thought, or feeling.

Why Videos are Important:

In the marketing and advertising world, content is key. Video has recently become one of the most prevalent ways to pique an audience’s interest. Therefore, it’s only fitting to create something that immediately appeals to consumers.

Since the average attention span is decreasing rapidly, it’s crucial to keep all forms of content short, sweet, and to the point. The shorter the content, the easier it is for people to remember it.

Short-form content has the power to get right down to the point, which first catches viewers’ attention, and ultimately leaves them wanting more.

Another perk of the short-form video is that smaller file sizes are easier to upload. In the end, that saves you time!

How to Create Them:

Reevio, a web-based video-making platform, allows you to create and edit professional-quality animations. It has the largest library of templates of any online video software. Additionally, Promo by Slidely lets you create customized marketing videos that include music and logos.

All in all, short videos are the best way to grab attention online. The best part? Shorter equal less work for you!

Have any questions? Contact us here! 

Benefits of Using Google My Business

Woman working on laptop

Google My Business is a free tool that helps businesses and organizations manage their online presence on Google. It helps customers find your company’s information, such as hours, recent updates, photos, etc. Also, it allows you to respond to reviews, update information, and add posts.

Why use it?

Having a Google My Business sidebar appear after someone searches for your business makes it appear more professional. It can also improve its local rankings. Additionally, it provides viewers with quick and short information so that they don’t have to dig too deep to find what they are looking for.

Advantages

With the new Posts feature, users can create and update more information on the business sidebar. For example, posting about sales, promotions, or upcoming events is a good way to attract customers.

Recently, Google added a Q&A feature, which displays frequently asked questions to viewers right away. This makes it easier for them to decide if they are interested or not. In addition to Posts and Q&A’s, Google has created a real-time chat mode with customers and businesses. This allows for more client engagement and increases brand loyalty.

In short, Google My Business is a great way to keep your small business or organization at the forefront of peoples’ minds.

Want to find out more about best practices on Google? Ask us!

3 External Communications Apps for Your Business

communications

External communications are as important as internal communication. It’s about sending messages to your audience. Such as your clients, investors, suppliers, members of the community, or others.

Certain software can aid in effective communication with people outside of your business. Here’s a list of 3 helpful applications that can benefit your business’ external communications.

Buffer

If you’re looking for a way to create and update social media content on multiple platforms at a time, try Buffer. It’s the easiest option for communicating information to prospective or current clients. When using the application, you can schedule posts to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more.

Canva

Canva, a free graphic design website, is a valuable marketing application. It lets you create marketing and advertising materials such as posters, flyers, invitations, etc. Additionally, the best thing about Canva is that even non-designers find it simple to use. Providing the user with premade templates makes it easier on those who aren’t very artsy.

Facebook Pages Manager App

Finally, this app from Facebook allows you to oversee up to 50 of your Facebook pages from your smartphone or tablet. Therefore, it proves to be an efficient social media platform for managing your company’s external communications. You can check activity and keep up-to-date with the page insights.

Overall, if you’re searching for the right communication to reach your intended audience, we recommend you try one of these. If you have questions, let us know! Contact us.

Social Media Marketing Trends for 2018

Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing

Trends, like seasons, are constantly changing. Fashion trends, for example, are only popular for a few months or years at a time. The same circumstance applies to social media marketing and the digital world.

Since inventions in technology are endless, it’s important to keep up with modern trends and ideas. Below are some social media tips to help keep you up-to-date in 2018.

Video

According to Forbes, more than 80% of marketing consumers would rather watch a live video than read social media updates. The creation of live video streaming on platforms such as Instagram and Facebook allows marketers to reach people in a more modern way. Businesses can post 24-hour video “stories” to their profile, or opt to the live-stream material to their audience. Video is a useful marketing tool that catches the attention of younger audiences, as well as visual learners.

Engagement

Social media marketing is the quickest and most efficient way to reach customers. It’s important to take advantage of this by engaging with them directly. Outlets such as Twitter and Facebook make it easy to keep up with customers by responding directly to their complaints or praises. It’s commonly mistaken that gaining new followers is more important than engaging with existent customers or clients. Social media interaction with followers yields more brand loyalty and gives your business more of a personality.

Have any questions about social media? Don’t hesitate to contact us here! 

 

Must Have Social Media Tools for Small Businesses

social media tools

Must have Social Media Tools for Small Businesses

Here are some must-have social media tools for small businesses

Twitter

You can use Twitter to build connections with a relevant audience. These connections can lead to actions across a network of loyal customers for your business. As a local business, you can use Twitter to promote special promotions, deals and or coupons to your followers and audience. There are a lot of different strategies to use for this.

Facebook

Facebook is a great opportunity for a company to make online sales, get a following around the brand, and create a platform where customers can discuss products. Marketing on Facebook has become essential for any business to have a strong social media presence in the digital world. Therefore, with over 2 billion monthly active users, there’s no reason to leave this section of your audience potential untapped.

Instagram

Instagram’s highly curated and personal environment is more likely to inspire action. The content is seen as trustworthy, authentic and relevant. Additionally, over the past couple of years, Instagram has become a powerhouse in the realm of social media. With over 700 million monthly active users, the platform has become a great place to share content with your audience.

Tumblr

Tumblr is the best place for creators to find an audience for their content. There are over 200 million blogs publishing 80 million posts per day. Therefore, it’s a great way to get your content seen by a large number of users.

Pinterest

Finally, Pinterest is an online tool for collecting and organizing images. The platform has become important for some people to find inspiration and new ideas, particularly designers.

Have any questions? Contact us today! 

Facebook Marketing Do’s and Don’ts

Facebook Marketing

facebook marketing dos and donts

Facebook Marketing Do’s & Don’ts

Facebook marketing has become essential for any business to have a strong social media presence in the digital world. Therefore, with over 2 billion monthly active users, there’s no reason to leave this section of your audience potential untapped.

Here is a list of do’s and don’ts

Do’s

Keep It Short

Fewer words get more engagement, think of Twitter.

Post Frequently

Keep your Facebook audience informed by posting photos, promotions, and special offers. Also, provide relevant links.

Be Genuine

Connect with your user in a non-robotic way. Also, talk in a conversational way.

Get Feedback

Listen to your users, it will help you develop new products and improve on the existing ones

Respond

Don’t get tired of answering questions and responding to feedback on Facebook. Also, never forget to say thank you.

Don’ts

Always Sell

Use the 80/20 rule, 80% content, 20% product

Spam Your Audience

Don’t overpost and annoy your Facebook audience. Also, avoid oversharing or ranting about employees or customers

Talk Politics

You may lose potential customers whose opinions differ from yours

Go Dormant

Fewer posts, less value for future posts from Facebook’s algorithm. Users will also forget about you.

Ignore

Finally, ignoring may only add fuel to the fire, respond with your email and settle the matter privately

Have any questions about Facebook Marketing? Contact us today!

4 Holiday Marketing Ideas for 2017

Holiday Elements

Are you ready to cash in on the holiday shopping craze? If so, you need to create a few holiday marketing campaigns to attract customers to your store. But, creating marketing campaigns takes time, and who has extra time during the holidays?

To take the hassle out of the holidays, we’ve put together a list of four holiday marketing ideas that every business can and should use during the holidays.

Run a Social Holiday Marketing Giveaway

Speaking of Instagram, another great way to utilize the platform is by running a social media holiday giveaway. We’d recommend running a social campaign across all the major platforms your business uses to get more and more eyes on your business.

And who doesn’t like free stuff, especially during the holidays? Whether it be a big discount, a free add-on with an order or just something completely for free, get into the holiday spirit of giving. Typically, asking followers to comment, share, like, etc. are great tactics to get even more engagement with your giveaway.

Make Seasonal Emails

If you’re not incorporating the holidays into your email marketing campaigns, you’re making a big mistake! Holidays instill powerful memories into your shoppers’ minds, so enticing them with fun seasonal emails is a great way to connect in their inboxes.

Pull at their Heart Strings

While holidays may not be loved by all, most people have an emotional tie to them. And we all know that emotions drive action, so now is the time to get emotional with your marketing.

Emotional doesn’t mean you need to make every one of your audience members cry – even using humor in your messaging can go a long way during the holiday season.

Build Customer Loyalty with Personalized Gifts

Lastly, don’t forget about marketing to your customers.

Small acts of personalized kindness towards your customers make a huge impact and can strengthen the relationship, turning a happy customer into a brand advocate.

Use these tips to make all of your holiday marketing dreams come true!

Have any questions on how to increase the reach of your holiday marketing? Contact us here!

 

6 Instagram Marketing Tips for Businesses

instagram

Over the past couple of years, Instagram has become a power house in the realm of social media. With over 700 million monthly active users, the platform has become a great place to share content with your audience.

Whether your strategy needs an update or you’re a newcomer to this social media network, you can use these 6 tips to help your improve your Instagram marketing. 

1. Your profile is key

As a company, don’t get too caught up in fitting all of what you do in 150 characters. Focus on your most important description or your next big thing – be it an event, promotion or product launch. Since the only clickable link is in your Bio section, make a habit of updating it frequently. Think about promoting more than your website. You can include the link to event registrations, app downloads or even purchases links.

2. Get Creative

Focus on the solution you provide to your audience, not the products you sell. On Instagram, it’s necessary to show value to your customers and look great while you do it. Never underestimate the fact that the most important asset on this social media network is visual content.

3. Stop, collaborate and listen

Instagram is one of the strongest social media channels for highlighting collaborators and sharing customer success stories. Take into account that not everyone is monitoring hashtags on social media, so tagging an account is usually a better choice if you want to get noticed.

4. Analyze your Instagram ventures

Without taking a step back and analyzing what worked and didn’t, marketing becomes a guessing game. Make sure to regularly measure your follower count, engagement, and clicks, all to refine and improve your strategy.

5. Show them the business behind the curtain

Customers have a natural curiosity about where their products/services come from, and you can use Instagram to show them the whole lifecycle.

If nothing comes to mind, you can share something that everyone has – sketches, notes, and filled whiteboards or blackboards. You may find that it’s best to try out different post types until you strike gold with the one that will engage the audience.

6. Use hashtags wisely

Use hashtags to expand your reach. These can be campaign specific or general – all that’s important is that they are relevant. This makes it easier for people to find content related to you as well as your main account. It’s best practice to use between three to five hashtags and consider how you add hashtags. Whether they’re added at the end of the post, in a comment or in the actual post.

Have any more questions about Instagram marketing or about any other social media? Contact us here!

Twitter Best Practices for Local Businesses

twitter

As a little fish in the big pond of industry, it’s important to strategize and market yourself correctly to help your business stay afloat. Fully understanding how to communicate on Twitter is essential to fully utilize it.

Consistency is Key

Setting up a social strategy, and posting consistently is one of the best practices you can do as a business.

Twitter is about short, frequent, click-worthy or read-worthy updates.

Use Images and Videos

Visual content is king. Adding images and videos to your tweets will lead to big increases in your engagement and retweets.

#Hashtag Sparingly

Be careful with how many hashtags you insert into your tweets.

Using too many hashtags will make your tweets hard to read. Though, adding a couple will help increase the scope of your tweet and engagement.

Keep Conversations Going

It’s important to keep conversations open with your audience. Make sure to stay on top of comments, mentions or replies.

If you show that you are responsive, people will be more likely to engage with you in the future.

Promotions

As a local business, you can use Twitter to promote special promotions, deals and or coupons to your followers and audience.

There are a lot of different strategies to use for promoting deals or coupons on Twitter.

You can use it promote the daily drink special or highlight a coupon you’re running that week on pest control.

Each industry and business will use this tip in a different way.

Cross-marketing

For smaller business especially, it’s important to promote your Twitter profiles on your other social channels.

This will not only help you boost the visibility of your profile but can lead to more engagement from your audience.

Have any question about marketing on Twitter or any other Social Media? Don’t hesitate to contact us!

3 Insights to Improve Your Social Media Marketing

social media

In today’s market, you can’t go to any marketing blog without them telling you the importance of having social media, and using it for marketing. How do you get the most from your social media? Sure, it’s great to have it, but you’ll lose money if you’re not using it correctly.

Today we’re talking about 3 main insights on how to use social correctly.

Visual Content is Key

One major point of your social focus should be in visual content.

As humans, we are much better at remembering pictures than words. When you post a text-heavy post, your customers will only remember 10% after a couple days. But if you add in a picture, they’ll remember 65%. Your posts will have much more impact if you included a relevant image or graphic with it.

Keep it Consistent

As with most things, consistency is key with social media marketing. Having a consistent and quality strategy will keep your current customers more engaged, and help you attain new followers, leads and customers through your social media pages. People will be less likely to follow your page if you go weeks without updates, and then bombard your audience with updates. If you infrequently post on your page, it’s shown that people will likely lose enthusiasm for your page, and could even unlike it. This is the same effect that posting too frequently could have.

Strategy and Analysis

One of the most important tasks to do on your social media is to always have a strategy, set goals and analyze your pages to see if you’ve hit those goals. One the best things about developing a strategy are that it gives you direction. It’ll help you define your goals and objectives you want to achieve using your social presence.

You should set SMART goals in your strategy. These are goals that are:  Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-based. Setting goals will help you intelligently use your social media to its full potential.

If you’d like more insights or need help developing a strategy for your social media, don’t hesitate to contact us.

3 Common Myths About Social Media Marketing

social media marketing

If we look back 20 or 30 years ago, marketing was pretty simplistic. One would mail out millions of flyers, design an eye-catching billboard, and develop a memorable television advertisement. Today, your customers have moved to the digital world. Unfortunately, many companies try to apply old-school marketing techniques to social media. The results are marketing campaigns that fall far short of expectation.

Much of what companies believe about social media is just plain wrong. There are many misconceptions about how marketing can drive sales. However, these are myths that even some marketers have held onto. This is because marketing is an ever-changing landscape, and staying up to date is extremely difficult. Nonetheless, we are here to tackle some of the most common myths about it.

Common Myths About Social Media Marketing

1. My customers don’t use it

This is unlikely. Statista, a leading statistics company, reports that 72 percent of all U.S. internet users are on Facebook. Moreover, Facebook users share 684,478 pieces of content every minute. This doesn’t even touch Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Tumblr, and a whole host of other platforms.

2. If a post doesn’t go viral, it is a waste of time and money.

Untrue. Going viral tends to be the exception, not the rule. Social media is about the long game. Therefore, not everything is going to be a home run. Social media marketing is about growing your audience and building relationships. The question you should always ask yourself is, “Would I share this on my personal social media account?”

3. It’s only for attracting new customers.

Wrong. Finally, social media is also about nurturing customer relationships and building brand loyalty. Actually, One study found that 74 percent of customers providing feedback expect a response within 30 to 60 minutes. Therefore, your customers need to know the conversation is not one-sided.

What haven’t we covered yet that is important to you? If you would like to talk more about the common myths about social media marketing, or need more information, please contact us.

Social Media Management by Killer Spots Creates Time

Social Media Like

What does your social media audience want? How do you get them to tell you what they want? These used to be hard questions for businesses to get reliable real-time answers to. That just isn’t the case anymore. In fact, they will tell you more than you ever wanted to know if you let them. Too Much Information or TMI is a thing, after all. Today the question is how do you get the information you want and skip the pictures of what they burned for dinner last night? The answer is social media management.

Social Media Management

It is about what you share and how they respond. Whether they are your friends, your customers. Or hopefully both, they need to see your best face. If they are going to buy your products or believe the things you tell them. Therefore, they need to see you have standards and that you aim for reliability and good business practices.

They also need to know you care. That means reading their comments and responding to their posts appropriately, even the negative ones. If you are running a business or have your own content to produce this can take a chunk of time from your day you may not have to give, as much as we all want to hang out on social media hitting the like button for new ideas and defending our own positions from the occasional troll.

Social media management can take the reins of your online presence while you get some work done, building relationships with your customers and your industry as a whole. The people at Killer Spots have the time and the technical prowess to handle all of that for you, and to improve your position on top of that. Contact Killer Spots to learn more about social media management.

Design for the Non-Graphic Designer

design

Social Media is all about the images. No one has time to stop and read about your day or what’s hot and exciting in the world. They just want to see it. So how can you keep up if you aren’t a graphic designer and can’t afford to hire one? Here’s our list of 5 simple and easy-to-learn online programs that you can use to create stunning graphics without the need for an art degree. Don’t worry, Adobe won’t be involved in this relationship so you can put away your wallet.

#1. PicMonkey

picmonkey

PicMonkey is photo-editing made easy. But they’ve also added features for design and touch-up as well. Their site is primarily free to use with a minimal upgrade fee for certain “Royale” features. With PicMonkey you can crop, add effects, touch up, add text, make collages or even add fun shapes, stickers and themed details to your photos. If you don’t have a photo you want to start from, no worries. Just click the “Design” button on the homepage and create something totally from scratch.

Everything is very easy to find and set up to be completely user-friendly. But you will want to play around with it a bit at first, just to get used to all the features. This site is great for editing your photos before posting them to social media. Or adding a quick block of text to a flyer. Creating a great graphic for your next blog post.

#2 Pixabay

pixabay

Perhaps you’re thinking…. but I don’t have any photos that I need to edit. I just need to access free, non-copyright photos to use for my business. Pixabay is perfect for just that. They have a staggering collection of over 420,000 quality images that won’t come back to bite you in the legal ass.  

They of course also have the option of upgrading to some paid royalty-free photos. But almost always you can find what you’re looking for without needing to do that. They rely heavily on donations so after downloading multiple quality images; you might feel inclined to “buy them coffee”—but it’s never required.

#3 Canva

canva

Canva is a newer platform that was beautifully designed to create stunning graphics with minimal effort. They have hundreds of “templates” organized into various categories such as, “Social Media, Documents, Marketing Materials, Email Headers, Blogging and Books” and more. Each template is sized properly for the platform is was created so no worrying about sizing issues. There are usually about 3 free templates per category that you can use or pay an upgrade fee to use all the features.

Canva is similar to PicMonkey in that they have many of the same editing features but Canva’s templates are a time-saver for sure and also highly beneficial if you aren’t “layout-inclined”. You can also save your pieces publicly or privately if you choose. Publicly allows you to share your work with others in the community and also see what else is being created. It’s a great place for inspiration, or just to ask questions if you aren’t sure how to improve your work.

#4 Dropbox

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While Dropbox might not seem like a graphically-inclined site to choose, it’s actually invaluable if you take a great deal of photos using your phone or want to quickly exchange graphics between desktop and mobile. The app and desktop icon interact with each other. So if you set your photos taken on mobile to auto-upload to Dropbox, the next time you open your desktop, they’ll all be there—ready to use.

The same applies for editing. If you use one of the great platforms listed above to say, create a stunning graphic for your next Instagram post, the only way to upload it to Instagram is on your mobile device. No problem! Just save that graphic to Dropbox, and it will also be on your phone. Then you can easily open it, save it to your phone, and share to your heart’s content. Plus Dropbox gives you 2GB for free. If you find you need more than that, upgrading to 1TB of space will cost you just $9.99/mo. Incredibly simple, not to mention a great back up system in case you deleted something from your phone or desktop you weren’t quite finished with. And you can access all your photos/files anywhere you are.

#5 Afterlight

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What if you just want an amazing app for mobile use for those on-the-fly times when you can’t sit down at your desktop and create the perfect image and take lots of time doing it? Afterlight is the app for just that! It has 74 of the most beautiful filters. 78 natural textures and 128 frames for you to create just the right look.

It’s awesome if you hate the “perfect square” shape of Instagram photos and want to add more character to those images. Afterlight is very easy to use and once you’ve created the perfect look— sharing is simple with the “save & share ” feature. Here are some shots edited with Afterlight.

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Contact Killerspots Creative Team for any design needs you may have. http://killerspots.com/

Facebook Canvas Is Changing How We Do Advertising

Facebook Canvas advertising is no joke. I sincerely and somewhat aggressively recommend to all of my clients. That they use some form of their service as part of their marketing strategy because it’s game is THAT strong. And how could it not be? With approximately 1.5 billion monthly active users that spend 20+ minutes a day using the platform (DMR); it’s definitely an open audience that cannot be ignored.

But how best to reach that audience if everyone else is using the same ad service? Well first of all, it’s ALWAYS important to utilize Facebook’s very comprehensive audience targeting options. Pinpoint your exact customer, as specifically as possible. And then not only are sales more likely, but you’ll be presenting yourself right to them. Without competition from other less specific ads.

It’s obviously still also very important to make sure that your ad graphic (whether it be a static image or a short video) is engaging and interesting. This just means whatever form of image plus copy you use; should be well branded but also something you yourself would want to know more about.

Once you are running consistent engaging Facebook ads, you’re already going to see awesome results in your page engagement and also your product sales. But what’s next?

Facebook Canvas

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Image Credit: https://canvas.facebook.com/

Enter Canvas.

Facebook’s all new mobile ad unit that now takes your ad from a sponsored post pushing to an external site to a totally Facebook-hosted full page experience where you can scroll and explore all original content. Facebook Canvas is designed to be a way to break through all other ads, telling a fuller story of your brand, through an interactive fresh environment.

When using Canvas, customers will click on the ad, and then see a “fast-loading, full-screen experience where they can browse through a variety of products, before going to the retailer’s website to purchase”. The pro to this type of ad is that the customer doesn’t have to worry about waiting for a website to load. Having a mobile experience that isn’t optimized and having everything they want in a shopping experience using only one app on their phone.

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So how do you start using Facebook Canvas NOW?

Well, you join the waitlist. That’s right. Anything worth wanting always involves a waitlist right? But something tells this Marketing Director, this one is worth waiting for.

Contact Killerspots Creative Team for any media/marketing needs you may have. http://killerspots.com

Tips for Fascinating an overstimulated media market [part ii]

Person reading Digital Marketing book.
To read the first half of this post please visit here.

[TIP THREE]

A third tip to gain the attention of the social user is to understand the difference between personal online content and business content. I know I just mentioned that you need to post more than just information about your business. and you absolutely do. But say you are a health care facility and you want to share a post about migraine headaches. An inappropriate business page post would be a meme or GIF. With poorly composed graphics about the “horror of migraine headaches”. Sure it might be funny, but it doesn’t look professional. And is best saved for sharing on a personal account.

A more appropriate post for this topic would be an infographic detailing the signs and symptoms of a migraine headache. And a CTA (call-to-action) on how to find relief in your care facility. This type of content post is also appropriate because it not only gives the follower something useful in what to look for with their migraines. But also a way to solve their issue and that benefits you as a business. If they choose to share this content, that CTA will bring their friends or others in their circle back to your business as well. Which has just brought you new followers and in turn customers.

[TIP FOUR]

The next tip is simple and yet challenging. Keep your posts short and non-generic. It is recommended that Social Media posts stay around 80 characters or less for up to 66% more engagement. And being that engagement is what you are looking for, this is important to follow. However, just 80 characters is tough. As it is 60 characters less than the 140 you are restricted to already on Twitter posts. If you are able to succeed though, you will be posting your very BEST content. Because you will have thought it through enough to figure out how to get to those 80 characters in the first place.

And of course this doesn’t include your graphic– that you are absolutely posting along with those characters; as we know are necessary for grabbing attention of users today as well. And with a great graphic, you won’t need a great deal of words.

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[TIP FIVE]

The final tip for gaining attention in a busy world is to not overextend yourself as a business owner. Whether you are a public speaker and one-man show or a corporation with hundreds of employees (or most likely someone in between), know when best to hire outside help and leave the online media marketing to the pros. Your business will do best if you aren’t overextending yourself trying to wear too many hats at once. Social Media is happening 24/7 and is most definitely a full time job when done effectively. As an owner, you already don’t have time for that.

But it’s also something you cannot afford to ignore as in this present society it is now the bulk of your marketing without the cost. Using Facebook is free, so spend some money to make sure it’s done right, and save yourself the added stress. If you need help with Social Media Strategy or Management please don’t hesitate to check out what we offer here at Killerspots.

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Contact Killerspots Creative Team for any media/marketing needs you may have. http://killerspots.com

Fascinating an Overstimulated Media Market [part I]

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[AS FEATURED in ULTIMATE MAGAZINE]

Have you had this experience? Search for an answer on Google, click on a webpage and before you can even complete reading a sentence of information; you are bombarded with an ad or a window to “sign up now”. You haven’t even decided how you feel about this information, page, media or site and already are being told what to do. It’s threatening almost.

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The same used to be true for television. Sit down to relax after a long day and within the first three minutes of your selected entertainment, you now find yourself being told exactly how to spend all your hard-earned cash. Except now we have the option to fast-forward through those advertisements. Or bypass them entirely with paid services such as Netflix.

Introduce: mobile device. According to the digital analytics firm Flurry, people spend two hours and fifty-seven minutes per day on average on their mobile devices. Which is ahead of time spent watching television. Obviously, businesses, marketers and advertising agencies cannot ignore that statistic. They must find a way to reach those customers. Enter in, Social Media.

Social Media

Social Media began as something teens were doing in AOL chat rooms. With friends, in their basements as yet another venue to box their parents out of “what was cool”.  It was the texting of this generation.  But then in February of 2004, Mark Zuckerberg took online networking to a whole new approach. What if people could connect together to build a networked community? Share their thoughts, feelings, updates, photos and even opinions beyond just one-on-one. But within an entire network of friends/family. The possibilities were endless. And now in 2015, as the social networking platforms have expanded, that online community is something a business cannot be without in order to succeed.

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The question becomes, how do we gain the attention of that audience? In the near three hour window of time they are spending in Social Media communities. How do we sell to them? These five tips will change the way your business interacts socially. While also giving you that rare moment of attentiveness from your customer.

[TIP ONE]

You do not need to use every social platform available. You might feel being on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and Pinterest is best in order to reach every possible audience. In actuality what ends up happening is that you spread yourself thin trying to keep up. on each of these vastly different platforms that you aren’t posting quality content to. The audiences that do engage and therefore missing opportunities for your business.

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It’s best practice to figure out your customer base. (who they are, where they shop, what they do and what are their needs). And then pick 2-3 social platforms that best suit that customer. You do not want to start a Pinterest page as a law firm because posting the best recipes for crockpot cooking isn’t going to bring you closer to your target customer. You are going to want a Twitter account so you can talk about the latest updates to the law and interesting articles regarding the type of cases you take on.

[TIP TWO]

Along with that idea, the next tip is to focus on which platforms people are using regularly. Posting your very best content on those platforms. In 2014, there were a reported 1.28 billion users on Facebook with those users on average spending 21 minutes per day on the site (Digital Marketing Statistics). That number is five times higher than the number of active users on Twitter; which is still remarkably high at 232 million.

What this means is that businesses are no longer in a place to ignore the use of Social Media if they want to gain any kind of attention from their customers. However, you also cannot just create a Facebook page, fill it with ads and posts about your business and expect users to follow excitedly. You must build a community online. Engage with your fan base. Give them content they are excited to read and comment on and then occasionally remind them about your latest and greatest products and/or services.

—Continued in the next post! 

Contact Killerspots Creative Team for any media/marketing needs you may have. http://killerspots.com/