by Francois Muscat | Jan 5, 2015 | Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization
As the year draws to a close and millions of companies and employees wind down operations for the festive period, let’s have a look at 2015 social media trends and what to look forward to in the New Year. Many brands have come to understand the impact social media can have on their companies. However there are still many who are dealing with the challenges which accompany this reality.
Some of the challenges these businesses face include:
- Demonstrating an ROI of their social media
- Allocating sufficient human capital and financial resources.
- Reorganising their corporate structures to deal with user-generated content and customer social media participation, to name a few.
Here are a few of the top social media trends that will impact the way you market your company online in 2015:
- Facebook is down, Twitter is up: For many years Facebook has dominated the social media scene, with many viewing Twitter as a distant runner up. However, times are changing, but don’t count Facebook’s 1.18 billion users out just yet. Twitter, is on the brink of becoming a public company which will attract many latent users into becoming active users again.
- Snapchat Marketing: For those not familiar with Snapchat yet, this trendy and smart mobile app sends messages such as short video, photos and text, called snaps, which auto-destructs in a short amount of time. This can be anywhere between one to ten seconds, depending on the app’s settings. As of May 2013, more than 5 million Snapchat users were uploading more than 160 million photos per day.
- Google+: A recent study performed indicated that Google+ now has more than 540 million active users, which puts them, worldwide, just behind Facebook. This social media platform is still evolving and will be the platform to watch in 2015.
If you want to harness the power of social media in your company, contact WSI OMS to learn how social media can take your company into the future.
by Francois Muscat | Dec 23, 2014 | Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization
Google+ is making waves in the social media marketing world and if you have been resisting it, chances are you are missing out on a great digital marketing platform that could boost not just sales, but also your reputation and image as a business or marketer.
If you have been struggling to get going with Google+ and just can’t fathom why you should start now, here are a few good reasons to consider:
- Google+ members receive improved rankings on Google which caters to up to 67% of all search traffic currently.
- Your AdWords campaign will get a boost with social annotations. Any AdWords account linked to your Google+ page will receive a follower count. This is known to ensure a 5% to 10% increase in click-through rates.
- You will have access to a great webinar platform. Google Hangouts, offered as part of Google+, is a great platform to present webinars to interested parties and to easily communicate with clients all over the world.
Three tips for using Google+ effectively to boost your online marketing:
- Incorporate relevant links and keywords on your “about” page. This page is the ideal place to link back to important pages and information on your website and other external sources.
- Ensure you use keywords in your posts and post often. Social search results from Google are more relevant when your social connections are considered. Include keywords in your posts to ensure they show up in your follower’s search results.
- Set up Google Authorship. This is a great way to “own” your content and soon Google and your followers will see you as a reliable source of quality and trustworthy information. This is an effective way to make use of SEO benefits and your image will show up next to content that you post.
Social media marketing by WSI
At WSI we specialise in social media marketing strategies. Not only can we show you how to get your Google+ page working for you, but we can also help you with other available platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and so on. Our social media services include:
- Social media optimisation.
- Online community management.
Contact us at WSI for more information and advice on how we can assist you with social media marketing strategy today.
by Francois Muscat | Dec 3, 2014 | Social Media Optimization
By now, many businesses realise the unlimited potential of social media marketing, but what many people do not realise is how much valuable information social media can provide your business in order for you to make better, more educated business decisions.
Many companies do not track their social media success and instead rely on hunches to guide marketing strategies, but by employing strong web-focused analytics, businesses will be able to draw strategic intelligence from social media data and make more educated marketing decisions based on what they find. This creates a social intelligence and is able to supply information to those who need it in real time.
Why is social intelligence important?
In an age where everything is available online, internet and social media marketing success is all about content. Content marketing can only be handled correctly if a business is able to determine what their audience is discussing, as well as what they are looking for and what they are unhappy with.
When a company uses their social intelligence correctly, they will have the power to identify the players driving social media conversation around their brand and have the ability to target them and turn these players into brand ambassadors. Social data also helps identify product or user problems in real time, giving your business the opportunity to address the issues without damaging your brand reputation.
By correctly analysing and making use of your social data, you will have a marketing edge over your competitors, meeting needs that have yet to be met and finding new sources of revenue. At WSI OMS, we understand the value and importance of social intelligence to your business which is why we offer digital marketing seminars that give you the opportunity to educate your staff and get everyone on the same page in order to drive your marketing strategy forward.
When it comes to digital marketing, WSI OMS has the perfect solutions for your business. Contact us today and find out more.
by Marelise da Silva | Nov 5, 2014 | Social Media Optimization
Anyone involved in business will understand the need for healthy competition. This same rule applies in the world of social media marketing. It is important to understand the weaknesses and strengths of your competitors so that you may improve where things need improvement and alter your course to get a step ahead.
Thanks to modern online advancements, sussing out your competitors is even easier. Conducting a competitive digital marketing analysis could give you the exact tools you need to win the war of the web and let’s face it, in today’s society, that is one of the most important battles to win if you want your business to have a future.
How competition analysis will benefit your business
When we are aware of our competitors, we automatically begin to strive for excellence in our specific field. This means that by keeping a close eye on your competitors, you will be able to see the flaws in your own strategy as well as open yourself up to new opportunities to serve the needs of potential customers that are not being met by your rivals.
Five tips for competition analysis
- Social media- Have a look at the frequency of interactions between them and their clients. Try and determine what the purpose is behind the use of each social media platform.
- Campaign structure- The tone and behavioural patterns of a business campaign can provide useful insight into the way the business is run.
- Unique value proposition- This offers an indication as to what fraction of the market your competition is targeting.
- Use tools- Online tools such as Google Alerts and Talkwalker will enable you to better track new competitors in your market.
- Find common ground- This will enable you to determine where you can get an edge over your competitors.
For comprehensive online analysis tips as well as mobile marketing and Search Engine Optimisation, contact the experts at WSI OMS.
by Francois Muscat | Jun 2, 2014 | Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization
Blogging is one of the best ways to channel online traffic directly to your website. There are many reasons to create a blog for your company, such as:
- An easy way to announce new appointments in your company
- Let your audience know about promotions and specials
- Create keyword-focused content for different niche audiences
- Use it as a platform to announce news within your industry or company
While the benefits and uses of blogs are endless, it’s not always that straightforward to know how to announce new blog posts. If you’ve gone through the effort of setting up a product special, writing an opinion piece or creating an employee profile for your new account manager, you want people to read it. So how do you let people know there’s a new blog post waiting to be read? Here are a few ideas:
Social media
Social media is a great, free way to announce your blog post to all your followers. If you’re using Twitter, create a few different tweets (remember, these can’t be longer than 140 characters) and post a tweet that links to your new blog each day. Use goo.gl to shorten the URL.
With Facebook, you don’t want to irritate your followers with an excessive number of posts. Rather create one or two Facebook posts about your blog. The same goes for your Google Plus and your LinkedIn profiles. Twitter updates are read in chronological order, so it’s easy to miss something that was posted a few hours ago (especially if you follow a lot of people on Twitter), which is why you can create more updates without appearing to be too over-eager on Twitter.
E-mail lists
If you have an e-mail database, you can create different lists and send a link to your new blog post to relevant audiences. Just remember to include an introduction (to tell the reader what the blog post is about, as opposed to sending a blank e-mail with a hyperlink) and only send e-mails about new blog posts to people who would truly be interested, or else it will just be spam.
Need help with your social media or content marketing strategy? We can help. Contact us to find out more today.
by Francois Muscat | May 26, 2014 | Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization, Statistics
Whether you’re rolling into the club or strolling down the street, you can always measure your presence by the number of eyes that glance in your direction. But how is your presence, your ‘influence,’ measured online? When you’re online, your words are your outfit. How do you calculate your influence? How do you determine your impact? Your impact is your online reputation. What do you do when ‘influence’ is the currency?
Discovering your influence
Quora is a topic-based Q&A website. Users interactively collaborate by editing questions and suggesting edits to users’ answers. Being ‘followed’ is being ‘influential’. ‘Following’ identifies your ‘influence’. PeerIndex calculates the ultimate impact of your interactive activity online. The ‘Influence Graph’ is the medium through which your contents success is tracked and displayed. This market-leading influence intelligence gains you actionable insight and enhanced understanding into your social media community, highlighting the individuals and content which spark influence. PeerIndex delivers accurate, informative and consistent measurements of influence. This can turn social capital into real capital.
The steps are quick and simple. Log into PeerIndex and sign in with your twitter account. Add your Quora profile into PeerIndex by copying your Quora profile URL and simply paste it into your ‘Activated profiles’ in your PeerIndex. Then ‘Save’.
This automatically, accurately and consistently incorporates your influence on Quora into your Influence Graph on PeerIndex. For more information, contact WSI OMS.
