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Marketing

Not Putting Effort Into Social Media Marketing Is How Your Voice Gets Silenced

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When we talk about social media, our first thought that comes to mind is the platforms we use daily to communicate with friends and family. We also think of how we use Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to talk about ourselves, our accomplishments, taking pictures of the places we go, and sometimes the people we meet. It’s this initial reaction we get when we hear the words “social media” that distorts many social media managers who are using corporate and small business social media accounts incorrectly. As a result the company’s, and even the person who is branding himself, gets drowned out by the noise around them.

Social media is a public forum with millions of voices and conversations, with some dominating the entire platform if world or market trends are affecting a wide swath of people. It’s within this forum that you must become a contributor to a conversation, or gain a voice that influences many in your market or the topic that is most being talked about. In business related terms, there are plenty of competitors fighting to have their voices heard, and they’ll commit money to ad campaigns, spend hours on platforms engaging with potential customers, or put forth a lot of effort to post compelling content that grabs people’s attentions.

Right now, few are crushing the competition while others are having difficulty in finding an identity on social media, and for a large group, even quitting social media altogether because the manager behind these accounts, is ill-prepared to take on the challenge of growing a following. In some cases, small business owners who run their own social media accounts, fare much better than those who have an employee who clearly isn’t used to using social media professionally. This is because a solo entrepreneur has the passion and hunger for knowledge, not only of their business, but of their local market. But for bigger businesses that were either established before the social media era, or have multiple employees, a breakdown in marketing occurs, which results in abandoned or poorly managed Facebook pages and Twitter and Instagram accounts.

The lack of effort that is put forth by these social media managers, whether that be caused from that role not being the primary role of the employee within the company, or lack of knowledge on how social media marketing works, is detrimental to the company and a complete waste of money for the business.

Effective social media marketing goes beyond spending money on ad campaigns or simply posting content every week. You must dive in and engage with your target market and become part of the conversation. This can be achieved multiple ways. Instagram allows companies to like and comment on any person’s photos. If that person is in your market, like and follow them, and if you want to go the extra mile, comment on their photo with a personal message without hard selling your products or services to them. Twitter, much like Instagram is another open forum, but you can retweet their posts and photos, along with following and liking their content. Your ability to strike up a conversation with your target market is effortless, but you have to be willing to search for these conversations and people who would benefit from your products or services.

Facebook is by far the more difficult of major social media platforms to engage in a conversation. You must invest in ads, whether that be campaigns or boosting posts you’ve shared. The content must be compelling, and any lack of effort will make your ads ineffective. Once you start acquiring followers on Facebook, you must keep them coming back for more. If you’re not willing to put in effort to continue posting great content, they’ll leave.

While we live in a time where people have short attention spans, social media does bring a unique opportunity to attract customers or followers to come back for more. Almost like feeding pigeons in a park, when you run out of bread, they’ll fly to a new location where someone else is feeding them exactly what they want. Never run out of bread, or you’ll be all alone with absolutely no attention. Your social media marketing effort not only reflects upon you, but your company, and if your effort disappears, so will your sales.

Social media is so important, and if you, or your employee managing your pages is having the company’s voice drowned out by competitors, it will be time for a change in strategy and possibly personal. Put forth the effort, and you’ll reap what you sow.

Marketing

Communicating With Your Customers In 2017 – Think Different

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Last week, I wrote an article, “With Social Media’s Existence, Are Email Subscriptions Even Necessary?” which received a lot of attention and got people thinking. While many business owners and people of the era of email marketing and subscriptions are afraid to deviate from old school methods of advertising, they’re actually detrimental to their business’ growth. We now live in the social media age, and this era has transformed, reshaped, and completely revolutionized how we as humans communicate with others on a daily basis. This different form of communication doesn’t just effect how we talk wth friends and family, but how we as entrepreneurs and members of a marketing department engage with customers.

We’re a few months away from 2017, which means an entire generation born around 1999 and 2000 are now at the age of 17-18. These kids grew up with iPhones in their hands and by the age of 13 Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Vine, and Snapchat were all apps downloaded onto their devices. Their form of communication is exclusively though social media, and that translates to older generations as well. The largest growing demographic of users on Facebook is not teenagers or millennials, they’re actually 50 year olds, and it’s not just Facebook they’ve taken by storm. Baby Boomers and members of Generation X, the same people who were or still are on your email subscription lists, now spend more time on social media. Let that sink in for a minute; your customers are no longer reading newspapers, watching infomercials or looking at online catalogs.

What does this mean? Everyone’s form of communication, whether it be amongst themselves or with businesses has changed drastically, and the marketing departments that still emphasize gathering an email subscription list are being left behind like that friend we knew who was last to create a Facebook profile. We as business owners are being left behind heading into 2017 and the only way to catch up is following our target markets, no matter where they reside or what platform they spend the most time on.

The creation of social media has forced businesses to become friendly and personal with their potential customers. To sell a product or service in 2017, you have to be social, which now limits the effectiveness of email newsletters or marketing material as your target markets are no longer communicating through Gmail or Outlook. The companies that are succeeding in today’s market are those who are on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and new platforms where people are hanging out. If email was still widely effective, companies like L.L Bean wouldn’t be putting forth a lot of effort on social media platforms. The only reason why they still send emails is because they have the resources and have the brand awareness that keeps them relevant, even on outdated forms of communication.

Starting in 2017, or better yet, this holiday season, make an assertive effort to spend more time on social media platforms, post more content, and engage with followers and customers. Use Facebook ads to help reach the maximum amount of people in your market, which is essential for having strong sales figures and healthy growth of new followers who are now subscribed to your business via Facebook where your posts are now on their timelines.

We can no longer live in the past in terms of marketing and expect great results. 2017 is the year of looking forward as the change in communication has forced many to join social media. A few decades ago, older generations shaped and formed how consumers behaved, but today, the younger generations have taken the reigns and their influence is more powerful than most give them credit for. The content they consume, who they follow, and what they buy translated to older generations, which led a swath of consumers to new platforms, and the corporations followed suit.

Now it’s time for small businesses to do the same as 99% of their target markets spend hours of their day on social media. To grow your business in 2017, you’ll have to become social, literally. Many still operate as if consumers are only worth their time if they buy a product, but in today’s economy, it’s in fact that customer that initiates communication and the sale, and it’s the business’ job to direct them to their purchase through the use of engagement and great content. It’s this change in pattern as to why email marketing lost its effectiveness, and why we all must use communication channels as we do in our personal lives.

Marketing

Automation In Social Media – It’s Not Effective

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For the past two or three years, automation has been used in all forms for the sole purpose of selling a product or service on social media. Whether it be automated posts, tweets, or direct messages, companies both big and small, and individuals who are trying to influence a market, will stop at nothing to get you to buy their product(s) or view their content in some capacity. It’s these very actions that pose a threat to small business owners who are trying to do the right thing and build up a following and consumer base the right way, and will ultimately face having their voice drowned out because consumers won’t want to hear another sales pitch.

After doing some reading from employees who work at companies that specialize in the automation of content, it’s all beginning to make sense as to why many on Twitter have resorted to impersonal messages instead of going deep and connecting with people as humans. Large companies were first to implement automation because they had the resources and money to target large amounts of people who were in the market for their products or services. Corporations could get away with automated messages because their brands were household names, but ironically, with each passing year it appears they’re starting to respond to consumers on a personal level and ditching copy and paste responses.

Today, there are many small businesses and smalltime influencers who are getting in on the automation action. As a result they’re suffering because their brand isn’t well known, and people are getting quite tired of impersonal messages, as social media has matured to a point where users want to be treated as humans. Automated messages sometime result from simply following someone who is either offering valuable information through blog posts, producing podcasts, or have a small online store. As a business owner myself, there is no place for automation as click through rates from links posted on my business’ accounts are rather high even without asking followers to visit my website.

With social media aging, there is a growing trust between the consumer and business owner. People are much more apt than in years previous to click on links, especially if the account they’re following is engaging with their followers or are constantly posting fresh content that doesn’t imply hard selling. This is why automation tools are rather unnecessary, especially considering the fact that many people don’t follow accounts just for the fun of it. Your business, blog, or podcast already attracted them, so there’s no need to then send potential buyers, listeners, or readers a message stating that they should click on the link you sent them so you can sell them something they were already interested in.

Hard selling along with automation of content will be social media’s downfall. When small businesses and people you never heard of or knew existed are sending you automated messages, that’s when social media marketing loses its effectiveness. Content is what drives sales, grows followings, and attracts readers. Large corporations are moving on from what really is outdated marketing tools. Until you start treating people as humans, you will not benefit from having social media accounts for you, or your business. Automation, much like Twitter and Instagram advertisement campaigns, are the biggest waste of money for small businesses, as the limited funds they put towards these tools won’t yield a high return on investment. You cannot win a game if your strategy is destined to fail.

The point of automation and ad campaigns on Twitter and Instagram is to save time. While those tools are convenient for the small business owner, hiring a dedicated social media manager who will put in the time and effort on Twitter and Instagram, and will properly use Facebook ads to generate traffic and potential customers will be much more worth your hard earned money. Remember, you’re not a conglomerate and shouldn’t think like one. To win at social media, you can’t do what social media gurus who pitch marketing ideas to large companies in New York or Los Angeles are telling you. They think Wall Street while you really should be concerned with Main Street.

Until you find what works for your market and clientele, automation and the spending of money on marketing tools that the big leagues use, will not generate results. Go deep and put forth the work and effort to build real business relationships with consumers in your area or market. Social media is at a point where personalization and customer equity completely outweighs the quick sale. Consumers want to be treated as individuals and humans, and that’s why as small business owners automation is not the right form of marketing for you or your business.

Business, Marketing

With Social Media’s Existence, Are Email Subscriptions Even Necessary?

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2017 is the start of a new beginning for many, including business owners, bloggers, influencers, and people who have a desire to further their physical development. In the technological and business realm, the ways in which we acquire customers changes with the new year as new and innovative ideas moves markets into a different direction for the better. Almost 20 years into the new millennium there are still businesses and old school entrepreneurs who try acquiring customers the old fashioned way, and email subscriptions could very well be the next causality of the social media age that many who live in the past still use today.

First, let’s understand why email subscriptions were so effective in the 90’s and early 2000’s. When the Internet was relatively young, email was the Facebook of it’s time. You could contact friends and family and companies that had your email from past purchases could promote coupons and sale events that you’d be interested in. Since email was the most widely used way of communication on the Internet, email click rates were very high for small businesses and large corporations because that’s where their customers were.

For the early day bloggers and influencers who were constantly writing articles, an email subscription list was very beneficial. Not only could subscribers get the latest updates sent straight to their email accounts, but the administrator of the website that was sharing content could also promote webinars or selling some form of software that his or her subscribers would have interest in viewing or purchasing.

Fast forward to a decade and a half later and social media is now the most used form of communication, whether it be for personal or business use. Social media’s emergence was the death of email marketing and subscriptions for many reasons, with the most obvious one being that customers’ attentions were no longer on email and the click rates reflected that. Myspace and Facebook made communication with friends and family more convenient, Twitter changed how we get news, consume content, interact with businesses, sports teams, and other people who share our interests, and Instagram gave people the ability to communicate their lives through pictures.

The end of email’s dominance was inevitable, and now email subscriptions face the same fate. If you look at marketers who made a living off email subscription lists and compare them back then to where they are now, most if not all who stressed the importance of email marketing are irrelevant at best. They failed to transition to social media, and as a result they were left behind.

As a small business owner and someone who created accounts and websites for hobbies I really enjoy, email subscriptions wasn’t even an option. When my content, whether it be on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook reaches my current and future customers, there’s no point in emphasizing email marketing. Click through rates are high, and 99% of traffic on all the websites I manage, including my business, come through social media, there’s no reason to explore abandoned avenues that consumers left behind many years ago.

Having followers is the modern day replacement for an email subscription list, especially with the use of direct and private messaging. Many customers of mine contacted my business through direct message before purchasing, and it’s that depth of connecting on a personal level that makes social media much more effective than email.

We’re living through a technological and marketing revolution. There’s no telling exactly where we’ll be in terms of business and reaching customers 3-5 years down the road, but one thing is for sure, with each passing day another old and decaying form of marketing is dying. It’s up to all of us to keep up with the times and our customers, or we’ll all be left behind wondering what could have been had we paid attention to where our customers were spending the most time.

Marketing

The Most Important Aspect of Social Media Marketing: Being Human

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Oftentimes businesses of any size, big or small, make the biggest mistake in their social media marketing strategies. They fail to appear human, and in most cases resemble web bots spewing external links or emotionless posts across all social media platforms. Hard selling, irrelevant content, and lack of engagement with followers and potential customers is far too common among industries, leading to missed opportunities to snatch undecided consumers who haven’t made the commitment to buy into your product or service. In today’s marketplace, you have to be open, friendly, and willing build relationships with your customers and followers, or you’ll begin to see post by post that engagement and growth on social media will dwindle.

Being human on social media, is really all about having the same mindset or emotions as the consumer. If you’re selling a Subaru, you must know what owners of that brand do on a daily basis. Whether that’s hiking or off-roading, or taking on the very worst mother nature has to offer, Subaru owners want a dependable car that can get them out of any situation life throws at them behind the wheel. By not affectively communicating to these consumers, your voice will not be heard. You must create emotions behind what you’re selling. A Subaru owner looking to trade up from an older model, might be more enticed to buy a brand new Outback if you cater your marketing efforts to that person, or others like him or her. By speaking their language, both literally and emotionally, you’ll begin to see results as you’re no longer hard selling, but actually being informative.

As an owner of a Volvo S40, I wanted to join a group or fan page on social media to share my enthusiasm for my car. When I couldn’t find one, I created one myself. Within about six months I built a following of 250 Volvo S40 enthusiasts, organically. By being human, evoking the same emotions other S40 owners had, engagement numbers and total reach were much larger than the current following I had. Getting Likes, comments, and shares became easier by the day because the content was catered to those who love their car. Being human, and understanding where your customers or followers are coming from, is exactly what’s needed in social media marketing, and that’s my attitude when running my own accounts.

Stop using social media platforms as another stage to hard sell. While consumers are using Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and even Snapchat to make buying decisions, their influences are not from companies who hard sell or throw their products in the faces of consumers. Social media is your opportunity to build a community, a community of loyal consumers who will buy from your business for the rest of their lives. By not building your bridges now, consumers will find another path to being treated with value and catered to specifically. Your social media efforts today, will dictate where you are five to ten years down the road when digital marketing becomes the main focal point of a marketing strategy.

Marketing

You Can Pay For Ads on Twitter and Instagram, But Content Is Still King

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Since the beginning of blogs and independent news websites, content has been king. The value being offered by the author of articles and the administrator of websites always attracted real followers, subscriptions, and even customers. Today with social media marketing, the same strategy can still be applied to Twitter and Instagram, and to an extent Facebook, which still brings a return on investment from content, despite the change in algorithms which now makes organic growth difficult. Social media experts are beginning to push the idea of spending money on advertisements for Twitter and Instagram, yet those two platforms differ greatly from Facebook which does indeed force small business owners and bloggers to advertise to reach their target markets.

Why does content have a different effect for Twitter and Instagram than it does for Facebook? Twitter and Instagram achieve the same goal, but the type of content that is being shared can differ. Both platforms give the user much more freedom than Facebook when it comes to creating a following and attracting customers. By posting a tweet or Instagram picture and properly using hashtags, hundreds if not thousands of people are being reached organically, which means free exposure.

Creating a following on these platforms is seamless, and the user can mold his or her following in anyway they desire based on the content they’re posting and who they’re engaging with who also share similar content. Exotic car owners are the perfect example for growing a massive following on Instagram, as high resolution photos are an art form that gets a lot of engagement. That’s what Instagram was intended for. Photographers would share their photos to promote their skills and share their talent. Fast forward almost four years and Instagram can now be used in the same way that photographers, athletes, and actors use it, benefitting both you and your business.

Twitter is essentially an open forum where there are hundreds of thousands of different conversations going on simultaneously. Whether you’re self branding or using Twitter for your business, becoming a part of these conversations is key to succeeding on Twitter. Growing a large following takes time and a lot of work, but unlike with Instagram, you’re building a reputation and credibility through the content you’re posting, whether that be articles or tweets. Having influence in your market is very important as you become a leader in your field. While Twitter is ideal for the individual who is trying to shape and change an industry, small businesses that have physical locations can still benefit from being active and engaging with people in their local area.

When you take a step back and look at Twitter and Instagram for what they are, paying for ad campaigns is unnecessary. Organic growth outweighs paying for followers, as dedicating time and effort on both platforms will yield a much higher return on investment, and the money you’re saving could go towards more meaningful and effective marketing tools. Content is still king, and until Instagram and Twitter change their algorithms, which has been unsuccessful as users disapproved of the changes, articles, posts, and pictures will grab the attention of consumers that you want to reach. Put in time and energy, not money, and you’ll see your hard work pay off in the end.

Marketing

Twitter – The Most Misused Social Media Platform

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When you think of Twitter, a 140 character limit, a constant refreshing newsfeed, and the ability to post as many tweets a day without spamming your followers probably comes to mind. However, 95% of users, including social media marketing experts, have completely misused the platform despite growing a large following. For some, the user’s name immediately draws in followers such as household brands, athletes, and hollywood stars. Yet, for those who are trying to build their own brand from essentially nothing, their course of action on Twitter must be different from people who have been in the game for years who have transferred their followers and customers over from other platforms.

Twitter, much like Facebook and Instagram, is often looked at as a self promotion platform where wannabe influencers in any market try building their credibility through promoting their blog articles and YouTube videos. It’s the attitude of social media marketing experts that have completely distorted the minds of their followers, and have shaped them into believing that what worked for the expert will work for the individual who’s looking to build a large following. But when you look at the people who are succeeding on Twitter, there is a different approach they use to grow a following; brand reinforcement.

Brand reinforcement for you or your business on Twitter starts with retweeting, favoriting, and following others in your niche market. Forget about self promotion; it’s almost as bad as hard selling, except you’re hard selling yourself, and if no one is listing to what you have to say, you’re not going to grow a following that will engage with you or your blog posts. Social media experts get away with nonstop self promotion because they make a living off individuals who don’t know where to start on social media platforms, and as a result, they’ll mirror those who they deem to be credible or reliable.

Your business and or your personal brand’s growth on Twitter, will require a different path because you need to stand out from your competition. Twitter has evolved into an alternative news source, and if you can get ahead of your competition by becoming the “reporter” or lead blogger in your field, you’ll be worth far more than anyone else offering the same services or selling similar products in your market.

Maybe you’re a personal trainer or an experienced weightlifter looking to grow a following so you can share your expertise to become a credible source of information on social media. Twitter is the perfect platform, as you can retweet others who share similar philosophies on training while you’re posting your own tweets. Those articles you’re retweeting are reinforcing your position on weightlifting. Combining that with your own content, whether that be articles on your own blog or YouTube videos that you produce, your voice and insight will carry much more weight (no pun intended) and add to your credibility.

The question people need to ask themselves before they become influencers is, “Where do I start”? Brand building is a very long process, which is why before promotion, you need to reinforce who you are and what you’re offering. Anyone can create an account and start spewing every ounce of information they’ve retained over the years, but without having any credibility or brand to promote, your insight will fall on deaf ears.