As much as we hate (or love) to admit it, social media has become a core part of our lives, and as a result, our marketing strategies. We’ve learned to fine-tune our skills and become pros at figuring it all out but we all dread the day when we aren’t sure what comes next. One strategy for solving this? A social media calendar. What is a Social Media Calendar and Why is it Important? A social media calendar helps you maximize your marketing efforts by outlining your content strategy […]
Video is, without a doubt, the most preferred content format on social media amongst Gen Z audiences who flock to the big three social video channels (YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok) to engage with influencers, brands, entertainment, news, and millions of hours of all sorts of random nonsense. So, let’s cut to the chase. If you are not producing video content, you are unlikely to be found by a generation totally absorbed by video content consumed on their mobile devices. Online streaming platforms have democratized video, making it accessible […]
Social media is a powerful tool that pretty much everyone has jumped on, especially in the past few years. It helps you nurture current customers and generate leads, all while doing so in a way that is fun and engaging. This is a versatile way of marketing and by the time you’re done reading this blog, you’ll know exactly why it’s one of the most valuable digital channels. Why Use Social Media for Business? Social media is trending up when it comes to growth. More and more people are […]
Like other forms of social media, TikTok is a useful way to connect with your audience and potential customers. This is a platform that is diverse, authentic, and fun. People use it for entertainment, to learn new things, and even discover products. TikToks are so influential these days that you’ll see them bleed over to other platforms like Instagram and Facebook. If you’re new to creating TikToks or looking for additional ways to increase your views, continue reading for some tips to boost your discoverability. Promoting TikTok Videos We’re […]
There’s been no shortage of social and content topics to touch on this year as we continue to navigate the world of platform algorithms, marketing strategies, and creative social trends. What’s a December without your tried, true, and entertaining, year-end recap? While there is plenty to reminisce on, we’d like to highlight a few of the favorite ideas we tapped into this year. Let’s Go Back to the Beginning: Marketing 101 Marketing has been around and evolving for many generations and we took the time to dive into the […]
Clients constantly tell me that they “don’t get” social media. That’s a shame because it really isn’t rocket science. Social media is just an extension of something we do everyday. When we think of social media as a conversation, it’s something we can all understand. Like all good conversations, social media campaigns should ask questions, offer advice, and seek to resolve problems. As a conversation about your business, there is room for social media across the entire customer journey. What is the Customer Journey? We’ve talked about the […]
By this point, we all know that there’s more to social media than following up on trends and creating the most exciting content. Instead, social media is an environment for people to connect, learn, and grow together. Most importantly, it’s a space where all people should be able to do so. Why Accessibility Matters Accessibility hasn’t always been at the forefront of marketing practices, especially when the internet and social media were still new concepts for everyone. Nowadays, billions of people are active internet users with the same amount […]
There can be a lot of pressure and expectations when it comes to the holidays — not just for consumers looking to top off their year with a perfect bow, but also for companies who are in a mad dash to close out their quarters on a positive note and cater to the needs of their customers. Social media has become critical during the holiday season not just for sharing news about your brand but also for creating a wonderland-like experience for customers that balances product or service […]
Social media is the ultimate channel for communication these days. In an age that’s dominated by packed schedules and juggling tasks, social media has become the quicker than quick way of absorbing and sharing information. Sure, we’re still using texts and even emails or phone calls to keep in touch with our social circle but how many of you are also chatting in your Instagram inbox, tagging friends on funny Facebook posts, doling out quick reactions through IG stories, or mentioning your friends in Twitter threads? If you’re like […]
If you really break down how B2B and B2C marketing works, the end goal is the same. It seems like the marketing world these days tries to separate the two. Yes, there are distinctions like who’s involved with the purchase decision, but at the beginning and end of the sales funnel, you are still working to get someone interested enough to explore your brand and, ultimately, convert. In that same breath, we should emphasize that social media marketing should be just as important to B2B marketers as it is […]
If your social media campaigns lack engagement, it may be time to inject a little personality into your brand and invest in influencer marketing. Influencer marketing can be defined as a strategy primarily played out on social media channels. It typically involves brand mentions, endorsements and product placement from individuals who have an expert level of knowledge or wide sphere of influence across their field of interest. It would be a mistake to dismiss the potential of influencer marketing as something that is only of interest to Gen […]
Let’s go back to those marketing 101 courses that break down the details of how the world of selling works. There’s the traditional path for marketing (TV, radio, direct mail, etc.) and now, thanks to the internet, there is also a digital path (email, SMS, social media, etc.). And, as we’ve all seen, digital is quickly becoming the dominant form of marketing especially when it comes to social media advertising. Social media is everywhere and has the potential to reach nearly everyone. Just take my 80 year old grandmother […]
The world of Facebook Ads revolves around a few distinct ideas—the first being your objective, the second being your ad format, and the third being your targeting options. While many can get these mixed up, understanding the purpose of each of these will help you understand how Facebook Ads work and how to sort through the many different types to create an effective engagement tool. Facebook Ad Objectives The ad objectives refer to your goals as a business owner. There are 15 objectives that business owners can choose from […]
Learning the intricacies of Facebook is not something you can master overnight, especially when there are so many factors involved in making a post great in the eyes of your users, and a different set of factors that make it great in the eyes of Facebook’s algorithm. Luckily, the objective is similar with both, and that’s engagement. Getting a feel for engaging content while figuring out the tips and tricks of Facebook from its tools to its algorithms may be a bit of a learning curve, but it is […]
We’d all love for our Facebook posts to work exactly like we have in mind, showing up exactly when and where we want them to and to the exact (and large) audience we are targeting. Unfortunately for us marketers, Facebook has a mind of its own and we are left to keep up where we can. To effectively manage our social campaigns on this platform, we need to learn how to think like Facebook. This means understanding what works and what doesn’t, and what that looks like to the […]
Social media has driven the way society interacts with one another. This is a highly personalized world of its own which means making a post is all you have to do to get involved, right? Wrong. Just like how we as marketers take the time to craft our email personalization and customer experience skills, social media personalization requires the same effort and innovation. Social media users want to be treated like the individuals they are and companies that take the extra steps to create these personalized experiences can […]
If you boil a great marketer down to their essence, you’ll find a storyteller. They share ideas, entertain and inform, as a way to guide them down a specific path towards a satisfactory conclusion. There are many ways a marketer can tell a story. Some create exquisitely crafted and highly complex content-led marketing workflows that would put Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace to shame. Others produce content that has more in common with Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts comic strip. As a marketing format, Instagram Stories might have more in common […]
When Instagram first rolled out their new Instagram Stories feature in 2016, many people (myself included) were very skeptical. These short videos seemed like a copycat version of what younger generations were already posting on Snapchat, the app everyone used for sharing snippets of their life. In addition, the added idea of saving them as “highlights” on a feed seemed like a desperate attempt to differentiate themselves from the popular competitor platform. I remember actively refraining from using this feature at the time to avoid falling prey to another social […]
Whether you use social media or not, there’s a good chance your target audience does and would be delighted to see you slide into their view. But don’t just go posting away here, there and everywhere. Learning where, when and how often to post can be the difference in being annoying or showing up at the right time and place. Before determining the frequency, you’ll need to identify the location or the social media platform on which your audience will most likely interact. And, to do this, you’ll need to […]
“Social media has truly caused a massive shift in the world of marketing.” I’m sure you’ve heard this same sentiment repeated a thousand different ways, so much so that you may even be tired of it. However, it’s stuck around because it still rings true: social media has become a staple of today’s marketing landscape and forever changed the way we communicate with our audiences. It’s given a voice to obscure brands, revolutionized the power held by consumers, and changed forever the way that marketers interact with and gather data […]
For the past several years, the concept of increasing consumer data privacy has been gaining momentum and has been slowly impacting how marketers use your data. GDPR and CCPA regulations have driven awareness of this movement, and big data collection companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple have been shifting to meet the increasing demand for more data privacy. Last summer, Apple made the announcement that their iOS 14 update would include significant privacy updates that will affect all apps. Starting this month, these privacy updates (called App Tracking Transparency) will […]
Acquiring leads can be difficult. Getting the right leads can be costly. And, getting them to come to you can be a slow process. So, go where they lead you. Go to YouTube. Google has created a new feature for you to get leads while they are doing what they love—watching videos. This new feature is called YouTube lead forms. One of the great things about these lead forms is that the user doesn’t have to leave the video they are watching to visit your site or another landing […]
It’s hard to comprehend how small paid media ads used to be. My earliest working memories involve having to abbreviate company names to fit into a headline and split 70 characters evenly across two description fields with 35-character limits on some platform called Overture. The first Facebook ads I created had limited text and imagery so small you could barely make out what the product was (which didn’t stop me from buying a Denny Crane bobblehead from an ad). Today, ad copy character limits have increased dramatically, allowing media […]
If you were of recent belief that social media is not the right platform for you or your demographic but are now seeking advice on what to do, and most importantly what not to do, then congrats! You’ve taken the right first step by seeking out advice on possible social media marketing mistakes. Let’s dive right in with the first Oops, which you’ve already overcome—thinking social media is not the right platform for you. This is actually a common misconception—thinking social media is only for Generation X. Based […]
Since the early 2000’s, social media has been a phenomenon that has been a major driving force for the rapid growth of internet adoption in the United States and around the world. As more people have flocked to social media, brands have constantly struggled with how to engage their customers without pushing them away. In this blog post, I will cover some high-level points on how to get started (or improve) your business’s utilization and engagement on social media. In future blog posts, we will cover more specific planning tools […]
For those of you still lamenting the retirement of the Products and Services tab from LinkedIn Business Pages in 2014, we have good news for you! LinkedIn is rolling out a new feature called Product Pages (and will soon be rolling out another feature called a Services Showcase Module, which you can learn more about here.). Some of you may already see the new Products tab on your company’s page in the Page Admin View, but if not, don’t panic—it isn’t available to everyone just yet. We’ve scoured the internet and can’t seem to find a timeline for when […]
What is LinkedIn Sales Navigator? LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a sales management tool designed specifically for lead generation and sales prospecting on the LinkedIn platform. Sales Navigator is available in three different versions, each with varying features, but each version allows users to search for, connect with, and save leads within their LinkedIn account while also offering integration with different CRM programs. Why You Should Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator If you have a sales team, you probably already have multiple tools and technologies that your team uses every day. 74% of B2B sales teams say that LinkedIn products top their list of sales intelligence tools (LinkedIn). […]