5 Social Media Tips for Promoting Your Online Course

 

An online course can cement your status as an industry authority.

The global market for online learning is estimated at $241 billion, thanks to a wide internet reach and increased demand for less-expensive, easily accessible classes.

Online course subjects range from programming and web design to carpentry and baking. If you have exceptional knowledge or skill in a particular area, you can enhance your online reputation by designing your own online course.

Content that delivers real value to your target audience can go viral. Unfortunately, many course creators mistakenly assume that online courses will attract an audience without promotion.

Here’s how to promote your first online course via social media:

1. Start with your own account.

Use social media to generate initial interest for your course. Many of your connections have similar interests or challenges, making them an ideal focus group.

In an interview with Kajabi, Chris Becker, founder of Ketology, says his teachings on healthy weight loss began on Facebook, recalling, “I asked my friends, ‘Hey if you need help, I’m going to do this little challenge.’… my friends started losing weight and then I just thought, let me actually build this into a real thing.”

Becker’s initial success afforded him insights to develop future courses while building a strong word-of-mouth foundation within his niche.

2. Get Facebook group participation.

Facebook pages have experienced notorious declines in organic reach, but that doesn’t mean the platform is no longer viable for reaching your target audience.

Facebook groups help like-minded users to connect on a variety of topics—and they are a great way to get the word out. Keep in mind, however, that you should never join a group purely to promote your course.

You must become an active participant, asking questions and offering advice. Only then can you position yourself as an expert and promote your course—without getting kicked out of the group.

As you share your knowledge, those who benefit from your insights will be drawn to your social media accounts.

3. Offer referral rewards.

Referral programs can help build word-of-mouth for your brand. Potential followers are more likely to respond to posts by family or friends. Your students are more likely to share their experiences on social media if you offer incentives.

These can range from a discount for signing up through a specific link to a free video chat session offering additional tips and personalized insights. Provide extra value, and students will do your social media marketing for you.

4. Use paid ads wisely.

Paid ads can attract new audiences, but that doesn’t mean that you should have them running 24/7 or expect immediate results from a Facebook campaign. Social media advertising requires patience and research.

Make sure you fully understand your target demographic and their interests, and target your ads based on what you learn.

Ensure that your images and text deliver your marketing message. Do A/B testing to gauge which options deliver the highest click-through rate.

As you use these principles to fine-tune your social media marketing, you’ll drive more traffic to your accounts and online courses.

5. Share mini tips.

Only about 10 percent of your content should be promotional. Rather than continually spamming followers to sign up, deliver short tips related to your course content through Instagram posts, live video and more.

For example, Melyssa Griffin of Blog to Biz Training provided short informational posts on her Instagram account about monetizing blogs and increasing productivity, expanding her following and generating traffic for her course.

PR Daily

Five Social Media Mistakes that Could Kill your Business

 

Social media is vital for big business, but an online blunder can make or break your company. Here are five mistakes to avoid.

Social media is a necessity for businesses. Whether it be for marketing, customer service, or public relations, social media is often how companies stay relevant in their customers’ lives and aware of any issues that arise. However, a wrong step on one of these platforms can work against companies, digitally tarnishing their reputations.

In 2017, the world watched the social media failures of big names like Dove, Pepsi, and Adidas. Whether it be misspellings, misconstrued images, ill-timed humor, and offensive remarks, social media mistakes are easy commit. While many social media problems start out small or happen quickly, the mark is still made, and the company still gets hurt.

“Social media is now the avenue for escalating and for overall turning the event into a much louder discussion,” said Nick Hayes, a senior analyst at Forrester. “A lot of what you have to do is start to think about how an organization has typically thought of and managed crises in the past, and start to apply that lens of social media.”

A social media faux pas doesn’t only cause problems externally, but even more so internally. Hayes highlighted the interpersonal and financial impact companies can face after such an incident. If your reputation is bruised, partners may not be as eager to work with you. The costs in and out of the business are significant as well.

Take the example of United Airlines, which faced strong criticism on social media after a video of a man being forcibly dragged off a plane by security went viral. The company tweeted a statement from its CEO, which many criticized as too cold and corporate.

This social media disaster hit United’s stock prices hard, and led to many internal issues regarding customer experience, Hayes said. With a newfound negative public perception, United found its popularity decreasing.

Protecting your company is easy, however, you just need to be aware of common social media mistakes. Here are five habits to stay away from.

1. Forgetting your brand

When constructing a social media persona, you have to know your brand. With every post, social media managers must keep in mind the company’s core values. It’s important to ask yourself before posting, “Does this post align with my company’s beliefs?”

Social media mistakes are often made when companies are trying to stand out. In an effort to gain publicity, companies may try to post something funny or eye-catching, but these types of posts also leave the most room for error. With the subjectivity of humor, companies need to be very careful that they aren’t crossing the line. If a company is considering entering a social media discussion about politics or making a joke online, they need to ask if that post would really support their company’s overall brand.

“It’s always important to, whether you’re a social media director or somebody responsible for the social voice of a brand, make sure that [a post] is aligned with the core values or mission statement of the brand, and that the tone of voice comes across in every online interaction,” said Gartner research director Jay Wilson.

2. Disregarding your audience

Going hand-in-hand with knowing your brand, you must know your audience. Businesses need to remember the personality of their customers and what social media would play well. We currently live in a very polarized country, politically and socially, Wilson said. This polarization is accompanied by an increase in vocal public opinion, which is amplified through social media platforms.

After asking yourself if a prospective post aligns with your brand, then ask if it aligns with your consumer. Both questions act as quick filters when deciding to post something out of the ordinary.

“Strategize, and really talk about and brainstorm what are the potential issues that could arise,” Wilson said. “Whether you’re taking a stand on a specific issue or you’re simply putting a campaign out there, what are the potential reactions that you might expect from this increasingly polarized audience?”

3. Plagiarism

Probably the easiest online slip-up is not giving credit where it’s due. With the amount of data and ideas floating around the internet, originality can be difficult to achieve. If a company posts a statistic or fact without attributing the information, then they can not only find themselves in a lawsuit, but also branded as a plagiarizer.

“Brands need to create playbooks and have internal processes so that their teams understand what’s fair use, what constitutes express consent, what constitutes implied consent,” said Wilson. “If you are leveraging third party content, which is something that we often recommend that brands do—finding relevant news stories or content created by partners or thought leaders on social—that’s a great source of content for brands, but you need to make sure that you’re using it in a way that’s not overly promotional, and that you have consent to use that content.”

4. Failing to prepare

Sometimes the biggest social media problem isn’t an incident itself, but the aftermath. These platforms spread information at such a fast pace that companies are given less time to respond in the event of a crisis. Hayes emphasizes creating a template for response, rather than just waiting for something bad to happen, when you won’t have time to do so thoughtfully.

“I think brands don’t drill enough,” said Wilson. “They need to be doing drills and running simulations and scenarios to make sure that their human processes, their technology, is able to quickly identify and respond to social crises.”

5. Inauthenticity

Always say sorry, and when you do, mean it. If a company is accused of a major wrongdoing, they need to apologize, and they need to do so genuinely. Referencing back to United, Hayes noted their half-hearted apologetic nature to their blunder, circumnavigating the actual consumer concerns around the event. Companies should keep an authentic voice in every message they send, but especially when it comes to apologies.

Wilson suggested creating employee advocacy programs to carry out messages to consumers. “People tend to trust front-line employees more than they do C-level executives,” Wilson said.”They want the apology from the C-level executive, but they want to listen to front-line employees and their experiences with a brand, so if you have an employee advocacy program in place, that’s a great go-to resource if you find yourself in a crisis.”

Culled from Tech Republic

Ways to Inject Some Fun in Your Social Media Marketing

 

Social media marketing is easy!

But it is also very easy to get it wrong when we fail to adjust to the platform. People are online to have fun and once we are in tune with that fact, our social media marketing will be more successful.

Here are ways to inject some fun into your social media marketing.

1. It’s social before media

The mistake many businesses make is that they forget that the platform is meant to enable people to get social. So they bring their traditional marketing techniques to social media and then wonder why they are not getting any attention.

You should know that people are not on social media for your product. The world does not revolve around your business. So when you acknowledge that people are online for social purposes - to connect with friends, meet new people and have fun, then you will get your social mask on before you market. Loosen up a bit!

Share jokes, spark a conversation. Help customers with valuable information and they will pay attention when you have something to market.

2. Run competitions

It does not have to be complicated. It can be just something that can spark a conversation. For instance, if you are a food vendor, you can post a picture of a spicy-looking plate of food and ask your friends or followers to mention those they can share that with. You can also run promos online and whoever wins, gets a discount.

3. Think of visuals

Those on social media are more inclined to watch a video than read a text. This is why most vendors employ the services of social media comedians who post short skits that make people laugh. When someone sees a funny video, he or she is more inclined to share it, so you will be wise to take advantage of this. Also, video advertising on platforms like YouTube can be very successful.

4. Give people something to remember

It does not need to have anything to do with your product, it only has to remain on people’s minds. Think of creating a funny character or slogan that people will use. Slangs work very well, especially in Nigeria, and musicians have taken advantage of this. Why can’t businesses do the same?

5. Be weird (a little) on social media

Do not go full-blown psycho but some of the online adverts that have done well in the past have been the weirdest. Many people are online to have fun, so you have to make them laugh. Think back at some of the weird campaigns you have seen and the amount of traction they have gotten. However, be cautious because this is a dangerous line to thread seeing as there is a thin line between being weird and offensive.

Social media allows us to reach out to more people than we would normally do, but for us to be successful, we have to speak the language of social media.

 

7 Steps For An Effective Social Media Marketing Plan

 

Social media is a vital marketing channel for businesses of all sizes. The common question a few years ago, “why should our business use social media?”, is now being replaced with, “how can our business grow with social media marketing?”.

As a social media marketer, this makes me very excited. What doesn’t make me excited is how many businesses are still trying to market on social media without a documented strategy. In this post, you will learn the seven steps your business must take to create an effective social media marketing strategy.

Step 1: Audit Your Current Social Presence

“Know thyself. Know the customer. Innovate.” – Beth Comstock

Before you strategize about where you are headed, take a quick look at where you are. A few areas to consider when auditing your business’s social media presence are:

• Which networks are you currently active on
• Are your networks optimized (photo and cover images, bio, URL, etc.)
• Which networks are currently bringing you the most value
• How do your profiles compare to your competitors’ profiles

We offer a total online presence audit that includes a deep analysis of your social media, content, SEO, and web structure with a presentation of key priorities and recommended plan – Check out our Total Online Presence Audit.

Step 2: Document Who Your Ideal Customer Is

“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” – Peter Drucker

You will want to get as specific as possible with this part. For example, if you identified your target market as parents it would be ok. However, if you identify your ideal customer as a parent that lives in the United States, is between 30 and 50 years of age, earns over $70,000, primarily uses Facebook and has an interest in outdoor activities you will have much more success.

Even the best marketers will fail if they are marketing to the wrong audience. Answer the following questions to help you come up with a highly focused buyer persona:

• Age
• Location
• Job Title
• Income
• Pain Points (that your business can solve)
• Most Used Social Network

Step 3: Create A Social Media Mission Statement

“What makes you weird, makes you unique and therefore makes you stand out.” – Dan Schawbel

Your social media mission statement will drive your future actions, so make sure you put some thought into it. This statement will make it clear exactly what you plan to use your social media presence for and should reflect your brand identity. Keep in mind your ideal customer when trying to create this statement.

An example mission statement might be “to use social media to educate current and potential customers about digital marketing, with a focus on social media marketing.” Once you have this statement documented, it will make it simple for you to decide what to share and create.

If it doesn’t align with your mission statement, forget about it. Businesses that post randomly without a guiding mission will fail. People follow experts, not generalists.

Step 4: Identify Key Success Metrics

“If you cannot measure it you cannot improve it.” – Lord Kelvin

How will you determine if your social media marketing efforts are successful? I am not just talking about gaining more followers, I am talking about making money. After all, it is hard to rationalize spending time and money on something that isn’t improving the bottom line.

A few metrics to consider measuring are:

• Conversion Rate
• Time Spent on Website
• Reach
• Brand Mentions
• Sentiment
• Total Shares

Step 5: Create and Curate Engaging Content

“Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet.” – Bill Gates

Sadly, many businesses jump straight to this step. Hopefully, this post has made it clear that there are several vital steps that you must take before you start creating and curating engaging content to share on your social media channels.

Let’s now discuss the fun part, posting to social media. You know who your ideal customer is and you used that information to create your social media mission statement. Armed with this information it should be easy for you to begin creating and curating content. So, what exactly is considered content? Here are a few examples of content you could create:

• Images
• Videos
• Blog Posts
• Company News
• Infographics
• eBooks
• Interviews

The list of content ideas goes on and on, but make sure you focus only on forms of content that align with your mission statement, as well as your skill set. Content is what fuels social media, so it is crucial that you consider creating high-quality, engaging content as a top priority.

I strongly recommend that you create a content calendar that outlines how often you will post to each network, which topics you will share and when you will share them.

Step 6: Invest In a Social Media Management Tool

“We live in times in which ordinary people can do amazing things using the right tools”

Most marketers have a secret, they leverage tools to boost their productivity. Ok, maybe it isn’t a secret, but without tools, marketers would face constant burnout (many do even with tools). When it comes to social media, having a social media management tool allows you to scale your efforts with ease.

One of the main benefits of a social media management tool is the ability to schedule posts ahead of time. Remember that content calendar you created? Make sure your scheduled posts in your social media management tool align with your content calendar.

Step 7: Track, Analyze, Optimize

“If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything.” – Ronald Coase

This may be the most important step when it comes to succeeding on social media. Even the best social media marketers rely on trial and error. It might seem basic, but tracking your results, analyzing the data and then making tweaks to optimize them is crucial.

Each previous step should be re-evaluated after you have had time to analyze the results of your marketing efforts. Let the data drive you. If it is telling you Facebook or Twitter is your most effective channel, consider doubling down.

A great social media strategy is never set in stone. It is a constant work in progress that changes when necessary. So get out there, create a strategy and start optimizing it as you continue to grow and learn more about your business and your audience.

If you would like the TRW Consult team to just do your marketing for you, click here.

 

 

Culled from Duct Tape Marketing

4 Time Management Tips for Social Media Managers

 

It seems that a social media manager’s job is never done. It doesn’t matter what time of day or day of the week you’re in, there’s always more to do. Social media moves at an astronomical pace, and it can be hard to keep up.

In fact, research has found that the top two barriers impeding adoption of social business within organizations are lack of overall strategy and competing priorities.

Raise your hand if the scenario below sounds familiar:

A Day in the Life of a Social Media Manager

6am – 12pm

• Check company social media notifications before you even roll out of bed.
• Quickly respond to any messages or tweets
• Sneakily check for brand mentions as you’re stuck in traffic
• Schedule all brand messages for the day across all social networks
• Eat lunch at your desk while checking your personal Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn messages

1pm – 5pm

• Research articles that are relevant to share with your brand’s online community
• Check your company email and social media sites for new notifications
• Respond to any brand mentions or comments
• Identify influencers to connect with
• Get caught up in not one but two trending topics on Twitter
• How is it 5pm already?

6pm – Midnight

• Review daily social media performance
• Schedule morning social messages
• Register for an interesting social media marketing webinar about visual content
• Cannot function…need sleep

Making the time to execute on a comprehensive social media strategy that garners results can rattle even the most experienced marketers.  Social media marketing is flush with its own set of challenges and distractions.  Below are 4 helpful ways to help you focus and manage your social media marketing activities.

#1 – Determine Which Tactics Have the Biggest Impact

Reuters estimates that the average worker loses 2.1 hours of productivity every day to interruptions and distractions.1  To avoid wasting time begin by prioritizing your week.  While it’s true that unexpected issues can come up plan for the best and the worst.  If you have 3 hours per day on average to complete tasks related to social media strategy what will you get accomplished in those 3 hours?  If you were only to have 1.5 hours per day what would you want to get accomplished?  Proper planning will lead to improved productivity and efficiency.  Also, take some time to determine what your top distractions are and eliminate them.

#2 – Optimize for Productivity

Focus on what will have the largest impact on your productivity. Determining what time of day you are most productive, and which activities are most significant will help you to stay on track.  Are you an early riser, night owl, or somewhere in between?  Creating a daily schedule and routine can significantly improve your productivity.  You will also want to keep in mind statistical data which points to the best times of day and days of the week for engaging in social media activity.

Neil Patel of Quick Sprout recently published an infographic that details some of the best times to publish on various social media platforms.

#3 – Tips For Better Time Management

I have often thought that I was invincible and could simultaneously focus on every task at once.  A balancing act acquired from years of having too much to do, and not enough time.  I considered multi-tasking an art form and a higher form of organization than my counterparts who only focused on one thing at a time.  I could not have been more wrong.

In recent years I’ve had to buckle down and force myself to devote all of my attention to one task at a time.  I’ve found that the quality of my work has improved and the level of my stress has decreased significantly.  Some tactics that have worked for me include:

1. Closing my email when I’m working on social media tasks
2. Exiting from all browser windows and tabs except for the one I need to work on
3. Disabling chat or closing chat windows to avoid distraction
4. Picking 15 minutes a day to indulge in activities such as checking personal social media profiles, responding to texts, or chatting with friends.
5. Spending 30 minutes to an hour each morning reviewing emails and responding, do the same thing before leaving at the end of the day.

It is significantly easier to stick to your schedule if you are working ONLY on the tasks you have scheduled in the time allotted.

#4 – Use Social Media Tools for Better Time Management

Depending on your available time and social media content strategy, there are many tools that can help you accomplish more with less time.  Below are three different types of tools that social media marketers can use to get the most out of their time:

Content Curation Tools

• Scoop.it
• Storify
• Feedly
• TrapIt

Social Aggregators & Management Tools

• Hootsuite
• Buffer
• Sprout Social

Want more? Here’s an awesome list of 22 social media management tools

Still Feeling Overwhelmed?

In order to help you better focus on the tasks at hand ask yourself the following questions:

• What are your top 3 social media goals and do you have a plan for reaching them?
• How much time can you dedicate each day to using tactics to reach these goals?
• What steps can you take to improve your focus while completing social media activities?
• Which type of tool: curation, aggregator, or social bookmarking can you use to help save time?

Sometimes, there are just too many moving pieces for your internal team to execute on. Know when it’s time to call in reinforcements and work with the social media marketing experts to help manage your workload.

What have you found are your biggest daily distractions when trying to manage a social media marketing program?

Image via Shutterstock

Top Rank Blog

How to Build a Social Media Community: Content and Collaboration

 

I like to be on the cutting edge when it comes to utilizing social media and content. With the social landscape changing so often, we have to constantly be students of it, striving to find individuals whose content stands out from the crowd - to learn from and emulate.

Being "more interested than interesting" means that I take the opportunity to learn from the top social media influencers, allowing me to duplicate their social media fundamentals to improve my online presence.

I often consult my team members about the content that they enjoy most on social media. This is how I came across Eliot Robinson, the young entrepreneur and operator behind the @dunk account with more than 2 million followers on Instagram. Robinson has built a massive community based on his unique brand of basketball content. His community-building talent even caught the attention of superstar entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk, who asked Robinson to help expand his social media profiles, resulting in more than a million new followers across Vaynerchuk’s platforms.

I was eager to learn more about what makes the @dunk community special. So, I phoned Robinson to get his input on my two keys for creating an engaged social media following: content and collaboration.

Content is still king

Today’s best social media strategists focus on aggregating content on their platforms. They elevate their own brands through collaborations with others, leveraging their content, while also minimizing operating and production costs. And the better your reputation for social media excellence becomes, the more users you'll find who are willing to work together for little-to-no compensation. This technique allows you to aggregate valuable content on your social media platforms and avoid content creation processes that waste time and money.

According to Robinson, incorporating humour and putting your own personal spin on the content of others adds personality to your posts and allows for personal expression, which pulls in your audience. You must find a frequency, a combination of truth and awareness that resonates with others. This is key for any public figure, and especially true on social media.

Be sure to bring an energy of creativity when it comes to your content. As Robinson advises, “Post things the viewers want to see, rather than satisfying your own preferences."

Originality and emotion build better relationships

One important facet of social media success is maintaining strong relationships with viewers, readers and listeners. That's why I make a point of replying to almost everyone who interacts with my content, whether it's on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or YouTube.

Experts in this field, like Robinson, advocate building long-lasting relationships with your audience by consistently posting content that is 100 percent your own. Original content gives followers insight into your life (and mind), which aids in developing a stronger connection.

 

Emotion is another tool heavily utilized by many social media strategists. The best social media pages use emotional pulls to develop connections between themselves and their audience. In my content, I do my best to address and solve common problems that my followers experience, such as being told “no” or experiencing the emotion of embarrassment. This provides value that they might not get elsewhere.

These days, there's a vast amount of focus on negativity. But, if you add components like humour, excitement or hope to your content, you'll generate a stronger attraction to your community.

The role of partnerships

Social media professionals like Robinson are able to create and maintain partnerships with other talented content creators by leveraging their internet popularity and success. Robinson also cites a need to have the first rights to the content of others, however, as original content is much easier to monetize.

This strategy of combining lots of valuable and unique content gives users the ability to stand out and flourish as a one-of-a-kind social media account. For this reason, I leverage my own brand to connect with icons in the sports, business and inspiration fields, in order to collaborate on new content.

One of my best recent social media collab opportunities came from working with the @motivation_mondays Instagram account. I did an interview on Instagram Live, along with the curator of the account, and answered questions about inspiration and motivation from the account’s followers. Not only did I help to create some great original content for @motivation_mondays, but I captured content to share on my own page and gained many new followers in the process.

This mutually beneficial exchange is the essence of a community. Both giving value and gaining value is what collaboration is all about!

David Meltzer

10 Tips and Tricks to Stay Safe on Social Media

 

Many of us spend a large amount of our time on social media - Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, or other sites. We share our pictures, our feelings and our memories. However, we also share a lot of personal information on these sites, whether we know it or not.

Because of social media’s large presence and the amount of information we share through it, it is extremely important to be a smart social media user. Follow the tips below to help you stay safe while using these platforms.

1. Don’t Overshare

It’s easy to share information on social media, and much of it is content you may not deem important. But individuals with bad intentions can use the excessive personal information you share to commit crimes, such as stealing your identity, breaking into your house when you’re on vacation or stealing packages off your porch.

This also goes for LinkedIn; the more work and education history you share, the easier it is for thieves to steal your identity or guess your passwords. Be careful of any specifics and details you share online, and before you hit “post,” consider how the information could be used by someone of ill will.

2. Check Your Privacy Options

On Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and all of the other sites, make sure your security settings are where you want them to be.

It’s wise to make your Facebook profile private to users that aren’t your friends and to request the approval of your Instagram followers. Limit the personal information that other social media users can see by adjusting your privacy settings on each of your profiles.

You can also edit your privacy options to require a security question to be asked when logging on to the site from a new IP address, which will help prevent your accounts from getting hacked.

3. Verify People and Pages

Before you accept a friend or follow request, look at the individual’s page. If you know them and can verify that through the information available, then it’s probably safe to approve them (if you want).

If the information on their profile page doesn’t seem to add up, or you’re not sure if you know them, don’t be afraid to deny (or just ignore) a request.

If there are a lot of typos, only limited pictures or posts that just don’t sound like the person you think it might be, you should proceed with caution. It is not uncommon for people to impersonate other users or even brands on social media and use it to take advantage of other users. Keep this in mind and do a thorough check before you accept.

4. Do Not Violate the Social Media Policies of Your Company

Be familiar with the terms and conditions that regulate social media use at your work. Some obvious no-no’s are using company property to check your personal social media pages or posting on social media about co-workers.

You should never share company-specific details online - for some companies, this may even qualify as the sharing of trade secrets and can land you in big trouble.

5. Know How Sites Use Your Information

Many social media sites sell some of your information to advertisers; that is how they keep the use of their sites free. You have a right to know, however, exactly what information is being collected and how it is being used. Most social media sites will have this policy posted somewhere on their company website, but if you can’t find it, don’t be afraid to reach out and ask for a copy of this policy.

6. Don’t Buy into the Popularity Contest

Contrary to popular belief, the more is not necessarily merrier when it comes to social media friends. Make sure your “friends” online are actual real people that you know. For any “friends” that you’re not sure about, dig into their profile a little bit more and if you still have concerns, don’t be afraid to remove them from your network.

Having the most “friends” out of all your friends is not worth the risk if it leads to imposters knowing too much information about you.

7. Check Your Password

Make sure your password is something that could not easily be guessed by someone scrolling through your Facebook, YouTube channel, Instagram or Twitter (e.g. if all of your posts are about your dog Binkie, then don’t make your password Binkie123).

It’s also best to have a different, unique password for each social media site. If you access social media from your phone, be sure that your phone also has a unique, difficult-to-guess password.

8. Sounds Too Good to be True? It Probably is.

When a social media account gets hacked, the account will likely start posting offers for various goods. A common example is RayBan sunglasses for $19.99!.

Do not ever click on these links, no matter how tempting. It’s nice to also let your friend know if you think their account has been hacked.

9. Install Antivirus Software

Make sure that any computer you use to access social media has antivirus software.

Because of the sheer amount of posts and links and profiles related to social media sites, it’s very easy for viruses to sneak into the content, particularly if you do inadvertently click on a malicious link. Good antivirus software will also protect your pages against viruses that are trying to steal your information.

10. Lose the Location

It’s tempting to tell the world exactly what you’re doing exactly when you’re doing it and exactly where you are. That, however, is not a smart practice. As was already previously mentioned, this can make it easy for thieves to take advantage of the fact that you’re in Aruba for a week. But it also makes it tempting for individuals to stalk you during your everyday routine.

Make sure to turn off all location settings on your social media sites so that Facebook or Twitter doesn’t announce to the whole world that you posted that picture at the gym Monday morning (when you were supposed to be at work).

As with most things, it’s important to listen to your gut when it comes to social media. This friend request looks a little weird? Ignore it. That ad has too many typos? Don’t click on it. The friend of a friend of a friend that you approved keeps commenting on all of your pictures? Delete him. Remember that your safety is always the number one priority.

You can never be too cautious when it comes to social media. However, if you follow these tips listed above, you’ll be off to a good start.

 

Sophie is a technology enthusiast at Security Gladiators. A writer by day and a reader by night, she is specialized in tech and cybersecurity. When she is not behind the screen, Sophie can be found playing with her dog.

3 Successful Ways to Promote Your Business on Social Media

 

Looking for new ways to promote your business and put your brand in front of social media users?

Wondering what’s working for others?

It’s possible to keep your social posts focused on your brand and avoid seeming self-centred and overly promotional.

In this article, you’ll discover three ways to promote your business on social media more often without turning people off.

 

#1: Turn to Micro-Influencers Who Share Your Brand Aesthetics

What’s wrong with branded content in the first place? “Most branded content is advertising under a thin layer of information or entertainment. Scratch the paint, find an ad. It’s the brand putting itself first,” Andy Crestodina explained. In other words, branded content is self-serving, and your audience knows it.

The solution: Don’t create it yourself. Instead, go the way of influencers. Unfortunately, here’s where terminology can get you in trouble. Influencer marketing is normally presented as old-school networking dressed up in fresh, digital clothing. Build relationships. Add value. Create a roundup or two. Then reach out for links and shares.

When it comes to branded content, however, influencer marketing is far more akin to advanced product placement. Step one: Get your product or service into the hands of someone your audience trusts. Step two: Get that person to create content around it. Step three: Integrate their content into your platforms.

This article on how to set up a social influencer marketing campaign provides fantastic guidance for getting off the ground. But what exactly does this approach look like in action?

Founded six years ago, Pura Vida Bracelets evolved from a college graduation trip to Costa Rica into a multimillion-dollar e-commerce empire. Alongside a host of tools, their marketing has revolved heavily around influencers.

In this paid influencer post, Pura Vida was able to leverage Rachel Brathen’s (@yoga_girl) 2.1 million followers and track ROI through an exclusive coupon.

As co-founder Griffin Thall explained to me, “Our team digs through Instagram to find creators and influencers that fit our brand’s vibe. We communicate via email and feel them out for ‘trade for product’ or paid collaboration in return for photos, posts, IG stories, IG lives, account take-overs, and giveaways.”

That approach has yielded massively popular posts on influencer accounts as well as on Pura Vida’s own.

With content creators whose audiences are fewer than 50K, Pura Vida trades ‘product for photos’ to leverage micro-influencers.

And it’s the simplicity of Thall’s explanation that offers the most hope for branded content. By seeking out creators with fewer than 50K followers or influencers with more than 500K, you can scale your approach to fit your business.

#2: Give People a Way to Share a Laugh with You

If you’re going to create and host branded content, there’s one ingredient that unites nearly all of the top performers: humour.

This isn’t just because everyone likes to laugh. In his book Contagious: Why Things Catch On, Jonah Berger discusses the close connection between physiological arousal and sharing. Simply put, pumping hearts lead to busy fingers (digitally speaking). As surprising as it might sound, “Funny content is shared because amusement is a high-arousal emotion.”

Denny’s Tumblr is an excellent example of how to make funny work. From bizarre pictures of horses with their midsections Photoshopped into an English muffin to blogs titled “How do you kill a pancake successfully? I need to know for research purposes,” their content communicates that they don’t take themselves too seriously and you shouldn’t either.

Denny’s Facebook Live Q&A with a pancake was pure branded gold.

Along the same golden lines was Hamburger Helper’s Watch the Stove campaign. More than just humorous, Watch the Stove brought on serious musical heavyweights, and as General Mills’ Senior Marketing Partnership Planner Ashley Wright put it, “We tried to take away any corporate aspect of it.”

Humour is a great way to make it feel like your branded content isn’t, well, branded.

#3: Integrate Brand Advocates’ Social Content Into Your Marketing

Much like influencer marketing, user-generated content (UGC) has been around for years. However, brands have only recently begun to systematically integrate it into their marketing.

Why? Because from sales to social, UGC is conversion gold.

In How Companies Will Use Social Media In 2017, Ryan Holmes points out that UGC “taps into users’ basic impulse – the one at the heart of social media’s appeal in the first place – to create and engage, rather than sit on the sidelines passively.” Campus Protein, for instance, does this masterfully by soliciting, sharing, and regularly posting content made by customers.

This UGC was submitted by a fan, and distributed on a host of Campus Protein’s accounts and added to their on-site checkout process.

But sharing isn’t all Campus Protein does. Having collected over 1,800 reviews and countless images through their hashtag #teamcp, they’ve taken all that UGC and integrated it into their product pages as well.

With their hashtag #Gymshark, Gymshark takes a similar approach and uses UGC in top-of-funnel and bottom-of-funnel content.

The reason for this integration comes straight from the data. According to Yotpo’s benchmark study of more than half a million online shoppers, people who see UGC are 166% more likely to convert than those who don’t. In essence, when you leverage UGC in branded content, you make the customer the hero, instead of the company.

Gymshark mixes their in-house content with UGC both off-site (such as on Facebook and Instagram) as well as on-site to reach new customers through their existing customers’ connections.

Generating UGC comes down to a handful of intentional steps. First, actively invite people to provide UGC not just on social but especially through transactional emails like order confirmations. Second, make submitting UGC as easy as possible with dedicated hashtags. Third, use UGC tools like Yotpo or Engage Hub to collect reviews, ratings, photos, and customer stories.

Remember, you’re not your best salesperson. Your customer is.

Conclusion

The truth is, despite the explosion of branded content, few have overcome its fundamental problem: Everybody hates branded content.

For example, Beckon’s study “Marketing Truth or Marketing Hype?” found that “while branded content creation is up 300 per cent year over year, consumer engagement with that content is totally flat.” According to their numbers, a mere 5% of all branded content accounts for 90% of total engagement.

That’s an uncomfortable ratio. But it also presents an opportunity. If 5% fuels 90%, then getting branded content right has huge payoffs.

Thankfully, it’s no secret what makes content lovable: for people, by people, that entertains and educates. In the words of the 20th century’s patron saint of advertising, David Ogilvy: “You know, you can’t bore people into buying your product. You can only interest them in buying it.” The same thing is true today.

What do you think? Have you tried any of these methods for getting your audience to love your branded content? Do you have any other tips to share? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Social Media Examiner

The 3 Stages of Social Media Marketing for Events

Social media revolutionized the way people experience events. From promoting concerts to organizing protest marches to simply throwing a party, social media platforms are important tools for communicating and mobilizing people.

For nonprofits, social media marketing is now an instrumental part of growing an event. And while social media is often thought of as in-the-moment and spontaneous, effective social media marketing requires forethought. When planning a social media campaign for your nonprofit event, it helps to break it down into phases. Read on to learn about the three phases of social media event promotion and how to succeed every step of the way.

Social Media Marketing: How to Handle Your Event Promotion

1. Before the Event

Supporters will not attend your event if they don’t know about it. That fact is at the core of your first phase of social media event promotion. In the weeks (or even months) leading up to your event, use social media to spread the news and register people ahead of time.

To get started, identify …

Your Platforms

You can’t succeed without focus. There are new social channels popping up all the time, but you should concentrate your efforts on the two or three platforms that work best for your organization and your event.

Your Goals

Clear goals will also help focus your social media promotion efforts. For a nonprofit event, registrations or ticket sales will likely be an important measure of success. Though, it’s important to also keep the long-term value of gaining new followers and generating engagement and impressions in mind.

Your Key Announcements and Deadlines

Structure your social media promotion around a few important announcements or deadlines. You might release the date or main activities, or announce speakers, special guests, or deadlines for early-bird ticket prices. This allows you to repeatedly promote your event while relaying important information to your audience and keeping the message fresh.

It’s also a good idea to begin the use of event hashtags well before the big day. This encourages your supporters to use them and helps create interest and buzz. Reach out to a handful of dedicated supporters and ask them to post about the event. You can also call on any sponsors or partners to promote the event on social media. Send them sample text or share images that they can easily post to their social networks.

2. During the Event

Your pre-event social media work is about awareness and registrations, but during the event, your objectives shift. Day of, your efforts will seek to:

• Enhance the attendee experience
• Share the event with those who couldn’t make it
• Collect content for future engagement and event promotion

Attendee Experience

Your organization can use social media to understand what your audience loves about your event and what they don’t care for. This is where an event hashtag becomes really important as it allows you to discover posts about your event in one stream. Like, share, and respond to positive posts. This will encourage people to keep talking about your event. You might even start trending!

But don’t ignore complaints. A study found that 42 percent of people who contact a brand on social media expect a response within an hour. While you’re sure to be busy on the day of your event, reading and responding to negative posts can alert you to problems you may not know about. Even if you don’t have an immediate solution, replying or messaging the attendee shows you care and want to make things right.

Share With Your Social Audience

Social media allows people all over the world to experience events they can’t necessarily attend. Use your social posts to show others what they’re missing. This will not only nurture existing relationships, but also intrigue new potential supporters. Post high-quality pictures and videos, short testimonials from attendees, and fun updates and highlights of your event. Those who could not (or chose not to) come might be enticed by what you share and make a note not to miss your next event.

Collect Content

Events offer tons of content opportunities. From pictures to videos to quotes, a great event can help generate blog and social media content for months to come. Get your whole team on board and task them to write down any awesome quotes or favorite moments. It’s also smart to have a specific list of images you want to capture ahead of time so you can ensure they’re taken.

While it’s important to have a plan walking into your event, you also need to be flexible with your day-of social strategy to capitalize on the day in an authentic way. Some of the best social media content happens in the moment. Don’t be afraid to replace or add an extra post that really shows off what’s special about your event.

3. After the Event

Much like a fundraising campaign, the final phase of your social media event marketing is about follow-up, reengagement, and key learnings. Make sure to post some thank you or wrap-up messages on your main social media channels. Now is also the time to consolidate all of the content you collected for future marketing initiatives. Review your assets and decide how they will be used in future promotions.

In this phase, you can also use social media to collect feedback from your community. In the days after, post questions about attendees’ favorite experiences. You can also promote the link to a survey to get more detailed feedback. This information will be extremely valuable when you plan your next event. You will learn what elements resonated and what issues you can improve upon.

Finally, keep your followers and event attendees updated on your subsequent events. If this is your signature annual event you can even start selling tickets for next year immediately. Let people commit now, when they’re full of happy memories.

 

Social media is a fun and flexible way to enhance your events. But, like other forms of marketing, it still requires focus and preparation. Use these three phases to optimize the social media element of your next event marketing plan

 

Culled From Classy

How to Improve Your Customer Engagement on Social Media

Looking for ways to improve your customer engagement on social media? Here are 8.

First off, if you have experience in social media marketing, you know that engaging users is no easy task.

The biggest mistake people make when promoting their brand, company or even themselves on social media is thinking that simply posting is enough. However, that’s far from the case. Managing a Facebook, Instagram or Twitter account means having to strategize ways to keep your current audience captivated, while simultaneously attracting new users to your page.

Both of these activities can be full-time jobs. And, unfortunately, most people struggle to do either well. After all, how many times have you heard the words: “We just need to post better content”?

But because building a loyal following on social media isn’t easy, that doesn’t mean it has to be complicated. Some of the best digital marketers today started building Instagram pages as a hobby -- until suddenly they were boasting hundreds of thousands of followers. What they did was double down on their strengths and learn how to work on their weaknesses.

Here are eight ways you can increase your engagement on social media and make your pages a destination worth following.

8 Ways to Increase Customer Engagement on Social Media

1. Always post.

The first rule to increasing engagement is to constantly create and post relevant content. To do this, you need to figure out what content engages your audience. A lot of brands don’t fully understand how crucial it is to study their competitors and other people in their space.

One of the best strategies is to be a curator instead of a creator. With so much great content being posted to social media, there’s no reason to try to build an audience solely off original content. Curated content, or content shared from other pages, is how some of the most popular pages have built audiences in the millions. @Thefatjewish, for example, boasts over 10 million followers, and the page is almost entirely curated content.

So, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Look for trends that are currently grabbing people’s attention, and capitalize on them.

2. Stay relevant by being timely.

The most successful accounts know how to piggyback off trending topics, events in the news and significant policy discussions. They recognize that it’s a lot easier to insert yourself into a massive conversation that’s already happening than to start a conversation from scratch.

Jonathan Foley, founder of @Positivity and @Societyfeelings, and CEO of WULF Marketing, says, “When you see a page or account that has extremely high engagement, it’s because they know how to create content that resonates. So if you make every post with the intention of it being extremely relevant to something that’s already happening in the world, you’re going to tap into that traffic. Some great examples of people doing this are @lelepons, @course and @barstoolsports.”

This eye on relevancy strategy must be working for Foley and @Positivity, since the page gained more than 100,000 followers in less than a month, and averages over 1 million impressions per day.

3. Be bold.

If you want your page to get noticed, it has to stand out from the crowd.

Users follow so many brands and pages that after a while they all begin to blend together. As a brand, know that it’s your job to always find ways to separate yourself from what everyone else is doing.

For example, short videos on social media with big text above and below the video have become extremely popular. Something Gary Vaynerchuk has done to make his videos stand out is add a red progress bar to his videos. This might seem like a small detail, but it separates his videos from the competition.

4. Get to know your audience.

A great way to connect with people on your page is to create a conversation.

Many people believe that “creating a conversation” means posting pictures and then responding to comments with general, rehearsed responses. However, that attitude may put you with the people out there struggling to succeed.

To increase customer engagement, be engaging yourself. This means calling out specific people in your stories, or finding ways to thank or even reward your most engaged followers. And, if you don’t have the bandwidth to reply, hire someone to do it for you. Yes, it’s that important.

5. Run campaigns and promotions.

Nowadays, even the most viral-worthy pages have to spend money to continue growing.

Running ad campaigns behind your most popular or most engaging posts can be a great way to sustain momentum and continue building your brand. Once you know which posts resonate the most with your audience, present them to new audiences so that you can attract the kinds of people you want following your page.

Furthermore, you can use this data to inform your own content creation or curation process. If meme posts get the most engagement, then share more of them. If it’s videos, share more videos. Let the data inform you so you can do more of what’s already working.

6. Have a personality.

Brand awareness is key. But brand awareness and the best content strategy mean nothing if you’re dull as a doorknob.

The best social media pages have a personality. Whether you’re an influencer or a big brand like Skittles, your job is to develop a brand voice people want to listen to.

Some questions to ask yourself are: what topics (within your industry) get people riled up? What types of content are controversial? What can you do that will get people talking? And, most importantly, what can you say that the most people will be able to relate to?

Creating customer engagement takes real work. But by using data and trial and error, you will learn over time which pieces of content resonate the most. Chances are, they’ll be the posts with the most personality.

7. Post when your audience is watching.

One of the most underestimated aspects of social media growth and customer engagement is timing.

Different sources will give you different information on the optimal posting times. Some say you should post after work hours - but we all know people check their phones during work. Others say you should post during work hours - but then again, that's when people should be working.

The truth is, when you "should" post depends entirely on your audience.

Are you trying to engage 16-year-old gamers? Then probably post after school hours, since high school is a bit more strict about kids using their phones. Are you trying to engage college students? Middle of the day could work, but so could really late at night.

Timing is a trial-and-error process. Try posting at different times of the day, and track your engagement. When you start to see patterns, use them to inform your posting times.

8. Make your posts (and your page) visually appealing.

This may seem obvious for a visually based network like Instagram, but it’s a lot harder to implement on Twitter, LinkedIn and even Facebook.

Optimizing the visual starts with your bio and ends with your content. Make sure your bio is spaced appropriately and has emojis that speak to your brand. Make sure the post pinned to the top of your profile is one with a high amount of engagement (and a great picture). And, most important of all, make sure your profile is a complete representation of who you are and what you share. Do this by alternating between text, pictures and videos.

Remember: if your page looks great, users will be more likely to give it their attention, which of course is the whole goal.

By Aj Agrawal