Category Archives: social media

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Avoid Wasting Time On Social Media By Identifying The Most Helpful Networks For You

There are many among us who started online marketing in a time where social media was still not a requirement of being online, and certainly not of running a business. Now, even the smallest of freelancers know that interacting with and going after clients on social media can mean a huge boon to their bottom line.

That said, it could be really easy to just try and be ‘everywhere’ and then not end up actually getting any traction on the platform we choose. Let’s be honest here, social media platforms come and go, and the ones that are popular are crowded, while the ones that aren’t overcrowded yet are a risk because they never will be. New or old however, all social media platforms have certain types of content, and by extension people, that will do well on them. Further, different audiences tend to be in different places when spending time in the online social world, which is an important consideration. Let’s take a look at how you can break down a social platform’s viability for your business.

First of all, are your target customers even there? If your targets are middle-aged men, Pinterest is probably not going to be that valuable to you. While broad awareness is great, being good at social media takes a lot of time, and you want to be focusing that time in areas where it’s most likely to result in leads (right?). Evaluate the demographics of who spends their time on a platform and make sure there’s overlap with your target market.

Next, evaluate whether you will be good at producing the type of content that does well there. Depending on the platform you’re looking at, you can probably find a way to search for or hunt down posts that are popular and getting lots of engagement. These should give you an idea of what performs well. Take note of the format (picture, video, etc.), and also the content itself (what words are used? Are words used at all? Etc.).

Everyone has different skillsets, and if neither you nor anyone on your team has the skills to create great content of that particular type, it might be a tough journey for you. For example, if you’re not good at framing images or thinking up what makes a potentially mundane picture more interesting, then Instagram might not be a great place to be.

Finally, if you are good at creating the type of content you see as necessary on the channels you want to be on, you need to map out how much time you’ll have to dedicate it. People by and large follow the people who put the most time into creating the most interesting content, so it’s important to evaluate if you’ll be able to compete.

Granted you can meet all of those criteria, well, give yourself the green light and start making moves!

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How To Create Content So Good It Goes Viral

Content marketing is nothing new, and while it’s going to evolve into new formats and platforms throughout 2016, as it always does, but it’s definitely not going anywhere. If anything, more and more people will jump on board, especially as more traditional ad formats continue to fall short or become exorbitantly expensive.

People don’t like to be sold to, and the techniques, which used to be secrets within advertising circles are now common knowledge, meaning that most people are savvy to ad techniques and ignore them all but completely. That said, just ‘doing’ content marketing is not going to get you very far. In fact, the number of blogs out there with tens or even hundreds of posts but which still have zero engagement is astonishing. The reason for this is that people love to jump on the bandwagon of content marketing, but very few take the time to learn how to do it well. If you want to know how people get hundreds of shares on their blog posts and drive real traffic, well, look no further:

1) Do it better than anyone else has

There’s a technique in content marketing coined by Brian Dean called the Skyscraper Technique. The idea is to find a topic someone else has written a good article on and which has been shared around a lot, and then write something even better. Like, really dig into it. If they wrote 7 tips on how to market on Instagram, you article has 52. The main reason people don’t take this approach is that they are lazy, or they don’t feel they have the time, but here’s a secret: Creating 14 daily blog posts will lose out to one blog post that took 14 days to create, every time. It’s simply a matter of being honest about what is good enough to be shared. If it doesn’t blow you away, it’s not going to do it to anyone else, either.

2) Promote even more than you write

Once you got an epic piece of content, your job is far from over. In fact, many people recommend spending as much as two times as much time on the sharing and promoting of your blog post than you do on actually writing it. All of a sudden, you’re only writing one blog post per month, but it’s performing better and getting you more traffic than if you’d written several fire-and-forget pieces. People don’t just find great content, especially when you’re starting out, so you have to do everything you can to put it in front of their face.

3) Reach out to those who care (and who matter)

Once you’ve got your blog post out in the world, get a hold of experts and those who have a following and who might be interested, and ask if they might be willing to share with their social channels. Now, here’s the kicker: Make sure there’s something in it for them. Working with influencers in your market is about leverage, so if that means you have to offer some free services or skillsets in exchange for a tweet, so be it.

All of this is to say that if you want to have content that performs better than average, you’ve got to be willing to put in better than average time and effort… and that’s just true of anything, isn’t it?

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How To Create Content So Good It Goes Viral

Content marketing is nothing new, and while it's going to evolve into new formats and platforms throughout 2016, as it always does, but it's definitely not going anywhere. If anything, more and more people will jump on board, especially as more traditional ad formats continue to fall short or become exorbitantly expensive.

People don't like to be sold to, and the techniques, which used to be secrets within advertising circles are now common knowledge, meaning that most people are savvy to ad techniques and ignore them all but completely. That said, just 'doing' content marketing is not going to get you very far. In fact, the number of blogs out there with tens or even hundreds of posts but which still have zero engagement is astonishing. The reason for this is that people love to jump on the bandwagon of content marketing, but very few take the time to learn how to do it well. If you want to know how people get hundreds of shares on their blog posts and drive real traffic, well, look no further:

1) Do it better than anyone else has

There's a technique in content marketing coined by Brian Dean called the Skyscraper Technique. The idea is to find a topic someone else has written a good article on and which has been shared around a lot, and then write something even better. Like, really dig into it. If they wrote 7 tips on how to market on Instagram, you article has 52. The main reason people don't take this approach is that they are lazy, or they don't feel they have the time, but here's a secret: Creating 14 daily blog posts will lose out to one blog post that took 14 days to create, every time. It's simply a matter of being honest about what is good enough to be shared. If it doesn't blow you away, it's not going to do it to anyone else, either.

2) Promote even more than you write

Once you got an epic piece of content, your job is far from over. In fact, many people recommend spending as much as two times as much time on the sharing and promoting of your blog post than you do on actually writing it. All of a sudden, you're only writing one blog post per month, but it's performing better and getting you more traffic than if you'd written several fire-and-forget pieces. People don't just find great content, especially when you're starting out, so you have to do everything you can to put it in front of their face.

3) Reach out to those who care (and who matter)

Once you've got your blog post out in the world, get a hold of experts and those who have a following and who might be interested, and ask if they might be willing to share with their social channels. Now, here's the kicker: Make sure there's something in it for them. Working with influencers in your market is about leverage, so if that means you have to offer some free services or skillsets in exchange for a tweet, so be it.

All of this is to say that if you want to have content that performs better than average, you've got to be willing to put in better than average time and effort and that's just true of anything, isn't it?
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Snapchat For Business – Coming To The Mainstream

A year ago, or even six months ago, Snapchat was just a tiny blip on the radar of most marketers and entreprenerus. In fact, even that might be generous; many people who weren’t in Snapchat’s hyper-engaged teen and young adult demographic may not have even heard of the platform. If you aren’t even sure what Snapchat is yourself still, now’s the day to learn.

At its core, Snapchat is a mico-messaging app in which users can send photos, videos, or text notes to each other, view them for a set number of seconds, and then those messages self-destruct and are deleted.

Unsurprisingly, the app has been largely written off by older generations as a sorry excuse for a ‘sexting’ app. Those in the know, however, have caught on to the fact that Snapchat content is extremely easy to consume for users, and both the creation and the consumption of content is quick.

People like quick. Ironically, the fact that each individual message or publication can be consumed so quickly means that many young users use the app for hours on end (“I’ll just check one more message,” “I’ll just watch one more video,” etc. and the time flies by).

The best businesses are using Snapchat as the antithesis to Youtube, or Facebook, or their business properties where posts and content are more deliberate, planned, and highly edited and targeted. On Snapchat, you can literally record a video message by holding down your thumb for six seconds – there are no fancy editing tools.

This makes Snapchat the perfect platform for letting your customers and followers in on something “behind the scenes,” which is exactly what your competitors are doing. Now more than ever, consumers expect brands to be an extension of the people running them, and getting to know those people (or at least feeling like they have) can go a long way toward building brand trust and loyalty.

Even with its off-the-cuff nature, you still should put some planning into your Snapchat strategy. First, survey your customers and find out what they want to see – this is, of course, the most direct route to content that is going to connect with them.

Often times, inside hints and tricks, or just videos from around the factory/office, which might hint at company developments or new offerings that won’t be published for some time, can help your customers feel like they’re getting something exclusive. People like exclusive.

Aim to be consistent above anything else. Uploading a Snap every few hours and adding it to your ‘story’ will mean that people see you as someone who will regularly give them something interesting to look at. If you can add 3-6 Snaps to your Snapchat story per day, you’ll be on your way to consistency, at which point you can fine-tune the content down the road.

Snapchat gives you a simple tool to see how many views your updates receive as well, so you can gauge if your followers are taking the time out of their busy days to listen to what you have to say.

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Top 5 Reasons to use Pinterest for Your Business

Pinterest only started in 2010, yet millions of users flock to the site daily. What sets Pinterest apart is that there has never been anything quite like it before. Imagine being able to pin just about anything you want on a virtual corkboard and you’ll get the essential idea of Pinterest. In addition, you’ll be able to organize these boards into topic-specific scrapbooks.
For businesses, Pinterest provides a way to pin a variety of company information, products, and services onto organized online boards. If you’re wondering if Pinterest is right for your own business, here are 5 benefits to consider:

* Pinterest will help drive more traffic back to your company website. Each time you pin something to a board, you can link what you pinned directly back to your site or blog by using the provided description area below the pin. Each pin comes with its own description box which allows you describe the product in 500 characters or less.

* Most Pinterest users are shoppers. In fact, Pinterest users typically buy more products and services than any of the other top social media sites. According to Nielson, many consumers purchase products and services after seeing them on Pinterest. Furthermore, numerous users visit Pinterest with the intention of purchasing. Although this doesn’t mean that every user will purchase a product, the chances of consumer purchases on Pinterest are favorable when compared to popular social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter.

* Pinterest offers business accounts. With a business account, you’ll be able to verify your company’s official website, which promotes trust and credibility to consumers. In addition, Pinterest offers a plethora of educational materials and tutorials to help businesses effectively market their services. For instance, some of the tutorials show businesses how to effectively create a company story, how to increase product exposure, how to build a Pinterest community, and practice tips to help your customer base grow.

* You can run contests on Pinterest. Creating a contest is an excellent way to drive in new customers by offering an incentive to those that help spread the word. Pinterest business users can create colorful product and service photos, pin them to a contest board, then offer a prize to the winner who re-pins or gets the most shares from one of your contest pictures. This will not only help your followers get more exposure, but it will allow your pins to be seen by their followers as well.

* You can have as many boards as you need. For example, you can use one specific board to organize conference notes and charts, another board for product photos, and yet another board for service descriptions. Pinterest also offers a simple way to organize the information on each board with a few simple clicks. Keep in mind that although Pinterest is an effective tool to get exposure for your products and services, you can also use boards for company conferences, training materials, and networking.

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Top 5 Reasons to Use LinkedIn for Your Business

LinkedIn is a powerful social networking site that attracts millions of worldwide users. Although it’s similar to other popular social media sites, LinkedIn is also a bit different in regards to its unique approach to professional networking.

In addition, while other sites may focus on business pages and professionals, they also focus on personal entertainment games, videos, chatting, and more. LinkedIn, however, is strictly a professional social networking website for businesses, professionals, customers, and companies.

With more than 200 million users, LinkedIn has helped build professional rapport, find jobs, close sales deals, and build customer bases for numerous companies.

If you’re still wondering if LinkedIn is right for your own business, consider the following 5 reasons it could be just what you need:

* LinkedIn’s ad campaign application exposes your company to millions of professionals, businesses, and consumers. The application allows you to create your own ad campaigns, promoting your business, which will help drive a bigger audience to your page. It also allows you to choose which audience can see your campaigns. For example, you can cater your services towards a particular like-minded audience or you can set it as public which allows anyone on the site to view.

* LinkedIn offers interactive tools for your business page to help you promote your company. For instance, your business page can be customized to showcase what your business has to offer, including news updates, product and service information, recommendations, and more. The “Products and Services” tab provides a way for you to create a custom list of each product and service that you offer, as well as pictures and rotating banners next to each description.

* LinkedIn’s customer recommendations provide ways to endorse your business and products through testimonials and reviews. In fact, many users look at the “Recommendations” tab before deciding to check out a business. As the administrator of your business page, you have complete control over which recommendations make it on your list. Keep in mind, however, that LinkedIn users are typically savvy, so the products and services should always match the recommendations. People are more likely to trust your company and services if it has legitimate and positive recommendations from other customers.

* LinkedIn’s analytics helps you to determine your customer base and who is most likely to purchase your services. You can analyze how many visitors you have, visitor location, and what keywords attract these visitors through an easy-to-follow chart. Furthermore, you can compare your analytics chart to the charts of your competition. You’ll be able to see where your business is lacking compared to the other companies in the same industry. This will help you determine what areas in your social media presence need to be worked on. You’ll also be able to determine which areas you are doing the best in and what you’re doing exactly that garners the most customer attention.

* LinkedIn provides each user with an overview tab that can help your business stand out. The overview tab is what other users see before actually going to your page. You can customize your tab with service promotions, embedded YouTube videos, or anything else that will attract customers.

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The Demise of Google+ for Your Business

Over the last few years you have probably heard about, or seen Google+. It was touted as the next big thing and backed by Google’s billions of users, you would think they had a decent chance of success.

They even forced their own users to sign up to Google+ before they could interact with some of Googles other more stable platforms ie it gave access to Gmail, Google Drive, and all of Google’s other apps.

The biggest problem was that although millions of people were logging in everyday, hardly any of them were using it as a social platform to interact on.

 

This year it has been confirmed time and again that Google has decided to scale back their Google+ operations and have started to remove it from their more successful apps.

This shows that even the largest companies in the world sometimes just get it wrong.

“We want to formally retire the notion that a Google+ membership is required for anything at Google … other than using Google+ itself,” said Google VP Bradley Horowitz on Google+.

Over the last 4 years, Google+ really has struggled. Google+ was Googles’ attempt to knock over the competition (Facebook and Twitter) that have been continually taking over their search market share.

Perhaps Google+ was made more to help themselves rather than to help the users. 

 

 

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Top 5 Reasons to Use YouTube for Your Business

For years, YouTube has led the ranks as the most popular social media site for videos. Yet, even with over 800 million regular users, the number of viewers is expected to grow. While many people started out going to YouTube for its music videos, pranks, and other entertainment videos, the site has gone on to help numerous businesses gain exposure across the globe.

If you’re still wondering if YouTube is right for your own business, consider the following 5 benefits, which apply to every company, no matter how large or small:

* You can create as many company videos as you want on YouTube. In addition, you can whatever kind of video you wish as long as it follows YouTube’s Terms of Service. Commercials, interviews, Q&A sessions, product displays, and company tours are among just a few of the videos that can help promote your business.

Not only that, but you can optimize your YouTube videos with appropriate geographic keyword terms related to your industry; this will help you pull in more local viewers.

* YouTube offers a few advertisement choices which allow you to either create videos geared towards a specific audience, or place ads into your own channel for extra earnings. Adwords for Videos allows business videos to be strategically placed as commercials throughout other similar videos so that your company can be exposed to a larger audience. Additionally, you can incorporate Google AdSense into your YouTube channel, which will help you earn residual income from views.

* There’s no need to post long videos on YouTube in order to get your audience’s attention. In fact, most viewers appreciate short videos between three to five minutes. The majority of the most popular videos on YouTube’s top charts have consistently been those that are under five minutes. You also won’t need fancy equipment if you’re just getting started. While it’s true that the best videos on YouTube are clear, crisp, and provide high-definition viewing, you can create similar videos with just the basics. A high-quality camera, tripod, ample lighting, and video editing software will have you on your way to creating custom videos.

* YouTube videos are watched more frequently than any other social media and/or video site. With millions of worldwide viewers visiting on a regular basis, you have an excellent chance of your videos getting a lot of exposure. Keep in mind, however, that since YouTube is such a popular site, thousands of videos are uploaded every day. In order to maximize your chances of getting the highest publicity, you’ll need to make your channel stand out with consistent uploads of entertaining, educational, and engaging content.

* YouTube allows you to create your own channel and profile centered on your business. With a wide range of options, you can customize your YouTube profile with unique colors, photos, keywords, and company information. YouTube’s “Featured” tab allows you to also create professional backgrounds according to category. Examples include a blogger, creator, or networking background. Last but not least, you’ll be able link back to your company website and blog by simply plugging your links into your video descriptions, your “About Me” section, and directly onto your channel description.

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Top 5 Reasons to Use Twitter for Your Business

Founded in 2006, Twitter is a real-time social networking site that has gone on to draw in over 500 million regular users. Although similar to other popular social media sites, the main attraction that sets Twitter apart is called a “Tweet.”

Tweets are short, public messages limited to 140 characters or less that lets users share updates, ideas, questions, announcements and more. As more and more people go mobile, Twitter is quickly becoming the favorite social media application for smartphone users.

Many companies have already realized the power of Twitter and how beneficial it can be to businesses. If you’re still trying to decide if Twitter is right for your business, consider the following:

* Twitter helps businesses get exposure in several ways. Once you start tweeting, your messages have the potential of trending for millions of users to see. If you consistently tweet interesting and authentic information about your business, your tweets may even go viral, meaning other sites will pick up on your information and spread the word about your company. This allows invaluable information about your company and the services you offer to potentially to reach prospective customers quite easily.

* Twitter is a great way to network with other businesses in your industry and follow their progress. In other words, Twitter gives you an inside view of how the competition is doing by simply following their tweets. Additionally, you may find different ways to market your products/services by learning what other successful businesses in your industry are doing on Twitter.

* Twitter is one of the easiest ways to provide customer service. When your followers ask questions, all it takes is a few minutes to reply. Additionally, tweets are in real-time. Customers and followers will see your message just as soon as it’s posted, and can easily reply back to you with a click of a button.

* Twitter is one of the most efficient social media websites. If you’re busy, yet need to promote your business effectively, Twitter’s 140 word character limit along with the site’s ease of use will help you quickly say what you need to say within a matter of minutes. If you need more characters, consider using hashtags. Hashtags, words with the # symbol in front, will reduce your character count and put your keywords into Twitter’s search engine. For example, if you’re having a sales promotion, simply tweet #promotion and your keyword will be searchable to other users.

* Tweets are now starting to show up in most of the major search engines. For this to happen, however, there is a little bit of work involved on your part. By providing consistent tweets with the proper keywords on a regular basis, your tweets, along with your company website and other social media sites, have a better chance of moving up to the first page of Google, Yahoo!, and other major search engine results. Since most people click on the links that show up on the first page, having your company’s information rank as high as possible is imperative.

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Top 5 Reasons to Use Facebook for Your Business

Established in 2006 as a social site for college students to mingle, Facebook has since gone on to attract millions upon millions of users of all ages worldwide, making it one the most popular sites ever in Internet history.

Facebook users flock to the site for a variety of reasons, such as online games, photo sharing, catching up, planning events, and more. However, a good majority of users have found that Facebook provides a convenient way to make informed buying decisions, keep up with their favorite brands, discover new products, and find new companies and businesses.

In fact, Facebook now has more than 1 BILLION users. This, of course, is beneficial to businesses as they have the potential to draw in customers from all over the globe.

If you have not yet made a business presence on Facebook – the 5 reasons listed below may change your mind.

* Facebook gives your company a personality. Since Facebook is all about engaging with others and sharing information, it’s the perfect platform for a business to humanize itself through one-on-one conversations, community messages, contests, Q&A sessions, and more. Companies that actively communicate with customers and followers have better chances of obtaining new customers and retaining current ones. Moreover, real-time customer service allows consumers to have a sense of trust, which ultimately will lead to more business.

* Facebook is currently visited more than any other social media site. Although it’s always a good idea to have a presence on all the major social networking sites, Facebook is extremely important as it brings in millions of daily regular users worldwide. In addition, a good number of Facebook users use the site to learn about new products and trends, get service recommendations, and help others make informed buying decisions.

* Facebook offers all companies and professionals their own free business page. In a matter of minutes, you can easily create your own page, complete with company information, pictures, events, product listings, and more. Additionally, your followers and customers will have a convenient way to engage with other like-minded people and share recommendations. If you have not yet set up your own business page, click the link below to get started: https://www.facebook.com/pages

* You can track the effectiveness of your company’s online social media presence. Facebook’s integrated tools and applications on business pages allows you to determine the makeup of your customer base, their shopping habits, and how likely they are to purchase from your business. Moreover, Facebook offers an “Insights” feature on all business accounts. The “Insights” feature allows you to see what kind of reach and impact each of your posts have had. It also can determine the age group, gender, and locations of the people that have read your posts.

* Your business page is public and searchable by millions of Facebook users. In addition, when people give your page a “Like,” it becomes visible in their News Feed. This means that their own Facebook friends will most likely see your company name as long as they share the pages they are fans of. Furthermore, Facebook ranks high on major search engines. By incorporating the proper keywords and staying active on your account, not only will your Facebook business page move up in search engine results, but your company website and other social media accounts can potentially move up as well.

 

Did you know that we can fully manage your Facebook Business presence. Currently we manage well over 200 Business pages. We know what works and can help you get the most out of your social media presence.

Want to know more? check out a few of our plans at:

http://eziadvertising.com/packages-available/social-media/