Digital Business Academy

Social Media MARKETING 2021-22

Beginner's Guide To Making Money Online. Become A Successful Influencer Through Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram And Linkedin Algorithms. Start Your Passive Income

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TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER 1

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF SOCIAL MEDIA?

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING, WHAT SHOULD YOU PAY ATTENTION TO?

CHAPTER 2

HOW TO CREATE A SOCIAL NETWORK PLATFORM IN FIVE SIMPLE STEPS

TODAY'S MARKETING: SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

THREE AFFORDABLE TOOLS FOR BEGINNERS

HOW THE CROWN CRISIS IS PUTTING THE PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL MEDIA BACK

CHAPTER 3

Marketing in social networks:

Define your audience

MCPRO RECOMMENDS

CHAPTER 4

START WITH A NICHE ON SOCIAL MEDIA

CHAPTER 5

DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS ARE MORE IMPROVING

THE MOST IMPORTANT DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS FOR 2021 AND WHY THEY START

"EVERGREEN" OF DIGITAL TRENDS: VIDEO MARKETING

BEST RANKING OF SEARCH ENGINES THROUGH VIDEOS

CHAPTER 6

THE 8 DEFINITIVE STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGY

8 STEPS TO MAKE A SOCIAL MEDIA DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY LIKE A PRO

CHAPTER 7

11 VERY GOOD TOOLS FOR DIGITAL MARKETING AND SOCIAL MEDIA

HOW CAN GOOGLE TRENDS HELP YOU IN YOUR MARKETING DIGITAL STRATEGY?

CHAPTER 8

ADVERTISING ON SOCIAL MEDIA - ADVANTAGES, OPPORTUNITIES, RISKS

WHO IS MY TARGET GROUP? WHAT PLATFORMS DOES IT OPERATE ON?

CHAPTER 9

HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO BUILD YOUR PERSONAL BRAND

How do you build your personal brand?

CHAPTER 10

WHAT IS A PERSONAL BRAND

TEN TIPS TO DEVELOP YOUR PERSONAL BRAND

CHAPTER 11

ARCHETYPES OF PERSONAL BRANDS

CHAPTER 12

Content Creation

CHAPTER 13

HOW DO I BECOME AN INFLUENCER

Influencer Marketing

CHAPTER 14

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING MADE SIMPLE: A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE

Instagram Integration

CHAPTER 15

10 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING MISTAKES YOU CAN'T AFFORD

CHAPTER 16

WHY SHOULD YOU USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR YOUR COMPANY'S SUCCESS

CHAPTER 17

10 WAYS TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO DRIVE YOUR BUSINESS SUCCESS

CHAPTER 18

HOW CAN COMPANIES USE LINKEDIN

5 TIPS FOR A GOOD LINKEDIN PROFILE (WHICH CAN BE USED QUICKLY)

DESCRIPTION OF TWITTER

WHAT IS PINTEREST

CHAPTER 19

5 WINNING STRATEGIES FOR MILLENNIAL MARKETING

CHAPTER 20

HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITH FACEBOOK: 5 EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES

TIPS FOR SUCCESS WITH AFFILIATE MARKETING:

CHAPTER 21

EARNING MONEY WITH YOUTUBE: IT WORKS WITH THESE TIPS

CHAPTER 22

HOW TO GROW YOUR PERSONAL BRAND ON YOUTUBE

CHAPTER 23

STARTING A SUCCESSFUL BLOG: 10 RULES YOU MUST FOLLOW IN 2021

CHAPTER 24

HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SMALL BUSINESS: 11 SIMPLE TIPS

11 ESSENTIAL SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS FOR BUSINESS

SWOT ANALYSIS

WHAT IS A SWOT ANALYSIS?

HOW TO USE A SWOT ANALYSIS

CHAPTER 1

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Social media marketing is a type of online marketing in which social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram ... are used for marketing. A common abbreviation is SMM. Social media marketing includes tactical and strategic measures to communicate company messages, interact with users, and generate visitors for your own website.

Additionally, social media marketing can be used to maintain relationships with stakeholders.

WHAT ARE SOCIAL MEDIA AND WHAT ARE

Social networks are all platforms that allow their users to network extensively and extensively and are used for communication. Interactive information is exchanged through digital channels.

Social networks can be mainly divided into social networks and messengers. Some platforms combine both functionalities.

Social media marketing has become an important marketing channel in recent years and is a way for companies to communicate their messages with strategic and content-related measures. Social media refers to platforms that allow users to connect and communicate online. Businesses can use these platforms, for example, to reach a wide range of stakeholders, such as current and potential customers, bloggers or journalists, with relatively simple and inexpensive means. With the help of data analytics tools, companies can measure progress and success as well as user engagement in social media marketing measures using KPIs. In addition to the goals that can be achieved by using social media, the relevant social media platforms are briefly presented below. Before companies start their activities on social media, they must first define the business goals to be achieved through the use of social media. To determine objectives, companies can think about the following questions:

What should be achieved with social media marketing

Who is the target group

What social media platforms does the target group use and in what way

What message should be transmitted about the company through social media marketing

Of course, each company has to define its own objectives according to the products or services. However, there are a few companies can use as a guide:

Increase traffic on the company's website through affiliate links.

Optimize the conversion rate

Increasing brand awareness, for example, through advertising on social networks.

Building a brand identity (digital branding) that strengthens positive associations

Improve communication and interaction with the target group.

In general, social media marketing is suitable for all businesses, regardless of size. Social media platforms are an important channel for presenting brand identity and own products and services to a large extent. Especially for small businesses with a tight marketing budget, social media is a good way to target and reach new potential customers at relatively low costs. Social media can also promote personal contact between companies and customers. Different social networks offer different content options and possible marketing activities.

Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Youtube, XING, Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn are the most popular social networks in Germany and are therefore the most important platforms for social media marketing.

Statistic: The most popular social networks worldwide as of October 2021, ranked by number of active users (in millions). There are specific orientations from social media, so there is little to no competition with each other.

XING and LinkedIn are B2B networks, although XING is more oriented to the DACH region and LinkedIn allows international contacts.

Instagram and Pinterest are social networks that focus on the image format. The greatest overlap exists between these two networks.

WhatsApp and Snapchat are messaging services. Snapchat is particularly popular with younger people because the messages are deleted after a short time.

Twitter is a social network where the number of characters in tweets is limited to 140 characters. However, tests with 280 characters are also running. In German-speaking countries, Twitter is used more in the B2B environment, while it is used internationally by wide sectors of society.

It is similar with Google+. Google's social network should one day become Facebook's great competitor, but it has not caught up with Facebook for a long time. In Google+ you can find some niches or industries that exchange ideas with each other.

Facebook is by far the most relevant social network in the world.

Youtube is a video search engine and social network for combined videos. YouTube is operated by Google and is considered the second largest search engine behind Google.

The future of social networks seems to belong to off-road platforms such as weChat, which combine messaging functionalities with the properties of classic social networks. The terms social media marketing and social media marketing are often used with the same name.

Are you interested in how strategic digital marketing works?

       TWITTER

WHAT DOES TWITTER MEAN FOR MARKETING ON SOCIAL MEDIA?

On Twitter, companies can post short messages, also known as tweets, of up to 280 characters to their company profile. Text messages, hashtags, photos, videos, or gifs, as well as links to the company's website or other social media profiles, serve as forms of presentation. For example, tweets can be entertaining, distribute company news, or promote discount campaigns. Twitter is also suitable for offering customer service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Complaints or comments can be responded to quickly, increasing customer loyalty and company recognition. Positive Tweets Customers Must Be Retweeted or Responded Personally - Twitter is an interactive platform that businesses should use for themselves.

       FACEBOOK

WHAT DOES FACEBOOK MEAN FOR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING?

A very established platform for social media marketing is Facebook. There, companies can introduce themselves and brand themselves individually with the appropriate content through photos or videos. The type of communication is rather informal, which allows a personal community management that strengthens the exchange and customer loyalty between the company and the users. To successfully operate social media marketing on Facebook, businesses need to pay attention to the Facebook algorithm. This influences the scope and potential target groups of a Facebook campaign. For example, unsolicited posts may reach fewer people than if they were budgeted for.

       INSTAGRAM

WHAT DOES INSTAGRAM MEAN FOR MARKETING ON SOCIAL MEDIA?

Instagram is a platform where you can mainly post images and videos with short descriptive texts. There is the possibility to send public or private messages or send short stories to followers. Businesses can use the platform to reach their respective target groups with attractive images and to get in touch with their current and future customers. In addition to ads whose look and feel are tailored to the visual world of Instagram, companies create brand awareness with their own Instagram profile. In addition, Instagram is a suitable platform to promote social shopping by encouraging users to include images of their favorite products Share hashtags. With the "Shop-the-Look" feature, Instagram has given e-commerce businesses in particular the opportunity to link their products directly to the landing page and the most important information to attract new customers.

       SNAPCHAT

WHAT DOES SNAPCHAT MEAN FOR MARKETING ON SOCIAL MEDIA?

Snapchat's content approach is very visual. Users can send short messages, pictures or videos privately, in group chats, or to all followers. The special feature is that the content published in the form of stories can only be accessed for 24 hours. With Snapchat, businesses and private users have the option of temporarily filling their channel with content and, for example, adding filters and effects. Authentic storytelling and communication at eye level are important foundations on this platform.

       WHATSAPP

WHAT DOES WHATSAPP MEAN FOR MARKETING ON SOCIAL MEDIA?

The instant messaging service WhatsApp is usually used by people for private communications. WhatsApp can also be an opportunity for companies to send personalized messages to customers. The advantages are, for example, the possibility to send messages to a large group of recipients and to know if they have been read. Classic ads cannot be placed on WhatsApp yet.

       YOUTUBE

WHAT DOES YOUTUBE MEAN FOR MARKETING ON SOCIAL MEDIA?

The best known video platform is YouTube. Users have their own YouTube channel on which they provide creative videos for their subscribers. Businesses can use YouTube for social media marketing by providing content that is interesting to their target group, for example, which can be found through search queries on Google or provides general information about the business. Internet users often look for instructional videos that provide explanations and answers to questions and are a good example of this. Furthermore, companies can cooperate with Youtubers who are targeting a target group that is relevant to the company. The sponsorship of youtubers and the ads that are placed behind the videos with the appropriate content complement the marketing in social networks.

       LINKEDIN / XING

WHAT DOES LINKEDIN & XING MEAN FOR MARKETING ON SOCIAL MEDIA?

Companies can introduce themselves and network on professional business networking sites like LinkedIn or Xing. The platform is particularly suitable for issues related to the company's own business, such as hiring new employees through job advertisements. It can be useful to get recommendations from employees on the platform, this increases the credibility and seriousness of the company. A question and answer area in the company profile makes the company interesting to potential employees and increases trust.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF SOCIAL MEDIA?

Social networks (social networks) are digital media and methods between users who exchange ideas and media content individually or create a defined collective or open to the public and to broadcast. They are used to communicate and connect users over the Internet, which supports the dissemination of knowledge, opinions and other information. Additionally, social media is a way to advertise companies and increase awareness.

You can use social media marketing in three different ways:

1. For the distribution of social content

2. Generate traffic for your own website

3. To place advertising on social networks

Benefits of social media marketing:

Keep the image

Expand awareness

Generate request

Increase sales

Information exchange

Provide support

Strengthen customer loyalty

Get opinions

Social media marketing helps businesses build a loyal community with customers and prospects. The use of the different platforms allows an exchange between clients and interested parties. The brand, own products and content, for example, presenting from your own blog is for a company an efficient way of brand building and retention of customers and target groups. The range is increased through social media, customers are informed more efficiently, and the company benefits from the opportunity to acquire new customers.

How does social media marketing work?

Social media marketing works when the presence on social media turns a reader into a follower or fan with a smart strategy. The elements of advertising, public relations, as well as distribution and sales are interconnected, to use the multiple channels of a marketing campaign to make potential customers aware of a brand or product. Inspire and excite a potential prospect with a video clip, photo, or contribution. Since the advent of Web 2.0, social media marketing has become indispensable for a new or established business.

How can a business measure the success of its social media marketing?

The measurement of the success of your social media marketing can be evaluated using analytics software (social media monitoring and analytics platform). Regular reports help to compare old data with new data. Evaluate, measure and optimize. At a glance, you can see, among other things, what percentage of the user has ordered something or just registered. Or you count how many clicks your followers have made. When launching a brand, visibility (reach) will be important. It all depends on the type of social media channels.

Possible key figures for social media marketing can be:

Scope

Like and share

Comments

For which company is social media marketing suitable?

Social media marketing is suitable for businesses of any size. For small or medium-sized businesses, social media marketing is just as important as it is for large market leaders. A social media platform is an important channel to market products and services on a large scale and with a very large reach. Each supplier, each company must advertise where new potential customers are: on social media. This can also be implemented with a lower budget.

Who is responsible for user-generated content?

Whether the operator of a social media channel is responsible for user-generated content depends on whether it is their own or third-party content. Own content is all content that the operator itself has published. You are fully responsible for your own content.

Third-party content that the operator of a social media channel has endorsed is also considered proprietary content. Such endorsement of third-party content occurs, for example, when third-party content is embedded on your own website in such a way that it is not recognizable as third-party content to a third party. The operator is also fully responsible for such content.

External content obviously does not come from the operator. These are comments that were obviously written by a third party. The so-called privilege of responsibility applies to third-party content. As long as the operator of the social media channel is not aware of the infringement, he is not responsible either. However, as soon as he becomes aware of illegal content, he must act immediately. This means that the content should be removed without hesitation. If the operator becomes aware of the violation but remains inactive, the person in question can sue the operator for an omission. In most cases, the operator is not obliged to verify or monitor user-generated content. However, as an exception, this applies if possible legal violations are caused. This applies, for example, to an exchange on explosive political or social issues. Here the operator should periodically check user contributions and remove them if necessary.

What quality should a social media marketing manager have?

You must master the language and be able to express yourself quickly and decisively. Approach a problem carefully and effectively. Internet savvy, analytical thinking and reporting skills. He measures success and feels trends. He must be able to plan, implement, measure and optimize. Other Summary Features:

Reliability

Honesty

Sincerity

Openness and friendliness

Be able to rethink with flexibility

Team player

Think strategically

Be good at listening

Be creative

What are the goals of social media marketing or viral message distribution?

Social media marketing has two main goals. First of all, social media marketing can be used to spread information through social channels. To do this, you need to create viral information or package the messages in viral containers for the hubs or influencers to spread more of their own. It is important to understand how messages are spread virally through word of mouth. To explain the phenomenon of why people spread messages and why certain content is spread better than others, it is necessary to briefly address the thesis of memetics developed by Richard Dawkins in 1976. A meme is a small unit of information that is so contagious for other people. who ingest it and spread it as a pathogen. Memes use “infected” social networks to spread ideas, inventions, ceremonies, customs, religions, technologies, fashions or slogans.

The replication mechanism is decisive for the transmission of messages. As you are not able to analyze and interpret everything that happens in your environment, people like to "replicate" and transmit the replica as part of their own attitude. A memetic selection takes place. Some memes are noticed, saved, and passed on to other people, while others are not copied at all. And viral marketing - how you can specifically generate word of mouth and use it profitably.

The second goal of social media marketing is to create customer loyalty and public relations or a social bond with the brand. These objectives differ rudimentary from other online marketing tools such as SEO and search engine advertising with Google AdWords.

When evaluating the achievement of social media marketing goals, you should focus on other KPIs or key figures than, for example, with AdWords or SEO campaigns. Difficult goals like sales or leads shouldn't be too high. The main goals, on the other hand, could be traffic increases, the percentage of returning visitors, likes on Facebook or the number of contacts on social networks.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING, WHAT SHOULD YOU PAY ATTENTION TO?

The social web is primarily a network of private individuals who provide user-generated content. It is understandable that companies with commercial interests are initially accepted as a foreign body in this environment. Before you start communicating as a business on Web 2.0, you must first act as an observer and monitor the social web, e.g., E.g. on Twitter, the Twitter sphere for your own search company names. Is there anything written about me or my company? Is positive? Is it negative? Who wrote it? You can do the same with Google alerts by emailing me the link every time the business name appears on the internet.

Also, you have to deal with the ways of communicating and dealing with the social web.

It does not help and is usually quite harmful if you use the typical classic advertising monologue. Then one is punished with indifference. You have to establish a dialogue on an equal footing with users. More consultants than salespeople. So, you can use the social web as a channel for customer loyalty. For hard sales, you should attract with exclusive offers only for the respective community. The word is spreading and the community should grow as a result. To expand your community, you can also attract with regular valuable content or, for example, useful apps for free. This ensures that the community will stay current and grow. This should include RSS feeds and buttons for common social bookmarking services and recommending others & Co. Facebook should be standard. If you are toying with the idea of being actively involved in social media marketing and want to enter into a dialogue with users, you should answer the following questions:

To whom

Which channel

Who

What

Who is my target group and where is it located? For example, is Twitter, Myspace or Facebook the ideal place to be? Or all together?

Who leads the dialogue with users

The most effective way to enter into a dialogue with users is to have a real face and person to contact. Simply placing an impersonal company logo does not fit in the world of the social web. For a pure hard sell, an impersonal company logo can also work. For the dialogue on customer and brand loyalty, it is of utmost importance to give the company a face on the social web. Ideally, an employee or product manager who is close to the product.

But this can lead to the first big difficulties or barriers within the company. So I can report from the practice that employees are often unwilling to put their face and name at the service of the company on the Internet. It quickly becomes clear how strongly the respective employee identifies with the company or its products. With many products one can understand and also not demand that the employee also endorse them as a private person. That would be a topic of discussion on "company philosophy" or "employee integrity," so stop here!

What should be communicated?

Once the person responsible has been found, it is about the content to be communicated. I have already mentioned a few approaches above. There are no limits to your imagination. Small online games, free apps, vouchers, funny videos ... ideally also viral. Important: Don't use simple marketing phrases like "We are the best!" "... The only one on the market!" ". Recommended by Stiftung Warentest"! Etc.

Be social!

Finally, it should be noted that Web 2.0 / Social Web offers a wealth of possibilities and many companies can use them to promote customer loyalty, brand and sometimes even strong sales. But this does not apply to everyone.

However, through Google's focus on real-time search, social media marketing makes sense for all websites when it comes to SEO. You can find more tips on Social Media Marketing (SMM) in the Social Media Marketing Guide. As a basis for a better understanding of the social web, it is convenient to address the topic of word of mouth, viral marketing and, in general, memes.

Why should you put social media marketing in the hands of an agency?

Because you can focus your time on your work. Outsourcing social media marketing is also a matter of business budget. It must be remembered that whatever budget you make available, you will save your employees time that they can use for their main activity. With a good social media marketing agency, you can be sure that social media appearances will be built strategically and sustainably. In addition, agencies tend to have more experience and more potential for creativity, which they can bring to blogging, social media concepts and social media advertising. The agency can establish specific target group communication with followers and fans, who are ultimately potential clients.

CHAPTER 2

HOW TO CREATE A SOCIAL NETWORK PLATFORM IN FIVE SIMPLE STEPS

Social Media Week is a leading news platform and global conference that selects and shares the best ideas and insights on the impact of social media and technology on business, society and culture. Since the creation of Facebook, the social media industry has been booming. Mark was the necessary trigger and catalyst that pushed entrepreneurs to think, take risks and create a fresh new social network.

Have you ever thought about building your own social network? If the answer is yes, then this article has all the details to help you create one. But how do you start a social network? Do you have the resources to create a social networking site? In this article, we find out everything and give you the right steps to succeed.

1. Define your target audience: know your community

Paying attention to this phase and concentrating all your work and energy in the beginning will pay off in the end. First, you need to define the core and then develop a social networking website based on these parameters and values. Ask yourself what is the social networking service anyway. Defining your target audience by using as many filters as you can will help you put your social media network on a solid footing later on. As we said, this phase is crucial and by doing it right you will significantly reduce the level of risk of failure. How to effectively define your target audience? You can choose between two approaches:

Online research

The Internet is a great place to get information. You can find, collect, and analyze demographic, psychographic, and behavioral data for large masses of people. There are many resources available that provide the correct data. You just need to dig deeper. Google should be your starting point that will guide you every time you need to go to get that valuable information. Research online can be time consuming, but it is reliable and simple.

Try and learn

With this approach, you need a ready-made demo version of your social media that you can test on real people, and then prepare assumptions based on their behavior. This approach requires organizing test persons, preparing various interview questions, and providing test equipment. The disadvantage is that it has associated costs, the good thing is that you will have 100% reliable results. How to create a social network when you have limited resources and what approach should you use? It really depends on the development process and the data you really need. Choose wisely.

2. Develop a growth strategy based on your users

How to build a social network in a market full of competitors? To build it from scratch, you must first prepare your growth strategy. Your target audience is defined, you have all the important data, but now you need to make your service known to them. It sounds very simple, but this part is also complicated. Fortune discusses interesting concepts in the article on the actual way to build a social network that can be valuable when implemented in reality.

The need to define a consistent growth strategy aligned with your target audience stems from the fact that the fate of your social network's commercial success depends on it.

There are two things you can do:

Start small and slowly expand your base. Remember that Facebook started locally and small. They used the information available in their high school yearbook. They expanded after the network became hugely popular. Entrepreneurs know how to take a calculated risk. Mark is an incredible entrepreneur and business conscious person. You too should be one. You can start your social network even with the help of white label tools, like Ning.

Go big - Focus your efforts on a large demographic and your marketing on a broader base right from the start. Twitter used this strategy and it became a huge success. Unless you have a unique solution or idea, you should always start small. It is a less risky success strategy. The Go Big approach will expose your social network to other competitors as well, making growth more difficult.

3. Follow these social media development checkpoints

What is a social network site if not complex software that needs the right equipment to develop successfully? Once you have all the necessary information about your target audience and your strategy, and know the functions and the look, it is time to communicate everything to your developer team. Before doing so, you should check that you have everything ready. Here are some checkpoints to reconsider before contacting your development team:

Money: the development process is all about money. Instagram had a development budget of $ 300,000 and Facebook around $ 500,000. It depends on the complexity of the functions you are trying to develop. If you opt for simple functionality, your cost will be less, around $ 100,000. Keep this in mind.

The platform: will it be a solely web-based social network or are you also planning to develop a mobile app? You need to know these things before the big talk with your development people. Use the data from your market research to decide what to do. How to launch a social network to market is closely related to the preferences of your target audience.

Database Volume - Traffic Estimation - Traffic cannot be estimated with 100% accuracy. The estimated number that will be close to what will actually happen will be valuable information for your development team. Here are some database options you can use:

Use MySQL or PostgreSQL for your structured data.

NoSQL databases, such as MongoDB for high loads and increased traffic

Base your choice on your estimate.

Use a minimal and simple social network UX design

4. How to design a social network that is easy to use and functional

Keep it minimal and simple. Why do these two rules exist? Because users want to create a social network that is about them, not about you. User experience matters. Create your own network that cares about your journey and the value you get from it. Flashy social media designs like HI5 and Myspace didn't seem to be doing very well on the market. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat have one thing in common which is user-oriented design and ease of use. Online tools can help too. For example, Ning has a simple drag-and-drop generator that can save you a lot of time.

Here you can see some necessary steps to create your own social network. There are basic elements to think about before you start defining your social media interface. You should think about:

The elements of a standard profile

Chat options and functions

News Feed Design

Connect buttons

Engagement buttons

Comment section areas

Social group options

Page layout settings

UX design can be tricky. You need to ensure that your social network provides a user-centric and enjoyable experience for your target audience. Consistency in all parts of your social network is imperative. A large investment in quality application architecture is something that must be prepared on time from a financial and structural point of view.

5. Promote your social network effectively

After all, it's said and done and you have the final product in your hands, it's time for the promotion. Follow the AIDA marketing model. It is an acronym used in marketing and stands for attention, interest, desire and action. Following these steps will help you communicate with your target audience in a way that best responds to their needs and wants. Implementing the basics of this model in your digital marketing strategy can work wonders. It may even have some artificial intelligence in it, as we are confidently moving into the computer world.

The ultimate goal is to properly monetize your efforts in the marketplace. Combine your passion with making money:

Advertising on your platform: banners, sponsored posts, sponsorships, brand mentions.

Cooperation with other companies and influencers through affiliate programs. Affiliate marketing is a well known form of monetization;

Sell digital products (such as e-books, games, software, music, apps) and physical goods (paper books, electronic, crafts, food);

Organization of events: charge for participation or sponsorship;

Independent services such as training, coaching, consulting;

Donations: the "Donate" button could be a good form of passive income;

Few concrete digital marketing solutions you can do to better promote your social network:

Develop your SEO strategy - SEO is just as important for social media as it is for any other e-commerce site. There are many experts in the market who can help you build a quality SEO strategy that won't cost you a lot but will increase your business' online ranking and exposure.

Use lead generation tactics - Create a landing page and give free access to some premium features. This will help you build your database of leads that you can use later for newsletters and future exciting updates on new features. You can even test recent chatbot marketing strategies.

Use another social network for promotion: Use your follower base to dig deeper and meet your friends on other social networks. Ask them to manually invite you. This means that you need to set up an automatic invitation system that can invite friends based on their email or social media profile. Facebook implemented this tactic for so long and then all the popular social networks followed suit. It will really help you build your community.

Find the perfect name that will define social media - Analyze popular names for social media, find which one best suits your business, and use it in your marketing campaign. The name is an equally important element of your marketing strategy.

Final thoughts

Developing your own social network is a process that can take up to six months at least. Following the five steps will allow you to make a slow and timely transition of each phase. What is the social networking service without its users? You know the answer, nothing. In each phase, always keep the needs of your target audience in mind. Never forget that.

TODAY'S MARKETING: SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Social media has been indispensable for a long time. They play an important role in private and professional life and influence people in the way they think and act. Used correctly, social media can increase the reach of a brand and therefore increase the value of the company. Increased sales is one of the main reasons why companies hire social media agencies to market them.

Are social networks

Social networks are platforms that allow their users to network with other users worldwide and exchange content. Social networks can be divided into two groups: social networks and messaging. Messaging services are mainly used for direct communication and the exchange of messages. WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are particularly noteworthy here. Other networks are used to exchange pictures, videos and short messages. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok are popular there. In addition, there are social networks that target certain areas. LinkedIn and XING are, for example, B2B networks that focus on work and career.

The purpose of social media

Social networks are used to exchange content between their users. Mainly opinions are exchanged, knowledge is disseminated or things are shared that serve the general enjoyment. Often times, social media is just a means to an end. Businesses and individuals use social media to distribute their content to as many users as possible or to generate traffic for their own website. In addition, there is the possibility of placing advertisements on the networks that should lead to the purchase of a product or service.

Social media marketing

In the field of online marketing, social media marketing is of great importance. Social media marketing includes tactical and strategic measures to increase the reach of a company, as well as interact with potential customers and generate traffic for the company's website.

In addition, companies have the opportunity to build and maintain the desired image. The selection of the social network in which the company is represented has a great impact on its audience. For example, you can design a website on Instagram that is meant to appeal to young people in particular. Establishing a social media presence across multiple networks can increase general awareness and consequently increase product inquiries and sales figures.

Another reason for social media marketing is communication with potential customers. The company can answer questions and exchange views with customers. This increases customer loyalty and customers are more inclined to buy from this company from now on.

How Social Media Marketing Works

The goal of social media marketing is to convert a reader into a follower or fan. This is achieved by complementing classic marketing strategies with social media approaches. For example, the website may refer to social channels that contain additional content about certain products. On the other hand, in social channels you can refer to specific products that can be purchased in the store. The connection of the different channels is essential today. Companies that are not represented on social channels are considered invisible to the general public.

Social media monitoring: practical guidelines and appropriate tools

If you don't react to current social media topics, interactions, and trends, you're wasting a lot of potential in terms of PR. Social media monitoring helps you get an overview of your own topics and channels, as well as those of your competitors.

With the help of various analytics and monitoring, you can check if your social media strategy is working and react accordingly. To monitor your platforms continuously and without complications, the tools are useful, differing mainly in terms of price and functions. We present suitable tools and offer guidelines for effective social media monitoring.

What you can find out about social media monitoring here

In this book, you will learn what exactly social media monitoring includes, why it can add value to your business, and what (inexpensive) tools facilitate social media analysis. The following questions are answered:

• What exactly is social media monitoring?

• What features do Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics offer?

• Which ones are not and where are professional tools applied?

• What tools are there and what are the differences?

• How much do social media monitoring tools cost?

• Selected tool: what's next? (Guide)

• What mistakes should I avoid in following social networks?

What is social media monitoring?

Almost all German companies above a certain size have at least one account on a social network these days. If you decide to have your business present on social media, you must first carefully choose which channels are the best and come up with a strategy. In the strategy, among other things, goals are established that, ideally, are formulated SMART, that is:

Specific that is clearly defined.

M edible, that is, it must establish measurability criteria.

A ngemessen, ie the target group, these objectives must be accepted.

Realistic, that is, the implementation must be feasible.

Terminiert, that is, you must set a date to achieve all the objectives.

If your goals were SMART and can be achieved or you have already achieved them, you can find out through social media monitoring.

But here, not only numbers such as reach, engagement rate or number of fans and followers are considered. This is much more of a classic social media analysis. During the follow-up, social media is mainly searched for information and users that may be relevant to your company as a stakeholder. Because your goals should not only include increasing the number of clicks, fans / followers or leads. According to the results of various surveys, one of the main objectives of many companies is

Build or enhance an image through social media,

Increase brand awareness and

Gain clients or intensely cultivate existing relationships with clients.

As part of your social media monitoring, you can define keywords based on which all channels are searched. In this way, you not only find out if the influencers, that is, the people who are evaluated as opinion formers, are talking about your industry or your company. Critics and competition, as well as blogs and forums, etc. they can also be kept in sight. Compared to classic social media analysis, which is carried out at regular intervals (for example, monthly or quarterly), the monitoring is carried out permanently with the help of tools. For example, you can quickly realize a problem in a crisis situation and counter it. As with Google, you can subscribe to alerts, that is, notifications that inform you about an upcoming topic.

Basic information for social media analysis

Facebook and Twitter, probably the most well-known social networks in Germany, offer some basic functions that are important for social media analysis.

You can find some figures for your analysis on Facebook by adding "/ insights /" to the URL or in the "Statistics" tab above. These statistics are particularly helpful for the reach, the number of page views and the development of "likes". You can also "keep an eye on the pages", ie enter your competitors in a list in order to see the development of these key figures in comparison.

Facebook also offers an insight into your target group, i.e. demographic data such as gender, age or place of residence, as well as times when your users are particularly often online. The interaction rate, which calculates how many interactions (i.e. likes, shares, comments, links or clicks) you have received in relation to the range, is also particularly exciting. A two-digit number can be classified as very good.

Twitter Analytics offers comparable numbers. You can keep an eye on clicks, impressions, follower numbers, etc. on this free page. Monthly overviews showing the tweet highlights, i.e. the tweets with the greatest reach and the most interactions, are also clearly listed here.

The platforms themselves already provide basic functions for analyzing your social networks. But even if the boundaries are sometimes blurred: Social media monitoring encompasses much more than just analysis. Tools can help you with this.

What is the use of a tool for social media monitoring

Tools for social media monitoring offer numerous functions that are no longer covered in the context of smaller analyzes by offers such as Facebook Insights or Twitter Analytics. This includes, for example, the closer observation of competitors, current topics and opinions. You should use tools if the following aspects are important to you:

Comprehensive competition analyzes and comparisons

Key figures for the classification or development of your own image

Screening of top topics and trends

Get to know the target group better

Observe opinions about your own company

Acquire opinion leaders / influencers

Early detection of emerging shitstorms

Use of data for process / product optimization

Suitable tools for your social media monitoring

There are many offers for social media monitoring tools. On the one hand, of course, they differ in price. In addition, there are both social media monitoring tools that cover multiple platforms and those that focus on one platform. There are also significant differences in functions. Some tools allow the cross-platform advance planning of contributions, but the details of the competition analysis and other features can also be different.

Further distinctions exist with regard to

The handling: is there an app? Is the layout appealing? Do I find my way around? And

The language (many tools are only available in English).

No matter which tool you are considering, we recommend that you use a test phase in advance. This is offered by almost all companies.

THREE AFFORDABLE TOOLS FOR BEGINNERS

Inexpensive tools for social media monitoring are recommended to get started, especially for founders with a smaller budget. Since Facebook and Twitter are among the most widely used platforms, we present three inexpensive tools below that cover these channels in particular.

1. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is particularly suitable for beginners, as it is free for individuals and, at 7.99 euros per month, means a low financial risk for companies and has a relatively large number of functions. The tool offers extensive options for analysis, but is also particularly well suited for teams. Regardless of location or department, comments, messages or mentions can be answered centrally on a dashboard.

In the corporate version, up to 50 channels (free version up to 3) can be managed centrally and contributions can be planned in advance for specific target groups. You can also screen customer opinions. If you want to expand the analysis and organization of your platforms, Hootsuite is perfectly adequate. If you want to rely on a comprehensive competition analysis, the options here are quickly exhausted.

Free for individuals

For small businesses: 7.99 euros per month

2. Audience (formerly Social Bro)

Audience is only for Twitter, but very extensive and also free. The tool offers a very extensive and detailed analysis, for example at the perfect times for tweets or extensive comparisons with the competition. Furthermore, influencers can be identified using the tool and followers can be divided into thematically significant groups. This tool is definitely worth it for those who are intensely on Twitter.

Free

3. Damping response

With Buffer Respond you can plan and distribute content. For Twitter, however, Buffer Respond also offers options for responding to user inquiries and for full analysis of up to five channels. You can also communicate with unconnected followers, so Buffer Respond is already going in a similar direction to Hootsuite. If you are on Facebook intensively, Hootsuite is more recommended for you.

Basic version (1 user, 1 account) free of charge

Pro version (multiple users, 5 accounts) approx. 40 euros per month

Paid tools for comprehensive monitoring

The functionality of free or inexpensive tools is limited. In particular, if you trust Facebook and want more than good organization and planning, these paid tools can pay off quickly:

Echobot (from € 249 / month), plus: Contact persons are based in Germany and work in accordance with German data protection guidelines.

Radarly (from 650 euros / month), advantage: all-in-one solution that includes a CRM system, etc.

Talkwalker (from 500 euros / month), advantage: includes all social networks, forums, blogs and news sites

There are also special tools for Instagram, YouTube or other platforms. In particular, the topic of influencer marketing has recently gained prominence and numerous startups have addressed this topic.

CrossEngage collects data to follow users across different channels and devices. With its own tracking solution, CrossEngage collects them through a store system or CRM systems, for example. In the end, it is determined which user should receive which campaign through which channel.

Remerge can bring users from other applications to its own application through personalized advertising. This works by dividing them into different groups. For example, users who have canceled a purchase process receive product recommendations.

HitchOn, Insocial Media, Media-Part, ReachHero, Influting, Buzzbird or Addfame: these are the names of other startups that offer similar services. Their common goal: to gain important personalities who have many fans or followers on social media for major marketing campaigns.

Practical guide: correct monitoring of social networks

When you have decided on a tool, the main thing is to determine what objectives you are pursuing based on your strategy and what questions to answer. So define an analysis design and then collect the data. Then prepare this data, analyze it and see if you have achieved your goals. This is followed by the report and, if necessary, the corresponding adjustments. Then the process begins again. Therefore, social media monitoring can be seen as a cycle that must be adapted over and over again.

It is important that you operate the monitoring continuously. For classic analytics - that is, follower count development, engagement, and reach - smaller monthly reports and larger goal reviews / adjustments every half year or year are suitable. Ideally, classic monitoring of social media topics and influencers is done on a daily basis. Whether this makes sense, of course, depends on the size of the company and the overall corporate goals. For startups developing into a brand, this is certainly a bigger concern than for a smaller founder, service provider, or consultant. A PR agency specializing in social media can also help you with social media monitoring.

Five mistakes to avoid when analyzing

You should definitely avoid these five things in your social media monitoring to generate long-term success.

Define competitors incorrectly or not include them in the analysis

Competitor analysis is relevant beyond your business plan. You also need to keep an eye on your competitors on social media and know what campaigns and themes they are running. You should also look at the topics on which the fans of the competition interact particularly well.

Ignoring the language of your customers

Do you use social media monitoring to get to know your customers better? What topics are you interested in? What language do you use? How old are you and where are you from?

Do not take or respond to comments seriously

Use any type of feedback to increase your participation. Monitoring of social networks with the help of tools allows you to list all comments and mentions of your company, even on external pages. Sometimes a simple "thank you" is enough to get attention.

Being slow and / or not turning recognized trends into ideas.

Social media monitoring gives you a lot of topics and ideas. But these often have to be implemented on short notice to keep up with the competition. Depending on the extent of your use of social media, you should decide to hire a social media manager.

Follow-up is not something isolated

Social media is changing rapidly. Use social media monitoring continuously to observe current developments and incorporate them into your strategy. You should review your goals at regular intervals, smaller monthly reports and larger annual reports are worth having. However, speed is often required as well.

conclusion

Social media tracking is mandatory nowadays if you want to advance your social media channels. This allows you to identify trends and themes at an early stage while learning a lot about your own business and your competitors. You can use these results immediately for your own work on social media.

Classic analytics data - that is, numbers like reach, engagement, and fans / followers - helps here too. What posts did particularly well? Are there patterns? Can you offer more of this type of content? See social media monitoring as a cycle that leads to better results and must be continually operated to be successful. Tools make your job easier and our examples show that tools don't always have to be expensive. There are also some options for smaller businesses.

For the channels to work well, of course, the most important thing is the content and the correct way to reach the right target group. To do this, choose the right platforms from the beginning, where you can really reach your target group, and read here how to write the perfect Facebook post. The social media manager job description has been established in recent years.

HOW THE CROWN CRISIS IS PUTTING THE PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL MEDIA BACK

Communication and marketing activities on social media are heavily influenced by the Corona crisis. Campaigns stop or adjust, editorial plans change, and ad budgets change. At the same time, the crisis of the crown also shows how brands and companies position themselves, how they position themselves in relation to certain circumstances and how they deal with praise and criticism.

First the basics, then tackle the tasks

Adjusting the editorial plan is the easiest task. What planned content does not fit the current situation? What posts can be misinterpreted? Are the specified reasons correct in times of Covid-19 or do they convey an outdated image?

But it is also a fact that social media use is particularly high during the Corona crisis. The same applies to messaging apps, and of course the ubiquitous tools for live streaming and video conferencing. Marketing and communication departments are faced with the task of delivering high-quality communication appropriate to the situation while utilizing the high level of activity.

However, the fact that many employees work from home and that the necessary requirements have only been met recently or only now should not be underestimated. So how do you handle an increasing number of questions, comments, and possibly criticism?

The core elements of social media stand out again

The crown crisis is putting the components of social media marketing back on the radar of many companies, which make up the core of social media. Community management, service, listening and social monitoring, as well as spontaneous and empathetic communication.

Depending on a company's philosophy, its attitude towards issues like customer focus and social media, it is easier for some to do this than for others.

What can be observed today is that there are brands and companies that operate contemporary communication and respond to today. It is about clear communication about the services offered and how they are influenced by Corona, but also about empathetic content that should encourage people at home.

Public signs for your own employees are also important. Show gratitude.

Social media monitoring in times of the crown crisis is essential

What you shouldn't underestimate as a marketing manager is paying attention to your own business. Especially if there are news related to Corona. An example is Deichmann and the discussions about withholding rent payments during the Corona crisis.

Such a topic is not actively communicated on official social channels. However, it communicates very actively on social networks and sooner or later also ends up in official accounts. There are questions about the situation, factual criticisms and, of course, irrelevant ones.

As always, when it comes to the topic of "Social Media Shitstorm," the question arises of how to react to criticism. In times of Covid-19, you face more difficult conditions. Once in terms of possible volume and once in relation to internal requirements. Can we respond to the number of questions and comments currently?

If disabling the comment function on Instagram is the right solution now, it can be doubted and criticized.

Social media monitoring is currently an elementary component of social media marketing. See how people are talking about your company and what discussions are like in relation to Corona.

Follow up should be established for all major brands and companies. If that's not the case yet, now is the right time to address the issue.

Having comments turned off on your own posts doesn't end discussions. In some cases, this even aggravates them. It is always a double-edged sword when the company reacts in this way.

Channel specific communication

At the same time, the focus on specific channel communication is sharpening again. This can be seen very well these days, especially on LinkedIn. What could have been a cross-post on Instagram or Facebook before the crisis is now targeted communication in a tone and content that is tailored to a channel.

The pause of marketing activities is also analyzed. On the other hand, there is the high level of use of almost all digital services. However, if the planned campaigns completely ignore current events, that decision is certainly correct. The question is what happens instead? It's not just about what you can communicate, but what you have to communicate.

Communication via messaging apps is also coming (or even more) to the fore. Especially for brands and companies that receive a lot of questions at the moment and have to react to the present, messaging applications are a direct, fast and at the same time personal channel. Uncertainty leads customers to approach companies with various questions and problems. These questions need to be answered through social media, but messaging apps are also a great alternative. Because now it is no longer about push communications through Messenger. It's about service and communication pull.

The crown crisis does not paralyze social media marketing. Sometimes it is increasingly demanding and is directed primarily at the customer.

CHAPTER 3

Marketing in social networks:

how to get the best results in each network

It's probably not the first time you've read this blog or the materials we have on social media. It may happen that it is the first time but you have already read on other sites how to do marketing for your company using social networks and thus sell more effectively.

Here we intend to show you everything you need to know about the 4 most used social networks today: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, in a single article. They are not in order of importance. Each of them is important depending on the purpose, the context and the person to whom it is directed.

However, this is how the book will be approached:

• The best strategies to use these networks

• Good practices to increase the engagement of your audience

• Interesting (and useful) features of each network

• What content is better to promote

• General considerations of social networks

Let's start with one of the most loved and popular: Facebook.

FACEBOOK

We can say that the difference of Facebook compared to other social networks is that it has enormous business potential. Too?

On Facebook it is possible to create commercial pages, segmented paid ads, interact with audiences and have direct contact with them.

This social network, which has more than 1.8 billion users, is more popular among women and among people between 18 and 29 years old. If your company has an audience with this profile described, you are already halfway there. If you don't have a Facebook profile yet, don't worry! Despite this stark description of the people who use it, billions of different people sign up and use the network almost daily. That is, think twice before deciding not to create a fanpage for your company because you think your audience is not there.

Organic traffic X paid traffic

There are two ways to generate traffic within Facebook: paying or even healthier, conquering organic traffic.

Over the years, the network received updates on its algorithm, the most important of which was carried out in 2011. That year an incredible tool was launched that learned from user behavior, analyzing clicks, content that they share, the "likes" and even the content that the user ignores. Since then, Facebook chooses what to present on people's timeline, according to what interests each one.

Now, to get more accesses in an organic way, you must invest in unique and differentiated content so that they are attractive to your target audience and are the key to success. As for paid traffic, as its name suggests, it is bought and is better known as Facebook Ads.

These ads can be extremely specific based on gender, age, language, and geography.

However, 8 components follow:

A boost to your followers to increase the "likes" and share more.

Generate ads for the fan base and thus stimulate the "likes".

Ads that generate clicks on your site.

Create ads focused on conversion to our site.

Make announcements that encourage users to download your application.

Ads that aim to interact with your application

Ads to promote an event

And advertisements promoting an offer.

It is worth remembering that the so-called vanity metrics (the "likes" and the number of times it is shared) are very good but they do not help you to monetize, that is, to earn money.

That is why they cannot be the only indicators that should be taken into account when it comes to seeing if the social network is being effective or not for your strategy.

For ads promoting a major offering, consider the four stages of the social media cycle:

Listen to the audience

Understand your main doubts

Form alliances with authorities in the field

To finally be able to present the product to sell

If you don't listen to what your audience wants, you probably won't make an interesting offer.

Use Facebook to generate business

There are some good practices to follow on your business page to help make it more efficient.

Look at the steps:

1. Add a good resolution profile photo. It can be interesting if you use an image with your logo.

2. Use an attractive cover photo. This serves to promote your brand and make a positive impact.

3. Complete your profile with all the important information: site, address, description, mission, phone number and email.

4. Add your collaborators

5. Define the tone of voice for communication.

6. Plan the content to broadcast. Remember to listen to your audience before you go out to write.

7. Promote your page and your posts.

8. Measure your results by remembering once again that "likes" and shared content don't make money.

9. Best content for Facebook

Facebook is a wide-ranging network that allows the use of various types of content.

All you have to do is understand yourself to plan what type of content will be best accepted by them, so that you don't waste time doing unfocused work. You can use written articles, pictures, checklists, videos, e-books, and other information-rich materials.

Here are some tips for creating effective alliances between social media marketing and business communication:

Be mobile friendly

People everywhere are increasingly using smartphones to access websites, browse the internet, read articles, emails, and check social media. When creating content for Facebook, verify that it is suitable for a cell phone or tablet, since most of its accesses are through these devices.

Add images

Images are extremely important when you think of communication through Facebook. They help increase your audience engagement and highlight what you are promoting. Use the images, but do not stop measuring or seeing which are the most effective in your network.

Define your audience

You can define your audience through the tools offered by the social network. You can define segmentation filters such as: gender, age, language, education, workplace, among others. Properly targeting your ads shows that you know and communicate with your audience, as well as being confident that you are investing properly.

Use Facebook reports to measure your success

They should not be the only metrics, but through Facebook reports you will be able to know what content is being most consumed, liked and shared. At least this helps you define the topics that are best accepted by your audience.

Ask questions

Engaging with your audience is one of the best ways to generate leads for your business. Ask questions for them to answer and share your updates and announcements.

Do not leave comments without response

Do you remember that we talked before about the importance of listening to what is being said to generate more and better content?

Part of that is responding to all the comments left on your page so that a current or future customer can carefully see what your company can provide.

Study the best times to post

Through Facebook Insights you will be able to discover which are the income peaks of your page, to be able to publish in the most interesting moments and that the public see your company.

LINKEDIN

LinkedIn is a social network that has grown expressively in recent years. The social network is mainly focused on professionals and companies.

Today it has more than 380 million active users.

When we talk about social media marketing, it is impossible to leave out LinkedIn. This network helps us do business, promote our brand or even position ourselves as an authority. If your company is B2B, you cannot doubt for a second the possibility of being present and active in it. It is interesting to know that LinkedIn acts as a networking network, and content that does not say anything about the business world is not well accepted.

There, topics such as hiring, productivity, human resources, entrepreneurship, among others, are discussed. Just like on Facebook, it's important to hear what your audience is talking about.

LinkedIn even allows you to receive "likes", comments and shares, but the best thing is to see what your network is entering and saying.

What are the key issues, companies and people.

What is LinkedIn used for?

LinkedIn is basically used for four big topics, and your business can benefit from each of them:

Connect with other professionals:

It's time to position yourself as an authority on a topic and link it to your business.

Get information through news and articles:

You should be there listening to what the audience wants and, in turn, producing content to entertain and help them. One more opportunity to position yourself as an authority on something.

Find job opportunities:

There you can find your next collaborator.

Connect with brands and companies that interest you

How to create a winning business profile:

To create your company page, it is not necessary to follow very different steps than those commented on the point of Facebook. Attract followers, establish a presence, and hook your audience. That simple

Basically, create a profile for your company that contains all the important data. Put a profile image and a cover that have to do with the brand and with the business. Optimize your profile for searches and keep it always updated.

Organic traffic X paid traffic

Similar to Facebook, there are two ways to build an audience of followers on LinkedIn: organic and paid. LinkedIn Pulse is a publishing tool where previously only invited people, called legitimizers, could write an article. After the last update, LinkedIn Pulse was opened to anyone who wanted to write. When you write, your base also receives a notification.

Gain authority and followers. And there are no limits for posts or images.

To become an authority on a matter, write! Allow them to share you, make links so that you and your company become a reference.

When it comes to paid traffic, we have LinkedIn ads. In it, to create each ad, you must choose a name for a new campaign, the language, the type of medium, write your ad, choose the payment method, define hours and finally, measure! That simple

Content types

We must bear in mind that LinkedIn is a business network.

As mentioned in previous points, users prefer written articles, but nothing prevents you from sharing e-books and other information-rich materials. Pictures are very important but not cute kittens. Pictures should tell someone something.

Tips for using LinkedIn for good marketing

Find highly segmented clients and connections based on your business

You can tailor your campaigns for a specific audience, company type and size, efficiently segmenting the material you are producing.

Generate cables

Identify the desired profile and offer them webinars and e-books.

Make incoming and outgoing contacts. Guarantees cheap and easy lead generation.

Publish quality content

As said before, through Pulse you can publish any article and your entire base will be notified.

So everything you submit should be well planned and written, to help someone solve a problem, position yourself as an authority, and ensure your network continues to follow you and receive your updates.

Monitor the profile of your employees

Make sure your employees have a LinkedIn profile, say they work for your company, provide a good job description, and have consistent material about your business.

Make connections and build relationships

The connections made must be strategic. Connect with your potential partners and customers.

Stock up on interesting information and content. From this, build a relationship with them, who may speak good or bad of you, buy or not buy from your company.

TWITTER

Twitter is the fast social network.

You must already know or at least have heard of the famous “tweets”: Those short publications, of maximum 140 characters, that serve to quickly update other users on something. Many decide to write personal things like "eat a super good sandwich" or even "go home after work." But that was at the beginning of the network. Nowadays he is more used to commenting on news about politics, football and even other matters of importance to the people. Just because Twitter only allows short posts doesn't make it worse. In fact, it is exactly this quality that makes it a widely used network on mobile devices. The messages are better adapted and allow fast and constant interaction.

There are more than 300 million users and more than 500 million posts daily. You can close it.

Let's talk a little about using Twitter for business. It's possible? Is efficient?

Use Twitter for your business

First of all, your profile must be complete and optimized.

For that you cannot forget to put:

Name

Profile picture

Cover photo

Background

Biography

Organic traffic X paid traffic

Let's start this topic by talking about how to get paid traffic to your profile. Using Twitter Ads, it is obvious. Paid Tweets can be in the form of Promoted Tweets, Promoted Accounts, or Promoted Topics. Each of them has a specific indication. If you want to promote a tweet, drive traffic to a link, offer coupons and promotions, generate leads, or draw attention to your brand, you must use the promoted tweets feature. If you want to increase the number of followers quickly, you should use the promoted accounts feature. But if you want to take advantage of the wave of the most discussed topics in that period and increase your visibility, you can use the promoted topics.

Attract followers and monitor the network

To promote on Twitter you should always start by analyzing your available budget, segmenting and, finally, as in all the others, measuring.

For monitoring, there are some tools that can help you enormously.

SocialBro, MentioMap, The Archivist, Twenty Feet, Tweetsmap, Twitter Counter and others.

Tips for using Twitter effectively to generate business

Follow people, retweet and make their tweets your favorites

Analyze your audience

Reply to all mentions and messages

Look at the topics your competition uses to get ideas about what to share.

Don't focus on sales, but rather on building relationships and generating value.

Find people through hashtags

Participate in conversations in your area of action

Post photos

Ask questions and retweet the answers

Do A / B tests

INSTAGRAM

Instagram is one of the social networks that grows the most today, around 23% annually! It has around 300 million active users and is widely used by companies to develop marketing strategies. Truth be told, that was to be expected. Instagram is extremely easy to use, just snap a photo, post it, and you're done. Ready! The main audience of the social network is young people between 18 and 35 years old who own a smartphone. If it is the target audience of your company, you must be present in it.

Create a profile for your company and start publicizing.

Create a profile for your company

I think by now you must be tired of hearing about how to create a business profile on the above networks. It's not like that? But, don't put it aside ...

Add your name

Upload a profile picture

Write a description

Include a link in the description

To be successful in this social network, you must have well-defined goals. That is, think about who your target audience is, what is the most appropriate language and how you are going to attract that audience. Having a consistent posting schedule makes a difference. As the network does not allow publishing content with large texts, you must have a plan of topics to publish and a calendar for it. Avoid falling into the same thing. Take advantage and use that short space to interact with your audience, maintain a dialogue and make your audience go to your blog or website.

Use videos. Many. Always. Since everyone posts photos, short videos attract attention and make a difference.

Follow your audience and keep coming back to those who follow you. Hook your audience. A good idea is to run a few giveaways and ask them to share them.

Organic traffic X paid traffic

Instagram Ads is the way to generate paid traffic for your application.

At first, Instagram selected only a few brands so that they could make paid advertisements on the network. Thus, they would become a kind of test to see if the public did not tire.

However, since 2015, anyone can pay to advertise and make their posts more visible. The only premise here is: don't advertise cheap.

Share images and content that improve the user experience.

Organic traffic: tips to get more followers

Connect your Instagram account to other social networks

We know that it is very likely that users of a social network are also on other social networks, which increases brand engagement by being followed on several networks and not just one.

We know well that one is faster, that the other is more visual, and so on with each one. They tend to complement each other.

Use hashtags

Be careful in the photo, in the caption and in the hashtags. But, before you head out to hashtag, do a little research on trends, what your market is writing about, and what you should be writing about.

Use them wisely. But don't abuse it, it's terrible to read #text #written # like this.

Interact constantly

Get your audience hooked on you. Ask questions, give gifts, be part of the comments and always remember to respond and keep what is promised.

Use photos of people

Photos of people tend to have 35% more engagement than those without someone. Can you believe this?

We try to summarize in a few words everything that is possible to do in social media marketing. It is clear that many things can and must be deepened. What you should always keep in mind is: how can I use these networks for your benefit and for your company? The goal should always be to hook your audience, increase your brand recognition and generate business opportunities.

Social media: make real money

From Newport Beach stars to the Kardashians, our social media is awash with #ad and #spon. This is no surprise when you consider that digital celebrities like Zoella (Zoe Elizabeth Sugg is a fashion and beauty blogger, YouTuber, and author) can earn up to £ 12,000 in the UK for every post or post on social media.

Successful influencers - it is a phenomenon more feminine than masculine, in the field of mass consumption and lifestyle - have become veritable machines to generate money in a decade: for themselves, for the brands they talk about or wear, for advertisers, for the big guys. companies ... In 2017, Kim Kardashian, Beyoncé, and Taylor Swift each made $ 100 million in cash on social media. Although all the activity they carry out in different areas is linked by social networks, the reality is that everyone enters more paying per publication or post in a social network, than for their reality show, in the first case, or the sale. of records, in the case of singers.

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In the purely entrepreneurial field, in the stock exchanges, in the macroeconomy, perhaps because they are areas that do not reach mass consumption (more lipsticks are sold than "components of the Gross Domestic Product or GDP"), the influence is more associated at the power of the entrepreneur, if he has a successful company, or of the analyst who makes correct recommendations in the stock market. But the numbers here pale in comparison to those that dominate social media.

Politics is a world apart because they are well known for having millions of followers. Possibly, this does not give them income, but a speaker not filtered by the media - who may be for or against that politician - to convey their messages. Barack Obama pioneered in 2008 and Donald Trump has broken records with 95 million followers on social media. An artist like Taylor Swift can also influence politics through social media. Democrat residing in Nashville, Tennessee, the artist published days ago on Instagram about her theme "Shake it off", the central theme of the movie "Sing" (2016), cartoon. For this reason, she called for the mobilization of the Democratic Vote in the North American legislative elections to be held in early November of this year. In a single day, 100,000 people registered as voters, the next day, the figure rose to 150,000. Asked on television, the response was unanimous: Taylor Swift posting about "Shake it off", in order to vote to change the status quo.

"Hip-hop artists" (many commonly called rappers) also become millionaires on social networks: According to Forbes magazine, a third of the income of the richest artists comes from the monetization of their presence in the networks. Jay-Z is the leader of the list of “Richest Hip-Hop Artists of 2018”, with a fortune of one billion dollars, snatching the first place from Diddy, who was awarded that position in 2017. His fortune of 825 million dollars left him in second place in the ranking. In the third position is Dr. Dre, who accumulates 770 million dollars. Drake and Eminem follow in fourth place, with $ 100 million each.

In the female realm, Beyoncé stands out, first in 2018, because she took the lead from Taylor Swift, first in 2017. If we take the Forbes data for good, Jay-Z has earned more than 300 million dollars in social networks in 2018.

Soccer, players and brands also get rich

“Soccer is soccer” Di Stéfano used to say, and it is also a very lucrative business for players present on social media. Cristiano Ronaldo is the one who receives the most money from the sponsoring companies for his activity on social networks (474 million dollars, so far this year), followed by Neymar with 207 million and Messi with 106 million.

Cristiano and Messi are the athletes who generate the most money on social networks and those who generate the most money for brands in this medium. Both players add 500 million followers between the two. Adidas, sponsor of Ronaldo, earns 188 million euros in social networks with the white player and Nike, 96 million, with the Argentine footballer.

A new era of digital marketing

Social networks have become a much more relevant showcase than conventional advertising in the press, radio and television and brands know it. In recent years, having a profile with thousands of followers has become a source of extra income (extra ... large) for models, athletes or simply for that new profession called Instagramer, which consists of selling a product through a photograph artistic and eye-catching. .

The Business Success Advice study prepared annually by Advice Strategic Consultants measures the interaction of everything that athletes share through Facebook, Instagram and Twitter: in 2018 Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are the most powerful players on social networks, which makes your backers millions for posting or posting.

Ronaldo has posted 263 times during the year mentioning his brands on occasion and getting nearly 600 million interactions with his fans, generating a value of $ 1.8 million per post. In the case of the Argentine player, he generated $ 3.6 million for Adidas with a 2006 Instagram post that generated 2.5 million likes.

Cristiano Ronaldo is sponsored by Nike and Messi by Adidas. But Real Madrid is from Adidas and Barça from Nike. For that reason, Forbes magazine wanted to know how much soccer geniuses earn in this crossing of brands.

Whenever Cristiano has shared an image dressed in white on his social networks, Adidas has pocketed 216 million dollars (almost 188 million euros). Otherwise, Nike has made 111 million dollars (almost 96 million euros) thanks to Messi.

A new business model

Influencers, and even micro-influencers, have engaged audiences who trust them and seek their opinion on everything beautiful and fashionable. They have turned around one-sided advertising and interact directly with consumers. And their influence is growing, as Western Europe sees a 17% year-on-year increase in the number of people who claim to take to social media for personal care recommendations.

Surprisingly, men are almost as likely as women to seek personal care advice online. However, while men want guidance on what to shave and what oral care to use, women are more concerned with their hair and what has to do with makeup. I'm not surprised. Logical.

Brazilians are particularly interested, with 72% of respondents turning to social media for personal care recommendations, while Brits are at the bottom of the list, with only 25% seeking advice. Brits are also the most skeptical about product claims, and this can translate to their confidence in what influencers tell them about products.

Highly engaged audiences

Those looking for personal care recommendations on social media are more engaged than average consumers across all categories, so it appears that these influencers not only have access to large numbers of people, but they also have access to the right kind of people: the super involved! These consumers who consult their favorite blogger or Instagram star for recommendations are usually the youngest. They are more likely to participate in the broader categories; For example, German women who receive makeup recommendations are also 10% more likely to buy makeup brushes. They are more committed to using their products and claim they are looking for quality, natural ingredients, specific characteristics, and fragrance benefits. But despite the high demand for their products, price and promotions remain a key factor for them.

I will finish by saying that there is great competition between "influencers on social networks". There is a lot of money at stake and whoever has more followers, more enter. They fight with each other and also try not to enter new players in the market. As a well-known American fashion and apparel influencer told the Wall Street Journal this summer: “I find the idea of creating business schools to train influencers on the Internet stupid. It is just a way for business schools to make more money, but it is not necessary. And so says a 24-year-old who promotes fashion and made $ 55 million on social media in 2017.

CHAPTER 4

START WITH A NICHE ON SOCIAL MEDIA

HOW TO GET STARTED WITH A NICHE ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Wine, personal development or finance are just some of the areas that are currently attracting a lot of attention as niche topics on social media. This article will show you why a niche account makes sense these days.

Why niches make sense on social media:

Perhaps the most obvious point is that the knowledge of the experts can be shared. Because if you create a niche account, you are usually an expert in the field. His own passion also reaches directly to supporters, companies and cooperation partners. Plus, you target the right target group with a niche account. For example, an account about wine will also have a large following that is interested in wine. In this way, an active and loyal community interested in long-term issues is built. Therefore, an exchange on the topic of niche with the influencer and the community is more likely to be granted here.

The content (posts, images, videos) is also aimed at the target group. With a niche you can offer the community real added value or learn about it through an exchange with the community. Once you've created added value, it's also possible to build organic reach more easily. On the one hand, it is possible to target the right target group with topic-specific hashtags, on the other hand, there is usually a strong and active community with niche topics, which generates a lot of interactions, which in turn generates a greater reach.

3 steps to get a niche account:

1 . What is your passion? - Find a topic that your heart beats about and that you want to tell a lot of people about. Ideally, a very unique topic that you are very familiar with and can pass on your expert knowledge to a community.

2 . Get on social media: With the help of a suitable thematic branding, it is possible to build a suitable community. With images, hashtags and a unique design, it is possible to make the account unique and gradually gain a large number of followers. But the fans need their time! Feel free to follow other niche influencers yourself to build a relationship with them or get inspiration. If you are active yourself, others will also become aware of your account and therefore the account can grow.

Find out here why hashtags make sense when using influencer posts.

3. The Right Strategy: It is important to produce content that is precisely tailored to the topic and target group. Unique content can help you gain reach or make special collaborations with interesting companies.

Finding a niche: 3 mistakes to avoid at all costs

When was the last time you got lost?

I mean: don't just take the wrong path, but proceed correctly.

Maybe his GPS was in the wrong city. Maybe you had an old card. Maybe you wanted to make one with Chuck Norris and find your way on your own.

Either way: taking the wrong path is annoying. Very annoying. Even more annoying: if you go the wrong way with your blog. Of course, you can change the course of your blog at any time. Of course, you can always delete things on the internet and post them again. You can create new domains and start over.

But that's annoying. Very annoying.

I want to save you from that today. Today I am a warning sign that says, "If possible, turn around." Perhaps you have driven without a card so far. Maybe you're running your blog hopefully and trying to spin here and there. Maybe you took a wrong path? We'll find out now. The mistakes that are made at the beginning accompany a blogger for years. They drag the blogger's leg and slow him down.

Yes, you can go wrong when choosing your niche. And how.

So these are the most common mistakes:

1 . The topic is too narrow

Many blogging guides say: write about your passion. Write about what interests you. Write about what you love. Many bloggers follow this advice and choose a topic that interests them. The problem: only they care. But (almost) no one else is interested.

Example: Franz is a great fisherman. Blogging about fishing is too broad. After all, they told him to specialize. So he decides to blog about: Hooks.

He researched the niche and realized: “Great, I'm the only one blogging about hooks. I am the market leader. “The problem: a market without competition is also a market without customers.

The same goes for his blog: if no one writes about his topic, then readers are simply missing. After all, blogs are many years old. All the niches are already occupied. Blogging is a massive medium. With blogging you have to target "the masses". By mass I don't mean millions, but it should be a few thousand. Therefore, you should write a blog about what interests a wide audience and you. You have to have a passion that other people share.

Because you don't have a 100% sales rate.

Nobody sells to 100% of their readers, not even Apple.

For advertising, for example, the click-through rate in Germany is 0.11 percent. If you want to make money from advertising (which is not a good idea), you need a lot of readers, just every thousandth of clicks on a banner.

But even if you sell products, only a certain percentage will buy your products. In addition, only a certain percentage of your visitors subscribe to your newsletter, only a part of the readers belongs to the inner circle of your fans.

This is why you need a critical mass. A mass large enough to make money.

Here are some tips to help you know if your niche also has readers:

• There are already many small blogs in this niche.

• There are great blogs in this niche that are making money.

• There are magazines on the subject.

• There are books on this topic.

• There are Hollywood movies on the subject.

If none of these apply to your niche, then you should be concerned ... if possible, turn around!

2. The topic is too broad

The other extreme is that Franz wants to blog about everything and everyone. Personal development, happiness, career, earning money, creativity and travel. Oh yeah, and of course private vacation photos with the fishing pole too.

Franz thinks: the more topics, the more readers.

Incorrect. Because the bitter truth is: if you write for everyone, no one will read it.

Let's go back to our fisherman. Writing in a blog about fishing would be too broad. There are so many types of fishing, there are so many different types of fishermen (hobbies, vacations, professionals) and so many places. A professional would get bored with "How to set a hook." For a beginner, blog posts on fishing competitions are of no use.

The result: lose both: the professional and the beginner.

Many bloggers fear limiting themselves and determining the topic. They pay a high price for it and they just don't have readers.

By the way, the great and broad topics of the blogging world are:

• to the blog

• family

• eat

• earn money

• Career

• Sports

• Personal development (happiness, satisfaction, freedom)

These themes always work. But like I said: you can't just blog about “food”. You have to specialize. You can't just blog about "one topic", you have to solve a problem.

3 . Readers have no problem

The third mistake that can occur when choosing a blog niche: your readers simply have no problem.

There are numerous interesting topics. Take psychology, for example. However, stress alone is not enough for a successful blog. Attention alone is not enough.

You have to solve a problem. How can you use your knowledge of psychology to improve the reader's life? How can you help him make life easier?

Why is that so important.

Because people usually search for two things on the Internet:

A solution to a problem

entertainment

Blogging combines both:

You solve a problem in a fun way.

You can have many readers. But if they don't have a problem that you can solve, then you can't live off your attention. Mere attention doesn't make you rich.

We always preach: you have to add value. You have to improve the life of the reader. You have to help him get through everyday life faster, easier or better.

When choosing the niche for your blog, don't think about "topics." Think of "problems" and "solutions." That's what counts.

How to find a lucrative niche

Now I have told you what can be done wrong. I'd be a bad guy if I didn't tell you how to do it right now.

Here is my simple formula:

Topic + target group + problem = niche

This formula will help you position your blog correctly so that you don't go the wrong way at the beginning of your blogger journey.

Let's go back to the fisherman:

Subject: Fishing

Target group: hardworking people who love fishing

Problem: little time

Solution: find time to fish despite the short time

Result: Fishing for the Busy - Shortcuts and tips for fishing enthusiasts short on time.

This is a specialization that does not limit the subject, but the target audience. Our dear Franz can now write about tips and tricks for the entire fishing industry. His only criterion: he has to make fishing life easier and faster for his readers.

To dominate his niche, he doesn't have to make the topic so narrow that only 3 people are interested, but rather clearly define the target group and solve a problem for this target group.

2 examples of good niches

Many successful blogs follow this formula and have positioned themselves accordingly.

Sport = too far

Push-ups = too tight

Sport for nerds = perfect

Example: nerdfitness

Masculinity = too far

Men's ties = too tight

The art of masculinity = perfect

Example: the art of manhood

You see the pattern

When choosing your niche, be sure to use the formula above and be sure to avoid all three mistakes.

Otherwise, you will take the wrong turn to the right at the beginning of your blogger journey. Correcting that could be very exhausting. Or very expensive. Or both.

If you apply the formula to your blog, what do your three dots look like?

CHAPTER 5

DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS ARE MORE IMPROVING

2021 has already brought many major changes: the locks in the crown crisis in particular have intensified existing digital marketing trends.

Spoiler: First of all, we have the top online marketing trends for 2021 as a list

• Publications that can be purchased on Instagram

• SEO voice search tactics

• TikTok and the beginning of short videos

• Facebook stores

• Smart offers in Google Ads

• Chatbots

• Augmented reality

THE MOST IMPORTANT DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS FOR 2021 AND WHY THEY START

The growth of the digital marketing industry in particular is impressive and has not been interrupted for years. How effective individual measures can be here has been shown time and again in various studies. Thanks to the rapid flow of information across the Internet, it only takes a few months, if at all, for a trend to take hold globally.

In this book, we present the biggest digital marketing trends that will continue to intensify in 2021, substantiate them with numbers, and give you advice on which trends are particularly relevant to which industries.

1. DIGITAL MARKETING TREND: INSTAGRAM SHOPPING PUBLICATIONS

Symbolic Image for Digital Marketing Trend: Buyable Posts on Instagram

One of the biggest trends in e-commerce: the new shopping feature on Instagram

In 2017, the first posts that can be purchased were published on the US version of Instagram: companies that post images on the social network can tag them: specific pop-ups can be seen informing about the products that are included in the respective published image , show the price of the respective product and through which the user can also access the store. In March 2018, this feature was made available globally.

Since then, companies have been able to convert their Instagram accounts into stores. Products can be placed clearly visible, individually or several at the same time per image, and followers are more quickly informed about new products. After only a short development period, a paid feature was made available on Instagram in March 2019. Users can now shop directly on the social media platform, so they no longer have to leave it. What influence will this digital marketing trend have on online stores?

Therefore, there will be more publications that can be purchased.

Instagram is one of the largest social networks in the world; the range for many companies is correspondingly large, especially in the B2C market. There are 1 billion users, about half of whom are active on the platform every day (Statista). And it gets even better: 90% of users follow at least one company (according to the company itself). Countless users have discovered new products on this network that they were not aware of before, and mobile shopping is constantly increasing, which has probably increased since Corona.

90% of Instagram users follow at least one company

So you don't have to be an oracle to predict that there will be more and more buyable publications in the future. Also, there is no extra charge for this type of publication.

For B2C companies in particular, buying stalls offer an inexpensive way to massively increase sales.

Users see a product they like in an environment where they move around a lot in their spare time. They gain insight into the companies that become dearer to their hearts through clever visual marketing; The resulting potential for conversions is downright staggering. In our opinion, the classic online stores will remain: not all target groups move on Instagram, not all services can be displayed there, just think of digital accounting solutions.

Should I use posts that can be purchased?

Still not logged into Instagram? The 20th century just called to ask when you'll be home. But seriously: if you are serving end customers and your target group is on Instagram, there are hardly any plausible reasons that speak against the use of posts that can be bought. In the worst case, nothing happens; then you can turn the function off again. At best, your sales will skyrocket.

It's relatively easy to use posts that can be purchased on Instagram.

The basic requirement is an Instagram business account. This also allows ads to be displayed on the platform. Instagram belongs to Facebook, so you must first have a business page on Facebook; then you can simply link it to the

In the next step, you need to create a product catalog, no, not on Instagram, but on Facebook, using the Shopping Facebook page template (found in: Settings -> Edit page -> Templates). Then you can add products and provide them with all the necessary information, links and images. The products will also be published on Instagram.

Publications that can be purchased can be especially valuable when

Your target group is mostly on Instagram

You can present your products well in images and with the right quality.

The above two conditions apply, but you don't have your own store

2. DIGITAL MARKETING TREND: SEO TACTICS FOR VOICE SEARCH

Symbolic Image of Digital Marketing Trend - Google Voice Search

Voice search will be used more in the future, time to optimize accordingly

Voice search, also known as "voice search", has been propagated for several years as the future of Internet search. So far it has not been the rule for search queries, BUT: it is gradually being used more and more frequently. A 2018 voice search study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) showed that nearly two-thirds of all smartphone users perform a voice search at least once a day, albeit predominantly within their own four walls.

Above all, the growing trend behind this should catch the attention of businesses: Since voice commands can be recognized better and better (as shown by digital voice assistants like Alexa or Siri), voice search could become into a new standard going forward: websites should be optimized accordingly. Unlike written search queries, complete sentences are often "entered" in voice searches. The better a website can respond to such detailed search queries, the sooner it can capture voice search users.

Where voice searches will continue to prevail

With voice search, recipes, directions, opening hours or the weather are usually requested; With the help of well-maintained structured data, Google has been able to deliver good results for a long time. But for a few years now, better and better answers have been given to more complex questions directly in the search engine, provided the relevant content can be found. So-called featured snippets are search results in "position 0", displayed above all other search results for suitable searches and are even read for voice searches on mobile devices. These are concise answers in short passages of text, the source is mentioned directly below.

In short, voice search is already important for:

• Local information such as address and opening hours or the weather

• Simple instructions

• Answering questions

Voice search gets really cool when shopping - what matters is whether the technology can instill enough trust in users for more people to shop using voice commands. 16 percent of Germans already use language technology when shopping online. For example, you can shop while driving. Therefore, many companies are working to update their website so that their customers can buy the desired products online safely and specifically without even using a keyboard.

Until now, voice command purchases have been made primarily through devices like the Amazon Echo, but if the technology continues to develop and build more trust, more smartphones could soon be used for this purpose.

At least 41% of Germans are interested in using voice search in their searches, 21% are already doing it (bitkom-research.de); That's already a sharp increase compared to previous years, and the trend continues to rise.

41% of Germans would like to use voice search for their web searches in the future

Should I optimize my website for voice search?

The simple answer: yes. However, to what extent, that depends on what you offer and how your target group moves online. In any case, optimizing for featured snippets can only help your website ranking and number of visitors, i.e .:

Process information clearly and in short sections with concise headlines.

Create an area with W questions (how, where, who, what, when, why, etc.), possibly in a separate FAQ area

Optimize page speed (page load time) - slow websites will no longer be able to compete

In general, make sure the website is mobile and make sure everything is indexed correctly

Most importantly, you must also respond to local searches.

As mentioned above, local search queries typically ask for the address and opening hours, plus contact details. Here it is enough to maintain your own entry in Google My Business, with entries in other renowned company directories such as Yelp or GoYellow you can offer even more information and increase relevance. If you offer site specific pages on your website, it is best to link them internally with link texts ending with "near me".

Things are more complicated when it comes to shopping: here, retailers who cannot offer their own voice assistants must limit themselves to repeat orders via voice input. The voice search digital marketing trend is unlikely to dominate the e-commerce market any time soon as well. However, we have a tip on how you can still respond to spoken product inquiries by diverting a featured snippet:

Simply type product information, such as prices, deals, and availability, in short text under an H2 heading. With any luck these will read as a featured snippet.

Optimizations for mobile voice search should go hand in hand with your previous SEO measures. They are best viewed as part of a comprehensive SEO strategy that ideally takes all search channels into account.

3. DIGITAL MARKETING TREND: TIKTOK AND THE BEGINNING OF SHORT VIDEOS

Symbolic image for the digital marketing trend: TikTok

Short videos like on TikTok are popular and could be successful on many platforms

TikTok has spread as quickly as any other platform, first among younger teens and then among older users as well. The principle of entertaining short videos is that you just watch this video quickly ... and then another ... and then another. "I still have 30 seconds," you think. And you've already spent another hour watching videos.

TikTok makes it very easy for its users to create short video snippets - proper tools for cutting and copying are provided in the app.

At the same time, TikTok is largely handled without any text, the videos are in the foreground when the application is opened, the operation is done by simply swiping to the side, and other navigation elements are simply placed over the video. The algorithms that propose new videos work mainly on a regional level and do not favor the big brands, but they basically give everyone a chance. This is one of the reasons why the platform has so far been used a lot by young fans and less by big stars or brands.

Each video only takes a maximum of 60 seconds, which seems like a recipe for success in our fast-paced times. The principle of short and easy-to-create videos could also be adopted on other social media platforms in the future.

Why short videos like on TikTok will continue to spread

TikTok may seem less attractive to advertisers so far, due to a very young user group and video bias (written texts are hardly relevant) combined with algorithms that make it difficult for companies to place content with good reach on the platform.

However, some companies try to find the zeitgeist with appropriate ad-supported content and their own short videos on TikTok.

Watching the following video quickly is the addictive substance of Generation Z. Of the roughly 800 million TikTok users worldwide, 90% consume in-app video content every day (source) - TikTok has become one of the 10 largest social networks in just 2 years. platforms. This success cannot be ignored, which is why Instagram, for example, was not long in coming: With “Reels,” the Facebook subsidiary also recently launched a short video feature that is confusingly similar to TikTok (Instagram ad). YouTube also has a short video feature built in, other platforms are likely to follow soon.

90% of TikTok users use the app every day

While it remains to be seen how successful other networks will be with the short video digital marketing trend, the first few companies are venturing onto TikTok with their own content. For example, with its "#HMGetTheLook" TikTok challenge, H&M was able to achieve wide reach in a short time by asking users to submit three different sets of H&M from a given collection - a successful response to many young people's desire for self-expression. .

TikTok and short videos as marketing tools

TikTok users are still predominantly between 13 and 24 years old (69% of active users): 16% are between 25 and 34 years old, only 15

If you have no concerns about data protection (you are a supplier from China after all, where data protection is known not to be far behind), there are 3 marketing options on the platform:

Create your own channel and post short videos

Enter into cooperation with TikTok influencers

Place TikTok ads

But you also have to bear in mind that this is quasi-real-time marketing: the rapid pace of the platform hardly allows for decision-making periods, when in doubt, you should be able to react quickly. In any case, you should keep an eye out for the trend of short videos in 2021; if needed, you can use this for yourself on other social media, check out Instagram Reels or YouTube's new "short videos" feature.

4. DIGITAL MARKETING TREND: FACEBOOK STORES

Symbolic image of the digital marketing trend: Facebook stores

Facebook stores could make some online stores superfluous and compete with Amazon

This digital marketing trend is practically behind the Instagram purchase posts and represents an extremely predictable step: in the future it will also be possible to buy products directly on the Facebook platform. This feature has not yet been fully launched for Germany, but it will only be a matter of months before German companies also become an active user community on Facebook (according to a post by Mark Zuckerberg dated April 24, 2019 ) of 2.7 billion capable people. offer.

In the English-speaking world, especially in the US, this function is already known as the Facebook store: online store providers such as Shopify or WooCommerce have already established cooperations with Facebook, where users can buy through from the social network and only when processing payments in the online store itself.

There is already a new buzzword for the phenomenon: "Social commerce."

"You need to target customers where they are," Shopify says in its own article on this topic: Store vendors have quickly embraced this new development, and instead of competing, you're working together. It is questionable whether this will work for everyone.

Facebook Stores: An Amazon Competitor?

Although the feature is not yet available globally, it is already under discussion whether Facebook stores could represent serious competition for Amazon, the largest online retailer to date. In any case, Facebook can claim a significant competitive advantage for itself: the data of billions of users, not only about their purchasing behavior, but also about their private interests and interactions. This offers the immense potential of being able to offer the right products at the right time, by the way, during daily interactions on the social media platform.

There are new ways to offer products, whether it's on your own Facebook store page, in posted images, or in (live) videos.

On the one hand, there will be a separate "store" area on a Facebook business page, which should be structured like a normal online store. At the same time, however, it will be possible to tag products in photos or videos, also in live video broadcasts, which is later called "live shopping". A completely new way to digitize a previously analog sales process. And this is where most customers tend to play during the customer journey: buyers of household goods (59%) and media and entertainment (63%) in particular use Facebook for shopping activities (Facebook report).

63% of media and entertainment shoppers use Facebook for shopping activities.

We cannot predict when and how exactly Facebook stores will be available to all companies and if the group will have to deal with legal hurdles due to its market power. However, what is certain is that there is great potential, especially for smaller retailers without their own store, as with the aforementioned shopping posts on Instagram. It is also to be expected that the two functions of the store can subsequently run synchronously, since Instagram is part of the Facebook group.

Should I set up a store on Facebook?

If you already have a business account on Facebook and a certain number of followers and you don't have your own online store, you can definitely answer yes to this question. It is also important that you only offer physical products; therefore, service providers and software manufacturers are initially excluded. A big plus point is that Facebook stores are available for free, so investments in a store system could be eliminated entirely for some sellers in the future.

The corona crisis also acts as a powerful accelerator for online shopping.

Online shopping is also gaining ground regardless of Facebook stores. Even before Corona, the analog business was increasingly shifting to the online area, a trend that has accelerated rapidly in the context of recent events. Even before the crisis, 37% of media and entertainment shoppers found new products in the Facebook family, compared to just 15% who discovered such products on retail websites (Facebook study 2018). Therefore, a Facebook store could be very profitable for some suppliers of goods. Our tip for this digital marketing trend: check how far your target group is on Facebook and how you can address them if needed.

5. DIGITAL MARKETING TREND: SMART OFFERS ON GOOGLE ADS

Google Ads Dashboard - Improved Performance with Smart Bidding

Smart Bidding is supposed to automatically optimize Google Ads for more clicks, etc.

Smart Bidding in Google Ads uses machine learning to increase the conversion rate, that is, to encourage more users to click on the ad. For this purpose, Google uses the historical search behavior of users and information related to the context (such as location, time, device used and others); This is to predict the probability of a conversion. If the data collected indicates a higher probability, the bid in Google Ads automatically increases on the ad placement.

6 different smart bid strategies can be used, depending on the conversion goal:

 Maximization of conversions: this strategy should simply achieve the highest possible number of conversions within the established budget, adjusting the bids

Target ROAS: Here, a certain "Return on ad spend" (ROAS) value, that is, a certain conversion rate relative to ad spend, should be achieved, also by adjusting the bid within budget.

Target CPA: here the costs per action, that is, the "cost per action" (CPA), must be kept at a certain value; the machine tries to achieve as many conversions as possible at a certain price per ad.

Increase visibility (maximization of impression share): this strategy aims to place your own ads at the top of the page as often as possible; offers are set accordingly.

CPC Optimization - When optimizing for "cost per click" (CPC), that is, costs per ad click, the conversion value should be maximized here, that is, as many conversions as possible relative to spend.

More visits to the website: This smart bidding strategy aims to maximize clicks on ads; bids are automatically set to generate as many clicks as possible within budget

These potentially very powerful optimization strategies can now be carried out automatically using Smart Bidding. But you should look at this more closely in each individual case.

That's why smart offers will prevail, but not everywhere

First of all, Smart Bidding has clear advantages: campaign management can be greatly reduced, possibly bypassed entirely after initial setup. That saves a lot of time. Smaller companies, in particular, benefit from this if they don't have the time, resources, and knowledge to set up Google Ads campaigns that are automatically optimized.

But: it is a machine that the company that uses it does not know or cannot understand. The database that is used as the basis for automated advertising strategies is neither visible nor controllable and therefore there is a risk that the target group will not be registered and targeted correctly. Furthermore, campaigns can be more precisely controlled in terms of budget and goals in the manual variant. However, Google itself has announced that Smart Bidding has increased the return on advertising investment (ROAS) by an average of 35% so far (Smart Bidding sheet).

Google sees average 35% increase in ROAS value through Smart Bidding

But the more the machine behind Smart Bidding learns, the more accurate the ads will be. People can continue to work as inspectors, but in the future more and more activities will be performed automatically in Google Ads campaign optimization.

Should I use Smart Bidding?

At the moment, this question mainly depends on whether you can invest human resources or time in Google Ads. Small businesses often cannot do that; Smart Bidding is definitely worth it for them, because they can simply set up their campaigns once and then just run them, while the machine takes care of all the optimizations. You don't even need technical knowledge. So smart offers can make online marketing much easier, especially for local merchants or retailers.

Our advice: Linking your Google My Business account with your Google Ads account is essential for regional marketing.

Smart bidding is a good option, especially for certain campaign goals:

Objective: brand awareness

With more ad impressions, your own brands and products can quickly become more visible and gain more awareness.

Goal: more website visitors

More Google visitors can be drawn to the website quickly, even if the website itself does not have a good organic ranking yet.

Goal: conversion optimization

Bids within the Google Ads campaign are automatically adjusted without any action on your part; This increases the efficiency of the campaign.

However, the usefulness of this tool is still limited: at the moment, maximum campaign effectiveness can only be achieved through optimization by a human expert. Therefore, larger companies with the right resources should continue to rely on their own Google Ads specialists or hire the right agencies. For small businesses, however, it is "good enough" and there is little doubt that Google will expand this feature, also in its own interest to win more customers for Google Ads. As a result, Smart Bidding definitely has great potential to become one of the top digital marketing trends in 2021.

6. DIGITAL MARKETING TREND: CHATBOTS

Digital Marketing Trend: Automatic Chatbot Messages on a Website

Chatbots should be able to help customers and employees with simple inquiries

Have you already visited a page and shortly after a small chat window appeared in the lower right corner, in which a friendly contact person said to you with words like “Hello! How can I help you? "Hello? It was most likely a supposed chatbot. Chatbots are supposed to be able to give simple answers to simple questions you type in the chat window, but they often fail even with slightly more complex questions. Artificial intelligence aims to remedy this in the long run - the program continually learns through interaction with real people and should be able to answer more and more questions automatically.

A competition for tasks that were previously reserved for the human being, such as advice and customer support.

There are also more and more digital assistants on social media: as of 2018, more than 300,000 chatbots were used on Facebook (Venture Beat). Ideally, they provide fast, real-time information that the user would otherwise have to search the website for, which can sometimes exhaust some potential customers' tolerance for frustration. You could also say that a chatbot is similar to an internal search function in this case, only faster and more convenient, at least if it works and gives the correct answers.

Chatbots could soon become the norm

24-hour service without personnel costs: In 2017, experts (Invesp) expected a cost reduction in support of up to 30% thanks to digital assistants. And it also adapts to users: a study (Outgrow, 2016) showed that 56% would rather write a message than stay in line for the customer service phone. Many bots still seem a bit rigid and inflexible, but the prediction is: artificial intelligence should make chat processes more unique and human, thereby improving the customer experience and increasing customer loyalty.

Experts estimate the amount of cost reduction through chatbots in the support area at 30%

Chatbots could become the standard for stores in the long run, with features like:

Recommendation of suitable products for the question of the respective client.

Automation of consulting and sales processes

Answer support inquiries

Bots can also take over important standard processes in personnel management; for example, they could familiarize new hires with company processes.

Does a chatbot make sense for my site?

The decision on whether a chatbot program makes sense for your site should be based on these four things:

Do users find their way around your website?

Are there many requests for customer support?

Are many of the queries easy to solve?

How many staff members are available for customer service?

If your answers are something like "No", "Yes", "Yes" and "Not many". A chatbot could be a convenient solution for you and your customers. In any case, you should carefully check with each software vendor how well the respective bot can answer specific customer questions, because in this technology there is often still a need for optimization. We advise store and hotel owners in particular to be on the lookout for this digital marketing trend: after all, 33% of users say they would also use bots for reservations or orders in the future (Drift, 2018). Then the only important thing is that it works correctly.

Until then, you should at least offer contact through human contact persons; this is also possible on social media, for example.

7. TREND OF DIGITAL MARKETING: AUGMENTED REALITY

Augmented reality when shopping: 3D magazine shoes on the tablet

Augmented reality could change online shopping, especially in footwear, clothing and furniture.

"Augmented reality": that means something like "augmented reality." Anyone who has had a beard projected onto their face on the Snapchat app or elsewhere, for example, has already become familiar with the AR digital marketing trend. Even if this is the only way to make the principle more popular, the idea has been around for a long time. In the furniture trade, for example, AR can be used to virtually place furniture in the room using the smartphone camera, so that customers can literally get an idea of what the new piece would look like on all four of its walls.

Does that mean that the idea of virtual reality is discarded?

Yes, yes, but only for the moment. In the long term, virtual and augmented reality could combine and become more or less the same: With increasingly smaller and more affordable virtual reality devices, such as smart glasses, a virtual world could one day "overlap." in the digital world. Application areas are not only found in marketing or the gaming world.

That is why augmented reality is part of the near future

A Forrester report from the United States estimates that by 2025, approximately 14 million Americans will regularly wear smart glasses in professional activities. In particular, processes such as training or the help of manuals for specific situations should be accelerated in this way, and human resources could also be freed up. This alone should give a boost to the technology, which will also make itself felt in marketing.

Should smart glasses become (still) established in the private sector, marketing tools that were previously only available on certain platforms (such as buyable posts) could be brought directly into the user's field of view, during the on the go, at home or anywhere. Work. But if this really will happen, it is anything but true: at least Google glasses have yet to catch on.

However, the most likely is the greater spread of AR applications on mobile devices, in fun applications and also for advertising purposes, especially for products such as glasses or furniture.

When is it worth using augmented reality?

According to a BRP report, 48% of consumers say they would be more likely to buy from a retailer if they used augmented reality for their products. This value is likely to increase in times of Covid-19, when distance rules apply and the trend of online shopping has increased rapidly. In 2018, only about 15% of retailers offered AR experiences; this value should also gradually increase.

48% of consumers say they would be more likely to buy from a retailer that offers AR experiences

According to Statista, forecasts see a promising future for augmented reality: the volume of the global market for 2020 is estimated at almost 19 billion US dollars. That's almost double the previous year and the trend continues to increase. For applications like

Projection of digital objects on surfaces, both static and animated

Imitation of different lights from real objects.

there are already numerous applications. For example, with NASA's Spacecraft AR app, you can project the Mars robot "Curiosity" in your living room via your smartphone camera, in life size.

Meanwhile, the technology for AR is freely available.

Fortunately, it is no longer necessary to have this technology fully developed in-house, as Apple, for example, has been offering ARKit since 2017, which standardized development tools and made them accessible to a wide range of developers. ARKit is currently the leader, but in March 2018 Google also released a suite of tools for developing augmented reality applications, ARCore.

Going back to the crucial question: is it worth it? We would say: yes, at least in certain areas. Augmented reality can certainly be a sales boost for furniture stores or online sellers of clothing, glasses, or accessories. The best in connection with video marketing to better publicize your own AR application.

"EVERGREEN" OF DIGITAL TRENDS: VIDEO MARKETING

There is still much that can be achieved with video marketing

Videos have been the trend in digital marketing for years - they've become an integral part of the customer journey. This is understandable; After all, a lot can be said in a short time with moving images that sometimes cannot be understood with 1000 words. That is why the use of videos in digital marketing continues to grow.

VIDEO MARKETING IS SUCCESSFUL

Businesses that use product or explainer videos for their marketing report 88% positive ROI (return on investment) *. That can only be one reason to do video marketing. But there is more:

95% of companies that use video say it has allowed them to better understand their products.

43% say fewer requests for assistance have been made since explainer videos were used

96% of Internet users watched an explanatory video when they wanted to know more about a product or service.

84% of users say that a branded video convinced them to buy a product or service.

Users share videos twice as often as any other type of digital content

According to a 2020 HubSpot study

According to a 2020 Wyzowl study

Videos are used online to get information quickly, to consume news, or simply for entertainment. Ideally, commercial videos can do all of this at the same time. If you look at the statistics, you can see that a well-made advertising video can inspire purchases and you can assume that the better presentation of the product also gives a more accurate idea of the offer and that the viewer will remember this better.

88% of companies using video marketing report a positive ROI

BEST RANKING OF SEARCH ENGINES THROUGH VIDEOS

SEO tests have shown that videos can also be helpful in optimizing websites for search engines and improving their rankings - video content marketing with keywords. It also depends on how big the video is and how it loads; The simplest solution is usually to embed a YouTube video, which only loads when you click on it. However, it is also important that the video is well integrated contextually, that is, that the spoken content matches the surrounding text. There are indications that Google's algorithms can now determine the relevance of a video through speech analysis.

Sort multiple times on the same topic

Embedding a YouTube video on your own page also offers another advantage: YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google and videos from this platform are also highly preferred in Google's search engine in ranking, which is not it should be unknown to anyone who has ever used the video search function there. For some searches, some videos are also displayed in normal search. If you manage to rank well on the website and video at the same time, it will be rendered twice for the same search query.

With individual videos, an extremely large range can potentially be created

Since there have been featured snippets, something has even been added: if a video answers a search query (usually in the form of a question) in a particularly appropriate way, it can be displayed as a featured snippet at "Position 0", it is say, top all other search results. (However this does not seem to be the case often so far, sadly we have not been able to reproduce this phenomenon.)

Use videos for your own website

Even without aiming for a higher ranking right away, thanks to YouTube's embed option, you can easily start enhancing individual blog articles with suitable videos, for example. Of course, it is better if you use your own videos uploaded to your YouTube channel. Ideally, the content of the video, the spoken word, should match the respective text, the information should not contradict each other and offer added value both in writing and audiovisual.

Some areas are particularly predestined for specially created videos:

Corporate communication: show the world who you are and present yourself from your human side; Done correctly, this can build rapport and build customer loyalty.

Products / Services Needing Explanation: Even more complex facts can generally be more easily explained in a video and appear more clearly; this avoids misunderstandings and can also increase sales

Recruitment of employees: with recruiting videos you can convince potential candidates that your company is the right one

Simply insert the respective video on the desired page, give it the appropriate title and, above all, make sure that the content does not contradict itself anywhere. To create more relevance for the video, you can also offer a transcript on the corresponding page.

THE LATEST TREND IN VIDEO MARKETING: LIVE STREAMING

Another tip: Live streaming is the new magic word for staying in close contact with customers, even in Corona conditions. It's probably enough if you occasionally answer customer questions on the live stream, a digitization of customer service and customer care, so to speak. To ensure sufficient coverage, it is best to advertise the live broadcast on your channels with the most visitors several days in advance with a targeted marketing campaign, depending on how often you plan to broadcast.

CHAPTER 6

THE 8 DEFINITIVE STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGY

We are victims of our competition's social media marketing strategy. You wake up, you read news on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. You see branded content and ads. He checks his email about 5 times a day and also solves his problems by asking Google.

Therefore, in 2019 social networks have evolved to stop being your leisure and become a fundamental part of your life. Without a doubt, marketing in social networks has evolved to become the fundamental means of all brands that want to be recognized.

A social media marketing strategy and why it is

Today you will learn how a good digital strategy can enrich your brand and how to configure an effective marketing campaign that guarantees results. A social media strategy isn't just about opening a page and posting. If you do not apply a set of tactics and efforts, which if used well will give you more sales and greater visibility, you will not be able to get potential customers thanks to the internet and social networks.

A couple of decades ago, a successful marketing strategy only needed to encompass a few media outlets like television and the newspaper. Based on surveys and some calculations, he knew if his efforts were really worth it. But the arrival of the internet, the growth and massive use of social networks transformed marketing strategies.

This has led advertisers to develop strategies for networks such as the Egg Challenge (yes, it was not a spontaneous action that went viral) or guerrilla tactics applied to the internet. These days, a social media marketing campaign can be so well targeted and targeted that even Draper will envy it. The uncomfortable truth is that today, without a social media marketing strategy, your efforts to gain recognition and growth will be a catastrophe.

Marketing and advertising are not done blindly, in addition to all the strategic planning, you need to feel trust and credibility, that is, an intellectual and emotional relationship of the public with your brand. Since the use of social networks as a means of managing our interpersonal relationships has become naturalized, by avoiding your presence in them or mistreating your messages, your brand would be non-existent or a "character" with whom few or no one wants to have a relationship.

Therefore, marketing for social networks does not only consist in publishing without rest but also in publishing intelligently and that each action you take has a reason, an objective and that these small goals of each of your actions are responsible for the image, the values and vision of your brand.

Here's how to do social media marketing and brand like a pro.

Follow the steps below to the letter so you are one step ahead of your competition.

8 STEPS TO MAKE A SOCIAL MEDIA DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY LIKE A PRO

To carry out a digital strategy like a true professional, you must know that the time, effort and money you invest is not wasted. It is not impossible to generate return on investment. It is possible and it is our goal.

It is important to reinforce the previous idea: you must invest time, effort and money. If you want to achieve this by posting poor quality copied content, without spending a little time in the creation phase, you will completely fail.

But that's not what will happen to you. To avoid failures, I have created these recommendations. You only have to take into account the important factors and know that, like any plan, you must previously study the variables and the means you need to develop it. Adapt the following tips to your goals and take the following actions effectively:

8 STEPS TO MAKE A SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGY

1. Know your brand and get a solid foundation

You may think you already know her, but do you really know her?

This may seem like a cliché: who knows your brand better than you?

If you are not prepared to explain all the details of your brand or company, it is impossible for others to understand what you do.

Ask yourself and answer exactly: What does your brand do? Because it is necessary? What does it offer? What are your values? Its objectives? Their motivations?

The answers to these questions will make your social media strategy have conceptual limits that will obey the definition of your brand and this information will help you not to improvise.

In marketing there is something called "brief". A brief is simply a report. You can find many examples of them on the Internet, where you can see what kind of information they contain. There are many types of briefs: strategic, creative, audit, etc. These reports are used to define the brands in their concept and image. Carrying out a brief about your brand will help you to maintain uniformity and cleanliness in your graphic, literary and grammatical style of communication with your clients and to preserve the values of your company.

A brief is a document that should contain everything related to your brand. The more descriptive the better. In addition to defining who you are, it allows those who have access to the document to know your brand in depth. In this way, you will give your brand professionalism.

Brand Brief example. Strategy for social networks.

There is no specific model for types of underpants. Its content is always flexible as it adapts to the needs of each brand. It is up to you to design yours. Once you are very clear about what your brand is, you must state your objectives on the networks.

2. Set clear goals and make a successful strategy

Once you know what your brand is about and you have it well defined, you must address your objectives: What do you want to achieve with your digital strategy?

If you hope to get more leads, increase your sales and, at the same time, make them recognize your brand, you are wrong, very, very bad. A professional focus on a single goal in his social media strategy and puts all his efforts solely on it. Some examples of "strategic objective" are:

Obtain brand recognition in the networks.

Get more leads.

Get more sales.

Increase the positioning in the market.

Launch a new product or service.

Improve return on investment (ROI).

Expand the brand to a new market.

Improve the sales funnel.

Increase customer loyalty.

Each of these goals has different steps to take. Do you see now that not everything is published on the networks?

Your marketing strategy must be focused on the recognition of your bran. The moment your brand appears on the networks, the truth is that you are nothing to anyone. You may have the best product on the market, but does anyone know you? Yes, maybe some people, but you won't get very far if only friends and family follow you.

This is why "brand awareness" should be in your social media strategy. How? Creating a campaign in which you tell others who you are, your mission and value, what you offer and what makes you different (but without trying to sell). The ideal is to carry out a small advertising campaign paid for by the networks where, for very little investment, you will achieve a large number of views for your brand.

An inspiring story is that of the traditional brand Nestlé, which conquered its niche very intelligently. 7 years ago they launched their recipe channel Nestlé Cocina and in this they do not focus on selling. They focus on teaching recipes, healthy foods, cocktails, and other endless dishes and drinks. With this, Nestlé has managed to position itself on social networks, with more than 200 thousand subscribers on its YouTube channel.

Get more leads for your brand by targeting your niche!

Once your brand begins to be known to the public, it is time to start looking for your potential customers. To do this, you can start segmenting your posts a little more and your social media strategy in general. That is, if you are going to sell soccer jerseys, start talking about sports tips and review the changes in the team uniforms, add soccer curiosities and direct your efforts to a male audience.

You could even take this exercise further and narrow your field of action much more: How to sell Boca Juniors shirts for children?

In the very specific is the hook.

An example of how to find your niche in the networks is that of the Durex condom brand in Chile.

Today, the average Facebook user is between 45 and 54 years old

Through memes and double meaning posts, they reached their potential market. And this strategy has paid off for them, as they have a community of almost 12 million followers.

Get more sales through promotions, offers and contests. Get creative!

We can say that this is the last step of a sales funnel, and perhaps it is. It's obvious that your digital strategy is geared towards future profit and this goal raises that.

Once you have your leads ready to buy, you can set a goal to increase your sales. You can carry out promotions on the networks, contests, offers, generate coupons and endless options that social networks can offer you to sell. Obviously your brand can be recognized and you just need to generate more leads or increase your sales. An excellent alternative to be able to guarantee that your promotions and contests have successful results is to use Vyper

Have you come across those contests where you have to share and invite friends to the post, getting points for each recommendation? Well, this platform works in a similar way although it has other forms of contests. This is an excellent tool to be able to have successful results in social networks. Take a test and launch your first viral contest!

Define where you want to position yourself in the market and set an achievable goal

This objective is related to studying your competition to know where you want to be with respect to it. To reach a conclusion on this issue, it is important that you know who your customer is, who you compete against, where you want to reach in the recognition and sales scale of these brands with which you share the market. For example, if you sell drinks, share audiences with Coca-Cola, do you want to position yourself above it?

If so, at this very moment you are lost.

Set an achievable goal with a competition closer to your potential.

Design them. Launch a new product and make it go viral

Social networks are also a powerful tool when it comes to positioning your new product or service, or whatever you want to position. Their power is that they have the magic of reaching millions of people quickly without the need to invest in advertising. You just have to be creative and put your brain cells to work until you find a way to reach your niche through original content.

For the premiere of Carrie, the movie, they did an excellent job of this type. Remember? In 2013, near the premiere of the remake of the movie Carrie, marketers decided to play a little joke by scaring off customers in a coffee shop. This way of "promoting" his film resulted in 65 million views of the video showing the experience.

Improve return on investment (ROI) and invest wisely in digital marketing strategies

Return on investment is a key objective in your marketing plan.

In conventional advertising, obtaining analysis of your results is practically impossible or very expensive.

Thanks to social networks, you yourself can make a study of your return on investment with "clinical" precision, since their platforms allow you to calculate the costs of each action taken. To improve your ROI you just have to analyze your previous strategies, their results and see where you have failed. Here is an example:

ROI calculation example or return on investment. Strategy for social networks, by Occultu Media

The ideal is to have an ROI greater than 50%, that is, where you earn half or more of what you invested at the time of starting.

Expand your brand to a new market, explore new niches

Another very popular goal is to expand your potential market. If your brand already has a stable niche, why not go further? Just like in life, the beauty of marketing is that once you reach a goal, you shouldn't stop there, but rather explore new challenges. And yes, taking your company to new horizons is something that at some point you will have to do.

When thinking about expansion, one does not speak only of a new niche, but of a new culture, a new way of speaking, a new dialect, etc.

Don't be nervous, all brands do and you can learn from them. An example of this is Lacoste.

The niche of the Lacoste brand are people with high purchasing power, mostly golfers or golfers, and the truth is that, due to the style of their clothing, it is (or was) focused on adults. That is why Lacoste decided to venture into social networks, obtaining great results.

In 2018 they launched a campaign to reach a younger audience through a noble cause. They sold their popular shirts at an extremely low price and donated those proceeds to endangered animals.

By doing this, Lacoste directly targeted young people who are concerned about the environment, depleting their chemicals for sale in less than a day. Not a success?

Improve the sales funnel and get your customers to go from knowing your brand to buying your products

This is one of the most important goals and where you should pay attention the most, since this sales funnel guarantees your success.

A sales funnel is all those steps your customers go through to go from a stranger or sympathizer of your brand to a loyal customer. And this is a task of care, because like a shepherd with his sheep, you must lead them to the bottom of the funnel without getting lost.

There are millions of funnels, some more complex than others and it is up to you to choose which one you want to try.

Basic structure of a sales funnel or sales funnel. Strategy for social networks, by Occultu Media

To improve your sales funnel, you need to identify which step you are failing at and where and why you are losing your leads. You can directly ask your followers their questions, what they need to solve or what content they would like to find on your networks.

Build more customer loyalty

It is known that it is essential to increase sales, but does it all end there? The answer is no. Once you get the sale, there are other steps to finish building your customer's loyalty.

You don't want your customer to buy, leave, and forget about your business. You want him to come to your store every time he needs something and to become a preacher of your product. The best publicist in your company is your customer.

To achieve this, you must get feedback from your customers once they have purchased. They like me? What do they think? What can you improve? Your customer is not a stranger but someone who trusts you.

It is up to you to adapt any of these goals into your digital strategy.

The better defined these goals, the more effective your campaign will be. Remember that the advantage of social networks is that your content can be focused directly on your customers or on the person of your buyer.

3. Give your buyer personality to increase your commitment.

Have you ever thought who consumes your product? If so, you are on the right track. But remember that it's not just about thinking of him as a random character, it's about going further in your research.

What's your name? Where you live? Are you single or married? He has children? How old are you? What do you like to do? What do you like to buy? What are your goals? Are you male or female? How is it?

There are countless questions you need to answer in order to know exactly what you want to achieve with that person.

Social media marketing involves making love, and you can't make someone fall in love without even knowing their tastes.

You must make a kind of profile for each type of potential client. Creating fictitious identities for them will help you effectively execute your social media strategy.

Once you have a clear definition of your ideal customer, a digital strategy will be a piece of cake.

And you won't waste time or effort focusing content everywhere.

4. Find out which social network guarantees you positive results

Very well, you already know your brand perfectly and you are very clear about who your ideal buyer is. Now, what is the perfect social network for your digital strategy?

Social media strategies depend a lot on which one you are going to use because they are all different. If you are clear about your buyer persona, you are already halfway there. You just have to know that each social network has its own tone and language. You must learn to master it perfectly so that your digital strategy is a success.

Here are some clues:

Facebook is for users between the ages of 45 and 54, according to recent data. Although there is a growing niche of people between 16 and 19 years old.

Twitter is a social network run mainly by millennials, despite being a news social network, ironic and sarcastic language is the order of the day.

Instagram is where a photo is worth a thousand words. Quality images are what matters. Ego and aspirations are your fuel.

YouTube, more than a social network, is a way to share audiovisual content with your clients.

LinkedIn is for professional users. It's like your social network / resume.

Pinterest is similar to Instagram for its visual impact but its contents can be linked. It has a great reach in the United States and its appeal is in the images and ideas to share.

To have a successful digital strategy, it is not necessary to be on all social networks. Just take two platforms and invest ALL your efforts and strategies on them. Work with the networks that best suit you and your content.

5. Analyze your competition and learn from your weaknesses

Performing a social media strategy like a pro doesn't require you to be a marketing summa cum laude. It will be enough to study and analyze your competition.

Once you've selected which social network is for you, look up your competition on it and see what they do and what strategies work. It's not about blatantly copying them, but studying your competition will give you an idea that it might work for you.

Studying the competition is a strategy that advertisers use in their digital strategies. Look at Coca-Cola and Pepsi, the big rivals. Recently, Coca-Cola launched its Coca-Cola Zero and Sugar Free campaign. Pepsi mocked them by launching a campaign that reinforces the message that Pepsi does not change and maintains its essence. "This is the Pepsi that has always been with you ...", say the commercials where the containers and the times change but the Pepsi flavor remains.

This is the Pepsi that has always been with you. From Nielsen Communications Insight

Social networks are the study and support centers of Digital Marketing. Learn to use the tools provided by the networks to study your competition

Social networks like Facebook give you the option to compare your account with that of your competition and see the weekly results of their efforts and compare them with yours. If you have a Facebook page, this is what to do:

You must first go to your fan page.

Study of Competition in Facebook - Strategy for social networks.

Then go to the "Statistics" tab and go to the bottom.

In the "Watch Pages" section, click "Add Page".

Find who you want to study and voila!

When you compare yourself with another page you will see its weekly growth, its number of publications and its increase in followers. This tool, while simple, can help you move forward.

On the other hand, if you want to do a more in-depth study, you can use Google Adwords or Mangools to study the keywords of your competition and thus be able to address them as well.

For this you should only:

Access Mangools.com and log into your account.

Go to the SERP watchers section.

And add the page you want to study.

Voila! Here you will have all the keywords used by your competition.

Mangools also offers other very useful tools for you to do this proficiency study like a pro. For this you must use the "SiteProfiler".

If you want to get it right:

Go to Mangools.com and open your account.

Go to the "Site Profiler" section.

Add the site you want to study.

And ready. You will have a detailed study of your competition.

This will allow you to have a very clear idea of where your efforts are heading and how you can strengthen yourself.

On the other hand, it is also recommended that you follow their social media accounts very closely and take a good look at the direction of their content. What serves them and what does not, to learn from their mistakes.

6. Get organized with an editorial calendar

Disorganization is one of the main problems when it comes to networking. Repeated content that does not generate interactions with users are problems that are repeated over and over again.

If you want to be a social media marketer, you need to organize as one. An editorial calendar will help you organize and direct your Internet efforts.

An editorial calendar allows you to know what type of content publishes monthly and will also help you to know what the objectives of each published content are so that you do not become repetitive.

Although social media seems like a disaster of utter spontaneity, those who are successful on it follow a strategy.

If you don't know how to do social media marketing, start by using an editorial calendar. You will discover in a short time how your efforts begin to make more sense and your strategies better results.

7. Invest in advertising and strengthen your digital strategy

According to a study by Zenith Media, investment in advertising on social networks will exceed those made in newspapers for this 2019, with an estimated 50,000 million dollars.

Those numbers are not accidental. Social media is the best place to invest in advertising today. It's cheap, measurable, and you can aim with the precision of a sniper.

Despite the fact that social networks are "free", since none charges you a penny to publish or share content, having an advertising budget will strengthen your digital strategy, giving you results more quickly.

You also don't need to have a budget of thousands of dollars for your social media strategy. Just $ 50 will be enough for an ad campaign to be successful and achieve the results you want.

If you want to run an advertising campaign on social media, you need to know which platforms to use. Each has its own billing system, as well as its own segmentation system.

There are platforms like Adexpresso that help you schedule your advertising on social networks. Still, if you want to get an idea of what you need to define to run an advertising campaign, follow these steps:

Type of campaign: Here you must define your objective. Which can be from visits to your website to increase your followers.

Segmentation - Here you can "slice" your market as precisely as possible. Facebook allows you to select the target audience for your ads by geographic location, age, interests, device type, operating system, and many other things.

Budget: You will find three forms of payment. You must choose the one that suits you best.

CPC: It is a form of payment. You will pay for every click they make on your ad.

CPM: another form of payment. You will pay for every thousand impressions received on your ad.

CPA: Finally, this form of payment bills you for every sale you generate with your ad.

Type of Ad: In this section you choose what you want to publish, in what format and which will be the buttons to call the action (buy, call, read more, etc.)

To define your budget, it is recommended that you start investing little and analyze your ROI, if you see that your return on investment is above 50%, you are on the right path.

8. Analyze your results and you will improve your strategy

After going through all these steps to start your digital strategy, you should know that you are not done yet. A social media strategy is not finished until the results have been read.

Facebook analysis example

General analysis sample

The analytics of each network let you know what worked for your strategy and what did not offer positive results. In addition, you will know which content was optimal and which you should discard. How many people visited, what are their strengths and what should improve? EVERYTHING, in simple numbers.

Keep in mind that analytics, also called KPIs (key performance indicator) are just numbers that will tell you the performance. Your duty is to analyze them correctly according to your objectives.

KPIs won't always give you all the answers. For example, if your goal is to grow your leads, you should focus on scope KPIs. Whereas if you want to increase your sales, you should focus on the click-through measurements on your website.

Let's say you are new and want to start promoting your brand. To do this, the KPIs that you should observe more carefully would be those corresponding to "Scope" and "Impressions". These are the ones that indicate how many people saw your content.

Scope sample

On the other hand, if your goal is to increase sales, you need to focus on other KPIs such as page views.

Sample of page views

This way you can have analytical reports worthy of a professional. Analytics are your best friends when they translate all your efforts into results.

A well-used social media strategy doesn't just benefit your brand greatly. It also nurtures you with quality clients and gives you long-term results. In the same way, a good digital strategy will help you in the future with the SEO positioning of your brand.

One benefit you get with metrics is that you can analyze what content works best and work to reinforce it.

For example, if you launch 5 posts a week and see that a specific post got excellent results, then focus all your efforts on this type of content.

But beware! It is important to exercise good judgment and handle this information creatively. If the content was related to a Victoria's Secret model, it does not mean that all of your content will be about models. You have to find a way to create creative associations with the interests of your niche and keep their attention. Always, ALWAYS, being clear about what your brand is and what your goals are.

Learn to position yourself in Google through your Social Media strategy

If you have your digital strategy well defined, you can support your SEO efforts on your networks.

Remember that the monthly traffic of visits that a website has is decisive to improve your web positioning.

That is, if more people visit the website, Google will assume that its content is of good quality and will improve its positioning.

A well-executed social media strategy can guarantee you not only an effective marketing campaign and excellent results, but also an increase in traffic both on your website and on your company networks.

If you still do not know how to position your website, here is The Definitive SEO Guide for Search Engine Positioning

Producing quality content is essential for your digital strategy to be successful. Good content will guarantee the permanence of people within your website and your social networks.

Advantages of having a successful Social Media strategy

A well-used digital strategy brings many benefits that will take you one step further. In addition to those mentioned above, such as SEO web positioning and improvements in engagement, it also offers help in:

Bring your brand image to life and make it attractive to users.

Increase your visits and your sales.

Get more conversions and loyal users with your brand.

Get more reach and increase your chances of getting new customers.

Your message on the networks will spread more quickly and efficiently.

You will create a database that you can use in future strategies.

As you can see, carrying out a quality marketing strategy on social networks does not require you to be a marketer.

Make an effective social media strategy, using the tools you learned today

There are many companies and brands that are currently stuck in social networks due to lack of engagement. This is because all your efforts are scattered. In the end they don't do one thing or the other.

That is why it is necessary that each of these steps be carried out with great care and analysis. Don't think that big social media campaigns, like the Pikachu meme to promote the Pokémon movie, are coincidences.

Behind a great social media strategy, there is a great team of designers, advertisers, copywriters and analysts, allowing the magic to come true. On the other hand, a social media strategy goes hand in hand with influencers. No matter what product or service you want to offer, there is always an influencer who can promote your product.

What social networks are best suited to your business?

In the world there are more than 3,000 million users who connect daily to social networks, that is, 42% of the world's population. We believe that it is necessary to add little more to justify its importance, define its use, types and most important characteristics.

If we focus on Spain, 25.5 million users visit social networks every day, which is half of the Spanish population.

If we look at the social profile of the users: 51% are men and 49% women. The age is usually between 31 and 45 years. Almost half of social media consumers have higher education and 74% are actively working. Access to them is usually done through mobile.

Social networks

Spaniards spend, on average, 58 minutes a day consulting social networks. Each user uses an average of 4 social networks.

81% of users follow their favorite brands on a social network. 27% are more confident that a brand has a profile on social media.

As for companies, most of them already use social networks for branding and sales growth purposes. Facebook and Instagram are the most used for these purposes.

Main uses of social networks

The main function of social networks is to connect users who are in different parts of the world:

As entertainment. And what entertains is liked and shared.

As a source of information.

To search and connect with people you already know.

Find and maintain professional contacts.

Create an online community around your personal brand or company.

Drive traffic to your website.

To advertise online.

As a branding tool.

As a recommendation channel.

Characteristics of the most used social networks

Facebook:

The most used social network in the world. Very easy to use and interact with other users. Allows videos, images and text.

thirst for users of all kinds, from the youngest to the oldest. We could say that Facebook is the network where everyone is. It is, without a doubt, the network par excellence in number of users.

Use Facebook to:

Promote your brand.

Community creation.

Fast and strong viralization of your brand.

Get quality contacts instead of quantity.

WhatsApp:

He's at the top of social media. Although its use is, above all, for instant messaging, we must not forget that it is also a social network.

It is the preferred and most valued social network by users of all generations. It is the most transversal.

Use WhatsApp to:

Generate conversations with your clients.

Increase the opening rate of your communications.

Sending forms or surveys.

Youtube:

It is the third most used social network, due to its great capacity for interaction with other networks and the boom of influencers and Youtubers.

It is one of the fastest growing in number of users and also one of the best valued.

The youngest users are the ones who use it the most, because they are the ones who consume the most audiovisual content.

Use YouTube to:

Dissemination of content.

Generate visits to your website.

Video marketing.

Instagram:

It makes its way among the youngest, who consider it the most important and relevant social network. It is one of the ones that attracts more new users and has grown the most.

This social network integrates the photography and video options in a very intuitive and attractive way. There are already many brands that have joined this trend and are taking advantage of it to sell their products or services.

It is the social network preferred by more than 12% of users.

Use Instagram to:

Build engagement with your audience.

Reach more audience (through hashtags).

Interact with your followers.

Twitter:

It is the network with the highest abandonment rate. His notoriety rate has dropped in recent years. This social network has tried to renew itself, but cannot stop the decline. Even so, it is still a good place for interaction and exchange of opinions on current issues.

Many companies have started using this platform as another channel for the customer service department.

Use Twitter to:

Create brand.

Inform your followers.

Share external content that is in tune with your brand.

As a customer service channel.

Streamline events.

Promote offers.

LinkedIn:

He is the one with the least notoriety among the youngest, but, without a doubt, it is not one of his priorities.

LinkedIn seeks a more professional user profile and is geared towards generating more commercial than personal relationships.

Use LinkedIn to:

Connect with other companies or professional profiles (Network).

Generate business.

Hire staff for your company.

Are you clear about which social networks are best suited to your business?

In any case, whatever the network / social networks selected for your company, you must be clear that you must define a plan for each of them and that it must be integrated into the marketing strategy of your company.

Your social media marketing (SMM) strategy should not act in isolation within your company.

There is no better social network than another. Deciding which one is best for our company requires a prior analysis of marketing objectives.

Some companies make the mistake of opening profiles on all social networks driven by the desire to have a digital presence. But just being is of no use. Social media requires a lot of commitment. You have to work on them, and each one works differently.

Identify where your ideal target audience (buyer persona) is and how you can reach them through content. You can ask any of them what means they are using in their day to day to obtain information of their interest.

CHAPTER 7

11 VERY GOOD TOOLS FOR DIGITAL MARKETING AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Inbound Marketing, SEO, Social networks, do you want to be the best in each field? To do this you must know the tools that professionals use, know how to take advantage of them and what each of them can bring you. Pay attention to the following list, because surely these tools will improve your day-to-day online marketing.

Digital marketing tools

When it comes to applying non-intrusive techniques to connect with the customer, the first thing that comes to mind is the word "work." You have to do many things at the same time and 24 hours a day is not enough for everything.

It is advisable to rely on digital marketing tools and social networks that offer automated options to save time and help us optimize social networks. Here are some options that can help you achieve the expected results based on your action plan.

1. Google Analytics Google_analytics

It is the ally of many small businesses that do not have the budget to use payment tools. The fact that it is free does not mean that it is not good, on the contrary, when you learn to use it it will be very easy to understand some important things. For example:

Know where your visitors come from

What is your behavior on the web?

What blog content they like the most

Which products generate more sales

Income per page

Knowing this data, you will be able to know how to structure your website to offer a better user experience. With Google Analytics, you will discover relevant data that will help you improve the structure of your website. In relation to visits, this tool tells you where the user comes from and with which keywords they have found you. This will allow you to develop content related to the keywords that visitors came to your website with.

Regarding behavior, it allows you to know on which page the user lasts the longest and gives you the opportunity to improve the structure of your website. In this way, for the next visit you can improve the user's stay time.

For example: if you have an online store that sells women's clothing and your users spend more time on the sandals page, you can analyze what they are looking for.

The same goes for the blog: knowing what content you like the most will help you choose what type of post you can write for the next post. You can also do keyword research with the Google Keyword Planner. This point is key to position yourself in search engines. It is important that you add it to your list of digital marketing and social media tools.

We recommend that you take a look at our Google Analytics classroom course, which is also available as an online course, where you will learn to be an expert in web analytics using this wonderful tool.

2. GTMetrix

The loading speed is one of the factors that affect the positioning of your website. You have to learn to measure whether your site is causing a high bounce rate.

If you are an SME or you are beginning to soak up this topic, you are surely wondering what this has to do with achieving the top positions in Google.

The loading time influences the purchase decision of users, if you have a slow website it is very likely that a high percentage of your visitors leave before the first 5 seconds of any of your pages.

Improve your #SEO and user experience with this tool: GTMetrix

When this happens, something called a bounce rate happens - which is when a user logs in to read a post and instantly returns to Google results, without engaging in any interaction.

Google evaluates this and, in those sites where this percentage is high, Google will not rank them high because they do not offer a good user experience. Now do you understand why upload speed is important?

Continuing with the description of GTMetrix, this tool is useful as it tells you which page is causing slow loading and offers you solutions to improve it. When it detects the error, it generates a detailed analysis report and you can even download it in PDF.

To obtain this information, you must indicate the address of the web that you want to analyze and after a few seconds you will obtain a complete report in which dozens of factors that affect the loading speed are analyzed.

In addition, there is also a plugin for WordPress and in case you have a website established in this CMS, you will have everything in your hands to work on the positioning of your business.

You can do all of this in its free version, which makes it one of the best digital marketing tools.

3. Ahrefs

To improve the positioning of your website it is important to use tools that help you get quality backlinks. We recommend using this tool, Ahrefs.

It is perfect to meet companies similar to yours, since you can analyze what they are doing and thus request collaboration for the construction of links on their website. If you have good authority, they will be very supportive to position you.

One of its advantages is that you can compare 5 sites at the same time and their records are constantly updated, which allows you to have recent information about your competitors at your fingertips.

Among the disadvantages is that it does not have a free version. To access its possibilities you have to pay a monthly fee. Also, it does not offer a Spanish version.

4.HubSpot

If there is an essential tool to know all the details of your strategy based on Inbound Marketing, it is HubSpot. With it you will be able to know many details and improve them all. We show you some of its benefits:

Help build your buyer image

First, it helps you create a buyer image. In other words, HubSpot gives you details about all the users who visit your website.

Follow their behavior, giving details about where the user has been interacting, what content they like the most and what was the form of contact. For example, if the user came to your website through email, social networks, among others.

It's wonderful because the follow-up doesn't end until that user becomes a customer, that is, until a purchase is made.

Improve the SEO of your website

Another of its benefits is that it helps you improve your SEO practices. When you are creating new content, it tells you how to use keywords and distribute them in your content.

With its tools you can perform an analysis by pages to see how you can improve or if your page is well positioned.

This tool is multitasking as it has many options. One of its modules allows you to perform a competitor analysis, study their keywords and give you an idea of how you can improve the competitor's proposal.

Segment information for each user

If there is something that the user likes, it is that he feels well cared for and HubSpot can help you. As we mentioned above, it gives you details of the behavior of each user on your website.

From there, you can create content for each individual customer, so it will hardly be seen as spam. If you know the taste of each of your clients, you can create content specially designed for each of them.

Facilitates the work of the Community Manager

As you well know, posting the same message on all social networks is not right. The community manager of your business has a lot of work, because they must adapt the same message to different platforms.

With HubSpot everything becomes easier, since it helps you to publish the same message on the social networks that you select, but making small adjustments, according to the style of each social network.

Without a doubt, it is one of the best digital marketing and social media tools. It is a kind of virtual assistant, so if you are looking to choose the best one, it will be a good idea to consider using it.

5. Google Trends

This is another of the best digital marketing and social media tools that, without a doubt, you should choose to boost your campaign. We decided to name it, because, unlike the previous one, this one is free.

It is perfect for any company that wants to know more about what is happening within their industry. It is very intuitive and easy to use.

It shows you a total of searches related to the keywords you select. The magic is that it shows you the trends in regions of different parts of the world and in different languages. Once again, another tool that will help you to know the tastes of your buyer persona and to structure a strategy to gain more leads.

HOW CAN GOOGLE TRENDS HELP YOU IN YOUR MARKETING DIGITAL STRATEGY?

Managing it is very simple, you just have to place the keywords related to your sector and select the country where you are interested in having a presence. You will then see the search percentage for that keyword and a few others related to the topic.

Not only is it useful to know what your audience is consuming, but it also tells you which keywords to include in your content when creating it.

With Google Trends you can classify trends as follows:

By keywords

frequent searches

Upward trends

Trends in a region or locality

Trends by season

The best terms on your list

In short, this tool offers you many benefits, even if you want to stand out on social networks. It would be an excellent idea if you created a hashtag with trending words, but which in turn fits the keywords you want to rank for.

6. Buffer

If what you are looking for is to save time, Buffer will be your best ally. This tool allows you to schedule your publications with the best reach times and thus effectively manage your social networks. With Buffer you can share on different social networks (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google Plus and Pinterest) either instantly or by scheduling the publications.

With this application you have two options: on the one hand, the free version that allows you to connect up to three profiles and on the other hand, the payment method that gives you the possibility of connecting up to twelve profiles. You can access it from its website or you can even download the extension for Chrome, Safari or Firefox.

In addition to the programming, it also offers you an analysis of part of your publications with the actions that you have obtained in them. One of its advantages is that without leaving the application you can interact with the person who mentions you.

Remember that it is a fairly automatic digital marketing tool and, although it makes your work much easier, you should not forget that engagement is the most important thing. Don't neglect your community.

7. URL Shorteners: Google URL Shortener and Bit.ly

URL shorteners are digital marketing tools that should not be missing in the management of your social networks. The benefits you will get from using it are as follows:

Improve the appearance of your links.

Due to the length, it is easier to remember them.

In some cases, you can edit them and place the keywords you want to rank for.

Depending on the shortener you use, you can know the number of clicks on the published link.

There are two known URL shorteners, Google's URL shortener and Bit.ly. With both, you will be able to know the number of clicks for each link published on social networks and customize the URLs for free.

With Google URL Shortener, if you want to know more statistical details you will have to register, but in the same way you would continue to use it for free. It also seems to take priority when it comes to SEO as it belongs to the innovative Google family.

If you use Hootsuite you surely know that the shortener is fantastic, you should also know that it is fully SEO friendly and provides detailed statistics on links shared on social media.

8. Feedly

Another essential tool that cannot be missing from your list is Feedly. It is a feed reader that allows you to follow blogs and classify them by categories. With this tool you can view all the content related to your brand on a single screen. With Feedly you can:

Subscribe to blogs and YouTube channels that are relevant to you.

See all the latest published updates.

Gather all the information that interests you in one place.

Create collections that allow you to organize blogs by categories.

Share content directly from Feedly on your social networks.

9. Buzzsumo

Another alternative to search for content is Buzzsumo. With this tool you can find information that can help you develop your content. It allows you to find the most influential publications and thus get ideas for your articles.

The only disadvantage is that the free version is very limited, so if you want to go deeper, we recommend that you access the PRO mode. With this tool you can:

Search by keywords or even insert a URL

See content by a specific author and thus find new influencers

Create filters by date or content to search for videos, infographics, etc.

Find different topics of interest related to your brand

You will be able to analyze the contents of your competition

It makes it easy for you to share a post on social media

Export the results to an Excel

Without a doubt, if what you need is to get ideas for content marketing or find new influencers, this tool is a good alternative.

10. Hootsuite

We couldn't leave without mentioning this tool to boost your social marketing strategy. Hootsuite allows you to monitor your social networks effectively, as it makes it easy for you to sort different profiles by columns and tabs. You have the free version that allows you to add up to 3 different social media profiles or the pro version with many more options.

Regarding the administration of your publications, it is very complete, since you can program your content in a segmented way and share it on different social networks simultaneously.

With this tool you will be able to monitor keywords in your sector, successfully promote conversations with the niche and interact with them from the application itself.

In addition, Hootsuite has an extension for Google: Hootlet, which allows you to quickly share content from any website.

11. Agora pulse

Surely you are reading this post or to find out about the best online marketing tools and social networks, because you are starting a project or because you have been applying inbound marketing for a while but want to use new things. You should know that Agora Pulse can become your allied tool.

With this tool you can achieve many things, one of them is that it offers you precise data about the right time to publish, it even tells you what is the best time.

There are experts who claim that this tool surpasses Facebook Insights in terms of statistics. You will have to make a comparison if you decide to choose it to monitor Facebook.

One of the advantages of using Agora Pulse is that it tells you which themes are most effective. In this way you can publish quality content and with the certainty that it will have a good acceptance by the followers.

Make a complete comparison of your page and those of your competition, with these statistics you can analyze what is working in your industry and thus be able to adjust to those "market demands".

We hope they can be of great help and, no matter which one you choose, you will get the results you hope to have in your inbound marketing strategy.

Remember that, before paying attention to the digital marketing tools that will be your right hand, you must invest time in defining your buyer persona, objectives to guide this difficult path of undertaking in the digital world and the parameters that will guide your strategy.

CHAPTER 8

ADVERTISING ON SOCIAL MEDIA - ADVANTAGES, OPPORTUNITIES, RISKS

The importance of social media for modern marketing is immense. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and company have become the most important communication tools and therefore also for advertising, image creation and comments on the Internet. Most companies across all industries have therefore already jumped on this bandwagon, to varying degrees, and are trying to drive sales with their own social media presence and advertising.

Creating your own Facebook Business Page is only the first step and only a small part of the success story. In addition, strategies must be developed to maintain a positive brand presentation and react quickly and comprehensively to user interaction. But it is also important to reserve paid advertising within these social networks to further reach the intended target group and build your own community.

How good is social media advertising really and what should be considered?

The possibilities of advertising on social networks with little capital investment

One of the reasons why social media advertising has become so popular is the low direct capital investment of companies when creating a corporate identity. Often, there is also no need for big budgets for extensive campaigns. Accounts on Facebook, Twitter and other global players are free and allow you to quickly set up your own presence. However, the time it takes for social media marketing should not be underestimated. Therefore, carrying out this strategy requires certain human resources. Taking care of the company website and community, as well as reserving paid advertising on social media platforms, takes a long time, however, since Facebook continues to limit the natural reach of company pages, it is recommended that advertising pay is also included in the concept. This not only allows you to fully reach your own followers, but also targets people in the target group who have not yet followed the company website. To find other stakeholders for your own content, classic word of mouth is also very important. This works through social media by sharing the article in question, posting a 'like' or even a comment. The LINKILIKE platform can display very specific and authentic user interaction on social media through its own Everyday Influencer network.

Development of a social media strategy

The possibilities offered by different social networks are diverse and suitable for different purposes. Its users are also different. Therefore, it is essential to devise a concept of advertising on social networks. You have to ask yourself the following questions:

What are the objectives of my advertising on social networks?

Think beforehand: What do I want to achieve? Do you want to boost your sales, for example, to hire new employees or to strengthen the image of your company? Only when you know what you want to achieve can you develop your strategy to achieve those goals.

WHO IS MY TARGET GROUP? WHAT PLATFORMS DOES IT OPERATE ON?

Different target groups use different platforms. Older people are more likely to be found on Facebook, while Snapchat, Instagram, and YouTube are more likely to be used by younger people. There are also differences in terms of gender, regional origin, and interests or occupational group. In order not to waste resources, you need to focus on the platforms that your target audience predominantly uses. You can learn more about the use of the different platforms by different user groups here.

What does my target group want?

How can I get you excited about me or offer added value through my social media advertising? How can this be implemented on the different platforms?

How can I check the success of my advertising on social networks?

The achievement of the defined objectives must be continuously checked. The prerequisite for this is that the objectives are measurable. You must also define suitable key figures, which can and should be different depending on the target definition. The number of followers or shares, interactions / engagement, comments, likes, generated leads, reach, resolved service requests, mood on social media.

How much budget is available? To what extent can paid advertising be used?

Depending on the available budget, different forms of paid advertising can be used on social media. The possibilities for this are as diverse as the budgets required. Even a small budget allows you to reserve a small number of ads on Facebook, Instagram and Co. There are no upper limits for this form of advertising. There are also influencers for all budgets. Although top influencers with a large reach are difficult to afford for small to medium budgets, everyday influencers or micro influencers are significantly more affordable. These are often even more effective than their powerful colleagues.

It is also possible to pursue different goals on different platforms. For example, a B2B company could use Facebook to brand the employer, but LinkedIn to reach new potential customers. In such cases, it makes sense to come up with separate concepts for advertising on social media.

Many risks without a proper concept

With an effective concept and consistent implementation of a common thread on social media, not only can products and services be successfully marketed. The company's own image or brand can also be refined and rejuvenated.

The concept is important, because the greatest danger lurks if you don't care about your own concepts in social posts. If you just create an account like that, start posting messages and don't think about your own concept anymore, you will inevitably fail. This can even cause a shit storm, which means a negative image for your own company. To avoid risks and take advantage of opportunities, you should always seek professional advice if you are unsure in this environment. Advertising agencies on social media are the key to success. The concept is created individually in accordance with the company's values and desired goals. From a communication guide to creating the posts to the perfect timing for your own posts, everything is weighted. Additionally, the agency may process Facebook Ads and Co. for advertising on social media.

So, by engaging in professional advice on all aspects of your own business website marketing, you can achieve great success.

CHAPTER 9

HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO BUILD YOUR PERSONAL BRAND

Social media is great for connecting with potential customers. But setting up a Twitter account or a Facebook profile is not enough. Only when you give your followers and fans added value in the form of interesting tips, advice or information that they can't get anywhere else, will you become interesting. We will show you how to achieve this and build a successful personal brand.

Although we're primarily concerned with building a personal brand in this article, let's first take a brief look at the difference between building a personal and corporate brand.

It's obvious: a personal brand affects you as a person, the corporate brand affects your company. The focus is on building your personal brand if you work as a consultant or coach and work in direct contact with your clients. The necessary confidentiality between you and your potential clients will help you build your business.

There are also business models in which the personal touch of the manufacturer of a product plays an important role in the success of sales. For example, if you sell handmade products. In this case, two social media presences may be the solution: one that focuses on the corporate brand and the other to build the personal brand. For lone fighters without a great social media team, it's best to go for one.

Benefits of having a personal brand on social media

Although we've already talked a bit about the benefits, let's take a closer look:

Confidentiality: One of the goals of a good brand is to "warm up" the relationship between you and your customers. The idea behind it: Anyone who has a positive relationship with someone likes to do business with them.

Reach: The potential reach on social media is huge. If things go well, your social media presence will earn you mentions on high-traffic influencer websites.

Lead Generation - This is your personal brand's biggest asset on social media. At the same time, that is the hardest thing to do.

None of the benefits come overnight, but with consistent work you can build a good foundation on social media, which has a positive effect on your business in the long run.

What social platform is best for your personal brand?

The answer is simple: it depends on your business! We will briefly introduce you to the most used networks.

Facebook: As an all-rounder, Facebook is not the network of choice when it comes to personal branding. The network lacks focus compared to LinkedIn, for example. It also doesn't offer the ability to interact with key influencers like Twitter does. However: it cannot be denied that Facebook is ideal for customer communication.

Twitter: You are also a generalist, you can easily follow and interact with influencers and other experts on Twitter. This predestines the network as a personal brand channel.

LinkedIn: more niche than Facebook and Twitter, but if you want to be a consultant or an expert in an area, Niche is what you need. On the other hand, LinkedIn is not as well suited for online networking as it relies on real-world contacts.

Instagram: You can also create a personal brand on Instagram, but this is not for everyone. It fits, for example, if you are a photographer. But for most, it is not worth the effort.

Pinterest: This is the social network of choice if you want to make a name for yourself in commerce, with products made by yourself or similar topics.

Tip: You basically only have time for two networks if you want to be successful with them.

How do you build your personal brand?

Once you've settled on one or two networks and created your account and profile, the work can finally begin. While creating a personal brand is not easy and there is no magic bullet for it, these tips point you in the right direction.

Define your goals: What do you want to achieve with the personal brand? Focus on the things that matter in your business, like leads or the number of followers. Make sure you choose a realistic time window. How do they say? No teacher has fallen from the sky yet!

Develop a content and social media strategy: what do you want to talk about on your channels? You need a consistent strategy that focuses on the main areas of your expertise. The same goes for your website. Especially if your main goal is more leads, sooner or later leads will come to your website. The easiest way to do this is to create quality content that people will love to share. That is why your social media and content strategy must go hand in hand.

Create a social media plan: Your social media strategy tells you what to do, your plan tells you when to do it. Also be mindful of industry specific events and occasions! You don't need to plan all your social media activities in advance, but a plan will help you stick to your strategy.

Get the rewards of your work - If one of your posts goes viral successfully, are you ready to process leads? If not, all your work has been in vain. The bare minimum is an email form on the website so you can stay in touch with your prospects.

It starts even if no one is listening: because no one will interact with you if there is nothing to interact with. Potential prospects want to know if your content is worth engaging with.

Identify Key Influencers - Influencers play a key role in building your personal brand. Especially since the influencers have already created the audience they want to target. Make a list of influencers relevant to you and impress.

Exchanging ideas with influencers: This is easier on Twitter, because there it is not only possible to contact strangers, but it is also part of the network concept. Regardless of which platform you want to socialize on, your engagement on social media should be determined by the fact that you want to help people solve problems.

Experiment and refine your strategies: As with everything in business, nothing works perfectly the first time. Keep going back to the key elements above. Did you create the correct content? Try something new too! Are you targeting the right influencers? If not, look for new ones! Find out what works and what doesn't.

Don't give up: building a personal brand with social media takes time. Even if you adjust your strategy in between, the most important thing is to keep going.

Pro Tip: While it's still possible to organically build a good social media presence, it takes a long time. If you use Twitter or Facebook, it is a good idea to have money on hand. On Twitter, a targeted campaign can get the attention of key influencers.

Anything goes or falls with good content on your website that you offer to your followers and fans. On the website because social media only has limited space available and because this is the best place to collect your leads. Also, remember to measure your success. Most platforms offer their own analytical tools. Use Google Analytics to find out which social network is generating the most leads from. Good luck building your personal brand with social media!

CHAPTER 10

WHAT IS A PERSONAL BRAND

A personal brand is, in many ways, similar to a corporate brand. It's who you are, what you stand for, the values you embrace, and the way you express those values. Just as a company's brand helps communicate its value to customers and stand out from the competition, a personal brand does the same with people, helping to communicate a unique identity and clear value to potential employers or clients.

That story can play an important role in establishing or furthering your career. In fact, an overwhelming 85 percent of hiring managers report that a candidate's personal brand influences their hiring decisions. Your personal brand should highlight your strengths, establish a reputation, build trust, and communicate the unique attributes you bring to your current (or desired) industry. If you cultivate well, your personal brand will tell employers whether or not you will be the right person for a vacant position.

Tips to build your personal brand

Developing a personal brand may seem like a challenge, but there are gradual steps you can take to build credibility in your field. Here are ten tips to help you create a true personal brand and amplify your career in the process.

TEN TIPS TO DEVELOP YOUR PERSONAL BRAND

1. Find out who you are.

To build a personal brand that accurately reflects your personal and professional identity, you first need to know who you are. Be introspective and create a list of your personal strengths and weaknesses. Ask yourself:

In what areas of work do I excel?

What motivates me?

What characteristics have others complimented me on?

What projects have other people repeatedly had to help me with?

What roles seem to drain my energy?

What projects can I spend hours on without feeling overwhelmed or tired?

If you have a hard time answering these questions, ask your friends, family, and co-workers how they would describe it. Once you are more aware of the different facets of your personality, you can decide how best to mark them.

Keep in mind that many people have a hard time choosing a specific niche because they don't want to limit themselves. Realize that your personal brand, like many corporate brands, will change as your career grows. The best strategy is to choose a particular area that you would like to focus on and let it evolve over time.

2. Determine why you want to be known.

Your personal brand is more than a reflection of who you are today; it is a roadmap of where to go. In addition to understanding your existing skills and competencies, it suggests assessing your strengths and weaknesses relative to whatever industry or career you want to enter next.

By doing this, you will discover the skills and traits that distinguish you, as well as the areas in which you need to improve or acquire new knowledge to advance. Forecasting where you want to be in five or 10 years, and the attributes you want to be known for, can help you better determine what steps you need to take to get there.

3. Define your audience.

Before you start building your personal brand, you also need to determine who you are trying to reach. Are they other opinion leaders in the industry? An individual in a particular company? Recruiters? The earlier you define your audience, the easier it will be to create your story, because the better you understand the type of story you need to tell (and where you need to tell it).

For example, if your goal is to reach hiring managers and recruiters, you can start by creating or updating your LinkedIn profile. Why? Because 92 percent of recruiters take advantage of social media to find high-quality candidates, and of those, 87 percent use LinkedIn.

On the other hand, if you are a graphic designer trying to impress existing clientele and attract new clients, you may choose to tell your story through a personal website or portfolio, where you can better express your wide range of talents.

4. Research your desired industry and follow the experts.

As you start charting the careers you want, she recommends gathering research on experts in those roles.

"Find out who the thought leaders are in whatever field you're interested in and don't follow them," he says. Go online and find out if they have blogs or where they contribute their thinking. Look for people who are successful and examine what they are doing. Imitate them and then make a better one. "

When creating a personal brand, your goal is to stand out, but you can't rise to the top without taking inventory of those who are already there.

5. Request informational interviews.

As you begin to list the companies you aspire to work for and the industry leaders you admire, consider contacting these professionals to request an informational interview.

"They take 20 minutes, but they are of great value." "Don't be afraid to ask anyone you are interested in learning more about. You will be surprised how genuine and generous the people are."

When you meet with these people, ask questions that can help you gain new knowledge about the field you want, such as:

How did you get into the industry?

What steps would you take if you had to transition again?

How do you see the evolution of the industry?

How do you stay up-to-date with industry trends?

Is there a professional or trade association that I should join?

Informational interviews come with an added benefit: “You are learning about what it takes to enter the profession, but you are also sharing a little about yourself in the course of this dialogue. What he's doing is building his brand. "

While there may not be a job at stake in one of these interviews, one day there might be, and you want that employer to think of you when they are envisioning the ideal candidate.

6. Prepare an elevator speech.

When you begin to conceptualize your personal brand, spend some time crafting an elevator pitch - a 30- to 60-second story about who you are. Whether you're attending a networking event or a casual party, having an elevator pitch prepared makes it easy to succinctly describe what you do and where you are going (or would like to go) in your career.

"You have to think of very short and concise things to say, stories to tell, that frame your attributes in the right way," says Frank Cutitta, founder of the Center for Global Branding and a Northeastern University graduate professor who teaches a course. about personal branding.

Keep your elevator pitch short by focusing on a few key points you want to emphasize. This could include that you are looking for a new position, have strengths in a particular niche, or have recently increased the value of your current department or company.

7. Embrace networking.

As you cultivate your ideal personal brand, it's important to network regularly (and effectively) to grow your professional circle. Connect with colleagues and industry thought leaders by attending formal and informal networking events.

The more connections you make, and the more value you can provide in your interactions, the more likely your personal brand will be recognized. And, considering that 85 percent of all jobs are filled through networks, regularly attending these events will help you not only build your brand, but also advance your career.

At these events, feel free to ask other attendees to come together for an informational interview or informal coffee chat. And remember, if you don't have a chance to connect at the event, reach out via email or LinkedIn to start a conversation.

8. Ask for recommendations.

Having current and former colleagues and managers support you is one of the easiest and most effective ways to define your personal brand, allowing others to communicate its value for you. Just as a business can cultivate customer reviews and testimonials for use in marketing and sales collateral, you should also cultivate your own reviews in the form of recommendations.

LinkedIn is a great place to request endorsements because these recommendations will likely catch the eye of future hiring managers. But don't forget to ask your supporters to act as a real reference during your job search, making sure they are willing to speak to a potential employer or write a letter of recommendation in good faith if necessary.

Not sure who to ask? Former managers who coached you closely are ideal, but other connections can also craft effective recommendations, including professors and leaders of the organizations you belong to.

9. Grow your presence online.

One of the most important aspects of personal branding is making sure your online presence is attractive to hiring managers, coworkers, and others, even if you're not looking for a job.

With so many social media tools available today, your online presence will likely look different depending on the medium you choose. While your story should match across platforms, once you know where your target audience is most likely to go, you can redouble your efforts to tell your best story there.

Also, if you want one of your sites or profiles to be exclusively for friends and family, adjust your privacy settings to make sure potential employers don't find information that could harm your chances of landing a job. Here are some platform-specific tips to help you effectively build your personal brand online.

-          LinkedIn

LinkedIn serves as a professional social media tool and is the best place to define your brand. The best way to use this network is to participate in groups, make presentations with people who interest you, and ask for (and give) recommendations. Some other tips for telling your story effectively through LinkedIn include:

Focus on key industry skills - Recruiters will often search for keywords that relate to the role they are trying to play, so it is important to include industry terms in your profile, whether in your title, summary, or job description, and explicitly state your skills. For example, if you are playing a communication role, focus on your area of interest and key qualifications, such as public relations, social media, or crisis communication.

Quantify your achievements: Saying you are "results oriented" is not as effective as your actual results. Quantify your accomplishments when possible, whether it's the number of articles you've written, the money you've raised, or the deals you've closed.

Complete your profile: While this may seem obvious, it is not uncommon for users to leave sections of their LinkedIn profile blank. Recruiters want to see what work experience you have, your educational background, and a detailed list of accomplishments, so be sure to show the big picture. Convince them that you are the person to hire.

Use a professional photo: LinkedIn users with a professional photo in the head receive 14 times more profile views than those without. Upload a current photo that is very close to your face. Remember, you must be the focal point, so avoid busy backgrounds and smile. The cozier you look, the more likely recruiters are to contact you.

-          Twitter

Take advantage of this platform to stand out and leverage your industry expertise. Try incorporating your personal branding into your Twitter bio by using hashtags to focus on your niche, following leaders in your field, and retweeting top industry stories. Don't forget: what you tweet is still part of your image online.

-          Personal website or portfolio

If you are in a marketing or design field, it is especially important to have a personal website or portfolio that provides essential information about who you are and helps to visually highlight your work. You can create your own site using Squarespace, Wix or WordPress, among others. Small brands and business owners can also take advantage of helpful design resources, such as Canva and Venngage logo templates, to start creating brand-specific content.

10. Remember that your personal brand is not just online.

Your brand is more than a person online; this is how you behave at home, in the office and even on your daily commute.

"Your reputation is everything." “Those who frustrate or annoy others, that will come back to haunt them. The more opportunities you have to work with others, volunteer for projects, and establish yourself as a leader, take advantage of them. That is part of your brand. "

Leadership is not reserved for senior executives. There are strong leaders at all levels of the organization.

"Leadership comes from how you behave, how you act, and how you inherently interact with people." "That is real leadership."

That story you tell, combined with those everyday interactions, ultimately defines your personal brand.

Reinvent your personal brand as you grow

As the digital ecosystem changes and your career evolves, so will your personal brand. Adjust your personality accordingly as you meet different people, find new networking opportunities, and grow in your career. As long as it reflects your professional life, feel free to create a brand that allows you to shine.

CHAPTER 11

ARCHETYPES OF PERSONAL BRANDS

There are 7 different personal brand archetypes. Which one are you? Knowing your archetype is half the battle.

How do you build a personal brand?

The first step is to understand who you are or, rather, what kind of "content producer" you are. Building a personal brand is about emphasizing your best qualities, your value offerings, and putting them at the forefront of what you do. So before you can do that, you need to understand what those qualities are. What are you really good at?

1. The content creator

You are the creator, the one who really creates the valuable content that is shared. The content creators are YouTubers who make original videos, Instagrammers who post new photos every day, video creators who are producing their own mini sketches. Being a content creator means wearing a lot of different hats, and it means taking responsibility for the whole process and constantly showing up, day after day, to create really great content.

2. The curator

You have a knack for finding the best content out there, relative to your specific market or niche. It's not you who really creates things, you're just gathering all the best stuff and positioning yourself as the "go-to" for what's hot. Curators have talented eyes and can see things that are going to be trendy before everyone else. It is an art in itself.

3. The journalist

You are the combination of a content creator and a content curator. You are a thought leader in the sense that you provide feedback on what is happening and are considered more of an objective "news source" for your market or niche. You collect the trends, what is happening, and add some of your own thoughts to the top. People come to you looking for "answers."

4. The instigator / critic

You are the King or Queen of the drama, honestly. You love to differentiate what other people are doing and take advantage of the title of "entertainer". You are the devil's advocate for everything around your industry and you go out of your way to question anything that comes to the surface. You provoke debate, you love to stir up controversy and you are the "shadow" of the journalist.

5. The case study

You teach others by testing it on yourself first. You create your own thought leadership by being willing to try things out before anyone else and reveal exactly what happened along the way. People come to you because they know they are going to get transparent and brutally honest advice. They trust your genuine honesty about what "works" and what doesn't.

6. The "normal person"

Your brand is entirely based on who you are. You have a YouTube channel where you vlog about your life, your adventures, whatever comes to mind. You build an audience because you're really good at being genuine and viewers feel like they know your true self. (Truth be told, all personal brands should have this element, but for some people it's both the base and the flag.)

7. The industry expert

Everything you touch turns to gold. You've done enough in one lifetime to be worth giving advice for the next six. You have the experience and people look to you for quality information. You just need help expanding that knowledge and experience across various channels so your story can spread even more.

CHAPTER 12

Content Creation

You must take this into account when creating content.

The content of a website must adapt to the target group, the visitors, interest them and be easy to absorb. This article shows you what to consider when creating content.

Website content cannot be created quickly!

There is a lot of work behind good content. The focus is always on the needs of the visitors. The basic idea behind this can be described as content design. This means nothing more than a special way of thinking about content and making content production more structured and user-centered.

The content and its structure should be developed together with the client at the beginning of the project. The focus is on the previously defined website and project goals and answers to the central question of what is used, where, how and by whom. But more on that in a moment.

The content structure

First, the possible content must first be defined: what content should be presented and how. A content structure must be created for this. The development of the so-called information architecture (AI) defines the individual content areas. This mainly includes the sitemap, that is, the page structure with main pages and subpages, divided into main, sub and meta navigation.

At the same time, the information architecture always offers the visitor an overview:

Where am I?

What is this about?

Where am I in the offer?

Where can I go from here?

What is this website for?

What do I get from this offer?

Who is behind this and how can I reach them?

Content Creation - You should consider this when creating content.

Image source: practical tools for website design

Information architecture is more than just navigation.

Information architecture includes the classification and categorization of all content.

Once individual pages have been determined, individual content can be defined for them:

What content should be broadcast specifically on this page?

How should they be divided / structured?

What media should the content transmit (texts, images, infographics, etc.)?

Building wireframes has proven its worth. A content structure is developed for individual pages so that it becomes clearer what content is where and in what context.

When the content structure is ready, the production of the specific content can begin.

Hue: find the right shade

Providing the right content also means preparing it for your visitors. If you have already read several articles (web) on the same topic, you will have realized that there is no single way to prepare and design content.

The structure of the content, the scope and depth of details, the media used, the language, the tone of voice - all can be very different and individual.

Hue: find the right shade

Here, the website operator must define its tone and its "type" of content design and implementation. In this way, uniformity in the various contents can be achieved. Also, create a kind of "blueprint" for future content creation, or for various people involved.

Authenticity plays an important role here. It is better to literally find your own voice than to imitate or copy others. This also ensures that something like a brand is created, a new German brand.

Visitors will be happy to revert to the same content source if they like your point of view and language. Since more than enough information already exists, it is unlikely that a topic has ever been covered before. Only then do your own perspective and presentation, perhaps something new, make the content interesting.

At the same time, in addition to their own language, the language of the visitors is also relevant. You must understand the content and find yourself in it, that is, be able to identify with it in a certain way.

Authentic texts vs. SEO

Gone are the days of writing "for search engines"!

Real people sit at the end of the device. Therefore, there should be no search engine optimized texts full of keywords that are solely aimed at good ranking, many visitors and the consequent manipulative conversion. Rather, the texts should offer the famous added value. The visitor gets real benefit from it and can earn trust and come back etc.

So the texts are also (almost) automatically classified well.

User stories

After extensive research and intensive analysis, the content structure has been determined: user needs clarified. Their languages and their channels too.

Now is the time to turn those questions into answers.

An instrument that can help are the so-called. User stories (in German, user stories).

These can be used to create clear, specific and user-centered content.

User stories have the following structure:

As [role / user: person in a given role]

I want [objective / desire / function: to perform an action or discover something]

So that I / a / because [benefit / value: I can achieve my goal]

In concrete practice, this could be, for example:

As a customer of an online store, I would like to register so that I can view and check my previous orders and print invoices.

As a customer of an online store, I would like to be able to specify a different delivery address so that I can send a gift to anyone.

As a web designer who is not well versed in SEO, I want to know which WordPress plugin can help me write my articles to achieve higher rankings and get more traffic.

As an IT employee of a midsize company, I would like to be able to compare the technical details of the hosting providers so that I can choose the right package for our website.

As a patient, I want to quickly find the dentist's office hours and contact details to make an appointment.

This method can be useful when creating content. In this way, no text is produced, but useful answers to specific needs and problems can be provided.

No text deserts

The days of long text pages are also over. No visitor wants to read that anymore. Anyway: it is best to say goodbye to the idea of visitors reading a text completely in peace.

What is much more likely: Visitors scan the page, get stuck in certain prominent places, and read here and there and click.

It is important to know this for the design, but first for the structuring of the content and texts.

It should be as easy as possible for the visitor.

For an overview of the text / content / statement.

Always have different entry opportunities.

Record the content through different types of media like text, images, etc.

The result can be short, crisp text that is more like a quick tip. And another time it may be a technical article of several thousand words (like this one).

Content layout: no text desert

Deserts of classic text (screenshots on the left) and modern content design (screenshots on the right).

At the beginning of the writing, these three basic questions will help:

For which target group is the content created?

What makes the content unique?

What text, image and video / sound content looks attractive and offers added value?

Brevity

The extension, that is, the quantitative scope, should be sufficient. The topic and the desired intention must be addressed. Most of the time he writes too much and too much. The old advice can help here:

Shorten the text by 50% and then skip half again.

The challenge is to summarize the gist of the statement briefly and succinctly so that no novel is believed.

“Less is more, this also applies to creating texts.

Therefore, skip everything that is not important. "

Make content accessible

A topic that is often misunderstood. Accessibility, often called barrier-free in technical jargon, does not mean “just” making websites usable for people with disabilities. It's much more than that.

Simple, clear language with short, easy-to-understand sentences helps everyone!

Slow internet connection, strong sunlight, small screen, touch panel, old browser, poor vision, strong ambient noise, lack of knowledge of English, etc., there are so many restrictions that we ourselves are regularly subjected to that they do not necessarily correspond to a physical limitation.

Therefore, users' needs must be combined with easily understandable content. Then that information will be available to all visitors regardless of their skills, the device they are on, the knowledge they have, etc.

Using plain language doesn't sound cheap or amateurish, it opens up the content for quick and understandable recording.

Long, nested sentences aren't just harder to understand. They are also difficult to navigate and nobody wants to read them on the Internet. If you want to write novels, it is better to use a typewriter.

When it comes to technical terms, think twice if they are understandable to your visitors and their knowledge. When in doubt, explain them or look for terms that are clear right away. Sarah Richards put it very well:

"Generally, people want to understand, not admire, their language skills"

And the article Simple language is for everyone, even the experts shows with practical results how simple language can save money.

"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."

You can get lots of tips and instructions for understandable writing from the writer Maria Horschig.

Structure texts

Short paragraphs, bulleted lists, citations, tables, subheadings, marked sections of text, etc., relax a text in a pleasant way.

This creates small, digestible bites.

You will also notice it with this specialized article. Yes, the content is extensive (by the way, the topic could be covered in much more detail). But I tried to divide it into individual "sections". The best thing to do is to read the entire article from cover to cover (I'm a realist and I know you won't do that). But that's exactly why you have so many small entry opportunities.

Content design: text structure

Excerpts from a website: content and texts are divided into many smaller "content bits".

Therefore, content design means creating content that is functional and usable, for everyone.

Good text

... is unique and new.

... is personal and authentic.

... is written in your own voice / language.

... represents added value.

... serves a need of the reader / visitor.

... is informative.

... focuses on the essentials.

... is well structured.

... is designed to be easy to read.

... relies on other visual elements.

Content is not just a mess of text

Of course, content doesn't just mean running text paired with some subtitles. Even if you think about it first and start writing texts. Content can be much more than that.

There is a wide variety of text-only content:

Text content:

Menu items

Blog post

Informative texts

Categories

Link / button texts

Alt tags, title tags

Frequent questions

review

Tutorial

report

Check list

Experience report

Guest Articles

adviser

interview

study

Case study

...

And there are other content formats such as:

Image content:

Photos

Graphics / Illustrations

Infographics

Videos

Buttons

Icons

Animated gifs

Sound content:

Podcasts

music

spoken texts

Other content formats:

Hang up

poll

calculator

Webinar

presentation

Chatbot

For most content, it's all about the mix. We already had it: no one wants pure text deserts anymore. Variety is the order of the day. Not as an end in itself, but in terms of user needs, accessibility, scannability, and website goals.

Content Creation - You should consider this when creating content 2

The call to action: show customers the next step

It is always about helping the visitor:

Service X helps the customer get Y.

A new website gives you more visibility and more queries. A dentist helps the client to have healthy teeth. An online store offers a wide and convenient selection, easy to order and deliver.

Then each company offers solutions!

The content should make the connection clear:

How can the service help the customer?

It goes without saying that visitors automatically log in on their own. The content of the website must show that the solutions are offered as a service. And therefore visitors must also be informed and shown what their next step should be. Add a call to action to each content. This is often found at the end of a long article with the tagline "Get in touch now." Not so bad, but why not in the middle in the right place? It should not "smell" after the sale, but rather appear natural, that is, its content must be appropriate. When giving advice or mentioning a solution, you can add something like:

"If you need help with that, click here to learn more about working with me."

OR

“I help all my clients with this in my XYZ coaching. (You can find more information here). "

This call to action is often called a call to action. Famous and notorious for corresponding CtA buttons. Sometimes an additional link to another page or article (regardless of whether it is on your own website or an external link) may be sufficient.

Call-to-action buttons in action: show the visitor the next step.

Call-to-action buttons in action - Show visitors the next step.

Optimize content for search engines

No, you should not write texts optimized exclusively for search engines. Of course, that doesn't mean that SEO should be completely ignored.

On the contrary: it would be a shame if the new user-centric content was not recognized

To rank higher in search engine results, you should also do on-page SEO. Yes, this also includes keyword analysis and definition. And yes, it makes perfect sense to use the keywords that the target group uses over and over again in the texts. You can even distinguish between short, medium and long tail keywords.

Content design and search engine optimization.

Meta tags (title and description tags, image names, image alt tags, h1 to h6 headlines are important SEO ranking factors to consider.

However, keyword density has become less important. A keyword should appear as often as it seems natural and not as often as an SEO tool would like it to appear.

But internal links are a powerful tool for this. On the one hand, for the reader, it is adequately forwarded in terms of content (and stays on the website) and search engines also get a better understanding of (internal) relationships.

External links are also included, as not everything is on your own website. Helpful and complementary content can and should be linked, which is also added value for the visitor (did you notice external links in this article?).

The main difference between SEO texts and content design is that one is "optimized" according to more theoretical criteria, in the sense that the keywords are used accordingly. While the other has the real visitor in view and the result is therefore more open and not yet specified based on certain criteria.

Content creation at a glance

Content creation is hard work, but neither is rocket science or rocket science. It is not necessary to have studied German or something similar (of course, it does not hurt either). Above all, regardless of the prior knowledge you have, it is important to consider the aspects presented as a basis. Of course, there are many more useful things around content creation. The Content Design page already offers a lot of tips and advice. Also the question of content versus design: what "first"? provides useful information for your own workflow.

CHAPTER 13

HOW DO I BECOME AN INFLUENCER

Your mother used to warn you about influenza, today the dream job of many young people sounds very similar: suddenly everyone wants to become an influencer. But is that even a job? Can I make money from it, and how do I become a respected YouTube or Instagram star? And the question of all questions: which side of the power is the influencer on?

“I want to become an influencer. How does it work?” Is a frequently asked question in our Facebook community. It's clear: what used to be the rock star as a top career aspiration of young people is now the influencer. Ideally, his level of awareness equals that of a pop star, he seems to be moving in a glamorous world, is allowed to test loads of cool products for free, and for many it looks like easy money. But the reality is often different. Nevertheless, the “influencer” can now be described as an independent profession, and there are even a few who earn a lot of money with it.

What is an influencer?

As a classic influencer, you are active in social networks such as Instagram, YouTube, Twitter or Snapchat . There you post a lot of articles on specific topics: texts, videos and podcasts. You as a person are also visible there, as a rule you are the focus of the contributions. And you have loads of followers who follow you, “like” you and are your fans. That way you have great influence (English: influence) to your audience.

Influencer Marketing

Industry and business now come into play. Many companies are now doing targeted influencer marketing, which means that they have discovered influencers as valuable carriers of their messages, brands and products. It works like this: If you have many fans or followers on social media channels such as Instagram, Snapchat or YouTube, you will be interesting for companies. They then offer you cooperations: You conclude a contract with the company and spread the desired message in your channel. To do this, you create image, text or sound contributions in the desired tenor and then publish them. You act, so to speak, as an opinion maker or high-reach person with a large network that you use. In return, you will receive money from the company for your influencer activity.

In doing so, you naturally influence your followers and walk a fine line every day between authentic self-portrayal, dissemination of information, PR and advertising. The boundaries between these different communication styles are fluid and - here it becomes problematic, although intentionally - often not easy to distinguish for the user.

Find YOUR topic

But first and foremost, you have to manage to reach and inspire many internet users in the social media world with an exciting topic, so that you serve a large network and have many fans. So your career begins with finding a suitable and exciting field of activity for you. Ideally, this is an area that you have an interest in, or even a field that you would consider your hobby. Classic topics for influencer channels are fashion , cosmetics , nutrition , sports and music .

Sometimes everything just revolves around you and your life. Many influencers initially started their platform or channel as a pure leisure activity before the number of fans went through the roof. Then the system began to professionalize itself: If you have a lot of followers, companies that find your target group interesting ask you about a social media marketing measure. There are special tools in which the marketing departments of companies can search specifically for a suitable influencer. Then the business is running and the sources of income are gushing. Often an initial cooperation acts like an icebreaker, because it makes other companies aware of you.

What do I have to bring?

It is a fallacy to think that anyone can become an influencer. In the end, it's a special form of communication, a mixture of self-expression and PR. And for this, too, you definitely need the right tools. Because you have to have skills in very different areas in order to be successful.

Video / picture

Videos and photos that you post on social media are extremely important. In many blogs and channels, the imagery is of great importance. Images are used to convey emotions, and a target group can be quickly inspired. So you should have both the technical means to take high-quality photos and a knack for taking good photos. Not every snapshot becomes a long-running favorite on your Instagram account. If you are on YouTube, you should deal with the creation of videos and get some solid knowledge of video editing. However, all of this is not as complicated as it sounds: With a current smartphone and the appropriate software or app, a lot can be done. But also here applies:

Text

Bloggers like to write and write a lot. And there are many blogs these days. This increases the demands on you if you want to stand out from the crowd, attract attention and be successful. In other words, if you can barely manage to write three short sentences without spelling and grammatical errors, you should seriously think again about your career aspiration as an influencer. Texting is part of everyday life for you and you need to be able to formulate the articles in a way that many people will enjoy reading them. In short: Your content has to be really good. Generations of journalists and copywriters have failed at this task. Do not underestimate this requirement!

Also, the language you use should be that of your target audience. Many successful bloggers come from their own target group and therefore know “their language” best. But then also keep in mind that your fans will slowly but surely age along with you over the years. If you want to address a very young target group over a long period of time, which is often very effective in advertising, you will not be able to avoid adapting your language style over and over again.

Fun and knowledge in and in your industry

No matter which topic you choose for your channel: You have to be interested in the topic and be interested in the content. And persistently, because as an influencer your first thought in the morning is: What am I posting today? You have to put content online every day so that you don't get tired of your topic quickly. If you run a channel on the subject of fashion, you should, for example, be very familiar with the industry and have a little or even a little more specialist knowledge. It is not uncommon for bloggers or influencers from the fitness or nutrition sector, for example, to even bring appropriate professional training or a subject-specific degree with them. Because blogging about "nothing" is difficult; So, knowledge doesn't do any harm.

A penchant for self-expression

Are you one of those people who hid behind the jungle gym in kindergarten when the photographer came? Do you find yourself stupid in every photo and don't like to see yourself? Then being an influencer is definitely not for you. Because here there is clearly one focus: you. And you should really enjoy that too. So, the self-promoters among us are definitely in demand.

Creativity

A little creativity definitely doesn't hurt. Because often it is up to you to photographically present one or the other product accordingly. There are plenty of bad or very entertaining examples (see pearls of influencer marketing), but here too, success ultimately justifies the means: If clicks, followers and likes are correct, no matter how mocking the chosen motif. Often times, even those who are amused by the posts do not necessarily come from the intended target group.

Independence

The job as an influencer is a classic self-employed activity. For you this means that you have to take care of the correct registration with the tax office, the tax return and the appropriate insurance. In addition, you will negotiate contracts with cooperation partners and you should therefore be familiar with contract law. Negotiating skills and basic commercial knowledge are also not out of place in this job. And you should have understood the market mechanisms of the digital economy and online marketing: Who pays for what, why and how much?

Those who work independently must also provide the necessary office equipment themselves. In other words, you have to upgrade digitally or be up to date. Appropriate technical equipment is essential. Depending on your orientation, the absolute basic equipment consists of a smartphone , a notebook , a high-quality photo camera and a selfie stick. Your appearance as a social influencer will be made more professional by high-quality technology in terms of lighting, for example special lamps with soft boxes for soft light, or high-quality sound recording devices. These investments can definitely pay off for you, because with professional equipment you may be more likely to attract well-known cooperation partners from business and industry.

Exciting: You can also count on government funding for business start-ups if you are planning to become self-employed as an influencer.

Text Influencer Marketing appears on smartphone

Image source: www.istockphoto.com / tumsasedgars

So much money can be made

Earning Concepts

You can earn money with one of the following models:

You conclude a contract with one or more companies. This can either refer to just one contribution on your part or cover a longer period of cooperation. Then, for example, it is fixed how many posts you make, which products should appear in them and how high your remuneration is.

You work with affiliate marketing. In this case, you enter into a long-term cooperation with a company and present their products in your channel. On Instagram, for example, links are then set in the profile description that forward the user directly to the product's website. You will then receive a commission from the company for every click or possibly for every subsequent purchase.

The magic limit is a number of around 10,000 followers. Many influencers report that from this number onwards, companies asked them whether cooperations were possible (source). However, with fewer than 30,000 followers in the industry, you are still considered a so-called “micro-influencer”. But these are even more interesting for some companies, as their target group is sometimes more clearly defined and thus better meets the advertising that is widespread there. There is currently a trend in this direction: more and more brands are specifically targeting micro-influencers to get their messages across on the internet.

Amount of income

A survey by Rakuten Marketing provides specific figures on how much you can earn in this digital marketing business. Accordingly, top or key influencers with more than 500,000 followers could receive up to 38,000 euros per post. Micro-influencers, on the other hand, would get up to 32,000 euros per complete campaign (which of course includes several blog posts or posts over a longer period of time).

But be careful: these numbers define the absolute maximum values! As a rough guide in the industry: If you have around 30,000 followers, you can divide their number by 100, and this amount is roughly what you can ask for a post. With 40,000 followers that would be around 400 euros per post.

The problem of surreptitious advertising

The older semesters will still remember: In the past, TV shows or even films were often discredited because they were suspected of surreptitious advertising. Surreptitious advertising is the unfair placement of product brands or companies in films. "Unfair" acts in the case, who

"Does not make the commercial purpose of a business act identifiable, unless it is immediately apparent, and the non-identification is suitable to induce the consumer to undertake a business act that he would not otherwise have taken." (W&V)

What about influencers in this regard? Some recent court rulings address this issue. The following is fundamental for every influencer: Commercial collaborations must be marked accordingly in any case, i.e., you must add a clearly visible note such as "Werbung", "Anzeige", "Advertising" or the like in front of your corresponding post. Otherwise, you can run into serious problems because you are liable for everything you publish. Other competitor companies can sue you for an omission, warnings, legal fees and even canceled contracts could be the result (source).

Advertising that is too flat can also negatively affect you like a boomerang and, for example, trigger a dreaded shit storm on the internet, which in the worst case scenario is associated with your name and that of the product being advertised. If you make yourself unpopular with your fans and your client through such an action, this can also mean that further lucrative collaborations fail to materialize.

The official hurdles to become an influencer are very low: You do not need any mandatory training in purely theoretical terms. Relatively simple, technical equipment is sufficient for the job, and you can freely choose the topic on which you want to write articles. Nevertheless, you have to have a lot of talent and ability: In addition to basic technical knowledge of the Internet and your equipment, photographic, linguistic and entrepreneurial skills are particularly important. In order to really earn money with this job, you have to be able to reach and convince a large number of followers. The law of the net is relatively unreliable: with luck, success can be achieved with a single vacation snapshot with the appropriate comment - but does not have to be.

In addition, it is quite questionable whether you, as an influencer, will be able to be so successful in the long term that you can use it to finance your living for the rest of your life. In other words: a solid education or a degree in a certain area is definitely recommended so that you remain flexible. You can still become an influencer.

CHAPTER 14

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING MADE SIMPLE: A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE

I don’t think I need to tell you how big social media is. Social media is the fastest-growing trend in the history of the world. It has even grown faster than the internet itself within the first ten years of being publicly available, the Internet managed to gather roughly 1 billion users.

Social media marketing guide internet users

If you think reaching nearly one in six people on the planet within ten years is fast, then I agree with you. But, how about reaching one in five within nine years? Since opening up for everyone to sign up on September 26, 2006, Facebook now has 1.6 billion users. The world population has grown to over 7.8 billion, by now, and nearly one in four humans on this planet has a Facebook account. Facebook, quite literally, is beginning to take over the world. 68% of people in North America use the platform, and the percentages for similar countries are equally staggering.

In some ways, Facebook is a country of its own. It’s larger than any other country in the world, and one could even argue that it’s more connected. And that’s just Facebook. We haven’t even taken into account the users on all the other platforms. By the end of that analysis, we’d likely have trouble keeping count. But don’t think people are only using these platforms once a month just because that’s how most people go about measuring the stats.

In reality, people are using these platforms every single day. And they use them not just once per day, but multiple times.

Social media marketing frequency of use chart

People check, check, and check again.

In fact, we’re so addicted to our mobile phones and the social media apps on them that there’s now a word for our obsession.

Nomophobia is the fear of not being near your mobile phone. With such widespread use, social media presents an incredible marketing opportunity. If you’re not using social media marketing already, you’ll either have to learn it now or lose in the long run. In this social media marketing guide, I’m going to walk you through the 12 most popular platforms. I’ll give you an overview of each one, show you how to build a successful social media strategy for them, and point you to some of the best places to learn even more.

Social Media Marketing Guide Definitions

As usual, Wikipedia is a disappointment when trying to define social media marketing. It simply says, “Social media marketing is the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites.”

Wow, who would’ve thought, right? I’d like to take a swing at defining social media marketing myself:

Social media marketing is the process of creating content that you have tailored to the context of each individual social media platform in order to drive user engagement and sharing. You gaining traffic is only the result of social media marketing. What do you do to get that result? Create content that works well on each platform. Naturally, however, each platform is different. On one, blog content is the master. On another, video dominates. And on another still, pictures win the day. That’s why I’m going to show you the differences between the top 12 platforms and how you can leverage each.

As you’ll see, each platform requires a slightly different strategy. Because here’s the thing: Everyone wants their content to go viral. But, to do that, the content must be engaging so that people want to share it. Your content must be so good that it makes the user want to tell all their friends about it. Otherwise, your social media strategy will fail. You’ll have no shares, no viral content, and no traffic back to your site.

Social Media Marketing Overview

Even though you hear about the same few social networks all of the time, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any others out there.

Wikipedia alone lists over 200 of them. This great graphic called “The Conversation Prism” gives a good overview.

Social media marketing sites

While this list is fairly up to date, it may come as a surprise to you that it’s entirely different from the first version of this graphic from 2008.

All versions aggregate around 200 services, but from version to version (which they usually update every 2-3 years), the creators remove over 100 social media platforms and add another 100. The world of social media is changing incredibly fast. So when you’re just starting out, start with the ones that have been around for years. Betting on “the next big thing” can pay off if you’re right. But, if you’re just getting started on a social media strategy, you can’t afford to not have a Facebook page or a Twitter account since we’ve already seen how effective they are.

Let’s look at some key social media terms.

Content

Content is whatever you are posting. It can be a Facebook status update, a photo on Instagram, a tweet, something to pin on a board on Pinterest, and so on.

The graphic already showed you that content comes in many different forms and that you need to custom-tailor it to each platform. What’s even more important than content, though, is context.

Context

Gary Vaynerchuk said that if content is king, then context is god. You can have a great joke, but if you place it somewhere inside a 3,000-word blog post, very few people will see it. On Twitter, however, that same joke as a tweet might crush it.

Social media market

And, the opposite is also true.  Packaging your entire blog post into one tweet is hardly possible, so try a good call to action with some relevant hashtags instead. And that brings us to hashtags.

Hashtags

By now, they’re a very common form that people use to add meta information on almost all social media channels. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest all use hashtags to let you describe the topic of your content or mark it as part of current trends. They make your content easy for users to discover and therefore more likely that they’ll share it.

Shares

Shares are the currency of the social media world. Shares are all that matters on social media.

People will keep talking to you about impressions, click-through rates, and potential reach. But none of these tell you whether people actually pass on what you have to say. When people engage and interact with your content, that’s good. But, when they share it,that is the time when you celebrate.

A great tool to measure shares and the overall impact of content is BuzzSumo:

social media marketing shares definition

The more shares, the more people love your content. It’s the best form of engagement that people can have with it.

Engagement

This is a general term that means that people interact with the content that you produce. It can be a like, a reaction, a comment, or a share. All of these are good, but the shares are where it’s at. Now that we’ve covered some definitions, let’s take a look at some social media marketing trends.

Social Media Marketing Trends

The social media world changes faster than any other online space. And keeping up with it isn’t an easy task.So here are a few trends you’ll want to keep in mind. Most likely, these trends will impact not just this year, but also the future years to come.

Here’s what they are.

Organic Reach is Down

Once upon a time, a social media user could post compelling content and easily grow their social media following.

After a few months, they’d receive loads of friend requests, comments, shares, and “likes,” all because of their amazing content.

But today, that’s not so much the case.

In fact, most social media platforms are making it increasingly difficult to build an organic following. And it’s not unintentional.

Here’s why. As the ability for organic superstars to shine goes down, something else goes up.

You guessed it: ad spend.

Social media marketing guide organic reach is down

Of course, that’s just Facebook. But the truth is that it’s the same for every social media platform. They make it more difficult for users to grow their own organic platform so that businesses spend more money on advertisements. In fact, one change that Facebook made caused a 52% drop in organic reach per post in just a few months.

social media marketing organic drop chart from social flow

Remember: Social media platforms are businesses.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and every single other social media space wants to make money.

And they do that by connecting you with paying customers. Ideally, they do that well. But ultimately, they are each in it for the money. So you have to watch out and measure your own efforts to see what works and what doesn’t.

Social is Becoming ‘Pay to Play’

As organic reach becomes more difficult, businesses have to pay to play. They can no longer trust savvy content marketing efforts to build a following. The more that social media algorithms prioritize advertisements, the more that businesses are willing to pay. This is why social media ad spend is way up. Advertising budgets for social media doubled from 2014 to 2016. By 2018, it amounted to more than $89 billion. That’s not very surprising, really.

It makes sense when you find out that social media companies make practically all of their money from advertisements.

social media marketing guide average revenue per user

In other words, social media is only free for users because advertisers are paying loads of money to reach those users.

The user is the product.

But to reach them, you have to pay.

Fortunately, if you choose the right social media platform for your business to invest money into, that won’t be too big of a problem. Most social media sites still have very reasonable advertising costs, particularly if you have thought through your advertisements well. After all, the better your ads, the less you’ll spend.

Channels Are Merging

As entrepreneurs create social media websites, the possibilities become increasingly endless.

And that trend isn’t slowing down. As new ways of communicating, reaching customers, and pulling leads develop, so do strategies that are equally innovative. Take, for instance, cart abandonment emails.

Once, the only place to send and receive cart abandonment messages was through email. You’d receive something like this in your inbox.

Social media marketing email example

Now, however, Facebook Messenger and a swath of other messaging platforms are equally viable. Just the other day, I received this message from Pura Vida Bracelets on Facebook Messenger.

Social media marketing email follow up email

So, what’s the point of all this? Channels are changing, and the way marketers use them is changing even more. As more and more social media sites find their footing, expect the merging of different marketing channels to happen even more than it already has.

Tools Are Merging

But it’s not just the channels that are merging. The social media tools we use are also merging.

How many times this week, for example, have you logged in to a SaaS product with Google or Facebook instead of creating new login credentials?

As more tools flood the Internet, all of it becomes cluttered for the users of those tools. Fortunately, marketing tools all around the Internet are working to integrate seamlessly with the giants of advertising.

Take MailChimp, for example.

With MailChimp, an email marketing software, users can create Facebook Ads natively from their MailChimp accounts.

They can do so to target their email subscribers or create a lookalike audience from their current subscribers.

Social media marketing ad spend screenshot

The more that this happens between social media platforms and SaaS companies, the easier time you’ll have marketing to your target audience. Really, this merging of online tools is a good thing for your business. And, more than likely, it isn’t going to slow down anytime soon.

With these trends in mind, it’s time to look at the most popular platforms (and some that are up and coming). For each platform, I’ll give you a short history of how it came about, where it’s at right now, what the context of the platform dictates, and how to come up with great content for it.

We’ll start with the biggest beast of all: Facebook.

Facebook

History: As the movie name suggests, this is the social network. When Mark Zuckerberg and his co-founders created the site in a Boston dorm room in 2004, they only made it accessible to Harvard students.

But they quickly realized the site’s potential.

After expanding to Ivy League colleges and a few others, they opened Facebook to everyone in 2006. And it completely exploded.

Now, it’s the biggest social media platform out there. It offers marketers the most data and the most targeted ads. You can be as specific as defining your customer down to the socks their wearing.

With Facebook Ads, you can target management executives in the Bay area between the ages of 45 and 54 who play golf on a regular basis and regularly spend money on equipment (thanks to credit card data).

Social media marketing facebook targeting example

Context: Facebook gives you a lot of freedom when it comes to content. Images, videos, and text posts all work. What matters, though, is that you integrate your content into the platform as much as possible.

For example, instead of just posting a link to a YouTube video, you can upload the video to Facebook’s own platform. You can also go live, share “stories,” and even shop on Facebook Marketplace.

Try to keep your user on the platform as long as possible. People trust Facebook, and they don’t want to leave the comfort of “their homes.”

Facebook Business Manager (Now Called Facebook Business Suite)

If you want to advertise on Facebook, the first thing you need to know about is the Facebook Business Suite tool. You can think of this as a hub for managing your advertisements, pages, inboxes, and people.

It’s free and quite simple to use.

Go to the landing page for the Facebook Business Suite. Click “Create Account” in the top right-hand corner.

Enter your business name and click “Continue.”

Then, enter your name and your business email, then click “Finish.”

Social media marketing facebook business manager

Yep, getting it set up really is that easy.

You’ll now see your Business Suite dashboard. Feel free to browse around to get a feel for its capabilities. This tool is an absolute must for anyone who’s serious about advertising and marketing on Facebook. It will give you a single place to worry about your marketing performance rather than having to jump from tab to tab.

Facebook Advertising Options

Perhaps the best part about Facebook is the specificity with which you can target your ideal customer. You can choose to target people based on their demographic, device, age, interests, and a load of other characteristics. That’s a wildly valuable benefit for any marketer. After all, we marketers take tons of time creating customer avatars and target market portfolios. But Facebook actually allows you to put those things into action. The first thing you’ll get to choose when creating a Facebook advertising campaign is the goal of your campaign. Do you want to drive traffic to your website, drive conversions, promote your Facebook Page, get engagement on your post, or something else? Just select the one you want.

Social media marketing facebook ad objective

Then, you’ll also get to choose your audience based on their location, age, gender, language, interests, behaviors, and connections.

Social media marketing facebook ad targeting screenshot

Finally, you’ll be able to select the devices you want to target and where you want your ads to show up. Facebook recommends using auto ad placement, but if you disagree, you can just as easily decide where you want your ads to go and what device you want them to target. Many social media platforms will make all these decisions for you. But Facebook puts you in the driver’s seat because they know you’ll likely do the best job of finding your ideal customers. You, after all, know your target market best. Want to make the most of Facebook’s marketing features? Here’s a quick rundown on how to dominate Facebook marketing. Understanding Facebook’s Lookalike Audiences

What happens when you find the perfect audience to target?

You’re raking in traffic and leads like never before. But does it have to end there? Finding your perfect advertising audience can take quite some time, so naturally, you want to make the most of it. Fortunately, when you find your perfect audience, you can leverage it. Facebook allows you to create lookalike audiences.

Social media marketing FB Ads Manager 1

Basically, these are audiences that mimic the characteristics of one of your current audiences. That means that if you have an audience that is performing remarkably, you can create a similar audience that should also perform well. Advertisers everywhere flock to this feature because it streamlines the process of finding and expanding your target market. You don’t want to miss out on it.

Instagram Integration

Did you know that when you create an ad on Facebook, you can also run that ad on Instagram by clicking a single button? That’s right. It takes you no extra work. You can simply click the Instagram ad placement button and select “Feed,” “Stories,” or both.

Social media marketing facebook to instagram ads

If your ad is highly visual and your target market is younger people, then you might want to consider using this automatic integration. It will expand your reach with no extra work.

Facebook Live

People love Facebook live. They don’t quite love it like they love their families, but pretty darn close. For a while now, marketers have stood in awe of the power of video marketing. At least, they did until live video came on the scene. There’s just something about live video that makes it more appealing. Maybe it’s the chance that people will mess up. Maybe it’s the transparency. Maybe it makes us feel more connected. Whatever the reasons, the fact is the same. People enjoy live video far more than they do traditional videos. That’s particularly true on Facebook.

Users spend three times longer watching live videos than they do pre-recorded videos.

Social media marketing facebook video stats

In other words, live video might be well worth your marketing time and money on Facebook. It quickly engages people, and they watch it for longer than alternative video content. And since it’s still early in its development, live video isn’t crowded yet. That means that it’s ripe for the taking.

Instagram

History: These guys did everything right. They had the perfect app and released it at the perfect time. Within three months of releasing Instagram in the app store, it had reached 1 million users.

social media marketing Instagram user growth chart

Their growth was entirely organic. The app was so good that it dominated the app store charts for months. And, it still does. When the app came out, Apple had just unveiled the iPhone 4. That brought a major leap forward in the quality of pictures that users could take with their smartphones. Seven years and a billion users later, the way the app works is almost entirely the same. People post pics, tag friends, insert hashtags, and double-tap to show they like what others share. It might seem like nothing has happened, but let’s not forget the fact that Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012, only 24 months after they started, for a whopping $1 billion. And in 2015, they rolled out the use of ads for everyone.

Context: Pictures and videos. Instagram is and was always about pictures — but videos are gaining grounds. Out of all of the big networks, Instagram has the highest engagement rate.

Since liking is so easy (you just double tap on a picture as you scroll through your feed), people tend to do it more on Instagram than on Twitter or Facebook. You can also release short or long-form videos and share Instagram stories. Both formats do well for brands. Tools like InVideo will help you create and edit professional videos that increase engagement and reach more people.

social media marketing invideo example

However, posting video on Instagram can certainly work, too. Ms. Dash, for example, has done well with video on Instagram. Her videos routinely collect 3,000+ likes and hundreds of comments within a day of posting when she posts them.

Social media marketing likes

She has collected just under 300,000 followers because her videos are excellent. Each one shows you an entire recipe in 15 seconds. But, if I were to start a new Instagram account from scratch, I’d focus mostly on pictures. Here are a few categories that work well:

Inspiring quotes

Questions in text form (they engage your followers)

Photos of items from luxury brands (like Louis Vuitton handbags, cars from Ferrari, Coca-Cola, etc.)

Of course, you must also make use of hashtags, give a call-to-action with each photo, and make sure that you’re using your bio right (it’s your only chance to link back to your site unless you have 10K plus followers.). But, we’ll talk more about that below.

You can also focus on Instagram influencer marketing.

Influencer Marketing on Instagram

If there is one social media platform that represents the pinnacle of influencer marketing, it’s Instagram. The reason for that is difficult to understand. Perhaps it’s because the platform is so visual. Or perhaps it’s because advertisement overloads haven’t yet annoyed the userbase. Or perhaps the influencers enjoy sporting their content more on Instagram than on Facebook, Twitter, or the like. Whatever the case, Instagram is winning big.

Social media marketing instagram influencer marketing chart. It’s no surprise, then, that 65% of brands participate in influencer marketing.

Social media marketing influencer marketing

You might want to consider joining them. And it’s not because you want to give in to the trends of today. It’s because the influencer marketing trend on Instagram is a powerful one. It’s one that you shouldn’t easily ignore.

Instagram Stories are Stealing Users From Snapchat

Instagram Stories is a feature that lets users create a coherent series of pictures, videos, or gifs. The feature exploded the moment that Instagram created it. In fact, in 2017, the number of people using Instagram Stories flippantly passed the number of users on Snapchat, which is a similar platform.

Social media marketing instagram stories

In other words, if you’re going to use Instagram, then you should probably create a Story of your own. Perhaps you should create a Story that shows users behind the scenes of your business or offers special deals.

Instagram is the best social media platform for engagement. It beats Facebook and Twitter.

Social media guide instagram engagment

Of course, that doesn’t mean that you can’t sell on the platform and market your products as well. (Especially now that there are features like product tags and links in Stories.) But trying to push for audience engagement is your best bet. Then, once people learn to love your brand, they’ll buy from you. On Instagram, though, engagement must come first.

Social media marketing google video

Who knew that it would blow up to 2 billion users? This social network has changed the way we consume video since it has made it easy (streaming is super-fast) and free, and it gives us a way to express our opinions instantly (thanks to comments).

Users watch about 1 billion hours of video on YouTube every single day. That’s 114,155 years of time! YouTube has spawned entire industries and kickstarted thousands of careers. Ten years ago, no one could make a living playing video games. Felix Kjellberg, aka PewDiePie, is one of the biggest earners on the platform, having made 124 million dollars since 2010 (he’s super humble about it). About 40 million people watch his every move with the joystick, and he has even released his own game. Another, more business-related, example is Robo, a 3D printer startup. They were able to generate $4.8 million in revenue using video ads, including YouTube ads.

Thanks to YouTube, people can now build a nice, small business teaching things, sharing makeup tutorials, doing funny pranks, or sharing their athletic abilities (or lack thereof). For marketers, it’s a great way to share long-form content with your audience, especially if they’re not avid readers.  For example, you could turn your blog posts into video tutorials.

Pro tip: Use other social media channels as a gateway to drive your followers to YouTube by giving excerpts, snippets, and previews of your videos. The little, bite-sized teasers will spark curiosity and make people want to see the whole thing.

Context: There are two ways to succeed on YouTube. You can either entertain or teach. There is no limit to how long your videos can be, and people have published entire courses in the form of a single, 3-hour video.If you’re trying to be funny, you should be funny on all channels. It doesn’t make sense for your brand with a blog about PPC advertising to suddenly make animal jokes on YouTube. You’d be better off teaching some of your strategies on video. Don’t overcomplicate this. You don’t need high-quality recording equipment or fancy editing. The chances are good that you are a few steps ahead of most people in your niche, so just get in front of your webcam and start teaching.

As Nathan Barry says:

Teach everything you know. The Rise of DIY Video Filming With social media, anyone can become a star. And that truth is no different on YouTube. Sure, since YouTube is video-based, it requires a bit of videography knowledge and a bit of the right equipment. But already, tons of different online phenomena are DIY-ing their way to becoming YouTube sensations.

Look at Tricia Lake, for instance. social media marketing instagram example

With just a decent light, microphone, and camera, your business can start using YouTube to drive traffic and generate leads. Even your iPhone will do. Post-Production and Editing.

It’s not just video filming that the DIYers are taking over. It’s also post-production and editing. In fact, every year it seems, new tools come out that allow people like you to edit your video content with ease. For editing your own video content for YouTube, consider WeVideo. It’s is free and easy to use.

Social media marketing wevideo example

With it, you can layer content, cut content, and even add new graphics. What’s not to like? After all, it’s free.

Video Ads

Finally, you might want to consider using video ads on YouTube.

Currently, there are six different types of YouTube ads.

Depending on the type of ad you choose to use, viewers will either be able to skip your ad after a few seconds or YouTube will make them watch the entire thing. Naturally, different strategies will work for different businesses. Don’t be afraid to try different things. A/B test to see what works best and what doesn’t work at all. In the end, your advertisement on YouTube will only be as good as your determination to find out what works. Spend the extra time and money to do so. You won’t regret it.

LinkedIn

History: LinkedIn is older than Facebook. Reid Hoffman, one of the early members of PayPal, founded it in 2002. But initial growth was slow. On some days, he only had only 20 sign-ups. LinkedIn’s growth never exploded as much as Facebook’s, but they’ve been around for 18 years and have grown to over 706+_million members. The strategy that got them some traction was focusing on what worked well. For example, they gave a lot of attention to their homepage, which accounted for 40% of their sign-ups. They quickly increased that number to 50% within four months (13,000 more people per month), whereas getting email invitations to increase from 4% to 7% (19,000 more people per month) took two years.

social media marketing LinkedIn screenshot

What they always had going for them was being profitable very early. Thanks to premium subscriptions, a paid job board, and a few other freemium options, they were making money after only three years of being in business. They experienced several key turning points, such as allowing users to import contacts, focusing on the professional San Francisco tech scene, and acquiring and integrating great services like SlideShare and Pulse. These decisions helped them grow into a 7,600-person company that Microsoft bought for over $26 billion.

Context: On LinkedIn, it’s all about being professional. The casual writing style that’s used to make some blogs, including my own, so popular, doesn’t work as well on LinkedIn. People are there for one thing only: business. They want to learn about what’s new in their industries, who’s hiring, who’s firing, and how to optimize their performance at work. A SlideShare about baking muffins won’t do nearly as well as an in-depth company presentation from a tech conference. If your content helps people expand their networks or conduct business in a better way, it has a place on LinkedIn. If not, you might want to focus on other channels first.

LinkedIn Groups

If you’re familiar with Facebook Groups, then LinkedIn Groups shouldn’t stretch your imagination too far. Just think of Facebook Groups but for business people. Basically, LinkedIn Groups are a place for like-minded professionals to gather and discuss topics of interest or establish their expertise.

Social media marketing linkedIn groups

You might want to consider joining one to establish your business as an expert on certain topics. After all, the more people that believe your business knows what it’s talking about, the more people who will work with you in the future. It’s an easy strategy for making connections and growing your content marketing audience.

LinkedIn Advertising

As with all social media platforms, you can also use LinkedIn to run your advertisements. And if your business falls into the B2B category, LinkedIn might just be the best place for your advertisements. In fact, marketers rate LinkedIn as the most effective social media platform for B2B companies.

Social media marketing content marketing trends chart, LinkedIn is also the top platform for lead generation by a long shot. Social media marketing linked in stats, evidently, since people on LinkedIn are there to talk business, they also don’t mind interacting with businesses. That means that your business can get some serious attention on the platform if you play your cards right. And advertisements might just be the way you choose to do that.

Reddit

History: Reddit’s slogan claims that they are the “front page of the Internet,” and they aren’t very far off. With 1.5 billion visits from May 2019 to May 2020, Reddit might just live up to its description. Reddit is another college-originated social media site, and it’s a very special one at that. It focuses entirely on community benefit. In fact, Reddit’s users will ferociously attack you for spamming link bait or dumping promotional links on their boards (or subreddits). But if Redditors like what they see, they can easily drive enough traffic to your site to crash it. You shouldn’t take a Reddit traffic storm lightly. Two key factors that helped Reddit grow to such a massive platform are AMAs (Ask Me Anything) and their voting feature.

Users can upvote and downvote entries, links, and comments. The most popular and helpful submissions always show up on top. Reddit rewards (or punishes) accounts with karma, which they display separately for links and text posts.

Social media guide reddit karma example

This way, users don’t have to dig through tons of content before finding what’s good. They can see what popular right at their first glimpse is. The platform took off when celebrities started doing AMAs. During AMAs, Celebrities hang around on the platform for a while and answer user questions live. People who have done AMA’s include Barack Obama, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tim Ferriss, David Copperfield, and even Bill Gates.

Social media marketing guide reddit AMA

Reddit requires people to post proof that they’re doing an AMA.

Context: Reddit is tough to crack. You can’t use it as another distribution channel and just submit a link every time you publish something on your blog. You have to be present, communicate, and provide value to fellow Redditors without asking for anything first.

Submit funny and helpful links for a while just to build up your karma, and then refer back to your content. But only do so where it’s appropriate. And, be sure to make the links a side note rather than the entire content of the post.

For example, the e-commerce brand Findlay was able to generate $28,000 in sales using Reddit correctly.

Reddit Marketing Fails

Reddit mostly hates marketers. It’s not necessarily the fault of marketers, though. Reddit is just a unique community. They don’t like people who are too blatant in their marketing, and they don’t like businesses trying to be pushy. For that reason, even some of the top businesses have made massive mistakes on Reddit. The CEO of a large outdoor gear retail chain started an AMA on Reddit, hoping to generate brand awareness. Be careful what you post on Reddit.

Take some time to understand the audience before you start using the platform to advertise and market. Once you do understand Redditors, though, the platform represents a well of marketing potential you won’t be able to pass up.

Reddit Ads

If you don’t want to try and grow an organic following on Reddit, then you can consider simply posting ads on the platform. First, though, you’ll need to determine if Reddit is the right place for your advertisements. As we already discussed, advertising gone wrong can hurt instead of help your business on Reddit. So make sure that you know what you’re getting yourself into first.

Here’s some help in terms of demographics.

The platform consists primarily of males under the age of thirty. And users highly discourage content that is too salesy.

Social media marketing reddit user stats

Is your business a fit for Reddit? If so, then you can create an ad and see how it performs.

social media marketing reddit ads

Watch it carefully, though, so that users don’t bombard you with hateful comments and hurt your brand image before you’re able to respond. If you’re going to run ads on the platform, then be ready to respond to some serious heat. But if you live through the heat, you could harness some serious potential.

Snapchat

History: I remember downloading this app back in 2012 and thinking, “This is stupid.” I deleted it and didn’t hear about it again until about two years later. I still think it’s stupid, but most millennials don’t. Snapchat has 238 million daily active users. While the majority of those are girls (about 70%), the boys who share on the platform have one thing in common: They’re young 71% of the users are under 34 years old. The hacks and spam and naked selfie scandals might easily distract the average adult from the fact that this is one serious platform for marketers. Though the app has only been around for a few years (since September of 2011), it is worth around 1.7 billion dollars. (Though there is some disagreement amongst sources).

Context: If your products are targeting 14-year-old girls and you’re not on Snapchat, you are doing something wrong. However, even if you’re on the platform, it’s easy to do a lot wrong.

Since all images and videos disappear after 10 seconds max, the context suggests that all content on the platform is fleeting and short-lived. Naturally, it makes sense to provide content around that same theme. For example, you could give your audience access to a live event. If you’re giving a talk at a conference, take a few snaps when you’re on stage and share them with your followers.

social media marketing snapchat

Let them behind the scenes. Show them the happy hour on Friday at the office, the IPO party, and even how you act when you’re alone at home. You could show them your practice run of the speech, how you screwed up your makeup, or what a cool car picked you up from the airport. Snapchat is all about sharing those precious moments that we all have so few of in life, so make sure that you use it for just that.

B2B Marketing on Snapchat

Can you market your B2B company on Snapchat?S ome people think you can’t. After all, a large portion of the current Snapchat user base consists of those who are teenagers or younger. But don’t let that young audience deceive you. As the platform finds its footing in the digital world, older populations are flocking to the platform as well. In fact, one entrepreneur uses the platform to offer regular advice to other entrepreneurs.

Social media marketing snapchats And HubSpot uses it to increase and establish their brand’s personality. Social media marketing snapchat example And DocuSign used it to interact with people during a conference. social media marketing DocuSign snapchat example.

So yes. You definitely can use Snapchat to market your B2B company. Plenty of other businesses are doing it, and you can do it too. Of course, Snapchat requires a bit more creativity on your part than other platforms. Keep in mind that users can only view your images and videos once. That should at least partly define the type of content you put out. Plus, that restriction can also work in your favor. Since all your content is temporary, people might be more inclined to view your snaps while they can and fully take in the content. Once they do, it goes away.

Pinterest

History: Pinterest is the number one social media platform for marketers who want to target women. 71% of their 320 million monthly active users are female. You can think of the site as a giant digital scrapbook. Between their closed launch in 2010 and 2012, you needed an invitation to get on the platform, so it’s only been open to the public for five years. Nevertheless, the leads you acquire from Pinterest are high-quality. And from funding round to funding round, they increased their valuation. Today, the social media app is publicly traded with a debut market cap of $12 billion. Even though Pinterest doesn’t yet make any serious money except for a few ads for famous brands, they are definitely one of the top ten most influential social platforms right now. That is one of the most popular boards on Pinterest. social media marketing faith in humanity

Context: Always, always, always remember that 71% of the audience are women. They collect, they curate, and they share. Topics like decorations, interior design, cooking, and clothing do extremely well.

Due to the nature of the pinboards, Pinterest is also one of the only platforms where images look best when you display them vertically. Keep in mind that your pics need special formatting to look good on Pinterest.

Influencer Marketing on Pinterest

If Instagram is the god of influencer marketing, then Pinterest is this god’s son (or more appropriately, his daughter). Since Pinterest allows users to market within whatever niché they like, influencers flock to the platform like hotcakes at IHOP. But that’s a good thing for your business. Since you’re a marketer within a specific niché, you can use those influencers to advertise your product to their existing audiences. Growing your own audience takes a ton of time. And maybe, just maybe, you don’t have a ton of time.

In that case, influencer marketing is your answer. Here’s a Pinterest account that puts out recipes, for instance, with almost four million followers.

Social media marketing guide pinterest example

And here’s another influencer who posts about everything from recipes to decorations and fashion. Social media marketing guide pinterest example 2

Here’s the best news, though.

There’s a niché for everything on Pinterest. That further means that there’s an influencer for everything. Do you want to market clothing or tiny toy dogs or Harry Potter attire? Believe it or not, there’s a board for that.

Pinterest Ads and Buyable Pins

Of course, not everyone will want to go through the hassle of finding, talking with, and hiring influencers. Some of you will simply want to run advertisements on the platform and get on with your lives. In that case, remember that the vast majority of people on Pinterest are women. For some of you, that’s a good thing. For others of you, that’s not such a good thing. However, despite that gender-leaning, Pinterest is a remarkable platform for getting people to buy your products. 93% of users use Pinterest to plan their purchases, and 96% use it to gather product information.

Social media marketing pinterest stats

And the best part is that the ads fit right into the boards seamlessly.

Here’s an ad you probably wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t highlighted it. If you have a product for women that’s highly visual and you don’t want to deal with influencers, then Pinterest ads are your solution. Run them and see how it goes.

TikTok

History: TikTok, a Chinese video-sharing app, first launched in 2016. Unlike other social media apps with humble roots in basements or dorm rooms, the company is the result of two different apps merging. Today, the app has more than 800 million active users around the globe.

TikTok users share short video clips of themselves dancing, lip-syncing, or sharing thoughts about politics and social justice matters. The app stands out due to the number of interactive features, such as filters, music, and editing capabilities that allow users to be incredibly creative.

TikTok Controversy

The Chinese-owned app is incredibly popular in the US, particularly among Gen Z. However, the app has an uncertain future in the US due to data privacy concerns. President Trump has threatened to ban the app in the US unless the ByteDance sells the US operations to a US-based company. India has banned the app, and several other countries are threatening similar measures.

TikTok Marketing

Why consider marketing on this highly-popular video app? For starters, competition is low. Most businesses aren’t bothering with it yet — and ads are still quite affordable. The new-ish platform is also a great place to get creative and try out fun strategies that might not work on more formal platforms, like LinkedIn. Are you considering diving into the world of marketing on TikTok? Here are a few ways to leverage the platform.

TikTok Marketing Videos

The most straightforward way to market on TikTok is by creating exciting content related to your brand. For example, you could create short how-to videos about topics related to your brand. Use a keyword research tool like Ubersuggest to find topics your audience cares about, and then create short, snappy videos for TikTok. You could also use the fun style of TikTok to introduce your team members, show off your headquarters, or highlight the features of a new product. Consider using the platform’s interactive elements, such as polls.

Influencer Marketing

If you want to improve your engagement rates, consider working with established TikTok influencers in your market. The average US influencers on TikTok have a 17.99% engagement rate, making influencers a powerful tool for brands. To find influencers, use the search feature to look for hashtags related to your industry and look for users posting high-engagement content.

social media marketing tiktok

You can also use the Influencer Marketing Hub’s free influencer search tool. Just type in a topic of interest, and the tool will provide a list of up to 10 relevant influencers.

social media marketing tiktok influencers

TikTok Ads

TikTok gives brands four different options for paid ads: brand takeovers, native ads, branded lenses, and hashtag challenges. Before diving into these, you’ll want to understand the differences:

Brand takeovers: Exclusive category takeovers that show up in users feed, before any of the accounts they follow.

Native ads: Similar to boosted posts on Instagram, these ads give your posts a wider reach.

Branded lenses: Design and promote a filter related to your brand, similar to Snapchat’s sponsored lenses.

Hashtag challenges: TikTok is known for sending challenges viral. Hashtag challenges allow the brand to use banner ads to improve challenge visibility.

Tumblr

History: Huge in some industries and completely unnoticed by others, Tumblr is sort of a mix of a blog, Instagram, and Twitter. The owners call it a microblogging platform. This platform is primarily useful for curating images. Users can easily reblog and like these images sort of like retweets and favorites. You can scroll down an infinite feed, which makes it easy to consume. David Karp founded it in 2007, and as of November 2017, Tumblr powers over 375 million blogs. Some of these belong to celebrities like Lady Gaga. Ariana Grande’s Tumblr is popular as well. Ariana Tumblr social media marketing guide.

There are even entrepreneurs who took advantage of Tumblr and launched profitable businesses through it. Yahoo bought Tumblr in 2013 for over $1 billion. In 2011, they had only collected about 1/10th of that in funding (around $125 million). Now, users create over 15 million posts each day, and the site makes money with advertising.

Context: The endless scroll feature makes Tumblr naturally good for images. It’s a very visual medium. Designers and photographers often use it to display their portfolios. Fashion brands and bloggers can use it to curate content from their industries. There’s one type of file, however, that Tumblr is clearly the number #1 platform for: GIFs. The animated, moving images are right in between photographs and videos. Most people switch to Instagram for photos, and videos don’t work well on Tumblr since they interrupt your flow (you have to stop, press play, then pause the video again and scroll to the next one). GIFs are the cross-pollination of the two. Funny memes, animated clips, and short video excerpts make users scroll endlessly and binge-consume the content. If you’re in fashion, design, photography, or another visual industry, be sure to take a very serious look at Tumblr.

Tumblr Audience Demographic

The audience on Tumblr is a bit different than any other social media platform. Most of the people are on the platform to have fun. They are there to share funny comics, memes, and gifs. They aren’t particularly friendly toward marketers, however. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t market on the platform. It simply means you need to be more creative when you’re doing so. In fact, Tumblr is a great place for your marketing strategies to take form. People who use social media spend more time on Tumblr than they even spend on Facebook.

Time spend on social media social media marketing guide

That means that your posts and advertisements have a higher chance of the right people seeing them at the right time. Additionally, the vast majority of Tumblr users are young. Most are somewhere between 18 and 34 years old.

Social media marketing guide demographic chart

While you keep in mind that the users are young, also remember that they’re on Tumblr for entertainment. They aren’t there to find products, and they definitely aren’t there to hear about your brand message. One company recognized this with their product, the Holy Meme Bible.

Social media marketing guide holy meme image

They realized that Tumblr loves memes and that the people there would likely respond well to their product. So, for three weeks, they went full-board and marketed their Meme Bible on Tumblr. And what was the result? The made over $200,000 in sales in three short weeks. If you have a product that works for the Tumblr audience, then you’re doing yourself a serious disservice by not using the platform to market your product.

Medium

History: You’d think by now that there are enough blogging platforms out there. But nope, apparently, there aren’t. Somehow, within five years, Medium grew into one of the largest blogging sites on the web with an Alexa ranking of 88.

A big reason for this success is its sleek and simple design. Ev Williams, one of the co-founders of Twitter, initially launched it in a 2012 closed beta before eventually opening it to the public. Similar to some apps, such as Hemingway, the user interface is incredibly simple. The difference is that users can press publish directly instead of copying the content to their own blog. Before Williams founded Medium, he also created Blogger, which he eventually sold to Google.  Clearly, he has a knack for blogging platforms. Thanks to its numerous big publications, Medium can be a way to build an entire audience without ever creating your own website. Better Humans is a popular one. The most popular topics are design, startups, marketing, and social or political matters.

Context: Since it’s a blog platform, Medium naturally does well with long-form content. However, posts shouldn’t be too long.

Medium shows the estimated reading time for each post right at the top of them. If people see that it’ll take 20 minutes to read your post, you’ll scare most of them away. Most users aren’t willing to make such a big time commitment. 7-minute posts do best, so it makes sense to break up longer articles into a series of posts. Ali Mese has done exceptionally well on Medium, creating a huge audience from scratch thanks to several posts that have gone viral.

Social media marketing guide medium numbers

If you have a big following already, you can use it to catapult your articles to the top since the posts that users recommend the most land in the featured stories where most users will see them. As few as 50-100 recommends within an hour or two can drive your article right to the front page. Big outlets like Huffington Post, Business Insider, and Entrepreneur often pick up content that has done well on Medium. That gets it additional exposure.

Medium Audience Demographic

In September of 2020, Medium received nearly 200 million visits. And the majority of the traffic to the site (nearly 26%) came from the United States. This offers a lot of potential for you to get yourself and your business in front of new prospects. Also, keep in mind that the majority of visitors to the site are men with an above-average education.

alexa medium info social media marketing guide

What does this mean for you? Well, if your social media strategy revolves around posting cooking recipes or cat videos, then Medium may not be the right site for you. Similar to LinkedIn, Medium is ideal for posting content that’s more professional in nature. For example, the most popular tag in 2016 was politics. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to post political content. All I’m saying is that the gap between politics and business is a lot smaller than the gap between politics and DIY crafts. Take, for instance, the Marketing and Entrepreneurship section on Medium. It has 146,000 followers. There’s clearly an audience for this sort of content.

Social media marketing guide medium example

In a more niche-specific section like this, you may not attract the attention of as many people as you could on Facebook or a larger social networking site. But because the following is narrower, you’ll likely get a higher percentage of the right people to interact with you and your brand. So, what’s the verdict: should you use Medium? If your content is more lighthearted or is likely to appeal to a predominantly female audience, then consider a platform like Pinterest instead. But if the topics you blog about relate to more serious matters, then you have nothing to lose by posting them on Medium. In fact, there’s much you could gain.

Marketing Content on Medium

If your content is relevant for Medium users, then using the platform for marketing is a no-brainer. In fact, using the platform to benefit your business will require almost no additional effort. All you have to do is take blog posts that you’ve already written and repost them on Medium. Since you still own the rights to the content on Medium, you can do with it as you like. And it’s an easy way to get additional eyes on all your hard work. Dave Schools, for instance, experiences a lot of success on the blogging platform.

You can use Medium to easily get your blog content in front of new eyes, and it won’t take you any extra work to do so. Just copy and paste content from your website, and voilâ! More people see it than before.

Quora

History: This is another Silicon Valley-based startup. Two former Facebook employees created it in 2009 and made it public in 2010. They thought that Q&A was one of the great formats of the Internet, but up to that point, no one had built a solid platform for it. It turned out that they were right. With a comparatively low $80 million in funding, they built Quora up to over 190 million users in eight years. By 2020, Quora had 300 million monthly active users. Users can ask questions, and if they’re popular, users can re-ask them. Users can also upvote answers to make sure that quality answers show up first. People have built entire platforms from answering questions on Quora, and some answers boast more than 1 million views.

Social media marketing quora

The startup just implemented advertisements in the middle of 2016, drawing the eyes of marketers all around the digital globe.

Context: This platform centers around one thing: questions. You can get the most out of it by providing quality answers to popular questions that users have re-asked lots of times.

Thanks to the voting system, quality answers make it to the top. And, they usually stay there for a long time. Try to give answers that will still be valid in a year or two or even five. Some of the most popular Quora answers came from years ago.

Social media marketing quora

You can double your benefit from Quora if you use it to come up with content.  For example, you could write a blog post that gives a very detailed answer to a popular question. Not only will you have a great blog post then, but you’ll also be able to republish it as the answer to that question. This will also help you build a reputation as an expert on your topic. If someone likes an answer that they read from you, they’ll often browse through the other answers that you’ve given.

Quora and Content Marketing

Quora is a great place for establishing yourself as an expert on a certain topic. And that can happen in two different ways. It can happen on Quora or off Quora. Either way, the question-and-answer platform helps.

How, you ask, does it help?

Well, first, you can answer your target market’s questions. Imagine, for instance, that you’re a digital marketer and you want to start establishing yourself as an expert in the digital world. You can go to Quora and answer questions like these.

Social media marketing quora example

Then, if your answer is remarkable, people will upvote it, making it a winner in the Quora SEO system. But in case that’s not good enough, you can also use Quora to find topics for your own blog. After all, your audience has a lot of questions. And finding out what those questions are can be seriously tedious. Fortunately, Quora makes it easy. Simply go to Quora and type in your niché. Browse through the questions people are asking.

Social media marketing quora example 2

Then, all you have to do is take those same questions and create your own website content around them. It’s an easy way to come up with content topics that your audience is interested in digesting.

Periscope

History: Finally, let’s look at an app that came out in 2014. Its name is Periscope, and it’s a live streaming app. In line with the trend to provide more and more life experiences, Periscope allows marketers to hop in front of their phone cameras and talk to their audiences. Their audience can join live and give comments. The speaker talks, and the audience can react, ask questions, and give feedback. The idea came to the founders when protests arose while they were traveling around Istanbul. They could read about them on Twitter, but they couldn’t view them live.

After raising $1.5 million in funding, Twitter acquired the app before it even launched. They paid somewhere between $50 million and $100 million for it. Twitter then, of course, made the launch much easier, helping the app garner ten million users in four months. That’s an insanely explosive growth rate! Competitors that launched around the same time included Meerkat and Blab (which was for group chats). Neither of them is around today. Currently, the majority of users on Periscope are between 16 and 24 years old, and about two-thirds of the users are males.

Social media marketing periscope

Context: Since a Periscope is always a live event, it makes sense to either take your fans to a special live event in your life (like the behind-the-scenes videos that you can do with Snapchat) or make the Periscope itself an event worth attending. One way to do that is by giving things away to commenters. You could also solve a very specific problem your audience has or do a Q&A. In order to get live viewers, though, you need to make sure that you promote the broadcast beforehand. For people to actually click through, you also need a great headline. Then, you can make sure that you get the first bunch of live viewers in by using relevant hashtags, tweeting it out a couple of times before you go live, and even promoting it on other channels.

These viewers can then share it with their followers to invite more people.

Note: Since Facebook added the live feature, Periscope has fallen out of favor. It may be still worth exploring, but it has lost quite a bit of its appeal in recent years.

Marketing on Periscope

Periscope is a great platform for building brand awareness and brand image. Doing both of those things is often difficult, though. You try to engage your audience and build a cohesive brand image around your business, but your efforts fall by the wayside. With video content on Periscope, however, you can create videos that express what your business does, why it’s awesome, and why people should work with you. Like Adidas does by showing an influencer signing a contract with them. Similar to GE and Adidas, you can strengthen your brand image and show your audience behind the scenes of your business. They’ll appreciate it, and they might even buy from you because they now trust you and identify with you.

Alright, that was a lot. You now have an overview of the 12 most important social media platforms. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. According to Wikipedia, there are over 200 of social media — that number keeps growing. So you should establish a social media presence on at least a few of them. Figure out where your target audience is and get active on that platform. You now know how each platform got to where it’s at, what the context of each channel suggests that you do, and you know how to come up with good content for each of them. There’s nothing holding you back. You have the information you need.

Will you change your social media branding strategy? Try a new (to you) platform, like LinkedIn? Which platform will you focus your social media strategy on? And, which site will go big next?

CHAPTER 15

10 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING MISTAKES YOU CAN'T AFFORD

Today around 2.6 million people use at least one social media platform. It is estimated that by the year 2021 that number will increase by 15% to reach three million users.

Marketing through social networks is a powerful tool for those businesses that want to connect with their audience on the internet. Taking as a reference the statistics of large companies that have achieved success thanks to social networks, finding the ideal clients has never been easier. LinkedIn provides employment information, Facebook and Instagram provide detailed demographic information, and Snapchat makes it easy to spread geographically accurate advertising.

Many successful brands have built their businesses thanks to social media, while many others have struggled to achieve their goal without being able to connect with their audience. This happens largely because they make any of the following 10 social media marketing mistakes.

1. They use many platforms

Becoming an expert takes practice and focus. This is a given for most marketing activities, including social media. Businesses with small marketing teams should avoid using many platforms. Instead, they should dig into one or two options that fit their business goals.

On Facebook alone, an average of 300 million photos are uploaded per day, 510 thousand comments are published and more than 100,000 states are updated every 60 seconds. Marketing in social networks requires experience, time and focus on each platform in use, only then can you avoid the information jam. Be careful when selecting your platform, even small marketing teams should be able to develop a successful strategy.

2. Forget about your followers

Derek Sivers mentions in his famous TED Talk conference how the success of companies that use social networks begins thanks to loyal followers and not necessarily because they have passionate influencers. Followers help attract new followers, and those new followers give you the security of knowing that you are doing well.

Similarly, brands must in some way give back to their followers on social media. If people are constantly interacting with your content, and especially if they share your posts, they should be rewarded. Write to them on social media or send emails with a thank you gift, this will encourage them to continue your support.

3. Copy the voice of other brands

While it may be tempting to simply copy the social media strategy of an existing brand, those responsible for this area must resist the urge to imitate the voice of another company. Social media platforms are designed to present users with new and unexpected content, that's what keeps the reader interested.

The psychological principles of social networks tell us that users expect variations in content and the way it is transmitted. Brands that have created a unique voice in their online communication have gained more followers and increased engagement compared to brands that simply go with the flow. Slack is a good example of a company that has worked diligently to create an original voice on social media. As a result, the company has accumulated 311,000 followers on Twitter alone. Let's compare the example above with Yammer, a competing product with a less attractive voice. Yammer has 78% fewer followers, in part because it hasn't created an original voice style for its brand on social media.

4. Ignore statistics

Modern marketing is a profession driven by hard data. This is true for both website optimization and social media marketing. It's important for social media managers to collect and analyze data to understand how followers react to content. Otherwise, it can be very difficult to understand how to modify a social media strategy to improve your results.

This is important on all social media platforms, but crucial when it comes to Instagram. Investing in a powerful metrics tool for Instagram will help strategists determine optimal posting times and the best type of content, among other variables.

5. Mistaking the target audience

In 2006, when Hubspot was founded, it was an unknown brand. Today it is a $ 1.3 billion publicly traded company. Hubspot was able to find success thanks to its tenacious dedication to its customers. This delivery can be seen in his strategy that consists of bringing a teddy bear named Molly to all meetings.

Molly represents the Hubspot customer. The company knows the psychographic and demographic details of Molly, and by having Molly always present, the team is able to make smart decisions that better serve their clients. This practice has helped Hubspot develop the right content on social media (and many other places) to attract its ideal customer.Social media marketers, like business leaders in general, need to understand their target audience. This understanding will make it easier to select the right social media platforms to focus on first. It will also help define what the voice of the brand should be.

6. Underestimate the power of video

According to a Social Media Examiner report, 60% of social media marketers said that video content was the most important form of visual content. The reason that makes video content so popular in digital marketing is because it effectively attracts followers. A Hubspot report showed that 55% of people "impatiently consume" video content, making it the most engaging content type for audiences.

7. Use all social networks in the same way

No two social networks are the same, and it is a mistake to work with them in the same way. Different people use different platforms and expect to see different types of content on each one. For example, it would be strange to see a post about a job vacancy on Instagram, but on LinkedIn it would be the most normal. You should make a selection of social media platforms and try to master each one, only then will you be able to understand what type of content works best on each channel.

8. Assume that younger employees 'dominate' social media.

As a general rule, younger people tend to use social media platforms more frequently. Just review the data obtained by the PEW Research Center. But this does not mean that the youngest person on the marketing team must necessarily be responsible for building the strategies for these channels.

Digital marketing in social networks should be treated as another of the channels that make up the media plan of your company. The strategies must be built by your team according to the information of the profile of your target client. A good analysis of that information will help you create an original voice for your brand. Finally, a specialist in social media management must be responsible for effectively implementing all strategies.

9. Focus exclusively on organic growth.

Paid social media posts can be an effective way to quickly increase follower and engagement metrics. Better yet, investing money in your social networks can serve as a complement to an organic strategy that is already working.

If, for example, a social media administrator comes across content that successfully interacts with followers in an organic way, it makes sense to promote the publication by paying to boost its reach.

10. Failure to train employees to become social media marketers

Each employee of your company has the ability to interact with potential customers and good prospects through social media. Since they are already using social media for personal reasons, empowering them to connect with potential customers through those same channels can work. Social media will continue to grow globally, and as options for increasing internet reach become more powerful, these platforms have become quite an attractive channel for business. To be successful, marketers must be sure to avoid the pitfalls mentioned in this article, be very clear about the goals you want to achieve using a certain platform, and understand the process that will allow you to reach your goal.

CHAPTER 16

WHY SHOULD YOU USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR YOUR COMPANY'S SUCCESS

Even for smaller companies, it is definitely worthwhile to be active in the area of social media & digital marketing in order to enlarge their target group. How can you do that successfully? Here you will find 10 practical tips and tricks on the subject of social media marketing. We wish you a lot of fun and are available for questions at any time. More than 50% of SMBs in the US trust social media as their primary digital marketing method. Quite simply because you can find new customers there particularly effectively and network with them. And unlike some other traditional marketing methods, that doesn't cost a fortune either. For this reason, too, small businesses in Switzerland are increasingly using the advantages of social media marketing.

PS So if you are not yet on social media, do the same for many other small business owners and join us. Increase your brand awareness, drive sales and win new customers. Feel free to contact us. We are happy to help.  Here are a few free and useful tips:

1. First comes the plan

Your social media activities also require a carefully crafted strategy. Based on the Hootsuite guide, we explain how to get your social media marketing plan in 6 easy steps.

Set social media goals.  Don't just concern yourself with metrics like “likes” and retweets. Also, focus on leads generated, conversion rates, and referrals to your website. Use the SMART principle when defining goals: goals should be specific, measurable, appealing, realistic and timed.

Perform a social media audit:  Find out who you are already networked with on social media, which networks your target group uses and how your own social media presence compares to the competition.

Set up new accounts, complete existing ones.  Have you decided which social networks are best for your small business? Then set up an account on each of these platforms. Make sure that everything you publish their fits the overall company goals and the respective target group. (If you need support, please contact us).

Get inspiration.  See what content competitors in your industry are sharing. Get an overview and gather important insights into how you can target potential customers and differentiate yourself from the competition. Find out what big corporations are doing right and how you can integrate their tactics into your own social media strategy. Create a social media calendar.  The calendar is a key part of your essential content marketing plan. It should contain the day and time you want to post on Facebook and Instagram, tweets and any other type of social media content.

Test, evaluate and correct your strategy.  Adjust your strategy again and again based on performance indicators. Analyze facts like the number of clicks per post, the reach of your campaigns and the number of page visits made via social media. You can then use this data to further optimize your strategy.

2. Determine which platforms are right for you

Not every social media platform is suitable for your company or the objectives set. The following list gives you an overview of the most popular networks: (based on Hootsuite)

Facebook: The world's most popular social media network with more than 2 billion users. In addition, Facebook also has the most regular users and is therefore the most attractive network, purely in terms of reach.

Instagram: Instagram owes its success to its visual concept. Successful marketing has essentially to do with the appealing aesthetics of the shared content. According to a study, the platform also claims the highest engagement level of all social networks with 59 percent.

LinkedIn: With more than 467 million users, the platform is the world's largest career network.

Twitter: With a limit of 280 characters per tweet, Twitter is known for its brevity and flavor.

Snapchat: The platform on which the content disappears again is particularly popular with younger users.

YouTube: If your brand has the resources, this is the best way to capitalize on the popularity of online videos.

Pinterest: It's the users who make this platform so unique. You're looking for inspiration on Pinterest. This makes the network perfect if your target group should take action, for example to buy something or visit your website.

Start your selection process with this list. Determine which social media platform (s) are best for your company. Maybe it's just one, maybe several or even all of them.

3. Get to know your target audience

Identifying the characteristics of your target audience is part of any market research. Without this information, there is no way you can know how to get your desired audience's attention. Find out your age, gender, place of residence, average income, and other facts relevant to your business. One of the best ways to do successful market research is to create audience personas. That's how it's done: Collect demographic data from social media, surveys, focus groups and customer surveys. Analyze this data for trends (behavior, age groups, and occupational groups) Use these characteristics to develop ideal customers, complete with name, job title and professional career.

4. Market and sell your products on social media

Marketing on social media is more than just tweeting your brand every now and then or advertising on Facebook. Without an appropriate strategy, you will not achieve optimal results. First, when curating social media content, the 80/20 rule (also known as the Pareto Principle) is recommended: 80 percent of your social media marketing or sales success (the outcome) comes from just 20 percent of the cause (the content curated by you). For this reason, the proportion of advertising content in all of your social media channels should only be 20 percent of the content. The remaining 80 percent revolve around your customers - interact with them and share relevant content that offers them added value. Second, you should use each social media channel according to its strengths.

5. Whenever possible: Use pictures, videos and graphics

It doesn't matter which social media platform you are on: use visual elements as often as possible. In one study, 67 percent of marketing executives said they use visual content on social media because of the engagement effect. Whether images, GIFs and memes or videos: The integration of visual content in your social media posts is relatively simple. Just make sure that the visual elements are relevant to both the content of the post and your target audience.

6. Quality over quantity

It is tempting to promote a brand on as many social networks as possible in order to reach the largest possible audience. There are no real benefits to wanting to dance to too many weddings at the same time. More quantity usually leads to a loss of quality, because everything then revolves around bare numbers: a certain number of tweets per week or so and as many Facebook posts per month. Better to focus on quality than quantity. Present yourself where your target group is, provide them with added value and you will reap the fruits of your work. If you have carried out market research and created target group personas, you also know which platform (s) your target group prefers. Focus your efforts on these networks. Share high quality content that solves your target audience's problems, makes their lives easier, or entertains them. Always remember the Pareto principle: The majority of your social media content should not market your company, but should provide added value for the target group.

7. Use the right tools

Save time and money with tools that make your social media work easier. In 2017, users spent an average of 135 minutes a day on social media. Your small business is consuming your time and attention in many ways - you can't afford to spend longer than necessary on social media. By using a social media management solution like Hootsuite, you can streamline your social media marketing activities and increase your productivity. Here are a few Hootsuite features that will make your life easier:

Integration of different platforms: Hootsuite enables you to manage your presences on all major networks such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn from a single dashboard.

Plan ahead: With Hootsuite, you can schedule up to 350 social media posts at a time. Posts on Instagram can also be scheduled. Keep an eye on the conversations in various social networks via a central dashboard. The constant switching between browsers or tools is history!

Commitment: Hootsuite allows you to quickly respond to messages, mentions and comments across all channels with one click - all from a single dashboard.

8. Track and act on social media conversations about your company

In today's digital world, social media often replaces face-to-face conversations. A prompt answer to questions from your target group makes your brand appear more human. If you do not interact with your target group, the impression quickly arises that you are not interested in their wishes. And that ultimately has a negative impact on your company. More than 80 percent of all customers expect companies to respond to a social media post within 24 hours. This is the result of a study in 2016.  In addition, interaction on social media gives you the opportunity to present the unique character of your brand. Posts with photos, for example, are very effective in connecting with your target group. Finally, a variety of data shows that social media content with lots of images clearly sig- ners engagement.

9. Plan content ahead and leave more time for engagement

Of course, it's important to share relevant content. That said, it shouldn't steal the time to actively interact with your target audience.

10. Get inspiration from successful brands and your competitors

Don't be shy about adopting other brands' successful strategies. Get inspiration from brands that are well established on social media and try a few of their tactics on your own social media channels. Track what your competitors are doing and let it inspire you. A great idea can perhaps be adopted and adapted for your own campaigns.

CHAPTER 17

10 WAYS TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO DRIVE YOUR BUSINESS SUCCESS

If we have a business, we cannot just stay on traditional advertising to achieve the necessary momentum to develop in the market. We need more opportunities to get the right positioning for our business, and these opportunities are provided by social networks. Virtual platforms are a fast, simple and cheap way to bring more people to our business.

Now, if we already know that social networks are a fundamental tool to boost our business, what we need is to know how to use them profitably. The closest we knew to social media was establishing relationships with our clients through the classic email, and we could wait days for a possible response. However, today with the use of profiles on social networks, we can contact our clients, learn a little more about their information, know who their contacts are and other relevant information to establish connections with them. Start using social networks for the benefit of your business...

1. Differentiate the use of each social network

We currently have endless social networks on the Internet; however, to promote our business we must know how to choose which ones to use for the best results. Here we will introduce you to the main social networks in business and their usage specifications.

Twitter

On Twitter you will find the fastest way to communicate with your customers. Here you can find followers, and it is to them who you should target your publications. The posts are relatively short, so always try to get attention quickly and appropriately.

Remember that Twitter gives you the opportunity to manage your brand, and you can use it as a test platform for starting your business.

Facebook

This social network is the one that your business should have. Facebook offers us to create a page for our business. This fan page will allow us to get closer to our clients and interact with them, shortening the barriers of time and distance. Your fans will be able to contact you through this page and will be aware of your updates. You can also promote these pages to reach a much more audience.

LinkedIn

This social network will allow you to connect with other companies or professionals, since the tone of this network is much more professional than all the others. This platform will allow you to build a network of contacts, discussion groups, and other tools that will make it easier for you to establish beneficial connections for your business.

Instagram

Through Instagram images you will generate a concept of your brand to your followers. Remember to share images that portray a unique moment, for example a celebration for the anniversary of your business, the opening of a new store, and you can even organize contests for your followers to share the best photos with the experience in your business.

FourSquare

This page, which strives to be a social network, will help your business to have chekins, it also allows your clients to publish the opinions they have regarding your business. In this way, whoever wants to contact you can review this platform and see how good the experiences of your customers were.

2. You can reach more audiences through your own contacts

One way to make your business known is through the recommendations of people who have had contact with your business. If you establish a primary network of contacts you can expand it through Facebook invitations, Twitter retweets or LinkedIn connections.

3. Constantly interact with your audience

In the social networks in which you are present, you always have to interact with your audience. This is a good way to show interest in opinions, suggestions or even complaints about your business. If your audience does not receive a response to their actions, you will end up driving them away from your social media pages.

4. Use offers and discounts as an attraction for your customers

One of the ways to get the attention of your customers is to offer them exclusive benefits for followers, friends, or fans on social networks. Take advantage of making offers or discounts through these platforms, organize contests to replicate your content and therefore your brand.

5. Use resources such as images and videos

It has been proven that the content that attracts the most attention on social networks are images and videos. Take advantage of making your advertising in visual and audiovisual material, start to know the interactions of your audience with this type of content.

6. Use the social media widgets on your web platform

If you already have a web platform on the Internet, start connecting it with your social networks. Facebook and Twitter are the most famous in terms of widgets and plugins, which will allow your audience to interact much faster with the content of your website.

7. Report effectively on your business

In your social networks you have to be well positioned in it, and for this you have to effectively inform about your mission, vision and objectives so that your audience is involved with your brand.

8. Don't just talk about your business on social media

Remember that in your social networks you will meet different audiences, therefore you do not need to cram them with publications about your business, you can also alternate publishing content of general interest, such as current affairs, news, events that have to do with the line of your business. In this way you will be able to capture the attention of other users, and bring them closer to your brand.

9. Take advantage of statistics from social networks

Some social networks give you the statistics by default, such as the statistics of Facebook, Twitter and Google Analytics. If you take advantage of these statistics and trends you will be able to guide your strategies for each type of social network in order to have more audience interacting on online platforms.

10. Use a mix of social networks and traditional media

In this article we do not guide you to stay with a single social network, but to put together a strategy with several of them. Remember that your business needs to be oriented to the different audiences of social networks so that you have a better positioning. Also, do not neglect offline advertising, remember that social networks are only a tool that will allow you to take off towards success, the rest depends on your strategies.

After reading this article you will know what is the perfect way to guide your business towards success. Boost your business through social networks and put together the appropriate strategies according to your needs and expectations.

CHAPTER 18

HOW CAN COMPANIES USE LINKEDIN

An introduction

LinkedIn is on the heels of the market leader Xing in the German-speaking region and has a lot to offer not only international entrepreneurs and the self-employed. In this post, Ute Blindest shows you the most important functions for being found on LinkedIn.

While Xing now has 17 million users, LinkedIn has 14 million in German-speaking countries. So it remains exciting to see how the market for the two online business networks in Germany, Austria and Switzerland will develop. According to its own information, LinkedIn has 660 million users worldwide, while Xing is negligible internationally. In recent years, many companies have asked themselves: Where should we be present? With Xing, LinkedIn or both? Where will the journey go and which horse should you bet on?

Before making a decision, the question should always be: What do we want to achieve with a company website? Can customers, cooperation partners and potential employees be found on LinkedIn? The sheer size of a network and the number of users ultimately says nothing about its suitability for a company and its sales, employee search or communication.

If you look at the number of users and the companies of the people who are active on LinkedIn, the following statements can be made:

660 million people worldwide use LinkedIn.

These come from over 200 countries - so LinkedIn is really international.

Employees from large companies and corporations are more likely to be found on LinkedIn than on Xing.

But employees from medium-sized companies and SMEs can also be found increasingly, as well as self-employed and solo preneurs.

For most companies today, it makes sense to create a company page on LinkedIn and also to encourage employees to be present with a profile. Especially employees from the areas of sales, human resources and communication should show up there.

Personal brand and ambassador for the company

With LinkedIn, employees are of course not only visible to the company, but also to themselves - so it's always about personal visibility, i.e. personal branding. Companies should see their employees as brand ambassadors and support them as such with their presence and visibility on LinkedIn. This cannot be forbidden anyway.

Incidentally, it is particularly important if the management at LinkedIn also shows itself - and preferably not only with a rudimentary profile, but also create posts or write articles and call for discussions in their own name. For the employees of a company, this also sends a signal that invites them to speak publicly about and about the company.

In order to optimize a profile, you should ask yourself the following questions:

What and who do I want to reach with my profile?

For which topics or products do I want to be noticed?

What do I want to convey from the corporate culture?

Which terms do I see as key terms in my profile?

Of course, the profile of a sales rep will be different from that of a recruiter. Just like that of a coach from that of an owner of a software company.

Understanding LinkedIn as a search engine

The question about the key terms is aimed directly at the LinkedIn algorithm. The more precisely LinkedIn can classify a profile, the more appropriate LinkedIn's suggestions are. Key terms from the area of human resources could be, for example: Digital HR, Active Sourcing, Candidate Experience, Xing Talent Manager, Linkedin Recruiting, E-Recruiting, E-Recruiting Software, People Analytics, Data Analysis, etc.

These terms should be as clear as possible - and should be thought with the prospect's gaze: What could be of interest to my target person? This also supports the technical possibilities of LinkedIn. LinkedIn's search algorithm needs information to be able to suggest suitable profiles for a search. The networking suggestions that LinkedIn always displays are also based on this data.

Stefan Kloß has already shown in his article how the profile can be filled out in detail . In addition, a suitable background image should ideally be incorporated from the company's perspective.

5 TIPS FOR A GOOD LINKEDIN PROFILE (WHICH CAN BE USED QUICKLY)

Optimize the profile slogan: In the header there is the option of inserting a profile slogan. This should show the core of a person directly with 70 characters. Why? Well, it is displayed prominently in the header directly below the profile picture and is displayed when searching. It is even advisable to include the most important information in the first 20 characters. The screenshot from the app makes it clear:

The first 20 characters of the profile slogan are important, as you can see here in the app.

Naturally, there is a lot more space on the desktop.

Insert a call-to-action in the first two lines of the "Info" box: Only two lines of the info box plus "Learn more" are displayed. These two lines should be used for a key message or a call to action. Here's a nice example:

Example of how the author works with a call-to-action.

Upload media: Various media can be uploaded or linked to in the info box, but also in the work experience. Pictures of work samples, slides of a lecture on a company project, all of these are conceivable possibilities.

Create profile in different languages: One of the big pluses of LinkedIn is that profiles and pages can be created in 24 languages. This means that customers, candidates or multipliers can be addressed in their respective language. At least one profile in German and English should be common for most companies.

Visibility for your own topics

What is highlighted as particularly valuable on LinkedIn is the engagement rate. With the last major design update in 2017, LinkedIn radically changed its timeline, inviting its members to contribute, share, like and, above all, discuss even more. This is used so intensively by LinkedIn members that LinkedIn is now talking about “Facebook for business”.

Visibility is achieved primarily through activity: LinkedIn rewards it when someone regularly publishes, comments and “likes” posts, as the Dutch social selling consultant Richard van der Blom found out in a study.

In order to publish a contribution, one logically goes to “publish a contribution” in the feed. There is now the option to share a link outside of LinkedIn, as well as upload a video or picture.

In order to give a contribution more "momentum", you should consider the following tips:

Adding hashtags to posts: Three hashtags are the best. More hashtags have the opposite effect.

Comments are more important than “likes” and “shares”: the LinkedIn algorithm rewards interaction in the form of comments, “liking” only has 50 percent of this effect, “sharing” only 25 percent.

The answer to a comment is ideally a comment: Anyone who receives a comment on their own post, for example in the form of a question, should respond with an answer, an appreciative sentence should at least be answered with a "thank you". Those who take this to heart will be rewarded by the algorithm with a doubling of the range.

Post and get feedback at the right time: Good times to post on LinkedIn are between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. and between 4 and 6 p.m.

The first hour is crucial: In the first hour after publication, a post should receive reactions. Then LinkedIn begins to deliver this post more so that more users can see it in their timeline.

Use articles and videos occasionally: Articles and videos were pushed by LinkedIn for a while and rewarded with high reach. That doesn't seem to be the case at the moment. There are also counterexamples.

Do not post too often in a row: Anyone who posts several posts in a row will be punished insofar as not all of the reach is obtained.

Stay on LinkedIn: Anything that keeps members on LinkedIn's page will be rewarded by LinkedIn with greater reach.

A lot can be done to improve visibility with these tips. In the end, however, it is always about providing customers, potential employees or multipliers with content that addresses their needs, answers questions, and expresses appreciation. And what must be considered with these tips: The settings can of course change again and again on LinkedIn.

Use company pages on LinkedIn

Large, international companies have an easier time using company pages on LinkedIn, as the number of employees on LinkedIn and the awareness alone make it easier for them to gain followers. So it is that the “Top Companies - Where Germany wants to work now” only include 25 large companies.

Every company on LinkedIn that finds customers, potential applicants or business partners in this business network should create a company page.

A company page can be set up by going to the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Portal and clicking on the “My Company Page” button. Or use this link.  When creating the company page, the most important information is then requested directly.

Creating a company page on LinkedIn.

In doing so, attention should be paid to the most comprehensive information possible, since fully completed company pages can increase their number of followers twice as quickly as incompletely completed ones. The company description is particularly important here, with up to 2,000 characters available. Up to 20 specialties can be added under the company description. These should be understood like keywords that make it easier to classify the company page.

The next step should be to ensure that all employees who have a profile on LinkedIn "link" it to the company page. This is easy to do in the profile settings:

This is how companies become visible on LinkedIn

One thing first: LinkedIn does not make it easy for companies to be seen with their company pages: LinkedIn wants to connect people - and not companies with companies. It is therefore all the more important that employees are involved as advocates for a company.

The next step is to create content for the company website. Not all companies necessarily have to provide content on LinkedIn. Small companies in particular can leave it at one page with the basic information.

The difficulty lies in the fact that posts from company pages are extremely rarely displayed to users in the timeline. You have to post very regularly - preferably once a day. In addition, the articles and updates from the company should add value for the followers of the site. It doesn't always have to be your own content, news from other sources can also be included here. The integration of external sources is particularly useful when it comes to stimulating other users to discuss.

Example GLS Bank

Overall, contributions should be varied and useful, i.e. switch between images, videos and linked contributions. Here, too, care should be taken to ensure that the persons or companies involved are linked using an @ symbol.

Now new: everything you need to get started on LinkedIn. The best tips to get started with a LinkedIn profile and a company page, to be found and to expand your own network step by step. That and more in our new guide e-book and online course. Learn more about the content...

What the focus pages are all about

In addition to the company pages, LinkedIn also offers focus pages. These are particularly relevant when a company has different brands under its roof and wants to reach markets. These are not useful for small and medium-sized companies, so they will not be discussed in more detail here.

Presence in groups

In order to build a network on LinkedIn for a company, it is also advisable to look at different groups. These groups can be found using the search function and require some research. Groups in which to discuss and discuss topics that are relevant to the company are likely to be appropriate. However, it is also worth exchanging ideas with employees: they often know about groups or are already represented in groups and can make recommendations.

With regard to groups, too, it is advisable that managers from the company are also present and make contributions there. This presence often has a motivating function for the employees of a company.

What comes, what stays

Even if these did not play a role in this article, the possibilities of other offers and apps on LinkedIn are particularly interesting for companies. These include, for example, LinkedIn Learning, SlideShare, Talent Insights or business services such as Talent Solutions, Sales Solutions, Ads, etc. The first people and companies also get the opportunity to go live on LinkedIn. You have to apply for this feature, but it can be worthwhile. Events come back - but you have to set English as the default language, then the "Event" function appears in the settings. Stephan Kloß described the workaround in his blog.

LinkedIn will not go away anymore - on the contrary: It is already a fixture in German-speaking countries - if it doesn't even play the most important role. The functions and the possibilities for interactivity and visibility are convincing and show that LinkedIn listens to its users and offers them meaningful solutions. Companies should therefore definitely deal with this network and its diverse possibilities.

DESCRIPTION OF TWITTER

Twitter is a free two-way communication platform with the nature of a social network that allows its users to send and post short messages (a maximum of 280 characters). These messages are called tweet

The messages we publish will automatically appear on our profile in chronological order (Timeline). The comments and conversations we have on Twitter are published automatically and in real time on the Internet (although they can be protected, so that only our followers can see them).

Twitter logo

However, compared to Facebook or LinkedIn, the relationships are, so to speak, asymmetric. On Twitter, the two extremes of the relationship do not simply contact each other, but rather differentiate between "followers" ("followers") and "followed" ("followed").

Twitter allows us to follow other users without the need for them to follow us. In this way, each comment that is published on Twitter by those we follow will appear automatically and in real time on our home page and vice versa.

With Twitter you can:

Share and acquire knowledge of other people.

Add people you know to a contact list (people you follow). Messages or tweets from your contacts will appear on your Twitter Home page.

Be added by others to your contact list (have followers). People who add you become your followers and see what you post on Twitter.

You will be aware of the latest news.

2. Basic concepts

Before getting fully into Twitter, it is convenient to know some of its most characteristic concepts.

Tweet (Tweet). 280-character long message, comment or conversation that we post on Twitter.

TimeLine (TL): List in which the Tweets of all the users we follow (Following) appear.

# Tag (Hashtag). Label used to organize the information that is published in a tweet. When a specific topic is discussed on Twitter, it is identified with a subject (word or phrase written without spaces between words) preceded by the #.

Twitter displays them as hypertext and they are clickable. It is widely used to broadcast events or debates on Twitter. The more tweets a certain tag has, the more popular the topic will be.

Following or following: Twitter is a social network that does not need reciprocity, that is, we can follow those users that interest us the most without having the need for them to follow us. They don't even need to accept us. Every time a user we follow publishes a tweet, it will appear automatically and in real time in our home window.

Followers or followers: They are all those users and those users who follow us. In the home window of your profile, each of the tweets that we publish on our Twitter profile will appear. Although the profiles are open (unless it is made private by option), the fact that a user follows you ensures you have real-time updates on their tweets.

Mentions. When we want to mention or cite a Twitter user in one of our tweets, we indicate their Twitter profile name with and @ at the beginning: @profilename. Multiple users can be cited in the same tweet.

There are two types of mentions:

Responses: When in our timeline we have a tweet that interests us and we wish to reply to its author, we will click on the "reply" button, which opens a new window superimposed with a status box that already has the name of user (@profilename) we are replying to. We will have 280 characters less those occupied by the mentioned username.

Mentions in a tweet: When we write a tweet and we want to name a person (or several) who is a Twitter user, we will add their username preceded by the @ character. In this way, the user will receive notification in their mentions and can respond to us (if they wish).

Retuitear (Retweet): Forward a message from another person -as is or modified- to our followers. It is one of the most popular activities on Twitter, because it ensures the spread of ideas and thoughts from one network to another.

Direct message: Twitter allows you to send private messages and therefore receive them. In order to send a private message to a Twitter user, we will have to follow and be followed by him or her.

Trend (Trending Topic): Following hashtags, when many people tweet with the same hashtag, Twitter marks it as a trend topic. They are the most relevant topics on Twitter. The most tweeted #tags.

The good news is that it is already possible to do so; and in 140 characters. Before Twitter announced its Analytics service, we were able to go to ads.twitter.com and explore a bit about the account statistics. It was possible to create announcements and give other users access to this administrator. However, at that time advertising was not allowed in Latin American countries. It was not until September 4, 2014 that Twitter opened the possibility of advertising in 11 more countries. Among them Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, and some European countries. At Platzi we started testing this platform from September 5. We are one of the first companies to use this service in Latin America. We even enter the Twitter Business program that allows you to register your company and gives you access to the advertising platform of this social network.

Where will my ads appear?

All your ads will have a certain location or will be seen on certain devices depending on the objective of the campaign. Depending on this, you will be able to select the place where you want them to appear. Twitter trends for example, with promoted tweets, you can only place ads in the users' timeline. This, also, is an option that you cannot modify. Twitter timeline if we talk about devices, at first we could only choose to advertise on computers and laptops or on Blackberry devices. For other devices we could only create mobile web campaigns. But less than two months ago, Twitter updated it’s targeting to include iOS and Android. Segment twitter ads

What do I need to get started on Twitter Ads?

First, you only need the content you want to promote. It can be a tweet, your account, a business, etc. Actually, anything works to start testing. Second, you are going to need a credit card for your ads to start working. The charge will be per interaction (don't worry, we'll get into this later). In our business experience, Twitter Ads helps us to appear in timelines in which certain topics are being discussed or to whom our products may be of interest. Such as display advertising. These ads will be seen by casual traffic users who do not have a purchase intention. In this way, this type of advertisement allows us to appear at the right time, a key factor to be successful. Some of the success stories with these kinds of ads include big names like ESPN and adidasHoops. Not so big companies like AirBnB and New Relic are part of the tech world; and surely you are already seeing their products on your timeline. If you want to learn more about how to create campaigns on Twitter and other social networks such as Facebook, don't miss the Platzi Digital Strategy and Online Marketing course. There we will teach you everything you need to know to grow your brand online. And you, what are you going to start advertising with?  Tell us in the comments and wait next week for a more detailed post about the alternatives that Twitter Ads offers us and the values that we can measure with this new advertising alternative. Grow your business 140 characters at a time.

WHAT IS PINTEREST

An introduction to the use of the social image platform

Pinterest is a social media network that allows users to share images associated with projects, goods, and services, and visually discover new interests by exploring images that others have posted. You can think of Pinterest as a web-based bulletin board or bulletin board, but with more organizational functionality. You can also think of it as a bookmarking tool. People generally pin or save the images they found on the web (or on Pinterest itself) on different boards (which are used to categorize their image collections). Many of the images saved on Pinterest are clickable, and they open in a new tab to the original web page where they were found, For example, Pinterest is a very popular tool for recipes. People can browse through images of delicious food, click on an image that looks good, and be taken directly to the recipe instructions when they click on it. They can also save it to their own recipe board so they can access it later.

Pinterest is also a social network. Users interact with each other through liking, commenting, re-saving each other's stuff, and sending private messages to each other. If you're ready to get started with Pinterest, follow the slides below to learn how to use it yourself.

Sign up for a free Pinterest account

Pinterest is completely free to use, but just like any other social network, you need an account to start using it. You can create a free account on Pinterest.com with an email and password, or simply choose to create one from your existing Facebook or Google account. You will be asked to fill in some details such as your name, age, gender, language, and country before you are prompted to choose at least five categories so that Pinterest can start displaying your custom pins based on your interests.

Get familiar with your profile

In the upper right corner, you should see a menu with several different options.

Home: This is where you will find all the latest pins saved by users that you currently follow, as well as new suggestions based on things you have already saved.

Next: If you just want to see what the users you follow are posting, go to this tab.

Browse: To find new ideas on things to pin and users to follow, use the Browse tab to browse things you might not discover just by sticking to your home feed

Your name and profile picture. Select this at any time to go to your profile. (If you haven't set up a profile picture yet, you can do so by clicking the three dots in the upper right corner, selecting Edit Settings from the drop-down menu, and navigating to Profile from the left menu.)

Messages: This is marked by the little speech bubble icon   . Send and receive private messages with the users you follow and we follow you.

Notifications: This is marked by the bell icon   . Interactions and suggestions will appear here.

Settings:   This is marked by the three dots. Select it to change your settings or update your account.

Closer to your profile, you will also see four tabs:

Boards: Shows all the   bulletin boards you have created.

Pins: Show all the things you've recently pinned.

Tries: All the pins you tested for yourself and left feedback.

Topics: These are suggested topics that you can follow based on your interests.

Start saving pins and creating dashboards

Here comes the fun part. Now that you've spent some time setting up your account and have a brief understanding of how Pinterest really works, you can start saving pins to your boards. There are two ways to do this.

Option # 1: Save the pins you find on Pinterest

To save a pin that you found while browsing Pinterest, just hover over the pin and click the red save button   that appears in the upper right corner. You will be asked which board to save it to.

Option # 2: Save the pins you have on your computer or what you find on the web

Go to your profile, click on the Pins tab or the Boards tab   and find the Create PIN button or Create Board button   on the far left of your pins / boards.

Create Pin:   If the image is on your computer, you can upload it to the web. However, if what you want to pin is on the web, copy and paste the direct url in the given field and you can select the specific image you want to pin.

Create Board - Use this to create different boards and to keep your pins organized. Name your board and make it Secret (private) if you want.

Bonus option # 3: save pins directly from the web

Pro Tip:   If you want to randomly save things to Pinterest while browsing the web, you'll definitely want to install the Pinterest browser button to make saving as easy as a couple of clicks.

Follow users or their individual boards

If you find that you really like specific user boards and pins, you can follow them to have their stuff appear in the dashboard info on your personal home page (when you're signed in to Pinterest). Simply click on any Pinterest user's username to open their profile and click  Follow  at the top of their profile to follow that user's boards or alternatively you can follow that user's specific boards by clicking on the  individual Follow button  under each board.

Interact with other users

Pinterest's intuitive user platform makes it extremely easy for anyone to share and interact with other people. You can interact in the following ways on Pinterest:

Save - Use this to save the pin to one of your own boards.

Send:  Send a pin to other users on Pinterest or share it on social networks.

Comment:  If you have something to say about the pinned item, feel free to leave a comment.

Add a photo or note:  If you tried the pin (such as a recipe, a craft, etc.), you can upload your own photo and add a comment about what you liked or disliked.

Download the Pinterest mobile app

Pinterest is a lot of fun to use on the regular desktop web, but you'll be amazed at the power of the mobile apps for iOS and Android.

Discovering new pins, saving them, and finding them later when you need them couldn't be easier or more useful with the app!

CHAPTER 19

They are a group with as many supposed characteristics (lazy, narcissistic, open-minded, and supportive) as potential birthdates.

Howe and Strauss said that millennials are anyone born between the years of 1982 and 2004. Newsweek claimed that those dates should be 1977 to 1994. Time Magazine said 1980 to 2000.

So how does one market to such a diverse and large group? Well, it’s tricky. In fact, it’s one of the hardest groups to market products and services to. And with such wide-ranging demographics, hobbies, and values, it’s no wonder. But millennials make up a large percentage of the U.S. population. So ignoring them as customers and assuming that basic marketing tactics will be fine is a death wish. You need to invest time and money into understanding how millennials work.

Focus on finding out how they respond to different marketing tactics.

Test the waters to see if they actually resonate with your brand.

Craft a brand image that aligns with their values.

Millennials are tricky to market to, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. You need to understand them, not forget about them. Thankfully, there are a few insights we can gather from the latest data on millennials to inform our marketing efforts.

There are millions of content marketing pieces published daily. So if you want to stand out to the millennial crowd, you have to use UGC in your social media strategy. Social media is the place to be when it comes to engaging and marketing to millennials.

Typical advertising outlets won’t grab their attention. Use social media to leverage a real, genuine connection with them. If you do this well, it can lead to better sales and brand impressions, as well as more trust. Social media should be the cornerstone of your millennial marketing game plan.

Understanding what does and doesn’t appeal to millennials is tough. They are such a diverse group, which makes it hard to figure out a marketing strategy. Since millennial demographics are so varied and the population size is so large, marketing products to them is a big challenge. But with millennials being 25% of the U.S. population, you can’t ignore them either. If you want to be successful, you need to target them correctly. Spend some time on understanding the millennial mind. Thankfully, you won’t be the first to do this. There are already countless studies on millennials and the best ways to market to them. Start by supporting a cause. Millennials are much more likely to purchase from a company that supports something relevant and impactful. Spend less money on ads and start focusing more on social proof. Typical PPC banner ads don’t resonate with millennials anymore, and they trust reviews much more. Always share user-generated content, too. Millennials are the biggest sharers of social content.

Lastly, make sure to stay active on social media if you want them to interact with your brand. Marketing to millennials is a whole new ballgame. Throw out, or at least make a lot of changes, to your old playbook. Appeal to their emotions and connect them to your brand to see massive increases in engagement and sales.

5 WINNING STRATEGIES FOR MILLENNIAL MARKETING

Millennial-marketing

It’s no secret that millennials — young adults between 18-34 — are a hugely sought-after market segment. With upwards of 200 billion burning a hole in their pockets annually, winning their trust, and ultimately their business is a boon to any company. Every generation has had its share of quirks, but millennials require a different touch when marketing to them. They are savvy enough to know when they’re being pitched to, and they have built up a resistance to it. The crucial element that makes them so hard to win over is the same thing that will boost your business if you’re successful: they absorb and put out social signals like crazy.

In other words, if you appeal to millennials the right way, you can get their business, as well as the added benefit of word-of-mouth on a potentially viral level. Here are five guaranteed strategies to get you started in the right direction.

Stay Mobile

As clichéd as it has become, millennials are hard-wired to their smartphones, so make sure your marketing strategy complements this behavior. First, think about the basics. If you use landing pages, are they optimized for mobile? They should be quick to load, and have a clear, mobile-friendly call-to-action (CTA.)

With that out of the way, start thinking about interesting ways you can use mobile to your advantage. Kiip, a “mobile rewards network” connects brands with users during “relevant moments” of online game play, essentially allowing a brand to sponsor an in-game reward. This type of seamless brand integration is a very welcome replacement for players being bombarded by intrusive web banners and is just the sort of thing that is likely to get the attention of millennials.

Create Peer Brand Evangelists

The oversaturation of traditional advertising, coupled with a world of options at their fingertips has led millennials to essentially tune out unwanted interruptions. They seek out the information they need, and there is great marketing opportunity here.

Rather than a traditional out-bound advertising model, you should be forming partnerships with online influencers that millennials already trust. Notable bloggers, podcasters, YouTube personalities, and Instagrammers are a fantastic way into the world of millennials. A recent study unsurprisingly found that younger consumers are heavily influenced based on the opinions of their peers and people they follow on social media. If you can successfully tap into that, you can build your word of mouth very widely, and very quickly.

Be Socially Connected

Just about every business has a social presence in 2016, but not everyone is using the right strategy to properly engage the millennial market. Just being in the social sphere isn’t enough — you have to effectively communicate with your audience.

When done correctly, your Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram channels should make each and every customer feel special. (After all, this is the “me” generation we’re talking about.)

Here are several tactics you can use:

Loyalty programs for fans

Properly engage with customer comments (beyond canned responses)

Hold contests

Encourage user generated content by featuring it on your own channels

For instance, many successful Instagram campaigns regularly feature photos taken by their followers. Take the example of Los Angeles-based furniture retailer Apt2B. They encourage their customers to snap pics of their purchases so others can see their sofas and accessories in-context in somebody’s real apartment. It’s a win-win proposition because new customers get a no-B.S. view of the product while the photo provider feels good about being seen and heard by the company.

Create Authentic Content

While millennials have tuned out traditional advertising, they still value any information they deem to be authentic. So rather than going in for the hard sell, try providing your millennial audience with content they can learn from, or be entertained by. The more they interact with this type of content, your message can slowly soak in, especially if they get the sense that your business shares their core values.

As with any kind of campaign, you need to know your audience in order to speak their language. When millennials hear words that sound as if they could have come directly from their peers, (rather than from Madison Avenue,) they are much more likely to trust the message. If you can regularly provide this type of content that they not only respond favorably to, but would actually share online, it goes a long way toward building a real relationship with them.

Farmed-Dangerous

An excellent example of this in practice is Chipotle’s “Farmed and Dangerous” web series. Featuring a millennial sustainable farmer as the lead, doing battle against an ominous corporate food production company, Chipotle gets their brand messaging across in a subtle, entertaining way. Not only that, but it gets shared. A lot.

Give Them a Say

More than consumers, millennials are interested in taking on the more hands-on role of co-creator. Traditionally, companies have simply created products, hoping consumers would buy them. But now, with so many options out there, it makes sense to inform your decisions based on input directly from your audience. It makes them feel empowered, and you have the knowledge that your product has a built-in fanbase.

Take Lay’s “Do Us a Flavor” campaign as a prime example. For the past few years, they put out a call to their fans, asking them to suggest new flavor ideas, as well as vote on the winners. By reaching out to your audience and allowing them to be a part of the product creation through contests or social media campaigns, you are involving them in the process. In turn, they feel a sense of ownership in the product, which leads to increased brand awareness and loyalty. And any campaign that results in “Southern Biscuits and Gravy” flavored chips is alright by me.

Final Thoughts

Marketing to millennials isn’t rocket science. In fact, it’s incredibly intuitive, because all it requires is a human touch. Talking at them doesn’t work nearly as well as authentically engaging with them. By offering authentic experiences, and engaging content, and by listening to what they’re asking for, you can empower them to discover your brand on their terms.

I think we can safely expect this trend to continue with each subsequent generation, so the sooner we all learn the ropes of “new marketing,” the more successful we can all be.

CHAPTER 20

HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITH FACEBOOK: 5 EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES

Many people ask if it is possible to learn how to make money with Facebook, what is more, they do not believe that this is possible. For this, first of all, it is necessary that you understand the influence that this social network has in the modern era.

And the magnitude of this influence is better understood when we discover that there are a large number of people who are working from home, generating a very good source of income thanks to the Internet. In the specific case of Facebook, this social network has more than two billion active users per month, which should give you an idea of the scope and power that this platform has in the new generations. In simpler words, this network offers you endless business opportunities since your potential clients are there, so all you have to do is define a strategy that allows you to successfully attract and retain them.

How to make money with Facebook today:

If you are an entrepreneur, or even if you already have your own business, but are looking to expand it massively, then it is necessary that you learn how to make money with Facebook quickly and safely. The options to earn money on social networks are really varied. For example, you can monetize a Facebook page, create sales groups, or promote third-party products through affiliate links. However, we recommend that you study all the strategies you have at hand to know how to make money with Facebook, since only in this way will you avoid mistakes that will waste time and money.

Learn how to make money with Facebook:

Without a doubt, Facebook can help you increase your monthly income significantly, as it has numerous tools and platforms to start profitable businesses. In this guide we will tell you how to make money with Facebook working from home, on your own schedule and being your own boss.

In this way you will be able to carry out Internet businesses that allow you to achieve your financial independence in the medium or long term.

Main strategies to make money with Facebook:

1. Sell products:

Sell digital products

This is one of the most popular strategies that you can carry out if you are interested in learning how to make money with Facebook.

In this social network you can create a sales group, and build your community little by little, since all its members share a certain interest. If you are interested in making money on social networks, you can monetize this tool in a simple and direct way. By creating this type of group, you will have the possibility to publish items for sale –new or used, and even to mark those that you are selling to notify other users that you no longer have them in inventory.

Once you have identified the nature of the business, or the types of products that you want to market through Facebook, you only need to publish your offers to start capturing the interest of users.

2. Promote third-party products:

Affiliate marketing can help you a lot if you are thinking about online jobs to earn money, since this model fits perfectly with Facebook, and therefore, you can receive substantial recurring income. However, you must understand how the promotion of third-party products works so that you maximize the resources and the results obtained.

FREE AFFILIATE MARKETING TRAINING

For this reason, below we will tell you the step by step so that you learn about how to make money with Facebook through affiliate marketing:

Step by step Affiliate Marketing on Facebook:

Select the affiliate system of the company that seems most profitable to you, such as the Amazon affiliate program, Clickbank, AliExpress, iTunes, among others.

Determine the type of product you want to promote (for example, with Clickbank you can promote courses, guides, ebooks and more).

Find groups on Facebook that belong to your market niche (if you decide to promote a healthy eating guide, your interest groups are those linked to the fitness lifestyle , exercise, or sports practices).

Join such groups, and as soon as you become part of these online communities, you should start sharing your promoted products.

The way to promote these products is through an affiliate link, which is given by the company you decide to work with, in order to determine how much you sell and based on that, give you a commission.

Basically, for each sale made with your affiliate link, from the Facebook groups where you share it, you will earn a commission (this can be up to 75% in some cases).

TIPS FOR SUCCESS WITH AFFILIATE MARKETING:

Promote attractive products:

Ideally, they should be in high demand, or offer you a good commission as an affiliate. Identifying them is quite easy, since each company offers you this information in a clear, concise and detailed way.

Amazon offers you commissions of up to 12% when promoting products such as clothing, shoes, handbags, jewelry, and even some products from its private labels. For its part, Clickbank handles commissions of up to 75% and its offer exceeds 100,000 products, so your promotion options are really wide.

Don't spam:

One of the worst mistakes you can make is irresponsibly sharing your affiliate link on Facebook groups. This means that you share it in a grotesque or repetitive way, and consequently, you generate a rejection in the members of these virtual communities, because your efforts to sell online are not the most appropriate.

The most recommended thing is that you start to make yourself noticed in the groups in a more natural or organic way, this is achieved in the following way:

Commenting on posts without including your links, at least for a couple of weeks.

Answering doubts.

Providing valuable information to the other members about any requirement they have.

That way you will earn their trust and they will be more willing to read everything you comment, including your promotional posts.

How can you promote products organically?

Next we will use the case of the healthy eating guide to explain how you should promote this product in the Facebook groups that you consider most appropriate:

“A friend recently recommended a healthy eating guide to me and told me that it helped him a lot to make new healthy habits. That is why I decided to buy it and it turned out to be very effective for eating healthy and losing a couple of kilos. Here I share the link of the guide in case any of you are interested in trying it. [Insert your affiliate link at the end]

We assure you that if you try to promote your products in this way, you will end up reaching your goals, which will translate into generating significant income on Facebook and you will know how to earn money online.

3. Promote your products with paid ads:

How to make money with Facebook ads

Wondering how to make money with Facebook smartly and effectively? Through the sponsored ads on this social network you can show your products to thousands of people, since the scope of this service is truly incredible. The tool known as Facebook Ads allows you to create attractive ads for your audience, and the best part is that you can segment them as much as possible so that their performance is exactly as expected. However, you will need a bit of a budget to start using Facebook Ads (currently Facebook charges $ 1 a day to promote products virtually through its advertising platform).

How can you make money online with Facebook Ads?:

Here is a general step-by-step on how to start making money with Facebook through its advertising platform.

       Identify the products you want to promote (just make sure they are not products banned by Facebook, or else you will be penalized).

       Design an ad (photo or video) that is useful, valuable, interesting and attractive to your potential customers. Here's an online Facebook Ads course.

       Create your advertising account on Facebook and configure your payment method, or else you will not be able to activate ads, nor will you know how to make money on Facebook using this strategy.

       Segment your ad in detail (Facebook allows you to segment by interests, tastes, demographics, positions and more), since the purpose is that your ad is only shown to people who are truly interested in buying your products or services.

For example, a good segmentation to promote your healthy eating guide with Facebook Ads would be the following:

Sex: men and women.

Age: between 18 and 35 years old.

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina (let's say you live there and want to cover only that market).

Interests: health, healthy eating, weight loss, gyms, physical exercise, sports, supplements, healthy food, diets, fitness, crossfit , etc.

You can define as many interests as you consider necessary. To have a better idea of how to do it more carefully, we recommend using the Facebook tool called "Audience Statistics", which you can access from your commercial administrator (where you created your advertising account).

Finally, get ready to invest money, activate your ad and get hundreds or thousands of new customers, which will allow you to boost your finances quickly and positively.

4. Sell your Facebook pages:

sell fan page Facebook internet If you want other alternatives to know how to make money with Facebook, then we recommend you create a page (Fan Page), build a community and finally sell it to a third party.

Below we will explain how to generate income from the comfort of your home, or from wherever you are, just by accessing this important social network.

Steps to sell a Fanpage successfully:

Identify a market niche (discover which one has more potential, or which one can generate greater acceptance in your audience.

When you have identified your niche, you should create a Facebook page that is attractive to your target audience, since only then will you capture their attention and discover how to make money with Facebook successfully. For example, you can create a page about healthy eating for vegans, and if you make sure you do a good job of interacting with your audience, little by little you will gain thousands of followers (your community will get bigger and more important).

Keep your page active (post photos, videos, motivational phrases, or content that adds value to your followers). You will have to invest time in this, but if your ultimate goal is to monetize your Fan Page, then you need to get down to work without thinking about it.

When your page has a significant number of followers -at least 10 thousand- you can sell it to someone else for a good sum of money (the amount is variable, but in general we can tell you that you can earn thousands of dollars with this sale).

It should be noted that Forobeta and Foro20 are some of the platforms available to sell Facebook pages successfully. This shows, without a doubt, that Facebook offers you impressive freedom, to the point that it represents one of the best jobs to travel the world, since you define your rules, conditions and working hours.

5. Create applications:

Apps to earn mobile money

Finally, you can develop applications to earn money that are compatible with this social network, and that allow you to put a good spin on your finances. However, to be successful and earn extra money in this way, you must make sure that your apps meet a specific user need. Although the most important thing is that they can be adapted to the monetization systems that Facebook currently uses.

The most standardized are those of Cost per Action (CPA), Cost Per Click (CPC), and those of affiliate marketing. For example, Candy Crush was a world revolution, and although today it is available for mobile devices, the truth is that it was born as a Facebook application that has generated a lot of money for its developer. Consequently, the development of Facebook applications can work in your favor if you are looking for jobs from home that will allow you to generate good income.

Earning money with Facebook is possible:

In this guide we explain how to make money with Facebook through several important methods, such as monetizing a Fan Page, creating a sales group, or promoting third-party products through affiliate links.

The idea is that you define those that are best for you, or ultimately, those that are most appropriate for you to achieve your financial independence in the medium or long term.

18 DOS AND DON’TS FOR A SUCCESSFUL FACEBOOK BUSINESS PAGE

Facebook is the biggest social network on the planet, with more than 1.6 billion people using it every day. And that’s a good thing, because Facebook can be an inexpensive, effective way to connect with your target audience and promote your brand. We’ll assume you already have a Facebook page set up for your business. If not, check out this guide.

FACEBOOK FOR BUSINESS DOS AND DON’TS

DO use an easily recognizable image (like your brand logo) for your profile picture—it will appear in the News Feed so it should be clear and recognizable. Your cover photo—the large image at the top of your profile, lets you feature an image that represents who you are, so use a high-quality, attractive picture.

DON’T leave the about section of your page blank. This is your chance to say who you are, what you do and what you stand for—use it!

DON’T use your Facebook page to constantly push your products or services. You’re trying to create relationships, not annoy people with a sales pitch.

DO develop a distinct voice for your Facebook page. Use the tone on your company website as a starting point, then add a healthy dollop of personality and humor.

Don't sound like a robot

DON’T go crazy with the hashtags. Some studies show that Facebook posts without hashtags get the most engagement. On the other hand, your post will show up if someone searches for the hashtag you used. Bottom line: use them judiciously, and keep it to two max.

DO highlight your Facebook presence on your website, both by including the Facebook icon and by embedding popular Facebook posts right on your site. Just click the arrow button on the top right of the post, select Embed, and copy and paste the provided HTML code onto the page where you want the post to display.

DO respond quickly and publicly to any customer that uses Facebook to lodge a complaint about your company or the products or services you provide, so everyone can see that you care about your customers and are responsive to their concerns.

But DON’T get into specifics about the issue. Encourage them to email you directly or take the communication private using Facebook chat.

Regardless of who your audience is, good news is always shareable,  so try to keep your posts positive!

DO highlight company events and milestones. Facebook has a different feel than your company website, so while you might post a press release to your news section about a recent event, your Facebook page is the place to make these events more relatable by sharing fun photos and personal thoughts.

DO create compelling content that prompts people to like your page and comment on your posts.

But DON'T use engagement-bait to get people to interact with your page.

Experiment when to Post

DON’T be afraid to experiment with how often and when you post. Research suggests you should post once a day, with the optimum times being 1-4 p.m. on weekdays and 1-2 p.m. on weekends, but it all depends on the audience you’re trying to reach, so try different things to see what works best for you.

DO create an editorial calendar to help you create quality, consistent posts.

DO share content from other sources. Posting things that are interesting or valuable to your Facebook followers—even if it has nothing to do with your company or products—is a great way to build trust and show you care about your customers.

DO use video to get your audience’s attention—videos are more likely to be shared than any other post type, and Facebook users watch live videos three times longer than prerecorded videos.

DO try boosting your Facebook posts. Boosted posts appear higher in the News Feed to increase visibility, and may also appear on Instagram. Wait until 24 hours after your initial post, then click Boost Post in the lower-right corner of the post to choose your audience, set a budget, and start paid promotion.

DO include an image or photograph in your post—Facebook posts with images see 2.3 times more engagement than those without.

DO use Facebook’s Page Insights feature to find out who is most engaged with your page (current clients? prospects?) and see how well your Facebook page is performing in terms of reaching your audience, likes, shares, and engagement.

CHAPTER 21

EARNING MONEY WITH YOUTUBE: IT WORKS WITH THESE TIPS

Dagi Bee, PewDiePie, Gronkh - these are names that almost every internet user knows these days. They are all likely to be more than just wealthy by now. Over the years, YouTube has blossomed into the largest video platform and the second largest search engine after Google. Anyone who “made it” here not only earns a lot of media attention, but also huge amounts of income. Because yes: Earning money with YouTube is still very possible in 2020 - more precisely, even more than ever before.

Many young people dream of one day making a name for themselves as “influencers”. YouTube is considered the mother of all platforms, because here you can not only generate a few hundred thousand or a few million followers. Instead, the world's most successful YouTube channels have nearly 100 million subscribers. This is of enormous value to the advertising industry. Therefore, you can still make very good money on YouTube.

The competition on YouTube is growing

In addition to their enormous reach and their probably equally enormous income, many of the big names on the platform have something in common: They started their YouTube careers many years ago. At that time, the competition was not as great as it is now. If you think it is easy to become a YouTube star yourself, then you are very wrong.

YouTube has around 1.5 billion active users. Of course, not everyone wants to make money on YouTube one day. But even if only a fraction has plans to become a professional YouTuber, you can imagine the infinite mass of influencers and would-be influencers. If you want to stand out from this crowd, you need a unique selling proposition. You also need professional videos, a lot of hard work, money for basic investments like a camera, and a spark of luck. You can only partly influence whether you hit the vein of the times and find you the right target group. You have to leave the rest to chance.

Step by step to becoming an influencer

So you want to become an influencer, YouTube star, entrepreneur - or whatever you want to call it? Then clicks, shares, subscriptions and comments are your currency from now on. The more attention you generate, especially in a positive way, the greater your income will be.

The Google Adsense ads are only the first step. If your reach grows, you can land paid product placements, advertising deals or even your own collections, games & Co - depending on the genre you are in. You have to become a brand. The well-known strategies from marketing are used here.

In addition, you can't just focus on YouTube. Instead, you have to be omnipresent for your followers - on Instagram, Facebook and all other relevant platforms. The more tangible you become to your fans, the more likely they are to trust you. And this trust in turn ensures that your followers believe your words. Many of your fans will imitate you. They will wear the same hairstyle as you, buy the same clothes and play the same games. It is precisely this connection to the followers that makes advertising by influencers so effective.

But that also makes it clear: Influencer is a full-time job. With an attitude like “I'll make a few videos and I'll get rich with them” you won't get very far. Instead, you need to develop a professional channel, do professional marketing, and develop professional revenue streams.

Earning money with YouTube: These sources of income exist

Sounds pretty professional, doesn't it? Earning money with YouTube is still possible, but because of the competition, it is no longer as easy as it used to be. Everything here has now become more professional - including the advertising industry. A few years ago they knew very little what to do with the platform.

In the meantime, however, she has recognized the value of YouTubers and thus found numerous ways to get her advertising to the people via the platform. For you, this means a large selection of active and passive sources of income - if you have achieved the status of influencer. And even if not, you can use YouTube to your advantage by using it as branding for your company or for positioning yourself as a specialist for an application . Now there are only question marks buzzing through your head? Then read on to learn more about the different ways you can take it.

GOOGLE ADSENSE AND ADWORDS

Google AdSense and AdWords video ads can be displayed automatically before or while your videos are being viewed. For each click you will receive remuneration of a few cents or euros. If you generate a lot of views, you can earn money with them. Nevertheless, these forms of advertising play a rather subordinate role for influencers.

AFFILIATE LINKS

Affiliate links bring you a commission, so to speak, if your followers buy the product or service based on your link. Let's say you're doing a beauty tutorial and linking to the curling iron you are using. For every purchase you will now receive around one to ten percent of the proceeds - depending on the affiliate program. This, too, is more likely to generate additional income than lucrative income.

PRODUCT PLACEMENTS

Product placements in your videos bring in significantly more money. While YouTubers with little reach are often still satisfied with getting the product for free, you can earn good money with YouTube as the reach increases.

PROMOTIONAL DEALS

If you have made a name for yourself on YouTube, you can also land advertising deals or engagements that will bring you high income away from the platform. This can be TV or print advertising, booking a designer for the catwalk, your own fashion collection, your own (online) game or something else.

SALE OF MERCHANDISE

Another option is to sell products and merchandise. If you have a certain fan base and a correspondingly high number of followers, you can also use your channel to promote and sell your own products. In addition, YouTube has its own merchandise area where you can manage your articles. These are then displayed to viewers in any order. For this function, however, you have to register with the YouTube partner program. With this program, YouTube checks to a more stringent extent that they are honest creators and that you are following all guidelines.

CROWDFUNDING

If you have a die-hard community, you can also ask them via YouTube to provide you with money for a new project. Followers who are enthusiastic about you and your content can then transfer money to you.

WORKING INDEPENDENTLY AS A SPECIALIST AND CONSULTANT

If you are self-employed or looking for a new job, you can also use YouTube to indirectly increase your income. So you will not achieve a large reach and thus no or hardly any income via the platform, but you can position yourself as a specialist. You can give important tips in your subject area, act as an advisor or simply provide information.

Think about what your target group - i.e. potential customers or future employers - might be interested in and how you can reach them. In this case, your audience is not about quantity, but about quality. YouTube can help you land a new, better-paying job or high-profile customers. This strategy is known as "personal branding".

First of all, what can you sell on the internet? Almost everything can be turned into money these days - from hand soap to sophisticated software. In order to generate income with an online shop , you need one thing above all, namely a brilliant business idea  . If you have this for a completely new product or service that has rarely or not yet been offered, then the first important step has been taken. You may have discovered a niche that you can cover with an online shop on the Internet.

How much money do you make on YouTube?

That is a good question that certainly cannot be answered across the board. Because the amount of your possible earnings depends on various factors, especially the number of clicks. You will earn only a few euros a month, for example, if only a few watch your videos or if many of your viewers use an ad blocker. But if you should manage to build a large fan base, then income of several hundred to thousand euros per month is possible with YouTube.

For example, with AdWords video ads, you get paid every time a Google ad is shown to a viewer. So the more views your video has, the more money you will make. Depending on the topic and quality of your videos and your channel as well as a few other factors, the income per 1,000 views is between 1 and 5 euros. So you really need a lot of views if you want to make a living from advertising alone.

You can earn more money with YouTube through product placements. Here, many companies not only give you the product for free, but you often get an additional payment for your video about the product. The amount varies between three and four-digit amounts. It is also clear that the larger your channel, the more you can charge for a product placement or a promotional video.

How much money do you earn on YouTube per like, view or subscriber?

To make money with YouTube, it doesn't matter how many subscribers your channel has. Because you don't get more or less money for the sheer number of subscribers. Nevertheless, it can be important that you attach importance to the highest possible number of subscribers. Because when it comes to contract negotiations, e.g. for product placement, or the costs per click, a high number of subscribers is a good success factor. Because the more subscribers you have, the more likely it is that your videos will be seen by a lot of people.

Likewise, you won't earn more money with YouTube if your videos have a particularly high number of likes. At least not directly. Because indirectly, many likes under a video ensure that it is listed further up in the search. And this in turn leads to more people watching your video. We have summarized which ranking factors are still effective on YouTube in our article on YouTube SEO.

Let's come to the key figure that is decisive for making money with YouTube: the number of views. For example, the more people have viewed your videos, the more people they buy from the ads, because most ads work on the cost-per-click principle. The more successful your video is in terms of click rates, the more money you will make with YouTube. How much you then earn per click depends on your reputation, quality and size of the channel.

Earning money with YouTube will still work very well in 2020

You see: There are still many ways to make money with YouTube. But no one said it was easy. To make it to the top is almost impossible due to the competitive situation - but only almost. It is more realistic to generate a small side income with YouTube or to find new ways to use the platform for you. Keyword: personal branding.

CHAPTER 22

HOW TO GROW YOUR PERSONAL BRAND ON YOUTUBE

Building a YouTube presence has many benefits. Creating video content is one of the best ways to build authentic relationships with your followers. If your goal is to grow your personal brand on YouTube, but you don’t know how to get started, keep reading.

This guide will walk you through a four-step process.

Step #1: Pick your niche

One of the biggest mistakes people make is approaching YouTube with the idea of “wanting to be a YouTuber.”

Some people have had huge success by vlogging or making lifestyle videos of their daily adventures. But this approach will almost always lead to failure, because when you try to appeal to everyone, you end up speaking to no one. Instead, find the people you want to serve, and create content directly for them. When you know who you’re speaking to, it’s easier to put together a cohesive message and content marketing strategy. You don’t need to make videos for everyone. You need to make videos for the people you want to help. When you do that, you’ll create your tribe. You’ll find your audience and develop a loyal following who respects your expertise in a particular subject matter.

For instance, when I was younger, I used to buy, trade, and sell Magic: The Gathering cards. I got really into it. Years later, I still keep up with the market. It’s a fun hobby.

When I want to catch up on the latest news on Magic: The Gathering cards, I follow Rudy from Alpha Investments. He makes the best videos about the current trade value and investment opportunities for Magic Cards, comic books, and other collectibles. If Rudy decided to make a YouTube channel about his day-to-day life, do you think I would watch? No. I follow Rudy because he makes great videos about Magic cards. Rudy found a subject matter that he was passionate about and has built an enormous YouTube following around his personal brand.

What are your passions? You could create a YouTube channel about:

Gardening

Woodworking

Books and novels

Art and sculpture

Business and marketing

Restaurants

Addiction recovery

Jeeps

The more specific you get, the more loyalty you’ll build with your audience. If you’re serious about building a personal brand on YouTube, you first need to hone your niche.

Step #2: Select the best keywords

YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine, right behind Google.

Most video traffic comes from search. People use YouTube to solve problems and find answers to questions they have. There is so much opportunity to optimize videos for keywords, especially if your personal brand already aims to rank for a list of keywords.

You can follow this three-step process.

1. Research effectively

Finding keywords for YouTube is just like finding keywords for Google. However, the software available isn’t quite as robust as web optimization software.

One of my favorite YouTube keyword tools is keywordtool.io. You can find search traffic volume for certain keywords and also find recommendations for what people are looking for when they search on YouTube.

2. Optimize your metadata

Metadata is the “chunks of content” that YouTube indexes to figure out what your YouTube video is about. YouTube doesn’t know what you’re talking about in a video. Instead, it uses metadata (and other ranking-factors) to decide which videos belong at the top of search results.

Think of your metadata as consisting of four parts:

       The title

       The first 100 words of your description

       The rest of your description

       Tags

       Be sure to add your keywords in the title.

Also, put a keyword in the first 100 words of your description and include a call to action. YouTube only displays the first 100 words in the description preview, so it’s important to make those 100 words count. In the rest of the description, I recommend inserting your video transcript since it’s full of keywords. Lastly, be sure to include specific and long-tail keywords when you tag the video.

Pro tip: Don’t tag your video with unrelated keywords. If YouTube catches you trying to “trick” them, they might ban your YouTube account.

3. Drive engagement with quality content

The next step to optimizing your YouTube channel for keywords is to create engaging, excellent video content. The most relevant factor in YouTube’s algorithm is engagement.

YouTube wants to rank the most helpful videos. It makes perfect sense that YouTube will assume videos with the most watch time, likes, comments, and engagement are the videos that are most helpful to the people watching them.

The point is that high-quality video content is a must. You won’t be able to game the system by creating poor-quality videos with well-optimized metadata. YouTube knows if your content is valuable or not, so don’t skip out on the process. To grow your personal brand on YouTube, be sure to follow those optimization strategies.

Step #3: Promote your YouTube channel

Many YouTubers think that creating video content is enough.

If you want to build your personal brand on YouTube, you need to do more than simply create content. You also need to promote your content.

How do you go about doing this? There are many ways.

Sharing your videos on social media is an obvious answer. Personally, I would recommend sharing the YouTube link on social media as opposed to uploading the video directly to other social media platforms. For me, a YouTube following is much more valuable than a Facebook or Twitter following, so I always funnel the traffic back to YouTube. In addition, you should think about cross-promoting all of your content. If you have a blog or newsletter, you could embed your videos into blog posts or even share your videos directly through email. Finally, don’t be afraid to advertise your YouTube channel. Your personal brand is an investment in yourself. The money you spend now could result in hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in the future. If you’re smart and methodical, you can create a huge return on your investment by growing your YouTube channel with advertising.

Step #4: Monetize your YouTube channel

Listen up! This part is very important.

Remember in Step #1, when we talked about choosing a niche and focusing on your tribe? This is the step where that decision really pays off. The worst way to monetize a YouTube channel is through selling ads. YouTube doesn’t typically pay substantial money to its content creators. To make a living with ad revenue, you need to be constantly creating content and driving hundreds of thousands of views.

It’s not realistic. But, if you’re speaking to a niche audience, you can create a product or service specifically for that audience to sell through your YouTube channel.

This is how you make real money.

For instance, years ago when my marketing agency did social media marketing, I made a handful of videos that targeted specific keywords around social media. If you want to grow your personal brand on YouTube, you need to be smart about it. What’s the point of having a huge following if you aren’t able to get a reward out of it?

When you define your audience, you can also define a product or service to sell through your videos. With this methodology, you can grow a business by using YouTube as a media outlet that promotes your products or services. This is much more effective than trying to monetize your YouTube channel with ad revenue.

YouTube is worth the investment

So, it’s time to grow your personal brand on YouTube. In fact, I’m recommitting to create more video content as well. A YouTube following has so many benefits. You can use it to grow a business, you can leverage your knowledge to build a speaking career, or you could even get paid to promote other products on your channel. Either way, you should start making the investment. A year from now, you’ll wish you started today.

CHAPTER 23

STARTING A SUCCESSFUL BLOG: 10 RULES YOU MUST FOLLOW IN 2021

You are absolutely convinced that you are building your community with a blog. Before hammering your first article into your laptop, there are a few things you should know.

The challenge: more blogs than readers and everyone wants video.

There are 600 million active blogs worldwide. (Growth Badger) So the competition is huge. Even so, starting a blog is the best thing you can do for your online business. But you already know that, otherwise you wouldn't be here. When I started my blog in 2011, podcasts were something for nerds, YouTube only for video enthusiasts and the blogosphere in spanish was somehow still cozy. You might just be starting your blog. But we both have the same questions.

HOW DOES MY BLOG GET OR STAY RELEVANT?

      Do I have to rely on podcast and video in addition to text? In which order?

      What am I writing about?

      Which topics are more popular than others?

      How does my range increase?

To make your blog work for your business, learn how to make it fit for the future.

1 THINK MULTIMEDIA.

If your blog is mostly about text, you'll need to rethink.

People want to read, hear, and see, so your blog should serve that as well in the longer term. Successful bloggers today also use YouTube channels or podcasts to serve their community. Ania and Daniel from geh-mal-reisen.de also publish their articles in the podcast.

Don't start everything at the same time! Start your blog with text and do it for 6 to 12 months. Then think about how you can turn your articles into podcast episodes or videos.

2 KNOW YOUR DREAM CUSTOMER.

As with any marketing effort, if you don't know who you're trying to reach, you're going to waste a lot of energy. Little mind game.

The market for this is big. And the competition even more. The big companies offer what as many as possible want to buy. As a newbie, you can either recruit with a horrific advertising budget or you can think about something.

You go into the niche. For example with crazy flavors like salty liquorice. Or with vegan ice cream made from whole fruits in plastic-free packaging (palates).

Back to your blog. Many of my course participants are reluctant to get specific at first. Especially the coaches, because they want to help everyone.

To think you can help everyone is presumptuous. You are not the best solution for everyone.

If you want your blog to grow successfully, focus on a few people. To start with, you should have one or two people representing your favorite customers. Every text you write, you write only for this person.

You can find the instructions for the desired customer profile here.

Focusing on a small audience and a specific problem will help you find topics, write, and market your blog.

3 BE SUPER HELPFUL.

Why do people read blogs? Hubspot says:

Your readers want to learn something practical, not just theoretically. When you have finished your article, ask yourself: does my reader now know how to implement the idea?

If you take this to heart, you will set yourself apart from the many talk blogs that say a lot and show little. Your blog is a honey keg, not a megaphone. Write about things that interest your readers, not what you want to tell. (Amanda Sellers, HubSpot) Articles with more than 3000 words get 3x as much traffic, are shared 4x as often and are linked 3 times as often. That's because most long articles are super helpful. (Not all, there are also the artificially inflated ones that don't help.) 3000 words is damn long. Fortunately, there is other research. Blog platform medium has researched and found: The ideal blog post requires 7 minutes to read and is around 1600 words long.

4 BE PERSONAL.

Everything has already been written about. Is that your objection that keeps slowing you down?

Then from now on you say: I haven't written about it yet. Your readers don't want to read a heartless guide to XYZ. They want to hear how YOU do it or what mistakes you made or why you are such a high-flyer now.

What helps me to write more personally is to choose topics that I have a story about. If your content is attached to your experience, your blog post is automatically more interesting because your experience is unique.

5 BE ENTERTAINING.

Do everything you missed in school books in the 80s. Take a history class. We crammed the year numbers. How boring. Telling the story of a girl from a small village in Mesopotamia would have been entertaining. And I would have remembered them even after the exam. If you have a sense of humor, sprinkle large heaping teaspoons over your texts. Your readers will thank you. There are already so many boring blogs that nobody reads!

Alternating formats is also more entertaining than always producing text wastes only 3500 words long. Read the rule "Think Multimedia".

6 FOCUS ON ATTENTION INSTEAD OF PAGE VIEWS.

67% of all companies (and I) use organic traffic (the people who find your blog on Google and Social) to measure the success of their content marketing. Yet another number will count much more in the future. Namely how many of your website visitors actually read your blog articles and actively deal with them. The social media app provider Buffer has admitted that 55% of its blog readers only read articles for 15 seconds or less. This is almost as bad as the video views on Facebook.

My fourth most-commented blog article is a personal report: My settlement with the high-price strategy. The blog article is only number 27 of my most visited posts and pages. The contribution is personal and ruthlessly honest. I address things that others don't dare to do. If you want to write a successful blog, focus on your community. What concerns your tribe and how can you help?

If you have 1000 readers who are actively engaged in your content, this is worth more than a blog that catches hundreds of thousands of readers with arbitrary keywords, who immediately jump off. Ev Williams from Medium explains very nicely why reading time is the new currency for success for blogs: We pay more attention to time spent reading than number of visitors at Medium because, in a world of infinite content - where there are a million shiny attention-grabbing objects a touch away and notifications coming in constantly - it's meaningful when someone is actually spending time.

7 WRITE FOR SCANNING, NOT FOR READING.

The time our readers spend on the blog shows us how well received our blog is. And at the same time, you want to write in a way that your readers can read quickly. 73% of readers admit they skim blog articles. 27% read “correctly.

Your visitors will decide in 15 seconds or less whether to stay. So there are a few rules you HAVE to follow so your readers can decide if your blog post is worth it for them. Have a really good headline that will make people curious about your article. Use subheadings to break your article down. Every headline has to arouse curiosity. You want to tease the content without revealing it completely.

Take the test: just read all of your subheadings from top to bottom. Would you get stuck somewhere and get into your article?

Use formatting such as bold and quotations.

Put the most important things at the beginning.

Start your sentence with the most important words. Start your paragraph with the most important statement.

Build in graphics.

Most blogs -are far too text-heavy.

7 BUILD YOUR EMAIL LIST FROM THE START.

Most readers don't buy right away. They take time. Your blog is only the first step on this customer journey. You want to turn readers who love your articles into email readers. So you stay in touch with them in the long term. That strengthens your relationship. This is important because friends are more likely to become customers. Don't rely on Instagram or Facebook. You have no control over who you reach and your account can be blocked at any time. Your email list is yours. This is your most important asset in business. If I had to start again and could only take 1 thing with me, that would be my email list.

8 DON'T WAIT TO BE DISCOVERED.

You look for a few keywords, write articles about them and are found? Unfortunately, no. Go where your community is already depending. Find Facebook groups that you will become an active and helpful member of. Every now and then, ask the group owner if you can share a blog article. Find blogs that your customers read. Don't look for direct competitors, but for related topics. Write guest articles for these blogs. In the author bio you link to your blog. Become an interview guest in podcasts. A tip for your podcast search: Google a well-known person from your niche / industry. Where was she interviewed?

9 USE SOCIAL MEDIA.

Even if you're not a fan of social media (welcome to the club), this is about your blog. If you want your readership to grow, you have to go where their attention is.

If you're blogging, social media has to be the gateway drug to your content. On Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram, you share crumbs of your blog content and lead users over to your blog where they can get the whole cookie. In order for someone who has just sunk into their Facebook feed to click away from Facebook to your website, you have to make a damn effort.

We do not rely on one contribution. We create at least 5 different posts for Instagram and Facebook for each blog post. We not only use different statements, but also different formats.

Then I often also go live on Facebook, where I take up the topic of my blog post. So I can refer to my blog in live. Lives have by far the best reach on my Facebook page.

From a blog post, you can create:

A Facebook Live or Instagram Live

An Instagram story

A video for Instagram and Facebook (for the feed)

Quotes

Posts with a link (for Facebook, Linkedin)

Pins for Pinterest

10 USE FACEBOOK ADS.

So far, you've invested a ton of time to grow your blog. Do you want to start a blog to convince as an expert and win customers. With a small budget, you can also push the reach of your blog articles. Run a Facebook ad for your blog post.

That helps you in several ways:

More new people will see you on Facebook and click through to your blog (and hopefully read).

More website visitors means more email signups (assuming you have a good freebie in the blog article).

You build your Facebook ad target group from warm contacts. If you later want to run an ad for your freebie or webinar, you will see better results.

11 THINK LONG TERM.

Blogging is not a hack that will bring you 60,000 followers in 6 weeks who shop for 66,650 euros. This doesn't even work on Instagram, where you've read such a promise before. Always focus on attracting the right people and building an active community. The happier your readers are, the faster word will get around how good your blog is.

That's the best way to grow.

CHAPTER 24

HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SMALL BUSINESS: 11 SIMPLE TIPS

If you're wondering how to use social media for small business, look no further than these 11 essential tips to get started. Nearly three-quarters of American adults use social media—making it a critical part of any business strategy. Indeed, social media is one of the best ways to connect with people who already love your brand. It’s also important for reaching those who haven’t heard of your business yet. Getting started with social doesn’t have to be scary or expensive. With these 11 simple social media marketing tips, businesses of any size can reach new markets, build brand awareness, and drive sales.

11 ESSENTIAL SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS FOR BUSINESS

1. Start with a plan

Social tools are easy to use and you can get started with organic posts for free. That might make it tempting to dive in and just start posting. But like every good business strategy, using social media for small business success needs to start with a good plan.

Without a plan, you have no clear goal for what you’re trying to achieve. That means there’s no way to measure your results. Take the time to create a social media plan right up front. This ensures that all your social efforts support specific business goals.

Here are some strategic social media tips from our guide to creating a social media marketing plan:

       Set social media goals and objectives. Create goals that follow the SMART framework. They should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. Base your goals on metrics that will have a real impact on your business. For example, aim to acquire customers or raise your conversion rate, rather than simply racking up likes.

       Research the competition. How are your competitors using social media? While you don’t want to copy them, learning from what others have done is a great way to reduce your learning curve. A competitive analysis can help you learn what’s working and what’s not for other businesses like yours.

       Conduct a social media audit. If you’re already using social media, now’s the time to take a step back and evaluate your existing efforts. As part of your audit, look for impostor accounts that may be stealing your online thunder. We’ve got a easy-to-use social media audit template to walk you through the process.

       Find inspiration. You’ve looked at what your competitors are doing online, but what about other businesses? Take inspiration from the success of businesses in all industries. Where can you find these success stories? Head to the business section of most social networks and you’ll find useful case studies. It’s also a great idea to ask existing followers what they want to see more of, then give them exactly what they ask for.

       Create a social media calendar. A social media calendar helps you post the right content to the right social channels at the right time. It should include a plan for your content mix. Try starting with the 80-20 rule. Use 80% of your content to inform, educate, or entertain your audience. Use the other 20% to promote your brand or sell your products.

2. Decide which platforms are right for you

Don’t make assumptions about where your audience spends their time online. Your instinct might tell you that if you’re targeting millennials, you should skip Facebook and focus on Instagram and Snapchat. But the data shows that 84% of millennials still use Facebook. Graph showing that since 2012, use of Facebook has grown fastest among older generations

We’ve compiled demographics information for all of the major social networks. Use it to help  gauge where your audience spends their time online. But remember that these demographics are just an overview. To make sure you’re using social media for business effectively, you’ll need to conduct some research of your own. This will help you to understand how your specific audience spends their time online. Keep in mind that this doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing approach. You can use different social channels to reach different audiences, or to meet different business goals.

eMarketer found that more brands use Facebook for customer acquisition, but Instagram for social commerce.

For example, take a look at these two posts from Prada, one on Facebook, and one on Instagram:

On the surface, the posts look identical. But they use different types of social media marketing ecommerce strategies. While the Facebook post links to a campaign page, the Instagram post uses Instagram shopping to allow people to purchase the featured bag with just a couple of clicks.

3. Know your audience

One reason using social media for business is so effective is that you can micro-target your audience. But first, you need to understand who your audience is.

Start by compiling data on your current customers. Then, dig deeper with social media analytics. You’ll start to develop a solid picture of who’s buying from and interacting with you online.

Imperfect Foods gained important audience insights with Pinterest’s interest targeting. The company sells produce boxes filled with “ugly” fruits and vegetables. This food is perfectly good for eating, but it doesn’t meet the visual standards required for sale in grocery stores. Without these produce boxes, the food would be wasted.

When they first started using Pinterest ads, Imperfect Foods targeted obvious keywords like “sustainability” and “healthy eating.” Then, they discovered that their target audience was also interested in finance.

They used that insight to drive new creative concepts. They started to talk about the money-saving side of reducing food waste, rather than just the environmental benefits.

4. Expand your audience

Once you have a clear picture of who your audience is, you can revisit your social media plan. It’s time to look for ways to reach more people just like them.

The UK clothing brand Never Fully Dressed was selling successfully in its home market. They already had a good sense of who their customers were in the UK.

When the brand was ready to expand internationally, they used lookalike audiences based on their top customers to reach new potential customers in Europe, North America, Asia, and South Africa. They tested ads on Facebook and Instagram, including both News Feed and Stories. They found that the ads that had performed best in the UK also performed best internationally. Their audience understanding meant their creative remained effective when they expanded beyond their original target group. You can also use social media to drive new customers to your local business. For example, Hootsuite geo-search streams can help you monitor and respond to local conversations about your business and build relationships with other local businesses in your area.

5. Build relationships

The unique benefit of social media marketing for small business is that it allows you to talk directly to customers and followers. You can build relationships over time, rather than asking for a sale upfront. More than 40% of digital consumers use social networks to research new brands or products. Part of that discovery is getting to know who you are as a brand and what you stand for.

When people engage with your organic content or ads, it’s a great idea to engage back. This helps to build trust and form a loyal following. As fans share and like your content, you rise in the social algorithms and gain new, free, exposure. You also nurture relationships that can develop into sales over time.

Engaging with this maker on Instagram allows people to feel like they know and trust her before they invest in one of her pieces. And when she launches mini-pieces at highly attainable price points, they sell out in a flash.

Facebook Groups are another great way to build community and brand loyalty.

For example, the New York Times Podcast Club Facebook Group is “a book club for podcasts.” With more than 31,000 members, the group establishes the NYT as a go-to source for information beyond breaking news. It also motivates members to listen to the selected podcasts each week, helping to prevent listener drop-off.

You can also build relationships with other entrepreneurs and influencers in your niche. Think your business is too small to work with influencers? Micro-influencers (starting with 10,000 followers) can be effective for establishing brand trust. As a bonus, they are often well within the budget range of smaller brands.

6. Share compelling visuals whenever you can

People have come to expect social posts to include a visual component.

The images shared on social drive real-world action. More than half of millenials and Gen Z internet users said their most recent fashion buys were based on images they saw on social media.

Bar graph showing percentage of internet users whose most recent fashion purchases were inspired by social media

Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat, in particular, are visual-first networks. If your content doesn’t look good, no one will stop scrolling to read what you have to say. But even tweets benefit from a good graphic. Twitter itself says, “The single simplest thing you can do to get more attention to your Tweets is to add an image or GIF.”

Not sure your brand lends itself to great visuals? If Heinz Ketchup can get in on a photo-based meme, there’s surely no stopping you.

For service businesses in particular, great imagery can be a bit of a challenge. But every business can tell its story through photos and videos. Maybe you can showcase your company culture with images from inside your office. Deutsche Bank used Snapchat to showcase the experiences of two of its interns. This gave potential employees an inside look at what it might be like to work for the company.

Or maybe you can use photos of your customers to highlight how they use your service.

Another option is to use stock photos. There are plenty of free, high-quality photos online that you can use in your social posts.

We’ve compiled a list of 25 free stock photo sites you can use to find images. Just make sure you stick to using appropriately licenced stock photography (like you’ll find on the sites in our list). Using random images you find online is definitely not okay and can get you in some serious trouble.

7. Focus on quality over quantity

The sheer number of social media marketing options for small business might seem overwhelming—but you don’t need to do it all. It’s more important to create quality content on a couple of key channels than it is to have a presence on every single network.

Above all, be sure that your social posts offer value. If all you do is pitch and sell, there’s very little motivation for people to follow you. Remember, social marketing is all about building relationships. Be human. Be honest. Post great content. This is important, and you can’t fake it. According to a survey from Stackla, 86% of consumers say authenticity influences which brands they like and support. You can’t do it all, and there’s no reason to try. Reach out to your audience in the places where they’re already spending time online. Focus on using one or two social channels really well, at least to start. Once you’ve got those mastered, you can build from what you’ve learned and expand your efforts.

8. Use the right tools

The secret to using social media effectively is to take advantage of tools that automate or simplify much of the work. There are loads of tools to help boost your productivity. That means you can start using social media for business without having a full-scale social media team.

Here are some of our favorites:

Engagement management. Social media is not a broadcasting system—it’s a way to engage with customers and fans. Social media management tools like Hootsuite can help you centralize all mentions and messages directed at your company in one dashboard. Then you can respond and engage without having to log into each of your individual social media accounts.

Analytics. Getting all of that information in one place can help you get a better picture of your social efforts overall. Brandwatch allows you to create in-depth reports. Hootsuite Insights provides a great overview of how well you’re capturing the conversation in your space.

Graphics. If you’re having trouble creating eye-catching images for your posts, turn to tools that will help get the job done. VSCO, Piktochart, and Canva are some of our favorites. You can find more photo-editing tools in our post on how to edit Instagram photos.

Content curation. It can be a struggle to come up with new content to share every day. Content curation is the art of sharing quality posts from others (with credit, of course). It can be a great way to provide value for your followers and keep them engaged. Tools like BuzzSumo and Pocket can help you find and organize content to share. You can find more content curation tools in our beginner’s guide to content curation.

9. Monitor and respond to all relevant social media conversations

We’ve already talked about the importance of responding to people who post comments or questions on your social properties. But there’s more to social engagement than that.

You need to be aware of the conversations that are happening about your business elsewhere online and respond where appropriate. This is known as social listening, and we’ve created a whole guide on how to use social listening for your business.

10. Schedule your content to free up more time for engagement

We talked about creating a social content calendar way back at the beginning of this article. Once you have that calendar in place, you can create your social posts in advance and use scheduling tools to post them automatically at the right time.

This allows you to dedicate one block of time per day or per week to creating your social content. It’s much more effective than letting social posting take you away from other tasks throughout the day.

11. Track and refine your performance

As you implement your social strategy, it’s important to keep track of what works and what doesn’t. You can then fine-tune your efforts and improve results. The analytics tools mentioned above give you a great picture of your social efforts and can help track whichever metrics matter most to you.

Once you have an idea of how your strategy is working, it’s time to start looking for ways to improve. Using A/B testing, you can make small changes that boost your success over time.

No matter the size of your business, social tools can help you better connect with your audience, reach new potential customers, and increase awareness of your brand. If the possibilities seem overwhelming, start small.

Remember: you don’t need to do it all. Take a focused approach. Start with one or two key networks and build your social media marketing efforts over time.

SWOT ANALYSIS

HOW TO DEVELOP A STRATEGY FOR SUCCESS

Use SWOT Analysis to assess your organization's current position before you decide on any new strategy.

Find out what's working well, and what's not so good. Ask yourself where you want to go, how you might get there – and what might get in your way. These are big issues, and you'll need a powerful but simple technique to help you: SWOT Analysis.

WHAT IS A SWOT ANALYSIS?

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, and so a SWOT Analysis is a technique for assessing these four aspects of your business.

You can use SWOT Analysis to make the most of what you've got, to your organization's best advantage. And you can reduce the chances of failure, by understanding what you're lacking, and eliminating hazards that would otherwise catch you unawares. Better still, you can start to craft a strategy that distinguishes you from your competitors, and so compete successfully in your market.

HOW TO DO A SWOT ANALYSIS

First, draw up a SWOT Analysis matrix, or use our free downloadable template. This is a 2x2 grid, with one square for each of the four aspects of SWOT. Figure 1 shows what it should look like (click on the image to see a larger version).

SWOT Analysis Matrix

You can approach a SWOT Analysis in two ways: to get people together to "kick off" strategy formulation informally, or as a more sophisticated and formal tool.

In either case, gather a team from a range of functions and levels in your organization. Use Brainstorming techniques to build a list of ideas about where your organization currently stands. Every time you identify a Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, or Threat, write it down in the relevant part of the grid.

To clarify which section an idea belongs to, it may be useful to think of Strengths and Weaknesses as internal factors – that is, to do with the organization, its assets, processes, and people. Think of Opportunities and Threats as external factors, arising from your market, your competition, and the wider economy. Let's look at each area in more detail and consider what questions you could ask as part of your analysis.

Strengths

Strengths are things that your organization does particularly well, or in a way that distinguishes you from your competitors. Think about the advantages your organization has over other organizations. These might be the motivation of your staff, access to certain materials, or a strong set of manufacturing processes.

Your strengths are an integral part of your organization, so think about what makes it "tick." What do you do better than anyone else? What values drive your business? What unique or lowest-cost resources can you draw upon that others can't? Identify and analyze your organization's Unique Selling Proposition (USP), and add this to the Strengths section.

Then turn your perspective around and ask yourself what your competitors might see as your strengths. What factors mean that you get the sale ahead of them? Remember, any aspect of your organization is only a strength if it brings you a clear advantage. For example, if all of your competitors provide high-quality products, then a high-quality production process is not a strength in your market: it's a necessity.

Weaknesses

Now it's time to consider your organization's weaknesses. Be honest! A SWOT Analysis will only be valuable if you gather all the information you need. So, it's best to be realistic now, and face any unpleasant truths as soon as possible.

Weaknesses, like strengths, are inherent features of your organization, so focus on your people, resources, systems, and procedures. Think about what you could improve, and the sorts of practices you should avoid. Once again, imagine (or find out) how other people in your market see you. Do they notice weaknesses that you tend to be blind to? Take time to examine how and why your competitors are doing better than you. What are you lacking?

Opportunities

Opportunities are openings or chances for something positive to happen, but you'll need to claim them for yourself!

They usually arise from situations outside your organization, and require an eye to what might happen in the future. They might arise as developments in the market you serve, or in the technology you use. Being able to spot and exploit opportunities can make a huge difference to your organization's ability to compete and take the lead in your market. Think about good opportunities you can spot immediately. These don't need to be game-changers: even small advantages can increase your organization's competitiveness. What interesting market trends are you aware of, large or small, which could have an impact?

You should also watch out for changes in government policy related to your field. And changes in social patterns, population profiles, and lifestyles can all throw up interesting opportunities.

Threats

Threats include anything that can negatively affect your business from the outside, such as supply chain problems, shifts in market requirements, or a shortage of recruits. It's vital to anticipate threats and to take action against them before you become a victim of them and your growth stalls.

Think about the obstacles you face in getting your product to market and selling. You may notice that quality standards or specifications for your products are changing, and that you'll need to change those products if you're to stay in the lead. Evolving technology is an ever-present threat, as well as an opportunity! Always consider what your competitors are doing, and whether you should be changing your organization's emphasis to meet the challenge. But remember that what they're doing might not be the right thing for you to do, and avoid copying them without knowing how it will improve your position.

Be sure to explore whether your organization is especially exposed to external challenges. Do you have bad debt or cash-flow problems, for example, that could make you vulnerable to even small changes in your market? This is the kind of threat that can seriously damage your business, so be alert.

HOW TO USE A SWOT ANALYSIS

Once you've examined all four aspects of SWOT, you'll likely be faced with a long list of potential actions to take. You'll want to build on your strengths, boost your weaker areas, head off any threats, and exploit every opportunity.

But, before you leap into action, look for potential connections between the quadrants of your matrix. For example, could you use some of your strengths to open up further opportunities? And, would even more opportunities become available by eliminating some of your weaknesses? Now it's time to ruthlessly prune and prioritize your ideas, so that you can focus time and money on the most significant ones. Refine each point to make your comparisons clearer. For example, only accept precise, verifiable statements such as, "Cost advantage of $10/ton in sourcing raw material x," rather than, "Better value for money." Carry through the options you generate to later stages in your strategy formation process and apply them at the right level – for example, at a product or product-line level, rather than at the much vaguer whole-company level.

And use your SWOT Analysis alongside other strategy tools (for example, USP Analysis and Core Competencies Analysis), so that you get a comprehensive picture of the situation you're dealing with.

Note:

You could also consider using the TOWS Matrix. Like SWOT, it explores Threats, Opportunities, Weaknesses, and Strengths, but it emphasizes the external environment, while SWOT leads with the internal factors.

A SWOT Analysis Example

Imagine this scenario: Alice is the CEO of a small start-up consultancy and wants a clear picture of its current situation, to decide on a future strategy for growth. She gathers her team, and draws up the SWOT Analysis shown in Figure 2 (click on the image to see a larger version).

A Completed SWOT Analysis

As a result of the team's analysis, Alice decides that the consultancy's main strengths lie in its agility, technical expertise, and low overheads. These allow it to offer excellent customer service to a relatively small client base.

The company's weaknesses are also to do with its size. Alice will need to invest in training, to improve the skills base of the small staff. She'll also need to focus on retention, so that she doesn't lose key team members.

Alice sees opportunities in offering rapid-response, good-value services to local businesses and to local government organizations. The company can likely be first to market with new products and services, given that its competitors are slow adopters. The threats require the consultancy to keep up-to-date with changes in technology. It also needs to keep a close eye on its largest competitors, given its vulnerability to large-scale changes in its market. To counteract this, the business needs to focus its marketing on selected industry websites, to get the greatest possible market presence on a small advertising budget.