Showing posts with label Social Networks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social Networks. Show all posts

Monday, December 17, 2018

Harness YOUR Social Media And Win Clients?


4 Tips for harnessing social media to win clients and grow revenue..

Social networks have, to a large extent, defined the way we work and live. Not only do these conversational tools ignite debate and broaden networks, but in a very real sense they nourish a collective consciousness, an understanding of what it means to be alive in the world right here, right now.



From a business standpoint, there’s never been a better time to harness the power of this 21st-century medium to gain clients and generate leads.

We’re not talking about showy brand waving: we’re talking about using social media to get clients on the phone and through the door. To leverage apps used by billions to acquire new business and make meaningful connections.

Sounds easy, doesn’t it? But the truth is, while the rewards are great, getting social media marketing right can be a challenge. There are a myriad of powerful management tools and services available, an array of techniques and stratagems which promise to put your brand in front of prospective clients and capture their interest. Social media platforms, lest we forget, are crowded spaces. How can you make yourself heard above the noise? How will you differentiate your brand? And is landing your dream client actually realistic?

Here are 4 actionable tips to ensure your social media strategy gets the results you crave.



1. Build Your Following

It may sound obvious, but growing your audience online is fundamental if you wish to attract real world clients. And not just on one platform either, but across all key channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn etc). Do market research, find out where your audience is, and tailor your online strategy accordingly.

Nurturing organic reach is certainly possible but requires time, effort, creativity and consistency. Mainly it demands an appreciation for what constitutes valuable content (Analytics is your friend), as well as an intrinsic knowledge of your audience’s expectations. Few businesses do organic search well, and social media is increasingly becoming a pay-to-play platform, necessitating investment if you want to appear in the feeds of those out of your network. According to a recent study carried out by marketing firm HubSpot, Facebook users now see just 2% of followed organic pages in their feeds, with the rest coming from paid advertising. If your goal is to make introductions, kickstart conversations, generate leads and get referrals, social advertising is a must. Which brings us nicely to Tip #2.



2. Use Ads


Promoting your business via social media can seem overwhelming, but if done correctly you’ll quickly realize the net gains to be made.

By carrying out highly targeted campaigns, you can reach the people you want when they’re most active, and garner a steady stream of likes, comments, shares and sales.

How? By serving them highly relevant advertisements influenced by data, of course. When you throw money into paid promotions and advertisements, you’re essentially purchasing prime digital real estate, an opportunity to impress or otherwise engage with a potential client on their chosen medium.



Russ Ruffino, founder of ClientsOnDemand, sees Facebook ads in particular as an invaluable client acquisition tool.

"The whole idea that you need to spend 6 months or even a year building an audience, creating trust and inspiring loyalty, is somewhat outdated – you don’t need to do any of that stuff if your social media marketing is proper. You can take someone from click to client in less than 48 hours. It’s become the backbone of our business and we’ll do 15 million dollars or more this year using that strategy. It’s the best and most powerful one out there."

Ruffino isn’t the only one crushing social selling. Cohesive, visually appealing ads are a mainstay for both Fortune 500 companies and small growing businesses. Social advertising has gone from strength to strength in recent years, with increased conversions and reduced cost of acquisition. According to a report by Zenith Media, global social media ad spending rose 21% to $58 billion in 2018 while video ad spending shot 19% to $32 billion.



3. Interact And Engage

While ads are obviously your best bet for sales and leads, overlooking the nuts and bolts of daily social media management would be a huge mistake. Sending content out into the ether, then expecting to relax while the requests or sales roll in, is similarly fanciful. Communication, after all, is a two-way street and particularly on social media, followers expect to partake in a dialogue. This doesn’t mean you observe impeccable etiquette and respond favorably to every single comment you receive, but it does mean cultivating your audience by taking a more active role and driving positive interactions.

Keep the likability factor in the forefront of your mind, and make a concerted effort to stimulate engagement by adding value to conversation. Post consistently, including at weekends, and capitalize on the enthusiasm that greeted previous updates. Avoid simply spamming by showcasing a diverse catalogue of educational or informative content, paying particular attention to tone of voice, and make use of imagery and videos which bolster click-through rate. Follow a schedule that fits into your workflow and doesn’t overwhelm your followers. Lastly, streamline your various endeavours with a comprehensive social media management dashboard such as Agorapulse, Hootsuite or Buffer.

Your responsiveness, friendly manner and suite of interesting, humorous or otherwise share worthy content will ensure that followers remain engaged with what you are doing and will, over time, build both brand loyalty and your own credibility.



4. Become An Industry Expert

Whatever your business, you probably want to be the best. If not the best in the world, the best in your area, the best in your sector, the best among your closest competitors. Conveying that on social media channels is essential if you hope to compel prospective clients to sit up, take notice and buy.

Content, therefore, should exhibit what you can do, explain why you’re different and relate why your experience lends you a distinct advantage over others in the field. This is particularly important in a highly competitive industry.

You can gradually establish yourself as an expert by posting useful, on-topic content such as blogs, webinars, podcasts, e-books, graphics, quotes and YouTube presentations. Content that offers genuine value to potential customers and is crafted in such a way as to reinforce your brand messaging and underline your USP.



Selling a product is one thing, but the old adage about “buying a story” is relevant on social media, which is essentially one long, sustained story unspooling across the vast digital landscape.

Make yours worth hearing..

Guest Authored By Lilach Bullock. Lilach is an entrepreneur and passionate blogger for over a decade, during which time She has written thousands of articles on her blog and many other publications. Her Forbes column is all about helping businesses market themselves, whether entrepreneurs or start-ups, enterprises, and everything in between. If she's not blogging, she loves speaking at events all over the world, spending time with her daughter, and when time permits, she's also a big fan of Zumba. Follow Lilach on Twitter.





"Investing your ad money in social media is a no-brainer. Getting it right requires more thought, both in terms of intelligent targeting and compelling content creation.

The great thing about social selling is that there’s no barrier or limit to impede progress, providing you go about growing your audience the right way. Find your niche and exploit the right platforms: your dream clients are just a click away.." -LilachBullock



  • Post Crafted By:
    Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at GetMoreHere.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, CO. where I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)
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Location: Loveland, CO 80538, USA

Sunday, September 16, 2018

YOUR Social Media Leadership Presence?


5 Ways leaders can create a productive presence on social media..

Far too many business leaders have the mistaken idea that social media isn’t worth their time. In fact, roughly 60 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs have no personal accounts on any of six major social networks. And no presence means no engagement, which is a huge missed opportunity for leaders and their businesses.



Social media isn’t just a time suck. With the right strategy, it’s a valuable tool that can build brands and cultivate credibility. And if you’re using content marketing in any way, social media is a must.

Leaders who are active on social media can broaden the reach of their company’s message and play a critical role in content distribution. A social media presence is also a two-way street, and it can help you keep a finger on the pulse of your industry while connecting with brand advocates and critics alike and humanizing your brand.

A productive social media account isn’t an accident — it takes a little bit of intuition and a lot of intention to use social media to its full potential. Take advantage of free social media tools and start with these five steps, and you’ll be well on your way.



1. Stick To A Schedule

One of the biggest reasons business leaders avoid social media is the difficulty in pinpointing a starting place. While there are tons of platforms out there, chances are that only a few make sense for your brand. For instance, if you’re a leader of a B2B company, then you might prioritize looking into LinkedIn over Instagram.

Once you’ve decided on the right platform (or two), work with your marketing team to create a posting schedule and stick to it. Start with a goal that’s easy to accomplish, such as one or two posts each week.

A tool like Buffer or Hootsuite can help you plan out your posts in advance to ensure you don’t forget to post when you inevitably get busy in the future.



2. Cultivate A Conversation

So many people view social as just another channel for pushing out their message, but I’d challenge you to change your mindset. Much of social media’s potential comes from the ability to start a conversation with followers, including brand advocates and even critics.

Instead of looking at it as some sort of online billboard, look at social media as a tool for building meaningful relationships.

If you’ve ever met another human being, you’ll know that forming a connection requires listening to people and responding authentically to their questions and comments. With social media, you can do this on an incredible scale.



3. Create Your Own Content

If you’re somewhat new to social media, then you’re probably more comfortable sharing other people’s content than creating and sharing your own. It’s an easy trap to fall into. It can be difficult to put yourself out there, but tapping into your voice and creating your own content to share can help you garner more engagement and make your efforts more valuable.

Try to publish original content at least once a month, and you’ll find you get better at recognizing a good post. Maybe a conversation with an employee or prospect will trigger an idea for a piece of content. Maybe during an evening in with family, your kid will say something that makes you feel proud and inspires an idea for a more personal post. Good content will begin to come more naturally over time, and creating and posting that content might even become something you look forward to.



4. Learn To Love LinkedIn

As a business leader, you’re probably already on LinkedIn, so it should be pretty easy to start maximizing it. Publish your own original writing on its publishing platform and share content you find interesting or informative. You can also participate in groups and conversations with experts and influencers in other fields and learn skills that are highly relevant when it comes to building your business.

LinkedIn features powerful tools such as the Sales Navigator and LinkedIn for Small Business, but I’d encourage you to learn to walk before you run. Start by getting used to connecting with potential contacts and maintaining an active presence in the community. Only then should you start utilizing paid tools.



5. Optimize And Adjust

Social media is an excellent way to build your brand and your business, but like any marketing effort, you need to pursue specific goals so you can define metrics that indicate success. Fortunately, digital marketing can offer transparent measurements of ROI.

Dive into the data and determine what behaviors are the most valuable to you. If you’re looking to generate awareness about your brand, you might be after social shares. Likes and clicks are sometimes labeled as vanity metrics, but they can help you measure engagement, and you can actually determine what those clicks are worth if your analytics are set up properly.

Guest Authored By John Hall. John is the CEO of Influence & Co., a keynote speaker, and the author of "Top of Mind." You can book John to speak here. Follow John on Twitter.





"Compared to the countless calls and meetings that can clutter your calendar and consume your attention, social media might not seem like a priority. But the truth is, you as a leader need to play a role in your social media presence — for the sake of your brand and your business. Hopefully, these five steps give you a place to start.." -JohnHall


    • Post Crafted By:
      Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Salt Lake City, UT. where I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)
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    Location: Midvale, UT 84047, USA

    Friday, May 4, 2018

    YOUR Social Media Advertising, Explained?


    Advertising on social media, explained..



    1. Apparently the advertising sector on social media is huge. Is this true?

    For ordinary users, social networks are a way to keep in touch with friends. But with 2.5 bln users worldwide, they have now become indispensable marketing tools.

    It is estimated that $31 billion was spent on social media advertising worldwide in 2016 -- almost doubling over a two-year period.

    As newspapers close and TV dwindles in popularity, the likes of Facebook and Twitter are becoming the main destinations for advertisers to spend their cash.

    Social media's share of digital advertising is continually growing -- rising from 23.2 percent in 2013 to 34.5 percent in 2017. However, the sector is dominated by search engines, where advertising is tailored to the keywords you type into Google.



    2. Does advertising on social media actually work?

    Research suggests that companies who advertise on social media do see public awareness grow -- and their brands are often regarded more positively afterwards.

    You may have noticed that ads can tend to follow you around -- meaning searching for shoes on a retailer's website suddenly means they're in your Facebook News Feed.

    Advertisers tend to like social media because it's easier to reach certain people based on their age, gender, location and interests. As you'd imagine, it's a lot harder to pull off targeted advertising on physical billboards. Not only are they more expensive, but campaigns end up grabbing the attention of the wrong demographics.



    Through social media, advertisers can use metrics to see whether their desired audience are engaging with their campaigns. Not all of this is to say the system is perfect, though, as some ad formats are irritating and intrusive -- redirecting you away from the website where you wanted to be.

    3. So wait a minute… are they using my data?

    Yes -- in more ways than you think. Your level of education, ethnicity, whether you own a home, relationship status, birthday, job, political views, car, internet browser, investments and TV habits are just some of the types of data that can be used.

    Awareness about how social media companies are using personal information has been heightened by the scandal surrounding Cambridge Analytica and Facebook.



    The political consulting firm harvested the data of at least 87 million people after launching an app where hundreds of thousands of people were paid to take a personality test. Participants gave consent for their data to be collected -- but the details of their friends were also harvested without their knowledge.

    Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced questions in Congress about the controversy.

    He denied that the social network sells personal data to advertisers, but said: "What we allow is for advertisers to tell us who they want to reach, and then we do the placement."

    In 2017, the social network generated almost $40 billion in revenue from advertising -- a 49 percent increase on the year before.



    4. The drinks are on Facebook, then. Can Blockchain improve advertising?

    Several Blockchain platforms are trying to challenge the dominance of big tech firms by giving users control of their data.

    In the future, Blockchain could be used to allow you to decide which data you want to be stored about you online -- and more importantly, who gets to see it.

    If that information ends up being used by advertisers, it could be you who ends up getting a paycheck rather than tech giants such as Facebook and Google.

    At the moment, personal data worth billions is being sold per year -- but the public doesn't see a penny of this.



    This could have some unexpected, but positive side effects. Advertising could actually prove useful because companies would be working off accurate information. Plus, you could be able to use your own data to personalize apps in an instant.

    5. I’ve heard of social media influencers – what’s their role in all of this?

    Social media influencers are people who have a large following online. They might review beauty products on YouTube, post fitness advice on Instagram, or upload funny videos on Facebook.

    Some influencers boast millions of fans -- and for advertisers, they can be a valuable way of reaching new customers.



    Brands are regularly hoping to get their products endorsed by these stars, or to get their items featured in a sponsored post. In some cases, these deals can be worth hundreds of thousands (even millions) of dollars.

    There has been controversy over arrangements which have seen influencers speak positively about certain products in posts and videos without disclosing that they have been sponsored to do so. This can prove problematic when it comes to influencers who have a large, impressionable and young fan base.

    6. So how do advertisers get influencers on board?

    One common technique is to make sure they are a fan of a product already.

    Influencers often talk about how much free stuff they get -- and this is in part because brands want to be recognized by them. This method is especially popular when it comes to so-called "micro influencers" -- niche talent with a modest following who enjoy high engagement rates.



    One challenge can be making sure that an endorsement campaign has a lasting impact on viewers and followers. A single, discreet mention of a product isn't always going to cut it -- and that's why many campaigns require multiple posts and multiple mentions of a product to succeed.

    The cost of this form of social media marketing is often hugely inflated because of the fees taken by agents and social networks.

    7. Can Blockchain make it easier for advertisers and influencers to collaborate?

    Certain platforms are hoping to boost the earnings of influencers, while simplifying the steps advertisers need to take to get them on board.



    Decentralized platforms such as Patron plan to use smart contracts to make the relationship between customers and creators fairer and more transparent.

    Such systems could make it possible for advertisers to pay influencers for a single post, or to hire them exclusively for a period of weeks or months.

    Guest Authored By Connor Blenkinsop. Connor is a journalist based in London, where he has covered news and business briefs for national news outlets. Away from deadlines, his interests include music and badminton.





    "The cost of this form of social media marketing is often hugely inflated because of the fees taken by agents and social networks.." -ConnorBlenkinsop


      • Post Crafted By:
        Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)
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      Location: Loveland, CO 80538, USA
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