4 Ways Marketers Can Use Facebook Hashtags

Have you started using Facebook hashtags for your business?

Are you wondering how to best use a Facebook hashtag?

In this article, I’ll reveal four important benefits of using hashtags on Facebook.

I’ll also explore important considerations when putting together your hashtag strategy.

Why Facebook Hashtags?

As you’ve undoubtedly seen, hashtags are now clickable and useable on Facebook.

Using a hashtag # (or pound symbol) in front of a word or phrase turns the word into a clickable link.

When you click on the link, you’ll see a feed of public posts (or posts that are visible to you due to a friend relationship on Facebook) that include that hashtag.

Here’s how you can use Facebook hashtags:

#1: Expand Your Reach

As hashtags gain momentum on Facebook (they’ve been in use on other platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Google+), they’ll help you expand your reach to people who are looking at posts in your topic.

Hashtags have been a great way to help people interested in niche topics find each other and find the conversation.

The #WalkingDead hashtag connects people interested in this show.

By including a hashtag in your post, you can possibly get in front of people who may not have seen your post otherwise.  But you’ll have to monitor this in your Facebook Insights.  Make sure you watch your Reach and Engagement Numbers to see if your hashtags are making a difference in your posts.


Click the Reach column in your Facebook insights to see which posts are getting the highest reach.

#2: Amplify Your Brand

Branding your Facebook Page with your own special hashtag can help an idea or new product catch on.  By branding all your posts about a new product, you can break this information out into a separate stream of information and give people an easy way to share information about that product or idea.

Think carefully about what types of things others would also be interested in sharing.  If the posts are too promotional and not valuable, you may have a hard time getting people to share them with their friends.


Home Depot uses #HDHacks to share fun ideas with their audience.

#3: Cross Social Platforms

If you’ve already been using hashtags in your Twitter, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn or Pinterest posts, it’s now more natural to use hashtags in Facebook.  You can save some time by being able to post the same content across several platforms.

While I don’t recommend doing this for every post in Facebook (some people are annoyed by the hashtags entering into the Facebook realm) it does work to your benefit to occasionally cross platforms with a single post.  Plus many people have already been doing this with their own posts from Twitter and now the hashtags are more searchable in Facebook.


The Starbucks #treatreceipt hashtag has been in use on Twitter in the past and is now searchable on Facebook too.

#4: Promote Specials and Events

You can use a special hashtag in your posts to promote something special.  For example, this can work really well for a #contest.


Use a specially branded hashtag to help promote a contest across several platforms.

Realize that you can’t have people enter your contest on Facebook by including your branded hashtag like you can on Pinterest, Instagram or Twitter.  Because of Facebook contest promotional rules, you can help people find the content across platforms by including the hashtag in your Facebook posts.

If you know some popular hashtags that fit your marketing goals—such as offering a special coupon or deal—then you can include them in your post as well.  I don’t recommend stuffing your posts with tons of hashtags that aren’t relevant because that doesn’t look good and may turn off some of your fans, but a few relevant hashtags are OK.

You can also attach a hashtag at the end of your post that's relevant to people looking for special deals such as #backtoschooldeals.

Important Considerations When Using Facebook Hashtags

1.  Privacy settings are still in effect.

If you’re using hashtags on posts on your personal profile, they’ll still have the privacy settings set up according to how you control your privacy on your profile.  Just because you use a hashtag doesn’t make that post suddenly public.  If you add a hashtag to a post that you only share with a certain group of your friends, only that group will be able to see that post.


Your privacy settings are still in effect even when you add a hashtag to your post.

2.  Hashtags have to be all one word.

If you wanted to use #Facebook Marketing as your hashtag, it will need to be posted as #FacebookMarketing or #facebookmarketing (see the next tip).

3.  Capitalization doesn’t matter.

You can choose whatever capitalization you want in the words themselves and the hashtags will show the same results.  #FacebookMarketing and #facebookmarketing show the same search results.

4.  You can make up whatever hashtags you want.

There’s no “hashtag registration” or “database of approved hashtags”, you can make up whatever hashtags you want to use.  Consider your goals.  If you want to brand your own hashtags, you can, but make them short and easy to use and understand.

A hashtag that’s overly complex or hard to read won’t get much traction.  If you’re abbreviating, make sure it’s clear what point you’re going for – a hashtag like #IKPMTTTRWD won’t mean much to many people.

5.  Research your hashtag before you use it.

There have been some recent embarrassing cases of brands using a hashtag that’s already in use for an entirely different purpose that doesn’t align with their company message at all.  Take a look at the social sites where hashtags are in use such as Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram and Google+ and see if your hashtag is already being used by people.

6.  You can easily look for hashtags on Facebook by URL.

Easily search for hashtags or bookmark their results by using the URL:  www.facebook.com/hashtag/ then just include your keyword on the end.

For example https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/FacebookMarketing shows you the results of posts that include #facebookmarketing or #FacebookMarketing (or any alternate capitalizations).

Conclusion

I strongly recommend you test out hashtags as part of your Facebook marketing strategy and measure your results.  Use them sparingly (not in every single post) and don’t over-stuff hashtags into your posts.

While some people may not be as excited about hashtags on Facebook, they’re firmly entrenched in other social sites and aren’t going away anytime soon.

How about you?  Have you been using hashtags in your posts?  Are you going to give them a try?  Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!




author: Andrea Vahl
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/facebook-hashtag-marketing/

5 Mobile Social Media Marketing Ideas to Grow Your Business

Your customers and prospects are using smart phones.

Have you figured out how to connect with them using mobile social media marketing techniques?

Mobile is not as difficult as it may seem, especially when you access it with the social media tools you’re already familiar with.

With that in mind, I’ll reveal 5 ways you can use social media to integrate mobile marketing into your business.

#1: Connect With Prospects On LinkedIn Mobile

The LinkedIn mobile app brings a streamlined version of the desktop site to your smartphone or other mobile device. You’ll have access to all the key LinkedIn features, including updates, your profile, messages and groups.


An example of the LinkedIn home screen on a smartphone.

From your LinkedIn home page, tap on your profile photo to access your profile screen to see who has viewed your profile recently. If someone has viewed your profile, it’s a good indication that they might be interested in hearing from you.

With the mobile app, you can reach out to them from your phone or tablet. Just tap on their profile photo and say hello to them via LinkedIn.

Allowing the app to send you push notifications is a great way to stay in touch with your LinkedIn connections, even when you’re away from your desktop computer.

#2: Build Your Brand on Instagram

Many people think of Instagram as nothing more than a photo-sharing app for personal use, but you can also use it to promote your corporate or personal brand.

In addition to sharing photos of his own travels, Dave Kerpen, author of Likeable Business and CEO of Likeable Media, uses Instagram to build brand awareness by posting pictures of the Likeable foam hand at baseball games around the country.


A picture of the Likeable foam hand from Dave Kerpen’s Instagram feed.
Shelly Kramer, founder of integrated marketing firm V3 uses humor to extend her brand’s personality when she shares Instagram photos with her clients and followers.


Shelly Kramer posted “More evidence of my really bad, terrible, horrible day.”

When you post images from your mobile device to Instagram it can help you form a strong connection with your audience and build a visual representation of your brand. Consider using similar tactics to promote your brand and build awareness through this popular social platform.

#3: Use Promoted Tweets to Target Mobile Users

Did you know that 55% of users who log into Twitter every month do so at least once using a mobile device? You can reach these people by using Promoted Tweets to display your tweet to users who access Twitter from a mobile device.

Sprint uses promoted Tweets to capture the attention of potential customers who are using Twitter from their smartphones with a tweet that offers $100 to people who switch to Sprint as their mobile carrier.


Sprint’s Promoted Tweet is surfaced only to users viewing Twitter on a mobile device.

Mobile targeting on Twitter will let you tailor tweets to appeal to prospects and customers who use smartphones. You’ll want to keep this tactic in mind as mobile usage continues to grow.

#4: Drive Traffic to Mobile Sites With Facebook’s Promoted Posts

Unlike Facebook Ads or Sponsored Stories, which display in the right sidebar, Promoted Posts are visible to mobile users because they display in the Facebook news feed.

Below is an example of a Promoted Post that drives traffic to a landing page on the company’s mobile website. The image on the left shows an ad that’s integrated into a user’s Facebook stream. The ad drives prospects and customers to a landing page on the company’s mobile website, as shown in the image on the right.


Use Facebook’s Promoted Posts to show ads in the news feeds of mobile users.

Retailers, e-commerce sites, mobile app developers and traditional businesses have all used Facebook’s native advertising to acquire new customers cost-effectively.

#5: Use a QR Code to Increase Your Social Audience

Research indicates that 27% of all smartphone owners have scanned a QR code. And, while QR codes aren’t going to be around forever, they’re still a great way to connect with people using social media on their mobile devices.


Use a QR code to grow your Twitter audience.

Here’s a simple technique you can use to get more Twitter followers using QR codes. Copy the URL and visit Mobile-Barcodes. Paste the URL into the QR code generator and hit Submit. Instantly, you’ll have your very own QR code, which can be saved to your desktop.

Now you can add the QR code to any printed materials—business cards, brochures, posters, even T-shirts. People who scan the QR code will be driven to your Twitter page, where they can follow you from their mobile device.

Go on, grab your smartphone and scan the code.

There’s no such thing as social or mobile anymore. There’s just social and mobile.

Today, approximately 40% of all Internet activity happens via mobile devices. It won’t be long before the majority of your prospects will be connecting with your company via mobile.

These five ideas on how to use social media to connect with people on their smartphones are just the beginning.

What do you think? How are you connecting with your customers on mobile devices? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Tags: brand awareness, instagram marketing, jamie turner, linkedin connection, linkedin mobile app, mobile, mobile marketing, mobile strategy, promoted post, promoted tweet, qr code, smartphone, social media marketing



Author: Jamie Turner
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/5-mobile-social-media-marketing-ideas-to-grow-your-business/

3 Creative Ways Brands Are Using Pinterest

Are you looking for some creative ways to use Pinterest?

Would you like to make stronger connections with your customers?

Although many brands run creative contests on Pinterest, here are some new ways to engage audiences and build your presence.

Take a look at what these 3 brands are doing to get inspiration for using Pinterest creatively for your business.

#1: Run a Campaign to Give Back

One of the most interesting things I’ve seen on Pinterest was Sony Electronics’ Pin It to Give It campaign.


In the spirit of holiday giving, Sony gave $1 to charity for every repin on this board.

Sony Electronics used their Pinterest brand page to curate an array of Sony Electronics products that were pinned to the Pin It to Give It board. Every time someone repinned from the board, Sony Electronics donated a dollar to The Michael Phelps Foundation. The campaign ran from November 27 through December 31, 2012 and raised more than $12,500.

This campaign had a unique spin when compared to other competitions with the overused Pin It to Win It campaign title. Sony’s label clearly communicated that the campaign was about helping others.

This not only helped Sony Electronics build their brand image by showing that they give back to their community, it also helped them engage their audience and create product awareness. Visit the board today and you will see pins that have been repeatedly liked and repinned—many more than 200 times.

How can you get creative with Pinterest contests?

Think like Sony Electronics and create something that is not only unique, but that engages your audience in a way that makes your campaign stand out.

#2: Get Strategic With Guest Pinners

Etsy has made incredible use of Pinterest’s group boards feature, also known as contributor boards.

In addition to the Etsy-curated boards on their brand page, they have several guest pinner boards, on which a contributor who is an expert on a subject contributes pins. Both individuals like Guest Pinner: Automatism and companies like Random House, Whole Foods Market and Martha Stewart Living contribute to boards for them.


A guest pinner board on Etsy.

This association benefits the creator of the board and the contributor and forms a strong relationship between the two.

When Guest Pinner: Automatism’s Lori Langille pins to the group board Etsy created for her, not only does Etsy’s board gather more pins from an expert source, they also attract followers from her because the board is displayed on her personal Lori Langille (Automatism) profile.

In turn, illustrator Lori Langille (Automatism) receives increased exposure through the pins on her Guest Pinner: Automatism board, as well as followers who find her through the guest board on Etsy.


Lori’s guest pinner board has a constellation of eclectic inspirations.

Associating one contributor with one group board, as opposed to associating many contributors with one group board, can help avoid complications with content. Group boards with too many contributors and no moderators often suffer from issues such as oversharing of spam pins that aren’t relevant to the board’s topic.

How can your business best use guest contributors to your Pinterest boards? Which experts are in your network who could share value with your audience on Pinterest? Follow Etsy’s example and create a valuable community on Pinterest with the help of others.

#3: Help People Get to Know You Better

When you think of Ben & Jerry’s on Pinterest, the first thing that pops into your mind is probably a brand page full of ice cream recipes, frozen desserts and other sweet stuff.

True to their roots, Ben & Jerry’s has done something completely different. They have used Pinterest to help their audience learn more about the company.

On their brand page, you find boards that teach you everything about who they are, what they do and how they treat their fans.

The Fan Photo’s board is full of photos from fans who are enjoying Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.


A great way to stay connected with your fans!

These images will help engage their fans and double as testimonials. When people look at others enjoying ice cream, they want some, too. And they might buy some Ben & Jerry’s to get involved like everybody else.

This board shows that Ben & Jerry’s cares about their fans, that they want their fans to be a part of the company. This is an attitude that goes a long way toward attracting more loyal fans.

The Our People board shows you pictures of Ben & Jerry’s employees.


A behind-the-scenes look helps customers know the employees.

The Our Factory board is a collection of images that show what happens inside Ben & Jerry’s factory.


Seeing what happens inside is another great way to connect with the community.

These boards, along with others like On a Mission, History, Vermont and Flavor Graveyard, help Ben & Jerry’s to form a special bond with their followers. As boards are pinned, followers get to know the product, the company and the people who work for them better. People prefer dealing with people they know, rather than companies of strangers about whom they know nothing. Visitors will likely be keen on having more Ben and Jerry’s.

How does your audience want to engage with you on Pinterest? Is your conversation there one-sided? Or are you making it easy for people to get to know you?

To build a committed following on Pinterest, follow Ben & Jerry’s lead. Instead of simply pinning content and products to your boards, make an effort to help your followers learn more about your company and get them involved.

Make the Most of Your Pinterest Community

Pinterest offers unique opportunities to engage with your audience, thanks to the visual interactions.

These are just three examples of brands using Pinterest in creative ways to engage their followers, create partnerships and build community.

What do you think? Have you noticed any other brands with intriguing strategies? Are you inspired to use Pinterest in a more exciting way? Please leave your comments below.



Author: Mitt Ray
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/creatively-using-pinterest/

3 Simple Ways to Measure Your Social Media Results

Are you looking for better ways to measure your social media activities?

Do you know if your social media efforts are worthwhile?

Social media measurement is one of the most frustrating challenges business face.

In this article I’ll show you three simple measurement strategies that can fit into one of your future campaigns.

Why Measure?

In order to measure the effectiveness of your social campaigns, it’s critical that you know your objective.

Ask yourself why you are considering including social media in your overall marketing campaign in the first place. How will your efforts impact your revenue and grow your business?

You’ll want to put a measurable outcome in place along with a timeframe in which to achieve the goal.


Always setup goals so that you can measure social media. Image: iStockPhoto

Now you can determine which social media platform aligns with your objectives.

For example, if you’re trying to reach a female audience and your business lends well to pictures and images, you might want to consider Pinterest.

If you’re a business-to-business brand marketing an upcoming conference, you’ll want to consider LinkedIn.

#1: Quantify Your Social Media Listening

“What you’re doing [on social media] needs to have impact. It needs to actually have revenue. And often times we try to make it fuzzy about that.” – Frank Eliason, Citi’s Director, Global Social Media (@FrankEliason)

Listening is one of the most often overlooked uses of social media, yet it’s probably the most important. If you’re not listening to your customers, you’re missing the point of social media.

But how do you measure listening and how does it impact your revenue?

In this example, we’re going to look at using Twitter to answer that question.

• In Twitter’s search field, enter your business name.

Twitter’s search field.

• You can then select whether you want to view Twitter’s “top” tweets about your business, “all” tweets containing your business name or tweets that contain your business name from only those people you follow.

Twitter search.

• As you filter the tweets, look through them and decide whom you’d like to follow. These are likely either potential customers or your current customers.
• Monitor their tweets on a daily basis. Engage with them, answering their questions, adding value and helping them whenever possible.

Twitter’s Advanced Search is powerful too, especially if you’re a local business. You can use it to search specific terms related to your business that people who are near your location are talking about.

Twitter is an amazing tool for providing real-time customer service. You can learn things like:

• Exactly how many people you’re helping
• If you’re growing that number of people
• The issues customers are experiencing with your business
• What’s broken in your business

At the end of the measurement period, prioritize the problems you identify and use that intelligence to implement fixes and improvements within your business. You can measure the direct impact on your business by looking at the additional revenue or cost savings that these new fixes give you.

#2: Create a Rating System for Your Social Engagement

“Put a [tiered point system] in place rather than looking at how many likes you have.” – Scott Monty, Ford’s global head of social media (@scottmonty)

This is a simple yet effective strategy to use when you’re trying to generate awareness and buzz. It’s a smart way to measure the response to your efforts on Facebook, Twitter or any other social channel you’re using.

Here’s how it works.

Say you’re launching a product or service and want to build buzz about it on Facebook. You post an update to your Page about your launch and you get a bunch of likes on it. The next day, you post a different type of update. You get some likes on it, but you also see that people are engaging more with the second update by sharing the post and commenting on it.

Likes show support and comments indicate a deeper interest but shares are most valuable because they move the update beyond your page.

At the beginning of the campaign, translate your objective to a numeric goal. Then, use a tiered point system to weight different types of engagement according to which is most valuable to you.

Here’s an example of a tiered point system for Facebook:

Likes: 1 point each
Comments: 5 points each
Shares: 10 points each
During the campaign, a quick sum of values will help you determine if your efforts on Facebook are moving you closer towards your goal or not.

Assign a point system to likes, shares and comments.

You can create similar point systems on any of the social channels you use. For example, on Twitter, 5 points for a reply and 10 points for a retweet.

#3: Add Tons of Value, Then Sell and Measure

“Jab, jab, jab, right hook.” – Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee)

This strategy is the concept behind Gary V.’s upcoming book and it’s based on providing great content that adds tons of value for your customers before asking for the sale.


The Corcoran Group, a NYC real estate firm, adds value via their social media outlets.

For example, say your restaurant is rolling out a new healthy menu. Your goal is to get 300 customers into your restaurant to try the new menu over an upcoming weekend.

Since your food is visually appealing, you develop a Facebook or Instagram strategy. You post pictures of your food, create content around the importance of healthy eating and curate information on your Facebook Page about farmers’ markets in your area.

Offer this valuable content to build trust with people.

Then offer a coupon for your restaurant on your Facebook Page. The number of people who claim and redeem your coupon is a result you can quantify.

Here’s how to measure your efforts when using this strategy:

• Use the tiered point system described in strategy #2 to determine if your content is moving you closer to your goal.
• Use coupons that are specific to your social media campaign, thus making the return on your investment easy to track and measure.
• Create unique landing pages for each of your campaigns where your customers can download or purchase what you are promoting. Since the landing page is used for one specific campaign, this will allow you to clearly see how successful your campaign is.

I hope this article gives you some ideas for how you can simply measure your social campaigns and shows you that you don’t need expensive measurement tools.

What do you think? Can you improve the effectiveness of your social media campaigns with some of the above strategies? What simple strategies are you using to measure your campaigns? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

author:Rick Mulready
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/3-strategies-to-measure-your-social-media/

Why Affiliate Marketing Is the Perfect Online Starter Job

Affiliate marketing is one of the first things that I really got into when I started.
Why? Because I had heard so many great things about it. Most people that I would follow online were making money with affiliate marketing and I knew that I could too. Now, the only thing that I wish I knew when I first started was that it would take more time than just a few hours to setup.

Affiliate marketing is something that you should only get into for a long term gain; it is not much of a short term payout because it does take a while to get going.

One thing that you need to know right now before you jump into affiliate marketing is that you need to have an online presence. I say this because many affiliate marketers don’t have a name built online and because of that it makes it that much harder to make any serious money.

Do yourself a favor, create a website, build your social media presence and always stay connected with the people you meet.

Why Affiliate Marketing Makes the Perfect Online Starter Job

Easy To get Into
– The nice thing about affiliate marketing is that it is really easy to get into. All you need to do is go to certain product pages or software pages and click on their affiliate link. Most of them will ask that you sign up through email but others will just give you a number to promote. Something that you need to understand is the better affiliate programs/products will ask that you have a website and these are the ones that will eventually make you more money.

No Upfront Costs Involved 
– Did you know that with affiliate marketing you don’t have any costs upfront? I wanted to bring this to your attention because most people assume that they have to pay something in order to get started. Just know that affiliate marketing has more of a time investment than anything else and that is why some people fail so quickly. As long as you put in the time you will be just fine.

Easy To Get Help From Others –
When a friend of mine first started affiliate marketing he found somebody to help him online. My friend was introduced to marketing manager for some company in the Philippines, who taught him everything that he needed to know and even how to outsource parts of his work. It is because of all the people out there that want to help that he was able to get further along than I did when I first started, and he didn’t have to struggle with all the roadblocks that I had to deal with. This is the reason why I always suggest you find somebody that can help lead you along the way.

Luck Plays A Big Part In Your Success
– With everything I do I always ask myself whether I will make it because of hard work or luck and this is one thing that I do that has just as much luck as hard work. Yes, you still have to work hard but in the end luck will make a difference.

If you are looking to make more money than you currently are, then affiliate marketing is a great place to start. Something that most people don’t realize is that there are millions of products/services out there in which you can be affiliated with and all of them will pay you a commission for your referrals. You may be a little hesitant to start this right now, but there is really no better time to start than right now. Trust me, give it a try for 2 months and see how well you actually do.

Author: Warren Wooden
http://www.business2community.com/marketing/why-affiliate-marketing-is-the-perfect-online-starter-job-0488235

Maximizing Your Small Business Potential Through Email Marketing

A lot of businesses have been using email marketing for a while, and it has become so common that you might not even think about it as “marketing.” Nevertheless, every time you open an email newsletter, promotional offer or even a “thank you” for buying a product, you are on the receiving end of an email marketing campaign. So let’s get right down to the basics of what email marketing is and whether or not it’s right for you and your small business.

What is Email Marketing?

Email marketing, in the most general sense, is exactly what it sounds like. It refers to marketing campaigns driven by email. But what does that mean? Think about this: every time you’ve ever received a promotional pamphlet on the street, or been handed a coupon for spending X amount of dollars at a retailer, or even simply read a magazine, you’ve been participating in “paper marketing.” Now imagine that instead of being handed a pamphlet, a coupon or a magazine, you receive in your email inbox a promotional message, a printable 10% off coupon, and a company newsletter from a small business. That would be an example of how email marketing works.

Why Email Marketing?


People use email marketing because it works, and it works extremely well, if done correctly. Email marketing allows for a secondary outlet of direct sales, data-driven results, and fosters the relationship between you and your customer. You may have to spend a little bit on email marketing software applications or services, but the amount of money that you save by not using paper and stamps, as well as the proven efficacy of the approach, makes it more of an appealing venture for most businesses. In fact, many small businesses use email marketing in conjunction with social media campaigns as well as; Quick Response (QR) code campaigns and experience great success with this multilateral approach. To top it all off, all of these campaign ideas are environmentally friendly.

Are There Any Downsides to Email Marketing?

There are a couple of downsides if you do not engage in email marketing correctly. A lot of users might label marketed emails as spam, which is something that you do not want. In fact, there are certain situations in which you might be unconsciously breaking the law by not adhering to specific anti-spam guidelines while email marketing!

For example, you cannot send emails to people that have not already agreed to receive them by other means. Fortunately, there are ways to drive reputable email marketing campaigns that adhere to all of the guidelines and do not get you or your small business blacklisted as spam. Unfortunately, without that know-how, you are looking at either studying up or hiring a third party. And to top it all off, you have to make sure that the emails that you are sending are relevant, effective, and aesthetically pleasing. This means design, layout, editing, etc.  Without these skills you may be hiring out-of-the-office help, and that can get to be a bit expensive.

Is It For You?

I would definitely suggest looking into it. The numbers don’t lie (you can see them here), and plenty of small businesses profit from the switch rather than suffer from it, as long as they do it correctly. As mentioned before, email marketing utilized in conjunction with social media sites can be a great way to enhance and stimulate your base of loyal followers by sending out printable coupons and exclusive promotional information. However, you may find that the cost outweighs the benefit for you and your company when it comes to email marketing.

There are free trial versions of email marketing software out there as well as more professional programs to use.  My suggestion is to try out one or two of these, explore it a little bit, and use that to make your decision.  There are pros and cons to this marketing approach, so make sure that you take both into consideration and weigh them out when deciding the future of your small business.

Do you use email marketing for your business?  If so, which email marketing provider do you use?  If you don’t use any email marketing, do you have any questions you would like answering?  Let us know by leaving your comments below!

http://onlineincometeacher.com/business-tips/maximizing-potential-through-email-marketing/
author:Miles Hall

5 Ways To Do Social Media Marketing The Right Way

Unlike what is generally perceived by people, marketing is not limited to just sales and promotions. Marketing is a holistic process that starts long before a business opportunity, when a market or a product is identified or created. One of the mediums used for marketing is social media. Social media marketing encompasses almost all areas that traditional marketing includes, such as customer research, promotion, sales, and customer feedback. It is also possible for businesses to execute their marketing activities strictly through social media. Social media includes social networking sites, cell phones and any other medium that people use to interact with each other.

Social Media Marketing Tools


Image by ‘ralphpaglia’

We have heard quite a lot about the different social networking sites used by businesses to carry out their social media marketing techniques. However, not enough light has been shed upon the various tools used to maximize the benefit derived out of social media. Social media tools are used by experts to analyse holistic trends, related to different issues being talked about on social networking sites. They also include practices that boost the effectiveness of the social media features. Some of them include:

1. Social Media Measurement

Just the way businesses carry out surveys to find the extent to which customers are aware about their brands, social media measurement tools quantify the presence of certain marketing content on social media such as social networking sites, micro-blogs, news sites, blogs, and other forums. An area that compliments social media measurement is social media monitoring. A collection of professionals, that includes sales teams, social engagement staff, marketing teams and PR staff, is used to gain insights into not only the presence of a certain brand, but other areas as well such as:

User interaction involving the discussion of the brand in question
Users expressing an increase in desirability of the brand
Impact of social media marketing on online sales
Change in competitors’ social media marketing strategy as a response to the brand’s strategy
Target market’s consumer behaviour in general and their inclination towards other issues, products, and brands
Since the area of social media measurement and monitoring has recently emerged, tools related to it are still developing. The ones that are present already are quite large in number and wide in variety. Some of them are entry level that can be used for free, while others are very powerful and are used by large organizations only. It must be noted that social media measurement tools have one of the two areas as their focus:

Data Centeredness – These tools focus on collecting and analyzing data extensively to reveal trends. Such analysis helps companies identify areas that require change.
Solution Centeredness – These tools track the presence of brands on the Internet and propose solutions to increase brand visibility and user engagement.
A lot of tools are a homogeneous combination of the two foci.

2. Social Network Aggregation

Given the huge number of social networking sites that have emerged over time, users often create accounts and use them on more than one platform. Since their accounts on different platforms contain exclusive sets of information, maintaining them all becomes quite cumbersome at times. This is where social network aggregation comes in. It is a process that lets users collect their profiles and information from different social networking sites on a single platform.

Social network aggregators come in the form of different tools and widgets that allow users to carry out tasks across different networks at the same time, such as accessing profiles, reading RSS feeds, searching for information, combining bookmarks, tracking friends, and consolidating messages.

3. Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking is yet another emerging field that has seen significant growth over the last two years. With the growing quantity of user related information present on the Internet, – a lot of which is generated by other users – the need to compile it all at the same place was realized. This compilation would make it easier and take less time for users to search for certain information. Different titles have been given to the concept of social bookmarking such as ‘tagging’. Facebook users are able to tag their friends in photos, statuses, notes, and comments. People may tag themselves in photos also. This way, with a single click, a user can have a look at all the pictures others have uploaded of him/her.

4. Social Analytics

Social analytics is a field of online marketing that allows companies to collect and analyze data of consumers who use social media. There are numerous companies that render services related to social analytics such as Telligent Systems, Expert System, Attensity, and General Sentiment. These companies’ job is to collect information related to different market segments. Once they do so, they are approached by clients. These clients are not necessarily businesses that sell products and services. They may also be businesses (such as advertising agencies) that cater to other businesses.

It must be noted that not all companies have to avail the services of different social analytics companies. They may also carry out analyses themselves by using platforms such as Klout, Swaylo, PeerIndex, and Empire Avenue. These tools help them find out their brands’ presence in social media. They also present solutions that companies must follow to engage people from the target market and increase their brand awareness among them. A number of companies such as JetBlue, Royal Bank of Canada, and Whirlpool have used these tools to accomplish their goals.

5. Automation

Purists almost consider automation a sin. However, others realize that given the ever increasing number of platforms used by businesses for social media marketing, automation is a tool that simply makes their efforts easier and faster. A certain level of responsibility must be exercised when applying automation because its overuse can lead to spamming that can annoy consumers and lead to the decline of brands’ desirability. When used wisely, automation can be not only good, but great. It picks up areas that are left untouched.

For example, TwitterFeed is a great way of connecting your blog to people on different social networking sites. Once you are done with writing a blog post, instead of posting links to your profiles on different sites, you can simply relax. You can do so by automating the process of sharing information on Twitter by using TwitterFeed. As soon as you publish a blog post, a message is automatically sent to all the members even if you are not signed into your Twitter account. Similarly, NetworkedBlogs is another tool that automatically informs your friends on Facebook about blog posts you publish.



The reason why social media marketing tools have emerged is because of the effectiveness of social media marketing itself. Today, the world revolves around information. Consumers make decisions based on the information they get about brands, and businesses make decisions based on information they get about consumers. Information minimizes the risk factor these parties are exposed to. Social media marketing has become so popular over the years because of three chief reasons.

Rapid Action

There is hardly any other medium that spreads information faster than social media. The structure social media is built on and the way its users behave on it make it a platform that spreads information like wild fire. For this reason, businesses find marketing their brands on social networking sites, micro blogs, cell phones, and other social media tools to their advantage.

Highly Experiential

Another benefit that businesses enjoy using social media marketing is the extent to which they can engage their audience. Earlier, Orkut, Facebook, Blogger, and other services allowed users to share information of limited formats. After much development, they let information of virtually any type to be created and shared online. Whether it be social networking sites or blogs, textual, pictorial, and visual content can be easily uploaded. Some platforms are limited to certain types of information. For example, Twitter users share texts, YouTube focuses on videos and Pinterest supports pictures only. Hence, their users attach links to external online locations that can be visited for further experience.

Cost Effective

Cost effectiveness is another reason for social media marketing’s boom. Unlike traditional media such as TVCs, billboards, newspaper ads, etc. social media platforms charge a lot less. This is because of the relatively lower business costs they themselves incur. Also, certain practices such as PPV (pay per view) and PPC (pay per click), make payment options not only low, but also efficient because clients pay for only what they have benefited from.

All in all, social media marketing is a field that highly depends on consumer behaviours. Its success depends on what consumers like and don’t like. Meanwhile, business collect, analyze, and use information related to social media to make decisions related to promotion, engage target audience, increase product/service sales, and receive customer feedback. With time, social media marketing practices are bound to evolve because of the changes in technology, politics, economy, consumer behaviour, and other factors.

http://onlineincometeacher.com/socialmedia/social-media-marketing-the-right-way/
Author: Tim Wilson

5 New Ways to Improve Your Facebook EdgeRank

Brands have learned that success with a Facebook page isn’t just about fan numbers, but also about how many fans see their posts. Facebook’s news feed algorithm — called EdgeRank — controls that visibility.

Of course, optimizing a news feed so that it bumps up your EdgeRank is a complicated recipe that varies with each brand, the kind of content it posts, and its fans. There have been hundreds of blog posts written about this subject, but here are five completely new ways to get better results.

1. Post Photos

The Facebook news feed algorithm appears to be calculated both per fan and per type of post. That means a person might see Coca-Cola’s photo posts, but not the company’s link posts. There are six post types: a text-only status update, a photo, a link, a video, a platform post, and a question. The first four are the most commonly used.



After some research, its clear that a Facebook page gets more fan engagement from photos than links, statuses, or videos. In fact, photos get as much as twenty times more engagement.
So, even when you need to post a link to your website, you should post a photo with that link. You might also consider posting a thumbnail of your video and a link to the video, rather than featuring the video itself. To do that, enter the status update and link first, then hit the x to cancel the video preview, then click on “photo/video” and choose the image file you want to attach.

Posting everything with an image will increase the percent of fans you reach. In all these cases, your status and link will show up above the image. My experiments show that you can get a good amount of clicks on links above photos. For example, one post (also amplified by sponsored story ads) reached 114, 434 people and engaged 619 people (0.5% of reach), while the link received 311 clicks (0.27% of reach and half the engaged users).

You can get creative with your message by taking things that might have started as status updates, and adding the same message into an image. Someecards is a popular and funny e-card website, and it allows you to create your own. Just choose a background color and one of their line drawings, then add your text. You can save the image and post it on your Facebook page. Do this manually to make sure it’s a photo post-type. A great example of this comes from The American Heart Association. They used a card to humorously promote children eating vegetables.



It’s not the funniest image you’ve ever seen, but many big organizations can’t be as edgy as others. It’s better than no humor at all. As you can see, it got a good amount of shares.
You can also use memegenerator.net to glom onto some of the latest and more edgy memes, or even use Photoshop to make it yourself.

2. Create Photo Albums

The World Health Organization’s Women Create Life program aims to improve women’s rights internationally. One way they do this is by creating great photo posts or great photo albums like the one below.

In the last month, out of 11 posts the organization created, three of the top four most-viewed posts were photo albums. Photo albums show one big photo and several smaller ones. They look different from other posts in people’s news feeds, so they get attention. People click in to see all the photos. This gives you an advantage over all the other people and pages you’re competing with for your fans’ attention. Also, although Facebook hasn’t confirmed this, clicks on links or into photo albums probably impact EdgeRank to some degree.



3. Write More Text

Women Create Life takes a magazine approach to its posts. The organization doesn’t use a separate website. Instead, they put all their text into the posts. Sometimes that’s as much as 800 words (the current limit is 5,000 characters).

As a result, there is always a “see more” link to click to read the rest of the text. Women Create Life also added a Spanish translation at the end of each post. According to Facebook, clicks on “see more” are counted as a consumption under the “other consumptions” category.

Again, this may feed into EdgeRank, although Facebook has not confirmed it. Either way, this approach also helps followers to see you’ve put significant time into your posts, which can lead to more shares.

4. Push Your Network to New Posts

Can you front-load engagement to convince the news feed algorithm to show the post to a larger audience? It’s hard to say how much impact doing this would have, but here’s how you do it:

1. Go to the photos section of your Facebook page and upload an image.
2. There is a “post” button at the bottom, but you can change the album name and just exit the tab once it has uploaded the image.
3. Go back to photos, you’ll see the image there.
4. Copy the photo URL, or look for the URL they give you on the album page.
5. Promote the album and/or photo via Twitter, email, LinkedIn, and any other distribution networks you have in place.
6. Take this even further by spending some money on the post. Either promote the post directly, or create a sponsored story in your Facebook ads to increase visibility and likes early on. After you have some likes and comments, post it out to your news feed, too. To do that just go to the album and upload a new image, and it will prompt you to post out.
If you keep adding a new image, it lets you publish each time. So seed the album with two photos, promote, then add more, then publish. Because you start off with extra engagement, it spikes the post. If you leverage your entire distribution network, this may increase your reach. The more people interact with a post, the more of your fans Facebook shows it to. Every post has a lifespan, and you have more posts you want to get out, so getting more engagement early is key.

5. Use Post Targeting

The new post-targeting feature, still being rolled out to all Facebook pages, allows you to segment your fans by criteria previously only available to advertisers. This includes age, gender, interested in (likes), relationship status, all education information, workplace, plus the old options like language, country, state, and city.

You can use post-targeting to your advantage in a couple of ways. First, you can target a post to the segments of your fans most likely to interact with it. The more tarted you get, the fewer people you’ll reach, but a higher percentage of the people you do reach will engage. If there’s someone who wasn’t that into your page, but really likes the topic you posted on, and ten of their friends comment on a particular post that hits that interest or demographic, then EdgeRank shows your page to that person. It’s like a snowball that picks up momentum and just keeps rolling because it’s so concentrated.

Second, you can divide your audience up and release multiple posts at one time. This content customization increases your chance of getting more people in each fan subgroup to see and engage with your posts.

see also Sorry, Marketers, You’re Doing Facebook Wrong

author: Brian Carter
http://mashable.com/2012/08/30/improve-facebook-edgerank/

10 Facebook Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

At this point, most people know to market their business on Facebook — there are more than 900 million people on the social platform, constantly “liking,” sharing, commenting and posting. We’ve gone over some best practices for Facebook marketing, discussed hot trends and shared customer service tips, so now you know what you should do.


But there are a few things that you shouldn’t do. Mashable spoke with Facebook’s Communications Manager Elisabeth Diana, Head of Measurement Platform and Standards Sean Bruich and Director of Online Operations Sarah Smith, as well as Buddy Media CEO Michael Lazerow to learn more about the most common Facebook marketing mistakes.

“There’s actually a science behind this — yes, it’s an art, but we have found some strong conclusions that there are levers that marketers can pull to be more successful,” says Bruich, whose team recently studied 1,200 posts by 23 brands over a month-long period, using quantitative measurements to determine the unique impact of each post. “This is not a black box … there’s a lot of opportunity to understand how to make your marketing better.”

Below, we outline 10 of the most common Facebook marketing mistakes. Have you fallen victim to any of them? Tell us about your experiences in the comments.

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1. Not Filling Out the Page Completely
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This one’s obvious, but make sure you’re using Facebook to its full capacity and fill out your Brand Page. Businesses should have hours, address, photos and more on their Brand Pages, so users can gather this information quickly. And if you’re opening a new location, either list it or (if you decide it’s best to create separate Brand Pages for your locations) add a new Page to Facebook. Make sure you also nab a good vanity URL — bonus points if it’s also your web URL and Twitter handle.
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2. Using an Illegal Cover Photo
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The cover photo is prime real estate on your Facebook Brand Page, and it’s the first thing consumers notice. Therefore, it ought to abide by Facebook guidelines, which state that a cover photo can not have:
Price or purchase information (including discounts, such as “40% off”)
A call to action to “like,” share, comment, download, “get it now” or “tell your friends”
Contact information, such as web, email or mailing address
In your cover photo, use something that flaunts your product and captures the essence of your brand — a close-up of food is great for restaurants, a shot of a runway show is perfect for fashion labels and a diaper company could have a few cute babies. Don’t forget to switch your photo up every once in a while — you can refresh your image to promote a new or different product, an upcoming event or a new location. More than half of the brands Buddy Media recently analyzed had only uploaded one cover photo, and another 21% had only uploaded two cover photos. “Switch it up to keep things fresh,” Lazerow says. After all, the cover photo is pretty much a billboard on your Facebook Page — you should use it to promote your best offerings. Just remember to abide by the guidelines above.
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3. Breaking Contest Guidelines
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While it’s hard to stay on top of the fine print, it’s imperative that any Facebook contest you run is legal. Contests always add a layer of complexity, as state and federal laws may differ, so here are a few things you need to know:

Contests asking for submissions or votes via comments, “liking” or other Facebook UI functions are prohibited
You as a brand are responsible for the lawful operation of that promotion, including official rules, terms and eligibility requirements
Contests or giveaways must be administered within Apps on Facebook.com — on a Canvas Page or a Page App
Your Page must acknowledge that the promotion is not sponsored, endorsed, administered by or associated with Facebook
You cannot notify contest winners through Facebook (wall post, message, chat, etc.)
There are several third-party providers that help brands run Facebook promotions legally, and most have free trials. A few prominent ones are Wildfire, Offerpop and Buddy Media.
Complete Brand Page guidelines for promotions can be found here.
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4. Overposting
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Less is more. Facebook suggests that brands start out with one or two posts a week to feel out the platform and see what works. Many brands post once per day, and many find that posting more than once per day can actually have an adverse effect on engagement. Facebook indicates that the averages user “likes” four to six new Pages each month, so your content is constantly fighting for more attention from its fans. It’s better to post one excellent item per day instead of two decent ones.

Even if you’re only posting a few days per week, you can still keep your Page active on a daily basis. Check your Page and “like” or respond to comments on your Brand Page, and remember to tag the people you’re replying to — that’s a great and easy way to get people to come back to your Page to engage more. And it can be easily done with the new Facebook Brand Page Manager app. (Facebook says tagging features are in the works for a later version of the mobile app.)
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5. Focusing Too Much on Likes
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Sure, Likes are important — the more Likes you have, the more people your message is reaching. But Likes are just step one. Step two is to confirm that you’re reaching the right audience and keeping them engaged, says Diana. If they “like,” comment and share your content in a regular basis, then they have become brand advocates who are pushing your message to their friends.

The post above, from the Book of Mormon Facebook Page, shows solid engagement on all counts — Likes, comments and shares — thanks to a quirky photo and a clear call to action.

It’s also important to note that content shares better on certain days — Buddy Media research has found that engagement rates for Facebook posts are 18% higher on Thursday and Fridays. So if you’re strategic, you can get more engagement with fewer posts. Using the new posting tools, you can queue up the content you want to share throughout the week and then ride the wave of engagement over the next few days. “Brands that aren’t paying attention to their own data and when their fans are engaged will not see the reach and engagement they desire,” says Lazerow. Last year, Buddy Media released a more granular study of industry-specific engagement stats, indicating what days and times of day are best for certain kinds of content, which also can be useful for planning your editorial calendar.
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6. Too Much Text
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Facebook research has shown that posts between 100 and 250 characters — one or two lines of text — get 60% more Likes, comments and shares than ones that are more than 250 characters, says Diana. Buddy Media research found a similar trend, determining that posts with 80 characters or less in length have 27% higher engagement rates. The moral? Like content on Twitter, keep it short and sweet. Of course, your post should be different than your content on Twitter, or else your fans don’t have a reason to follow you on both platforms.




One tip for making sure the post is as engaging and short as possible is to remove the link URL from the text field in the post. Once you paste the URL in the field, the page title, a blurb and a thumbnail will populate — you can then delete the URL to streamline the post and cut the clutter (see above).
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7. Posting Boring or Off-Brand Content
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This might come as a surprise (well, we hope not), but the things you post on Facebook should be relevant to your brand. If you own a company that makes iPhone cases, it doesn’t make sense for you to post about a Kickstarter project just because you think it’s cool. Being on-brand is a significant predictor of engagement — just because people like your product doesn’t mean they share all of your interests, so just give them a mix of content related to the product. Since your fans don’t see every single thing you post, you risk wasting their eyeballs on irrelevance and incurring negative engagement on the post.
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8. Ignoring Insights
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Facebook Insights offer a lot of useful information — it’d be silly to not take advantage of the data. The Friends of Fans metric is particularly interesting, as Friends of Fans typically represent a much larger set of consumers than a brand’s Fans. In fact, for the top 1,000 brands on Facebook, the Friends of Fans number is 81 times larger than the fan count, says Bruich. This means there’s a huge potential audience that can be tapped into by posting engaging content (because your fans’ activity will show up in friends’ feeds) and by enhancing this content with other Facebook ad tools, such as Promoted Posts.

Smith says consumers are 51% more likely to buy something if they know their friends did, so capitalize on the army of advocates who have opted in to learning more about your brand.

You should also pay attention to the People Talking About This (PTAT) and reach metrics in Insights to see how your message is faring in the Facebook ecosystem, and create a comprehensive Facebook marketing strategy based off of what works. “That’s the kind of media plan that’s going to lead to results,” says Bruich. In a sense, you can think of your Facebook audience as a focus group and get a grip on what they want to see more of.

Also check out the real-time insights, which help you see the impact of pinning, highlighting and promoting posts.
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9. Being Vanilla
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While Timeline transformed Facebook into a much more image-based platform, it’s important to spice up your content. Too much of anything is boring, and the right mix of polls, questions, photos and video will keep people engaged and excited about your brand. Humans crave diversity, and different kinds of posts drive different kinds of engagement — so a smattering will lead to more well rounded engagement. For example, someone might comment on a question post, share a photo and “like” a video, so it’s best to give consumers a wide swath of ways to engage with your brand.

Pro tip: Asking questions is typically a driver of additional comments. The post above by Coffee Bean is a great example of engagement — it’s an image that promotes a live Q&A session on the brand’s Facebook Page.

If your brand is experimenting with video, Diana has an interesting finding to keep in mind — videos shared from third-party sites (YouTube, Vimeo) generate less organic activity than videos hosted on Facebook.

Regardless of what type of post you’re sharing, make sure the tone and voice reflects the personality of your brand. Virgin America is cheeky, Birchbox is feminine and chatty, MTV is casual and approachable. What’s your brand’s voice? A Facebook user should know it’s your content in their feed without seeing your brand name next to it.
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10. Not Making the Most of Facebook’s Ad Options
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Not all businesses have the budget to employ Facebook Ads in their marketing arsenal. But brands that do could benefit from Bruich’s advice about what makes a good ad.

He says the ad needs to be well branded. If it’s not clear and obvious who and what the ad is promoting, then consumers will be less likely to recall the ad and the brand. It’s also important to have some sort of reward or “payoff,” as ads with a reward tend to be more influential over purchasing decisions. Also, try to have the creative in the ad have one focal point — with everything else happening on Facebook, a focused creative unit helps fans recall ads.

Can’t figure out what your ad should be? Dig into Facebook Insights and turn the most engaging content into a social ad. “Your content and ads are one and the same,” says Lazerow.

You can give your recent content an added boost with Promoted Posts, which extend the reach of your post and are easy to do. Sweet Cheeks Diaper Company, a brick-and-mortar and online store in Maine, saw a 49x return (tracked via the unique URL) after promoting a photo on its Brand Page, says Diana.
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Conclusion
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Facebook marketing is a crucial way to build a fan base and spread word about your business. But a successful campaign doesn’t have to be a drain on your time or your wallet. A few minutes a day and a strategic plan can have an immense impact on your brand’s Facebook presence, as long as you avoid the mistakes above.

If you’re a newbie to Facebook marketing, you can check out a Facebook webinar at facebook.com/classroom. If you’re more experienced and have a specific question about your Facebook campaign, Facebook encourages you to call             1-800-916-1300      . For more information on Facebook Brand Page management, you can go straight to Facebook.

Source:http://mashable.com/2012/06/07/facebook-marketing-mistakes/
author: Lauren Drell