Category: Social Media

What Should You Do to Take the Lead in Social Media Marketing?

It has turned out into a habit for many to fall asleep on Facebook and wake up on Twitter, and it is one of my habits too. While some use Social Media as a hobby, others tend to make money through it. But in the process of marketing, how far do the Sri Lankan brands do Social Media marketing?

Three reasons made me write this post. Firstly, it is the Social Bakers’ statistics about the leading social media profiles and pages. According to that statistics, I noticed that it is mostly Sri Lankan entertaining sites like Hiru TV and celebrity profiles that are being followed by most of the Lankans, and the local brands don’t top on that overall list. To know further, I checked into the overall profile reach, and I found out that there are brands like Coca-Cola in the top ten. “So why couldn’t the local commercial sites get more fans than the local entertaining sites in social media?” was the only mind voice of mine.

Secondly, while writing about Digital Marketing in my last post, I happen to notice that most of the local marketers think Social Media Marketing is digital marketing, while it is not. And what Sri Lankans think of social network marketing is posting something about their product on famous social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter and boosting them would attract more users.

Thirdly, in my last post, a user commented on what he felt about social media marketing. The one who commented said that some of these pop-up adverts on social media are more annoying than helping us pick the product or even to check the website about the product. The result of all these reasons is the post.

If new to social media marketing, know why you should do it.

With an internet penetration rate of 29.3% in Sri Lanka, the per cent of active social media users has reached 14% of the population. With the entry of smartphones, most of them use social network platforms on mobile. An overall view suggests that the most frequently used social media platforms, especially on mobile by the locals, are Facebook (94.17%), Twitter(2.62%), Pinterest(0.67%), Google Plus, YouTube, Tumblr, and LinkedIn. This usage rate is the reason for one to make use of social media effectively if he/she is into promoting products and services.

Unlike the traditional marketing methods, this social media marketing allows the marketers to interact with the target audience. Through this relationship, a marketer can analyze the preferences of the users and change his way of marketing according to those wish lists of overall consumers. Plus, it is the portal to get a direct and quick response from the customers, and for the customers to know about products.

Guess what? Social media marketing improvises the brand’s loyalty because of the crowd one has on such platforms. Such loyalty is build up through the brand’s engagement with its audience on the platform they use.

One might have a website, but the traffic the site gets is limited. This social networking is a portal to attract more diverse users to the site one owns. The more one is active on social media, the more the page or profile attract the audience.

Another plus is that the platform, Social Media, is free. Let it be Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, every platform is open. But, social media marketing tools are not free. There is little cost when using such tools, yet the tools are cheaper when compared to the marketing trends used earlier.

Are you unsure where you fail?

The Biggest Mistakes We See Companies make when they first hit Twitter is to think about it as a channel to push out information.

– Tim O’Rellly & Sarah Milstein

Most of the marketers kicked off into this social media marketing because they thought it is a cool thing to do, and they entered the virtual world with no objectives. This irresponsibility, I would say, has led them nowhere actually. The reality is that having a thousand followers isn’t the only thing about social media marketing because one cannot make money out of it. What one as a marketer has to do on Social networking platform is entirely different. After an analysis of where marketers fail, let’s look into how one could overcome such failures as well.

How often do you update your pages?
Most of the local companies have created a Facebook page, Brand’s Twitter and Instagram, but how often do you update your account? While the media sites and celebrities of Sri Lanka frequently update their page to make fans stick with them, brands fail. Regular updates are quite important to show off the followers that the page is still active and worth following.
About what do you post?
From a user point of view, local marketers seem to focus on posting only about what they sell. But when a new follower check into their social media page, how would he/she feel when he/she sees that everything shared are links to the site? Pretty boring right?
As a marketer, do you monitor your social media sites?
Like the first reason mentioned here as a failure, most of us don’t take social media severe enough to follow it closely. We fail to hit hard with the fact that social media is one of the leading platforms to “catch” audience and customers if used in the right way.
Are you on the right platform?
Everyone wants to have an account on popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. But, think. What if your site is not relevant to be on either of those stages, but on stages like LinkedIn and Instagram? Creating a profile on all the social media platform can be stressful when thinking of maintaining them all.
Unsure of when and to which post “boost” option should be used.
The boost option is to attract new followers. Where our marketers make a mistake is, not choosing the right audience, and not thinking of the alternates like “promoting a post.” But what most of the marketers sometimes do is, boost almost every post they publish which would cost them more than they have allocated.

A few handy suggestions to overcome failures

Publish great content — content that teaches people something, entertains them, makes them think or, in some other way, adds value to their lives.

– Brian Boland

Keep the profile updated.
It is very much important to stay active on your page (even more than you are on your profile, maybe). Even if there are days when you couldn’t be updated, maintain a regularity or make use of “scheduled posts.”
Publish random posts.
Don’t stop with publishing about your product; share something you found interesting from other profiles. If you are on Twitter, retweet some tweets from your followers, and let it be something interesting (and that may or may not have to do anything with your product.)
Keep an eye on your social media sites.
There are tools like Buffer that would not only help you analyze your social media reach, but would also assist you with scheduling your posts for a different social media platform.
Choose the right social media platform.
Marketing is not seeking publicity. It is promoting your brand and product to potential clients. Therefore there is no need for you to choose the popular social media platform, but the right one. Know your audience, and know about the platforms available to stick with your followers.
Know your content and choose.
Boosting a post is an option that could be worth enough if you know to handle it. Maybe it is time to stop boosting almost all the post you have shared, and to choose the right one. If you are someone who had made the above-said mistake, start with your “EverGreen posts.” Keep in mind that the “boost” option is to attract new followers, so when boosting let it be a better post. And, do not choose the boost option to make a post reach your “target audience.” Either you could you “promote your post” option for such activities.

Tips and Trick to make the lead in it

Use hashtags.
If you are still trying to attract “like-minded” clients, use Hashtags (#) in your posts. Not all the platforms are going to allow you to use hashtags, yet popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram do allow you. Hashtags allow you to engage as a community.
Maintain a community.
Always remember the primary goal of being on social media: to create a network. Just by posting links from your website, or about your product wouldn’t help you. Talk to your audience, and listen to their thoughts. Create a poll, or make them review your product. Use your creative team to make users get engaged with your social media accounts.
Do some “re-marketing.”
There are always some posts that would bring a new audience, maybe because it turned “trendy” recently. Such posts can be re-marketed with relevant hashtags of the “trending” subject.
Use images, videos, and GIFS.
These are known as visual content marketing. I happen to see most of our local marketers using their Television ad promos as Video sharing on Facebook and Twitter. People who watch your ad on TV and Facebook can quickly get bored of seeing the same promotion. Try to do some new uploads. And make sure that your uploads convey your message as well as has a CTA.

Write according to the platform
It is general to post contents on social media, but some platforms are good enough for longer posts while some are not. For example, Twitter doesn’t allow more than 140 characters, so your contents should be catchy and short. While Google plus encourages long timeline conversations more when compared to Facebook. Know your social media platform very well and change your content according to that.
Marketing plan
If you are a starter in doing marketing in social media, make sure you have a plan. Have a SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound) framework when planning your social media marketing.

As a follower of some local brands, I happened to notice how such brands handle their social media. I have covered only a few, yet essential suggestion to the local marketers. If you are a consumer, let us know how you feel about social media marketing and advertising. And if you are a marketer, feel free to share your thoughts on handling social media. Let your thoughts flow in the comment box below.

Adieu.

20 DecSocial Media

15 Interesting Facts About Facebook You Need to Know

Facebook has attained the coveted dominant position that makes it the most popular and indispensable part of not only our social networking but also our business. It has become a rage since its inception in 2004. Nowadays, if you are not on Facebook, you are probably non-existent in the virtual world.

” 654 million people use Facebook on mobile on a daily basis, an increase from 609 million last quarter. “

If you are using this social media giant for your business, here are some interesting Facebook facts that will help you know and use it in a far better way. Facebook did have a humble beginning, and its dramatic rise is not without some downsides. There are facts that state Facebook’s negative effect on its users. However, the compelling effect of Facebook on social networking is more powerful than its flipside making it the first choice to socialize as well as market one’s business online.

#1. Are you aware of the Huge User Base of Facebook?

Facebook now has close to 350 million active users, with approximately 35 of these updating their status every day. 63% of users log on to Facebook daily. A majority of this access the network from their smartphones.

Statistics reveal that users log in close to 14 times during a day from their mobiles. On average, a user has 130 friends and sends 8 friend requests every month. Statistics reveal that there is approximately a 3.74 degree of separation between any two Facebook users.

Every minute around 2.5 million photos are being uploaded onto Facebook and close to 4.5 billion ‘likes’ are being generated on a daily basis as of May 2013, equating to 1.8 million ‘likes’ every minute. Every second five new profiles are being created on Facebook.

#2. Are There Fake Accounts? Yes, at least 83 Million Fake Accounts

Yes, there are facebook fake accounts. About 8.7% of users on Facebook are fake profiles and the total of fake profiles reaches 83 million. Surprisingly, there are even accounts of dead people, accounting for close to 30 million! Also, do you know that approximately 600,000 attempts to hack Facebook accounts are made every day?

#3. What Is The Best Time To Reach An Extended Audience?

The maximum traffic on Facebook happens around 1 pm to 3 pm midweek, with Thursdays and Fridays having 18% higher engagements compared to other days of the week. Also, the common age group is from 25 to 34 years, making up 29.7% of the overall users. Gender-wise, Facebook is equally popular and frequented by both genders, with 53% users being females and 47% being males. 50% of youngsters of the age bracket 18 to 24 years usually log on to Facebook first thing after waking up. Women aged 55 years and older are currently the fastest-growing demographics of Facebook users in the US. You can use these facts to focus on more aggressive marketing strategies during these peak traffic hours and for specific demographics too.

#4. Want More Data to Judge Facebook’s Growing Popularity?

If the above facts and figures are not enough proof of Facebook’s ever-growing popularity, then the following ones should seal the deal.

- There are more Facebook users in the US compared to the number of citizens who voted in the last US elections.
- In Australia, a court notice can be served to defendants on Facebook, and summons posted on Facebook are considered legally binding.

All these figures point to the fact that Facebook has become an inevitable part of our everyday lives and cannot be ignored by businesses trying to establish a footing in the now popular social media domain. Hence we can indeed make a good profit if we can use this site effectively!

#5. Is Facebook A Boon for Businesses? How Can You Make Profit Using It?

Doing business on Facebook has never been so lucrative. There are about 1.35 million active Facebook users worldwide of which 864 million users logging in daily, thus indicating an increase of 14% over the last year. In Europe alone there are 223 million people who have accounts on Facebook. Interestingly, if Facebook was a country, it would be the fifth-largest, after China, India, the US, and Indonesia. All these figures establish the fact that there is a large active target audience on Facebook. And most of this audience is a consistent audience to various marketing efforts of marketers. Also, as Facebook has a worldwide reach you can catch the attention of not just the US, but reach out globally.

#6. How Facebook Helps Marketer? Can It Be Termed As A Marketing Heaven?

There are close to 30 million businesses that have a Facebook Page. Close to 1.5 million businesses are now paying for advertising on Facebook. Most of these businesses are paying 122% more per ad unit than they did last year. The sales are impressive – if last quarter’s figures are considered – users purchased goods worth $234 million dollars! Close to 42% of marketers suggest that Facebook is vital and indispensable to their business. However, to make the best use of this site and get maximum profit, you need to market your business in a positive manner and stand out among your competitors. As of May 2013, almost 16 million pages of local businesses have been created as compared to 8 million created in June 2012, indicating a 100% increase. These figures are proof that companies are acknowledging the fact that Facebook users comprise a major chunk of their clients and are thus willing to advertise, as well as create interesting pages to be seen.

#7. Making Use of Facebook’s Tracking Data in Reaching out to Your Audience

Facebook keeps a track of the sites we visited even after we have logged out. This tracking assists businesses to indulge in intelligent marketing, but only when they get access to the information. Pages will display advertisements in accordance with the type of pages or sites visited by individual users, and thus will help you reaching the interested audience faster.

#8. Facebook is a Platform to Know and Understand People

Facebook has now become a sort of people search engine and is often used to know people, their likes and dislikes, opinions, etc. Data reveals that people search one billion times in a day on Facebook. This has made Facebook the overall second-ranked site in the US, after Google. A survey of 500 colleges revealed that Facebook accounts were visited by 10% of admission officers to evaluate the applicants seeking admissions. About 38% of these officers acknowledged that what they saw on Facebook affected the applicant’s admission negatively. Even job seekers and prospective marriage suitors are evaluated on Facebook. The police department as well as citizens are resorting to Facebook to nab suspected criminals.

#9. Facebook’s Role in Helping Businesses to Grow

Facebook and social media craze has also given rise to different types of professionals. There are a lot of consultants who guide businesses on how to tap the market on Facebook, how to launch campaigns on social media networks, and how to advertise. Also, programmers and developers are benefiting from this rage. The number of developers building applications for Facebook is close to 800,000.

#10. History of Facebook: The Beginning

Are you aware that Facebook had humble beginnings? Mark Zuckerberg, its founder, created Facemash in 2003, where photos of undergraduates were placed beside each other, and visitors to the site could rank which student they found “hotter”. Facemash eventually turned into the now universally known Facebook in 2005. In the beginning, Facebook was like a directory of sorts linking all students, faculty alumni, and staff at various colleges and universities through social networks. Initially, Facebook was limited to only Harvard university students but later on added other colleges and universities. Within 6 months of its launch, Facebook had around 200 colleges registered as users. Mark Zuckerberg went on to become the youngest billionaire at the age of 25 with a net worth of $1.5 million. As an aside, if you ever wondered why Facebook is blue, it is because its founder Mark Zuckerberg suffers from color blindness and cannot distinguish between red and green. Another intriguing piece of historical information was that twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss had hired Mark Zuckerberg to program their site ConnectU or Harvard Connect but claimed that he stole their idea. There was a lawsuit that was settled for an undisclosed amount. Mark Zuckerberg’s fellow students such as Aaron Greenspan also made similar claims of having invented Facebook.

#11. The Facebook to Facebook and Its Role in Ads

By the way, do you know that Facebook was first called Facebook (thefacebook.com)? Right from the beginning, Facebook or Facebook had its media plan chalked out. Eduardo Saverin, Facebook’s CFO, back in 2004, approached advertisers to run standard IAB ads emphasizing the personal data they could access and target audiences by their universities, political inclination, or even dorms or their sexual orientation. Even though at its nascent stage, Eduardo Saverin quoted $80,000 for advertising through Facebook.

Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, was the first person to invest in Facebook in June 2004 and invested $500,000 dollars. Li Hu Shing, East Asia’s richest man, invested in 2005 in Facebook around $120 million dollars. Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian investment firm, in May 2009, invested $200 million for a 1.96% stake in the Facebook website. By September 2009, Facebook was making a profit, with Mark Zuckerberg announcing that for the first time Facebook had a positive cash flow and made more money than it spent.

#12. The Facebook-Myspace Affair

In 2005, MySpace, another popular social network site, sent an offer to buy Facebook but when Mark Zuckerberg quoted a price of US $75 million they rejected the offer thinking it to be too expensive. The tables have turned since then and Facebook not only outnumbered the traffic on MySpace but also American users spend 13.9 billion minutes on Facebook in a year compared to 5 billion minutes on MySpace. Facebook spends approximately US $30 million in a month to just host the site and loses about US $25,000 every minute when the site is down.

One of Facebook’s many quirky facets is that the language can be changed to ‘pirate’ too. Another interesting Facebook fact is that the “like’ button was originally going to be called ‘Awesome’. In 2009, the New Oxford Dictionary declared “unfriend” to be the word of the year and defined it as “to remove someone as a friend on a social networking site”.Even though Facebook boasts of being a gold mine for investors and advertisers, it has had negative impacts on users too.

#13. What are the Negative Effects of Facebook?

However, this social networking giant has its negative too. It has led to many negative consequences. For example, people have been murdered after they ‘unfriended’ someone on Facebook. Cases of depression too, with 1 in 3 users feeling low and unsatisfied with their lives post visiting Facebook were in the news. Girls have been predisposed to depression and anxiety by chatting too much with their Facebook friends. Frequently talking about the same problems is called ‘co-rumination and can lead to a serious obsession, which is not healthy. Of the divorces filed in the US in 2011, around a third of them had the word Facebook mentioned.

Facebook has become such an addiction that a man hired a woman to slap him every time he logged onto Facebook. Another bizarre incident is that of a woman in Britain who created fake profiles and sent abusive messages to herself. She was sent to jail for 20 months. In England and Wales, the head of the Catholic Church warned patrons that children could be vulnerable to committing suicide because of Facebook and MySpace, as these sites barbarize community life and encourage fleeting relationships among teens. Facebook also has eating disorder groups named “Get thin or die trying” and “What nourishes me destroys me”, which encourage starving, and since the majority of users are teenagers and young adults such groups influence them negatively.

#14. Are You Aware Of Issues Like Banning and Misuse?

Since 2009, Facebook along with Twitter and The New York Times have been blocked in China due to its negative influence. The site has also been banned by Syria, Iran, and Vietnam.

The sharing of information, including personal details, on Facebook has been a bane, too. This information has been used without permission by various miscreants. The director of public policy of Facebook, Tim Sparapani, complained that millions of users shared information online without stopping to think about the consequences. Facebook itself is to be blamed for this at some point, as the information assumed to be public (like profile name, display pictures, cities) is available to any Facebook user or to their friends who use any Facebook application. Also in 2009, Facebook’s controversial advertisement system, Beacon that gave out user’s shopping activity information to other sites, was part of a lawsuit. The settlement resulted in Facebook paying $9.5 million towards a settlement fund.

There are also several absurd cases where Facebook has been misused. Lauren Michaels, a 23-year-old woman, in 2008, created a group on Facebook titled “I need sex” and slept with about 50 of the 100-plus members. Since then her page has been removed. An EMT in 2009 took a picture of at the crime scene of a dead New York woman who had been beaten and strangled to death and posted the picture on Facebook. He later faced arrest on charges of official misconduct and was removed from his job. Such facts and cases warn us to use Facebook wisely. It is not its popularity, but the consequences of this popularity that are rather frightening.

#15. Facebook becomes one of the most powerful Marketing Platform

If you evaluate properly the ratio of active users of Facebook to any other social media, you can notice the big difference! Here are some tips that can help you to better market your business on Facebook:

- Try to find out if you are marketing at the right time- that is during peak hours!
- You are targeting the right demographic
- You are consistent in engaging people and keeping them updated about your business

We are sure you will get better results following the above simple tips. We would appreciate your next query on better marketing on Facebook to get the maximum profit!

22 SepSocial Media

Advanced Social Media Strategies for Offline Businesses

In our contemporary world of today, most entrepreneurs use social media to enhance their businesses in several ways. This is because of the several benefits such businesses will derive from social media platforms. However, let us define the key phrases in our title.

Social media:

This is an online platform for social interactions among friends and contacts that afford you the opportunities to create and share information and ideas in virtual communities. From this definition, we can deduce that the social media platform has a pool full of people or contacts; has a pool full of information or ideas and opportunities to create and share with others whatever is of interest that you wish to share.

Offline business:

This refers to businesses that are done in the physical, where buyers and sellers meet one on one to interact and agree on terms for the transaction. Offline businesses require physical infrastructures like offices, factories, electronic and print media for the advert, and a lot of human resources for efficient service delivery. In the offline business platform, customers see whatever they want to buy physically; advertisements are done on Televisions, Radios, Magazines, and Newspapers and on Bill Boards; payments are made either with cheques or in cash, and sellers and customers meet physical, discuss and agree on terms of the transaction.

At this junction, it is important to highlight some of the benefits your business can enjoy from social media platforms. These will help you know the best strategies for your business as an entrepreneur. Social media afford you the opportunity to introduce your new products and brand to targeted contacts who in turn can become your potential customers. Whichever social media platforms you belong to, you can build and grow your contacts base to become your targeted clients or customers.

You can advertise existing products and services on some social media platforms. This could be either in your timeline or fan page etc. Some social media have spaces for paid advertisements with a wider audience than your contacts, fan page members, or group members. Thus, you can take advantage of this to promote your offline business. Building your brand or business image and keeping it fresh in the minds of people is very important in enhancing your business. Social media are sites that millions of people visit daily. You can therefore seize the opportunities to build and constantly keep your brand image in the minds of millions of people when you constantly post and advertise on social media.

Cracking Social Media Platform

Social media is a real-time interaction platform. This means you can always interact with your clients or customers at regular intervals. This will help your brand or business have a human face and you will readily know the opinions and views of your clients. People want to be able to ask questions, express their minds and get quick responses, social media gives you this chance to interact with your potential customers. Several social media have platforms for groups of like minds. People or businesses that are in the same fields or offer the same services can meet and share interests, ideas, challenges, etc. The interactions between group members help them to know each other and find ways of promoting their businesses. Social media help in positioning the entrepreneur as an expert consultant. People who need the services can easily contact you for offline transactions. Thus helping you build a loyal brand or business customer base.

So much for the benefits, let us shift our attention to the strategies for enhancing your offline business with social media. You must understand that social media is far more than content and conversations. It is a platform where you have thousands of contacts, fans or followers ready to be converted to clients or customers. There are several methods one can use to convert social media contacts to customers and derive great benefits for your offline business.

Three Myths About Social Media Strategies

The first strategy is to have a special offer for your online contacts who visit your business place personally. The offer should be posted online with a code to identify them when they appear physically. The special offer must be very attractive and could be in form of a discount, reward, or something that is worth an online contact coming physically to patronize your business.

Also, you can always post in your social media blog descriptive articles, images, comments, and content that draw attention to you or your business. This will make your contacts, fans, and followers want to meet you or visit your office physically. If it is permitted you can post your URL so that people can easily reach you. You can search on social media for contacts and group members in your immediate environment or locality, those who can easily come over to your shop, factory, or office. The strategy is to target these contacts and convert them to become your customers. If your business is nationwide or international you can develop a method targeting your fan base and refer them to your offices and outlets across the country or internationally.

Another very effective method is to extract the emails of members of your targeted groups of contact and send them direct or individual emails inviting them to visit your offline business office. An enticing offer will do the trick to pull them to become your customers. You can also mail them your newsletter, promotion offers, new arrivals or products, etc.

It is also very good to advertise your offline business on any of the social media paid-page. Here you can reach a wider audience that can become potential customers. In the advert, you can give a description of your services or products and how you can be contacted. The advert will have images that can attract potential customers to your offline business.

You must develop a good interactive pattern with your social media contacts. This will build confidence in them and they will be willing to contact you personally to patronize your offline business. Effective interactions with your online contacts will also make them refer other customers to you. On the other hand, poor interaction can have a negative effect as well. Incorporate your offline business website with some major social media. This will increase the number of people who visit your website and invariably have contact with you or your offline business.

Make sure the press releases, catalogues of your new products, and promotions of your offline business are posted on your website and also shared with your social media contacts base. Thus, they will always have new and fresh information about your business. Of course, this will pull them to want to do business with you physically. Develop yourself to become an expert consultant to your social media contacts in your niche. Be ready to play the role of “customer service” to your potential customers. Answer their questions and queries quickly; provide advice and support services; inform them of new products or services and if possible ensure that they are able to call you directly. By so doing you can direct them to your offline business place.

Conclusion:

I encourage you to either join or affiliate your offline business with as many social media as possible. This will increase your contact base and create more sources of interactions like blogs, forums, and timelines between you and your targeted audience or potential customers. The numbers of social media are increased by the day but here are some that you can easily join and utilize to your advantage. Facebook, Pinterest, Linked In, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Yookos, YouTube, and Tumblr.