TwitterToolsReviews |
- Visual Social Media: How Images Improve Your Social Media Marketing
- Facebook Marketing Plan: How to Grow Your Business With Facebook
- New Facebook Contest and Promotion Rules: What You Need to Know
- 4 Ways to Grow a Twitter Following That Matters
- 3 Mobile Tools to Improve Your Social Media Marketing
- How to Analyze Your Social Media Activities With Excel
- How to Use Twitter for Business and Marketing
- 5 Habits of Successful Content Marketers: New Research
- find a job with twitter
| Visual Social Media: How Images Improve Your Social Media Marketing Posted: 31 Jan 2014 03:00 AM PST By Michael Stelzner
Are you wondering how you can use images to take your marketing to a whole new level? To learn about visual social media, I interview Donna Moritz for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast. More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing. The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting). In this episode, I interview Donna Moritz, who is a social media and visual marketing expert. She's also the founder of Socially Sorted, a blog designed to help small businesses achieve more with visual social media. Donna shares the importance of visuals in your social media marketing. You'll discover the types of images that work best and the tools you can use to create them. Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below! Listen NowPodcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, Stitcher or Blackberry. Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show: Visual Social MediaWhat is visual social media marketing? Donna sees it as the use of some kind of imagery to communicate visually. You can use images or video to tell a story or share a message. This has been done in marketing for years. As humans, it's in our nature to communicate visually. Images process quickly and people are drawn to them. Listen to the show to find out why visual marketing has merged with social media. Why do visuals matter so much? Donna explains how most people started out with a blog, where they would write in long form and build a community around it. Then along came Facebook, where posts became shorter and then Twitter burst onto the scene with a 140-character limit. People have moved from blogs to microblogs and now to multimedia microblogs. The only direction to go is to communicate with pictures. With Instagram and Pinterest, you can communicate purely with images. Sometimes words aren't even necessary.  People have always communicated visually—from as far back as painting pictures on walls in caves. Image source: iStockPhoto Images have become even more popular with the ability to take photos and video with the camera on a smartphone. Detavio Samuels, who owns the marketing business Global Hue, said, "The only thing shorter than a tweet or a post is a picture." Listen to the show to find out why all platforms are becoming image-centric. Image options for marketers Donna explains how you can use images in different ways in your marketing. You can make a short, snappy video; use images and graphics; slides or a SlideShare presentation; infographics and text-based images. You'll find out which one from the list below Donna discovered gets the most shares and responses.
Jay Baer talks about being inherently useful in his book Youtility. If you want your image to be shared a lot, then you have to make sure it's helpful to your target audience.  For highly shareable content, make sure it's valuable to your target audience. You have to remember that as humans, we connect emotionally to images more than video, audio or text. People make decisions and take action quicker when prompted by images, rather than by reading a lot of text. You'll find out how you can use how-to images for your business and why it's easier than you think. Another great option is to tease people with a graphic. You don't have to provide the whole procedure; instead add a call to action to get people to click through to your blog, Facebook page or Pinterest page. On Facebook, you want to build engagement, so the image should be one that people will share, rather than click through to your blog. If you are clever, you can get some really great results.  This image was designed so the Social Media Examiner community would react to it. People went crazy for it. Listen to the show to learn why people feel compelled to click on an image, like it, share it, repost it or save it. The elements of good visuals and what makes them sharable Donna says that with any piece of content, you have to think about what you want it to do and where you want people to go. A great place to start is with content that helps and inspires people. For a more shareable factor, you can make it timely content to coincide with breaking news, a celebration or an event. Donna talks about when she worked with the team at Know Your Midwife, a private midwifery practice in Australia. They have about 1700 followers on Facebook. They started to post images consistently that were shareable and relevant to their community. A lot of the images included quotes about natural birth and empowered birthing.  Know Your Midwife post consistently on Facebook. You'll hear about the people who started to share these images, and why it isn't just people in their community who look to them for content to share. When it was International Midwives' Day, Donna quickly made up an image with a quote using PicMonkey. They had 1400 shares by the end of the day.  The image was more shareable in this case because sometimes people like to share images that look like their own on Facebook. You'll hear the business benefits of using these types of images, and why it's becoming increasingly important with the new Facebook news feed ranking algorithm. Donna believes that Facebook is like Pinterest, in that 80% of content is shared content and 20% is original content. When you merge the power of imagery with original content, then it gets shared a lot. If you can create some of your own original content, you've got more chance of it being shared, versus having to share everybody else's. It's very powerful. Another great example is a business owned by Caz and Craig Makepeace called yTravel Blog. It's one of the biggest travel blogs in the world. They have 4.35 million followers on Pinterest. They have seen a 3- to 5-fold increase in traffic from Facebook to their blog, just from posting images with the overlay of a tip or a quote.  They saw an increase in traffic from Facebook to their blog, when they posted this type of image. Templates were designed, so that text can be easily added.  This template was designed so that the owners can overlay the text themselves. Listen to the show to find out why scheduling your images is so important, and the tools you can use to accomplish it. How to get started and the tools to use Donna says that although she isn't a graphic designer, she does do a lot of the images herself. One of the first tools she discovered is PicMonkey. It's an image-editing tool that doubles as an image-creation tool. Donna says that it's very intuitive and there are a lot of templates to choose from.  PicMonkey is really easy to use. The other tool that Donna loves is Canva. You can now get your account and username very quickly. They are unique in that they have made graphic design very accessible to everyone. They also have a stock library of one million photos that you can access and some amazing social media templates. Donna says that some of the updates that are due out from Canva will blow people's minds. You'll hear how you can use screenshots with tools such as Snagit and Jing. If you have a lot of images that explain information, then the best type of image to use is an infographic. It's a great way to help someone understand your message, story or concept. Donna and her team have done a lot of infographics for her business and for clients. You'll hear different ways you can use infographics in your business, and the sizes that work best for Facebook, Pinterest and blogs.  In this article, Donna goes through the different elements of an infographic. Donna recommends that you don't just put your infographic on Pinterest. If you have something more to say about it, then embed it in one of your blog posts. It's a fantastic way to get extra mileage out of it. Listen to the show to discover the other tools that Donna uses to create infographics. Discovery of the WeekI was recently in Las Vegas with Joel Comm, where he introduced me to a really cool app called Hang With. It's an app for your iPhone or Android that allows you to do live streaming with the push of a button directly to your Facebook page or directly to other people who have the app. It's a live broadcast and when the broadcast has finished, the video is then available on YouTube. Joel decided to do a quick 2-minute video of us at a buffet in the hotel. Everything was done seamlessly for him.
I think it's a really cool app, although I haven't used it myself yet. Maybe it's the direction we are heading with photography and video—the idea of a live component. Be sure to check it out. Call in and leave your social media–related questions for us and we may include them in a future show. Listen to the show to learn more and let us know how this works for you. Other Show MentionsThis week's podcast is sponsored by Social Media Marketing World.
The conference features more than 80 sessions in four major tracks: social tactics, social strategy, community management and content marketing. These sessions are taught my leading experts in the world of social media marketing and content creation. A small sampling of some of the speakers includes Ekaterina Walter (visual marketing), Ted Rubin (social relationship-building), Larry Benet (networking), Martin Shervington (Google+) and Lou Mongello (podcasting). We are so excited about this conference! Make sure you check out our hashtag #smmw14. The conference is heading toward a sellout. Be sure to check it out. Key takeaways mentioned in this episode:Ways to subscribe to the Social Media Marketing podcast: What do you think? What are your thoughts on visual social media? Please leave your comments below. Image from iStockPhoto.This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. The post Visual Social Media: How Images Improve Your Social Media Marketing appeared first on TwitterToolsReviews. |
| Facebook Marketing Plan: How to Grow Your Business With Facebook Posted: 31 Jan 2014 01:11 AM PST By Michael Stelzner
Are you wondering how to grow your business with Facebook? To learn about the important elements of a Facebook marketing plan, I interview Amy Porterfield for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast. More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing. The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting). In this episode, I interview Amy Porterfield, co-author of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies and host of the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast. She was also the very first Facebook community manager we ever had for Social Media Examiner. Amy shares what your Facebook marketing plan needs to succeed. You'll learn why you should create a Facebook business page and the best engagement techniques to grow your audience. Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below! Listen NowPodcast: Play in new window | Download You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, Stitcher or Blackberry. Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show: Facebook Marketing PlanThe benefits of a Facebook business page Amy states that although a lot of people get good engagement on their personal Facebook profile, she strongly recommends that you set up a Facebook business page. It's only on rare occasions that she advises to stick with your personal profile. If you have a physical or online product, program or service, a Facebook business page can be extremely beneficial. This type of page gives you permission to talk about your business on a regular basis.  A Facebook page is extremely beneficial to your business. Once you have the foundation in place and become that go-to authority in your niche, you can talk about your business freely. It's the main reason why you need to have a business page, as well as a personal profile. You'll hear about another benefit when it comes to Facebook ads. Listen to the show to discover the reason why Amy has taken all communication over to her business page but still keeps her personal profile. Start with a Facebook marketing plan Amy teaches how to put a Facebook marketing plan together in three phases.
Listen to the show to learn more about these three phases. 1. Attraction First of all, you need to build a Facebook community. It's important to grow a solid fan base so you can generate some great engagement with people. You become the go-to source in your community. In the attraction phase, you need to find different ways to grow your fan base. You need to know your audience. You'll hear why Amy advises creating a persona of your typical Facebook fan. One of the easiest ways to get the word out about your page is to have a Facebook Like button on your website. Once someone clicks the Like button to become a fan, they will remain on your website.  If you are already logged into Facebook when you visit a website, you might see other people’s profile pictures whom you’re connected to. You'll get quality fans with the Like button, because these people are already visiting your site. You want them to become Facebook fans, so you can stay top of mind when they're on Facebook. Listen to the show to hear what happened when Amy advised Michael Hyatt to install the Like button on his website. How to use your website or blog to grow a following Amy explains that it doesn't matter if you have a massive email subscriber list, these are people who have taken the time to give you their name and email address. You'll learn about techniques you can use to encourage people to become fans. If you want to attract new people, then Graph Search is very valuable. Amy says it's a hidden treasure that not many people use. You'll hear some great examples of search terms that will help you gain valuable information about your audience.  When you use the search term “Interests liked by people who like ………” you will be amazed by the results. When it comes to promotion, you need to turn your fans into leads. You definitely want to check out this previous podcast with Amy that goes into detail about list-building with social media. Amy's philosophy is that your subscriber list can be the energy of your business. You need to start to look at Facebook as a place to attract quality leads to grow your email list. You'll discover why Amy believes it's crucial for anyone who is marketing on Facebook to have some kind of giveaway. Listen to the show to learn the difference among the costs per click for Facebook ads, depending on the destination URL. Engage with your community Amy explains how important it is to post great content consistently. The people who have the most impact on Facebook are the ones who post every single day with different types of content. As a marketer, you need to have a posting plan for your Facebook page for it to work for your community. When your Facebook page is a community hub, you become that trusted source. You should never come straight out of the gate and talk about your business, products and services. A great way to network online is to show love to others in your industry. This helps draw them to you.  Show love to others in your industry by sharing their content with your audience. If your fans begin to know that you are always there and are able to answer their questions, then you become a resource that they trust. It's how you begin to grow a community. Listen to the show to find out the conversations you need to have with your employees so you remain consistent with your posts. 2. Promotion Amy states that first you need to think about strategic posts and make sure your status updates are short and to-the-point. A study by Buddy Media showed that a post with 80 characters or fewer gets up to 27% more engagement. If your goal is to get someone to click a link on your status update, you need a clear call to action.  Make sure you include a call to action in your status update. The next decision to make is whether you should include an image. A lot of people who teach Facebook marketing believe it's better to post without images, and studies show that you don't need an image to get greater reach. Amy's philosophy on images is that you might get a bigger reach when you don't use an image, but are you getting greater engagement? The answer is usually no. You'll hear an example of how to use images to punctuate your status update, which in turn will get people to pay attention and click. Listen to the show to discover what happens at Social Media Examiner when we do a short post with just a URL on Facebook versus when we let them populate through the image. Contests on Facebook Facebook recently relaxed the rules on contests, so you don't have to use a third-party app anymore. Now you can ask people to like your page for a chance to win something and then pick a winner at random. Amy believes that contests are really valuable and if you put the time, energy and money into creating a well-designed contest, then you want to make sure you turn these fans into leads. You'll discover why the new guidelines work well for local businesses, but if you are or want to be an online business, it will serve your business better if you collect names and emails from a contest. Listen to the show to hear how a contest can help you grow a following on your Facebook page. 3. Sales The third component of your Facebook marketing plan is to sell. This goes hand in hand with engagement. You need to engage with your audience if you want them to take action and do business with you. The most powerful way to get audience feedback is to ask questions. It's a great way to find out what your audience needs when you're creating a program, product or service that you want to sell.  Ask your audience questions. Although Amy is not a huge fan of selling directly on Facebook, you'll discover the secret sauce to successful promotions on Facebook. Listen to the show to find out why now is the perfect time to plan your marketing calendar. Discovery of the WeekI recently came across a really cool website called BuzzSumo, which provides social insights for content marketers. In the search bar you can type in any kind of phrase and it will show you inquiries. It displays the most popular content; in particular, blog content across different social networks based on your search phrase.  These are a few search results for “social media marketing.” It adds up the shares for Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter and Facebook likes. You can look at the past 24 hours, week, month or 6 months. You can filter by articles, infographics, videos and other kinds of content. This can help you find content that you might want to share in your network—content you know your audience will be interested in. I haven't tested it extensively, so I don't know if it covers things outside of social media and content marketing. Be sure to check it out. Call in and leave your social media–related questions for us and we may include them in a future show. Listen to the show to learn more and let us know how this works for you. Other Show MentionsSocial Media Marketing World 2014 is our physical mega-conference, which is set to return to San Diego, California on March 26, 27 and 28.  Social Media Marketing World 2014. We have put together more than 60 sessions that include social media marketing, blogging, podcasting and video marketing. We've invited the top experts in the world. So when you attend this conference, you'll get a chance to meet them, rub shoulders with them and more importantly get the chance to absorb the knowledge that they have built up over many years, and in some cases, decades. This is a sample of the sessions on blogging.
I strongly recommend that you check it out and watch the testimonials from this year's conference. Key takeaways mentioned in this episode:Ways to subscribe to the Social Media Marketing podcast: What do you think? What are your thoughts on creating a Facebook marketing plan? Please leave your comments below. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends:
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| New Facebook Contest and Promotion Rules: What You Need to Know Posted: 30 Jan 2014 06:19 PM PST By Andrea Vahl
Are you wondering how the new Facebook promotion changes might benefit your business? Facebook has made a huge shift in how they allow contests to be run. Keep reading to discover what your options are and how other businesses are responding to these new changes. What's NewFor years, Facebook has been saying that promotions and contests needed to be run through an application and not on your timeline (or wall, as we used to call it). You were not allowed to ask people to like or comment on a picture or a post to be entered to win. But now that has all changed. Facebook announced on August 27 that they've changed their Pages Terms to make it "easier for businesses of all sizes to create and administer promotions on Facebook." They're allowing pages to run contests and promotions on their own timelines (you cannot run contests on a personal timeline). Per Facebook, businesses can now:
Now businesses with a Facebook page have a lot more options and can run a contest very quickly and easily by posting text or a photo and asking people to comment and/or like it.  Get more engagement on your page by running a contest. Here's the complete list of rules for promotions and contests directly from their Page Guidelines under section E (as of August 28, 2013): 1. If you use Facebook to communicate or administer a promotion (ex: a contest or sweepstakes), you are responsible for the lawful operation of that promotion, including:
2. Promotions on Facebook must include the following:
3. Promotions may be administered on Pages or within apps on Facebook. Personal Timelines must not be used to administer promotions (ex: "share on your Timeline to enter" or "share on your friend's Timeline to get additional entries" is not permitted). 4. We will not assist you in the administration of your promotion, and you agree that if you use our service to administer your promotion, you do so at your own risk. So now businesses have the choice of running the contest through an app or through their timeline.
Make sure you also check out Facebook's Promotion Guidelines download as well—very helpful! Facebook Contests: What You Can and Can't DoLet's break this down into a handy chart of what you can and can't do to run your contest. What You Can Do:
What You Can't Do:
How the New Rules Can Work for YouIf you're wondering if your contest will work within the new rules, think about where the engagement on Facebook happens. If it's directly on your timeline or through your Message button, then you're probably ok. And you still can use third-party apps to run a contest. Also note that you can "encourage" people to share your post or contest, but you can't require it for entry. Many third-party apps have in the past given "extra" entries for sharing the contest and it looks like that practice will have to stop, according to the Promotion Guidelines. With all of these new options, how do you choose what type of contest to run on Facebook? Let's dive into that conundrum. How to Choose What Type of Contest to Run on FacebookDecisions, decisions! With more options always comes hand-wringing over which will be the best for you and your marketing goals. You can break it down fairly simply into this:
But there are more considerations than those basic needs. You need to take into account the advantages and disadvantages of each type of contest. Running a Timeline ContestAdvantages
Disadvantages
Running a Facebook App ContestAdvantages
Disadvantages
New Options for Timeline ContestsSeveral new offerings for timeline contests have already sprung up (these coders are fast!) to help make running a timeline contest a little easier. One of the things marketers will be concerned about with the new timeline contests is how to pick a random winner from all of the people who like or comment on a post to enter. Note that there are already a few solutions available. One free tool is from the makers of EdgeRank Checker called Contest Capture. You can export your likes and comments on a particular post into a .csv file. From there you can use a random number generator to give you a line number on that .csv file of the winner.  Use Contest Capture to download a file of the likes and comments on a post. Another free tool that will help you pick a winner is Woobox. Woobox will load all of your recent posts (click on the Posts link at the top of the page after logging into Woobox), and then allow you to pick a winner right from the Woobox site by just clicking on the Pick link under the Winners heading.  Use the Woobox app to pick a winner. Woobox has many free apps including this tool, but their Contest/Sweepstakes app itself is a paid product. ShortStack has a Comment and Like Importer that allows you to sort through the comments and likes so you can select a winner. This works through their platform but requires a paid plan. And it looks like Heyo is coming out with a Timeline Contest Creator shortly to help you deploy your timeline contest. In the coming weeks, we're sure to see even more tools available to help you launch and administer your timeline contest. Timeline Contest Best PracticesRight now, timeline contests are a work in progress. Time will tell how well they actually work to engage. One thing I noticed with a timeline contest I ran was that I had a lot of engagement early, but that it did fade after a day. Also I didn't get a lot of new likes for my page, despite having a lot of activity on the post itself. Here are some initial best practices for your Facebook timeline contest:
More Options for Facebook Promotions Timeline contests are ultimately good news for marketers. They offer more choices and flexibility in what you can do to engage your audience. Try running at least one to see what it does for your business. And remember there are good reasons to use a third-party Facebook app for your contest. It's nice to have new tools for your Facebook marketing toolbox. What about you? Are you going to try a timeline contest? What possibilities do you see for this new marketing avenue? Let us know in the comments below! This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends:
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| 4 Ways to Grow a Twitter Following That Matters Posted: 30 Jan 2014 10:28 AM PST Is Twitter working for your business? Are you looking to grow a larger and more relevant Twitter following? This article will show you four actionable steps you can take to improve your Twitter experience. Why Twitter Is Not Just a Numbers GameMany brands, businesses and marketers have already discovered how powerful Twitter is for finding and engaging their audience. Its low cost, immediacy and viral nature make it a favorite tool for everyone from news organizations to celebrities to small businesses. Yet when marketers jump on Twitter for the first time, they wonder why they don't get an overwhelming response to their initial tweet. Soon they learn that they must develop a following. They see others with followings of 500, 5,000 or 50,000 and they want some of that. So they start to Google "how to get more followers on Twitter" or falling for tweets like this one:  If it sounds too good to be true… Well, I'm here to tell you that it's not too difficult to build a following on Twitter if you're willing to partake in some shady, bad-karma tactics—from following and unfollowing people to creating hundreds of bogus accounts that follow you and retweet everything you say to buying followers on the black market. But few if any of those followers will provide you any value for the time you put into Twitter. So I'm also here to tell you that it's not how many followers you have, but how many relevant followers you have. Having 20,000 followers who don't respond to anything you share is equivalent to shouting from the top of the Empire State Building and claiming all of New York City as your audience. Yes: more engaged followers are better than fewer engaged followers. So, let's focus on getting more engaged followers. Building a relevant Twitter following comes down to four core concepts:
With that framework in place, here are some tips, tools and tactics to attract relevant followers on Twitter. #1: Find and Follow Relevant PeopleYour audience is out there… Now, how to find them? Start with a strong profile. Because most people will check out your profile before following you, it's important to put your house in order and present yourself in the most engaging way possible. This includes:
Discover new people with third-party tools. One of the first places to start your search for relevant people is at one of the many Twitter directories out there. In a discussion around Twitter tools in Social Media Examiner's Small Business Networking Club, everyone seemed to have a favorite tool or tip. Social media marketer Paul Wylie recommends Twellow (for the clean interface) and WeFollow (for finding influencers). You can search by industry, location or keyword for starters.  WeFollow has many categories. Thus, whether you’re targeting personal trainers or WordPress trainers, you’ll find them here. Karen James, a social media coach from the UK, likes Tweepi to check out people before she follows them. Karen Black, a digital marketer also from the UK, uses ManageFlitter to do bio searches, as well as keep an eye on her followers. Use these tools to search for your own industry and the industries of your ideal customers. Leverage other people's Twitter lists. A great source for new people to connect with is other people's curated Twitter lists.  Whatever your interests are, you can find well-curated lists and subscribe to them. Twitter users often create lists or subscribe to other people's lists to improve their  Some lists are more serious than others. Use Twitter's search functionality. You can use Twitter's search functionality to find relevant people and engage with them. For example, let's say you had a product or service for NASCAR fans. Start by doing a search on #nascar within Twitter.  Searching on #nascar will help you find passionate NASCAR fans whom you can then follow. You could then join the conversation by @ (mentioning) them, answering their questions and otherwise engaging them. If your business is more local, like a restaurant, you can find out who's hungry and in driving distance.  Filter your search by geography to find local people on Twitter to follow. You could then reach out to those starving denizens on Twitter and offer them a discount or free drink if they come in now and mention "Twitter" as they place their order. For more ideas on finding and following the right people, be sure to check out 7 Twitter Strategies for Growing a Great Following. #2: Tweet Interesting StuffEasier said than done, right? How do you find interesting content? Here are some ideas. Use Google Alerts. Set up Google Alerts (or a similar service) to get daily email updates about all of the things that are of interest to your audience—from "vegan recipes" to "grilling product reviews"—and share them through Twitter. Share media. Photos and videos are a proven way to engage your audience. Use photos to share your activity or events so your business will get click-throughs and comments. A real estate agent might share a video walkthrough of a new house and ask "what do you think?" A retail shop may share photos of some new additions to their display window. A travel agent might share pictures from a beach vacation and ask, "Are you ready for your getaway?"  Photos engage, especially if you tie them into a giveaway. Talk to people, not at them. Chances are, what is of interest to your audience is what they're already talking about! Rather than trying to get the ball rolling, why not keep it rolling? See what your audience is talking about and engage them in that conversation. Ask questions, answer them, retweet and respond. For more ideas on how to create more interesting tweets, check out 26 Twitter Tips for Enhancing Your Tweets. #3: EngagePeople on Twitter who don't talk to other people are significantly less engaging and less likely to get followers. Just because someone didn't immediately follow you back doesn't mean that you can't engage them. Check out their conversations and see if you can jump in with relevant comments, or retweet some of their links. Also, being part of conversations will get you in front of more people, increasing your chances of being followed. Get involved with #chats. Anyone can start a chat on Twitter by using a hashtag. You can find a long list of chats in this Google doc, along with days and times. By joining the conversation at appropriate chats, you can quickly build your relevant followers… Assuming you have something valuable to add!  If you’re looking to engage bloggers, you could chime in at the #BWEChat. Schedule chats to reach a wider audience. While there are many marketers who hate scheduled tweets—I'm looking at you, Unmarketer—many others embrace the tactic. Using a tool like HootSuite or Buffer, you can schedule out a day's, week's or month's worth of tweets. I would recommend you use a scheduling tool to supplement your regular tweets rather than replacing them. If you're going to schedule your tweets, try to be aware of when people respond to anything you share. When people respond to your tweets and you're not there to respond to them, they're less likely to engage you in the future. #4: Promote Your Twitter Account Through Other ChannelsLeverage the following you've built elsewhere by promoting your Twitter account. Talk up Twitter at your website, blog and through email. At flyte, we include our Twitter handles—with clickable links—next to all of our bios. We also include links to our Twitter handles from all appropriate blog posts.  People can follow you without having to leave the page they’re on. You can also include a "follow me on Twitter" call to action in your email signature file, email newsletter and all other correspondence. Leverage your social media outposts. Likewise, include links (and calls to action) on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube. You may be tempted to sync all of your updates and tweets together using a tool like Ping.fm, HootSuite or TweetDeck. While there's nothing wrong with this, use this technique judiciously. Certain platforms may not be as "chatty" as Twitter, and if we're already connected on LinkedIn and you're syncing all of your tweets and LinkedIn updates, what's the value of getting the same content on Twitter? Get more visibility with a Paper.li newspaper. Paper.li is a free service that allows you to create "newspapers" out of your Twitter feed (as well as some integration of Facebook and Google+). Your daily paper.li can pull from the people you follow, your lists, or specific keywords or hashtags you include. Paper.li can also tweet out your daily paper, including which people contributed your "top stories." I've found that these tweets often get retweets from the people mentioned, and suddenly they're sharing your content with their network, elevating your brand.  Promoting the people you’re following encourages more follow-backs and engagement. In this video you can see how to create your own paper.li daily: One caveat: I no longer recommend including hashtags to pull in new people to your paper.li. Turns out some disreputable people might be using the same hashtags, populating your paper.li with spam. So how do you bring in fresh content from new people to your paper.li daily? Here's what I did: find people you respect and look at the targeted lists they've created. Then you caninclude their curated lists to help round out your paper.  Using others’ lists can greatly improve your own paper! Now It's Your Turn! What do you think? What tips, tools or tactics have you been using to build your own relevant Twitter following? Share something in the comments box below and include your Twitter handle and you'll be sure to pick up a few new followers! The post 4 Ways to Grow a Twitter Following That Matters appeared first on GrowYourTwitterNetwork. 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| 3 Mobile Tools to Improve Your Social Media Marketing Posted: 30 Jan 2014 04:10 AM PST By Greg Hickman
Is more of your audience interacting with your business from their mobile phones? If you want to enhance your mobile marketing, then keep reading. I'll show you three awesome tools that make mobile marketing easier. Why Mobile?Mobile is no longer something you can afford to ignore. As customers' adoption of mobile grows, you need to find ways to leverage mobile marketing tools to optimize their experience, no matter what device they're on. Whether you've already been experimenting with mobile marketing or are just getting started, the right tools help increase leads, engagement and sales. In this article, I highlight three tools that offer easy ways to mobilize your social media marketing strategy. #1: Send SMS (Text) and Video Messaging With Mogreet ExpressOne of the most powerful mobile marketing channels available today is SMS or short message service, which is also known as text message marketing. SMS is a permission-based messaging tool that lets customers receive messages from you after they text a keyword or sign up using a web form. SMS may not sound sexy, but it's highly effective. Studies have indicated that 97% of mobile subscribers read an SMS (text) message within 15 minutes of receiving it. 84% respond within 1 hour. Many top retailers actively use SMS to send out sales or product updates, special coupons or other important announcements. Coca-Cola focuses 70% of their mobile marketing budget on SMS/Text messaging.  Coca-Cola embraces the power of SMS to reach consumers. So what does this have to do with social media? Conversations with your customers shouldn't end on Facebook, Twitter or any other social platform you currently use. Mogreet Express lets you quickly create SMS (text) or video messaging campaigns to incorporate into social media and build a database of customers who want to receive your information and offers. First, you create a keyword to title your campaign, and then Mogreet Express pairs your keyword with a shared short code. Make your keyword short and easy to remember. After you've decided on a keyword, you're guided through the process to set up the response customers receive when they opt in.  Mogreet Express lets you set up keywords in your dashboard to promote campaigns to your audience. Now you're ready to promote your campaign on Facebook and Twitter. The easiest way to do this is by using language such as: "Become a Mobile VIP. Just text YOURKEYWORDHERE to 12345″ (this would be the short code that Mogreet Express provides to you). Lane Bryant incorporates their call to action on a Facebook tab to connect with them. Their keyword is LBGB and their short code is 23705.  Lane Bryant added their SMS call to action to a graphic. Once you've promoted your new SMS (text) campaign and customers begin to opt in, message them with valuable offers. This helps you stay top of mind, drive increased traffic (both physical and web) and create a new way to drive sales. Set up a message to send to your customers in four steps:
You should include opt-out language in every message and Mogreet does this for you so you comply with the best practices of the Mobile Marketing Association. The opt-out looks something like this:
Overall, Mogreet Express is a very easy-to-use SMS/MMS marketing tool for any small business owner. Incorporate your mobile call to action throughout your social media and you extend conversations with your customers beyond Facebook or Twitter. It's a great place to start when adding mobile marketing to your social media strategy. #2: Run Mobile-Friendly Facebook Contents With HeyoHeyo makes it easy to build a contest on mobile that integrates seamlessly with Facebook. Not to mention it looks beautiful with the easy-to-use tools Heyo provides. Nathan Latka, founder of Heyo, shared that Lilly Pulitzer worked with Heyo to mobilize their "Want It To Win It" tab right on Facebook because they didn't want to miss out on all the traffic received from mobile Facebook users.  Don’t miss out on all the mobile traffic to your contest pages. To make sure mobile users receive the best user experience, Heyo's smart URL automatically reroutes mobile users to the right location. If users are on a desktop, they're sent to the native Facebook tab. If they're on a mobile device, they receive the mobile contest application.  Lilly Pulitzer contest page from mobile.  Heyo’s easy-to-use dashboard lets you create beautiful pages in minutes. Heyo is the easiest way to create engaging campaigns that are social and mobile. Check out this tool if you want to drive traffic, leads and sales with a Facebook contest. #3: Measure the ROI of Mobile Marketing With LogMyCallsDid you know that people who search the Internet for food using their phone or tablet have nearly a 90% conversation rate? Or that 64% of searchers with smartphones convert within one hour of their mobile search activity? One of the top converting metrics is a phone call. With such high odds of a mobile searcher clicking to call your business, tracking and measuring calls are vital. LogMyCalls gives you a full suite of tracking features to track every call generated by your mobile advertising and measure the return on your investment. Here's how you get set up and start measuring which campaigns are performing the best in 4 steps. Step 1: Select your numbers. Use your current phone number and convert it into a tracked number or choose new numbers and have calls to those phone numbers routed to your business or call center.  Select a local or toll-free number for your tracking. Step 2: Name your route. This is where you associate the number with a specific marketing tactic. In this case, Facebook PPC.  Connect your numbers to your marketing campaigns. Step 3: Set up your DNI. When someone clicks through from a Facebook PPC ad, a unique phone number is dynamically generated on your landing page. This allows LogMyCalls to track which online marketing efforts produced the phone call. This is done via a provided snippet of JavaScript. Step 4: Track mobile calls generated from Facebook ads. This is your first and most basic report indicating call volume, date, time, etc.  Measure your call results with easy-to-read reports. That's it. When your customer is mobile and calls your tracking number from a Facebook ad, a billboard or any other mobile advertising unit, you easily identify which media outlets perform best and which convert leads to sales. LogMyCalls makes it easy for you to understand how many leads and sales are generated from people who call via a mobile phone. Your Turn These tools help you reach your mobile customers no matter what device they're on. There are more tools out there and as you use them, you need to make sure your website is mobile-friendly as these tactics ultimately drive people there. What do you think? Have you tried any of these tools before? What other tools have you used? I would love to hear your thoughts about what works and what doesn't. Please share your favorites in the comments box below. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends:
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| How to Analyze Your Social Media Activities With Excel Posted: 30 Jan 2014 03:00 AM PST By Merlin U Ward
Do you need a simple system that works? If you don't have the budget for expensive software, spreadsheets and a little of your time can produce some useful data. In this article I'll show you how to analyze the engagement and impact of your social media posts using Excel. Why Analyze?No matter the size of your business, when it comes to social media you want to build two things: engagement and community. To ensure that you deliver great content that resonates with your fans and followers, you need to track, test and measure the posts you put on your social networks. It's really that simple. Here's how: #1: Build Your SpreadsheetTo begin, open Excel and create 14 columns that will contain the following categories to incorporate all of the information you need on your social media updates and posts:
 An example spreadsheet (target, meta-tags, posts and impressions hidden). The last four columns are where you store the engagement numbers for your content. Every network has three basic engagement actions: like, comment and share. Even on Instagram, which does not have a repost function built into it, there's user behavior of reposting and tagging the original author. Use this spreadsheet to store data and analyze your content. #2: Identify Categories and SubcategoriesYou'll need to decide on the information below and make a note of it before moving on to step #4 below where you fill in the spreadsheet. Categories Base your categories on the major topics of your posts and use them to identify major trends in content performance across each network. Examples of categories are: Create as many categories as you like, but keep them manageable and general. Save the specifics for subcategories. Subcategories Break down categories into smaller subcategories. This enables you to identify microtrends, as well as which pieces of content work the best and the worst. Based on the categories above, examples could include:
Subcategories can be as specific as you like, but keep them thematic. Each subcategory should have at least three posts; otherwise it may be too specific and better suited as a meta-tag (more on that later).  Keep your categories broad and use subcategories to drill down. Image Source: iStockPhoto. #3: Outline Your Targets and Calls to ActionThese two columns require the most forethought and a good understanding of your target market and business goals. You'll need this information to fill out these columns on your spreadsheet. Target The target is whom you're speaking to with your content. Your business may have multiple targets based on the people and decision-makers who engage with your content and purchase your products. For the sake of simplicity, we will use "male" and "female" as target examples. However, I encourage you to spend time considering the different types of people in your audience and build context around those individuals to inform your content strategy. Calls to Action CTAs take many forms, depending on the individual goals of the post in each category. Just keep in mind that not all posts need CTAs and not all CTAs must be related to products. Examples of CTAs include:
 Enter your calls to action to help you monitor your success. Meta-tags For a much deeper analysis on your types of content, you should use additional meta-tags to describe the individual elements of the content itself. Keywords, image descriptions (such as person, object, colors, size or orientation) and even tone descriptors for the copy (such as humorous or excited) can be used as meta-tags. These tags help isolate trends in creative content so you can select more engaging images and write more dynamic copy for your posts. #4: Collect Your DataTime to fill in your spreadsheet! There are a number of ways to do this, depending on the networks you use. Below is an example of a spreadsheet for a retail company using the above-defined categories, subcategories, targets and meta-tags.  Populate your spreadsheet with post details. There's a lot of information to gather, but it's all easy to find. Twitter Analytics has an Export feature for your last 500 tweets, and Facebook Insights can be exported in 180-day chunks. Export regularly to make sure your data is current. Use a tool like bit.ly to keep track of your link clicks. If you tend to post the same link multiple times, make sure you're attributing your click to the right content by using tools like HootSuite's Click Report or BufferApp to track which specific posts generate the clicks. Each of these tools has free versions that allow you to measure posts on multiple networks. #5: Sort Your DataTo identify your best-performing content across all of your networks, sort the Total Engagement column in descending order.  Sort by Total Engagement. The best-performing posts in terms of engagement show at the top of the column.  After sorting by Total Engagement, your most successful posts show at the top of the spreadsheet. To find the best-performing posts for specific social networks like Twitter or Instagram, filter first by Network, then by Total Engagement.  Filter your spreadsheet to find the posts with the highest engagement on each network. #6: Analyze CategoriesThe next step is to manually filter for the categories and subcategories you're interested in reviewing.  This spreadsheet is filtered to show only Product category posts. Excel is very literal, so if you include more than one category or subcategory assigned to content, you'll need to use the "contains" input in the Excel Filter feature, rather than selecting the check boxes. Use this setting to see the rows in the column that have multiple subcategories assigned, and those with just one.  Use the "contains" filter to show Product category posts that cross into multiple subcategories. Once you identify the top posts in your categories, it's time to analyze them for post copy, sentence structure and images (if applicable). What trends can help you optimize content for each network? Here are examples of three posts that promoted the same link.  A comparison of three posts promoting the same link shows that engagement was highest with men. In this case, analysis shows that the shorter post lengths received more engagement. Among these similar posts about sweaters, the post using two different images generated a higher click-through rate with males than with females. Conclusion You don't have to rely on intuition to find out which posts perform best for you. Use Excel to reveal important insights about post engagement in nearly real time and make more informed decisions about your content strategy. What do you think? How are you currently measuring the impact of your content? Do you have other strategies or tools that you use? Please leave your questions and comments in the box below. Images from iStockPhoto.This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. The post How to Analyze Your Social Media Activities With Excel appeared first on TwitterToolsReviews. |
| How to Use Twitter for Business and Marketing Posted: 29 Jan 2014 09:34 PM PST Is Twitter a part of your social media marketing? Or have you let your Twitter marketing drop off lately? In any case, with the latest Twitter updates, trends in multi-screen usage and real-time marketing, you'll likely want to take a fresh look at what Twitter has to offer. Here's a checklist of everything your business needs to do to get on (or back on) Twitter and start seeing great results. About TwitterTwitter is a short message communication tool that allows you to send out messages (tweets) up to 140 characters long to people who subscribe to you (followers). Your tweets can include a link to any web content (blog post, website page, PDF document, etc.) or a photograph or video. If a picture is worth a thousand words, adding an image to a tweet greatly expands what you can share to beyond the 140-character limit for tweets. People follow (subscribe) to your Twitter account, and you follow other people. This allows you to read, reply to and easily share their tweets with your followers (retweet). How Twitter Is UniqueIn the social media world, Twitter falls into the category of microblogging tools because of the short, disconnected messages it distributes. Other microblogging tools include Tumblr, FriendFeed and Plurk. Twitter shares some features with the most common social media tools (Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube). However, the differences really define Twitter.
Now let's dive into how you can use Twitter for your business. Step #1: Present Your BrandYour Twitter account and profile are the foundation of your Twitter experience. It's your chance to tell your business story to the Twitter community. It is important that your Twitter presence have the same look and feel as your other online tools. This helps people identify your business and builds trust.Choose an account name and images consistent with your other online presences and your brand. Choose Your Twitter Username Nothing expresses your brand on Twitter more than your account username. This name appears next to all of your tweets, and is how people identify you on Twitter.  An example of a small business with a Twitter username that matches their website domain. Choose between your personal name (best for professional individuals) and your business name. Avoid using punctuation to keep your name easy to type on mobile devices. If your exact business name is not available, choose a similar name for consistency. Profile Images Twitter uses two different images to represent your account. It's important that you take advantage of both of these images to tell your business story. You upload these images under Profile in your account settings. Your Twitter profile photo is a square photo that appears next to every tweet you send. You can use either your company logo or your headshot for your profile photo.  An example of a Twitter user with a headshot for his profile picture. Note: Many small businesses use their business name for the account and a personal photo for the profile photo. This adds a personal touch to your Twitter account. Your Twitter profile header is a large background photo where you can tell a story about your business. Similar to the Facebook cover photo, your header photo appears at the top of your profile page.  An example of a header photograph that tells the brand's story. You can also customize the background that people see when they visit your Twitter account. You can create a graphic file so it matches your business branding. You upload this image under Design in your profile settings.  Example of a small business user who has updated his Twitter background with his company branding. Step #2: Build a Strong FoundationIt's important that you complete your Twitter account profile completely. Each feature gives more details about your business that contribute to your business story. Don't miss these three important features under Profile in your account settings.  The location, website and bio portions of your profile provide important information about your business to other Twitter users.
Step #3: Start Following PeopleWhen you follow another Twitter user, you subscribe to read what they share. So be selective about whom you follow, especially at first. To follow a user, you find their user profile and click on the Follow button.  One simple way to follow new people is to locate their profile and click the Follow button. Twitter has strict rules about what they call aggressive following and aggressive following churn, so be careful and take it slow. You don't want to get your account suspended in your first week because of suspicious activity. Note: Your Twitter experience is defined by whom you follow, not by who follows you. Pay attention to your follow choices to give yourself a great Twitter experience. In general, start following people in these categories:
Twitter can help you find people you know by scanning your email address book.  Use the Find Friends menu option on the Discover page to have Twitter scan your email address book for people you know on Twitter. While you are out following people, you may notice that people are starting to follow you. Don't worry if you don't know these people. Stay focused on whom you follow for now. Step #4: Start TalkingTalking on Twitter is different from every other social media site. It's a fast-paced smorgasbord of ideas and sentence fragments. It's hectic, but it's also fun. Give yourself a little time to get your feet wet. Listen to others. Jump in when you feel comfortable. Start talking as you get your bearings. In general, there are five types of Twitter messages:
Step #5: Talk SmarterAfter you master the five types of tweets, you are ready to attack the big question: What should I talk about on Twitter? For every business, the answer is different. In general, you want to find the sweet spot between what your target audience wants to hear and things that promote your business. For many businesses, the answer is to focus on how your products and services benefit your customers. Give people useful information and answer their questions, and they will consider you a valuable member of their community. That's an important first step to winning a new customer. There's a real art to writing a headline-style message on Twitter. Experiment with different ways to say the same thing, and see what gets the most response. With only 140 characters, it's important that every word pull its weight in your messages. Over time, the quality of what you share will help you grow a strong Twitter following. Now, you are ready to take a step back and come up with a Twitter communication plan. Your plan focuses your Twitter conversation on topics designed to draw in potential customers and publish your tweets at the times you are most likely to engage people. Step #6: Drive Traffic to Your Website and BlogTwitter is a great tool for driving traffic to your website and blog. To do this, you create a tweet around a link, writing a message that compels people to click to learn more.  Write a compelling headline-style message to get people to click on the link in your tweet. Because space is at a premium in a tweet, there isn't room to post the entire web address. That's why all of the Twitter tools allow you to shorten your web addresses using a URL shortener.  When you paste a web address into a tweet, Twitter automatically shortens it, giving you more space for your message. When you use Twitter.com, the Twitter URL shortener uses just 20 characters for your web address, no matter how long the actual web address. Step #7: Connect Your Online PresenceNow that you have Twitter rolling along, it's time to integrate it into your overall online business presence. There are three ways to do this:
Another way you can move the Twitter conversation to your blog or website is by embedding a tweet. This allows you to select any tweet and insert it into a blog post, for example. By embedding the tweet, you allow people who visit your blog post to jump into the Twitter conversation.  Hover over any tweet you want to embed, click on the More link that becomes visible and choose Embed Tweet. Here's how an embedded tweet looks: Step #8: Get Mobile With TwitterNearly every cell phone can connect you with your Twitter audience.
 The Twitter app on the iPhone allows you to perform nearly every Twitter activity from your phone that you can do on Twitter.com. Twitter allows you to set up push notifications to your smartphone so you know when selected activities happen on Twitter:
With Twitter, a speedy response is best, and push notifications make it easy for you to know when things are happening for you on Twitter. Step #9: Share Photographs in Your TweetsPeople love to look at pictures, so include photographs in your tweets whenever possible. You don't have to be a professional photographer or have a fancy camera. All you need is a smartphone. You can share your photograph from your desktop on Twitter.com or from the Twitter app on your mobile phone. Get into the habit of taking photos of your business activities that you can share with your Twitter community. Twitter integrates into your smartphone's camera roll. This allows you to easily share photos you have taken with your Twitter followers.  You can tweet directly from the photos stored on your smartphone, as shown here on an iPhone. Twitter adds the photo to your tweet and makes it available for everyone to see.  Click on View photo to see the attached photo with any tweet.  A tweet with a photo allows your followers to view the photo within their tweet timeline. Twitter adds every photo you share to a photo (and video) gallery. The first six appear on your profile page. Take advantage of this feature to share pictures that tell your business story.  Twitter shares the six most recent photos or videos you share in the gallery on your profile page. Step #10: Add Video to Your Twitter TimelineVideo is another powerful way to tell people about your business. You can add videos to your Twitter timeline, but you cannot add them directly from Twitter. You must first upload them to another service like YouTube, and then link to them in your tweet.  Here's a tweet with a video inserted by linking to YouTube. Click View media to open the video inside Twitter. When a tweet contains a link to a video, Twitter allows you to play the video within the tweet. Click on View media to open the video player.  Twitter allows you to play videos without leaving the platform. Recently, Twitter launched a new video service called Vine that allows you to take short, 6-second videos from the Vine app and play them on an endless loop inside Twitter.  Click View media to view an attached Vine video. Like other videos, simply click View media to start playing the Vine video attached to a tweet.  A tweet with a Vine video. Twitter plays the video on an endless loop. Twitter also adds your Vine videos to your profile gallery. If you are not sure how your business can take advantage of this exciting new information-sharing tool, check out these examples of how businesses are using Vine to tell their story. Step #11: Organize Your Followers Into Conversation ListsAs you follow more people, it can be challenging to focus on the information coming from specific people and groups. That's where Twitter lists come in. A Twitter list allows you to separate the Twitter accounts you follow into groups. You might create separate lists for:
A list allows you to see the tweets from the list members as a separate Twitter timeline. This distinguishes them from the crowd so you can pay attention to what these people say. You can also share tweets from a list on your website using a widget (explained in this article). You can organize your lists in any way that helps you. You can create one or many lists. You can also make your lists public or private.
To review the public lists created by any Twitter user, display their profile page. Then click Lists in the left menu. Their public lists appear in the right column.  Here's a Twitter account with many public lists. Click on Lists on the left to see their public lists in the main column. To view the tweet timeline for the members of a list, click on the list name.  Here's an example of a Twitter timeline for people contained in a public list called SmallBiz Most Influential created by Twitter user D&B Credibility. To add someone to a list, display his or her profile. Click the gear icon and choose add or remove from lists. Then check or uncheck them from your list of Twitter lists.  You can add any person to your lists, even if you don't follow him or her. Step #12: Expand Your Audience With HashtagsMost people's Twitter experience is limited to the people they follow. It's always a good idea to keep looking for new, fresh voices to follow to keep expanding your online conversations. There are two great ways to expand your Twitter audience beyond your circle. Hashtags appear in tweets to identify a common topic or theme. They use the pound (or hash) sign followed by a unique identifier. For example:
Scroll through your timeline to spot tweets with a hashtag.  An example of a tweet with a #GetGlue hashtag. When you see a tweet with a hashtag, click on the hashtag to see a list of all tweets that include the same hashtag. You will see tweets from people you do not follow.  When you click on a hashtag or do a search on it, you get a list of tweets from all Twitter accounts that use the hashtag. If you attend a conference, the conference may ask all of the attendees to include the conference hashtag in their tweets. This way, hashtags pull together the conference tweets into one huge conversation, even though you may not be following all of those people. You can create a hashtag unique for your business and use it in your marketing to help people find your company and the conversations around it. In fact, hashtags are a great way to use Twitter for customer service and support. Step #13: Pinpoint Potential Local CustomersPeople often think that social media allows you to connect with people outside of your local geography. And while that is true, one of the great strengths of Twitter is the ability to focus on people in your own backyard. Most businesses need local customers. You can use Twitter to help you find potential customers who live and work near your business. Use Twitter Advanced Search to find people near your location.  Use the Advanced Search feature to find people by city and zip code. Use the Places feature to identify your location by city or zip code. Twitter displays a list of people who are tweeting near that location.  An example of a local search for "Tempe, Arizona" and the list of tweets in that area. Use this tweet timeline to find people who may be potential customers. You can follow them or add them to a potential local customer list. It's the first step to engaging them in conversation. Take Your Twitter Use for Business to the Next LevelAfter you master these Twitter skills, there are still more ways you can use Twitter to meet your business goals. Here are a few of them to inspire you.
Your Turn Use these suggestions to launch (or relaunch) your business's Twitter presence. What do you think? Are you ready to reboot your Twitter experience? Are you ready to jump into the Twitter pool? Share your experience and "ah-ha!" moments here with us. The post How to Use Twitter for Business and Marketing appeared first on TwitterToolsReviews. The post How to Use Twitter for Business and Marketing appeared first on GrowYourTwitterNetwork. The post How to Use Twitter for Business and Marketing appeared first on TwitterToolsReviews. |
| 5 Habits of Successful Content Marketers: New Research Posted: 29 Jan 2014 02:20 PM PST By Patricia Redsicker
Do you want to take your content marketing to a new level? Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs just published their latest report, B2B Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends – North America. The report shows two sides of content marketing. On one hand, the industry is still growing and has a long way to go. On the other hand, things are looking up and confidence is growing as many marketers start to get it right! What's clear from the report is that the most successful B2B marketers are doing more! "More what?" you ask. Well, they're spending more money, paying more attention to strategy, using more tactics and social media platforms and even producing more content. Let's dig deeper into five trends that show exactly what the most effective B2B content marketers are doing. #1: Have Someone to Oversee ContentSeventy-three percent of all B2B organizations have someone in charge of content marketing strategy. However, the majority (86%) of the most effective or best-in-class marketers had someone to oversee content strategy, compared to only 46% of their least effective peers (Figure 1).  Figure 1: Content marketing cannot succeed unless there’s someone to oversee the strategy. Key Takeaway Don't kid yourself—you do need someone to manage your content marketing! To be successful in this industry, there should be at least one person in your organization designated to 'own' the content marketing initiative. This person is in charge of executing the content goals that you want to accomplish as an organization. In his book Epic Content Marketing, Joe Pulizzi says that a lot of times when content marketing fails, it's not because your organization lacks good content. It's because execution has failed. Even if you're a small business and don't have the budget to hire a dedicated person, you can get one of your managers within the company to supervise content production (UPS does this!). #2: Have a Documented Content StrategyAmong the most effective marketers, 66% have a documented strategy compared to 11% of the least effective marketers (Figure 2). But overall, only 44% of B2B marketers have a documented strategy.  Figure 2: Strategy is the key to effectiveness. Key Takeaway A: 44% is a really sad number…or maybe not. Let's look at it in context. In previous years, the idea of having a documented content strategy didn't even arise (See Figures 3 and 4 below). Notice that the most effective marketers in 2011 and 2012 were judged by a different set of criteria compared to this year.  Figure 3: Most effective B2B marketers in 2011.  Figure 4: Most effective B2B marketers in 2012. It could be that the question was not asked or maybe the industry was still too young to have such high expectations. Either way, a documented strategy was not considered until now. This means that the bar is getting higher for those who want to call themselves content marketers. As the industry matures, new standards and best practices are going to be set. Be sure to keep up. Increase your knowledge of the industry by reading expert blogs and books, attending educational events and sharing experiences with other B2B content marketers. Key Takeaway B: There's no content marketing success without a strategy. If you've been operating without a documented content strategy, it's time to stop gambling. Most likely, any success you've achieved up to this point has been sheer luck. Figure out what you want content marketing to do for you. Write down your goals, your plan to achieve those goals and what indicators you'll use to prove your success. Make sure everyone who's involved in content production is on board with this document. #3: Use More TacticsThe most effective B2B marketers use an average of 15 tactics compared to the least effective marketers who use only 10. Interestingly, the use of infographics has increased significantly with 38% of marketers using this tactic last year compared to 51% this year (Figure 5).  Figure 5: Using more social media tactics helps you reach wider audiences. Key Takeaway In this age of multimedia consumption, competition for customer attention is fierce. Marketers are required to create content that captures interest and engagement. As if that's not challenging enough, they also have to figure out which tactics generate the best return. The most effective marketers understand that they have to keep up with consumers. That's why they cast a wider net and invest in more tactics (e.g., text, images, apps, video, audio, etc.). Of course the size of your budget also dictates what you can or can't do. If you have a small business, why not start out with the most cost-effective tactics such as social media, e-newsletters, articles and blogs and then gradually add other tactics as your budget allows? Always be expanding your content menu; don't be satisfied with the handful of tactics you were using last year. #4: Use Social Media More FrequentlyB2B content marketers use an average of 6 social media platforms, up from 5 last year. In addition, they're using all social media platforms to distribute content. As expected, LinkedIn is the top social media site used by B2B marketers, while Facebook is 10 points behind. The social sites that have experienced the biggest increase in use are SlideShare (23% last year to 40% this year), Google+ (39% to 55%) and Instagram (7% to 22%) (Figure 6).  Figure 6: Social drives content marketing. Key Takeaway No content marketing initiative is complete without social media. That's because social drives awareness of your content, which in turn impacts lead generation. In fact, a different report from Brafton stated that 70% of consumers click through to a brand's blog content after reading stories shared on their social networks. Once they get there, they're more likely to download more content or fill out a form. As a B2B marketer, you should try to repurpose your content specifically for each social channel (particularly LinkedIn) in order to capture interest and engagement. Keep in mind too that social signals (likes, retweets, +1′s, comments, shares, mentions, etc.) influence Google, thus maximizing your brand's online exposure. #5: Produce More ContentOn average, 73% of B2B marketers are producing more content than they did last year. Of the best-in-class (most effective) marketers, 78% are creating more content compared to 57% of their least effective peers (Figure 7).  Figure 7: Content production among B2B marketers has increased in the past year. Key Takeaway B2B marketers are increasing their investment in content creation. Why? Because the ultimate purpose of content is to attract new customers and retain existing ones. Your content has to answer all of your prospects' product-related questions in order to drive those purchasing decisions. That means you have to be a content machine without sacrificing quality. If you're not convinced that more content is better, here's some food for thought: At Content Marketing World 2013, a panel of experts was asked whether producing more content is better than producing less. The most compelling answers came from: Joe Chernov: "Quantity. You can create something awesome, then it takes 3 months to create your next great thing. What happens in the meantime?" Marcus Sheridan: "Quantity is intimidating for people who are too afraid to create content, because they think it must be epic. Let quantity lead to quality. Content marketing is not launching a rocket. Just do it." Over to You What do you think about these findings? Do you agree with them? Does anything surprise you? Share your comments in the box below. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends:
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| Posted: 29 Jan 2014 07:34 AM PST
Opportunities to find a job are everywhere on Twitter. Getting these jobs takes some different tactics than traditionally. Resume’s are becoming less important as the importance of a solid social media community continues to increase. In this article I cover 10 tips that will help you find a job with Twitter by identifying more job opportunities and positioning yourself as the best person for the job. 1. Start a #HireMe CampaignLet your followers know you are on the hunt for a new job. Make sure your LinkedIn profile is up to date and send a tweet sharing your profile link. Tweet valuable resources and do your best to help your audience out. You can help people in your Twitter network by sharing their content, recommending them, and helping them build buzz about content they are sharing. If you have helped others they will feel inclined to reciprocate the helpfulness, so when they see that you are on a #jobhunt they will be more likely to help you out if they can. 2. Use Job Hunting #Hashtags |
A tweet is a short message sent out to everyone who follows your Twitter account. 
An @reply tweet is a message you send in response to a tweet from another person. 
A mention tweet includes the name of a Twitter user but is not a reply to a previous tweet from that person. 
A DM is a private message sent to someone who follows you on Twitter. 
A retweet is a message sent by another person that you share with your followers. 
Below you will find some Twitter accounts and lists related to different people on Twitter who are involved in the #JobSearch niche.| You are subscribed to email updates from TwitterToolsReviews To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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