Browse Category: Social Media Marketing

How to do twitter marketing for brand awareness?

How to do Twitter Marketing for Brand Awareness?

Twitter is a microblogging and social media channel. Using twitter people share their opinions and interact with others using messages known as tweets. But we can do more than that using it. Twitter can help brands in achieving various goals and objectives like- brand awareness, generating leads, increase website traffic, building relationships with customers etc. So, today we are going to learn about how to do twitter marketing for brand awareness.

Twitter Marketing Strategies for Driving Brand Awareness

1. Tweet Awesome Content

Tweet Awesome Content
Tweet Awesome Content

The first thing you have to do to increase your brand awareness on twitter is tweet awesome and relevant content. Content must be the foundation of your twitter marketing strategy if you want to increase your brand awareness. Why?

Because in order to increase your brands’ awareness people must talk about your brand, engage with your tweets and retweet them.

But if your content is not that great and doesn’t add any value to them, they will simply ignore it. People love to share content that inspires them, educate them, entertain them and make them feel connected. So, make sure your tweet awesome content.

2. Tweet Consistently

Tweet Consistently
Tweet Consistently

The next thing you can include in your twitter marking strategy is tweet consistently. This is necessary if you want people to remember you because if they can’t see you why will they remember you and if they don’t remember all your previous efforts are wasted.

Make sure you tweet consistently without long gaps. But that does not mean you can post any content to remain active. Make sure you post good quality content because the quality is everything if you want people to engage with your content.

3. Contests and Giveaways

Contests and Giveaways
Contests and Giveaways

Contest and gives are very helpful in increasing brand awareness and must be a part of your twitter marketing strategy. Contest and giveaways make people engage with your content, share it with their friends and mention your brand in their tweets. As a result, your content reaches to a large number of people which ultimately helps you in increasing your brand awareness.

Besides this, you might get a place in twitter trending topics which will further boost your organic reach. But don’t overdo it because it might make you look like a spammer and destroy your reputation.

4. Use Trending Topics for Creating Content

Use Trending Topics for Creating Content
Use Trending Topics for Creating Content

Another tactic you can use to increase your brand recognition using twitter marketing is to use trending topics for creating content. Trending topics are the topics that are actively being searched, talked and are getting tweeted by a large number of people, influencers and celebrities.

By using these topics for your content, you can reach thousands of people who might retweet and engage with your content. But be careful while creating content because you don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or create a controversy with it. In order to find trending topics for your content, you can see trending tab in your twitter app, or use sites like rightrelevance, social animal etc.

5. Use of Hashtags

Use of Hashtags
Use of Hashtags

Hashtags can be defined as keywords or phrases that describe a topic. These hashtags are used by people to follow or search for a particular topic and thus make them a very important part of twitter and twitter marketing. Two sites that you can use to find relevant hashtags for your tweets are Hashtagify and Ritetag.

Only use niche related hashtags in your tweets and content so that they reach your target audience who is actively searching and following these topics. This will increase your followers, engagement rate and most importantly your brands’ presence and recognition.

6. Follow Industry Experts & Share their Content

Follow Industry Experts & Share their Content
Follow Industry Experts & Share their Content

Next you must follow relevant industry influencers and industry experts and share their content if you want to increase your brands’ awareness. Why? Because people follow and engage with those brands and influencers who have been accepted as industry experts in what they are doing.

By following such relevant brands and influencers and sharing their content you can start building the name and authority of your brand. This makes people recognize you as an industry expert because you are sharing high quality and relevant content.

7. Tweet on right time.

Tweet on Right Time
Tweet on Right Time

The next twitter marketing tactic that you can use to increase your brands’ presence and recognition is to tweet your content on the right time. There are certain days and certain hours in a day in which if you post your content you can get maximum engagement for your tweets. More engagement means more mentions which will ultimately increase your brands presence and brand recognition.

In order to find the right time for tweeting you can try out different timings of days and see at which time of day you have a most engagement or you can use tools like Tweriod, sprout social etc. You can also use tools like hootsuite and buffer to plan and schedule your tweets for posting. These two tools are very helpful when you are short of time or travelling.

8. Twitter Ads

Twitter Ads
Twitter Ads

Another tactic you can use to increase your brand presence and recognition is used twitter ads. Twitter ads allow you to promote yourself on Twitter using its precise targeting features. By using twitter ads, you can promote your account, your tweets and promote your own topic as a trending topic on twitter and reach a large number of people who will be interested in your brand and your content.

In order to use twitter ads, you must register with your profile on www.ads.twitter.com after that you can create your ads and reach your target audience.

Conclusion.

There you have it guys best twitter marketing tactics and tips that you can use to increase your brand awareness on twitter Using these tactics and tips you can gain new followers, Increase engagement rate on your tweets and recognition as an industry expert.

If you like these tips and tactics leave your comments below and if you have any suggestion you can also write them in your comments. I would love to read your views and suggestions.

How Social Media Helps In Brand Differentiation

With many competitors on digital platforms brand differentiation  has become a necessity to succeed. Coming up with a good strategy is the recipe to do this.

By standing out in the industry we create a safety net around our brand. Hence, a brand can protect themselves from price discounts and the competition. Besides this, it also assists in avoiding the draining of resources on prospects that are not the right fit.

Some steps that experts often suggest when brainstorming strategies are:

  • Defining your business mission
  • Understanding and analyzing your competition.
  • Understand your target audience very well
  • Ensure what differentiates your brand matters to your target market.
  • Review past differentiation strategies

 In today’s digital realm the main focus would be how to stand out in a cost-efficient manner and which digital tools can be used to achieve this. Social media platforms play a crucial role in differentiating a particular business in the eyes of their customers.

So what is the benefit of using social media?

Brand Awareness: 

The use of social media platforms can increase brand awareness as nearly everyone are active on these sites. Almost all the research customers do start online. This creates a great opportunity to share your unique story to educate your customers and distinguish your brand.

The use of social media boosts awareness and helps create a loyal following of customers ready to interact with your posts. Additionally, it helps in understanding your customers and focusing on their needs.

Humanizes your brand: 

Social media allows to connect with customers on a human level and have a conversation instead of an overused sales pitch. Using real emotion such as humor, empathy, and joy is helpful to get people to relate to your brand on a deeper level. 

Personalization has become essential and is what customers tend to look for in terms of developing brand loyalty. This can assist in moving further in the direction of differentiating your brand in comparison to the competition.

Advertising: 

Paid promotion on platforms like Facebook can not only be cost-effective but can increase awareness and brand engagement. Targeting your ideal market and promoting highly relevant posts can increase a users interest and help in achieving desired results.

The use of strong visuals and storytelling derives highly engaging advertisements which can further increase visibility. Ads are a great way to support your brand in all differentiation endeavors.

Customer Feedback: 

Customers often post reviews both negative and positive. This can be another great way to distinguish your brand through appreciating positive reviews and replying to negative ones in real-time. When a brand quickly replies and resolves any issue a customer might have faced it enhances the brand’s value.

By making improvements and evolving based on customer feedback it is possible to consistently impress them, strengthen loyalty and bring in new customers.

Tips To Stand Out on Social Media

Choose the right social media platforms: 

Understanding the different popular platforms available and choosing the one that is most used by your ideal target market plays a key role in reaching the right people.

Original Content: 

Share your story, don’t copy similar content but create it from scratch as well as a mix of user-generated content. Using content that resonates with your target market is important to develop an audience to stand out. Use content differently based on the platform being used and make sure to tailor it the most suitable way. Researching the type of content people enjoy more can aid in this process and can make your posts stand out.

Customize all your social platforms: 

A great way to grab a user’s attention is to make the company social profile visually attractive by updating the profile and cover photos. Also, well-written description of what the business is all about goes a long way to increase awareness and help set a brand apart from the other competitors.

Connect With Influencers: 

Connecting with online influencers whose niche audience matches your target market can be very beneficial in gaining people’s attention and increasing sales. Influencer marketing has become very popular and provide great value to brands. Choosing an influencer must be done with careful consideration. Finding an influencer that is the best fit for your brand can assist in reaching the right audience, building trust and gaining more loyalty.

 Brand Voice And Authenticity: 

The way you communicate online must be real, authentic and true to your business culture and tone. It is important to stay in alignment with what your brand image represents. The first step is to know your brand, what your tone is and how you want people to perceive the brand. Focus all the communication based on this understanding and create an authentic personality for the brand. This can increase chances to further the brand differentiation process.

Consistency:

 Maintain a constant theme concerning the company’s logo, tone and the kind of topics you choose to post about. Being consistent in every aspect of your social media profile. Furthermore being consistent in posting content can help followers in understanding what to expect from you and also builds trust.

Audience focused: 

All communication and content should be based on what the target market wants and needs. This will attract new followers as well as keep current followers interested. Researching and paying attention to detail will be beneficial in the long run.

Quality produce/Service: 

Brand differentiation is important but unless the product/service being offered is of top quality there is only so much online or offline platforms can do. It is key to maintain a certain level of quality and constantly adapting to the changing needs of consumers.

A good understanding of your target market and focussing on their needs and wants both online and offline is essential for success. It will help in developing value, image, and loyalty which in turn distinguishes a brand. 

The above tips and step are guidelines for achieving an edge over the competition and safeguarding the overall brand. However, this is a continuous process of meeting and exceeding customer expectations consistently.

Top Tips to get Most out of Instagram Marketing.

Top Tips to Get Most Out of Instagram Marketing

Instagram is an online photo and video sharing social media platform. It is the second largest social network after Facebook with 1 billion active users and if you are a brand who is looking to build social media presence you can not ignore Instagram. Today I am going to share with you tips to get most out of Instagram Marketing.

1. Clearly Defined Objective

Clearly Defined Objective

The first tip to get most out of your instagram marketing strategy is to define a clear objective that you want to achieve. Whether the brand wants to increase its social media presence, increase sales or increase websites traffic. Objectives are very important as they act as the guide to brands marketing efforts. This ensures that the brand is moving in the right direction.

2. Switch to Business Profile

Switch to a Business Profile
Switch to a Business Profile

Even before you think about Instagram marketing the first thing you should do is switch to the business profile. Switching to a business profile is super easy . Go to settings –>Account –>Switch to professional Account. Switching profile allows you to create Instagram ads, access to insights tool which provide data like interactions, impressions, engagement of your posts.

 

3.Attractive bio, description and picture

Attractive bio,description and picture
Attractive bio, description and picture

The next tip to get most out of Instagram marketing is writing attractive bio, description and picture. Bio,description and picture are the first things that a user sees before following a brand and thus it must be capable of attracting the users at first look. Use these sections to educate people about your brand, your offerings and how your brand can help them.

4.Use Hashtags

Use Hashtags
Use Hashtags

Hashtags play a very important role in improving the organic reach of your posts. It helps people discover content through topics that interest them and thus we can not ignore them while marketing on Instagram. You can use up to 30 hashtags in your posts. While selecting your hashtags make sure they are relevant and have a high reach. Tools like Instagram search, rate tag can help you get the most relevant hashtags. You can also use hashtags that are being used by industry experts and influential people of your niche. Don’t forget to update your hashtags list after a while to keep getting good results.

5. Cross-Promote on Other Platforms

Cross- Promote on Other Platforms
Cross-Promote on Other Platforms

Another tip to get the most out of Instagram marketing is cross-promote on other social media platforms. Use your existing followers/ fans on other platforms for promoting yourself on Instagram. Ask them to follow you on Instagram. It will help you to get more followers which ultimately increase the organic reach of your Instagram content.

6. Awesome Content Strategy

Awesome Content Strategy
Awesome Content Strategy

Content is the base of every marketing strategy. A good content marketing strategy is necessary if you want to get the most out of marketing on Instagram. Don’t just post content to be active on the platform. Content that helps followers and adds value to their life deserve to be posted. Educational, inspirational/motivational, product demos, fun, customer stories and user-generated content are a few possible themes which you can use while creating content.

7. Attractive Posts

Attractive Posts
Attractive Posts

All Instagram posts are not equal. when it comes to Instagram marketing, you can either stand out or step away. Instagram is a visual platform. An attractive post attracts people towards it and thus gets large reach and engagement. Tools like Instagram filters, apps like SnapSeed, Canva, AfterLight can help you to elevate the beauty of your posts.

8.The Contest, Giveaways and Promotions

Contest,giveaways and promotions
Contest, giveaways and promotions

The next tip to get most out of Instagram marketing is run contests, giveaways and promotions. Contest,giveaways and promotions help in increasing reach of your brand, make people tag and share your content. As a result you get more organic reach and engagement. Don’t overuse contests, giveaways and promotions. Use them as a part of your content strategy and not as a base.

9. Consistent Posting

Consistent posting
Consistent Posting

The next thing you can do to get the most out of Instagram marketing is consistent posting. As mentioned above don’t just post to be active, post only when you have quality content. Post consistently awesome, unique , quality content without long gaps. Long gaps make followers forget about the brand and the brand might lose followers too.

10. Sponsored ads, stories and posts

Sponsored ads, stories and posts
Sponsored ads, stories and posts

Hashtags and awesome content provide you organic reach. While Sponsored ads, stories and posts help you reach a much larger audience who are interested in your offerings. Paid promotions along with your organic reach building tactics can help you get much better results and a better R.O.I.

11. Use of Trending Topics

Use of Trending Topics
Use of Trending Topics

Next thing to get most out of your Instagram marketing is using trending topics for creating content. Trending topics have a big organic reach. People are actively searching for these topics. By using these topics you have the opportunity to reach a big audience segment organically.

12. Use of Influencers

Use of Influencers
Use of Influencers

Industry experts, celebrities can help you in getting most out of Instagram marketing. These people have large following and can influence a large number of people. Making contacts with influencers and using them for your product promotions can not only help you large and relevant audience but can also get you much better results as compared to using only paid promotions.

13. Instagram stories

Instagram stories
Instagram stories

Instagram stories are pictures or videos that last only for 24 hours.These stories can be used by the brand to show the internal working, culture, behind the scene working of the brand. This makes followers feel much more connected with the brand and help a brand to get the most out of their Instagram marketing strategy.

14. Analyze Metrics

Analyze metrics

In order to get most out of Instagram marketing a brand must observe and analyze important metrics like followers growth rate, reach, frequency, impressions, click through rate. These data is very important as it helps the firm to know whether its marketing efforts are working at all or not, or to calculate its R.O.I( Return on investment).

Conclusions.

There you have it guys the top tips to get most out of Instagram marketing. Using these tips a brand can create an strong and effective Instagram marketing strategy which will help them to achieve their desired objectives and goals.If you like these tips make sure to leave your comments below and if you have any suggestion you can also write that in the comment section below

social-media-stories

The Ultimate Guide to “Social Media Stories”

“Social media stories” are a bit weird compared to regular content. For one, they don’t show up directly in users’ feeds by default. If somebody needs to look at the stories you produce, they need to manually access them.

Completely different apps and sites have other ways of displaying new story notifications; as an example, Instagram has icons of users who have created stories on the highest, and users will faucet them to examine the stories.

Secondly, any stories you are doing create aren’t around forever! Only to 24 hours, the stories automatically delete themselves.

This is often what makes stories a bit a lot of distinctive than regular standing updates –their lack of length suggests that they match a distinction niche than traditional updates.

Evolution of Stories

Stories are nothing new social media however with 3 of the massive boys battling it out at the highest we tend to thought we might take a fast look into however Stories have evolved over the years. Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram all enable the user to post their stories however who was first?

1. Snapchat

The Stories format for sharing content was 1st introduced into the social media landscape by Snapchat in 2013 that permits users to make up chains of content that might be viewed a limitless quantity of times over a 24-hour amount.

At the time, most media shops treated the medium as a brand new kind of video selfie: it had been considered a neat format that was clearly personal in its presentation, however on the far side that, most critics felt love it was simply means|a method} to save lots of Snaps in an exceedingly a lot of permanent way.

Sound familiar? Snapchat engineered their entire platform around this idea and it had been Instagram and Facebook who set to adopt the thought.

2. Instagram

In 2016 Instagram launched their version of stories that borrowed heavily from Snapchat. Instagram Stories allowed users to own an area to be within the moment and a touch additional fun amidst their regular posting of extremely structured, edited and formed photos. All stories lasted 24-hours and were engineered of video and pictures.

Around this point, some brands had already begun to adopt the Stories feature approach to promoting, however, most of those tries were extremely ad-driven—short, intrusive spots that centred additional on a product than revealing one thing new concerning the complete itself. In 2012 Facebook purchased Instagram.

January 2017 Instagram declared that they had one hundred fifty million user posting stories daily and as a result of this the Instagram extended adverts for his or her Story users.

3. Whatsapp

In February 2017 Whatsapp (another Facebook company) launched standing that allowed for sharing of GIFS, Photos, and Videos for a 24-hour amount.

4. Facebook

Finally, in March 2017, Facebook launched stories within the main Facebook Mobile App. This allowed users to share videos and photos from Facebook’s new camera.

5. Messenger 

Finally, in March 2017, Facebook launched traveler Day that permits you to share videos and photos as and once happen throughout your day.

Later in Gregorian calendar month Facebook rebrand as “Messenger Stories” The electronic communication app permits you to play games, send cash to friends and currently transfer stories – these are photos, videos, and text telling the story of a happening, be it an evening out, a visit to the board game or a vacation abroad.

6. Youtube

Youtube, the undisputed king of video, And currently its youtube World Health Organization simply launched its own wrestle Stories with a brand new video format referred to as ‘Reels.’

Reels is accessible to any Youtuber World Health Organization has over 10,000 subscribers (now you have got even a lot of incentive to grow your channel!).

The thought behind Reels is to permit creators to share content while not having to make a full video. For several creators, making full videos will take weeks! You have got to set up, film, edit, refine, then publish. Such a big amount of creators solely post once or double per week at the most.

Reels takes the pressure off making good, long-form content. Rather than making 10-minute options, Reels are solely thirty seconds long.

Very similar to Instagram Stories and Snapchat, you’ll add text, filters, stickers, and music to create the video actually your own.

There is lots of information that proves that social media Stories square measure following massive issue for marketers. Here is a few of it that you simply ought to bear in mind of:

social-media-stories

(i) 57% Female, forty-eighth Males and sixty-one teenagers (18-24) within the U.S. use Snapchat Stories.

(ii) 52% Male and forty-third feminine within the U.S. use of Instagram Stories.

(iii) There’s a mean of thirty-five .5% active users worldwide sharing their Instagram.

(iv) 7% of Facebook’s users share their recordings through Facebook Stories.

There square measure 450M daily active users on Snapchat, Instagram Stories, and WhatsApp standing combined.

The most well-liked varieties of Stories for a whole on Instagram square measure Merchandise content, stories that offer associate degree “Inside Look” involving a Guest Takeover or showcasing a happening.

Additionally, social media Stories square measure growing in quality and then, new options square measure intercalary unendingly.

Recently, Snapchat proclaimed it’d “allow users to share Stories to their coupled social media accounts or through text or email with a link to a webpage wherever those that do not have the app will read the message.”

This is often expected to spark new growth within the Stories quality across platforms.

Ephemeral Content Marketing Strategies with Ephemeral Stories

Are you ready to jump in? Here are some creative ideas on how to get the most of the social media Stories (Ephemeral Stories) whether you are planning to create them for Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp or Snapchat to build your brand online.

social-media-stories-ephemeral-marketing-ephemeral-stories

1. Get Interactive

There are a variety of highlights you’ll be able to integrate into a story post to create them additional exciting and additionally engaging.

Besides tagging and @-mentioning others, Instagram has new options like polls and queries that you simply will augment a Story post. Raise followers to vote for his or her favourite or get them to send you a brief text reply to a matter.

You can conjointly tag stories with a location, repost alternative Instagram posts as a Story (which sends followers to it post if they swipe up), and obtain followers to send you an instantaneous message in response to a Story.

The latter could be a good way to solicit feedback from followers, and conjointly build your Stories additional interactive.

2. Add Links to Your Social Media Stories

Social media Stories aren’t solely concerning having fun. Marketers, naturally, even have to consider sales. The best thanks to increasing the traffic of your website and boost conversion rates are by adding a link to your Story.

Instagram and Snapchat enable users to introduce links in Stories, supplying you with the chance to market your merchandise, newsletters or alternative merchandise.

social-media-stories-links

 

An additional tip is to use an URL shortener like  Bit.ly or Capsulink for your links. That way, you may be able to access elaborate click analytics and measure the success of your content.

3. Take Advantage of Snapchat Geo-Filters

A Geo-Filter is associate degree overlay image that Snapchat users will place on their photos or videos taken at a selected location.

Victimization Geo-Filters is an efficient thanks to interacting with your audience and enhance their expertise along with your complete.

In addition, as user-generated photos and videos square measure shared online, it’s additionally a wonderful chance to spice up awareness of your complete.

Snapchat-Geofilters

One of the primary brands to use branded Geo-Filters was McDonald’s. They allowed users to feature a filter of a burger and fry graphic on their photos once they’re just about a McDonald’s building.

For instance, on Instagram Stories, some location searches have a story icon that permits users to look at recent stories that have used the actual location sticker. This is often an excellent thanks to facilitating your completely get discovered regionally.

4. Add mentions (@) for other brands and your fans 

Another attention-worthy feature of Instagram Stories is that the chance to say, alternative users.

For brands, this can be an excellent thanks to provides a shoutout to individual audience members for exploitation your complete, taking part during a contest or just thanking them for being a loyal fan.

The mention can produce a pop-up notification, showing the mentions to your followers. The person you’ve mentioned, in turn, can receive a notification.

Mentions-social-media-stories

Just like regular posts, you’ll be able to @-mention users in your Stories. Thus use it! A part of the facility of social media is creating connections and lavishing attention on others, and your followers can love being mentioned in your Stories.

5. Give the Live Video a Try When Creating Stories

A live broadcast will create your whole appear “more real” for the users. Live stories change users to examine, like, and comment in real-time.

This, in turn, creates a way of community and happiness. The live video format will increase the legitimacy of your messages and can bring the audience engagement to ensuring level.

social-media-stories-live-video

6. Invite Followers to Explore More with Clear Call-To-Actions

Adding a call-to-action (CTA) could be a good way to encourage your audience to try to do one thing when they need seeing your content.

Moreover, while not a particular CTA, your followers’ default reaction, presumably, is going to be to continue swiping to consequent post.

Consistent with Kissmetrics, CTAs among videos generated 380% a lot of leads than CTAs on a sidebar or web site.

Thus, if you employ Stories to prompt your followers to go to your web site or explore a brand new product, your sales ought to increase consequently.

7. Repost from Other Channels

As we have a tendency to mentioned, Stories tend to be terribly similar from social media network to network. Nothing is stopping you from cross-posting a Story you’ve created for Snapchat on Instagram, or vice-versa.

social-media-stories-cross-posting

Facebook even has constitutional Story sharing from Instagram, that makes cross-posting straightforward and painless.

It’s conjointly doable to save lots of a snapshot post as a video that you simply will then re-post on Instagram and Facebook. Therefore if you needed to share Stories between those sites, it’s conjointly straightforward.

Another advantage of reposting your content on alternative channels is that you simply square measure sure to maintain consistency in your posts from one network to a different.

Consistency is significant if you wish to create consumers’ trust.

8. Text-Only Stories

Instagram recently further the power to possess text-only Story posts. This is often an excellent thanks to integrating additional text content into a sequence of Story posts to assist tie them along or to inform a short story in words instead of footage.

Many brands using text-only Story posts with #hashtags and different links to assist propel a narrative forward, make a case for a brand new technique or teach followers one thing, and lots of different things.

9. Story Highlights

Did we say that Stories are ephemeral? This can be true, however, if you have got a specific Story that you simply wish to stay around for extended, currently you can!social-media-stories-highlights

Story highlights remain your profile as long as you wish, which supplies you a great deal of flexibility. Besides “pinning” a Story thus it doesn’t disappear once twenty-four hours, you’ll use Highlights to form a straightforward story.

You’ll in all probability wish to use this feature strategically, and not overwhelm your profile with a great deal of highlighted stories.

Whether it’s the flexibility to edit and manipulate pictures or letter of invitation to form a brand-related image or story, passing promoting ways to invite the user to act on a brand’s behalf.

Wrapping Up

Stories are still a comparatively new medium on social media, thus this is often the most effective time to start out capitalizing on all they provide.

Stories represent a brand new and exciting thanks to gift content, run selling, and advertising campaigns, and move together with your social media followers.

Whether you’re a tiny small business, a start-up, or a longtime complete, Stories ar fastly changing into the de-facto thanks to reaching your customers with quick, easily-digestible bits of content.

Stories will provide a nice twist to your selling methods providing new ways that to push flash sales, discount codes, gift exclusive content or produce publicity before the upcoming event.

Keep your eyes open and sit up so far with the most recent options and trends for Stories and make your brand stand out online.

How to Build a Successful Social Media Marketing Strategy?

Social media has become part of our lives. People spend a lot of time on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.

Social media sites have completely changed the way customer interacts with brands. No business can underestimate their power when it comes to building relationships, generating leads and sale of the product.

A good social media presence not only helps a business achieve its goals and objectives but also helps them build a strong relationship with their customers.

Social media marketing strategy is a guide to your actions on social media channels. It covers everything you want to do and hope to achieve the best from social media. So today we are going to discuss how to build a successful social media marketing strategy.

How to Build a Successful Social Media Marketing Strategy?

1. Audit Your Present Social Media Strategy

Image source-Pixabay
Social Media Audit

The first step towards building a successful social media strategy is to audit your present strategy. This will help you a lot in building your new strategy. Ask yourself the following questions:

  1. Which platforms have worked for you in past?
  2. Which platform has given you the highest engagement?
  3. What types of post are being liked by your audience?

The answers to these questions will help you understand what is working and what is not working for you. This will save you efforts and resources which you can utilize somewhere else.

2. Set Your Goals

Image Source - Pixabay
Set your goals

Goals play an important role in crafting a social media strategy. We can’t have a social media strategy if we don’t know what are the goals that we want to achieve. Goals are the roadmap to following a strategy. Whether your goal is to increase awareness of your brand, increase your blog subscribers, generate leads or increase sales. The goals you set should be SMART

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Attainable
  • Realistic/Relevant
  • Time-bound

Keep these points in mind while setting your goals and you will be one step closer to crafting your strategy.

3. Know Your Audience

Image source-Pixabay
Know your audience

Another thing you should do in order to build a successful social media strategy is to know who your audience is. Do research about your target audience.

Understand:

  1. Who they are?
  2. What they do?
  3. What are their interest and hobbies?
  4. Where they spend most of their time online?

This will help you in understanding your audience and help you to target them more efficiently.

4. Research About Your Competitor’s Strategy

Image source-Pixabay
Research About Your Competitors Strategy

Research about your competitor’s social media strategy. Understand what are they doing and how are they doing. Which platforms are they using? The type of posts they are posting and how frequently they are posting. This will help you understand what is working and what’s not working with your target audience. This will not only help you in targeting your audience more efficiently but will also save you a lot of money and resources too.

5. Select Your Platforms

Image source-Pixabay
Select your platforms

Once you have done all the above steps. You will have a lot of data & insights and the next thing you would do is select the platforms for your social media strategy. These must be selected very carefully as different platforms have different strengths and weakness. For example, pictures work best on Instagram and text posts work best on Facebook. Use all the data you gathered and select your platforms accordingly.

6. Create Content Calendar

Image source-Pixabay
Create Content Calendar

The next step in building your successful social media strategy is to create your content calendar. This will guide your efforts. The date and time when you will be posting, type of content you will be posting.

You can not have a great social media strategy if you don’t have a calendar. Build your calendar, set dates when you will be posting, what type of posts you will be posting, frequency of postings etc.

7. Evaluate & Refine Continuously

Image Source - Pixabay
Evaluate & Refine Continuously

Social media strategy is very important and must be evaluated and refined continuously. As you implement your strategy you will get lots of new data.

This will let you know whether your strategy is working as per your set goals or not and you can refine it accordingly. You might find that things you thought won’t work that good are actually delivering and things which you thought will deliver might be under delivering. Keep a check on your strategy and continuously refine it with the data you get.

Conclusion

Social media strategy is very important and must be defined carefully and then it should be constantly evaluated and refined as things which might work today might not work tomorrow. Keep the above points in your mind while developing it.

If you like this post leave your comments below. If you have any suggestion you can also tell me about that in the comments section too.

How Social Media Marketing is influencing the sports industry in India

There is a new wave of sports enthusiasm emerging in India. With the introduction of sports leagues like the Indian Premiere League, Indian Super League,Pro Kabaddi League,Indian Badminton League and in recent times the prestigious Under 17 Fifa World Cup being held in in our own back yard ,the future for sports in India looks bright.Due to this sudden surge in the popularity of these leagues and sporting events,Sports brands have realized that there is a huge market awaiting to be tapped in india not only for popular sports like cricket but also sports about which no one was talking about 4 years ago like Kabaddi,Football,Badminton,Hockey etc.

It used to be a challenge for a marketeer to reach a million people with the same interests ,but in today’s time a Mumbai Indians fan sitting in London can be influenced by the advertisements about their team being made in India. This has all been possible because of the popularity of Social Media marketing .Therefore in this post I will be highlighting how social media platforms like Facebook,Twitter,Instagram,Pinterest etc are influencing Sports brand and institutes in India.

1.Engagement on Media Platforms

A study conducted found that 83% of fans, while watching sports on TV , constantly access their social media and 63% access social media while watching a game,sitting at the stadium.This trend has been recognized by sports brands and have now started coming up with different strategies to engage their fans as well as promote themselves.This results in increase in traffic on the sports brands site as well as increase in the awareness about the sport in general.

For example: Pro kabaddi league team Puneri Paltan has almost a million followers .This gives the team a platform to interact with their fans,Sell merchandise,Create campaigns to engage furthermore with potential new fans thus increase their Market.

2.Blogs

Blogging has been be a great way in which clubs and teams can interact with their supporters on a personal level and reach out to more communities and sports enthusiasts .This can be done by allowing supporters and fans to write about their experiences. They can engage with bloggers, by sharing the latest happenings of the club, who can then get it out to their community of followers. This is strategy being used by ISL teams such as Bengaluru FC and Athletico de Kolkata ,to name a few,to garner more online coverage and promote their Sports team/Brand.

3. SEO for Sports Brands

SEO or “Search Engine Optimization” is the process of getting free ,organic,natural or editorial traffic onto a site from the search results on a search engine.To increase exposure and increase traffic on the website sports teams in india have started working on this,because this social media strategy is used to improve the rankings on the search engine results page. Teams succeeding in this make sure that their site link is easily accessible to the person actively searching for them and beat competition by being displayed higher on the google search page results.

4. Data Analysis

In today’s age of big data,marketeers and management are changing their approach when it comes to forming strategies.Social media platforms allow marketers to analyse the patterns which are trending thus making it easier for the Team to have a good idea of what their market segment consists of,their behavioral cycles and what strategies can be used to further engage and interact with them.

5. Content Driven Market

Photos,Videos,Posts,advertisements almost anything today can be shared through social media platform. Sports teams and brands have now realized the importance of good,easy to the eye,catchy content and how it has a huge influence on their market. People like to engage on social media by sharing content that can garner many “likes and shares”,therefore we see an increase in the quality and quantity of the content being shared by teams in order to increase engagement and increase their market share.

6. Increase in Revenue

All the above mentioned points lead to one conclusion which is “Increase in Revenue”. Since the sports team are increasing their popularity through engagement and increasing their market share , people are ready to book tickets to see their favorite team play,they buy merchandise to show support for their team,they take part in team events and share it through social media which all leads to an increase in sales therefore increasing their revenue.

 

In the end i would like to conclude this article by saying that their are more than 323 million people India using the internet and social media marketers in the sports industry should look at this as an opportunity.The future for digital marketing certainly looks attractive.

 

 

11 Effective Instagram Marketing Strategies For Beginners

11 Effective Instagram Marketing Strategies For Beginners

Instagram logo

Instagram boasts of a number of 800 million monthly active users, as of September 2017, up from 90 million in January 2013. This web-based photo-sharing mobile app is one of the most popular social networks all over the world, undoubtedly.

It possesses a huge capability for any business, as the target audience you’re trying to reach out could easily be available on this platform. Instagram happens to remain more popular with teens and youngsters, where about 40% of the global user-base is between 16 and 24 years old.

So what’s your killer strategy for Instagram? Following is a beginner’s guide for you to get going.

1) Keyword-focused profile name:

A profitable and useful tip would be changing your profile name to the keyword that you’re focusing on, related to your business/niche. It means, optimizing your account bio name for search queries.

Keywords

It is mainly because the Instagram algorithm will consider your username and actual name as the only fields that will get importance in search queries.

2) Fascinating emoticons:

You can add ’emojis’ as a bullet list in the ‘bio’ area to accentuate different components of your business, which further tells your followers about the niche that you’re talking about. Similarly, a short phrase/sentence after the emojis is able to draw much of the required attention from visitors.

Emojis

It also boosts the visual appeal of your profile to a certain extent. The bottom-line is to try displaying your creative and fun side more, instead of focussing only on formal sentences.

3) ‘About’ your profile:

As the total space in the ‘Bio’ portion is limited, owing to its 150 characters limit, choose to write constructively and precisely. Remember – ‘The first impression is the last impression’. Incorporating peculiar hobbies, interests or skills in your bio is another good trick.

When you determine the list of keywords to highlight in your bio, focus on the central importance or specific needs of your target audience. So that way, when someone sees your account name or even visits your account, he gets a fair idea of what content you’re offering and what topic it is basically about.

Having said that, referring your email address also gives you an advantage. Since it drives your followers to get in touch with you in a professional manner if required (in case the ‘comments mention’ or ‘direct message’ are missed out in the first place).

Instagram Bio example

4) The inclusion of hyperlinks:

The ‘Bio’ region is the only place on Instagram where a clickable link can be posted since there is no provision for including links in the comments section or photo captions. Even if we try to write a link in a comment or caption, it won’t be clickable. Redirecting the users to your main account’s ‘bio’ field by asking them to do so in photo captions would be advised.

You should use your ‘bio’ for indicating your website link or any landing page/capture page, or a specific product along with it’s a short description or a definite ‘Call To Action’ (CTA) button. This also helps new viewers getting identified with your business and what it offers about.

5) Care for right content:

Though it is rightly said that “Content is the King”, but on a visual platform like Instagram, one needs to check the kind of content that he plans to upload. Publishing breathtaking raw images, editing various fun-filled digital filters for photos, posting one-minute looped videos, adding locations through geotagged photographs are some of the top features that this service provides to its users.

Content is King

It would be wise to appeal more to viewers, rather than just focussing on writing. Even while writing the captions, try using succinct sentences, that resonate well with your audience. All this will be crucial in deciding whether users will follow your profile and would engage with your content or not.

6) Instagram ‘stories’:

‘Story’ section on Instagram is very powerful because it easily allows mentioning clickable ‘@’ symbol (followed by your Instagram name) to be put inside photos or short videos and get the user redirected back to your main account. Your followers have the option to replay the ‘stories’, as this feature lasts for next 24 hours and it disappears later.

Instagram LIVE

Instagram introduced this feature in August 2016.

7) ‘Live’ broadcast:

Just like the case of ‘stories’, similar is the case with Instagram ‘Live-video’ option. It can be added to your Instagram story by hitting the ‘share’ button after it has ended. Since it doesn’t have any time limitation, it’s an exceptional method to discuss your business, let people know why they should visit your account, build your audience and drive high user-engagement.

Instagram introduced this functionality in November 2016.

8) Relevant hashtags:

You can research the top hashtags that are in sync with the post that you publish on Instagram. This encourages to link up the subject/theme of the photos or videos to Instagram’s other content appearing on the same topic. Instead of using the same types of hashtags in every other post, try 4-5 group sets of different hashtags, typically 15-20 hashtags in each group.

Hashtags

When your followers get into the habit of posting with your brand hashtag, it definitely steers good amount of engagement on your posts.

9) More videos than images:

Videos for Instagram
Instead of posting only images, ‘videos’ are a great means of storytelling. So one option could be posting pre-recorded videos on Instagram (which are edited and have a logo of your business) on a regular basis on Instagram, irrespective of whether you possess a business of your own or not.

10) Stay responsive and authentic:

Responding on Instagram
Responding to your followers’ comments and following some of the important ones back is equally important on Instagram. Big brands position themselves as ‘engaging’ by appreciating present-day followers or attracting new ones by tapping on user-generated content.

11) A/B testing:

Lastly, never forget to track the efficacy of your strategies by experimenting with your available options. If a particular post on a particular day at a particular time doesn’t drive you a good number of user-engagement on Instagram, don’t hesitate to split-test by trying out multiple possibilities. It principally includes aspects like frequency of posts, the time of day that you post, popular hashtags, off-beat captions, and calls-to-action.

Owing to all these phenomenal reasons listed above, Instagram can surely be labeled as a profitable social media marketing tool. By following the above tips, one can easily transform from an ‘Insta-amateur’ to an ‘Insta-pro’.

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Reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instagram

LinkedIn VS Facebook- From A Marketer’s Perspective

With the increasing number of social media platforms, as a marketer, we need to make a crucial choice of focusing our social media efforts on a limited number of platforms. This decision is vital to the existence of a brand and can make or break it as well.

In this blog post, we will discuss the difference between LinkedIn and Facebook and which platform will best help you achieve your goals and objectives.

A brief introduction of our two contestants for today:-

Facebook– People tend to spend more time on Facebook than on LinkedIn for the simple reason that it is perceived as a more ‘fun’ platform where friends are able to get together and share their thoughts and opinions over a casual post like a meme or joke. Facebook is clearly in the quantity win with over 2.07 billion monthly active users.

LinkedIn– LinkedIn, however, is a more serious platform where users log in for a specific purpose, be it recruitment, job hunting, connecting with colleagues or sharing their professional expertise on specific industry related topics. LinkedIn is far behind Facebook when it comes to the numbers game, with around 467 million members.

1. Audience Profile

Facebook– General consumers. Facebook is primarily a platform where friends and family get together to de-stress or connect with known persons. Marketers on Facebook need to keep their audience interests in mind, keeping the tone light and friendly. Create content which your audience would like to consume.

LinkedIn– Companies/organizations/businesses. LinkedIn allows users to create a professional, job-oriented profile, offering a variety of ways for a marketer to target based on seniority, job function, industry and more. Marketers on LinkedIn should keep the tone serious and professional, industry-specific and to the point. LinkedIn is primarily used by B2B businesses to connect with users in the same industry segment.

2. Analytics-

Facebook- Facebook provides real-time, built-in reports consisting data of the type of audience, their country of origin, and others ranging from likes, reach, visits, posts, people, events, videos, messages to a lot more. This data is very useful to a marketer as their job hardly ends after an advertising campaign is created. They constantly need to optimize it to achieve the best results at the lowest cost.

LinkedIn- LinkedIn does not provide extensive insights on page performance limiting to updates, interactions, clicks, impressions, reach, followers and visitors. This makes it difficult for a marketer to analyze and extract data on the performance of a LinkedIn campaign. 

3. Cost-

Facebook- Facebook gives the option to adjust how much you’re willing to pay per day (starting at Rs.40 per day), which corresponds to the number of users you reach out to. Overall, Facebook is a much cheaper option, with the average CPC of Rs. 5, being the lowest across all social media platforms. As a marketer, a lower cost is of vital importance in determining the success of an advertising campaign  

LinkedIn- LinkedIn offers a specific way to reach an audience but the cost is higher than Facebook’s. LinkedIn is said to be one of the most expensive advertising platforms in terms of average CPC of Rs.150. The minimum amount that LinkedIn will generally require you to allot for your CPC and CPM bids is Rs.100 (for either). And the minimum budget generally allotted by LinkedIn for your daily budget is Rs.500. The huge difference in cost from that of Facebook, shy away many marketers, making LinkedIn a secondary consideration. That being said, there a number of successfully launched campaigns on LinkedIn as well,  like the Volkswagen Campaign, where the results were far greater than the initial cost.

4. Branding-

Facebook- On Facebook there is a strong distinction between a user’s personal profile and a brand’s page. The content posted on a personal profile and a company’s page is completely different and unrelated. A marketer must build his company’s brand and his personal brand separately and simultaneously.

LinkedIn- On LinkedIn there is no distinction between personal and professional branding as it seamlessly integrates with each other in the form of a common profile. Through a user’s profile, it enables the audience to connect with the brand. Vice-versa if a brand posts valuable content then the employees of the brand are known as well. A marketer needs to be able to sell himself as well as his company through the use of one single profile.

5. Thought Leadership-

Facebook- Facebook is not a platform where users generally express their professional opinion but rather a light and casual conversation amongst friends. Marketers cannot hope to get their audience to pour out their expertise and insights into their industry or job.

LinkedIn- LinkedIn is the primary platform where users come together to influence others through their professional opinions. The most common place of thought leaders is LinkedIn groups where experts speak about their opinions with respect to a specific industry.

6. Marketing Objectives-

Facebook- As a marketer, Facebook provides a number of opportunities to achieve objectives such as Awareness, Consideration and Conversion but is more suitable for Direct Sales and Traffic. The level and detail of targeting on Facebook is world’s apart that of all other social media platforms, making it ideal for marketers to grow their brand.

LinkedIn- As a marketer, LinkedIn cannot be used to directly sell to your industrial buyers as users on LinkedIn login for their own personal and professional development rather than to outright buy a product or service. It will lead to a very low conversion rate and more often than not, a poor brand image.

Conclusion-

The controversy of which platform is better for marketing has been chewed over and over in the last years by marketers, entrepreneurs and bloggers.

Lately, Facebook is focusing on improving their paid marketing campaigns and continue to develop new and innovative features appealing to B2B companies and marketers alike, in a strive to reach above LinkedIn in the B2B space.

Having a deep understanding of who you are marketing to (your buyer personas) and how they use these platforms at each stage of the buyer’s journey, will enable you to become more customer-centric in your marketing.

Instead of focusing on which platform is better for your marketing strategy, simply being aware of how and when to use each on the potential journey your prospects go through before they decide to buy from you can make a dramatic shift in your marketing strategy.

 

To know more about effective ways to maximize Facebook conversions, check out ‘8 Types Of Facebook Content To Drive Engagement‘.

Image Source- Hootsuite, Pear Analytics, Pinterest, Social Media Examiner.

Facebook Vs Instagram which is best for marketing brands

                                     

Best place to do Marketing on Social Media

  • Instagram for better engagement: As compare to Facebook, Instagram has better engagement. The number of people post pictures and videos more than Facebook. In a data it was revealed that Instagram attracts more likes and comments per post than Facebook. This was especially true for small brands, and those food, fashion, travels. This shows the engagement of people is high on Instagram than on Facebook.

    average likes per post facebook instagram

  • Facebook for higher visibility and reach: When it comes to reach, Facebook has authority over Instagram. It does have only the larger user base, but also it has acceptance across most age groups. So you will have a better chance at boosting visibility using this platform. This is true if you are not targeting a specific age group.
  • Instagram is to target younger audience: Instagram appeal to younger audience. This is a best platform to target younger audience. Many brands who has its customer the younger audience target them on Instagram. A brand Harley Davidson target the younger audience that was only for men between the age group of 18-35 targeted them on Instagram and they targeted 1.4 million men in this age group in just three weeks.

  • Facebook for distributing information: It is a best place to distribute information than Instagram. You have limits on Instagram. Facebook gives you freedom to share unlimited links to your blogs and products pages. So if your objective is to promote your blog and distribute informational posts, it would be better option than Instagram.

Conclusion:- Choosing the right platform depends on what you are looking for. You have to look upon your goals and what you want to achieve from this campaign. Benefits of both the social media, Facebook and Instagram is highly subjective in nature. Different business and different audience means that what work better for you may not work well for another business. Different business have different target audience so they should choose their social media platform where they find their customers active. According to me, the best place for marketers to market their brand is Instagram because their you will find the huge audience to target. You can easily promote your business and engage with the audience.

How Apple created and captured marketing through Social Media

Apple is a American Multinational Technology Company that designs, develops and sells consumer electronic, computer softwares and online services. Apple’s first slogan, “Byte into an Apple” and the slogan “Think Different” was used in advertising campaigns. 

Apple created and captured market through Social Media:

Apple used seven market strategies to capture the market those are:

  1. Rethink the need of Advertisement: It is necessary to invest more on ads by google ans facebook when you want to increse your sales revenue. But apple doesn’t think that way, they have completely diffrent strategies:                                                                                                                                                             a. product placement through celebreties and in popular show.                                                                   b. the buzz created by positive reviews in media.                                                               Apple another strategy was to give free trails to the customers. They give free trails in exchange of positive testimonials.
  2. Avoid Price wars by Emphasing your Unique Value Propostion: Apple focuses on their UVP (unique value proposition), which is beautiful design that works right out of the box with ever-smaller packaging. It’s a marketing strategy that gets juice throughout social media and is very much a competitive advantage for Apple and its market share.How can Apple keep its fans with a pricing strategy so much higher than the competition?It’s because Apple doesn’t view PCs as competition. Where others focus on a single killer feature through a variety of content marketing, Apple focuses on the entire product, and it shows. Apple doesn’t focuses on price rather you are ready to pay something more tahn paying more in the other brand product.
  3. Keep your marketing and product simple: Apple understands that technology consumers often get overwhelmed. Overwhelm can create a confusion in a marketing mix. Apple helps reduce that consumer confusion by simplifying their web and sales copy. They completely eschew jargon or industry terms. Instead, they use simple, direct words and they continually stress the benefits that consumers absolutely need and will be thrilled by. This is part of their brilliance in content marketing; high tech without high tech terms.This approach doesn’t confuse their customers with too much information. As Leonardo da Vinci said, Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.Apple keeps it simple and their customers love it giving them a loyalty with market share that is unprecedented. Apple ads and marketing strategy doesn’t convey the specifications and features of the product rather than it focuses on how the product is useful and how it can change your living standard. Even the products themselves are kept sleek and minimal, with simple color schemes and clean, uncluttered design. The names are short and easy to remember, including the “app store” that has made third party partners huge successes.
  4. Know your audience and talk to them in their language: Apple mention their product specification and technical details of the product on therir websites. They doesn’t use the terms which the customers cannot understand, in their websites you wil find the words like edge-to-edge glass, retina display and LED backlight. Apple knows its customers and has developed loyalty in the market share. They know their customers and know the language in which they have to talk to their customers and make them comfortable instead of confusing them.
  5. Design a better customer experience: When a Apple customer buy a product they upload video in which they unwrap their new apple product which is called unboxing. Apple has created a customer experience that goes far beyond the actual purchase in a retail store. They no longer even need to be in charge of a huge part of their content marketing since their target market is doing it for them.
  6. Aim to your prospects’ Emotions: Emotional connections are the key to successful marketing strategies. It’s what makes certain stories, videos, and memes go viral. Think back to the first ads for the iPad, after its buzzy launch in 2010 and how simple their content marketing was.Remember those images of people relaxing in the living room with the strange new gadget? They looked happy and comfortable.They weren’t talking about display dimensions or processing power. They were just enjoying their iPads.Those ads, as with all of Apple’s marketing, hit their consumers where they really live – not in the pocketbook but in their hearts.
  7. Build a Community of users or customers: Apple has built one of the most hardcore fan bases for any brand, anywhere in the world. Apple has created a brand personality and culture that’s cool, fun, and friendly — the opposite of some of its competitors. Apple’s marketing strategies include making customers want to belong to that community. Their market share shows just how successful they have been. The first and most critical step to take in building a strong, vibrant and engaged community of users is to get crystal-clear on your brand values and personality. You have to create a vivid and accurate picture of your brand in your own mind first — your brand’s core message, its deeply-held values, its personality and what it stands for above all else.Then, your next step is to make sure that your pages, marketing copy and content all express those values and that personality. Every aspect of your website should be consistent with those words you chose to describe your brand, from graphics to fonts to color scheme.Last, but not least, show your readers and users you value them, as well as their opinionsLet them know that you’re deeply interested in them with your content.

    How can you do this effectively on the web? You can try any or all of the following tips to start with:

    •  Ask open-ended questions in your content.
    •  Respond to cooment on your blog posts– carry on a conversation.
    •  Try to initiate conversations with your users/readers on social media.
    •  Create a referral reward program for customers who refer other new customers.
    •  Reach out to customers with email.

    CONCLUSION: Apple as a brand take care about every single things through which they have a hold in the market. Apple on social media that is on twitter and Facebook without any advertisement has  captured the market. Apple joined Instagram where he has posted pictures shot by their product telling about the features of the product.

Apple on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Apple ( 1.5 million)

The twitter page of Apple has no tweet still have so many followers.

Apple on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/apple/?ref=br_tf

Highlights info row image
10,935,466 people like this
Highlights info row image
11,039,250 people follow this
This is how the facebook page of Apple looks. It has no posts still customers are so loyal to this brand that it has so many who likes and follow this page.
  • 96 posts
  • 3.2m followers

This is the Instagram page of Apple where they shows the shot on their Iphones and they also generate backlinks by tagging the person.