TwitterToolsReviews |
- Guide to Facebook Reach: What Marketers Need to Know
- Social media pitfalls for jobseekers #infographic
- Top 21 WordPress Plugin Picks for 2014
- How to Create YouTube Videos That Connect With People
- How to Use Reddit to Generate Leads
- Google+ Custom URLs: This Week in Social Media
- How an Auto Repair Shop is Winning Female Customers With Social Media
- Instagram Ads Cost Up To $1 Million Per Month (Report)
- Instagram Ads Cost Up To $1 Million Per Month (Report)
- How Men And Women Stack Up On Social Media (Infographic)
| Guide to Facebook Reach: What Marketers Need to Know Posted: 02 Apr 2014 11:39 PM PDT By Emeric Ernoult
Do you want more fans to see your Facebook updates? If so, you need to understand Facebook reach. In this article, you'll find out what Facebook reach is, why some pages have more visibility than others and how to improve your own Facebook page reach. What Is Facebook Reach?Facebook is always rolling out new features in an effort to give users a more seamless and useful experience. Unfortunately, that doesn't always work in your favor when it comes to reaching as many people as possible with your page content. Facebook reach is the number of unique people who saw your content. It affects every other metric you can track: engagement, likes, comments, clicks and negative feedback. And that's not all. There are different kinds of reach: post, page, organic, viral and paid. Everything on Facebook boils down to reach.  Total Reach on Facebook. Post reach and page reach, for example, are different and have different weight. Post reach is the number of people who saw a specific post in their news feed. Page reach is the number of people who saw any of your post content during a given period of time (daily, weekly or monthly). These two reach metrics can be deceiving or confusing. If you don't post very often, you may have a very high post reach, but a low page reach. If you post often (e.g., five times a day or more) you may have a low post reach, but a pretty high page reach. Which one should you focus on? Ask yourself whether you want to have individual posts seen by the most fans or make sure your brand gets in front of your fans on a regular basis. Your answer determines which form of reach—post or page—is more important to you. Post and page reach both have three main subcategories: organic, viral and paid reach. Organic reach is the reach Facebook gives you for free. It happens in the news feed when your fans see your updates. There are other possibilities, such as random users visiting your page, but these are insignificant compared to news feed views by fans. Viral reach consists of the people who see your content because someone else created a story about it. For example, if a fan likes, comments or shares your post, their friends will see your post even if they aren't fans of your page. The same is true if you've paid to reach larger audiences who may or may not already be your fans. If one of those targeted people creates a story, their friends will see it as well. Both are viral reach. A quick note about viral reach: When you export your Insights data to an Excel spreadsheet, viral reach data is still included when you select the old Insights format. However, viral reach is a subsection of organic reach in the new version of Insights, which was rolled out in 2013. Expect to see viral reach metrics totally disappear from your Insights and the Facebook API soon. Facebook has decided to go for simplicity rather than detail. Paid reach is a subset of post reach and is pretty easy to track and report. You paid for it, so you know where it came from. If you pay to promote your posts, your post reach is going to be much bigger than your standard organic reach (because you've paid to reach more of your fans).  You can find paid reach metrics under the Post Reach area in Facebook Insights. What's the Best Way to Measure Facebook Reach?Until recently, it's been common to benchmark your overall Facebook reach against your total fans (even I was doing this). Many social media marketers checked the number of people reached for a given post, and then compared it to their total number fans and calculated a percentage of how many fans they reached. That's no longer the best way to look at it. Facebook's new Insights gives you access to the number of fans who are online at any given point in time. A Facebook page post lifespan rarely exceeds 2 to 3 hours. Given that, we should benchmark against the total number of fans who were on Facebook at that time. For example, in the graph below I can see that most of my fans are logged into Facebook around 3:00pm. If I post at that time, about 3,500 of my 9,500 fans should be logged in.  Use the When Your Fans Are Online option to find out when most of your fans are logged into Facebook, then post at that time and use that reach as your benchmark. If the post reaches 600 people, I shouldn't look at it as 6.3% of my page's fans (600 people out of 9,500), but rather 17% of the fans (600 out of 3,500) who were online and reachable when I posted it. This is important when you're explaining page performance to a boss or client. These are the results your hard work is producing! How Hard Is It to Get Good Reach?In December 2013, people started reporting a big drop in organic reach for the pages they were managing. The drop in organic reach varied—some saw a large drop, some saw a small drop and others saw no change. A post from AdAge revealed a "leaked" deck from Facebook stating that pages should expect their reach to continue decreasing and be ready to pay for visibility in the news feed. The social media ecosystem and blogosphere were outraged. Not a single day in December passed without a new blog post on the subject. Some were condemning Facebook for contriving sneaky new ways to steal their money. Others were defending Facebook's efforts to improve the quality of content distributed in the news feed. On December 20, I looked at the average data of more than 6,000 pages of various sizes and industries. The data shows a constant decline over the previous six months, but no noticeable drop in December (when people started reporting the issue). However, I did discover an interesting trend. Pages with high post engagement were the least affected (if at all). Pages with a high engagement rate along with a high negative feedback score (i.e., users hide your posts or report them as spam) were more affected. Finally, pages with a very low engagement rate were affected most. The average monthly organic reach declined from 73% to 55% of fan base (orange graph). Notice there's no significant drop in December for the average. However, that average decline has not affected every page. The black graph represents the evolution of a nonprofit page I manage and its monthly organic reach has increased during the same period. That page has very high post engagement and very low negative feedback.  Working to increase post engagement may help you reach more fans in the news feed. The type of content a page published also had an impact. Photo posts had the most negative effect, so if you post a lot of photos and have a low engagement rate, you're probably suffering more than the average page. Do Other Social Networks Offer Better Reach?When the Facebook reach issue was ignited in December, many social marketers branded Facebook as a fraud and advised that it was time to move on to other social networks, Google+ being the lead contender. That emotional reaction was inherently wrong on all levels. The most important flaw in that plan is that other social networks don't provide any kind of reach metric. Only Facebook provides that data. When the other networks do provide analytics, they're nothing close to the breadth of information Facebook gives page owners. Most social marketers were upset about the pay-to-play aspect of Facebook's new reach algorithm. They blamed it on Facebook being a publicly traded company and accused it of only being out for money. Consider this: Do you think Google is acting as a nonprofit with no interest in monetizing you and your data? Google's changes to its search algorithm (e.g., Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird) have been far more damaging to online businesses than Facebook's reach tweaks. When a business's free SEO ranking goes dark, in many cases they pay for AdWords to stay in front of their audience. Facebook has one of the best targeting options for businesses. For some of us, leaving Facebook to rely solely upon Google AdWord's targeting capabilities would be business suicide.  Don't automatically discount Facebook from your social media mix. Image source: iStockPhoto.com. Overall, Facebook, Google+, Instagram and Twitter are different and complementary, not opposing alternatives to each other. Look at Facebook as a component of your strategy, not the whole thing. If most of your audience is on Pinterest or Google+, focus more energy there, but why leave the place where the people you need to reach are spending all of their time? Does Paying for Facebook Reach Give a Good Return on Investment?For some, paying Facebook for exposure will become a necessity. Is this such a bad thing? Should you be concerned about the need to pay to increase your content visibility? Not necessarily. Of course, some content doesn't deserve to be paid for and some does. Paying to promote the right content in order to reach more people in your target audience (fans or not), can lead to a lot of conversions. First, make a distinction between casual content and business-worthy content. Photos from your latest speaking gig, videos of fun things you do at the office and quick news updates about your niche are all relevant and good, but should you pay to get more exposure for them? Nah. Those posts don't impact your bottom line.  When you post about fun stuff you do at the office, it's not about reaching a big number of your fans. But if you're announcing a new product, new features, an ebook or webinar or other content you've spent hours on, isn't it worth it to pay $30 or $50 to make sure your hard work is seen by 9,000 people instead of 1,000? Yes! Your time and specialized content are worth it. Why waste those efforts to save $30 or $50? That's nonsense. If you're sharing the type of content you can track for short-term ROI (e.g., leads or revenue), isn't it worth it to pay $100 or $150 to generate 300 or 400 hot qualified leads or 10 new subscribers with a lifetime value of $400? You bet! Actually, for this kind of content, I haven't found a more affordable way to generate ROI with PPC, and I've tried a LOT of options.  When posting about a new product or feature that can generate new customers, it's worth it to pay for more reach. In the example below, the cost to acquire a new customer via sponsored posts was between $20 and $30, which is around 10% of our average revenue per customer. Pretty good return on investment as far as I'm concerned.  Paying for extended reach can result in higher ROI. What Are the Best Tactics to Sustain Facebook Reach?If you want to make the most of Facebook reach this year, I have a few ideas on how to do that. Posting relevant curated content or reposting your own evergreen content are great ways to encourage engagement (which translates to reach), especially when you post when your fans are on Facebook. Posting more often and at different times of day are your best tactics to increase your overall reach and brand awareness. Pages that post at least three times a day get very high page reach metrics and much more brand awareness than pages that only post once a day or fewer. In the example below, the page on the left has a pretty high post reach (24% of fans are reached for each post!). The page on the right has a much lower post reach. However, the page on the right posts several times a day while the one on the left only posts once a day. The overall page reach is much higher for the one on the right (93% of fans reached on a monthly basis versus 53%). Neither of these pages are using paid reach; it's all organic.  Posting frequency affects your post and page reach. Creating consistently great content is hard. If you're relying on great content produced in-house to nurture your Facebook page, you need to change your approach. Curation is the cheapest and most effective way to produce more high-quality, shareable content. There are plenty of experts in your industry, and they all invest a ton of time crafting great content. Have the right curation tools in place to help you spot content quickly and share the best of it on your page. Remember, the goal here is brand awareness. You'll get that by sharing high-quality content for your audience to see. Other types of content you can share are events like attending or speaking at a conference or even appearing on a TV or radio show. This kind of post takes less than five minutes to do—you just need to add them into your daily routine.  Sharing your special events gets your brand in front of fans and keeps them in the loop. Sharing content doesn't have to be a "go big or go home" scenario. Sharing quick nuggets of content along with your in-depth blog articles mixes things up and keeps it interesting. Post a fun fact or an expert opinion or question about the latest news in your industry. When you find an interesting article that's relevant to your niche, just hit Share and add a small introduction. This kind of content is super-easy to create and sustains brand awareness.  Share interesting content relevant to your fans for more engagement and reach. Don't forget your evergreen content! Once a week, plan to reshare your best and most costly pieces of content to get them in front of new fans. Jon Loomer does this a lot and it's one of his tricks that allows him to post 2 or 3 times daily. Here's a post on Jon Loomer's Facebook page published on February 9 about a blog post originally published on November 18. It's still getting likes, shares and clicks!  Don't waste your evergreen content; it deserves to be shared again and again. While it can be frustrating when Facebook changes the rules of the game, you can still use the network to your advantage. Understanding how reach affects all reported data, choosing content wisely and paying to promote posts that can result in conversions can put you ahead in the end. Compare your reach performance against the average and use the tips here to help you get better results. What do you think? Have you noticed a dip in your Facebook reach? Do you have any tips to keep your posts front and center in the news feed? Let us know in the comments. 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 Guide to Facebook Reach: What Marketers Need to Know appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. |
| Social media pitfalls for jobseekers #infographic Posted: 02 Apr 2014 11:36 PM PDT
Are you looking for new job? Is it time for a change in career? If the answer is ‘yes’ then take a look at this infographic by Career Savvy, which highlights the importance of getting your social media image sorted before you even think about filling in a job application form. Key Takeaways
Social media is for being ‘social’ but always be aware of protecting your online reputation with the content you post. Angharad Welsh shares good advice in her article about protecting your digital footprint: “My rule of thumb is that if I wouldn’t be happy with my mum, my boss or a client knowing about something then it doesn’t go online and so far that seems to be working.”
The post Social media pitfalls for jobseekers #infographic appeared first on Muddywall. The post Social media pitfalls for jobseekers #infographic appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Top 21 WordPress Plugin Picks for 2014 Posted: 02 Apr 2014 10:29 PM PDT
Following are some of my top picks for WordPress plugins for 2014. The majority of these are free, so even if you are on a small on non-existent budget, there will be something here for you! This plugin detects broken and missing links, both of which can damage your relationship with the search engines and with your readers. You can even choose to receive notifications via email when a link isn't working. An oldie but a goody! This plugin gives you a built-in template for optimizing each of your pages and blog posts. It's extremely easy to use, and takes the guesswork out of SEO for your content. Ever wonder how some blogs have a Facebook comment box in addition to their native WordPress comments? This plugin is one way to implement this feature. It will allow visitors to your site who are logged in to Facebook to use the Facebook comment box. It also pulls in comments made on Facebook, adding user-generated content to your site (which is GREAT for SEO!) There are tons of social icon plugins available, but this is one of my favorites (you can see I'm using it on my own site). I love that you can display your share buttons above and below your posts, or have it float beside your content. It's also customizable, so you can choose which social buttons and counters you want to display. This plugin will allow you to automatically get Twitter cards for each of your posts. This means that when you or one of your visitors tweets a link to one of your posts, any pictures, videos or metadata attached to your post will show up within the body of the tweet. All in One Schema.org Rich Snippets We know that rich snippets are becoming increasingly important for search engine rankings, but unless you're a programmer, implementing them can be difficult. This plugin makes adding rich snippets easy, giving you a 'meta box' that is easy to fill in when you create a new post. If all you need is a basic, good-looking contact form, Contact Form 7 is still one of the top picks among marketers and webmasters. Readers love quotes, and this plugin is one of the easiest ways you can insert attractive and customized pull quotes into your content. This will ensure your readers see important quotes, and it's also great for breaking up and adding interest to large chunks of content. If you currently accept guest posts on your blog, or if you simply want to make sure you're credited for each piece of content on your site (both by your readers and for Google Authorship), you may want to consider installing Author Bio Box. You choose the image and blurb you want it to display, and it will insert your bio (or your guest posters' bios) underneath each blog post or article. Although there are free backup plugins available, none are quite as robust or reliable as Backup Buddy Premium. Priced at $80 for a lifetime license, it's a bit of an investment, but having the assurance that both your WordPress files and database are safe and secure is priceless. Having trouble getting visitors to stay on your site? Offering related content is one way to increase both time-on-site and overall pageviews. This plugin simply needs to be activated, and it will automatically scan your content, associating and displaying similar articles. If you find your site takes a long time to load, the problem may be the size of your images. Rather than manually 'shrinking' all your images and then re-uploading them, this plugin allows you to automatically run through all the images currently on your site and compress them. It will also automatically compress all new images you upload to your site. Want to add an ecommerce feature to your WordPress site without having to pay for a complete redesign? This plugin allows you to easily convert your existing theme into an ecommerce store. Google Analytics for WordPress This plugin allows you instant access to your traffic data all within the comfort of your WordPress dashboard. It's critical that you have a proper XML sitemap on your site so the search engines can find and index all your valuable content. This plugin automatically creates one, allowing Google, Bing and Yahoo to see the complete structure of your site. Have you ever thought about adding a forum to your WordPress site? BuddyPress allows you to quickly and easily set up an online discussion board and allow private messaging between members. With one click, you can add public and private chat to your website or blog. Facebook Chat gives you the ability to connect with your website visitors in real time, meaning you can dialogue with visitors about your content, or even offer live customer support. If you frequently host events – either live or online – this plugin will save you oodles of time. It allows you to easily create and display events on your website, improve the SEO rankings of your events, and even allows visitors to search for events on your site. If you've ever had visitors complain about the built-in search function on your site, this plugin may be the solution. It improves the search functionality on your site, and even gives you the ability to customize, highlight or exclude specific pages and posts from search. Not quite ready to launch your website, but want more than just a generic 'coming soon' page? This plugin allows you to easily set up an attractive and customized 'coming soon' page, without any coding or design knowledge. You can even collect emails so you can notify visitors when the site is live! Ever wonder how some sites get those cool little ratings stars next to their content and products? This plugin will allow you to easily add a rating system to your site, allowing visitors to rate and review your content using stars or thumb ratings. There are so many great plugins I could have added to this list, but these are some of my favorites. Which plugins would you add to this list? Let us know 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. The post Top 21 WordPress Plugin Picks for 2014 appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. |
| How to Create YouTube Videos That Connect With People Posted: 02 Apr 2014 09:08 PM PDT By James Wedmore
Do you want to increase your YouTube channel views and subscribers? Keep reading to discover five valuable tips to enhance your YouTube marketing. Simple YouTube StrategyHere's a simple strategy. Want to integrate YouTube into your online marketing strategy effectively? Then you must create and share valuable video content that's relevant to what your ideal customer is searching for on the Internet. This might be an answer to a frequent question, a tutorial or a customer review of your services. When you use video strategically, YouTube will generate leads for your business. In this article I'll show you five styles of YouTube videos that will get you the results you're looking for on YouTube. #1: Turn New Viewers Into Subscribers With a Trailer VideoYouTube Trailer Video lets you feature a video at the top of your channel when nonsubscribers visit. Why not use this space to tell new viewers who you are, what your business is all about and what they can expect from your content?  Your YouTube channel and trailer video as seen by nonsubscribers.
Here is a simple, three-step outline to help you create a 45-to 60-second video that will convert viewers into subscribers who will get alerts whenever you post new video.
#2: Share Stats That Matter to Benchmark YourselfPosition yourself as a reliable source of information with a video that presents numbers and niche market data in a unique, easily sharable way. People love statistics, and if you gather and present good data, they'll share your video with colleagues who are interested. About two years ago, I uploaded a simple two-minute video to share the latest statistics about online video, entitled YouTube and User Engagement. The original received 16,000 views and the follow-up, Video Revolution 2.0, now has close to 40,000 views.  Video Revolution 2.0 shares the latest statistics about online video and has close to 40,000 views. Use these three simple steps to create your own stats video and share important, relevant information with your market:
#3: Share a Customer Success Story to Establish a Good ReputationThere are few things more powerful than a first-person testimonial that tells how your product or service made a customer's life better. This doesn't have to be polished and technical. You can record customer interviews with your mobile device or on a Google hangout with a simple webcam. Better yet, ask your past customers to put their own success stories on camera and send you a link to their video so you can share it on your own channel and add it to your channel's favorites.  Showcase the stories of your customers through video. Here's a simple formula you can use to help customers bring their stories to life for you.
#4: Answer Questions to Demonstrate Your KnowledgeYour potential customers are going straight to Google to find answers to their questions. Claim your Google Authorship, then connect your Google+ profile with your YouTube channel and use video to deliver those answers. You'll become a go-to Q&A resource in no time. Share your knowledge with little things and people will remember you when they need to buy big things.  Marie Forleo of MarieTV reads and answers the questions her audience members ask. To get a jump-start on the questions your customers ask most, use keyword research tools, review forum questions or send out a survey to your existing subscribers and customers. Use these questions to record a Q&A library of videos that are short and to the point so people get what they need quickly. Provide real value, avoid the fluff and don't hold back! #5: Teach People Something to Create Top-of-Mind Awareness of Your ServicesIf you do a quick search for "how to tie a tie," you'll find videos at the top of Google's search results. Some of these videos have more than 13 million views. Rather than writing a text-based article with a series of pictures on how to do something, record step-by-step tutorials, demonstrations and how-to videos. Your viewers can pause the video as needed and that makes their lives easier!  Find out which "how-to" keywords your customers are searching for on Google! If you're camera-shy, the good news about tutorial videos is that the "star" of your video is the product. For online or software tutorials, screen-capture software like Camtasia or ScreenFlow will record your screen and you don't even have to be on camera! The ONE Element Every Video Needs There are more than five styles of videos that work on YouTube and you don't have to limit yourself to the options in this article. Find the best fit for your business, then include the only essential element every video needs: your Call to Action. Provide value and communicate a clear and compelling call to action that inspires your viewer to subscribe, purchase, visit your website or share the video they just watched and you'll see results in no time. What do you think? Are you including video in your online marketing strategy? Which types of video work best for you? Please leave your questions and 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:
The post How to Create YouTube Videos That Connect With People appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. |
| How to Use Reddit to Generate Leads Posted: 02 Apr 2014 07:47 PM PDT By Jesse Aaron
Do you know how to engage the reddit community? In this article I'll show you how brands can engage on reddit and create a successful lead generation campaign using Reddit sponsored headlines. What's reddit?Reddit is a website that showcases popular links and information. Reddit's unique culture can make it hard for brands to navigate. Redditors expect extreme transparency and authenticity from advertisers. Spam and hard selling aren't tolerated and using either tactic will damage your brand's reputation. It doesn't matter how awesome your content is. You can't approach reddit the same way that you do Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. If you jump in and submit content blindly, you could find yourself banned or your websites blacklisted. How Does Engagement on Reddit Work?Engagement on reddit takes place in subreddits. Subreddits are niche communities filled with people who are passionate about a specific topic. Examples of subreddits include: As a business, you need to learn the ropes and focus on supporting the subreddits you join, instead of marketing to them. Think more about offering solutions, sharing resources or asking questions, and less about selling. Subreddits are most often created and moderated by reddit community members, but in rare cases a brand creates a subreddit. For example, last year, Ford Motor Company created the /r/FordPiDayChallenge and worked hand in hand with the reddit team to run a campaign for Pi Day on March 14. Every 3 minutes and 14 seconds, Ford posted a math question to their subreddit. Each question included a reference to a Ford vehicle.  Ford found a creative way to get involved on reddit and boost their brand's reputation with community engagement. Now that you understand the basics of reddit, let's develop a lead generation campaign. #1: Find Relevant Subreddits to JoinFirst, your brand needs to join reddit. When you create your account, be sure to use your brand name as your username. Now that you're officially part of reddit, use keywords to search for subreddits that relate to your brand, product or service. The results of each search will show you a list of subreddits like the one below related to a search on "frugal."  Your search will give you a number of subreddits from which to choose. Click on each subreddit to find out if your brand is a good fit. As you look around the subreddit, check out the right sidebar. This is where you'll find community stats, a description and rules that are specific to that subreddit.  The sidebar of the /r/Frugal subreddit gives you a quick overview of the community. Once you find a subreddit that looks promising, sort its posts by Top and All Time. This lets you easily read through the most active posts, so you can better understand the community's conversations and what content performs best.  Sorting the posts in a subreddit gives you an idea of what types of content will interest its readers/subscribers. As you identify subreddits that fit your niche, it helps to rank them by relevance to your marketing needs so you know which ones to join. Create a spreadsheet with the following columns and information:
A completed row will look like this:  Use the information about each subreddit to rank its relevance to your marketing. When you've rated each subreddit, subscribe to the ones that are the best fit with your strategy. #2: Create a MultiredditTo easily monitor and search the conversations in your subreddits, you'll want to create a multireddit. A multireddit is basically a custom list of subreddits or subjects you want to have quick access to. Creating a multireddit is very simple. Step 1: Find and open the left-hand sidebar on the reddit home page (reddit.com). If you can't find the sidebar, it might be minimized (which is very subtle). This is what it looks like minimized:  The minimized left-hand sidebar can be tricky to find. Click on the bar to expand it and it should look like this:  Expand your left-hand sidebar to create a multireddit. Step 2: Click the Create button and enter a name for your multireddit.  Enter a name and click Create to start a multireddit. Click the Create button again and you'll be able to set the privacy level of your multireddit and populate it with the subreddits. In this example, I named the multireddit "socialmonitoring." To add a subreddit, simply click into the Add Subreddit text field at the bottom and enter the name of the subreddit (ex; for /r/frugal just enter "frugal"). Now it's added to your multireddit! Add all of the related subreddits you want to monitor. For the socialmonitoring multireddit, I populated it with frugal-related subreddits:  Multireddits let you keep track of the subreddits that are most relevant to you. Once you're done, the newly created multireddit shows in the left-hand sidebar on your reddit home page.  Remember, if you can't see this sidebar, it might just be minimized. #3: Identify Engagement OpportunitiesNow you can find conversations to join by using your multireddit to run a keyword search on multiple subreddits at one time. Click on your multireddit to see its feed. This is where all of the subreddit feeds you added mesh together. Locate the search bar in the top right corner.  Find your search box. When you click on the search box, the following yellow box appears. Check this box to limit your search to your multireddit.  Multireddits let you search multiple subreddits with one keyword. Tip: Reddit's search query operators are similar to Google's search query operators. For example, you can search "savings AND tips AND electricity" for posts that include these three keywords. Just like with any other platform, set aside 5-10 minutes a day to run searches in your multireddit for keywords that relate to your business. As you search, you'll find opportunities for marketing and discussion. Spend another 20-25 minutes redditing—or acting on—these opportunities. Submit appropriate content, provide insightful answers, ask questions related to your industry and respond to people who engage with you. Remember, engage as a redditor instead of a marketer. Your goal is to align with the community values, social norms and content preferences of each subreddit you participate in. When you receive comments or respond to users, there's a little in-box notification, known as an orangered, that appears in the top right corner of your page.  When your mail icon is orangered, it means you have comments and you should respond. While it's not vital to constantly monitor your orangered, you should definitely check it every so often so you can respond to incoming comments in a reasonable amount of time. The entire monitoring process takes a relatively short amount of time (about 30 minutes per day). The exception is if you're following up with a post or participating in a discussion section. Involved conversations obviously need more of your time. Tip: Limiting your focus to smaller subreddits lets you reach people with a targeted interest in your niche. Base your content on proper research and the chances of acceptance and engagement increase. #4: Create a Reddit Sponsored Headline Campaign to Generate LeadsYou've done your research and vetted your best options for engagement. Now that you're engaging on reddit, your ads won't seem out of place when they show up in your subreddits. Let's say your business offers something related to frugalness, such as a cheap energy alternative. After some quick keyword research, you find a recent and relevant post on the subject. In the comment section of the post, you notice there's a need for an evergreen guide on how to get energy bills as low as possible. Instead of linking to an existing guide by someone else, create your own. House the guide on your website and use reddit's self-serve advertising platform to submit it as a targeted sponsored headline to drive traffic to your site and generate leads. Create Your Sponsored Headline To create your sponsored headline, head on over to reddit's advertising page and click on Create an Ad.  Go to reddit's advertising page to start creating your ad. The following screen appears, where you can customize your ad.  Start by naming your ad and giving it a custom URL. The promotion is broken into three simple sections:
After filling out this information, click the Next button to reach the campaign dashboard. Manage the Campaign for Your Sponsored Headline From the campaign dashboard, you set the following options for how and when your sponsored headline runs:
 The campaign dashboard allows you to customize your ads. After you set your campaign options, click the Create button and the campaign dashboard condenses into a table that makes it easy to review your campaign.  This is your campaign table. The table also shows two additional fields that let you further customize your sponsored headline.
If you're happy with how you've set your options, click the Save Options button and the following screen appears:  This is your campaign dashboard. You'll notice the image is now included in the preview. To finalize your sponsored headline, just locate the Pay button under Total Budget and follow the basic payment instructions. After payment, your sponsored headline goes through a brief approval process. Once approved, it'll run for the specified campaign duration. As the ad runs, you can easily go back and extend or shorten the length of your campaign and increase or decrease your budget. You can also use the Add New button to strategically target multiple subreddits with the same ad. Tip: You can also use a sponsored headline to run a contest. For example, for a contest to name your new product, make the sponsored headline a text ad, which opens up a thread on reddit where redditors enter by submitting their entry as a comment. You choose the winning name based on the most upvoted comment/entry. This allows the community to publicly engage with your brand, and lets you easily follow up with an acknowledgment to the subreddit for helping you. Campaign Follow-up During the campaign, respond to every comment. Demonstrate your expertise by sharing tips and tools and foster a discussion in which you're seen as a source of reliable information. The result is win-win: You help fellow redditors in a niche community, while driving traffic and leads to your website. Add "reddit" to your UTM campaigns and you can use your analytics software to monitor exactly how many redditors became leads or completed goals after visiting your website—an easy way to determine your ROI. Conclusion Reddit isn't a social network where brands can post generic ads and churn out propaganda-rich content. It is a place where brands can learn from a targeted community and come away with actionable ideas to generate leads and revenue. If you take the time to research and monitor subreddits, you'll find relevant marketing opportunities. Your engagement with redditors drives traffic, generates leads and conversions and increases brand awareness. What do you think? Have you integrated reddit into your marketing mix? What advice can you offer? Please share below and I'll see you in the comments! 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 Use Reddit to Generate Leads appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. |
| Google+ Custom URLs: This Week in Social Media Posted: 02 Apr 2014 06:36 PM PDT By Cindy King
What's New This Week?Google+ Expands Availability of Custom URLs: "If your profile meets the following criteria, you'll now be able to claim a custom URL: has a profile photo, has at least 10 followers and has an account that's at least 30 days old."  “Once you meet the eligibility criteria, just visit your profile or page to begin the claiming process.”
 “To help control what kinds of pins you see, click the ‘i’ info icon on any related pin in your feed.” Twitter Makes Timelines More Visual: "Timelines on Twitter will be more visual and more engaging: previews of Twitter photos and videos from Vine will be front and center in tweets."  “To see more of the photo or play the video, just tap.” Google+ Improves Hangouts and Photos: The "improvements to Google+ Hangouts and Photos aim to take a lot of the work out of messaging, video calling and photo editing."  “Broadcasters can now schedule Hangouts On Air, then promote them with a dedicated watch page.” Tumblr Introduces New Search Feature: "The new Tumblr Search has been rebuilt, front to back, to help explore all of your 65 billion(!) posts."  There are a lot of big new additions to check out. Here's some upcoming news to follow: Facebook Tests New Messenger Experience: Facebook is "testing an update to Messenger on Android that makes it a faster and more reliable mobile-to-mobile messaging experience."  “You’ll know which friends are using the app if you see the Messenger icon Testing a New Messenger Experience on Android next to their name.” Instagram Reveals Sample Ad: "If you're in the United States, you'll see the sample ad below sometime in the coming week. This is a one-time ad from the Instagram team that's meant to give you a sense for the look and feel of the ads you will see."  “You’ll know a photo or video is an advertisement when you see the ‘Sponsored’ label where the time stamp normally would be. Tap this label to learn more about how advertising works on Instagram.” Here's an interesting tool worth noting: OptinMonster: a lead-generation plugin for WordPress that allows you to create attention-grabbing opt-in forms that convert.
What do you think? Please share 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:
The post Google+ Custom URLs: This Week in Social Media appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. |
| How an Auto Repair Shop is Winning Female Customers With Social Media Posted: 02 Apr 2014 05:16 PM PDT By Louise Julig
Owner Jeff Matt started Victory Auto Service and Glass in 1997 with one shop in the suburbs of Minneapolis. He always made an effort to develop personal relationships with his customers who trusted him with their cars. The business grew to three locations by 2010, and Matt found it harder to maintain the small-shop feel. "When you have multiple stores and multiple managers, you can't be everything to everybody," he said. Three years ago, he approached Stephanie Gutierrez, a long-time customer, about helping the business get started in social media. By experimenting with different approaches, they hit upon a winning formula that promotes the personal connections Matt has always valued.  Victory Auto and Glass uses Facebook to post photos from their shops. Since then, Victory has opened two new locations. Gutierrez spends between three and five hours a week managing their social media. She focuses mostly on Facebook and YouTube, but maintains other platforms as well. Victory Auto's social media strategy is to think like a customer, tag photos and promote their community. Organization: Victory Auto Service & Glass Social Media Handles & Stats: Highlights:
#1: Think Like a CustomerWhen Gutierrez told her friends she was working for an auto repair shop, they laughed. "I only think about car stuff when I HAVE to," she said. She compares taking her car in to going to the dentist. "I think I represent the average person that way," she added. When she began managing Victory's Facebook page, she asked, "If I didn't work here, would I interact with this page?" The answer was no, because she's not really that into cars. To change that, she looked for ways to make the page interesting to all car owners. Gutierrez now posts about things all drivers can relate to, such as traffic, commuting, safety and traveling.  Victory Auto posts about topics drivers are interested in. "We started out with more learning articles and links, but found that those were not highly interesting to people," said Gutierrez. They now post shorter fun tidbits, lots of photos and are very personable and interactive.  Victory Auto likes to post short, interactive, yet informative tidbits. Victory also thinks like a customer in YouTube videos. They post how-to videos, as well as customer testimonials and shop tours. For the how-to videos, "We are going for really simple stuff," said Gutierrez. Her boss laughed when she suggested the topic of their most popular video: how to top off your windshield wiper fluid. "He said, 'This is so easy!'" Gutierrez said. She reasoned it was exactly the type of thing people would watch on YouTube so they wouldn't have to ask someone. She brainstormed ideas for videos by "being embarrassingly honest about the things I do not know," she said.
#2: Be Friendly and Tag PhotosAuto repair is an industry based on trust. Trust is built on knowing the people doing the work. "People buy from people," said Matt. "Business is a lot easier when they know the people they are dealing with. The more transparent we can be—and social media gives us that opportunity—can only help build trust." Gutierrez often posts photos and fun personal information about the employees to help customers get to know them as people. "We celebrate birthdays, accomplishments and fun goings-on in the shop," she said.  Victory Auto helps their customers get to know their employees with posts that share personal accomplishments.  Victory Auto routinely posts photos and information about employees. She also makes an effort to tag photos as much as possible, although it can be complicated to tag a customer. She has to log into the business page as herself, be friends with the person she is tagging and they have to like the page. Gutierrez has over 1,500 Facebook friends, many of whom are customers, which helps.  Victory Auto tags customers and employees who are at the community events they sponsor.  Gutierrez logs into the Victory page as herself to tag customers she’s friends with. She admits that for some businesspeople, this is out of their comfort zone. "I encourage the managers to become friends with customers not just in person but on Facebook as well," she said. "Whenever we have those personal connections, we like to take advantage of them." The response from tagging customers has been positive, but the exposure "absolutely depends on how many friends that person has," she said. Tagging customers can be hit or miss, so Victory tags employees as often as possible. Six or seven of the 30 employees are active on Facebook, which they take advantage of for tagging. #3: Promote the CommunityBeing involved with local groups is important to Victory Auto owner Matt. "You should have some roots that grow into the community," he said. Victory has long supported MADD, Alexandra House and Toys for Tots. Matt also received a community award, Eleven Who Care, for his support of Free2B. Among other things, Victory donates space for Free2B volunteers to work in their bays fixing up donated cars or providing free or discounted repairs to needy families. "Some of those stories we would tell over Facebook," said Matt. "It is really promoting Free2B, but people come to realize that those things are happening at our shop. Without social media, some of those stories aren't told."  Victory uses its Facebook page to promote activity with local charities. Victory Auto has also become an AskPatty Certified Female-Friendly shop, and promotes the certification on their website and on the review site, AutoVitals, where they have a five-star review average.  Victory Auto uses social media to promote their Female-Friendly certification through AskPatty. "We had a great reputation with women and wanted to get that out," Gutierrez said. The shop is ASE certified, which is important to people who know a lot about cars. But for average drivers, "Certified Female-Friendly" is clear and straightforward. Their focus on promoting their female-friendly business is reaping results online and in person. Over 60% of their Facebook fans are women, and managers report that 50% to 60% of customers are women as well.  Victory Auto consistently reaches a local female audience through Facebook. What's the payoff? Other business owners often ask Matt how he justifies social media expense. He said he considers social media the same as any other business expense, one that pays off in the long-term. "We have to connect with our customers if we're going to be a viable long-term business. When we do that successfully, there's a lot more loyalty that we get back from our customers." What do you think? Are you using social media to connect with your customers? Do you have a story you would like to share? Please leave your questions and 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:
The post How an Auto Repair Shop is Winning Female Customers With Social Media appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. |
| Instagram Ads Cost Up To $1 Million Per Month (Report) Posted: 02 Apr 2014 05:11 PM PDT
Instagram is still testing ads with select partners, and it's been a mystery as far as how much those ads are running companies. According to a new report from Ad Age, the ads can run up to $1 million per month, says one executive. However, two other executives were quoted at $500,000 and "around $350,000 to $450,000." Either way, there's no official figure as Instagram takes into account data such as gender, age, how often an ad is shown and total reach. The social network declined to comment on its ad pricing, and here's a list of companies currently involved in the test program:
Last week, Taco Bell took part in advertising its new breakfast menu on Instagram, and the fast food giant even posted a video taking a slight jab at rival McDonald's: AdAge does note that it's uncertain if advertisers "are re-upping" their deals, and we still have yet to learn when ads will be rolling out to more companies. However, based on the $100 million advertising deal Instagram inked with media agency Omnicom last month, everything appears to be going according to plan. Photo credit: Ricardo Bernardo The post Instagram Ads Cost Up To $1 Million Per Month (Report) appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Instagram Ads Cost Up To $1 Million Per Month (Report) Posted: 02 Apr 2014 05:11 PM PDT
Instagram is still testing ads with select partners, and it's been a mystery as far as how much those ads are running companies. According to a new report from Ad Age, the ads can run up to $1 million per month, says one executive. However, two other executives were quoted at $500,000 and "around $350,000 to $450,000." Either way, there's no official figure as Instagram takes into account data such as gender, age, how often an ad is shown and total reach. The social network declined to comment on its ad pricing, and here's a list of companies currently involved in the test program:
Last week, Taco Bell took part in advertising its new breakfast menu on Instagram, and the fast food giant even posted a video taking a slight jab at rival McDonald's: AdAge does note that it's uncertain if advertisers "are re-upping" their deals, and we still have yet to learn when ads will be rolling out to more companies. However, based on the $100 million advertising deal Instagram inked with media agency Omnicom last month, everything appears to be going according to plan. Photo credit: Ricardo Bernardo The post Instagram Ads Cost Up To $1 Million Per Month (Report) appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| How Men And Women Stack Up On Social Media (Infographic) Posted: 02 Apr 2014 04:39 PM PDT Men and women have different tastes when it comes to social media, and a new infographic from Finances Online takes a look at our various habits. While men are more likely to use social media for business or dating, women outnumber men in the following categories:
Here's where women have the edge on Facebook:
Women are 53 percent more likely to follow brands for special deals, but are also six percent more likely to ignore ads on social media. When it comes to smartphone activities, women also use social media more often at 57 percent, compared to 47 percent of men. The trend continues with tasks such as messaging and games, but men come out slightly ahead in watching videos, listening to music and reading news. To learn more about how women and men's social media activities compare, you can check out the infographic below.
The post How Men And Women Stack Up On Social Media (Infographic) appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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