5 Trends That Could Change How Businesses Use Social Media in 2015

Staying relevant on Facebook could cost companies more and executives will be better positioned to tell if Tweets actually produce sales, says Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes.

(Ryan Holmes) Duke University recently published a study on social media that left many managers scratching their heads. Social media spending at companies, the report showed, currently represents 9% of marketing budgets, and that’s forecast to rise to nearly 25% within five years. But half of marketers interviewed said they couldn’t show what impact social media had on their business – at all.

 

Critics were quick to call the surge in social media spending a case of throwing good money after bad. From my perspective, however, these conflicting stats tell an entirely different story: that social media is evolving at breakneck speed and companies are struggling mightily to keep up. Businesses are reaching larger audiences and seeing increasing benefits, but the shifting social media landscape makes getting consistent results – and measuring them – an enormous challenge.

 

In 2015, the pace of social media change is – if anything – poised to accelerate. But for businesses, there’s one important difference from the past. Hungry to monetize, the major networks are figuring out ways to make it simpler and more productive for companies to engage with customers. Meanwhile, tools are proliferating that make it easier to track the impact of social media spending and even measure return on individual Tweets and posts.

 

In short, 2015 is the year that the impact of social media on business gets easier to show and possibly impossible to ignore. Here’s a look into the crystal ball at what the year ahead holds for businesses:

 

Staying relevant on Facebook will cost companies more

 

Your company’s Facebook Page has thousands of Likes, so that means thousands of people see your updates each time you post, right? Nope. Historically, Facebook’s proprietary algorithm limited reach to just 16% of brands’ fans. But a report published by researchers at PR firm Ogilvy earlier this year showed that number has since declined to around 6% and may fall further. “Increasingly, Facebook is saying that you should assume a day will come when the organic reach is zero,” explained the paper’s author, Marshall Manson.

 

Why has this happened? First of all, there’s more potential content than ever flooding users’ news streams, which means that less and less of it actually gets shown. At the same time, Facebook is encouraging companies to use its paid social ads, which reach a significantly larger percentage of fans than organic posts. These so-called “native ads” look just like normal Facebook posts and show up directly in users’ news streams, not along the side of the page like traditional banner ads.

 

What does this mean for businesses in 2015? Staying relevant on Facebook FB will require doubling down on paid social ad spending. At the same time, we’ll also see companies diversify their social media efforts to include other social channels, including Twitter TWTR , Instagram and even China-based messaging service WeChat. This “platform-neutral” approach is both a hedge against further changes at Facebook and a smart way to reach different demographics flocking to other networks.

 

Finally, more tools to see if Tweets actually produce sales

 

It’s easy enough to flash around vanity metrics showing your company has thousands of Twitter and Facebook followers or gets tens of thousands of Likes on Instagram. But how does that all translate to sales and revenue? Until now, that question has largely been evaded, with spending justified on the basis of vague terms like “exposure” and “mindshare.”

 

That’s changing, fast. A new crop of tools are bringing the same rigor to the social media sales process as older-generation measurement tools brought to the online sales process. For starters, analytics software (like the uberVuTool that my company uses) can now pinpoint which social networks drive the most clicks and traffic, bearing in mind what type of content you’re sending (text, images or video) and who your intended audience is. Applications can auto schedule messages to be delivered at optimal time of day and report back not just on how many people viewed but on the relative clout and influence of those viewers.

 

Combine these tools with Google Analytics and social customer relationship management software like Nimble (for logging customer interactions over social media) and it’s possible to directly track how all of these efforts translate to visits to company websites and, in turn, leads for salespeople and even purchases via ecommerce channels. Finally, we’re reaching a point where specific Tweets and posts can be linked directly to sales and assigned a real monetary value, not just an aspirational one.

 

Social networks will dive deeper into ecommerce

 

In November, Snapchat announced the launch of Snapcash, becoming among the first major social networks in North America to allow users to transfer money to one another in messages. The service uses debit card information and appears to be, at least for the moment, free of charge. Once information is stored, it doesn’t have to be entered again – funds are transferred from one bank account to another with a few taps and swipes.

 

Expect other social networks to soon follow suit, as part of a larger race into mobile payments. In fact, hacks released in October show a hidden payment feature already buried deep inside Facebook’s popular Messenger app. If activated by the company, it could allow the app’s 500 million users to send money to each other.

 

Peer-to-peer payments, however, are likely just the start. It’s not much of an intuitive leap to see how this functionality could be opened up for payments to merchants, as well. This, in turn, paves the way for social networks to dive into the world of ecommerce. Retailers would be able to send out offers for specific products in the form of Tweets or Facebook posts, for example, then consumers could buy with a tap or two. In fact, we’re already seeing exactly this convergence of social media and ecommerce in the “buy” buttons currently being beta-tested on Facebook and Twitter streams.

And there’s one other twist to this story.

 

 For merchants, receiving

low-cost or no-cost payments via social media is much more attractive than getting paid with credit cards, which generally skim a 2-4% interchange fee off the top of every transaction. As social networks become associated more and more with financial transactions, we may well see Facebook and other platforms branch out to offer a cheaper, easier-to-use alternative to the traditional credit card system in the years ahead.

 

Customer service: Social media and phones work in tandem

 

Airlines, Internet, cable providers and many other industries have reported significant benefits from handling customer service on social media. Consumer satisfaction goes up because the experience is more personalized and responses are often much faster than communications via traditional channels like 1-800 numbers or email. Because conversations are generally public, clients with legitimate gripes have a better shot at equitable treatment and companies that handle problems well get instant recognition on social media.

 

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Social Media Principle 6...Be Open and Be Human

(Jon Leuty) Social marketing earns, not buys attention so have an opinion, be true to what you say, be of value, be open - above all be human.

"Ask not what your customers can do for you; ask what you can do for your customers" Stan Rapp

As 'markets become conversations' customer relationships and advertising models are changing for good. Passive consumption becomes active interaction. Monologue becomes dialogue. Control becomes collaboration. Customers are empowered, well informed, connected. Companies are becoming more transparent whether they like it or not.

It's an environment in which the balance of effective communication shifts from being less about interruption to more about participation, less about delivering a message to more about being part of a conversation, less about what you say to people and more about what people are saying about you.

It's an environment, which operates to social principles - creating not subtracting value, serving a larger purpose than your own, being useful, facilitating.

It's an environment in which the more human elements matter - having a point of view, being true to yourself and what you say, being open, honest, transparent. Ford use social media to (in the words of Scott Monty) "humanize the Ford brand and put consumers in touch with Ford employees", and regularly reach out to bloggers for feedback and to encourage the spread of positive word of mouth.

Zappos believe that their "culture is their brand" and use social media to create touch points throughout every area of their business and ensure customer service isn't just a department, it�s the entire company. Authenticity is the currency that encourages trust, involvement, and engagement. Authenticity is what turns an audience into a following.

The Critical Aspects Of Social Media And Its Overall Effectiveness

(DarvinAgency) Social media has established a prominent presence as form of marketing utilized by companies in countless industries worldwide. There are a variety of inherent factors that can prove to substantially increase a company's brand equity and visibility, or possibly victimize a company's reputation. The way in which a social media strategy is implemented and monitored can go a long way in determining its overall effectiveness. Today's market features a wide array of consumers who have certain expectations of brands, products, and services. Discontented and social media savvy consumers are simply awaiting any opportunity to voice their opinions via Twitter, Facebook, and associated social channels. This makes it even more vital for a company to thoroughly research and consider what methods of social media are most appropriate and beneficial to their needs.

There are a number of steps that can be taken in order to avoid the aforementioned social media disasters that occur frequently in today's online marketplace. The first involves being realistic and properly understanding the relationship between conversations on social networks and other types of customer interactions. The next step includes utilizing a multi-channel strategy for customer sales and service. While social media is quite effective, interactions taking place at brick and mortar locations, on toll-free lines, and during online customer service chats are also very important in providing a comprehensive view of consumers' opinions. The following step focuses upon viewing your data and evaluating the technology that is currently in place in order to understand consumer behavior and the voice of the customer. The final measure that can be taken to avoid social media disaster is to have a designated employee that specializes in the customer experience delivery chain.

A company that does not currently possess a strong presence in social media does not have to fear making a huge investment in social media. There are a number of low cost options that can be practiced to make that initial leap into the realm of social media marketing. Starting a blog about relevant industry news, trends, or intriguing applications of your product line is an excellent way to embark into the world of social media. Creating a LinkedIn group, Facebook page, Twitter account, a customers-only discussion forum, or a YouTube channel can provide unique opportunities to present and inform users and fans alike of current company highlights and information.

The key to a company's successful use of social media is all about the results and the ability to properly measure them. Industry analysts are publicizing self-service business intelligence as the so-called "golden child" of 2011. In terms of marketing, one area that could widely benefit from self-service BI is social marketing. There are a number of best-practices that can be employed in order to measure social media effectiveness using BI solutions. Mapping out the ideal marketing process flow that will best transform prospects into quality sales leads is an exceptional starting point. Another practice involves determining the online marketing initiatives and campaigns that will be implemented to attract and engage prospects. Selection of the appropriate outlets to use is quite important in safeguarding the effectiveness of these initiatives.

Each initiative that comprises the marketing plan must then have a pre-established audience profile, outreach, value proposition, and budget that you are willing to spend. The most appropriate set of keywords must then be identified to ensure optimal website content that is designed for those specific keywords. Identifying and adjusting paths on social networks, aligning the website experience with specific landing pages, and setting goals for desired actions are all best-practice techniques in order to ensure continuity. It is also vital to measure all of the initiatives that are being used at a given time to display your activity, outreach, engagement, and outcomes. An even more thorough approach includes tracking all the way through to incremental sales, revenue and gross profit that is derived directly from online marketing. Business intelligence allows insight at the appropriate times during your social media campaigns. It offers the ability to instantly alter campaign focus and direction. Social media marketing can greatly benefit from the use of business intelligence as marketers can produce and exhibit greater value in their social media outreach campaigns.

 

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How Can I Use Social Media to Market My Business?

(Michael Kaleikini) There a few ways you can do this:

1. Create a fan page.
Since you are a business-to-consumer company, you can reach out directly to the kinds of people who like what you are offering. Use the page to engage your audience through your circle of friends and ask them to help spread the word. Be active on your fan page and let people know what you're up to.

2. Get on Twitter.
This is a must. Start following others who are industry colleagues, then follow people who you are interested in. They will see you re-sharing (re-tweeting) interesting and useful information – including your own original content about your business.

3. Start a business blog.
Write about you as the person who loves to do what you do and why. Recently I visited with the CEO of TMC Media, who said you should be publishing content that is objective and relevant -- not cheesy marketing pitches. And post often. This helps position you as an expert in your field and gets you noticed, which can help improve your ranking on Google.

4. Link your social media accounts.
Work smart, not hard. You can use services such as HootSuite or Social Office Suite to connect your social platforms and monitor them all in one place. These tools are also handy for tracking who is engaging with your brand.

When you have something that can actually show you how your market is responding to your brand, then you can figure where your time is best spent. Is it using Twitter to promote your next trunk event? Is it an event invite over Facebook? Will it be through Evite to get people to reserve a ticket to have special pricing for reserving their tickets there? (That could be a great way to build an opt-in list for emailing people for the next event.)

You'll have to test to see where the best response is. Facebook is a great place to begin the viral process. Get your friends to help suggest your new page, then go get socializing.

7 Basic Social-Media Tips to Set Your Marketing Right

(Carly Okyle) When it comes to marketing your brand online, if you’re not on social media -- and doing it right -- you’re missing a huge opportunity. That said, busy entrepreneurs and other professionals often have a difficult time navigating the quickly growing world of social media.
Fortunately, we’re here to your rescue. Here are some helpful tips to get you off on the right foot.

1. Know thy social platform.

Just as there are recipes for favorite foods, there are formulas for effective posts, tweets and #latergrams -- depending on the social site. Having the right mix of pictures, questions or quotes can make the difference between a post going viral or going into the void.
Read more: 27 Formulas That Can Drive Clicks and Engagement on Social Media

2. Be yourself.

Business is, ultimately, all about connections -- and not just the professional networking kind. If you want your message to resonate with customers, give them something relatable and human to connect to. With everything being automated, it might not come so easily, but it’s well worth the effort.
Read more: Why Being Human on Social Media Is the Best Strategy You'll Ever Have

3. Watch out for common mistakes.

Before you can capitalize on what’s going right, understand what you’re doing wrong. Thankfully, there’s a handy list of common mistakes for you to familiarize yourself with and avoid like the plague.
Read more: The 5 Big Reasons People Aren't Following Your Social-Media Accounts

4. Use the tools of the trade.

Believe it or not (and why not, really?), there is technology out there to help you make the most of tools you’re already using. From Tweetdeck to PinAlert, there are tools to help you optimize each specific network. After all, what works for LinkedIn doesn’t work as well on Pintrest. These are the tools you need in your social media toolbelt.
Read more: 18 Effective Social-Media Tools That Will Save You Time

5. Embrace new networks.

At the beginning, the next big thing is just some new thing that nobody’s paying much attention to. Myspace was king of social networks before some new site named The Facebook came on the scene, for example. There are benefits to being an early adopter of new networks, whether that’s Google+ or some other yet-unnamed platform, because you never know which one will take off. Get in on the ground floor of a new social network when you can.
Read more: How (and Why) to Take Advantage of Being First on New Social-Media Platforms

6. Be open to change.

The New Year is almost upon us, and that means new strategies where social media is concerned. Sure, it’s different from what you’re comfortable with right now, but it might also be more effective.
Read more: 6 Changes Your 2015 SEO Strategy Must Focus On

7. Consider other avenues, too.

Social media is a great way to create awareness and customer outreach. Still, it is not the only way to put your business out there. An investor would tell you to diversify your portfolio. This is also accurate advice in regards to your marketing strategy.

8 Benefits of Social Media for Small Business

(YP) With the explosion of social media over the last few years, you might be hard pressed to find a marketing expert who doesn’t recommend social media as part of a holistic marketing strategy. But, is it really worth the time and effort to build a social media presence at this point? What are the overall benefits of social media for small business?

There are eight simple ways your business can benefit from implementing an effective social media marketing plan:
 

1. Social Media Can Reduce Your Overall Marketing Costs

First and foremost, the ability to tweet a message or post something to Facebook is dramatically more cost effective than running a paid ad or mailing thousands of marketing pieces. However, there are also advanced advertising tools that allow you to run a marketing campaign that is both keyword- and demographic-specific so that you can get the best bang for your marketing dollar.
 

2. Social Media Can Impact Your Organic Search Results

When it comes to impacting your website’s position in search engines, you have been told that you need to create both optimized and compelling content if you want to be found. Part of this is so that other websites will find your content and link to it, thus boosting your search ranking.

What social media does is allow you to broadcasting your content out to a wide range of interested readers. Interested prospects then visit your content, subscribe, tell their friends, and ultimately link to it. Google and Bing both pay attention to social signals like this when they decide how to rank links on the search results page.
 

3. With Social Media You Can Offer Better Customer Service

If you are looking for a way to field customer comments, concerns, and questions, then you are going to find social media to be extremely beneficial. Customers using one of the common platforms like Facebook or Twitter can easily communicate directly with you, and you can quickly answer them in a public format that lets other customers see your responsiveness.
 

4. With Social Media You Can Design Your Own Online Personality

The idea is that social media is more like a cocktail party than a business meeting. You will always do a lot better in a social situation if you are more like yourself and less like a corporate robot. Social media is a great way to display your business’ personality, as well as behind-the-scenes information about you, your employees, your workspace, and more. When you humanize your brand in this way, it makes it easier for consumers to connect with you and develop loyalty.
 

5. Social Media Lets You Associate with Other Businesses

The fact that you are able to connect directly to the consumer means you can use this platform to also connect to other entrepreneurs and business owners. From possible strategic business partners to new distributors, social media lets you have real conversations with actual people who might otherwise be socially or geographically inaccessible in the real world.
 

6. Customers Can Validate Your Business on Social Media

The idea behind allowing customers to correspond directly with you is so that they can get the best customer service possible. When this occurs, it happens in a very public forum that can be seen by other prospects. So when customers sing your praises to their friends it not only validates you, but increases the chances that someone else is going to give you a shot next time they need your services.
 

7. With Social Media You Can Provide Value

The idea that you can provide a truly valuable service to your target market means you are positioning yourself as an expert in your industry. Whether that’s educational and entertaining blogs, posts, or tweets, if you are solving a problem or providing information, you’re adding value that customers will appreciate.
 

8. Social Media Lets You Gain the Competitive Advantage

If used correctly, social media can boost your search rankings, allow you to provide better customer service, build an effective online personality, connect with new business partners, build connections, and validate your professional standing all while providing your consumers with the value they want.

Do you know what that means? You’ve gained the almighty competitive advantage, and it’s all thanks to social media.

A Beginner’s Social Media Guide for Small Businesses

Create profiles for your audience—it’ll help you target your messages to them.

(Megan Conley) Are you ready to connect with a wider audience?

Want to know the best ways to leverage social media for your small business?

If you haven’t used social media to market your products and services, you’re going to love how easy it is to get started.

In this article, I’ll show you seven steps you can take to make social media marketing work for you.

Why Social Media for Small Businesses?

As a startup or small business owner, you know there’s a lot to accomplish with limited resources.
Traditional marketing can be a drain on your funds. Social media marketing, on the other hand, is pretty low-cost and gives you a direct line to current and prospective customers.

Social media offers small businesses a cost-effective way to reach their customers. Image source: iStockPhoto.com.

It’s a trade-off though. What you save in dollars you’ll invest in time. You have to be smart and efficient with the resources you have to achieve the results you need.
This guide is for startup and small business owners with limited resources, but who want to learn how to establish and build their brand using social media.

#1: Do Your Homework

Behind every exceptional social media campaign is a great strategy.
Social media is all about connecting with your audience on an authentic level. To do that, you have to intimately understand your current and potential customers.

Start by defining your audience. Distinguish individual character profiles by age, gender, interests, profession, etc. Don’t just say it out loud. Write down the details and find images that represent your target audience.

Next, crystallize your message. Based on your defined target audience, what are the key problems or concerns you can address or solve? Expand on and define those pain points for each character and write it under each profile.

Below that, write down three key marketing messages you want to communicate to that audience.

Now that you’ve defined your audience and message, take the time to find out which social networks they prefer.

All social media channels are not created equal. Each one has a different primary audience, cadence and focus. It’s important to understand the differences so you expend your efforts on the right channels.

#2: Coordinate Your Social Channels

If you treat each social media platform as a stand-alone effort, your success will be limited. Your networks should work together to help you achieve your goals.

Your website is your brand’s home base. Coordinate your social media efforts to push people to your website where they can buy your product or service.

Use your blog to establish your brand’s voice and share information. It’s also a valuable opportunity to engage with your site visitors and lead them through your sales funnel.

You can optimize your website and blog for social media by adding a few easy elements to your design.

Kim Garst makes sure her social icons are seen on her front page.

If you want visitors to follow your various social profiles, make sure you display social icons prominently in your header or sidebar, like these shown on Kim Garst‘s site. They should link directly to your profiles so your readers can follow you immediately.

Include a call to action (CTA) at the end of your blog posts asking readers to like you on Facebook or follow you on Twitter (or whichever platforms you’ve determined are best for your audience).

Integrate live social media feeds (e.g., Facebook and Twitter) so visitors can see your recent activity. When your audience can see what you’re sharing, they may be more likely to follow you.
Incorporate sharing buttons on your pages and posts to ensure that your content is share-friendly.
When people come across valuable content, they want to share it with their friends and followers. If you don’t have sharing buttons, your visitors will likely click away and you’ve lost that opportunity to reach a wider related audience.

Here’s how Rebel Mouse’s content feed displays across multiple social media channels.

Tool Tip: Socialize your website with Rebel Mouse, an all-in-one, real-time publishing, advertising and analytics platform.

Rebel Mouse aggregates all of your social media content and hosts a real-time feed on your website.
If you haven’t started an email newsletter, I encourage you to start one now. They’re an important way to stay in front of current and prospective customers.

Your newsletter’s design should display social icons prominently and include a CTA inviting your audience to join your social media communities.

I suggest also featuring social media content that highlights community members or shares promotions or giveaways.

The Social Tribe eNewsletter displays all of its social media icons prominently.

Tool Tip: ClicktoTweet is an easy way to promote sound bites of your content, whether it’s through your website, blog or newsletter. It auto-populates a tweet with your message. Users just have to click on the link and hit send!

#3: Get Started, but Start Small

You’ve defined your target audience, you know where to reach them and you’ve optimized your other marketing touch points. It’s time to get social.

This is one of the most important pieces of advice to keep in mind, so listen up! Start small.
Social media takes time and energy, which are precious resources. Set yourself up for success by starting with a manageable load. I suggest you choose one or two platforms to start with.

The best way to guarantee consistency is to incorporate social media into your daily routine. Block out the time on your calendar, turn off all distractions and dedicate time to managing your social media accounts. Do this in one or two different time slots every day.

In your first month or two, expect to spend a minimum of 15-30 minutes a day on social activities. You can increase the time as you see fit.

Use a timer to track your social activity time.

Remember those audience profiles and sample messages? Use them to determine what original and curated content you’ll share and create an editorial calendar to keep track of that content.
Your aim is to help your readers, so give them a tip they can use or share information that helps them solve a problem. When you give out relevant information, people come to view you as an expert.

Tool Tip: You’ll need a social media management tool to organize and manage your daily social media activities. HootSuite is a social media dashboard that offers monitoring, scheduling and analytic services. Sprout Social is another cost-effective tool that helps you find and schedule content and track social media performance.

#4: Listen and Share

Social media conversations are happening all around in real time.
Social listening is an excellent tactic to monitor what people are saying about your brand. Respond to comments, mentions and feedback even if they’re negative. You want to turn that negative into a positive!

Tool Tip: Mention app monitors the web, including the major social media channels, and tells you every time somebody mentions your name, brand or target keywords.

 

Content is the crux of social marketing. Unfortunately, combing through the Internet for good content to share can be slow and time-consuming.
To avoid getting bogged down, set up a process for organizing and aggregating quality content that provides value to your audience. Add the content to your editorial calendar and you can share it when you’re ready.
Tool Tip: Feedly is a magazine-style newsreader that aggregates content from different sources and organizes it for you. It’s a big time-saver when you’re looking for timely, relevant content to share!

Feedly is one way to aggregate content from around the web that’s related to your brand.

 

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10 Most Clichéd Hashtags You're Still Overusing

 

#justsayin. #truestory. #nature.
(Jillian Kumagai) When a hashtag usage becomes synonymous with social media, you know it's a problem. And while there may be a grain of truth to every cliché — we've all had #justsayin moments — there comes a time when we've just used them way too much.

As such, this is an appeal to find a new hashtag to overuse. We dare you to read these 10 cliches without shaking your head at least once.

• 1. #swag

  

  Face it, swaggers -- #swag came and went. If you are still referring to yourself as having #swag, 2011 called and wants its hashtag back.

• 2. #nofilter

  

  #nofilter now has nearly 100,000,000 uses on Instagram with no end in sight. It's the humblebrag of humblebrags, and hopefully we can all leave it alone now that it's synonymous with Instagram. Here's your rule: You only get to use #nofilter if it is a) truly not filtered and b) the best photo you've ever taken.

• 3. #weather

  

  We're in for a very, very long winter with #weather, so get out your virtual snow shovels for a mountain of hashtags. Out of politeness, don't bury us all, tweeps.

• 4. #nature

  

  We all love nature Instagrams -- they're beautiful, and many of us live in cities and don't get to see it firsthand very often. However, we don't love #nature pics. If it's a photo of a tree, #nature is redundant. We know.

• 5. #truestory

  

  This one is a little like the word "literally," but in reverse. People say completely unbelievable things "literally" happened, when in fact they did not. (You're likely not "literally" dying of hunger.) When people use #truestory, they say completely believable things, #truestory. Unless you're tweeting before a jury, no one needs to know you took a shower this morning, #truestory.

• 6. #selfie

  

  #selfie reinforces a rule of overused hashtags. If it's expressing something obvious, you shouldn't use it, and you certainly shouldn't be abusing it. Case in point: selfie.

• 7. #sorrynotsorry

  

  We'll admit that #sorrynotsorry makes a great hashtag. It expresses something true and does it with concise humor. The downside is that it's easy to abuse, especially if you feel #sorrynotsorry often -- which many of us do.

• 8. #justsayin

  

  When most people use "just saying" IRL, they usually don't even realize it, because it's so central to English slang. But use it carefully online -- if you're saying something, we probably already know you're just saying it.

• 9. #spoileralert

  

  The spoiler alert was once a useful disclaimer, but now it's become a nearly empty phrase in most cases, seeing as most people will just spoil the ending of last night's Game of Thrones anyway. As a hashtag, it should be used only when it's useful.

• 10. #nooffense

  

  If you're about to say something offensive on the Internet, someone will probably take offense to it. If you're about to drop a #nooffense, you should probably drop the tweet altogether.

20 Social Media Marketing tips for the Holiday Season

It’s November which means Christmas music has already started playing in the stores.

 

 

(Sensible) As a retailer this also means your busiest time of year is upon you.  This also means it’s time to start thinking of ways to incorporate the holiday season into your social media campaigns.

Planning your Christmas Marketing Campaign

1. Start early.  There is a reason the shops have their Christmas decorations up as soon as Halloween has finished.  Use social media to create a buzz around your brand leading up to the festive season.
2. Plan ahead.  Create a marketing schedule and include each element of your campaign.  List every task with a deadline and allocate time for printers or web developers.  Include the design and printing of your marketing materials and your time spent on online activity.  Plan back with your delivery or ‘go-live’ date in mind.

3. Create a Christmas brand image.  Change your website and twitter background to show you’re prepared for the holiday season.  There are loads low cost graphic download sites if you’re not a designer, for example Fotolia or Shutterstock.  Store all your graphics elements carefully and re-use them each year.

4. Make sure your website is ready for promotional codes or offers.  There is no point printing flyers with a website discount code if your web developer hasn’t activated the code on your site.

5. Use QR codes. These Codes can be used on your printed, outdoor and in store publicity, linking people to your website or Social networks for special seasonal offers.

Christmas Facebook Ideas

 

6. Run a Facebook competition.  Giveaways are a great way to create exposure and a buzz around your product.  Take advantage of this and design your promotion be shared by users.  Encourage entrants to tweet or post their position to their Facebook profile for extra points or entries.  The more they’re involved, the more others will participate. Our upcoming feature of a Facebook Tab Creator will make it easier for you to capture customer data (Fan Gating or Like Gating).  This would allow you to capture email addresses, postal addresses, phone numbers, twitter accounts etc for future campaigns.

7. Measure your campaign success and statistics. You could use Sendible’s Reporting/Analytic feature which includes direct data from Facebook Insights.

8. Include a themed free gift daily prize draw campaign (for example, the 12 days of Christmas), to encourage your followers to visit the Facebook page and enter every day

Christmas Twitter Campaign Ideas

9. Come up with your own Twitter hashtag for bringing people together.  For example #MyStoreNameChristmasGifts.  If you have limited time or content retweet news and articles you find interesting in relation to your industry.  You may be a close knit retail community and could re tweet other store’s news. I’m sure they will do the same for you.  This will build up followers ready for when you run future campaigns.

10. People love to share their Christmas tips and hints.  Get people talking about their festive habits, purchases and activities.  Start discussions like; What was in your Christmas stocking as a child, what roast do you have on Christmas day, or what’s your Christmas morning tipple? If you ask a question you’re more likely to get a response and start an engagement.  You may even wish to automate these questions using Sendible and let it target for people whom have mention predefined keywords.

11. Track Mentions. If somebody mentions something you stock then tell them.  Make sure you include a unique hashtag and retweet the tips that anyone posts with this hashtag. You can use Sendible’s Monitoring feature to look out for keywords on the social web.

12. Make sure you have a ‘share on Twitter’ tab. Both on your content and product pages, so people can retweet about you.

Christmas You Tube Campaign Ideas

13. Give your followers great hints and tips for getting the best out of Christmas. Film something relevant to your industry.  Christmas food and drinks recipes are great if you’re in leisure and hospitality.  If you’re in retail you could film a “what’s in this season” feature.  For technology a demo of the top wanted gadgets for Christmas.

 14. Get people to vote. This could be on the usefulness of your videos by creating online polls.

 15. Create fun seasonal video campaigns with hidden offer codes. Let people know there is a discount code hidden somewhere in the video to encourage active viewing and sharing. 

 16. Get people to film. This could be their cooking attempts or their Christmas jumpers and link to your YouTube channel

Following up on your Marketing Campaigns

17. If you’re going to invest time and money into Christmas marketing its worth measuring your ROI.  Track all of your Social Media activity in one place

18. Measure the success of your campaign on a weekly basis and compare to your baseline figures. As you measure, adjust your strategy to do more of the things that work and less of the things that don’t.

19. Make sure your business is set up on relevant customer review sites. They are important brand assets, so you should regularly maintain them with up-to-date photos and products, linking back to your main site for more information. You could use Sendible’s bespoke review site monitoring feature provide you a sentiment analysis for your business on TripAdvisor, Yelp and CitySearch.

20. Remember, different demographic groups use different social media platforms. Try different things and adjust for each individual platform – your Twitter followers might be more technically savvy and enjoy posting content, while your Facebook followers might prefer to ask questions. Tailor your campaigns to suit.

Hopefully these tips will help you on your way to a successful Christmas.  However if this all sounds like a hard work, at what’s already a busy couple of months consider Sendible to lessen the workload. Happy Holidays!!

Holiday Marketing Advice from 11 Social Media Experts

 

 

(Jim Belosic) One of my staff members recently asked me for one piece of holiday social media marketing advice I could share with our users.

 

Since my company makes software that businesses use to build social campaigns, like contests and giveaways, I immediately settled on: "Give your customers the feeling that they have some input and control over the promotions and deals you offer them during the busiest selling season of the year."

Ask your users/customers what they most want from you. Even if you've already planned your promotions for the rest of this year, the information you gather could be very helpful for next year. You'll learn what kinds of products and services your users/customers like about what's already in your line-up, what they don't care so much about, and what they wish you offered. It's cheap market research.

 

So that's my two cents. But in the spirit of sharing, here's a roundup of sage holiday marketing advice some of our guest bloggers have shared with us.

1. Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer, Marketing Profs and co-author of Content Rules:

"The holidays provide businesses with a way to connect with the audience on a more human level...because they allow us to communicate as people who share similar traditions, or they allow us to talk about what makes us unique. How that might play out: Show how the people in your company celebrate or honor certain traditions, to give your fans and prospects an idea of the people and personalities that make your company what it is. It's also a great time to showcase any charitable activities your company might participate in."

2. Melanie Duncan, Online Marketing Expert:

"The more you give to people, the more they want to give back to you. As business owners, we should approach our marketing as "how can I give more valuable content in a bigger way so that I can reach more people?" Now that builds brand value and creates raving fans who buy."

3. Amy Porterfield, Facebook Marketing Author and Trainer:

"To increase engagement on your Facebook Page, ask your fans to post their favorite holiday photos from their childhood or share details about their favorite holiday treats."

4. Shama Hyder, CEO Of Marketing Zen and author of The Zen of Social Media Marketing:

"The best Facebook strategies are based around relevance and context. And, the holidays provide the perfect environment to engage fans using both those constructs. Ask yourself--how does your brand tie into the holidays? If you are B2B company serving sales professionals, chances are that they are scurrying to meet year end goals or they thinking about how to reward their current customers. You can share with them ideas on how to make last minute sales or provide gift ideas for their best customers. If you are a B2C food company, how about a contest for the best cookie recipe? The goal is to think like your fans, and then help them with their holiday challenges!"

5. Jesse Stanchak, Community Manager, Microsoft UK:

"Forget about all of iconic holiday images for a second. Don't let Santa or Frosty or Charlie Brown cloud your vision. Ask yourself what your best customers--the people who support you all year round--are doing this month.... Forget about what you think the season the holidays are about. Ask what your customers are focused on. If you don't know, ask them. No matter what their views on the season are, most people aren't shy about sharing.

 

Next, ask how you can be useful. For one reason or another, many people find the holiday season stressful--even if it's their favorite time of the year. The one thing that unites most of humanity is that we'd all like to be just a little less busy, tired and stressed out. Think about how your fans are observing this season and then ask yourself how you can make the season just a little easier for them. When in doubt, remember that a helping hand is a gift everyone longs for."

6. Andrea Vahl, Co-author of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies:

"Marketing has changed. It's a go-giver economy where you demonstrate the value of your product or service ahead of time by giving people the benefit of your expertise. If you are giving back to them, they will help spread the word about your business."

7. John Haydon, Chief Heretic and Pyrotechnician at Inbound Zombie:

"Research shows that consumers trust product recommendations from friends ten times as much as marketing messages that come directly from those recommended brands. Businesses that understand that rabid fans are the best salespeople understand the real power of Facebook!"

8. Amy Jo Martin, Founder of Digital Royalty and NY Times Best Selling Author:

"The holiday season is typically shopping frenzy for most consumers and brands can easy drown in a red and green sea of sameness. Going above and beyond during the holiday season helps a business stand out in a time where everyone is competing for share of voice. Businesses should aim to disrupt this time of year."

 

9. Lilach Bullock, Co-Founder & Director of CommsAxis:

"Holiday countdowns are always popular and a great way to boost engagement. An online advent calendar is a great example--daily prizes, offers, incentives, competitions, fun stuff etc. It also encourages people to come back again, to encourage sharing of your initiative, and is often much more memorable."

 

10. Kim Garst, CEO of Boom Social:

"A huge part of being successful on social media is humanizing your brand. People want to connect with and buy from brands who they know, like and trust, and sharing your own holiday moments with your fans and followers is a great way to build this trust. I am not necessarily recommending you share your family's Christmas morning pictures! But sharing photos of your office holiday party, Christmas decorations or other holiday events can make your brand more relatable and human!"

 

11. Mari Smith, Facebook Marketing Thought Leader:

"There's a lot that businesses can do on Facebook to get more sales during the holidays. The easiest thing for brick-and-mortar businesses is to target audiences by using the new Local Awareness feature. This allows you to target ads to people only when they're physically near your business. You can even give people directions to your location right on their phones. Another way is to use Custom Audiences to find your best customers on Facebook, and then use Lookalike Audiences to find similar people."

What's your best Facebook holiday marketing advice? Please let me know in the comments section.

How Social Media Engagement is Advancing Sustainable Leadership

 

(Julie Urlaub) In addition to executive management playing a critical role in the success of a company, business sustainability requires leadership across the entire organization.  While management may ultimately carry the responsibility of sustainable business results, employees have a part to play in the definition and implementation of the company’s business sustainability programs.  Whether led by a sustainability executive or traditional management, a sustainable organization has many teams and key roles for individuals seeking to become leaders - especially so regarding adoption of corporate sustainability plans.  Social media engagement is playing a critical role in advancing sustainable leadership.  

 

The post, What Can Social Media for Sustainability do for Different Roles Within an Organization? shares, social media is an opportunity to amass trust in business sustainability programs.  Executives, CFO’s, employees, sales and marketing teams can all leverage it to increase eco awareness of the organization's social ethics, environmental concerns, and philanthropic deeds.  There are opportunities to keep stakeholders informed using openness and transparency as keys to establishing trusting relationships, as well as, letting customers, suppliers, investors and the public know they are dealing with a company that acts responsibly. 

Furthermore, the post, How and Why Social Media aids CSR Engagement shares, social media executed successfully can be a powerful vehicle to build sustainable business communications by engaging with stakeholders.  

• The use of social media collaboration technologies can help organizations break down silos and facilitate knowledge sharing across business units and corporate functions.  The Information Week article, What Enterprise Social Success Stories Have In Common, examines the adaptation of social tools and strategies into today’s business improvement efforts. Contrasting the limited success of simple external tool implementation, the true differentiators are implementing social media strategies with purpose.
• Social media can make CSR more visible. "A Reputation Institute 2011 survey found that a company’s CSR program (in its broadest sense), can be responsible for more than 40% of a company’s reputation, whilst companies with stronger social leadership programs have 55% better internal morale and 43% more efficient business processes."

 

• Social media has an emerging role in knowledge management.  Creating bridges between the corporate world and its stakeholders, social media closes the gap on knowledge management and business intelligence. Specifically so if sustainable communications and performance is valued by your stakeholders.  Social media for sustainability communications has become a risk or an opportunity. Monitoring, listening, and dialoguing with key stakeholder in the social space not only offers a competitive advantage but also provides other key ingredients for successful social media engagement

As advocates of social media for sustainability, we subscribe to the belief that business sharing their sustainability story are rewarded on multiple levels.  In fact, according to the 2012 Cone Communications Corporate Social Return Trend Tracker, companies that proactively share the details and results of their CSR efforts, rather than just their aspirations, will be rewarded with increased consumer trust and purchasing. You’re invited to discover how the different roles in your organization can leverage social media for sustainability and advance sustainable leadership.

• Executives - How Executives on Social Media Will Help Sustainability Perform Better 
• CFO - Are CFO's Missing Out on Social Media Green Investment Opportunities?
• Employees - What are best practices to get employees involved in social media for sustainability?
• Business Development - Why Social Media Engagement for Business Growth
• Marketing - Why Smart Marketers Use Social Media for Green Business Branding
• Supply chain - Stakeholder Engagement Reducing Risk in the Supply Chain
• Knowledge Management - Why Enhance Knowledge Management with Social Media Strategies?

 Social Media Is evolving faster than Small Business Owners ever thought imagined. Where do you think Social Media will take us next?

8 Proven Ways to Get Social Media to 'Love' You

(Oscar Raymundo) Who wants to have followers when you can cultivate true lovers?
This week, analytics platform Hootsuite launched a new, fascinating way of ranking how the world's top 450 brands are perceived on social media. The first ever "Love List" incorporated the brands' total number of social mentions, a sentiment score behind each mention and what percentage included the word "love."

Hootsuite surveyed millions of publicly available social media conversations for these key data points to reveal the most-loved brands: Dove, Friskies, Kohl’s, Avon, Renaissance Hotels, The CW, TripAdvisor, West Elm, Twitter and Nordstrom.

For these brands, it's not about the "Likes" - it's all about the love. Here is how they cultivated a passionate fanbase on social media:

1. Go After Women
According to a 2014 Pew Study, women are more active on social media than men. This certainly played a role in the "Love List," as Hootsuite found that 78 percent of Dove's social conversations were had by women. This means that you should not only be acknowledging your female customers, but catering your social messaging accordingly, even if your brand is not necerssarity targeted to women.

2. Share a Positive Message
No one gets on social media to feel bad about themselves. Dove's Real Beauty campaign was a much-appreciated respite from all the negativity found on the Internet. That positive message turned into positive associations for Dove, the top brand on the "Love List."

3. Embrace What Makes You Loveable
There are very few things more loved by the Internet at large than cats. Friskies tapped into the worldwide cute cat obsession with an equally adorable video series, Dear Kitten. The second-most loved brand on social media, Friskies continued to make a fuss about felines leading up to National Cat Day.

4. Support Your Partners
Avon has moved into the modern age by providing a bevy of digital resources to their representatives. Last month the brand redesigned its website and now offers social media etiquette guidelines, toolkits and other digital marketing materials. Similarly, a partnership with another well-liked brand or empowering employees to become social brand ambassadors can increase the love for all parties involved.

5. Stir Up the Passion
Brands like The CW and Twitter know they have a passionate and outspoken following on social media. Most importantly, they also know how to elicit a response and get them talking. The "Love List" acknowledges savvy brands that post teasers, exclusive announcements and other content that has been designed for the sole purpose of fueling the conversation on social media.

6. Give Away Cool Stuff
You can't buy social media love, but you can employ other incentives. Kohl’s, West Elm and TripAdvisor all launched social media contests or giveaways to get their followers vyiing for the prize. This type of promotion is a surefire way to quickly increase social media engagement over a short period of time. Sustaining it is another story.

7. Be Accessible
Some of the most-loved brands on social media like Dove, Kohl’s and Friskies are easy to find and relatively affordable. This accessibility has translated into these brands' social media strategy where they are receptive to their customers' feedback.

8. ...But Not Too Accessible
People want what they can't have, and even just a dash of aspirational allure can go a long way. Retail brands like Nordstrom and West Elm and travel brands like TripAdvisor and Renaissance Hotels have a built-in aspirational factor that can work wonders on social media, especially when they offer that semblance of luxury for a fraction of the cost.

Five Ways to Help Your Small Business Become a Social Media Standout

(Tasha Cunningham) The Internet is a crowded space populated by millions of search results, hashtags, status updates, online reviews, blogs, bookmarks and the like. For a small business seeking to stand out from the crowd, it can sometimes be an uphill battle to get the consumer’s attention in an online landscape teeming with, well, just about everything. Here are ways your business can become a social media standout!

1. Give social media advertising a try. It’s easy to try your hand at advertising on popular social media networks like Facebook and Twitter. You can spend as little or as much as you want, so you’re in control of the budget. To start, try advertising on just one social network. Keep in mind that the cost of advertising on Twitter is almost six times as much as it is on Facebook in terms of the Cost Per Mille (CPM), or what you will shell out for every 1,000 impressions. But the Clickthrough Rate (CTR) for Twitter ads is anywhere from 8 to 24 times higher than on Facebook, according to the Smart Insights marketing blog written by digital marketing expert Dave Chaffey.

2. Cater your content to a specific demographic. It’s not just teenagers who frequent social media. You might be surprised to learn that the fastest growing age group on Twitter is aged 55 to 64 years old — up 79 percent since 2012, according to Fast Company. On Facebook and Google+, it’s the 45-54 age demographic that’s growing quickly. It’s important that you research your demographic and target the content that you distribute on social media to achieve success. And don’t forget the millennials. By the end of 2014, millennials will make up 27 percent of the U.S. population and 25 percent of the labor force, according to gamification blog Badgeville. By 2025, they will comprise 75 percent of the U.S. labor force. Millennials also spend money. In fact, by the year 2018, their collective buying power will exceed that of Baby Boomers. The female demographic is also important and should not be overlooked. In 2012, nearly one-half of the U.S adult female population visited social media sites at least three times a day compared to one-third of men, according to research compiled by Burst Media, an online advertising firm headquartered in Massachusetts. That number continues to grow each year.

3. It’s about quality content, not quantity. You may think you need to post social media updates frequently throughout the day. But when it comes to getting consumers to interact with your content, quality trumps quantity. It’s better to post quality content less frequently that makes consumers feel good about your brand than to post so much that customers find it annoying. Remember, that what your post will evoke is an emotion or reaction from your target audience, so make your customer feel good because 60 percent of consumers will look at a brand in a positive light after consuming content that resonates with them, according to the marketing blog iMedia Connection.

Related

4. Don’t overlook Tumblr and Pinterest. You might feel like you don’t need yet another social media network to add to your marketing mix, but you should know that people spend an average of four times more time on Tumblr and Pinterest than they do on Twitter, according to Statista, a New York-based research firm. Consider creating a Tumblr page or Pinterest page for your brand.

5. Give Google+ another look. Still haven’t gotten around to using Google+ to build your brand? You’re not alone. For many small business owners, Google+ isn’t on their radar screen. But now is the time to take notice. Google+ averages more visits per month than Facebook. While Facebook gets approximately 809 million visits per month, Google+ averages over 1.2 billion, according to Wix, a software development company specializing in cloud-based platforms for websites and apps.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/small-business/article1989751.html#storylink=cpy