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.

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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

8 Thanksgiving Day Social - Media Promotional Ideas

(Paul Chaney) Considering the fact that, according to comScore, Thanksgiving online purchases in 2013 climbed 21 percent over the previous year, merchants may want to reconsider their position.
In “10 Tips for Using Social Media in Holiday Ecommerce Marketing,” I shared ideas for utilizing social media during the holidays more generally. Today, I want to hone in on eight low-cost ways to leverage social specifically for Thanksgiving.

1. Communicate on Social Media with Customers about Thanksgiving

Spend some time Thanksgiving Day chatting with your customers on Facebook and Twitter about what Thanksgiving means to them. Ask customers what they are thankful for, and share your gratitude with them and for them.

2. Make It Thanksgiving ‘Week’

Schedule a series of social posts for publishing each day during the week of Thanksgiving. Use tools like Canva and Pixlr to create graphics that accompany the posts. (BrainyQuotes is a handy resource to find quotes you can include in posts and on graphics.)

2. Showcase Employee Thanksgiving Activities

If you have employees, showcase them in various ways during the week of Thanksgiving.
Highlight volunteer efforts in which they are involved, shoot a video where each employee shares a favorite Thanksgiving Day memory, or create a Facebook photo album of your employees’ Thanksgiving Day family gatherings.
There is a chance your employees will share those highlights with their family and friends on Facebook, which will expose even more people to your brand.

3. Engage with Thanksgiving Events

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade presents an excellent opportunity to interact with others in a live social conversation on Twitter. It is also an opportunity to promote your products via creative tweets accompanied by brand-relevant hashtags.
College football, another Thanksgiving Day tradition, is a time when in-state rivals vie for bragging rights for another year. If you plan to watch the big game, use it as an excuse to tactfully promote your brand through the company Twitter channel and Facebook page.

4. Get a Jumpstart on Black Friday Sales

Previously, I mentioned the comScore report citing growth in sales on Thanksgiving. With more and more brands starting Black Friday sales sooner, those numbers are likely to climb. Consider jumping on the bandwagon and kickoff your Black Friday promotional efforts early, as well.

5. Give something away for free.

There is a reason it’s called thanks “giving.” On that day, offer to give away something for free such as free shipping or a gift with every purchase.

6. Provide Helpful Travel Tips

The U.S. Department of Transportation cites Thanksgiving as one of the biggest travel periods of the year. Come up with some helpful travel tips for your customers and share them in social posts during Thanksgiving week. (The Travel Channel has a useful list, too.)

7. Curate Thanksgiving-themed Collections on Pinterest

If you use Pinterest for product promotion, add a Thanksgiving-themed board consisting of recipe ideas, the aforementioned travel tips, table decorations, ideas for what to do with leftovers, and more. Insert relevant products into the mix, and share pins across other social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter.

8. Run a Thanksgiving Sweepstakes or Contest

Thanksgiving-related sweepstakes and contests are good way to build your prospect database in advance of the holiday season, which could translate into increased sales in the weeks following.
One idea that is a natural fit for Thanksgiving — and which could garner lots of attention and social sharing — is a Thanksgiving dinner giveaway.
Retailers such as Boston Market, Target, Safeway, and Whole Foods offer digital gift cards that you can purchase and email to the winner. If you plan to use the entrants’ email addresses in ongoing promotions, include a statement to that effect in the sweepstakes or contest terms and conditions.

Statistics and Trends for Businesses on Social Media for 2014

 

 

Social media isn’t going anywhere and businesses now realize that if they wish to reach their prospects and customers, their online presence in social media is a foundation of their overall marketing strategy. This infographic is a fantastic in-depth look, by industry, medium, and social channel, on how businesses are leveraging social media to connect with consumers.

Both small and large businesses are realizing the influence borne by social media influencers on the public opinion. It comes as no surprise then that businesses look for these influencers on various social media sites and send them free product samples to get them reviewed. In the following infographic, Businesses on Social Media – Statistics and Trends, Go-Gulf presents several stats and trends that illustrate how businesses use social media to drive business growth.

 

21 Social Media Marketing Solutions for Small Businesses

(Sara Angeles) Social media marketing is an art form, and with the right social media marketing solution, business owners can master it.

Although social media platforms offer their own marketing tools — Twitter targeted ads, Facebook Pages, Google+ Local and Pinterest Promoted Pins, to name a few — social media marketing solutions streamline the process while helping businesses avoid alienating followers. Constantly pushing advertisements and sales copies no longer works on today's increasingly social-media-savvy consumers, which means businesses need to take on a more strategic, relationship-building approach. Here are 19 social media marketing solutions to help you get there.

1. Moment.me — Location-based social media marketing

Location-based marketing is the next big thing in social media marketing. Leverage this technology with Moment.me, which recently launched its 'Places' feature to help restaurants, hotels, stores and other brick-and-mortar businesses discover nearby leads and drive consumer engagement. Just input your address or name of business and the service will instantly aggregate all the social media posts within proximity. From there, you can find mentions of your business on status updates, photos, videos and other content that reflect what customers are thinking and their experience at your establishment. This allows you to find and approach the best customers with special offers, for instance, by sending them a thank you message for dropping by and including exclusive discounts for their next visit. Moment.me is free, and paid plans are also available for more advanced features. [10 Social Media Selling Solutions for Small Businesses]

2. SocialCentiv — Find customers on Twitter

Twitter is a gold mine for finding new customers. People don't just tweet about events and random nothings, but they also tweet looking for advice, products and services. Find them with SocialCentiv, a Twitter intent-based marketing Web app that helps small businesses turn conversations into customers. This self-serve platform lets users comb Twitter for potential customers using highly targeted metrics, such as those in their neighborhood or those seeking their specific product and services. For instance, a coffee house can search for tweets containing the terms "caffeine fix" or "need coffee," then flag them to directly reply to the customer. Try SocialCentiv with a free 7-day trial.

3. HashAtIt.com — Hashtag search engine

Knowing what's trending is key to reaching the right audience, but ask 10 different social networks and you'll get 10 different answers. HashAtIt.com streamlines the process by providing a way to find out what's hot across multiple social networks in real time. Dubbed as "The Social Search Engine," HashAtIt.com collects status updates, tweets and other posts, allowing users to search for the most popular hashtags on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest — all in one place. This hashtag search platform also offers a user-friendly interface that includes customizable hashtag boards to filter and organize hashtag searches, as well as the ability to mute irrelevant search results.

4. Guides.co – Transforming resource webpages

Guides.co creates an ongoing interaction between your business and your clients. This resource takes a social media-like approach to connecting writer and readers. Your online resource center will transform from static, white pages and PDFs to an interactive, evolving method of informing and serving your clients by allowing them to comment, ask questions, share the information, bookmark specific parts, as well as rate the usefulness of the information. Guides.co also tracks client information while also collecting data on what parts of the information are most used and shared. This easy-to-use monthly service can be self-managed or Guides.co can provide professional, tailored content for your business.

5. Sparksfly — Social media consolidation

Social media engagement can be complicated but Sparksfly, a new app, simplifies the process by allowing the you to consolidate all social-media feeds into one application. Designed for both consumers and businesses, the proprietary Fuzzy Logic Engine finds connections across networks and flags them to the user as it learns your routines. For businesses, Sparksfly offers meaningful, targeted consumer engagement based on user-generated data.

Read Full Story Here

Build a Social Media Strategy to Benefit Your Small Business

(James Caan) Over the past few years we have seen the rapid rise of social media. Ignoring it is a big mistake for any business. In an ever changing business landscape those that don’t move with the times end up getting left behind.

Social media has changed how we communicate and means there has never been more immediate or available ways to connect with your stakeholders. While it is a great tool, it must also be used with care, whatever the size of your business. It is constantly evolving, so you must have a robust but adaptable strategy to cope with this.

With any content, you should consider your overall goals: are you trying to raise more awareness, generate new sales, or boost traffic to your website? Remembering your objectives should help you build your strategy. There are plenty of ways to measure and analyse social media, keeping a close eye on those metrics will help you understand what is working well, what isn’t and will help you to make sure you aren’t wasting valuable resources.

Any social media strategy works best when it is targeted to a specific audience. If you try to speak to too many you will end up speaking to no one. When you are attempting to connect with more than one audience you must have separate strategies for each. Remember social media was primarily created as a social tool and not for business so, with this in mind, you need to remember not to preach to your audience. You need to talk to people on their terms – social media is very different to normal business communications. It is a two way channel, which means not only is it useful for marketing but it is also a great way to gauge customer feedback. I have said before that the days of mass mailing surveys are coming to an end – social media is a quicker and more cost effective way of knowing what your customers want.

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It is vital you think about your brand identity when using social media. Your company is perceived through a brand and that may not be the same as what you do. The way you use social media should reinforce your company brand and what it stands for. What does your brand stand for? Where in the market are you trying to position yourself? Whatever it is, your social media output should always come back to your organization’s USP and culture. Once something has been posted online, it will almost always be there.

Start Up Loans loan recipient David O’Neal opened his hairdressing salon for children, Short Cuts, in Milton Keynes in June and social media has been key in promoting it. Facebook and Twitter allow David to interact with his customers and to highlight examples of happy clients with the review section and comments left on his page. He also runs regular competitions to engage customers and also allows people to book appointments via Facebook.

By using social media successfully he has been able to keep marketing costs to a minimum, measure what is and isn’t working well, and build a community feel that reflects his brand. David makes sure he regularly updates content to keep existing customers engaged and attract new ones. The success of Short Cuts online is reflected in the salon’s progress – despite only being open for two months, the venture has done so well it has had to take on additional staff.

With so many opportunities to reach your audience, don’t get left behind. Spend time on your social media strategy, remember the purpose of your content, engage with your audience and remember to take advantage of the analytics tools available. If you use social media well, it could prove to be invaluable to your business and help you stay ahead of the competition.

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5 Benefits of Social Media Business Owners Need to Understand

(Peter Roesler) While the importance of social media marketing is generally accepted, the fact that people don’t question its value is all the more reason to think about exactly what its value is. The goals of social media marketing can’t be just to gain likes, fans, and retweets. These things are not ends, but means to an end. Social media marketing is far more than an online popularity contest, and the better business owners understand that, the better they can use it for their companies. Here are five benefits to social media that business owners need to understand.

1. Increase brand awareness
One of the main benefits of social media marketing is the easiest to recognize: Social media is an excellent way to introduce people to a brand. Despite the Field of Dreams notion some business owners have that “if you build it, they will come,” if people are unaware of a business or a website’s existence, they can’t shop there (Kevin Costner was dealing with ghosts, who have a lot of free time to meander around cornfields). Because social networks are used by more than two-thirds of the country, and given the way content spreads virally to others, social media is the perfect channel to promote a brand to potential customers. Relevanza reported that 78 percent of small businesses attract new customers through social media.

Research shows just how valuable this brand awareness can be. According to Adroit Digital, 75 percent of online Americans said product information found on social media influences their shopping behavior and enhances brand loyalty. They also report that social media is the second most likely way U.S. Millennials will learn about a new product (26 percent of respondents), just 3 percentage points behind TV advertising (29 percent). In the future, social media may be even more important than TV ads for introducing new products to consumers. Similarly, research from eMarketer has shown that 33 percent of consumers cite social networks as the way they discover new brands, products, and services.

2. Legitimize a brand
Another way social media marketing helps with customer acquisition is by establishing a brand as legitimate. When Internet consumers discover a business or retailer they want to use but know little about, they often check their social media page to learn more about it. Many small businesses have static websites that change little, if at all, after being initially set up by the designer. Social media pages, on the other hand, should be constantly updated with new posts, comments, etc.

A website establishes that a brand exists, but a social media page establishes that the brand is active. Similarly, the number of fans shows how popular a brand is and Facebook reviews can reassure buyers by showing them that other consumers like a business. Research from Ballihoo found that 63 percent of consumers who search for local businesses online are more likely to use businesses with information on social media sites.

It’s worth noting that poor social media marketing can also delegitimize a brand. If a new customer goes to a business’s social media page and finds that a post hasn’t been made in a few months, that customer may assume the business is defunct. If customers are asking for help in the comments and they’re being ignored, they may assume the company has poor customer service.

3. Increase sales
In the end, social media marketing needs to help increase sales and revenue. That’s why it’s called social media marketing and not simply social media public relations. To be fair, improving brand awareness and legitimizing a brand should, by themselves, help increase sales. But there are ways to use social media to directly steer consumers toward the sales funnel. For fans of the business, business owners can write posts that link to products, sales, etc.

Marketers can also use promoted content and advertisements to sell products to target audiences who haven’t become fans of a brand yet. The ability to target particular audiences is one of the greatest benefits of social media marketing. Social networks know a lot about consumer interests and demographics, so even though there are hundreds of millions of fans, marketers can accurately target the right people with the right message.

There are also a lot of ways that retailers can sell products directly from social networks. On Facebook, business owners can set up a Facebook store with apps like Ecwid or Beetailer. On Twitter, retailers with Amazon.com pages can allow Twitter users to add products to their Amazon checkout straight from their Twitter feed. There are also ways to sell products on Pinterest, YouTube, and other social networks.

4. Improve customer service
Another benefit of social media that’s easy to overlook is customer service. Even if a business has a dedicated customer service department, telephone number, or email, it’s important to handle issues via the method of communication the consumer prefers. The fact that people use social media to ask customer service questions is reason enough for businesses to ensure their ability to help customers through social media.

This also goes back to establishing a brand. One of the key concerns of consumers when they shop online is the responsiveness of customer service. People want to be assured that if they have a problem, they can easily find help. By being receptive to customer needs, business owners can increase customer loyalty to a brand.

5. Distribute content
Social media should be a part of any content marketing distribution system. Social media accounts for a huge portion of referral traffic on the web. People are looking for content that interests them and they want to share it online. A joint study by AOL and Nielsen found that people spend more than 50 percent of their time online with content and an additional 30 percent of their time on social channels where content can be shared. Business owners who want to gain customers through content marketing need to use social media and promoted content to make that happen.

All of these points and data show that social media marketing is a huge benefit for business owners, and exactly what the benefits are. Besides increasing brand awareness and establishing the legitimacy of the brand, social media marketing can affect the bottom line of a business by increasing sales. Learning about the importance of social media for marketing should also underscore why these efforts need to be continuous and the harm it does when social media marketing isn’t up to consumer expectations. Long story short, social media marketing is something that every business needs to do and needs to do well.

Guide to Using Social Media for Marketing

(Larry Kim) Using social media for marketing can enable small business looking to further their reach to more customers. Your customers are interacting with brands through social media, therefore, having a strong social media presence on the web is the key to tap into their interest. If implemented correctly, marketing with social media can bring remarkable success to your business.

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing, or SMM, is a form of internet marketing that implements various social media networks in order to achieve marketing communication and branding goals. Social media marketing primarily covers activities involving social sharing of content, videos, and images for marketing purposes.

At WordStream, we’ve created this guide to provide you with the social media marketing training you need to better your business. We want to give small businesses on short budgets an alternative to hiring a social media marketing agency or paying for social media marketing services.
With our Social Media Marketing 101 Guide below, you can begin developing your own social media marketing expert plan.

Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses: Learn Social Media Marketing 101

This education guide gives a basic overview on how to use social media for marketing, serving as a social media marketing for dummies manual. Read to learn about how to reap the benefits of using social media in marketing.

Social Media and Marketing: Start With a Plan

Before you begin creating social media marketing campaigns, consider your business’ goals. Starting a social media marketing campaign without a plan in mind is like wandering through a forest without a map—you’ll only end up lost.

Create a social media marketing plan and brainstorm about your goals: what are you hoping to achieve through social media marketing? Who is your target audience? Where would your target audience hang out and how would they use social media? What message do you want to send to your audience with social media marketing?

Social Media for Marketing: Developing Your Goals

Social media marketing can help with a number of goals, such as:

• Website traffic
• Conversions
• Brand awareness
• Creating a brand identity and positive brand association
• Communication and interaction with key audiences

Only by establishing your goals can you measure your social media ROI.

Best Social Media Marketing Tips: Learn Marketing with Social Media

Here are some social media marketing tips to keep you on the right track across all your social media campaigns.

• Planning – As discussed previously, building a social media marketing plan is essential. Consider keyword research and brainstorm content ideas that will interest your target audience.
• Content is King — Consistent with other areas of online marketing, content reigns king when it comes to social media marketing. Make sure you are offering valuable information that your ideal customers will find interesting. Create a variety of content by implementing social media images, videos, and infographics in addition to classic text-based content.
• Consistent Brand Image — Using social media for marketing enables your business to project your brand image across a variety of different social media platforms. While each platform has its own unique environment and voice, your business’ core identity should stay consistent.
• Blog — Blogging is a great social media marketing tool that lets you share a wide array of information and content with readers. Your company blog can also serve as your social media marketing blog, in which you blog about your recent social media efforts, contests, and events.
• Links — While using social media for marketing relies primarily on your business sharing its own unique, original content to gain followers, fans, and devotees, it’s also great to link to outside articles as well. If other sources provide great, valuable information you think your target audience will enjoy, don’t be shy about linking to them. Linking to outside sources improves trust and reliability, and you may even get some links in return.
• Track Competitors — It’s always important to keep an eye on competitors—they can provide valuable data for keyword research, where to get industry-related links, and other social media marketing insight. If your competitors are using a certain social media marketing technique that seems to be working for them, do the same thing, but do it better!
• Measure Success with Analytics —You can’t determine the success of your social media marketing strategies without tracking data. Google Analytics can be used as a great social media marketing tool that will help you measure your triumphant social media marketing techniques, as well as determine which strategies are better off abandoned.  Attach tracking tags to your social media marketing campaigns so that you can properly monitor them.

How to Use Social Media for Marketing: Know Your Platform

We’ve put together a brief overview on how to use social media for marketing according to each platform’s unique environment. Various social media marketing sites will require different techniques, so develop a unique strategy tailored for each platform.

Facebook’s casual, friendly environment requires an active social media marketing strategy that begins with creating a Facebook Business Fan Page.  You will want to pay careful attention to layout, as the visual component is a key aspect of the Facebook experience. Social media marketing for business pages revolves around furthering your conversation with audiences by posting industry-related articles, images, videos, etc.

Facebook is a place people go to relax and chat with friends, so keep your tone light and friendly.

Google+ is the new Facebook competitor, and it promotes the same fun, casual atmosphere. On Google+ you can upload and share photos, videos, links, and view all your +1s. Also take advantage of Google+ circles, which allow you to segment your followers into smaller groups, enabling you to share information with some followers while barring others. For example, you might try creating a “super-fan” circle, and share special discounts and exclusive offers only with that group.

You can also try hosting video conferences with Hangouts and experiment using the Hangout feature in some fun, creative ways. Some social media marketing ideas: if you’re a salon, host a how-to session on how to braid your hair. If you own a local bookstore, try offering author video chats. If you’re feeling adventerous, invite your +1s to your Google+ Community. Google+ Communities will allow you to listen into your fan’s feedback and input, truly putting the social back into social media.

Pinterest
Pinterest is the latest in social media marketing trends. Pinterest’s image-centered platform is ideal for retail, but anyone can benefit from using Pinterest for social media purposes.
Pinterest allows small businesses to showcase their own product offerings while also developing their own brand’s personality with some unique pinboards.

Twitter is the social media marketing tool that lets you broadcast your updates across the web. Follow tweeters in your industry or related fields, and you should gain a steady stream of followers in return.
Mix up your official-related tweets about specials, discounts, and news updates with some fun and quirky tweets interspersed. Be sure to retweet when a customer has something nice to say about you, and don’t forget answer people’s questions when possible.  Using Twitter as a social media marketing tool revolves around dialog and communication, so be sure to interact as much as possible

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is one of the more professional social media marketing sites. LinkedIn Groups is a great venue for entering into a professional dialog with people in similar industries and provides a place to share content with like-minded individuals.

Encourage customers or clients to give your business a recommendation on your LinkedIn profile. Recommendations makes your business appear more credible and reliable for new customers. Also browse the Questions section of LinkedIn; providing answers helps you get established and earns trust.

YouTube is the number one place for creating video content, with can be an incredibly powerful social media marketing tool. Many businesses try to create video content with the aim of having their video “go viral,” but in reality those chances are pretty slim. Instead, focus on creating useful, instructive “how-to” videos. These how-to videos also have the added benefit of ranking on the video search results of Google, so don’t under-estimate the power of video content!
Location-Based Social Media Tools

Social media platforms like Yelp, FourSquare, and Level Up are great for brick and mortar businesses looking to implement marketing social media. Register on these sites to claim your location spot, and then consider extra incentives such as check-in rewards or special discounts. Remember, these visitors will have their phones in hand so they will have access to providing reviews which could hurt or significantly aid your users.

Reddit

Reddit, or similar social media platforms such as Stumble Upon or Digg, are ideal for sharing compelling content. With over 2 billion page views a month, Reddit has incredible social media marketing potential, but marketers should be warned that only truly unique, interesting content will be welcomed. Posting on Reddit is playing with fire—submit spammy or overtly sales-focused content and your business could get berated by this extremely tech-savvy community.

If you have content you believe the Reddit community (majority is young, geeky, liberal, and internet-obsessed) would enjoy, you could reap tremendous benefits and earn valuable traffic.
Using social media in marketing does more than improve site traffic and help businesses reach more customers; it provides a valuable venue for better understanding and learning from your target audiences. Hopefully this guide has helped you better understand how using social media for marketing  can improve your business.

10 Tips for Creating Content on Facebook That Gets You Thumbs Up!

(Megan Marrs) With the recent release of our brand new infographic documenting Facebook’s failures, I thought I’d write about how you can make sure that you yourself don’t have any Facebook face-plants. Here are 10 tips for creating awesome Facebook content that will keep visitors interested and engaged.

1. Post Content that Interests Your Customers

The key to developing a winning fan page that builds fans and pushes your business forward is to post content that genuinely interests your customers or clients. Don’t focus solely on you or your business. By providing valuable information to the reader you will build a stronger relationship with current and prospective customers.

Red Bull knows that their energy drink customers are likely to be interested in extreme activities, so they post videos they know customers will enjoy, even if it doesn’t relate to Red Bull directly.

2. Post a Variety of Content

Let’s imagine you own a pet grooming business. On your fan page, you’ll want to share a variety of content like:

• Blog Posts – what’s new and happening at your business? Did Spot the puppy turn 1 this week?
• Photos – in addition to photos of your store, take snap shots of workers and customers. Upload social media images and pics from events you’ve attended or hosted, like your canine Best in Show event.
• Press Releases – let customers know about the updates and improvements you’ve made
• Videos – do I need to even tell you how many adorable kitten videos are on the web?

3. End Every Post With a Question

I hate to sound like a scrooge, but the truth is that people are pretty self-absorbed. Fan page visitors are much more likely to pay attention and respond to your posts if you address them personally and encourage them to get involved.

Pairing your posts with questions is a great way to accomplish this. You’ll get more engagement and better response if you post a link with a question or call to action, rather than just posting a link solo. Invite conversation whenever possible, with each post you do.


Ben & Jerry know how to get their customers chatting.

To go along with our pet grooming example, you might post a link to an article with “Five Tips for Cutting Your Dog’s Nails at Home” (trust me, this is not easy). Include a question with the link, such as “Do you have any special tricks for keeping your dog relaxed?”

4. Don’t Post Too Frequently

According to a research study by the University of Colorado Denver Business School, the No.1 reason people dump Facebook friends is that they get annoyed being continuously bombarded with useless posts (if you are looking to lower your friend count, just download a couple of Zynga games and you’ll be golden).
Plastering a fan’s news feed won’t make them like you any more.  Make each post count!

5. Allow Fans to Write on Your Wall

This might go without saying, but you really need to enable visitors to write on your wall. Disabling this feature means you might as well not have a fan page at all, since the whole point of being on Facebook is to get into dialogue with customers.

6. Don’t Share Twitter Posts on Your Facebook Page

You’re talking to different audiences with different needs and expectations. It’s fine to have an announcement you want to share across Facebook and Twitter, but re-write it accordingly. And definitely remove the #&@s or people might think you’re saying some not-so-nice things.

7. Use Contests, But Use Them in Moderation

Of course we can’t forget about contests, the bread and butter of fan pages. Contests are great, but they should be a fun and exciting event, not the norm.
Pumpkin coffee and apple cider are awesome reminders of fall because you can’t get them just any day of the year. Similarly, you shouldn’t be hosting contests so often that they lose their edge.

8. Get Creative With the Contests

Try an essay, photo, or video contest to get a higher level of engagement with fans. It’s great to incorporate seasonal events, like a “Best Pumpkin Carving” or “Cutest Pet Costume” contest for Halloween. The Wildfire web application is a great tool for making interactive content like contests, quizzes, and surveys.

Boo the adorable dog would win any contest. Because he is just too adorable.

If you run a social media photo contest, tag your customers so that the post appears on their wall too. That way you’re furthering your sphere of influence by reaching out to friends of your fans.

9. Try Selecting a Monthly Topic

One idea in attempts to keep fans engaged is to select a different topic for each month. Talk about and post links to sites that cover that topic.
Having a different topic you address each month demonstrates that you have a continuous online presence, making you appear much more interesting (even if deep down you are incredibly dull). Which brings us to our final tip…

10. Be Interesting!

After I got a PS3, I decided to follow the @AskPlaystation feed, which provides fascinating insight into topics such as how to clean your PS3 and ways to keep it ventilated. OK, to be fair, it is a customer support feed. But boy-howdy is it boring.



Fascinating stuff.
Nobody, and I mean nobody, wants to look at a boring Facebook page. There are some environments where an air of professionalism is necessary, but that attitude will only come off as dull on Facebook.
Hopefully these tips got you thinking about ways to generate interesting and engaging content with your Facebook fans! Spread the love.

What are your tips and tricks for creating great content on Facebook?