Social Media

Social media can be a very effective marketing strategy for startup companies who have a tight budget, but most of them fail in the execution process. Falling victim to some of the common errors can end up ruining your business’s reputation.

Some of the most common social media errors companies make:

1.    Not having a strategy.

You cannot start a social media campaign without a strategic plan for your business that outlines the goals you need to achieve, or the resources you will need to accomplish those goals.

You need to be clear of certain areas like:

Who is your Target audience?

What is your tone of conversation going to be like?

How you are going to position your company’s image on social media.

How will you measure your social media objectives?

Once you have the answers to these questions you are ready to start your social media campaign.

2.    Bombarding the news feed.

There are certain companies who keep updating their social media pages every two minutes with absolutely pointless posts. This can be extremely annoying for your followers, which can result in you losing your fans. It is quality over quantity.

3.    Lack of Engagement.

While spamming news feeds of followers can lead you to losing fans, not updating your page at all can also lead to the same path. Engagement is extremely important on social media, hence having competitions, polls or even asking open-ended questions can be very engaging for the followers.

4.    Ignoring your competitors

Competitor analysis should be one of the most important aspects of business strategy and social media is no exception. You can never ignore what activities your competitors social media pages are up to or if they have made any latest changes on their website so that you can up your game at the same time. Some times you can also find out if some customer is complaining about something and hence you can draw a lead to your company by giving them a better offer.

5.    Breaking Social Media rules

You cannot create a brand or company page on social media sites without adhering to certain rules. For example you cannot ignore a customers tweet or Facebook comment especially when they are complaining about something or you cannot unfollow someone on twitter the moment they follow you.

If you avoid these mistakes your social media marketing campaign can give your company a real boost in terms of exposure and marketing.

The post The 5 Biggest Social Media Mistakes appeared first on GO Social.

The Social Media President

Social Media has become such an important platform, that we no longer just see companies and brands trying to reach out to their audience, but politicians as well. It has become one of the most important mediums for outreach. So when it comes to politicians campaigning for themselves or trying to promote a cause the first step to use is definitely new media. Social media can convert non-voting citizens into voters and supporters and allows for a much more enriched and personal communicative experience than traditional campaigns permitted.

I have looked back at the 3 political and social campaigns, which went viral through social media.

1.    Obama-Romney Election

This campaign definitely showed how much of an important medium social media has become. This is not only evident from the constant tweets from both Obama and Romney, but also from the prevalent use of hash tags by the worlds news channels, including CNN. There were people campaigning on Facebook for Obama not just in America, but also all over the World. When he finally won the elections #Obama was trending on Twitter and there were millions of Facebook status updates congratulating him.

2.    The Delhi Rape Incident

This is the most recent social disaster that took place in the capital city of India, where a 23 year old girl was raped brutally causing her to die. This led in a massive uproaracross the country. People from all over the World have been talking and campaigning about this incident through social media platforms like Facebook, Redit, Twitter, and not to forget blogs. The social media campaigns became so big that India saw numerous youth protests and candlelight marches across the country that were initiated on Facebook. This kind of a response has never been seen before the advent of new and social media, which is accessible by anyone and everyone.

3.    The Royal Wedding (Will and Kate)

When the Prince William decided to marry Kate Middleton, this became the biggest news in the World. The entirety of the event was not just hyped, but also covered,by all forms of social media. Pinterest and Facebook dedicated pages to their wedding photographs. There have been thousands of fashion bloggers who wrote at least one article about Kate’s dress, which created uproars across the fashion world.

A decade back no one could even imagine how big an impact social media could have on such big events. The average person can now voice their opinions about some of the most important issues in the world, thanks to the coming of social media.

The post The Growing Impact Of Social Media In Politics appeared first on GO Social.

Latest Trends!

#1 Visuals
Social media pages have become more image-heavy and visuals are becoming more important for any brand. It has been noticed that a photo upload on Facebook receives approximately twice as many ‘likes’ than a text-based status. As a result, social networking sites such as Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr have taken a soar and are the platforms to look out for this year. Massive brands such as Oreo and Burberry use more visual ads, including videos to increase consumer attention, thus gaining website traffic. Engagement for fans has proven a huge success, from competitions to puzzles, it is evident consumers enjoy interacting online.

#2 Pinterest
Pinterest was voted the third most popular social networking site in 2012 and it has grown by an astonishing 1000 per cent, compared to it’s closest competitor Google Plus, who have grown by 80 per cent. Fifty brands that took part in a promotion through Pinterest found that followers increased by 150 per cent, including the likes of Gucci who developed a pinnable banner ad. The opportunity of using Pinterest as a tool to promote marketing campaigns should not be overlooked in 2013!

#3 Mobiles
The number of Facebook users who began accessing their account through smartphones and tablets increased by 24% from June to September and is now over 30 million. Particularly now with Iphone 5 and 4G, web browsing via smartphones has become even easier! BuzzCity suggest 77% of consumers go online solely via their phone and it is expected to override the usage of personal computers for social network browsing. Marketers need to take a diverse approach to mobile media marketing and be conscious of persistent techniques, respecting that customers are on the go. Facebooks latest mobile advertising campaigns are something, which no brand that wants to have an impact on this platform should ignore. On the down side for advertisers, it is much more complex to fit a conventional advertisement on to a tiny mobile screen but there are some agencies who have come up with a solution to that with mobile optimised Facebook pages.

2012 was a great year for Social Media so 2013 can only get bigger and better!

The post The Latest Trends in Social Media 2013 appeared first on GO Social.

1) Use Google Alerts – You can set this up by entering your preferred search terms (keywords). You can then select to receive email updates about activity either daily or as and when it comes. This way when people search your service or blog about your products, you will automatically be updated. This enables you to respond to your potential customers instantly and stay on the ball.

2) Check your Facebook Insights – This tool is completely free and has to be considered one of the most generous freebees of Facebook due to its sheer value. Using it,you can check the number of likes you have received between any time bracket, you can see the number of clicks on adverts, conversions to Fans, how many people have visited your Page, the gender, age and geographic location of your main Fanbase. There is much more, indeed too much to mention here. But it literally takes under two minutes to check these. Of all the points mentioned, Facebook insights should be prioritised.

3) All your posts should include hyperlinks to wherever you wish your customer to be redirected. Don’t simply add your website link because you will not know how many people have clicked it. It is advisable that you use a trackable system which allows you to monitor the exact number of clicks.

4) Answer questions on LinkedIn – If you consistently do this, your online status will be heightened and you will soon become people’s first port of call. There are three things you can do to answer as many questions as possible. First and the most obvious, you can answer questions directed at you; second, you can manually search for questions in categories relevant to your industry; thirdly, you can create an RSS for specific subjects or categories so that you will automatically receive questions relating to them. Although this is not an instant way to check insights, the number of questions you receive should give a fair indication of how you are viewed on LinkedIn.

5) Google analytics – Once again these are a very quick ways to measure how valuable your Social Media presence is when it comes to what any marketer cherishes the most – sales. Google analytics show you exactly where online sales have started. Hopefully, they will tell you that many sales have originated with Facebook.

The post Monitoring Social Media Presence: 5 Useful Tips appeared first on GO Social.

Google Analytics – Social Tracking

The whizkids at Google have finally got their act together and implimented Social Tracking in Analytics. In plain English this means you can now track your customers journey from a Social profile, right the way through to a final transaction.

As you can see in the example above, a visitor has gone on multiple journeys before eventually making a purchase. This is a real breakthrough and is not difficult to implement, next week I will be showing you how to install Social Tracking yourself.

Campaign Specific Codes

One of the easiest ways of tracking the success of your social media campaign is by distributing campaign codes. These can be sent out via Facebook or Twitter and shared amongst friends on Social Networks. One tip when using campaign codes is to build urgency by making your offer time sensitive. This will increase interest in your promotion and drive traffic in a short space of time.

Defining Social Media Objectives

Defining your objectives at the start of your campaign is essential in gauging it’s success. You may want to look at the following and choose which are most applicable to you,

- Short term sales
- Engaging Existing Customers
- Brand Awareness
- Increasing Your Searchability
- Complement Promotional Content
- Encourage Word Of Mouth
- Spread News And Important Information About Your Business

One you have decided on your Key Performance Indicators you should benchmark your progress before you begin your campaign. Take note of your current progress and this will allow you to compare the results after your social media campaign.

The post Social Media: Show Me The Return! appeared first on GO Social.

As the Fanbase increases, there are many Social Media tips and tricks which you can use. At first, your users may be a little shy and only just bring themselves to responding to you. But once they do begin to feel more comfortable, you no longer need to limit yourself with promotional comments, but you can also post questions and requests. For instance, Fans may be asked to upload pictures relevant to your industry or, simply, “just for a laugh” pictures. Jokes and other trivia (not necessarily relevant to your industry) all serve the same purpose – they attract more engagement and therefore, more Fans. The fact that you are asking them to participate and share their stories and opinions are simply ways of inviting them into a more comfortable Social forum. Moreover, those who have joined your group are probably enthusiastic enough about your business field that they are only too happy to give their opinions.

The advantage of engagement is not simply the accumulation of Fans either. If people are giving their opinions or advice on products etc, they are providing for you a free market research forum. For instance, one Fan may post “I really recommend the new Nixon Camera for landscape photography” and receive many “likes” whilst others may enquire about specific product. If you have them in stock, then that is great; if not your own engaged Fans have identified a gap in your business and you know what additional stock you may need for the future. If you are really savvy, you might even want to create a Q&A application on your Facebook Page for exactly these kinds of posts.

Another important point to keep in mind for youf Social Media campaign is how to strike a balance. Whilst you can constantly inundate your Fans with sales and prices, you should avoid this and replace it with a more light-hearted story. If you are a car shop, maybe upload a picture of Cristiano Ronaldo’s new car, or his recently crashed one for that matter. Neither should be pushed too much because, as with all things, too much of anything is a bad thing. And do not be afraid to post something a little taboo now and again. It is exactly what Yahoo frequently does to attract attention to their articles. But first and foremost, you need to engage with your Fans until they feel entirely comfortable with leaving posts themselves. And since time is not an issue here, there really is no excuse not to. It truly is the key to any successful Social Media campaign and it is far too often underestimated.

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