It’s a powerful marketing tool.

Recent stats show, 46% of the US population now uses TikTok.

With Gen Z and Millenials driving purchase decisions, TikTok is among the most valuable social media platforms.

Which is why brands are now dedicating more resources to grow their TikTok influence.

As we approach 2025, understanding the trends that will dominate this platform is vital for anyone wanting to make their mark.

So, what can you expect in the coming year?

In this article, we’ll discuss five key TikTok marketing trends that will shape how brands engage with their audiences and inspire real connections.

Trend 1: Authenticity Over Perfection

Authenticity is what draws people in on TikTok. Users want to connect with brands on a personal level.

Look at Duolingo.

Their fun videos of the green owl doing silly things show a side of the brand that feels genuine.

It’s not just about teaching languages; it’s about having fun along the way. When Duolingo shares these behind-the-scenes moments, their followers feel like they’re part of the journey.

So, how can you use this trend?

Start by showing your brand’s true self. Share real stories, customer experiences, or even some bloopers. It’s okay if it’s not perfect. What matters is that it’s relatable.

This builds trust and keeps people coming back.

In 2025, remember: be real, be you. Authenticity will win every time.

Trend 2: Influencer Partnerships Evolving

Have you ever wondered why some brands thrive on TikTok while others struggle? The secret often lies in their choice of influencers.

As we move into 2025, the game is changing.

It’s not just about big-name celebrities anymore. Micro and nano influencers are taking the spotlight.

These influencers may have smaller followings, but their impact is huge. They connect with their audience on a personal level. Their followers trust them more.

For example, a beauty brand partnering with a micro-influencer who genuinely loves their products can create more buzz than a flashy campaign with a celebrity.

This trend pushes brands to focus on building relationships. Look for influencers who share your values and resonate with your audience.

Work together to create authentic content that tells a story. It’s not just about selling a product; it’s about sharing an experience.

Trend 3: Shorter Attention Spans and Snackable Content

TikTok thrives on short attention spans, making snackable content more important than ever.

What does snackable content mean? It’s quick, engaging videos that deliver value in seconds.

Think about the most popular TikTok videos.

They grab your attention in the first few seconds and keep you watching. Brands need to catch the viewer’s eye fast. A clever hook at the beginning can make all the difference.

For example, consider a cooking brand that shares a quick recipe in under a minute. They can show the steps in fast motion, use upbeat music, and end with a mouth-watering shot of the finished dish. This type of content is easy to consume and share, making it perfect for TikTok.

So, how can you adapt to this trend?

Focus on creating quick, engaging videos that get to the point. Use catchy visuals and music to keep viewers hooked. Keep it short, sweet, and memorable.

Trend 4: Integration of E-commerce Features

Have you ever wanted to shop directly from a TikTok video? In 2025, that’s becoming a reality.

TikTok is expanding its e-commerce features, making it easier for brands to sell directly through the app.

This shift changes how we think about marketing on the platform.

Imagine watching a fun video of someone using a skincare product you love. With just a tap, you can buy it right there.

This seamless shopping experience removes the hassle of searching for products elsewhere. Brands like Sephora are already using these features to great effect.

They create engaging content that showcases their products and makes it easy for users to purchase.

To make the most of this trend, integrate shopping into your TikTok strategy.

Use shoppable posts and live streams to connect with your audience. Share product demos, tutorials, or even customer testimonials to show why your product is a must-have.

Remember, e-commerce on TikTok isn’t just about selling. It’s about creating a fun and engaging shopping experience. Going forward, make it easy for your audience to buy what they see, and watch your sales soar.

Trend 5: Enhanced Use of AI and AR

In 2025, TikTok will see a big rise in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR). These tools will help brands connect with their audiences in fresh, exciting ways.

AI can analyze user behavior and preferences, helping brands craft personalized content. Imagine a beauty brand that uses AI to suggest products based on a user’s skin type.

This kind of tailored experience makes users feel valued and understood. It’s about making the content more relevant to each viewer.

On the other hand, AR adds a fun twist.

Users can interact with brands in ways that feel magical. For example, a clothing brand might let users “try on” outfits virtually using AR filters.

This not only entertains but also helps users make purchasing decisions. When people can visualize products on themselves, they’re more likely to buy.

To leverage these technologies, start exploring how AI can enhance your content strategy. Look into creating AR experiences that engage users and invite them to interact with your brand.

In 2025, blending technology with creativity will set you apart from the competition.

TikTok Marketing Is Evolving, Are You Keeping Up?

As we look toward 2025, TikTok continues to evolve, shaping how brands connect with their audiences. Embracing authenticity, leveraging micro-influencers, creating snackable content, integrating e-commerce, and utilizing AI and AR will be crucial for successful marketing on this dynamic platform.

These trends highlight the importance of genuine connections and innovative experiences. By staying ahead of the curve and adapting your strategy, you can create meaningful interactions that resonate with users.

The future is bright for those who dare to experiment and engage. Embrace these trends, and watch your brand flourish on TikTok.

The post 5 Emerging TikTok Marketing Trends For 2025 appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Creating engaging content; according to a study by Content Marketing Institute

With so much content being published on blogs, social media platforms, and different forums, marketers are in a never-ending fight with their competitors to produce more content. Yet, they’re unable to engage their audiences.

For more on developing effective B2B brand strategy click here 

The solution to this problem lies in diversifying your strategy and investing more resources in the best performing content types.

A recent study by HubSpot found that visual content, in general, and video, in particular, has become the most engaging form of online content.

It not only outperforms written articles and blog content but also does significantly better than any other content type on social media.

So how exactly can B2B brands use visual content in their content marketing strategy?

Here are a few ideas to get you thinking

1. Whiteboard Animation Videos

For describing highly technical B2B products, there’s nothing more effective than a well thought out whiteboard animation video.

You can use whiteboard animations to create long videos about the technical specifications and functions of your product without boring your customers or losing their attention.

Here’s a good example of how a whiteboard animation video looks

You can use them on your website, embed them into your blog articles, or share them on your company’s social media accounts.

One of the reasons why whiteboard videos work so well is that they can communicate a lot of information in a short time by visually representing your product through a powerful storyline

This is probably why whiteboard animations are among the most frequently used video types by B2B marketers across all stages of the marketing funnel.

2. Video Testimonials

Is there anything more powerful in driving B2B sales than a video testimonial from a satisfied client?

A 2016 research study found that 89%of B2B marketers considered video testimonials a key part of their marketing strategy

According to WordStream, a video testimonial can increase the conversion rate of a product landing page by 81%.

Video testimonials are also shared on social media much more frequently than other types of B2B videos.

Testimonial videos probably work so well because they help you build instant credibility and increase the perceived value of your brand.

Because shooting a high quality video testimonial takes a lot of time and resources. If a customer is willing to shoot it for you, you must’ve provided them great service.

3. Screencasts for Product Tutorials

Thanks to WordPress and other user-friendly tools, it’s easy to start a blog or a business website. But it doesn’t mean content creation is also a simple task, especially in the case of B2B businesses.

For example, brands often publish How To posts, tutorials, and problem-solving content. But they’re disappointed when no one reads it.

The reason is simple.

Their content only tells people what to do but doesn’t actually show them how to do it.

Showing, instead of telling, is the secret to creating better content than your competitors.

By adding screencast videos to your content you can make your tutorials much more actionable, engaging, and useful.

All it takes is a simple screen recording where you show your customers how to perform a certain action.

Screencasts are perfect for brands that do not have the resources to create high-quality videos or just want to experiment with video content. It’s also an easy solution if no one on your team is willing to face the camera.

4. Animated GIFs for Blog Content

An even cheaper and faster way to add engaging visuals to your content is by creating animated GIFs instead of screencasts

GIFs are much smaller in size and easier to create. But B2B marketers can use them for the same job as a screencast by showing users how to perform a task.

Here’s a sample GIF that I created to show you what I mean.

There are several tools to create animated GIFs or screencasts that you can find with just a few searches on Google.

5. Screenshots of Infographics

Look at that animated GIF I shared in the last point.

That’s me grabbing a section of a publicly available infographic, published by someone else, to use in one of my blog posts.

Doing so is perfectly fine as long as you link back to the original source (which I did)

If you can’t think of any other way to use visuals in your blog content then this method is a life-saver because it gives you high-quality images for your articles without creating them yourself.

The best way to find them is to look for infographics related to your topic. Take the topic “B2B content marketing as an example.

The results show several top-performing infographics on this topic. Open all of them and grab the relevant sections to use in your content.

This practice will not only make your content more engaging for the readers but also help you get more backlinks and social shares (as proved by several studies)

Wrapping Up

Many B2B businesses invest money in content marketing but fail to engage their target audience. By adding visuals to the mix, brands can turn their boring content into highly engaging resources that would not only help their customers but also give them a much higher ROI on their marketing efforts.

The post 5 Creative Ways B2B Brands Can Use Visual Content Marketing appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

But for most marketers and website owners, that’s just a dream (an unattainable dream)

The marketing team at Moz studied 1 million+ articles and found that 67% of the sampled pages had zero social shares while 70% had no backlinks.

A similar study of more than 1 billion URLs by Ahrefs revealed that nearly 91% of the sampled web pages got no organic search traffic at all.

Source: Ahrefs

So what exactly are the other 9% websites doing that’s sending them organic search traffic and loads of social media love?

It’s hard to say with certainty.

But based on research, your chances of driving more traction with your content significantly increase if you do the following.

1. Create Longer and More In-Depth Content

Longer and more in-depth content that addresses a narrow topic in detail usually performs better than short and thin content.

There are a couple of reasons for this.

• Longer content offers more value to the readers and helps them understand a topic from all angles.
• Longer content has more keywords which increase its chances of ranking for different searches in Google.

This assumption is backed by research as well.

For example, HubSpot studied all of their blog content and found that longer posts (2500+ words) got more backlinks.

Source: HubSpot

The same trend was observed when it came to social shares.

Source: HubSpot

The key to creating link-worthy and share-worthy content is to focus on just one topic in detail instead of writing about multiple unrelated or loosely related topics by barely scratching their surface.

Here’s a really good example.

Ethical is a blog that encourages its readers to live, spend and consume responsibly by ensuring that their lifestyle doesn’t harm the planet and its species.

It’s a pretty broad topic.

But here’s one of their articles that talks in detail about climate change which is a narrow sub-topic of this niche.

Source: Ethical

In more than 2000 words, this article doesn’t talk about anything else but climate change. As a result, it’s much more likely to appeal to the relevant audiences and get social shares and backlinks from climate change advocates.

So the next time you sit down to write something for your blog, make sure you dive deep into the topic, stay focused, and create a valuable resource for your readers that they’ll be happy to share.

2. Make Your Content Visually Appealing

Nobody likes reading thick blocks of plain text.

But that’s exactly what your readers get when you don’t include any visuals in your content.

On the contrary, the moment you add images, screenshots, GIFs or videos to an article, it instantly becomes more readable, linkable and share-worthy.

Research shows that the human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text and retains 80% of the information transmitted visually. As a result, visual content gets much more social media traction.

Source: Undullify

There are a number of ways to use visuals in your content.

For starters, use screenshots to describe a process or explain a point in your content. Don’t just tell readers what to do, show them how it’s done.

The marketing team at 10Web, a leading Platform to build and host WordPress websites, does this really well in its blog content.

Source: 10Web

Similarly, you could hire a freelance designer or use an online tool like Canva to create infographics related to your topic and make them a part of your content.

If you don’t have the time or resources to create your own visuals, you could find already published infographics on your topic and use small sections from them (don’t forget to link back to the original source)

Or you could simply embed a relevant video from YouTube to keep your readers engaged.

In short, using a mixture of text and visuals usually results in much higher reader engagement and drives better results with your content.

3. Back Your Claims With Data and Numbers

Intelligent people talk with numbers, data, and proofs.

The less intelligent, use numbers and data frequently to look intelligent.

Both strategies work.

And that’s the reason why content that has lots of statistics and numbers usually gets more social shares and backlinks.

In a survey of hundreds of SEO professionals, 70% respondents said they considered data and original research as the best way to generate high authority backlinks to their content.

Source: Link-Assistant

If you have a large email list or social media following, you can run surveys to gather original data.

But if you don’t, there are still some intelligent ways you can use numbers in your content to drive more user engagement and attract social shares.

• By using numbers in your article title
• By using research and surveys published by other credible organizations
• By pulling statistics from infographics and other published blog articles

Instead of publishing opinionated posts all the time, try backing your arguments with undeniable proofs. This not only makes your content more credible but also encourages your readers to share it because of its authenticity.

4. Share Comparisons, Case Studies, and Success Stories

Nothing makes your content more credible and share-worthy than real-life examples and case studies of what you’re advocating.

Examples help people consume your content easily by removing their doubts and helping them understand exactly what you’re saying. It helps them compare their preconceived notions with reality.

This is also why comparison posts work so well for eCommerce companies and affiliate blogs. They help readers see the differences between different products and simplify their decision-making process.

This article, for example, compares the top eCommerce platforms and helps readers choose the best one for their needs. Look at the number of social shares it has.

Source: eCommerce Platforms

The same goes for case studies that share step by step details of how an objective was achieved.

In short, you need to give people a strong reason to believe you. And nothing does that more effectively than a real-life case study, example or a comparison post.

Wrapping Up

It really hurts when your hard written content generates no buzz and fails to drive any traffic to your site. To avoid this fate, you must learn from the successful marketers in your industry and model your content on their success. The tips I’ve shared in this post will help you create more engaging, credible, and authentic content that’ll ultimately lead to more social shares and backlinks from higher authority sites.

If you have any questions, I’d love to respond in the comments section.

The post 4 Ways to Drive 200% More Social Shares and Backlinks To Your Content appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Why Live is B-i-g

Live has turned ordinary people into influencers, and influencers into superstars.

As a result, more video content is being created on Facebook than ever before and it’s starting to realistically threaten the dominance of YouTube as the undisputed number 1 video platform on the web.

According to a recent study, Facebook Live videos are generating 3x more engagement as compared to the recorded content:

Source: Facebook Video Stats 2016

For marketers, this is exciting news. The top marketers and bloggers in most niches are using Facebook Live to not only engage with their audiences more frequently, but also to drive more traffic to their content and to turn viewers into email subscribers. This is the best time to get on board since Facebook’s newsfeed algorithm currently gives more organic exposure to live videos than other types of content.

Not sure how you can take advantage? Here are a few examples to help you.

1. Ask Your Audience To Suggest New Content Ideas

Successful bloggers aren’t superhuman.

They’re just better at identifying the biggest pain points of their audience and creating content that comprehensively answers every question their readers have.

With Facebook Live, now you can do it as well.

Start a live video stream and directly ask your audience about the topics that bother them the most about their business. Understand their needs, take notes and generate new ideas based on their feedback.

The content created as a result of reader feedback will not only be more useful and targeted, but will also generate much more interest and traffic.

99Designs, a leading logo and graphic design platform, used the same strategy to create a popular post on their blog on logo design trends in 2017:

While researching for New Year content idea, they went live on their Facebook page and asked their audience for feedback.

The result, a well-researched post with exactly the content their audience was looking for.

2. Create Anticipation for Your Upcoming Content With Facebook Live

One of the most innovative ways content marketers are using Facebook Live is by creating anticipation for their upcoming content. Instead of publishing content and then looking for traffic, they follow the opposite strategy and focus on creating excitement among their followers.

Need examples? In a recent interview with Michael Hyatt, Kim Garst, a leading social media expert, shared how she used Facebook Live and Periscope to get her fans excited about her soon-to-be published blog posts 10 or 15 min before publishing a new post, Kim would go live on Facebook and discus some of the best tips from her post. She’d get the audience fully engaged and invite questions to encourage a deeper discussion on the topic.

But just when it gets really exciting, she’d reveal that she has kept the best tips for her blog post which she’d be publishing right after the live session. She’d publish the post while the session is still on, and share the link in the comments of her live video. According to Kim, this simple strategy works every time and drives 10x more traffic immediately to her new posts. However, to find success with this strategy, you need to be fairly knowledgeable about your niche since you’ll have a lot of questions coming your way.

3. Use Video Specific Content Upgrades To Attract More Subscribers

Generating Traffic to your blog and getting followers on your social media profiles is great. But there’s still nothing more important for an online marketer than building a subscriber base. According to Email Monday, email marketing has an ROI of almost 3800% ($38 in return for every $1 spent). Facebook Live gives you a great opportunity to turn followers and viewers into email subscribers.

How? By using video specific content upgrades. You might’ve seen content upgrades on your favorite marketing blogs. Unlike generic lead magnets, a content upgrade offers an extension of the blog post you’re reading. It drives much higher conversions since the reader is already interested in a blog post, and the content upgrade gives him additional reading material that is closely aligned with the post.

Here’s an example of a content upgrade used on the marketing blog Backlinko:

And here’s the best part. You don’t need to spend hours creating a content upgrade. It can be a small, but relevant, resource like a checklist, a worksheet, a small eBook or quick video. But how does this relate to Facebook Live? – I can hear that voice in your head

You can replicate the content upgrade strategy on Facebook Live and achieve the same results as a blog post. All you need to do is to create an additional resource that is closely aligned with the topic of your Facebook Live video. You can then ask your viewers to download it from your website or blog.

Simply create a landing page, using any free or paid WordPress landing page plugin, place your content upgrade on it and share the link in the comments section of your video. For example, if the topic of your Facebook Live video is “How To Generate Sales Leads With Cold Emailing”, you could create a few sample email templates and offer them as a content upgrade.

It’s a simple, yet extremely effective, way to build your email list every time you go live on Facebook.

4. Interview an Industry Influencer Live on Your Facebook Page

What’s the easiest way to steal an industry influencer’s email subscribers (thousands of them)? Simple, just invite them for an interview. Again, it works just like blogging.

Most bloggers publish interviews and expert round up posts in which they ask multiple influencers the same question and compile their answers in one blog post. When the post is published, every influencer is notified by the blog owner along with a request for a Tweet.

This sends hordes of traffic from all different directions to the interview post. The same strategy can be applied to Facebook Live as well. If you can invite multiple influencers, great. If you can’t, even one is enough.

eCommerce giants Shopify do this regularly on their Facebook page and are a great example to follow. They recently did a Facebook Live session with Tim Ferris, famous author and entrepreneur, and used it to route traffic from Facebook to their landing page.

Tim also asked his email subscribers and social media followers to join him live for this session. Overall, the live broadcast generated over 12000 views. Of course, not everyone can afford to invite Tim or other celebrity influencers for a live video session.

You could, however, target any experts or influencers who are slightly ahead of you, have a small but loyal following, and are looking to expand their networks.

The Big Wrap Up

Live video streaming is an exciting addition to Facebook which has opened up new opportunities for brands, content marketers and bloggers.

By using the organic reach and engagement of Facebook Live, marketers can easily drive more traffic to their blogs and convert it into email subscribers.

Have you jumped on the live video bandwagon yet? If yes, I’d love to hear how you’re using it to further your marketing objectives.

The post 4 Ways To Use Facebook Live For Driving Traffic And Subscribers To Your Website appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Parallel to the rise of Instagram’s own economy, there are also several tools, marketplaces, platforms and services rising alongside it to create a robust wider Instagram economic ecosystem. Harper’s Bazaar recently estimated that brands are already spending over $1 billion per year on sponsored Instagram posts, noting that influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers can easily find opportunities to land thousands of dollars per post in sponsorship fees.

Here are several tools and tactics that will help you make money from this formidable, emerging ecosystem.

1. Manage Your Community

A great tool called Crowdfire allows you manage your following on Instagram (Twitter too, by the way). See who has recently followed and unfollowed you, learn who’s no longer active on the network, discover commonly followed accounts among your followers and identify the profiles you follow that don’t follow you back. You can also use Crowdfire to learn who your most engaged fans are, so you know to interact with those people more often.

2. Monetize Influence with Merch

With Viralstyle, you can create merchandise and promote it to your Instagram following with minimal friction and investment. The branded T-shirts are printed on-demand, and orders are fulfilled and shipped by the platform. Using the platform’s design tools, you can create a custom product and make it e-commerce-ready in a matter of minutes. Plus, integrated marketing tools allow you to create social ads.

Take a look at this example from Rob Gronkowski of the New England Patriots. He uses ViralStyle to sell tee shirts to his Instagram fans, giving away autographed units as a raffle and driving cross-channel engagement by posting contest terms on Twitter.

3. Measure Your Contests

Running Instagram contests is a great way to boost user engagement, attract new followers and create a buzz around your brand. A rich analytics and contest management suite for Instagram, Iconosquare offers embeddable hashtag aggregation boards, moderation modules and engagement metrics. With your contest hashtag, and start and end dates entered, your contest is ready to go live. And once it’s over, you can drill down into performance details and even download a list of participants for follow-up engagement.

4. Curate and Embed User Generated Content

Utilizing user generated content is a powerful marketing tactic, largely because it helps prospective e-commerce customers see how past buyers have enjoyed products in real life. Yotpo allows you to solicit and curate content from users and embed their submissions for use in your marketing assets. The platform allows you to collect authentic photos from your customers, especially those shared on Instagram, to use alongside onsite reviews. You can showcase these collections on your website, your social media profiles and even in your ads, to boost your brand’s authenticity, trustworthiness, and social proof.

To add to its value proposition, Yotpo has recently rolled out an Instagram ad management tool. Much like its Facebook ads integration, you can use it to grow your following, or to advertise products and services with the power of user generated content integrated within the creative.

5. Buy and Sell Image Rights

The stock photo backlash is real, and Instagram’s economy might be the gateway to viable solutions to that problem. One of several rising marketplaces of its kind, Lobster allows marketers to find and source images taken by community members. Photographers on Lobster can sell the rights to use their content, and businesses have the option to purchase a subscription, so they have access to the images in the marketplace whenever they need them.

6. Schedule Your Posts

Instagram is all about real-time posting and engagement for the most part, but not every marketer is able to be active at the same time as our audiences. The announcement that the platform’s feed is switching to algorithmic curation underlines the need for targeted scheduling.

Consider using Later to schedule posts from all devices. It allows logins for multiple team members, supports multiple Instagram accounts, and even offers reposting capabilities.

7. Sponsor Buyable Product Imagery

With Stylinity, you can find Instagram influencers interested in modeling your products as ecommerce-integrated, user generated content that gets distributed to their followers. The company’s “Shoppable Content Management System” works across several social networks, and marketplace members can follow the brands they love to learn about new opportunities, called “Looks.”

8. Buy Sponsored Posts

Using TapInfluence, brands can team up with top Instagrammers to create sponsored posts to share with their audience on a fully automated basis. Advertisers can use the platform’s proprietary tools to find influencer matches, automate work flows and promote content. The TapExchange module supports cost per engagement metrics and advanced audience targeting.

Today there are tools to enable virtually any Instagram-based marketing opportunity you can think of. Whether you need to schedule activity in advance, growth hack your community of followers or sponsor posts from popular and eager Instagrammers, there’s probably a product out there to make it happen, and to make you money in the process.

Image credits: Crowdfire, Viralstyle, makeawebsitehub, Yotpo, Lobster, Later

The post 8 Ways to Make Money on Instagram appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

2016, however, promises to be an even bigger year for eCommerce in general and social commerce in particular. More than 59% of marketers believe that social commerce will be the fastest growing trend in the coming year. Leading social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are introducing different eCommerce features to help their users take advantage of this trend.
If you run an eCommerce business or depend heavily on different online channels for generating sales, you need to be prepared for the social commerce boom we’re likely to witness in the next 12 months.
Here are some of the trends you need to stay in line with in order to take advantage

1. Customer Reviews Will Make or Break Your Sales

Social networks have had a huge impact on the way people purchase things online. A study by Hubspot shows that people are 75% more likely to purchase a product when referred by a friend on a social network. In general, over 90% of people take brand recommendations from friends and 70% trust consumer reviews more than advertisements.

With such an overwhelming number of people trusting the opinion of their social networks, customer referrals and reviews can prove to be the game changer for your business.
To ensure that your customers refer your brand to their friends on different social networks, you need to provide them incentives like check-in discounts, and engage with them regularly.
The higher your engagement level with your target customers, the greater chance you have of generating positive word of mouth for your brand.

2. A Memorable Buying Experience Will Win You Loyal Customers

With every other brand offering discounts, exclusive offers and value added services to attract customers, customer experience and the simplicity of your buying process are two factors that can help you stand out and be noticed.
The rewards of providing exceptional user experience are huge. According to Salesforce, consumers are willing to spend almost 54% more for a better purchase experience. On the other hand, research also indicates that it takes a brand almost 12 exceptional purchase experiences to overcome the damage of one bad experience.
For an eCommerce website, some of the key user experience factors are website speed, a mobile friendly design, a quick checkout phase and multiple payment options.
An alternate approach, which several leading brands and entrepreneurs have adopted, is to sell directly on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other social networks using different social media store apps.

This allows your followers to purchase products while staying on their preferred social network. Getting rid of the additional step of routing users from a social network to your online store improves the user experience and makes the buying process more convenient.
A good example of an effective online store that offers a delightful customer experience is Selz, a digital selling and online store app. By adding a Facebook store to your fan page, you can sell directly to your followers in an environment they trust. From product selection to checkout, the complete process takes place on Facebook. Plus, your buyers can pay in a secure manner using PayPal and Credit/Debit Card.

In the age of social commerce, selling digital products like eBooks or physical products to your followers and prospects on a social network is a great way to offer a memorable user experience and get your buyers to share your brand with their friends.

3. Facebook Ads Will Take Your Business to the Next Level

2015 was the year when Facebook ads made huge strides as compared to the previous years. Marketers invested heavily in Facebook advertising due to which Facebook’s ad revenue increased by more than 42% from 2014, and is expected to reach almost $27 billion dollars by the end of 2017.
The audience targeting and if/then features of Facebook ads make it ideal for your eCommerce business. A study by Invesp shows that nearly 92% of marketers in the US are using Facebook ads to prom ote their brand and special offers.

But creating effective Facebook ads requires detailed competitor analysis and an accurate understating of your target audience.
If you want to invest heavily in Facebook advertising (which you should), this step by step guide by Neil Patel will help you get started.

4. The Timing and Frequency of Your Posts Still Counts

No matter how much you invest in paid advertisements, organic reach and engagement on social networks is still important for your business.
Facebook, and some of the other leading social networks, have significantly cut down the organic reach of user generated content, but there are still ways you can get more eyeballs on you posts without spending money.
Two key factors in this regard are the timing and the frequency of your posts. Posting at the right times, and with the right frequency, will not only help you reach more people, but also increase your chances of generating user engagement and driving action.
For example, according to research, the best times to post on Instagram is between 2PM – 5PM on Wednesdays, while the worst time is between 6AM – 9AM on any day. Similarly, Tweeting on weekends can get you almost 300% more engagement that weekdays. You can find out the peak times and ideal posting frequency of the top social networks in this detailed infographic.

5. Stop ignoring Pinterest, Instagram and WhatsApp

While Facebook is clearly the leader when it comes to generating eCommerce sales, you can’t ignore Pinterest, WhatsApp and Instagram because of the huge business potential they offer.
In fact, according to Statista, the average per order value for Instagram ($65) and Pinterest ($58.95) is higher than the average per order value of Facebook ($55). Both Pinterest and Instagram are primarily visual based social networks with a huge user base.

Even fewer marketers are using WhatsApp to its full potential. WhatsApp is not just a messaging app anymore. Around the world, more than 50 billion messages are sent every day on WhatsApp. Research show that more than 90% of text messages are read within 3 minutes, and mobile users are 4x-5x more likely to take action on a sales offer as compared to desktop users.
Are you getting any ideas?
Several leading brands are already using WhatsApp to reach their clients for relationship building and exclusive offers. 2016 might just see the rise of direct eCommerce marketing through WhatsApp as well.

Wrapping Up

With technology and communication channels evolving quicker than ever before, it’s hard to predict with certainty what the next 12 months might have on offer. However, past data and current trends strongly suggest that 2016 will be a major year for eCommerce, with social media playing a key role in it. The data backed trends I’ve in this post are likely to dominate the coming year. If you stay on top of them, you can have a year of unprecedented success with social commerce.

The post 5 Tips for Taking Advantage of the 2016 Social Commerce Boom appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

In reality, however, the amount of traffic you manage to attract from social media and the level of engagement you manage to drive from it depends largely on how you structure your social media posts and the share worthiness your content.

To help you understand this better, here are some of the key points you need to keep in mind while creating a strategy for driving traffic and conversions from social media.

Use High Conversion Keywords

On all social networks, certain keywords generate more engagement than others. They attract more clicks and get more exposure. Using them intelligently in your social media updates can increase the visibility and effectiveness of your posts.

Here are some of the high conversion keywords for leading social networks

• Facebook – Where, When, Tell Us, Inspire, Submit, Deals, Discount, Warns, Amuses
• Twitter – ReTweet, Follow, Social Media, New Blog Post, Check Out, Help, Top,
• LinkedIn – Created, Improved, Increased, Developed, Reduced, Researched
• Google+ – Share, Promote, Increase, Create, Discover

You can find more of these words in this post

Expand Your Reach With Hashtags

You must’ve seen people use different hashtags with their social media posts and updates. Hashtags expand the reach of your posts beyond your immediate followers and help you reach new audiences. At the same time, they help you create social media discussions, chats and trends that can be used for wide ranging purposes.

Using 1 or 2 hashtags per post can significantly increase the effectiveness of your social media content and help you drive more traffic and conversions. Here’s a quick look at the optimal hashtag usage stats for the top social networks.

Twitter

• Tweets with hashtags attract 2x more engagement (retweets, favorites, replies)
• There’s 21% more engagement on Tweets with 1 to 2 hashtags.
• If you increase the number of hashtags more than 2, the engagement levels fall by an average of 17%.
• Almost 40% of Tweets with hashtags get Retweeted.

Facebook

• Hashtags were not very effective when Facebook first started, but in the last couple of years hashtags have been an effective source of traffic and exposure.
• Using 1-2 hashtags per post can get you an average of 593 interactions per post.
• But if you increase the number of hashtags to 3-5, the average interactions fall down to 416 per post.

Google+

• From its early days, Google+ has encouraged the use of hashtags.
• Hashtags are automatically added to your posts based on the content but you can edit hashtags as well.
• Google+ also shows a list of related hashtags that can be used to gauge the interests of your audience.

You can find much more about hashtag usage in Neil Patel’s Ultimate Guide to Hashtags.

Use Visual Content For More Engagement

Social media, by nature, is designed for visual content, and it’s no surprise that image based content attracts more engagement as compared to simple text based posts. So it’s important that you regularly include images, videos, vines, GIFs and other forms of visual content in your social media updates.

These stats show the impact of visual content on different social networks.

Facebook

• Image based posts attract 39% more engagement.

Google+

• Videos get 28% more engagement
• Images receive 94% more +1s
• Animated GIFs receive 39% more +1s.

LinkedIn

• Images based posts attract 98% more comments.
• Linking to YouTube videos results in 75% more shares.

Twitter

• Including images, vines and videos can get you 200% more engagement as compared to simple text Tweets.

Use Short and Concise Updates

Against the common belief, shorter updates attract much more engagement on all social networks as compared to the longer ones. This is probably because social network users have very short attention spans and don’t usually have the time to read long and detailed posts.

Here’s the ideal character count for some of the leading social networks.

1. Twitter – Tweets shorter than 100 characters attract 17% more engagement.
2. Facebook – Surprisingly, Facebook posts with less than 40 characters received 80% more engagement than longer posts.
3. Google+ – If the headline of your Google+ posts is longer than 60 characters, the engagement levels fall by 18%.

Create Share Worthy Blog Content

Your social media engagement and conversion rates have a lot to do with the kind of blog content you create. If the quality of your content is low, then most of your optimization techniques will be ineffective.

In general, social media users prefer highly actionable and interesting content written in a fun way. Your headlines matter a lot as well. Just look at some of the headlines of Buzzfeed articles. Their articles and updates attract thousands of social shares every day because of their headlines and innovative content ideas. You can find some great blogging ideas in this post, or you can use MyBlogU to brainstorm new blogging ideas with other bloggers, create share worthy posts like interviews, and even hire quality freelance writers to help you create viral content.

Apart from high quality content, sharing free tools and resources also attracts increased engagement and social shares (for example tools this QR Code Generator or this SEO Audit Tool).

Identify and Amplify Top Performing Content

Driving traffic and conversions from social media is not just about using random and isolated techniques. It’s equally important to identify the right channels that are sending you social media traffic, the content that is attracting the highest engagement, and the pages on your website/blog that can be used to amplify such content for even more social engagement.

I’ve personally found TrenDemon as a great tool to get all these insights. You can integrate it with your Google Analytics account to get real time stats on your best converting social content and the channels that can be used to amplify it (learn more about Google Analytics integration in this post).

You can use this information to promote your existing and new blog content and attract increased social media love.

Use a Social Media Friendly Website Structure

Just like your content quality, the structure of your website also has a direct impact on the number of shares and social media followers you manage to attract. Most of the times, visitors find you either through your social media updates or from Google search results. You need to have a website structure that encourages these visitors to share your content and follow you social media.

Here are few things you can do to achieve this

• Enable Twitter Cards: Twitter cards display additional information about your links, blog posts or products. Thy also increase the engagement levels on your Tweets.
• Use Facebook Open Graph: Add the Open Graph meta-tags to your blog so that your featured image is always displayed. You can find detailed instructions on using Open Graph in this post.
• Add Social Media Sharing Widget: I recommend using AddThis or DiggDigg to add social media sharing and follow widgets.

Wrapping it Up

Driving conversions and traffic from social media requires a combination of tweaks to your posts, and some structural changes to your website and blog. At the same time, you need to keep a close eye on your social media stats to understand which content is performing well and how you can leverage it to increase your overall social media engagement. If you can get this combination right, you can create sustainable stream of high converting social media traffic to your blog or website.

Have you tried any of these techniques in your social media strategy? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.

The post 7 Effective Ways To Increase Your Social Media Traffic and Conversions appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

But the stats suggest otherwise.

• In the last year, 66% of all US consumers below 15 years of age made a purchase because of an email.
• 91% of consumers check their email at least once a day.
• 64% of decision makers read their emails via mobile.
• Over 70% of mobile purchasing decisions are influenced by email.

This clearly suggests that email marketing is not only alive, but more relevant than ever before especially with the use of a lead magnet. Facebook, on the other hand, is the world’s largest social network. For many users around the world, it is more important than emails.

Every month there are

• 4 billion visitors on Facebook
• 700 million visitors on Facebook groups
• more than 700 billion minutes spent on Facebook globally

Every day there are

• more than 890 million people on Facebook
• 1+ billion searches on Facebook
• More than 3 billion video views on Facebook
• More than 7 billion post likes on Facebook

These are mind boggling stats.

But what if we combine the exposure of Facebook with the power of email marketing? It’ll be any marketers dream.

Why You Should Route Facebook Users To Your Email List

Although Facebook offers you extraordinary exposure and reach, relying on it for your long term business strategy is risky. No matter how many Facebook page likes you have, they’re still not your property and can be taken away from you by just one algorithm change. Facebook is also tightening the screw on page owners, and does not give you the same free exposure that it once offered.

Email subscribers, on the other hand, are your real online assets. You have complete control over your email lists and can use them for creating long term strategies. So instead of relying completely on Facebook, the intelligent approach is to use Facebook for building your email lists

Here’s how you can do it.

Identify Your Audience

When you’re building an email list, it’s not just the number of subscribers that matters. The quality and relevance of your subscribers is equally important. Your objective for list building is to convert subscribers into buyers. So you need people who are seriously interested in what you have to offer.

For this, you need to create the right buyer personas. Buyer persona is a sample profile of your ideal buyer, or someone who is genuinely interested in your offer.

For example, if you’re selling a weight loss product, your ideal buyer could be a 35 to 40 year old man, living in a major US city, earning at least $100,000 per year, and genuinely concerned about his increasing weight.

Until recently, buyer personas were used primarily by content marketers. But innovative social media companies like 99DollarSocial and Buffer have used them intelligently in creating more targeted social campaigns.

Create the Right Freebie

Marketers use different kinds of incentives to lure people to their email lists. In most cases, it’s a freebie like an eBook, a free course or a discount coupon. But to attract the right subscribers, you need to create a freebie that is in line with your paid offer.

This is important because you don’t want to attract subscribers who’re just looking for freebies. You want to attract people who’re prepared to pay you for your services in the long run.

For example, if you offer SEO and digital marketing services, your freebie can be a free website SEO audit or an SEO checklist.

Just make sure your freebie has some immediate value for your target users so that they subscriber to your list immediately.

For example, this is the freebie that Neil Patel offer on his blog QuickSprout.

You can see that it’s directly complementing the core services that Neil offers (SEO consultancy, traffic generation, conversion optimization etc.)

Create a Landing Page and Auto-responder Series

Once your freebie is ready, you need to create a clutter free and high conversion landing page. Conversion optimization is a broad subject and a lot can be written about it. But in summary, all the components of your landing page, including copy, images and your freebie, should point in only one direction – your opt-in form.

Here’s a great example from Noah Kagan’s blog.

Note: Here’s a detailed post on improving conversion rates on your website and landing pages

You also need to have an intelligent auto-responder sequence set up for your new subscribers. Just like your freebie, it needs to be aligned with your paid product/services.

I typically use a five email auto-responder sequence in which the first three emails deliver direct value in the form of actionable advice and resources. The last two emails are about my paid offer which my subscribers can get at a discounted rate.

There are several auto-responder and email marketing tools on the web, but I prefer GetResponse for my managing my campaigns (Neil Patel recommended it to me). Apart from email marketing, you can use it to create your landing pages as well.

Creating the landing page and auto-responder is important because you need to give immediate value to your subscribers so that they start trusting you and refer more people to your list.

Note: Here’s a list of WordPress list building plugins that you can use in combination with your auto-responder

Create a Facebook Ad Campaign

Once you’ve completed the ground work, you can now turn to Facebook advertisements to send you highly targeted visitors. While creating your ad, you need to keep your buyer persona in mind.

Facebook ads have a very precise targeting system. You can use it to zoom in to your target audience and attract the most relevant visitors to your landing page.

While creating your ad, keep the following points in mind.

• Use at least 4 to 5 high quality images for your ad.
• Test different headlines and content for your ad.
• Make sure your ad copy has a clear call to action.
• Start with a small budget for each ad and do test runs to find out the combination.
• Be as precise as possible in your audience criteria.

Once you start your ad campaign, monitor the results closely. If your Facebook ads are getting a lot of clicks and sending traffic to your landing, but the visitor to subscriber conversion rate is low then try making changes to your landing page content and structure. In my experience, Facebook ads have the highest CTR among all other paid advertisement tools.

Note: Here’s a detailed post on configuring effective Facebook ads

Wrapping it Up

As I said at the start, Facebook has millions of active members from all across the globe. By using the strength and exposure of this platform, you can attract highly relevant subscribers to your mailing list and convert them into an online asset. However, in order to benefit from Facebook ads, you need to build a solid foundation with your freebie, landing page and auto-responder sequence. If you get it right, you can build a thriving email list in just a few days.

The post How To Build a Thriving Email List Using Facebook appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

All this presents a great opportunity for marketers and online sellers to increase their product sales and acquire new clients from Facebook. However, in order to create a successful Facebook sales strategy, you need to have certain components in place, apart from having a good quality product that fulfills a specific need. Here’s a quick look at some of them.

1.  High Quality Social Media Content

Content is the king on social media as well. But the kind of content that works on social media, Facebook to be specific, differs from blog content. It needs to be short, engaging and interesting enough to make people share it with their followers. There needs to be a lot more visual content like memes, images, videos and infographics.

However, while creating Facebook content, you need to keep your objective in mind – which is to make sales. For that, you need to share content that makes you a reliable source of high value and actionable information related to your product and industry. Share new researches, statistics, findings and benefits related to your product and use short updates (visual and text based) to stay in touch with your followers.

2.  A Vibrant and Engaged Fan Page

An engaged and loyal audience is one of the primary needs of any sales strategy. But in the case of Facebook, it’s importance is magnified since there are so many other companies and brands approaching users all the time with their products and offers.

In order to develop a long term and dependable Facebook sales strategy, you need to have a well-managed and engaged Facebook fan page. Your fan page is the central platform from where you can manage all your sales and marketing campaigns, engage your followers and then convert them into paid customers.

There are examples of people successfully selling their products on Facebook without a large fan page, but their returning customer rates and customer loyalty are usually low. Moreover, they never engage their customers to build a long term relationship.

Engagement comes from having a personality. Instead of being a faceless company, add personality to your page and connect with your followers on a personal level. Respond to their comments, tag them in posts, address them with their names and have fun with them.

3.  Smart Use of Facebook Advertisements

Over the last couple of years, Facebook has invested a great deal in improving its advertisements. They are much more targeted than before and allow users to locate their target audience in a number of very smart ways. In my personal experience, the CPA (cost per lead acquisition) of Facebook ads is much lower than any other ad network.

You need to make use of this feature.

Gone are the days when your Facebook posts could attract thousands of organic views. Facebook has tightened the screw on post exposure. Now you need to invest in advertisements in order to attract targeted traffic. And in my opinion, it’s a very reasonable investment with high returns.

I’ve explained my Facebook marketing strategy in more detail in this post.

But in short, you need to target people that are already buying products from your competitors. Be as specific in audience selection as possible. Start with a short advertisement campaign and see how it goes. Then gradually invest more budget and adjust your ad content and images to see what works well.

4.  Using Contests and Giveaways

Free giveaways are a great way to attract lots of potential customers to your page and at the same time give them a taste of what your paid services have to offer. It also builds credibility in the eyes of your target audience. Similarly, holding contests on your Facebook page not only increases the engagement levels on your page, but also gives you an opportunity to let your customers explore your products and services in more detail.

However, your free giveaway needs to be in line with your main product. It can be a downgraded or limited version of your main product, or a trial version of your services. It needs to complement your primary product and give the users a sense of what to expect from you when they pay for your products or services.

5.  Simplifying the Buying Process

Many great products fail to achieve high sales numbers because of a complicated payment process. Creating a seamless buying process is critical for the success of your Facebook sales campaign. This includes the payment process, plus the overall buying experience.

The best way to create a simplified and effective buying process is by integrating an online store with your Facebook page. You can do that by using free tools like Selz.

Selz lets you integrate a fully functional online store, including a shopping cart, with Facebook from where you can sell your products directly. With this approach you won’t have to route customers to any other page. Moreover, it allows you to accept buyer payments from Master Card, Visa and PayPal.

In online sales, the speed of the buying process and the number of redirections involved in it, plays a key role in the overall sales conversion rate. Therefore, simplifying this step should be one of your priorities.

Conclusion

As I said at the start, Facebook is an extremely effective marketing and sales channel. However, in order to fully benefit from it, you need to create an engaged audience with a well-managed fan page, and invest intelligently in Facebook advertisements. Add a simplified buying process to this, and you’ll have a winning Facebook sales strategy.

The post 5 Essential Components of a Successful Facebook Sales Strategy appeared first on Social Media Explorer.