Good Timing: When Should You Publish On Social Media?

21Mar

You created an amazing post— the copy and imagery are both awesome. Then, you publish and nothing happens. Not even a single like! Did your perfect piece of content fall flat? Or are there other factors to consider? Very often content is published at the wrong time, and there may not be enough people online to see your brand’s presence.

Many business owners and marketers have come to us frustrated with a lack of engagement and online response to their content. After we look into what they’ve been doing, we often see that they’ve been scheduling at inopportune times of day. Social media marketing, like many other professions, requires precision and attention to detail. One of the smallest, but most important, of these details, is timing.

WHEN the time is right for your post greatly depends on WHERE you are posting and WHO your audience is. For example, even if you have the exact same piece of content and send it out to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest at the same moment, they will all vary in terms of engagement rates. Additionally, you need to consider your specific audience and their web browsing habits.

As you create your content and decide to send it out to the world, keep the following schedules in mind:

Facebook Best: 2 – 5 pm, 6 – 8 am
Facebook Worst: 10 pm – 4 am

Twitter Best: 1 – 3 pm
Twitter Worst: 8 pm – 8 am

Pinterest Best: 2 – 4 pm
Pinterest Worst: 1 – 7 am

LinkedIn Best: 7 – 8:30 am
LinkedIn Worst: 9 am – 5 pm

Instagram Best: 4 pm – 9 pm
Instagram Worst: 8 am – 3 pm

Now, the tricky part is tailoring these preferred times to your ideal customer. In a certain respect, a lot of the work is already done for you. For example, Instagram attracts a younger crowd- a demographic that typically goes on social media in the afternoon and evening. That’s reflected in the ideal time.

However, the range of 4pm-9pm is pretty wide, so you may want to sharpen your strategy even further. Does your ideal audience have a family? Then post in the earlier afternoon or later at night (when their children are asleep).

Facebook is another example of why it’s important to know who your audience is; there are two ideal posting time slots. Since this platform’s user base is so broad, you have to really figure out when your users go online. 2-5pm is great for 30-50 year olds who check out social media on their lunch breaks or right after work. 6-8pm is good for after dinner web browsing and is good for a large number of demographics including online shoppers.

Through extensive experience, our marketers have learned which times work and which don’t. We know that your intended audience also influences the right publishing times. If you are trying to reach a younger audience, later times may work. If you’re trying to attract caregivers or healthcare workers, the morning might be better. It can be subjective when it comes down to it, but that’s why there are social media marketers who know exactly what to do!

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Maybe Your Audience Just Isn’t That Into You (And How to Win Them Back)

By Christopher Tompkins

19Mar

Business, Content Creation, Facebook, Facebook Advertising, Instagram, Marketing, Social Media, Social networking

Your relationship with your customers is a bit like the dating world. You have to know who you’re trying to find, and who would be interested in you. For many online marketers, however, they strike out more than they create lasting relationships.

It’s 2018–a mass majority of small to medium sized businesses have created some form of social media marketing with the intention of generating customer engagement and online visibility. These professionals signed up for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other platforms. They developed great content strategies. They even generated a decent budget for advertising. That’s all you have to do to start attracting customers by the thousands right? Wrong.

While all these steps seem like the right actions to take, some businesses still miss the mark when trying to attract an online following. As any marketer knows, this is an extremely frustrating part of the job, especially when you’ve done a ton of research into what makes the right content. It’s not that your message isn’t marketable, however. You just need to adjust your approach.

Are you not feeling the love online? A majority of businesses face a slump in engagement. You might even have a large number of followers, but you still only get very few likes, comments, and shares. If this is the case, you’re not alone. Give the following techniques a try:

1. Tweak your tone. Does your content read like a sales pitch? You might believe that you must promote your products nonstop, when in reality you need to tap into a conversational, human voice. That’s the whole point of social media. You can’t connect with your followers if you come across as a door-to-door salesperson, you’re surely going to make your followers’ eyes roll.

2. Tweak your content. So maybe you have your voice down, but you’re still pushing promotions like there’s no tomorrow. That’s not the way to go, either. Instead, consider what we call “pull marketing”– blogs, news, quotes, recipes, fun facts, etc. You know, stuff people actually enjoy reading or watching, whether it’s part of a marketing strategy or not. This is where there is a game-changing difference between online marketing and traditional marketing, there has to be a takeaway — some information or entertainment aspect that gives the content value.

3. Tweak your publishing times. Now, a bit of logistics come into play. Perhaps you’re just missing your target audience’s ideal viewing window. On top of every platform having an ideal publishing time window, you also need to consider your audience. If you have a younger crowd, you may want to consider evenings, whereas an audience 30-50 years of age may be more likely to scroll the web in the morning. If you don’t keep this in mind, your target audience’s news feed may have buried your content down the line.

4. Tweak your awareness. What does your website have to do with social media marketing? Well, a whole lot if you want to get technical. But your website could serve as a gateway to an increase in social media followers as long as you add buttons that directly lead to your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other pages. Additionally, if you’re selling a product, integrate the social media platforms logos on the packaging somewhere. If you have a physical location, post signs around the property that promote your social media channels.

5. Tweak your advertising. Whether you’re advertising on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, paid advertising can certainly boost your awareness and visibility– if you do it right. If you’re boosting posts, make sure that there is a call to action that your audience will want to pursue. If you’re doing target marketing, make sure you’re targeting the people who would be most likely to be interested in your brand.

Social media advertising can be a gateway to heightened engagement if done correctly. However, many business owners feel that they can handle this themselves or pass it off to an intern– in the meantime they end up wasting hundreds or thousands of dollars because they didn’t utilize the most effective route. It’s important to have a team of social media marketing experts by your side to guide your brand to continued success via these intricate strategies.

Your social media audience deserves the best from you. In return, they’ll help you spread the word through user generated content. But you have to earn their attention. The above ideas can help you a great deal as long as you take the time to develop the strategy that’s right for your brand. As we’ve said, all this is a bit like dating. It takes some work to find the right match, but it’s definitely worth it in the end.

Consider The Go! Agency your matchmakers! We specialize in perfecting our clients’ voices online. Are you ready for a professional to handle your social media? Click here to learn more: http://ow.ly/ODg330iWZLM

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The 5 Basic Metrics New Social Media Marketers Need To Study

By Christopher Tompkins

12Mar

Social Media

Are you just getting started with social media marketing? The first thing you need to know right away is that this industry thrives on data. Our work consists of a healthy mix of creativity and number crunching, which helps us deliver fantastic results. Our previous blog explored the three main metrics that you should be following:

– Conversation Rate

– Audience Demographics

– Conversion Rate

But if you’re just getting started, you’re probably still trying to get the basics down. Here are the five basic metrics you need to closely watch.

1. Followers. Consider this the equivalent to a friend request. These people like your brand, and as a result, they want to follow your brand so they get your content delivered to their news feeds whenever you post.

2. Shares. A share is essentially the act of someone sending your content off to their own circle of friends on social media. This is fantastic, as it increases your online visibility to all the friends of those who shared your content.

3. Likes. A simple sign of approval. It seems like it might just be something fun, but in reality, it adjusts users’ individual algorithms so they see more and more of your content, further solidifying the customer-brand relationship.

4. Mentions. If someone mentions your brand in their own content, they’re bringing more light to your business’s online presence. It also gives you a great opportunity to respond in a professional, friendly matter.

5. Clicks. A very important metric- clicks are social proof that users are liking your content. They’re choosing to delve further into your brand’s story by clicking your content and learning more.

It’s your job as a social media marketer to have a close watch on all 5 of these metrics. As your business grows, these should all grow as well. If you see slumps in your growth — which is totally normal– you need to go back to your strategy and see how you can do things differently, whether the solution lies in content, advertising, or outreach.

Our team at The Go! Agency loves to help our clients soar in all five of these areas. It’s your time to shine online! Contact us today to learn more: https://gosalesandmarketing.com/

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The Top 3 Social Media Metrics You Should Pay Attention To

By Christopher Tompkins

12Mar

Social Media

Let’s think about a billboard for a moment. The marketers behind that message carefully crafted their advertisement both on a copywriting and visual level. But while there are plenty of statistics available about the location in terms of both vehicular and pedestrian traffic, you will hardly have any solid metrics or analytics proving how effective the billboard is.

With social media, however, you don’t have this problem at all. Social media marketers have the opportunity to study a seemingly endless sea of metrics that analyze every aspect of their content. But with so many different aspects to study, it’s important to know which metrics you should be studying.

Refining your metric strategy is an important step in improving your social media marketing as a whole. It’s helpful to do this around this time of year as the holiday rush is over and now you can take the time to really analyze your approach.

Want to learn more about how your social media marketing is doing? Then focus on these metrics:

1. Conversation rate. This is a popular term in the social media marketing industry. But what does it mean? Your conversation rate compares your number of followers to the number of those commenting on your content in a specific period of time. You could have 20,000 followers, but if you are not receiving any comments, then all those numbers don’t amount to much. If your conversation rate is high, however, that means those followers actually care about your brand enough to interact with it, which means the likelihood of them purchasing a product or service is much higher as well.

2. Audience Demographics. When you start to grow a decent following on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or another platform, you will need to start analyzing your demographics. For example, you may be surprised that more women than men like your brand, or that you have an especially high number of followers in Seattle. Some of these may not be surprising at all, which is a good thing. This means you’ve accurately predicted your audience and are reaching the right people. If you aren’t, it’s time to re-evaluate and determine how you can reach those people.

3. Conversion rate. Last but not least, conversions, (no, we’re not repeating number one, read that word closer!) This is one of the most important facets of social media marketing and it is only getting more vital to every marketer’s mission. One way to study conversions is click rates, which allows you to see very clearly who clicked what. This will help you see more insights into the ever-changing mindset of your customers. But that’s not the only way to study conversion rates. You can also install a pixel code into your website that will monitor where traffic is coming from. You will be able to accurately see how your social media advertising is benefiting your bottom line.

Metrics are no doubt one of the most vital parts of a social media marketer’s job. Without metrics, we might as well be publishing the equivalent of a digital billboard- sure it’s in an area with heavy traffic, but we have no idea who is looking at it!

Did you know our team at The Go! Agency closely watches each of our clients’ analytics and metrics? That’s right, we love data! Contact us to see how we can help you! https://gosalesandmarketing.com/

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How Pros Handle Negative Feedback On Social Media

By Christopher Tompkins

7Mar

Social Media

In our previous blog, we talked about the importance of User Generated Content (UGC) and how it can boost your brand. If you aren’t sure what UGC is, it’s essentially content created by your customer base that is intended to interact with your brand. This can be a review, like, comment, or another form of engagement. As you can imagine, this helps your brand a great deal and helps spread the word about how awesome your company is.

But what if… the UGC is negative? What if a customer shares a 1-star review, or posts an upsetting comment on your page?

What if… these were also good for your brand?

Yes, you read that right. Negative engagement isn’t necessarily a bad thing for one reason; on social media, you have the opportunity to respond to negative feedback immediately. This is when your marketing team’s responsiveness, communication, and professionalism really shines. By responding in an empathetic, and organic tone, your customer will not only find a solution to their issues, but others will see how you legitimately care about your customer.

It is true that there is a ton of negativity on the internet. Internet users are human and some of those humans have complaints. Sometimes, you may be reading some of these comments and your may feel your jaw drop or your fists clench. However, you can’t fight fire with fire. Push your emotions aside and think about your response critically. Never respond negatively, or stoop down to their level. While you, the employee, may be offended, you’re representing your brand and there’s no room for bickering when you’re trying to succeed in social media marketing.

Now, you can write the perfect response to a negative comment– one that no one can logically refute. You could expect one of the following:

1. The customer can thank you for your response and let it go.

2. They can respond with more negativity.

It’s as simple as that. However, even if #2 happens, you can’t respond negatively. Instead, kindly ask to move the conversation to a private message and continue the polite conflict resolution.

One thing that is essential to keep in mind when addressing negativity is humanity. Yes, you should understand where they are coming from and put yourself in their shoes. They may have legitimately had a horrible experience with your business and maybe, just maybe, you deserve the bad review. But, when I say humanity, I’m referencing your response. You don’t want to pour gasoline on the fire by responding with a canned message. Even if you do have a “go to” response, ensure that you tweak it to accommodate the current situation.

If the idea of responding to negative online feedback scares you, don’t let it. We have spoken with several brands who are hesitant to be on social media because they don’t want to receive bad reviews. But here’s the thing– people are already talking! If you represent your brand online, you’re able to respond and give your company a voice.

Click here to learn how we help your client’s maintain online credibility. Contact us today! http://ow.ly/AX7130iHl9q

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How Customers Can Do The Marketing For You Via User Generated Content

By Christopher Tompkins

5Mar

Content Creation, Facebook, Local Marketing, Marketing, Social Media

You go into your favorite pizza shop and on the counter next to the cash register is a small sign that says “Like us on Facebook!” At your eye doctor, right next to display of business cards, there’s a laminated flyer that says “Give us a good rating on Facebook!” Even at your child’s school, they’re doing a fundraiser and encouraging parents to share the info on social media.

Yes, social media has indeed integrated itself into nearly every aspect of our lives. But have you noticed something in the above examples? All of these organizations are asking customers / patients / patrons, to interact with their social media channels.

When your customers engage with your brand on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and the other platforms, they are solidifying its identity and legitimacy as credible company. The beauty of social media marketing is that when you have an engaging online presence, your customers essentially do the work for you by tagging your accounts, commenting, rating, and much more.

This is the “social” part of social media — your customers are sharing their story and perception of your brand. We call this User Generated Content (UGC).

Why is UGC so important? It allows customers to share their story and build a relationship with your business. By creating this content, they’re participating in one of the most responsive and innovative forms of customer service ever conceived. The best part of this is that your customer’s friends will see their review, like, or comment and as a result, your brand’s visibility will increase. The term “word-of-mouth” just received an upgrade, and it’s amazing for business.

So, you may be wondering, how do I get my followers talking? This is a valid question. After all, it doesn’t benefit your company to have, say, 5,000 followers if none of them are engaging with your brand. Here are just a few tips that could help you get people talking online and increase UGC.

1. Host a contest requiring participants to comment, follow, or leave a review.

2. Directly ask customers to engage with your company on social media (as the pizza shop, eye doctor, and school did.)

3. Share polls with your followers.

4. Offer social-media-exclusive discounts on social media.

5. Start asking your customers questions. The pizza shop could ask “What topping combo should be Flavor of the Month?”

6. Create content that your customer will find useful and that they will want to share, such as blogs and podcasts.

These are just a few ways to increase UGC. However, one thing that is important to keep in mind is that all this is meant to start a conversation. You need to respond, thank them for their comment, and encourage them to continue this customer-brand relationship.

At The Go! Agency, we take pride in generating UGC for our clients through our content and target advertising. If your brand isn’t getting any love online, contact us! We can get the ball rolling for you!

Click here to learn more: http://ow.ly/YVpL30iHibC

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