Social Media

Why Your Business Needs to Be More Social

by Rebecca Bleznak July 15th, 2014

More and more businesses are staking out their claims in social media. According to a survey by Manta.com, about 55% of all businesses say they have social media profiles. But, more than half of those say that they have not yet seen a return on their social media investment. The problem isn’t social media, but the way that it’s used. The key: using social media to get more social.

One dental office found that their new patient inquiries increased six-fold since they began marketing with videos, Twitter, blog posts and other social media. Seventy-five percent of all new inquiries come from their online presence. Customers found the information provided in their posts helpful, which built considerable trust. By being there for your customers online, you can increase engagement and drive profits.

Remember That Social Media Is a Two-way Conversation

More than one company has tried to take traditional marketing’s top-down approach and apply it to social media marketing. This is a mistake that results in social media disasters like JP Morgan’s disastrous #AskJPM hashtag or the McDonald’s #McDStories.

Where both of those companies went wrong is thinking they could control the conversation. Instead of jumping straight in, remember the first key to being a great conversationalist: listen more than you talk. Tools such as Mention app allow you to see when and how your company and your competitors are talked about online, and in what context. Use this information to tailor promotions, products and more. By offering what people are looking for, you can earn their business.

Make Your Presence Online About Your Customers

According to TheNextWeb, Pinterest now has over 70 million users. Businesses ranging from small Etsy stores to major magazine publishers have found new customers by sharing great pictures, curating other posters’ content and drawing attention to exciting developments. Retailer Target, for example, takes time to greet new followers and to respond to comments. The result is a warmer, more human relationship.

Use Social Media to Help

JetBlue responds to almost every single customer complaint that comes their way on Twitter. In many cases, they provide answers to questions within the hour. Not only does this save the customer a phone call; it doubles as public relations.

To make your brand more social, you should always remember to think from your clients’ perspective. They want ways to make their lives easier and more fulfilled; in other words, their focus is on what your brand is doing for them. When you can use your presence online to meet their demands, it doesn’t just build a relationship with one person – it can be some of the most powerful marketing you can do for your brand.

The Generation Gap: Social Media By The Numbers

by Rebecca Bleznak June 24th, 2014

According to Media Bistro, the number of social media users continues to grow, which means plenty of opportunity to get your message out to users looking to share unique, valuable content with their network of friends, family, and professional associates. But the use of each platform varies depending on a variety of factors, including the age of the user. While adults are now the primary Facebook audience, teens and young adults are spending more time Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. Depending on your brand’s target demographics, you’ll want to pay more attention to certain social media platforms than others to ensure that your marketing efforts are reaching potential customers.

Code-switching Kids

If you’re looking to market your product or service to a younger demographic, social media marketing may seem like an obvious fit. Preteens, teens, and young adults are using social media on a daily basis, but don’t let the apparent quantity of these interactions obscure the quality of this demographics’ attention. Teens, according to several researchers, use different social media platforms for different purposes. NPR reports on a recent book that revealed the importance of context for young users, making clear that kids will carefully cultivate public personas while simultaneously connecting to the things they care about most.

A piece on HuffPost concurs; today’s teens are reportedly better equipped to use the Internet to research potential friends, employers, and yes, brands. Facebook is where teenagers will reportedly put on their most public face; this is where you can expect them to “like” only peer and parent-friendly brands with trusted reputations. The news feed and timeline features allow their friends to see every action they take, and, rather than attempt to “hide” these actions from their parents, they find themselves spending less time on Facebook.

On sites like Twitter, however, teens appear to show less hesitation, as every one of their actions isn’t so obviously on display. There, they are cultivating more personalized identities and will be more willing to seek out and “follow” newer, up-and-coming brands. Cultivating a Twitter and Instagram presence is vital should teenagers be a part of your core demographic.

Capturing the Older Market

While Facebook started off with a college market, it quickly became a coveted space for teenagers post-Myspace. However, once these young adult users grew up, and Facebook opened its doors to all, it became a place to share wedding announcements, baby photos, and other adult milestones. In fact, a reported 72% of all adults are using at least one platform, and Facebook is the most heavily populated. In other words, if your target audience is 25+, Facebook is likely your go-to social media marketing tool.

However, though Facebook still dominates the majority of online interaction for adults, there are other sites that will continue to gain popularity. According to recent data from the Pew Research Center, only 1% of all teens online use Pinterest, while 15% of all adults do. Pinterest has amassed young adult and adult users (33% of which are women) in the 18-49 age bracket, making it the right place for a product with an adult market.

And if your target demographics fall into the older age range, fear not. The data shows that while the majority of adult users fall into the 30-49 year old range (78%), 43% of all adults over 65 are using at least one form of social media. You can reach your audience with powerful social media marketing campaigns, but it’s worth paying attention to the numbers in order to make sure your message doesn’t fall through the generation gap.

How to Begin to Develop Your Business’s Social Presence

by Rebecca Bleznak June 5th, 2014

We’ve established that there are at least three ways in which social media can boost your website’s traffic. But what if you’re a new business, or new to utilizing social media as a marketing tool? A tree has fallen in the forest – and no one is around to hear it – we wonder if it made a sound. Similarly, if you send your content out to the internet, and no one sees it, did it really help your business at all?

In a recent article from Marketing Land, Eric Enge addressed three different ways in which you can go about creating and sharing content for your business, based on what your situation is. The third scenario, titled Social Media Concentration, is aimed at small businesses that can’t afford to spend a lot of time or resources on a social media strategist and extensive content creation. We’re going to continue the discussion, and help you figure out how to make this scenario work for you.

1.    Choose the right platforms for your business.

Enge writes that you may want to focus your energy on one social media platform. This is certainly a strategy you might take, but consider trying to extend that a bit to putting yourself out there on at least 2 or 3 different social media sites, in order to get the best reach possible. To do this, you’ll want to determine which sites will work best in order to convey the message of your business. We’ve discussed two of the most popular here:

• Almost everyone is on Facebook today, and your business’s Facebook page can serve almost as a second website, allowing you to post pictures, announcements, and even videos that serve as promotion. You can communicate well with your customers here, either through private messages or comments on your wall. You can share posts from other businesses, who may in turn acknowledge you, or tag another page in order to make them aware of certain information. Additionally, you have paid options to create ads based on the specific type of results you’d like to see them have (clicks to your website, more page likes, etc.), as well as “boost” your posts so that they are made visible to more users.
• Twitter is also becoming increasingly influential. Customer conversation is a bit simpler, and you can utilize hashtags and the explore tab in order to determine who is talking about you, in order to address customer questions or complaints. You can also engage in Twitter chats that are related to your field – if you chime in with interesting information, or find a way to direct someone to a post that you’ve written, you’ll be helping someone out, and giving yourself a new potential customer. As with Facebook, there’s a similar promoted post option, where you can pay to target particular demographics with one of your tweets.

2.    Branding

Now that you’ve chosen your platforms, you need to set them up. First of all, you need to make sure that you maintain consistent branding across all platforms. These are things that will identify your brand, so they need to be easily recognizable and related to one another as closely as possible. Examples include:

• Profile pictures
• Cover photos
• Logos
• About section

3.    Production and Engagement

Everything is finally set-up, so you’re ready to really dig in. Begin by following others in your industry. When you read something you like, don’t just retweet it without a second thought: Add your own opinions, and reply when they ask questions. The benefit of this is twofold: It gets your name out there to others, and allows you to learn from those who are playing the social media game right.

You’ll also have to dive into content creation. You probably want to start small, and remember that staying consistent with your posting schedule is more important that churning out as much content as possible. Write about what you know, write about what interests you, and build upon what others have written. Everyone in your industry is talking about the same things, so by drawing upon your own experiences or attempting to tackle a different angle, you can produce content that is worthwhile and unique.

As Enge describes in his scenario, if you’re interacting with others on a daily basis, sharing their content as well as some of your own, and offering a valuable perspective, this can help build up recognition of your brand. Establish yourself on social media, create awareness by engaging and sharing your own experiences, and you’ll be on your way to bringing in more business.

Where Twitter Meets TV: Social Media and the Small Screen

by Rebecca Bleznak May 29th, 2014

When it comes to entertainment, people are talking as much about TV as they are movies these days. Between smaller networks like AMC and TBS producing original content, and online services like Hulu Plus, Netflix, and soon Amazon doing the same, the landscape of the small screen is rapidly changing. Another notable change of last decade has been the rise of social networks, and, due to the rapid-fire nature of communication, TV has become an actively discussed topic online.

So where is the connection here? It’s pretty simple: New programming airs at a set time every week, across the country. With streaming capabilities both legal and otherwise, we’re all looking to ingest our entertainment the way we do our news; as it is occurring. And what social networking site stands out as a real time news source? Twitter, without a doubt.

You can’t exactly live-tweet a movie, but TV brings about a conversation. Just as TV was once marketed as the way to bring your family together each night for quality bonding time, it has now become the way you connect with friends and others with a shared interest across the globe (or at least, in your own time zone). Once upon a time, we were limited to sharing our thoughts in person, then on the phone, through text, and for some, via blogs or other online forums. Now, we have the ability to reach fans we didn’t even know existed – and the networks have taken notice. So naturally, both they and Twitter have begun to make use of this connection.

Amp It Up

The primary catalyst of all of this is Twitter Amplify. Along with their ad-targeting initiative, Amplify works to bring together the networks, advertisers, and the users of Twitter, showing you exactly what it is you want to see, based on your viewing habits. They push out clips, behind-the-scenes images, etc., and gather your information based on what you retweet, hashtag, and reply to.

They’ve begun by targeting the largest events, in order to reach the most viewers; Capturing moments that everyone will be talking about – like Ellen’s now infamous group selfie at the 2014 Academy Awards – and adding in product placement. Another way in which Amplify has utilized the power of social sharing is by coupling advertisements with short clips (in the vein of Instagram and Vine), allowing them to package the little moments you want and share them easily without having to do any of the legwork yourself. And they receive revenue from the advertisers as a reward.

Not surprisingly, this social video integration comes from a former YouTube executive, where short online videos first became part of the social space. Partnering with Viacom, a global media corporation that owns networks such as BET, MTV, and Comedy Central, Amplify was a natural way for Twitter and TV to bundle their monetary goals. Twitter needs the money in order to maintain its profitability, and television is also suffering from a cash flow problem.

How We Talk

Working to interpret Twitter “conversations” is key to marketing on the platform. Initially, hashtags (in addition to the 140 character limit) were what made Twitter stand out, and have proven to be influential in the television game. Shows have begun to include unique hashtags on the screen during broadcast, encouraging users to chat about the show, a specific episode, or even a particular moment in an episode that may cause a reaction. Fans will tweet using the hashtag, and be able to connect with one another to discuss and share ideas and opinions.

The accounts for each show or network will also tweet using these specific hashtags, giving them a perfect way to measure how many people are watching, and determine who is their target audience. Programs like ABC Family’s Pretty Little Liars, which has a predominately teen female fan base, has capitalized on this extensively. The show received a number of Shorty Awards (which honors the most influential social media accounts and content creators across the web) due to its revolutionary practice of actively engaging members of the fan base across the web through contests, polls, and more.

Twitter now even supplies data to Nielsen, whose previous methods had become an increasingly unreliable way of determining who watches what, especially with Hulu, Netflix and Amazon taking the lead on how we view our shows. Nielsen has been breaking down the audience by gender and age, and helping to determine in which demographics programs are failing or succeeding. At this point, you can determine which shows are being watched right now without even needing to turn on your TV, simply by accessing the Discover tab on your Twitter app, where you’ll see live reactions whilst a show is airing.

It’s Not Just Twitter

Tumblr is also important in the TV game. As previously stated, in the days before social networking, we didn’t have many ways to discover others who were interested in the same shows as us. Events such as Comic Con – which have been held since the 1970s but only became more popular in the last 20 years – are one way to meet up with fellow fans, but a yearly event was hardly enough in our increasingly fast-paced world.

So out of the LiveJournal and Xanga communities came Tumblr. Members from almost every fandom – which is the name for the subsets of fans that have grown from each TV show or franchise – has made a home here, utilizing Tumblr as a hub for fan fiction, fan art, and much more for programs of every variety, from BBC’s Sherlock to Fox’s Sleepy Hollow.  There may actually be more TV buzz on Tumblr than Twitter: A study reported by AdAge showed that while Twitter received the bulk of the real-time traffic, viewers took to Tumblr to re-blog GIF sets and express long-form reactions for days after an episode aired.

When it comes to advertisements, however, Tumblr doesn’t currently have the same methods of targeting demographics as Twitter. But this may be changing – after Tumblr was bought by Yahoo last year, they also partnered up with Viacom. MTV’s 2014 Movie Awards last month was the perfect event to launch their promotion across the community blogging platform. Nevertheless, the landscape is still shaky, and Tumblr will have to carve out their niche in order to play at Twitter’s level.

Future Developments

But the Twitter-TV partnership isn’t without its faults. It’s not surprising that with the success of mini hyper-relevant ads on social media, TV would start to try and break off a piece on their own small screen. Execs at MTV, The Weather Channel, and Turner are working on ways to bring what’s trending right now in your area to your commercial breaks, via their sponsors. We have all kinds of integrated advertising on TV already, but this attempt at up-to-the-minute ads could change where the money is going, especially during popular events. But while their viewer’s eyes may be on the screen while the action is on, their fingers will still be at full attention on their tablets and smartphones.