Tag Archive | "social media"

3 Social Media Branding Tips You Need to Implement


Branding your company on social media in a way that makes you stand out from your competition can make all the difference when it comes to success and increase your name recognition. To help you with your social media branding efforts, here are three key starter tips to make sure you are implementing.

1. Start simple. A quick basic branding 101 crash course: consistency is key. This applies to your logo, account handle, bio, color scheme, etc. You don’t need to have your Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms be the exact same as far as what photo is used for your logo but there needs to be enough similarity between your accounts on different sites to make your business easily recognizable to users. Once these foundational branding elements are set, you’ll want to update them to keep them fresh at least a few times a year, perhaps tailoring these changes as appropriate for various holidays and exciting launches and changes at the company.

2. Think visually. What color palette do you want to use for your brand? What fonts? Beyond just basic photos, logos, and general color schemes, you need to ensure your individual posts on your various social media have the same filters and colors and use the same fonts. This is the next step in maintaining consistency and building brand recognition beyond your logo. To help with this, consider creating templates for different types of posts so that you are using the same features for each post, such as sharing blog posts, exciting announcements, etc. When posting graphic content like videos and photos, in particular, you want to be aware of the overall aesthetic you are presenting as a brand.

3. Establish your voice. Now that you know more about the visual aspects of your brand, it’s time to focus on your persona. Setting a specific tone and voice is key — and these may be slightly different depending on what social network you’re posting on as audiences vary by platform. Your voice may be more tongue-in-cheek on Twitter and more informational on Facebook. The idea is to firmly establish each and stick to them, and this extends to vocabulary and how you interact with your followers.

Of course, branding is an extensive process and an ongoing one. But implementing these three basic branding tips on all your social media accounts — and continuing to keep them in mind — is a great place to start.

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Engaging in Social Media Influencer Marketing – Part 3


As we’ve said in our first two installments of this series, there’s a lot to know about influencer marketing. This month, we’ll cover a few final tips you should know about using influencers for marketing on social media.

7. Know that influencers aren’t just celebs. Unless you’re a huge brand with name recognition, don’t expect to entice a celebrity to push your brand on social media. Influencers do not have to be celebs to have a big following and to influence the masses to your benefit — and sometimes, it may be worthwhile to go for an influencer with a smaller following but who really would align with your business or product. By doing your research extensively, you can make sure your influencer is the right fit for you and more of a small-time celeb on social media to their followers.

8. Don’t expect miracles. It’s important to have realistic expectations about what your influencer can and will accomplish with their marketing efforts. You are probably not going to double your sales or engagement with a few posts from an influencer — but that’s not to say they won’t be effective. Set real goals that can be accomplished and measured and respect your influencer’s opinion and judgment; they likely know best.

9. Reflect and share feedback. After a campaign with an influencer, it’s important to reflect and share feedback on both sides. What does the influencer feel could work better if you continue collaborating in the future? How can their efforts be improved? Is the influencer you used the best person to work with or should your business explore other options? Think about how you want to proceed going forward based on this experience — and make sure both of you are open to constructive criticism.

Hopefully, this series gave you some great advice on what to know and expect when it comes to employing social media influencers for marketing purposes. Now go forth and put these into action!

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Engaging in Social Media Influencer Marketing – Part 2


The idea of influencer marketing on social media may still be pretty new but it’s an important tool your business should be using. As we started covering last month, there’s a lot to know about this unique realm of marketing so this month, we’re divulging some more tips on how to effectively engage in influencer marketing.

4. Make it worth their while. Many influencers receive multiple offers to push sponsored content and products to their followers — and while offering them free products or services may work for some, most prefer real dollars. Rates may vary and should depending on how big a following an influencer has but expect to pay out money for this type of marketing and not just free stuff, unless the influencer has a lesser following. Your influencer will work that much harder for you if you make it worth their while.

5. Count on Stories, not just posts. Particularly when it comes to Instagram, stories are an important component of user engagement. Make sure you ask your influencer to not just post about your business or product but that they do a Story about it as well. With Stories, your influencer can post multiple times in a series about whatever you’ve asked them to and they can collect data about views and actions credited to the Story.

6. Consider contests and giveaways. Having your influencer post about contests or giveaways from your business is a great way for your business to benefit. Everyone likes free stuff and if your influencer’s got a big following, you can guarantee that you’ll reap the rewards by sponsoring content that incentivizes social media users to follow or interact with your brand with the influencers acting as a sort of middleman.

Don’t miss our final three tips next month to ensure your influencer marketing experience is the best it can be!

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Engaging in Social Media Influencer Marketing – Part 1


Influencer marketing has quickly become a crucial way that brands and businesses reach potential consumers. But the idea of utilizing influencers is still relatively new and as such, many organizations don’t know much about how to best employ these influencers — or even where to start when it comes to engaging in influencer marketing practices. In this three-part series, we’ll provide you with a brief intro and some great advice as you get into the world of influencer marketing.

1. Do your research. You want to find influencers who are a good match for your business —  and that means doing a deep dive on social to figure out if an influencer is a good fit. Influencers will be less likely to agree to a partnership if they don’t want to push your product or business to their followers as that could cost them numbers. The more an influencer may actually use whatever service or good you’re producing, the more effective your collaborative efforts will be.

2. Engage from the get-go. Because influencers receive a lot of pitches and cold-call type messages, you want to introduce yourself and your business in an interesting and engaging way. Don’t just copy and paste the same message to multiple influencers but instead personalize it and show you actually know who you’re reaching out to and why you believe they’d be a good fit.

3. Give up control. Influencers know their followers best and have usually put a significant amount of thought and effort into building their following. The more creativity and freedom you allow them in how they promote your product, the more engaging their marketing will be. Of course, you should always have some idea of how and when they’re going to post about your business and you can feel free to make suggestions but the ultimate decision should lie with the influencer.

Stay tuned for next month’s installment for more tips on influencer marketing!

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Insta-Success: Instagram Marketing Tips – Part 3


By now, you’ve likely started implementing some of our tips into your Instagram marketing methods and hopefully have seen some results! We’re going to finish off this series with a few more tips on how you can ensure Insta-success.

Partner with Influencers. On Instagram, users who have established credibility and an audience, typically in a specific industry, are known as “influencers.” Posts by influencers are often seen by more users and considered trustworthy, which often leads to more awareness or profitability for whatever product they may be showcasing or being sponsored by. Pairing up with an influencer is worth considering, especially if you’re in the early days of trying to grow your brand and attract followers. That being said, partnering with an influencer can carry a hefty price tag so be sure you have an appropriate budget and that it will pay off for your organization. You can also consider instead of engaging with a big-level influencer, looking at your company’s followers and seeing who has a good number of followers of their own as a potential influencer for your business.

Update Your Bio Link. On Instagram, you can only have one URL and that’s in your bio. When posting a photo, you can write a URL in the description underneath, but it won’t be clickable — users will instead have to copy and paste it into a web browser. Because of that, you want to be sure to update your bio link, rather than just keeping it as a generic direct to your company’s website homepage. You can also use Bitlink in your bio to track how many clicks your Instagram page is driving to your business’s content or website.

Drive Traffic to Website. Driving traffic to your website is directly to your bio link. If you’re announcing a new product, rolling out a giveaway, etc., tell users that there’s a “link in bio” and make sure that you have updated the link there to drive traffic to the appropriate page on your website. You want to make it easy for your followers and potential customers to follow your call-to-action and actually take action, rather than deciding it’s not worth the effort or trouble. Ultimately, Insta users may engage with your brand and learn more about it on the platform, but until they are redirected away from your Instagram post and prompted to do something (such as buy your product), you won’t see a spike in profitability.

Hopefully, the tips from this three-part series have given you some new ideas on how to better use and leverage company’s Instagram account. See you on the ‘Gram!

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Insta-Success: Instagram Marketing Tips – Part 2


As we stated in last month’s post, Instagram’s user numbers are growing — so you need to capitalize on this prime social media platform when it comes to marketing. Let’s continue our three-part series with this second post that will introduce some other tips you should implement when using the ‘Gram in your marketing efforts.

Show Off Your Office Atmosphere. Transparency is big with consumers today, as is a more personal touch. Rather than just coming across as a faceless corporation, highlight your office culture on your Instagram. Post photos or short videos of your office, meetings, project kickoffs, or employees and include a quote or bit of information underneath the posting that allows users to get to know your company on a deeper level. Instagram users will appreciate getting a more intimate look into where and your organization operates and the people that work at your business

Get Into the #Hashtag Game. Hashtags are a big key to success when it comes to Insta and marketing on the platform. Utilize commonly used hashtags with your posts to grow your company’s reach and users’ awareness of your brand. Anywhere from 5-10 hashtags per post will help you start to expand your presence on the site. You can look up what common words or phrases are being used as hashtags and how many posts have already used that specific hashtag in order to increase your engagement and gain more followers. Make sure your hashtags are relevant to what you’re sharing and consider creating a hashtag of your own to use in your posts and for users to include in their posts when they are using your product. Mix up the hashtags you use by including some very popular ones as well as some more specific and perhaps less popular ones as those will allow your post to remain near the top of the tag’s results for a longer period.

Engage Consistently. It’s not enough to just post daily or a few times a week — though you should be consistent in how much your company is posting on Instagram. Be sure you are also commenting and liking other images and videos, following new people, and otherwise showing you are an active user. If you feel your business is lacking for content, go the User-Generated Content route (covered in Part 1 of this series!)

That’s all for part two of this series. Join us next month as we finish this series with a few more helpful tips and keep the above advice in mind or put it into action in the meantime!

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Insta-Success: Instagram Marketing Tips – Part 1


Instagram has become an increasingly popular tool for marketing professionals and companies to use over the last few years. With more than 1 billion monthly users, the photo-sharing platform is a prime way to connect with potential and current customers. Even if you and your business have a presence on Instagram, you may not be using the platform to its fullest potential. With that in mind, we’re going to dive into some tips on how to have more success on Instagram in this new three-part series.

Utilize User-Generated Content (UGC). Brand awareness is key to growing your consumer base. That’s where user-generated content comes into play. With UGC, you’ll curate and share content that others have created that are pertinent to your brand or showcase your product. Not only will UGC promote your company by way of word-of-mouth, but it’ll also mandate you interact frequently with others on the platform as you get permission to repost photos, like posts that include your brand or product, etc. To make it easier for you to curate, inform users that if they want to be reposted by you, they need to use a specific hashtag.

Highlight New Products, Exciting Updates. Besides just posting relevant photos, you can also announce new products, share exciting updates, hiring news, and more, all through your images, videos, and Instagram Stories. By keeping your Instagram current and updated with your company’s news, it’ll become an extension of your business and marketing campaigns and further your branding efforts. If you have an event happening, consider posting on your Instagram Story about it or go Live on Instagram during the event.

Offer Deals/Giveaways. Many giveaways and deals on Instagram are driven by users. You can offer prizes to those who take the best photo of themselves using your product, share coupon codes with your followers to reward them for their business and loyalty, and offer other deals to those who engage with you on Instagram. Make sure that you include a call-to-action that users can easily follow or do in relation to your deal or giveaway. And be certain that for whatever deal or giveaway you offer, the parameters are clear and you follow through on whatever is promised — otherwise, you’ll end up hurting your reputation and possibly losing followers on Insta.

Consider starting to use some of these tips in your Instagram marketing efforts and come back next month to read the second part of this series!

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3 Millennial Mobile Marketing Tips


With millennial and college-age consumers, it’s all about the mobile experience and making sure you’re reaching them where and how they are most often. That’s why thinking about how your marketing efforts come across on mobile devices is so crucial — and here are some things to keep in mind to make sure you and your business are mobile-ready.

1. Is your website mobile-friendly? You don’t want to limit what will show up on phones as many of your potential millennial consumers or return customers will be engaging with your organization on their smartphones. Everything that shows up on your web when you look at it on a computer should be available and accessible through a mobile device as well. That being said, you don’t want your site to take a long time to load so it’s worth investing some time and resources into establishing faster mobile loading times. From browsing to actually buying, you need to ensure your website users can easily navigate and shop on your site from their phones or you may lose business. Additionally, having content that’s interesting, catches the eye, and sized correctly for any mobile screen will go a long way.

2. Are you on social media? Your company needs to have the works: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn — even Pinterest, Reddit, and YouTube may be beneficial depending on your industry. Social media makes up a huge part of what millennials do or look at on their phones — so posting consistently, interacting with followers, and optimizing your profiles and pages will help you reach your target demographic, no matter what device they may be using. A great way to gain more followers and likes to your social media accounts is to advertise that your company offers discounts or promotional codes to those connected with your organization on social media. Millennials love to get a deal and will be more likely to engage with your business if they may get some sort of coupon or freebie out of it!

3. Are you blatantly advertising or trying to sell something? If so, you may want to change up your methods. With the overwhelming majority of Gen Y-ers owning smartphones, and growing up with them, they are less likely to trust traditional advertising and will respond better to collaborative efforts, native advertising, or more covert brand and product placements. Consider using User-Generated Content (UGC) in marketing campaigns, partnering with an influencer, or sponsorship of something in line with your business that will allow you to get your company name out there in a more discrete and less salesman-like way.

Use these three tips to better your mobile marketing efforts to millennials — while you may not see radical changes or increases in your engagement or sales right away, they will definitely improve your company’s standing with that key demo in the long-term.

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5 Facebook Marketing Tips to Know


While other social media sites are popular today, Facebook is still a key site to utilize when it comes to marketing to millennials. So how can you be sure you are maximizing the reach your Facebook marketing has? Read these tips and implement them into your Facebook marketing strategy!

Post with Purpose. Don’t just post for the sake of keeping your feed or page updated with fresh content. Every post you make is a reflection of your business and brand and should be made with that in mind. Be aware of how you are communicating with your target demographic and consider boosting posts if needed to expand your reach. Facebook Insights can help you figure out when and what you should be posting to make the most of your marketing efforts on the site.

Create a Calendar. Part of posting with purpose means planning ahead — and an easy way to stay on top of that is by creating a content calendar to track your posts and marketing campaigns. Websites like Buffer or Hootsuite can be wonderful tools if you are trying to schedule posts on multiple social media sites and allow you to conveniently track all your marketing in one place. However, you’ll still need to monitor your posts and make sure you are engaging with your audience, something not always as easily done when you’re not on Facebook itself.

Update Your Facebook Story. With the recent introduction of Stories to Facebook, a new method of interacting with your audience and keeping them up to date on your business has emerged. Facebook Stories has made posting more casual, as what is posted there doesn’t necessarily have to be as on-brand or company-specific as regular posts. Instead, interesting links, funny memes, cool photos, etc., can be posted to your Story and keep your target demographic engaged, possibly leading to more clicks and views of your company’s profile or page.

Boost Some Posts. Boosted posts allow you to expand the audience of your posts and target a specific demographic at a small cost. All you have to do to boost a post is set your target audience and your budget — and you’ll see a good number more clicks and overall increase your business and brand’s visibility on Facebook. For larger campaigns, you’ll want to go through Facebook Ads Manager and put a bit more thought into your campaign and strategy.

Optimize Your Page. Make sure your Facebook business page is well organized, updated, and easy to navigate and find information. You want millennials to have an effortless and enjoyable experience on your page, which will encourage them to come back and utilize your Facebook profile to interact with your company. For inspiration, look at other business pages on Facebook and see how they organize their pages — then pick and choose your favorite features to roll out on your own organization’s page.

Facebook marketing can be a great way to reach and interact with your millennial audience — so follow these tips for success in your marketing efforts on Facebook!

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How to Improve Your Marketing Efforts to College Students – Part 1


College students can be hard to market to successfully. That’s why you need to really tailor your marketing approach to that specific demographic when you want to appeal to them as a potential customer base. In this article, the first of a three-part series, we’re going to take a look at some of the best methods at your disposal for appealing to college students and getting them to engage with your company and products.

1. Get Social. This cannot be stressed enough. If your business does not have social media accounts on at least Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, you should stop reading this article and go make company profiles on those sites right now. College students are increasingly connected via online platforms and you need to maximize your presence on the sites to engage and influence the demographic. Other sites that can be useful tools as well include Google+, YouTube, Tumblr, Pinterest, Snapchat, and Reddit.

Once you’ve got accounts on these sites, keep them updated with fresh content. Promote your business but don’t limit yourself to just self-promo. Share interesting articles, videos, links, etc., with those who like or follow you, even if they’re not publicizing your business or products. Engage with your followers and be active. Let them know you care about them, their passions, and that you’re responsive and plugged in.

2. Keep It Short. College students are a lot like babies or puppies; their attention span isn’t all that long. Whenever you’re posting, emailing, or otherwise engaging in marketing efforts, keep your content short and snappy. You don’t need a lot of text to pack a punch; sometimes a meme with a one-liner or just a few sentences can really do the trick. You’ll find that less is more when it comes to drawing in college students’ interest and compelling them to learn more about your business and its offerings.

Consider eye-catching photos, inspirational quotes, or funny quips to set your posts apart and appeal to college students who will enjoy the fact that you’re interacting with them on their level and attempting to speak their language.

3. Mobile Matters. We’re living in the smartphone era; so if your content is not completely mobile-friendly and digestible, you’re going to miss out and drive away potential users and customers. Whatever you’re posting, promoting, and otherwise sharing should be able to be read on any and all devices. Think tablets, phones, and laptops. Make sure your content is optimized for mobile — and being on social media accounts and keeping your text short will only help users on phones and tablets take in your marketing campaigns.

Stay tuned for next month’s blog where this series will continue and we’ll impart more advice for marketing to college students, and in the meantime, start putting these tips into action!

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