5 Creative Ways To Share Data On Social Media

9May

When my team and I work on our clients’ social media marketing campaigns, we know that balance is a big factor in our success. Whether you’re talking about balancing text and images, promo and news, or curated and original content, everything has to be just right. It’s all part of the job. But one aspect that many companies fail to execute correctly is educational VS entertaining posts. Things end up leaning much heavier towards the “fun” side of content because of two reasons. 1- They think it will gather more engagement. 2 – Well, they don’t know how to do it right. But, we do!

So, here’s a secret from the pros. Educational and fact-based content have proven to be some of the most engaging material on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. In 2016, the most popular posts were in fact-based industries. Here are the most popular strategies for spreading the wealth of knowledge with your followers:

1. Infographics. There’s nothing quite like a ton of pictures to make a complicated concept more understandable. The truth is, visuals always help us learn. That’s why infographics are so effective. You can transform large concepts into digestible chunks that are accompanied by interesting graphics.

2. Videos. Video is dominating social media right now. Sure, when we think of internet videos, we think of funny cats running around or how-to recipe guides. But you could actually utilize the video medium to explain a complicated educational subject. Captions are your friend in this instance, as you can add to the visuals. Now with live videos, you can offer your followers tutorials and lessons “in the moment” and answer their questions immediately.

3. Blog. Blogging continues to reign supreme as one of the most effective ways to inform your followers about important concepts and topics. Blogging is a fantastic companion to your social media marketing efforts as it will establish your brand in a professional light and give you a whole slew of original content.

4. Trivia and Did You Know? Keeping information simple and sharing it in the form of a trivia tidbit or a #DidYouKnow post will keep your audience’s attention with a short, simple post. They won’t have to spend much time with this content, but they will still learn something big.

5. Content curation. As always, it’s important to share other’s work from your online community. But it doesn’t have to begin and end with what they’ve said. You can comment in the form of Quote Tweeting or simply share your thoughts as a Facebook comment.

As you can see, it’s time to face facts – you need to create and share educational content! Social media isn’t just about fun material or even promotional marketing. Serious content like blogs, videos, and infographics will attract a significant amount of engagement and in the long run, conversions.

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The 4 Ingredients To Cutting-Edge Social Media Content

By Christopher Tompkins

7May

Social Media

Creating new content for social media marketing can be a challenge if you’re not a professional. Once you’ve ticked off the obvious topics in your industry, you may find it a bit of a struggle to come up with new ideas.

It doesn’t seem to get any easier either. The more you write, the less there is to write about.

The upside is that this creative chasm can challenge you to come up with more engaging content that isn’t on every other website in your industry. The downside is that coming up with ideas takes a little more work.

Below are a few exercises and routines we follow to keep ourselves inspired. To lessen the work of idea creation.

1. Start with an image

Whenever we make a piece of content, we also make an image afterward. Whether it’s a blog post or a social media update, once the copy is done, we move on to the picture.

But who says the copy has to come first?

Sitting down to create an image without any copy to restrict you is a great way to find some inspiration. Once the image is done, you can allow that to inspire your copy.

Ask yourself, “What type of article would this image be good for?”

2. Read

A good writer is also a good reader.

We write about marketing, so we also read a lot about marketing. News articles, emails, blogs, social media posts, and books. Reading the views of others in our industry keeps us in the conversation and aware of current trends.

But we also dip outside of marketing too. Marketing, like many other industries, is something that can be relevant to many other areas.

Whenever we find out about a new idea or a new trend, we wonder, “Can this be applied to marketing?” This can often lead to inspiration for content.

Could the last book you read apply to your industry in some way? Does a trend in the news also point to something in your own industry?

If the answer is yes, you’ve got something to write about.

3. Take your time and forget about inspiration

Inspiration is the strangest thing. The more you try to grasp it, the further it seems to be.

One exercise we often do on team building days is we ask our Go! Agents to come up with an interesting fact about themselves.

Most of the time no one is able to think of anything. They’re stumped! All of our staff are creative and interesting people, so why is it so hard for them to come up with something?

The issue is, no one likes to be put on the spot. When you try to force yourself to come up with an idea, that’s exactly what you’re doing.

Our best ideas happen when we’re not trying to come up with them at all. When we’re driving home, taking a shower or just before we go to bed.

It’s good practice to carry a notepad with you so you can collect ideas when inspiration strikes. Even when your deadline is weeks away.

As counter-productive as it seems, not thinking about coming up with an idea makes ideas appear on their own.

4. Revisit old content

After my last tip, I’ve either got you nodding your head, or I’ve completely lost you. You might be frantically screaming at your monitor, “BUT I NEED AN IDEA RIGHT NOW!”

When this happens to us, we always find it’s good to revisit our old content. Creating content that is a direct response or follow-up to old content can be a winner.

One thing we like to do is find our most popular older content and write another post that expands on it. If lots of people loved your post about skincare tips, chances are they’re hungry for more!

The best thing about this is you’re giving your audience more of what they want. So your content is defined by others instead of yourself.

Completely stumped on how to turn your content around? Contact us today to learn how we can help your company put out consistently great content!

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5 Engagement Tips For Small Businesses

By Christopher Tompkins

2May

Advertising, Business, Facebook, Facebook Advertising, Instagram, Local Marketing, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter

Running a small business can be a daunting task. When you add marketing to your other duties, it almost seems impossible, right? Whether you’re trying to create a business empire from scratch or just trying to maintain the day-to-day, being in charge of a company is not easy!

There’s a good chance that if you’re running your own business, you’re probably trying to maintain your social media accounts on top of everything else. If this is the case, you might not have the time, energy, or resources to promote yourself in the right way. Who has time to bother with Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram? As tough as it can be to fit social media into a packed schedule, it’s essential for any business to grow. Social media marketing has the strength to bring even a small local shop increased online visibility. How do you start? Check out these steps:

1. Invest in update management software. A busy business owner can’t be bothered with spending several hours crafting content, posting, sharing, and liking. You will need help! A variety of programs are available to help you master social media marketing. Whether it’s Hootsuite, Buffer, or Onlypult, the right software can make social media management easier.

2. Engaging content. You need social media marketing, but you need GOOD social media marketing. The right content will attract customers to your page, but the wrong content will repel them.

Find out how you can get your customers to create engaging content for you here.

3. Moderate promotions. Small businesses can use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms for many different reasons, but you want to make sure to promote specials, happy hours, sales, events, etc. That being said, don’t forget to add other content into the mix. Don’t make your social media marketing presence solely about sales!

4. Promote in real life. Make sure people know about your online presence when they visit your store. Whether you run a restaurant, retail shop, or another small business, have “Follow Us!” signs up and offer exclusives that can’t be found anywhere other than Facebook, Twitter, etc.

5. Advertising. The biggest disadvantage a small business has is, well, it’s small. Because of this, it might be a little harder to get the word out about your brand than say, Coca-Cola or Chevrolet. That’s why it’s important that your message stands above the rest by investing some money into Facebook and Twitter advertising. Advertising has become an absolute must for companies trying to increase brand awareness and online visibility. The results are quickly visible, but a thought-out strategy is necessary.

Today’s small businesses have a special edge with social media marketing. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can help strengthen your online presence, professional status, and customer relations.

Are you stumped by social media marketing? Let us take care of it for you! Click here to get started!

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5 Steps To Start Social Media With A Bang!

By Christopher Tompkins

24Aug

Social Media

It seems there’s a certain window of time for people to establish themselves on new platforms. For example, famous “YouTubers” have been on the site for years now, and it can be tough to break into that industry since there are so many others trying to do the same thing. The same applies to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Now, Snapchat is getting filled with big names quickly. What’s a newcomer to do? When you click that Sign Up button, you have a lot of catching up to do. However, it’s absolutely possible to shine online at any point. These 5 steps will give your baby social media accounts a kick start:

Optimization. Starting from scratch is tedious, but it can be done. Whether you have a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn page, be sure to fill out every blank field as best you can. Just because your account is new, doesn’t mean it has to be empty.
Tap into your contact list. When signing up, most social media platforms will have you utilize your email contacts so you can be reunited with your favorite people online. If you don’t use this tool, try and find your business partners, friends, family, etc. and ask them to begin liking your page and content.
Promote your pages to your customers. You’ve seen them in many small businesses, those signs proudly promoting their Facebook, Twitter, or likewise. This is important and actually works! Make sure your regulars know about this new opportunity to connect, and be sure to ask them for a nice 5-star rating.
Backdate new content. This tip is a Facebook exclusive. It’s intimidating for social media users to like a page that has no content. Be sure to post, post, post! But a big batch of posts from the past 24 hours won’t look so good either. Luckily, deep in its publishing tools, Facebook offers the power to “backdate” a post so it looks like you’ve been around for a while. The whole point of this is to make you look established and involved in the online community, which is one of the primary goals of social media in its essence.
Advertise! If you are new to social media, you may not yet understand the power of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn advertising. You will! These advertising opportunities provide an extremely beneficial boost to your content so you will get noticed fast! There’s quite a variety to the promotional options available. From driving website to your website to sponsored content, you will be able to find one that fits your budget and works for your company.

As you can see, the words “new to social media” doesn’t need to be a death sentence. You can steadily grow your social media marketing with these tips and of course, with the help of professionals.

What do you think of these steps? Comment below!

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Tag : Engagement For Social Media

5 Creative Ways To Share Data On Social Media

The 4 Ingredients To Cutting-Edge Social Media Content

5 Engagement Tips For Small Businesses

5 Steps To Start Social Media With A Bang!