You definitely want to make sure that this photo contest ties into your brand somehow, so try to be clever when deciding what to ask your audience to submit. If you sell jewelry, for example, ask your customers to submit photos of themselves wearing your pieces. If your product or service is centered around living an active lifestyle, ask your fans to submit photos of themselves enjoying the great outdoors. Whatever you ask for, make sure it’s something that will be easy for your audience to produce, as this will increase your chances for lots of participation.

You also need to decide what you’re going to dole out to your contest winner(s), which is usually the biggest call-to-action in terms of participation. Figure out what you can afford to offer as a discount, and take into consideration what people will get most excited about. You can give them something for free, offer them a large percentage off your product or service, which is effective given the number of people who follow brands just so they can have access to deals of this kind. It’s also a good idea to feature your winning photo(s) on your website, your cover photo, in-store, or anywhere else you can think of.

Promotion

Now that you have your idea, it’s time to get people to join in! You can do this in your social media content, or you can take it a step further with integration techniques. Do you send out order confirmations? You can put the contest information there, or you could even make a small package insert that customers will receive along with their order, incentivizing them to snap a photo of themselves and their item right as they receive it. Put a banner on your website with the contest information, along with a link to the platform you’re running it on. Got an email marketing campaign? Be sure to include info on your contest there as well. Take advantage of Facebook ads, as we outlined in our last post. Any online or offline touchpoint that you have at your fingertips is fair game for promotional purposes, so don’t be afraid to use everything you’ve got.

Contest Management

It’s important to be specific as to how you are accepting contest submissions. Are you asking people to simply post their photos on your Facebook page? This is perfectly acceptable- just be sure to comment, like and consistently share your favorite submissions in order to keep incentivizing other users to participate. It’s also possible to run your contest through Instagram, given you have a presence on this popular photo sharing platform. You can ask users to submit their photos by using a unique hashtag to distinguish them as contest entries. For example, if your contest was centered around photos of people enjoying their favorite foods, you could ask them to tag their submissions with #ShowUsYourGrub. Then, when you search for that unique hashtag on Instagram, you’ll be able to see all of your contest entries, which can then be cross promoted on all of your other social platforms. If your company has a blog, you can write posts about your favorite submissions and then “Pin” those photos to your Pinterest page, which will help to create more awareness and drive more entries. There are endless ways to continuously promote your contest throughout its duration- just be sure to use all of your platforms, interact with your submissions, and be consistent!

Choosing a winner

Once your contest has run its course, it’s time for you to choose your winner(s). If you used Facebook as the hub of your contest, that’s where you should make your big announcement. You should be consistent on letting people know when winners will be announced throughout the duration of the contest so that they have an idea of when to expect the results. As pages cannot tag people in posts, it’s important that you go back to original submissions after you make the big announcement and alert people to the fact that they’ve won, as this will generate a Facebook notification. In both cases, it’s important to be clear on what people should do in order to collect their prize. A good strategy is to ask people to message you privately with their information, or provide an email address where they can send it to so you can follow through privately. You should also tell your entire viewership to stay tuned for more chances to collect on freebies & deals so they have good reason to keep in close touch with you!

That’s it for this week- be sure to stay tuned for more social media tips, and be sure to download our free 95 E-Book for more information on this and other subjects.

Cheers!

Restaurant client, La Dolce Vita has a Pinterest board entitled Beverly Hills, which is where their business is located. They use this board to collect images that encapsulate the glamour and iconographic nature of the area, like this one, for example:

When it came time for LDV to write some Facebook content, they used this image to inspire a successful post that captured one of the important aspects of their brand: their old-school style & location.

La Dolce Vita also as a Pinterest board devoted to the Rat Pack, as some of their most famous regulars were among the likes of Frank Sinatra & Dean Martin. Here’s a photo that they pinned of Dean, having a laugh:

And here’s how LDV translated this great image into a piece of branded Facebook content that their audience loved. Note how they asked for better engagement by posing an easy question to their fans in the post!

Here’s another example from beauty client, Billion Dollar Brows. BDB has a Pinterest board entitled “B r o w s p i r a t i o n”, which they use to collect images that reflect their standards for perfect brows. Here is the pin that eventually inspired a Facebook post:

And here’s how BDB used this inspiring image to fuel successful branded content! Note that they used photo editing app, Phoster to add even more oomph to the post (for tips on how to use this and other photo editing apps, click here).

That’s a wrap for this week- we hope you’ve learned a thing or two about how a successful Pinterest strategy can help to fuel a better social media presence across all of your platforms! Don’t forget to download our free 95 page E-Book for more information on this and other subjects.

Cheers!

Use the ‘like’ button as a sign of agreement

People scroll through their news feeds quickly, and some don’t take the time to pause and manually answer a question. Asking your fans to simply ‘like’ a post if they agree with something is an easy way to encourage them to engage with you. Here’s an example from restaurant client, La Dolce Vita.

If this post had merely talked about the characteristics of Pinot Grigio, it may still have gotten a like or two from fans of the wine, but by simply asking for likes as a sign of agreement, LDV got much more mileage out of their piece of content.

Here’s another example of successful ‘liking’ in agreement from beauty client, Billion Dollar Brows:

Yet another easy win, because people are merely asked to perform one click in accordance with a question they can answer in less than a second. Remember to keep the subject matter around your brand or industry, and subtly promote your products using your best judgement, like BDB did in the comment thread following their post.

Play simple guessing games

People love a good guessing game- it’s easy to participate, it’s fun, and it will encourage people to come back to your page or post in order to find out the answer to whatever question you posed. Take this example from our Facebook page when we turned one of our less heavily branded weekly features into a game of who’s who: 

Although this post doesn’t have anything to do with our product or service, it’s a once a week reminder that we like to have a little fun, and people certainly respond to it. Mixing in this type of content can be great for raising the level of engagement on your page, and anyone who knows anything about Facebook visibility will tell you that one post with lots of interaction gives your next post a better chance at being seen.

Add a sense of urgency

It certainly helps to provide your customers with a great deal on your product or service, but how you market it can help to determine how successful your promotion will be. In the case for social media, simply asking your fans to participate can prompt a direct response in the form of better engagement! Take a nod from client Kukees cookies, who used a sense of urgency to get people to like & share their promotional post:

The copy is enticing (we’re hungry now), the visual is attention-grabbing, and there’s a link to the promotion readily accessible for social consumers. We’d say this is a highly likeable and shareable piece of content!

Ask People to Contribute

People like to lend a helping hand on subject matters that they’re savvy in, and more & more data shows that consumers really enjoy being a part of companies’ branding decisions. This is certainly the case in client Service Dogs America’s Facebook community, where service dog owners and just plain dog lovers make for lively conversation on one of their favorite subject matters: their canine companions. People are definitely more apt to give you their feedback if you just plain ask for it, which is exemplified plainly by the following post:

This is a win-win situation, because Service Dogs America is not only using their audience to thoroughly answer a user-submitted question, they’re also majorly upping their engagement factor. By allowing page fans to take the wheel and feel a sense of power, this piece of content is a definitely deserving of applause!

So there you have it- four different ways to ask for better Facebook engagement. We hope the response you receive from applying these tactics is bountiful to say the least! For more information on this and other subjects, be sure to stay tuned to our blog and download our free 95 page E-Book.

Cheers!

Phoster

This app allows you to choose from a variety of formats using the background image of your choice to make professional looking poster graphics. You are able to use the font and colors that the app provides for each layout, or you can completely customize everything to your liking. Phoster is great for designing a full-scale advertisement, or simply for adding a major dose of style & design to a photo that you’d like to share. People’s eyes are drawn to photos on a multitude of social media platforms, so adding text to your images is a major plus.

First, you’ll need to choose your layout from the home screen:

Then, you can add the background image and text of your choice:

Now you get to choose between some finishing touches for a more polished look:

Et voila! Now you have a visually appealing vehicle for whatever message you’d like to send to your fan base.

Fuzel

Similar to Diptic, Fuzel allows you to create collages out of the images of your choice. The only difference is that this app offers more layout options, and it also allows you to create your own layout from scratch!

Feel like getting creative with your layout? Cut out a custom one, like this:

Or use one of the many layouts available from the app:

As you’re adding the images of your choice, you have the option to apply filters available through the app, or you can use another filtering app like Instagram beforehand, like we did:

When you’re done, you’ll have a dynamic visual to share with your audience! Check out this collage we made with Fuzel for the 4th of July:

Picfx

This app really speaks to the artist in all of us. Apply beautiful filters and effects to the image you’d like to share, and up the wow factor by millions of points. Here’s an example of how an ordinary image can go from “meh” to “insanely shareable” in a few simple steps!

Start with something simple, like this shot of our lobby: 

Then browse through the wide range of filters available, and select one that suits your fancy. You can layer filters by clicking the arrow icon to the right and selecting “Add another”.

Not only can you add filters to your image, you can also add effects, like this one from the “light” category:

Let’s compare the original to the finished product to see the difference!

That concludes this lesson on photo apps- join us next time for more social media tips, and don’t forget to download our free 95 page ebook for more information on this and other topics!

Cheers!

This is a chance to hone in on your employees’ individual strengths and use them to your shared advantage, so get people excited by taking a personal interest and giving them the opportunity to participate in something outside of their normal job duties. Do you have any photo enthusiasts in the office? Give these people the responsibility of being the designated photo takers (If someone always has a camera, all of those great behind-the-scenes moments will be captured and shared). If someone on your team has great writing skills, give him or her the task of writing industry-related blog posts on behalf of your company. The key is to have a clear picture of your goals and an understanding of your team so that you can position yourself for success.

In addition to gauging your employees’ individual strengths, you should survey them in terms of how social media savvy they are. Then, you can group the people with similar levels of knowledge together in order to train them more effectively. It’s a fine idea to start the web-gurus off with more advanced specifics, but you should teach the “newbie” group the basics of platform use before moving into what your company’s specific social media goals are.

Do you like the sound of using your existing resources to the very favorable outcome of reaching your social media goals, but don’t know where to start? We’ve got you covered. Download our free Social Media on a Budget E-Book for a wealth of how-to’s that will have your team up & running in no time. Find it here: http://exc.la/ebook

Direct Response content is meant to elicit its very namesake- meaning its purpose is to get a direct response from consumers. This can include coupons, discount codes, promotions, exclusive deals, early access to new inventory, and so on. A very large percentage of people “like” and follow brands on various social networks just so they can be privy to these sorts of deals, so it’s to your absolute benefit to provide your fan base with the aforementioned items. Some of the benefits of Direct Response content can be a pronounced incline in network growth, generated media “buzz” around your brand and ROI in the form of increased sales. Now, let’s break down the different ways you can present these it to people:

Facebook apps

A simple app like this one incentivizes people to enter their information in order to receive a discount on their next purchase. All you need to do is generate a coupon code for each applicant, and voila! You now have a plethora of email addresses to add to your email marketing list. Is your goal to expand your network? Opt for an app that incentives people to “like” your page in exchange for a discount, instead.  

Facebook ads & promoted posts

Facebook now allows you to create ads, no matter how small your budget is. You have the option to either pay per click or per impression, and can create an ad out of a post or simply promote your page. If you’ve published a post that counts as Direct Response content, create an ad out of it and get even more visibility!

If you’re working with a very small budget and just want to achieve a quick boost in reach, you can also promote individual posts for either $5.00 or $10.00. Facebook tells you your estimated reach depending on what you’d like to pay, so you’ll have a specific idea of how many people will see your post.

Twitter Auto Direct Messages

Twitter allows you to automatically message each one of your new followers, and because messages are private, this is a great way to give out coupon codes or access to discounts and increase traffic to your site. Another option would be to direct people to your Facebook app if you have one like Kukees’ does above, so that way you can convert Twitter followers to Facebook “likes”.

Pinterest campaigns

You can ask your fan base to get creative by running a Pinterest board contest. Tell them what they should title their board, and have them use a unique hashtag for every item they pin to it. Offer a prize for the best board(s), and be sure to cross promote the contest on your other social platforms, your email marketing pieces, your website, and in-store if possible. Here’s an example of a fun campaign run by Kate Spade & Vespa:

Engaging Branded Content is simply meant to engage your audience by prompting them to “like”, share, comment, retweet, repin, etcetera. The value of this sort of content comes in the form of brand awareness, building meaningful consumer relationships, building authority, brand loyalty, organic SEO & network growth. These are all results that are more difficult to “monetize” in the form of ROI, but their benefits are unmistakable. Let’s take a look at some examples of engaging branded content, shall we?

Behind the scenes sneak peeks

Traditional media allows consumers to get an in depth look at your branding, products & services. Social media is a unique opportunity in that it allows people to look at what goes on behind the scenes. Since this content is authentic and gives the impression that it’s happening in real time, it’s easy for people to feel connected to it! We snapped a photo of this 40 lb coffee delivery from Ruta Maya Organic Coffee, edited it using iPhone photo apps and posted it to our Facebook page, complete with a shout out to the company.  

Company culture features

Because social media makes it so easy to share things with your audience, aligning your company culture with the rest of your branding efforts it simple. We like to boast the fact that we have a dog-friendly office, as our pooches add a lot of energy and personality to our work atmosphere.

Employee-sourced content

One of the things we constantly tell people who want to generate good branded content is to use their employees! Talk about what they do at work, but don’t be afraid to highlight their hobbies and interests as well. This allows people to see the human side of your brand and limit the feeling that they are being blatantly marketed to by your page at all times.

So there you have it- examples of two different types of content to accomplish your social media goals! Using both will ensure that your marketing tactics stay on point, and that you reap both the measurable and intangible benefits of doing social the right way.

Cheers!

Always take advantage of the “pinned post” feature by highlighting information that is the most strategically useful for your brand to showcase. Are you running a campaign through an app? Pin a post to your page that includes a call to action to participate.

Try to include more than one type of content in as many posts as you can. For example, use a tag and a photo in the same post and watch your visibility increase.

When posting videos, be sure to “frame them” so that people can easily tell what they are about- this makes it more likely that people will actually press play. Choose the most descriptive screenshot that you can, and always include a description of the video as well.

In closing, remember to keep content as fresh, engaging & relevant as possible! The more consistently you apply these standards, the more visibility you’ll see over time.

Cheers!

1. Twitter Advanced Search, Your New Sales Assistant

Twitter is exceptional for generating leads because of the way the platform is designed. Jump into the conversations taking place about your industry using Twitter’s Advanced Search option. We’ve talked about the power of this tool before, but specifically when trying to reach a very distinct group of individuals, this tool is your new sales assistant. Take full advantage of it by refining your search all the way down to the mile radius of your target demographic or your store location.

For car dealership client Marina Del Rey Toyota, we generate new leads by refining the search to key phrases like, “car shopping,” “want Toyota,” and more to locate users in the targeted area on the search for a new car, or have questions about Toyotas.

Here, we located a consumer using the “car shopping” key phrase. We offer helpful information about the specific car she is interested and invite her for a test drive the following weekend. Since we were mindful of location during our search, this is a very promising lead as she is already in the market for a vehicle and is a local resident.

2. Physically Monitor Your Interactions

Don’t let valuable interactions fall to the wayside. Physically keep track of promising engagements by creating some kind of record, like an excel spreadsheet or Google doc. Track the exact details of the conversation. What sparked the interaction? Which search terms did you use? Was there an incentive offered? When did the interaction take place? These details will help you with the follow-up process and also show your potential consumer that you cared and listened to their needs.  

3. Always Follow-up

The subtle purser will always follow-up, but you must be mindful that you are a brand on social media and you need to be careful in your approach. Give off the slightest vibe of self-promotion, and your brand will come off grossly salesy, diminishing your efforts. Create a Twitter list of potential followers you engaged in the past and give them a week or so to get the opportunity to check out your services or product. Take interest in something they are tweeting about to jump into the conversation, and if it feels right, you can ask them about their experience with your brand or product. If they respond that they have not yet visited your store front or website, offer something to give them a reason to come in or browse your site.

Marina Del Rey Toyota offers a $25 gas card to promising followers who come in for a test drive. We make the entire process very human and special by also giving out the sales manager’s direct Twitter handle to schedule the test drive. This creates a huge incentive for a follower to take action (who wouldn’t want to cash in on free gas!), while also giving Marina Del Rey Toyota a face behind the brand.  

Tag, you’re it! How will your brand incorporate these tactics to pursue social users? Visit /excelamktg for further customized social media marketing ideas, innovative campaigns, current social media trends, and insider tips for small business success.

Join us!

Every Friday at 1 p.m. Pacific Time we will be hosting a live Tweet Chat, where Account Manager, Elena Zanone, will be answering all your social media marketing questions. Use hashtag “#SMoaB” to jump into the conversation!

1. Use Hashtags
Hashtags are simply keywords preceded by a hash symbol (“#”) that makes them both searchable and linkable. They categorize your posts – making hobbies, articles, websites, blog posts, all easily searchable. They are not case sensitive or space sensitive, and are the fastest way to discover and browse on social media. Not utilizing them, is almost equivalent to throwing perfectly good food down the garbage disposal – a total waste!

In this pin for client Billion Dollar Brows, we utilize hashtags “#Vintage,” “#Brows,” and “#SophiaLoren” to categorize the pin and optimize them to be search-friendly.

2. Include Links
Pinterest will automatically link images to the original source, but there is something about visually seeing a link, that makes us want to actively click. This link will often last during the process of a re-pin and should be a best practice for your all of your company pins when appropriate.

In this pin for client Billion Dollar Brows, we make a point to include a link and customize the URL to say “Mario” so users will know where they are being directed.

3. Remember to Network with Fellow Pinners
In your attempt to find the balance of optimized and aesthetic pins, don’t neglect the fact that Pinterest is still very much a social platform. Be sure to “Like,” “Repin,” and “Comment” on other profiles in order to further grow your network and get your brand noticed. Of course, be strategic with what you are engaging with, ensure that it is in line with your tone and presence – but do remember that the more you give, the more you will get. Just like all social media communities, in order to spark interactions, you must first put forth energy and cultivate relationships with other users and brands.

The floor’s all yours: How can you optimize each pin to rise above the noise and increase your brand’s SEO? Visit /excelamktg for further customized social media marketing ideas, innovative campaigns, current social media trends, and insider tips for small business success.

Join us!

Every Friday at 1 p.m. Pacific Time we will be hosting a live Tweet Chat, where Account Manager, Elena Zanone, will be answering all your social media marketing questions. Use hashtag “#SMoaB” to jump into the conversation!

This infographic was created by our Social Media Analyst, John Wie and his magically strategic powers.

The floor’s all yours: How can you optimize each post for potential viral success? Visit /excelamktg for further customized social media marketing ideas, innovative campaigns, current social media trends, and insider tips for small business success.

Join us!

Every Friday at 1 p.m. Pacific Time we will be hosting a live Tweet Chat, where our Account Manager, Elena Zanone, will be answering all your social media marketing questions. Use hashtag “#SMoaB” to jump into the conversation!

1. Keep it Optimized
Did you know that the first five words of any tweet are the most crucial in captivating your followers? Give your audience a taste for what your blog post is all about by simply tweeting the headline. That means your blog titles must be strong and optimized in their own right for best SEO. Use keywords that are most often used in your industry to get your information noticed. Of course, you want your titles to be equally unique and creative, but avoid being too obscure; you do not want to leave your followers with any room for confusion, because as rapidly as social media changes, so does the attention span of your following.

Below we optimize our tweet for best social SEO, utilizing our blog’s headline. The verbiage is strong; we use industry-friendly and highly searched for terms such as, ‘social’ ‘authority’ and ‘industry’ making the chances of our tweet to be discovered higher, as well as giving users a complete summary of what the blog post is about.

You can also categorize important tweets. Users can clearly see that we’ve uploaded a new post to our blog because of the information in brackets.

2. Highlight the Author
Brands oftentimes have a guest blogger or an employee who writes the blog content. For our blog, we have an array of contributors from each department who construct blog posts each week on their specific expertise. A strategy that we utilize it to always @ mention the author when promoting any new post, not only to give the blog a human touch, but it also means that your information will be seen by the author’s followers as well.

In this post we shared with our Twitter community, our Director of Digital PR, Amanda Goodhue (@angoodhue) was the author of the Top 10 PR Don’ts. We included her Twitter handle in the tweet in order to increase traction about our blog post. Amanda has over 3,000 followers making our reach that much stronger!

3. Host A Tweet Chat
A tweet chat is a live discussion about a particular topic hosted on Twitter by a user or brand. Prompt a conversation about your latest post using this tweet chat strategy. Depending on what type of blog you write, this could be a forum to introduce new ideas, educate the public, or simply fuel a positive conversation about your brand. Whatever your intention, hosting a chat on Twitter requires minimal time, resources, and can reap huge benefits. Don’t forget to promote the tweet chat via Facebook and on your blog!

This tactic also give users something to do with your blog material after they’ve read it. Most people aren’t too inclined to leave an actual comment, but they will want to tweet about something that interested them, especially a chat with the author themselves. Find a time and get ready to host your very first tweet chat!

We host a weekly tweet chat each Friday at 1PM PST, where we discuss the previous day’s post. This gives users enough time to read through the material and ask any questions they may have. If you aren’t seeing an automatic response to your tweet chat, don’t get discouraged. Prompt users you often connect with to start a conversation. Ask questions that followers will already know, and start to build awareness about your tweet chat. Eventually it will catch on with consistency and time.

1. Post Media Live
You’ve probably noticed by now that Twitter changed the way images and videos are shared within the community (for the better in our opinion!). Now, users can see an embedded photo right below the tweet, rather than being directed to a third party site, like ow.ly. The only downfall is in order to create this cleaner, more powerful way of tweeting, you must do it live. There isn’t a plethora of analytic research to compare which method is stronger, but it is certainly easier for your followers to see your content right there, instead of an annoying window popping up. Additionally, start tweeting more often and with more variety. Share at least three posts a day. Maybe tweet a relevant article, trickle in your blog posts, ask a question – switch it up with a variety of content throughout the day. Check out our 3 Ways to Create a Higher Twitter Engagement for more.

2. Remove Auto Responses  
When was the last time an auto response genuinely attracted your attention? A good analogy would be to describe auto-responses like mass promotional text messages – they are fluffy, impersonal, and unoriginal. It isn’t worth the three people that may be interested, to the hundreds that will be totally turned off, is it? We didn’t think so. Do your followers a solid, and be one less spammy brand on Twitter. You’ll still want to thank new followers, but doing it manually and using their name, rather than their Twitter handle, is much more powerful and effective in building an ongoing relationship.

3. Be More Generous
Take a few minutes a day to dedicate to your Twitter community. See what’s going on with your followers. Maybe mention someone who is doing something admirable and RT to share with your community. You can also check out your Twitter lists to view people you often interact with. Take the time to RT, mention, or fuel a conversation that has nothing to do with you, but everything to do with them. Karma is pretty instantaneous on this real-time platform.

4. Respond Publicly
Try to steer clear from always answering via DM’s. Rather, take the conversation public. Obviously, there are unique conversations that require privacy, but for the most part you want to answer questions about your brand publicly in order to attract and reach new followers.

5. Occasionally Stray Off the Beaten Path
Social media in its core is about relationships. Sometimes saying something completely unrelated to your brand generates a huge response. It’s like any form of viral content on the internet, there is no precise formula for what works and what doesn’t. Quotes, trending topics, pop culture and music are all popular go-to topics. Start slowly to see if this non-traditional strategy works for your brand.

The floor’s all yours: How will you actively give more to get more from your Twitter community? Visit /excelamktg for further customized social media marketing ideas, innovative campaigns, current social media trends, and insider tips for small business success.

1. Why Would We Follow You?
First determine how compatible Instagram is for your type of business. If after careful consideration the answer is, “it isn’t,” we encourage you to think outside the box. Even if you are the local hardware store, you can still have a killer Instagram profile. Why? Because Instagram’s secret weapon is its power to create intrigue, beauty, and interest with its plethora of filters and tools. So now we’ll ask again, why would we follow you? A good start would be to think of the broad ideals and interests of your consumers, then “WOW” the heck out of them.

General Electric has such a strong presence within the Instagram community not only because of their rich heritage, but because of their attention to nostalgia and innovation.

“They’re here! A CFM56 #engine hangs from the ceiling at #GE #Aviation in Wales, UK. Shot by GE Instagrapher winner @adamsenatori. #technology #manufacturing”

2. Grow Your Network
There isn’t much concrete data on network building for Instagram as of now, but the best way to begin is by using hashtags and geotags. “Tagging” your photos will increase the chance of visibility for your images and profile. In the GE example above, you’ll notice that #Aviation, #Technology and #Manufacturing are all “tagged” in the caption. This not only organizes images, but optimizes your profile – making your photos easier for other users to discover. Geotagging is another way to grow your network. Whenever you are posting at your store location, or a noteworthy place (maybe your brand had an expo at a major venue), be sure to tag the places you go, as images can also be found via location.

3. Aim for Consistency
On any social platform you want to be consistent in two major ways: in your tone and in your involvement. Instagram demands this attention even more so because of the purpose of the platform. Instagram is about detail, action, involvement, sneak peeks, and glimpses into someone else’s world – you want to be as consistent and strategic as possible when striving to capture these moments. It’s a big turn off for users when you haven’t posted for a couple of weeks, and then post 6 images in a day. Trickle, don’t pour.

We recently had our office completely renovated, and we made it fun project to show the growth, and before and after of our office space.

Remember that all of these eye-catching images you create can also be used on Facebook, Twitter, and anywhere to enhance the aesthetic of your online presence. Instagram is truly transforming the way we share and your brand can only benefit from the action (and hey, you didn’t have to spend a DIME).

The floor’s all yours: How will you take your company to new heights by using Instagram? Visit /excelamktg for further customized social media marketing ideas, innovative campaigns, current social media trends, and insider tips for small business success.

Join us!

Every Friday at 1 p.m. Pacific Time we will be hosting a live Tweet Chat, where out Account Manager, Elena Zanone, will be answering all your social media marketing questions. Use hashtag “#SMoaB” to jump into the conversation!

1. Who Are Your Consumers?
Whole foods has a killer standing within the food and health industry because of their incredible knowledge of who their consumer is. They know their customers’ culture, workout routines, concerns, interest, passions and goals. Reaching that ground where you know who your customer is on an emotional level will give you a huge upper hand in establishing authority. Social media gives you the power to get familiar with your fanbase. Whole foods realizes that causes like being environmentally-friendly are a huge passion of their consumers. In this post, they found a way to honor a fan and create traction on their page.

2. Quality of Your Network
Surround yourself with the best. That means your competition, your influential consumers, and people who fit your demographic. We use the Twitter networking tool, Brandchirp, to reach many followers at a time who fit the target demographic of our clients. Crowdsourcing is another huge way to network. Crowdsource by using Twitter’s “Advanced Search” to locate brands, users and relevant conversations happening within your industry. This is an excellent way to see how people feel about a product, to measure overall sentiment about an industry or brand, and to jump into the conversation – further establishing yourself as the authority and expert. You can view more on network building here:

3. Quality Control
Just like you wouldn’t cut corners with the quality of your product, you can’t slack off on your social media either! Create an editorial calendar to ensure you’re touching on all aspects of your brand and maintain consistency, but never at the expense of quality. Don’t post to post, fans can smell inauthenticity from miles away. Learn more about quality content here.

4. Unique Campaigns
To be an authority you have to distinguish yourself from your competition and stand out to your consumers. Social media was once a major way for brands to stick out in itself, but now that more and more brands are catching on, the pressure to utilize dynamic and creative social media approaches is growing.

For lifestyle brand, POE, we created the campaign, #NameHer, to incentivize users to share the name of the woman who has most shaped their life for a chance to have a signature shoe named after her. This touches consumers on an emotional level, establishes a unique voice, and makes it a place of community – further establishing POE’s authority among users.

Leveraging social media to become an authority in your industry makes a full circle back to your fans. If you’ve taken these steps above, you’ve created credibility, trust, and value for your consumers. That is the name of the game when striving to be the authority.

The floor’s all yours: Which area can your brand improve in to create a stronger authoritative social media presence? Visit /excelamktg for further customized social media marketing ideas, innovative campaigns, current social media trends, and insider tips for small business success.

Feeling dubious? That may be because the term “shopkeeper” doesn’t apply to you, and chances are you don’t live in a tiny village where you know your customers’ maiden names, kids’ birthdays and/or darkest secrets. But consider this: recent data shows that 26% of online conversations mention brands. That’s a whole quarter of a pie! Time to loosen your buckle and dive in, because more recent data shows that 20-50% of all purchasing decisions are influenced by online word-of-mouth. Wait, so you mean people are checking out brands online before they buy products, and chances are that if businesses don’t have a strong presence, consumers will look elsewhere? BINGO! That’s exactly what we mean. If this were the olden days and you did live in that small village mentioned above, a bad business transaction could quickly soil your reputation. The same set of circumstances applies again now, except in an even bigger way. Consumers are airing their opinions publicly, and they’re using social media to do it. It’s just like having a hushed conversation with your neighbor that slowly makes its way around town…except its on the internet for millions to see. Oops.

The good news is that just like in those days of yore, you have a chance to redeem yourself by making the decision to be transparent and establish goodwill with your consumer base. For some years now, businesses have been able to hide behind TV commercials, glossy print ads, fancy billboards and 1-800 numbers. Now, we are obligated to to actually listen to our customers. You can’t hide behind social media, because it is not only social for consumers, its social for brands, and that is what people have come to expect. If you’re not there to answer, talk or listen, you might as well close up shop.

1. Hire the Right People and Educate Them

Something very, very misleading in the realm of social media marketing is that anyone who is active with their personal social media, is an excellent candidate for the job. Sure, you want someone who practices what they preach, but you also need someone who has experience with brands on social media. Often times, when a social media savvy person gets their hands on promotional social media, the salesy tone can arise, or it can be completely unprofessional. Ensure that the person you hand over the job to has a firm grasp of your company ideals, your customer’s interests and needs, and understands social media best practices for brands.

2. Expect the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

In most cases, a time will come where an unhappy customer might say some pretty ugly things about your brand. But that’s just life in the business world, so prepare yourself for the not-so-pretty posts. The exceptional thing about Facebook Timeline is that customer service can now be taken a step further. Brands now have the ability to suggest taking a customers needs to a private place “off wall” with the introduction of page to personal profile messaging. Kindly suggest private messaging as only the user can initiate.

3. Don’t Mute Your Fans

How do you react to an angry customer in-store or via e-mail? With humbleness and swift service we hope! Just because you aren’t face to face, your tone can still come across clear in the form of a post. Be professional and respectful, meet their issue with a solution and never mute a bad comment. Personalize your reponse, give your e-mail, give a NAME, after all social media is about human reactions. Let them know there are real people behind the brand. Let disgruntled fans express themselves on your page in moderation. Of course, if there are offensive or threatening posts, those should be removed, but if a customer is upset about not receiving a product that they ordered – let them express the issue and respond in a real way, always offering a specific contact.

4. Make Them Feel Like Stars

Why would you tell a friend that a place has excellent customer service? Probably not simply because you had a huge problem with the brand and an employee was nice to you; people tend to say a place has excellent customer service when the business makes them feel like royalty. There are endless possibilities and ways to make your fans feel like they are the best thing since sliced bread, and discovering ways to do this is not only good customer service, but a social media best practice.

5. Learn and Grow

Take inventory of your experiences, track them case by case for positive growth and future training of newer employees. How did your fans react when you provided a real name versus a generic e-mail address? How did you make fans feel exclusive, special and heard? Taking note of the negative and positive situations on your page can only better your online presence and performance. And lastly, make it a priority to keep all employees in the loop for consistency in all departments.

The floor’s all yours: How have you utilized Facebook and Twitter for excellent customer service? Visit /excelamktg for further customized social media marketing ideas, innovative campaigns, current social media trends, and insider tips for small business success.

Join us!
Every Friday at 1 p.m. Pacific Time we will be hosting a live Tweet Chat, where out Account Manager, Elena Zanone, will be answering all your social media marketing questions. Use hashtag “#SMoaB” to jump into the conversation!

1. Admin Panel
Take some time to explore the in-depth features of the newly improved admin panel. Much of the old Facebook insights are still included, but the revamped version is much easier on the eyes, and includes additional insightful aspects such as:

• You can now view the date that a new fan “Likes” your page. Get creative and personal with this new feature by highlighting and/or thanking the new fan for liking your page.
• The ability to see which month your page was most engaging. Take some time to explore this feature as it can be very telling about what content worked and what did not.
• A more streamline demo report. Places, languages, ages, and the gender of your fans are broken down into an easy-to-read graph.

Take some time to play around with the new user-friendly features – you can even export the data into a PDF to analyze a clean report with your team!

2. Pinned Post

Many social media specialists are positioning the “pinned post” feature as the alternative to the loss of the landing page, but this option is not simply a replacement for your “Like Us” app. Think of “pinned posts” as a rotating billboard for current news, campaigns, or any aspect of your brand that you want to highlight. Remember that this new feature only stays at the top for 7 days, so rotate the post when you have other prominent content to share with community.

3. Front and Center Recommendations

Facebook recommendations are now taking a more visible place on your page. Although this isn’t a new feature, it was once housed on the far right hand side, hidden in the clutter of ads. The new location creates an even stronger impact when users visit your page. Brainstorm ways to take full advantage of this aspect, maybe incentivize customers to recommend your page if they’ve had a positive experience.

4. Fan Messaging  

The new Facebook proves to mimic personal pages even further with the introduction of Facebook messaging for brands. This is a prime place to direct users to take a question, concern, or inquiry to a private place. Users who post on your page are already a bit muted in terms of visibility – so offering to take the conversation to messaging is a perfect way to focus on a fan, one to one.

It’s time to start taking advantage of the many new aspects of Timeline. Take some time to really dig into the admin panel, highlight a new “Liker,” use pinned posts as new place to bring attention to your new campaign, or give a fan your full attention via messaging. The new Facebook features can only enhance your page presence and captivate your audience even further.

The floor’s all yours: How have you taken advantage of the new Facebook features? Visit /excelamktg for further customized social media marketing ideas, innovative campaigns, current social media trends, and insider tips for small business success.

Join us!
Every Friday at 1 p.m. Pacific Time, we will be hosting a live Tweet Chat where Account Manager, Elena Zanone, will be answering all your social media marketing questions. Use hashtag “#SMoaB” to jump into the conversation!

Consumer Interest

Pinterest has grown significantly in popularity and versatility among usership since the beginning days of its female-dominant stereotype. The platform now has over 10.4 million registered users, 9 million monthly Facebook-connected users, and 2 million daily Facebook users, according to Inside Network’s AppData tracking service. Even stronger, as of February 2012, Pinterest is the second social media site under Facebook for increased referral traffic for brands. People love pinning and your brand can only benefit from the heavy weight of consumers that participate on the platform each day.

User-Friendly

There are no bells and whistles with Pinterest; it is simple and hassle-free! It’s straightforward with two basic elements: pins and boards. Even more user-friendly is the ability to create traction and interaction with consumers. People “follow” and “repin” brands more readily, as users are engaging with the themes and ideals of your company, rather than your brand as a whole. The platform is also less focused on the “when” of pins, so the pressure to be constantly involved is not currently a “best practice.” Creating your account is easy too, click here to start pinning.

Offline Content Can Now Go Online

Pinterest also creates a venue to house aspects of your brand that may have been left offline. For instance, you can highlight company style, inspirations, or the city your office is in. We took advantage of this aspect of Pinterest by creating boards like, “We Love L.A.” and “What’s For Lunch,” as culture and food are hugely popular on the platform.

Pinterest in a nutshell: Strip away your marketing department, your business initiatives, and salesy content. Think color, tone, design, and themes. Imagining Pinterest as your company’s magazine/lookbook/catalog is a strong strategy. Think of your boards as the “hub” for users to peruse and discover aspects of your brand that they find interesting or useful. Successful boards are generally food-related, fashion-forward, innovation-focused, creative and, most importantly, visual. Find a way to showcase these elements, while emanating your brand’s overall tone and mission, and you’ll be on your way to become ‘pinteresting’ in no time.

The floor’s all yours: How is your brand using Pinterest? Visit /excelamktg for further customized social media marketing ideas, innovative campaigns, current social media trends, and insider tips for small business success.

Join us!

Every Friday at 1 p.m. Pacific Time, we will be hosting a live Tweet Chat where Account Manager, Elena Zanone, will be answering all your social media marketing questions. Use hashtag “#SMoaB” to jump into the conversation!

TWITTER CHECKLIST

Take some time to revamp your Twitter presence with these tips from the pros here at /excelamktg:

• Take a moment to review your Twitter bio – if you’ve had the same bio for a while, switch up the wording and make sure all information is up-to-date.
• Clean up who you’re following. Often times your following can get cluttered with spammers, or users who have been inactive for quite sometime. Use a tool like ManageFlitter to clean out the clutter.
• Re-organize your lists. This may need more than just a slight clean-up, perhaps you haven’t taken advantage of this aspect of Twitter at all. Organize and create lists to keep up with influencers in your industry, customers, and highly responsive Twitter users.
• Update your Profile Picture. If your brand has revamped its image recently, make sure that your Twitter page has followed suit with a current profile picture that really stands out.
• Take a close look at your tweets. Are you remembering to keep them under 140 characters for optimal RTs, @mentions, etc? Studies show that tweets that keep consistent with this character count are more likely generate increased engagement within their community.
• Pictures and videos. Twitter has recently become much more media-friendly. Spruce up your tweets by incorporating more visual content, as Twitter now actually embeds media into your profile instead of displaying them as links.
• Trending topics. This unique feature of Twitter is something that is sometimes overlooked. Make sure you’re incorporating trending topics whenever appropriate; additionally, make sure you’ve identified your location properly, so the list of trending topics reflects your type of following.

FACEBOOK CHECKLIST

On March 30th, the switch from Wall to Timeline will go into effect on all brand Facebook pages. This is the perfect opportunity to spruce up your presence and optimize your strategy. A little spring cleaning will go a long way since Timeline is expected to be all about visuals, and users will have the opportunity to see detailed events of your activity. Whether you’ve already made the switch to Timeline or not, here’s a checklist to help keep your Facebook page looking fresh:

• Similar to Twitter, look over your “About” section. Update any old or irrelevant information and make sure to include a link to your website.
• Update your profile picture. Give people a reason to click on your page with a new, eye-catching profile picture. If you’ve made the switch to Timeline, be sure to keep your cover photo updated as well.
• Revamp pages that your brand “Likes” by unliking pages that you are not interested in seeing updates from anymore, and like new pages that post information that you want to read about. For example, is your product sold in stores nationwide? Then “Like” all the stores that carry your product. Do you offer a service? “Like” the pages of notable fans and/or clients.
• Have you gotten into the habit of posting the same type of content, over and over again? Starting this season, mix it up with more photo and video content. It’s much more engaging and looks better on the layout of your page.
• Pictures. This is a big one that could use more of an overhaul than a light cleaning. True for both personal as well as fan pages, it’s important to go in and remove, reorganize, highlight and reposition your pictures to optimize your profile. Do you have a picture that’s teeny tiny or slightly blurry? Replace it with a new one ASAP. Cleaning out pictures that are less than stellar will make your profile lose a lot of dead weight. Have a really strong image that you want to share? On the Timeline layout, you can pin it or highlight it to make it stand out. Learn how to do that here.
• A great way to keep your Facebook page lively and encourage people to come back is to find out what your audience wants and give it to them! Ask questions and take the answers to heart. Jump into conversations and make insightful comments. Just be active in your community and you will see the change.

We suggest keeping a daily checklist like this around the office, on the company bulletin board, next to your computer, or a place where it’s readily available for all employees who manage social media accounts. After all, even the savviest of professionals need to be reminded of the basics from time to time!

The floor’s all yours: How will you revamp your online presence this Spring? Visit /excelamktg for further customized social media marketing ideas, innovative campaigns, current social media trends, and insider tips for small business success.

Join us!

Every Friday at 1 p.m. Pacific Time, we will be hosting a live Tweet Chat where Account Manager, Elena Zanone, will be answering all your social media marketing questions. Use hashtag “#SMoaB” to jump into the conversation!

1. HootSuite

Hootsuite is our content scheduler of choice because it’s extremely user-friendly. While there is still much debate about what’s more effective, live posts versus scheduled posts, the fact of the matter is as a small business owner you can’t always dedicate your time to social media 24/7. Enter HootSuite. This is why we love it:

• Universal access – All of your settings and searches are saved no matter what computer you’re using
• Aesthetically pleasing – The dashboard is visually appealing and you can easily see the action on the pages you manage
• Team Management-friendly – You can assign roles and delegate authority to others, so it works well for a distributed team
• Scheduled posts are easy to create
• Media sharing-friendly – Attaching video and photo content is a breeze
• Price – It’s pretty cheap, and even has a free version
• It manages your character count so that you don’t go over 140 characters on Twitter posts

2. Bud.URL

“Shrink it, Spread it, Watch it grow” is their short and sweet slogan, and that’s exactly why we love it. This URL shortener will quickly become your tweeting wing man. Perks about the tool:

• Trackable links – BudURL offers a detailed analysis for each link you create
• Organized links – You can categorize links by client/project/employee
• Description feature – You can quickly create a description of your shortened link
• Quick QR creation – Want a QR code immediately? Bud.URL Automatically creates a downloadable QR code for the link
• Easy-to-use button for your browser – The tool icon sits nicely in your browser making it truly as simple as the “touch of a button” to shorten the link to the page that you are on
• Customizable URL – Instead of using a default URL, like bud.url/dsjlghsad, you can give followers an idea where a link will go with: bud.url/Tweet.

3. Google Alerts

Google Alerts is the ideal way to keep your ears close to what’s current and relevant in your industry. Get all your information delivered to you once a day, or stay constantly connected to industry news with the “as-it-happens” setting. Features we love most:

• Easy access – Ability to get all desired industry news delivered as they happen in real-time
• Time saver – Less time searching means more time devoted to creating spectacular content
• Wealth of content – Bigger pool of information means better content

Go to Google Alerts now for improved content and relevancy.

4. SocialBro

Timing is key when it comes to Twitter, and the constant real-time conversations going on every second of the day. But that wealth of constant communication can make it difficult to get your tweets to reach the right audience at the right time. SocialBro does the work for you by analyzing your community and delivering weekly graphs of best times to tweet. The site also offers additional analytic research that you can customize to display exactly what you want to know.

What we love most:

• Visuals – Easy to read graphs that will actually highlight ideal time to tweet
• Accuracy – On-the-dot suggested tweet time
• Options – SocialBro allows you to filter and measure posts in a variety of ways. Learn more here.  

5. SocialMention

SocialMention is a real-time social media search and analysis tool that is completely free. You don’t need to do any annoying free trial, enter any information or log-in. Simply put in the Twitter handle, Facebook Profile Name, or any other social platform you have and it will give you a full breakdown of what you look like on social media. You can use the tool to discover how people are talking about you, when they’ve talked about you, what their tone was when talking about you, and which keywords were used most often.

What we love most:

• Ease – Free, simple, zero hassle log-in
• Detailed breakdowns – SocialMention will actually tell you the percentage of positive to negative posts about your brand and more, (we don’t know how it responds to sarcasm though!)
• Bonus features – There’s an option to receive daily email alerts of your brand, company, CEO, marketing campaign, or on a developing news story, a competitor, or even the latest on a celebrity.

The floor’s all yours: Which social media tools are you utilizing to better manage and market your brand? Visit /excelamktg for further customized social media marketing ideas, innovative campaigns, current social media trends, and insider tips for small business success.

Join us! Every Friday at 1 p.m. Pacific Time we will be hosting a live Tweet Chat, where Account Manager, Elena Zanone, will be answering all your social media marketing questions. Use hashtag “#SMoaB” to jump into the conversation!

1. Get Familiar With Your Personal Facebook Account

If you haven’t made the switch on your personal account, you should start getting familiar with the new layout and tools immediately. That’s the incredible thing about social media marketing; it is so accessible to everyone. The ability to become knowledgeable and effective is readily available because the wealth of information is there, and the platforms are free. So start doing your own personal investigation; take note of how users are interacting, where “likes” are placed on a users Timeline, where photos are being posted, and how users interact with apps.

2. Design a Cover Photo Now

Just like you were able to customize your photo row, you will now be able to have an entire custom cover photo. Recently, Facebook asked a few major brands to envision their custom Facebook and here are a few examples. What will your brand design with all the extra space?

3. Reevaluate Your Content

Since the focus of Timeline is overall more lifestyle-oriented as opposed to simply like-orientated, your content may need a slight refresher. Timeline is obviously much more visual than what the structure of the Wall had to offer. Photos and video content are housed much differently on the new pages, and certainly seem to be more successful in terms of interaction. “Likes” will evolve into more experience-friendly verbs, like “watch,” “listen,” “own,” “want,” etc. But don’t think the infamous “likes” are going away; they are still highly important. In fact, the feature is given an entire section on a users page- meaning again, visual content is highly important.

4.  Get Familiar with Facebook Open Graphs

The Open-Graph format allows users to house your app on their page, interact with it, all the while friends can see the activity. Open Graphs additionally create a place for users to interact with specific aspects of your brand, creating new interactive levels in terms of influential reach.
With the Open Graph, brands can begin to build a fully integrated, persistent connection with users, and drive new users to their apps with the increase in reach potential. Successful open-graph apps for increased engagement include:

• A Reader Type App
• Free Trial App
• Testimonial App
• Goal-Planner App

With the new changes, it’s clear that Facebook is continuing to encourage brands and developers to build pages that fit and appeal to users’ ‘lifestyles.’ This new layout is much more focused on real-time experiences and interactions, that if done correctly, will only benefit your brand’s Facebook marketing efforts.

Your turn: How will you amp of your brand page to suit the media-loving format of Timeline? Visit /excelamktg for further customized social media marketing ideas, innovative campaigns, current social media trends, and insider tips for small business success.

Join us!

Every Friday at 1 p.m. Pacific Time we will be hosting a live Tweet Chat, where out Account Manager, Elena Zanone, will be answering your questions regarding the new layout for Facebook brand pages. Use hashtag “#SMoaB” to jump into the conversation!

Facebook

Facebook is currently the leading social site in terms of referral traffic, and should be your top priority in terms of social networking. Facebook is where the people are; it’s incredibly share-heavy, engagement prone, and media loving. With Mark Zuckerberg’s latest announcement that Facebook Timeline will be available for brands at the end of this month (less than a week!), the stress on visual content is more critical than ever. For proper etiquette on Facebook for better engagement, you should focus heavily on these types of posts:

• Create a call to action- promote shares, likes, and ask questions  
• Post photos and video content often
• Tag users whenever appropriate
• Be human. Expand content from solely about your company- broaden your posts to industry news, ask for fans opinions, and always respond. See Get With The Social Media Game Plan for further content ideas

Twitter

Twitter is incredibly information-hungry, article-sharing, and media-loving. It’s been deemed the conversational search engine of the social networking platforms, and should be treated as a venue for real-time, brief, valuable information. Improve your engagement by embracing Twitter’s anatomy and heavily focus on the following:

• Articles that are relevant to your industry
• Opt out of open-ended questions; instead, shoot for “yes-no” type questions, polls, or action-prone content
• Utilize trending topics when appropriate (this is where hashtags come in)
• Timing- do an analysis on best times to tweet with a free tool like, Tweriod
• RT industry influencers and followers when appropriate
• The First Five- optimize your content for best SEO by utilizing powerful, search-engine friendly keywords in the first five characters of your tweet (see image below for example)

Your Company Blog

Your brand’s blog isn’t necessarily a social networking platform by definition, but when talking about best practices for each social site, it’s vital to take a look at your blog’s current performance. How have you been utilizing this critical aspect of your brand? In order to provide best practices for social, the foundation of your brand’s content and overall presence should be centrally located on your blog. Here is a quick refresher for how you should engage your subscribers:

• Make a point to always be relevant, updated and consistent
• Post something that has absolutely nothing to do with your brand (but still relevant to your industry)
• Don’t neglect holidays or important current events
• Open up the floor to your subscribers
• Make sure you have plug-ins to your social platforms

Your turn: How will you change your social media etiquette for better engagement? Visit /excelamktg for further customized social media marketing ideas, innovative campaigns, current social media trends, and insider tips for small business success.

Join us!

Every Friday at 1 p.m. Pacific Time we will be hosting a live Twitter Chat, where we open up the floor to you and answer your questions regarding social media marketing integration. Use hashtag “#SMoaB” to jump into the conversation.

1. Show Love for Social Media with Plug-ins

There are many ways to weave your social media platforms into your existing marketing efforts; an excellent beginner’s tip would be to at least have social plug-ins on your brand’s homepage. These plug-ins will direct consumers to the social media platform(s) of your choice – increasing SEO, and inviting consumers to join your community. If you’re concerned with losing the prospective customer, have the social media plug-in open in a separate window so that the user can continue to navigate through your website.

For our client Cuore&Pelle, we make sure to include social media plug-ins for users to visit while on their website, without distracting from the homepage.

2. Feed Your Website with Social

Often times, the upkeep of a website gets put on the back burner. We’re not blaming you. With the pressure to post daily updates to Facebook, construct optimized content for your blog, and upload your latest video to YouTube, it’s tough to stay atop of the various platforms. But just like a relationship, it needs to be constantly cultivated and tended to in order to be successful. Social media gives you an excellent way to stay relevant (if you have someone managing your social media daily), by feeding your site with posts and status updates. We suggest feeding your site with Twitter, as Facebook often changes their formatting, creating glitches for your integration.

For our client, Face Place, we feed their website with Twitter updates to ensure relevant, consistent and fresh content. Additionally, the live Twitter feed adds unique value for their users, as the majority of updates are actually skin care tips!

3. Try Something New, Like QR Codes

Every once in awhile, a relationship needs a little something new, something daring, and maybe even something a little bold. Enter, the QR code. If you’ve spotted this odd looking bar code lately, we’re about to tell you exactly what it is. QR codes are two-dimensional bar codes that users can scan easily with their smartphone cameras. Once a QR code is scanned, it can direct users to a specific place – your website, Facebook, Twitter – the possibilities are truly endless. The exceptional thing about QR codes is that you can incorporate them on or offline. Doing so gives you the opportunity to seamlessly integrate your online presence in-store, on an invitation, even on a television screen, wherever you currently advertise. QR codes add a dynamic approach to the over-used term “a call to action.” 

For our client Marina Del Rey Toyota, we created a flyer to tangibly introduce visitors to their online platforms, in-store. The purpose of the flyer was to invite customers to partake in weekly contests held on MDR’s Facebook page, giving customers an incentive to visit. To make it as easy as possible for users to engage with the campaign, a QR code is strategically placed on the bottom of the flyer, near the Facebook web address. Voilà! Your consumer can now join in on your Facebook campaign with a simple, “snap!”

QR Disclaimer: Remember that you want to constantly provide something valuable to the consumer. Simply, directing them to your website with absolutely no purpose will agitate consumers, and probably turn them off from your brand.

4. Harmoniously Cross Promote

Ensure that all of your platforms seamlessly connect to one another. All social media sites have unique purposes, and in order to give a user the full feel for your brand, you should direct them to every aspect of who you are as a business. We understand that all social media sites have different results for different brands, but Twitter and Facebook need to be staple items in your social media marketing. After all, don’t you want to be where the people are?

For this tweet on our /excelamktg Twitter page, we direct follows to our current Social Media Makeover contest where users have the opportunity to win engaging Facebook apps and more social media custom designs:

Your turn: How will you better integrate your social media platforms into your existing marketing efforts? Visit /excelamktg for further customized social media marketing ideas, innovative ideas for QR code placement, and insider tips for small business success.

Join us!

Every Friday at 1 p.m. Pacific Time we will be hosting a live Twitter Chat, where we open up the floor to you and answer your questions regarding social media marketing integration. Use hashtag “#SMoaB” to jump into the conversation!

Facebook

Content on Facebook is geared more towards interactions that require just that, action. Every aspect of your content should be shareable, tweetable, commentable, likeable and basically- able to be an influential vehicle for conversation. To get your content on its way, here are a few tips:

1. Determine Your Personality  

Decide your Facebook persona. The overall aesthetics of your page (profile pic, bio, featured likes) will of course set the tone for you business page as a whole, and the style of your content should be consistent with your brand’s profile. Essentially, the personality you portray will dictate the type of community you will attract.

For our jewelry content, Amrita Singh, her overall tone is very fashion-forward and girly, with a focus on a demographic of women 20-45. Of course we want her content to speak to that group- so we create weekly “Fashion Fridays” to showcase her jewelry in an outfit- this adds worth and value and reveals the creativity of her brand. Remember once you’ve decided on the style of voice, be consistent with your tone.  

2. Always Provide a Call to Action

Always give fans something to “do” with your posts. Fans want to interact with you, but often times brands shut the door at the end of their posts. Keep your content open-ended; prompt users with a question, take a poll, ask for feedback or opinions.

For our Facebook page, we like to open up the floor to our fans. For this post we asked for users advice on a new form of business cards. This post generated feedback, because we asked for feedback:

3. Offer Something Exclusive

Remember people like to feel appreciated, exclusive and listened to. In order to optimize your content for increased engagement, offer something to your Facebook fans that they can’t receive anywhere else. This could entail a full-blown campaign exclusive to Facebook, or a simple discount you only offer to your Facebook community.

For our client, Marina Del Rey Toyota, we conduct a weekly questionnaire entitled “Weekly Whale,” where fans can participate and have the opportunity to win a gift certificate to a popular hamburger restaurant in the area. This is exclusive to Marina Del Rey’s Facebook fans, and gives users an incentive to engage with the brand.

4. Keywords

Construct a list of keywords based on Google Keywords Tool and Google Insights. Optimizing your content solely for search engines will quickly turn your fans off- so like all things, find that zen balance. Additionally, take note that Facebook updates including images are clicked on 54% more than text-only updates, and even 22% more than posts with video content.

For our client, Jes MaHarry, we utilize keywords for best search results, while still maintaining and staying true to her tone as a designer. This maintains good SEO, while speaking in a way that attracts her community. And of course- we include an image of the product for higher engagement.

Twitter

Twitter is more and more frequently being described as a broadcast medium for brands with some conversational functionality. Therefore, Twitter is information hungry. In fact, 40% of Twitter users would rather listen than write their own tweets, which means you might not get a ton of response to your question tweets (unless you specifically mention a follower), but there are tons of ways to position yourself as a valuable authority in your industry. Here are a few ways to optimize your tweets in Twitterland:

5. Host a Conversation with Hash Tags

You may have seen something like this: “#ThingsILove” and have been completely confused. All the Twitter hashtag means is that now you can easily locate what people have to say about “ThingsILove” and add jump in the conversation. Or you can create your own hashtag for your Twitter community.

For our client Face Place, we tweet daily skin care tips and tricks for people to try with the hashtag “#skincaretip”, adding value and a benefit to their product:

6. Jump in the Conversation with Twitter Search and Trending Topics

Twitter has been deemed the conversational search engine of our time- and its no wonder why. Twitter makes it simple to search a topic and immediately jump into the conversation. Before you post, see what’s being said about a certain topic, and tweet accordingly. Twitter also informs you of the popular topics of the day with a daily list of Trending Topics. If you see a topic that is relevant to your industry, take advantage of the opportunity, and create a post with those keywords.

On Bob Marley’s birthday, we realized “Happy Birthday Marley” was trending, so we decided to take the opportunity to post a silly photo of our office mascot, Meatball, rocking Bob Marley dreads. Sometimes, it’s okay to post something that sheds light on your office culture. Loosen up! After all, it’s social media.

7. Shorten URL’s for RT’s

Use a URL shortener tool like bit.ly to savor that 140 character limit on Twitter and promote a higher amount of RT’s. Make sure you not only shorten the link before you post, but customize it. Bit.ly gives you the option to customize the link so followers realize where the link is taking them. For our clients, we like to “brand” our customized links by beginning with the client’s initials, followed by a shortened description of the link.

For our client Service Dogs of America, we always customize the link by first including the initials of the client, in this case, “SDA” followed by an abbreviated topic. For this particular post we were highlighting personalizing an ID kit with a certificate and more, so following “SDA” we describe the link with “cer” as an abbreviation for “certificate.”  Remember to keep it short, but descriptive.

8. Get to the Point

The first 5 words in your tweet should prompt interest, while also quickly getting to the point of the tweet. Utilize keywords in your industry, while also keeping it short and sweet (remember you only have 140 characters anyway); a good way to attract interest in your tweet is to utilize numbered lists, how-to’s, or announce what the tweet is about with brackets or caps.

The leading online news source, Mashable, is an excellent example how to fully optimize a tweet. Their tweets are often numbered, or have some sort of indicator as to what the tweet is exactly about.

Here you can see they they kept the tweet extremely short, while also indicating that the link will take followers to an inforgraphic, a visual tool for information. Because of the length, the tweet is easily RTable.

9. List it!

Twitter gives you the option to add followers to specific “lists.” This is an excellent way to organize your followers into specific categories, while showcasing what your brand deems important. Utilize lists to categorize talkative followers, blogs you communicate with and follow, news sources or any category that pertains to your industry. The beautiful thing about Twitter is that while it is more information heavy as opposed to interactive heavy, once you’ve exchanged information- you can always ask, comment, and RT with the user.

We like to list followers who often provide relevant information on social media trends and topics. We list these followers so we always have a pool of people we can spark a conversation with, or gather insightful information from.  

Your turn: How will you tailor your social media content for optimal engagement? Visit /excelamktg for further customized social media marketing ideas and insider tips for small business success.

These are valid marketing questions, but in order to generate success in the realm of social media marketing- we need to start asking different questions and reevaluating our expectations.“Social media is almost like a return to old-fashioned business practices. A time when you knew your customers, when you were more connected to who was buying your product and services,” /excelamktg Operations Manager, Meaghan Emery explains.

Many business owners need to reevaluate their relationship with social media in order build stronger relationships with their social consumers. /excelamktg CEO, Ashley Ranger, stresses,“If your only goal is to increase sales, you should look at something else before you look at social media.”

So before we delve into the sure fire things you should expect, we need to get something off our chest: social media does not equal sales. It cannot replace your other marketing strategies, no, there isn’t a perfect equation to master your social media ROI (yet!), and lastly, having an automatic 5,000 fans and followers overnight isn’t going to happen.

When we direct our focus to seeing an increase on our return on influence, rather than investment, sales, and numbers, the benefits of social media become more accessible. Now that we’ve extinguished the unrealistic expectations of social media, here are 5 things you should expect:

1. Expect to Use Social Media as a Valuable Aide to Increase SEO

“Your website still needs be the “hub” of your business- properly tagged and coded for optimal search results. Facebook and Twitter can’t replace this crucial aspect of your company, but they can aide in a stronger SEO,” Ranger explains. Social media is a necessary medium, that when implemented into your overall marketing practices will increase your brand’s traffic and backlinks- improving your Google ranking. To ensure optimal SEO utilizing social media, make sure your platforms are streamlined (consistent logo, bio, keywords, vanity URL’s, etc.)

Here are basic aspects you should consider a necessity for optimal SEO utilizing your social media integration:

• Unified keywords on all social media platforms, blogs and websites with Google’s Keywords Tool
• Provide your website link on all social media platforms
• Encourage employees to “Share” business content
• Add a “Share” button on your company blog
• Properly name your social media profiles for consistency
• Identify and engage your current consumers with creative incentives and content that is easily shareable on your website and other platforms

2. Expect to Think in Long-Terms

You’ve heard the expression, “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” and the same is true for your social media.“You can’t expect to put in three months of social media and ask, ‘now where is my return’?” Ranger explains. It is a living, breathing, growing platform that increases in value every year depending on your engagement and effort. The relationships you cultivate with consumers is a process, that when executed with strategic planning, time, and care, can reap huge benefits for your brand. To illustrate the process, check out this inforgraphic created by the excela creative team on the four stages of a Facebook fan:

The conversion from the Potential Fan stage to a Brand Advocate simply won’t happen overnight, nor would it be beneficial to you if it did. You want to attract quality consumers to your platforms in order to build an effective community. Having a bunch of “likes” does not mean that those people care about your brand- the goal is to build a captivated community- which takes strategic interaction, engaging campaigns, and other creative components.

3. Expect to Build A Community

Social media has the power to build an army of brand advocates as seen in the above infographic. The worth of a single brand advocate in the realm of social media redefines the phrase “word of mouth.” One brand advocate means that you’ve cultivated a relationship with a consumer- and now they’re sharing, talking, tweeting, RTing, posting about your brand with their community. That’s huge.A community also makes your brand accessible in human way; it gives you the power to learn from consumers in order to produce the types of products that they want to buy. “A social media platform like Facebook acts as an excellent customer service tool,”explains Operations Manager, Emery. You now have a venue to answer questions, sway opinions, and have real-time conversations with your consumers.

In fact, when you put forth the daily energy it takes to be successful in social media, you will build acommunity of consumers who care about your business because you care about them- hence a valuable brand advocate.

To take the power of a brand advocate a step further, a study conducted by Social Commerce Today found the correlation between a loyal fan and potential sales is huge:

• 117%:  the additional amount a fan will spend on a brand compared to a non fan
• 17%: proportion of Facebook users who say simply having the ability to ‘Like’ a brand makes them more likely to buy
• 51%: the increase in likelihood a customer will purchase, after clicking the ‘like’ button
• 41%: the increase in likelihood a customer that a customer will recommend, if they have liked the brand
• 28%: the increase in likelihood that customers who ‘like’ a brand will repurchase
• 40%: Proportion who ‘Like’ businesses in order to receive special discounts and promotions
• 30% to 200%: increase in site registrations for sites using Facebook sign on

Be a student of your community and you will undoubtedly become an authority in your business field, because you are offering what your consumers really want to purchase.

4. Expect to Be Heavily Involved

“Social media sites aren’t just platforms you have, they are platforms you USE often and with the intent to provide value” explains Emery. When you decide to venture into social media as a marketing tool, a healthy reminder is that it is time consuming.

There are various tools that can aide in scheduling branded content, but for the most part, in order to acquire social media success, you must be heavily involved in the real-time conversations that are taking place. Consumers can easily spot spammy content, which is often grounds for a consumer to “unlike” or “unfollow.”

Remember: people don’t like to be sold; they do like to feel listened to, appreciated and exclusive. This takes time and creativity. For a better picture of what you should be doing daily with your social media, check out Get with the Social Media Game Plan.

5. Expect to Look Better Than Your Competitor

“Especially if you offer a service, brands with a strong social media presence will automatically be positioned better online against competitors” Ranger explains. When a consumer is searching for your specific service, if your business is active on social media platforms, the likelihood of the consumer choosing you over your competitor is major. More so, you have now positioned yourself as an authority in your genre of business- creating confidence in the consumer to choose the service you offer above others who lack involvement in social media.

While these are elements you, as a business, can expect from your social media, the biggest point to remember is that consumers expect you to be utilizing these platforms (and to be doing it well). Here are 5 key takeaways about social media:

• A killer social media presence is something that today’s consumer expects you to have.
• Social media sites aren’t just platforms you have, they are platforms you USE often and with the intent of providing value.
• Measure your social media in terms of influence rather than investment. How powerful is current influence?
• Every brand has a different experience with social media as a marketing tool. Do the best you can with the resources you have, and make a point to never compromise the quality of content you put out.
• Building a community is not a numbers game. It is about the quality of people interacting with you, not the quantity.

How will you move forward with your social media efforts?