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The Social Media Marketer

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Social Media Marketing: 5 Simple Ways To Tell If You're Doing It Right

 
social media marketing

Often living online as much as anywhere else, the social media population continues to grow and seek new ways to interact and communicate.  In our consumer society, messages about products and services are nearly as frequent as those about friends and social events. 

You want to establish a consistently loyal consumer base, which also informs others about the goods you sell.

5 Ways to Determine the Success of Your Social Media Marketing
  
Analyze consumer opinions: Perhaps the single most identifiable characteristic of social media marketing is its interactive quality.  People use Facebook, Twitter and similar alternatives to speak to each other as if they were in the same room.  Their opinions are not confined to social events or friend-related news; consumers exchange impressions about products they've actually used or seen advertised online. 

Since they are vocal about their ideas, its good policy to discover what consumers (current or potential) think of your stuff (products, services).  Do they like the color of a garment, camera, or awning?  Would they prefer another?  Is the artisan gelato you offer a little too salty?  Or maybe, its perfect.  Find out if you're doing it right by asking consumers if your product meets their requirements, and if not, what's wrong.  Checklists, Yes/nos, multiple choice or discussion boxes accompanying online marketing generate opinions, as can monitoring online social media discussions pertinent to what you sell. 

This free source of customer feedback helps improve your offerings by acquiring opinions directly from the source.  Estee-Lauder, Frito-Lay and Walmart all use these methods; so should you.
 
Sales and revenues:  Properly applied social media marketing generates sales, from which your organization derives revenues and profits.  Sales may not be immediately apparent; although some sales activity may result at the outset, conversations about your stuff among social media users can produce leads, those early indicators of interest and purchase among consumers.

It is the relationship your social media marketing can perpetuate with consumers that directs their subsequent purchase behavior and product loyalty.  One way to determine if you're doing it right is to check sales figures, maybe not the day after you launch a campaign but at a designated time.  Sales indicate the appeal of your social media marketing messages and the popularity of your goods.
 
Website traffic:  A primary objective of social media marketing is persuading consumers to visit your Web site.  Engaging appropriate analytic tools will help determine the level of traffic and to what extent it has been generated from social media site referrals.  By calculating the change over time, you can determine if social media marketing has sent more traffic your way and, equally as important, if the remarks social media users make about you are positive. 

Of course, good user-content indicates you're doing it right.  But the occasional negative remarks can be useful, as a departure point for improving your products and the way you market them.

Monitor competitors:  You need to know what your competitors are doing.  And be sure they'll be using the same analytical systems you use to  scrutinize your efforts and progress relative to their own.  These are the simultaneous benefits and drawbacks of social media marketing; everyone has access to everybody else's business.  The advantage is you can learn what customers find appealing AND displeasing about competitors' goods, an inexpensive way to improve what you're offering. 

Comparing good/bad customer remarks for your goods and competitor’s indicates if your social media marketing is providing the results you seek or needs to be modified to reflect realities in the marketplace.
 
Search engine optimization (SEO) Evaluate access and response to your homepage.  You'll want people to find your page easily and use social media to report affirmatively about what they found.  Tools like Google Analytics assess the impact of your homepage, determining if your optimization decisions truly reflect what's best for the site's visitors, the consumers of your content.  Is your site easy to navigate?  Do meta-tags accurately describe content?  Answering questions like these will establish if your social media marketing is successful, and what needs to be improved.

Social media marketing has replaced print and other media to an exceptional degree; a wide variety of content exists, but not all successfully reaches consumers.  The methods suggested above should help determine if your content is appealing and believable, and to who.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock



























Social + Local = The New Google+ Local

 

What was once known as Google Places has recently evolved into a key part of the Google Plus offering.  Google Places provided a directory type of service for businesses to list and allow people to find more detailed information.  With the migration into Google Plus this service is now called Google+ Local and can be an even more rewarding experience for small and medium businesses that need to improve their online presence.

The Social Olympics: It’s A Small World After All

 

Are you watching the Olympics?  If not, that’s ok.  You can always catch up on social media later, and why not?  Everybody else is.  The 2012 Olympic games in London are predicted to be the largest social media event to date, so you can bet that your buddies knew who won the gold medal in synchronized diving before the athletes even had a chance to dry off.

YouTube For Small Business: 3 Ways To Make It Work For You

 
The extensive reach and undeniable power of YouTube videos has been demonstrated by everyone from major artists launching careers, like Lady Gaga, to new businesses like the Dollar Shave Club. Below are some YouTube pointers that small businesses would do well to understand and apply to their marketing strategies.
 
1. Focus on Information. Rather than designing a sales strategy, think about ways to improve your brand image. One effective way to draw attention to your business, without being obvious, is to increase the public's knowledge and understanding of what your company offers.

Internet users become fatigued with the constant bombardment of ads. Between all the pop-up and banner ads, it is easy for people to become frustrated. Part of the reason that entertaining and educational videos are so effective, is that they are usually not obvious selling attempts. When crafted creatively, videos can be very effective at conveying a subtle marketing message.

The business and sales culture is ad-dependent. Sales materials are placed everywhere, in addition to the constant interruption of radio and television commercials. Videos are no exception, and when they are designed like a television commercial, they can be just as annoying to the viewing audience.

Some savvy advertisers have realized this, instead focusing on education and entertainment with their visual ads. This has proven to be very effective, as demonstrated by the CLIO and Webby Awards.

Design your videos as a worthwhile effort that actually interests potential customers. Providing informative and engaging content will not be lost on the public, and could prove to be part of the most effective online marketing campaign your business has adopted.

Start by establishing your branding message. Inform the public of what you are offering, and why it is different from other products and services. Include pieces of information that entertain and educate. For example, a new product launch might include an enthusiastic video demonstration that displays how a product or service will work.

When changes occur within your business, create videos announcing them. In addition to posting the videos on YouTube, links to them can be sent to new and existing clients as part of an email marketing campaign.

2. Establish Uniqueness
. The most creative YouTube videos are usually the most interesting. In fact, these are the ones that go viral, sometimes making the television airwaves, creating a sensation. Take a look at popular videos that describe similar products and services, and study ways to develop your own unique message.
 
Your YouTube videos should focus on making your business interesting. The goal is to make your products and services as intriguing to prospects, as they are to you. This is relatively easy to accomplish, by creating videos with the most visual appeal and excellent sound quality.

Spend some time thinking about creative presentations that will engage the viewer. Use varied information, trying out different approaches. You might create a series of videos, each leaving a cliffhanger, which invites the viewer to return. The more creative your videos are, the more interesting they will be to the audience. The goal is to use information to make your videos different and stand out from the others.

3. Inform and Educate.
Just as is the case with articles and blogs, the higher the quality of content, the more it is recognized by the public and acknowledged in the search engines as relevant. This is why one of the great ways to use YouTube is with How-To videos.

Many people search on the web to specifically find out how to do things. Because of this, the how-to video is one of the most popular on the YouTube network. Additionally, videos are far more effective at instruction than articles, because of the instant impact of their visual aspects.
 
How-To videos can gain a lot more exposure for any small business. It may seem as though showing people how to do something on their own will make it less likely that they will purchase something. However, the opposite is true.

The how-to video itself puts your company before people, providing them with value that gets them to think and talk about your business. Also, great how-to videos motivate people to share them. A viral video can get a company more exposure than just about any other advertising medium.

YouTube should be an integral part of any online marketing strategy. The art of visual storytelling is a very effective tool for attracting interest. Additionally, the exposure gained builds a robust social media profile, leading to a strong customer base.



































4 Essential Twitter Tips For Business

 

The arrival of the Twittersphere and Twitterverse was perfectly on time for businesses. It broke down the barriers of traditional advertising and allowed companies to speak directly to their customers, using informal language. Suddenly, all you have to do is send a short message and it’s out there, reaching everyone who might be interested!

It’s not quite that simple, however.  In fact, Twitter is the ultimate in “pull” advertising, in spite of the fact that at first glance it looks like a “push” mechanism. To get the most out of Twitter for business purposes, you need to follow a few golden rules.

Planning Your Strategy



7 Ways To Take Control Of Your Social Media Addiction

 

Are You Making The Most Of Your Social Media Efforts?

 

Communication: The Key To Social Media Marketing Success

 

Social media doesn’t like advertising. We’ll say it again: if you want to advertise your product or service, do it somewhere else. Social media is about conversation, about communicating with your followers, peers and colleagues, and blatant advertising just doesn’t cut it!

Businesses that don’t realize this quickly find themselves unFollowed, unFriended and unLiked. And with 900 million people on Facebook and 100 million on Twitter, those aren’t markets you want to unAnything.

Interacting with your Followers



Social Media Failure Is Not An Option: 5 Tips For Success

 
Social media is one of the simplest and most cost-effective ways for startups and businesses on a budget to market its products or services. According to a 2011 article in Inc. magazine, social media can help increase traffic to a website by up to 72 percent and improve search rankings by up to 62 percent.

However, because your reach extends to so many prospects and customers, you can’t afford to fail. Whether you have established social networking accounts for your business or have just created new ones, the following tips will help lead you on the path of social media success.

  1. Start with a strategy. Just as you would develop an advertising campaign for traditional forms of marketing, you need to take the time to develop a social media strategy that details your goals and your plan to achieve them. By creating such a strategy, you create the foundation for current and future social media efforts. As you work on your social media plan, use the answers from the following questions as a guide:

    • Who is in charge of the social media efforts?
    • Who is your target audience?
    • What are your business goals in regards to social media?
    • How will your social media strategy tie into your current marketing efforts?
    • What is your plan for communicating with your target audience?

  2. Measure the success of your social media endeavors. All good goals are measurable. Just as you measure your business goals for progress, measure the outcomes of your social media strategy. Track items like the number of mentions regarding your business, the amount of traffic that a social networking account drives to your website or the number of followers.

  3. Time your updates accordingly. Posting your social media updates at the wrong time can make them almost invisible. The most popular and shared posts in 2011, according to KISSmetrics, were those that were posted at noon and 6:00 p.m. (EST). This is important to take into account since over 30 percent of the U.S. population live in the Central Time Zone, and almost 50 percent live in the Eastern Time Zone. So, if you live in the West Coast and update your social networking account during your lunch hour, up to 80 percent of the U.S. population more than likely won’t see it.

  4. Don’t neglect your competitors. This is where the saying of keeping your enemies closer than your friends becomes relevant, as you should know who your competitors are and what they’re up to. Social media gives you the unique advantage to learn about and participate in your competitor’s social media campaigns by simply following. By doing this, you can see what the followers of the competition are saying and use it to your advantage. For example:

    • If the competition’s followers complain about a missing feature, adding that feature to your product or service could prove fruitful.
    • If followers are praising something that you and a competitor do, consider promoting this aspect in your ads if you aren’t actively promoting it.
    • Notice the emotion that a competitor’s followers associate with a product. Then determine if there’s a way that you can tap into the same emotion with your own fan base.

  5. Follow the rules of social media etiquette. Yes, there is a code of conduct on the Internet to help secure your popularity, and they include:
    • Using thought-provoking questions regarding relevant current trends to start conversations and engage your followers.
    • Not following others unless you truly intend to follow them back.
    • Promoting others (e.g., businesses, partners or people in the news) in your updates. While mentioning another business, especially a competitor, seems like a marketing taboo, remember that it gets your business’ name out there and in front of your competitor’s followers.
    • Keeping self-promotions short and focused on the reader’s benefit. You have less than five seconds to capture the interest of your followers; make those seconds count.
    • Minding quality over quantity. Entrepreneur advises that it’s better to have 200 followers, for example, who actively read and share your content than have 2,000 who follow your business, but disappear. Also, keep the quality over quantity rule in mind as you create professional social media accounts for your business because its better to fully engage with fans on four or less social media outlets than spread yourself thin.
When paired with a strategic plan, social media can give your marketing efforts a cost-effective boost when you play the game right. Such outlets give you invaluable insights and the ability participate in one-to-one interactions with current and prospective customers, which is harder to do with just a website alone.
















5 Essential Tips for Social Media Marketing Newbies

 
There is no doubt that social media marketing is the wave of the future. With print advertisements in newspapers, magazines, trades and Thrifty Nickel having gone the way of the dinosaur, it is important that business owners use the latest methods for promoting their company.

Social media is it! Look at the statistics; over 800 million people have Facebook accounts and Twitter has over 300 million accounts. That is a lot of people who can be reached via social media marketing efforts! However, this can be daunting for marketing newbies, especially those who are not familiar with social media.

The following list are 5 essential tips to enhance your marketing efforts on social sites like Facebook and Twitter:

1. Create a powerful welcoming page. This page can organically drive customers to a website by using a call to action. Be sure to make it clear why this website deserves their business,  and promote what they do best. Do not command your customers to "Like" you on Facebook or "Follow Us" on Twitter without explaining why. They must know what is in it for them (i.e. rewards, special coupons, etc...) before they make the move to helping your social media marketing efforts. If you would like more advice on how to successfully accomplish this, go to the Likeable Book site on Facebook.

2. Offer coupons and discounts. This is an extension of tip # 1 where you can send coupons and discount offers to potential customers. It can also be used to entice those who are not your big fans to become one of your fans. While this is an old school marketing technique, it can certainly improve your number of "Likes" on Facebook.

3. One of the biggest mistakes newbies make is not updating your page frequently. Nobody wants to read articles from 1 or 2 years ago, they want to see you making an effort to connect with them. You can do this by posting blogs frequently, responding to comments, let them know about deals that are happening now and make special offers to those who act soon. 

4. Share pics and videos with everyone.
Most people love to watch videos and look at pictures. This does not cost a fortune either, which most marketing newbies do not have. You can take pictures or make short videos with a smart phone or digital camera and upload them to your social media pages. The old adage is true; a picture is worth a thousand words and they can help convey an image of you that plain text simply cannot. 

5. When starting a new business, your company is building and gathering information. You should know what customers want, and the best way to determine this is by creating quizzes and polls for potential consumers. It not only helps you decide what people are looking for, but figure out how many people are interested in what you have to offer. Go to the Polls App for Facebook and watch the demo on how you can download this application, and use to your business' advantage. 

Remember to be patient, as starting up a new business can take time to turn over a profit. You may be fortunate enough to experience instant results, or it may take you 6 months to a year to find success. However, if you are patient, persistent and truly passionate about your product, you can tackle the social media marketing outlet and work it to your benefit!























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