by Jenna Elberson | Mar 26, 2013 | Business Success, Latest, Social Media
You have a great Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest page. Your timeline photo, background image and profile pictures are eye catching. Your brand is engaging your fans/followers with compelling content, because as we know content is king. You have all the elements you need for great social media presence, do you have social media metrics to track and measure the growth and success on the social media landscape?
There’s more to social media metrics…
If your brand has a business page on Facebook tracking changes to your social media is easy, but that’s not always the metrics you need to go by. Even on sites like Google+, Twitter and Pinterest it can a little more complicated, but it’s do-able. Keep in mind that not every client or business is the same so measuring metrics and your ROI will vary.
Here are just a few ways you can measure the success of your social media and enhance it. First start with…
1. Track it!
Search the web and you will find a few social media templates that have likes, comments, RTs. You can easily make your own, ask your client or yourself what it is you’re trying to track. What is your objective with your social media campaign; retweets vs new followers? Once you have the items you want to track you’re good to go. Keep track of the weekly activity and at the end of the week visit the chart and see what works and what doesn’t.
2. Sales
You should keep a close eye on your sales when promoting on Social Media. Most companies see big gain in sales by doing a push on social media. Track which type of promo does best for your sales. Whether you offer a % discount vs. a BOGO etc AND also keep a watchful eye on which social platform you generate the most sales from. Pinterest always increases sale more when you promote and item like clothing or a gadget where as a % discount on a product will better suit you on Facebook and Twitter.
3. Engagement
Which stories or posts garnered the most comments? When your users engage with your brand or the content you aren’t necessarily gaining a fan you’re gaining interest from that person. Track their social media journey. Does a picture do better than a story or a video vs. a question. The social media chart should track this and by revisiting it find out what works and doesn’t with your brand and watch for an increase in engagement with your fans/followers. Another key ingredient here is how YOU engage with your followers. It doesn’t matter how long it takes you to response, but that you respond! People want their voice to be heard, whether it’s in a positive way or negative make sure you are engaging with your fans and interacting with them.
All brands will have a different social media strategy when it comes to tracking their metrics and ROI. As long as you keep a close eye on what’s working and what’s not and act on it, you will see a positive change towards your social media campaign. Not all things work the first time, be patience you’re working towards a positive ROI outcome and at first you don’t succeed try, try again.
by Jenna Elberson | Mar 8, 2013 | Advertising, Branding, Business Success, Interactive, Latest, Social Media
The “Trend”. More brands are turning to social media to reach more of their customers through trending, they are not realizing the impact 1 tiny misspell or mistake can make.
Already in 2013 we have seen many social media fails. While they bring in a good laugh for the public, for the brands or companies it can be hugely embarrassing and worse.
Some of the biggest mishaps of 2012 were awarded with a SUXORZ awards at the New York social media show. Yes, just like the Razzies which are awarded for the worst movies of the year, prizes are now awarded for #socialmediafails!
Here are just a few of the recipients…
Belvedere Vodka
Belvedere thought it would be great to throw their hat into the meme ring. But when your fans mistake your “meme” as a promotion for rape an apology just doesn’t cut it.
Credit: SUXORZ
Tip: Think it through. When attempting a comical ad piece, think about your audience and what your brand is trying to convey. Ask yourself what is the goal of this promotion and go from there.
Susan Boyle
They say any press is good press. For Susan Boyle, her trending hashtag was the talk of twitter (and won her an award). #Susanalbumparty was one of the top trending topics last year. If you can’t see why… look harder.
Tip: Pick more than 1 hashtag option. When thinking of trending a topic, pick a few options to find the perfect fit for your campaign or promotion. Proof read twice, then a third time, even five times. Then have a group of people review them to. Fresh eyes are always helpful. The goal is to choose a hash tag that is legible and easy to understand.
McDonald’s
Look before you leap should be the motto for all social media campaigns. McDonald’s attempted to engage their followers by asking for heartwarming stories with the trending hash tag #McDStories. The hashtag quickly trended with negative stories and backlash and the campaign was pulled after 2 hours.
Tip: Understand that people like to complain more than praise. Tread carefully when asking for feedback or any type of response on Facebook, Twitter or Google+. Word spreads quickly in the age of social media.
Know of any other social media snafus. Please share them here!
by Jenna Elberson | Mar 1, 2013 | Business Success, Latest, Social Media
How many blogs have you read about how to create a successful social media campaign or what elements should go into a social media soup? There are hundreds of tips on how to create a successful social media strategy. But how do you do that and not risk of loosing focus for your brand.
Let’s face facts first: social media is here to stay. When you open up the gates to the wonderful world of social media, there are key ingredients that should be imbedded into your brain… forever. Like the golden rules of life, there are golden rules to social media. HOWEVER, these golden rules are always changing. The realm of social media is fluid and changing almost everyday. New and invigorating ideas comes out of the shadows to change social media. THAT is something to love about being a part of social media and marketing – if you can stay flexible!
Also, when someone tells you “I’m a social media expert”, don’t believe them. Why? As has been stated, social media is always changing. With change comes new knowledge and an expert is someone who knows and understands everything about that subject matter.
When you come to that point where you are ready to plan your social media calendar there are a few things that are small, but make a world of difference for your brand and followers. Take the time to evaluate your plan after you’ve read these 3 tips.
1. Understand what you know.
It’s simple. The best way to do this is to create a writer’s web (see image below). We use these to help build characters, story lines and just basic writing ideas. When you have a good grasp of your brand content, ideas will be coming out of your brain like a rocket.
Start in the middle. What is your brand, what do you do or provide? Next spread out to things your audience know about your brand and why they follow you. Continue to grow the web to content your audience would like to have that you might need a 3rd party come in to help with. This will give you some support and help you produce content.
2. Focus
There are many social media outlets out there and from my experience, focus is very important. You need to understand and see benefits only to those outlets you have researched that fit with your brand. By putting all you eggs in one basket you’re losing focus and often enough will get overwhelm. Let’s say you are a clothing retailer; Pinterest is a great place to tap into. Companies who post their products on Pinterest saw big growth on their online sales on top of their already prosperous sales. If you’re like us we blog; posting our blogs on twitter and following relevant companies and influential people is key to gaining growth. By knowing what social site you will benefit from will help pull focus and engagement to your fans.
3. Timing
Time is money. Do you know when the best time to post content is? Did you know that 4:00pm during the week is the best time to post on Twitter for RTs? It may be a small thing to keep in mind, but it can make a big different. To get you to wrap your head around this idea here is a great infographic to give you some timing ideas.
Monitor the engagement you get when posting, not all these times will work best for your brand. Depending on your audience you should tweak your post times accordingly.
Overall, understand what your goals are and why you’re using social media for your brand. Integrate these 3 tips and they will help you generate content and get the engagement you are [hopefully] looking for and open up new networks for your business.
Have any more tips for me? Let me know in the comments below!
by Jenna Elberson | Feb 11, 2013 | Advertising, Business Success, Creative, Design, Latest, Social Media
Marketing is essential for any business, and it’s a field that’s constantly researched, analyzed, and developed by professionals. In general, there are lots of marketing activities you can do on your own to save money, such as posting flyers around town or designing business cards. There are others, however, that are best left to the experts, and here are five of them.
Review Tracking
Because so many people rely on online reviews to make their purchase decisions, it’s incredibly important that you keep track of what people are saying about your business online. Review tracking can help you stay ahead of the curve in managing your online reputation, but it’s also a time-consuming and tedious process. For the most efficient review tracking, it’s best to outsource the job to a company who has the necessary tools and experience to do it for you.
Mass Mailing
Direct, mass mailings are incredibly effective when compared to other forms of offline marketing, and it’s still an approach that many businesses take and profit from. Mass mailing, however, is just that – massive. When mailing out thousands and thousands of flyers – as you need to do to achieve sufficient results – it is a job best left to another company who specializes in it. They have the printers, machinery, and hands needed so that you don’t have to waste time and suffer from papercuts as you address and stuff every envelope by hand.
Review Moderation
Another job that’s best left to outsourcing is review moderation. Not only do you need a company to track your online reviews and reputation, but you also need a company who can moderate those reviews. For example, they can be on the lookout for damaging, fraudulent reviews, and they can take the necessary steps on your behalf to remove fraudulent reviews from the web. A company who specializes in review moderation can help you maintain a good online reputation.
Television Commercials
Unless you run a video production company, it’s best to leave your television commercials to other professionals. When you run an ad on TV, the quality is highly important. If you run a poorly filmed and poorly edited commercial, it will make your business look of lesser quality. It’s also time-consuming and difficult to create a good commercial if you don’t know what you’re doing – if not impossible. Outsource your TV commercials to a video production company that specializes in creating marketing videos and commercials for businesses like yours
PPC Management
A pay-per-click campaign is an excellent way to boost traffic to your website. It’s quick and efficient, but it also requires a lot of monitoring, maintenance, and strategic planning. An online marketing company that can help run your PPC campaign is a good investment to make. They can help you analyze its effectiveness, do tedious keyword research, make sure your ads look and read as well as they should to earn clicks, and make sure you’re getting the best value.
Garrett Payne is an online review management professional with a special interest in review tracking. Garrett suggests those involved in review management; which tasks are best left to the experts.
by Jenna Elberson | Jan 28, 2013 | Communications, Latest, Social Media
Blogging can be hard. Let’s face it we don’t always know what to write and I’m always told to write what I know… sorry reader I don’t think you would like to read about a secret world under the ocean or a forest elf battling a ferocious dragon. You are here for a better understanding of the marketing universe. I’m well versed in social media and 9 times out of 10 that’s what I’ll provide; a wealth of knowledge in the social media realm. Today, however, I’m going to try and help you get your brain gears going for writing your next blog or article.
Some of you might be able to pump out a 15 page article with no effort, but if you are like me you struggle to put thoughts and ideas down on paper. I’ve been writing since elementary school and my stories varied from thesis’ to fantasy stories, but for me it’s hard to just sit down and write. We all get writers block from time to time. It can be the worst thing when trying to finish an article or blog for next day delivery. EEKS! So what do you do? Many times I’ll take a step back from thinking about it to much, I know time is money, but racking your brain for words and getting a headache over something probably won’t come out as nice as it would if you took a break. It isn’t worth it.
I love to read and most of my inspiration comes from my favourite authors. You’d be surprised at what these guys… and girls, have to say about writing. So here are my top 10 author quotes to get you motivated; in life or in writing!
- We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.
– Ernest Hemingway
- I don’t care if a reader hates one of my stories, just as long as he finishes the book.
– Roald Dahl
- I do not over-intellectualize the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story.
– Tom Clancy
- People say, ‘What advice do you have for people who want to be writers?’ I say, they don’t really need advice, they know they want to be writers, and they’re gonna do it. Those people who know that they really want to do this and are cut out for it, they know it.
– R.L. Stine
- Follow your passion. Stay true to yourself. Never follow someone else’s path unless you’re in the woods and you’re lost and you see a path. By all means, you should follow that.
– Ellen DeGeneres
- I don’t believe in being serious about anything. I think life is too serious to be taken seriously.
– Ray Bradbury
- Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
– Oscar Wilde
- You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…
– Dr. Seuss
- All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.
– J. R. R. Tolkien
- Anyone who stops learning is old, whether twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing you can do is keep your mind young.
– Mark Twain
So blog on! Hopefully one or more of these quotes got you thinking and if you know of any more quotes that really help you focus post them in the comments! I would love to hear them.
