5 Ways to Improve Your Social Media Marketing

Social media is an ever-evolving industry. It seems as if every major social network on the market rolls out a new feature or update every week, making it a challenge just to keep up with all the changes they foist on their billions of users, let alone actually use these tools for your company’s marketing and promotional campaigns.

Still, if you want to stay ahead of the competition and keep your clients, prospects and supporters engaged, you need to constantly be aware of the best practices utilized by the masters of the social media world. Check out these 5 tips on improving your social media marketing to boost your business and your bottom line:

1. Schedule it. Don’t let the demands of running your business overwhelm your social media efforts and lead you to abandon a promising social community. Use third-party tools like Hootsuite or even Facebook’s own native scheduling feature to line up your content and have them automatically publish on days and times that you select. That way, you’ll never have to worry about keeping your social networks updated with useful and interesting content for your followers and fans, even on your busiest days and weeks. 


2. Diversify your content. Don’t just populate your networks with sales copy ripped from your catalogs or manufacturers’ brochures. Think of other media you can take advantage of to keep your content interesting and attract your followers’ attention. The next time you’re with a client and they compliment your business or customer service, ask them if they wouldn’t mind doing a quick video testimonial for your Facebook page or YouTube channel. Most of the latest smartphones make great web-quality videos that you can then quickly upload to YouTube for easy distribution across your social networks. If you’re an interior designer, take photos of your latest project and share your creative process on your blog or Instagram feed. Content doesn’t have to be all text, and if you want people to keep coming back and remain interested in what you have to share, it shouldn’t be.


3. Maintain consistency. One way to not only improve your social media marketing but also simplify it is to create a series around a theme that will publish at regular intervals. For example, if you’re an HVAC dealer, why not create a web video series on your YouTube channel focusing on simple DIY tips for the homeowner or even a Word of the Day centered on the HVAC industry? Each video need only be about 2-3 minutes long, unless you’re doing a detailed instructional video. Release a new video every week or every month as you would a “real” TV or video series so that your fans and followers will know to expect it. Not only will it lend your company and your expertise the credibility you need to attract new customers, it will also give you powerful search engine optimization benefits as you build a deep bench of video content to promote your website and your company online.


4. Consider paid advertising. While many brands run successful social media campaigns without paying a dime in advertising, it’s much harder now for small businesses to attract a sizable following than it was even just a couple of years ago. Paid or sponsored advertising on Facebook or Twitter is a great way to accelerate your community growth and learn more about that community and what they’re interested in. Like PPC (pay-per-click) advertising on search engines, social media advertising is largely dependent on the click-through rate, i.e., the more you click, the more you pay. You can experiment with different ads, keywords, graphics, and/or to see what resonates best with your target audience and then invest your funds in the ads that get you the most bang for your buck. Depending on your goals and budget, you can advertise for less than a $100 a month, and since you can stop and start ads at any time, this is a great way to promote seasonal or otherwise short-term sales and new products.


5. Keep up with the industry. You don’t have to read every single blog and online publication out there to know what’s going on in every corner of the social media universe, but at least subscribe to the newsletters of the big names in the industry: Mashable, Social Media Examiner, AllFacebook, and Social Media Today are all excellent sources of the latest information and news for social media marketers.

Do you have a favorite social media you’d like to share with our community? Please feel free to add to the comments below.

 

5 Ways to Improve Your Social Media Marketing

Celebrate Mohawk Flooring’s Anniversary with Big Savings!

 

Need to replace your flooring? Now is the time to act!

Celebrate Mohawk’s Anniversary Sale by saving big on select styles and get up to $500 cash back on select SmartStrand® Silk™ Carpet & ArmorMax™ Hardwood.

Fall is the perfect time to enjoy the comforts of home and huge savings from Mohawk’s Anniversary Sale, featuring SmartStrand® Silk™ carpet that’s luxuriously soft with exceptional durability, and ArmorMax™ hardwood! Check to see if your local flooring store is participating in this promotion and make sure to enter for your chance to win $2,500 of Mohawk Flooring!*

Hurry, contest and offers end October 28, 2013.

 

Visit http://www.mohawksale.com to enter to register through one of these store locations:

Al’s Carpet Flooring                                                Carpet Clearance Custom Flooring Center      8016 N. 2nd St.                                                           21014 Golden Triangle Rd

Machesney Park, IL 61115                                        Santa Clarita, CA 91350

815.673.7428                                                              661.505.1898

DeGraaf Interiors                                                    Mark’s Floors
6450 28th Ave., Suite J                                              3985 Hwy 19A

Hudsonville, MI 49429                                              Mount Dora, FL 32757

616.777.5538                                                             616.777.5538

Valley Floor Company
8909 Boston State Rd.

Boston, NY 14025

716.312.4227

 

Visit www.mohawkpromo.com to enter to register through one of these store locations:

The Floor Store                                                            Barrington Carpet & Floor Design

5327 Jacuzzi Street 2A Richmond, CA 94895            3602 S. Arlington Rd Akron, OH 44312

510.374.4746                                                                 330.752.2081

 

It’s easy! Click on one of the links above and choose your local participating store. Then, just 3 Simple Steps to register for your chance to WIN $2,500 of Mohawk Flooring!*

1. Complete our short survey.

2. Print Your Official Registration Form.

3. Bring form into your local participating store between September 13, 2013 and  October 28, 2013.

 

*No purchase necessary to win $2,500 of Mohawk Flooring. Must register for chance to win $2,500 of Mohawk Flooring between 9/13/13 and 10/28/13. Product offers good through 10/28/13. Void where prohibited. For official rules, complete program eligibility, dates, details and restrictions, visit http://mohawkpromo.com or http://mohawksale.com. Official registration form must be brought into the store to complete entry.

 

 

 

 

Celebrate Mohawk Flooring’s Anniversary with Big Savings!

CRM Apps for Small Business

Without customers, you have no business! Customer relationship management (CRM) should certainly be a high priority for you and your business. With CRM apps, small businesses can now manage their client relationships and customer databases with ease. Try these apps to get connected and stay on top of your CRM needs:

Insightly: A CRM and project management tool in one. The application integrates with Gmail so users can manage data between both services seamlessly. Users can create reminders, assign activities, save recurring tasks and automate many schedule-related processes. Social integration is also offered so users can interact through social media channels like Twitter and LinkedIn.

Batchbook: This application is like Facebook, Google, and your contact database combined. You can view blog posts, photos, tweets and more alongside contact history to really keep on top of your customer relationships. This app offers great reporting and even integration with other apps like MailChimp.

Capsule: This application that allows users to keep track of their professional contacts as well as maintain communication with them. The tool covers all contacts even beyond customers, which includes leads, vendors, and others. You can review their history, attach notes, files, and documents as well as organize emails and track bids.

Maximizer: This app has sales automation at its core. It’s great for managing contacts as well as interactions and pipeline status. Additional capabilities include marketing automation for lead scoring, nurturing, and email campaign execution.

These are just a few of the CRM apps available. There are many to chose from depending on your needs and budget. Are you already using a CRM tool? Which one is your favorite?

CRM Apps for Small Business

Why Your Website Needs a Digital Audit

You have a website, email campaign, and social media pages, but are all your digital efforts working together to give you the best possible results? Before you can start making relevant changes to pages and content, you must be able to identify the exact issues that are getting in the way of your website reaching its full potential. A digital marketing audit allows you to understand how your digital investments are working and what’s needed to accelerate your ROI. A few reasons why your website needs a digital audit:

Website performance. Navigation and load times are highly important when attracting visitors to your site and keeping them there. Broken links and error messages are just a frustration for everyone. Your potential customers won’t wait around to find the information they need. Instead they will simply move on to the competition.

Search optimization. A website is useless if no one can find it! Search engines like Google and Bing are continually changing their search algorithms to offer users the best possible search experience. Your content, page titles, URLs, and Meta tags absolutely must be optimized for the latest search updates to ensure you are ranking and being found online.

Website security. Providing a safe and secure website experience to your audience will make customers feel more confident in your site and business. Plus, you’ll protect yourself from online threats and attacks.

Improve conversions. Whether it’s inbound leads or product purchases, a digital audit can show you how visitors are converting to customers. See how users are interacting with your website to decide what works and what you may want to consider changing.

When it comes to determining whether or not your website is achieving your business’s goals, a digital audit is just what the doctor ordered!  A good audit should show what you need to edit or improve, why you need to make the changes, and how to go about it all.

Ready to give your website a digital audit? Contact us at Business Direct Marketing today to get started!

 

Image via Wikipedia 

 

 

 

Why Your Website Needs a Digital Audit

Marketing with Facebook Contests

Facebook recently updated their Page Terms and revamped the rules for holding contests on Business Pages. Its new guidelines for contests and promotions now make it significantly easier to create and administer promotions through your business’s Facebook page. Businesses are now allowed to run their contests directly on their own Facebook pages rather than use only the previously required third-party apps. Now businesses can:

• Collect competition entries by users posting on the Page or comment and/or liking a Page post


• Collect entries through users messaging the Page


• Use likes as a voting mechanism

Now that Facebook has made a huge shift in how they allow contests to be run, here are a few tips for you to get started on marketing with Facebook contests:

Set your goals. Think about what you hope to accomplish with the contest and set applicable goals. Perhaps you want to increase engagement, to grow your fan base, or to promote brand awareness. Setting some simple goals will help you to stay within your budget, identify your target audience and, choose your contest activities.

Select your prize wisely. Make use of your own branding and products to appeal to your target audience. This keeps the motivation to enter related to your business. You’ll attract targeted participants (ie, potential future customers) who are interested in your products/services – not just people who ‘like’ your business for your contest prize.

Promote your contest. Of course you’ll want to promote your contest on Facebook, but also cross-promote the contest on your other social channels like Twittler and Google+. You should post about your contest at least once a day on all your channels. Also add links and banners about the contest to your website and include information on it in your customer newsletters and blog.

Measure your results and learn. Take note of how well the contest contributed to your predefined goals. Check your business page’s Facebook Insights to see how many people visited your contest, how many more likes you received during the contest period, and how your reach was affected during the contest. Understand what contributed to the success of your contest and start thinking about what you can do differently the next time around for even greater success.

Have you run a Facebook contest recently since the rules have been redefined? What was your experience and what other tips would you add to our list?

 

 

 

Marketing with Facebook Contests

BDM Joins 'Duck Dynasty' Stars for Fundraiser

 

Recently, Business Direct Marketing partnered with East Texas Christian Academy to promote the school’s 35th annual fundraiser. Special guest speakers Willie Robertson and Miss Kay Robertson from the A&E hit show ‘Duck Dynasty’ appeared at the event to benefit ETCA and raise funds for a new school building. The BDM marketed event at the Oil Palace in Tyler, Texas, was an overwhelming success!

Autographs from the stars of ‘Duck Dynasty’

BDM with Willie Robertson

BDM with Miss Kay

 

 

BDM Joins 'Duck Dynasty' Stars for Fundraiser

Google AdWords Tips for Small Business

 

Google AdWords is a great way for small businesses to advertise. In fact, it’s one of the most useful online tools for directing new traffic to your business website. If your not familiar with Google AdWords, it is Google’s own ad buying and placement tool that partners with Google Search to drive web traffic straight to your site. While it may seem sophisticated and complicated, Google AdWords doesn’t have to be as overwhelming as it looks. And if done right, it can yield amazing results for your small business. Try these Google AdWords tips to get your campaign started:

Create your ad and keep it simple. Well-designed ads can work wonders for your AdWords campaigns. The ads only allow a couple lines of text, so make it attractive and to the point.  The right wording or image choice can lead to increased sales as well as lower cost-per-click and better ad placement overall. Start small and test the waters to see what works best for your business. There is no requirement to make a major investment, and you can always progress to larger ad buys once you know what works.

Target with keywords. Choose keywords that are specific to your product, but avoid using words that are too general or obscure. Use words specific to your location as well. Keep in mind that Google charges based on the number of click-throughs to your website. While you can add as many keywords as you want, the more you choose means the faster you’ll run through your clicks, and the less targeted your audience will be.

Make use of negative keywords. In addition to adding the keywords most relevant to your business, think about those word variations that you do not want included. Using negative keywords will disqualify those variations of your search terms making your ads much more successful.

Point to custom landing pages. Create custom landing pages specific to your AdWords ad campaigns. Rather than sending all traffic to your homepage, direct targeted traffic to a landing page based on your keywords and text that further conveys your message to seal the deal.

Test, test, test. Set up multiple ads for A/B or multivariate testing within campaigns. Setting up multiple versions of an ad allows you to better gauge what works and what doesn’t. By regularly testing and modifying, you can further optimize your AdWords campaign for even better results.

 

 

Google AdWords Tips for Small Business

Pinterest for Small Business

Pinterest may be the hottest social networking site right now, but also perhaps the most underused by businesses. This image focused site allows users to share pictures and videos from around the web with friends and followers. Most businesses are already using Facebook and Twitter to connect with consumers, and as Pinterest is rapidly growing it is also a great platform to increase your reach and engagement. Get your business’s Pinterest account started with these tips:

1. Pin your own content. Create boards and pin your product or service images to attract users’ attention and drive traffic back to your website. Use high quality and interesting images – the more captivating your pin is, the more likely it is to be repinned and seen by even more users.

2. Tell Your Brand’s Story. Use Pinterest to let customers get to know your business and what you stand for. Share photos of your employees and images from your business workspace to give customers a behind the scenes look.

3. Share others’ pins. Among your own original content, share repins of industry relevant images and articles. Use other pins to gain inspiration and ideas for more of your own content as well.

4. Add an open group board. Get your followers involved in your boards and pins. Having a group board where followers can post relevant images increases user engagement, makes your followers feel personally invested in your brand, and gives you automatic feedback about the interests and opinions of your audience.

5. Stay active. Just like with other social media sites, you can’t simply pin it and forget it. Keep your page fresh and updated. Pin new content every few days or repin relevant content you find on boards you follow.

Continually monitor and track your progress on the site with Pinterest’s own analytics tool. Take note of what resonates with customers and tweak your strategy accordingly. With Pinterest, the potential exposure for your content is huge. Consistently pin valuable images and articles, and you will most definitely see a boost in your traffic.

Pinterest for Small Business

LinkedIn New Analytics

 

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network on the internet with more than 238 million members. Now, in an effort to make itself even more attractive to business owners. LinkedIn has launched an enhanced analytics suite for company pages. The new analytics are designed to help businesses drive engagement with followers and track their pages’ performance.

The Analytics tab is currently located on the top middle of the company page. Company page administrators can access data divided into two sections — company updates and followers. The company updates section reveals information about a post’s reach and engagement, while the followers section reveals where followers are coming from, their demographics, trends, and competitive comparisons.

The top three metrics you should use to get the most out of your LinkedIn company page:

1. Engagement: This column refers to interactions + clicks + followers acquired divided by the total number of people who saw the post. Use this metric to measure which posts have higher percentages of engagement. Note the type of content, targeting, date, and time to optimize future posts.

2. Follower Demographics: This section allows you to determine followers by Industry, seniority, function, etc.  Use metric to segment your followers when you use the “targeted status updates” feature. Tailor your content and tone to target each demographic.

3. How You Compare: See how your company page stacks up against other company pages. This unique metric shows how many followers your business has as compared to the competition. Assess where you stand and use this ranking as a guide to determine long term goals for your marketing strategy.

LinkedIn’s new analytics are pretty impressive and will change the way businesses can monitor their effectiveness on LinkedIn. Expect to find these analytics useful not only in promoting your business’s updates and products, but also in attracting qualified, new employees. The new analytics are now available to all company pages. Have you experimented with the new analytics on your company’s page? What features are your favorite?

 

LinkedIn New Analytics

How to Get Higher Open Rates in Email Marketing

Email marketing is great for engaging and targeting prospects and clients online. But first, you have to get your contacts to actually open your emails. You’ve got interested subscribers and a great segmented list, right? Now reel them in with these tips to increase your marketing email open rates:

1. Subject line: Start with your subject line to drive the tone of your email. It’s best to keep it short – under 50 characters preferably. The subject line should also be relevant to your content and never misleading. Avoid using “spammy” words and other spam filter red flags.

2. Content: Of course your content should be interesting and relevant, but also give your subscribers exclusive content and special offers they can’t get anywhere else. Deliver valuable content that benefits your subscribers so that they look forward to hearing from you. 

3. When to send:Day and time can have a big impact on your open rates. Send too early on a weekday and your email can get lost in the inbox among other work; send too late and it can get put off until later (and ultimately forgotten). Recent research by Experian shows that the best open rates actually occur on the weekend, when volume is lowest.

4. Mobile friendly: More and more customers are now using smartphones to check email. Be aware of just how many of your subscribers are opening your emails via mobile devices, and make sure your content is optimized for mobile users’ in appearance and functionality.

Keep in mind, message content and sending practices are not one size fits all; they will of course very depending on your business and customers. Track and measure your results often to determine what works best for your campaigns.

Image via RambergMediaImages at Flickr.com

 

How to Get Higher Open Rates in Email Marketing

The New Gmail Inbox and Email Marketing

Google’s Gmail recently made some major changes to the way it sorts and displays email. The new Gmail tabbed interface has raised many concerns about email marketing and how brand will continue to reach their customers. Google is obviously a heavy hitter in the digital media world, so changes to its setup and filtering of messages will likely have a significant ripple effect for businesses large and small.

The New Inbox

Gmail’s new inbox groups the users mail into categories under different tabs.  Users can enable up to five tabs into which Gmail will pre-sort all incoming messages:

• Primary – Messages from individuals, like family, friends, and other contacts. Gmail gives this tab the highest priority and it is the default tab opened upon signing into your inbox.


• Social – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social and gaming networks notifications.


• Promotions – Where users will now find their marketing messages.


• Updates – Automatic notifications of bills, statements, and reminders.


• Forums – Messages from groups and/or forums you may interact and participate in.

Users also have the option to override the filtering of these tabs. For instance, if you don’t agree with the placement of a message under the tab Gmail selected, you have the option to drag the message to another tab and even route all future messages of that type to the same tab.

What Does This Mean?

According to a recent MailChimp study concerning the effects of Gmail’s new tabbed inbox on marketing emails, the new inbox is nothing for marketers to get worked up over… BUT, there has been a consistent decrease of about 1% in Gmail open rates since the new inbox’s launch. Any e-mail with markers such as headers, footers, and “unsubscribe” buttons will be filtered into the Promotions tab; there’s no way to escape the tabs if you’re sending mass e-mails. Of course, there is some good news: The large majority of Gmail opens happen on mobile devices, and the mobile version of Gmail’s email client does not have the tabbed inbox at this time.

Amp Up Your Email Marketing

The goal for email marketers now will be to ensure emails are seen by the recipient. How, you ask?

1. Content and creativity are now more important than ever to engage customers. Start with a stellar subject line and continue with interesting, relevant content through to the body of the email. Be sure to also include a great call to action.


2. Monitor your open rates. Different users and senders will have different experiences, but in all cases measuring and troubleshooting are the way to improve open and placement rates.


3. Ask your clients to put you in their Primary tab. Educate your contacts on Gmail’s drag and drop feature to move future messages from you to the Primary tab. Certainly they won’t want to miss out on news and special offers from your business!

 

Keep in mind that this new Gmail inbox is still in it’s early launch stages, so we will have to wait a while to see what the long term effects may be. It’s best to experiment with your email marketing and Gmail’s open rates now to have an edge on the competition in the long run.

 

email marketing campaigns have taken a hit with the new Gmail inbox configurations. – See more at: http://blog.signalhq.com/2013/07/23/4-email-marketing-tips-for-dealing-with-new-gmail-inbox-tabs/#sthash.qqLEhuGl.dpuf

The New Gmail Inbox and Email Marketing

5 Tips for Customer Retention

 

It’s no secret that it’s more expensive to acquire new customers than it is to keep current ones. According to a study by Lee Resource, Inc., attracting new customers can cost your company 5 times more than keeping an existing customer. Customer profitability tends to increase over the life of a retained customer, and repeat customers are much more likely to tell their friends and family about your business. Follow our tips to make the most of your customer retention strategy:

1. Listen to your customers. You can’t simply assume you know what your customers want, so ask them! Use social media, surveys, or even email them and ask how they think you’re doing. Offer an incentive like a 10% discount to get them talking. Generally they’ll be glad to tell you what’s on their mind, especially since it ultimately benefits them as well.

2. Admit mistakes… and make them right! Recent studies show that 84% of customers who experience poor service will tell their friends about that negative experience. Accept responsibility and work toward finding a solution. When you address complaints as soon as possible, your service will reflect positively on your business and can result in even better brand loyalty and advocacy.

3. Loyalty discounts and promotions. Many businesses make the mistake of focusing discounts only to bring in new customers while existing customers are left out. Make established customers feel special and appreciated by offering special savings and rewards just for them.

4. Connect with customers online and off. Create engagement and get people involved on social media like Facebook and Twitter. Give online fans a chance to connect with the “face behind the brand”. Offline, let your customers know you remember them. For example, sending personal greeting cards for birthdays or holidays is a great way to show current customers you remember appreciate them.

5. Give ‘em what they want – great service! Above all, treat your customers the way you would want to be treated. Always seek to provide stellar service because this will encourage your clients to keep coming back and benefit you in the long run. True customer service can ultimately make or break your business.

Does your business have a customer retention strategy in place? What are you doing to ensure repeat business? Share with us in the comments!

 

 

5 Tips for Customer Retention

Using Current Events in Your Marketing Strategy

Using current events, like holidays and special appreciation days, are a great way to market your business. Smart businesses know that you can’t wait for your customers to come to you. Instead, put your business in front of them in fun and interesting ways by using current themes in your marketing campaigns. 

Sponsor Local Events

Why spend millions of dollars tying your name to a national event like the Super Bowl when your target audience is probably found within a 25 or 30 mile radius of your office? Farmers’ markets, local baseball championships, school bake sales, animal adoption events, 5k races — all of these are ripe for sponsorship opportunities. You reap the benefits of local advertising and marketing exposure while also boosting your brand’s reputation as a local company doing good.

Market Around Unusual Events

Did you know that there’s a National Air Conditioning Appreciation Week every year in August? (Go ahead and Google it!) Okay, it wasn’t exactly designated by an act of Congress, but it’s still a fun and memorable opportunity to reach out to your customers and prospects.  In the future, you could send out radius mailers highlighting this special event, offer discounts for work performed or ordered that week, or even give away donuts or other baked goods to celebrate the “holiday.” All of these can help make your typical marketing piece stand out.

Other unusual events around the year include the Autumnal Equinox (the beginning of fall), Get Organized Week (October – great time to highlight winter HVAC maintenance), and even National Hugging Day (January 21).

National Small Business Week and Small Business Saturday

National Small Business Week is a nationwide, SBA-sponsored conference and movement to recognize the importance of small businesses to the American economy and American culture. It’s another wonderful opportunity to showcase your status as a small business and encourage your customers and prospects to turn to you for their HVAC needs as a way of supporting all small businesses.

Small Business Saturday was launched by American Express to promote small retailers on the Saturday after Thanksgiving every year. However, it’s since grown to become a national movement to promote small businesses in general year-round. The finance company has created an enormous community across all the major social media networks to support this initiative, and anyone can join and take advantage of the exposure and marketing advice specifically designed for small business owners.

What current event opportunities have you found that work for your marketing? Share with us in the comments!

Image via Deviant Art (Creative Commons Licensed)

Using Current Events in Your Marketing Strategy

Social Video Marketing: Vine vs Instagram

 

Social video for marketing is on the rise. Smart businesses know that video marketing is all about engaging your target audience and promoting your brand. Enter Vine and Instagram Video. Vine is the micro-video platform owned by Twitter and introduced in January of this year. In these first few months, Vine has enjoyed amazing growth with over 14 million mobile users and 5 new Vine videos uploaded to Twitter every second. In June, Instagram (owned by Facebook) got in on the social video craze by releasing its own video app (also known as ‘Instagram Video’ or ‘Instavideo’). Upon its release, Instagram Video saw 5 million videos uploaded in the first 24 hours. These statistics show that users love social video and it’s definitely worth your while to take advantage of this market. So, which platform is best for marketing your small business? Well, both have their benefits and are great for brand awareness, but it all comes down to which features and platform you prefer. Let’s take a look at each as we compare Vine and Instagram Video:

Vine

• Six-second video duration


• Sharable to Twitter and Facebook and embeddable to websites and blogs


• Front-facing camera option


• Looping capabilities


• Auto play and geo-tagging features


• Recently added limited video tools for improved ease of use, channels to organize Vines, and Revines for sharability by other users

Instagram

• 15-second video duration


• Sharable to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, and Foursquare


• Front-facing camera, camera filters, stabilization tool


• Editing capabilities


• Auto play, geo-tagging, and photo map features


• Not embeddable and no looping capabilities

 

If you’re unsure which platform is best for you, try both. They’re both free, and are relatively simple to use. Some people like the brevity and editing restrictions of Vine, while others prefer the lengthier, feature rich medium of Instagram. You can also expect to see more features roll out from each in the near future as the social video apps continue to grow. Social video marketing is great for showcasing your brand and engaging your audience, and both Vine and Instagram Video can do just that.

 Image by Matt Nazario-Miller via Flickr.com

Social Video Marketing: Vine vs Instagram

10 Social Media Marketing Terms You Need to Know

 

Small business owners are quickly learning the importance of marketing their businesses on social media networks and reaching out to new markets. The Internet changes at the speed of light and new social media marketing terms are popping up all the time. These are more than just hip buzzwords; these words define social media marketing. You’ve got to be up to speed on the latest social media lingo and trends to make the most of your social media strategy. To help, we’ve created this list of the biggest marketing terms in social media marketing right now that you need to know:

1. Social Media Optimization (SMO): The creation of online content that is likely to be shared through social networks. Think SEO for social media channels.

2. Algorithm: System that suggests pages to search engines in response to a search query.

3. Edge Rank: Facebook’s news feed algorithm. It determines what content gets seen by Facebook users.

4. People Talking About This (PTAT): Social actions that users are taking that include your page and/or posts, including sharing, liking, and commenting.

5. Social Lead Generation: Generating sales prospects via social networks. This is the same as traditional prospecting except that it takes place on social media channels.

6. Social Graph: A visual representation of the different connections that an individual has within a larger social network. Shows who everyone is connected to and how – great for determining key influencers and brand champions.

7. Klout: Free web service that measures your influence on the Internet by measuring your interactions with other users of social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and more.

8. Social Synergy: Two or more social entities working together to create something larger than either of their own individual efforts could. In other words, teamwork online.

9. User Generated Content (UGC): Content created by fans or followers that pertains to your brand/product.

This is content that fans/customers/followers have created that pertains to your brand/product/event – See more at: http://rockstar-digital.com/2013/06/18/10-social-media-buzz-words-you-need-to-know-part-2/#sthash.gQVUIBPi.dpuf

10. Sharablility: How engaging a piece of content is and how likely your fans/followers are to share it with their own social connections.

Without a doubt, new terms are being coined right now to reflect new concepts in social media marketing. What social media terms do you find difficult to understand?

 

Image via Flickr.com

how engaging a piece of content is and how apt your user base is to share it with their friends/followers. – See more at: http://rockstar-digital.com/2013/06/18/10-social-media-buzz-words-you-need-to-know-part-2/#sthash.gQVUIBPi.dpuf

 

shows who everyone is connected to and how,

shows who everyone is connected to and how,

 

 

10 Social Media Marketing Terms You Need to Know

The New Facebook Insights

 

In June, Facebook announced it is rolling out a new and improved version of it’s Insights for Brand Pages. The new Insights is currently available to a limited number of page admins, but will be fully released to all business pages by the end of the summer. The new Insights offers an exciting overhaul to better track your business’s success on Facebook.

The new dashboard is broken up into four main sections — Overview, Page, Posts and People:

Overview Panel: This panel displays a quick view of overall metrics for the last 7 days. Much like the previous Insights page, this shows page Likes, Reach, and Engagement, and now you will also find detailed stats about Reach, Post Clicks, Likes, Comments, and Shares for your most recent posts.

 

Page Panel: This section shows how your fan base has grown over time and how fans are connecting with your Page. This information in broken down into 3 parts with detailed information for each:

• Page Likes: Includes total Likes, Net Likes and Where Your Likes Came From.


• Post Reach: This sub-section shows Overall Reach, Engagement Actions that Influence Reach, and even Negative Engagements (like Unlikes and Report as Spam).


• Page Visits: Here you’ll find information on what sections of your Page fans view most, and how often traffic comes from outside of Facebook to your Page.

 

Posts Panel: This is likely the most impressive redesigned section with lots of important data available. This section offers a breakdown of all your posts, a grouping of your best types of posts based on average reach and engagement, and most impressively, a graph that shows when your fans are online!

 

People Panel:  Here you can compare the demographics of your fans with the overall demographics of Facebook’s population broken down by Your Fans, People Reached, and People Engaged. This section is great for identifying which content is resonating with different audiences and will give you the metrics you need to tweak your strategy for best results.

 

Overall, the new Insights for Brand Pages provides better data with a more user-friendly interface. Businesses large and small will benefit from the simple and clear format that makes the most pertinent information easily accessible. Have you gotten a chance to check out Facebook’s new Insights for yourself? What do you think?

 

Images via Facebook

 

The New Facebook Insights

Twitter's New Lead Generation Cards

 

Twitter has launched a new way for a businesses to reach their marketing goals with Lead Generation Cards. A Lead Generation Card is similar to having a landing page within a tweet. These cards allow Twitter users to subscribe to your offers or join your mailing lists right from within Twitter. Twitter’s Lead Generation Card is an exclusive feature of Twitter Ads, and is viewable on both desktops and mobile devices.

How It Works

Creating a Lead Generation Card on Twitter is simple. First, create your (less than 140 character) Tweet about your offer. Then, from your Twitter Ads Dashboard, select “Advertising” in the navigation bar to set up your new Card. To complete your Card, you’ll need a clear and relevant image, a short 80 character description that explains why your offer is so great, and action-oriented text for the Call to Action button.

With the Lead Gen Card, users can easily and securely share their email address with your business without leaving Twitter or having to fill out a form. When a user expands your Tweet, they see your description of the offer and the call to action. Their name, @username, and email address are already auto-populated within the Card. The user simply clicks a button to send this information directly and securely to you.

Connect With New Leads

After you have created and tested your Lead Generation Card, you will need to start promoting your campaign to get your Card in front of Twitter users. As you start collecting leads, send a follow-up email to ensure each lead is engaged with your company/product. Use an autoresponse email that will send your contacts the offer they selected along with a link to your website. Remember that the design of your email needs to match the Twitter Card. Consider using the same image and other elements that correspond with the Card’s offer.

Follow Up

Once the Card has captured your new leads, continue to send relevant and interesting content to keep them connected with your business. As your campaign progresses, consistently measure your results. You’ll want to keep these new leads separate from the rest of your subscribers to track the effectiveness of the campaign. Also, use this segmented list to send targeted content that is similar and/or relevant to the original offer that peaked their interest.

Making good use of Twitter’s Lead Generation Card feature will help your business find useful information about your followers and customers, as well as build your prospects list. Start using this information to create more personalized social connections and offers, and as well to grow your business’ client base.

 

 

 

 

Twitter's New Lead Generation Cards

Vine Video for Small Business

Small businesses are often looking for unique ways to engage their audience and build their brand. Enter Vine – the social video app owned by Twitter. Vine allows users to create six-second videos shot with a mobile phone camera, and then share those videos with their Twitter and Facebook networks. The app is simple and free to use, giving both prospects and existing customers brief, bite-sized pieces of your brand in a unique and personal way. In today’s fast paced world of digital marketing, consumers prefer brevity, and Vine videos offer just that. Try these ideas for using Vine to market your business and connect with your audience:

Show off your product. Create a Vine video demonstration of your product or video the product from different angles. Get your audience engaged by asking them to create their own Vine videos using your product.

Highlight testimonials. Use Vine to feature your biggest brand advocates with quick customer testimonials. Or better yet, create a Vine mash-up by asking several clients to give one word they would use to sum up their customer experience.

Go behind the scenes. Create a short video series to reveal behind the scenes “secrets”, such as the creation process of your products. This is a great way to educate your audience while building your brand identity and inspiring trust.

Feature your staff. Share videos of your employees and your workspace. Let your customers get a glimpse of “where the magic happens” in your office. Remind your audience that you are not a faceless corporation and connect with them on a more personal level. 

Share promotions. Of course, you’ll also want to use Vine to share special offers or unveil new products. Shoot a 6 second teaser that includes a link to your landing page to peak consumer interest and drive traffic to your website.

When creating your Vine videos, remember to be selective and make sure the videos are consistent with your brand identity. Vine should be regarded in the same professional manner as any other marketing channel. Once you’re satisfied with your Vine video creation, don’t forget to make your video public and share it with your audience on Vine, Facebook, and Twitter.

Are you already using Vine for your business? What type of videos are you sharing?

Vine Video for Small Business

2013 Beat the Heat Fan Drive

Business Direct Marketing joined The Salvation Army in Tyler and East Texas Refrigeration (ETR) to promote the Beat the Heat Fan Drive resulting in a 215% increase in donations.

 

Tyler, Texas – July 10, 2013 – Business Direct Marketing joined efforts with The Salvation Army in Tyler and East Texas Refrigeration (ETR) to promote the 2013 Beat the Heat Fan Drive that took place on June 21, 2013 in the Lowe’s parking lot. Business Direct Marketing created The Salvation Army in Tyler’s Beat the Heat branding, as well as developed ETR’s direct mail postcard and email campaign that went out prior to the fan drive, assisted with ETR’s public relations efforts, and handled all of ETR’s online marketing for this event.

 

Each summer, The Salvation Army in Tyler gives out about 60 new fans a week. On June 21, 2013 The Salvation Army in Tyler collected a total of 379 fans with the help of Business Direct Marketing, East Texas Refrigeration, KVNE/KGLY, Lowe’s, Chick-Fil-A, Trane, and Lifeway Christian Store, a 215% increase from last year’s fan drive.

 

These donations were made just in time to help prepare for the heat of the summer. As temperatures top above 100 degrees, weathering the heat without an air conditioner or fan can be uncomfortable, not to mention dangerous, for local residents without these amenities.

 

The Salvation Army in Tyler will continue to accept new fan or financial donations throughout the summer. Those interested in donating can visit www.etrtyler.com and click on the Beat the Heat button to make an online monetary donation directly to The Salvation Army in Tyler. Please make sure to write ETR Fan Drive in the Company Affiliations section of the donation page. Donations may also be mailed to The Salvation Army in Tyler at P.O. Box 2050 Tyler, TX 75710, or new fans may be dropped off at The Salvation Army Center of Hope building on 633 N. Broadway Ave., Tyler, TX 75702.

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About Business Direct Marketing

Business Direct Marketing creates effective advertising and digital marketing programs that span the relationship continuum, from lead generation management, direct response marketing and online marketing to loyalty and retention. This comes from an integrated mix of competencies in strategy, response rates, design and technology.

For more information about the Beat the Heat Fan Drive, please contact Business Direct Marketing at 903-593-9399 or visit www.businessdirect.com.

2013 Beat the Heat Fan Drive

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