Whether you’re marketing yourself, your small business or a major business brand you need to be aware of the obstacles you may face and how to avoid them to be successful. That includes knowing when to ask for the professional help to make your campaign a hit in the social media world.

If you not able to consistently put out messages and engage with your audience it is time to seek help, in many cases all you need is a way to manage your efforts with a well written plan and management tool. Whether it is for the long run or get the ball rolling anyone can benefit from a meeting a with social media consultant.

metrics and analytics of your platforms to zero in on where you’re getting the most bang for your buck.

The number of members or followers you have on any given platform is a good start to focus your social media marketing campaign but don’t let that alone be the deciding factor.  While Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter have huge membership numbers, engagement should be one of the guide by which you proceed.  For example  Google+ users only spend an average of 3 minutes per month on the site while Facebook members spend nearly 7 hours per month on average.  Although you’d assume Facebook is hands down the engagement winner, Google incorporates Google+ data into organic search results which could be a key factor if your business relies heavily on search engine placement for lead generation and sales.  Your companies unique social media plan should have specifics on what type of ROI you want to achieve.

Since social media is a conversation not a monologue engagement is usually at the top of the ROI priority list.  Measuring this engagement is a sure fire way to determine whether your content is resonating with your target audience.  Retweets, replies, comments and shares are all meaningful ways to track the success of your online campaign.  Online service Klout takes this metric one step further by examining your online presence and scoring you based on your overall influence.

In a word you are ultimately interested in results.  As technology continues to drive innovation and in turn social media, measuring the variables that can help you succeed are paramount to business growth and longevity.  Never before have so many metrics and data pertaining to a campaign been available at the click of a mouse or touch of a screen.  To get ahead of the competition start measuring results and tailoring future  social media campaigns to meet your business strategy and goals.

Instead Create a Custom Landing Page

Getting Started:
Create a custom landing page with graphics
that will encourage your visitors to “Like” the page
before they start browsing.

Put into Action:
Update your default landing page under
“Manage Permissions” to direct towards your new page.

It’s a great way to connect with industry professionals

1. Provide insights into your company and it’s operations
2. Present knowledge about the work you do to as a professional
3. Connectivity to your your audience via newsworthy blog info
4. Branding and credibility are enhanced
5. Post to a huge network of professionals

Tips to make sure your Tweets are clear, concise, & professional

Consider adding location-based services to your marketing initiatives
 

• Build brand awareness when people “check in” to your business location
• Brand loyalty increases as customers repeatedly “check in”
• Connect with social-media savvy customers

Improve your company’s rapport on Twitter

In conjuction with your company’s professionally-maintained social media plan, employees posting about your company while working helps grow exposure.

Consider the following:

• It’s likely your employees are Tweeting on the clock, weather you realize it or not
• Non-monetary incentives generally boost morale
• By receiving Twitter privileges employees will likely reciprocate and post positive comments about your company

• By law employers cannot control what users post from personal accounts, so…
• Establish a Twitter policy during work hours and focus on what IS permitted vs what is forbidden
• Employees can comment about your business, upload pictures of workplace life, and also discuss non-work issues
• Request that employees include a reference or link to your company in their profiles

Fan pages now have the capability to translate posts thanks to the Bing translator

Getting Started:  
A page administrator for your company will have to change the translation options in “Settings”.

The Bing translator accommodates 37 languages, and users can also submit their own translations that are voted on by the rest of the community.

The social media platform makes it easy for companies to share updates 

• The new posts have the capability to share multimedia content
• It is now easier to share insightful information about your company
• Your followers can “like” your comments, contribute their own responses, and share with others

10 reasons to consider using Tumblr, the emerging blogging platform:

1. Tumblr just reached their 10-billion post milestone!
2. Tumblr attracts visually-oriented users. Pictures about your business can say more than words here.
3. You can provide text, links, audio, videos, slideshows, and quotes for your audience.
4. Similar to Twitter, they like to keep things “short but sweet” and users can reblog postings.
5. The short-form blogging method keeps messages consise and to-the-point.
6. Great for companies with a creative knack when branding their image.
7. Tumblr surpassed competing service WordPress in terms of page views earlier this year.
8. The content is easily sharable with others.
9. Users can still publish full-blog articles, although microblogging is their forefront method.
10. Find a 10th reason for yourself and check out the wonders of Tumblr.

Be proactive and avoid unwanted comments

Getting Started:  
Log on to your Facebook Page, click the “Edit Page” button, and go to the “Manage Permissions” tab.
Option 1: 
Use the “Moderation Blocklist” option to list specific words you want blacklisted, like a competitor’s name or an unwanted discussion topic.
These comments will be displayed to Page administrators but not to the public, and will automatically be marked as spam.
Option 2:
The “Profanity Blocklist” option blacklists words that Facebook has identified as offensive to the whole community. You can choose the level of severity by choosing “medium” or “strong”.
You’re Done!
Click “Save Changes” and never worry about bothersome comments again.

If #FF is not for you, consider different ways to acknowledge followers and give recommendations

Quick Tips:

• Give recommendations on  a day other than Friday.
• Give a reason for people to follow the person or business you’re mentioning.
• Give thanks to those who include you on their #FF posts, and make sure to tag them in the comment.
• Post a link to your website on Fridays and highlight an interesting aspect of your products or services.
• Instead of blasting a list of recommendations in one day, tag people you want to recommend on a case-by-case basis and mention why they are worth checking out.

Professionals can learn and share while growing their popularity

Setting goals will determine your social media productivity.

“Tweet” & “Social Media” Added to the
Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Mingle with Tweeters who matter most to you.

Thinking about starting a blog, or not getting desired results with your current blog?

• Decide what’s best for your needs: hosting or self-hosting
• Write a long list of relevant topics that will interest your target audience
• For a business, imply a call for action in every post
• Post regularly: stick to a set schedule
• Add Google Analytics to your blog to give you more exposure
• Include constantly-visible links to your social media accounts
• Incorporate images/videos in your posts
• Design the blog to visually represent your brand (use the same imagery on your website and all social media accounts)
• Hire a pro if you cannot commit to regularly maintaining your prized blog

Strike up a conversation today to increase your #FF tomorrow!

Give Kudos to Others and Recommend them for Their Talents.

A great way to promote yourself is to be valuable to your network and let THEM broadcast how awesome you are!

It is not strictly for location-based businesses.

Create a “Brand Page” to do more than “Check In”

Many Social Media Tools offer discovery options to find clients that are talking about your product, service or industry.

Google now offers a “Real Time” Search of Keywords for Twitter that are happening near or about business.

Most commonly you see #FF, but you can use the hashtag in all your tweets!

Do more than broadcast your sales pitch to clients.
Create a dialogue to Humanize your Posts!

Why not make it easy for
“fans” to find you on Facebook?

Instead of displaying a
long string of words &
numbers, direct customers
to a branded address:

Step Two:
Be sure  your vanity name its spelled correctly and
is exactly what you want.  It’s permanent.

Via Marketing Clients
Sit back and relax this week, clients already
have their vanity name reserved.
Contact us if you need your URL address.