Scheduling tools, on the other hand, make life much easier. They have tons of convenient features like media libraries and hashtag suggestions, and they allow you to schedule the same post on multiple platforms.
2. Do your hashtag research beforehand Nothing’s worse than almost being ready to hit the “schedule” button on your posts, only to realize you forgot about hashtags. Find hashtags that fly slightly under the radar – the more popular the hashtag, the bigger the competition. Keep a list of your go-to hashtags and use them in tandem with post-specific ones. You’ll cut down on research time while keeping your hashtag strategy fresh. 3. Work in batches Bouncing around from task to task is a great way to hurt your overall productivity. When you focus on one task at a time, it’s easier to get “in the zone.” Break the process down into batches. Take one day to write your social media posts. Take a break, then create all your graphics. Then do your hashtag research. Once you’re done, it will take no time at all to pop everything into your scheduling tool. 4. Have a folder of go-to images Whether you’re scavenging through a messy Google Drive folder or searching for images on stock photo sites, organization is the key. Clean up that photo folder ASAP. Spend an hour or two creating a photo library with shots from your favorite stock photo site. Don’t waste time scrambling for photos at the last minute; have a robust folder of ready-to-go photo options to simplify your scheduling process. 5. Post at the best possible times If you’re going to schedule social media content, you better schedule it to go out at the best possible time. That’s another benefit of scheduling tools – many of them suggest the best times to post on each platform. If you’re looking to boost your social media engagement stats, this is one easy step that could make a huge impact. Of course, the easiest (and most effective) way to schedule your social media content is to outsource it! Looking for help with your social scheduling, strategy, management and more? We’d love to hear from you.
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 Do I need to know a Kardashian? I recently read a book about Harry and Meghan and found it interesting that Meghan Markle made moves early in her career to align herself with influencers, and then became one herself, launching The Tig. So, the answer to the question above is NO, you do not need to know a Kardashian or a Megan Markle to align yourself with influencers. Over the years, influencer marketing has become an immense part of the marketing landscape. Honestly, I had to do my due diligence to learn more. Influencer marketing often sounds too good to be true, but the numbers don’t lie — on average, for every $1 businesses spend on influencer marketing, they make $18.
New to influencer marketing? Confused as to exactly what it entails? You’re not alone. It is something new to my range of services too. The term “influencer” is tossed around a lot, and it’s not always clear what it means, so let me share what I have learned. First, what’s an influencer? The term “influencer” is shorthand for social media influencer. A social media influencer is a person who has gained credibility in a certain niche. Today, influencer marketing is a method of choice for top-tier brands around the world, but it wasn’t always this way. For a while, it was considered nothing more than a passing trend. One thing you need to know: you do not need to be a national company to benefit from this type of marketing. It can be done on a local level, using local influencers. Simply stated, local influencers are bloggers, reviewers, and social media personalities who are based in the same area as your business. Going to in-person events can help you put a face to a name. Of course, we are still in the midst of a global pandemic. And now is not the time for me to talk about networking to meet influencers. Of course, there are plenty of other ways to meet influencers. One option is to use an influencer marketplace or platform. These let you search for creators and influencers within a certain distance of your region. You can further narrow your search by looking for influencers who are in a certain age range, and who are interested in certain topics. Contests and sweepstakes are great ways of generating interest and expanding your reach to a target audience. If you want to increase site traffic, reward customers, and/or gain some new leads to add to your marketing efforts, then you might want to consider having a contest or sweepstakes giveaway.
Many people use the terms “contests” and “sweepstakes” as if they were the same. Technically, however, sweepstakes are prize giveaways where the winners are chosen by luck. Contests, on the other hand, draw a winner based on some merit. The person must enter something such as the funniest picture with logo, most moving essay, tastiest recipe, or whatever will be chosen as the winner. Sweepstakes or contests can promote your product and company, expand your current customer base, and gather contact information of potential customers for future marketing. The premise is simple - offer a prize that will entice your preferred target audience to give you their contact information and allow you to communicate with them. I say preferred target audience because sweepstakes and contests also attract people that may not be your target. I recently entered a sweepstakes for a $100 gas card. I was willing to give my name and email address for the chance to win. The rules stated, “The sweepstakes is open to residents of the United States and Canada, age 18 and over” and “Only entries received via the official web entry form will be included in the drawings.” This sweepstakes followed good form with the rules easy to find and read. The sweepstakes were clearly aimed to increase new visits to an attraction by people some distance away and encourage them to stay overnight. However, I am not a target customer. I already visit the attraction regularly, and I will not be purchasing overnight accommodations. It was by accident that I found the sweepstakes when searching for something else. But this is still a success because it engaged me and delivered the message about the weekend and overnight accommodations available. Designing your own contest or sweepstake When you choose to conduct a sweepstakes or contest you will have many choices to make and will need to follow some basic rules.
Rules In the United States, every state establishes its own set of rules for contests and sweepstakes. The main law you need to be aware of when you run a contest or sweepstakes in any U.S. state is the “no purchase necessary law.” This law states that you cannot require users to make a purchase or provide other forms of consideration to enter a sweepstakes where winners are randomly drawn. States have their own rules about what sort of contests or sweeps are legal. This is where the “void where prohibited” clause comes in. The statement gives the company blanket protection against running an illegal contest, without having to research the law in each state. Since social media makes it easier to run contests nationwide, and even internationally, make sure that you are stating exactly where the person must live to enter. Additionally, there are Federal Trade Commission rules about collecting information from children. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) limits and restricts information that may be gathered and how it may be used. “If you operate a commercial Web site or an online service directed to children under 13 that collects personal information from children or if you operate a general audience Web site and have actual knowledge that you are collecting personal information from children, you must comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.” So, plan your contests carefully. Check out other contests and their rules, check your state’s rules, and get some professional advice if you have any questions or concerns. Today’s marketplace has transformed as to how sales are generated and sustained. And nowhere else is this more apparent than in the changing relationship between sellers and buyers.
Gone are the days of pure transactional selling. Buyers don’t wait for you to come to them anymore. Instead, they seek out what they’re looking for. When they’re prepared, they choose to do business with those who best meet their needs. More than ever, the strength of the connections you cultivate determines how successful you’ll be in positioning yourself in the minds of your buyer as that top pick. Build relationships within communities If you look at the current selling landscape, you could say it resembles the rise and success of the modern farmers’ market. These operate on a small scale across multiple communities and thrive on local connections. You see your neighbors all the time, which is community building, and vendors all promote each other through a rich network of selling goods and services. For example, the local butcher recommends buying tomatoes at another farmer’s market up the road for a delicious sauce to compliment the meat. Or the bread maker tells customers that the cheese and jams of the neighboring vendor are second to none. A buyer can confidently find what they’re looking for in these networked communities. And the seller’s work and reputation are measured by how useful they are to both the marketplace and customers. The same is true of today’s selling landscape. Communities are where relationships get forged now, and to be part of a community means to put in the time to share what you know so that you help something meaningful grow for the benefit of others. Seek spaces, not places It’s not just about closing the sale anymore. And it’s not about telling others to follow you as the leader in a monopolizing way. Today’s marketplace without boundaries means that buyers from the four corners of the earth can find what they’re looking for in spaces where people congregate. I’m choosing my words carefully here: I’m talking about spaces rather than places. Spaces don’t occupy a fixed location, nor do they have limits on who can join or what they can contribute. Spaces can be created online. They can be found in professional associations. By occupying spaces, you’re creating a sense of kinship and shared purpose. Out of this, communities are born. When managed correctly, it means an end to the boom-bust cycle of sales, because unlike the old way of doing things, communities are populated first and foremost with people, not buyers. The four groups to establish To adapt and grow a sales force that can thrive in a marketplace without boundaries, there are four types of communities your organization needs to build and sustain.
Just like with farmers’ markets, buyers today are looking for more than a transaction; they want to do business with people who can provide knowledge and insight on top of the products or services being offered. That meeting point can only be achieved if you take the time to build a rapport with your prospects and customers. This means you put their needs first, help them learn and grow, and deliver value far beyond what your product or service provides. Amazing things can happen when you embrace change as an opportunity to work differently than you’ve done in the past. Find ways to build your own communities. Think about how you can become a trusted part of today’s marketplace without boundaries. Social media sites can be incredibly useful. Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and all the rest have created new means of communication and enabled companies to connect organically with users whose interests are already vetted.
That said, they can also be destructive. The difference lies in the way you use them: If you publish an article on your own website, tweet about it, and post a link on Facebook, that’s fantastic. If you post an article as a Facebook note and then share it, your marketing and outreach are headed for a crash-and-burn moment. Social media: the value of building a tribe We, as businesspeople, understand the value of the connection economy. What we need to focus on is making sure that those connections endure over the years and decades. We do that by providing value and by not cheapening the relationship. We also do it by maintaining connections, and most importantly by not having a middleman. Having 10,000 followers on Facebook, Tumblr, or Twitter is helpful. But having 5,000 subscribers on your email list, that’s much more valuable. Unless I knew a magic spell for converting “likes” and “follows” into email subscribers, I’d take a 100-person email list over a thousand-like Facebook or Twitter page any day of the week. Those emails will still be valid in a year or five. Will their social accounts? Even more important, I know that when I send an email to their inbox, it arrives safe and sound. The same cannot be said for any social networks. The only way to truly own that connection is to write on your proper platform (a website you control or a safe email program) and gather email addresses from members of your tribe. I love the word tribe; it instills a feeling of community. A family in a way that there are common interests and views. Email is enduring It’s been around since the dawn of the Internet. It survived Geocities and Myspace, and it’ll survive Facebook and Twitter. There’s no reason to rely on a social media site when there’s a reliable and consistent contact medium available to you, for free. Almost all — 95 percent — of your address book contacts are not on the same social sites they used a decade ago, but they probably signed up for the new one with the same email address as the first. Social media services are a fantastic way to spread the word and share information, but relying primarily on a publishing platform you do not control can hurt your marketing efforts. While there’s value in social likes, follows, shares, and retweets, those are worth far less, in the big picture, than passionate email subscribers. People on your mailing list will always get your message. They may just skim it, but as long as you’re sending it properly, that email will always land in their inbox. The same can’t be said for most social media sites. Unless they’re on Twitter at the right time … unless you pay Facebook the right amount … unless you’re popular enough on Tumblr … they may never see your content. And that’s a shame, because we know your content, your advice, and your thoughts could impact the right audience. Email subscribers are your friends and email deliverability can grow your business. I love marketing (obviously). To me, it is the most dynamic aspect of being in business. Just look at the rapid changes we have made globally in the past 45 years since the delivery of the first email in 1971. Twenty years later the world went “social” with LinkedIn and Myspace and Facebook born in 2002, 2003 and 2004 respectively, and YouTube and Twitter not far behind in 2005 and 2006. (Pinterest in 2009 and Instagram in 2010) And let us not forget the many other social platforms although this article would be 10 pages long. Since then social media has grown at an exponential rate with new platforms constantly being created and with it new methods and means of marketing.
Life has become a constant stream of status updates, photos and tweets. Social media has become a form of constant communication, a way we talk to each other and touch base with each other’s lives. This phenomenon of online communication is undeniable, and you’d be hard pressed to find someone who didn’t understand the basis of most social network sites. How often, this week alone, have you caught yourself with the phrase “I saw that on… (insert your preferred social media site here)?”. In the same short few years, businesses have shied away from traditional forms of marketing – such as flyers and newspaper ads, to more interactive and virtual forms online. Even in online marketing, selling and promoting products, services and brands can take on many shapes and forms, all of which is determined by your target media and social platform of choice. It is due to this constant ongoing communication that businesses need to be aware that social media marketing isn’t a box merely to be checked-off or a campaign to be launched and forgotten. It’s about thinking differently about your marketing, customer service and your entire business. That is the exciting aspect of marketing: it is constantly happening whether you and your brand are involved or not. Wouldn’t you rather be involved, steering the conversation and honing your target market? Social media makes it possible for you to have more meaningful interactions with your target market without appearing intrusive. Once you have developed the art of marketing through targeted, relevant, shareable and valuable content, then converting them into customers, you have a customer base that will come back again and again. People share, read and generally engage more with any type of content when it’s surfaced through friends and people they know and trust. Marketing is now moving toward more meaningful interactions between customers and brands where they can voice their opinions in a communal “Social” setting. People love being involved in discussions; it is an effective way of gaining their trust. You become believable, trustworthy and a business they can go to when they need the “right” answers. The future of marketing is no longer about making the sale, it is about bridging the gap between your brand and your customers, and creating relationships that will last beyond the next “new” social platform. This sharing and engaging creates a more dynamic, interactive form of Marketing. With interactive video marketing and mobile internet usage on the rise, the future of marketing is constantly developing and changing. It is the merging with business technology that makes marketing such an exciting aspect of business to be in and truly the reason why I love Marketing. In my business, with social media being an integral part of marketing and business development, I am often questioned on the role it plays when employees have access to social media while working.
Certain aspects of marketing often overlap with human resources and many policies need to be integrated into an employee handbook, which are essential to the development of the business. Do you really know what your employees are posting on the Internet? The increased use of social media sites can create some questions and concerns within the workplace. The expansion of the Internet and sites where individuals can post information have been a great asset for business, particularly small businesses. Your business might even have a Facebook page and you can use this as a communication tool to reach existing customers and potential customers. However, there are also some challenges that come along with this increased technology, particularly when it comes to employee privacy rights. The key concern that enters the picture is the employees' use of time on social media sites while they are supposed to be working, thus, creating loss of productivity. When can an employee use social media, and what are employees allowed to post? The more challenging aspect of social media sites for employers is the actual information that an employee may post on a site. Is it potentially harassing behavior toward another employee? Is the employee posting information about the company that could violate any nondisclosure policies or agreements? In order for companies to gain a better handle on these situations, it is recommended that organizations have clear Internet usage and social media policies written into their employee handbooks. A good policy should provide the following: • Instructions to employees on what is and is not permissible with regard to using the Internet at work; • Clear information about the employer's right to monitor employee computers within the workplace and require employees to acknowledge in writing that they should not have an expectation of privacy for anything that is sent, received or stored on the company's computer systems; • Restrictions on the use of personal phones and other electronic devices while on company time; • Consequences for employees if they are in violation of the Internet Usage and Social Media policies.
Researchers at NCSU tested 175 study participants to measure the personality traits that companies look for in job candidates, including "conscientiousness, agreeableness and extraversion." The participants were then surveyed on their Facebook behavior, allowing researchers to see which Facebook behaviors were linked to specific personality traits.
But the researchers found no significant correlation between conscientiousness and an individual's willingness to post content on Facebook about alcohol or social drug use. Companies that are looking for extroverts, such as those hiring for sales or marketing positions may be doing themselves an even worse disservice. This same study found that extroverts were significantly more likely to post about drugs or alcohol on Facebook. So companies weeding out those applicants are likely to significantly limit the pool of job candidates who are extroverts. However, the researchers did find one online indicator strongly correlated to the personality traits that employers look for: Study participants who rated high on both agreeableness and conscientiousness were also very unlikely to insult other people on Facebook. Conclusion: If employers plan to keep using social media to screen job applicants, this study indicates they may want to focus on eliminating candidates who "badmouth" others or share generally negative posts and strong opinions and not necessarily those who post about drinking beer or socializing on the weekends. |
Boost Your BusinessMaria NovakI have over 35 years' experience in Marketing Small Businesses. Categories
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