Tag: Social Media

5 Easy Steps To Get Started With Pinterest Ads

Post author By Jon Rognerud
Post date December 10, 2015

how-to-setup-your-first-pinterest-paid-ads-boards

Social media platforms have long been regarded as the way of the future.

Marketing teams, online professionals and digital marketing agencies are going to move through these platforms quickly. Those companies who maximize findings from results and platforms will be the ones winning in their respective niches. That’s you!

welcome-to-pinterest-ads-chaosmap-advertising-boards — Welcome to pinterest ads – create traffic and engagement

However, those who ignore them will quietly slip into the background over time.

Pinterest is one of those juggernauts growing and becoming a meaningful option as time goes on.

Pinterest statistics are growing. You should consider the numbers and demographics and see how they fit into your world.

Pinterest is estimated to reach 47.1 million users in the U.S. in 2015 – @craigpsmith

Experts in the industry are stating Pinterest is going to be one of the most powerful marketing tools in the upcoming year. The community is vast and the ad manager is top notch with its layout and efficiency.

The CEO of Pinterest stated that it’s grown to over 100 million users (New York Times).

Let’s take a look at what it takes to get started with Pinterest ads for those who are just getting started.

Understanding The Advertising Process

Before diving headfirst into the ads process, it is critical to understand how the platform works. Those who don’t take the time to understand these intricacies are going to lose out on a lot of money.

Don’t let this happen and put in the hard work that is required to first understand how things work.

APPROACH #1:
There are two specific methods for promoting pins on this platform. One is reserved for larger businesses (i.e. partners) in the form of the “reservation style promoted pin“. This is reserved for companies who are putting down a set amount from the beginning and will have their spot reserved on the system for keywords. (Read the Pinterest spend article from Adage).

The going amount for reserving spots for keywords comes in at around $1 million. For most, this budget is rather extreme and won’t be feasible at all. This is where the second approach is available.

APPROACH #2:
The second approach uses the method of auctions and bidding. You bid for a specific keyword and have your pins put up for a certain amount of time. It is a CPC (cost per click) based method and each keyword and “topic” is going to have different fees attached to them.

Competitive keywords with a lot of people bidding will go higher than others. It is the same as seen on Google Adwords.

This is often the right way to go as long as the right keywords are being targeted and focused in on as needed.

The two different campaign types are: a) engagement campaigns, and b) traffic campaigns

Engagement campaign:
Track your audience’s signals of intent. You get charged for each engagement (closeup, repin, click) on your Pin.

Traffic campaigns, traffic to your website:
Send a motivated audience to your content. You get charged for clicks to your website.

pinterest-engagement-ads-traffic-ads — Pinterest Campaign Types

Step 1: Setup Your Business Account

Let’s move onto putting together a business account and getting those ads up to rake in the leads.

It begins by setting up the account as that is going to get the ball rolling in the right direction. You will have to go the website (business.pinterest.com) and fill out the details that are required.

It will ask you for information in relation to what is going to be advertised and personal details. It will also ask for financial information to make sure the money is going to come from a secure place (i.e. credit card).

Figure out all of this information beforehand to make the application process go through as needed. Make sure to enter all relevant and correct information on the form. They will vet the information and if there are concerns, the account is not going to be approved by the person responsible for the task.

Be patient and make sure all of the information adds up and provides the value that is required by Pinterest and their policies. Don’t overlook anything.

Step 2: Get Approval For ‘Promoted Pins’ On Pinterest

The next step is to wait after the application has been sent into Pinterest.

They are going to look through the information that has been put in the application to make sure you have not wasted their time and have put information that is truthful and correct.

They are going to generally take care of you pretty quickly as the main account has been approved.

Feel free to reach out to the account team if the process takes longer than you expected.

Step 3: Begin To Create Pins (For Your Ads)

The next step is going to take a look at creating the pin(s) that you are looking to put up in the advertising section.

You are going to want to make this as professional and aesthetic as possible because it is going to have a role to play in how many people click on it.

You don’t want to overlook these concerns as it could lead to the campaign falling apart. This happens a lot more than businesses would expect. Just putting up a pin is not going to do enough. It has to gain traction and that begins by making sure you are creating the right pins that will work.

TIP:
How to make great pins and boards is a must read. (And, download the pins guide PDF too)

The pin has to be made for the main board, so you have to understand it is not a ‘one and done’ type situation. The pin has to last on your account and then be put up. You can’t just customize a pin and hope to take it off afterward.

Plus, you’ll develop many different pins for engagement and contribution to your growing community.

There are certain rules you have to adhere to. These rules include what is not allowed (i.e. drugs, alcohol, porn) and no obvious call to actions (click here!) as those are against the rules of the platform.

Step 4: Select The Right Pin For Promotion Purposes

Make sure the pin that you are going to be promoting is coming from your own account and is not attached to another board. This happens a lot more than people would like to see.

Creating, managing and editing pins are keys to your success, as you build your foundation. Driving Pinterest traffic to poorly created content is “failure before you begin”.

(To learn more, download the complete Pinterest Ads guide here).

They put the pin on the group account and that is when the entire group gets promoted rather than your page.

You want to make sure it is only on your page and then it is being promoted. This will drive all of the traffic/leads to your account as desired.

You always want to make sure you are paying attention to this moving forward.

What should you be looking to do with regards to the promotions? You have to take a look at how many people are searching up specific terms. You can and should visit others in your marketplace and do competitive research.

Step 5: Assess The Keywords And Launch The Ad

This step is key as this is where the research comes into play. You have to take a look at the search terms that you can use.

Learn more from the Pinterest Campaigns Guide here.

Select the location, gender, and device you want to work with. Be careful and try to spread the money in order to get data to work with.

Pinterest Ads: demographics and targeting options

This way you can optimize based on what combination works best.

The same goes for your CPC budget. Look to go to a reasonable amount. Also, be careful with regards to the URL destination. You will want it targeted to the right place or you will lose out.

Once you submit, you’ll see this notice. It may/will take longer for newer accounts.

CONCLUSION:

You are ready to go and you will be able to put up more campaigns as you proceed and continue to test. This is what matters and you will see results.

Pinterest ads can be a great way to go, and you should definitely test if your business is very image-driven. But, many businesses are using Pinterest.

Don’t end up on the wrong side of things when it comes to marketing trends that can have a big impact for your business. Pinterest and its advertising products can be maximized to ensure results are coming in.

Pay attention to the steps listed in this post and then move forward with regards to the value being provided.

When you are able to make the most of these steps, you will see the results roll in with ease. Your conversion rate will start to go up as well.

If you need help – feel free to reach out:

NEED SOME HELP? Contact Us Here and schedule your time.

Tags pinterest, Social Media

7 Unusual Facebook Advertising Tools To Save Time And Get ROI on Ads

Post author By Jon Rognerud
Post date December 7, 2015

Whether you are a small business owner or an entrepreneur you must have used Facebook Ads.

…at least at some point, right?

If not – you really need to be considering FB advertising strategies and tools. Plus, the power of the pixel is here to stay. That’s true for many primary ad platforms (see upcoming posts).

It is one of the most cost-effective ways to bring laser targeted traffic to your website and offers, including apps and more.

However, we are not here to discuss the validity of Facebook advertising (but it’s obvious!).

We are here to find ways to streamline the process and make advertising quicker, easier, and more cost-effective.

Isn’t that about all we can ask out of life in general, let alone our advertising efforts?

The following are 7 Essential Tools Every Facebook Advertiser Needs To Try At Least Once.

Bonus Tool:

We really like the Facebook Video Ad Creator from Promo.com (Give it a try and start making engaging creatives that drive brand visibility and generate more clicks)

All these tools are designed to make your Facebook Ads experience more enjoyable and will help improve your overall return on investment!

1) Qwaya

Qwaya is one of the many paid tools on the market that have been designed to take your Facebook marketing campaigns to the next level.

A quick tour shows the depth of this power tool.

Qwaya was developed in my neighborhood country of Sweden, and is one of the best tools on the market if you are looking to scale up your current operation and also by automating the entire A/B testing routine, and advanced boolean logic.

One of the problems many marketers have faced with using Facebook’s Power Editor is its lacking ability to split test, and with efficient reporting.

With the use of Qwaya, you have the ability to test every imaginable aspect of a campaign.

In fact, it is very easy to lose several hours playing with this tool. You can mix the creatives, targeting, and imagery to find the absolute perfect ad …all automatically.

While Qwaya is highly powerful it does come with an equally powerful price tag. For an individual account, Qwaya will set you back $149 per month.

For a business to use Qwaya with up to five user accounts it is $249 per month at time of writing. In addition, Qwaya can be further customized to fit the needs of your agency.

This platform offers a generous 2-week trial period to give the system a good workout. But, this is not for beginners.

2) Ad Espresso

If you happen to be more of a visual marketer you will enjoy the set up and interaction with AdEspresso Facebook Ads Management.

It tries really hard to give the advertiser a good user experience that is not bogged down in trying to learn how to use the tool.

This would perhaps be my recommendation for users who are actually just starting out with Facebook Ads.

The interface and language is almost identical and it take very little time to get up and running with the tool.

With Ad Espresso’s platform, you can easily create multiple ads and see what they are going to look like in real time.

With Ad Espresso it only takes moments to have 4 separate ad groups with 64 different ads. Imagine trying to do all that manually! You would have ads floating in your head for the next week.

What makes Ad Espresso so user-friendly is its ability to give the user a full report on exactly what is working best and what elements would work better together.

By combing all this data is is very easy to create the super ad set.

Ad Espresso has a wide variety of pricing options starting at $49 and moving up to $299 per month.

This tool starts new users out with a 30-day free trial that offers full service. This can be a great place to start for you.

3) Ad Stage

Ad Stage is an excellent tool for advertisers who are looking to expand their horizons outside of Facebook. While Ad Stage offers excellent information for Facebook it can be used with multiple networks.

With just the simple inputting of accounts, you can have access to Bing Ads, Google Adwords, Twitter, and LinkedIn networks. This becomes a huge timesaver when everything you need is on one platform.

Ad Stage offers a unique feature of being able to target users by using both the “and” and “or” settings. (It’s not the only tool on the list, so read on)

For example, you can target users who follow the New York Giants and either Philadelphia Eagles or Pittsburg Steelers.

If those are not your teams, forgive the analogy! This can be a very popular tool for extreme targeting.

Ad Stage is available in three monthly plans starting at just $99 and will continue up to $399 per month.

The difference between the plans depends on the number of advertising accounts and the amount of ad spend on a monthly basis.

As with other tools, Ad Stage comes with a 14-day trial to evaluate the program.

4) Social Ads Tool

For those who run an online ad agency, Social Ads tool is one that should be investigated. This tool is designed for users who have a monthly ad spend of $10,000.

Unlike all of the other platforms on the market, Social Ads allows the user to create up to 5,000 ads in bulk quantity.

One of the best features of Social Ads is the page optimization function.

With this, a campaign is automatically created that will boost your most popular posts. This is an excellent way to make sure that your most popular content is always being shown to your audience.

While the price of Social Ads may make some individuals faint, it is important to remember that Social Ads is designed for large ad agencies who require a lot of advertising.

With that being said, service starts at $500 per month with a percentage of the advertising spend.

5) Facebook Ads Exclusion Targeting

One of the best in-house tools provided by Facebook for advertisers. This tool is designed to to help advertisers not target the same people more than once.

With this tool and functionality, you can also exclude specific audience members from new promotions in order to gain new leads.

This tool is designed to help reduce waste on ad spend and lower your cost per action or cost per click. There is no added cost to use the Facebook Ads Exclusion Targeting tool.

6) Facebook Ads Manager App & Power Editor

With the Facebook ads app, you will have the ability to revise ad budgets, edit existing ads, as well as track general ad performance.

“Power Editor is a tool designed for larger advertisers who need to create lots of ads at once and have precise control of their campaigns. To access Power Editor, you’ll need to go to www.facebook.com/ads/manage/powereditor in the Chrome browser on a desktop computer.”

One of the most powerful features of this app is the ability to create ads from previously published ads as well as photographs on your mobile device. The Power Editor is a must, but beginners should wait until comfortable with the ads manager.

7) Hootsuite Ads

One of the newer tools to the block is Hootsuite Ads which was just recently released from beta.

This tool is unique in the aspect that this tool will automatically create Facebook Ads based on your organic posts.

In addition, the tool will scan for the best amount to bid for as well as the best targeting.

This tool is designed to help beginners master the art of effectively advertising without having to do much work.

While the Facebook Power Editor is an incredible tool to get anyone started using Facebook Ads it becomes limited as you being to scale up (think big) your campaigns.

Check out a great power editor tutorial by the awesome (Twitter ID) Jon Loomer here.

The above tools are designed to help you effortlessly create more effective campaigns that are designed to increase your ROI.
FREE: Download the free Social Media Performance Handbook that will show you how to set up your social media campaigns in 7 simple steps. Includes 2 bonus strategies not found in this post.

Tags facebook ads, Social Media, tools

Categories
Social Media

Blab.im – What 11 Things Everyone Should Know About Blab Social Media App

Post author By Jon Rognerud

Post date December 3, 2015

What is Blab.im?

Are you wondering what the Blab.im app is?

Well, it has only been around for a few months (April 2015) so it’s only natural for a lot of people to remain clueless about it.

But many online experts already consider it as “the next big thing.”

That’s not an easy title to get considering the stiff competition in the world of digital marketing.

But Blab.im has managed to penetrate a tough market, introducing an innovative twist in what we know as live, social broadcasting. (Find Blab CTO Furqan on Twitter, he’s very responsive and friendly too.)

Blab is a live streaming platform in which 1 to 4 people can co-host a “blab.”

Before you quickly dismiss this application as just another Periscope rip-off, it’s important to take a look at its features and what it has to offer over the competition.

There are already a few live streaming video software on the market such as Meerkat and Periscope (Twitter product), but Blab.im sets itself apart thanks to its very intuitive design and focus on group conversations.

The Benefits of Using Blab.Im

Video streaming has been so popular over the past decade.

It allows businesses and ordinary individuals to connect with other people who share the same interests. It’s an effective way to get real-time feedback from and engage in conversation with online users.

Many say that Google Hangouts already allows several people to video stream at the same time, and the enormous user base of Google makes it the superior choice.

But Blab.im is simply more functional, flexible and easier to use.

You do not need to have any technical background about video creation to use the application.

Blab.im does basically everything for you.

You just have to have a camera and a microphone, and you’re good to go.

The developers of Blab also understands that people love using their smartphones and tablets, which is why they have created a mobile application that works just as well as its desktop counterpart.

If you’re a desktop user, you simply have to visit the official website of Blab.im and register.

You can also take your video streaming tool to your mobile device by downloading the Blab.im mobile from the Apple Store.

For current updates on development and the Blab Questions / Answer blog, find it here.

Both big brands and plain individuals can use Blab.im to engage in conversation with other people and build relationships with them.

What’s great about blab is that you can have up to 3 other people to talk during the live video stream.

Other video streaming services such as Periscope only allows one person to host a video, which could be intimidating for some people especially introverts.

Blab.im also makes it extremely easy for businesses to team up with influencers or experts in their industry and host a live video to drive a significant amount of traffic.

This can be an extremely beneficial tool that could generate a lot of new leads and increase the visibility of the business’ products and services.

On top of all this, Blab.im prides itself as a social networking platform which promotes genuine interaction among its users.

Other social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter have been criticized as lacking in this regard.

It’s definitely a breath of fresh air to have a new online avenue in which users can interact and talk with other people about virtually any topic under the sun.

Here are 11 Tips You Should Know To Get Started With Blab.im

1. Join Blab.im

As mentioned earlier, you can reach Blab.im on desktop through your web browser. Simply enter Blab.im on the search bar and click on the official website.

You will then see a button saying “Sign up now.” You will be authenticated with Twitter.

Click on the button and follow the instructions. You can also choose not to sign up if you just want to lurk around the site, but you won’t be able to join a blab.

You can also download the mobile app for your iPhone or iPad, beta. Android is also out. Right now, signing up with Twitter is the only way to join Blab.im.

2. Find Blabs To Join

Now that you’re registered, it’s time to jump around the site and see what it’s all about.

The user interface is very intuitive.

Everything is laid out in a very organized manner, allowing users to easily distinguish the purpose of each button and tab.

The easiest way to find blabs that would interest you is by using the Tags column located on the far left of the home screen.

Blab Tags: (“interests”)

When you click on a tag, blabs that are placed under that specific tag will show up.

You can click or unclick on multiple tags to narrow down your choices.

3. Use the Search Function

If you want to search for a specific blab or user, then the search function is your best friend.

You simply have to type in the name of the blab or the username of the host. The search box is located at the top of the screen, a little to the left.

Keep in mind that the search results will display blabs for on air, scheduled and replay blabs.

Here is an example of shows that relate to “social media on blab”

Be as specific as you can when using the search function so you can quickly find the blab or username you’re looking for.

4. On Air Blabs

The home screen also displays three tabs, the first of which is labeled On Air.

Basically, On Air blabs are videos that are currently being live streamed. Just click on the tab and you will see all blabs that are On Air as of the moment.

After choosing a blab that interests you, just click the watch button to join the live stream and participate in the conversation.

On Air blabs are the quickest way to join live video streams with other people on the site. You’ll see your Twitter / name profile when you join. (Hopefully, the hosts/participants will notice you too!)

5. Scheduled Blabs

The second tab is the Scheduled blabs.

As the name implies, these are videos that are set to be aired on a specific date.

After clicking on the tab, you will be presented with a list of scheduled blabs. You can filter the choices in order to easily find a blab you want to watch.

You then click on the subscribe button so you can get a notification when the blab is about to go on air.

6. Replay Blabs

One of the best things about Blab.im is that it allows users to record their blabs for future viewing.

Users can also embed the videos on other social platforms or on their own website.

The Replay blabs are already recorded, which means you won’t be able to actively participate with the hosts of the video.

But it’s still a useful feature that allows you to watch a blab that you may have missed due to a conflict with your schedule.

You can use the “Tell a little bird” link to share on Twitter, and also “Tell your Friends” on Facebook.

7. Set Up Email Notifications

It’s also recommended to modify your settings and set how you want to receive notifications.

Just click on your image located in the upper right hand corner of the screen and then click on Settings.

Under Email Me, you can select or deselect the different options depending on your own preferences.

Notifications make it easy and convenient to keep updated with what’s going on with your friends and whether they have released new blabs.

8. Host Your Own Blab

Hosting a blab is a lot easier than you might think. You just have to click on the Start a New Blab button located right beside your profile image.

You then have to fill in a few information regarding your blab. Enter the title of your blab and choose up to 3 tags that are most relevant to the topic.

This enables other people to find your blab and subscribe to it. You can then choose to host the blab now or in the future.

If you’re scheduling a blab, you will need to enter the date and time. Remember that the time indicated on the site is adjusted to your time zone.

9. Get On Early When Hosting a Blab

If you’re hosting a blab, it’s better to get on early so you have time to fix any technical issues that may arise and to invite co-hosts.

Aside from the presentation itself, you should also check whether your camera and microphone work perfectly.

The last thing you want to happen is to let your viewers wait as you try to iron out these issues that could have been avoided.

10. Use Short Codes

Watching a blab and participating in the conversation is the core of Blab.im.

However, there could be times when your message doesn’t get noticed due to the sheer number of people trying to get their voices heard.

An easy solution to this is to use short codes.

For instance, you can use /q when asking a question.

This flags your comment as a question, distinguishing it from the rest of the comments for easier viewing.

There are also plenty of short codes which you can use to express your opinion including /shrug and /tableflip.

11. Give Props

One of the easiest ways to get involved in the live video stream is to give props. You can think of props as similar to likes in other social sites.

They don’t really have a value; they simply tell the person that you appreciate his or her content.

You can give as many props as you want to any of the 4 persons on the screen. The two hands indicate the number of props the person has received.

These are just some basic tips to help you get started with Blab.im. Keep in mind that the key here is consistency.

By scheduling your blab ahead of time, giving it a title that best describes what the video is about, and having other people as co-hosts to keep things fresh and interesting, you can creep your way up and become the next Blab superstar!

Here’s the beginner’s guide to social media – if you need to get started. It’ll help you to build a better online strategy with social:
FREE: Download the free Social Media Performance Handbook that will show you how to set up your social media campaigns in 7 simple steps. Includes 2 bonus strategies not found in this post.

Tags app, blab.im, Social Media

Categories
Social Media

5 Ways To Grow Your Business Through The Power Of Social Media

Post author By Jon Rognerud

Post date November 25, 2015

You may have conquered offline advertising.

Your sales team is out there doing the “warrior-networking” thing and is creating nice commissions for itself.

Your website sits at the top of Google for an incredibly competitive word. (personal injury attorney, accident attorney, anyone?)

Top 10 most expensive keywords:

However, you cannot seem to crack the social media code.

It is no surprise as social media is an entirely different beast with approaches & algorithms that make only partial sense to those of us familiar with SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

We know that social media is a vital part of our online business strategies, yet we are unsure how to prepare, launch and become continually successful at it.

This is even more true for small businesses who may not have the budget or time resources for a social media expert.

It is next to impossible for a small business owner to run their business and try to create even the first successful social marketing campaign.

If you have no idea where you should be heading with promoting your business with social media we are here to help.

Here are five expert tactics that will bring your social media efforts to an entirely new level.

1) Engagement Is The Key To Success

Too many businesses take to social media and try to make a strong presence quickly, (blasting out content, pictures and quotes) and commenting on social networks with feedback like “great”, “enjoyed that” or “learned a lot” and nothing more.

(From The Awesome Buffer Blog)

The problem is they are only making half the effort that is needed for success.

While they may actually read all the comments on their own or others posts and tweets — that is as far as they go.

As a business, you need to be willing to go the distance and truly interact with your audience, and create posts that speak to them. That includes engaging on other platforms too.

Audiences need to know that someone is on the other end and actually listening to their problems and hearing their questions.

Try to contribute to your community with your knowledge and experience.

Responding to your audience brings a feeling of familiarity to your business. You no longer are just a business, you become a trusted friend.

Your willingness to care is going to take on a life of its own as your answers and comments are shared by your audience.

While this is a relatively simple task it helps to put your business on the map that is one that listens to and cares for their audience.

This one simple task can help you jump over your competition by leaps and bounds.

Pick a time each day or week where you address this, and track the data via your web analytics.

2) Offer Exclusive, Entertaining, Useful Information And Deals

You have to give your audience a reason to follow you on social media.

Simply asking and saying ‘please’ is not enough anymore. In fact, outright ethically bribing your audience to follow you may be the only way to gain followers and an audience, especially in the beginning. If done with integrity and a helpful intention, it will work.

From ConnectedTimes (with Gary Vaynerchuk (Twitter))

But, do not feel as though you have to bribe your audience with monetary gifts and rewards all the time.

Sometimes the act of sharing exclusive information with your audience is all that is needed.

People like the feeling of being in an exclusive club and receiving high-quality information can be their gateway drug within your business.

Another tactic you can use on the promotion of your business is by sharing exclusive sales and deals that are not offered anywhere else.

While your audience will love the special deals, you will enjoy the immediate boost in sales.

If you are feeling generous, the best way to promote your business on social media is through the use of freebies and sweepstakes.

Everyone loves to get something for free and this is all the more true with online relationships.

Simple sweepstakes that involves the giveaway of an inexpensive product has the potential of reaching thousands of targeted audience members.

Remember, the more unique you can get with your sweepstakes theme and prize the more people it will reach.

However, gone are the days of the “get a free iPad” campaigns. These will not help your business since tire-kickers and freebie-seekers are the only ones you’ll get.

3) Build Up Your Reputation

Social media is one of the best platforms to build up your online reputation.

As you already know your online reputation is one of your most valuable assets available to you.

Courtesy Ogilvy – Social Reputation

Without a good reputation, your efforts online will more than likely fall flat.

You can use your time on social media by offering insights, opinions, and valuable information to your visitors.

By simply sharing this information you are building an incredible online reputation while you are promoting yourself. An incredible way of killing two birds with one stone, if you will.

Your reputation builds because all you are offering is helpful advice and tips. That is why it is so important in the early stages of promoting your business that you stay far away from self-promotion.

Your audience can smell a sales pitch a mile away and this will do more harm to your reputation than those hefty commissions can solve.

4) Use All Platforms That Are Available To You

Many businesses will only use Facebook or Twitter and forget about all the other resources that are available to them.

Just because you don’t think Pinterest or Tumblr would offer much of an impact in promoting your business doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use them.

(Courtesy MarketingCharts)

In fact, many times you may be able to grow a rather large following if you are able to tailor your contact to the type of audience that hangs around those platforms.

However, the smartest step is to do some research first. Where is your audience hanging out? Perhaps you are in a B2B environment? You should consider LinkedIn and create not only your personal profile there, but also create LinkedIn company pages.

If you are unsure what you should be sharing on Pinterest or Instagram, spy on some of your competitors and follow along those similar lines. Once you see that your content is being enjoyed by the audience, start getting creative with the content that you share and create.

5) Video Is As Social As You Can Get

Too many businesses are forgetting the absolute engagement power that comes with creating content for YouTube.

YouTube is still one of the largest social media powerhouses and should not be ignored.

Courtesy CandorPr.com

It’s the 2nd largest search engine and owned by Google. YouTube is a good platform to promote your business online.

YT should be used to get very personal with your audience and is perfect for creating how-to videos and tips that your audience will appreciate. Create a few short videos to start. Begin by answering the top 5-10 most common questions that customers and prospects ask.

These videos are very easy to create and your audience is going to love sharing these.

As an added bonus the link back you will receive from is valuable for targeted traffic. It include an editorial “no-vote” in Google’s eyes, but still important to direct traffic to your segmented website.

One of the most important things to remember about promoting your business online is that you have to build a reputation that instills a sense of trust and loyalty. Without these two components, your campaigns are likely to fail.

Conclusion:

These are just a few ways you can start promoting your business and building a loyal following…So to recap, here are the 5 strategies to review:

Create interaction: Engagement Is The Key To Success

Infotainment: Offer Exclusive, Entertaining, Useful Information And Deals

Brand reputation: Build Up Your Reputation

Be omnipresent: Use All Relevant Platforms That Are Available To You

Get personal: Video Is As Social As You Can Get

We always love to hear what your methods have been in successfully promoting your business through social media.

What are you using now? Fill in the comments below, would love to get feedback:
FREE: Download the free Social Media Performance Handbook that will show you how to set up your social media campaigns in 7 simple steps. Includes 2 bonus strategies not found in this post.

Tags business, growth, Social Media

Categories
B2B Marketing

Use This 1 Weird Tip And You Will Earn BIG Business The Old Fashioned Way

Post author By Jon Rognerud

Post date November 20, 2015

What is the golden egg of marketing strategy to get more quality and targeted leads, happy customers and growth to your business these days?

What is that ONE THING that you could apply to your business today, and see (virtually guaranteed) results as early as this week?

I know this is a HUGE (and common), possibly complex — question asked online.

We’ll need to break this down, so you can see the options that lay before you.

But first…

Everybody is out there trying the latest trick, tool or gimmick it seems (periscope, anyone?), and there are more failures than successes, that’s for sure. It’s noisy online, and getting worse by the minute…

What do you do?

Simple. Get the key and unlock the secret to the NEW GAME.

You must understand the distinctions between Paid, Owned, Or Earned Media To Strengthen Your Business Online.

Don’t take this lightly.

One of the frequent questions I see posted on the Internet and in blogs and business forums is a CEO or business owner asking for a growth strategies, and what to do. They may ask about where paid, owned, and earned media can be used, but don’t fully understand what it is.

Many website owners and marketing teams simply get online and begin to churn out the content without any understanding of these three essential elements for digital marketing success.

Of course, you could go your entire digital career and never find out the answer to this question and probably be no worse for wear.

(Ed.Note: Read this post fully. At the top, I promised 1 THING, not three. But, you’ll see how understanding the trifecta relationship will allow you to zoom in on the “one”…)

As a digital marketer, it is your responsibility to understand the various aspects of marketing and this trio of media needs to be understood and tamed.

Each one of these media types is its own animal and it needs to be treated as such. With that, I will try to stop with the animal analogies.

As with any problem we do not completely understand, let’s start at the beginning by defining these three media types.

What Is Paid Media?

Perhaps one of the easiest to understand.

This includes all of the advertising that comes directly from the $$$ in your pocket.

Actually a better representation would be the thousands that are withdrawn from your corporate card(s) on a monthly basis, in exchange for clicks or impressions (Example: ads or banners displayed).

Regardless if you place an ad on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google search (Adwords), Display networks, or even a newspaper ad, it is considered paid media.

This is basically the process of bringing a stranger to your website or store and introducing them to what you have to offer.

The goal is to generate immediate, targeted incoming traffic, and to begin testing to quickly get a positive return on every dollar or cost metric invested. Example: If you pay 1.00 a click and get 2.00 back, you’ll do that day in and day out. Powerful. Fast.

What Is Owned Media?

This form of media is anything that is officially owned or operated by you. This would include your website, Facebook fan page, blogs, or even a retail shop.

Many believe that owned media is the strongest element of the trio.

They argue that it is the strength of this property that will take an individual from a paid media outlet to becoming a full-fledged customer.

We will dive further into this conundrum later in this post and expose what is actually the most important aspect of this chain.

What Is Earned Media?

Earned media is the reward you receive for publishing incredible content.

Earned media includes retweets, shares of your Facebook post, and comments on your blog. You are “earning” the love.

Basically, anything that you did not go out and physically set out and do yourself.

Ready For A Test?

Here is a trick question for you. You have posted a video on Youtube and have been using paid advertising to drive traffic to it. Your video begins to pick up momentum and starts to get shared and commented on.

Is this video considered paid or earned media? I’ll give you a minute to mull over your answer.

In this case, the video would be considered an earned media.

While you are driving paid traffic to the video, you are not paying for the like or comment. That just becomes a bonus from producing high-quality content.

There you have it, the three primary forms of media.

More than likely you are already engaging in two to three of them. If not, you should be, you know what they say about putting all your eggs in one basket, right? Google will come along and step on them. OK, they may not say that, but they should!

What is the “ONE” TIP?

Out of those three media types, which would you believe to be the most important?

If you answered paid media, you would be absolutely correct. However, out of the three, it is used the least, at least in a startup phase.

Many marketers shy away from paid media as they are afraid they will lose their shirt in ad costs. However, it is becoming a reality that this is the model you need to focus on for 2016. You re-invest into the paid campaigns as you turn profits. Plus, you can offer something for sale on the “thank you” page that immediately covers the cost of ad spend!

What most marketers do not understand is that paid marketing via social media and search is actually quite effective.

Paid media is not only cost effective it is quite simple to get started with. Within the day or week, you could have a steady stream of new visitors coming to your site on your own budget and terms. Provide a fast loading landing page, a strong offer and test for conversions. Then, leverage this incredibly valuable marketing intelligence to push over to your SEO and related marketing campaigns.

Paid media allows you to direct your traffic where you want them to go, with a little planning and strategy of course! You can turn it on and off quickly.

Start by promoting a high-quality piece of content on Facebook, for example (blog or direct response offer). The user clicks thru and reads your content. Bang! You have them on your site, you have to direct their next move. Without a question, send them to an opt-in page and collect their information.

Make sure to retarget your visitors (Facebook pixel), and build your audience profile over time.

Consider expanding via Facebook Lookalike and Google’s remarketing programs. Research tools and systems for broader online/offline look-a-like modeling frameworks too.

Why Paid?

Capture emails from your paid traffic, and start nurturing the relationship via email marketing. Having that email means when the next big change comes you are already prepared and will not have to go chasing a new audience down.

Unlike earned and owned media you are in absolute control.

While you may own media, you can not drive traffic to it other than by search engine optimization techniques and external profiles (links) management.

Paid media lets you turn on the flow of traffic whenever you need to. There are so many marketers struggling for that little trickle of traffic, and here it is.

Once you master how to promote your posts, content, offers, products and services — and place cost effective ads, there is no better feeling of control over your properties.

With paid media you have absolute control through the use of tracking with your favorite analytics and tracking program. You can even get keyword data in your analytics.

Of course, you will not be able to promote every piece of content you place on social media unless you have a massive budget in hand. You will be able to promote select pieces of content that are going to work better for you. These posts help to increase brand awareness, loyalty, and eventually turn to earned media. This has to be tested and fit into your monthly spend.

The most important part of this equation is to have a strong strategy in place and plan everything. There is no perfect strategy I can give you to master this process. But, run your analytics and watch for KPIs (key performance indicators) as you determine the best results.

It is also important to know that this media trio does not always work in perfect sync.

In a perfect world you would promote a post, the visitors click onto a property you own and reads your content, they share with their friends and leave a comment for you.

That is a moment of zen in this strategy. But, it will not always work like that. Continue testing, testing, testing – and don’t give up. Hire a digital marketing consultant to help you.

This brief overview should have at least helped you understand the basics of paid, owned, and earned media types.

You should now be able to create a strategy based on this media that will help you meet you business goals.

Now: Do you agree?
NEED SOME HELP? Contact Us Here and schedule your time.

Tags PPC, SEO, Social Media

Categories
General Marketing Automation

Top 11 IFTTT Recipes To Completely Automate Essential Daily Social Media Tasks

Post author By Jon Rognerud

Post date November 10, 2015

IFTTT is an automation tool set to completely change the way you handle daily social media tasks, and really any workflow for improved productivity.

It’s 2015, and by the feelings of numerous science fiction authors, we hypothetically should be living in a completely automated world by now.

Cellphones now comes with personal assistants, and new applications are empowering users to automate their online media — even between applications.

If This Then That (ifttt) is a new Web-based device that empowers users to make tasks (or “recipes”) that can automate activities on social media networks or applications after an activity occurs on a different social network or application. Some ifttt users utilize the application to automate social media, for example, automatically greeting new followers; others utilize the tool to automatically process tweets they mark as favorite in Evernote. (highly recommended)

If you are new to ifttt, here are 11 IFTT Recipes To Completely Automate Essential Daily Social Media Tasks.

1. Tweet having #fb hashtag to Facebook status with no hashtag

Facebook and Twitter have now empowered elements to make it simple to cross-post either to or from Twitter and Facebook. However, you might not need to post each tweet on Facebook. While a few applications exist to permit you to consequently post certain tweets tagged with #fb to Facebook, you should manually recall to label your tweet with “#fb” to push this tweet to Facebook, and the hashtag will likewise be incorporated into the Facebook post. This ifttt formula permits you to create recipes that automatically push tweets with particular hashtags to Facebook and also remove the hashtag when posted on Facebook.

2. Synching Google+ public posts on Twitter

Are you active on Google+ and Twitter, too? Maintaining an active presence on more than one social networks can be extreme and tedious, however ifttt can make it simpler. This recipe synchronizes your public Google+ posts on Twitter. The recipe will just work if you share your posts publicly, and will restrain the post on Twitter to its 140-character tweet design. However, this formula is a basic approach to automatically share your Google+ posts on Twitter in case you’re short on time or resources

3. Thank #FF

Friday Followers – Follow Friday, or #FF, is a popular way for Twitter users to post their favorite Twitter clients to their own particular followers to urge other users to follow them and find new content. If you have been mentioned in a #FF by another Twitter client, Twitter etiquette urges clients to thank the other client for the consideration. To help automate this procedure, an ifttt recipe empowers clients to consequently thank clients for a #FF

4. Each time you are tagged in a photograph on Facebook, it will be sent to Dropbox

Chances are that your companions harbor a greater number of photographs of you than you have of yourself — particularly on Facebook. If you need to make sure that you get a duplicate of these photographs, particularly from friends who always take years to get a copy they keep promising to send, you can utilize this ifttt formula to automatically send a copy of a photograph you have been tagged in on Facebook right to a your own Dropbox account.

5. #mypermissions Monthly Reminder

This is maybe one of my most loved ifttt recipes, and should be utilized by any individual who has connected themselves to a plenty of applications that continually change permissions (which most do).

This reminder will send you an email once per month to go to mypermissions.org and check what consents you provided for what applications, which may trigger you to deactivate certain applications if you need to.

6. Instagram Photos to Facebook Album

Are you an energetic Instagram user?

With this ifttt recipe, you can ensure that your Facebook friends automatically see the photographs you share through Instagram by sending them to a unique Facebook collection you create only for your Instagram photographs. You’ll obviously need to synchronize your Facebook and Instagram accounts for this recipe to work appropriately.

7. Save all Instagram photographs to Dropbox

If you loved the thought of automatically posting your Instagram photographs to Facebook with that last recipe, you’ll adore the idea of saving all of your Instagram photographs automatically by synchronizing them with Dropbox.

This ifttt formula is easy to set up –by simply providing the path to your Dropbox to which you need to save your Instagram pictures.

8. When Amazon Free Android App of the Day is posted, send me an email

In case you’re an Android user, you likely anticipate the free Android App of the Day.

Presently, rather than physically checking for the free application consistently, you can utilize this ifttt recipe to automatically email you what the Free App of the Day is. The formula utilizes a RSS feed to source the free application, and when another application is posted to the feed, you will get an email.

9. Archive my Foursquare check-in to Google Calendar

This ifttt formula is another of the best, specially for the mobile crowd, and if you like good dining. With this task, you can synchronize your Foursquare check-ins with your Google Calendar to archive where you’ve been and what you’ve done. This can be valuable for the individuals who travel frequently and need to remember what landmarks they visited on their last excursion, or for the individuals who might need to archive critical breakthroughs in relationships or within the families.

It’s likewise a fun recipe if you are a foodie; you can utilize it as a journal of places you have dined. This ifttt formula is easy to utilize and requires no customization to set up.

10. Email me an invite when a new startup is featured @betalist

Need to thoroughly understand the most sizzling new up-and-coming businesses?

You could visit betali.st, or you could utilize this recipe at ifttt to get an email with invites to new companies featured on betalist. This recipe is a specific favorite of LockerGnome communal member Shaun Dunne.

11. Thanking people on Twitter when they mention you or RT

Are you a thankful individual?

With this ifttt recipe, you can demonstrate your appreciation for mentions and RTs on Twitter automatically. The recipe scans for mentions of you on Twitter and permits you to say something to the effect of “Thanks for the mention!” You can obviously, customize your thank you message if you want (and I recommend you do!)
NEED SOME HELP? Contact Us Here and schedule your time.

Tags automation, iftt, ifttt recipes, Social Media, tasks

Categories
General Social Media

9 Content Creation Tips For Profitable Social Media (Copy This List)

Post author By Jon Rognerud

Post date November 10, 2015

Any social media marketing campaign lives or dies according to the quality of its content.

No matter what you do, if your content does not sparkle, you are not going to get the results that you want.

When you look at the people who seem to dominate social media, you will find that they all have one thing in common: …

…great content (with a plan)

If you are having trouble coming up with such content, you may just need a bit of inspiration.

Give the following tips a try, and see if any of them give you the nudge that you need to get started.

1. Tell Good Stories

Human beings are creatures that love narratives. We love stories that have a beginning, a middle, and an end, and that surprise us or tell us something new.

Focus on telling great stories in your content.

Remember, there is always something else to read or watch online, so unless you grab your audience’s attention right away, they are going to click away and go somewhere else.

2. Focus On Strong, Positive Emotions

Content that evokes a strong emotional response from the audience is going to be more successful than content that does not move people. In addition, when marketing your brand, you need to make sure that these emotional responses are positive ones.

The most popular content online tends to be the most emotional, and stories that evoke positive emotions are far more likely to be widely shared and potentially go viral.

Try this tool and see what the top posts are for your industry. Then, test with new headlines and new, updated content that helps and engages your audience.

You’ll see that content with strong emotions and call to action draw visitors in.

3. Get To The Point

No one wants to waste five minutes reading a lengthy introduction just to find out what you have to say.

Keep your content as short and sweet as possible. The more concise your articles are, for instance, the easier it will be for people to absorb your message, and the less likely they will be to get bored and click away.

Say what you have to say within a few sentences.

Keep polishing your pieces until you have boiled them down to the basics.

4. Craft Catchy Headlines

Your headline is the first part of your content that anyone sees, so you need to spend time creating ones that are going to make people want to keep reading.

No matter how amazing your content is, if it has a dull headline, few people are going to bother to click on it.

Make it clear that reading your content will give people valuable information without requiring a lot of effort from them.

5. Use Images And Videos

Online, a picture is really worth a thousand words, or possibly more!

Every article that you write needs to have compelling graphics and videos accompanying it.

Studies have found that even a single image in a post can double the number of times it is shared.

Infographics, how-to videos, and other visual content can dramatically improve the reception of your content.

If you do not feel up to creating your own, hire a graphic artist who is able to make what you need.

6. Post Frequently

If you only post new content on rare occasions, it doesn’t really matter how amazing it is.

If you really want your marketing campaign to take off and give you great results, you need to post new content as frequently as possible. This does not mean spamming people with hundreds of links per day, but it can mean making a dozen or more updates in 24 hours.

The more you post, after all, the more opportunities there are for people to share your content.

Once you post something, keep promoting it as long as possible. You may annoy a few people, but the results you get will be worth it.

7. Be Sure To Give Credit

If you use an article or an image from someone else, be sure to link back to it.

Not only does this increase the amount of traffic those sites get, but it improves your own reputation. Other people will be more likely to link back to you and send traffic in your direction if you have done the same for them.

Retweet people who tweet your content and thank them for doing so.

Follow people who follow you. Leave positive comments on other people’s pages.

8. Use The Data

It is not enough to just post content and send it out into the world.

You also need to take the time to study how each piece does so that you can know what works and what doesn’t.

Which pieces get the best responses? Which ended up being ignored?

By studying all of this data, you can look for patterns that you can then use to improve your content. You may discover that certain topics are much more popular than others, or that some days are better than others.

Many social media tools provide dashboard within them. Tools like Sendible, Hootsuite and Buffer, for example.

9. Give Them A Valuable Takeaway

You need to leave your readers feeling as if they have gained some practical knowledge from your content.

They need some concrete, down to earth advice that they can use right away. Not only does this leave them feeling more satisfied, but it also makes them more likely to go on and share your content with other people.

Creating great content for your social media marketing campaign can take some time.

Give these 9 tips a try and see how well they work for you.

Before long, you will get the results that you want!
NEED SOME HELP? Contact Us Here and schedule your time.

Tags content creation, content creation t, profits, Social Media

Categories
General Social Media

6 Smart Social Media Solutions For Professional Services Businesses

Post author By Jon Rognerud

Post date November 4, 2015

In light of the broad reach of social media today, many professional service businesses are seeking to engage in a professional manner in the online community for marketing and informational purposes.

While there are no hard rules on how professional service businesses, such as financial advisors, attorneys, or realtors, must approach social media marketing and information sharing, businesses should always develop appropriate guidelines that not only outline online goals, but also establish a base for professional online conduct.

Here are six smart social media solutions that professional service businesses should include in their social media guidelines and follow precisely to make their online experience with social media sources a success.

1. Providing an honest look at the business

Identifying your particular position and role for the company will not only create a sense of authenticity but also establish credibility among other social media users. Business related information posted must be accurate and verifiable to avoid misinterpretations by prospects. Honesty can go a long way when representing your business in social media and misleading statements or facts are oftentimes easily discerned by others.

2. Practicing common courtesy and respect

When posting in social media forums, ensure that only meaningful, appropriate content will be used. When responding to other posts, comments should always reflect the overall integrity and professionalism of the company. Only respectful, insightful comments will cast a positive light on a business and possibly establish a future relationship between the company and prospects. It is important to always handle disagreements with other users politely and abstain from becoming overly defensive or treat the matter in a way that would reflect negatively on the business.

3. Respecting privacy and confidentiality

Prior to posting business-related content in social media forums, it is imperative to ensure that doing so will not violate privacy or confidentiality rights. Many reports, privileged conversations, or client-related matters are not intended for public sharing and may not be legally disclosed. It is best to use common courtesy and ask permission for publishing any content that may be subject to privacy and confidentiality rights. Any content posted in social media forums will be widely available for viewing by users from all over the world.

4. Capitalizing on expertise

Composing unique content about your business that reflects personal expertise and insight will not only give the posts a natural voice, but may also help build a readership of individuals interested in your individualistic perspectives on business happenings and activities. A great way to employ professional expertise in social media is to create a separate website or a business related Facebook page and to post brief insightful tips or opportunities for free consultations. Industry-specific information, events, statistics, and reports also make for great conversation starters. When posting niche-specific content, always ensure that the general public will be able to understand the information provided by avoiding industry lingo and ask for input.

5. Establishing a personal connection

To help build a positive reputation for your business, try to connect with other social media users by displaying your personality in your posts. Sharing personal thoughts, stories, and background may help other users to connect with you on a more personal level. Many professional services businesses, such as financial planning or real estate, may seem rather intimidating to the general public and being able to see the professional as a real person with similar values and life experiences will help prospective clients relate to you more easily.

6. Employ other media tools to relate information

When looking to provide simple overviews of events, activities, or news pertaining to your business, it may be helpful to make use of other online media tools in conjunction with social media to get the message across. Producing short but professional video clips and creating brief blog post that can be advertised on your social media profile to keep online prospects updated on recent happenings can be a great way to increase online viewership and readership.

Regardless of industry, professional service businesses must take a smart approach to social media use to avoid engaging in online activities that may result in violations to privacy and confidentiality or would cast a negative light on the company. In the end, online social media behavior should always reflect the same professionalism, respectfulness, and common courtesy that the business person would demonstrate in person.
BONUS: Get the free lead generation guide that will show you how to quickly get more leads from traffic. Includes 2 bonus strategies not found in this post.

Tags internet marketing, professional services, Social Media

Categories
General Social Media

How to Measure Social Media Marketing Success Easily (ROI and Goals)

Post author By Jon Rognerud

Post date November 4, 2015

Tracking social media is a two-fold approach.

Know this: social media is a ‘media’ (press) darling. Consider how many posts and references show up for social media every hour, everyday.

SEO, or search engine optimization, on the other hand – has been around a lot longer, but doesn’t get as much credit or love these days.

Perhaps our friendly journalists think they are the same? Hope not.

The professionals who understand the difference between user intent, tactics and overall strategies for the two forms of online marketing (drawing the line here), are clear that they both can have solid impact – for really any business.

SEO tends to be easier to track for many (keywords to conversion as an example), social media – not. But, if you cannot answer the “what and the why”, you’re not doing great in either, or you are just getting started.

It’s hard to track real ROI with social media marketing. (Really?)

For most businesses the best sales and marketing campaigns involve forming strong relationships with customers/clientele. It’s because of these relationships that companies can flourish and grow as they build trust and loyalty with their patrons.

As a result, it’s no doubt social media marketing found its way into the business arena. Effective networking is a key factor to implement in order to grow a business; and social media provides that opportunity.

Yet how does a business know if its social media marketing campaign is effective? How can the level of success be measured?

The answer is two-fold.

The first.

This is arguably the most important task to accomplish when deciding how to use social media marketing for your business. Determine your objective(s).

What is it you want to accomplish with your social media marketing efforts?

And, do you know what is going on right now in your marketplace (conversation)?

Whether your business is a PR firm, technology company, recruiting firm, nonprofit organization or a simple ice-cream parlor in a small town, there is something you want/need to accomplish with social media marketing.

It could be as tangible as increased sales and profits or less tangible like getting responses from customers about how to make improvements to your product or service. Or, getting success stories and testimonials to increase your credibility profile.

Maybe your purpose is simply to increase your product’s brand awareness. Whatever your objective is, that will be what is weighed in order to measure your social media marketing success.

Without a clear picture of your objective, the effectiveness of your social media marketing campaign can never truly be measured. We think in terms of baselines to compare with as you grow.

The second.

When you want to measure the ROI on social media marketing efforts, the second option is probably what is most commonly meant when the question is raised. That is (analytics) “tracking”.

With pay per click or sales tracking a business owner has a tangible means of measuring; however, with social media tracking it is much less straightforward and the method depends on the site and approach.

Facebook, for instance, might be measured by the number of confirmed friends and engagement on ads to posts and landing pages;

Twitter might be weighed by the quantity of retweets following a tweet; number of followers acquired in a month;

A Web Forum might look at the quantity and quality of its threads. The list goes on and will continue to grow as the world of social media continues to grow and evolve.

Free tools like Social Mention helps to capture “sentiment” – another metric that can be used for reputation management.

The bottom line is this: measuring the success of social media marketing is subjective, and each business must identify what objective it wants to accomplish. When that aim is being met, the business can say with confidence that its social media marketing campaign is effective and is a success.

Ultimately every business needs to have a plan in place that describes the goals and ROI objectives throughout the entire customer journey – from the first click, last attributed click and via the funnel.

Determine what the lifetime value is of your customer, break them down, and backtrack from there. Your advertising and marketing budget should be evaluated against total Return On Investment over time.

Next, try some tools that can help:

BudUrl, Bitly – track how many times people click on a link you share

Twitter Search – powerful search in real time, advanced search helps to drill down and inject yourself into the conversation as well

Twilert – Google alerts for Twitter – free

Google Analytics – free – ability to track traffic, content, referrers (where traffic came from) and a lot more. Make sure to install Google Tag Manager and set up Event tracking via Triggers.

Lead Generation EBook – Free download to learn the latest insights on how to create leads from social media and advertising overall
NEED SOME HELP? Contact Us Here and schedule your time.

Tags goals, measurement, ROI, Social Media

Categories
General landing pages

6 Tips to Improve Conversions For Your Social Media Landing Pages

Post author By Jon Rognerud

Post date June 24, 2015

If you’ve created separate landing pages for social media visitors, congratulations!

You’re already ahead of the many brands that make the mistake of using the same set of LPs (landing pages) for both PPC, SEO and social entry points.

But having dedicated social pages isn’t enough. Although some rules don’t change from one set of landing pages to the next, social LPs require specific action and attention.

Here are six ways to boost conversions on social media landing pages.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock

1. Consistency: Let Your Brand Tie Your Channels Together

If the landing page looks different to your visitors than the social ad that led them there, potential buyers may not be sure that they’ve landed in the right place. Make sure that your fonts, color scheme, images, logo and general look and feel are synch’ed between channels.

Your design and layout have to project your brand as unmistakably yours. This consistency has to extend to the physical world, as well. Make sure your shipping labels, invoice templates and business cards all have the same look and feel as your landing pages.

2. Each Social Network Needs its Own Landing Page

If you’re promoting, let’s say, a new infographic on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest, you’ll want to develop unique landing pages for visitors from each of those networks. Sure, all the pages will have the same conversion goal — to get visitors to sign up in exchange for your killer infographic. But your ads on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter don’t look the same. For the sake of consistency, neither can your landing pages.

TIP: You can use unique URL parameters to designate which layout should be used from which network.

3. Maintain Continuity in Image Dimensions

Pinterest and Google+ like portrait images. Facebook and Twitter, on the other hand, favor horizontal images. Instagram photos are square. Creating dedicated social landing pages is a good start, but go further by building a set of pages to mirror the look of your content on each individual network.

Here is a social media image dimensions guide to image dimensions on all the major social networks.

4. Your LPs Need Video

Research on video use on landing pages shows that incorporating video into your landing pages not only keeps people on your site longer, but that it can increase conversions by as much as an astounding 87 percent.

Even if you don’t achieve an 87 percent boost, it is undeniable that videos are shareable, persuasive and that they can humanize your business.

5. Repeat Your Promises and Value Propositions

Like any landing pages, social landing pages and your social media strategy should contain headlines that are short, emotionally powerful and accurate. But it is especially important with social landing pages to make sure those headlines mirror the value proposition and promises articulated in the copy. If the words “Save $20 on Shoes” appear in the social ad, the same language should welcome your visitor in the landing page headline. Consistency and continuity, remember?

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

6. Know Your Audience

Most importantly, the success of your social landing pages depends on how well you know your audience and whether or not you tailor your pages accordingly. For social landing pages, that means speaking to visitors who are arriving from at or near the top of the funnel. Unlike PPC visitors, who are coming to you from closer to the bottom of the funnel, social visitors are in the discovery and brand awareness phase. They are likely to have just learned about your brand, your product or your service.

Speak specifically to the visitors you are trying to convert, build landing pages that only try to convert one target audience, and don’t try to force your landing pages to do more than they were designed to accomplish. The key is consistency.

Keep your brand identity the same, and never leave your visitors uncertain whether or not they clicked the right ad.

Nick Rojas is a business consultant and writer who lives in Los Angeles. He has consulted small and medium-sized enterprises for over twenty years. He has contributed articles to Visual.ly, Entrepreneur, and TechCrunch. You can follow him on Twitter @NickARojas, or you can reach him at NickAndrewRojas@gmail.com

Tags landing pages, Social Media

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