Category Archives: Social Media Networking

8 Tips to Increase your Pinterest Presence

marketing-with-pinterest
Leave a reply

 

Observing the increasing volume of businesses and brands that want to build strong online reputation through social media sites, Pinterest has launched business accounts to cater to the needs. If you have been avoiding Pinterest for social marketing so far, you must give it a serious thought as the site is evolving very swiftly and is employing more resources to let the businesses reap maximum benefits from it. It’s very necessary to tell here that according to statistics around half of the online consumers of the United States go by the recommendations from this social networking site for their purchase. Let’s check out some easy ways to boost the presence on Pinterest.

 

  • Build a Community- It’s an obvious thing to do, after all Pinterest is a social networking site. You can introduce new contests to encourage people to join the community. Sneak peek of your upcoming products may also make the people of your community feel special.

 

  • Collaborate- You shouldn’t work within your community only, but also with the Pinterest community by following, sharing and repinning their images. Like, an electrical store can have a community of electrical contractors. Such communities can exchange images and be benefited by it. Engaging with other networks not just help in expanding your network but also to enhance your online visibility and thus creating new customer base.

 

  • Create Specialized Boards- Don’t make it traditional by posting all images on a single board, i.e. the company’s board. Make specialized boards according to various themes, events and trends. The themes depend on the nature of the business. Like for a garment store, there may be separate boards for casuals, party wears, semi formals etc.

 

  • Drive Traffic through Various Sites- In order to drive traffic towards your Pinterest page; you need to equip your website, blog, Twitter Account, Facebook page, ads etc. with Pin it buttons. It will make it convenient for your followers and fans to repin your images.

 

  • Use Attractive and Eye Catching Images- Make sure that you use magnificent images. The images shouldn’t be pixilated and its size should be appropriate. Moreover, you should use images obtained from original sources, not from search engines.

 

  • Write Passionately- Usually, people take description for the images for granted but the descriptions hold utmost importance. It should be describing the image in a very attractive manner. You should write it as it’s a question of your survival. Good images with poor descriptions usually remain unpinned.

 

  • Post Good Videos- Some people think that posting videos on Pinterest is not a good idea but actually it rocks. But if you want to maintain and share a video library, you need to very selective. Your cover image and thumbnails should also be very fascinating. The titles and descriptions should be very catchy. And as obvious, avoid lengthy videos.

 

  • Measure Your Performance- just making a Pinterest page and updating it is not sufficient. You need to track its performance on a regular basis. But it’s not very easy to do; you need to hire a Pinterest analytics company for it. Google Analytics may also be of great help here.

 

5 Key Tips for Instagram Marketing for Businesses

building-busines-with-instagram
Leave a reply

Instagram Marketing for Business? Yes! It’s not just about liking foodie pictures selfies!

Instagram continues to explode in popularity with now over 100 million active users. Instagram users deliver over 40 million photos per day, 8500 likes per second, and 1000 comments per second as well. The user engagement is extremely easy, usability of the app is simplistic, and users get lost in the seemingly endless news feed of photos. There is no Facebook clutter, no private message spam, and no advertising either (at least not yet…).

Third party developers have also joined the exciting trend of the app by engineering ground breaking analytics tools providing insightful data for social users and businesses alike seeking to monetize their growing Instagram networks.  Its relatively progressive API allows for easy integration and data mining from the app. Companies like Statigr.am have developed tools for growth monitoring, community insights, account history, and optimization tips.

Major brands such as Mercedes Benz and Coca-Cola have used Instagram to effectively drive mobile marketing campaigns to their user’s handsets. It’s a simple tool that when used correctly can be VERY powerful.

Just like other social networks that came before it, using Instagram as a part of your online marketing initiatives can help you showcase new products, before and after shots, photo contests based on hashtags and more. You can build a sense of a community in seconds and gain online exposure via sharing without much effort.

At WebitMD, we have put together our Top 5 Instagram secrets for marketing your business. Let’s get to them…

1. Building and Managing Contests

Building a contest is a sure way to build a solid follower foundation as a newbie to Instagram for business use. The key is to keep these followers engaged though in order to have a successful account.  The like of Justin Bieber does this well by offering giveaway to Bieber product and show tickets on his Instagram page. It keeps his following engaged and waiting to hear more. You may not be Justin Bieber but you can surely follow a contest model to build your own activity.

Use custom hashtags that is just for your company to allow people to also include that tag in their own postings. For example, if you are a fitness studio in Los Angeles giving away a FREE 1 Month membership use a hashtag like #1monthfreefitness when posting photos about the contest on your Instagram page. eConsultancy published a great post a few months back about some successful Instagram photo contests if you would like further examples/ideas.

2. Consistent Engagement via “Photo a Day or Week Calendar”

Not sure what we are talking about? Check out these photos…

photo-a-day

Create a challenge for the day or week where users should post a photo related to a specific topic only. Keep that topic in a hastag and keep the comments rolling. The user engagement will be extremely high!

 3. Hashtags!!!

Seems like a given right? Yes they are but don’t just flood each one of your photos with 10+ hashtags. Instead use hashtags in reverse methodologies to search for a particular topic that you are trying to promote yourself.

For example, if you are a yoga apparel company seeking to promote your new pants use hashtags like #yoga, #yogi, #yogalife, etc..

Top-hashtags.com will show you the most popular trending topics on Instagram that can help you get a good idea of what’s trending.

 4.  Cross Promotion

We have seen countless Instagram business accounts where they are not linked to your other social profiles. Link them!! Place your company LinkedIn profile or CEO’s Facebook account (if his/her pictures are kosher…) and drive users from one platform to the other. Do not place your personal email address on your Instagram profile but rather have people contact you via social networks.

 5. Be Personal BUT be Careful

Instagram is a platform of photos only. As the old saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words”, so be careful what you post and how personal you get. It’s great to relate to your followers on a personal level and it’s also great to humanize the individuals behind your brand but just be careful and post only what you don’t mind the world viewing. Be genuine and be sure to craft a strategy for your Instagram followers that is suitable for your audience and will build your relationship for the future.

 

This blog was written by Mattan Danino, Director of Business Development at WebitMD Inc.

WebitMD Inc. is an integrated Internet Marketing & Web/Mobile Development agency based in Los Angeles and Orange County. Their creative team for web and mobile development utilize the latest in technologies while our Internet Marketing teams are internationally recognized in SEO, PPC, and Conversion Optimization services delivered to our robust clientele. We take a systematic approach to marketing and drive all our strategies by proven internal methodologies. Our client’s feedback over the years in business has always been that we provide an enterprise level marketing solution with a boutique agency feel. We like to keep it that way!

 

 

Location-specific Mobile Advertising on the Rise

Leave a reply

WebitMD offers solutions for small businesses to market on Andriod, iPhone, and Blackberry Platforms. Contact Us toady for more information!!

A recent study by JiWire, a Wi-Fi provider and mobile ad server, found that most users of its public Wi-Fi services spent more than 30 minutes a day using smartphone apps. 63% of users frequently use apps that require them to give their location to serve specific content. A little more than half were willing to give their location just to receive more relevant advertisements.

Over a third of respondents were more likely to click on a mobile ad that was customized for their specific location. Almost half said that it would not make a difference. Overall, 76% of users preferred ad-supported free apps over paid ones. This presents a huge opportunity for businesses desiring to utilize location specific advertising, as more than one-half of mobile device users had clicked an in-app ad, went to the advertiser’s website, or made a purchase.

Millennial Media, a mobile advertising network, found through a recent study that smartphones account for almost one-half of mobile ad impressions in the US. Even though more subscribers have feature phones, these users have less interaction with advanced mobile content, and therefore only account for one-third of mobile ad views.

iPhones continue to dominate ad impressions within the smartphone category, followed by BlackBerrys and Androids. Androids have seen that largest increase in ad requests, rising 72% month over month. March was the first month the Android phone was one of the three top smartphone operating systems. Requests were up 20% from Apple phones and 25% from BlackBerrys.

On other mobile devices, such as iPads, iPod touches and connected video gaming devices, Millennial Media found that those devices took a significant share of impressions. iPad impressions climbed 713% during the first full week the device was available for purchase. Numbers will only climb as the iPad and similar mobile devices continue to proliferate.

While Apple’s tight hold on the smartphone market continues, the Android has gained significant ground because of its high customer satisfaction and loyalty. Indications that Android also represents a robust mobile app platform also point to a greater share of mobile ad impressions in the future.

Measuring Online Marketing Effectiveness

Leave a reply

In a recent survey by Omniture, marketers stated that marketing cost, order size, and conversion rate were most important in measuring marketing effectiveness. However, measuring visits, page views, and click-throughs were easier to accurately measure. Therefore, click-through continues to lead as the top metric used in measuring online marketing success.

Similar measurement problems existed in mobile, social, and video channels. Overall, 80% of respondents stated that it was important to measure ROI from online activities, but only 31% could effectively do so. Respondents indicated that having a talented staff with expertise was necessary to effectively measure marketing effectiveness. However, lack of budget is indicated as the top reason they lacked the talent they needed.

Job Recruiting Moves from the Campus to the Internet

Leave a reply

As the Internet has become a huge repository of entry-level job advertisements, recruiters have pulled back from on-campus job fairs and recruiting efforts. A recent study by Monster.com found that over 90% of companies utilize online advertising for job recruiting. About 25% are also using social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn to advertise entry-level openings.

Monster.com also found that college students and recent graduates sought out friends and family (78%) and online job boards (67%) the most for job opportunities. Social networking sites were only utilized by 38% of respondents. However, this shows a huge gain over last year’s survey, when social networking sites were utilized only 15% of the time by new graduates.

While social networking sites continue to proliferate in their uses, the line has become increasingly blurred between public and private content. 55% of college job seekers said they have tailored their online profiles to make them more appropriate for viewing by potential employers.

Social Media Measurability

Leave a reply

One of the most important facets of online marketing is measurability. Datran Media’s recent “4th Annual Marketing & Media Survey” found that measuring and understanding audiences was a priority for the majority of respondents since it could increase brand awareness, performance or revenues. However, producing hard metrics in social media advertising remains difficult. Increased site traffic is generally the leading metric used to measure social media success, but by itself does not justify heavier investment in social media.

“For the few marketers who do attempt to apply quantitative measures to their social marketing efforts, the metrics they use are not terribly sophisticated,” noted eMarketer CEO and co-founder Geoff Ramsey in the eMarketer Insight Brief “Seven Guidelines for Achieving Social Media ROI.” “Most marketers today do not invest sufficient time, effort or money on social media measurement.”

Datran’s respondents, with about 72% having Facebook and Twitter profiles—were most likely to track all their online campaigns based on clicks, conversions and impressions. A gap exists, however, between finding and monitoring appropriate metrics and actually quantifying the results in a meaningful way. To remedy this, marketers must connect business goals, such as increased sales and leads, to social metrics before they can quantify social media return.

Small Businesses Turn to Cheaper Marketing Methods in Down Economy

Leave a reply

Due to the current state of the economy, many companies are now turning to more affordable methods of advertising their services as well as making sales. Small businesses have turned to social media and internet advertising because it is a cheaper alternative to traditional marketing methods. According to “The State of Small Business Report” from Network Solutions and the Center for Excellence in Service at the University of Maryland School of Business, the use of social media by small businesses has significantly increased to 24%, from 12% the year before.

The report also mentioned the most popular reasons for engaging in social media use. The leading answer was to provide their company a presence online for both their workers and their consumers, where the second most common answer was to update their statuses regarding the company and their products/services.
Here is a graph that shows the rest of the motives for using social media for small businesses:

It was also found that many businesses feel that social media use was not fulfilling their expectations; rather, social media’s capabilities for staying engaged with consumers and collaborating with other businesses were more in line with businesses’ expectations.

Also according to the report regarding small business and their social media use:

• Most small businesses say they are just breaking even with their current usage of social media, but a solid one-fifth find it profitable already.
• Nearly one-half believe it will make them money in the next 12 months, and another 39% think they will break even on it.
• Just 9% think social marketing will continue to be a losing proposition.
• Overall, 58% of respondents felt social media lived up to their expectations.
• One-half felt it took up more time than they realized, but only 6% claimed negative comments on social media had hurt their business.

A final statement was added about the report from Janet Wagner, director of the Center for Excellence in Service, who made a comment about how social media was letting small businesses become more competitive with larger competitors, “Social media levels the playing field for small businesses by helping them deliver customer service time spent on Twitter, Facebook and blogs is an investment in making it easier for small businesses to compete.”

Information Provided By: eMarketer
Blog Post Written By: Kent Seiders

Social Media Marketing Seminar: SDSU

Leave a reply

San Diego State University’s Entrepreneurial Management Center presented an interactive seminar called “Social Media for Business” yesterday afternoon. This interactive seminar/workshop enabled the SDSU student population and all others interested in attending to discuss the opportunities for all businesses in social media with experts in social media, online marketing, the media and business.

The seminar was developed to show the importance of social media upon the marketing and branding of businesses everywhere.

Experts in the field running the seminar included:

• Kevin Popovic, founder of Ideahaus®, author of Satellite Marketing: Using Social Media to Sell
• Rodney Rumford, co-founder of TweetPhoto, founder of Gravity Summi
• Steve Kousky, technology correspondent, San Diego 6 TV
• Dexter Bustarde, senior web analyst, Digitaria

Each panelist had some great things to say about social media and its importance in the marketing arena for businesses of all shapes and sizes. These panelists also offered great examples of success stories using social media as well as those that were disasters. For example, they said if you wanted to see some successful social media campaigns currently being utilized, many of them said to check out the following companies: The Red Cross, Best Buy, Dell, Kodak, Cisco, The Susan G. Komen Foundation, Invisible Children, Intuit, and Intel.

There were many tips that they provided for those in attendance including:
• Identifying your target markets: demographics, psychographics, etc.
• Developing a strategy that pertains to your communications objectives and target market
• Developing Satellites: Integrating all forms of marketing to reach your “Prospects”
• Deploying those Satellites: Putting your integrated marketing plans into effect
• Measure and Mend: Measure your results and track your progress to learn from your mistakes and successes
• Take advantage of the free tools our there that are available
• Use social media to interact one-on-one with your consumers and help to improve your product/services by fixing what your consumers are telling you about what’s wrong

Overall, it was a successful seminar that gave a lot of good advice to those interested in social media for their current or prospective businesses!

Blog Post Written By: Kent Seiders

The Future of Social Media

Leave a reply

There is no doubt that social media utilization has become the most popular and highly adopted form of emerging media within today’s marketing strategies. Every company that has a presence online has been frantically trying to increase their company’s exposure by following outrageous numbers of users of Twitter, bombarding fan pages on Facebook, and are seeking the newest markets within other social media networks.

According to eMarketer senior analyst Debra Aho Williamson, the future of social media and its benefits are not only ever-changing but will play an entirely different role for companies who utilize them.

“Advertising—which some might say has already failed as a business model for social media companies—will not be the primary revenue driver,” said Ms. Williamson.

The better business model, other than utilizing social media, will lie in the mastery of analytics tools to track their conversion rates of visitors coming to websites. The use for social media in the future will not be for advertising specifically but rather for a plethora of other reasons including:

• Should be integrated within all marketing efforts

• Should be available for consumers to find out more information about your company, products, or services

And more importantly should be used for:

• Brand Monitoring
Social media will soon be the best way for companies to track and begin to understand the “why” of consumer chatter about them and their products/service as well as the “who”, “what”, and “when” of their customer base.

This statement was offered by Ravit Lichtenberg, founder and chief strategist, Ustrategy.com, in response to brand monitoring:
“Naturally occurring conversations will be utilized in product innovation and design, and companies will create incentives for people’s attention and engagement while repurposing and analyzing content and engagement in new ways that will deliver valuable input.”

In essence, social media and its use for companies will be ever-changing. However, the future use of social media will lie in helping companies get information about their consumers and hearing what they have to say about specific products or services to help them improve customer relationships.

Information Provided By: eMarketer
Blog Post Written By: Kent Seiders

Social Media Strategy: A Necessity

Leave a reply

Social media networking has now become a necessary tool for any companies marketing efforts. Rather than answering the question: Do we need social media?, companies are now asking themselves: How and where should we be using it?

It is common for companies to create social media accounts across all networks they are familiar with without an initial game plan. Instead of doing this, companies should be conducting research to find out what networks hit their target markets the best which in turn, will give them higher returns on their investments and ability to benefit their consumers within social media. A strategy needs to be developed rather than just putting your company on every social media network known to the marketers!

A strategy for social media is also necessary because users of these networking sites are assuming each company with a social media presence are savvy enough to not only effectively communicate, but are strategically seeking to improve their branding and marketing strategies over their main competitors.

Most companies limit their social media use to aid in their marketing and communications efforts. However, many companies have unique plans to use these social channels for their sales, customer service, and IT services! This will give those companies an edge over their competitors and can offer them very valuable information regarding customer feedback.

After all, according to Paul Verna of eMarketer, “A Facebook promotion is only as good as the information that it feeds back to the sales, CRM, marketing or senior management executives who can turn it into a business gain.”

Information Provided By: eMarketer
Blog Post Written By: Kent Seiders