Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter content strategy

Just like snowflakes, no two social media platforms are alike. Yet marketers often take the one-size-fits-all approach to social media advertising, applying the same methodology to all clients and campaigns regardless of objectives and using the same creative across all marketing channels. While this approach is undoubtedly easier, it doesn’t take into account that each social media platform has different types of users at different parts of the purchasing funnel. You could be inadvertently sending conversion-focused messaging to someone who’s still in the brand awareness stage, which is risky because 41 percent of social media users say they won’t hesitate to unfollow a brand that shares irrelevant information.

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Social media essentials: Facebook Watch, Instagram and Facebook to be redesigned for readability, and WhatsApp set to allow money transfers

There haven't been many platform changes in social this week (August is a quiet month typically), but these are the top ones we've seen announced, plus our top tips to help with your social media marketing strategy.

Spotlight story: Facebook are launching 'Watch' a new video platform

Facebook has introduced a hub for original video content called 'Watch'. According to Techcrunch, Watch will allow you to view personalized recommendations of live and recorded shows. You will also have access to your own 'Watchlist' where you can subscribe to updates on new episodes of your favorite shows. This exciting new feature will generate opportunities to push more advertising before and during programs. It will only be available for partners and will roll out to a…

Social media thrives on interaction; are you doing all you can to engage your audience?

Did you know that Playbuzz.com gained more than 50 million unique monthly visitors within just 10 months of launching the site? How did they do it? Two words: Interactive content!  Social networks have been around for quite a few years now, and they are buzzing with activity more than ever. Making it in the unforgiving environment of virtual social hoops and loops continually inspire action and engagement. Since your e-survival depends on it, we have put together a list of seven creative ways to improve your social media engagement.

1.   Ask Questions (Creatively)

The best and most straightforward way to strike a conversation is to ask questions. However (it being so obvious) you need to be creative. The secret to success is not in the question but in the way you deliver it to your audience! For instance, if…

Chart of the Day: Brand Personality on Social Media can influence a customer's decision to purchase a product online.

The use of Social Media in marketing strategies has become increasingly visible. It is important now more than ever to create a positive brand personality online since consumers spend 30% of their time on social media. First, ask yourself why you use Social Media - to raise brand awareness? To resolve customer service issues?

Reasons to use social media marketing:

To raise brand awareness and the company's reputation To resolve customer service issues Improve your organic search ranking and drive traffic to your site To engage with your customers and hear their feedback Or, do you have something else in mind?

Consumers want an honest brand personality on Social Media

In a recent study by Sprout Social (Q2 2017), they found that consumers preferred a more authentic and honest brand personality (86%) over snarky comments or…

Chart of the day: Most customers have to contact companies twice to get a resolution to a customer service problem

Research by maru/edr has found that almost 8 in 10 customers contact companies by one method (such as online chat) and then by another (such as by phone) - customers feel they need to use multiple channels to get a resolution. The research also found that (as expected) email is the easiest method of contact, but phone contact led to a more immediate resolution. Live chat also led to a slightly higher number of resolutions than email. Social media was found to resolve issues the least and the most difficult method for contact, which is surprising - especially with the wider use of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. We have seen that more and more companies are investing time to integrate social media into their…

5 awesome examples of how brands have integrated emojis into their marketing campaigns

Happy World Emoji Day! Whether it’s a customer service reply or a marketing campaign, brands all over the world are using emojis every day. Emojis present an opportunity to connect with consumers in a fun, informal and creative way. For many, emojis express more than words and over the years we have seen more emojis used by some of the most well-known brands. How do you feel about using emojis? According to a recent survey, 59% of people aged 18-34 say companies are trying too hard when using emojis in ad or marketing campaigns. It was also found that 53% of young people think mixing emojis with text helps people better understand each other.

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Here…

Say goodbye to wannabe influencers, fake likes and spammy comments

Getting likes and comments have become more important than ever, due to the rise of social media influencers. Without large followings or the substantial amount of likes per post, they are no longer influential to their followers or brands. Instagram has been shutting down third-party sites and apps like Instagress, InstaPlus, and PeerBoost. Apps such as these have been violating Instagram’s Community Guidelines and Terms of Use. Hundreds of apps are still out there for you to download and increase your following by paying for likes. Often they function by charging for likes or for every post you like you gain coins to spend on more likes. Although likes can be a good indicator of whether or not a user is popular, don't be fooled. These apps help…

3 essential social media measurement questions, answered

Do Likes, Comments and Shares have value?

Numbers of likes, comments, shares are often dismissed as vanity metrics that lack real business impact. That’s true to an extent, but don’t be fooled! For some organisations - especially in B2B marketing - these metrics can be strong indicators of success or failure. Most organisations just need to put these metrics into context, i.e. analyse their engagement rate and benchmark over time, or against competitors. And, of course, not all engagements are equal – Facebook comments, shares and tags, for example, are worth far more than Likes - as they drive stories in the newsfeed and can also act as valuable recommendations.

How should we approach reach/impressions and engagement rate?

Most of us want to know many people we reached and how many of those engaged with our content. But these metrics also offer a valuable quality check on…

Everything you need to know about what has happened in social media marketing this week

Spotlight story: Twitter is becoming a tv channel

Video continues to take over social media as the preferred mode of content. And live streaming has grown rapidly over the past year becoming a key part of many leading brands marketing strategies. Twitter ramped up their video effort this year. In May, Twitter announced it would be live streaming video 24 hours a day, 7 days a week inside its app and desktop site. This shift towards mobile means that video is now Twitter’s largest revenue-generating ad format partnering with key brands such as BuzzFeed, The Verge and Bloomberg. This week Twitter partnered with the All England Lawn Tennis Club to live stream its Wimbledon Channel. Allowing tennis fans around the world to tune in and watch matches daily, as well as covering news and interviews. …

Chart of the Day: Using more than 10 hashtags per Instagram post could be damaging your visibility

Hashtags are one of the best ways to get your posts seen on Instagram. They can help pull your social media posts into topic-specific feeds, which can reach audiences beyond your current followers. Many businesses will often resort to using too many hashtags on one post in the hope of it getting more visibility. A recent study suggested that it is far more effective to keep your hashtag count to less than 10 hashtags per post. If you where to use relevant hashtags and keep the count below 10, it is suggested you could reach up to 25,000 engagements per post. Be careful if you use too many or the same hashtags in all your captions, you might be putting yourself at visibility risk or a shadow ban. This is when Instagram…