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AUGUST SAMPLER: 5 Informative and Imaginative Posts For You!

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The end of summer is upon us. These diverse articles will tickle your imagination and start you thinking about what your autumn online activities might be!

10 Social Media Myths

10 Social Media Myths

 Many times I must slip into “Mythbusters” Mode when speaking to groups about what’s real, what’s imaginary, and what’s merely perceived when it comes to social media. These 10 myths are not comprehensive, but they do cover many of the common misperceptions. If you have more questions, let me know!

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Top 5 Timely and Valuable Articles for July

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Wow, that was fast!

There was all the hub-bub for the Fourth of July, then the flurry of political conventions, and now we’re at the end of the month and looking back at some of the really helpful articles that have been published across the web…..and there have been a LOT of them! Here are the top 5 I’ve read and know you will find useful:

Deleting your Social Media Biz Page

Throw it all away….or not?

You’ve tried every which way with Facebook and you’ve decided that the only way out is to delete the page altogether. Is this really a good idea? Are there any other options? This article by Brooke B. Sellas of B Squared Media will help you consider, and reconsider, this conundrum.

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The 5 Top Tested and Approved Posts for June!

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 Kicking off the summer months with some TERRIFIC material covering ROI, opportunity discovery and various views on reaching the right Visitors/Audience/Customers/Community (VACC) for your business.

Who's your audience?

Do you know your Audience?

 
Growing on Social Media doesn’t mean quadrupling the number of times you post. It requires study, research, strategy and an understanding of the important metrics that drive your business online. That’s a lot to ask of a small business owner….this article by Jay Shemenski outlines 5 steps toward identifying the opportunities for your company. If this looks like something you need help, give us a call.

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They’re Here!! 5 Outstanding Social Media Posts for May

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 This month we’re treated to a nice mix of articles covering How-Tos, new research studies and a bit of crystal ball gazing for future trends.

Measuring Social Media

KPIs for Social Media

Measurement is the crucial component to understanding if you’re meeting your goals, right? Yet many small-to-medium sized businesses charge into the land of social media without considering what their goals are and what to measure. This article by Dara Fontein outlines some metrics you might consider, and WHY you might consider them.

With a flurry of articles earlier this year like “Is Google+ Dead?”, you might wonder just what is going on. While not dead, it is not what it was, and Google, which has a track record for altering, spinning off and dropping products at a seeming whim, is still tweaking the channel. This article by Martin Shervington goes over the list of what the current release of Google+ looks like, changes that impact you and your business if you’re investing resources there, and a some tips on how to approach it today.

Long content vs short content

Pew Research graph: Long vs. short form content on mobile

This article by Andrew Hutchinson takes a deep look at new research by Pew Research that tries to answer this question: One research study last year showed that long-form content (defined as posts of over 1,000 words) consistently got more shares and links than shorter form content; another study found that the average human attention span had dropped by 33% since 2000, largely attributed to mobile phone use, and, given the increase in mobile media consumption, would seem to suggest that people want shorter content…..sooooooo, which one’s better?

Teens Most Important Social Network Snapchat

TEENS: Most Important Social Network – Snapchat

This great synopsis of statistics and charts covers a number of areas beyond the fact that Snapchat overcame Instagram in the perceptions of teenagers with an average age of 17 as their “most important” social network. This is critical information if your business has this demographic as a key audience. Very few marketers use Snapchat today, so the opportunity is huge.

Facebook Logo

Get Better Performance on Facebook!

Another top article by Andrew Hutchinson with the goal of helping you boost your posts’ performance on Facebook. Take note that, early in the article he writes, “So how do you maximize your performance on Facebook? The basic answer is ‘listen to your audience’.” If you haven’t done the work around discovering and understanding your Visitors/Audience/Customers/Community (VACC), tactical efforts will be ineffective.

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What Is The Secret Truth About Your Marketing Plan?

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Digital Marketing Strategy

So you have a strategy for your digital marketing?

Working with the swirling realities of digital and social media marketing can feel like trying to quietly tread water in a really nasty river rapids that never ends….and then there are the rocks to avoid. As a business owner it’s hard enough. As a marketing professional, it is mind-numbing at times….still, that’s part of what I do and I confess to a kind of the same excitement as that metaphoric water-treader.

I have recently started working with a client who floored me by having something I have not seen in a long time at similarly-sized businesses: an actual Marketing Plan.
Really.
The business owner pulled it up on her laptop and I wanted to hug her…

This isn’t to say that other business owners haven’t spent time thinking about their marketing, but this owner had taken the next step and mapped it out for the next year….and even looked beyond. I identified a number places in the plan where I can add tremendous value (hence our starting to work together…), and we began to discuss the goals, measures and value we can bring to the business. I am totally psyched to begin this project!

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FOCUS: What About Customer Experience and Relationships?

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Visitors Audience Customers Community

On the lookout for…?

“Relationships?! How do you do that when your business is all about selling boxes of widgets? Folks come to my site, order them and I ship them out…”

This is a common question. You have always viewed your company as one that makes something that others buy (hopefully more than once…), and then you make sure they get it. Pretty much the definition of “transactional”, and, especially if you operate an e-commerce site, you only know them by a name, address and order number. It doesn’t look like the opportunities to establish and grow a relationship, as you’re thinking of it, are that ripe.

…or are they?…

I’ve written before about a descriptive construct I call the VACC. It stands for Visitors/Audience/Customers/Community. There are different ways of looking at the people who interact with your business: The Customer Journey, the Sales Funnel, and so on. Viewing these people through the VACC lens focuses on the stage of the relationship they have with you business, and how you communicate and interact with them. Each stage is valuable and there is no hard line dividing them. Nonetheless, knowing, in greater depth, what each set of these people are looking for, how they act and react to you and your business, what their expectations are, and how you can communicate with them is vital to your business growth. Not knowing is the same as tossing your product out on to a virtual (or real…) sidewalk and hoping the right folks come by.

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The 5 Superior Social Media Posts in April!

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The changes to and evolution of the online world never stops…..hence the usual flood of news and tips available. So, for April, here are the articles that really caught my attention!

Facebook 20 percent rule

Look! No Text!

  • Facebook’s 20% Rule – Gone, Not Gone :: Everyone who has ever slammed their head against the desk after submitting their boost or ad for approval on Facebook, only to have it rejected due the dreaded “20% Rule”, cheers this change! However, you need to read the new standard VERY CLOSELY to see what it has morphed into so you don’t get caught in the turbulence.

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GO DEEP: Can You See Your Genuine Story?

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Photographer against a sunset

Photographer against a sunset

You already know about the requirement of posting Top Flight, Relevant, and Shareable content. You may even be working to make sure that you attach a photo or graphic to your posts, since people are attracted to pictures and tend to gloss over text-only posts.

Photos are even more important than you think!

In a recent article, Mark Schaefer listed out 15 Amazing ways social media is changing the world and the one that jumps out at me is that we now “talk” through photos. A photo or stream of photos is becoming an important mode of communication at the expense of text and voice. This assists those who are not sure of their communication skills, and takes advantage of the complex processing our brain goes through to interpret pictures.

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FOCUS: Aren’t You Easily Worth More Than FREE?

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English: Graph of social media activities

English: Graph of social media activities (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

OF COURSE you’re using social media to market your business! It’s 2016! NOT having a Facebook Business page is like not having a logo or a business card…..unthinkable!
So how’s that going?
It seemed so straight-forward when you worked through that online wizard: uploaded a few photos (they didn’t quite fit the alloted space, but you just needed to get SOMETHING in there…), banged out a short description, added a link to your web site, made a post or two, invited all your friends and family, and hit the PUBLISH button. Easy Peasy…

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March: It’s Here with Spring, Brackets and Expert Info!

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Another bumper crop of great information published by a number of sites this month, so let’s dig in!

1 billion posts!

1 billion posts!

  • How To Improve Facebook Engagement: Insights From 1bn Posts :: This set of data, inhaled and analyzed by the good folks at BuzzSumo, provides some head-scratching information around what you may have thought was THE way to engage on Facebook.  While correlation is not causation, and they even wonder why some of the data shows what they show, it can provide you with some things to try. Remember, though, your audience may not act like others, so test these things out before gluing them into your plan.

Facebook Content Discovery...

  • Facebook Vs. Google: Is Facebook Winning The Content Discovery War?  :: Another great data-driven post from BuzzSumo! This one focuses on how Internet users (and Facebook users in particular) are finding the interesting stuff they want to consume…..and Facebook is coming out ahead! So should you publish on your blog and web site and SEO the daylights out of it ($$$?), or post to your Facebook Business Page? Your mileage may vary, but the data are showing that you may be discovered more readily on Facebook.

Fifty Features for Small Business Web Sites

  • 50 Features Every Small Business Website Must Have [Infographic] :: The 3 primary issues I come across with my customers when it comes to their web sites are: (1) They don’t have one, (2) They have one they built themselves, and it REALLY looks like it….., and (3) They have a web site that was last touched about 2009! This infographic gives you a high-level snapshot of what you need at a very base level for your small business site. I always recommend that you engage a web designer who understands current design trends and technologies, works with your business’ requirements BUT doesn’t skimp, and can point you to partners who can do basic SEO and social media integration (not to mention point you to a seasoned social media and digital strategy resource, too….without a plan, this is much less likely to work).

Twitter is Important!

  • Here’s Why Twitter is so Important, to Everyone  :: Facebook seems to be in everyone’s faces all of the time. To many of my clients, Twitter appears either irrelevant, inappropriate or just plain scary (the fire-hose effect can seem intimidating…). But the thing that drives that fire-hose is the real-time feed, and therein lies the value of this channel. In this article Andrew Hutchinson (someone well worth following online, by the way…), he outlines why you might want to pay closer attention to what Twitter can do for you.
Successful Brands on Social Media

Successful Brands on Social Media

  • What Makes Brands Really Successful on Social Media  :: So, who DOESN’T want to be a successful brand on Social Media? In this article you can find out how some of the most successful brands do it, then figure out how that can be re-purposed for your business. Learn from the best, but don’t just do something because someone else does…..test it, measure it and make sure it works for your business and your audience!
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