5 Reasons You Should Use An Agency For Your Social Media
Social media is a powerful tool, particularly when it comes to marketing your business. Social media marketing provides new and excellent opportunities to increase brand recognition, boosts your search engine rankings, alleviates some marketing costs, enriches the customer experience, and personalizes your brand, among many other benefits.
The major challenge for quite a few companies is to develop an effective social media strategy and work to implement it. There is, however, the option of hiring a social media marketing agency. Why should you do something like this?
On The Pulse
One of the top reasons to hire the services of an agency for your social media needs is the fact that agencies house social media experts who always have their fingers on the pulse of new trends and other developments in the realm of social media. Social media platforms are always changing and adding new features. In order to remain competitive, companies must also change with the times. An agency consumes all news related to social media, from small shifts to major changes and new trends.
Expert Knowledge
One of the biggest results of always having their finger on the pulse is the expert social media knowledge an agency possesses. This allows us to curate ideal content from around the Internet, effectively schedule this content to the optimum times, maximize audience engagement, and twist any tool or trend from social media to work best for you. This knowledge stems from years of experience and ability to adapt at the flip of a coin. Social media is an agency’s wheelhouse.
Dedication And Focus
Running a business requires you to perform a wide variety of different tasks. These tasks include dealing with finances, processing transactions, developing new products and services, training new employees, and more. Adding in-house social media can be just another item on an ever expanding to do list. The only thing an agency would have to worry about in relation to your business is your social media. This allows an agency to focus and go deeper into social media strategy and dedicate specialized resources—something that may not be possible with in-house social media, what with all the other responsibilities floating around.
Weighing The Cost
Doing social media in-house comes with a number of different costs, including base salary, employee benefits, turnover costs, and training expenses. With a social media agency, the price is simply the negotiated contract cost, based on the level of work you want them to perform as well as your desired budget. There are no hidden or indirect costs associated with working with a social media marketing agency, as there is with handling your company’s social media presence in-house.
Customer Service
Not only will you receive excellent service from a social media agency, but you will also be able to provide your customers with excellent customer service. In today’s society, the vast majority of people look for a company through social media networks like Facebook and Twitter for their questions, comments, and complaints. By having a dedicated agency—consider all the reasons previously discussed—you can be assured that the service response time will be fast as well as of a high quality. An agency will do everything necessary to ensure each individual interacting with your company receives the best service and response possible.
To wrap it up, using an agency for your social media requirement brings experts who have their finger on the pulse, are dedicated and focused, enhance the potential of customer service, and bring expert knowledge and specialized resources to the table—all for an affordable cost. Bring your social media presence to the next level today.
Which Social Media Channel Is Best For Your Business?
Social media is a powerful marketing tool for businesses of all sizes and in all industries. It is an effective way to reach customers on a direct as well as personal level. While simply having a presence is good, developing a plan and really tailoring your social media presence to your company and industry brings its usefulness to another level entirely.
The following questions are a great starting point to help determine which social media channel will provide your business with the most benefits.
What Are Your Goals?
What do you want to get out of your social media presence? Your choice of a social media channel (or multiple channels) should work to support those goals in the most effective way possible. If you are looking to build brand awareness, choosing well-established social media channels is the best choice. They have the largest pool of users, which means you have a greater chance of adding to your audience. Lead generation, particularly in a company that largely operates as business-to-business, a platform like LinkedIn—made for facilitating discussion, making professional connections, et cetera—is ideal.
Who Is Your Target Audience?
Consider the people you want to reach with your social media presence. Who are your customers? Identifying who they are is essential, because you then have to determine which social media channel(s) they use the most. As a starting point, consider more women use Instagram than men and Snapchat is ideal if your target audience is Millennials. If you want to target business individuals, LinkedIn is a good first place to look. Twitter is also popular among users between 18 and 29, whereas the majority of LinkedIn users are over 30.
Where Is Your Competition?
Look at you competitors, both direct and indirect. Do they have a social media presence? What channels are they on? Identifying where your competitors are in terms of social media is a great building block to use when you are developing the strategy for your business. Examine what seems to be working well for them when you are deciding which platforms to choose. This often takes the form of which channels garner the most likes, shares, and comments. In addition, consider which social media channels your competition is not present on. Sometimes this may be because it would not be as beneficial as possible, but it may also present an opportunity for you to fill a gap in the market.
What Type Of Content Do You Want To Share?
In some cases, the type of content you want to share with your audience will dictate the social media channel that will be the best for your business. For instance, longer posts detailing company news and industry updates are best suited for a platform like LinkedIn. LinkedIn will also work for editorial content and helping a company develop an image as a thought leader. Instagram is perfect for highly visual content, including short videos. Twitter is great for high volume, short posts disseminated to a large audience. You can do professional posts through this platform as well as LinkedIn, though the information must fit within the 140-character limit.
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How to Generate Leads on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the preeminent social platform for business relationships and networking. It provides an opportunity to tap into niche markets and conversations that are happening in your industry. According to a study by Marketing Charts on The Channels and Content Types B2B Marketers That Are Generating Leads and Revenue, 89% of B2B marketers consider LinkedIn to be the biggest social media lead-generator (double that of Facebook and Twitter). If you are not using LinkedIn to generate leads and create relationships with potential clients, you are missing out on a massive opportunity.
LinkedIn is a place to get industry knowledge, ask specific questions and research target markets and influencers. The potential is thrilling, but how do you make sure your experience on LinkedIn is effective, and does not lead to endless scrolling? Here are a few key LinkedIn tips and tricks to generate the most qualified leads.
General Tips
- Put your contact information in your profile. Include both relevant personal information and company contact options including email, phone, website, and social media channels.
- Set your profile to be open. On LinkedIn, you are required to be connected with someone to send them a message, and vice-versa. However, if you change your profile settings to “open” then anyone can send you a message, and vice-versa. In addition, open profiles share more information with potential connections including your current and post positions. This leads to broader connecting opportunities.
- Change your profile to your name. When you create a LinkedIn profile, the URL associated is only a series of numbers. You can change this to your name, creating a much more professional appearance. When viewing your profile, hit the “Edit public profile” tab on the right-hand side, and you will be given the option to edit your URL.
Lead Generation Tips
- Request an introduction. If you have a mutual connection with a potential lead, request an introduction. This will create an immediate trust and level of respect with the new contact.
- Observe Profile Views. Keep up on who has viewed your profile and reach out to them.
- Import connections from your pre-existing contacts. In the Network tab, there is an option to reach out to current contacts by adding their email address.
- Stay informed via newsfeed updates. Constantly check the newsfeed to be up-to-date on network updates. Use the feed as a snap shot of what your connections are up to, what they are talking about, who the influencers are and what factors would most likely engage your potential leads. Engage with posts to allow your network to become familiar with you and create name recognition.
- Share and Tag industry related content. Share content and take advantage of tagging and linking to industry leaders and relevant parties to build a reputation as an industry thought-leader. Engage with content that your company shares to increase impressions and overall reach of your message.
Groups
One of the best features of LinkedIn for Lead generation is the Groups feature. Groups are a “place for professionals in the same industry or with similar interests to share content, find answers, post and view jobs, make business contacts, and establish themselves as industry experts.” Creating or joining groups in your industry is an excellent way to gain information on your target markets, establish yourself as an industry leader and grow a community of advocates.
- Brand Consistency. Make sure the logo of your group is consistent with your brand and other social pages. Keep your message and bio clear and concise so members know exactly what the group is about.
- Be Specific. Research your buyer personas, and make sure your group is specific to your target markets at every level of the buyer process.
- Consistently Engage. Increase the ranking of your group by constantly engaging with it – both by sharing original content such as whitepapers, blog and case studies, and by creating conversations with members. Provide insights, be transparent and connect with many networks.
Why Getting Verified on Twitter and Facebook Matters (and How to Do It)
That nifty little checkmark may seem like a status symbol reserved for the likes of celebrities and politicians, but did you know that your business can get verified too? There are lots of benefits to getting verified on Twitter and Facebook aside from the little ego boost.
Verification lets people visiting your page for the first time that know you’re serious about what you do and a legitimate contender in your industry. It gives your current customers confidence in your brand, and with Facebook, it helps your page rank higher in searches.
Something so great must be difficult and exclusive to obtain, right? On the contrary! Just follow a few easy steps and you’ll be on your way to verification.
For Facebook:
- Log in to your page and choose Settings
- In General, scroll until you reach Page Verification
- Select Edit
- Now you have the choice to Verify by Phone or Documentation
- For Verify by Phone:
- Enter your business phone number, your location, and your language preference
- Choose Call Me Now. Shortly, you’ll be contacted on the number you provided with a verification code
- Once you have the 4-digit code, enter it when prompted and Continue
- Enjoy your grey checkmark and congratulations on being verified!
- For Documentation:
- You’ll need either: Business utility or phone bill, business license, business tax file, certification of formation or articles of incorporation
- Upload your chosen document so that the name and address of your business is visible
- Once Facebook verifies your documents, you’ll receive either a notification or an email about your status within a few days
For Twitter:
- You’ll have to fill out a form while logged in to the account you’d like to have verified
- Twitter will request the following information on the form:
- A verified phone number
- A confirmed email address
Note: If the account is a company or organization account, the email address associated with the account should be a company or organization email address. - A bio
- A profile photo
- A header photo
- A birthday (for accounts that are not company, brand, or organization accounts)
- A website
- Tweets set as public in Tweet privacy settings
- There are some best practices to bear in mind when seeking Twitter verification. Make sure the name of the account/profile and/or header all reflect the name of your company, that the bio lets people know your company’s expertise or what services/product you offer, and that the account is active (Tweets, Re-Tweets, DMs)
- To help them decide whether to fulfill your request, Twitter will ask why they should verify the account. This is a good opportunity to let them know about your company’s core mission, relevance in the field and newsworthiness.
- Don’t fret if you get a Direct Message denying verification. Twitter will either ask for edits on your request form, or let you try again in 30 days.
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On-Page and Off-Page SEO: A Quick Guide
You have a website for your company, but is it performing as well as it should? Putting up content related to your business and creating an aesthetically pleasing look is essential in the beginning stages, but there are many factors beyond information and design that determine how a website will perform. You must incorporate both On-Page and Off-page Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to gain traffic and success for your website.
The importance of SEO lies in the impact it has on your website’s appearance to Google. Google is constantly crawling websites to algorithmically rank their relevance, authority and usefulness, providing a status that will determine where your website shows up in the search engine.
At first glance, SEO can be complicated and technical, but as long as you follow a procedural and intentional approach, a few simple changes can significantly boost your ranking.
On-page and off-page SEO work together to improve both the user experience and the Google impression. One is not more important than the other, and both must be optimized to ensure the success of your page.
What is On-Page SEO?
On-Page SEO refers to improving and optimizing everything that a user can see on the web-page. This includes providing relevant and engaging content, properly coding HTML tags and meta-tags, optimizing system functions like page-load time and URL names, and editing CSS layout and tags.
All of these features will impact the user experience on your website and will encourage readers to either stay and explore your site, or cause them to leave. Think of the user experience on your website as an indicator of customer service for your brand. If a user experiences slow page loading or finds your content boring they are likely to be unsatisfied with their experience.
On-Page SEO is essential for user experience, which in the end will impact your ranking. The more people enjoy your content and are impressed by your website, the more likely it will be shared and engaged with, therefore increasing the visibility and social clout of your brand and website.
What is Off-Page SEO?
Off-Page SEO deals in the “behind-the-scenes” of a website. It can be summarized in one word: links. The more that your website is linked to, the higher the authority of your domain will be. If you have a great deal of valuable links pointing to your site, search engines can assume that you are providing good content.
Getting other websites to link to your website increases traffic and signals to Google that the content you are offering on your website is useful and relevant, and therefore should have a higher ranking.
Off-Page SEO tells Google what others think of your site.
This concept is often referred to as “backlinks”, and the better your backlinks are rated, the better your website will rank. Without backlinks pointing to your website, it is almost impossible for Google to figure out the usefulness of your page. Natural links from authoritative and relevant websites act as votes of confidence that help search engines trust your website.
However, it is important to note: link quality is much more important than link quantity.
In the past, the number of links you had was extremely important but as Google algorithms have become more complex, they have shifted to value quality links higher. At this point, On-Page SEO becomes relevant. High quality, fresh, and relevant content and positive user-experience make you more shareable. With awesome content, lots of social media shares, and support from bloggers and influencers, you will build backlinks to your website.
Tips on improving SEO
Typically on-page SEO is taken care of first, then off-page follows. You don’t want to share a page that isn’t ready for users.
Here are some tips to make sure that your web page is ready for sharing.
- Organize your internal pages. Having a good flow and layout to the pages on your website ensures that the “SEO juice” will keep moving throughout your whole website. Make sure you create a homepage or landing page that has links to the other pages of your website through tools like drop-down menus. No internal page should stand alone, but rather be connected with seamless navigation.
- Keyword Target thematically. Do some research on Google Keyword Planner (hyperlink) to figure out the best keywords for your company to try to rank for. Avoid popular keywords that massive corporations are ranking for because you will never be able to compete.Don’t be afraid to brand your keywords for ultimate specificity. Pick a few that are thematically related and this will signify to Google what you do and are all about.
- Place Keywords throughout your website. Once you have your keywords, ensure they are present throughout your website, especially on the landing page. This will tell Google the most important and informative page of your site. Make sure your Keywords are in the title tag of your page. The closer the keywords are to the start of the title the better, as this has more weight with search engines.
- Don’t Overload Keywords. While it is tempting to put keywords everywhere, have restraint when making content for your webpage. Google penalizes websites who try to overload keywords; Remember, quality over quantity. Use tools like LSIgraphic.com for ideas on variations of keywords.
- For a list of 12 additional things you should do optimize on-page SEO click here. http://backlinko.com/on-page-seo.
So your website is ready to share, what now?
- Fix broken links: When links on a website are broken they lead to a 404 error page. This is unappealing to the user. These problems pop up over time as the result of hosting expiration, pages upset during file transfer, typos or URL changes. Check that all the links on your website are functioning, and replace or get rid of those that are broken. This will improve the speed and function of your website.
- Distribute Quality Content: Blogs, and other high-quality media like pictures, videos or infographics are great ways to engage users and are easy to share. Infographics tend to have a great deal of success online as they are visually appealing and can share a lot of information easily.
- Share content with bloggers and influencers. Get your content out to as many people as possible. The more eyes the better! If you can be shared on a website that has a pre-existing high authority domain, it will significantly increase your ranking.
The most important things to consider when it comes to SEO are user experience, user intent, and valuable content. Optimize for users and create content that will be relevant to them and you will be sure to increase your ranking.
Be consistent and methodical and you will grow in Google’s rank system.
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Should Your Brand Go Live on Facebook? YES!
Without a doubt, Facebook is the most widely used social media platform. People are on Facebook one in every six minutes online, and one in every five minutes on mobile. Users have access to an average of 1,500 posts per day. That is a massive audience.
There are many tips and tricks to maximize Facebook when running a business page, but one of the newest (and most exciting) features is Facebook LIVE. Right from your phone you can live stream video content for up to 90 minutes. Rich media like video is guaranteed to get more engagement from your audience, and the commenting and reaction features create an unprecedented amount of interaction.
But how is Facebook Live different than posting a normal video?
There are a few reasons why Facebook Live is a more powerful way for you to connect with your audience than a typical status update, photo or link.
First of all, Live is a unique content form so it gets peoples attention. It is a new form of content that is privy to experimentation and in-the-moment comedy. People are likely to spend up to three times more time watching a live video than a normal video. The rawness and lack of editing creates a new form that creates an air of authenticity and is just simply exiting to watch.
The Livestream is an opportunity to show a variety of sides of your company. Whether you do a behind the scenes stream, a demo, interview with an expert or a question and answer, customers can get a peak into the details of what you do. You can tell your story, your way!
Facebook Live provides an immediate and direct avenue to connect with your audience. In real time you can see and respond to comments and questions. Viewers can react to your stream, letting you know what kind of content they like or dislike. You are able to see how your viewers are enjoying your stream as they either like, dislike, love, hate, are wowed or humored by your stream!
Live creates a bond with your viewers that is much stronger than anything possible in a status or photo. You can respond to questions from commenters and shift your focus if needed as the stream unfolds. By hearing what is on the mind of your viewers and responding to that, you create a relationship that is informative for both sides. This immediate and direct interaction with your audience is rare and should be cherished.
Another great thing about Live, is that it gives your audience a chance to know your company on a more personal level. Seeing a face to the brand they interact with online humanizes the interaction and creates a personal connection. Viewers are able to get a better feeling of who you are!
Beyond the buzz around Live at a user level, Facebook itself also rewards pages for going live. Live videos are most likely to appear high in newsfeeds and unlike any other type of post on Facebook, Live sends a notification to all followers that the stream is starting. Followers of your page will be notified of the title of your Livestream and be called to watch it! This is a great way to engage more passive followers as there is a sense of urgency in the need to watch what is happening live.
Live is a great place to generate ideas for new content. When you get to talk to your followers you get a chance to hear their needs and desires, shaping your creative content moving forward. The more you know about your audience, the better you are able to create material that appeals and adds value to them, increasing engagement in return.
Finally, Livestream also lasts beyond when it is streaming. The video will be saved to your page and is a great form of quality content that can be re-shared and repurposed on blogs or other platforms.
Here are a few best practices to keep in mind to optimize your FB live stream.
- Announce your upcoming Livestream on your social networks so viewers can be prepared to watch. They will get a notification when it begins, but if they know the stream is coming they will be more likely to make time to watch.
- Go live when you have a strong internet connection. It is best to go live with Wi-Fi, but if not have at least a 4G connection. If the video is of poor quality, people are not likely to continue watching.
- Write a captivating description of your video. The title of the video is what will show up on the notification that people receive on Facebook when when you go live. The more interesting the title, the more likely people will come and check it out.
- Broadcast for a longer time. The longer the stream, the more likely you are to gather an audience and be discovered. We recommend streaming for a minimum of 10 minutes and a stream can last up to 90.
- Go live often to keep your audience engaged and excited to see your content. Be creative and try out different types of streams and see how your audience reacts.
- Thank your viewers for watching. They put their time into watching your stream, so thanking them make them feel seen and a part of the experience.
- Have a focus to your stream. Though the point of the live stream is to be in the moment, it is important be organized with what you want to talk about.
- If you can, have a few people involved in the stream. Comments and reactions come quickly and it can be overwhelming to the person talking. If you have someone monitoring questions and another filming it makes for a smoother stream.
The goal of a live stream is to provide value for your followers. It is as close as you can get to a real time conversation besides being in a room with them. Call out the viewers by name and truly engage with their reactions. Fans will keep up and new followers will discover you too as your post is boosted to the top of their feed. Facebook Live is a great feature that should be utilized by any company looking to create a faithful audience.
Six Reasons Why Content Marketing is Essential for Digital Growth
Content marketing is a strategic marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience—with the objective of driving profitable customer action by changing or enhancing consumer behavior.
Joe Pulizzi
It is almost 2017, and if you are not incorporating digital marketing strategies into your traditional customer acquisition and marketing plans, you are falling behind. But why is including digital content so important and how do you get started? Find out why this method keeps you ahead of your competitors online.
It is becoming difficult to find anyone who does not have some form of social media. To ignore this easily accessible market is to loose a great opportunity for direct contact and feedback from loyal customers and potential clients.
Plain and simple, content marketing just works. It increases sales, provides costs savings and develops quality customers who have brand loyalty. When you create relevant content that focuses on what an audience is interested you are rewarded with customer retention and loyalty.
Here are 6 reasons why content marketing is essential for digital growth:
Let Content Tell your Story
Content provides a convenient and creative means to tell the story of your brand. Whether you post a blog, video, photo, interview, or podcast, this content gives the customer a window into the details of your company, and the causes you care about! When a customer knows your story, they become warm to your business and are more likely to invest in your product or service. When people get to see the personal touches of your story they are more likely to be empathetic and compassionate to your brand.
Add Value at Every Step of the Sales Funnel
The purpose of content marketing is to add value beyond just your product or service. Creative digital content can target the needs and concerns, challenges and pain points that a customer would feel throughout every part of their purchasing process.
Consider this example. A company that makes baby bedding could make a post with ideas about what to put in their new child’s nursery. Though this post does pitch the product of the bedding company, it still addresses a great concern that a new mother might be having. When you post content that is about subjects that surround your brand, you can appeal to a broader group of people. Even though they may not have been looking to buy your product initially, when they are introduced, entertained or informed by your content they are more likely to consider your brand. Content like this can answer questions that people don’t even know how to articulate!
Content Creates Relationships with Consumers
One of the greatest features of digital content is that is provides an easy avenue for customer engagement. When you are posting valuable and relevant content that customers consistently engage with, you create a community of loyal followers. This relationship is beneficial for both parties. Customers return for material that appeals to their needs and desires and you are there to provide them with the critical information that informs their purchasing decisions. This warm audience feels loyal to your brand and will come back time and again for your relevant content!
Own Your Material
In traditional advertising and marketing, the campaigns you wanted to show to your audience had to be presented through a third- party media such as TV or radio. With digital marketing, you are able to own and control the space that presents your message. Without interrupting or having to buy an audience, you can bring customers straight to your website. You are the one who creates the content, and you are the one who benefits from the direct contact your audience with your website. Content marketing is about attracting an audience to an experience that you own, build and optimize. In content marketing the brand owns the media!
Leverage Social Media
It may seem obvious, but every digital marketing campaign must include social media. Social media provides a built in pre-existing audience, and provides a way for brands to keep directly in contact with their audience. You can use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Google+ to amplify your creative content and reach massive amounts of potential customers. The more engagement you have with your most, the more successful your pages will be, so providing your followers with quality relevant content will only improve your brand. Social media is an excellent distributor for content and is vital to the success of your content marketing efforts.
Increase Your SEO Ranking
Great content that appeals to your audience contributes to a better ranking within Google. As Google continues to update their algorithms, it has become more and more clear that quality content means high rankings. When users interact and engage with your material, you build more social clout which increases your position. Social clout, quality back links and quantity of shares are all considered by Google when determining a website ranking. By incorporating relevant content that appeals to your audience, you will increase your overall rank on Google.
People are bombarded with thousands of marketing messages a day. If you provide quality content, customers feel refreshed by the break to their saturated email inboxes, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds.
People know when they are being sold to and have a greater appreciation and affinity to good creative, entertaining or informative content. In the long run, content marketing creates more loyal and quality customers who appreciate your content as much as you appreciate their purchases.
Think of it this way. What if your customers look forward to receiving your marketing? What if they are eager to share the advice with friends and spend time absorbing the content?
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