by Marelise da Silva | Jul 2, 2018 | Social Media Marketing
Privacy of personal information is affecting virtually every industry and country. The European Union’s GDPR is considered to be the most comprehensive framework to protect the privacy of personal information in history.
Like many other laws surrounding the privacy of personal information, such as the POPI Act in South Africa, the GDPR has been established and set out with the goal to protect the information of consumers so that their privacy is protected and that their personal information isn’t misused for commercial gain.
While different countries have their own privacy laws, companies doing business in the EU or targeting consumers in the EU need to ensure they are processing the personal data of consumers according to the stipulations of the GDPR. The deadline to comply with the GDPR was 25 May 2018.
Personal data refers to any type of information that can be used to identify a person. When considering the type of information you use in your digital marketing campaigns such as name, location, images, contact information, or any other type of identifying data, you need to make sure you are managing, processing and storing the information correctly according to the GDPR. Online identifiers such as browser cookies and IP addresses are also included in identifiable information.
Many businesses targeting customers in the EU will need to improve the security and protection levels of their data. When collecting information from your targeted consumers, you will also need to get explicit consent from them and be very upfront about what their information will be used for.
Do you need help with your digital marketing campaigns or are you worried about how privacy legislation is affecting your internet marketing strategies? Then WSI OMS can help you. Contact us for more information today.
by Francois Muscat | Jul 2, 2018 | Social Media Marketing, Social Networking
Social media marketing is a must-have for any business these days. As a small business owner, you may want to know how you can manage your corporate accounts without becoming a full-time social media slave. Here are a few things that you should do each day to manage your accounts effectively without making social media an all-consuming job:
Check For Mentions
Reply to all comments and questions that are directed at your brand. People expect social media accounts to respond to their customer service queries within a few hours (not days) so this should be something you do at least once a day.
Check for Related Content
Search for your brand name and relevant industry hashtags so that you can join the conversation. This will also keep you in the loop about newsworthy things happening in the market and you can use this information to boost your content marketing strategy.
Schedule Updates
If you’re only spending a few minutes to reply to mentions and check news, then you need to schedule social media updates throughout the day. Tools such as Tweetdeck.com and Hootsuite let you schedule posts in advance so that you don’t have to login and post content multiple times a day or week. Make sure you are posting a variety of unique as well as curated content to keep your followers engaged.
Incorporate Multi-Media
The type of content you post will depend on the social media platforms you are using. Make sure you aren’t only posting written content but that you are also linking to videos, infographics and share-worthy images.
Need help with your social media marketing? Then contact WSI OMS today.
by Francois Muscat | Jun 20, 2018 | Facebook, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization
It’s one thing to have engagement on your Facebook page, but it can be a whole different ballgame to get people to click away from your page and visit your website. Here are a few things that you can do to drive traffic to your website from Facebook:
- Create a post
Sometimes it is helpful to experiment with different types of posts. You may find, for example, that people are more likely to click on your post if you have shared something to Facebook via a link share (as opposed to adding a link within a status update). You can check this data by using a link shortener such as bit.ly that will provide you with link activity information.
Another thing to experiment with is the different times of posting. See how your engagement varies if you post a link early in the day versus later in the afternoon.
- Promote to fans
Once you have created a post, you need to promote your post to people who have liked your page. When you promote your post to fans, you will be able to ensure that around 30% of your fans see the post within their news feeds (as opposed to only 10 – 15% of people).
- Promote to non-fans
You can look into strategically promoting your posts to people who haven’t already liked your Facebook page. To make sure you are targeting relevant people, you can specify precise interests or other relevant information when choosing who should see the post. Custom audiences are also a great way to ensure the right people are seeing your posts. You can create a custom audience of your email subscribers, for example, for this.
Need help with your social media marketing strategy? Then http://www.wsioms.co.za/contact-us contact WSI OMS today.
by Marianna Muscat | Jun 19, 2018 | Social Media Marketing
From day one, brands with strong offline presences looked at social media marketing with critical eyes. They claimed that platforms like Facebook and Twitter offered smoke and mirror results which were both a waste of time and money. A lot of these reactions are based on fear.
Studies show that social media influences offline transactions just as much as online transactions. With so much research and innovation surrounding the emergence of social channels, consumers have adapted to these platforms and that they use these networks in varying ways.
A study from Version Critical showed that 26% of people engage in ‘showrooming’, which is the act of viewing products in stores but buying them online. 41% of consumers, however, do the exact opposite (they browse products online and visit a brick and mortar retail store to buy the product). This is what is called as “reverse showrooming”.
Reverse showrooming shows just how important it is to have your products on social media platforms. People spend so much time behind their desktop computers and browsing on their phones that brands simply can’t rely on in-store activations to reach critical masses.
Not only can social media help you showcase your products, but it can also help you form relationships with your target audience. If you need help with your social media marketing strategy, then http://www.wsioms.co.za/contact-us contact WSI OMS today.
by Francois Muscat | Jun 13, 2018 | Digital Media Marketing, General, Social Media Marketing
Ad frequency refers to the number of times a person sees your ad. This is a data metric that you should keep your eye on because you want to make sure that people aren’t seeing your ad so much that it’s creating ad fatigue.
Facebook ads perform the best when the ad frequency is between 3 and 5 times. So, when someone has seen the ad between 3 and 5 times, it is considered optimal. If a person hasn’t seen the ad at least three times, then they haven’t really seen it enough to take effect (and if they have seen it more than five times, then it is losing its effect and you are also wasting ad money). You can check that you are not exceeding this threshold in the ‘ad frequency’ column of Facebook’s ad manager.
After you have hit the 5 times frequency, there are certain things that you can do. This is when you need to get creative and change up your ad a bit. The change doesn’t have to be huge – you can decide on a simple colour change. The ad basically has to be refreshed because people are becoming blind to it. An ad on Facebook typically hits the 3 – 5 threshold between two to four weeks, so you need to plan how you are going to update your ad. Video ads have a longer shelf life than image ads, so if you are creating videos then you can rest assured that they won’t have to be updated as often as your image ads.
Need help with your Facebook marketing strategy? Then http://www.wsioms.co.za/contact-us contact WSI OMS today.
by Francois Muscat | Jun 11, 2018 | Digital Media Marketing, Facebook, My Insights, Social Media Marketing
About three months ago, Facebook changed its algorithm again and many people want to know what this means for their Facebook Business Page and how it will affect the reach of the content they post on Facebook.
The idea behind Facebook’s algorithm update is to go about removing corporate or public content from their site. When they announced the update, Facebook said that it is shifting the focus of its news feed to promote “meaningful” posts, mostly those shared by family and friends rather than news organisations or brands. Many businesses are rightfully worried because this change in algorithm could spell trouble for the ecosystem of brands that have come to rely on Facebook for revenue.
The truth is that this change isn’t as new as Facebook would want people to believe. Facebook has been removing organic reach from business pages for the past two years, so the reach that you are getting isn’t going to taper off significantly. The new change is mostly directed at news companies such as the New York Times, Buzzfeed and Vox to pay to market their news stories on this platform. Facebook essentially wants to make sure that the news posts that end up in your timeline are shared from your friends and family (in other words, real people) as opposed to news organisations marketing their news into Facebook news feeds.
If you are worried about how social media algorithms may impact your campaigns and social media marketing strategy, partner with the digital experts at WSI OMS. Contact us for more information today.
