Tips for Getting Your Event Audience Buzzing on Social Media

Everybody wants the same things when using social media at events: a larger audience, and the right connections to potential partners. But one key detail that most people overlook is that it’s not just about how many connections you’ve made at an event, social media marketing strategy but how strong and genuine is the connection you’ve made with the right person.Real-time engagement is the Trojan horse of social media that allows you to cleverly embed your brand and message into what people are already talking about in order to create the ultimate viral package. The essential element here is that both you and the audience are sharing the same conversation. The common experience introduces to your content or brand to the audience in a way that didn’t start with a sales pitch.When people aren't being sold to they let their guards down and become more receptive to your message. That’s just the nature of conversation in general. To make the right impact with your event audience, provide a method for people to have those conversations. The best way to create those avenues is by adding an element of fun.For social to work in the C-suite, CEOs can use crowdsourcing software or new “actionable social” tools to solicit feedback from large groups. For example, department heads or sales managers can submit their own ideas and vote on the best ones to pursue for their group initiatives. This democratic format generates greater buy-in from constituents, which in turn leads to highly motivated individuals and better aligned teams.CEOs also need to manage which audiences participate in each initiative, doing away with the social free-for-all. social media marketing plan For instance, some crowdsourcing projects might invite internal employees to participate, while others would query only external partners or suppliers, depending on the project focus.Another important aspect of this process involves structuring crowd-sourced discussions around certain specific topics, and blocking out other subjects to be avoided by the group.

Show it to grow it

Hashtags are used to organize conversations on social media, especially on Twitter and Instagram. Today, it’s just a given that the good events will have an event hashtag. But the best, social media marketing companies most successful events use visual displays that stream the live social media content surrounding the event hashtag.Using this method allows you to give your audience a ‘highlight reel’ of the best-quality content from peers and provides visual reminders that everybody can, and should, join the conversation. Have a moderator go through the content so that you’re approving quality posts from the audience members that others are most likely to listen to and follow suit.Remember, the more observable you make content, the easier it is for your audience to imitate it.Businesses can also encourage customers to share their own experiences through Vine. If a picture advertisement is worth a 1,000 words, then Vine videos are much more valuable that traditional advertising. Reaching potential customers in six seconds is a challenge but forming that connection and catching their attention with the right video may be worth six hours’ worth of effort.A recent study by The 7th Chamber found that five Tweets a second contain a Vine link. Studies are showing that a branded Vine is four times more likely to be seen than a branded video. Businesses can capitalize on the popularity of this mobile app by sending out a Vine video featuring one of its products’ uses, a customer modeling apparel, a patron eating at your restaurant or drinking at your bar. This allows their friends to see them interacting with your business in a positive way, social media marketing services thereby increasing the chances that they will do so themselves.Leaders can also curate their social discussions by making some comments anonymous in order to solicit open criticisms, while requiring users to be clearly identified and accountable when voting on shared priorities.All of this so important to CEOs. Leaders need to get out of their boardrooms and escape their rigid hierarchies to engage with actual constituents.

Bring out the toys

Third-party platforms allow you to take the conversation to another level. Share social analytics periodically with your audience so they see how much impact their contributions are making. social media marketing university People will drive more posts around your event hashtag when they know they’re an integral part of an important conversation.Gamification can be your best friend. Track who is posting and highlight your event’s top influencers. You can create a visual leader board to give kudos to your social contributors while introducing some friendly competition. Give your audience the love and the credit they deserve. They’ll give it right back to you with continued positive exposure.Social media is becoming increasingly visual. This is evident by the rise of newer photo-sharing platforms, particularly Snapchat and Vine.Small businesses can leverage these platforms more intimately than Facebook and Twitter to establish a direct connection to send their customers special offers and deals directly. A restaurant could send a photo or video of their weekly special through Snapchat, capitalizing on the visual medium to encourage customers to come in and try it.It’s been more work than I ever expected but I’ve loved every minute of the campaign," Kart says. "It forces me to do all my marketing up front before the product is even done and I’ve received invaluable feedback on the prototype.It seems like her work might be paying off. what is social media marketing Kickstarter nominated that Adi campaign as a staff pick soon after the campaign's launch and Kart's campaign is 37 percent funded.Pricey Facebook advertising is simply not feasible for a number of SMB owners these days, but less expensive and effective opportunities are out there. SMBs that are adaptable and open to trying newer technologies and social media channels can stand up and fight bigger competitors on a daily basis without going bankrupt in the process.

Affordable Marketing Alternatives for Businesses That No Longer Like Facebook

Many small to mid-sized business (SMB) owners who once considered Facebook advertising a relatively inexpensive and indispensable “place to be” in social media now ‘dislike’ Facebook advertising because of the rising cost. how to start a social media marketing business Larger businesses with unlimited resources can justify being active on Facebook but SMBs are at a distinct disadvantage due to lack of funding, qualified staff and expertise. Social media advertising, including Facebook, is out of the question for SMB owners who can’t afford to spend hundreds of dollars a month on these programs.SMB owners who can’t afford Facebook advertising but need to spread the word about their brand and increase leads have options. In addition to the obvious tools like SEO, blogging and LinkedIn, here are three cost-effective digital initiatives to help SMB owners. LIKEtoKNOW.IT for Instagram is an example of a social-commerce platform that offers a “workaround” when a monetization option isn’t immediately available.Since users can’t click and buy directly from the Instagram platform, LIKEtoKNOW.IT is integrates Instagram with traditional email marketing. Companies sign up for LIKEtoKNOW and when their users “like” a photo, they receive an email with direct links for buying the products pictured on Instagram. This is not one-stop shopping but it's still quick and easy and relies on what marketers and consumers are already comfortable with. Email marketing has been tried, and LIKEtoKNOW.IT combines what’s new with what works. Those running a campaign should succinctly explain what crowdfunding is and why it was chosen as the path to capital. That type of explanation can make a difference in generating support.Most campaigns run only 30 or 45 days. how to social media marketingKart learned that using analytics is key to getting the best return on marketing efforts. By using Bitly and analytics from Facebook, Kickstarter and Google to track where pledges are coming from, project creators can know what’s working and what’s not and shift their efforts toward what's driving the most traffic. Members of Kart's team check their analytics daily to see if they need to switch gears.

Don’t forget about email marketing

For every $1 spent, $44.25 is the average return on an email marketing investment, according to Experian research cited last year. Email marketing is not only a powerful revenue vehicle but it's also a strong tool that social media marketing 2014 should be incorporated into social commerce and vice versa. Social platforms are a prime way to build an email marketing list.If your company receives customers via Instagram, Twitter or another social media channel, they sign up with their email addresses, helping you round out your lists and segment customers better. When a business entices users to share their content, in exchange for providing customers with special offers or deals, that’s called “incentive sharing.” For instance, let’s say a company publishes an Infographic and stipulates that the tenth person to share it with his or her followers will receive a free gift card. By asking each person to share the product or service with X number of friends in exchange for a special offer, it creates a self-sustaining chain of referrals for a small business.A great example of recent incentive sharing is the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, which to date has helped raised $100 million. This viral/social media campaign was arguably the most successful form of incentive sharing to date. SMBs can use the ice bucket challenge as a paradigm for an incentive sharing campaign. In theory, it’s no different from Candy Crush, where you receive extra points when your friends sign up and start playing.By motivating users to share content, it almost becomes a game or competition that is fun and relatively painless. The biggest winner though, is usually the business or cause being promoted. best social media marketing Facebook promotion has worked for the team but it’s hard to catch people’s attention on that platform amid all the activity. For this reason, members of the Adi team constantly strive to create engaging content and post a daily joke video. They found that as long as a post connects with viewers through humor or elicits an emotional response, it gets noticed and shared.

Slow and steady wins the social race

Social commerce is a cool and exciting emerging area, but it's not quite there yet, so take things slow. Coca-Cola and Starbucks can test the social commerce waters in the early stages because marketing by social media they can afford the millions of dollars to make mistakes (and waste money through a low return on investment).Coca-Cola hasn’t given up on social media and has taken a unique approach: The company recently launched its "Tweet-a-Coke" campaign, allowing friends to buy and send Cokes to one another at Regal movie theaters. Just remember, unless your company is a Fortune 500 company with money to burn, test what works and take things slow. Hosting demonstrations to promote your products and services is excellent way to educate your customers or potential customers about your business. The customer learns something while the small business is established as a thought leader and local expert in their field.Local businesses such as restaurants, hardware and liquor stores can especially excel when it comes to demonstrations. For example, a hardware store can hold a workshop teaching customers how to build certain things and which tools are best for the job. A restaurant can offer cooking classes and test tastings for potential new menu items. Liquor stores can host wine and beer tastings.With millennials embracing DIY projects, and consuming more wine and craft beer than ever before, these are great places to start. Demonstrations teach customers and promote the products your business is selling while encouraging consumers to visit your location.Event invites and pictures from the demo can be shared through social media accounts. social media marketing After viewing a friend’s picture, some of his/her social media followers might reach out to say “That wine tasting looked awesome – where did you do that?” When that happens, it is only be a matter of time before more people start attending these events and profits start rising.So far Instagram is not directly monetizing customers’ posts but it is pursuing social commerce.

With the Arrival of Twitter's 'Buy' Button, Is It Time to Move Into Social Commerce

Following pressure on social platforms to demonstrate their validity as powerful sales channels, Twitter recently started testing its "Buy" button. The button, which is embedded in tweets, lets users make purchases directly on Twitter and through its mobile app. social media marketing chicago Rather than users being redirected to a retail site, Twitter’s “Buy” button provides the ultimate one-stop social-media shop.Twitter now joins other companies like Facebook that are trying to prove that a return on investment can be achieved through social commerce. Social media has widely been known as a tool for building brand awareness and as a display-marketing vehicle rather than a social commerce platform, but companies like Facebook and Twitter are trying to change that perception. Previously, social-media tactics and results were measured by soft metrics such as increasing impressions and click-throughs, but the return on investment has been low or confusing. A Forrester report in 2011 found that 62 percent of retailers described the ROI from social commerce as “unclear.” With the “Buy” buttons, Facebook and Twitter are elevating the focus on ROI by targeting the most important metric: the number of people who purchase the products. Social commerce is evolving to meet companies’ needs but, as with any emerging technology, caution must be part of any social-commerce program.Attorney turned entrepreneur Karen Kart of San Diego thought studying for the New York Bar exam was tough. Now it's her Kickstarter campaign for her Adi the stay-put-plate invention that's challenging her to the max. “I’ve been prepping for about a year now and working around the clock for the past six months," she says.A mother of three, social media brand marketing she rises at 4 a.m. to work on her campaign before her children wake. She creates a priority list of everything that must get done that day and what she needs to delegate to her support team.When I asked her during a recent phone interview about the most time-consuming parts of the crowdfunding campaign, she admitted it's the writing. “It took me a lot longer to write copy than I ever expected," she says.

Be consistent in messaging. Don't overwhelm customers

Establish a centralized strategy: Approach customers across Twitter, Facebook, email and more just not at the same time. Test the waters gently to not alienate loyal and revenue-driving customers. cost of social media marketing Take a page from successful email-marketing campaigns by segmenting the market and testing. See what works and act accordingly. You don’t have to be Coca Cola to attack the projected $30 billion social-commerce market. Follow the rules above so that a social-commerce campaign is not confused with spam: Capitalize on posts and tweets, and have the social commerce world at your feet."I’m a lawyer so I had to learn to write differently from how I was trained as I never wrote a press release before. But it helped me sharpen my focus on the features and benefits of my product."Likewise Olive Branch, Miss.-based Cedric Burnside has found his current Kickstarter campaign to release a blues CD has taken a lot of time and preparation for him and his team. The biggest challenge was devising compelling rewards to appeal to everybody. "When you are running a campaign for a musician, it's tough," Burnside wrote in an email. "All we could think of was giving away music. Luckily we got creative and added a house party for $5,000. We had a contributor pledge at that level and it financed [two-thirds] of our campaign.If you’re not in front of your computer, sweating, your heart beating wildly, up until the very last minute of the campaign, you probably weren’t as invested as you should have been, and you probably didn’t do it right," said Los Angeles-based Gregor Collins who worked on a Kickstarter campaign for a film he was in called Goodbye Promise.You have to spend six months to a year building your audience through social media if you’re going to make full use of your campaign," Collins explained in a phone interview. define social media marketing "It’s about building an audience and genuinely connecting with people on a personal level, who will be your 'customers' for life and who will spread the word to their friends. If your goal is just finding people with money jangling around in their pockets, you’re missing the point of crowdfunding.

Align email marketing and social media

Typically, email is associated with the sales and marketing functions, and social media resides in the marketing-communications camp. These two areas should align to ensure consistent communications and coordinated campaigns. social media marketing plan pdf Take Mondays for example: The marketing and sales teams know that Mondays are the best day to make sales, so the social-media team shouldn’t contradict this sentiment by posting a cat GIF that says, “I hate Mondays” no matter how cute it it may seem.Along with emailing bloggers and media outlets and answering inquiries from backers, Kart meets twice weekly with her team: a campaign manager (recruited after hearing Kart speak about her product at a local mompreneur group) and three college interns.They discuss marketing strategies, do outreach via social media, create Facebook ads and review campaign traffic analytics. They're on the Kickstarter page each day to post campaign updates and be sure every single backer receives a personalized thank you.As is the case for most project creators, Kart was surprised by those who supported her dream and those who did not. “I’m touched by people’s generosity, especially those I know who are living paycheck to paycheck and still chose to pledge," she says. "On the flip side, I was surprised that a few people who have the financial means and who know I’ve put everything I have into this project have either not pledged or only pledged a small amount even though I’ve supported their projects in the past.Giving them the benefit of the doubt, she adds, “I’m only a couple weeks into my campaign so there’s still time for them to join the crowd!Finding that friends don't come forward -- or give at the level expected social media marketing best practices is a common experience and one for which project creators need to emotionally prepare. Some people are simply against the idea of soliciting for funds. But many people just need to be educated about crowdfunding. They don’t fully grasp the concept or know how to pledge.

How to Build a Strong Social-Media Presence

When I see article titles or headlines claiming that you can automate your posts and work smarter on your social network by doing this or that, I think to myself, Really?Running a social-media strategy is just like any other process: social media marketing course It takes time. There are no shortcuts, you just need to be agile.So when you decide to join social media, make sure that your strategy is not just “post and run”. Be active in the community, follow and reply to your customers. True, there are times when you do not have access to the Internet and you are just happy to be able to get a post out, but to me, that would be the exception. For instance, if you were traveling, you may not have access to the online world 100 percent of the time, but even then, you should check in and respond as soon as possible.The site's users can lead a "healthy, sustainable lifestyle" and "support socially responsible causes," according to Care2's description. By its accounting, the social action network has members in excess of 16 million. The site relies on stories, blogs and syndication to cover topics, leaving plenty of room for users to step in and position themselves as experts and help give their health and fitness company a boost.With all its crafts, quotes and kid-party ideas, Pinterest is known for its large female user base. Meet its male counterpart, Gentlemint. Men can seek and share the stuff that interests them, from craft beers to football.These are just a small sampling of niche sites. Whether your company makes tree houses or tennis equipment, b2b social media marketing a specialized online community will value what you have to say (and sell). When you reach a more targeted audience primed for your message, you’ll likely enjoy higher conversions of visitors to customers and quicker word-of-mouth marketing among a group with common interests and needs.

Put the work in to see the rewards

o me, social media is almost a round-the-clock enterprise. It takes me hours to read and gather tweets each day to share across my network. Over the years, I have been even more selective, social media marketing plans which makes it even harder for me to take on this particular task and this is just a fraction of my social-media undertaking for each day.The trick is that when you don't have time, follow people that are extremely selective with their tweets, put these folks on a list and share their content. If you do this generously, they will in return be happy to promote your work. Another one of my favorite social-media suggestions is to limit your tweets per day. I’ll admit that I used to tweet way too much, but I now post about one per hour on average. (That is, unless I am working on promoting an event or participating on a chat.) Do what works best for you but moderation is always a good rule to follow, as it is nice to give your audience a break.Also, you don't always have to broadcast from your social-media page; you can say your piece by commenting on others’ social-media channels. I usually hop on all my social channels and watch what others are up to and really engage with them. Try to comment rather than just like or re-tweet, because that does not open the door to starting a conversation.The invite-only indie social network, still in beta mode, is rapidly growing in popularity. The recent spike in interest has been fueled in large part due to widespread animosity over Facebook’s controversial new real names only policy, especially within the LGBT community.Ello co-founder Paul Budnitz, a serial entrepreneur and artist, social media marketing podcast says some 31,000 requests to join the social platform pour in every hour, as reported late yesterday in USA Today. Invite codes for the fledgling service are so hot they’re being auctioned off on eBay for up to $100 each.Vermont-based venture capital firm FreshTracks Capital injected Ello with $435,000 in seed funding back in January, according to Ello's CrunchBase profile.

Reconsider have all your social-media posts automated

If I hand-selected the content and want to share this with my followers globally but just can't do it right now, it is sometimes better to wait. I’ve noticed that my fans do not have a problem with me responding at a later time. real estate social media marketing We cannot possibly acknowledge, return or reciprocate every social-media transaction, but I do the best that I can.On the other hand, there are situations when scheduling some of your posts makes sense. By scheduling your tweets, you’re not flooding the stream all at once. By spacing your posts out, you are providing a variety of information at a variety of times for all to enjoy. Be fussy with what you choose to share and when you share it. I find that a mixture of automated and live tweets works well for me. I try to participate on different travel chats whenever I have time in my schedule.By implementing these simple steps, it has helped me stay at the forefront of the social-media sphere and it definitely has helped me grow my following across my social channels. In social media, absence does not make the heart grow fonder. The alternative social network's manifesto voices what most of us are thinking anyway: mainstream social media isn't "fun anymore" thanks to rampant advertising and privacy-thrashing data tracking and sharing.We built Ello because virtually all of the other social networks were cluttered, ugly, and full of ads,” the mission statement reads. “We came to realize that a social network that has ads is a social network created for advertisers, not for people. social media marketing blogs Every move we made was tracked and recorded, and every post we made was read and sold to other companies so they could show us more ads.On principle, Ello doesn’t require real names, sell ads, nor “sell data about you to third parties.” For now at least. It’s also currently free to join and, according to Budnitz, it will “always” be. “But some people want special features -- they will have to pay for that,” he said.

Ways to Get Business Recognition on Social Media

In our increasingly competitive world -- one in which we clamor for the right kind of attention for our companies the pursuit of "likes" can become an obsession.While experts work to define the return on investment, how to do social media marketing or ROI, of social-media attention and quantify the financial value of social media-fans and followers, entrepreneurs have an innate sense that there is power in gathering a following of likes for our brands.If being liked is an important goal, and if we measure our likeability by what our social-media fans are saying, how can we effectively gather that evidence of our likeability?While the current tools to collect and aggregate social-media feedback for a particular demographic are useful, they will only continue to get better and more detailed over time. Fairly soon, you'll be able to look at the score a service provider gets when servicing people who are just like you.But in the meantime, here are three simple but powerful ways to encourage your advocates to like you.Users can chat in forums on Goodreads about books, authors, characters, plots, and anything reading related. The site also offers quizzes and book clubs. This site has received a lot of recent press, as many Facebook users have migrated to the smaller, simpler Ello in protest of Facebook’s enforcement of its real name requirement. Ello differs from Facebook in that it allows for anonymous posting and offers an ad-free environment.Similar to Pinterest, Kaboodle presents images featured by users. social media marketing trends But this site is focused on shopping and lets users create style boards for their favorite looks. A fashion startup or related firm can tap into the more than 5 million monthly visitors.Consumers post questions on Quora about a vasty array topics, from car repair to wills. Find the inquiries that relate to your industry or specialty and then position yourself as an expert in the field. It’s an easy, free way to build a base of fans and followers.

Facebook fan page likes

If you haven't already, create a fan page on Facebook and ask people to "like" you there. It only takes a consumer two seconds to click on the "like" icon, so take advantage of this easy marketing tool on social media. social media marketing new york And don't be scared of the "ask." On blog sites, business cards and across other social-media channels (i.e. LinkedIn), ask people to like your Facebook page.According to Facebook, more than 1.2 billion people use its platform and in excess of 30 million businesses have active pages. Twitter is also growing quickly as a promotional platform with more than 4.5 million small businesses signed up, according to a Wall Street Journal article last fall. It has 271 million monthly active users and 500 Tweets sent each day. So with Facebook and Twitter commanding so much traffic, does it make sense to focus your time and energies on those sites?Well, yes and no. I’m definitely not suggesting that you neglect those social-media giants. But as with any investment, it makes sense to diversify. You don’t want to put all your marketing eggs in one highly fragmented basket.If you have a very specific target market (musicians, physicians or even zombie film directors, let’s say), your company might have a significantly larger impact on a niche social network. Although the overall pool of users is smaller, it might contain a higher ratio of people who might be interested in your product or service. You can then more effectively tailor your content to unique needs, interests and experiences.Plus, Facebook and Twitter are already saturated with posts and ads from businesses similar to yours, which means the audience might be already a bit tired of posts from this sector, social media marketing pdf if not ignoring them altogether. On a smaller, lesser-known platform, your social-media activity might resonate with a more receptive and perhaps less cynical, group of users.Want to reach more than a million moms? CafeMom is the place. All it takes is a few engaged users, and you could see your product or service featured on highly trafficked “mommy blogs” around the world.

LinkedIn skills and endorsements

Ask people to add your skills on LinkedIn. Similar to asking customers (advocates) to like you on Facebook, this is a great way to ask people who know and like and respect you to state what you are good at.social marketing media The reason this is so useful is often when people meet new collegues or associates in their industry circle, they Google their name and go to their LinkedIn profile, which provides a plethora of information about the person.When I am on LinkedIn, I read a person's summary, view her past jobs and look at what she is currently doing. I then look at the number of skills/endorsements she has and make sure these affirmations back up who she says she is. If there is inconsistency, I throw up a yellow flag. If there's major inconsistency, I throw up a red flag. I've had major success running a campaign asking for those that knew me to endorse my skills on. (If you want to read more about this tactic, I go more in-depth in my post Successful LinkedIn Endorsement Promotion Case Study.) Create an activate page on your website specifically asking visitors to take action on what's important to you. Every website should have explicit calls to action, as they help provoke an immediate response. So, don't make your visitors guess at how they can help you; tell them what positive action is. Examples of call to actions include subscribe buttons to newsletters or social channels, requests to follow on social-media channels or to join forums. For the Thought Leader Life show that I'm a co-host with Michael Procopio, we created an Activate page that has really helped drive consumer engagement with our brand. To be successful in business today, social media for marketing and certainly in the future, you need to be liked. The more you're liked, the higher you'll come up in the tools that sort by customer satisfaction and the more successful you'll be. To ensure your long-term viability, put a consistent program in place to increase your "likes."Designed for book lovers, this niche social-media site caters to more than 25 million bibliophiles.

Personal Branding Doesn't Mean Just Fixing Your LinkedIn Presence

Now everyone is free to muse on professional matters through LinkedIn’s blogging platform. Make sure that your personal branding efforts shine and are memorable. Don't limit yourself to just one platform.social media marketing training Too many CEOs and executives (and their PR handlers) think that if they have a great LinkedIn profile and are active on the site, their job of marketing themselves is done.That's wrong. Businesspeople can promote themselves in smart, creative ways beyond LinkedIn, both online and in person.There are some good people on the brand team at Taco Bell, and many of them credit marketing exec Tressie Lieberman with leading the charge in the social space.When she first arrived at the team from another division within the Yum Brands family, Lieberman said she felt that its social stance and brand voice was too sales-y. Her new approach was to humanize the brand and start connecting.After all, Taco Bell's "peeps" are teenagers and those who love fourth meal, so she set out to hang out with them and be friends. The new direction was a 180-degree turnaround. And Taco Bell's new brand personality didn't stop with fans. With twitter conversations like the now-famous one below, Lieberman and team proved they get social and are doing a lot of things right.Taco Bell is making great efforts to connect with Youtube visitors and the video-creator community through various activities, original content and collaboration. It seems to have a regular video-content strategy and are sponsoring things such as a documentary with Bethany Mota.Ever notice how once you google something or email someone about anything, social media marketing classes a stream of ads related to similar subjects pops up almost immediately? Doesn’t it seem like a ghost is just sitting there on your handheld device? For a boomer like me, it reminds me of my high school English class when I read George Orwell and thought, “No way!”Every time I open Facebook on my iPhone 5C, the apps suggested for me to download relate to the same sites I just looked at moments earlier.

Optimize speaking engagements

If you land a speaking engagement at a conference, make the most of it. Find out if the event is being filmed, ask for the footage and use it to create a show reel -- to use for pitching more speaking gigs. social media marketing news Offer to work with the event's organizers on articles or interviews in advance that will increase your reach. Note the event's hashtag and use it to engage with people on social media. Inquire whether if any members of the press will be attending and contact them to offer them a briefing about your company.You might be scheduled for only a 30-minute talk or panel, but you have an opportunity to squeeze way more of a return on the investment of yourtime onstage. Be thoughtful about optimizing and amplifying your presence before, during and after the show.And the Facebook prompts suggesting people whom I might know? Some of these friend referrals are for people I don’t like, havn't spoken with for 30 years for a reason or distant relatives with whom I have nothing in common. If Mark Zuckerberg is such a genius, doesn’t he know that nowadays people are very easy to locate?Those Facebook ads offering free shipping and returns and a 20 percent discount? Seriously, how many people at my age can really buy shoes without trying them on? As a 50-plus woman with a lifelong shoe fetish, I've ordered plenty of shoes online. Having returned about seven pairs of shoes in the past two or three years, I have finally realized I cannot purchase shoes online.This is caused by Facebook's ad retargeting achieved through the cookies data stored when the user browses other sites. The solution to this? Think before googling: When browsing another web site (not Facebook) social media marketing network use Google Chrome's incognito mode or Safari's or Firefox's private browsing. Spam in the email box is something most people are hard pressed to control. It comes from all over the world. Strengthen the spam filter in your email program or just delete the emails.But what about those darn ads that crop up online when using a web browser associated with an email service such as Google's Chrome browser is with Gmail?

Divide up your social media time

My strategy for online personal branding is to use a 60/40 rule. Sixty percent of my social-media updates are professional and 40 percent are personal in some way. This ensures my followers and potential connections get marketing through social media to know a little about me beyond just my work-related thoughts and opinions.Sharing my love of cricket and real ale and regularly talking about the trials and tribulations of being a parent to two young daughters adds a bit of color. These details might serve as positive conversation starters when I meet someone in person. Find something natural from your downtime to talk about or share on social media. Many people worry that their followers might not want to hear personal details, but the lines between work and play have blurred over the last 10 years, thanks to digital media, and you’ll be completing the circle of personal branding by giving your posts a human touch.For example, as a China product safety and sourcing specialist, I often google websites for info on a new Chinese supplier. The next thing I know, I'm bombarded with offers for products such as recycled tires, head lamps and other items I would never have the need to import -- all courtesy of Big Brother. Enough already with those ads for strapless, pure white wedding gowns! Yes, I’m getting married in November. And no, it’s not the first time so I’m planning to wear red and three-quarter length sleeves. And no, I do not need a minister and definitely not a limo. And I'm through with those ads showing hemorrhoid cream or the latest way to lose belly fat. Hey, I can watch TV for those. social media marketing certification The solution? Try creating an entirely different email account to use when web searching and visiting shopping sites. Use a different email address for sending emails to shopping sites or to respond to product ads. Maybe, but don’t give up: Deleting all email accounts altogether will unfortunately land you back in the Stone Age. And worse you’ll be the brunt of jokes from your kids at future family gatherings.

Factors of Social-Media Marketing Most People Don't Consider

This has long been a question brands have tried to definitely answer. It has been brought to the fore of late by a recent Gallup poll, the report from which states, "A clear majority of social media marketing for small business Americans say social media have no effect at all on their purchasing decisions."That may make it sound like social media marketing has little benefit, but the report's cursory dismissal doesn't take into account several other factors.It’s the perfect place to show off your beautiful new salon and the innovative hair designs created by your stylists.For example, it partnered with Charity Miles. Charities are a great way to give back, but they also offer a great branding partnership opportunity for your business.Partner with others to expand the reach of your content-marketing efforts. Tell your story in a way that gives others a reason to cheer for your success.Make yourself part of a community. Say that you’re “Proud to be part of [city, state, online group, etc.].” Then share your content and mention influencers in those communities. Hopefully, they will re-share your content.Ryan Grepper struggled to fund the Coolest Cooler. It’s now the most-funded Kickstarter ever.Grepper shared everything he tried shortly after his first effort -- everything from promoted tweets to Facebook ads and more. Grepper discussed initially that his personally-constructed press releases showed potential when he reached out to target bloggers.This time around, the Coolest Cooler rose up the press coverage ranks all the way to The Today Show during its record-setting run on Kickstarter.Get more shares for your content by starting small.social media marketing job description Find a niche blog. Then reach out to a larger blog and say, “We were featured on this blog ...” Then do it again, going bigger each time.It was created by designers who had already released some products. This gave them insight into how to build buzz for the campaign so they could easily reach their goal.On the Noke Facebook page, the team shared regular updates that built anticipation.

Search engine optimization

These days, marketers are increasingly aware of search engine optimization, the order that indexed sites are ranked by search engines. To companies and brands with any sort of online presence, SEO is very important. marketing and social media (The importance can be understood if search engine ranking is thought of as equivalent to being listed in a more prominent location in the Yellow Pages.) Even if social media marketing does not drive sales directly, the additional traffic and links that a site receives can give it a higher ranking on Google and Bing, which can, in turn, lead to higher sales.Yet another image-sharing site with great potential for savvy salon and spa owners. In addition to posting photos, you can use Flickr to upload videos up to three minutes long. It’s also said to have exceptional search engine optimization capabilities, meaning it’s easier for search engines to find your Flickr stash. You can use the site to show off your building, your products, and your staff, both in pictures and video.They would share a photo showing sneak peeks at the upcoming product.By the launch date, Facebook followers were in a near frenzy trying to figure out what the product was going to be.Start building your social audience now. Create content and share it using popular industry hashtags. Create guest content on popular industry blogs. Participate in industry podcasts.Build your audience now and when you launch a new piece of big content or a big product in the future you can build anticipation because your audience is already built and waiting.The memobottle is a sleek container that fits in your computer carrier.social media marketing salary The photos on the official memobottle website are fantastic. It makes such a huge difference when you use professional photography.Hire a professional photographer to take top-notch photos for all your content. To go to the next level, hire professional videographers.Start with freelancers on Fiverr. Find good people and pay them well to keep them around as you do more content marketing.

Specific marketing goals

Just as it is important to take a nuanced look at the context of the 35 percent figure, it is also important for brands to look closely at the intended results of their social media marketing. social media marketing statistics When many people (likely including those polled) think of marketing, they think primarily of things like consumer packaged goods, such as chips and soda, which are products that are not generally purchased online. This is significant, because the "next step" required to go from interacting with a packaged-goods brand online to purchasing their product in a brick-and-mortar store is significant. Other brands have marketing goals more likely to be met by social media, namely having customers purchase something online (where the marketplace is just a click away), or recruitment to join an online networking or community site. Those brands may find social media marketing more effective.This is just a microcosm look at the social media tools that are useful for salon and spa owners. If you’re hungry for more, just Google “best social media sites” and you’ll have plenty of reviews and lists to choose from. And by the way, while it’s not necessary to sign up with all of these services at the same time, they all should be on your radar.Every Kickstarter campaign needs great content -- videos, descriptions and more.But you also need great promotion. Each of the campaigns above had great content and great promotion to build their successes.If you have a favorite Kickstarter campaign please share in the comments section.Ninety three percent of businesses using inbound marketing increase their lead generation, a 2013 study by Hubspot found. top social media marketing companies With numbers like these, any and all advice for ramping up your inbound-marketing efforts is valuable, particularly if it comes from those who know the business.To get your lead machine running at top speed, we turn to nine time-tested tips and insights from Brian Halligan of Hubspot, Joe Pulizzi of the Content Marketing Institute and Brian Clark of Copyblogger.