# Marks The Spot: How To Hunt For Social Media Content

30Oct

Advertising, Business, Copywriting, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn, Marketing, Periscope, Pinterest, Snapchat, Social Media, Social networking, Twitter, Uncategorized, Video

At times, social media marketing may feel like a treasure hunt without the map. That golden piece of content to like, share, and expand upon tends to be difficult to find without the right tools. But this isn’t a reason to give up. On the contrary, this content will help shape your marketing strategy for the better, so you need to track it down! Check out the best places and avenues to find content that’s not only relevant to your industry but highly engaging.

Reputable sources. Whether the news source is industry-specific or a dedicated news station like CNBC or Huffington Post, a prominent, respectable name is always a great place to search for content. It will validate the article’s reputability and bring a sense of professionalism to your brand.

Content delivery systems. Sure, technically Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are awesome sources for news, but there are times when you need to hone in on a particular subject matter or filter out unnecessary posts. That’s why there are tools like Feedly, Nuzzel, and Daily by Buffer to help you weed through the internet mess to the most trending topics and articles.

Social media managing tools. Hootsuite and Buffer are places to schedule, analyze, and publish content, but you can also use handy tools to filter tweets, updates, and posts by keyword, hashtags, or accounts.

Blogs. There are many blogs out there that are powered by industry influencers and experienced experts. A quick Google search could open a brand new world to relevant and reliable sites that you can regularly check for content.

Google Alerts. Finally, the internet can be wrangled into one nice blast to your email thanks to Google Alerts. Set up a few alerts for your most important subjects and just wait for the content to come flowing every day. I would suggest to only set up a few because that will be enough to keep your inbox from erupting but you will still get a plethora of content and ultimately, inspiration.

There’s no reason to be lost on your content treasure hunt. In reality, there is so much material for every possible subject matter that you will have to weed through good articles to choose which one works best for you!

What about original content? Contact us today to learn how our experts can create content for you that other businesses will want to share!

Avoid These 7 Instagram Mistakes At All Costs!

By Christopher Tompkins

11Sep

Instagram, Social Media

Despite Instagram’s garish logo change, it is still one of the most popular social media platforms around. Marketers need to learn how to use this site as well as Facebook and Twitter due to its high volume of daily visitors.

That being said, Instagram isn’t just a clone of pre-existing platforms. It has a unique infrastructure and culture. There are certain rules you need to follow and big mistakes to avoid. Because of the amount of people online, mistakes are noticed easily. Here are the top seven errors to steer clear of on Instagram:

Posts without captions. Sure, Instagram is all about the images. Regardless, you need the space they give you to write a compelling message. Be sure to write a specialized caption for each post you write, as you would for Facebook.
Hashtag abuse. Speaking of captions, hashtags are extremely helpful for Instagram users that are looking for specific content. On this platform, you want to use 7-10 per post after the main caption. Any more tags will may your content look like spam, and less will narrow your reach too much.
Silent posts. Don’t forget about the “social” side of social media. Engage with your followers! Customers wouldn’t be on social media if they didn’t want to communicate with their favorite people and brands in a unique way.
Inconsistent branding. Take a step back and look at your Instagram account. Does it look like and feel like your brand’s other marketing? If not, fix it stat! Make your current logo the profile image, fill out your bio, and make sure your tone is consistent with your other marketing material.
Promo only content. You aren’t one of those spam accounts, are you? If not, then be sure to add compelling content that pulls in your audience. Don’t worry about sales as much, but rather building an online community. Then, sales will come.
Ugly images. Instagramers like bright, eye-catching visuals. This is especially important for brands who are trying to market. You have to generate creative and appealing imagery and, perhaps most importantly, make sure it looks good on a smartphone! Don’t forget these pics will be viewed primarily on Instagram’s app.
A private account. Is your account optimized? Is your content eye-catching and engaging? Are you using hashtags? Then why isn’t this Instagram thing working? It may be as simple as your account is set to “private”. This mistake needs to be fixed immediately. It’s the social media equivalent of having the lens cap on a camera after a photo shoot. Your work will be all for nothing if not everyone can see what you’re sharing.

Instagram is a fun and effective tool to raise brand awareness online. At this time, there are more young users on this platform than Facebook. Be sure to tap into this market as soon as possible!

What Instagram mistakes have you made? Share below!

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Are You Fluent In Instagram? Insta-Terms You Need to Know

By Christopher Tompkins

22Aug

Instagram, Social Media

Social media and the internet had a certain impact on language. We have become quicker, shorter, perhaps even more impatient. Regardless, tools such as acronyms and hashtags gave us new ways to communicate, much like shorthand did decades prior. Above all other social media platforms, Instagram takes this to a new level.

Instagram brings a whole separate, unique culture to social media marketing. We could say it’s because it’s more imagery focused as opposed to text, or we could say it targets a younger demographic. But when it comes down to it, it promotes a fun way to connect. Even as a marketer, you need to learn how to speak as the Instagramers do when trying to promote your brand online. As such, you will need to learn very specific terms. Here are some of the most common terms that people use:

Regram – This is the equivalent of a retweet on Instagram. This term denotes that this post is originally someone else’s content, and you’re trying to spread the word.

LB (like back) – This is a common term used on Instagram. If someone comments “LB” on your post, they are hoping you will like them in return. Like Twitter, reciprocation is a large part of connecting with new people.

S4S (share for share) – We’re not recommending you use this one, but this is a common term that is supposed to boost engagement. However, this hashtag tends to be associated with spam accounts. It can be helpful to know what exactly #S4S and these other terms stand for, even if you don’t partake in them.

DM (Direct Message) – Like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIN, direct messages are a way to send private messages out to anyone you wish.

Filters – Due to Instagram’s primary use on smartphones, they offer fun filters to add to photos. People have begun using these so much that Instagram has become known for this particular feature. Additionally, #nofilter designates an unaltered photo, which is supposed to express how the subject of the picture doesn’t need any help to look good.

Hashtags – We have seen hashtags reign supreme on Facebook and Twitter, but it’s suggested that a post to has up to 10 of these tags. Some to look out for – and use in your marketing – are #TBT (Throwback Thursday), #FBF (Flashback Friday), #IGDaily, and many, many others.

Each social media site has unspoken rules on how to communicate. As you can see, Instagram is no different. There are many various ways to interact with fellow social media users, and marketers have a responsibility to their brand to adapt.

What do you think of these Instagram terms? Do you have any others? Comment below!

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Emojis – :) or :( ? What A Smile Says About Marketing

By Christopher Tompkins

20Aug

Advertising, Business, Email Marketing, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Marketing, Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat, Social Media, Social networking, Tailwind, Twitter, Uncategorized

A long time ago, someone very clever saw a colon and a parenthesis next to each other, turned their head, and saw a smiley face. That was the beginning of what we now call Emojis. Now, we see these little images on text messages, emails, and social media posts every day. They have fully integrated themselves into text-based communication, and they express our feelings, activities, even nationalities. It seems that there’s an Emoji for almost everything these days. So, what can social media marketers learn from a smiley face?

Emojis’ rise in overwhelming popularity and pop culture presence is a direct byproduct of the smartphone’s reign. They originally accompanied text messages on Apple and Android devices as a downloadable keyboard. Now, phones come pre-equipped with an expansive library of Emojis due to their popularity.

Products such as Pepsi, Domino’s, and General Electric have integrated the symbols into their marketing. The smiley faces are appearing on our soda bottles, and we can even order a pizza with a few Emojis of pizza slices if you can believe it. It seems to be dominating communication lines, but most importantly, they appear to be replacing traditional words. Is this even possible? The Millennial generation is, by far, the ones to use Emoji the most. They certainly like this quick, to the point, and colorful. We even see texts being comprised 100% of Emojis. The power of the written word is being replaced by an icon. The most important thing to realize about Emojis is that they are shortcuts. They are time savers that are used so someone doesn’t have to actually read a sentence.

Twitter has a special affinity for Emojis. Twitter itself is the embodiment of quick and snappy wordage, but now they are coming up with new ways to incorporate Emojis into a tweet’s reach. If you use an airplane Emoji, Twitter’s algorithm will recognize it as the word “airplane”, and you will receive all the benefits that come with that content. Once again, this internet tool is a space saver.

Does this mean that all your Facebook posts or tweets should be expressed via Emojis? Absolutely not. Sure, these pictures could be taken lightly and seen as a fad, a way to spice up a message, but it brings up two major elements of social media to consider.

First, the rise of Emojis indicates that people’s patience for longer texts is starting to shrink. Social media marketers need to craft their copy in a way that the message comes off immediately, and there is nothing vague to decipher. People will only give your message so much of their time, especially on social media. This doesn’t mean the art forms of the blog or long forms are starting to die. But rather, social media users demand the updates in their feeds to give them the info they need so they can move along down the timeline.

Secondly, Emojis emphasizes the power of the almighty image. It’s easy to see how powerful visuals are on social media, and the rise of these images are even more evidence that massive blocks of texts in updates on Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms just aren’t attractive for the average social media consumer. A picture can make or break your social media campaign as well as video. Emojis are still pictures after all, despite their size and usage. As compelling as any text can be, imagery will bring engagement possibilities to new heights.

Trends such as Emojis are important for any marketer. They open up the opportunity for these professionals to recognize, analyze, adapt, and learn. To survive the wild landscapes of the internet, you need to do all four, and maybe use a smiley face every now and again. 🙂

What do you think of Emojis? Comment below!

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Slow Summer? Speed It Up With Social Media Marketing

By Christopher Tompkins

10Aug

Social Media

The scorching days of summer aren’t typically days in which summer is sizzling for most businesses. While everyone is either away on vacation or too hot to do any business, the dog days of summer are always difficult for businesses to thrive. Yet there is still plenty to do! Just because business may be slow doesn’t mean the internet is. The world of social media marketing doesn’t sleep, let alone take a break. You can use these days to really ramp up your social media strategy. Here are the top ways to set social media on fire:

Summer Sales- Perhaps the more traditional way to drum up business, a sale is always an eye-catch on social media. While you don’t want to be overly promotional on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, every now and again a sale will cause a rise in engagement.

Email marketing- Does your business have an email marketing campaign? If not, now would be a good time to start. As you create your eblasts, be sure to incorporate your social media accounts and your website.

Blogging- Perhaps your customer is in the mood for some light summer reading? Your blog will establish you as a professional in your industry. It can also offer your customer base a new level of information. You can use social media to promote these new pieces of writing, and vice versa.

Experiment- This is the time to get your social media strategy down pat. You may have wanted to try different tactics such as incorporating video, contests, long forms, or creating a whole new account for a new platform. Now is the time to do it.

Prepare for the rush- Whether it’s a good thing for a bad thing, summer does end at some point. With the autumn and winter comes a whole new wave of business. From Back to School to the big Holiday rushes, it will be time to rock. If you find yourself with some extra time on your hands now, use it to plan ahead.

Summer is great for kids and theme park employees, but for the rest of us, it can be a rough patch.You don’t need to fret, though. This time can be used to your advantage, and you can still find a way to shine.

How do you use summer’s business season? Comment below!

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Instagram Stories: Snapchat Clone Or Effective Marketing Tool?

By Christopher Tompkins

7Aug

Instagram, Snapchat, Social Media

They say imitation is the sheerest form of flattery, right? Well, Snapchat, prepare to get flattered. Instagram released a new feature to its popular mobile app called Instagram Stories. If that name sounds familiar to you, it’s because Snapchat released a feature called Stories not too long ago. Both of these tools do almost precisely the same thing. They allow users to see a series of photos or videos, equipped with all sorts of fun, customizable options, for the time period of 24 hours. After the day is gone, so is your chance to see the content.

This is in the wake of Snapchat’s rise in popularity and it’s projected only to grow in popularity. If Snapchat poses a threat to any platform, it’s Instagram. Yet just because Snapchat thought of this intuitive design first, does that mean Instagram Stories is just a rip-off? It’s actually a slight improvement over the original thanks to a more convenient infrastructure. You can easily access stories on your home page along with a handy “Add” button on the top left. Though it is taking notes from the Snapchat’s original philosophy, and only allowing camera access, as opposed to your photo album. Content needs to happen NOW for it to qualify for Instagram Stories.

This is even further proof of video’s rise in social media. It’s increasingly vital to a successful social media campaign that its marketers incorporate video in some way. Additionally, because we are beginning to see more “time sensitive” features, this leaves a few things to consider.

First, platforms are utilizing the concept of “live” more and more. Because of this transition, each post needs to count and grab your audience’s attention right away. Second, the importance of having a strategy is more crucial than ever. Systems like the two Stories are beneficial tools, however. You could use these glimpses into your brand’s world by offering flash sales as well as content relevant only to the moment.

Social media gurus and marketers need to learn to adapt to these types of upgrades. Already, we are seeing major brands utilizing Instagram’s new feature and promoting their story through other avenues such as their traditional Instagram posts, Twitter, even Snapchat itself. Change and adaptability are cornerstone elements of social media marketing, and the best in the business knows how to make it work in their favor.

What do you think of Instagram Stories? Comment below!

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Why Your Social Media Content Is Flopping

By Christopher Tompkins

2Aug

Copywriting, Social Media

Is social media an artform? We would certainly like to think so. Sure, we may not be dealing with paint or pottery, but it is a very creative industry. Whether you agree with that statement or not, it undoubtedly shares the subjectivity of the art world and like paintings, music, and sculptures, there will be some mistakes made. This ambiguity is why practicing, and tweaking your method is essential to becoming a social media master!

Certain tactics work amazingly well for some users, while the same will flop for others’ business pages. Additionally, a particular type of post could produce substantial engagement once, and it could gain little to no attention at another point in time. Like all marketing, social media campaigns require time, effort, and critical analysis to succeed.

For those just getting started in social media, well, welcome to the 21st century! Yet regardless if you are just starting out or trying to fine tune your content, this type of marketing can be daunting. Social media trends are reflective of users’ wants, concerns, and current interests. Because of this, strategizing can be intimidating, albeit necessary. It’s time to experiment a little bit, see what hits home to your audience. You need to generate creative, bold, and attractive content that is going to get your page noticed. After all, practice makes perfect, and nobody is going to visit your page if it’s empty.

To get the most out of social media, you should ask yourself these three questions:

What is the message I want to send out?
Who do I want to read it?
How do I want to convey it?

You need to be able to answer these questions without breaking a sweat. Your content, whether they are news articles, promotions, quizzes, or blogs, should abide by your goals. You are going to need some PR tactics to score big on social media, which means you will have to spin content in your favor.

Once you assess your content using these three questions, ask yourself three more:

Which types of posts are the most engaging?

Where do you see the most response? (Facebook? Twitter? Instagram?)

When are people reading your posts? (Sunday mornings? Tuesday nights?)

Your content should never contradict any of the answers to these questions, and the answers should never contradict your business’ mission statement. These are the elements of social media marketing that will either make or break a company’s online presence. Many companies don’t understand the importance of crafting a thought out strategy. Some will just continuously spit out the same type of content carelessly. Others will just use their Facebook, Twitter, or other profiles as sounding boards for sales and only sales. As you might guess, people aren’t going to flock to an “ad only” page. There are many pitfalls to avoid when trying to create quality posts.

So, why are your posts flopping? It might be time to sit down and reassess your approach. By answering these six questions and understanding where your social media posts stand, you may find the source of the problem. During your journey of internet introspection, specifically look out for inconsistencies of tone, irregular posting times, grammar errors, typos, and irrelevant content. Once you straighten out the kinks in your plan, stick to it and be patient! Social media is not typically an overnight success, so you need to keep on top of things and observe your growth attentively. Like the great artist of history, social media marketers should step back and stare at their canvas to formulate a detail-oriented plan. This was the first in a series about how to effectively succeed at social media marketing and what to avoid. Be sure to watch out for more to follow!

Share your thoughts below about how you approach social media!

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5 Ways to be an Insta-Pro on Instagram

By Christopher Tompkins

How-To-Be-An-Insta-Pro-on-Instagram-200x300

10Jul

Advertising, Facebook, Instagram, Local Marketing, Social Media, Social networking, Uncategorized

In 2010, one of today’s most popular social media platforms, Instagram, debuted and in no time, it began to catch speed. Now, in 2016, there are over 400 million users. That’s an insane amount of users! While it doesn’t compete with its parent company, Facebook’s 1.6 billion users, the powerful picture-centric platform is becoming a time-tested tool for online marketers.

Throughout it’s run, we have seen a few changes in its infrastructure. For one thing, its algorithm now follows similar rules to Facebook and Twitter, which presents posts not in a time-linear fashion, but rather in an order the website thinks you will like. As we posted on our blog yesterday, there are many ways marketers can use algorithms to their advantage. Another major change was an aesthetic shift earlier in the year. Their iconic logo changed to something well, less iconic. Yet their layout did become more sleek and in theory, more user-friendly. Yet regardless of the changes, there have always been some constants to Instagram and helpful tactics in which users can promote their content effectively. Here are the top 5 ways we have found to be the most useful:

Share videos- Yes, Instagram started off as a photo-exclusive website but they have recently become aware of the effectivity of video. Between Vine, Snapchat, Facebook Live, and Periscope, video is starting to rock the house. So, Instagram allows users to create and share 15-second videos. For those unfamiliar with social media video trends, 15 seconds is actually a substantial amount of time. Every second counts in these short quips and you should dazzle them up with apps like Ripl and Pic Play Post.
Picture moderation- Those sepia and black and white filters are very cute, but don’t overuse them. Moderation is key when trying to make them snazzy, but you should also be aware of your subject matter’s balance. Like all social media marketing, there should an even flow of interesting posts and sales-oriented content.
Connect with Facebook- Instagram wasn’t always owned by social media giant Facebook. However, marketers can use their partnership to their advantage by syncing your contacts so all those Facebook followers of yours can see your Instagram content when they follow you!
Optimization- Don’t forget to fill out your profile information! We can’t tell you how many profiles we see that are lacking essential elements such as website addresses and other contact information. When uploading external documents, you will want to ensure they are the right size and the essential elements do not get cropped out when published.
It’s recommended to post a max of 3 times a day. Quality, and high-engaging posts are the most important for Instagram, especially after their new algorithm has been implemented. You will want to be sure your followers “turn on notifications” for your profile and comment on a few things as well. That way you will stay at the forefront of your account.

Instagram is a powerful tool, especially if your business has some form of visual quality to it. We do not mean it is exclusive to artists, but rather any business that can demonstrate their work in a picture and a caption. That’s pretty much most businesses isn’t it?

What are your thoughts on Instagram? Comment below!

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Instagram’s New Ways to Reach Out

By Christopher Tompkins

27Jun

Instagram, Social Media

Instagram has been in the news quite a bit lately. First, they revealed a controversial facelift with a new logo and layout. Whether you love or hate it, you have to admit that it is quite different. Yet after the dust settled from the new logo fiasco, there was another change for the popular social media platform. This update, however, may help businesses reach out to their intended audience better.

With just a dash of Big Brother tactics, Instagram’s new “dynamic ads” deliver advertisements based on what users have already searched for on their smartphone. If a potential customer visited a company’s website earlier in the day, Instagram will remind you of what you saw with ads based around similar products. It also has the ability to show off the same product in different styles. This is a good tactic for businesses to be able to deliver their message to the right audience through a high-traffic avenue.

We’ve seen this kind of advertising before through Google, Facebook, and other websites. Now, Instagram is customizing their experience so you don’t mind those advertisements so much and might actually buy something. It’s all good, as long as you don’t mind them watching what you search for.

Instagram is a powerful tool for the creative and business-minded alike. It offers many tools to jazz up your photographs such as filters, and its reach is growing everyday. When it was first created back in 2010, we wondered how exactly we were supposed to take it seriously. After all, a picture can only do so much, right? Turns out, that Instagram is now becoming one of the more powerful and popular of the platforms, and that is only going to grow as their engineers continue to modify it. Younger internet surfers are attracted to its layout and versatility, and its ability to translate the world around them into something they can share.

For more information about this update, check out PR Daily’s article here: http://ow.ly/mr7k3008OvG

What do you think about dynamic advertising as a consumer? What about as a businessperson?

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Tag : instagram for business