More Reasons for Brands to Use Instagram to Boost Influence and Drive Sales

Instagram is a unique medium for brand advertising unlike any other platform in the social space. The visually driven community allows users to communicate in the universal language of photos and videos,social media marketing manager opening the world to the possibility of more "humanized'' content.Instagram’s growth and reach speaks to its massive appeal to the millennial audience. Instagram provides huge advertising opportunities to drive brand awareness and purchase intent to those brands that understand users want content made for users by other users who understand them best.The three components that are most important for brands to successfully campaign on Instagram are humanizing the content, utilizing influencers and harnessing the power of analytics.Working on your personal brand doesn’t mean you have to talk about yourself 24/7. Taking an interest in and heeding the comments of others will endear them to you and you’ll probably learn a few things that will help your professional development as well. Simply having empathy with peers who are facing professional problems will have a positive effect on your brand. Plus it just feels good to help people who are in a bind.Make a conscious effort to spend time in asking your peers about their work roles, what drives them, where they’ve had the most success and how they behave in adverse situations. No one knows everything, so allocating your time to fill gaps in knowledge can help your company and your personal brand.You may already have a Facebook profile for connecting with your friends, but it’s also a great tool for connecting with customers.marketing with social media What makes Facebook valuable to small-business owners is that the people who visit can post comments, which can be a source of excellent word-of-mouth advertising. A Facebook profile also allows you to get your brand out to a wide audience base in a short time. Once you start to accumulate a list of satisfied customers, you can use Twitter to keep them posted on your latest service specials and other beauty information.

Humanizing branded content

The key to success in today’s social space is insight into the audience base. Users today want content that speaks to their real interests in a genuine manner. Driving this concept is prioritization of the user experience. social media marketing software Always have the individual in mind. Anticipate and focus on what they want to see from a brand.With this approach, brands can implement diversely creative content that speaks to the user’s individuality and the brand’s understanding of the audience. That allows the audience to personalize the entity connecting with them through social media. The brand is no longer just another robotic, corporate voice.As you may know, Twitter is a micro-blogging tool that allows you to send brief (up to 140 characters) messages, or “tweets,” to anyone who follows you—which in your case, would be any client who agrees to let you tweet him or her. For this reason, you should start compiling a list of Twitter usernames that can be used for marketing. But don’t tweet too often, or the messages will lose their punch, kind of like crying “wolf” too often. Instead, if you see something interesting to bring to the attention of your clients (“Did you see Jessica’s hair on “Idol” last night? Now rocking Jessica’s ’do at Starlight Salon!) or if you want to inform loyal customers about specials or the latest beauty tips, you can send a tweet.This is a business-oriented social networking website, and as a small-business owner, you need to be here. LinkedIn has 227 million members in 200 countries and territories, most of whom won’t be dropping in for a haircut or a massage. how to use social media for marketing However, the site is useful for establishing new contacts, reconnecting with former acquaintances and even finding new business. In a way, it’s like an electronic chamber of commerce but without the monthly meetings.This site is designed for cyber collecting: Users “pin” things they love from various online locations to their site. In essence, they build a visual diary they can share with other people.

Amplification through targeted Influencers

The usual advertising tactics are essential whether a brand is looking to grow awareness or reposition themselves but audiences today demand personal interaction with brands. They want to speak to another person who understands them and speaks like them. social media marketing courses The best way to reach users with these needs is to generate content by like-minded individuals who understand the space. Instagram influencer marketing is a massive opportunity for brands to target specific demographics in a non-intrusive, yet effective, manner. These influencers know what drives engagement and interest in their audiences by understanding them as no brand could.The human factor has become essential to a successful social campaign. That personal voice behind a brand is what the audience wants to hear. Both brand science and artful advertising must converge to build the brand's connection to audiences an influencer has developed, studied and tended to for years.In fact, like Twitter, “pinners” can follow boards that have pins they like. This opens the door to exciting marketing possibilities for small-business owners like you. Sign up with Pinterest, add a “Pin it button” to your website, and pinners can add information from your site—say, a rock-and-roll haircut or information about a great new stylist—to their board. It’s great, no-cost visibility.Follow the world’s creators” is Tumblr’s motto, and the site lives up to its hype, hosting more than 180 blogs and more than 80 billion posts since its 2007 debut. Participants share whatever moves them -- text, photos, quotes, links, and more -- then follow others who share their interests. On a recent day in cyberspace, social media marketing b2b Tumblr enthusiasts posted nearly 94 million messages.This photo-sharing app has morphed from a social platform for friends and family to a serious contender for business recognition. Companies are using Instagram to build brand loyalty by showcasing their product lines, services and locations; posting photos of company activities, and much more.

Social Media Has Become Indispensable for CEOs

The current stampede to embrace social media as a valuable business tool has kicked up a big cloud of dust and created new layers of confusion for chief executives and other leaders. social media marketing tips Most CEOs sense that social media marks an important breakthrough for business communications, but they aren’t sure how to fully utilize the technology to gain a competitive advantage. This is because leaders often have trouble distinguishing between “actionable social” information and what I like to call plain old “social noise.” There is a substantial difference between the two.Think of actionable social as useful information that can be acted upon to improve business results. Social noise, on the other hand, involves a vast overload of data that drowns out the underlying message or meaning.Nearly three-fourths of senior executives in the U.S. believe that C-Suite leaders who use social media to communicate their core mission and brand values are more trustworthy than those who don’t adopt social media. This surprising finding comes from the 2014 Global Social CEO Survey by Brandfog, a social media consulting firm for CEOs. The Brandfog survey also shows that 82 percent of senior leaders think executive use of social media raises brand awareness and helps establish industry leadership.Social media offers a useful way to capture community knowledge and enhance group creativity. Yet many of the enterprise social media tools out there today allow everybody involved to interact with everybody else. This creates a dynamic in which the die-hard followers carry on and on to hear the sound of their own voices, causing many others to zone out and disengage from the process altogether. social media marketing tools This is the unfortunate situation at too many businesses today.To succeed as a next-generation social CEO, business leaders need to engage more with their internal teams, partners and customers. But this requires leaders to contain, control and curate such social media conversations, rather than hosting unwanted social free-for-alls. This is the challenge most CEOs face regarding social, whether they realize it or not.

Create Photo Galleries with an Instagram Hashtag

With a larger character limit than twitter and an equal propensity for hashtags, Intstagram offers many of the same tracking opportunities. And as a visually-driven medium, compiling photos into a gallery is a no-brainer. marketing social media Last year, JetBlue partnered with Instagram analytics service Totems to run the JetBlueSoFly campaign. Using Totems analytics, the team identified the best photos to be shown on a special section of the JetBlue website. The campaign was a resounding success for JetBlue, and also made for a nice case study for Totems.After surveying more than 120 social-media marketers, my client Offerpop found that Facebook still reigns supreme among ad dollar allocations, with 92 percent of marketers planning to spend the majority of their holiday social media marketing budget on Facebook, despite the platform’s plummeting organic reach. (Offerpop clients and participants in its educational seminars were surveyed.) Sixty-seven percent of marketers polled said that they will increase their spending on social media this holiday season with the direct goal of increasing sales.Oceanside, Calif.-based headphone company JLab Audio is also preparing to sell products online with the help of Facebook ads in a crowded marketplace (with competitors like Beats and Skullcandy). While the company leverages brand partnerships on social networks such as Instagram and Twitter, Facebook will be getting the lion's share of JLab Audio's holiday social-media budget, said marketing manager Jordanne Muldner. JLab plans to double this year's Facebook ad budget (over with 2013's level) and increase its social-media advertising budget for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. benefits of social media marketing The Gallup numbers show that 35 percent of Americans say that social media has some influence on their purchasing decisions. While 35 percent is obviously a minority, think about how many Americans say that advertising in general affects their purchasing decisions. If that number is also in the 35 percent range, social media and traditional advertising will be shown to affect the purchasing decisions of the same percentage of people.

Reward your followers

There is no lack for tools analyzing twitter content, but there are far less that provide data about followers. SocialRank fills this gap by providing intelligence about an account’s most valuable, most engaged, and overall best followers. using social media for marketing SocialRank data gives brands the opportunity to interact with followers that mean the most, and to create content surrounding the interaction. Muhammad Ali used SocialRank to give free t-shirts to fans. His tweet announcing the promotion was retweeted 100+ times and also resulted in press coverage from Business Insider.hardly an indictment of social media's clout.While not an apples-to-apples comparison, many marketers have reported less-than-satisfactory results from radio advertising, for example. Does that mean radio ads are totally ineffective? No. Perception can differ from reality.It's safe to assume that the majority of the people polled had no specific intent to allow social media to influence their purchasing decisions. Most people generally do not particularly desire to be the target of marketing. There are exceptions to all rules, however, and there are certain individuals who do actively seek out brand pages on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. By neglecting social media, brands are not providing content to audiences actively seeking it. Considering the extent to which brands go to gain clients' and consumers' attention, it is very unfortunate when legitimately interested parties are unable to find brand information they are actually looking for. social media marketing strategies A more basic issue with Gallup's poll is the issue of the validity of the question posed. The Gallup poll demonstrated that most Americans say that social media don't influence their purchasing decisions, but it doesn't mean that they are completely immune to it. Exposure to a brand may affect purchasing decisions subliminally, so the influence of social media may be more significant than we realize.

Content-Marketing Hacks Using Social-Media Data

Social-media marketing and content marketing are two of the best ways for advertisers to get a message across. But they can be even better together, especially when marketing content leans heavily on social media data. social media marketing jobs In the current media landscape, marketing decisions must be based and validated by data. But this data can be used for more than just informing future decision making. Utilizing social media marketing data in your content marketing efforts can provide a fresh and creative twist to online advertising.Social media gives leaders the power to greatly increase this level of engagement by really listening to the voices of stakeholders, then taking tangible actions based on those suggestions. Crowdsourcing also provides a constructive way to glean deep insights from the collective knowledge of an entire group, not just from an insulated leadership team.These important benefits make up the intrinsic value of being a social CEO, while raising serious doubts about any laggards who continue to shun social media. Which type of leader would you rather work for, or put another way, which type of leader would you like to become?Live-tweet and apply a consistent personality, so that people will want to hear the highlights from you specifically. Your personality allows people with similar traits to connect with you. Embrace that. By providing a consistent live-stream of content, people will look to you as a leader who can translate all the ins and outs of the event.When you connect with your audience on an individual basis, you can make each message more personal to instill a deeper, longer lasting connection.Twitter polls are not only a social media and marketing great way to engage with your followers and get immediate feedback, but they also represent an opportunity to create great content. When SAP conducted a twitter poll about self-driving cars using their social media analytics solution, they were able to cover the results in a Forbes article (which also serves as an example of native advertising for those keeping track).

Promote Yourself With a Data-Driven Blog Post

Buffer, the social media sharing startup, is well known for its exceptionally active blog. A recent blog post in conjunction with CoSchedule analyzed the impact that various social media headline tactics and had on traffic. social media marketing agency By diving into the data and creating a piece of useful and shareable content, Buffer and CoSchedule were able to both demonstrate product effectiveness and create publicity.It’s only a matter of time before your audience’s phones or devices run out of battery. To keep them engaging back with you in real-time, make it easy for them to charge their devices. That is a helpful show of gratitude for their participation.On the flip side, not providing something as simple as a charging station will leave your audience hanging. At that point, the possibility for engagement is over and feelings can shift. It’s a simple tip, but it gets your audience back to the social conversation faster and keeps them excited and focused on participation.Don’t forget that your hashtag can live outside the digital world! Besides sharing on social networks and your event website, you should be printing it on your banners, including it in the registration process, placing it on stickers in strategic places (even the mirrors in the bathroom work!), and much more.Twitter poll results can also easily lend themselves to simple charts and graphs, which can be crafted into microcontent for use all over the web.Instagram provides a simplistic user experience but provides vast amounts of data regarding users and content generated. When used correctly, this date gives brands the opportunity to leverage key metrics in support of their campaigns. social media marketing company By implementing Instagram’s data in analytical tools, the brand’s position is elevated, not only supporting their campaign direction but driving metrics around brand awareness, purchase intent, sentiment and so forth. These are all essential factors when proving ROI, an extremely difficult task in the social space, especially Instagram.

Take Advantage of Automated Visual Content

Want to create an infographic based around social media data but short on time? Visually’s create tools offer a variety of ways to plug in social media accounts and get a slick-looking infographic in seconds.social media marketing plan template Twitterize Yourself creates an infographic based on the content of your tweets, and Twitter Showdown pits two accounts against each other across a variety of metrics.According to the Brandfog survey, 83 percent of senior leaders think CEOs who actively participate in social media can build better connections with their customers, employees and investors.Verbal reminders also help to keep the flow of conversation. Hosts and panelists should remind your audience members before each session. There are tons of offline ways to remind your audience and encourage less socially-savvy members to join for the first time. Don’t leave out the people who may have missed the digital memo.Using social media to stand out at events is the same as socializing in person. To be truly in the moment, you need to make it less about you, and more about the common experience. When you can connect in a meaningful and fun way, people will respond. Real and powerful engagement is that simple.In a fast-paced world where social media is the driver for audience and consumer movement, Instagram continues to provide newfound opportunities. The three core elements of driving Instagram success for brands are humanizing the content, utilizing influencers and gaining powerful analytics. As brands grow in their understanding for these three invaluable elements, so will their social value and long-term growth.With a predicted growth of 8 percent as compared with last year, social media marketing world according to Prosper Spending Score, the 2014 U.S. holiday shopping season has begun. Many companies bank on the success of sales from November and December to wrap up their fiscal years on a profitable note, with Prosper estimating this year will be a $650 billion holiday retail season. Although Facebook and Twitter recently announced built-in commerce options, they’re being tested only by a handful of companies.

Reasons Why Social-Media Marketing Is Overrated

You’ve seen it, right? You log onto Facebook to see what your friends are up to and the sponsored posts promising to teach you how your business can make seven-figures through social media marketing.social media marketing blog You see the ads and you wonder if social-media marketing is the missing piece of the puzzle to help your business grow?First, I believe that social media can be a great way to get new leads for your business. You can’t deny the opportunity when you see the billions of users on the various social media platforms.However, social media marketing isn’t what it used to be. The landscape is vastly changing. As tempting as those sponsored posts are, there are some things you need to be aware of before investing your time and money in social media marketing, especially as the main marketing effort for your business.Social media marketing can help your business but don’t buy into the belief that it’s the most important part of your marketing efforts. Here are five reasons why social media marketing has become overrated.Branding starts with being active on social media. But Jayson DeMers writes that flooding your social networks with poor content can do more harm than good for your business (and personal brand).You can’t expect to really be social and not be present on social-media channels. These channels offer a great tool and medium to promote your own content as well as curate excellent content that your potential users may want to read. Build a following by sharing relevant content regularly.In this Google Hangout, DeMers offers tips on how to write grade-A content and deliver valuable resources to your target audience, even if you aren't a natural-born Jack Kerouac. Also, once you get the hang of publishing high-quality content, how exactly do you maximize its reach? social media marketing experts He discusses steps that you can take with any written content to get more value from it over time.There’s a huge community (with many potential customers too) out there waiting to give feedback and help spread the word about your app. All you need to do is to reach out to them through platforms such as Beta List, Product Hunt and Hacker News.

The organic reach is pretty close to zero

Look at the two largest social media platforms, Facebook and Twitter. According to the Moz Blog, the average life span of a tweet is 18 minutes. Jeff Bullas, a leading social media expert, social media marketing articles estimates the organic reach of Facebook is around 2.71 percent, or less.More and more, we’re seeing social media move to a “pay to reach” model. Many social media companies are now public. Getting your business to pay to reach your audience is how they generate profits for their shareholders.Many apps have gotten tremendous feedback and followers this way, and those followers acted as brand ambassadors that influenced other users to download the app.Potentially the best way to get traction for your app is through word of mouth. Not only does it create a viral effect, but people trust others to tell them about great discoveries. See my previous article on how to use word of mouth to influence users to download your app.Use these strategies to help you build credibility and influence your potential customer’s behavior even before they get to your download page. Any strong social strategy is predicated on two things: consistency and a deep understanding of its audience's psychology. Even Buzzfeed's popular GIF lists and cat collections manages to hit more than 7 million global unique visits per day thanks to 3.4 million Facebook fans and 1.17 million Twitter followers.A social-media savvy business takes a good hard look at its performance stats, demographic information and referral traffic every day. When the numbers for yesterday’s posts come in, the team looks at what went well and why. They adjust their strategy based on hard numbers, with special attention paid to long-term trends, social media marketing dallas so as not to get too hasty with adjustments.Businesses recognize social-media marketing isn't just about posting questions and images, but giving its audience information they want from products to sales to an inside scoop on industry trends. Company X meets with the content-marketing team daily to make sure that all ducks are in a row. Both teams discuss promotional priorities, opportunities and schedules.

Anyone can buy social media followers

Most of us have probably gotten the tweets that promise thousands of Twitter followers for only $30. It’s the same thing with Facebook and most of the other social media platforms. You can buy followers to inflate your numbers. learn social media marketing There is a video that went viral from Veritasium questioning the value of a Facebook like. The video makes a strong argument that paying Facebook to get more likes on your page is not worth the investment. The problem with buying followers is that you’re not marketing to real people.The content team conveys the creative or contextual significance of content, and the social team makes sure that everything is presented in a way that captures readers’ attention.Just like clockwork, Company X's marketing team has a carefully curated list of scheduled posts packed with useful information, ready to publish to all relevant platforms. Like always, these posts have great visuals, formatting and content and hit the social-sphere just in time for their readers’ lunch breaks.Social media works because it enables rapid conversation about anything and everything. An article or two that strikes a chord with viewers are not just hits, but opportunities to engage your audience and start a real dialogue.Company X knows what to look for in site-traffic statistics and keeps the momentum going with timely posts and promotions. Also, the team knows social media works best when it’s topical, so they spend some time monitoring what people are talking about on other sites and capitalize on the buzz.There are endless formulas involved in leveraging social media. A Google search for “how to write great Facebook posts” yields results so dense that USA Today is pushed to page 3. importance of social media marketing Needless to say, people feel that this stuff is pretty well figured out. But this team knows better. They know better than to look for a list of keywords. They rely on audience knowledge and creativity to grab attention instead of cheap tricks.The team sits down for a brainstorming meeting to discuss promotional ideas for the coming week.

Ways to Influence Users to Download Your Mobile App

There is a difference between "promoting to" and "influencing" users to download your mobile app a massive one.Promoting to users doesn’t put your app on the path for massive downloads. social media marketing campaigns There’s just too much noise in the market with too many apps vying for the same user’s attention.Now imagine, you put your advertisement out there what are the chances that you’d be able to get the user to notice and even download your app? You're leave it for the user to choose. Instead, think about this: What if you can influence the user to buy your app or product instead?You need to influence people even before they get to your landing page. Potential users should be convinced of the value you’re offering and your microsite, app-store page, etc., should essentially seal the deal!Let’s take a look at some of the ways that you can influence your user to buy and download your app.Not just any blog. There’s a blog fatigue with the number of people jumping onto the content-marketing bandwagon. You’ve got to write something that is attention grabbing and worthy of sharing. Make the topic current and give actionable pointers. I see many blogs that fail because they have no real meat to chew on. People notice good writing and also the people behind the blog or article. Be sure to include links to your landing page in the bio and see the clicks coming through. Readers value insights and opinions and these add to your product’s credibility.In the first year of its existence, Buffer added 100,000 users through staffers writing blog posts and contributing to other blogs and publications.According to The Verge,social media marketing service the post, which was written in Chinese, translated to "Microsoft’s latest OS Windows 9 is coming soon, do you think the start menu at the left bottom will make a come back?" This was something of a rhetorical question, since the company had already confirmed the return of the start menu, according to PC World. The post has since been deleted, but CNBeta noticed it and was the first to report the story.

Contribute to other blogs/publications

While you continue to write for your own blog, it can take time to build a reader base. Complement writing for your own blog with writing for sites from the industry that you’re app is catering to. social media marketing conference Look for the industry leaders (blogs and publications) in that category and approach them with an article pitch. These blogs or publications already enjoy huge traffic and immense credibility. Writing for them will add to your own credibility.This is another medium to build thought leadership and get attention. There are many examples of valuable insights shared by app entrepreneurs through a presentation hosted on SlideShare.Put your experience of your journey as an entrepreneur and talk about something spectacular within the category of your app or simply rework your blogs or articles as presentations.There's nothing like a third-party endorsement for your app. What's better then a publication of repute writing about it? Identify a journalist that has done similar category or product stories and write to them with a concise pitch, explaining why it merits a story. If PR doesn’t work well in your home country, try your secondary English-speaking markets.Whatever you do, make sure you keep your reader amazed and at times amused. So much so that they look for what you do and how it could help them.Besides confirming the as-yet-unmentioned operating system, the post was accompanied by a mock-up of a Windows 9 logo, which ExtremeTech.com was not happy with.Prior to the leak, Microsoft had been referring to the product as the codenamed “Windows Threshold.” A technical preview of the software was slated to be released at the end of this month, following a press conference, effective social media marketing and the final edition of the OS is reportedly slated to be released in April 2015, as CNET reports.A Microsoft spokesperson said the company had “nothing to share” about the events.Besides the start menu returning -- though not to its full, former glory -- Windows 9 (if we can officially call it that) is supposedly going to have features such as the ability to run Metro apps and Cortana voice assistant integration.

Actively participate on Quora

Build your credibility in your app’s category by responding to queries posted on Quora. Oliver Emberton’s response to one query got him a book deal and several film offers. The possibilities are endless if you focus on providing your users with value and not force-selling your app, social media as a marketing tool which is Microsoft’s response to Apple’s Siri. Also noteable is what the new system will not include, mainly the Charms bar.Now that the secret is out, people are talking. Many hope that this new version of Windows will be a sharp departure from Windows 8, which was intended more for tablets than desktops and was not well-received by the tech community.First and foremost, our hypothetical business (let's call them Company X) knows social media has become like a second arm, an arm that posts updates before we've barely gotten out of bed. But they know it's not just a way for individuals to share cat photos, it’s a chance to interface with customers, raise brand awareness and help solve their problems before they become bigger ones.A good social-media presence never sleeps and neither does your social following. Someone is always tracking what you're doing and ready for the next update. A successful social strategy is all about knowing your audience and preparing for their schedule. Every network goes through peak periods and doldrums based on the activity of users, and a successful strategy knows how to work around that.But Company X takes it a step further and intimately understands the fluctuations of its own user base. With a target demographic of entrepreneurs in their mid-to-late 20s,social media marketing pricing Company X knows that 19 percent and 71 percent of its target audience is using Twitter and Facebook respectively.With 79 percent of individuals ages 18 to 44 keeping their phones by their bedside, the team puts content on these platforms and in their hands when they first wake up. They also look to reinforce their efforts by planting blog posts, building their newsletter list and otherwise being everywhere their client is looking.

Creating a unique world within a social network

Survey data collected by GlobalWebIndex in in late 2013 demonstrates Tumblr’s impact on users between the ages of 16 and 24, a demographic that BusinessInsider has pointed out is difficult for brands to reach. marketing on social media Flooded by fashion companies, artists and indie musicians, Tumblr is a breeding ground for youth-oriented content.A common sentiment among social gurus is that those who want to make social-media networking succeed have to put in the time. Grand Ole Opry took every social network into account for its digital marketing strategy, a bold choice considering the time and content commitments companies take on with each new network engaged with.Rather than simply paste a Tumblr logo on its web page, Grand Ole Opry created a persona for the microblog labeled thecircle. It’s packed full of video performances and interviews, making visitors feel apart of a special backstage club with exclusive access to current stars and country icons.Your blog is a conduit for disseminating effective marketing content, Halligan says. Your culture, personality, modus operandi and idiosyncrasies are resources.Pay attention to what makes your workplace different and use it. Those quirky board meetings may be just what potential leads need to take the plunge.There is, however, a caveat to that point. Clark is quick to point out that while people appreciate a personal touch, almost no one wants to really see the nitty gritty that makes your company run.Personal quarrels, bad days and inside jokes that alienate your audience aren’t charming quirks -- they’re an uncomfortable look behind the scenes. Keep the private stuff private, social media marketing campaign for the sake of your audience.What many businesses don’t understand about inbound marketing is that it is a conversation, not a promotional stunt.Blogs, videos and social media chats are designed to engage customers around a central topic, according to Halligan.So the next time you consider cutting corners to get to lunch sooner, remember, the details matter, even if no one notices them.

Treating content as a reward

Signed posters are a great social contest prize. For Grand Ole Opry, using them as leverage garnered a ton of user-generated content and engagement between social media users and the organization. social media marketing degree But limiting fan rewards to such prizes places budget and creativity limitations, and while it’s still effective, it’s traditional, the opposite of Grand Ole Opry’s new marketing tactics. After all, there are only so many times that fans will post a photo to score a poster. Grand Ole Opry took an interesting approach to this dilemma via Twitter. Specific tweets from @opry requested 1,000 retweets by a certain time in order to unlock videos from stars such as Lucy Hale and Carrie Underwood. Fans responded in droves, requesting that their followers also participate to reach the goal. Rather than offering a typical prize, Grand Ole Opry engaged its fans and rewarded them with in-house content in exchange for engagement. Requesting shares, likes and retweets from fans is fine, but to do so and offer them something in return is full-circle marketing at its best.If these same individuals wanted traditional advertising, they wouldn’t be turning to content in droves.Your team works with highly specialized information every day. Whether you’re business-to-consumer tastemakers or business-to-business specialists, you are likely to be far more familiar with the jargon and nuances of your industry than your audience.What matters, however, is your audience. Your information is valuable, but only insofar as it enriches the lives of your loyal readers. Halligan suggests that, “it is better to ‘dumb things down’ then go over your audience’s heads.Let’s be honest here: attending to the details of your inbound-marketing strategy can become very tedious, social media marketing los angeles very quickly. Optimizing headlines, re-optimizing target keywords and micromanaging your social media schedule can tire even the hardiest marketer in a hurry.According to Clark, it doesn’t matter. The details matter. Even if your audience isn’t consciously affected by their presence, they are on a level that greatly affects your content’s performance and impact.

Not leaving behind faithful fans

Grand Ole Opry hasn’t forgot the loyal fans who helped the organization weather 90 years and all the changes in the country music industry. social media marketing strategy template Its Facebook page shares video performances from Dolly Parton and Wynonna Judd and takes the time to honor classic artists and mediums.An effective social-marketing campaign targets multiple audiences and engages on several levels while collecting additional data, user-generated content and increasing organizations' reach to new fans. This might seem straightforward for contemporary companies, but entities with a long history could find it hard to creatively deliver brand messaging and content to ever-changing social media users.Grand Ole Opry could have easily bitten the dust or just kept things simple and catered to a stereotypical demographic. Instead it has leaped into the digital future with tactics that other companies can learn from for their own efforts. The last word in our lineup is an important reminder for inbound marketers everywhere. Yes, the details matter and yes, inbound marketing takes time and effort, but it is only a piece of your holistic marketing strategy.Like any body of work, every piece must perform at its full capacity for the whole to benefit, but remember that blog posts and podcasts serve your business as a whole and the rest will fall into place.Clark, Pulizzi and Halligan are three individuals who “get” inbound marketing, and their insight can help you. From the mouths of the experts, use these nine tips and get your inbound marketing engine operating more efficiently, effectively, and reliably.Your young business can't afford to waste time marketing poorly, social media marketing resume so don't waste time looking for answers in the wrong places.In the modern age of constant connection and promotion, it’s hard to keep a secret. Microsoft had been doing a decent job of keeping its new operating system under wraps until this morning, when its Chinese division posted a question to users on the Chinese social networking site Webio.

How Facebook Is About to Get More Like YouTube

YouTube’s not the only big name in the viral video game. Facebook says it's crushing it in video sharing, too, to the tune of more than 1 billion video views per day on average.And, to further up its cascading video engagement cred, social media marketing firm the social media mammoth today announced that it's rolling out a set of new YouTube-like features this week -- view counts for videos from public figures and Pages, and related video suggestions that will appear after videos are watched.For the average user, the addition of public video view totals might not sound like anything to write home about, but it’s welcome news for metrics-happy, ROI-obsessed brands and marketers. The tallies will enable them to quickly size up how well a video is performing, along with what’s hot and what’s not content-wise. The fresh features are also geared to help Facebook users more easily discover emerging and popular video content.In teasing the new duo of basic but useful YouTube copycat features -- expected to debut after today -- Facebook crowed that its video views have grown more than 50 percent from May through July, pumped up in part due to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge soaking everyone’s news feeds, according to TechCrunch. Facebook also said that more than 65 percent of its video views pour in via mobile, a platform the social powerhouse is increasingly more focused on.Facebook also announced today that it will allow video publishers to add a “call-to-action” tool that will invite viewers to visit a specific website or to “learn more or make a purchase” after a video is done playing. social media marketing firms Page creators will also be privy to a more robust set of metrics designed to help them better reach their target audiences, including analytics on how long viewers watch videos before clicking away from them and how many unique views each video earns.Sure, Facebook’s averaging some 1 billion-plus videos view per day isn’t bad. The boom represents some relatively strong growth overall, but it’s not exactly astounding when compared to YouTube.

Information is not enough to make your content work

Frequently, an inbound-marketing strategy depends on building a perception of authority around your business. For this reason, providing meaningful factoids and insider tips can seem like the way to go.According to Clark, social media marketing books this couldn’t be further from the truth. Information is just the tip of the iceberg. The rest involves optimizing, promoting, engaging, monitoring and iterating to optimize that information into a vehicle for your business.It may sound like hyperbole to say that information must be “irreplaceable,” but when one considers that the top result on Google receives 33 percent of clicks, one thing is clear: your content has to be a definitive resource.In Pulizzi’s eyes, shooting for irreplaceability is the best way to assert your content as a go-to now and for the foreseeable future.You’re running a business, and your business depends on funneling impressions into leads, and then into conversions. While your well-crafted piece of prose may spur a few head nods, it is only truly great if it is sufficiently inspiring as to motivate email signups, purchases or product demos that ultimately help your business convert.According to the Aberdeen Group, only 32 percent of marketers said they feel that they are effectively executing enough content. That means that over two-thirds of all marketers are missing the mark on basic content execution. If your content marketing isn't working, this is probably a good place to start.Check your past two or more months of posts and note the day of the week and time of publication. Also, read these pieces and answer honestly: Is each one of consistent quality? If you're publishing at an inconsistent rate, social media in marketing audiences may be turned off by that unreliability. If the quality is inconsistent, you may be losing audience members to subpar content.Digital media is about carefully curating work that yields organic traffic as users return to it. At least, that's half the story. The other half involves creating relevant, topical hits that foster link building/discussion and raise SEO rankings in the process.

Seek and tap your sources of inspiration

Halligan takes naps during the day. Why? Because that’s when he comes up with his best ideas.At first blush, this may sound more like CEO quirkiness than strategy, but it touches on something very important. small business social media marketing Put yourself wherever inspiration arises. Becoming the best in your industry through fantastic content means pulling out all the stops, and if that means naps, trips to the library or standing on your head, then so be it.As new technologies, trends and practices emerge, people want to learn about them right away. Keep an eye out for emerging issues in your industry and capitalize on them. Doing so can garner more hits in the near term by tapping an uptick in organic search. It can also establish your content as an authoritative reference on the subject and earn inbound links that boost search rankings for future discovery.Suffice to say that if you're late to the party, you're going to get lost in the shuffle. Note the timing on content relative to the initial buzz of the related topic and see if you're being reactive instead of proactive.When things are going well, it's easy to identify your strengths. When things are going poorly, it can be difficult and even painful to assess your weaknesses, particularly when those weaknesses cause you to fall behind your competitors.However, your competitors can teach you more than you realize. Inbound marketing is a complex endeavor, working best when each contributing piece is performed in an optimal manner. Each team sees the process in a different way, executing some pieces better than others and offering insight into improving your own execution. When your numbers are down, check your ego at the door and learn something from those social media marketing plan sample who are objectively performing well.When your efforts aren't yielding the results you need, asking targeted questions that get to the root of your execution problems can turn things around and improve your long-term prospects. Focus on consistently delivering relevant content in a manner that reaches your audience and don't be afraid to tap your competitors for some valuable knowledge.