Tag : twitter

How To Heat Up Your Hashtag Game

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11Aug

One of the most important elements of social media marketing is to spread your content as far as possible. To achieve this goal, we have hashtags as handy tools. These little guys allow our posts to appear when someone searches for that hashtag. They’re basically the advanced version of a keyword.  Simple, right? Hashtags are easy to learn, but can take some finesse to master. Here are the best ways to make the famous internet tool work for you!

Know your platform’s limits. Do you think all the social media platforms are the same? Think again. The way each site uses hashtags is completely different. You should not use more than three for Facebook. There isn’t a limit for Twitter, but you still  have that 140 character limit hanging over your head. LinkedIn and Pinterest don’t use hashtags at all, rather utilize keywords. Instagram, on the other hand, is the king of hashtags. Be professional, but 10-15 hashtags max is recommended. 

Do your research. A hashtag will only do its job if someone is actually looking for it. You need to figure out what is trending. Luckily, you have tools. Ritetag and Hashtagify are both third party websites that allow you to see what the market is talking about.  Facebook and Twitter both have trending sections that allow you to see what all the buzz is about at the time. 

Don’t be too specific. #FacebookSocialMediaMarketing may not get as many hits as #Facebook, #SocialMedia, #SocialMediaMarketing and #Marketing. You want to make sure that people are searching that exact phrase, otherwise your content won’t come up. 

Don’t be too broad. On the opposite side of things, you want to make sure your hashtag isn’t going to drown in a sea of the same. #California may work, but if you are trying to get San Diego residents to pay attention, #SanDiego will work better. Otherwise, people who are looking for things pertaining to San Francisco may also see your post and it will be a waste. 

You need a little bit of imagination, research, and common sense to master hashtags. The symbol that used to be called the pound symbol is now your best friend in the social media world, but you need to know how to use them!

How do you use hashtags? Share below!

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The Best Ways To Level Up Your Social Media Marketing

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2Aug

To this day, Facebook, Twitter, and the other social media platforms proudly proclaim that they are a free service. This business model is both a groundbreaking and troublesome tactic for companies trying to promote. Users can log into their profiles worry-free and see what their friends, family, and favorite brands are up to. While individuals may not have any price to pay, companies are a different story. There are several ways to enhance a professional social media marketing campaign. Yes, some may cost some money, but their results will truly make a significant difference.

A big mistake some social media marketers make is sticking to the concept that social media is free advertising. At first glance, it certainly seems that way. Free exposure on the world’s biggest websites! It seems too good to be true, and you would be right in thinking that.

Here is the dilemma in a nutshell. Because of the “free factor”, there are many people and businesses roaming these websites. There are over 1.6 billion users on Facebook alone. Obviously, you are going to need some help to stand above the masses. Additionally, each website has a specific algorithm to help deliver what they think is the best content for each user. Algorithms may or may not put your content’s reachability at a disadvantage, and a social media marketer needs to know how to circumvent these obstacles. Unfortunately, the playing field isn’t as level as it used to be. You are going to need some secret weapons to succeed on the internet. Here are the most helpful tools that are well worth it:

Third Party Tools- As intuitive as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the others are, they aren’t perfect. Fortunately, there are some amazingly helpful tools to assist you along the way. 

Hootsuite is a great tool that helps you on multiple fronts. It offers scheduling services, news streams for researching content, detailed analytics, and more. Consider Hootsuite your social media all-in-one pocket knife, equipped with tons of tools you will need.

RiteTag helps social media marketers understand the current trends and hashtags that are getting the most attention. This will help your content stay relevant.

Grammarly will help your team stay professional by helping their writing stick to proper spelling and grammar. Nothing is worse than a glaring typo!

Advertising- As we have said, the websites we all know and love contain algorithms designed to help the user. At times, however, this may cause an extra hurdle to overcome for marketers. To allow your content to soar above the rest, you need to advertise on Facebook, Twitter, and the others. Social media websites need to make money through advertising, but they do make it worth your while by putting your content in the best possible locations.

Outsourcing- Let’s face it. Social media isn’t as easy as you thought. There are many intricacies that need to be adhered to every single day. Your employees may be too busy to manage multiple pages. That’s why outsourcing your social media marketing is such a helpful solution. At The Go! Agency, our social media managers are thoroughly trained to handle everything the online marketing world throws their way in a quick, professional, and creative manner.

Social media marketing is too important to take lightly or to take the cheap route. Yes, it is an investment, but every business can benefit from having a strong online presence. The world is heading down a digital highway, and you need to be ready to cruise along!

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Why Your Social Media Content Is Flopping

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2Aug

 

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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Your Website: Your Social Media’s Biggest Fan

26Jul

Online marketing is a broad term that encompasses both social media and a company’s website. Because of this, these two need to work symbiotically. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the other platforms need help from your website, and vice versa.

There is a bit of quid pro quo in online marketing. Some social media content should send the reader back to the website so they can read informative web pages, fill out forms, etc. On the other side, a website needs to be designed with those social media icons proudly being promoted in a prominent corner. There are so many websites out there that tuck away the links to its company’s social media page and even if you wanted to find their accounts, you wouldn’t be able to! It is very important to have those buttons right where viewers can see them.

Your website will generally stay the same. It tends to be a steadfast, unwavering piece of marketing as opposed to social media which is constantly updated with news, sales, articles, etc. You can see why these elements are very important to a successful online presence.

When promoting separate pages on social media, do not always link back to your home page. Share the wealth of attention to other pages that can provide the customer further insights into what makes your company tick. One of these important pages is your blog.

A blog can be one of the most important parts of your website. It is one of the sections that is typically updated, albeit not as quickly as your social media. By promoting your blog on your social media pages, you will bring attention to your website, which is a valuable resource to your company. What’s that? You don’t have a blog? You need to start one up ASAP!

A business’ website and social media pages are both integral elements of online activity and as such, a good marketer knows how to take advantage of both.
How do you promote your website on social media? How do you promote your social media on your website? Share below!

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Why Your Business May Be Oversharing On Social Media

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24Jul

Geico has a new radio commercial talking about people “oversharing” on social media. They depict a woman that posts on Facebook every 10 minutes with photos, comments, and tags all her friends constantly. As social media marketers, we cringe at the commercial because we know the real implications oversharing can have.

Social media is becoming an established element in our society and as such, there are some unspoken rules. Here are the top 4 ways your followers may be yelling “TMI!” when checking out your updates:

    1. Too many posts- Even if your updates strike the right balance of push and pull messages, flooding the social media channels with a massive amount of content is not recommended. This will surely annoy your followers. For Facebook and Instagram, it is recommended to post varying content twice a day. Twitter should be 3-4 tweets or original content (but don’t forget to utilize retweets and other tools on a daily basis)
    2. Personal opinions- Don’t forget, you are representing your business when managing their social media page. It is not a good idea to push your personal beliefs on your company’s account. Do not talk about controversial, religious, or political subjects. It’s a good way to alienate or infuriate your customers.
    3. Irrelevant sharing- If you manage social media for a law firm, you wouldn’t post a bunch of DIY carpentry videos, would you? Make sure the items you share are professional and somehow connect to your industry.

    4. Inside References-We have all seen those social media posts that mean absolutely nothing to anyone except the people tagged in it. Do not send out those types of posts. Make sure everything is relatable to the general public. Even if you are mentioning an employee in an update, make sure people understand what you are talking about.

 

 

Quality over quantity is the name of the game in social media marketing. Be sure to take time and consider every post you share. After all, people from every walk of life will read it!

How do you feel about oversharing? Comment below!

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Why You Need A Dedicated Social Media Manager

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23Jul

Millions of businesses are now reaping the benefits of social media. Yet just how serious are they taking this venture? We have seen many companies assigning social media duties as an afterthought to their marketing team or part-time intern. After these employees work on traditional marketing all day long they hardly have the energy to invest into their company’s Facebook, Twitter, etc. We can’t tell you just how wrong this approach is! A successful social media marketing campaign requires attention every single day. Some of the worse types of accounts are those that are either stagnant or sparsely contributed to and that’s what this answer to social media generates.

Now that social media marketing has become a necessity for business, many managers feel obligated to create accounts. However not many fully understand the work that goes into its success.

Depending on exactly what sites your business has accounts on, a social media marketer needs to perform unique duties. Maintenance of Facebook pages is time consuming as there are many intricate steps to take and areas of the site to follow. Twitter marketers must retweet and quote retweet to make sure there is a constant stream of engaging content on the company’s news feed throughout the day. They also must fix the balance of followers and non-followers to the benefit of the page. If LinkedIn is involved, networking with an account’s fifty groups is needed during the workweek.

Amongst all this, analysis of data is critical. Statistics are available either through native analytics or third-party applications so social media managers can see what posts generated engagement and which didn’t. As the internet landscape is quite fickle, it’s our job to study trends and stay on top of what is happening today and not yesterday. The moment is vital in social media marketing, and we appreciate how missing an important event can spin a whole campaign out of control.

Some businesses still may not want to waste an employee’s time with social media. Others may not have a team member that is privy to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other websites’ intricacies. That’s where outsourcing to professionals like The Go! Agency can be very beneficial to your company. Your online accounts will receive comprehensive work, writing, and support which is priceless when creating an effective online presence. It’s more than understandable for all the work a social media campaign requires to be a bit over a business owner’s head. After all, you are a professional in your field, not online marketing.

If you have any questions about how outsourcing can help your company, please contact us!

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What Can Twitter Engage Do For Your Social Media?

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21Jul

Twitter really wants you to succeed. They had previously announced updates to the website’s infrastructure that will give more leeway for a tweet’s character count as well as allowing more options when retweeting. Now, they are offering us a brand new tool exclusive to American iOS devices. Engage, a companion app, will deliver helpful analytics to a marketer’s fingertips.

This new software allows Twitter users to study their tweets in real time through comprehensive data. Engage covers a wide range of area pertaining to the social media giant’s functionality and reachability. This will help marketers succeed and understand new insights.

Engage also notifies you of trends and important conversations happening on the internet as they happen. Now, you will never miss a trending hashtag or news story that could attract a slew of followers to your page. This brings a whole new meaning to “in the moment”!

Have you ever wondered who your content attracts? Engage allows you to study the demographics and activities of those who read your tweets. Are these the people you want to reach out to? If so, great job! If not, it may be time to tweak your writing and when you are ready to try again, Engage will be by your side.

Like Hootsuite and other third party analytic programs, Engage provides insights into your account’s performance. You can even compare post-by-post to see if your pictures, videos, GIFs, or text-based tweets do the best.

Why would Twitter create Engage? After all, it’s a free service and there is no profit to be made. They made it because those who run this social media platform appreciate that businesses all over the world use their website to market. Twitter has become a necessity in the business world, despite not having nearly the amount of tools Facebook offers. Now, Engage ushers in a new level of intuitive tools by Twitter itself, as opposed to third party applications. Twitter is proudly proclaiming that they want to help your business succeed.
What do you think of Twitter Engage? Comment below!

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How Social Media Can Rock Your Company’s Events

20Jul

Who says social media is confined to the digital world? While we do not have a physical leather-bound book called Facebook, or tiny blue birds sending out messages out to our favorite people, the digital world often visits reality through several avenues.

One of the biggest ways businesses can use social media is to cover a live event. We see this during big unveilings like Apple’s press releases. Soon enough, we will see the social media platforms exploding when iPhone 7 is announced. However, it doesn’t have to be as monumental as Apple’s releases. It can simply be a get-together or your team attending a local charity event. Here are the best ways to cover an event through your social media channels.

  1. Live Video- With the advent of Facebook Live, Periscope, and Snapchat, people all around the world can attend your event with just the tap of a button. By providing a live broadcast of your event, customers from all over will be able to join in the fun, or could benefit from the knowledge your event is providing.
  2. Tweeting- Twitter is perfect for live events. Reporters use Twitter to unveil news stories as they happen, minute by minute. It offers an alternative method of covering live events as opposed to live video, since you can read the tweets at your own pace.
  3. Checking In- Facebook’s popular feature that allows people to check into a location is great to advertise your event. Be sure to remind all attendees to check in on their individual Facebook accounts so the word can spread quickly.
  4. Event Pages- You can also use Facebook and Google+ as a way to invite your friends, family, and colleagues to your event. They can let you know if they plan on attending and, through notifications, will be reminded that a fun time is on the horizon.
  5. Ongoing Promotion- A post saying what a good time you had will be a great closer to the event. Posting pictures, tagging your fellow attendees, and an invitation to the next event are all great ways to keep people invested, even months after the actual event.

As you can see, social media is made to promote your real life party, meeting, or conference. It seems that the internet and the “brick and mortar” world aren’t so separate after all!

How do you use social media to promote your event? Comment below!

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Your Social Media Toolbox: Software Your Social Media Needs

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19Jul

Social media marketers need technology to succeed. No surprise, right? While a majority of the work day is spent on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the other platforms, we cannot be truly effective without a little help from third-party tools.

There are new products popping up on the internet and App Store all the time. Some are terrible, some make our lives much easier. The world of social media is face-paced and demanding, so having some tools to help is much appreciated. Here are some of the newest helpers social media professionals are integrating into their workflow:

Crowdfire- Twitter can be effective, but very competitive. Marketers need to keep a sharp eye on their followers. Crowdfire will do just that. This website will help you find new followers based on other leaders of the industry. You will also be able to weed through your followers and get rid of inactive accounts.

One Tab- Researching content is a major part of social media. Whether you are finding new content to share or you are checking your facts, you will find your browser window bursting with tabs. One Tab will combine them for easy access, allowing some space to breathe. 

PicPlayPost- Looking for a new way to bring life to your Instagram page? Check out PicPlayPost. It’s an app that allows you to add pictures and video to unique collage template. 

RiteTag- Hashtags make the world go round in social media. You got to use them! But how can you find the best tags that pertain to a specific subject? RiteTag is the answer. With a helpful browser extension, you will be able to find trending hashtags  in a snap!

 

There are many new social media sidekicks out there and many more on the way. The above four have proven to be very helpful for businesses. Content curation, sharing, and organization can get a whole lot of easier. You just need the right tools!

What do you think of these programs? Comment below!

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The 5 Types Of Posts Your Social Media Needs!

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18Jul

There’s nothing more terrifying to a writer than a blank document. That flashing cursor staring back at you… it gives you shivers! The same goes for social media marketers as well. At times, inspiration just won’t come, and you have to get those posts out there! The business is counting on you, after all. There are plenty of ways to brainstorm, but sometimes it can do wonders to go back to basics. We do not mean you have to start a brand new Facebook or Twitter account, but rather examining the fundamentals of social media marketing. One of the most important questions someone in this industry has to ask is “What kind of posts should I write?”

While there are millions upon millions of posts out there, most of them can fall into 5 overarching categories. As you progress through the world of social media, you may find yourself doing the very important task of laying out an outline of posts that you want to write. It is crucial to add variety to your social media content and as such, you will want to learn the following “areas” social media can cover:

 

  • Articles- If you spend more than five minutes on any of the social sites, you will run into one of these popular posts. “Articles” is a broad term, of course. Whether the content covers a news piece, a recipe, tips to accomplish a certain task, or a piece of history, articles are without a doubt the most common types of content out there on the internet.
  • Promotional- As a marketer for a company, you may find yourself being tempted to use promotional posts more often than others. While sales-oriented content can be effective, you do not want to oversaturate your followers with promotions. It is common to see a company crash and burn online because all they want to do is sell as opposed to connecting to the community. That being said, sales posts do have a place in your overall content mix. If shared in moderation and written with subtleness, sales posts could work.
  • Events- Whether it is Christmas Day or your company’s annual picnic, posting about an event or utilizing your preferred platform’s invitation tools can attract a lot of attention to your page.
  • Entertainment- While we primarily use social media for business purposes, many people head over to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others for entertainment. Join in the fun! Just because you have a business page doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t post fun and interesting posts every now and again. Providing some interesting and enjoyable content is a part of the job!
  • Native- Above all else, native–or original content– is pure gold. Whether they are photos, videos, graphics, text, or events, they are valuable. Of course, visuals are more eye-catching than text-only posts so be sure to create your own graphics, logos, flyers, and more whenever possible.

Depending on the week you are writing for, content should be ordered in a unique and inventive way. No two articles, promos, or events should be right next to each other on your content timeline. These posts are the bread and butter of your campaign so you will need to spend time on them.

Which of these posts do you find the most effective? Share below!

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