Tag Archives: Social Media
A recent study prepared by MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute surveyed B2B professionals to identify content marketing trends based on insights from the year 2012. Content marketing has become more important recently for SEO purposes due to Google cracking down on black hat and outdated link-building tactics, and it has proven its worth keeping social media engagement high in the form of infographics and podcasts. The study focused on the various tactics B2B marketers employed, methods of content distribution, and the latest overall budgeting decisions made by marketing departments.
Social Media Reigns Supreme
Social media is continuously evolving, and as a result, marketing professionals now have access to a wealth of insightful information on the attitudes of a typical user. Additionally, sites such a Facebook continue to roll out sophisticated features to help advertisers better leverage the viral power of social media. Below is a quick summary on the latest trends and technological updates in the online marketing world.
Facebook Introduces CPA Bidding
Possibly the greatest improvement to the ads manager since the advent of promoted posts, Facebook executives recently announced that they will be rolling out CPA bidding for social marketing advertisers. At the moment, advertisers only have the ability to optimize bids based on a CPC or CPM model. The new CPA bidding will allow PPC advertising professionals to bid based on the following actions: offer claims, Facebook page likes, and clicks/link opens (specific click-throughs to an external page rather than general clicks). Managing CPA programs will allow advertisers to better optimize paid campaigns and control the amount they are willing to spend per on new Facebook page likes.
PPC advertising and social media marketing are two main channels of internet advertising that online marketing professionals use to convert traffic for B2C campaigns. However, the B2B market is a whole different environment with users exhibiting different search behaviours across both channels.
PPC Advertising: Paid Search
An infographic prepared by VerticalMeasures perfectly captures the four pillars of successful social media marketing management for businesses. Incorporating social media marketing can be a difficult task for some small businesses, but it provide enormous potential for brands that want to leverage the viral power of sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
The Foundation of Social Media
1. Customer Service
Twitter and Facebook have been social media sites users have utilized to lodge complaints for quite a while now. Despite the pain this causes businesses, it provides timely resolution and responses for clients, and allows brands to personally connect with users on a regular basis. When preparing customer service guidelines for your social media networks, keep the following expected response rates in mind:
- 80% of Twitter users expect a response within a day
- 50% of Facebook users expect a response within a day.
Developing successful online marketing campaigns can be a difficult endeavor for small & medium sized business working with a limited budget. However, it does not take an extensive understanding marketing theories and the intricacies of the internet marketing world to successfully launch an online business. Below are some helpful tips for new professionals getting their first taste of the e-commerce world.
1. Choose the right online advertising tools
Choosing the wrong online marketing tools can lose you a lot of money.
We previously analyzed the importance of effectively managing your personal social media profiles to better secure your individual reputation online. However, when it comes to securing your company’s brand from attacks, online reputation management becomes even more critical, especially in the realm of social media. Below are some tips to keep in mind to protect your brand when managing ORM campaigns through social media channels.
Consistently monitor your internal social media profiles
Whether it’s providing an ancillary customer service function or removing negative posts regarding your brand, it’s imperative to ensure that you are consistently monitoring all of your company’s social media profiles. In particular, Twitter has become a popular platform for unsatisfied clients to air grievances, which is why having an active account manager or two responding to inquiries/complaints can help your brand better communicate with your audience.
Online reputation management can be used to either protect your personal brand or your corporate images. The first blog in this two post series will deal with managing your individual online reputation. The evolution of social media has made it relatively easy to self-inflict damage to your reputation by posting questionable status and uploading outrageous photos. Below are some tips to better protect your individual brand online.
1. Activate your Privacy Settings
Online reputation management begins with making sure that your social profiles are secure. This is especially important when it comes to Facebook, as people are prone to tag others in photos and check-ins, which might place you in uncomfortable situations. Ensure that you have the ability to approve any photo-tagging before your friends upload images of you from that all-night bender.
Strictly a mobile application, Instagram has dominated headlines recently in the social media realm this year with its $1 Billion buyout from Facebook, the introduction of an Android version of their app, and its announcement that it has reached the 80 million registered user mark. For those of you who don’t know, Instagram is a popular application for users to upload photos, with the main advantage of the app lying in the the various affects you can apply to each photo. Essentially, it gives the average Joe a basic version of the technology regular photographers use on a periodic basis. So how can your company use Instagram to increase awareness for your brand?
The goal of any online enterprise is to make money. However, more often than not, businesses without a strategic online marketing plan will have difficulty generating quality leads. One effective solution for increasing leads is to develop a strategic SEO and content marketing plan of action. According to recent research from MarketingSherpa, Organic Search is by far the most effective online marketing tool for increasing traffic and leads. So how can you better use Internet marketing to increase business from your website?
Setup a Blog and Post Regularly
SEO and content marketing can begin with the setup of a blog (preferably WordPress) to bring in specific leads. Focusing on long-tail keyword phrases that are highly searched in your vertical can help bring in readers actively searching for help or comparing products. ……
Launched a little over a year ago, Google+ has transformed from a niche social media website to a full-fledged networking utility that is becoming an integral component of any brand’s online presence. A recent study indicates that now has over 250 million registered users, including a majority of the world’s top 100 brands. It might be time for your company to exploit the unique capabilities available on this social media site and integrate it into your overall marketing plan.
‘+1′ Your SEO Efforts with Google+
Getting users to +1 your company profile and search results for specific keywords can have a tremendous effect on your Search Engine Optimization efforts. Although not as crucial as building link popularity and creating fresh content, leveraging the +1 feature from this social media platform can increase your brand’s relevancy to associated keywords. For example, a user clicking the +1 button beside a link result for the keyword “computer parts” will send a signal to Google that there is relevancy between that website and the keyword searched. Although one user hitting the +1 button won’t help you jump up 50 spots on search engines, hundreds of users clicking that button will indubitably help you SEO efforts.
By Jonathan Berthold on