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How to Conduct a Multi-Platform Social Media Audit in 5 Easy Steps

AUGUST 19, 2020

Getting all your social media accounts aligned with your goals isn’t always a simple process. Social media marketing often isn’t as cut and dry as PPC when measuring results.

With all the time an effective social campaign takes, it’s helpful to take a step back and analyze all the moving parts. AdEspresso can assist in this endeavor with their guide on how to conduct a multi-platform social media audit in 5 easy steps.

Step 1. Review Your Business Goals. Measuring success is easier if you have goals you can measure against. What were your goals six months ago? Did you achieve them? Write down new goals with concrete KPIs so you can evaluate your progress six months from now.

Step 2. Find All Your Business Accounts. Don’t give off an unorganized impression. Hunt down any account you currently use, have used, or even think you’ve used. Deactivate any duplicates you may have created as well as accounts you no longer use.

Step 3. Assess Your Existing Accounts for Consistency. Your brand should feel connected across channels. Ensure your profile pictures are the same so people can easily find you on different platforms. Your voice may be more professional on LinkedIn than on Instagram, but don’t deviate from your brand.

Step 4. Collect Your Data. Download reports from your native analytics accounts or third party management accounts. The more granular you can get, the better. Get it all out where you can easily see it.

Step 5. Analyze the Data. Measure your KPIs and performance against your goals. Determine which post types were met with the most engagement and assess the qualities of the engagement driven. Make note of content people shared, since this will help expand your reach moving forward.

There’s more in here, so don’t miss the bonus steps we couldn’t cover.

How to master social media for retail and win more customers

AUGUST 18, 2020

Sprout Social Index found 91% of a brand’s social media followers will visit the brand’s website or application, 89% will buy from the brand, and 85% will recommend the brand to family and friends. When there are percentages like that… oh, hello opportunity!

This is why Sprout Social is talking to us today about how to master social media for retail and win more customers.

Social media captures people at different stages of the customer journey. Therefore, it’s important we create a compelling customer journey at every touchpoint.

Adopt an omnichannel social presence. Instagram is an excellent platform for retailers, but don’t stop there. Run paid ads on Facebook and crosspost on Twitter where it makes sense.

Gather feedback from your social customers. Sell your brand beyond your products. Of course, your followers love seeing deals but throw in question-based content as well. Ask customers what they like or don’t like, and deliver.

Dedicate time to providing customer service on social. The way you respond to customers says a lot about your brand. Let customer service be a part of your social strategy. Personalize your replies in a timely manner.

Look out for trends to influence your product and content strategies.
- See what others in your space are doing well. Then brainstorm ways to make it more relevant to your audience.
- Discover which hashtags are trending and how they may align with your brand or offerings.
- Cut through the crowd and listen to what’s happening on social media to keep your content relevant.
Don’t forget your physical packaging. A customer’s purchase is one victory with the potential for more. Drive them back to your social channels so they may keep up with your offerings. Ship your products with a business card or a thank you note with your handles included.

Read on for the rest of Sprout Social’s strategies.

Why Now’s the Time for Interactive Content [Examples]

AUGUST 18, 2020

Daily interaction is a bit limited these days. We’re having riveting convos with our pups and cats though.

For marketers, there are ways we can make an extra effort of providing content our audiences will interact with and perhaps think about critically. Today, Content Marketing Institute shares examples of why now is the time for interactive content.

Interactive content invites participation. And what’s better than people actively participating in your brand’s content? An added bonus is what you can learn about your audience through their interactions.

Common forms of interactive content:

Quizzes, polls, games, and surveys. Something fun will draw people in. This format allows for pointed questions you can interpret with quantitative data in your results.
Interactive infographics and data visualizations. When you state something in a concrete way, you rely on peoples’ interpretations matching your own. Not everyone thinks the same, so allow customization in visualizations for a more resonant experience.

Interactive content suits most marketing goals, including brand awareness, engagement, lead generation, and retention/loyalty.

Take Adobe, for example. They put together a quiz called “Creative Types” where people could explore and extract tidbits from their creative personalities. With playful imagery and animations as well as downloadable and shareable resources, Adobe successfully aligned itself with peoples’ personalities.

Incorporating interactivity in content is not always easy. Be sure you consider any added costs of creating sophisticated content or even what kind of interactivity your audience prefers. For successful interactive content, ensure you have a compelling reason for interactivity, match the interactive format to its intended function, and plan ahead to measure the impact of your interactive content.

We couldn’t hit everything in this article, so read the entire post for many more tips on effectively employing interactive content for your brand.

How to Grow Your Mailing List Using Live Streaming

AUGUST 17, 2020

A captive audience is every marketer’s dream. Luckily, there are numerous ways we can build captive audiences. YouTube subscribers, Twitter and Instagram followers, Facebook Group members, and mailing lists are some of the best ways we can build audiences. And when it comes to mailing lists, live video can fuel growth substantially. SendPulse is sharing just how to grow mailing lists with live streaming.

Define your audience. Marketers know defining an audience is crucial. How else will you know who will be on the receiving end of your marketing efforts? When it comes to streaming, knowing where your audience is in the buyer’s journey will help you craft the best message.

Create an enticing offer. If your audience is in attendance, then don’t make them walk away empty-handed. They’re watching for a reason, so give them something so valuable they can’t help but sign up for it.

Tell a powerful story. People find value in the things they relate to. If your story doesn’t resonate then they won’t see the point in hearing it. When they’re captivated by the story you tell, they’ll understand signing up for your offer is the next natural step.

Draw attention to your call to action. Share your offer verbally and with in-stream links, but also describe the benefits of taking action. Drive the point home so it won’t be missed or overlooked.

Promote your live stream like a blockbuster movie. Spread the word and build anticipation so you have a great turnout for your live stream. Utilize social media, email, and paid channels if possible. An added bonus is you can grow your email list at this stage as well.

Read on for a post-stream tip of repurposing live stream gems.

How to Write Perfect Page Titles and Headlines (7 Tools to Help Make it Happen)

AUGUST 12, 2020

Y’all, you voted for a tactic topic in our poll and the tally came so close we had to talk about it. So here’s the other piece you wanted!

Page titles can be your chance of drawing people in with a short snippet of what your article will discuss. Creating a great headline is no easy feat. It involves just the right balance of keywords while remaining compelling.

Convince & Convert is sharing their favorite tools for writing perfect page titles and headlines.

Find the Best Keyword for Your Titles: Ubersuggest. Ubersuggest is jam-packed with SEO tools. A crowd favorite (and ours too) is its keyword research tool. Here you can enter a term to generate keyword ideas or find out which keywords benefit your competitors.
Create a Question-Based Title: Text Optimizer. People seek answers. This is why presenting your title in the form of a question is a terrific strategy. Text Optimizer creates a list of common questions surrounding a keyword you enter. You’ll even see how popular and competitive some of the questions are.
Analyze Your Title: Coschedule’s Headline Analyzer. This one should really be a game rather than just a tool. It gives you a score based on factors such as word choice, sentiment analysis, headline length, analysis of first and last three words, and searchable keyword analysis. The higher the score, the better your headline will likely perform.
Preview the Facebook Snippet: Facebook Debugger. This quick tool simply shows how your title will appear on Facebook.
Preview the Twitter Snippet: Twitter Card Validator. Want to know what your link preview will look like on Twitter before tweeting? This is exactly what you’ll get from the Twitter Card Validator.

Go read the rest of Convince & Convert’s article for tools 6 & 7!

How to Create Highly Watchable Silent Videos for Social Media

AUGUST 11, 2020

When a video pops up on your social feed and you don’t have headphones, what do you do? Sure, you might let it play. But what if your SO is watching Netflix. Better hope the video is optimized for silence.

Today, after an incredibly close vote (like 352 to 348 kind-of close), Hootsuite is teaching us how we can create highly watchable silent videos for social media.

Tip #1: Add closed captioning. This is absolutely crucial. Not only does it allow silent watching of videos, but it’s also a matter of accessibility. Deaf and hard of hearing people will easily follow a video’s message if it is subtitled. Facebook and YouTube even have auto-captioning so you can get started right away.

Tip #2: Don’t rely on music for meaning. Let visuals do the legwork. When optimizing for silence, music has no business being front and center.

Tip #3: Show, don’t tell. Sure, captions provide guidance in silent videos, but so do images. If you can convey your entire message through imagery, then do it! It’s much more memorable and promotes an added degree of creativity.

Tip #4: Use sound intentionally. Complete silence in a video is great when people want it. But they might think something’s wrong when they try turning the sound on. Include some music or sound effects for those who want sound, but don’t make it a crucial element of the video.

Tip #5: Remember the 3-second rule. It’s imperative you don’t bore your viewer – especially not in the first few seconds. Begin your video with a captivating image or clip you might revisit later in the video so people will stick around and watch.

We couldn’t get to all Hootsuite’s tips, so check out the full article for numbers 6 & 7. (And don’t worry, we’ll discuss perfect titles and headlines tomorrow.)

SEO and Content Marketing: How to Combine Them Effectively to Achieve Results

AUGUST 11, 2020

Sometimes we’re in content marketing mode and other times we’re in SEO mode. The pair work best when complementing each other. Really though, content is the peanut butter to SEO’s jelly sandwich...

Getting back on track – SEO doesn’t just work all by itself. It needs content so search queries can match up with keywords. Not any content will do, however. High-quality content is a must. Your content must provide solutions or entertainment and be enjoyable for your audience.

SEMrush is breaking down how to combine SEO and content marketing effectively to achieve results.

Design Your Content with Search Engines in Mind

Do not think of content as a keyword dump. We’re way past those days, so keep in mind how a search engine works. Get specific with your marketing content so search engines know where it fits. Break up different topics into different posts for a more focused experience.

Keep Up with Continual Content

Search engines like seeing frequent publishing. This indicates you’re posting about relevant topics and your content is not dormant. If you don’t already have a content calendar, then create one so you can stay on top of your content. New content creates additional avenues for traffic since you’re building up more keywords and constantly covering new topics.

Evaluate the Value of Your Links

SEO will help you determine which “neighborhoods” fit your content best. As your content moves higher on SERPs, you’ll notice more backlinks. When these backlinks start coming from more reputable sites, your pages’ rankings will be rewarded.

SEO is an integral part of a successful content plan. You must know your audience as well as your topics, and determine an overall strategy while optimizing your content for search. Dive into the full article for more info from SEMrush.

6 Ways to Engage Your Organic Search Traffic on Social Media

AUGUST 9, 2020

Organic growth can be slow-moving. A true test of patience. Luckily, we can combine the benefits of organic with the speed of Facebook targeting. Today, Search Engine Journal is taking us through 6 ways to engage your organic search traffic on social media.

Step 1: Perform Keyword Research. The key is ranking for what your audience is typing – not just ranking for what you want. Figure out what people are actually typing then answer their questions one at a time with your content.

Step 2: Create a Piece of Content. After you know what people are searching for and how many people are searching, craft a blog post around this topic. Of course, the ultimate goal of the blog is to generate revenue in one way or another. Engagement and readership will help your ranking and promote your ultimate goal.

Step 3: Get Organic Traffic. Simple step here: wait. Give your blog some time and keep a goal around 1,000 people.

Step 4: Set Up Social Media Pixel. Once your blog is published and you’re getting some solid traffic, you can set up a social media pixel on your website. Your pixel serves the purpose of remarketing to page visitors or determining how many visitors complete your desired action.

Step 5: Create a Lookalike Audience. Once you find who is visiting your site, you can tap into Facebook’s vast array of data so you can target people with similar interests and patterns.

Step 6: Serve the Audience Social Media Ads. Create and display relevant ads for the lookalike audiences you made on Facebook. Remember, it’s not one and done. Create ads (using Ads Manager and not ‘boosting’ posts) you can display throughout the buyer’s journey.

Check out the full article for more info!

Find All Your Branded Keywords In Seconds (Plus 13 Tips for Brand Query SEO)

AUGUST 5, 2020

Have you ever Googled your company? Take a second now, and give it a go.

Searching your company has more strategic value than you may believe. When you do, you’ll find branded keywords and phrases that can help you…

Improve your ranking
Understand what your audience knows about you
Discover reputation issues
See your top competitors
Uncover gaps in your content

Orbit Media shows us how we can find all our branded keywords in seconds and they offer 13 tips for brand query SEO, too.

First, where to look after you hit search.

Three sources of branded key phrases are Google suggest and autocomplete, related searches, and your queries report. The first two are quicker, but your queries report can be easily found in Google Analytics under Acquisition>Search Console>Queries.

Once you know exactly which of your branded key phrases people are searching for, go ahead and search all of them yourself. These are some of the things you may find:

Other sites ranking for your brand’s topics. For example, a search for “Adler Planetarium” yields the phrase suggestion “Adler Planetarium wedding.” However, the top result comes from a different site than Adler’s. Adler Planetarium can add a page on weddings and they’ll likely rank first on that search fairly quick.

Sitelinks. We have no control over which 6 links are shown, but we do know they get lots of visibility compared to other pages on a site. Make sure the linked pages are up to date and set them up as quality landing pages. You can’t choose it, but you can work with it.
The “Knowledge Panel” for your brand. Google does a good job of listing basic info about your business, but make sure it’s all correct. Go into Google My Business and make necessary adjustments, select the correct business category, and add quality photos if you haven’t already.

Give yourself a search and think about what the results indicate. Don’t miss the rest of these 13 tips from Orbit Media.