Social Networking Site? + Asocial networking site is a website where individuals can set up an online profile, describing his/her interests, and add links to other profiles. + Generally, users are able to post personal information, including photographs, videos, and blog entries. | Viral marketing Concept * Viral marketing can be call as viral advertising/word-of-mouth/ creating a buzz/network marketing. + Definition: marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks and other technologies to, increases brand awareness 2.achieve other marketing objectives such as product sales through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses or computer viruses.What is a 'White Label Product A white label product is manufactured by one company and packaged and sold by other companies under various brand names. The end product appears as though it has been manufactured by the marketer. The benefit for the manufacturer and the marketer is that the manufacturer can concentrate on making the product or service and focus on cost savings, and the marketer can invest in marketing and selling the product. What is Crisis Management? © Crisis management involves identifying a crisis, planning a response to the crisis and confronting and resolving the crisis. © Crisis management is directed at populations and communities in urgent need of resources due to a disaster or public tragedy. © Crisis Management has two functions: — Secure the scene and engage in rescue and recovery — first responders — Provide relief programs to populations in urgent need and reconstruct communities in the disaster aftermath. Woche Y Organization An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporarily archived Social gaming commonly refers to playing online games that allow or require social interaction between players, as opposed to playing games in solitude. It may refer to: Card games that involve multiple players. Social network game, games that have social network integration or elements. webinar Web-based seminar, a webinar is a presentation, lecture, workshop or seminar that is transmitted over the Web Using video conferencing software. A key feature of a Webinar is its interactive elements: the ability to give, receive and discuss information in real-time Microblogging isa broadcast medium that exists in the form of blogging. roblogs “allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links", which may be the major reason for their popularity. These small messages are sometimes called microposts.Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining traffic or attention through social media sites.Social media itself is a catch-all term for sites that may provide radically different social actions. For instance, Twitter is a social site designed to let people share short messages or “updates” with others. Electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) is a form of buzz marketing and it can become viral if the message is persuasive or funny enough. In eWOM we focus on person-to-person contacts that happen on the internet. SNS Social networking sites WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA ETHICS Ethics, by definition, is the concept of what is good, bad, right and wrong. In social media, the right ethic equals the right perspective and the right thinking on how to leverage social media appropriately and how to engage people in the right manner. Etiquette is a code of behavior within the context of our society. An online community is a virtual community whose members interact with each other primarily via the Internet, For many, online communities may feel like home, consisting of a “family of invisible friends"? Those who wish to be a part of an online community usually have to become a member via a specific site and necessarily need an internet connection. An online community can act as an information system where members can post, comment on discussions, give advice or collaborate. Commonly, people communicate through social networking sites, chat rooms, forums, e-mail lists and discussion boards. People may also join online communities through video games, blogs and virtual worlds. The Role of PR and Social Media + Among the many responsibilities of a public relations professional is immediacy. Social media is a great aid in taking control of how a story is disseminated to the public in a matter of seconds. With that in mind, analysts are expecting social media to continue to influence how PR is handled throughout 2014. One trend that will continue to gain momentum sees businesses allowing fans and customers to do their advertising for them. Word-of-mouth advertising has been valued by companies for years, and companies are starting to seek out the customers who are particularly zealous about a product or brand and reciprocating the love. By fueling these super-fans, PR agents can essentially create a fleet of assistants all over the world who are continuously bolstering the company’s reputation.Virtual Money can be defined as a digital representation of value that is issued and controlled by its developers, and used and accepted among the members of a specific (virtual) community. Unlike regular money, itis relying on a system of trust and not issued by a central bank or other banking authority. Business & Finance KPI/KSI m Key Performance Indicator/Key Success Indictor. Ameasure, target or standard, used to manage and gauge the performance of an activity, process or project. Establishing a series of KPI's or KSI's is a very useful way to ~ Manage, Monitor ahd’ asse8s the effe — ns RSS (Really Simple Syndication) to syndicate or subscribe ... online (not just articles, it can be music, video or almost any digital media) cohesive blog marketing system easy for beginners to set up and get started with 8 Essential Elements of a Social Media Marketing Strategy Do you need help getting started with your social media marketing strategy? Do you know what to include? Goals and objectives guide your social media strategy to help you successfully connect with your customers, In this article I'll share what you need to include in your social media marketing strategy so it works from day one. #1: Identify Business Goals Every piece of your social media strategy serves the goals you set. You simply can't move forward without knowing what you're working toward. Look closely at your company’s overall needs and decide how you want to use social media to contribute to reaching themYou'll undoubtedly come up with several personalized goals, but there are a few that all companies should include in their strategy—increasing brand awareness, retaining customers and reducing marketing costs are relevant to everyone. | suggest you choose two primary goals and two secondary goals to focus on. Having too many goals distracts you and you'll end up achieving none. #2: Set Marketing Objectives Goals aren't terribly useful if you don’t have specific parameters that define when each is. achieved. For example, if one of your primary goals is generating leads and sales, how many leads and sales do you have to generate before you consider that goal a success? Marketing objectives define how you get from Point A (an unfulfilled goal) to Point B (a successfully fulfilled goal). You can determine your objectives with the S-M-A-R-T approach: Make your objectives specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Using our previous example, if your goal is to generate leads and sales, a specific marketing objective may be to increase leads by 50%. In order to measure your progress, choose which analytics and tracking tools you need to have in place Setting yourself up for failure is never a good idea. If you set an objective of increasing sales by 1,000%, it's doubtful you'll meet it. Choose objectives you can achieve, given the resources you have. You've taken the time to refine your goals so they’re relevant to your company, so extend that same consideration to your objectives. If you want to get support from your C-level executives, ensure your objectives are relevant to the company’s overall vision Attaching a timeframe to your efforts is imperative. When do you intend to achieve your goal(s)? Next month? By the end of this year? Your objective of increasing leads by 50% may be specific, measurable, achievable and relevant, but if you don’t set a deadline for achieving the goal, your efforts, resources and attention may be pulled in other directions. #3: Identify Ideal Customers If @ business is suffering from low engagement on their social profiles, it’s usually because they don't have an accurate ideal customer profile. Buyer personas help you define and target the right people, in the right places, at the right times with the right messages. When you know your target audience's age, occupation, income, interests, pains, problems, obstacles, habits, likes, dislikes, motivations and objections, then it's easier and cheaper to target them on social or any other media. A buyer persona is a fictional character, not a real one! The more specific you are, the more conversions you're going to get out of every channel you use to promote your business.#4: Research Competition ‘When it comes to social media marketing, researching your competition not only keeps you apprised of their activity, it gives you an idea of what's working so you can integrate those successful tactics into your own efforts. Start by compiling a list of at least 3-5 main competitors. Search which social networks they’re using and analyze their content strategy. Look at their number of fans or followers, posting frequency and time of day Also pay attention to the type of content they’re posting and its context (humorous, promotional, etc.) and how they're responding to their fans The most important activity to look at is engagement. Even though page admins are the only ones who can calculate engagement rate on a particular update, you can get a good idea of what they're seeing, For example, let's say you're looking at a competitor's last 20-30 Facebook updates. Take the total number of engagement activities for those posts and divide it by the page's total number of fans. (Engagement activity includes likes, comments, shares, etc.) You can use that formula on all of your competitors’ social profiles (e.g., on Twitter you can calculate retweets and favorites) Keep in mind that the calculation is meant to give you a general picture of how the competition is doing so you can compare how you stack up against each other. #5: Choose Channels and Tactics Many businesses create accounts on every popular social network without researching which platform will bring the most return. You can avoid wasting your time in the wrong place by using the information from your buyer personas to determine which platform is best for you. If your prospects or customers tell you they spend 40% of their online time on Facebook and 20% on Twitter, you know which primary and secondary social networks you should focus on. When your customers are using a specific network, that's where you need to be—not everywhere else Your tactics for each social channel rely on your goals and objectives, as well as the best practices of each platform. For example, if your goal is increasing leads and your primary social network is Facebook, some effective tactics are investing in Facebook advertising or promotion campaigns to draw more attention to your lead magnets.#6: Create a Content Strategy Content and social media have a symbiotic relationship: Without great content social media is meaningless and without social media nobody will know about your content, Use them together to reach and convert your prospects. There are three main components to any successful social media content strategy: type of content, time of posting and frequency of posting, The type of content you should post on each social network relies on form and context. Form is how you present that information—text only, images, links, video, etc, Context fits with your company voice and platform trends. Should your content be funny, serious highly detailed and educational or something else? There are many studies that give you a specific time when you should post on social media However, | suggest using those studies as guidelines rather than hard rules. Remember, your audience is unique, so you need to test and figure out the best time for yourself. Posting frequency is as important as the content you share. You don't want to annoy your fans or followers, do you? Finding the perfect frequency is crucial because it could mean more engagement for your content or more unlikes and unfollows. Use Facebook Insights to see when your fans are online and engaging with your content. #7: Allocate Budget and Resources To budget for social media marketing, look at the tactics you've chosen to achieve your business goals and objectives Make a comprehensive list of the tools you need (e.g., social media monitoring, email marketing and CRM), services you'll outsource (e.g., graphic design or video production) and any advertising you'll purchase. Next to each, include the annual projected cost so you can have a high-level view of what you're investing in and how it affects your marketing budget Many businesses establish their budget first, and then select which tactics fit that budget. | take the opposite approach. | establish a strategy first, and then determine the budget that fits that strategy. If your strategy execution fees exceed your budget estimate, prioritize your tactics according to their ROI timeframe. The tactics with the fastest ROI (e.g., advertising and social referral) take priority because they generate instant profit you can later invest into long-term tactics (fan acquisition, quality content creation or long-term engagement).#8: Assign Roles Knowing who's responsible for what increases productivity and avoids confusion and overlapping efforts. Things may be a bit messy in the beginning, but with time team members will know their roles and what daily tasks they're responsible for. When everyone knows his or her role, it's time to start planning the execution process. You can either plan daily or weekly. I don't advise putting a monthly plan together because lots of things will come up and you may end up wasting time adapting to the new changes You can use tools like Basecamp or ActiveCollab to manage your team and assign tasks to each member. These tools save you tons of time and help you stay organized 26 Tips to Create a Strong Social Media Content Strategy ‘Are you looking for ways to strengthen the impact of the content you create? It isn't always easy to generate the buzz you're looking for. Knowing what to publish, when and where can greatly increase the visibility and reach of your content, In this article, you will find 26 topics, an A-Z guide, with key points that will help you create a social media content strategy that resonates with your audience #1: Align Content Development With Social Media Metrics and Goals Understand the goals of your company’s social media content delivery to help you develop a more attainable strategy. Jayson DeMers suggests, “First you need to know what to measure. The end goals dictate the measurement metric.” He offers metrics for four social media goals: + Ifyou're looking to generate traffic, your metric should be: unique visitors from social websites where you've run your social media campaigns. + If you're looking to create a following, your metric should be: subscribers, followers on your social channels (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). + If you're looking to generate interaction, your metric should be: quantity and type of commentary (Facebook comments, Twitter replies/mentions) + Ifyou're looking to generate revenue (which is the ultimate purpose), your metric should be the precise dollar value of every lead a social post generates Keep this information in mind when crafting your social media content#2: Beef Up Your Content Strategy With a Big-Brand Mindset Small businesses can learn valuable lessons from the big-brand approach to social media. Rick Mulready suggests three things big brands do very well that small businesses can emulate: + Find where their customers talk and “go deep.” + Create content that people want to talk about + Use social media to listen to customers Starbucks, with over 34 million fans on Facebook, is a good example. On Thursday, June 6, they posted a Facebook offer “Enjoy a Grande Iced Coffee, Iced Tea, or Starbucks Refreshers Beverage for $1 on June 7.” The update was shared by 13,931 people and received 1,553 comments. The offer was not tweeted to their 3,852,454 Twitter followers By promoting the offer on Facebook, where they have a significantly larger following, Starbucks leveraged the promotion on a platform where they were sure to get higher visibility, giving followers an incentive to follow the brand, Use a big-brand approach to engage your social media followers #3: Concentrate on Increasing Daily Updates Ensuring that your posts and updates have a good chance to be seen by your target audience is an integral part of a content strategy. Leo Widrich offers 3 key tactics: + Frequency: Post around 5-10 times a day on Twitter and 1-4 times a day on Facebook for optimal outcome. + Timing: Almost all research studies highlight the main work hours from 8 am to 8 pm as good times to tweet and post to Facebook. + Multiple sites: Post to multiple social sites, in addition to your own blog or website. Pay attention to frequency, timing and multiple sites, and you'll increase the odds of achieving higher levels of social engagement #4: Delve Into Data From Social Media Channels Data from social channels (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and blogs) can be overwhelming unless you have clear goals to guide what you're looking for and what you'll do with the information once you find it, Douglas Karr points out, “The sheer volume of social media data makes it incredibly difficult to analyze.” He offers five practical ways you can use social data to benefit your business: + Gauge the real-time market mood + Identify relevant issues and content. + Determine user interests.+ Provide internal operational metrics. + Execute competitive research. Explore social data with an actionable plan in mind. #5: Engage in Real Interactions Lana Bandoim writes, “Social media engagement is often defined as the real interactions that happen on these networks.” She points out that social media engagement relies on daily interactions among users to survive. While autoposting tools are one way to communicate, more businesses are beginning to understand that engaging with their audiences in real conversations will bring them better results and add more value to their social streams. Be available to your audience in real time, when you can have more meaningful back-and- forth conversations. #6: Follow Facebook’s Changes Got the hang of your Facebook Page? Enjoy it while you can, because based on Facebook's history, the only thing that’s certain is that Facebook will change. A Google search for the words “Facebook changes” brings up a great number of results with a range of topics such as changes to timeline, cover photo policy, implications for merchants, mobile layout and much more Rachel Sprung suggests § ways marketers can keep updated on Facebook changes: + Follow Facebook's business changes for regular updates. + Follow the Facebook tag on TechCrunch. + Set a Google Alert for Facebook updates. + Follow new posts on AliFacebook + Follow social media and tech experts. No one wants to have their Page change features on them without having ample time to prepare. Keep up to date with Facebook developments to make sure you don’t miss out on the changes coming down the pike #7: Get Acquainted With the New Google Analytics Social Reports Google's new standalone reports, Data Hub Activity and Trackbacks, give marketers more in- depth insights into social networks and how users respond to a business's content. As Google describes The Data Hub Activity report shows you how people are talking about and engaging with your site content on social networks. You can see the most recent URLs people shared, how and where they shared (via a ‘reshare” on Google+, for example), and what they said The Trackbacks report shows the sites that are linking to your content, and in which context. This can help you replicate successful content and build relationships with those users who frequently link to your siteCheck out the new Google Analytics reports and apply what you've learned to your content development strategy. #8: Help Users Find Your Content With Hashtags Why should businesses care about hashtags? Steve Cooper sums it up with five reasons: + Promotions—hashtags make it easy to track a promotion’s activity across many social platforms. + Unification—you can track a hashtag across alll the major networks or filter them individually using new tools such as Tagboard + Conversations—giving a customer your website URL doesn't make it easy to begin a conversation, but hashtags do. + Targeting—unlike going after a general web surfer on the open web, people who use hashtags are likely to engage in social conversations and therefore are more likely to share a positive experience they've had with your brand once you've broken through + Innovation—because they're so flexible, simple and ubiquitous, more businesses are able to find creative ways to add power behind the hashtag. Use hashtags to include your content in active public conversations #9: Introduce Content With Infographics Infographics are defined as graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present complex information quickly and clearly Dragan Mestrovic illuminates the benefits of infographics in four persuasive points + Infographics are shared on the web, Twitter and Facebook more often than other content online. + Infographics are easy to understand, consume and share. + On Twitter, Linkedin and StumbleUpon, infographics get more shares than other content. + Marketers love infographics because they offer an easy and powerful viral marketing tool to spread the word about your company's products and services. Infographics are a great way to synthesize information simply and visually as seen in the above image from Vsual.ly. When done well, an infographic is a perfect poster-child for quick and effective dissemination of information via social media. #10: Justify Frequent Updates and Posts Why is it that some businesses are posting fast and furiously and others are crawling far behind? Chances are that the businesses posting more frequently had to justify to management the importance of maintaining an active presence. ‘As we discussed in #5, autoposting does not offer a suitable alternative to real-live human beings who can respond to comments and post breaking news updates. A tool such as How often do you tweet could shed some insight:Monitor your social media engagement compared with your competitors’. Share the results with management to help justify a request to dedicate more time and resources to the company’s social media efforts #11: Keep Klout in Perspective Klout utilizes Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Wikipedia and Instagram data to create a Klout user profile that is assigned a “Klout score,” a numerical value between 1 and 100, Many critics suggest Klout scores aren't representative of the influence a person has and discount the scores, as well as the thinking behind Klout. Mark Schaefer offers an alternate view: “The ability to create and move content is the absolute key to online influence. So think about this—to the extent that you could actually measure that, wouldn't you also be creating an indicator of relative influence?” When it comes to Klout scores, don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Instead, ask what you can learn from your competitor's higher score and how you can do what they're doing with their content. #12: Look to the Future of Social Media The question of social media’s ability to capture leads has been at the forefront of marketers’ minds from the beginning. Twitter is the latest network to offer an approach that will let marketers be more proactive with lead generation cards. Twitter describes lead generation cards this way: “[The cards] make it easy for users to express interest in what your brand offers. Users can easily and securely share an email address with your business without leaving Twitter or having to fill out a cumbersome form. "When someone expands your Tweet, they see a description of the offer and a call to action. Their name, @usemame, and email address are already pre-filled within the card, The user simply clicks a button to send this information directly (and securely) to you.” At the time of this writing, Twitter stated, “Currently lead generation cards will only be available to our managed clients; we have plans to launch this card globally and to small- and medium-sized businesses soon." Stay updated on the availability of Twitter's lead generation cards so you'll be ready to use them. #13: Make Your Blog Mobile-Friendly don't know about you, but | seem to be visiting more and more websites on my mobile phone these days. If I land on a page that isn’t mobile-friendly and it's slow and difficult to navigate, 'm out of there. Jon Young provides 8 tips to make your website mobile-friendly: + Only give visitors content they need. + Carefully plan your layout. + Landing pages should be simple. + Design for multiple browsers and device compatibility. + Always include soci media icons.+ Automate the experience and use mobile redirects. + Provide a link to your full site. + Usability should be top priority. Don't give readers any reason to leave your site. Be mobi #14: Network in All the Right Places eady and -friendly. What social networks do your customers favor? Are they on Twitter and Facebook, but haven't embraced Google+ yet? Ryan Little writes, “One recent study on social media usage revealed that the average user has two social media accounts, While some users find pleasure in multiple networks, there are people who have found a single community they love and stick with it, even when the temptations of a new social network arise. And there are others who have used various networks and narrowed their usage down until only one platform remained.” The situation gets a little more complex for businesses. It's important to keep in mind that your customers may favor one network today and in six months discover that another meets their needs better. Follow your customers and prospects so you can network in all the right places. #15: Outsource Content Development as Needed Can your business keep up to date with all the tasks associated with maintaining social presences (eg., reading and sharing good content, responding to users’ comments, asking questions to help engage your audience)? ‘Tim Devaney and Tom Stein write, “Studies show it takes a midsize company about 32 hours a month to capably handle a single social media platform.” According to Eve Mayer, “The companies that have the most effective social media communications are those that have a combination of internal and external people doing social media.” She advises businesses to take several steps toward a successful social campaign: + Decide what you want to achieve + Don't spread yourself too thin + Keep some social media in-house + Send some social media to a consultant, someone who understands social media and can apply that knowledge across many different platforms, How many hours a month does it realistically take for your business to maintain social presences? Don't let the shortage of internal resources hamper your online capabilities. Outsource social media to cover your bases. #16: Present Your Human Side With Photos Photos and other types of visual content are highly shareable on social networks. Pam Moore suggests that when you post photos of your team, it helps to show your business as a human brand and build relationships with your community.Social media has made it possible for you to share information about your business in a multitude of ways. Photos can show your serious, productive, silly, creative, successful and charitable sides—but above all, be sure to expose your human side #17: Question Readers for More Engagement Questions are a good example of engaging content and have become a frequent go-to tactic, especially on platforms such as Facebook. Belinda Whittaker suggests three types of good questions to ask: + Pure fan engagement questions to help tap into the interests and lifestyles of your fans. + Market and competitive analysis questions to generate conversations and engage with possible leads who are interested in buying that product. + Product/service feedback questions that can serve as a fast focus group to find what people like most and what areas you can expand into. ‘Are you asking your readers questions? When they answer, do you reply? #18: Replicate Your Brand Identity From Platform to Platform Let's say you joined Facebook in 2008 and Google+ in 2012. A difference of four years can seem like eternity in the world of social media, Regardless of the year, you'll want to make sure you have a consistent brand identity today Desmond Wong examined how Google, Target, Etsy, Coca-Cola, Disney, Amazon, New Yorker magazine and SEOmoz approach brand consistency across multiple social media platforms. Factors included how they use design and graphics in unison across platforms, and whether they use consistent colors, fonts, icon styles and logos If you're in doubt about whether you demonstrate a consistent brand experience, take a look at all of your pages side by side and see if there are any changes you need to make. #19: Strengthen In-Person Events With Social Media Promotion At times you may wonder about the relationship between in-person events and social media, and how they're able to coexist. lay Baer describes 7 ways to use social media to promote in-person events: + Engage—encourage potential attendees to interact with you early on by crowdsourcing feedback + Intrigue—create an event page on event listing sites (e.g., Facebook events, Eventbrite) + Invigorate potential attendees with videos, blog posts, press releases, Twitter list of attendees, etc. + Integrate—pick a hashtag for the event to get people talking + Inform—ask attendees to vote on session suggestions via text messages, consider QR codes on badges. + Propagate—stream live video of your event+ Aggregate—spread the conference presentations as widely as possible; use email links on your website and publish on SlideShare. in-person events, combined with online social networking, provide terrific opportunities for businesses to reap the benefits of both worlds. #20: Talk With Team Members to Keep Up Momentum and Morale None of us should work in a vacuum. We need to know what's working and what isn't, But sometimes the people seeing the analytics aren't necessarily the ones who are managing the company’s online presences. Heiler suggests that one critical way to keep your social media team engaged is. ie them with updates on goals. As he says, "You need to keep them updated by sharing your successes with them. Has your website traffic increased significantly since putting together your social media team? Is your blog generating more qualified leads?” To gamer support, show team members the results of their efforts #21: Use a Conversational Tone to Engage Readers Social media has changed the way businesses communicate publicly. In fact, we're often advised to avoid stiff and stodgy business writing and encouraged to adopt a more conversational tone And yet sometimes we're at a loss to know what that means for our business. Courtney Seiter suggests you explore your culture, community and conversation as you develop your social media voice. As she says, “Take us inside your brand's experience... listen to the way your community voices their feelings, speak their language, on their terms... and then communicate with personality and authenticity. No strong-arming or hard selling, just talking in a way that’s comfortable, conversational and relatable.” Use a conversational tone to make your content feel more authentic and engaging to readers, #22: Visit a Number of Search Engines to Find the Perfect Image With all the attention images receive on social media, it stands to reason that businesses will be on the lookout for interesting visuals. Joshua Lockhart provides a list of six visual search engines to help you find the image you want. He suggests TinEye, CC Search, Compfight, FlickrStorm, WeSEE and Google Image Search Take a few minutes and check out the visual search engines, When you find one great image you hadn't previously come across, it will make a difference#23: Widen Your Writing Style With Online Tools When you're busy writing online content, it may feel like you don't have the time to stop and look into new writing tools. But when you do, you're apt to find a treasure trove of useful tips. That's how I felt when | came across Sherice Jacob's unique list of apps, websites and software programs for online writers: WordCounter, Cliche Finder, Creativity Portal, Unstuck, ZenWriter, Byword, Readability, and SychroEdit Writing tools can help recharge your battery while fulfilling specific needs. #24: (E)xpand Your Article With Relevant Online readers often gravitate to tips-related articles, A search on the keyword “tips” produced 30,400,000 global monthly searches. Suggested keyword terms included every imaginable type of “tips,” for example, photography, makeup, Sudoku, travel, weight loss. Regardless of the industry, people are often looking for tips Include tips articles in your content marketing plan for your business to interest new readers. #25: Yield to Your Customer’s Journey Social channels differ in the roles they play in the customer's journey towards making a purchase Lee Odden writes, “Understanding the customer experience from awareness to consideration to purchase folds well into the core principle of Optimize—to empathize with your customer and understand how they discover, consume and act on information. By doing so, you can create a practical digital marketing plan that optimizes for attraction, engagement and conversion.” heck out Google's Customer Journey tool to see the differences by channels and industries. #26: Zero In on Your Customer’s Interests and Needs What do your customers care about? What information will help them in their day-to-day work or make their lives easier and more successful? If you're going to go to great lengths to craft and publish content, keep your customer's interests and needs front of mind. Your Turn There's a lot going on in the world of social media marketing today. We've covered some solid ways to help ground your efforts and explored some of the innovative changes that can affect your presence.8 Powerful Reasons You Need to Use Video Marketing We recently published an infographic on how powerful video will become. But the future has already arrived. 2016 has been a full-on video revolution year for marketers. According to Wyzowl statistics, 61% of businesses have incorporated video as a marketing tool, 66% of these companies were not using video a year ago. This trend has progressed rapidly and will reach new heights sooner than we think. Undoubtedly, video marketing is one of the newest additions in your promotion toolbox. You might still have your doubts. Is it really worth to consider using videos for promoting your business? Do you have enough resources to study and apply video content in your marketing? The answer is simple: Yes, it’s worth it, Not only because everyone’s doing it but because video is one of the most versatile and profitable digital marketing tool out there. Here are 8 reasons why you should use video marketing right now. 1. Video Boosts Conversions and Sales First things first. Videos can make you some serious money. Adding a product video on your landing page can increase conversions by 80%, And Treepodia team has made it sure that video works well regardless of the category in which it is deployed Increase in CVR% increase in % Video can also lead directly to sales. Studies show that 74% of users who watched an explainer video about a product subsequently bought it. So better start crafting your exciting product videos now! Ifyou think about it, the effectiveness of video is not even that surprising. After all, vision is our most dominant sense. Most information transmitted to our brain is visual. So if already pictures can boost engagement massively, imagine what moving pictures can do to your business.2. Video Shows Great ROI To get you even more excited, 76% of businesses say that video provides good return on investment. Even though video production is not yet the easiest nor cheapest task, it pays off big time. Besides, online video editing tools are constantly improving and becoming more affordable. And even your smartphone can make pretty decent videos already. Another good news is that your videos don’t have to be perfect. It’s the content that matters! Latest research shows that users are mostly put off by videos that don’t explain the product or service clearly enough. Low quality and poor design didn’t matter nearly as much, So it’s fair to say that video is like pizza ~ when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good! 3. Video Builds Trust Trust is the foundation of conversions and sales, But building trust should be a goal on its ow1 The whole concept of content marketing is based on trust and creating long-term relationships. Stop selling and let the people come to you by providing them interesting and useful information. I couldn’t have said it better than Mark Schaefer, the Executive Director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions: The new era demands a focus on ignition, not just content, on trust, not just traffic, and on the elite people in your audience who are spreading and advocating your content. Video does it all. Video content is likely to engage us and ignite emotions. And when we talk about elite people in the audience, YouTubers have become the most powerful social media figure to promote your brand. So, if you are serious about content marketing, you must be serious about video, too. Promotional videos can foster trust as well. Some consumers are still sceptical about buying products and services on the internet because they of the fear of being cheated. But effective marketing videos present your products in a conversational form. That creates a sense of individual approach which is why 57% of consumers say that videos gave them more confidence to purchase online. 4. Google Loves Videos Videos allow you to increase the time spent by visitors on your site. Thus, longer exposure builds trust and signals search engines that your site has good content. Moovly gives us whopping statistics: You're 53 times more likely show up first on Google if you have a video embedded on your website. Since Google now owns YouTube, there has been a significant increase on how much videos affect your search engine rank.Make sure to optimize your videos on Youtube for SEO. Write interesting titles and descriptions, Add a link back to your website, products and services. Give potential customers the way to take the next step. And explore the world of interactive videos, to enourage actions even more. 5. Video Appeals to Mobile Users Video and mobile go hand in hand. From 2012 to 2014, mobile video views have increased by 400 percent. YouTube reports mobile video consumption rises 100% every year. Since people like to watch videos on the go, and the amount of smartphone users is growing, your video audience keeps getting bigger and bigger: In addition, Google tells us that smartphone users are twice as likely than TV viewers and 1.4 times more likely as desktop viewers to feel a sense of personal connection to brands that show video content or ads on their devices Smartphone video viewers are: 1.4X as likely to O: -4X as likely to watch ads on O) rey attention to ads their devices or branded content i: ,f as TV viewer desktop viewer the next highest-rated platform That being said, brands need to be sensitive to the personal experience people have on their smartphones. For example, give them a better choice in the video content they consume. 6. Video Can Explain Everything Launching a new product or a service? Create a video to show how it works. 98% of users say they’ve watched an explainer video to lea more about a product or service. That is why 45% of businesses who use video marketing said that they have an explainer video on their home page. Of those businesses, 83% said that their home page explainer video was effective.Trying to explain a difficult concept? Create animated videos. Animation can bring concepts to life that no text or live video can. Besides, boring talking heads are not enough anymore to break through the clutter. Animated videos are a perfect combination of entertainment, nostalgia and simplicity. And they work. 7. Video Engages Even the Laziest Buyers Video is a great tool for learning but it’s also super easy to consume. Today’s life is too busy to have time to read long product descriptions or dig deep into services. The modern customer wants to see the product in action, This is one of the most important driving forces of video advertising, Video marketing can capture a wide audience and it works on many levels. Even the laziest ones. Make sure you target not only to the eyes but also to the ears of the potential client. Your competitive advantage gets double power! 8. Video Encourages Social Shares In the 8th annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report Michael Stelzner stated that 60% of the social marketers used video content in 2015 and 73% of the total respondents planned to use it in 2016. And they sure did. Social networks also encourage video content with their new features. Facebook has launched 3600 Video, Live Video, and Lifestage (A Video-Centric App for Teenagers). Instagram put in place 60-Second Videos & Instagram Stories, Twitter has Periscope. And YouTube is the second most popular social network in the world However, | media context video marketers must remember that people share emotions, in $0% not facts. 76% of users say they would share a branded video with their friends if it was entertaining, So create fun entertaining videos to encourage social shares. Emotions are not exactly ROI but social shares can increase traffic to your site, and you can take it from there. Bonus Tip 1: Video Ads Work Wonders Hear this: the average click-through-rate of video ads is 1.84%, That’s the highest CTR of all digital ad formats! And for a 15-second non-skippable YouTube video ad the completion rate is 92%. For skippable video ads, the rate is 9%NON SKI Less than 15 seconds 92% 9% 16 -30 seconds 94% 12% More than 30 seconds 96% 14% Video ads are also highly effective in social media platforms. Facebook, clubbed with Nielsen. 4% of the total Ad Recall ht ag projected the value of video ads on its platform. They learned that nds of the video. So, nst banner can be achieved already within the first 10 si blindness by making video ads instead. Bonus Tip 2: Video Is Rocking Email Campaigns When your creating videos already, make sure you to incorporate them in your email marketing campaigns. An introductory email that includes a video receives an increase click-through rate by 96%! That’s a great way to stand out from competition and get your message across. Conclusion Video advertising is becoming more and more affordable and widespread. Partly because advanced technologies but also because it’s easy to spread across the globe. Making marketing videos for your business requires creativity and knowledge of human psychology. The cocktail of these components makes it possible to create real miracles of adverti ng at minimal cost7 Steps to Create an eCommerce Website with Design and Pages Do want an online store but don’t want to spend thousands of dollars to build one? If the answer is yes, why not build your own store using Selz.and the Design and Pages app. We'll show you how to create an eCommerce website in 7 steps, quickly and easily, without any special technical skills or experience. And for only a few hundred dollars a year. We've created an app called Design & Pages, which makes the process mega easy. Here’s what you need to think about when creating with the best eCommerce platform, Step 1: Decide on your domain Do you need a custom domain for your eCommerce website? The short answer is no, you don’t need one as you get your own sub-domain like “mysite.selz.com” for free when you register for free with Selz If, you plan to sell multiple products and build a brand, a custom domai gives your eCommerce store: is the way to go. A custom domain + A recognizable brand that belongs to you e.g. mystore.com + A professional email address linked to your domain where people can contact you. + Search engine optimization (SEO) benefits Using a custom domain with your Selz store can be accomplished in a few clicks, If you don’t have a domain name already you can get one from our partner “iwantmyname” and the domain will be setup automatically If you already have a domain, you can use it for your Selz store using the Custom Domain app. Here are more detailed instructions for using a Custom Domain Step 2: Choose the right platform This is easy. You ideally want an eCommerce platform that’s flexible and easy to use. Most small business owners don’t want to be bothered with hand coding their website, Business owners and solo entrepreneurs need a platform that integrates easily with their existing site or allows them to set up a site from scratch in only a few steps. That’s why Selz. and the Design and Pages app is a popular choice. It’s designed to help you create a professional and stylish eCommerce website and a competition-beating price point. Plus, the store can easily be customized, as you'll see in the next step. If you've already got a website, you can easily add buy buttons, widgets or embed a simple store to any page on your site. If using WordPress for your site, there is a free WordPress eCommerce plugin available for you touseStep 3: Design your store Next, it’s time to design your store, Selz allows you to add pages to your online store so you can give buyers more information about you, your products, and your services to make them feel more comfortable about making the purchase. Include an about page and a contact page at the very least to help potential buyers connect with you. You can add video and text onto your pages. Other important items for your eCommerce website include: «A photo: People like dealing with real people + A store name: Selz uses your account name by default, but you can always change this. + A logo: For branding and recognition + Acolor scheme: You can easily change this in the Selz. dashboard for better brand alignment + Trustmarks and payment logos: These help people feel comfortable shopping with you and are built into Selz Give your whole store a professional look by using the themes built into Design & Pages. This provides a business-like design at a click of a button, making it more likely that people will want to buy. Design & Pages includes 7 themes to start with, with more on the wat Or you can design your own if comfortable with editing CSS. Design & Pages uses Liquid Syntax which is the same as Shopify Step 4: Set up payments There are two key aspects of payments for your eCommerce website: how customers are going to pay you and how you are going to get those payments into your own bank account. In many cases, this means finding a third party payment processor to act as the go-between. Luckily, when you use Selz, there’s no need for that, It couldn’t be easier and quicker. Selz offers + Secure payment handling + Integrated SSL + Acceptance of payments from anywhere + Payments via PayPal or into your own bank account + WordPress eCommerce integration Set up your location and default payment curreney for shoppers and yourself in your store dashboard to make this happen. Step 5: Add products Next, add some products to your eCommerce website, Here's how this works with Selz: + Choose your product type (physical, digital or service). If you're offering a video course, it’s worth noting that Selz, has no bandwidth or storage limits and you can upload files up to an enormous 15GB + Give your product a name and description + Set the price and the quantities available for sale + Create a preview of your item by uploading a photo, an audio file or including a YouTube or Vimeo video URL + Choose from a range of delivery and pricing options as well as specifying any variantsNote that great descriptions and clear images are proven to convert, so step s worth spending some time on this Step 6: Check out the checkout Shopping cart abandonment is the plague of eCommerce websites. Avoid it by + Making sure your website and especially your checkout works on tablets and smartphones, There are no worries on this score as Selz as it’s designed to work on desktops, smartphones, and tablets. + Letting people purchase multiple items at once using the Selz Shopping Cart app + Offer free shipping if you can, or be very clear about shipping costs upfront before customers get to the checkout) Recent UK research shows that 28% of shoppers abandon their purchase if they don’t like the payment options offered, and the percentage is even higher (32% in the 18-24 age group). We’ ve found that one particularly popular payment option is PayPal, which is why we've integrated it into Selz via an app. With PayPal as a payment option, you can take payments from anywhere and give those customers extra peace of mind Step 7: Look after SEO and analytics One thing that is very important in creating your eCommerce website is search engine optimization (SEO) Use the latest guidance on SEO to help people find your eCommerce website, products, and services online Track the performance of your eCommerce website with an analytics solution. Integration with Google Analytics is built into Selz. This will help you monitor site and product pages so you can improve them for more sales, reach, and effectiveness. Netiquette Tips For Online Discussions “Discussion is an exchange of knowledge; argument an exchange of ignorance” once said Robert Quillen, an acclaimed journalist, who was also a discussion specialist. Amazingly enough, this quote is still suitable, after almost a century, for all kinds of discussions, whether offline or online. Indeed, as an online leamer, your goal when participating in an online discussion related to your eLearning course is the exchange of knowledge; after all, you are taking eLearning courses because you want to learn. But is there an appropriate netiquette for interaction in the online environment? In this article, (Il share 10 netiquette tips for online discussions in order to help you effectively interact with your virtual classmates when writing is the only communication means that you have. 1, Use proper language. Typos, spelling errors, and mixed up sentences reflect on you; correct spelling and grammatical construction are a must, so keep in mind to read through your posts before you submit them. Moreover, try to avoid slang words as much as possible, as this is also an online education environment and slang is considered neither academic, nor professional. Finally, never type in all caps; writing in all capital letters is regarded as shouting, and this, apart from being annoying, it could be considered rude. 2. Be precise. Being misunderstood is quite common in online interactions; escape the2 miscommunication trap by double checking that what appears perfectly clear to you is not confusing your readers. The best way to test your messages for clarity is to read them aloud before you send them; this way, you will be able to see if they make sense Avoid emoticons and “texting” writing. Using emoticons and writing in “texting” language, that is by using abbreviations, might be considered too casual or even childish; refrain from them as much as possible. Online discussions require professional writing; smiley faces or linguistic shortcuts are more appropriate for chatting with your friends or instant messaging. Be explanatory. Justify your opinion. Points can be easily missed if hidden in a flood of text; when making a thorough comment, be as brief as possible. If you have several points you want to develop, prefer to post them individually in more than one focused messages, rather than in a long, overly wordy paragraph. However, avoid posting messages that contain only a few words and generic statements, such as “| agree with you’. Keep in mind that you need to contribute to the online discussion, so remember to always justify your points of view. Read all comments before hitting “submit”. What you need to remember when participating in an online discussion is that once you send your comment, there is no way to take it back. This is why you should always think about the content of your message before contributing it. Before replying to a question, read carefully all comments that your peers have already posted, no matter how many they are. If you don't, it is very likely that you will end up repeating things others have already said, and this, apart from contributing nothing new to the online discussion, will seem like you ignore your virtual classmates. Once you have ensured that your comment will indeed add a new element to the online discussion, try to explain yourself as clearly as you can. If your post is still misconstrued, correct the misunderstanding right away Tone down your language. Because written language lacks the support of facial or voice communication clues, it can be easily misinterpreted. A great way to deal with this is to tone down your language; avoid the use of strong words and, again, read aloud everything you want to post before you send it. Moreover, try to avoid humor and sarcasm completely, as they can both easily create misunderstandings and tension. Recognize and respect diversity. One of the great beauties of eLearning courses is that you can meet people from all parts of the world, as internet is a global medium. This means that while participating in an online discussion you and your virtual classmates may use the same language to communicate with each other, but the truth is that cultural backgrounds, linguistic terminology, and abilities to express oneself in written language may vary significantly in an online learning environment. If your virtual classroom is a typical one, it will be ethnically rich and multicultural. This is why it is important to respect diversity and opinions different from yours, no matter where they come from. It is ok to disagree with a point of view, but it is definitely inappropriate to disrespect and be offensive towards others. Being open to different points of view is a sign of intelligence; furthermore, paying attention to alternative viewpoints is one of the greatest ways to learn. Needless to say, profanity, and racist, sexist, ageist, and religious comments are unacceptable, no matter how innocent or “funny” may sound to you. On the other hand, if you are the victim of an insulting remark, try to maintain your calm and resist returning the offense. Rather, report the issue directly to your eLearning course instructor.8. Control your temper. In addition to the previous tip, you may be respectful, but others may be not. When being personally attacked on the web, it is easy to get angry. But you won't win any argument if you lose your temper; tantrums lead nowhere. Instead, take a deep breath and count to ten; if needed, get away from your computer and go for a walk around the block before you reply. This way you will ensure that, while being calmer, you can argue the point instead of attacking the person who made it. More often than not, a bit of thinking and a bit of time result in more rational and coherent responses. 9. Take your posts seriously. Participating is the number one rule for online discussions, but posting for the sake of posting wastes other people's time. Always remember to add something new to the conversation and not repeat something that someone else has already said. Most importantly, stay on topic. Irrelevant tangents confuse your peers and make you seem that you don’t know what you are talking about; make sure that every comment you post stays within the scope of the online course material. If you are looking for simple social interaction with your virtual classmates, check if there is an off-topic discussion area in the online forum. 10. Be credible. Finally, be careful not to mislead people when replying to a question. If you are not a 100% sure of your answer, say so. And if you are using the intellectual property of others, e.g. websites, books, blogs, journal articles etc, to support your argument, always cite your sources. Assigning proper credits when referencing other sources is a sign of being a respectful, responsible, and trustworthy online discussion participant.CW eis rome wwwtourcedu4 Positive Effects Of Social Media On Business The effects of social media have been widely discussed and debated in terms of everything from SEO to relationships to job prospects. But when it comes to social media for business, the consensus is pretty clear: companies have little to lose and much to gain by using social networks wisely. And by wisely we mean ... Content — lots of it, and all authenti Your Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or other pages are places where people interested in your product, service, industry or individual business can gather to share news, information, tips and special deals. Notice we didn’t include “ad pitches” in the list. Web users are already bombarded by marketing, so use your social pages as a respite. The best content may be widely shared, and can characterize you as more credible than your competitors. SEO Your carefully considered SEO keywords are not limited to your website, The more you use 200d keywords on your social pages, the more ingrained they will be to search engines, which counts things like the how often your Twitter feeds are re-tweeted or your Facebook posts are shared to establish your company as credible. SERPs Search engine results pages (SERP) don’t happen in a vacuum. A lot of behind-the-scenes activity takes place before a certain web page makes it to the top of the Google listings. The famous Penguin and Panda algorithms, for example, prowl pages to ensure that no funny business (like black hat is going on. Your social pages that attract likes, comments and shares help establish you as a credible source, which can improve SEO results. Lead Generation Face it, the goal of all inbound marketing is to drive action: increase web traffic, convert the best visitors into leads via a well-designed landing page, then follow up with premium attention that reflects their preferred status and turn them into paying customers. Getting from "visitor" to "customer" is sometimes a bumpy ride, but social media can grease the wheels of your journey. If you determine your target market uses Facebook, be there. If they go for videos, create a YouTube channel. And use cross-channel media to get them to your page. Everyone’s familiar with Facebook, Twitter and other logos embedded in website homepages Follow it up with logos on your subpages, in your direct mail, as QR codes and as email links.Networking If social media does nothing else, it fosters connections. You may identify a new target market via Twitter feeds. You may find your next great employee through a LinkedIn contact. You may even become a FourSquare destination that literally draws customers to your front door. One key to social success is “give as good as you get.” Endorse, like, comment on or share others? pages ~ it not only forges relationships, it gets your name out there on someone else’s site. 7 Ways to Improve Your Social Media Engagement Is your company’s social media as stale as last month's bread? Would you like to get more people-to-people interaction and begin a real conversation with your audience on social media? No matter your company’s industry or size, you can encourage these deeper connections and improve your social media engagement Here are some tips to help you encourage people-to-people interaction, whether you are on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin, Pinterest, Foursquare or Instagram, #1: Use Facebook to Highlight Employees and Reach Out to Fans Your company is only as good as your hardworking employees—so don't be afraid to highlight them. SEOmoz uses Facebook photo albums to highlight their employees. ‘The SEOmoz Facebook Page does an excellent job of this. Two examples in particular really jump out, The “Then and Now’ photo album: Employees provided photos from their youth along with recent photos of themselves. This is a great way to show fans the human side of SEOmoz. Plus, the baby pictures are adorable. The “What are Mozzers listening to?” photo album: All it took was snapping photos of employees with their headphones on and asking them what they were listening to. The result is an inside look at company culture. The MLS team Seattle Sounders FC creates Facebook Events and invites their fans. Is your company holding an event that’s open to the public? Then create a Facebook Event so followers can RSVP and add it to their calendars. This is a feature that is often overlooked by businesses—even many professional sports teams don't create Facebook Events for their home games. To get your juices flowing, here's a short list of the types of gatherings where a Facebook Event could be perfect:+ Seminars + Webinars + Open houses + Charity events + Conferences In the example below of the 500px Facebook Page, they use Facebook to feature their fans For the photographers who are lucky enough to be featured, it means tremendous exposure to the Page's almost-300,000 fans. As for everyone else, this type of post makes them feel part of a community with the possibility that they could someday be featured Social media gives companies the ability to easily recognize their customers and fans. Depending on your company's niche, there are numerous ways to feature your customers and fans, For example, you can highlight contest winners or encourage users to submit their own photos and videos. #2: Get Personal on Twitter Get creative by using video to connect on Twitter. You can use Twitter Vsnap to send personalized videos. Vsnap is a tool that allows you to record a video message with a maximum length of 60 seconds. Use this to send a personal video message to a follower on Twitter. Making these short video messages personable is easy. Look at your target’s Twitter bio to see if something interesting jumps out and use this to craft your message. Or say thanks to someone who shared your content or became a new follower. Or answer a question someone has about your company. Businesses have already found several creative uses for Twitter's Vine app, which allows you to take 6-second video clips These short videos can be fun to watch and encourage viewers to connect with you further. Your Vine videos don't have to only be about your products. Here are some other uses your company might want to consider to connect with your audience: + Atour of the office + Individual Vine videos for different teams + Encouraging customers to Vine about your business Let people know who’s tweeting, Have you ever noticed companies who include the initials of the person tweeting at the end of each tweet? Or companies who include the Twitter handle of the person(s) tweeting in their bio? Both of these strategies are a great way to make a branded Twitter account feel a little more human and the interactions more personal Time lets you know who is responding to their account on Twitter.Be part of the conversation. Don't ignore people who take the time to tweet to your company. Sometimes just acknowledging a tweet can make someone's day—potentially making that person loyal to your brand for a lifetime. If you take the time to tweet, take the time to respond to complaints, compliments and questions in a timely manner. Use humor to make your followers laugh. You never want to force it, but humor can be an effective way to make your company seem less robotic, And with the constant stream of information on Twitter, breaking it up with a laugh is always appreciated. #3: Use Google+ Circles, Communities and Hangouts to Create Valuable Conversations Create and share Google+ Circles your followers will find useful. One Google+ feature that is sometimes underutilized is the ability to share Circles. Your company can become a resource for users looking for more people to follow related to. your company’s industry. After sharing the Circle on Google+, you can copy the link and share it in a blog post or on Twitter. Furthermore, this allows your company to connect with the people in the Circle you've created and build your audience. They may see the Circle you've made and decide to share it on their own profile Here are some examples of the type of Circles your company could create and share: + Industry leaders + Speakers at conferences + Favorite writers Get active in the right Google Communities. Google+ Pages are able to take part in Google Communities like any other user: Pages can create, join, moderate and participate. Chances are there's already a Community that fits your company’s industry. If so, join the discussion. If not, make a new Community and invite others to join. To learn more about Google+ Communities, check out this article from Mike Delgado. Use Google+ Hangouts. With Google+ Hangouts, your Page can start a video chat with up to nine people. This is a great opportunity to connect with your audience. This New York Times Hangout featuring Nigella Lawson is a perfect example. It features a host— Lawson—and three home cooks who wrote in describing how they fared making Lawson's pasta recipe and why they wanted to be included in the Hangout.#4: Participate in LinkedIn Groups Linkedin Company Pages can feature up to three groups on their page in an effort to have more people join the group(s) Much like Google Communities, participating in Linkedin Groups is another opportunity to join the discussion in your company’s industry and answer questions. As an added bonus, more professionals in your field will see your company. This is a great opportunity for you to get more visibility for your company and to interact with people who may be interested in your products and services. #5: Use Pinterest to Invite Others to Pin on Your Boards Your company’s Pinterest boards don't have to be limited to just company pins. Collaborate with other users to give your account a more personal feel To invite other Pinterest users to pin to a specific board, go to the board and click Edit. Next to ‘Who can pin?” type the users’ names or their email addresses (Note: in order to invite someone, you must be following at least one of that user's boards.) Click Save Changes. Once the invited users accept your invitation, they'll be able to pin to the shared board. However, you can always remove the user and remove their pins. Moreover, invited users cannot change a board's title or description. Pinterest is just as much a community as any other social network. So remember to make the time to interact with other users by commenting on and repinning their pins. While you're at it, follow users’ boards that fit your company’s industry so you have a fresh stream of related content every time you login. #6: Don’t Forget to Engage on Foursquare Use Foursquare to leave tips When a Foursquare user visits a location page, they'll also see tips from other users. If your company has a location (or multiple locations) on Foursquare, leave tips at your own locations to show users the personable side to your company. These can be simple, or perhaps even offer an inside joke. Leaving tips at other businesses in your area provides a way to offer your authority on your industry. Best of all, Foursquare users get insightful tips and tricks. For example, maybe you own a travel agency and leave tips on the feedback you've heard about particular attractions. Or maybe you own a food website and leave tips at popular restaurants. In the above image, the History Channel provides some fun facts. Again, you'll be actively adding to the community Use Foursquare to create interesting lists Creating lists of places based on a general theme can help your company be seen by more people on FoursquareLists are something Foursquare users appreciate because they act as a resource that's easy to save, For instance, your company could create a list of its employees’ favorite lunch spots. Or the list could be the best places for company outings ‘Travel Channel has a list with the places Adam Richman has visited on the show “Man v Food Nation.” Over 8,000 users have saved it If you do decide to create a Foursquare list, login using the desktop version of Foursquare and make it from there. Compared to doing this on your phone, it’s much easier to find and save places to your list with more screen real estate, #7: Get Creative With Your Hashtag on Instagram Creating a hashtag and encouraging users to submit their photos is a smart way to stand out and be personable on Instagram The NBC News Instagram account recently asked users to tag their winter storm photos with the hashtag #NBCNewsPics. After the weekend passed, they chose four of their favorite user- submitted photos and featured the photos as a single image. In the description, they gave credit by including each user's Instagram username. Featuring user photos in this fashion on your company's Instagram account adds to the community. It also shows that you're on the social network to contribute more than just your own photos. There are several examples of companies doing this, including those in industries like journalism, sports and travel The easiest way to feature another user’s photo is through the use of third-party websites like Statigram and Webstagram. Both websites have the option to repost underneath all photos. Before reposting, don't forget to obtain permission from the user first. Viral Marketing Viral marketing referred to marketing techniques that use social networks to increases brand awareness and engagement. Viral marketing can also be used to achieve other marketing objectives such as product sales through word-of-mouth, video clips, ebooks, images or even text messages. The Anatomy of | Marketing ‘Successful viral marketing requires that marketers create successful viral marketing programs. The goal of these programs is to identify goals and opportunities. For example, a sample viral marketing programs can be created to identify individuals with high Social Networking Potential (SNP) and create viral messages that appeal to them. Viral marketing can now use a collection of online social media tools that can make a viral campaign or message immensely powerful. Social media has made it easy to create and execute a viral marketing campaign with 1,000 times greater impact than what you get from regular traditional advertising channel. Viral marketers now have access tools such as Twitter, YouTube Facebook, Instagram, Digg and Flickr. Millions of people use these social networks on a daily basis and with social media connection, viral marketing has become a true virus, spreading across the social media landscape. Five Keys to Effective Viral Marketing What are the key ingredients of an effective viral marketing campaign? While there are no set rules, here are some of the common components that can help you implement an effective viral campaign.Identify Audience It is a two-step process. First step is to identify your target audience — people who you intend to target and expect them to respond to “call-to-action" as a results of your viral marketing campaign. Second step is to individuals with high Social Networking Potential (SNP) and tweaking the viral messages to make sure it appeals to this segment. Viral Content Don't confuse viral marketing with online advertising. While both serve the same purpose, they are designed and executed very differently. For example, you don't want to create a 30 seconds commercial and share it through viral channels. Traditional marketing is about promoting your product, while viral marketing is about your target audience. You must establish a strong emotional connection with your audience. Make sure your content is targeting your audience and not your product and services. Make Strong Emotional Connection Most effective viral marketing campaign is the one that appeals to our emotions. Your campaign need to invoke strong emotional response. This means that some people will really like it — while others will get very angry. Easy to Share Viral marketing is all about your audience so it makes perfect sense to allow them full control over your content. They should be able to share, download or embed the content in a commonly usable format, Your audience should be able to publish your content instantly and easily. 6 Social Media Monitoring Tools to Track Your Brand Do you monitor online conversations? ‘Are you looking for new tools to track your mentions? Whether you want to observe quietly, learn about your customers and what they're looking for, respond to critics or simply engage in conversation, you need to know what people are saying In this article I'll share six tools to use to monitor mentions on blogs and social media#1: Social Mention Social Mention is an excellent way to learn about brand mentions and interactions in an easy-to- digest visual format. Type in the name and click Search to see the links to your mentions. Sort by timeframe or source Also, find your brand’s strength (how often it's being discussed), the passion of the posting (how likely someone will repeat the mention), the sentiment (positive to negative) and the reach (measure of influence). Learn the top keywords, users, hashtags and sources as well fogs Miccbiogs Hookmans images Video All social: |" tamar weinberg 0% 81 Mentions about tamar weinberg strength sentiment sort y:|Date+|Result:|Anyine > 30% 19% @ The New Emergence of Social Media | passion reach Empowerment (Full Meetup) 7 days avg, per mention last mention 22 days ago 28 unique authors Oretwoots Social Mention is an excellent way to search for people who are talking about your brand Plus, get an RSS feed of your mentions to stay in the loop. Social Mention is a free online service. #2: Mention Mention is one of the newer tools that replaced Google Alerts. (Google Alerts would send emails notifying you whenever a keyword or phrase you specified was cited online.) Mention is a way to visualize your online presence, separating the signals you want from the rest of the noise online. The platform allows you to monitor millions of sources in real time and in 42 languages, so you can react and interact Do an online search or elect to receive a daily email of the aggregate of mentions from the previous day, Plus, if you work with a group or large company, export stats to PDF or CSV, so you can share data with your team. Mention offers a 14-day free trial, and then a variety of plans from which to choose. The free basic plan is one alert, one user, 250 mentions/month#3: Talkwalker Use Talkwalker Alerts to set up a search query for your keyword or phrase. Narrow the returned data by result type, language, frequency and quantity. talkwalkeralerts x CREATE MANAGE Create Alert RCH QUERY | | Everything All languages Once a day Only the best results YOUR EMAIL Set up keyword or phrase searches through Talkwalker Alerts, Talkwalker gives you brand mentions over time, as well as the sources where these mentions ocour. Learn about the performance of the brand mention, the engagement levels, influencers talking about your brand (this includes websites, as well as social media), sentiment analysis, general themes featured in a tag cloud and demographic data (location, language and gender breakdowns) There's even a world map tracking where conversations originate. Pie charts hover over every location to indicate the sentiment in each country.Talkwalker Alerts narrow keyword performance by many factors, including geographic location. While Talkwalker Alerts is another free service to use as a replacement for Google Alerts, | don’t find it as comprehensive or thorough as Mention. For example, on one of my searches, Talkwalker found about 50% of the references that Mention located, However, | use them in tandem to ensure Ihave decent coverage. #4: Topsy Topsy is a search engine that lets you monitor brand mentions across the web, with a focus ‘on social insights from top conversations online. Topsy’s database is in real time, and it measures sentiment and provides analytics. Sort by links, tweets, photos, videos or influencers, or include everything, Plus, drill down to how recently results were discovered, This is especially helpful if you have a large volume of content to wade through.TOPSY — srwennes 2 ruts @ penton 8 te ‘View trends on Topsy Anaiytics patoge Qe Semeniscn at = ES gg) ve emo : Patsoomys | 4 Jippie :) RT @Wortiaden: sBuchtipp: "Social Media Marketing” wontadencanbuchsosarme. V2 Topsy's social search can be sorted by timeframe, and includes a sentiment score in addition to analytics. Topsy appears to have more comprehensive data than both the Mention and Talkwalker free service. Just remember, its focus is on influencers and top (not all) conversations. #5: Hootsuite Perhaps the easiest and most common brand-conversation monitor is Hootsuite. It helps you keep on top of chatter in real time on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. To use Hootsuite most effectively, craft a stream with the keyword that represents your search, First, add a stream, and then select the keyword. Now, select the account under which you’re monitoring the brand, Next, type in the keyword or phrase. Add it, and then add the stream, Add Stream * [0 Twitter Efi Facebook Select a profil: oocles Bisex) a Enter a word or phrase (max. 3) you would like Bi Linkeain ee B foursquare social media examiner a @ WordPress 3 tamar wenberg @ mixi 4b, Shared with team @ Apps Use Hootsuite to monitor social conversations by adding a keyword or phrase in a streamYou can also do searches for your brand on Hootsuite for Twitter and Facebook. There are free, pro and enterprise accounts available. #6: PinAlerts PinAlerts is more of a Pinterest alert system than a traditional brand monitoring platform. It monitors links to pins from your website, and notifies you via email when someone pins from your site. Using this tool, you can jump right into conversation with people on Pinterest who shared your pins and develop relationships with them Add PinAlerts 3 Easy Steps Cs ed oe eC Seca te LC uy (ot cn TE eC co (6) cerereeet ota potent Saree: aes y: -annot add some domains like facebook.con Peng http: //www. socialmediaexaminer.com PinAlerts helps you monitor who pins from your site. PinAlerts gives you another angle from which to monitor the mentions of your brand’s URL. Conclusion It's helpful to monitor your brand online, so you can engage when appropriate and respond when necessary.10 Metrics to Track for Social Media Success Do you want to measure the impact of your social media marketing efforts? Wondering which social media metrics you should focus on? Analyzing the raw data on campaign performance helps you determine which tactics are working In this article, you'll discover the top 10 social media metrics you should be monitoring on Facebook and Twitter. #1: Track Follower Growth Your total count of fans, followers, and page likes represents the number of unique people who have taken an interest in your business. Ideally, you should consistently grow your following, This means the content you're sharing and the ways you're engaging your audience need to be enticing enough to attract new fans. Facebook On Facebook, it's easy to get a detailed analysis of your number of page likes. Go to your page and click the Insights tab. Then click Likes in the left navigation. You'll see your total likes, as well as gains and losses of likes over a designated time period. This lets you monitor your audience’s reactions to certain posts or determine which time periods are best for bringing in new fans. A Oven se Uses 2 Reach Vita © Ponts 2 Poop Total Page Likes as of Today: 9,742 View your total number of page likes in Facebook Insights.Twitter On Twitter, you can find your follower count on your Twitter account page. To view trends and statistics for your followers, visit Twitter Analytics. Click on your profile picture at the top right of any Twitter page and choose Analytics from the drop-down menu, WAnatytics tome Tweets A ay be a emo) 28 day summary vnr:isnoe ops 96 roo BRK rive 55 t511.1% 794 4343, Go to the Home tab of your analytics to view trends and statistics for your Twitter followers. The data at the top of the page shows a continuous 28-day summary, with information on your followers on the far right. You can see gain/loss trends for recent followers. Scroll down to see a summary for previous months, which includes changes in followers #2: Identify Optimal Times for Engagement Knowing when your audience is most likely to engage with your content is important. It helps you tailor your strategy so you post your content at the right time (when your audience is most active) and the best days of the week. Facebook On Facebook, you can view your followers’ daily activity over the last week. By narrowing it down to individual days, you can see how engagement shifts by the hour. On your Insights page, click Posts in the left navigation and make sure When Your Fans Are Online is selected at the top. Then hover over the different days of the week (Sunday through Saturday) at the top of the Posts tab, Poe mtn [RIGA] reins Tee pet segs ep Onrine inh Yn FR] ie rep en YourFae fev Onne Pst ype Tp Pout om Pape You Wath Daa shown oa cent ae pti Tee doa shown in you compte eo. Go to the Posts tab under Insights to view your Facebook followers’ daily activity.Twitter ‘Twitter data is a little less comprehensive, as it doesn't provide engagement statistics for specific. times throughout the day. However, you can still see how engagement rises and falls by day over the last 28 days (default) or another designated time period. To find this information in your analytics, click the Tweets tab at the top of the page. wa i Tweet activity ‘Your Tweets earned 21.5K impressions over this 28 day period = Pray, sepamoer 1,206 tinge 23 (ERIE Too Tweets Tweets and reves Promoted Tanase werent rate The Tweets tab shows engagement data for your Twitter account. #3: Track Likes and Reactions for Your Posts Gauging how your audience reacts to the content you post and share is crucial for any marketing strategy. This direct response metric helps you determine whether your audience is interested in what you're currently publishing, and should inform the type of content you share in the future. If your only engagement is chirping crickets on certain topics, cut that content from your editorial calendar or send those articles through another channel to a different audience segment that might be more receptive. Facebook Facebook provides more in-depth measurements with its updated reaction system, which lets you know whether your fans like, love, dislike, or are upset by something you shared To find this information, go to your Insights page and click the Posts option in the left navigation, Then scroll down to All Posts Published and click on the right drop-down arrow to view Reactions, Comments, and Shares.Al Posts Published IB Reser: Crpanie/Pa [+ |W Postccks Ml Read erst snares |v essed + | Post Type Targeting Reach Engagement - = . i : View engagement data for your Facebook posts. The data in the Engagement column measures the total reactions for a post. If you want to see a more detailed look at a post’s performance, click on the post link to view the breakdown of reactions from your audience. 28 ° 1 he Well Rounded Content Marketer 1 1 ° ° ° ° ° ° ° 0 oos.l me ° See a reactions breakdown for a specific Facebook post. Twitter Twitter has a similar approach and displays all of your tweets for a selected timeframe. To find this data in your analytics, click the Tweets tab at the top and scroll down to view your tweets. You can also click Top Tweets to view only your most popular tweets. ° 0 00% want to go toa smarketingeonterencs eal he influencers lite f Confessions ofa Content Creatr:"1 Dont Care About Data" via Unthinkable M buf y/26264Check out engagement data for individual tweets. The Engagements column on the right is helpful, but it includes a lot of extra information (basically any interaction with the tweet). If you're just looking for likes for a particular post, scroll through the graphs on the right until you see Likes. This data shows the daily number of likes that your tweets are receiving, as well as your average likes per day. x ° wm LLL tnt ‘On average, you earned 0 Retweets per day Lukes a 4 129%] 85 & 44 4 9.1% | on average, you eared $ likes per day The Likes graph shows the daily number of likes your tweets are receiving, #4: Monitor Mentions Your fans and prospects are out there talking about you and you want to be a part of that conversation. For this reason, it's important to track your mentions. On Facebook, you'll get notifications whenever someone tags your business/username in their post. If people are not directly tagging you, you'll need to use a third-party tool to keep track of mentions on Twitter. #5: Delve Into Audience Demographics ‘As you grow your following, monitoring your audience demographics can inform your strategy and help you modify posts and paid ads for future promotions. Facebook On Facebook, you can access audience information in your Insights under People. Click the Your Fans section to view various demographic factors for your fan base View demographics for your Facebook audience,Twitter On Twitter, your analytics data provides audience information related to your followers. Simply click on Audiences to find the relevant information You'll see a broad overview of your audience, as well as specific demographics, lifestyle interests, and other information Technology Engisn Tecnoiogy ara Your current follower at ‘ost roune 12 thoes pe Interests Gender waweleny — wasore — ones —— we Croce —— =, Check out demographics for your Twitter following on the Audiences tab. If you're using Twitter for Business with paid advertising, you'll also have a Brand Hub tab at the top of the page, which includes more in-depth audience demographic information WAnalytics Home GrandHubv Tweets TwitterCarde Videos beta) Tools v Brand insights Barista Bar ‘SHARE OF CONVERSATION | [ AUDIENCE ‘CONVERSATION DETAILS Toul brand mereesone | | Trvoioe™ op gone 11 Phrase 29.6 31.0% Male coffee ¥ TrueVoice™ is your share of organic conversation on Twitter Your share of conversation has decreased by 95.8% over the last wook Competitor average 26 1. Barista Bar ar 31.0% oe 2. Latte Botte 4. Latte Central 5. Cofle Pot Cate Get more in-depth audience data on the Brand Hub tab.#6: Determine Reach ‘The Reach metric combines the number of people you've reached both within and outside of your audience. When people engage with your content, their activity is usually shared with their connections, which increases your page's reach Mixing more engaging content into your social strategy can significantly improve the reach of both your posts and your business Facebook On Facebook, go to your Insights tab and click the Reach option in the navigation panel on the left. The top graph you see displays your post reach, which is basically the number of people who saw your post. Scroll to the bottom of the page to find your total reach. This is the number of people who saw any activity from your page as a result of follower interactions, ads, mentions, check-ins, and so on. ee axa Total Reach Pronetone Se a ae ssonnc wrod | esen ‘Actions on Page Posts events wees Look at Reach data in your Facebook Insights. In the top Post Reach graphic, you can click on any given day to view posts that contributed to that day’s post reach count. Twitter On Twitter, click the Tweets tab in your analytics to display an Impressions column. This is the number of impressions for each tweet. As people interact with your tweets, the number of impressions will rise as a result of expanded reach W Analytics vets Tweets Tweets andrephes Promoted me | Sesvoeme Eegngeneet ® o ow ‘Semeday | want to goto a smarketingconference and frm 8 conga ine of al the Hinfuencers I wre fee Weny peop e ° 00% Confessions of a Content Crestor: “1 Dont Care About Data? via QUnthinkablePM but yf2cz 6H 6 ° 0% everyone ie an intuencer, then noone isan nuencer. StopMonitor the number of impressions for individual tweets. #7: Review Replies and Comments for Your Posts Replies and comments on your posts can help you gauge how interesting or engaging your topics are. As with reactions, they're direct response metrics that help you weed out uninteresting content from your publishing schedule. Because replies are typed out, you can also view individual posts that performed well to measure follower/fan sentiment. Facebook To find this information on Facebook, go to your Insights and click the Posts option in the left navigation. Scroll down to All Posts Published and click the right drop-down arrow to view Reactions, Comments, and Shares. Al Posts Published 1 Reach: Onane/? = Preaned + | Post Type Torgwtmg Reach Engagement uosco1s f Tawtenoninecrimuasrrainantgs g go ax | 2 scxai lore eee | 1 Qeorco frost at scotia mani z= ‘eed maretng essentae 800m Soc wih Kim Ga Look at replies and comments on Facebook. From here, you can view comment counts. If you want more details on the comments and audience sentiment, click on the post link to open the post's details and read through your followers’ comments Twitter On Twitter, you can easily measure the number of replies for each post, but bringing up replies to your tweets is alittle more complicated You can view post reply counts in your Twitter analytics. Click the Tweets tab at the top of the page and choose either Tweets or Top Tweets below the graph. Click on individual tweets to view engagement levels, which include the number of replies you received, ‘Twoet activity ‘Tweet Activity Impressions 512 Total engagements ° Ay Revers ager avcionceLook at replies for individual tweets. The graph on the right shows both the total replies for a designated period and the average number of replies for each day. #8: Find Out What Content Is Being Shared Content shares are important because they reflect how your audience perceives the value of your content. Highly shared posts indicate that your audience found the topic or type of content particularly helpful, or had a strong emotional or psychological connection to it. The more often content is shared, the greater the reach. To measure shares on both Facebook and Twitter, follow the above steps for measuring replies and comments. For Facebook, find your shares, and for Twitter focus on retweets. #9: Track Referral Traffic From Social Media Acquisition data tells you what kind of traffic you're getting from social to your website and how that traffic performs once it arrives. If you find one or more social channels aren't bringing you the number of click-throughs you expected, use this data to improve your calls to action and campaigns. Unlike the other metrics listed above, you'll find your referral traffic data in your Google Analytics, Under Acquisition in the left navigation, click on the Social top-level menu. In the menu under Social, click Overview or Network Referrals. % Network Referrals Social So Poe Social Net Conversions Paaes Access your referral traffic in Google Analytics. The Overview tab provides basic information on total sessions from each social network. On the the Network Referrals tab, view session counts, page views, duration, and pages visited per sessionAmn ~~» Sessions: 107 Arn ~~~. Sessions via Social Referral: 38 Conversions: 0 Contributed Social Conversions: 0 Last Interaction Social Conversions: 0 Social Network Sessions _% Sessions StumbleUpon 16 22.11% Twitter 14 MM 35.04% Facebook 6 M5 79% Linkedin 2 1 526% View traffic from social in Google Analytics. #10: Examine Click Rates Click rates have everything to do with conversions. Although they don't specifically focus on revenue generation, clicks help you understand how your followers engage with you, why they’re engaging, and what’s making them click on different links. Facebook Facebook has a fairly extensive click-tracking system, If you go to Posts on the Insights tab, youll find the number of post clicks for each individual post. This data signifies what content your fans found most interesting or enticing. Go to Actions on Page in the left navigation to see click counts for various elements (phone, directions, website, call to action, etc.). It also shows clicks based on user demographics Page Messages —-Nothcatlens | nsights—_Pubsshing Toots sea overvew ” ¥ ww m0 , io Les nt Reach aaa ‘otal Actions on Page ‘Actions on Page| ee People Wne Clicked Action Button By Age and Gender By County By y Dewce The Actions on Page section shows click counts for various actions. Twitter Use the above method for tracking retweets on Twitter to view individual link clicks in posts.You can also use a service like Buffer or Bit.ly for tracking your link clicks with custom links for different social channels. Conclusion Monitoring your brand's online performance is important, but keeping a close eye on your audience metrics is even more crucial. It's the best way to create targeted, customized content to improve engagement with your audience.