5 Ways To Optimize Your Social Media Campaigns

30 Ways to Boost Instagram Engagement & Following

Looking for ways to boost your social media brand presence? Knowing how to increase brand engagement on Instagram, the latest and hippest social media platform app, is a great start. People are online all day due to working from home. Virtual shopping has risen due to restrictions and pandemic fears. As we have geared toward a more online world, your brand’s presence on the web is more important now than ever.

Why Instagram?

According to Forbes, 80% of Instagram users follow at least one business or brand, and 200 million users on Instagram visit business profiles daily. 70% of users turn to Instagram to look up a brand, and 60% learn about new products using Instagram. Now is the time to catch up with the competition that is already using these trends to their advantage.

Here is a compilation of our 30 best marketing tips for businesses to grow Instagram engagement and following in 2020:

Instagram Profile and Posting Habits

Get to know the Instagram app and master how to use its basic features such as uploading posts and stories.
Write a compelling Instagram bio and integrate it into your brand personality.
Keep posts visually consistent to meet your brand’s style guide and tone.
Incorporate categorized pinned stories on your Instagram page so it is easily navigable and can be used as a resource for sharing your brand identity to consumers.
Optimize captions using brand hashtags and relevant hashtags with high popularity. (Determine if a hashtag is trending by typing the hashtag in the instagram search bar to see how many posts come up with the hashtag.)
Use tools such as Hashtagsforlikes to optimize hashtags to use for your business sector.
Create and promote a specific branded hashtag for a campaign. Encourage others to share the hashtag with it theming around a relevant, trending topic that consumers are passionate about.
Use local hashtags and geotags on posts in order to attract local users on Instagram in a similar way SEO works for the web.
Post consistently with both posts and stories, including videos, polls, and other interactive elements to keep followers engaged and entertained with your content.
Start conversations using Instagram stories stickers and polls.
Schedule Instagram stories to generate more views.
Keep in mind that 40% of Instagram videos do not have sound on, so ensure you caption relevant verbal content.
Convert instagram followers into email subscribers by making your Instagram a business account and promoting your email subscriptions in your Instagram posts and stories.
Monitor your tagged photos to ensure a good reputation, and un-tag your account on posts that are irrelevant or spam, so they do not appear on your profile.
Add a link to instagram stories in order to generate website traffic.
Use humor through gif’s and memes to execute your brand message through a creative angle.

Increasing your Instagram following

Optimize SEO on instagram by paying vital attention to your Instagram handle and name. It is very important that your handle (@…) reflects your business industry. Try to make it short, sweet, and with relevant words. The account name should reflect the account handle and industry because it is what Instagram checks its searches against when users type a word or emoji in the search bar.
Partner with micro influencers.
Run a contest, giveaway, or raffle entry through your account page.
Invest in Instagram ads, which targets customers with personalization and buyer persona techniques.
Create “savable” content, or posts that are aesthetically pleasing, informationally useful or relevant. This will entice followers to save the content to their library and increases the chances of further brand awareness. Simultaneously, creating desirable content provides people a reason to continue following your page and share your content.
Participate in popular conversations on accounts with high following and public relevance in order to get your instagram handle out there and quickly generate new followers.
Encourage followers to re-share your Instagram stories through incentives of discount promotion codes and/or contests.
Open up about your business with a weekly featured vlog of the day in the life of an employee, an interesting biographical picture and captioned story of the founders, or inspirational quote from the CEO.
Follow relevant accounts and users following competition in your industry to gain followers back.
Promote your Instagram on other social media accounts. Feature your Instagram account in your Twitter and Facebook bios, and make a post promoting your Instagram page with a link.
If your Facebook has many likes or followers already, consider linking your Facebook and Instagram together to boost your Instagram following.

6 Social Media Trends to Follow in 2020

Keeping Track of your Instagram Performance

Ensure your account is in business mode to automatically receive valuable insights and analytics on how your posts are doing.
Regularly test and analyze new content to post to your Instagram.
Use a free follower tracking app to regularly unfollow accounts that do not follow yours back in order to maintain a good follower/following ratio while continuously following new accounts.

We hope these 30 tips with various resources serve you well on your journey to becoming an Instagram lead-generation powerhouse. Happy “gram-ing”!

TikTok Advertising Strategies Are Becoming More Common

July 6, 2020/in Articles, Blog, Brand Story Telling, Content Marketing, Digital Media, Directors, Marketing Strategy, Media, Mobile Advertising, News & Insights, Social Media, Trending, Video Marketing /by Nicole Wagner

Most businesses these days are using at least one or two social media channels to market their brand. However, new social channels emerge every year, many of which are worth your attention. Take TikTok for example. Although initially dismissed by most as another social media platform for teens, more businesses are taking notice. This is because they are beginning to realize that TikTok is attracting more adult users every day. As such, TikTok advertising is well worth considering.

What is TikTok?

TikTok started off as a platform on which users could upload videos of themselves lip-synching to music videos. These videos were no more than 15 seconds long. In a way, they were like a more niche-based version of the now-defunct Vine social platform. As such, it was no surprise that the platform attracted a younger audience. However, older users began taking advantage of TikTok’s audience to showcase themselves in different ways. For example, comedians would upload short videos of stand-up routines. Another example is of skateboarders, who would upload tricks that they landed. Soon, TikTok allowed its users to upload videos up to 60 seconds long.

Who Uses TikTok?

TikTok still has a userbase that leans on the younger side with more than 66 percent of its users under the age of 30. However, if you have a younger target audience, then TikTok is very much worth your time. This is especially true when you consider the fact that more parents are using TikTok on a daily basis (it’s estimated that 41 percent of dads have used TikTok). Not to mention that TikTok currently has over six million users in the U.S. alone.

Video Marketing Ideas: Using Storytelling in Social Media

How Can You Leverage TikTok To Market Your Brand?

If your buyer personas match the target audience of TikTok, then you may be curious as to how you can use the platform to your advantage. The following are just a few effective tactics when it comes to TikTok advertising:

User-generated content

TikTok is a great platform for encouraging user-generated content. Instagram is the other social channel where user-generated content is incredibly effective. One of the reasons user-generated content is so successful on both of these channels is because it encourages active audience engagement. Not only will they be engaged with your brand, but they will also generate content that helps promote your brand. In a sense, you’ll be getting free advertising. Users are more likely to participate using TikTok as well due to the platform’s focus on video creation.

TikTok challenges

One of the reasons why TikTok’s popularity has exploded over recent years is due to the challenges that users engage in. For example, one type of challenge involves doing a specific dance move or physical challenge (such as taking off your shirt while doing a wall stand). Many of these challenges go viral organically, but businesses have begun creating their own challenges in an effort to engage more users. When creating a challenge, make sure to use a hashtag along with an appropriate title. Doing so ensures that the challenge has a better chance of being found and shared.

Influencer marketing

Just like Instagram, TikTok is home to users with enormous followings. As such, you should consider influencer marketing. Influencer marketing involves building a relationship with someone on the platform with a large influence (number of followers). As long as your brand is relevant to them, they will be able to influence their followers’ awareness and feelings about your brand. For example, if you create a challenge, you can get it exposure by having an influencer take part in that challenge. They can also encourage their followers to do the same.

TikTok’s advertising platform

Like other social platforms, TikTok does have its own advertising platform that you can use. Some of the TikTok advertising options include in-feed videos, brand takeover ads, branded AR content, and more. TikTok can even help assist with your influencer marketing campaign via its customer influence package. Additionally, you will can customize your targeting options using website traffic, ad engagement, app activity, or customer contact data.

Begin Integrating TikTok Advertising As Part Of Your Social Marketing Strategy

Although TikTok has a younger user-base, it is continuing to grow, attracting more and more older users. As such, it’s worth considering TikTok advertising, especially if any of your buyer personas match with TikTok’s current audience.

Successful Viral Marketing Campaign Tactics

May 22, 2020/in Articles, Directors, Social Media /by Mark Beebe

Content that goes viral is content that generates massive awareness in a short period of time. In viral marketing, it refers to an ad that is so effective it’s viewed and shared millions of times. In many cases, a viral ad will be so effective that it becomes part of the popular culture at the moment. Unfortunately, “going viral” is not something that you can just do. It requires a lot of luck, and you can never quite pinpoint exactly what kind of ad will appeal to a large audience. However, implementing a viral marketing strategy will allow you to put your ads in the best possible position to go viral. The following are five tactics that will help you create an effective viral marketing campaign:

1. Emphasize Emotion Over Exposure

Traditionally, the success of advertising has been linked to exposure. Many advertisers believe in the rule of seven, which states that an ad must be seen seven times before a viewer will act. Those advertisers will put much of their budget into getting their ads as much exposure as possible. However, it’s much more effective to create an ad that resonates with audience members on an emotional level. A customer doesn’t need to see an ad seven times to have an emotional connection, after all. If you’re able to elicit an emotional response, the viewer will be more likely to watch the ad again and to share it with friends and family. Eliciting emotions such as awe, laughter, amusement, joy, or anger, can all be effective in viral marketing.

2. Implement a Real-Time Marketing Strategy

Most marketing campaigns are planned and executed over a long period of time. While you can still create viral ads doing this, it often results in ads that aren’t in line with current trends. Real-time marketing involves creating ads that are relevant to what’s happening at the moment. Audiences will connect with ads that are addressing current trends and events more easily. For example, many businesses are implementing real-time marketing strategies to address the COVID-19 pandemic by focusing on the importance of social distancing or by highlighting essential workers.

3. Use Humor to Create Amusing Ads

A customer might like an ad that they see, and it may even resonate with them. However, it has to do more than that for them to feel like it’s worth sharing. Because of this, you should consider using humor if it’s appropriate for your brand. Not only do people love to laugh, but they also love making their friends and family laugh. This means that if an ad makes them laugh, they will be more likely to share the content with others in the hopes that it will make them laugh as well. It’s why so many of the ads that go viral are ads that are funny. For example, the Old Spice Man ads or the Most Interesting Man in the World Dos Equis ads.

Enjoy The Article: What We Can Learn From Viral Video Marketing & Examples of How It’s Been Useful

4. Provide Value

Creating ads that are funny or that elicit an emotional response can be very effective; however, you need to make sure that your ads are providing value as well. Unless your only goal is to generate brand awareness, you will need to create ads that get people to take action. A good example of a viral ad that provides value is the Dollar Shave Club ad. It’s a hilarious ad that’s creatively made. Yet it also clearly conveys what the value of its product is.

5. Test Your Campaigns

The last thing that you want to do is to create an ad that goes viral for the wrong reasons. For example, you thought you were creating an ad that was delivering a positive message; however, a small part of your audience misinterprets that message. They interpret the meaning of your ad to be negative, resulting in controversy. Controversy is a good way to go viral, but a bad way to maintain your reputation. A good example of this is the Pepsi ad featuring Kendal Jenner released a few years ago. The ad featured a protest full of smiling models and ended with Jenner providing a Pepsi to a police officer as a sign of peace and unity, which the protesters cheered. Critics believed the ad to be insensitive due to the fact that there were many protests against police brutality happening at that time. To avoid a public relations disaster, make sure that you test your campaigns first.

One thing to note: these tactics aren’t just effective for viral marketing. They can incredibly useful for creating ads even if they don’t go viral. Although going viral is a goal you should have, the objective should be to successfully deliver your message in an engaging way to your target audience. Using these five viral marketing tactics will help you achieve this at the very least.

Facebook Housing Ads: What’s Changed and What You Need to Know

February 28, 2020/in Articles, Directors, Social Media /by Nicole Wagner

Social media has left a great impact on the way we as a community engage with one another and live our lives. Perhaps, one of the greatest contributors to this new age of social media influence would be Facebook. For years, Facebook has kept friends and family connected, helped businesses grow, and entertained the population. All of which, is thanks to the consistent updates to the platforms on their webpage. As a result, Facebook housing ads have also changed their policies. These new rules affect marketers and advertisers, while impacting their clients such as home builders as well.

How it Happened

Unlike with most updates on Facebook, this one came as the direct result of a lawsuit. In March of 2019, The Department of Housing and Urban development sued Facebook for engaging in housing discrimination. On the grounds that Facebook was allowing advertisers to restrict who is able to see ads on the platform. Primarily based on characteristics such as race, religion, and national origin. Additionally, the housing department, known as HUD, claims that the company uses its data-mining practices to determine which of its users are able to view housing-related ads. This would put Facebook in violation of the federal Fair Housing Act.

As a result of the lawsuit, Facebook has partnered with several national organizations, to help counter these allegations against them. The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the Communication Workers of America (CWA) have all helped establish changes that would better prevent housing discrimination from taking place on their website.

Special Ad Category

One of the first noticeable changes is the Special Ad Category. If you are in or want to reach people in the United States with ads that offer housing, employment, or credit opportunities, you must select the corresponding Special Ad Category. These ads will not go by by age, gender, ZIP code, multicultural affinity. It excludes any detailed options describing or appearing to relate to protected characteristics.

Advertisers using Special Ad Categories will no longer be able to access Lookalike Audiences; which help advertisers reach new users who closely resemble their existing set of users. Instead, advertisers will have to be able to create a Special Ad audience. Special Ad audiences are based on similarities in online behavior, without considering things like age, gender, and ZIP Code.

Similar Article: Real Estate Marketing Resources For Home Builders

Requirements & Restrictions

If any advertiser wishes to use Facebook housing ads, then there are rules that must be followed . As stated above, advertisements will not target by age. Instead, they have to operate in the standard 18-65+age range.

Zip Codes, are no longer in use in this form of advertisement. However, this is only a sample of the geographic target changes that await home builders. Before, home builders could target regions up to the nearest one-mile radius. Now they have to work with a maximum radius of 15 miles.

Similarly, The Special Ad Category comes with detailed limitations users must follow. These limitations include:

Developers and advertisers located in the U.S. or targeting users in the U.S and running ads with housing, employment and credit opportunities must specify their respective category.
Developers and advertisers located in the U.S. or targeting users in the U.S and whose ads do not fall under one of the categories must specify NONE. Otherwise the campaign creation requests will fail.
Developers and advertisers that are located outside the U.S. whose ads target users outside of the U.S. regardless of the category, should specify NONE as well.

Also, starting in 2020, advertisers and developers must modify any ongoing campaigns that began prior to December 4th 2019; in order to comply with these new requirements.

How to Navigate It

Going forward, it’s important to remember that there are still ways to be successful with Facebook ad campaigns. The use of visuals, words and messaging can be a great asset. You’ll want to be as clear and precise as you can. Make sure your readers understand that the home you are selling is something they would be interested in. That way you can get closer to the goal you are trying to reach. Make sure ad messages add up with the type of audience you are trying to attract.

Leveraging your re-marketing audience is another way to navigate the shift in Facebook housing ads. Your re-marketing audience will consist of a group of users you want to re-engage because of their likelihood to convert. We know that the process of buying a new home will be a lengthy one, so add in as many funnels as you can to the buyer’s journey. It’s a cost-effective way to mitigate the loss of relevance caused by these targeting changes.

Facebook employs the uses of many different campaigns in order to make the advertising successful. One such campaign that can be a great benefit is the use of conversion campaigns. This campaign type utilizes specific website events as the key performance indicator. They often rely on user signals to help Facebook prioritize who is going to see what ads. This tactic can be effective, if open communication is maintained. Always ensure that you are still engaging these leads and moving them along the funnel and buyer’s journey.

The changes made to Facebook housing ads have left an impact on the way advertisers are able to market. With that said, the most important thing for advertisers to remember is to be mindful of their client, and their boundaries.

6 Social Media Trends To Follow In 2020

February 12, 2020/in Articles, Directors, Social Media, Trending /by Nicole Wagner

At this point in time, every business with an inbound marketing strategy should have a social media presence of some sort. Social media is one of the most effective ways to build relationships with your target audience. You can engage directly with them and learn more about what their wants and needs are. However, social media is constantly evolving. Which means that you need to keep up with all the latest social media trends. In doing so, you make sure that your presence is felt and that you don’t fall behind the competition. With that in mind, the following are six social media trends in 2020 worth implementing yourself:

1. Find More Impactful Influencers

Influencer marketing continues to thrive. Building relationships with influencers can help expose your brand to a huge audience. However, more and more so-called “influencers” have popped up over the last few years. And as a result, make it difficult to identify actual influencers. Don’t make the mistake of trying to build a relationship with an influencer based on their number of followers. Many of these “fake” influencers won’t be able to help you at all. Focus more on finding influencers who actually have sway over their followers, no matter how many they have. Many brands are focusing on nano-influencers, which are influencers who may only have a few thousand followers but who actually have significant influence over their audience.

2. Focus On Video Content

Brands are continuing to focus on the creation of video content as it continues to be incredibly effective. Not only are short videos easier to consume on mobile devices than other types of content, but people are more visual creatures that retain information better when it’s presented in a video format. On top of that, YouTube currently boasts the second most active users behind only Facebook. While channels like Instagram are continuously looking to improve their video features. As such, you should focus on creating professional-quality video content for your target audience.

3. Curate Customer Created Content

Encouraging customers to create content that’s relevant to your business not only helps to strengthen your content strategy in general (and provides you with fresh content that helps increase brand awareness on your behalf), but it’s also a great way to boost customer participation and engagement. Many brands encourage their followers to post pictures on Instagram showcasing the use of their product with a specific hashtag. For example, the eyeglasses brand Zenni encouraged its customers to post photos wearing their new glasses under the hashtag #justgotmyzennis.

Enjoy Article: The Power of Social Media Influencers: Why it works

4. Take Advantage Of FOMO

People on social media (and life in general) tend to have a “fear of missing out” or FOMO. This means that posting content that can only be accessed for a specific amount of time can help to attract more views. For example, webinars that people have to register for or ephemeral content in the form of Snapchat Stories or Instagram Stories that will disappear forever. Many followers will check in regularly to make sure that they don’t miss out on content that’s only going to be around for a day, allowing you to drive more engagement and keep your brand at the top of mind as a result.

Most companies stick to major social channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram, to name a few. However, there are hundreds of other social channels out there that might be worth incorporating into your social media strategy. Specifically, social channels that cater to a certain niche that’s relevant to your brand. By establishing a presence on such a channel, you’ll be able to target a much more specific audience to greater success than on channels like Facebook that essentially cater to everyone. For example, TikTok tends to be more youth-oriented but has exploded in popularity amongst the younger demographic (it’s a social platform similar to the now-defunct Vine), while Twitch is a streaming platform catering to videogamers.

Social media is thought of as a strategy that helps improve customer engagement and that can drive leads to your website; however, it’s potential to be used as a platform to generate sales is increasing year by year. Channels like Facebook and Pinterest have been used for years now to sell products; however, social commerce has increased to the point where it may soon become just as effective a source of sales as website ecommerce pages and offline stores. As such, you may want to consider incorporating social commerce into your sales strategy going forward.

These are six social media trends that you should keep a close eye on in 2020 and that you may want to consider adopting for your own inbound marketing and sales strategies.

Integrating Social Media & SEO Efforts For Enhanced Search Engine Results

5 Examples for Great Social Media Branding

November 26, 2018/in Articles, Directors, Social Media /by Angelina Harper

Large brands such as Coca-Cola and McDonalds have the necessary budgets to invest in A-list influencers and over-the-top Super Bowl commercials. The same cannot be said for startups and small-business struggling to make ends meet. This, however, won’t stop a smart marketer from taking a note or few from the best. Whether it’s a clever use of shape and color, or a catchy slogan, here are some of the best examples of what branding is supposed to look like.

Most major brands invest heavily in large creative design teams to manage their social media branding efforts. Yet, Airbnb has managed to do a lot more than just share beautiful content to solidify their brand image. With Airbnb, the customers are the brand, both guests and hosts. The company doesn’t manage nor does it own any of the properties hosted on its website and social media accounts. In fact, it only provides a forum where customers can promote and ultimately book some of the most breathtaking properties in the world.

Businesses often rely on telling their brand story to sell products and services, but Airbnb lets the customers to tell their own stories. The travelers are using their platform and Airbnb regularly hosts them on its website and social media accounts. Going through the company’s Instagram account and you’ll quickly feel exactly what it’s like to be in the customer’s shoes. The company understands the importance of social media engagement and also provides links to each and every location displayed in their content. That way they are providing their followers with the opportunity to experience what their feed is offering using a single click.

2. Brand-driven storytelling: Nike

Nike is one of the few companies that have understood and successfully leveraged great storytelling for the last 20 years as a means of developing a brand soul. One of their most successful branding campaigns was led in 1999. That year the company released a minute-long commercial commemorating the fruitful career of none other than Michael Jordan.

What made the commercial such a wild success is the fact that Nike as a brand was not mentioned at all until the very last second of the film. In the last second we saw the logo and now iconic words “Just Do It” were superimposed over Jordan’s high school photo. The entire minute-long commercial was dedicated to the great basketball player. That was something that was previously unheard of in the marketing industry.

Instead of trying to sell its products and push the brand down the throats of its consumers, Nike wanted to make an impression! The one that lasted and cemented their brand with an authentic, heartfelt story. Now, their logo and slogan can be found literally anywhere. From their clothing lines and twitter commercials to a viral video of Shia LaBeouf screaming “Just Do It” into the camera for a solid minute. Go figure!

But on a serious note, brand development requires a number of important steps, including logo design, color and font choice. All that play a major role in developing a brand voice and maintaining consistency. Finding the right agency using Google and similar search engines might be a stretch. You can find help using dedicated resources such as Design Rush which allows users to search and filter through leading branding experts based on budget, location, and their expertise.

Visual Storytelling Trends That Will Shape The Future For Marketers

3. Clever brand slogan: Dollar Shave Club

The team behind the Dollar Shave Club knows exactly what they’re doing. Their “Shave Time. Shave Money.” slogan is arguably the pinnacle of marketing related puns. Dollar Shave Club offers a shaving equipment and accessories as a cheap subscription service. It includes flexible shipment without the use of contracts and tricks involving fine prints. The company has cleverly incorporated two of the largest benefits offered by its service: convenience and cost.

Its campaign is on point, quite funny and adequately defines its brand tone, voice and a pun-related sense of humor. Today, Dollar Shave Club is often being cited as a sponsor to various YouTube personalities and celebrities. That only increases their reach and solidifies the company’s brand authority.

4. Embracing new technologies: Domino’s

Most brands fail to incorporate new technologies fast enough, but Domino’s pizza has not only managed to do just that but also stay ahead of the curve by constantly innovating their mobile ordering experience. The company has incorporated Twitter into its ordering process by offering a “tweet-to-order” option and has recently introduced its very own messenger chatbot “DOM The Pizza Bot”.

Their approach to social media branding is refreshing, to say the least. They also pushed forward a campaign where users could visit their website, make their own pizza and share the design on different social media channels.

5. Customer experience is the best marketing: Slack

A collaboration tool used by teams to communicate and share files more effectively, Slack currently has over 2 million active daily users. What even more amazing is that the company didn’t really launch a massive marketing campaign. In fact, its success can only be attributed to the outstanding customer experience. Slack not only receives but also responds to more than 10,000 Tweets per month. Their Twitter Feed is home to “Slack Wall of Love”, a place dedicated to showcasing all the love Slack has been receiving from its users.

Your number one priority should always be building brand awareness. Regardless of whether you’re working in business-to-consumer or business to business fields. Why? Because people would not be investing in your products and services unless they know and trust your brand. Social media branding is an effective tool for maintaining a consistent brand image in order to build authority, increase customer engagement, boost loyalty and make your brand memorable.

What’s Trending In Marketing For August 2018

August 1, 2018/in Articles, Blog, Brand Story Telling, Directors, News & Insights, Social Media /by Nicole Wagner

This week in inbound marketing we look at Amazon’s incredible success on Prime Day that made history in all categories. Read more on the changes and trends happening in marketing this past month.

Noteworthy Marketing News

Facebook To Begin Testing New ‘Highlights’ Feature That Lets Users Save Stories

Taking a page out of Snapchat’s playbook and making it their own, Facebook has begun testing a new “Highlights” feature that will give users the option to save Stories to their profiles. Unlike Snapchat, Facebook’s feature will allow users to save their Stories beyond the standard 24-hour period a Story exists. Your saved Stories will appear as a horizontal bar on the user’s profile and display view counts as well. Facebook believes this feature will not only give users the opportunity to hold on to their favorite content, but will also “make it easier to express who you are through memories.”

Instagram Testing Open-Ended Questions In Stories To Make Content More Interactive

In an attempt to make content more interactive on their app, Instagram is testing a new feature in which users can add open-ended questions in stories according to a recent write-up on Marketing Land. Instagram currently allows users to post polls with multiple-choice answers, but with this new feature, Instagram is hoping to increase engagement between users, while giving brands the opportunity to have more public conversations with followers.

Snapchat Partners With 4 News Discovery Platforms To Help Push Content Beyond The App

According to an article on Marketing Land, Snapchat has decided to partner with four news discovery platforms (NewsWhip, Tagboard, SAM Desk, and Storyful) used by media organizations to spread their news-related content on a wider scale and basis outside the app. The partnership will allow the four platforms to use Snapchat’s Story Kit Integrations to access and deliver news content posted within the app to thousands of storytellers and newsrooms. Along with Snapchat, the platforms will also be able to access content that is present on the app’s Discovery channels like NBC News and BuzzFeed to name a few.

Improving Your Marketing Program

20 Tips To Improve Your Website Redesign Process

Whether you like it or not, your website is often the first impression your audience gets of your business and your offering, so keeping your website up to date with today’s technological changes in mind is crucial if you want to draw in your target consumer. Our own Nicole Wagner offers an abundance of tips to help you improve your website redesign process.

Today, the majority of marketers and brands recognize the value of implementing a social media strategy when it comes to engaging and connecting with their audience. In an article she wrote, Nicole Wagner presents the best social media practices to get the most out of those popular platforms.

What Is Digital Storytelling: How To Improve Your Efforts

Storytelling plays an important role when it comes to presenting your products or services as a solution, while also helping consumers relate to your business on a deeper level. Similar to storytelling, digital storytelling involves using strategies across all online platforms to communicate your message to your audience. Dan Gartlan offers strategies for how to improve your digital storytelling efforts to build strong relationships with consumers.

Recent Marketing Reports, Updates, and Trends

Even With All The Glitches, Prime Day 2018 Proves To Be Amazon’s Biggest Sales Day Ever

Amazon has done it again. According to a recent post on Marketing Land, Amazon reported that this year’s Prime Day was the biggest sales day ever surpassing last year’s sales as well as its Cyber Monday and Black Friday sales. Despite the glitches it faced, the company sold over 100 million products, and in the first nine hours gained more Prime members than any other day of the year in Amazon’s history. The products that sold the most worldwide were all Amazon devices—Alexa Voice Remote, the Echo Dot, and the Amazon Fire Stick.

Discover how to improve your brand marketing strategy using Amazon Alexa

How Overstock.com Created A Multipurpose Video Campaign

The digital era we are living in today has made it difficult to distinguish between brand and performance campaigns. For brands with dual goals, a multipurpose campaign might be the answer. In an article published on Think With Google, Overstock.com, the online home goods and furniture retailer, decided to experiment with mixing direct-response strategies with regular brand creative. Interestingly enough, the return on ad spending for the campaign was 3X its other campaigns—the result was enough to make them reconsider how they would normally approach digital video.

Senior living industry leaders attended the Senior Living Innovation Forum, a conference that takes place every June to discuss a variety of topics centered on the senior housing industry. Several attendees shared their insights and concerns about the future of the industry, and recognized that in order to fit in with the current times, companies and investors need to shift their attitudes and accept a new business model if they aspire to create larger market opportunities and increase innovation as well.

PPC Landing Pages and Other Trends You Should Know in 2018

January 23, 2018/in Articles, Directors, Marketing Strategy, Social Media /by Nicole Wagner

As 2017 draws to a close, another exciting and interesting year of PPC marketing will conclude soon. PPC landing pages still hold strong, but the other trends in pay per click marketing are worth analyzing as well. That also means it is time to anticipate the future landscape and direction of paid search, with some help of the smartest guys in the industry. Voice search and artificial intelligence were two of the hottest topics in 2017, and it is likely that we will hear plenty more about them in the next year, as well as PPC landing pages.

In 2018, Ilya Cherepakhin predicts that PPC marketers will get pushed on two important fronts. They will unleash the intelligence and power of audience management and make inroads into voice search. Although there are other challenges, such as smart bidding automation, multi-channel attribution and cross-device analytics, he contends that voice search and audience management are likely to open up bigger frontiers for success, besides the good old PPC landing pages.

Voice search, though still evolving, cannot be overlooked. Marketers will have to rethink and devise new strategies for natural presence and PPC. This is because voice technology will tap into a considerably different kind of user behavior compared to that of an average mobile user. The use of existing mobile search technique will not be enough. It would be essential to have new and more relevant marketing objectives, reconsider the type of products and services that are more suitable for voice users, and come up with better mobile experiences for these users.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a buzzword in the current year. In 2018, it will become an even bigger element of marketing workflows. A lot has been said about Google introducing the use of AI for both conversion optimization and attribution modeling. However, over the course of 2018, use of Google’s AI is expected to skyrocket. Many bid management platforms have started to adopt artificial intelligence into their algorithms too.

Check out this article about Video Marketing

Although AI is driving better performance and outcomes, it is important to keep in mind that at the end of the day, human interaction is very crucial. Over-reliance on AI can lead to a few big shakeups. In 2018, we can continue to anticipate more improvements in the automation of PPC fueled by more sophisticated artificial intelligence and machine learning. What experts find most exciting probably is that PPC advertisers will have much more options compared to the past to leverage the technology. This is because it is getting integrated into many third-party tools.

It is also expected that more marketers will add long-tail keywords in their search account, and strive to better understand if there is sufficient difference between regular text searches and voice search to justify additional builds. Although experts guess that there would only be relatively small gains, plenty of marketers expect the incremental gains will make it easier for them to attain their 2018 goals.

According to Jeff Baum, an important trend for many PPC marketers to concentrate on in 2018 will be the adoption of machine learning. With upgrade to its ad rotation settings, smart bidding technologies, and the roll out of numerous smart display campaigns, Google has indicated that machine learning will be crucial for improving performance.

How To Use ROI To Reach Your Social Media Marketing Goals

July 12, 2017/in Articles, Attraction Marketing, Directors, Social Media /by Nicole Wagner

Is the time and money you’re putting into your company’s social media marketing paying off? You might think you can only really guess as to the success of your social media accounts, but there are ways to measure how “worth it” your social media efforts really are. To accurately calculate your ROI, which stands for Return On Investment, you must take into account all resources. Measure efforts and interactions that go into your company’s attempts to reach their social media marketing goals. Return On Investment also helps when it comes to attraction marketing.

Resources

Resources include such factors as time, cost, and effort. In order to calculate how the total resources your company is funneling into your social media accounts, ask yourself the following questions: Approximately how many hours does your company spend working on social media per week? How much effort do your employees put into your social media accounts each week? How much money are you putting into each of your social media campaigns? Estimate the answers to these questions and put them in their own separate resource categories.

[Read our article about 8 tips on social media best practices for your business]

Values

Reach:

Now it’s time to calculate the value of your efforts in order to see how well your resources are paying off. The first factor you should take into account is reach, which is used to measure the size of your potential audience. Who are the people directly (and indirectly) in your social network? How many page views and click-throughs are you getting on your social media posts each week?

Engagement:

Next, to find your value, you need to consider is the engagement of your social media, or the number of interactions with your brand. For example, how many retweets are your company’s posts getting on Twitter each week? How many likes are your Instagram posts receiving? How many people are sharing your Facebook posts?

Audience Growth:

Finally, you must measure is your audience growth, or the number of new audience members that your social media accounts usually attract. Who follows you or is friends with you on your accounts, and by how much does this number increase each week? How many new visitors are visiting your website in a given week? How many visitors are subscribing to your email list? What is your lead-to-customer conversion rate?

Now you can calculate your Return on Investment by using this formula: ROI= (Value- Resources) / Resources.Is your ROI within the desired range, or does it fall short of the social media marketing goals you have for your company? Perhaps you should see which social media accounts are giving you the best results, and put concentrate your efforts towards these accounts. Maybe you need apply different strategies in order to ensure that your social media content is garnering enough attention. In conclusion, calculating our ROI will put you on the right track for improving your company’s social media presence.

8 Tips on Social Media Best Practices For Your Business

April 20, 2017/in Articles, Attraction Marketing, Directors, Social Media /by Nicole Wagner

Why are social media best practices important? Social media has become a staple in our lives and popularity rules in this environment. It has become such an addiction that teens spend over 9 hours a day going through their social media pages. Social media is a tool that both individuals and businesses can manipulate to get the audience for their causes. Social media is a great tool for attraction marketing. Most business owners nowadays practice strategies aimed at optimization of social media platforms. Content displayed on social media platforms measures the response you get from your target audience just by the likes or dislikes you get.

We want you to get the most out of your social media platforms by enforcing these social media best practices. You will learn the secrets behind engaging and maintaining a media presence with loyal followers.

1. Keep an active presence

We all know that if you are inactive in social media in this digital world, you are irrelevant. Be active! Engage your audience, tell them about your brand story and show them snippets of what the brand represents. Remember however, not to disclose irrelevant information about your brand. There have been cases where too much information has overwhelmed audiences. It is important to explore all the possible avenues to let the world know why your brand is cool.

2. Keep interest

Now that you have gained a loyal following, show interest in your fans! When they reach out to you, follow back and always give personal feedback. This creation of goodwill will serve only to increase your brand’s following, earn you some popularity ratings, and maybe add revenue to your purse. Remember to thank your fans for keeping up with your venture. A brand based on humility and an understanding nature is always appreciated.

3. Concise please

We all love a good post, but if it is too long we get bored in the middle. According to a statistical review conducted on the strategies of effective tweeting, shorter tweets received 17% more following than long tweets. Although other sites do not limit your word count, you should keep in mind to pass your message in the intent you aimed it for.

4. Maintain your tone

What is your preferred tone, are you more of the serious, focused kind or the more casual faithful one. What message are you trying to pass along? Who is your demographic and what tone do you need to engage in to make them pay attention? You need to make them feel like they are part of your brand and your journey. Think about it.

To learn more about messaging read Share Your Message With A New Brand Strategy.

5. Know when to evoke silence

Sometimes media related war comes your way. It is crucial to identify which battles to fight and which ones to fold. You do not have to engage in all conversations involving your brand. If it’s a controversial topic that may not reflect the brand values, do not engage. Reviews have taken down businesses. Always try acting like “the gentleman” when it comes to social media.

6. Transparency helps

Honesty is the policy and the truth shall set you free. When it comes to social media, lies are a great faux pas. Remember that inclusion is important. Share live streams, create audios and videos that will help your followers stay in touch with brand your activities and updates.

7. Overshare faux pas

Please avoid being pushy or attending to the public’s frivolous whims. Remember that you cannot please everyone. Social media best practices call for precise, goal oriented messages. Posting too often mat look desperate and distracting.

8. Correct timing

Every social media platform has unspoken rules on when and how often to post. For Facebook, there is the famous, post twice a day rule depending on the number of followers. In Twitter, for maximum brand optimization, 1-5 tweets a day are efficient. If you are just looking for opinions, you can tweet till you fall. What usually matters in Instagram, is sticking to the consistency of the amounts you post. You cannot change from 10 posts a day to one in every two days and not see a drop in numbers.

All said and done, do have an interesting social media life and enjoy it to bits!