Influencer Marketing And Becoming A Trusted Expert

Establishing yourself as an expert within your business's niche has always been an important part of achieving lasting success. Public relations, or PR, was once considered a type of black art that required the assistance of a seasoned professional to be done right. Now, influencer marketing is taking over, and you are more than capable of handling the task yourself. Read on....

A Social Sphere

Social media has changed the way we conduct business and engage in all types of relationship building online. Influencer marketing takes advantage of the vast audience we can reach using social platforms, and customers and associates alike expect you to be an active contributor within online communities. The power you hold within your hands is stronger than ever, and if you use it correctly, your reputation amongst consumers and peers will be solid and help you to achieve success.

How Do You Know What To Do?

Achieving results from influence marketing takes a steady hand. You must understand your own strengths and weaknesses before asserting yourself as an expert, and you will need to understand what types of things your audience is looking for from professionals in your arena.

Take the time to reflect on what makes you unique in your specific niche, and then find all of the content you already have that offers value to your market, and study it! You can use existing content to generate interesting spins on topics; sometimes you already have information that can help you to establish yourself as an expert.

Once you begin to utilize all of your existing information in an influential way, you will naturally discover other topics to focus on, and you'll be able to generate additional content. Influencing your audience becomes second nature once you receive feedback from the people paying attention, and you'll be on your way to impressing your existing crowds, while gaining additional fans.

Q&A

Being able to assist people is what it all boils down to. When people know that they can look to you for answers to important questions, you are on the right path.

Believing in your power is important, but all things take time. If you want to master influencer marketing, you will need to dedicate yourself to the task of becoming influential. Taking a humble approach to asserting your power is the best way that you can teach, while being taught.

We hope that we've got your mind stirred and exited, contact us and we'll dig deeper into the topic of influencer marketing.

Pinterest: A Different Way to Utilize Social Media Marketing

Known as the underdog in social media behind Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest is gaining muscle in the world of social media marketing.

Coming on to the scene in 2009, Pinterest is a photo sharing website that allows users to create pinboards to organize their photos based on specific themes such as food, clothing and do-it-yourself activities.

With the right tools, Pinterest can be an extremely useful and profitable marketing tool for businesses as a lot of referral traffic can be obtained through the site.

The Selling Point of Pinterest

People are visual creatures and they like to see beautiful and interesting photos. People will post photos of things they find interesting and will share these images with their friends via pinboards. They key with this is to share captivating photos and allow them to be shared by many people very often. Each photo is a link to the source of the image -- i.e. the business website thus leading potential customers directly to the site.

Build A Following & Keep Them Coming Back

Again, people enjoy attractive images. The first step in gaining followers on Pinterest is to create an attractive account. People tend to be more inclined to follow an individual versus a business as an individual tends to be more believable unless the brand is well-known.

Create unique board names such as "Tomato Gardens" "Strawberry Gardens" and "Lettuce Gardens" as opposed to just "Gardens." When someone is searching for information in relation to a specific type of garden, the more specific information will populate thus leading to more pins and traffic to the business website.

Quality Matters

Using only high quality photos is vital to capturing customers. The image should appear professional with lighting to highlight the subject in the photo. The size of the image is also important because the image needs to be easily accessible by potential customers. Keep the resolution around 800 x 1000 pixels.

With millions of users on Pinterest every day, it is not that difficult to get a business name out there despite the high volume of pinned images. Keep in mind that people are on Pinterest to discover and learn new things. Take advantage of this and make this wonderful marketing tool work for your business.

Contact us today to learn how we can help you with your social media marketing campaign.

Three Tips For Small Business SEO And Social Media Marketing

As a small business owner, keeping up with the rapid changes in SEO and social media marketing can be overwhelming. Unfortunately, if you don't keep up with it, your company is likely to lose footing in a heavily saturated social media environment. Here are a few of the things that you should be aware of as you start to shift your marketing focus to the social media platform.

Maximize Your Mobile Efforts

With the intense schedules and busy lifestyles that most consumers lead now, mobile access has become the primary way that many people find businesses and products. Mobile sites are key for research, and social media platforms have become the go-to means for many consumers to stay in touch with their favorite brands and businesses. As a result, it is essential that your company's website is optimized for mobile access, or you have a site that's designed specifically for mobile users. Incorporating an app for smartphone users is also hugely beneficial for marketing. Further, make sure that anything you share on social media, including your photos and videos, is optimized for mobile users.

Use Social Media For Marketing

Living in a social media society means focusing some of your marketing efforts to those platforms. With so much consumer data being mined and stored by social media platforms, you have the ability to refine and target your ad campaigns to the precise customer base that you want to reach.

To do this successfully, start by assessing the demographics of your existing customer base, including those that interact with your social media profile. Use the business tools provided by each platform to determine what your target consumers are looking for. Then, you can build targeted advertisements for each sector of the audience.

Test New Campaigns Before They Launch

Avoid launching any marketing campaigns without testing them thoroughly. Few things cause greater frustration than responding to an ad campaign and finding out that the link the company used is no good.

In addition, thorough evaluation and testing will also help you catch any potentially overlooked problems with wording or perception in the images. Remember that viral social media posts are great for business, but not if they are going viral for the wrong reasons. Make sure everything is evaluated by an in-house team of multiple people before things go live.

For more help with your social media marketing and SEO efforts, contact us today.

Social Media Advertising - Don't Be Blind

Digital marketing strategies offer brands the ability to create, monitor, and modify campaigns with the greatest of ease, but many still doubt the effectiveness of a true digital strategy. It should be said that a full spectrum approach utilizing all available ad platforms will yield the most positive results, and if you want to succeed within the digital landscape, social media marketing needs to play a part in your success. The truth is, social media advertising is about much more than simply creating some ads, you need to understand the importance of trust and leadership before embarking on a social selling journey. Read on...

Follow The Leader

Building trust and establishing yourself as a leader within your brand's niche is first and foremost the most important piece of the social puzzle. Your company needs to offer value to its audience. You'll need to create high quality content that is engaging and relevant, and you need to have eyes on your social presence before you consider launching a well structured paid advertising campaign.

Gaining followers within communities on platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn requires dedication and hard work. Knowing your audience and providing them with tangible proof for why they should pay attention to your brand is a must. When you are aware of your own image within social platforms, you will be able to more effectively create campaigns that work.

The Tools

The analytic tools available to marketing professionals within digital platforms are robust, and can provide insight into a campaigns effectiveness, while also allowing for the creation of several tactics that can help you acquire followers, leads, sales, and additional traffic to any of your digital properties. Working with people who understand the marketing tools available well is a no brainer.

Understanding demographic data, key performance indicators, and campaign testing results are all necessary skills that will be utilized within any successful social media advertising campaign; don't allow yourself to be blind to the big picture, there's a lot to look at.

Go For It

Moving forward with your social strategy is important, and we're here to help. Hopefully, you'll consider the topics we've covered and contact us as soon as you are ready to see success.

Two Effective Digital Strategies Leading to Conversion Rate Optimization

Most companies realize that going digital is not just an option anymore; it's a necessity. No matter how small or big your business might be, you should have a website, blog and social media pages. And it's a good idea to keep updating these as much as you can, if you want to keep increasing traffic to your site. This in turn will help you to increase your customer base.

However, there's a certain problem that many companies have been seeing of late. Maybe you are getting a lot of traffic to your site but you're not getting that many new customers. There are many ways to solve this issue which fall under the general heading of conversion rate optimization. The idea is to convert viewers into buyers as much as possible. Here are some tips to help you do this:

Valuable Content

There are times when companies will just post blogs in order to improve their SEO. The more keywords they use, the more they'll show up in a variety of searches. And this means that more people will come to their website. However, if those people come to your website and find that your content is really not that interesting or useful, they're not going to stay on your website. They probably won't even read your article. They'll just move on to the next item that shows in their search.

So it's not a good idea to just keep posting content in order to attract visitors. You have to think long term. That's what a thought leader in the industry would do—post blogs and social media comments that are going to improve the lives of the people who read them. Don't just post filler content. And if this means that you have to read through everything yourself to make sure it meets your standards, then do so.

Aesthetics

Once you've made sure that your content is really great, you also have to think about aesthetics. You'd be surprised at how many people turn away from a website simply because they don't like the garish colors or they feel like it's too "busy." So stay away from garish colors and keep the layout simple.

You can still use bright colors, especially if you're in a creative field like fashion, but just use your judgment. You don't want to fade into the background by making your website too muted and too simple. But you don't want to stand out in an unseemly way. Go for a middle of the road approach.

Contact us for more great digital strategy tips.

Also .... Check out this awesome Video from Brian Tracy! 

Influencer Marketing Trends To Watch In 2018

As more companies turn to influencers to reach more customers on social media and grow their sales, you need to find ways of getting the most from them. Also, you need to appreciate the fact that past strategies may not work in 2018.

Therefore, adapting to changes in the current business environment can give you insight on how you can harness the potential of influencer marketing in 2018. Here are some of the trends that will promote influencer marketing success this year.

Focusing On Other Social Media Channels As much as Instagram is the leading platform for influencers, it is wrong to assume that this is where you should draw all your attention. In fact, it is not surprising to discover that some of these experts are not on Instagram.

Hence, as you check Pinterest, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, and Twitter, you will realize that they are active on these channels as well. The fact that most influencers are on Instagram means that you expect to pay more for their services. On the contrary, those using other channels may have cheaper rates, which can yield your firm a better return on investment.

Therefore, in addition to accessing better conversions, you stand a better chance in 2018 by working with influencers who are not on Instagram.

Leveraging Useful Content Using photos of an influencer holding your product as they explain how much they love it is no longer the in thing. These are generics ads that will do little to propel your business forward in 2018.

Most buyers are looking for content that educates, entertains, and what invokes some emotion. Therefore, you need to shift from such ads to content marketing to achieve your goal. Backing your influencer marketing campaigns with the right content will help you convey the right message to your audience for the achievement of desirable results.

Establishing Long-term Relationships In most cases, the relationship between business operators and influencers is purely transactional. The implication is that when such entrepreneurs access the services they require for a particular amount, it marks the end of interactions between the two.

Unfortunately, such influencers tend to act as short-term contractees who may not satisfy your expectations. As a result, your audience may not connect to your brand once they capture that from an influencer. The solution, in that case, is seeking to build lasting relationships with your influencer to promote enthusiasm and earn their loyalty to your brand.

If you need more information on influencer marketing trends for 2018, contact us today!

New Instagram Hashtag Feature Increases Followers and User Engagement for Businesses

Many business owners' Instagram marketing strategies have come to a halt when considering the caution from Instagram shadow-bans in the previous year's algorithm releases, paired with the recent hashtag risks.

Regardless of the Instagram algorithm changes, a seemingly favorable dispersant in filtering spam and irrelevant hashtags for users, business-marketing managers have a superior advantage in gaining endless Instagram followers and increasing social media engagement for business owners with potential consumers.

Use the Hashtag Follow Feature and Algorithm Changes to Your Advantage

This year, Instagram introduced the new 'follow' feature, exclusively for hashtags. Last year's algorithm changes along with the 2018 'follow' feature now collect data for the user to complement requested searches, placing the most relevant and latest posts at the top of their feed.

Therefore, copying and pasting the same hashtags repeatedly will now lead to increased spam filtering against business posts that may have been appropriate.

With the latest influence for users to follow hashtags, inbound marketing strategies now necessitate new methods concerning hashtags research and the proper insertion of tags into single posts.

As a business owner, enable the Instagram algorithm process to support your inbound marketing initiatives by:

• Ending the repetitive use of identical hashtags for every post.

• Researching the most relevant hashtags using the 'follow' feature data.

Additionally, obtaining real-time suggestions from Instagram's algorithm data for individual posts lowers the opportunity of plunging into the shadow-ban algorithm as spam or inappropriate to users.

Add Hashtags Directly to Business Profiles

The new release comes with the ability to add relevant hashtags directly into the Instagram business profile, in addition to the posts.

Instagram explains in a 2018 press release, " We have introduced the ability to follow hashtags, giving users new ways to stay connected with the interests, hobbies, passions, and communities they care about. With hashtag and profile links in your bio, you can express yourself and your interests right in your profile."

Prospective new followers will now have updated feeds reflecting business owner posts, old and new, along with algorithm recommendations leading to the best-related business profiles.

Hashtag profile implementation provides opportunities for business owners to:

• Receive the latest tag suggestions directly from Instagram algorithms with a much higher relevance than previous years analytics.

• Insert Hashtags directly into the business profile and posts, based on new analytics extracted from the highest probable followers for your industry.

For further assistance with integrating Instagram and other social media profiles with the latest applicable updates, gain support towards elevated social media solutions with an expert inbound marketing specialist.

Three Tips For Strategic Social Media Advertising

The use of fresh and informative content is an approach that most entrepreneurs use to capture target clients online. Unfortunately, this strategy may not help businesses achieve much at the moment. That explains the reason for the current shift towards social media advertising. Also, visibility is a critical requirement for successful online marketing, and that makes social media a viable option.

As a result, the investment cost of social media advertising is rising gradually, and you may not see the results immediately. For that reason, you need a strategic plan to achieve success through social media and here are some of the tips you can use.

Establish Your Objectives Opting to use social media advertisements without an idea of what you wish to achieve in the end is a waste of both time and money. Therefore, it is important to set specific goals before you embark on the campaign. That will help focus on the intended purpose of this marketing approach even as you monitor your progress over time.

Also, you do not need to be an expert in social media advertising. However, you have to get your priorities right. The reason is that your business has unique objectives, which you should capture to succeed. So, establish clear goals before embarking on the campaign.

Select The Social Platform Carefully There are several social media platforms to choose from, and you need to understand that each of them has multiple advantages over the other. Hence, the platform you opt for should be in line with the reasons for promoting your campaigns there.

Some of the aspects to consider are the frequency of target audience engagements on the social site, the demographics of the channel in comparison to your brand, the format of your advertisement and how it suits the platform, among others.

Blend Organic Content Seamlessly Most social media users are not willing to engage with brands that send them promotional content from time to time. On the other hand, your social media advertisements should not focus on capturing the attention of target clients and drive them to make immediate decisions every time.

Take Advantage Of The New Facebook Algorithms

In spite of recent announcements regarding Facebook algorithm changes and security concerns, your business pages, and social media content can experience tremendous profits right now.

The new modifications in social media ads mean your potential consumers and followers will see more relevant ads, placing you in the front of their news feeds.

There are strategies that may help ease these Facebook transitions, allowing your business to continue in the benefit of a successful social media presence.

Leverage Facebook Advertisements

New algorithm changes have made a positive impact on ad targeting abilities on Facebook. The power to promote content will give you the best advantage when paired with lead generation and website visit ads.

Your potential clients will now receive an advanced filter of relevant ads stemming from the campaigns you launch with the new algorithm processes. Since third-party app settings have launched for all Facebook users, your consumers can feel more confident about certain data that may be collected as well.

Combine Marketing Strategies

Modify your approach towards marketing your brand or services. Focus on the available resources that enable you to deliver the content and message you generally provide to the public.

Instead of separating your social media, email, blog, website, and video marketing strategies, concentrate on one combined strategy.

Drive Traffic to Owned Properties

Create a platform in which you have full control. Reconsider your websites and email lists. Establish your business website as the main designation online. You can remain in control of your content and subscribers in the event of further social media regulation changes occur.

Focus on Quality

Focus on quality over quantity. Maximize the engagement of social media visitors and the ability to reach new consumers. Assess the quality of content that is displayed on your websites, keeping topics positive while offering valuable solutions to readers who are searching keywords and phrases online.

How To Accurately Measure Facebook VR Ad Engagements

The rapidly growing consumer interest in virtual reality makes it critical for forward-thinking marketers to seriously consider the technology today. According to Statista, the year 2018 should see the number of virtual reality users exceed 170 million globally. However, the failure to track VR performance using proper analytics may mean that brands incorporating the technology in their social media marketing campaigns are engaging in a wild goose chase, wasting their effort, time, and budget.

So, if you're using Facebook 360 to give your audience an immersive, interactive VR experience, it's imperative that you assess whether you're achieving your marketing objectives. Here are critical ways and tools you may use to track and evaluate your VR marketing efforts:

Heat Maps

Facebook introduced heat maps to enable creators to track how their 360-degree video content is being viewed. You can use the analytics tool to see the video frames receiving the most user attention. A heat map will show the parts of your proposed solution that are most engaging, helping identify areas that require improvement. With the accurate analysis, your social media marketing team may then dedicate more efforts and content to VR aspects that most users relate to well.

Tracking the Angle of View

The primary objective of deploying 360-degree videos in Facebook marketing is to let users look all around the content. In a VR ad, for example, you want to measure the degrees viewed, and to ascertain where your audience looked. Thankfully, the heat map feature helps track a specific user's scope of vision based on factors such as the angle of elevation or vision. It is possible to use the analysis and create an improved VR experience for your audience.

User Feedback

Do not forget to find out what your audience thinks about the 360-degree videos you publish on Facebook. Engage users and ask them about their favorite experiences with your promotions. You could send them questionnaires via email or SMS and learn more about their likes and dislikes. Feedback collection is a reliable way to measure engagement and gather consumer insights. Based on the feedback, you may create effective VR experiences, accurately target potential buyers, and track return on investment.

Facebook 360-degree videos are an ideal way for advertisers to offer potential customers a more engaging and immersive experience. However, it is imperative to use VR analytics and assess the quality of the user engagement created. Contact us today to learn more about the effective deployment of such social media marketing strategies.