Advertising on Facebook? Great! But….What’s Your Objective?

20Aug

If you have not considered advertising on Facebook – there truly is no time like the present to get started. I know in the past that I have been against Facebook advertising, and I am happy to admit it. At the time, it was not as advanced, and as crucial, as it is now.

The proof is in the pudding folks. How many people are your posts reaching? Just 1%? If you have ever been presented by this number – here are the facts. Facebook has changed its algorithm greatly, which is a high level way of saying that it has really reduced the number of people that will be exposed to your posts.

I’ve spoken with peers in the social media industry and we have agreed that organic engagement has dropped across the board. They have reported drops to 4-6% all the way down to 1-2% in terms of organic reach.

Cue Facebook Advertising.

While I am loathe to shove people towards advertising (as I believe in the online public relations aspect of social media), in this case I think it should be added as a crucial aspect of your overall Facebook marketing strategy.

But there are two pieces of good news – Facebook has made it easier than ever to understand their advertising model and your can get a lot of bang for your buck (currently).

My advice is that before you start ANY advertising initiative on Facebook or any other social media site, that you set forth clear objectives for why you want to advertise. In this case, Facebook has your best interests at heart and once you click “Create Ad” in your Facebook advertising section (yes, we all have them attached to our personal accounts), they will present you with a wonderful list of objectives to help you make the right choice.

I thought I would go through all of these here so that you can think critically about what your objective is before you even log into your account. Let’s go!

Possible Objectives for Your Facebook Advertising Campaign:

1. Boost Your Posts: Want to get more engagement on a certain post that you have on your Facebook Business Page? This option will allow you to create a sponsored post that would be seen by the audience of your choice to increase engagement.

2. Promote Your Page: Want more visibility and LIKES? Then this is the choice for you. It is a great way to get started with building your network on Facebook.

3. Send People to Your Website: Want hits to your website, blog, or online store? This allows you to create a sponsored ad that will be presented to the audience of your choice…right in the newsfeed!

4. Increase Conversions on Your Website: Do you want to promote conversions on your website? Want more email signups, ebook downloads, free consultation appointments? Use this objective to get more conversions on your offer.

5. Get Installs of Your App: Are you a developer with a new application that you would like to promote? What better way to promote this than to share your app via an add with a one-click download?

6. Increase Engagement in Your App: Is your application just not getting the user engagement that you want? Use this objective to get more people active using your app!

7. Reach People Near Your Business: Are you a local business that relies on your community for success? This objective allows you to hit your marketing with laser precision!

8. Raise Attendance at Your Event: You may have noticed that the number of people viewing your event invitations has decreased. Promote your event more aggressively with advertising and watch your numbers grow with targeted members outside of your network.

9. Get People to Claim Your Offer: Are you having a sale or special offer? Then this objective is the number one choice!

10. Get Video Views: Spend lots of money creating a promotional video or just have a video that you would like to see more people engage with? Use this to promote your video to a laser targeted market!

As you can see these 10 different objectives are a good starting point to better understanding where you need to start when it comes to Facebook Advertising. Now go onto your account and check these out in more detail. Facebook offers lots of flexibility, so click around and learn more about these objectives and what they entail!

Why Are You Being Ignored Online? The Secret to Standing Out From the Pack

By Christopher Tompkins

6Aug

Social Media, Uncategorized

Who do people listen to online and what influences them to act? It is those that they deem as experts or specialists in their own field.

Simple as that.

This can be daunting to a business if being humble is a cornerstone of its tone and voice, but you want to brand yourself as an expert so that people will want to listen to you, share your opinions, and engage with you online.

One of the fastest ways to become an expert in your field? Stop talking so much. Surprised? I think you’ll agree that you can listen to the endless chatter emanating from an individual whose ego is out of control, or…you can listen to a real expert, offering laser-sharp advice stemming from deep and broad subject knowledge and true industry passion.

Who would you rather listen to?

If there is one thing an expert is not, it’s a blowhard. If you’d like to ensure your business sinks faster than a lead weight, go ahead and tell everyone how wonderful you are.

Nothing seems more pathetic than some virgin web designer, writer, or online marketer who is self-branded as #1 in every marketing piece and on every web page. Achievements are proudly displayed with adjective-filled descriptions and sometimes even proof about achieving vast wealth. I certainly don’t believe it. Would you?

Instead of running around and telling everyone that you are fabulous, you need to pinpoint your expertise in terms of what you have to offer your target audience that engages them with your brand and message. True experts understand their subject deeply, and it’s likely they know how to work it better than anyone else.

There are people all over social media sites who have effectively branded themselves as experts or a specialist in their fields. Let’s take me, for example. Personally, I don’t like the word “expert” used in my profession, as there is no such thing. The social media world is evolving at such a fast pace that no one can have all of the information. I prefer the term “specialist”, as I specialize in social media marketing.

With that said, I researched online marketing to see what people were discussing, what they needed, and how I could help them. Then I developed a myriad of interesting, engaging content that was centered around my target audience’s needs and concerns. I did this by pinpointing topics that I knew would create engagement, discussion, and comments.

Since I am a specialist, I share my insider knowledge, and I help others by answering questions whenever I am asked. I try to focus on creating content that is original and helps people grow and expand their business. I anticipate needs and create engaging content that fills those needs.

By generating innovative ideas, helping peers, and engaging with your community members, you can achieve one or more of these goals:

* Lead the market conversation
* Build loyalty
* Stimulate passion
* Build and maintain a buzz
* Create excitement

So calling yourself an expert is an ineffective way to become an expert, but repeating someone else’s claim of your expert status is a phenomenal way to become an expert. Why?

Expert status doesn’t stem from what you think of yourself; it stems from what others think of you. When others deem you an expert, suddenly your reputation grows, your credibility increases, and your reach is enhanced. In other words, your fans are your very best source for branding yourself as expert. This is beyond invaluable in the social media realm.

For example, in the copywriting industry, perhaps the most well-known expert is Bob Bly. Decades ago, publisher McGraw-Hill allegedly crowned Bob “America’s top copywriter.” The title stuck, and today it is difficult to read about Bob Bly without reading this accompanying fact. Whether he truly is America’s top copywriter or not has become of little importance. It is now considered an accepted fact, much like a royal title.

If you’re serious about building a strong business, let people notice your greatness, and they will tell others. This is why so many of us count referrals as such a valuable source of income.

When you are considered an expert by others, you become sought after for many reasons:

* Experts offer distinctive services that others cannot.
* Experts provide valuable sound bites.
* Corporations seek out experts to certify risky business enterprises.
* Followers are attracted to expert knowledge. (As humans, we all want the assurance we’re doing the right thing and following the right advice.)
* Experts sell more products because people are more apt to buy from an expert who is credible and legitimate.
So what are you waiting for? Get out there and start developing your own expert status!

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Social Media Zen: 3 Mantras to Get You On Your Way

By Christopher Tompkins

27Jul

Facebook, Google+, Healthcare Marketing, LinkedIn, Marketing, Pinterest, Social Media, Twitter, Uncategorized

You are using social media to market your business. You are engaging every day, meeting new connections, finding new business, and starting exciting discussions. There is so much going on at times that you feel a bit overwhelmed, but are still eager to keep learning.

But, after a while, you begin to slip. You start cutting corners and begin to get unfocused. But this is normal right, happens to everyone?

No! You need to nip this in the bud now, before you go any further. When you spend time marketing on social media, you are investing time (and money) into your future online success. In order to keep the ball rolling, you need to keep your activity consistent!

Here are three social media mantras that I repeat everyday in order to keep me and my team at The Go! Agency on point:

Mantra 1: I will plan before I dive.

As you begin to engage with social media sites, you will come across new and exciting tactics, markets, ideas, and opportunities. When you hit these, do not drop everything and throw all of your effort that way immediately. Take a minute and see how you can approach new ideas in a way that is aligned with your overall marketing strategy and in a manner where you can get the most bang for your buck in the least amount of time.

Your marketing plan will be constantly evolving if you are incorporating social media into it, so please make sure to always approach each new idea with care. By having a well-thought-out approach, you will get the most out of the new opportunity that has been presented. Never turn anything down, but look at it objectively and strategically.

Mantra 2: I will listen, watch, and monitor before I join a discussion.

Many of us make the mistake of not listening before we leap. Our gut instinct is to stick to the same communication style as our conference calls, client meetings, email blasts, or corporate website. If you are going to use that style, you better make sure everyone else is speaking your language. In the social media world:

Listening = Reading

Speaking = Writing

When you are marketing in social media, it is 100 percent reading and writing until the time that the conversation moves to a phone conversation or in-person meeting. One of the aspects of social media marketing that you will have to come to grips with is that it requires a lot of writing and grammar skills.

Before you even write a single sentence, always read everything that has been written already. If someone sends you a direct message, read the entire message before responding (no skimming). If you are getting involved in a discussion on LinkedIn, make sure to read all of the points made by other members before leaving your own comment. If you are going to share someone else’s tweet, make sure that they don’t share explicit content regularly and make sure the link is valid.

For example, say that you are the leader of a national animal rights organization and are highly visible on Facebook. You look at some of your network’s Facebook updates and find a humorous one where they shared a YouTube video of a dancing dog. You loved it! And from the look of it, so did 34 other people. But since there are so many comments about the video, Facebook has hidden them, and you only see the most recent ones. One comment says, “My daughter loved the video, thanks!” You jump in and comment, “That couldn’t be cuter! Love everyone’s comments!”

The problem is that you didn’t read through those 34 comments because if you did, you would have seen that 25 of them were talking about how they would torture the dog. And then there you are, the leader of a well-known animal rights organization, endorsing this behavior.

Listen before you leap.

Mantra 3: I want to pull my customers toward me.

Any discussion of social media ethics would not be complete without first understanding the vital necessity of selflessness. I know it sounds pretty heavy, but stick with me here.

This is a good time to mention the terms “push marketing” and “pull marketing.” These terms refer to promotional strategies defined by the method of engagement. Push marketing requires pushing your brand message or offer onto your audience. Pull marketing requires customer engagement, wherein the customer pulls your products or services closer based on interest.

Push marketing is passive, but it can be pretty aggressive. The customer may or may not be aware of what you have to offer them, as is the case with traditional advertising. Even in an online environment, push marketing talks “to” the customer, not “with” the customer. In the online realm, push marketing can come across as “spammy” and heavy-handed. Most importantly, push-marketing methods are generally based on short-term strategies, such as discount offers for a limited time or coupons with expiration dates.

On the other hand, pull marketing is active. The customer chooses to seek out and engage with your highly visible brand. Creating relevant content that interests customers, entices them to register for your newsletter, or encourages them to join your community, are all effective pull marketing methods. Pull marketing methods focus on developing trust, reliability, and long-term perceived value. Prospects learn to believe your solution is the best for their needs. Pull marketing is the basis for social media marketing with a dash of push thrown in for good measure.

The point of this mantra? Every day you want to focus on getting your community to engage with you, not just read and forget. You want to create new and exciting opportunities for them to get close to you and share ideas, feedback, and their needs and wants. Your strategy needs to be focused on pulling your target audience closer rather than blasting them with one-sided content.

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Have Writers Block? Here’s the Secret to Developing a Constant Supply of Content Ideas

By Christopher Tompkins

21Jul

Social Media, Uncategorized

As someone who is passionate about marketing, I love nothing more than having a solid list of approved resources to use when marketing on social media. In this post, I want to share how to concoct your own comprehensive list of content resources that you can add to and edit organically.

Businesses should have two sets of content resources that they use for marketing on social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+:

1. Industry topics, news, and trends that you read

2. Information that your target market read to learn more about your industry

If the second set of resources is new to you, don’t feel left behind. Many marketers leave these by the wayside when formulating a social media marketing strategy. The problems with leaving out this set of resources is that you lose touch with what is important to your target market and just push your agenda down their throats, no matter how off-base it is. Remember, your content needs to be engaging, and understanding what your audience wants is the first step towards engagement.

First, I want you to think about key problems that your product or service solves. Get a pad of paper and write down five or more problems that your product or services alleviate.

For example, if I was an assisted living facility that specializes in Memory Care for people with Alzheimer’s and dementia, my list might look like this:

1. Alzheimer’s

2. Dementia

3. Aging Parents

4. Memory Care

5. Respite Care

All of the above directly relate to assisted living facilities with memory care units. Let me share another one. How about a diet pill that suppresses hunger?

1. Eating Disorders

2. Overeating

3. Overweight

4. Obesity

5. Weight Loss

See how each of these is related to the diet pill?

Now, for each problem that your product/services solves, come up with 5-10 topics that can be associated with each problem. For example, let’s use the diet pill again. The problem it solves is being overweight/obesity. So 5 topics that can be associated with the problems of being overweight are:

1. Diabetes

2. Lack of Energy

3. Low Self-Esteem

4. Loneliness

5. Heart Problems

Now identify at least one online resource that corresponds to each topic. An online resource can be a website, newsfeed, or even a hashtag! In the case of the diet pill, a health blog or an online fitness magazine could be a great resource, write down the name of the resource with the website address next to it for easy future access.

When you are done with this, start a list of websites that you personally visit to find news related to your industry. Write down all of the websites that you go to for the latest trend and news with the website address written beside them. Come up with 5-10 of these as well.

To help you get started, here are a few sites to try out:

1. Alltop

2. Feedly

3. Hashtags.org

4. Quora

5. Buzzsumo

These lists are invaluable going forward because you need to generate content when using social media to market your business. Having an approved list of resources is paramount to success. These will help inspire your writing as well as help you easily find information to share with your target audience that will be valuable to them.

If you like this process, and would like some extra credit, expand your list to include opinion leaders within your industry. These people share lots of valuable information that you could repurpose as useful tips for your audience. In order to create an engaging social media strategy, knowing where you can go to pull fresh, engaging ideas for content is an absolute must!

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The Definitive List: 30 Online Marketing Must-Haves

By Christopher Tompkins

8Jul

Social Media, Uncategorized

I want to share with you my top 30 suggestions on how to effectively get started with your online and social media marketing. As no business is alike, my guess is that each and every one of us are at different levels of preparedness. With that in mind, I started with the most basic point; (developing your website) and go onwards from there. Each point is an important action that sometimes we in the social media arena tend to gloss over.

The following list shows the order of how I would suggest you execute them for your brand. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t jump around. After all, this is your social media marketing campaign…and you are executing it! Use this list as a guideline to flesh out your plan even further, give you new ideas, and help you rediscover points you may have forgotten.

Of course the list isn’t limited to 30, but I think these offer a great primer in helping you jump start your conversation with your target audience….online!

ONE
You must have a website or online point of sale. Your website should look professional, be informative, educational and engaging. Make sure that your domain reflects your brand to the letter and aim for a dot com extension. Also, if using an outside designer, make sure that the relationship is strong and contains trust.

TWO
There is nothing worse than a website that is down 40% of the time. My advice: find a reliable web host that comes highly recommended and is built around a culture of service, rather than up-selling and hiding charges.

THREE
Now that you have a website, domain, and hosting, install a blogging platform into your website (recommended: WordPress). Check out the plugins, see what is the best for you and, of course, consult your developer with any questions you may have. Ensure you are able to integrate your social profiles into this platform.

FOUR
Excellent copy is an absolute essential, for both your website and your blog. Make sure when developing your content (and blog posts) to use keywords, the correct metatags and more. You want to create a promotional hub that can be found on search engines. Can’t create content? Find a writer pronto!

FIVE
Use the wonderful (and free) Google Analytics. This will help you track the sources of traffic to your website, what pages people are viewing and so much more. For those of you who have never taken a look at the power of this platform, you will be absolutely bowled over. An absolute must for tracking success.

SIX
Add RSS to your website and blog. RSS (which means Really Simple Syndication) allows your audience to subscribe to your latest updates and be sent an email directly to their email address when you add a new page to your site, a new blog…anything.

SEVEN
Once the previous steps are complete, make sure to create a consistent schedule for blogging. The most common is around 2-3 per week, but some people go for one per day! Do what suits you best and keep them between 400-600 words. Longer or shorter works as well, but the more words, the more options to add keywords!

EIGHT
Create an ebook or white-paper that you can feature on your website as an incentive to capture the names and email addresses of your target audience. My tip: Find something that your audience would find valuable (such as a tips report) and offer it in PDF form for download. Make sure that there is a picture of the incentive, short copy explaining it followed by two opt-in boxes: one for their name and the other for their email address.

NINE
Start building your social media profiles on sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Make sure to fully complete each of the fields provided in the profile in addition to adding the links to not only your website and blog, but your other social media profiles as well. Consult your plan regularly!

TEN
Pick one professional headshot and company logo and use it as your avatar across all platforms. This is extremely important as it allows for your brand image to be consistent in addition to helping people quickly identify you across the different sites.

ELEVEN
If you are going to use LinkedIn, make sure to contact your professional contacts (that you have worked with in some capacity) and request recommendations. These are a great way to build your profile on the site. My only advice is to only take and give recommendations to people you have actually done work with and don’t solicit them from strangers.

TWELVE
Join groups! On sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn there are more groups than you can shake a stick at. Find the ones that are relevant to your purpose and goals, then join them. But don’t end your activity there…participate! These groups have discussions, questions, answers, news and more for you to dig your professional teeth into. So don’t under-use them.

THIRTEEN
Another great way to get the most out of your branding on LinkedIn and Facebook is to start your own branded group! This would not be directly branded with your company, but more along the lines of your industry. For example if you are a dentist, then your group could be “Heroes of Dental Health” and be based around talking about the best way to keep your teeth healthy.

FOURTEEN
Aside from the groups, create a page for your company on LinkedIn and Facebook as well as a profile for it on Twitter. These are great ways to announce new and exciting developments as well as gain more visibility on these sites.

FIFTEEN
Twitter has a great tool to help you keep organized and not to be overwhelmed: Lists! Create lists of your favorite people on the site and it will help you pay close attention to the influencers that you want to interact with the most. Also keep your eyes on the recent Twitter trends for content ideas.

SIXTEEN
Don’t be afraid to get out there and comment like crazy! Not only on sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, but get out there and leave thoughtful comments on blogs. Make sure that they are well viewed and get ready to share your expertise like there is no tomorrow! New professional and personal relationships can result as well as strengthening bonds with key influential figures.

SEVENTEEN
Create visual content. There is nothing more powerful than video or still visuals on social media. Shoot short informative videos, host them on YouTube and then share them throughout. Have photos from a recent event? Make sure to share them on your social media profiles pronto to increase engagement!

EIGHTEEN
Find ways to save time when you are managing your accounts. There are free and low-cost tools readily available to help you view your activity on various sites from one platform. The most popular is Hootsuite and TweetDeck.

NINETEEN
Want to manage your reputation AND find great content ideas? Another Google tool that is absolutely vital are Google Alerts! You simply type in your email address and what you want to be updated on (and the frequency of the search) and Google will trawl it’s entire database each day and send you an email with the content you are looking for. This is great for not only listening to what is being said about you and your marketplace, but also to find topics for blogs, tweets and more.

TWENTY
Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want. Don’t be shy about offering help to those who need it. I know it may sound silly, but when you connect with a new professional person, don’t be afraid to ask them “Is there anything I can do to help you at the moment?” or the flip-side “Do you have any contacts that need my service?” You may just be surprised at what you find!

TWENTY-ONE
Go beyond the written word and share videos, audio and pictures that you believe your audience will enjoy. Sites such as YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram are fantastic for storage and make it easy to share across your social media profiles.

TWENTY-TWO
Make sure that everything that you share can either entertain, educate, enrich or engage. If your content ticks one or all of these boxes, then it has a much better chance of being shared. Which means other people are doing the work for you of virally spreading your content. This is a crucial goal of a social media campaign.

TWENTY-THREE
Start to become an opinion leader. Find allies in the social media world and network with them! Create and host local or virtual events and even try to get speaking engagements. Social media is a great place to not only promote events like this, but also a great place to share the content generated. The more of this you do, the more people will view you as an opinion leader.

TWENTY-FOUR
If you connect with someone of great value, remember that it is important to move the conversation offline to either a meeting or phone conversation. This can solidify the relationship and add lots of credibility points (after all, you ARE exactly what you say you are). At the end of the day, social media doesn’t close the sale….you do!

TWENTY-FIVE
Everyday there are new applications, social networks, tools and tricks that are released in order to help people use the medium more effectively. Don’t knock them until you try them. There are useful ones and not so useful ones, so approach with caution. Also, there are other fantastic ways of spreading content from online radio shows to webinars, don’t limit yourself with just the three main sites…try new things and think out-of-the-box.

TWENTY-SIX
Be honest, be caring, be interested. Simple as that.

TWENTY-SEVEN
Get your blog to feed automatically to suitable social media profiles (the same with YouTube, Instagram, and more)

TWENTY-EIGHT
Be constantly visible on your social media accounts daily. Don’t go heavy one week, just to be absent for two months. That can actually un-do lots of valuable work.

TWENTY-NINE
It can take time to reap the results: sometimes a week, sometimes months. Just stay focused and consistent!

THIRTY
You have nothing to hide, so be transparent as possible. Humanize your brand and use real emotion to connect with your target audience. Never bait and switch – that’s a HUGE mistake and can hurt your authenticity.

What tips would you add to the list? And remember -sharing is caring! Share this blog with anyone whom you think would benefit from it.

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Increase Social Media Engagement: 10 Ways to Optimize Your Social Media Content

By Christopher Tompkins

22Jun

Facebook, LinkedIn, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter, Uncategorized

Attempting to master social media marketing can be both confusing and overwhelming at times. Keeping track of all of the latest changes and trends, while trying to implement all of the newest tips and tricks can be challenging for a busy company.

When it comes to social media, the nucleus of all engagement is content. So no matter what different changes may happen to the structure of social media sites, the one thing that will remain the same is the importance of well executed, optimized, engaging content.

Say you already have excellent content in place, but your posts are not generating the results that your campaign needs to deliver. What’s the problem?

While writing great content is a constant, optimizing it is a constantly evolving medium. Optimizing your content for social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter can be as specific as changing an element within your post to work with the infrastructure of each one of these juggernauts.

We all know that writing custom content for your social media marketing campaign can be time consuming, so let’s make sure that all of that time spent is an investment that will go towards accomplishing our goals.

What I want to share with you here are ten of my own personal tips for helping your social media marketing content truly “pop” online so that you will get increased engagement through shares, likes, comments and much more!

The list below is not in order of importance: these are all vital factors that will help enhance your social media campaign’s success over time:

1. Keywords: When developing strong social media content, keywords are absolutely essential. The words or phrases that your target audience use to find your company (both online and offline) should always be handy when you are developing your content. My tip is to create a list of keywords that you can add to your updates, and then use them when suitable. These keywords will turn into hashtags and will help increase your visibility and engagement (more on this later).

2. Be Conversational: What does your content look like? When you read it out loud does it sound like a used car advertisement? Does the post draw you closer, or push you away? Imagine your post intermingled with all of the other posts (of direct and indirect competitors) vying for your target audience’s attention. Does it still stand out? One of my top tips with social media posts is to remember that they need to be “social” i.e. conversational. You want to start a conversational exchange with your audience – which is what engagement is! So read your content out loud after you write it and make sure that it reads as if you are saying it – not writing it. Having your content sound “human” and not like “sales and marketing copy” is absolutely essential.

3. Use Different Content Lengths: Not every social media site is looking for a 140 character solution. So writing one update and sending it through to all social media networks is not the best rule. The ideal way of optimizing your content for size is to begin by writing a short update for Twitter (maximum 120 characters to promote sharing). Then write a slightly longer one that you can post on Facebook and LinkedIn. This way you are able to move beyond Twitter’s character constraints when writing content, giving you freedom to enhance your posts with more engaging content, as well as giving you the ability to add further optimization through additional hashtags, tags, links, and more.

4. Call to Action: One of the first things I learned when I launched our online marketing agency 7 years ago was the power of asking for what you wanted. People move through social media content so fast that they don’t have time to read your mind and or read between the lines. If you want someone to perform a certain action, make sure to tell them what you would like them to do: read this story, click this link, sign up today, etc.

5. Shorten Your Links: On some social media sites, namely Twitter, size is everything…when it comes to characters of course. So when you are sharing a link within your allowed 140 characters, and the link takes up nearly 60% of your available characters allocation – how are you supposed to engage your audience? Use a link shortening tool to save space to allow your content to breath. Also, if you are sharing links on other social media sites, a short and concise link will prevent the link breaking when posting to your social media profile. It’s a little extra insurance that will come in handy.

6. Hashtags: A hashtag is a type of label used on specific social media sites which makes it easier for users to find social media updates (or messages) with a specific theme or specific content. In basic terms, a hashtag indexes a post to be about a certain topic, rather than just mentioning it in the conversation so that it can easily be found and referenced. By hash tagging your KEYWORDS within your social media content, you will enhance your “find-ability” on the social web exponentially, thus optimizing it.

7. Tagging: Tagging on social media is a way of connecting YOUR social media content with another person, company, topic, or event. So whereas hashtags connect general KEYWORDS together (such as #socialmedia, #onlinemarketing, #contentstrategy), tags connect social media content to specific social media accounts. This is a great way to increase your visibility with not only potential customers, but also referral sources and influencers. These are essential in helping your content gain more visibility and engagement through association.

8. Photos/Images: While many people are getting wrapped up in the semantics of writing the “perfect social media post”, they are forgetting one of the most straightforward engagement enhancer: visuals. While you can have a perfectly optimized post, it is not truly optimized unless you add a visual. By adding a complimentary picture, a custom designed graphic, infographic, or even a candid shot that you took with your phone, you engage your audience in a more instantaneous way. For example, think about when you scroll through the newsfeed, are your reading the content or looking at the pictures? You’ll find yourself engaged with visuals more quickly than the actual written words.

9. Videos: Videos have long been heralded as the “be all and end all” of online marketing optimization. So why aren’t more people doing them? Time, money and lack of know-how. Well, you are not alone if this sounds like you! Videos done professionally or casually with your mobile device, can bring your content to life and create engagement. You don’t have to be Steven Spielberg to create an engaging social media video. As is true in the previous point (visuals are crucial to enhancing engagement), videos really promote enhanced engagement. For example again, think about how many times you stop at those auto-play videos on Facebook. You probably remember the video as opposed to the content. Or the video led you to actually reading the social media posting associated with it, which you would have normally overlooked.

10. Don’t Always Rely on Third-Party Scheduling Tools: Especially when it comes to Facebook and LinkedIn. While third-party tools won’t affect your Twitter posts, they really do reduce your optimization opportunities on sites like Facebook and LinkedIn: your hashtags won’t work, your tagging won’t show up, and your previews are tough to edit. Not to mention the fact that many sites don’t add posts scheduled through third-party tools to the insights that help you understand what posts are successful and which ones aren’t. By adding your content directly to Facebook and LinkedIn you will escape this risk. This way you will have full control over how effective your content is. It will take extra time, but will increase your overall effectiveness!

These are my top 10 ways of optimizing your social media content to promote increased engagement. While they may take a little extra time, it is a worthwhile investment. Engaging your audience with your content is one thing, but actually having the tools to make your content more findable is absolutely essential to success.

I’m sure there are also ways that have worked for you. If you have any others that you think should be added to the list, what would they be? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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The Best Times to Post on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter

By Christopher Tompkins

6Mar

Facebook, LinkedIn, Social Media, Twitter, Uncategorized

When you are executing a social media marketing strategy, there is a lot to think about. You might be concerned about:

The use of visuals
Your content strategy
Who will be executing the work
How will you measure your results
When the work will be done

There is such an overwhelming amount of planning that goes into executing a social media marketing strategy that it is inevitable that something will be left to the last minute. In my experience an extremely vital point that gets left out in the cold during the social media strategy planning stage is when is the best time to post content to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter?!

While this is a seemingly unimportant factor, I am here to tell you that it is absolutely vital to your social media strategy. Just think, for example, of an email marketing campaign that you have previously executed. If you have looked at the studies done on email marketing, I am sure that you found out that by altering the time and date of your blasts, you can increase effectiveness.

And I am here to tell you that this is definitely true. We have executed email marketing campaigns for our clients and when we discovered the optimum time and date for them to be sent, their success rate skyrocketed!

This holds true also when we find the optimum posting time for our clients on social media. Before, they had a well written post with wonderful content that was languishing at the bottom of the barrel. Once we found the optimal posting time and used it, we could take this same exact post and garner exponentially more engagement…with only changing the time and date it was shared!

Have you ever posted something to social media that you truly believed to be earth-shatteringly good and….crickets? This is a prime example of the importance of choosing the right time and date when posting your social media content. I know how much time it takes to formulate good, engaging content, and I for one want it to be successful every time I post it!

To help you along, here are some times that we have found to be helpful when posting content to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter respectively.

Facebook:

Best Time to Post: Daily, between 1-4pm
Peak Time to Post: Wednesdays at 3pm
Worst Time to Post: Saturday and Sunday before 8am and after 8pm

Twitter:

Best Time to Post: Monday through Thursday, 1-3pm
Peak Time to Post: Monday through Thursday, 9am-3pm
Worst Time to Post: Everyday after 8pm, Fridays after 3pm

LinkedIn:

Best Time to Post: Tuesday through Thursday
Peak Time to Post: Noon, 5-6pm, Tuesday through Thursday
Worst Time to Post: Monday through Friday, 10pm-6am

These are simply guidelines for you to use which will effectively bring you closer to finding the optimal time for you to post on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. I know some industries that we work with where these hours don’t always hold up as the best.

The moral of the story is to try these out, and monitor your success. You will need to massage these times and dates to find out what works best for you. When it comes to your content, what should be the most important thing is that you plan to deliver it to the correct audience at the time when they are ready to receive it. This will create a social media home run not only for your content, but also your campaign!

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Using Facebook Groups to Get Your Message to the Masses

By Christopher Tompkins

13Feb

Facebook, Social Media, Uncategorized

Many LinkedIn networking professionals understand the benefit and power of using LinkedIn Groups to market their business. It is one of those features that enables you to reach thousands of people in a very targeted way.

But what if I told you that Facebook had a similar feature?

Facebook has a (much less robust) version of groups that helps you target a niche group with your message. On Facebook there are countless amounts of these groups with more members than you would realize….with many of the groups in question being centered around business topics and professional niche networking.

To get started, let’s talk a bit more about the types of groups and which ones you may be interested in joining. Here are the main three categories that I suggest:

1. Location Based: If you search for your target location on Facebook and then sort for Groups – you will find all of the groups that are in your area and/or the groups that have your area in their name.

2. Networking Based: There are many groups that are based around networking with other members and other groups that are even referral based. These are great and can be location or subject based.

3. Topic Based: What is your company’s niche? Search for the words that best represent your niche and you will find a plethora groups to jump right into. For example if you are a pediatric nursing company, there would be many groups for not only pediatric medicine but also for children’s health and wellness. Play around with your targeted keywords and look at what you will find.

There are many other types of groups, but I think that these three are probably the key ones that you would be interested in diving into first. Once you put your request to join in, the moderator will either let you in or not – based on their own personal opinion. When you are admitted to the group, first read the rules for posting and interacting with members. Some welcome promotional posts, some do not, and others require it! So make sure that you are going to follow the group rules…or risk of getting the boot!

Then see what the group is posting and discussing and join in. Create content and post it that would interest the group and engage with the discussions as they gain momentum. Also, if there are group members that you want to reach out to, you can view their profile and send them a message about connecting or just send a request with a message. This is a more personal way of building your network – just be careful not to spam: either by your adding friends or too many self promotional posts.

Now get out there and enjoy! Want to have more control? Start your own group – it is very simple and only take a few minutes.

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You Can Do It! The Simple Steps to Creating Your First Online Video

By Christopher Tompkins

2Feb

Uncategorized, Video, YouTube

On a weekly basis, I sit down and consult with businesses who need help creating effective marketing strategies. I relish these face-to-face meetings as they focus on two of my most favorite topics: marketing and strategy. Something that I have noticed lately is the companies that I encounter have a growing interested in video, which excites me. Online influencers, including myself, have always touted the power of video in promoting your brand online. Your target market engages more with visuals than the written word, so it is an important aspect of the online marketing mix.

The scary part of this ride is not knowing how exactly to create the video without hiring a specialist. If you are fortunate enough to be a business with a large marketing budget, then I suggest hiring a professional. This will save you time, a very expensive asset in your day-to-day live.

But, not many companies have an endless marketing budget that provides enough capital to produce a professional video. So the answer is the create the video in-house, with your own team putting all the pieces together. But how will busy marketers find the time to create a cutting-edge promotional video?

The answer is to take it step-by-step, not all at once. Creating a video is a fluid process that you can take at your own speed. To help you do this, I want to share my own step-by-step process on how you can complete your first video!

Let’s get started:

Invest in an inexpensive video camera that can controlled by remote control. Go Pro’s are great (albeit a little pricey) and have lots of easy applications and settings. But just a thought.
Print a blog that you have written, or some marketing collateral with a good chunk of copy in it. Setup your camera and record yourself reading the copy directly to camera. Then review the video and check the following aspects:
Lighting: is it too dark, too light, too grainy?
Setting: is it appropriate, too busy as a background, too cavernous?
Sound: can you understand what you are saying, is there a lot of ambient noise?
Frame: do you like how the camera is situated in the shot, are you cutting off anything important, or leaving in too much?
Once you have done this, do a few more practice runs, making adjustments to the A-D elements above.
Now you should be at a point where you can create a script/outline for your video. The first video that you create should be an ABOUT video explaining your business.
Once you create the script, read it aloud and ensure that it does not clock longer than 3 minutes. Remember your audience is exposed to LOTS of information and visuals, so keep it concise and engaging.
Decide who will be featured in the video. Usually go with a highly visible and credible person in your organization (which sometimes is not the CEO).
Use the guidelines that you created in #3 and do a few dry runs taping the person.
Review these and make any further adjustments.
Do the final taping.

Now that you have the raw video, you can use a program such as iMovie (which is an Apple program) or a Windows Movie Maker (for PCs) to format the video. The main formatting items that I would suggest that you add to your promotional video are:

*Titles at the beginning: possibly company logo and slogan
*Titles at the bottom to introduce the speaker (or speakers)
*Call to action at the end with contact numbers and logo again

What is great about the video editing programs is that you can learn them easily (believe it or not) and you can create a wonderful video in no time. Also, to make you feel a little less overwhelmed, there are templates in these programs that you can apply to your video, thus enabling you to brand and edit it much easier.

My top tip here? Relax! This is your first trial, so it is going to take the most time. Once you nail the format, just imagine how easy it will be to create ones in the future. Generally I find that once I teach someone how to do this process, the first one takes a bit of time, but the second video takes about 60% less time.

Now get out there and try it! I would love to see what you come up with! Please email a link to me directly at christopher@http://citsprojects.in/clientprojects/thegoagencyusa

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17 Irritating Social Media Mistakes You Are Making

By Christopher Tompkins

20Nov

Social Media, Uncategorized

As an online marketer, I am in the business of finding and rectifying mistakes in order to create success for my clients. I think at the heart of every marketer out there is a love of finding and solving problems, turning situations around, and turning lemons into lemonade.

Over the years I have seen some of the most irritating mistakes made by some of the largest brands time and time again. New brands coming to social media make many mistakes as well.

So…what are they?

Here is my list of the 17 most irritating social media mistakes that you might be making, and why you need to fix them!

Your Profile Picture is pixelated. Would you ever use a blurry or pixelated picture on your business card, brochure, website, or billboard? Then don’t do it on social media please.
Your Cover Image is pixelated. See point number 1.
No Descriptions. Don’t leave sections of your social media profiles blank. How are people going to find you? Onsite SEO anyone?
Last Update in 2013. If your last social media update that you posted was over a year ago…maybe you should either post something or take down your profile.
Your Facebook Page name is not your company name. It needs to be.
No links to your website anywhere in your profile. This legitimizes you and helps your target audience find you. Add it.
You want customers in your store, but you provide no address. Add your address!
#Hashtaghashtag. Don’t over hashtag. It is annoying and doesn’t help you.
Spelling and grammar errors in your posts. To err is human, to consistently err is irritating and unprofessional.
Pictures posting sideways. Preview everything before you post to make sure they post correctly!
No comments to your comments! If a member of your audience takes the time to write you a note or comment on a post – reciprocate with at least an acknowledgement.
Posting dead links. Make sure that all of your links are working before posting…or wait until everyone else tells you publicly that they are dead.
100% self promotional posts. It is hard to be social when all you talk about is how great you are.
Always posting 140 characters on Twitter. Use less characters so people can share your information more easily. 120 is a good idea.
Using old logos, company names, imagery. This goes without saying.
Using out of date information. Again, this goes without saying.
Not tracking success. How successful is your social media campaign? Why don’t you know?

Are you making these mistakes? If you are, every SINGLE one of them is easily rectified. With a little time and focus you can create the perfect social media campaign that creates success for your company!

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Tag : social media marketing

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