by Marianna Muscat | Dec 20, 2019 | Social Media Marketing
Social media plays an integral part in your company’s digital reputation and should, therefore, have priority placement in your digital marketing strategy. If you’re wondering how to dominate the social media sphere starting from next year, here are a few predictions in terms of what to expect.
Instagram Will Remove its ‘likes’ Functionality
We hear you! How will brands measure the impact of a campaign if they cannot see the exact number of how many people liked a post? Not with ease! Brands will have one of two options to ensure that their campaign success is still measurable:
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- Run Instagram ads, or
- Pay an influencer.
Running Instagram ads will probably be a safer option. Instagram seemed to be serious about getting rid of this functionality, claiming that it is for the greater good. In reality, it is a move that will likely see a sizable increase in the platform’s bottom line. However, if this change does come into effect, advertisers are also potentially going to set their sights on making their mark on another platform altogether. The final decision is said to be released early next year.
Social Will Start Affecting Search
There has been much debate over just how much a company’s social media following and reputation affects its SEO rankings. In 2020, it is predicted that social will start having a much more powerful and noticeable effect on search results. This means that brands should start working on improving their social media presence now in order to benefit.
Free Social Media Scheduling Tools
There is talk amongst digital marketing professionals that Google may soon introduce a free social media scheduling tool. If this is indeed true, brands’ social media related expenses are sure to decrease quite substantially, leaving them with more budget for paid advertising.
Looking for assistance with social media marketing? Allow the experts at WSI OMS to lend a hand. Contact us for more information today.
by Francois Muscat | Dec 12, 2019 | Instagram, Social Media Marketing
Instagram – a marketer’s best friend. If you want to expand your reach and to attract a bigger audience online, Instagram is the way for you to go.
However, Instagram requires creativity. So, we’ve listed a few ideas for you to get started on creating unique and engaging video content:
Set a Goal for Your Video
Your short video (of one minute) needs to be compelling. This can be challenging as you don’t want to lose your audience’s attention. You need to decide what goal(s) you want to achieve by posting the video. Are you trying to attract more followers? Do you intend to attract more traffic to your website? Try to be specific with the video’s tone and feel.
Tell Your Brand’s Story
Every business has a story. The best way to attract your consumers’ attention is to create a video that tells a story. Plan your video to ensure that you optimize each second by dividing the content into three different parts:
- The beginning,
- The middle, and
- The end.
Stay focused on your end goal.
Setting the Stage for Your Video
You don’t need a fully equipped set up to create a professional looking video. You can create a masterpiece with your smartphone if you follow a few basic guidelines during filming. The most important aspect to consider is the lighting. Try to find natural light in your space.
Filming Your Video
You need to decide on the type of camera you are going to shoot with. Your smartphone’s camera would be ideal or a DSLR camera. We don’t recommend that you use Instagram’s camera function as it limits your shooting capabilities. Shoot in either portrait or landscape mode with the shot always focused on your subject.
With the many different types of videos around that you can experiment with, you can enhance your Instagram page and create a winning video marketing campaign with these simple steps.
If you have found these four tips useful, and you want more of the same, contact us today for more information on how to enhance your online presence.
by Francois Muscat | Dec 2, 2019 | Social Media Marketing
With 2019 coming to an end, it is time to consider your social media marketing strategy for the upcoming holidays. If you want to stand out from the usual kitsch festive season advertising, here are five different tips and tricks to place you ahead of the game:
Give Your Customers the Head Start
You can start by letting your customers know that you are there to make their holidays better. Reconnect with your existing customers as early as possible – without the hard sell. During the festive season, you can start aggressively advertising by making offers your customers won’t be able to resist.
Give Your Social Media Platforms a Festive Season Makeover
In order to get your customers hyped and excited for the festive season, give your Facebook chatbot (and your other social media avatars) a fun holiday makeover to showcase your customer appreciation. You’d be surprised how engaging such a simple action can be.
Consider Collaborating with a Like-Minded Social Media Influencer
To generate better results (and to potentially boost your sales), reach out to a popular social media influencer who can help you market to a wider audience. Brainstorm one or more fun and creative collaborative campaigns you can execute during the holiday season.
Go Live on Facebook
You can use holiday-themed Facebook Live videos to engage with your audience. Facebook tends to favour content that generates social interaction, particularly conversations between people in the comments on the page’s posts. Gather your team together and come up with ‘out the box’ fun and creative ideas to engage with your customers and to ensure that your brand remains not only at the top of their feeds, but also at the front of their minds.
Create Holiday-Themed Content
Draw up a social media calendar for the weeks leading up to Christmas and New Year. Come up with holiday-themed content based on your brand’s goals for this period. You can look at running a competition or two, creating fun themed surveys for your customers to complete or even posting funny holiday memes. Need some inspiration for your year-end marketing? Contact us today for more information.
by Marelise da Silva | Nov 20, 2019 | LinkedIn, Social Media Marketing
In this blog post, we are going to discuss a few steps for using LinkedIn to find and connect with any business executive or any company that you want to promote your business to.
Connect at the Right Level
The first step to getting the most out of LinkedIn is to use the LinkedIn search functionality. You can search for a specific person, a company or even search by job titles in a location. Keep in mind who it is that’s going to be using your products or services. Instead of going to the very top of the organisation chart and then getting kicked back down, start thinking who at the mid to senior level is going to use your services and start looking up those individuals.
If you have a software as a service product for social media marketers, for example, you are going to look up social media managers, social media directors and perhaps even a VP of social media. If you start going too high up the organisational chart to a chief executive officer, for example, it would probably get harder to connect and engage.
Join Industry Groups
The next tip is to join industry groups. LinkedIn has thousands of groups, not simply based on the industry, but also based on locations. If you’re looking to grow your local professional social network in the city or town where you do business, just run a quick search for that city or town.
If you are in a specific industry and you’re looking to connect with more professionals in your space or in your industry, look up that industry and start joining groups. You can join up to fifty groups. This allows you to, within each of these groups, to post content and engage in discussions. And, more importantly, by being a member of these groups, you now have direct access to send an email or connection request to anyone within the group itself.
Are you interested in social media marketing techniques and strategies to enhance your reputation and help you prospect for new leads? WSI OMS offers a range of digital and social media marketing services that can be customised for your business. Contact us for more information today.
by Francois Muscat | Nov 19, 2019 | Social Media Marketing
It’s no secret that LinkedIn is one of the most important social networks, if not the most important social network for entrepreneurs and sales professionals. The reason for this is the sheer size of LinkedIn’s database, which now boasts over 600 million professional users spread around the world. With so many people on the platform, how do you make connections that put your brand and marketing messages in front of more people?
As anyone who has been doing social marketing for a while will know, it’s all about building relationships. Here are a few ways to start:
Stay on Top of Your Client’s News
Find content related to the company that you’re trying to market to. The easiest way to do this is to set up a Google Alert. If you have a Google Alert set up for that company, you will be notified by email any time that company gets a mention in the news.
Use that Content to Your Advantage
Let’s face it, no one wants to be prospected. They want to be engaged! And, with the keyword in social media being “social”, you should find a way to socialise. The easiest way to do that is to congratulate or acknowledge your prospects based on company news and announcements that are public. This is something that you will be able to do on an ongoing basis thanks to the Google Alerts that you set up.
What you are going to do is go back to your prospect, and in your dialogue with them, mention the news. Here’s an example of a message you will send them:
“Hi Brad, I just saw on Business Insider that your company was named one of the top ten corporations in your industry – congratulations! Hey, by the way, if you have a few minutes, I’d love to hop on a call with you next week to see how business is doing.”
It’s easy to see how the above interaction is different from just approaching someone and trying to market to them.
Focus on the Individual
The next tip is to make your conversations less about the company and more about the individual. Every single person at any company has a professional goal that might not necessarily be tied to the company goal, but it’s their goal and it’s important to them. If you really want to get down and dirty and be an amazing digital marketer, you have to make marketing personable. Really get to know your prospects, find out when they will be going to conferences, whether they are travelling to your city any time soon and how you can get more face time.
Are you interested in digital and social marketing techniques and strategies to enhance your reputation and help you grow your brand online? WSI OMS offers a range of digital and social media marketing services that can be customised for your business. Contact us for more information today.
by Marianna Muscat | Nov 14, 2019 | LinkedIn, Social Media Marketing
Are you slogging away at crafting content that gets minimal engagement? Then these social media marketing tips on how to get more views and better engagement on LinkedIn, are for you.
Get Help from Your Friends
When posting content to LinkedIn, the number of shares you get directly following your post impacts LinkedIn’s algorithm. If people are commenting and sharing within the first few hours, LinkedIn takes notice.
A good social marketing tip would be to reach out to your friends and colleagues before you post an article. Ask them to like it to increase the number of people who will see your content in their news feeds.
Post Directly into LinkedIn
Posting someone else’s article on LinkedIn isn’t the best way to get engagement. This is because the reader then has to click on the article, go read it, go back to LinkedIn, and comment. As you can see, this just adds additional steps for them to engage with you. So, you actually get more engagement if you type your post directly into LinkedIn Publisher.
Tips for Posting
While LinkedIn does give you 1 300 characters, they only show the first three lines of what you’re writing to people. Given this, make sure you have a hook that will compel them to click and see the rest of your post.
Secondly, space out your text instead of having it in one big, thick paragraph. Content that is presented as a wall of text is hard to read and will not engage readers. Use subheads as well as shorter sentences and paragraphs to improve readability.
Thirdly, it’s important to note that posts that perform well generally share a perspective. Whether it’s your opinion, personal experience or an interesting observation, make sure you’re adding something new to the conversation.
Are you interested in digital and social media marketing techniques and strategies to enhance your reputation and help you grow your brand online? WSI OMS offers a range of social and digital marketing services that can be customised for your business. Contact us for more information today.
