10 Things You Most Likely Didn't Know About Social Media

If you consider yourself a know-it-all social media guru, you're in for a surprise. Following the rapid evolution of social media analytics tools, industry experts are able to extract lots of new and increasingly detailed information that helps marketers to create more effective social media strategies. There are dozens of research studies being conducted on the subject, some of which you might not even now existed. Here are ten interesting social media facts you probably didn’t know about.

1. That's right, Facebook is growing

Even though to some markets Facebook is slowly becoming an obsolete social media platform, the global scale shows something completely different. It's hard to imagine, but it's true – every second 5 new Facebook profiles are created. That's more than the number of global births!

2. Twitter has 6 different communication networks

A recent study conducted by the Pew Research Center jointly with the Social Media Research Foundation, analyzed thousands of Twitter conversations and spotted a pattern. There are as many as 6 completely different communication networks at work on Twitter. And we all thought tweeting was such a simple affair.

3. Users love videos more than ever

Even though marketers agree that original videos aren't exactly an important part of their social media strategy (have a look at this survey), facts speak for themselves. Every day, Facebook users watch more than 500 years worth of videos and an average visitor spends at least 15 minutes on YouTube.

4. Twitter is a real-time dictator

A research study by Lithium Technologies showed that the real-time nature of Twitter can result in some really high expectations from users – apparently, 53% of those who tweet a brand expect an answer within an hour. But that's not all. If they're angry and their tweet is a complaint, the number rises to a smashing 72%! Use tools to track your response time and make sure to respond as fast as possible to all tweets that make your way (especially the angry ones!).

5. Facebook is most alive on Fridays

In its recent Social Intelligence Report, Adobe analyzes over 225 billion Facebook posts and concludes that the best time to count on user engagement is Friday. That's when posts receive more comments, shares and likes – perhaps because Fridays are perfect days for slacking off at work! Something to consider when you're reviewing your own posting schedule.

6. Late evening is a perfect time to tweet

After analyzing over 1.7 million tweets, TrackMaven came up with a precise timing for maximizing our chances at getting retweeted. Apparently, the best time to tweet during the day is from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET, best done on Sunday. Late night is a moment when the share volume is lower and content simply has a greater chance at being shared. If you're looking for more engagement, consider posting during this hour.

7. Every day has its winner on Pinterest

Pinterest is one of the social media platforms that drives most web traffic, so it's only natural that the team seizes their immense amount of data and granted us some really valuable insights. Pinterest revealed on their company blog the top categories that get most engagement every day of the week. While fitness posts will score high on Monday, those with inspirational quotes are most popular on Wednesday (it figures – workers like to be comforted half-way through their working week).

8. Visuals have real power on Facebook

We all know the value of great images for our social media marketing, but this figure is simply mind-blowing. Social Bakers revealed that 87% of all interactions of a Facebook page happen on photo posts. In comparison, posts with links receive only 4% of all interactions. Choosing photos that fit your brand narrative or tell a story on their own should now become your priority.

9. Written content is key

The expected rise of content marketing means that more and more marketers will be on the lookout for high-quality content to raise their brand awareness across various social media platforms. Writers can feel secure – it seems that written content is what marketers appreciate most. An annual survey conducted by the Social Media Examiner revealed that 58% of marketers considered blog posts and expert articles as the most important kind of social content. That's really impressive, especially when considered next to the meek 19% of marketers who voted for visual content.

10. The 55-64 age bracket is growing on Twitter

And growing fast. In fact, this is the fastest growing demographic on Twitter! This surprising fact will bring joy to all those who market products for mature consumers.

Judging by the practical insights brought by data derived from all those research studies, one thing is clear – in order to stay on top of your game, you simply must have a firm grasp over social media analytics and statistics.

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How social media marketing has become an important tool for destination companies

The travel and tourism industry has uncovered the potential of social media in promoting destinations. Sharing of travel related content has become second nature for Indian consumers who are driving a high level of engagement through their travel stories. Cashing in on this wave are tourism boards that are using social media to disseminate their messages. South African Tourism believes that ‘travel is social’ and has been driving its marketing efforts through social platforms. In conversation with Rashi Bisaria, Hanneli Sabber, Country Manager, South African Tourism explains how consumer outreach initiatives have been amplified through the digital medium and how the number of Indian visitors to South Africa has steadily increased over the years. Edited excerpts:

What kind of presence does South African Tourism have on digital media? How did you amplify the latest campaign through social media?
 

When #TakeMeToSouthAfrica was first conceptualized in 2012, the main objective was to reach out to travel enthusiasts all over India thereby showcasing the variety of wonderful experiences on offer to Indian travel enthusiasts. We wanted to launch a direct consumer outreach initiative where we get them to experience the destination first-hand and to further augment the consumer outreach, we decided to get our Brand Ambassador and cricketing maverick Jonty Rhodes to don the role of a host to the winners on the 2 week trip to South Africa. Hailing from South Africa and being extremely passionate about travel we were sure to have had made the perfect choice.

Rightly so, the entries for the first edition and the current one of #TakeMeToSouthAfrica received phenomenal response from travel junkies across the country. This year in an attempt to further intensify our approach as per the tastes of Indian travelers, an extensive external research was carried out. The results indicated that gaming was one of the key influences of the customer’s preferences. On the basis of this understanding, South African Tourism introduced the latest edition #TakeMeToSouthAfrica through an online gaming contest where contenders had to cross multiple levels on adventure, wildlife, art & culture and history about South Africa. As expected, the contest was a huge hit across India with a very high level of engagement across platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and a specially designed microsite linked to the South African Tourism website.

With the understanding of ever rising influence of social media platforms on travel decisions of Indian travelers, South African Tourism is extremely active on various digital media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Our official website is also extremely user friendly and provides our consumers an insight into South Africa with a number of blog posts, tweets with popular hash tags, Instagram posts and much more.

In the social space there is a focus on building communities that will be most receptive to the content you have to share. Community building extends the reach of organic activity if the communication is good. The recent South African Tourism “Reconsider Ad” garnered more than 500,000 views on YouTube not only due to the sheer brilliance of the ad also due to the sustained efforts of the #MeetSouthAfrica community that invested in the initiative almost 18 months prior to the ad, by proactively sharing content in order to generate initial buzz around the ad . The ad along with the hashtag #MeetSouthAfrica has worked perfectly and generated large conversations with the majority of comments and shares.

What was the #TakeMeToSouthAfrica campaign all about?
#TakeMeToSouthAfrica commenced earlier this year and immediately caught on with the audiences. Participations started pouring in from across the country, the moment the contest went public. Over 800 numbers of entries were received and from the 24 shortlisted contestants who made it to Round two, 4 lucky winners have been chosen for a two week trip to South Africa with Jonty Rhodes. This year, we adopted a distinct and innovative strategy to inform the chosen winners about their victory. Billboards were set up outside the office of the four winners with a personalized message from Jonty Rhodes announcing that they have won a trip to South Africa with him. Amazed to see their billboards, contestants expressed excitement for this once-in-a-lifetime voyage to South Africa. These travel enthusiasts will embark on their journey to South Africa from December 1-15, 2014 for some amazing travel experiences with Jonty as their personal host.

Compared to last year what is the consumer sentiment like this year? Are people travelling more this year?
All our efforts with varied initiatives in the Indian market to reach out to our target audience and key stakeholders have always paid off extremely well and has helped strengthen the perception of South Africa as a tourist destination offering a varied set of experiences. 2013 recorded 1 12 672 Indian tourists visiting South Africa which was an increase of 5.5 per cent vis-à-vis 2012. 24 556 Indians have visited South Africa in the first three months of 2014.

Has digital gained prominence as compared to 2013 in the tourism industry?
The tourism industry has changed dramatically with the overwhelming emergence of social media platforms. While choosing a holiday destination, consumers today opt for research on the internet for reviews as the first step to understand the destination and its varied offerings. Hence, digital and social media marketing has gained immense importance in the overall marketing and communication strategy for destination companies and tourism boards. Social media is a massive tool to reach out to the global audience with your key messages and immerse prospective consumers in an engagement programme through contests, pictures, videos among others. Engagement is the key feature of social media marketing which has worked well for many destinations including ours.

We at South African Tourism believe that “Travel is Social”. This means that travelers worldwide love to talk about where they have been, where they are going and the things they are planning to do at the destination. This process is aspirational and it is absolutely crucial in today’s digital age to pay attention to what is being said. Digital media and technologies now affect every single stage of the visitor’s journey to a destination – from planning to stay to post trip conversations. The purpose of every Tourism Board should be to develop a holistic digital marketing strategy targeting the decision-making process of planning a trip, to providing useful visitor information to utilizing attractive social media tools for sharing their memorable experience upon their return home.

Read original article source : http://pitchonnet.com/blog/2014/10/30/social-media-marketing-important-tool-destination-companies/

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Killer Advice for Your Social Media Marketing Plan

All businesses need strategies to help find their targeted audiences online. This is often achieved through various marketing campaigns, such as SEO or article marketing. Social media is a new, yet effective tool for marketing. Through good business sense and some of the tips mentioned here, you can use social media to take your company to the next level.

With social media marketing, it is important to utilize creative and interesting titles. If you can do this, you have the potential to gain many more customers.

If you are a blogger, use the ‘retweet’ button for every blog post. This makes sharing your blog on Twitter easier how do you increase your twitter followers for others. You will get more exposure this way.

It’s important for you to truly engage in conversation with your social media followers. Companies often forget that when a customer offers feedback, they are also opening up a dialogue. Engage fully with the customers that contact you and build a mutually-rewarding dialogue with them. Take an interest in finding out their needs and wants, and use this information to develop your next promotion, or to think of innovative ways to improve your business.

You need to have a ‘like box’ on your blog that is linked to Facebook. This makes it easy for people to like you on the social website. When you have this box on your blog, it makes it easy for your visitors to show their appreciation without being distracted from your page. Making things easy will make it more likely for people to perform an action.

Have a plan of attack before tackling a marketing campaign involving social media. Make sure you understand how to manage your media pages and allot plenty of time for updates and networking. Like other marketing campaign, create a timeline to accomplish any goals. If you don’t stray from your plan, you have a very good chance of making money with social media marketing.

Make frequent updates to your content. Many followers in social media have an expectation of frequent updates, and if you don’t supply these, you can hurt your reputation online and lose followers. Aim for publishing updates more than a couple times a week.

Write new posts on Twitter as often as possible so that your updates do not get buried in your followers’ feeds. Twitter is about volume: you will still need to post quality content but you also need to post it often. With the short posts on Twitter, you can definitely get multiple tweets from a single event.

Connect social media profiles with your website. Make it easier for your existing customers to forward the content of your articles by including a share button. You should include these buttons on your main web pages, blog posts, and RSS feeds to make it easy for your visitors to share your content.

It might be difficult to get going, but once you start, momentum will gather, and you’ll be on a roll. Some companies have made a name for themselves using social media marketing. You may be able to do the same. With dedication and a willingness to try new things, your social media marketing strategy is almost guaranteed to succeed.

Read original article source: http://symbolo.net/outstanding-advice-for-your-social-media-marketing-plan/

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7 Sins of Social Media Marketing

1. Being all talk

The key to social media content is to show, not tell. Audiences prefer engaging with visual content over text anyday; did you know that tweets with image links get an engagement rate 200% higher than those with just 140 characters? Flooding your feeds with line after line of text could cause you to miss out on a huge opportunity to connect with your buyers. Instead, we should be emulating brands like Oreo, whose Twitter feed is addicting thanks to charming illustrations, clever videos and mouth-watering images.

Lucky for us, it’s easier than ever to share visual content, thanks to free design tools like Canva and seamless embed options on social platforms. For marketers, a picture really is worth a thousand words — act accordingly.

2. Putting on a one-man show

Trying to apply your advertising approach to social is a big mistake. In fact, one of the reasons social media is effective is because so many people tune out traditional media and mass messaging. On social, it’s even easier to mute brands that talk, but don't listen — with a quick click, consumers can unfollow or remove your content from their feed for good.

Instead of talking about yourself nonstop, make your audience the center of attention by highlighting their interests, like Monster Energy on Facebook, or sharing their content on Instagram like Sharpie. Your social following isn’t a captive audience, so take a break from broadcasting and start sharing content they'll actually want to click on.

3. Forgetting to think before you tweet

Staying relevant today isn't easy — trending topics go from viral to ancient history daily. So how can marketers keep up? Cue newsjacking. Instead of trying to generate buzz from scratch, brands piggyback on the popularity of top headlines to amplify their own content. We see clever newsjacks during the Super Bowl and the Oscars, but occasionally, the not-so-savvy attempts end up being headlines themselves.

Last year, AT&T earned serious social backlash for a failed 9/11 tribute, and, Gap crossed the line when it took to Twitter to promote discounts during Hurricane Sandy. It’s true that marketing today is time-sensitive, but you'd rather be late to the game than be perceived as offensive.

4. Thinking all social platforms are created equal

Your social strategy shouldn’t be one size fits all. For example, B2B audiences spend most of their time on LinkedIn, while B2C buyers can be found on Facebook, according to Social Media Examiner. Find the channels that best align with your audience's interests, then experiment with the type, cadence and style of content you think will resonate most. Measure what works and what doesn’t and optimize accordingly. Instead of publishing the same content to every channel, the best social media teams create tailored approaches based on the medium and the message.

Need inspiration? Check out GE’s Vine, JetBlue’s Instagram, L.L Bean’s Pinterest or Cap’n Crunch on Twitter. Each has a pitch-perfect approach for the company and the channel.

5. Putting your customers on mute

It used to be that if a customer had a complaint about your product or service, they could tell their friends, family or a 1-800 number. Today, consumers can share negative reviews with their entire network — and the searchable social web — through a simple click. Not surprisingly, 72% of customers who complain about a brand on social expect a response within an hour. But in some cases, they are lucky to get noticed at all. This Facebook post from McDonald’s sparked tons of nasty comments slandering the company's food and service, but last I checked, the Golden Arches hadn’t chimed in to put out the fire. Whether you have a handful of followers or 31 million Facebook fans like McDonald’s, you can’t afford to ignore your audience, period.

6. Forgetting to be a human

In an age where buyers are constantly bombarded with deals, promos and ‘lowest price’ taglines, your brand’s personality is crucial to stand out from the pack. Corporate jargon and automated replies will send your audience running in the other direction, while brands that aren’t afraid to let loose will be welcomed with open arms. This Twitter conversation between Pizza Hut and one of its followers is a great example of a brand having fun with its personality.

Ultimately, building a community of brand advocates today isn't about what you're selling, it’s about what you're saying. Luckily, the casual nature of social media makes it easier than ever for us to talk to our audience like humans.

7. Assuming your social strategy works

In the Mad Men era, measuring the true impact of your marketing efforts was nearly impossible. Luckily, marketers today have more data than ever to truly understand how our efforts impact the company’s bottom line. Still, of the 88% of brands using social media platforms for marketing, only about 37% are taking the time to measure the ROI of their efforts. It’s easy to tally likes and retweets to get an idea of how engaged your audience is on social, but those numbers don’t tell the whole story. There are myriad metrics to consider to help put a dollar value on your Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn efforts. Having a data-driven handle on your marketing’s impact is something even Don Draper would be envious of.

Read original article source: http://mashable.com/2014/08/28/social-marketing-sins/

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Social Media Marketing: Marketing campaign Methods For Success

There are plenty of men and women which can be becoming more and more thinking about studying approaches to encourage their selves today. One of many most up-to-date and the majority of valuable methods that can help you then become profitable by using a organization or merchandise or even a graphic is through social media marketing, consider this post and find out the best way to become successful with social networking right now.

Use social networking to showcase your company! Offer you incentives to the people who reveal your webpage with other people. Accomplishing this can lead to 100s and even many people simply being new samsung galaxy note 2 unlocked directed invites for your webpage. This can be done via discount coupons, free of charge samples or whatever else you might think of. It is going to create your client happy to spread out the term relating to your enterprise for you!

Social media is a wonderful way to enhance the customer-friendliness of your storefront. Provide an self-sufficient site that consumers can access, but additionally provide a much more customer-pleasant retail store on internet sites like Twitter and facebook. There are some customers who frequent Facebook or myspace. Providing these end users a fairly easy option to buy your items, while not having to depart Facebook or twitter, can work to your benefit. This allows them buy your items even if they don't genuinely wish to depart Fb and view your primary internet site.

Make an effort to check and try new and various social media techniques and options. There are actually huge amounts of numerous suggestions to improving your social websites appearance and increasing your marketing online. If you get stuck in a basic approach, you might be missing out on a brand new approach that could significantly help your organization.

Make sure all your posts and content use a Facebook or myspace option on the top. This switch makes it simple to your visitors to share your posts on Facebook or myspace. A lot of people will not likely desire to discuss your content on Facebook or myspace in case they have to undergo copying and pasting a link.

Try placing your Flickr accounts to where it gets automated tweets. With this in mind, go with a few high quality writers and use the Youtube API to automatically tweet back links to the new blogposts they are. They are going to adore the totally free coverage, as well as your consumers will take pleasure in that you will be aiming these to high quality content.

Receive the competitive edge in social media marketing by making use of it to listen to your potential customers. Most companies are poor at the, so if you genuinely tune in to your potential customers and work to make transform consequently, you will end up very highly regarded by those who issue most. Give your consumers to make ideas and try to understand their problems to enhance your company.

You could add applications like SlideShare to LinkedIn. Try distinct programs and see those may be important to you. SlideShare allows you to produce photo albums with in depth explanations for each pictures. You could add pictures of your own products or have your clients send you photos of on their own utilizing the things they purchased from you.

As you now have learned what you should because of achieve success with social media marketing you ought to have a much better comprehension of what you ought to do. The tips in this post can help you greatly, only should you use all of that you figured out consistently and also to the best of what you can do.

Image Credit : professionalacademy.com

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Natural Social Media Marketing + 50 Content Ideas!

I have had many a client mention to me that social media marketing is harder than they thought and they are getting very little results. They’ll post and post but get little likes or retweets or favorites or comments, making it tough to justify all the work!

I completely understand. Marketing can be pretty tough, not to mention time consuming and when there is little return it’s hard to keep pushing on.

We update our Facebook page with our latest blog post including a well drafted description of the post and “Come check it out at [insert link here].” We give a short snippet of the post on Twitter with a few different hashtags and the link. We pin to Pinterest like nobodies business. Yet we’re still not getting the results we need.

But aren’t you already posting on Facebook regularly about work and family? And aren’t you Tweeting about your favorite TV shows? And aren’t you pinning recipes you want to try out?

You already know how to use social media regularly and naturally, now you just need to apply those same principles to your blog or business! Social media marketing doesn’t have to be so hard- just quit stressing about it and have fun!

Speak to your fans like you would your friends!
 
There’s no need to edit your posts five times or include millions of hashtags or keep it short and on point. Speak naturally! Use the exclamation points and filler words and stupid puns. Speaking like a friend encourages trust. You come off as more approachable so fans are more likely to join in the conversation as they feel you’ll genuinely care about their comments.

Avoid selling!
 
Yes, sometimes it’s a bit necessary to promote your business or advertise a sale. But that doesn’t mean you need to sound like a car salesman trying to dig into their pockets. Use that natural friendly voice and tell everyone how excited you are about this discount and that you love discounts and that you found a great discount on a great pair of shoes this weekend but back to the discount- it’s awesome so you should buy now if you were thinking of buying! See?

Just be natural and approachable. If it sounds like it would be on an infomercial don’t say it (unless you’re being funny). “Hurry in while this offer lasts!” “But wait! There’s more!” Don’t do it. The minute you start selling, you start alienating your fans.

Post regularly!
 
Don’t just show up in your fans’ news feeds when you want them to buy something. Always remind them you’re around and ready to help them! Be the friend that is always there, not just there when they need something from you. I always encourage posting AT LEAST once a day, but the more the merrier (considering Facebook won’t even show all your posts to your fans anyways). Have a good variety of topics and types of posts to change things up and keep people interested.

Engage!
 
Don’t just post your recent blog post and call it good. Ask a question so your readers are prompted to respond! And when they respond, engage! Talk back and keep the conversation going! Point out similarities between comments so you can introduce your readers to each other. Answer their questions. Help them with their problems. Laugh about how you do the same weird things. Your readers are doing you a huge favor by participating, so be gracious and interact with them.

Share everything!
 
Your Facebook page is not just a place where you post blog posts and advertise giveaways and announce sales. It’s where you create community! And no community starts with “Enter the giveaway to win $20!” It starts with sharing fun stories and finding things you have in common and asking questions and listening to answers. Use your social media platforms to let your community get to know you and your business at a deeper level so they can truly connect with you!

Need some ideas to keep your content calendar chock full of engaging and interesting topics that you’ll enjoy posting?

Here’s 50 ideas for content you can share on your social media platforms or blog!

1. Past work
2. A favorite blog of yours
3. The food that powers your work day
4. The story of how you got started
5. Someone that inspires your work
6. How you manage your family and your work
7. Shows you watch while you work
8. Products that go with your brand
9. Links to thought provoking articles
10. Your goals and dreams
11. Client testimonials
12. Behind the scenes of projects you’re working on
13. Your favorite cafes to work at
14. A book you’re reading
15. How your childhood has effected your work life
16. What your family thinks of your job
17. Art you have displayed in your workspace
18. Passion projects you’re working on
19. A favorite quote
20. What you wear while you work
21. A picture of you and a client at a meeting
22. How you stay organized
23. Your favorite office supplies
24. How you celebrated a launch
25. Work from high school or college days
26. What job you wanted as a kid
27. Your very first (and likely embarrassing) blog post
28. Old logos/headers
29. The greatest thing about your week
30. The funniest comment you ever got
31. The playlist you listen to while you work
32. How messy your house was during launch week
33. The wallpaper on your computer/phone
34. A typical day in the life
35. How you get energized
36. Your favorite pin of the week
37. Someone you love following on Pinterest/Twitter/Instagram
38. Newsletters that brighten your inbox
39. Happy National [Fill in the blank] Day
40. A teacher you loved and lesson they taught you
41. Things your grandparents say about your blog
42. Ways you get over a long day
43. Your drink of choice while you work
44. Your favorite websites
45. Your favorite tools for your business
46. A random helpful website you discovered
47. How you get inspiration
48. How you felt about your first mean comment
49. Great small businesses you’ve worked with
50. The most popular post of the month

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Inbound marketing: how social media can be your startup’s strongest and cheapest lead generation machine

In recent years, inbound marketing has proven to the more popular choice over the traditional outbound marketing strategy, which usually consists of buying ad space on media and waiting for queries to come in. A 2013 study by inbound marketing experts Hubspot shows that 58 percent of marketers have embraced inbound marketing, and more importantly, 34 percent of leads are generated through inbound marketing; only 22 percent of leads are produced through outbound marketing.

This does not even consider the extra cost required for outbound marketing. The study shows that inbound marketing saves marketers about 12 percent the cost per lead and about five percent the cost per customer:

And ultimately, does inbound marketing actually generate considerable enough return-on-investment (ROI) to warrant a change in marketing strategy (if your startup hasn’t already embraced inbound marketing?)

Here’s your answer:

 

Nearly half the marketers testified that inbound marketing generated actual results, notwithstanding the 34 percent of marketers who could not or did not calculate their ROI.

So where does social media come in?

Now that we’ve established the importance of the inbound marketing strategy, let’s discuss why social media is such a powerful inbound marketing tool. Here are three reasons why your startup should use social media to pull in leads:

The ability to create specific content

Every audience has its own needs and wants, and your startup will need to be properly positioned so you can answer their queries or address their issues. And the best way for you to do that flexibly and with immediacy is social media. Traditional marketing platforms are largely one-sided in communication and not nearly adaptable to suit your audience. For example, social media can be used to create content that propagates your brand values, while also providing the latest news on your industry. There are so many ways for you to give value to your audience through social media, and with the instantaneousness that other marketing platforms cannot provide. Your content can be adjusted, skewed, and targeted to directly appeal to your audience. And when your audience sees the value in your highly specific content, that is where qualified leads come in.

Automated nurturing of leads

Many a time, high quality leads do not just appear in front of you. You have to create them. You will have to nurture them individually, making sure any leads with even just a hint of potential will be properly cultivated and convinced of your product’s or service’s benefit. Social media allows just that. You can now support your potential leads by answering their queries on your social media platforms in real-time, increasing their level of confidence in your startup and cementing them as a high-potential lead. Furthermore, most of your leads will probably not be convinced enough to immediately buy from you. You will have to be present throughout their thought processes, which is a perfect time for your social media platforms, because they can…

Help your leads along their buying process

 At different stages of the buying cycle, your potential customers will have growing, changing concerns. And it is very crucial that your startup remains on top of their mental recall by answering them, assuring them, and finally persuading them that your product or service is the best thing for them. What better way for you, as a startup, to utilize social media for that? It all boils back down to the immediacy of social media. Your responses to potential leads on social media can be specifically tailored to make each and every one of them feel like their worries about your product or service are being put to rest. When you’ve guided them through the mental buying process, you’ll not only be seen as a reliable source of information and help, but also close the lead as a customer. If there’s anything you can take away from this article, let it be this: using social media is a highly effective and cheap solution to your inbound marketing strategy. Social media may not be the only tool you can use to create strong inbound marketing for your product or service, but it is certainly the most cost-effective. It’s really a no-brainer if you want to market your startup on a lean budget.

Original written by by Marcus Ho

Marcus Ho is a social media strategist to best-in-class businesses in Asia. Marcus has helped over 200 corporations ranging from MNCs to fast-emerging startups to increase sales through social and digital campaigns. He is also the author of Social Payoff.

Original article read more: http://www.techinasia.com/inbound-marketing-on-social-media-is-strongest-cheapest-lead-generation-machine-for-startups/

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Social media marketing is dead

In today’s millennial-inspired economy, social media marketing is dead. I didn’t say social media is dead — just the idea that social media marketing is the most effective approach to win over millennials.

Yes, millennials are heavy social media users and are 2.5 times more likely to adopt new digital, social and mobile tools. What drives social media activation for millennials, however, is content excellence.

Marketers are often pegged with questions related to the future of social media such as: Is Facebook still relevant? What’s the next social platform? Which is most powerful — a like, a share, a re-tweet, or a favorite?

While these are all fair questions, attempting to grade the social landscape in this manner is counterproductive and missing the greater point.

Your approach to content is what will make or break your marketing communication efforts in the future. Social media is simply one way to activate your content strategy.

Re-imagine creative excellence within a content excellence framework

For more than 40 years, the great brands of yesterday were focused on creative excellence. They crafted the perfect message and then pushed those messages out via various shotgun methodologies, hoping to build brand awareness and regard for their cherished products.

Brand awareness and credibility alone will not correlate in any way to extraordinary and sustainable financial performance.

Think of content as an opportunity for your brand voice to live everywhere you are not. We used to think of advertising as a means of communicating a message to a certain audience. But traditional advertising messages are limited to their medium. People experience brands in fluid ways and we can no longer simply rely on creative advertising to make an impact. Content is about the message and the context.

Your content strategy should be about activating and engaging your digital community in ways that traditional advertising never could.

Focus on creating content that is “share-worthy”

Millennials share content that interests them, not content that companies want them to share.

The idea of content being “share-worthy” is nothing new. Marketers used to encourage sharing by word-of-mouth. Today we talk about sharing by word-of-mouse. The “share” is no anomaly — we’ve just shifted from a mindset of advertising ideas to creating ideas that are worth advertising. Treating content in that manner ensures your message is meaningful to your audience.

Remember the Seinfeld “Break Up” episode? George says, “It’s not you — it’s me.” Sharing is rooted in peer affirmation and how millennials feel about themselves when they share content with friends, family and random strangers. The great brands of tomorrow will not simply push out social media messages — they will inspire sharing. Millennials share content that adds to their story, and bypass content that doesn’t.

Unique content will drive sustained brand success

In the future, the most successful brands will get consumers who are active participants to create more content on behalf of the brand than the brand creates for its own benefit. The key to this content is maintaining a certain level of uniqueness and meaningfulness.

The most unique and meaningful brands will have the highest probability of sustained economic performance. Uniqueness will be a proxy for brand-pricing authority and meaningfulness will be a proxy for sales volume potential.

5 implications for brand strategy professionals:

1. Build a content excellence strategy first.
2. Think about content and social media as different players. Integration will drive performance. Social media marketing isn’t a strategy.
3. Inspiration is your brand responsibility.
4. Useful is the new cool. Your content should be functional and inspiring.
5. Participation increases brand value. Find ways for your most avid brand fans to join the movement.

For read original Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/how-to/marketing/2014/07/social-media-marketing-is-dead.html

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Useful Tips For Social Media Marketing

You cannot have a business now without a social media site. The best sites lay claim to millions of users, with new ones joining daily. In this article, you’ll find some in-depth advice that will help you utilize the full power of social media.

Make a plan before you go forth in social media marketing. Figure out who will manage the pages, what type of layout you want, and how much time you would like to invest into it. Like other marketing campaign, create a timeline to accomplish any goals. Although you may deviate from your original strategy, it is always best to have a plan.

Frequently update your social networking site. Staying updated will keep your content fresh, so people think that they are reading something new and exciting. Make an effort to provide updates several times per week.

 TIP! Create a blog and try and keep the content you add relevant. Post all sales or promotions to the blog as they occur.

Social Media

A social media storefront that is easy to use is one way you can effectively use social media marketing. Additionally to your website, you can make a Fecebook store that will be accessible from any posts you make. There are some users who frequent Facebook. Giving these users an easy option to purchase your items, without having to leave Facebook, can work to your benefit. In this, you can get sales from customers that would rather stay on Facebook than leave it for your dedicated eCommerce website.

Reach out for help from professionals when it comes to establishing your social media presence. This market is large and many designers and consultants can create a website and social media strategy that works for you. They can be expensive though, so you may have to spend a considerable amount of money if you choose this path.

 TIP! If you are going to use Twitter as a business tool, then you need to stay closely connected to your audience. Give people who retweet your content a thumbs-up, and quickly respond to questions people ask.

Gain exposure by promoting your business through games on Facebook. Design a unique game that is related to your company’s products and services. Some cleverly constructed marketing games on Facebook have gone viral. It’s worth the cost to pay a professional design team to create the app, and market it on social media!

Make use of Twitter related tools, like Twellow. When you use these tools, you can hone in on a target audience. Twitter, like Facebook, takes care of its advertisers, so you can find a lot of help by simply using the tools the site provides. You can then build a list of individuals you need to be following, in hopes that they soon start following you as well.

When marketing with social media, it is important for you to make sure your ads will be in a spot on the page where they will be seen often. Unless your ad is placed in a prime location, it may be absolutely worthless.

TIP! Interact with your followers on social media as often as you can! When it is appropriate and relevant, leave comments on a customer’s blog or Facebook page. Do not interfere in a personal discussion; you should contact someone only if they are talking about an issue related to your products or industry.

Be patient when you are networking on a social media site. People need to trust you before they will buy from you. Take it slow and focus on one customer at a time. You will soon see many customers.

Social Media

Prior to posting any content that represents your business on a social media marketing site, be sure to carefully review it all. Given that social media can be viral in nature, unfortunate information can travel fast. You will get a lot of publicity this way, but it might not be good press.

TIP! Before you begin social media marketing, research the different options for advertising available on the social networking sites. Don’t waste your time.

If you gain an additional follower on Twitter, make sure that you reciprocate this action. Many of your followers expect this. It shows respect and lets you connect with customers better. As a courtesy, follow your followers and even welcome them with a tweet. If you do this, you will create a stronger relationship with others.

Proofread any content you’re going to post onto your Facebook profile or tweet on Twitter. It is important to make your page look professional. It is okay to use certain abbreviations on Twitter, but use them with care. You want your content to be clear and concise.

Useful Information

TIP! After creating an account with Yahoo!, browse Yahoo! Answers. This online community provides users with a forum to ask questions on any topic that can be answered by other users.

If your social media marketing takes you to any public forums, it’s essential that you stay in good standing with other forum users. You do not want to be pushy and use hard sell tactics when you are posting. Instead, provide your potential customers with honest and useful information. Good relationships will encourage people to find out more about your business, so always try to post useful information.

Write headlines that are catchy. The headline will be the first part of the post that people see. In some cases, it can be the only part that is visible until the user actually clicks on the article. Your headline should arouse the reader’s curiosity so that people will feel compelled to click on your post and find out what you have to say. Whether or not your headlines are compelling can easily dictate whether your content will generate traffic, or simply get looked over.

Anybody can succeed with social media marketing. Whether you’ve just become a business owner or you’re new to your site, social media is a great tool to have. Now, you are aware on how to effectively use social media. By implementing this advice, you should see results very soon.

 TIP! Be patient. Putting together a perfect social media marketing plan involves effort.

For original source: http://goo.gl/bGTxZN

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