by Francois Muscat | Mar 23, 2016 | Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization, Twitter
Twitter is where hundreds of millions of people go to find out what’s going on in the world. Twitter ads are designed to help you reach and connect with this audience, to get results that add significant value to your business, 140 characters at a time.
Using Twitter ads is an effective way to grow followers. Creating a Twitter campaign will help to build an engaged and connected audience. Most Twitter users (85%) say they feel more connected to small and medium-sized businesses after following them and are more likely to buy from their websites.
To start your campaign, you need to select your advertising tools. A Promoted Account will appear in areas such as “Who to Follow” and Home timelines to help you reach as many people as possible.
Next, create your content, including a clear profile picture, a straightforward Twitter handle and a profile bio that explains a bit about yourself and what you offer. Keep the focus on your business, so don’t use too many hashtags and usernames.
Define your audience by their interests, geography and language, gender, similar followers or tailored audiences.
Set your budget – Promoted ads are priced on a cost-per-follow basis, meaning you’ll only pay when someone clicks on your ad placement. You can set a daily and total budget for your campaign, with the campaign ending once your budget has been met. You’ll never be charged for more than you pay. Engaging with your followers with tweets and content is always free, even if they were initially gained through a Promoted Account.
The Twitter real-time analytics can provide you with data-driven insights that you can use to grow your business. You can get a comprehensive view of all your tweets, paid and unpaid.
The beauty of twitter Ads is its user-friendliness. You can stop or start whenever you want, measure results in real time and control your spend. You will quickly grow a community of high value followers.
For more on social media marketing and digital marketing, contact us. We can create a campaign to suit your business goals, from finding the most relevant industry information for your brand to tweet, to finding the posts you should be commenting on.
by Francois Muscat | Mar 16, 2016 | Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization
In the age of relationship-based marketing, social selling isn’t going anywhere. You may have dabbled a bit, or even worked out a strategy for your social selling, but the chances are, you need to step up your game. Social selling allows for a level of service and personality not available before with cold calling, with communications being tailored to individuals’ needs, interests and industries. Here are a few ways that your business can get ahead with social selling.
Listen to your customers – make a point of responding to comments, complaints or questions from your customers. Tag them in your posts and watch which hashtags they’re using. Keep an eye out for what’s trending. Understanding more about your customers, or potential ones, will give you more of an inside edge.
Research your personas – in order to offer personal and tailored communication, know your users. Find out what their grievances are, what their pain points are and arm yourself with the information you need to solve their problems. Follow their tweets and posts, retweet them; know exactly what is going on with your competitors and their clients.
Open up lines of communication – pose questions to your customers, share content that might be of interest; update your LinkedIn profile with articles, graphics, statistics and videos; blog at least once a week.
Use existing networks and connections – by increasing the size of your network with past and current co-workers, you increase the base from which to draw referrals.
Use top social listening tools, to bring relevant conversation to you, instead of spending many hours looking for the right groups and right conversations. Using keyword tracking and key phrase mentions across social platforms and the web, will show you the people in need of your services.
Keep tabs on your competitor’s social accounts – if you see customers venting their frustrations or complaining, that’s an opportunity right there. Add these people to your social streams and Twitter lists.
Become a content expert – developing a large amount of quality content can help you connect quickly and easily. You can share relevant and seemingly personalised content when it’s needed, which should pave the way for a sale. Posting your quality content through social media platforms or blogs will draw potential sales to you.
For more on social selling and how it can benefit your marketing efforts, contact us. Partnering with us will enable you to stay in touch with your client base, create online communities and sell more products online. We’ll make sure you engage with the right people to drive your media strategy forward.
by Francois Muscat | Mar 7, 2016 | Social Media Optimization, Social Selling
In today’s technologically-driven world, social media has long been a major player in communication technologies advancements, with platforms such as Facebook and Twitter gaining unprecedented social momentum. Given the sheer volume of interaction taking place on such platforms, businesses simply cannot afford to miss out. Bearing this in mind, businesses around the globe have taken to social selling, where the aim is to foster meaningful online engagement tailored to each unique business.
Why should my business use social media marketing?
- Social media platforms allow businesses the opportunity to connect with customers in a significant and sincere way through the use of a sound social media marketing strategy. The heyday of expensive television advertising and flashy billboards is coming to an end, with consumers becoming increasingly distrustful of noisy advertising. Rather, it is key to connect with customers in a space where genuine, two-way conversations are possible.
- Real-time interaction enables conversations. Social media is all about talking to one another on a global scale and, from an online advertising perspective, implies that brand conversations can take place without a lag in communication. Rather, they are immediate, where feedback is instantaneous.
- Social selling is non-invasive and welcomed by customers, which contrasts decidedly from cold calling, which can often be disruptive for the consumer.
- A reliable online presence through the employment of social media tools implies that businesses can constantly manage their reputation, ensuring that the right message is being communicated at all times.
As experts in the digital world, WSI OMS offers an extensive array of digital marketing services, where our aim is to provide value, remain cutting-edge and offer measurable results. For more information on our range of services, contact WSI OMS today.
by Francois Muscat | Feb 17, 2016 | Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization, Twitter
Twitter is a powerful tool when it comes to marketing your blog and getting more traffic for your content. There is still confusion about Twitter – why be limited to 140 characters, on a web that allows thousands of words and extensive multi-media? Misunderstood or not, Twitter has become a bite size multi-media stream and ecosystem, recognised as a brand facilitator, traffic driver and viral powerhouse.
With so much already on Twitter, covering every subject known to man, you might find the prospect of using Twitter quite daunting, but it’s not as difficult as it seems. There are a number of tactics and tools to use to bring your tweets up to speed and getting the attention they deserve. Try a few of these and see if it makes a tangible difference to your volumes of followers.
- Use more visual content
Studies show that tweets with image links get two times the engagement rate of those without. Vibrant images help your tweets stand out in text-dominated streams.
- Use your tweets as teasers, not explanations
Don’t give too much away about the content in your tweet, or your readers won’t click on the link to read more. One way to tease an audience is to pose a question, which of course, you answer in the content.
- Repeat your tweets
Often tweets are missed by your followers, so sharing the same content more than once is a good idea. Use different headlines, images or quotes that link to the same article.
- Pimp your bio
Use your Twitter profile bio to link to your latest blog or article, rather than your website or blog home page.
- Use your Twitter community for ideas for new blogs
Poll your followers by asking for issues; show an interest in other people’s challenges. When you get enough answers to identify a trend, you can use that as basis for your next blog.
- Write great headlines
You have to grab the attention of your readers at the first glance. Use a promise (How to…), curiosity, controversy, intrigue. There’s an art to getting that all into 140 characters, but one worth practising.
- Use hashtags
Tweets with hashtags receive twice the amount of engagement than ones without. Use hashtags that relate to the subject of your blog posts, so you’ll show up in searches. Don’t use more than three per tweet.
- Use quotes or stats from industry leaders
People love thought-provoking quotes, so use ones from thought leaders, experts or recognised voices in your niche. Interesting statistics and figures are also eye-catching in the text heavy stream.
- Buy the right audience
If your following is not yet large, you might want to consider paying to increase the visibility of your tweets. Promoting your tweets allows you to target the right demographic.
- Tweet often
Unlike Facebook or email, posting regular tweets is advisable – one study revealed that tweeting every 15 minutes instead of 30 led to increased traffic by 31% and engagement up by 89%!
For more on social media sharing, contact us – we’d love to hear your thoughts on the trends of digital communication.
by Francois Muscat | Feb 3, 2016 | Community Management, Social Media Optimization
Establishing your own online community is a great way to start conversations with like-minded people or people who wish to come together to share information, comment on discussions, give advice or collaborate on projects. Having common ground is a great way to promote yourself or your services, to others who want to hear what you have to say.
Communities can take all forms – from LinkedIn groups to Facebook groups, there’s an online community covering just about everything. So, if there are already so many communities, why start one of your own? There are a number of reasons, an obvious one being that as manager of the group, you get to set the tone and pick the conversation. It helps you to build stronger connections with your customers or followers and can be a good way to give back – questions can be directed to a group instead of an individual, sharing information. And most importantly, communities can be a great way to generate leads.
Setting up a community doesn’t take long, but running it successfully is quite a commitment. To be successful, you need to contribute regularly (daily, if possible); set up guidelines and stick to them; reply to questions promptly; and listen – encourage conversations, take criticism, show you care.
The guidelines for your group should be clearly stated and easy to identify. These are essentially rules and should cover how to use the group; who can post what, when; when people are allowed to self-promote; and what kinds of comments or posts will get them kicked out of the group.
It’s a good idea to post a mix of information, like quotes, memes, tips and advice, other people’s blogs, success stories, video clips or personal experiences. Using an online community to blatantly self-promote is not a good idea, you’ll quickly lose your followers. It’s more positive to turn leads into conversions gradually and subtly.
To make your community stand out from the rest, you need to give it a personality. Once you’ve decided on your tone, stick with it – you may alienate some followers, but a core group will most likely become very loyal. It’s not a good idea to use your platform to whine or pontificate; being prepared to learn as much as you can from your community is the point here.
Don’t delete negative comments outright – rather use the opportunity to get feedback on your business or product and tackle it head-on. Online communities can be extremely valuable, often connecting business partners for life. You’ll learn more about your customers than you thought possible, as well as getting great ideas.
To find out more about digital and social media marketing, contact us – we’d love to chat.
by Francois Muscat | Jan 27, 2016 | Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization
If you are social media marketing professional you are in an upbeat mode, considering the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) says there are 3.2 billion Internet users today. Over 87% of these users are on social media, which makes it easier for you to target more customers online. These numbers are projected to grow by 17% all the way to 2017.
While things are looking up for the industry, you need to consider other pertinent issues touching on digital marketing. To get a glimpse on what the industry requires from you, take a look at some of these germane issues:
- FTC rules come knocking: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is getting overly concerned over the relationship between marketers’ content and the client. It is time to stay on the right path in case you bump into these stringent gatekeepers.
- Matching advanced Facebook tactics: New formats are rolling out on social media and as a marketer you need to keep up for your strategy to work online.
- Beating the social media superstars: Getting Taylor Swift off the perch on YouTube to get your content noticed is nigh impossible, but with a solid social media marketing strategy you can chip on these superstars’ popularity leveraging other platforms such as Facebook, Vine and Snapchat.
- Real-time marketing: This is the time to turn culturally relevant moments into money makers through real-time marketing.
- Keeping up with new Ad tools: Stop getting comfortable with your marketing prowess on Facebook and Twitter and consider other emerging platforms including Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr.
- Untangling the Facebook Newsfeed puzzle: Nobody has yet gotten the trick but however frustrated you are, you need to keep trying considering the impact this platform has. One day your content will be on the newsfeed and this will feel like nirvana.
- New Twitter Ad products: Twitter is part of the future of marketing due to its real-time marketing capability. It is time to get insights on what the company has to offer social media marketers.
- Making social work for you: With an increase in the number of social media users, social media marketing can only go one way – up. This is where you come in in order to capitalise on numbers and make them work for you.
- Knowing the social media analytical tools: Can you prove your ROI through social media? Most likely this is a reason for disagreements with clients, yet you are not alone. It is time to get down and understand the tools that can really show what you have achieved. The great thing is, there some good tools for just that out there.
There are many other factors to consider. You need to maximise social mark-up, integrate real-time video in marketing, embrace Snapchat and Instagram as an invaluable platform, integrating social media with other channels, creating fresh social content and of course coming up with a strategy to work all this out.
Get in touch with us today for more details.
