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7 Ways You’re Wasting Time Online

20 Nov

blog marketing

Modern business involves spending a lot of time online. Some companies and sole traders exist solely online, utilizing websites and social media profiles to sell their products and services. Even those with a real life presence focus a lot of their time and money on building their businesses online. Online business is the future. It allows you to reach a huge audience, build a profile, speak with clients and customers instantly and can help to grow any business enormously. Even those small-town family-run companies that have been around for hundreds of years are now joining the hoards to set up online.

 

But, there’s a lot that goes into doing business online. It’s a lot more than simply turning your laptop on and sending a few emails. To do well, you have to be online seemingly 24/7. You need to be an active user on all social media platforms, or your posts won’t get attention. You need to reply to email and comments immediately, or your reader will think you don’t care. You need to be constantly churning out new content for your blog to help get it noticed and you need to find new ways to market your business as new methods are continually gaining attention and older ones fall out of favour.

 

There are sometimes just not enough hours in the day to get it all done well. So, instead of trying to create more hours, let’s look at ways to save time. A lot of what you do online can be done faster and more efficiently if you just stop wasting your own time.

 

Dealing with Spam

 

Junk mail was annoying. Then we all started getting spam emails instead, which were more annoying. But now we also get spam comments on our blogs and social media profiles. Users using apps to make completely irrelevant remarks in the hope you will follow them, or worse, spam accounts leaving clickbait messages on your blog.

 

Having to read them to find out if they are spam, before deleting and blocking them is a complete waste of your time. Time which could be used replying to genuine comments. Fortunately, there are tools to stop fake users accessing your accounts, double check that your customers are real with Netverify to cut down on spam comments and messages.

 

While you’re at it, go through your emails and unsubscribe to any that you don’t read.

 

Stopping Security Threats

 

Spam isn’t just annoying; it can be a security threat. Keep your website safe with an SSL Certificate and block fake loggins. This is especially crucial if you take information from customers and readers.

 

Remembering Passwords

 

Remembering passwords can be a nightmare. Which often leads to us using the same

password for everything. This can be dangerous. Use password remembering software so you can have a different, secure password for every account. Without having to reset it every time you get them wrong or forget one.

 

Posting to Social Media

 

 

To grow a social media following, you need to be an active user. You need to share content that helps and entertains people, promote the work of others, as well as your own, offer people advice and help when they need it and reply to any comments or message you may get. You also need to take time to find new profiles to follow and make sure you are interacting with seemingly everyone, all of the time.

 

It’s impossible. So, stop trying. Use a social media scheduler. Spend a little time at the start of every day scheduling your social media posts for the rest of the day. Making sure that only up to 20% of it is either selling your own products and linking to your own site. Then, just spend the odd few minutes looking through your feeds and replying to comments. If you see anything worth sharing during this time, add it to your scheduler for tomorrow.

 

Procrastinating

 

One way most of us waste time online is by literally wasting time. It can be so tempting to start browsing the internet, shopping or playing games. To avoid this, plan breaks into your day or use tools which stop you going off course.

 

Not Building Relationships

 

You spend time giving basic replies to comments and not really paying attention to people. This is a waste of that time. Instead, read their comments and give meaningful responses. Building relationships with readers will help your business to grow. Make the most of the time that you do spend on social media.

 

Being Unorganized

 

If there is one thing that leads to time wasting, it’s not being organized. Write a to-do list every day. Then, if anything comes up, find space to fit it in.

 

You can save literally hours every day by simply being organized and making the most of your time online.

Don’t Get Bogged Down By Keywords; There’s So Much More To SEO

16 Nov

If you’re thinking about marketing your business online, you’re already probably thinking in terms of SEO. It’s often considered the bread and butter of a digital marketing campaign. But it’s important to remember that SEO is an umbrella term that covers a massive range of different topics. It’s not just, as some business owners think, about keywords anymore. There are plenty of other tools at your disposal to ensure that internet traffic floods your site. So, aside from choosing the right keywords, let’s look at some of the others.

Social Media…Obviously!

seo-strategies

You might be surprised to hear that these days your presence on social media is a major tool for SEO marketers. It works like this. When you use social media, you should be sharing content that is interesting, attractive and connected to your business site. Once people start sharing that content, your search ranking grows. Social media presence has also been shown to have a direct impact on domain authority. Domain authority, in turn, determines how attractive your business site is for new leads. As well as this, by using social media, you can increase your online profile. Eventually, this will lead to more traffic for your site. Particularly, if you have a number of links to your site scattered throughout media feeds due to different posts. Don’t be fooled into thinking one social network is enough either. You really need to be using all of them.

Getting Them There Isn’t Enough

You might be pleased when you see that there’s already a nice queue of traffic heading to your site. But you do need to think about your conversion rate. On the surface it might seem like your business is doing marvelously well. But, if you’re buying numbers aren’t high, you’re not getting the full story. This is why if you use an SEO agency these days, they’ll probably offer you a retargeting service. With retargeting, you get another chance to win over the customer. If they leave your site without buying, they’ll be followed by an ad. This will appear as a piece of sponsored content on different pages across the net. As such, it gives you a second chance to win over a customer. Or, it encourages multiple purchases from the same consumer. It really is a win win for the business owner.

PPC And Adwords

You might think that boosting your business through the organic search engine results is the best way to get the most interest. Well, that’s debatable because ideally, you need your company to be on the first page when consumers complete a search. Unfortunately, even Google can’t guarantee that you get this. That’s why many business owners look at the alternative of PPC or Adwords. With a service like this, your site appears in the sponsored results. A massive thirty percent of Internet users click these ads before they even consider the organic results. The benefit of this is that you can guarantee your business does get a high level of traffic.

So you see it’s not enough to just be thinking of keywords anymore. If you do this, you’re only using a fraction of SEOs full power.

The Secrets Behind The Mystery of Viral Video Marketing

14 Nov

The best of social media is about sharing content that influences people. You want them to care, to invest and to act on that investment. To that end, there are different kinds of content for video marketing. In video marketing, you have an opportunity to send a message across multiple senses. This makes them even more convincing that just writing or imagery. But there’s a difference between a good video marketing strategy and a viral one. Here, we’ll look at those differences.

video-marketing-success

Take advantage of the opportunity you have

Before you start throwing videos out, it’s best to know the nature of video marketing. In particular, know the statistics that can better dictate how you create those videos. For instance, know that most people will give an online video about ten seconds before they click off of it. So you should make sure your video has a big impact in those first ten seconds to keep them watching. Similarly, brevity improves it chances of being shared. People are a lot more likely to share a video that’s less than half a minute long for the most part.

Create impact and value

If you think a straight-up advertisement for your product is going to go viral, you need to think again. For instance, look at the latest Christmas video for John Lewis. There, they have a story that comes first, not a product. Other campaigns like Old Spice are more about the comedic bizarreness of the exchange on screen than the products themselves. Like with viral Facebook messaging, you have to look beyond your product. You have to find the human to connect with first and foremost.

youtube-marketing

Don’t be afraid to create your own buzz

Virality isn’t just the consequence of a great video. There are strategies you can use to improve its chances of finding more people. Positive social proof is one of the most convincing forces in all of internet marketing. If people are already talking and already viewing, then more will join them. There are a few ways to create that positive social proof. For instance, you might want to consider buying cheap Youtube views on your video to get the ball rolling. Similarly, you can use influencer marketing to get people with communities and audiences to share your video on their own space.

Keep an eye on the data

Whether your campaign goes viral or not, you should be using the data to make sure your next one has a better chance. Youtube analytics is a powerful tool, allowing you to learn a lot about your audience. You can see where they’re from, how they found your video and even their gender. From there, you can use more focus strategies to hit the audiences that showed the most interest. Go deeper and get more of the people who seem to be interested. It means you’re not wasting effort on trying to spread it to those who don’t seem interested.

Going viral might seem like it’s all about luck, but that’s not the case. The best video marketers know exactly what they’re doing and how to boost it. With the tips above, now you do, too.

How Are Hotels Cashing In On Today’s Social Media Frenzy?

14 Nov

social-media-marketing-for-hotels

Second, hotels are a mixed bag. It is difficult for hotels to get the message out about what makes them unique because there is so much variety. Therefore, hotel digital marketing is about communicating what makes their hotel unique. What interesting experiences can be had at their establishment? Here we’re going to look at how hoteliers can cash in on today’s social media marketing frenzy. Let’s take a look.
Hire A Young, Social Media-Savvy Person To Your Team

Next time you’re doing a hiring round, don’t just look for somebody who is honest and will show up on time. Find someone who knows a thing or two about social media. You could hire somebody for a dual role; one to wait tables and, two, to do the hotel’s social media. People with experience of social media know how to use the different platforms to their advantage. They also have a sixth sense about which marketing efforts will work and which won’t.

 

Link To Local Attractions

Using social media to link to attractions in the vicinity of your hotel is a great way to sell rooms. You can advertise the location of attractions near to you on social media using the “@” symbol. Guests are more likely to want to visit your hotel if they can see that it’s just a couple of blocks away from their favorite restaurant.

 

Encourage People To Ask Question

Because people don’t know much about your hotel before they arrive, they’ll want to ask questions. Most hotel managers don’t bother answering questions on Facebook because they don’t see social media as a forum. Instead, they use social media as a vehicle to push out their content to improve their search rankings. Responding to questions online, however, is vital. Visitors are desperate to ask questions before they commit to spending money. They don’t want to wind up getting something that they don’t want. Always respond to questions and build a resource that future customers can then use.

 

Manage Your Online Reputation Through Review Sites

Review sites are an important online mechanism to make sure that businesses remain honest. Companies can’t rely on anonymity online to protect them against their own poor service. They have to deliver, or customers will complain.
In the hotel industry, customers write reviews on sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor. If you get a negative review, make sure that you respond and offer reconciliation. Apologize if necessary. Make it clear to anybody reading the review that you still care deeply about customer experience.

 

Restaurant Owners: Are You Getting Social Media Right?

7 Nov

Social media is pretty much the perfect marketing tool for restaurants. After all, one of the key aspects of selling great food is to build a community of regular customers. All social media channels can just be an extension of that. It’s a visual experience, too – how many of your friends do you see posting pictures of incredible meals on their Facebook? Or Instagram? The trouble is, not every restaurateur gets it right. And in today’s guide, I’m going to explain some of the ways of ensuring your social media accounts are working for your business, not against it.

social-media-for-restaurants

Consistency in tone of voice
All restaurants like to create a certain sense of atmosphere for their customers. It’s important that this tone continues when you are posting on social media, to make your client’s experience more rounded. For example, if you are an upmarket restaurant, you shouldn’t be posting pics of cute cats. Similarly, if you are a relaxed restaurant, focus on extending that atmosphere onto your social media channels.
Encourage your customers to follow you on social media
The biggest benefit of social media is that your followers do a lot of the hard work for you. But, of course, unless they follow your channels, they won’t be able to help. Tempt them to give your page a like on Facebook or follow you on Twitter with special deals. It might be 10 percent off, or a free glass of wine with their dinner – whatever you think is appropriate. As hospitality marketer Scodeggio Samuele states, it can have a dramatic impact. It’s a form of social recommendation – word of mouth, of you like. If the friends of your followers like what they see, there is more chance they will give you a try themselves.

 

Don’t be afraid of criticism
Many restaurateurs are a little scared of social media – and with good reason. We all know of a restaurant taking a hammering on Facebook or Twitter after poor customer service or a disastrous meal. But instead of being scared, why not see the opportunity it gives instead? If a client wants to complain in public, other people will be looking to see how you respond. If you just ignore the complaint, that won’t go well for you. If however, you appear reasonable, polite, and offer apologies, people will notice in a positive way. Everyone makes mistakes – and everyone knows it. It’s how you respond that can make the difference.
Use geo targeting
Facebook ads are kind of cool – if you get them right. There are a lot of tools at your disposal that can help you laser-focus your special offers to the right people at the right time. And, of course, in the right area. It gives you the chance to provide very specifically, niche targeting that can only be seen by people in your immediate vicinity.

Make connections
Finally, don’t use Facebook or Twitter as a simple promotional tool. People don’t want to see advertisement after advertisement – you need to be more appealing. Offer them more value by posting interesting blog posts. Share – or curate – from other websites and Facebook pages, too. Aim to use a third of your posts for promoting your business at most – the rest should be a lot more interesting.
Hope these tips have helped – let me know how you are using social media!

Free Facebook Marketing Training Course To Monetize and Grow Your Business

27 Aug

I have worked to put together this Free Facebook Training video, packed with tons of value and advanced strategies to grow your business page and business on Facebook! Woot! Woot!  Virtual HIGH FIVE!! 🙂  I love serving, each and every one of you.  I really want you to implement and execute each strategy I discuss in this video training session below. 

Take out your pen and paper, and start taking notes now!! Go, Go Go!!! You will love the insight and strategies you can take action on right now. I discuss content marketing strategies, ways to make money on Facebook even if you don’t have your own business, and free ways to grow your Facebook Page without having to buy Facebook ADS. 

You will love the strategies and its all free for you.  Please let me know, what insights you have found useful and helpful, and what you would like to learn more about in the comments below, or comment below in the video or tweet me at www.twitter.com/socialmediawithrita  or if you prefer Facebook at www.facebook.com/socialmediawithrita   Click Play To Reap Your Business Success on Facebook now 🙂 Enjoy! 

How to Get More Blog Subscribers

4 Aug

 

 

Write a Headline Topic That Your Customers are Searching For

Your blog title is the bait that entices Google users to your blog. Your content has to be the information they are seeking.

As Neil Pattel of QuickSprout says,

The goal of the headline is to stop readers cold and draw them into your post. You can’t do that if you use cute, clever or confusing headlines. You can stop readers cold, however, if you write headlines that are unique, ultra-specific, useful or urgent.

Test your blog titles to discover the titles that attract people. A tool that is amazing is the Advanced Marketing Institute’s “Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer.”

Use the tool by typing in your title, select your industry, then hit submit. Your title be scored on an algorithm that tests the emotional, intellectual, and spiritual value of your headline. The higher your score, the better you are getting at creating killer titles! Woot! Woot! 

Get Skilled in Search Engine Optimization To Get The Most Exposure

Search engine optimization has been getting a bad rap these days especially compared to social media optimization, however, it still matters because Google uses it to pick up your content to list on the first page of certain keyword search results. 

Using the right SEO techniques for your blog post can get Google to display your content to your target audience.

Write about current topics that people need solutions for in уоur industry. When you write one article a week, Google will love you and your readers. Search engines pick up new content and people will remember your blog and talk about it with others if they are exposed to it, not once, not twice but every week!!! Now, that is the juice of blog building success!!!

Insert keywords that your target market will be using into your blog. Include your keyword in your title if possible and then add them throughout your post. WARNING->  The days of keyword stuffing for search engine placement are long gone. Do not overdue it! 

Ensure your blog is legible, provides solutions and is fun! Do not rant about things that are obvious or do not matter to your readers. 

Create а Video

Did you offer a tip in your latest blog post that is worth sharing in a different format? Take that tip and turn it into a quick video. 

Just make sure your video is worth watching аnd sharing. The sound and visual should be high quality and you want to kеер іt short аnd get tо thе point. People will not stick around if your sound quality is poor or you ramble on with no particular point.

Using blog content in a short video is an excellent way to showcase your talent and expertise by arousing viewer interest. Give them enough to want to learn more! 

 

Create a Google+ Hangout

Google+ Hangouts is a powerful strategy to position yourself as the authority in your niche. As Stephan Hovnanian of WebSIGHT said in a recent article,

“We all know YouTube has its share of amazing “shows” where individuals have taken their webcam and turned themselves into superstars. Now, there’s a new wave of “hosts” coming on board, and they’re using Google+ Hangouts On-Air (HOA’s) to create a ton of exposure, not just for themselves, but for their guests as well.”

A Google+ hangout has greater reach given the additional features it has for boosting your exposure than YouTube has. Google plus audience is growing and seeking hangouts so let them discover your hang-out! BAM! 

Here’s a video shot in Huntington Beach, California on discussing,  “How to Use Facebook for Maximum Success.”

Get Active on Blog Networks

Want your blog post to get seen by more people? Get posting in blog communities!

Blog networks allows you to develop relationships with other bloggers. Plus you will learn more cool things by reading their blog posts.

I love Triberr. I use Triberr to build relationships and share content from other amazing bloggers. If you got the right strategies then Triberr is powerful to spread your mission.

Use Social Bookmarking Sites

Social bookmarking allow you to collect and manage content and share your content with a group searching based on your keywords.

Sharing your latest blog post on social bookmarking can further increase your exposure rate.  

Below are the ones I love:

Reddit

Reddit is a unique social bookmarking and social news website with a very unique community. Search by “sub-Reddit’s” that act as categories.

Scoop.it

Sccop.it is a bookmarking and curation website where you can create magazines based on topic or niche. Add content from across the web to your Scoop.it account and let others begin to find you based on similar interests.

StumbleUpon

StumblUpon is a bookmarking and discovery engine that allows users to “stumble” through related content. Add your latest blog post to your StumbleUpon account, categorize it based on topic and let others stumble to it based on interest.

Turn Your Post into a Podcast

Another way to leverage your blog post to increase your exposure rate is to turn it into a podcast.

Creating a podcast will get your brand out there. 

Take your blog tips then record it so people can listen, when they are driving in the car or at the gym.

Your post and your podcast will now cross-promote one another to get new subscribers to your blog.

One of my favorite podcasts is Pat Flynn’s, “Smart Passive Income Podcast.” Pat says that launching his podcast is one of the best decisions he ever made.

“The show has surpassed 6,000,000 total downloads. (as of December, 2013) and has become the #1 way people who read my blog found out about me – that’s above search, social media and links from other websites.”

I’d love to hear from you! What are you doing to maximize blog post exposure?

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Successful Social Media Campaigns

28 Jul

Stop being boring and copying everyone else on Social Media, if you want to be ignored then your wish is granted if you lack creativity. You need to stand out in social media. Posting quotes or articles from other blogs is not enough to increase brand awareness. Read below for examples of successful social media campaigns.

Campaigns that react to the needs of online followers and/or customers usually results in massive brand awareness. All are examples of social media campaigns that infuse creativity to shift people into action. Motivating people to action is one goal of using social media for your brand.

Maes Beer

best social media marketing examples

Maes Beer was motivated to increase their market share that lead them to think of a creative social media strategy.  They wanted to incorporate two powerful forces into their strategy – family and social media.

They offered a free barrel of their beer to everyone with the last name ‘Maes’ on one condition…they had to share with 20 of their closest friends.

Naturally this took off like…well, like free beer often does.

The result?

More than 7,000 people changed their last names to Maes on Facebook.  Maes Beer received over 75,000 Facebook likes in a single day…and 500,000 visits to their Facebook page in six weeks.

Sevenly

best social media marketing examples

Sevenly uses social influence to raise awareness for charities and nonprofits while also raising awareness for the Sevenly brand.

People naturally want to help when it’s for a good cause, but not everyone can donate money.

Sevenly understands this, so instead, they ask people to donate to the cause by sharing via social media.

The brand also has another way of leveraging its community for support. Every week Sevenly teams up with a new charity for 7 days.  They create a brand new design promoting the charity, slap it on a T-shirt and then sell it from the website.

For every shirt they sell, Sevenly gives $7 to the charity.

Ushuaia

best social media marketing examples

The Ushuaia Tower is setting the standard for technology in the hotel industry.

During the summer of 2013, the Ushuaia Hotel merged technology and social media to allow guests to have a one of a kind experience that they could share with friends and loved ones. Guests receive a free RFID wristband upon entrance to the hotel.

They use this bracelet by swiping it at a number of designated areas throughout the property called ‘FaceBook Pillars.’  Once logged in, guests can like an event, take a photo or check in.

From their rooms, guests can also use the bracelet  to play games, chat, create personal play lists and enter the hotel’s DJ contest.

Uniqlo

best social media marketing examples

Uniqlo wanted to raise awareness for their new ‘Dry mesh T-shirts’ they had to do something totally different to overcome the noise of online fashion in social media.

Pinterest was the obvious platform of choice. However, pinners seem to scroll aimlessly through boards until something grabs their attention.

Well, Uniqlo came up with an idea to do just that.

With about 100 users simultaneously pinning, Uniqlo essentially hijacked the streams of every pinner that was logged on at the time. Users that were scrolling aimlessly got an awakening experience by seeing Uniqlo’s T-shirts turning, flipping and changing colors as they scrolled.

Hijacking Pinterest gained them about 55 million impressions, used no paid media and generated more than 6,000 mentions on Twitter.

Plated

best social media marketing examples

Plated gives its customers chef quality recipes and delivers the ingredients that make them.  Plated uses its YouTube channel to show customers and other viewers how to make mouth watering recipes that inspire them to have Plated deliver the ingredients.

Follow their Twitter account and you’ll learn about everything from creating a five star meal, to how to photograph the meals from different angles.

Plated aspires to be utilitarian – and that almost always gets attention from social media.

Tippex

best social media marketing examples

With a clever use of annotations, Tippex created a 30 second YouTube video entitled “Hunter shoots a bear” in which viewers can choose the ending. (Don’t worry, no bears were harmed during the making of this video.)

Instead, the hunter reaches out of the frame to grab a tippex and whites out the word ‘shoot’ – leaving the field blank for viewers to decide what happens next by typing in whatever they want.

It’s kind of  addicting which is probably why the clip has received more than 21 million views.

Folly Theater

best social media marketing examples

Wanting to reach a younger audience, the Folly Theater in Kansas City Missouri decided to do something most theaters would never even consider.  They began allowing audience members to keep phones on during the show. In fact, they encouraged it.

Using an app, the audience members are encouraged to help direct the show.  The audience can vote on everything that happens during the show basically creating their own interactive experience.

Theater goers vote on everything from which props and costumes the cast uses to which songs they should sing. Audience members even vote on how much clothing the burlesque dancers should wear.

Everything during the show is shareable which creates an immediate buzz for the theater.

Burger Revolution

best social media marketing examples

There’s a revolution going on in Ontario…a Burger Revolution.  Burger Revolution have created quite the local uprising with their presence on social media.

Burger revolution’s tactics are simple but effective.  They keep fans informed on the number of remaining burgers for the day.  This highlights specific burgers and creates a sense of urgency.

They also like to post a “comment of the day” which is simply a picture they took of a user’s comment.  This has become a tradition the fans love.

The burger joint’s FaceBook page now has more than 2,000 likes.

Airbnb

best social media marketing examples

Since its inception, ‘Vine’ has received lots of attention from not only marketers but from millennials too.  Creative six second videos are becoming more and more popular.

And among them is Airbnb’s short film “Hollywood and Vines.”

Airbnb reached out on Twitter for six days by tweeting a ‘shot list’ and asking users to shoot one of the shots in the list.  Users would follow the director’s instructions for a given shot and then share it.

For shots that were chosen, Airbnb offered $100.  There were more than 750 submissions of which, about 100 were used in the short film.

It was the first short film directed via Twitter.  It got wide exposure – even gaining the attention (and more importantly the retweets) of actors like Adam Goldberg and Ashton Kutcher.

Tweet-a-Beer

best social media marketing examples

In 2012, Waggener Edstrom wanted to hit SXSW with something new. Instead of using typical marketing tactics and broadcasting how great they are, Waggener Edstrom, decided to just be useful.

And when you’re at SXSW there’s nothing more useful than a frosty brew.  So they teamed up with ‘chirpify’ to develop an app that would allow you to buy your buds’ a beer via Twitter.

The tweet-a-Beer app connected your Twitter account to your Paypal and allowed you to send $5 to any twitter handle you chose.  Since beer is the social lubricant, the app resulted in countless face to face meet-ups that might’ve otherwise never happened.

The app instantly gained massive national attention and was covered by numerous mainstream media outlets.

Baublebar

best social media marketing examples

Online Jewelry store BaubleBar has recently opened two locations in New York City where they’ve combined real world shopping with all the qualities of the Web.

Shoppers can interact with any piece of jewelry they choose from BaubleBar’s unique display cases.  When a customer chooses a piece of jewelry, the display case offers information from the website, such as, how to wear the jewelry and more.

But they’ve also integrated social media.

In addition to the information from BaubleBar.com, customers can see pictures of other women wearing the jewlery. Most images are pulled from Instagram using special hashtags so the images are from other customers, not models.

JustBought.it

best social media marketing examples

Looking to take social recommendations to the next level, JustBought.it uses Twitter to show purchase activity.

Justbought.it encourages its users to tweet every time they make a purchase so that other users will see the purchase and can then ask and receive general information about the product. Tweets include a picture of the purchased item and a location. The information is then served up to users and sorted by category, location and date.

JustBought.it is currently integrated with Shopify, Microsoft.net, Magento and more.

The Quechua Experiment

best social media marketing examples

Wanting to raise awareness for their outdoor hiking gear, Quechua took to their FaceBook timeline to create a memorable experience for fans.

Quechua posted more than 300 sequential images of a man hiking up a hillside to a special FaceBook page.

Fans could scroll through the timeline to experience the man getting prepared for his hike by sleeping, tying his boots and then hiking the hill. The timeline essentially works as a stop motion commercial.

Sidecar

best social media marketing examples

With ride sharing apps becoming more and more popular, Sidecar started looking for a way to stand out.  They teamed up with popular bloggers, designers and fashionistas to have them take over and decorate three sidecars.

Commuters who are lucky enough to end up in one of the three cars will be greeted with drinks, plush pillows, and signs that say things like, “Hey good lookin’ need a ride?”

In addition to these fun signs, there are instructions for the rider which explain how to win sidecar’s contest called, “#TasteMakerTakeover.”

Riders must take a photo of themselves in the sidecar and share it to Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #tastemakertakeover and they could win one month of free rides worth $1,000.

Burger Records

best social media marketing examples

An independent record label and self proclaimed fun loving Burger Records is inviting fans to throw shows all over the world. All you have to do is setup a show and Burger Records will promote it.

The only stipulation is…well there really isn’t any, except that it has to be fun and it has to involve music.

Fans without means to set up a show can instead throw a record listening party. In 2013, Burger records did 70+ shows.  This year they’re on schedule to do even more – from China to Denver. The shows have gained Burger some nice exposure with fans.

They currently have over 34,000 Facebook fans, more than 20,000 Twitter followers and almost 18,000 on Instagram.

Body Form

best social media marketing examples

You can plan.  You can strategize.  But sometimes situations present themselves.  By rising to the occasion you can create a viral campaign without even trying.

Body Form received a comment on FaceBook from a disappointed follower, Richard Neil.  Neil explained that he was angry because Body Form had been lying to him for years about what he calls…

“that wonderful time of the month that the female gets to enjoy so many things like bike riding, rollercoasters, dancing, parachuting, blue water’ and wings.”

Of course Richard was joking (kinda), but the comment got lots of attention.  Body Form decided to rise to the occasion by releasing a video response to the comment.

The video has seen more than 5 million views.  Neil’s comment has more than 104,000 likes and almost 5,000 replies.

Sensu

best social media marketing examples

Small marketing and film agency Sensu was tasked with promoting recording artist Ben Howard’s next music video. But since Ben is no Bieber, Sensu had their work cut out for them.

Instead of using traditional marketing, Sensu created a FaceBook event page and told everyone there was going to be a free concert with free beer.  With a little help from the local media, they quickly drew a crowd of more than 500 people.

Sensu essentially created a flash mob.  Since the local media was already involved, the event was covered in newspapers, radio shows and blogs. The video has gotten more than 1 million views and almost 8,000 likes on YouTube.

Tweet Bra

best social media marketing examples

Wanting to raise awareness about breast cancer, Ogilvyone created the Tweet bra.  And it does exactly what it sounds like it does. The Tweet bra tweets every time its unclasped.

Tweets include various serious and funny reminders to women that they should get monthly breast exams.

PODZEMKA

best social media marketing examples

Marketing to younger audiences can be tricky, especially when you’re marketing a bar or pub.  Most people don’t trust standard advertising anymore and the younger generation is practically immune to it.

But PODZEMKA was determined to bring in younger customers with advertising that spoke to them.

Their answer was user generated content.  They set up a page on their website where customers could upload photos of themselves using templates and pre-written slogans. This allowed party goers to create their own unique ads to share with friends.

The ads were also automatically shared through social media and were quickly seen everywhere.  PODZEMKA noted a 50% increase in traffic to their website.

In total, there were 1,000 new advertisements created.

Razorfish

best social media marketing examples

Wanting to show off their creativity, digital agency RazorFish created the#UseMeLeaveMe campaign.  Bicycles, GPS, Twitter and a few free rides are about all there is to it.

In total, 20 bikes were available to ride for free at the annual SXSW festival in Austin.  Each bike had its own personality and it’s own Twitter account.  The bikes shared location information while riders made their way around the event creating considerable buzz in the process.

Thinkable Digital

best social media marketing examples

Social media contests are a great way to increase engagement quickly.  One contest created by marketing agency Thinkable Digital was somewhat unique.

The “Guess the Campaign” contest ran on Thinkable Digital’s FaceBook page and required fans to identify the brands behind various popular social media campaigns.

The winner of the contest was to receive a full social media evaluation.  Runner up would get a Twitter evaluation from the company, and third place would be featured on the Thinkable Digital FaceBook page.

Threshers

best social media marketing examples

Sometimes considerable social buzz can be created by a simple mistake. After sending a sales voucher for 40% off to its customers, Threshers started to notice a loss.

The company then came out publicly to say that it was sent out “accidentally” and that the sales voucher was for suppliers use only. Naturally, this made the frenzy bigger and created quite the local buzz for Threshers.

Blendtec

best social media marketing examples

Will it blend?  That’s how Blendtec’s CEO Tom Dickson started every video in this highly successful campaign. Everything from hockey pucks to rake handles were shoved into a blender and pureed.

For obvious reasons, the the “Will it blend” campaign gained millions of views on YouTube and quickly became one of the most memorable viral campaigns in social media. It spawned countless immitators too like “Will it drift” and “Will it burn.”

Recruit Military

best social media marketing examples

Recruit Military works with veterans from all branches when making the transition back into civilian life. The company’s FaceBook page is the hub of all their social media activity.

They create FaceBook events that function as job fairs and are used to find work for military veterans.  Every week they run the oh so clever ‘Find a job Friday.’

Each Friday, they ask fans to post the type of job they want and Recruit Military replies with thousands of matches from their job board.

The engagement they get on the FaceBook page is admirable with each post getting an average of 10 or more comments.  Recruit Military currently has more than 68,000 likes.

Canadian Tire

best social media marketing examples

Wanting to stay relevant, Canadian Tire set out to create something new.  They put together “The Canadian Way,” a digital catalog which highlights their products with user generated content.

By reaching out to Canadians and asking for their stories, Canadian Tire received overwhelming response.  They got countless stories from Facebook and other popular social media platforms. What they ended up with was something containing all the ingredients of the  most successful social media campaigns.

The company’s catalog is interactive and uses engagement with ‘everyday people’ who use the company’s products.

As of now, The Canadian Way has received more than 3 million page views with 15 pages viewed (on average) by each visitor.

Tourism Australia

best social media marketing examples

While promoting Australia as a holiday destination, Tourism Australia created the famous “Best Job in the World” campaign. Over the course of the campaign, the company offered dream jobs — a 6 month salary worth $100,000 each — to six lucky people.

Dream jobs included such titles as chief funster and lifestyle photographer.

To enter, applicants were asked to make a short video explaining why they were the best choice for the job. The contest quickly went viral and received more than 330,000 entries from 196 countries.

Tourism Australia’s FaceBook page grew from 400,000 to its current status of 5.5 million in the process.

SmartBear

best social media marketing examples

Wanting to show the people behind their testing and development tools, SmartBear decided to get a little playful. They created a game called “Where’s Dain” which is the developer’s equivalent of ‘Where’s Waldo.’

Visitors were asked to find and click on Dain (a SmartBear developer) who was hidden in various spots throughout SmartBear.com.

Once they found him, a Twitter box appeared asking users to enter to win a T-shirt by tweeting the message which included @SmartBear and a special hashtag.

The campaign is said to have doubled the @SmartBear mentions and increased traffic by more than 120%.

Optimal Run

best social media marketing examples

Great running shoes aren’t cheap, so buying a nice pair online is sometimes scary.  The team over at Optimal Run understands this and they’ve gone the extra mile to make buyers feel more comfortable about their purchases.

Using their YouTube Channel , Optimal Run creates a personalized video for each shoe.  They answer common questions that come from their Facebook page and website. The videos also offer an overview of the shoe, best usage and other information visitors want to know. You can get one of the best running shoes at ShoeFinale .

This is a great example of using social media for customer service.  The videos have increased traffic to Optimal Run’s website by more than 150%.

Cloak

best social media marketing examples

Cloak is a location-based app for the iPhone operating system.  It’s a clever use of social media for the socially awkward.

Cloak allows you to see if any of your friends are nearby by using the information from your social networks.  The idea is to avoid those accidental run-ins with the people you like a little less than the others.

Currently, Cloak only works with friends you’ve connected with on Instagram and foursquare. (Cloak is one of many apps we’re seeing with the recent rise in anti-social networking apps.)

Morton’s Steakhouse

Morton’s steakhouse has a long history of great customer service.  But, just a few years ago they exceeded that reputation when they responded to a tweet from entrepreneur Peter Shankman:

After a long day of traveling, Shankman jokingly tweeted that he’d like Morton’s to bring him a porterhouse steak once he landed in Newark. Because Morton’s monitors their twitter account closely, they saw Shankman’s tweet and decided to make his wish come true.

They sent someone to the Newark airport which was 24 miles away with a 24 ounce porterhouse steak, colossal shrimp and a side of potatoes. This, of course, involved more than simply making a meal and delivering it.

They also had to..

  • Find the correct plane.
  • Cook the meal.
  • Get permission from the higher-ups.
  • Wait at the Newark airport.

It was a simple use of twitter but it gained Morton’s steakhouse tons of exposure and even more trust. Shankman immediately shared the story on his blog which has since gotten more than 6,700 tweets and 10,000 shares on Facebook.

social media case studiesCONCLUSION

Creativity is gold, videos are effective in social media marketing, and listening to your online followers is essential in developing your social media strategy.

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How Much Does a Marketing Consultant Cost?

24 Jun

how much does a marketing consultant costHow much does it cost to hire a marketing consultant and what we do for your business?

Consultant’s fees vary depending on the experience of the consultant and what type of marketing services you need.

Common Marketing Services:

1. Community Management & Social Media

You need help getting started and creating a strategy, or you already have a presence on social networks but your staff lack the time and expertise to stay on top of things. This happens all the time!

Hiring a marketing consultant to take charge of your online community and/or social media accounts should feel as if someone on your staff is doing it.

A consultant will make posts, start conversations, respond to your customers, share company news, information and photos of interest to your followers.

Before hiring a consultant, please make sure you know exactly what you’re getting, and what types of posts he or she will be making on your behalf.

 

2. Inbound Marketing

A consultant can optimize your website to increase traffic and drive leads, set up and manage your company blog, create a lead-capture plan, write and post fresh content and provide detailed reporting.

3. Strategic Marketing Advice

If your company has a challenge related to marketing, a consultant can be brought in to offer insight and ideas.

Expanding into new markets? Not sure the best way to reach your ideal customers? Need to increase sales per year from current customers? These are all challenges a marketing consultant can help you solve.

 

4. General Marketing Support

A consultant can work with your company just as a hired Marketing Manager and help your company by providing advice and direction.

He or she can also create your marketing strategy and execute some, or all of it, so you and your staff can get back to focusing on what you do best.

 

How Much Does a Marketing Consultant Cost?

As with any other service provider, each marketing consultant will have their own fee structure. The most common are:

1. Hourly Rate

Some consultants charge by the hour to complete a project.

Based on my research, in Canada (including the Saint John, New Brunswick area) you’ll probably pay $75 – $150 per hour to hire a marketing consultant.

You might also pay more, depending on the specialization of the company you work with, location, or their years of experience.

 

2. Flat Rate/Project-based Fee

For a one-time project the price may be quoted as a flat rate.

 

3. Monthly Fee/Retainer

If your company needs certain marketing services on an ongoing basis, a set monthly fee for those services is the way to go. Like a flat rate, you’ll know your investment up front and be able to budget for it.

This type of arrangement also guarantees you’ll receive the services you need each month and the consultant will ensure they have those hours available to serve you.

A monthly retainer can be anywhere from $1000 to tens of thousands of dollars per month depending on the level of services your company needs.

Here are some example retainer packages. We found these by looking at the websites of marketing agencies in Canada and the United States who have their rates posted online.

Social Media:

$1000 per month is the starting point we found for social media management of one network for a small business (such as managing your Facebook Page). The cost will increase depending on the size of your follower base and frequency of posting.

Inbound Marketing:

A basic inbound marketing package, including weekly blog posts, SEO, social sharing, lead capture and reporting will start in the range of $2500 to $3500 per month.

A more comprehensive inbound marketing package that also includes advanced content creation (ex. downloadable eBooks and white papers), more frequent blog posts, lead nurturing emails and detailed reporting starts at about $3500 to $5000 per month or more.

According to an SEOmoz survey of 34 agencies in 2011, the most common monthly retainers of inbound/online marketing firms in Canada are: $1000-$1500, $1500-$2500 and $251 – $500. We have no way of knowing what exact services these included.

Interested in hiring a marketing consultant?

Contact 1-855-886-3843 Click Here–>  www.socialdominancemedia.com  or FILL OUT THE FORM BELOW to have someone contact you.

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Secrets To Making Your Facebook Post Go Viral

18 Feb

You see posts getting hundreds of likes and comments in your Facebook newsfeed. You think, how the heck are these posts going viral?

Want to know the secrets for making your own Facebook posts go viral?

I will reveal strategies below to increase your chance of Facebook Post success! Now, that is awesomesauce! Say, YES to success. Means you gotta work with me here, you must read everything below then do your research, start getting your creative juices flowing!! Get in the creative flow- however you do that, whether it’s smacking a certain part of your body, chanting etc… I learn a new technique everyday, some are interesting to say the least lol My creative flow technique is simple, I read and think. Say, awesomesauce!

 

The Secret Strategies Revealed:

 

1.) Discuss current events

Show your excitement about a current event this covertly associates your brand with the event. For example, look at how many brands are discussing the Olympics in their content or even commercials.

 

2.) Relate To Your Audience- Use Your Marketing Psychic Ability! lol  You can read minds, what, you didn’t know?………..

You have seen posts on Facebook and thought, “How did they know I was experiencing that, thinking or feeling that!! The universe must have wanted me to see this message!” lol 😉  That’s is how you relate to your audience and that is how excellent marketing is done. BAM!

Combine humor with an idea or experience that people can relate to, that is the secret formula. BAM!

 

3.) Trigger Emotions

Associating your brand or product with a strong emotion such as love and you will see results. Use a photo, video or text; the goal is to get people FEEL.

 

4.) Get Them To Act

Ask questions or get people to do a action are both ways to get your fans to like or comment on your post.

People love to share something that triggered a emotion within them, whether it was inspiration or insight; they will most likely share it with their friends.

 

5.) Make Them Laugh

whether it be inside jokes in your industry or experiences that everyone has experienced and is too embarrassed to admit or discuss or encourage fans to submit funny photos. For example, a customer submitted a photo of their baby wrapped in a Subway sandwich wrapper. Subway shared it and look at the results.

subway

 

6.) Inspire Them, Motivate Them!!

Using a great quote can trigger strong emotions. An inspiring quote and image will motivate your audience,  increasing your chances of getting them to share with their friends.

 

7.) Give Away Great Prizes!

Keep in mind there are a lot of companies doing this now so your prize has to be unique and something that everyone wants and desires. This will increase your chances of it going viral!

For example, Skittles had a contest giving away a Skittle vending machine, and the contest post accumulated over 12K likes.

Have fun incorporating these strategies and share with us your experiences, insight or ideas!

 

Have you ever had a post go viral? What was it that made the post go viral? Share your viral post below so we can take a look! and it will drive more traffic to your page!! BAM! Say, “AWESOMESAUCE”!

 

If you are looking for a company to create your Facebook Marketing Strategies for you that comply with Facebook’s regulations, you are in safe hands when you call Social Dominance Media. (click on Social Dominance Media to be taken to our website)

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