Effective social media strategies involve more than just posting content; interaction with followers, addressing customer service queries, and creating shareable content are also crucial. Engaging directly with customers through comments, likes, and shares can build a loyal community around your brand. Brand visibility increases as businesses create engaging content and actively participate in conversations.

According to the marketing team at the CT Group, a London based global consultancy, by strategically planning and implementing social media campaigns, businesses can drive traffic to their websites, generate quality leads, and ultimately increase sales. Each platform offers unique opportunities to connect with potential customers and showcase your products or services. Whether through impactful visuals, compelling stories, or insightful posts, leveraging social media effectively is a vital component of modern business success.

Building a Strong Foundation

A strong social media foundation is essential for business success. This involves developing a clear strategy, choosing the right platforms, understanding your audience, creating engaging content, and tracking performance with analytics.

Developing a Solid Social Media Strategy

Creating a solid social media strategy involves several key steps. The experts at the CT Group recommend businesses define clear objectives. Are they aiming to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to their website, or boost sales? Each goal will shape the strategy differently.

Choosing the Right Platforms

Selecting the right social media platforms is critical. Businesses should identify where their target audience spends most of their time. Facebook and Instagram are great for visual content, while LinkedIn is ideal for B2B marketing. Twitter works well for real-time updates and customer service.

Directing efforts towards platforms that align with the business’s goals and audience can maximize impact. For instance, Pinterest is perfect for lifestyle brands, whereas YouTube and TikTok are excellent for video content. Each platform has unique features tailored to different marketing strategies.

Understanding Your Target Audience

Understanding the target audience is essential, according to the CT Group. This involves researching the demographics, interests, and behaviors of potential customers. Businesses need to know who they are trying to reach.

Creating buyer personas can help in this process. These personas represent segments of the audience and include details like age, location, interests, and challenges. By knowing the audience well, businesses can tailor their content and engagement efforts to meet the specific needs and preferences of their customer base.

Creating High-Quality, Engaging Content

Quality content is the cornerstone of any successful social media presence. Content should be engaging, relevant, and visually appealing. Types of content include blog posts, infographics, videos, and user-generated content (UGC).

Videos and live streams are particularly effective, as they can capture attention and convey messages quickly. Consistent branding and a clear voice across content help in building trust and recognition. Staying relevant by tapping into trending topics and providing value through informative or entertaining posts can keep the audience engaged.

Measuring Success with Analytics

To ensure social media efforts are effective, measuring success with analytics is necessary. Tools like Google Analytics and platform-specific insights on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn provide valuable data. Key metrics include engagement rates, follower growth, click-through rates, and conversion rates.

Return on investment (ROI) from social media activities should be regularly assessed. By analyzing this data, businesses can adjust their strategies to better meet their objectives. Understanding which types of content perform best and on which platforms can inform future marketing decisions.

Advanced Tactics for Growth

To achieve significant business growth through social media, it’s essential to employ advanced tactics. These strategies include using influencers to expand your reach, leveraging advertising to boost engagement, converting followers into customers, and providing exceptional customer experiences.

Leveraging Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing involves partnering with social media influencers who have a considerable following to promote your products or services. Businesses can reach a wider audience by aligning with influencers whose followers match their target market.

Identify Influencers: Select influencers who align with your brand identity and values.

Build Relationships: Develop genuine partnerships to foster trust.

Track Success: Use metrics to measure the impact of these collaborations on brand growth and engagement.

These partnerships can greatly amplify the brand’s message and increase its visibility.

Maximizing Engagement Through Advertising

Social media advertising can significantly increase engagement and brand awareness. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram offer robust ads targeting options.

Facebook Ads: Utilize its precise targeting to reach the right audience.

Ad Formats: Experiment with different ad formats such as image, video, and carousel ads.

Performance Metrics: Track metrics like click-through rates and engagement levels to refine campaigns.

Paid advertising campaigns can drive immediate traffic and interaction, making it an effective method to grow your online presence.

Boosting Sales and Conversion

Social media is a powerful tool not just for engagement but also for driving sales. Businesses can turn followers into paying customers through strategic social media marketing.

Product Promotions: Highlight new launches and special offers.

Shoppable Posts: Enable direct purchasing through social media platforms.

Conversion Tracking: Use analytics tools to see how many visitors turn into customers.

Effective sales strategies can increase revenue and contribute to customer loyalty.

Enhancing Customer Experience

Outstanding customer service on social media can build trust and long-term relationships with your audience. It involves prompt responses to inquiries and maintaining a positive brand image.

Communication: Use chatbots for quick responses and human agents for personalized service.

Customer Feedback: Actively seek and respond to customer feedback to improve services.

Consistency: Ensure consistent posting and interactions to maintain a strong online presence.

Providing an exceptional customer experience can enhance loyalty, boost trust, and foster a loyal customer base.

The post Leveraging Social Media for Business Success: Strategies for Growth appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Understanding SEO Services

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the art and science of enhancing a website’s visibility on search engines. It involves various strategies, from optimizing content and meta tags to improving site speed and mobile responsiveness. The primary goal is to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) and attract organic traffic.

SEO consists of multifaceted components, including on-page optimization, off-page optimization, and technical SEO. Each element plays a crucial role in determining a website’s search engine ranking. As search engines continually refine their algorithms, staying abreast of the latest SEO trends is paramount.

Role of Social Media Marketing (SMM)

Social Media Marketing, on the other hand, revolves around leveraging social media platforms to promote products, services, or content. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn serve as powerful channels to connect with a target audience. SMM involves creating and sharing content on social media, engaging with followers, and running targeted advertising campaigns.

The diverse nature of social media platforms allows businesses to tailor their content to specific audiences. Each platform has its unique features and demographics, enabling a strategic approach to content distribution.

The Symbiotic Relationship

While SEO and SMM operate independently, their integration can lead to a powerful synergistic effect. SEO benefits from the increased visibility and traffic generated through social media channels. Conversely, SMM gains traction by directing users to a well-optimized website.

Imagine SEO as the backbone, providing structure and foundation, while SMM serves as the dynamic face, attracting attention and fostering engagement. Together, they create a comprehensive strategy that enhances online presence and brand awareness.

Building a Strong Online Presence

To establish a formidable online presence, businesses must adopt a unified strategy that seamlessly combines SEO and SMM. Creating shareable content that resonates with the target audience is pivotal. The use of relevant keywords strategically placed in the content, meta tags, and URLs helps improve search engine rankings.

Perplexity in SEO, characterized by the diversity and richness of content, should align with the burstiness in SMM, where timely and impactful content surges through social media channels. Striking the right balance between these two aspects is essential for optimal results.

Perplexity in SEO and Burstiness in SMM

Perplexity in SEO refers to the variety and depth of information presented on a website. It ensures that a website caters to a broad range of search queries, making it a valuable resource for users. On the other hand, burstiness in SMM emphasizes the need for timely and attention-grabbing content on social media platforms.

Balancing perplexity in SEO and burstiness in SMM involves creating content that is both comprehensive and attention-grabbing. It requires understanding the search intent of users and delivering content that satisfies their needs while being shareable and engaging on social media.

Navigating the Digital Landscape

The digital landscape is constantly evolving, with search engine algorithms undergoing frequent updates. Adapting to these changes is crucial for maintaining visibility and relevance. Trends in SEO and SMM shift, requiring businesses to stay agile and embrace new strategies.

Keeping abreast of algorithm changes, such as Google’s updates, is essential for SEO success. Similarly, monitoring emerging trends on social media platforms allows businesses to tailor their SMM strategies for maximum impact.

Engaging Content for Human Readers

In the quest for online visibility, it’s essential not to lose sight of the human element. While SEO focuses on meeting search engine requirements, creating engaging content that resonates with human readers is equally important. Content should be informative, entertaining, and valuable to the target audience.

Writing for the audience involves understanding their needs, preferences, and pain points. It’s about establishing a connection through content that addresses real-world issues and provides solutions. Balancing SEO requirements and readability ensures that content not only ranks well on search engines but also captivates and retains the audience’s attention.

Maximizing Visibility through Keywords

Keywords are the backbone of SEO, serving as the bridge between user queries and relevant content. Selecting the right keywords and strategically placing them within content, meta tags, and headers is crucial for maximizing visibility on search engines.

Thorough keyword research involves identifying the terms and phrases your target audience is likely to use when searching for information. Integrating these keywords naturally into your content signals to search engines that your content is relevant to user queries.

Utilizing Social Media Channels

Different social media platforms cater to diverse demographics and interests. Crafting a tailored approach for each platform is essential for effective SMM. Whether it’s visual content on Instagram, conversational posts on Twitter, or professional content on LinkedIn, understanding the unique features of each platform is key.

Building a social media calendar helps maintain consistency and ensures a steady flow of content. Engaging with followers, participating in discussions, and leveraging hashtags are effective ways to amplify your social media presence.

Enhancing User Experience

A user-friendly website is a cornerstone of a strong online presence. Search engines prioritize websites that offer a positive user experience. This includes fast loading times, mobile optimization, clear navigation, and relevant content.

Mobile optimization is particularly crucial in the era of smartphones and tablets. With an increasing number of users accessing the internet on mobile devices, ensuring that your website is responsive and user-friendly on smaller screens is imperative.

Measuring Success

Establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) is essential for gauging the success of your SEO and SMM efforts. Metrics such as organic traffic, conversion rates, social media engagement, and follower growth provide insights into the effectiveness of your strategies.

Utilizing tools like Google Analytics, SEMrush, and social media analytics platforms helps track and analyze performance. Regularly assessing KPIs allows businesses to refine their strategies, adapt to changing trends, and optimize for continuous improvement.

Case Studies

Examining real-world examples of businesses that have successfully integrated SEO and SMM provides valuable insights. Case studies showcase the tangible benefits of a symbiotic approach, illustrating how increased visibility, enhanced engagement, and improved conversion rates contribute to overall success.

Future Trends

As the digital landscape continues to evolve, staying ahead of future trends is crucial. Anticipated developments in SEO and SMM include advancements in artificial intelligence, voice search optimization, and the growing influence of video content.

Preparing for these trends positions businesses to adapt proactively, ensuring they remain competitive and relevant in the ever-changing online environment.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the dynamic duo of SEO services and Social Media Marketing shapes the online presence of businesses in unprecedented ways. The symbiotic relationship between these two strategies creates a holistic approach that maximizes visibility, engages audiences, and drives success. Embracing both SEO and SMM is not just a choice but a necessity in today’s digital landscape.

The post The Impact of SEO Services and Social Media Marketing on Online Success appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

The new era of hyper-personalization

One big trend within the field of digital marketing, for example, is hyper-personalization. The idea here is that no two customers or prospects should ever see exactly the same content. Prospect A arriving to your website from Facebook should see different content than long-time Customer B arriving to your website from a link within an email newsletter.

And now the ability to crunch all the data that’s out there is making that dream a reality. Theoretically, if you visit an e-commerce website based on a tweet you saw on Twitter, then you should be shown a customized page of products that perfectly reflects your tastes, preferences, behaviors and interests. Machine learning tools should be able to make inferences.

For example, say you tweeted about an upcoming birthday party last week and that you have already spent time on a particular website in the past, checking out new dresses. The AI tool can then offer up a perfect selection of birthday dresses that it has expertly calculated to match your income, demographic and geographic location.

Semantic search and sentiment analysis

Another big trend is the use of AI tools for semantic search and sentiment analysis. For example, consider the monumental task of any brand trying to sort through what people are saying about it on social media. A single human couldn’t possibly parse all that information, but a machine can. And even better, these text analysis and sentiment analysis tools are becoming so advanced they can differentiate between real sentiment and sarcasm or irony. (When you consider how much sarcasm and irony exists on social media today, you can see why that’s a powerful tool to have in the toolbox of any brand.)

Moreover, brands now have a much better idea of what people are actually searching for. As a result of integrating semantic search tools, for example, Walmart claims that it has boosted conversion rates by as much as 10-15%. The idea here is simple: if a customer has searched for something on your site, you want to be able to show relevant results immediately. Failure to do so means that a customer might soon abandon your website entirely.

Other possible use cases for Big Data

Of course, that’s really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to data and analysis. For example, new AI tools might make it possible to come up with more sophisticated tests than just A/B testing in which just a single variable is tested. Imagine tests where multiple variables are tested at the same time.

And, of course, the Holy Grail for digital marketers is being able to predict the behavior of customers in the future with near 100 percent certainty. That would take all the guesswork out of crafting a digital marketing campaign and ensure that digital marketing resources are used as effectively as possible.

The post Social Media Marketers Continue To Explore The Use Cases For Big Data appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

#1: Your content ranks low in search

Ranking high in Google search results is the goal of any digital marketer, since appearing on the first page of search results is the key to getting more organic traffic. So what if your content still is not showing up on top of search results? The answer might be reviewing which SEO keywords you are using for your content, and checking to see whether they are realistic or not for your business. Check out your social media pages, and see what terms and words are appearing most frequently – this will often give you a good idea of which keywords you should be using.

#2: Your customers aren’t talking about you on social media

One common problem faced by many brands is a lack of engagement across social media. You might be producing stellar content, but nobody is liking it, commenting on it, or sharing it. One solution to this problem might be re-thinking the types of content you are posting on each social media platform. For example, if long-form video updates are not performing well on Facebook, it might be time to shift to shorter video posts that can be easily digested.

#3: You aren’t reaching the “right” audience

You might have thousands of fans or followers, but what if you are failing to attract a certain demographic? The solution to this problem usually involves more time “listening” on social media, and less time “talking” on social media. So, if you are not already using social media monitoring tools, now is the time to start. See where conversations are taking place across social media, and look for ways to insert your brand into those conversations.

#4: People have the wrong perceptions of your brand

Here’s another common problem: people are talking about your brand, but in the wrong way. You can use subtle approaches here, such as inserting specific hashtags on any social media post that can suggest a certain perspective. And you should also take time to adjust the tone of your posts. If you are trying to portray a light, youthful energy around your brand, you need to talk the way young millennials actually talk (and not the way you think they talk).

#5: Other brands are getting all the attention

No matter how much content you post on social media, it might seem like your rivals and competitors are always getting more likes and more shares. This might be a good time to take a closer look at which platforms they are using, and what type of content seems to be resonating the most with their fans. It could be the case, for example, that they are simply better at cross-promoting their content, so that a new Instagram photo is instantaneously shared across multiple different social platforms.

Final thought

All of these challenges are actually opportunities. Now is the time to explore how you can use new social media tools to deliver on your core business goals. By becoming smarter about how you use social media, you can build your brand awareness, get your message out, and have fans spreading your story across different social platforms.

The post How To Solve The Five Most Common Social Media Problems appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

The use of social media metrics

Before understanding how you can use social media analytics, it is essential to know the power of the social media platform. It comes as no surprise that customers prefer communicating with brands through social media, primarily because it’s fast and convenient. Any business should consider social media as an extension of their customer service, as responding to customer queries, comments, and feedback will ultimately boost brand recognition and trust.

But to fully understand how powerful social media can be, it’s imperative to learn the different metrics used to analyze the performance of your social media marketing campaign. These indicators point out the strong and weak points of your business, thus enabling you to develop a plan to make the necessary changes.

Continuous data-driven strategy

Millions of data pile up after promoting through social media for an extended period. Social media analytics will analyze the data and find out if your promotional posts are helping you inch closer toward your business goals. This process helps you identify whether you need changes in your content strategy. It is a continuous process of adapting to how the target audience responds to the posts and what you can do to improve their social experience.

Following the three-fold path to success

• Brand value – social media has become the best platform to share the brand personality of your company. Studies show that as much as 87% of internet users are more likely to share the photo of a new product or service that has been promoted through social media websites. However, the post should be unique and engaging enough to attract the attention of prospective customers. It is vital that the focus of the product does not take away the limelight from the brand. Otherwise, customers will search for similar products from the competition.
• Customer service – answering frequently asked questions on social media in the form of a tweet or a meme or even an interesting chat will improve the image of the company. The idea is to use social media marketing as a medium to reach out to thousands of customers instantly. A leading online tutor website does this effectively by allowing their GMAT tutors to communicate with potential students on social, which boosts their credibility right away.
• Customer generation – businesses that effectively use their social presence enjoy a 49% increase in the number of new customers they generate. This includes using social media not only as a means of a promotional tool, but as a way to engage with customers, get their feedback, and come up with the right action plan that will ultimately lead to higher sales.

It is easy to opt for different social media marketing strategies to promote your business. But unless you use analytics, you won’t be able to tell how effective they are. If you haven’t already, include analytics in your overall social media marketing strategy to get a clearer picture of what works and what doesn’t.

The post Using Analytics to Improve Social Media Marketing appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

AI vs. data analytics

In fact, you can think of AI as just a superior form of data analytics or social media metrics that you already use. Take a data analysis tool that you probably already use in your daily marketing life – Google’s analytics package. Using this tool, you can see which visitors are coming to your website, which pages they are visiting, and which search terms brought them in the first place. You can also see which devices they are using and which browsers they are using. But here’s the thing: Google gives you all the charts and data, but you – the human – needs to figure it all out. The same is true when you start diving into Facebook or Twitter user data.

What’s going to change with AI is that, soon, machines will be able to make the same kinds of inferences that humans can. Moreover, they will be able to find the types of relationships in the data that you (or your marketing team) cannot. For example, an AI-powered application would be able to tell you not only when peak activity on your social media platforms occur, but also what characteristics the best-performing pieces of content have in common, or what the average “buyer personas” on your different social media platforms look like.

How marketing will change as a result of AI

The marketing industry will still be the same – there will be leads, sales funnels and conversions. However, each of these will become a lot easier to analyze using AI-powered applications and software. In some cases, you will actually be able to predict user behavior using insights provided from AI. For example, instead of messing around with a lot of A/B testing to see what the “perfect” marketing message is for a Facebook ad, you will know in advance how well a message will likely perform. You won’t have a magic crystal ball (nobody does), but you’ll eliminate much of the guesswork in crafting the perfect marketing campaign.

Ways to use AI in social media marketing

Putting it all together, there are several ways that AI will likely influence the world of social media:

• AI will enable the creation of hyper-personalized marketing messages
• AI will provide more robust buyer and customer personas
• AI will make it easier to distinguish between qualified leads and unqualified leads
• AI will enable bots to converse with prospects on just about any topic

An example of AI at work in social media

How you choose to embrace the brave new world of AI is up to you. For some brands, it might mean the creation of multiple taglines for multiple customer niches. For example, consider the example of Coca-Cola. What if Coca-Cola could use AI to create personalized marketing messages for different demographic groups that could be used across different social media platforms at different times of the day or night, in multiple different languages and dialects?

For example, if the Coke AI marketing bot knows that a Facebook follower prefers to speak Spanish rather than English, wouldn’t it make more sense to send a marketing message in Spanish? If the Coke AI marketing bot knows that you live in Philadelphia, it might send a very different marketing message than if it knows you live in New England. For example, Coke’s ads appearing in your Facebook feed might show images of your favorite Eagles players enjoying a nice, refreshing Coke after the game and vice versa.

In many ways, then, AI is not just about software and machines getting smarter, it’s also about marketers getting smarter. What once took you hours to analyze and decipher might be possible in just a few seconds – and that will free you up to focus on what really matters for all of your social media marketing clients.

The post Taking Advantage Of AI In Social Media Marketing appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Facebook

Despite signs that organic reach is declining, Facebook continues to be the No. 1 social media platform of choice for marketers. It’s now used by 93.7 percent of digital marketers. Rounding out the Top 5 are Twitter (84.4%), Instagram (80.9%), LinkedIn (70%) and YouTube (60.8%). Up-and-coming social media platforms like Twitch (1.7%) and TikTok (0.8%) are interesting, but not yet relevant for brands looking to make a huge splash.

Video content

Nearly 85 percent of digital marketers now use video as part of their marketing campaigns. The primary social media platforms for video include Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. But one fact that really stood out is how fast LinkedIn appears to be growing in the video space. LinkedIn is now the No. 5 video platform, far outpacing video-friendly rivals such as Snapchat. And new video platforms like IGTV (long-form video content from Instagram) have gained almost zero traction. The success of LinkedIn is good news for B2B marketers looking to grow their digital presence. It’s much easier to pitch the idea of video content for LinkedIn to a CEO than a branded video channel for IGTV!

Messaging

In Buffer’s 2018 report, one big theme was the huge, untapped opportunity around messaging. Only 20 percent of marketers were using messaging platforms like WhatsApp or Messenger, and the suggestion was that digital marketers would eventually jump aboard the messaging bandwagon. But if you look carefully at the 2019 report, it looks like that trend still has not materialized. 12 months later, only 28.6 percent of marketers have experimented with messaging apps, and 50 percent of marketers surveyed said they had no plans to use messaging apps in 2019.

Stories

One huge hit of 2018, says Buffer, was the enthusiastic embrace of the Stories format by digital marketers. In fact, more than half (57%) of digital marketers said that Stories were “somewhat effective” or “very effective” as part of their overall marketing efforts. Stories, they said, were a very organic way to share brand stories, and it’s likely that trend will continue in 2019.

Influencer marketing

When it comes to influencer marketing, the picture is a little cloudy. On one hand, digital marketers say that their influencer marketing campaigns have largely been effective; on the other hand, they warn that better guidelines are needed about how to use them properly.

Engagement

Continuing the theme from the 2018 report, the new 2019 report suggests that “engagement” is still the most popular way to measure ROI from social media marketing. In 2018, for example, 42 percent of businesses (both large and small) used engagement as their primary way to measure ROI, with only 17 percent citing “leads” and only 15 percent citing “sales.” That’s perhaps not surprising – it’s a lot easier to show a lot of likes, comments and followers than it is a lot of new revenue from product sales.

Final Thought

Looking ahead to 2019, then, get ready for video content, the stories format, and influencer marketing to set the major directions for social media marketing. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram will likely continue to see the most traction from marketers, so keep your eyes on new video innovations from these companies, as well as new ways they are enhancing their attractiveness for influencers.

The post What You Need To Know About The Current State Of Social Media appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Re-thinking the classic social media influencer strategy

Amtrak has specifically said that social media follower count is not the basis for selection, and that they are not looking for top influencers who do this to make a living. This marks a real departure from the traditional influencer strategy, in which brands specifically search out glamorous A-list and B-list influencers, give them lots of free product samples or the VIP treatment, and expect extensive social media coverage in response. Instead, Amtrak seems much more content to pick out a relatively unknown person from the crowd who happens to love travel and have some solid social media skills.

From a marketing perspective, the #AmtrakTakeMeThere campaign has much more of the feel of one of those essay contests that travel companies love to run – “Tell us why you’d be the perfect person to travel to Cancun for Spring Break, and you could win a free, all-expenses paid trip to sunny Mexico!” As part of those essay promotions, companies aren’t necessarily looking for beautiful supermodels who would look great hanging out on a beach – it’s just as possible that a sweet grandmother looking to enjoy her retirement in style might win the promotion.

Generating a higher ROI with influencer marketing

The big picture here, of course, is that many large brands have gotten burned by throwing money at “the beautiful people” on Instagram, and are looking for a much higher ROI by searching out regular people on social media who aren’t expecting tens of thousands of dollars for a single Instagram photo. The reality is that many of the top social media influencers today are basically mercenaries-for-hire, willing to promote any company or any brand, just as long as they’re getting paid.

So Amtrak is getting back to the original roots of the social media influencer strategy, looking for people who love to travel, and who also have the social media skills to bring their stories to life. Amtrak has specifically said that it is looking for people who can “connect with followers at a deep level.” So Amtrak wants people who aren’t just using photos and tweets to show off a fabulous lifestyle. (Of course, with the extra thousand dollars that Amtrak is using to sweeten the pot, it’s perhaps expected that you will make your trip a little more extravagant than otherwise possible.)

The business case for a scaled-down influencer strategy

And there’s a good business rationale behind the new influencer strategy, too. While taking Amtrak trains up and down the Northeast Corridor might be commonplace for business travelers in cities like Washington, Philadelphia and New York City, many people probably don’t think about Amtrak when considering options for how to travel across the country on long-distance trips. So Amtrak is hoping that people will re-discover the thrill and excitement of train travel, and perhaps snap some great photos along the way. It will be interesting to see how much traction this new Amtrak promotion gets – if it succeeds, it might convince other large companies and brands to re-think their social media influencer strategies.

The post A New Way To Think About Social Media Influencers appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Case study: Social Media Examiner

For example, Social Media Examiner recently pulled three of its weekly shows from Facebook in October 2018. They have decided to scrap two of those shows entirely, and move the third show exclusively to YouTube. According to Social Media Examiner, the Facebook shows simply weren’t pulling in enough viewers, and those viewers they did get were hanging around for less than a minute. In contrast, viewers on YouTube were sticking around for over 4 minutes.

So why is this happening? One factor has to do with user behavior and the way that people think about different social media platforms. In explaining why it was leaving Facebook, for example, Social Media Examiner pointed out that “Facebook is a highway” and the way people prefer to use Facebook is by scrolling through post after post. If you’re traveling on a highway, are you really going to pull over and watch a 1-hour show? No way. In contrast, YouTube is much more similar to a TV-style experience, where people are sitting down to consume longer-form content.

Implications for digital marketers and brands

This, of course, has major implications for brands and digital media marketers. The old days of telling clients to create a lot of long-form video content for Facebook may be coming to an end. As much as Facebook would like to become a form of online TV, with people tuning into 30-minute and 1-hour shows at specific times of the day, people don’t seem to be buying into the idea.

And, yet, there is one major factor that keeps marketers coming back for more – and that’s the sheer size of the Facebook platform. In short, you can’t ignore any social platform with more than 2 billion users. Other video platforms, not even YouTube, can compare with Facebook. As Social Media Examiner pointed out, their total number of followers on Facebook is 500,000 while their total number of followers on YouTube is just 20,000.

Considering Facebook alternatives

Ultimately, marketing has always been about “fishing where the fish are.” So it’s hard to see marketers abandoning Facebook completely. Other video platforms like Twitch and TikTok are still very new and very unexplored. So the key might be finding the highest ROI ways to use video on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

Video isn’t going away, but it’s clear that long-form video content is not the panacea it was once thought to be. Instead, short video clips under 2 minutes (and, preferably, under 1 minute) appear to be the best solution for business owners, brands and digital marketers

The post The Case For And Against Using Facebook Video For Marketing appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Social ecosystems

One very interesting framework starts out by thinking of the different types of social content within your organization in terms of a “social ecosystem.” This includes your customer communities, your social networks, your social media profiles, and your community platforms. Each of these serves a different underlying purpose. Some of these, for example, might serve as “listening posts” where you get closer to the voice of the customer. Others might act as platforms for customers to collaborate with fellow users, followers and fans.

The continuum from collaboration to community

It’s also possible to think about social as providing a vast continuum of value. At one end of the continuum, you have social CRM, which is all about generating insights, analysis and intelligence about your customers. At the other end of the continuum, you have mass market social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) As you move along the continuum from pure CRM to mass market social media, you start to get into collaborative social tools. Move even further away, and you start to get into customer communities and social media platforms that encourage sharing and interaction. Thus, as you move along the spectrum, you will move from insights and intelligence, then to collaboration, and then to community.

Objectives, Goals, Strategies and Tactics (OGST)

Once you have a big picture view of your social ecosystem, it’s time to think in terms of putting goals and metrics into place for each of these ecosystem components. One way of doing that is by using the OGST (Objectives, Goals, Strategies, Tactics) framework. In other words, there should be a clear objective and goal for every component of your social ecosystem. And you should then back up those objectives and goals with clear strategies and tactics. For example, one piece of your social ecosystem might be based around customer advocacy, while another is based around lead generation. So how are you going to achieve those objectives and goals?

The many dimensions of social media value

It’s also important to be able to think about the various ways that social media creates value for your organization. Often, each element of your social ecosystem will contribute value in several different ways. For example, some social tools might be best for making direct sales to customers. Others might be good at boosting overall brand awareness. But the same tools used for direct sales can also be used for lead generation, and the same tools used for brand awareness can also be used for customer advocacy.

By thinking about the various components of social media value, it becomes much easier to communicate to management and board members why your organization is investing so much time and resources into social. The goal, of course, is to be able to show how social media is tied into the entire customer lifecycle. This includes the time when the customer first starts investigating your products, the time he or she purchases that product, and the time when he or she starts to form deeper bonds of loyalty with your organization. By using social media, you can ensure not just a happy customer, but also a happy repeat customer.

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Back in 2013, the Altimeter Group outlined the six stages of social business maturity that would result in the final transformation of a company into a social business. That study (“The Evolution of Social Business”) was more than theoretical conjecture – it was based on survey results from nearly 700 social media professionals and executives.

Step 1

The transformation starts with a planning stage. This could mean running a few pilot projects or other proof-of-concept projects. It also means listening to customers and other stakeholders to see what they are thinking about. And it also means reviewing resources to see what’s available to be invested into social media projects.

Step 2

After that important first step, a company must begin to build its social media presence on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. This requires thinking about how to use those platforms strategically, in order to meet core business objectives. For example, if your company prides itself on best-in-class customer service, you’d probably want to make Twitter a core component of your social strategy.

Step 3

Then, it’s time to think about building engagement with customers, forming communities, and finding your super-fans across social media. In short, your company needs to become part of a larger social media ecosystem. You are starting to build feedback loops, in which you are constantly refining what you post on social media, and how you connect with customers, fans and partners.

Step 4

Those first three steps are what most people commonly associate with becoming a social business. But as the Altimeter Group pointed out, you’re still only halfway to becoming a truly social business. You also need to formalize the role of social media within your organization. Who is the primary “executive sponsor” of social within your organization? For some companies, it might be the CEO. For others, it might be the CMO or CTO. Obviously, if there’s buy-in from the CEO, there’s a good chance the company really can become a social business.

Step 5

The next step is integrating social media strategy with the overall strategy of the company. If your company has different departments, units or affiliates, they all need to understand the role of social. And the right reporting relationships have to be set up such that the right C-level executives can see, for example, the impact of a recent social media campaign on a new product launch.

Step 6

The last step is perhaps the most exciting step – it’s when social has been so ingrained into everything that your company does that it’s possible to talk about a “social culture.” Your HR department is now using social media to recruit new employees. Your marketing department has a social media component for every new splashy campaign. Your customer service department has embraced social media as a way to boost overall customer satisfaction.

At that point in time, your company has truly become a social business. It’s not just that you are implementing new social strategies, it’s also that everyone in the business has a social-first mentality.

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Of course, data in its raw form is useless. It’s just a bunch of 1’s and 0’s. But when you are able to analyze that data, it can become very powerful. That’s especially true since we are moving from an era of “structured” data to an era of “unstructured” data.

Structured data vs. unstructured data

From a marketing perspective, the easiest way to think about the difference between “structured” data and “unstructured” data is by thinking of the typical customer survey that you might send out after someone has purchased a product or visited your store. Most of the questions will be simple “yes/no” questions. Or they will ask customers to rate you on a scale of 1-10. All of that is “structured” data. It’s easy to put into a database and then analyze for insights. You can perform all kinds of statistical calculations very easily.

But then comes all the “unstructured” data. And this is where organizations are really stepping up their game. For example, that same customer survey might ask a question like, “Is there anything else you’d like to tell us that’s not included here?” That prompts a customer to write an open-ended response. Just a few years ago, that would have required a human to analyze it. Now, thanks to the rise of machine learning and artificial intelligence, it’s possible to have a computer analyze it and add it to a growing database.

And the type of “unstructured” data that’s available today is growing at a prodigious pace, primarily thanks to all the digital devices out there. Your mobile phone is a potential treasure trove of data that grows by the minute. What company wouldn’t want to know the precise GPS location of every place you’ve visited during the day?

The rise of artificial intelligence

Moreover, the type of analysis that’s possible today is becoming quite impressive. There’s a whole new field called “predictive analytics,” which essentially promises to predict future customer behavior based on known data. You can literally predict how a marketing campaign will do, based on what you know about certain types of customers. Companies like Salesforce are coming up with AI-powered marketing solutions that promise to help companies find the proverbial needle in the haystack.

So it’s no surprise that so many companies have jumped aboard the Big Data bandwagon. It promises to streamline just about every part of a company and create new revenue opportunities. As the analytical tools become more and more powerful, it’s leading to real excitement about the potential ability of AI to transform organizations.

Data is the new oil

Within the mainstream media, in fact, it’s now fashionable to compare the role of data in the digital economy to the role of oil in the analog economy. Back in 2014, WIRED magazine breathlessly proclaimed that, “Data is the new oil of the digital economy.” Earlier this year, The Economistremarked that, “The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data.”

If you follow this analogy to its logical end, it would seem to imply that companies best able to harness and extract this data will become the most valuable in the world. Just as oil companies like Exxon Mobil became the most valuable and powerful in the world until the rise of Silicon Valley’s Internet champions, it’s plausible that new artificial intelligence (AI) companies will become the most valuable in the world, once they’ve truly figured out how to harness the remarkable power of data.

And when that day comes – the day when an AI company is worth more than an oil company or a Silicon Valley tech giant – that’s when Data will be King.

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