February 18, 2014 Why Social Media Engagement is Important

So what exactly is social media engagement, and why is it on everyone’s to-do list these days? A brief working definition of the term is the act of interacting with your audience both interactively and with a certain degree of helpfulness.

It’s just not enough these days to get hundreds or thousands of followers or fans if you’re completely disconnected from them. The entire point of a social web is to make these connections, so we thought we would think of a few tips to help our readers get the job done. (And as always, comments and suggestions are appreciated!)

6 Methods for engaging your followers and fans better in 2014

    Use graphics and videos – If you haven’t observed this by now, we are a herd that likes to look and watch. Videos and images are a great deal more apt to be looked at and acted upon. In some cases, actions are 4X those of posts that offer no visual element.

    Brand evangelists – Having your clients rave about you, especially on video can make a huge difference with regard to social proof. Even better if you don’t need to solicit it. (Make sure you thank them and snag it for your use as well!)

    Contests – Often a small token of appreciation goes a very long way. Rewarding readers with branded merchandise, or something that’s not, is an outstanding way to build brand loyalty.

    Get mobilized! – Since over 60 percent of mobile time is spent on social media, it’s only wise to meet your peeps where they are!

    Shout-outs to customers – Who doesn’t like to feel appreciated? An easy way to build a raving fan base is to promote your Facebook shout-outs on all your social media outlets, and watch the reach grow!

    Ask questions – Ask relevant questions, encourage interaction, and get people thinking about your products and services in new ways. How do you use our lovely blue widget?

If you’ll begin 2014 using at least some of these methods of engagement, we think you’ll be very pleased with the results!

January 31, 2014 Microcontent – What Is It and How Do You Use It?

Today’s content marketing strategies are multi-lingual: they communicate in many different mediums. Long form content continues to be important, visual content is gaining ground quickly and microcontent is fast claiming a place at the table. Microcontent? What the heck is that?

We are defining microcontent as a short content piece, usually aimed towards one particular topic and very limited in scope. A great example is practically any social media posting. One good reason why microcontent is gaining more focus these days is the global shift to mobile devices. It’s simply not anyone’s idea of a great time to read large blocks of text on a mobile device. Mobile content is necessarily shorter, snappier, and often uses images or videos. With predictions of around 80 percent of all traffic being viewed on a mobile device within the next few years, it’s time to create a plan for microcontent!

Some suggestions for using microcontent in your business!

  • One way you may already be using microcontent is for posting status updates on Facebook leading back to your blog.
  • Make an image or meme which includes a quote from your post and post it to the photo sharing sites like Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr.
  • Use Vine or Instagram to produce a short (in the case of Vine; 6 seconds!) pithy video and direct viewers to your page.
  • Create copy that your readers can easily retweet!
  • Incorporate calls to action within your microcontent. Click here to learn more, etc.
  • Curating bits of content that your readers may find useful from other sites can do many things for you. It helps establish your authority, satisfies your audience, and is quite simple to carry out.

Be consistent in your microcontent strategy. A frequent digest of tips and tricks for your market is something that can get shared all over the place. Make copious use of images and videos; for this’s what people want to see, especially in the short form!

Above all make it sharable, and multiply the reach of your content many times over!

January 30, 2014 5 Ways to Improve Your Site’s Conversion Rate

It’s a plain fact that converting more of your existing visitors into customers is a far easier and cost efficient way to growing revenue than acquiring more traffic. To put this in even clearer focus, getting a 1 percent increase in traffic is worth far less than a 1 percent increase in conversion rates across the board. Far less!

I propose that in 2014 to make it a goal to have a hard look at conversion rate optimization, and discover ways to make more sales using the traffic we already have.

5 Ways to win with conversion rate optimization

    Make each page serve one purpose – This will not only serve to help make your page rank better in the search engines, it will most certainly enhance your conversions, since there will be but one purpose to the page, not dozens of links going out willy-nilly.

    Optimize your entire sales funnel – It’s not only your web pages that ought to be optimized, but the entire sales and conversion process. What this means is things like your emails, social media and landing pages to begin with. Having a clear goal regarding conversions across all platforms sends a clear message.

    Speed things up! – If your pages take more than a couple of seconds to load, folks will move on. This optimization task will benefit you in numerous ways, not the least of which is your page ranking. An awesome tool to help you with this is YSlow.

    Plan content with CRO in mind – Everyone is on the content bandwagon for 2014, and for good reason. Do yourself a favor and plan this together with improving your conversions. This applies to even the micro content you publish to social media. You need it all working together for your main conversion goals.

    Test everything! – When it comes to conversions, you need to test everything. The seemingly insignificant can matter. Keep in mind, a small percentage gain will add up to large revenue improvements!

January 24, 2014 Why Visual Content Marketing is a Term You Need to Know!

I would bet that you’ve probably watched more videos this month than you have read articles. I know I have. It’s simply a sign of the times. We have less of it, so we absorb it short, visual bits.

It’s a fact that we process visual information some 60,000 times quicker than written text, and that 90 percent of the information transmitted to the brain is of the visual variety. Why then are we surprised when we notice that everyone is wanting to watch or look, as opposed to reading anything?

One good thing about all of this however, is that visual content is far more likely to be shared. Sproutsocial reports that images are liked 2 times more than text, and videos are shared 12 times more that links and text posts combined!

4 suggestions for adding visual content into your marketing

    Use videos – Video can enhance your site in many ways, not the least of which is increasing your site traffic many fold. This isn’t just a function of a great YouTube Channel, although that helps. There are several different ways to employ video, from your site to your social platforms like Facebook and Twitter, as well as the dozens of other outlets.

    Develop infographics – Consider getting attractive and provocative infographics made for your marketing. They are shared widely if they are well done, and can also improve branding and backlinks to your site.

    Images – Image sharing is now an Olympic sport! Okay, well maybe that’s a stretch, but not by much. Sites like Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr and several others are making it easy to drive tons of visitors to your pages via the photos posted and shared there. These sites are some of the most trafficked sites on the internet, and you need a presence on them today!

    Get great at social media – Social media is the the glue and the delivery service for your entire visual content strategy. Sharing on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, Twitter and others is the engine that drives the machine. Everyday a new innovation for making video and image sharing easier and more social arrives as these sites compete for your interest.

Visual content is where it’s at in 2014, and will have a direct bearing on your site traffic and search rankings.

January 21, 2014 How to Dominate Your Local Search Results

You, know it’s very cool that your business can be found for what you sell around the world, but in reality, if you’re serving a local market and you’re not successfully appearing in your local search results for your main terms, names and products, then what does it matter?

Since we now know that 1 in 3 searches in Google are now local in intent, and more than 70 percent of people look online for offline services, it’s a no-brainer that you have to dominate your local search results, and below are a few ways to do just that.

5 Easy ways to start to dominate your local search results

  1. Your Google+ Local Page – A Google+ local page for your business is a reliable way to help your local search rankings. Does not only help with indexing your pages nearly instantly, but it’s a practical aid for anyone seeking to find you.
  2. Claim Citations – Citations are listings for your business on search engines and within social media which include your name address and phone number. They can include more or less and are usually found on Facebook, Google, Bing, Yelp, and FourSquare, as well as a number of other sites.
  3. Reviews – Reviews are great not only for social proof, but also for boosting your ranking in the Google local search results. Getting reviews to your Google+ local page is one of the most important things you can do. Ask your customers for reviews and give them a link to where they can leave it.
  4. NAP – This means name address and phone number, and is a vital piece of your local optimization. Citations that include this information are worth more, both in Google’s eyes and  in practical terms.
  5. Mobile – Studies are showing that three out of four mobile searches initiate follow-up actions, whether that means an actual store visit, social sharing or phone call. Ensure that your site is optimized for mobile, so you can take advantage of where so many people are headed in local search!

January 17, 2014 Use These 5 Offline Marketing Tips That Work!

While it’s altogether more stimulating to concentrate on our online efforts with regards to local marketing, offline marketing has been doing the yeoman’s job for several eons, and you would be careless if you abandoned it like old bread. Many methods are still effective, and can bring a more targeted result locally than a lot of your online initiatives.

5 Offline marketing tactics that still work just fine!

  1. An attractive business card – A business owner without a business card is like a ship without a rudder. It is directionless, and inevitably will show off as unprofessional. Business cards are still a valuable tool, and you should make it your business to have great card available all the time!
  2. Promotional items – This can run the gamut from a basic printed brochure, flyers, coffee mugs, t-shirts or any ting else you can envision that will cleverly advertise your business. Who doesn’t like free stuff?
  3. Local events and meetings – Being present and helpful at local community events and gatherings is a simple way to get your business’ name noticed in a good way. You’ll meet other business people who may be willing or able to work well together with you, in addition to doing some good in your local area.
  4. Sponsor a local team or organization – Sponsoring a local youth sports team or any other organization in need of help is a great source of advertising, goodwill and reach within your community.
  5. Start a local business network – Assuming there isn’t already one you are a part of, you can take advantage of this lack by making one. If you have one around, join it and jump in. This is a fantastic way to make local contacts that are ready and willing to help one another’s business with referrals and joint ventures.

Offline marketing is still a viable source of leads and revenue. Ignore it at your own peril!

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