By Lisa Cedrone
If you are competing in today’s e-commerce world as a coach, practitioner or purveyor of products, simply offering “goods and services” is no longer enough to win market share. To truly become a leading contender online, you need to build a vibrant, interactive business to attract website visitors and then convert them into customers—and you need to focus on creating engaging “experiences” as part of this process.1
One of the essential keys to creating a dynamic e-commerce business is leveraging the power of content and social media marketing, which “can help elevate your audience and customer base in a dramatic way,” explains Susan Gunelius in an Entrepreneur magazine article about social media marketing. Whether you are using Facebook or Twitter, YouTube or LinkedIn, she defines 10 fundamental principles that you should abide by “to help build a foundation that will serve your customers, your brand and—perhaps most importantly—your bottom line:” 2
- Listen. “Success with social media and content marketing requires more listening and less talking. Read your target audience’s online content and join discussions to learn what’s important to them. Only then can you create content and spark conversations that add value rather than clutter to their lives.”
- Focus. “A highly-focused social media and content marketing strategy intended to build a strong brand has a better chance for success than a broad strategy that attempts to be all things to all people.”
- Offer Quality. “It’s better to have 1,000 online connections who read, share and talk about your content with their own audiences than 10,000 connections who disappear after connecting with you the first time.”
- Have Patience. “Success doesn’t happen overnight.” Most likely, you’ll need to commit to the long haul to achieve results.
- Understand Compounding. “If you publish amazing, quality content and work to build your online audience of quality followers, they’ll share it with their own audiences.” Others sharing and discussing your content increases entry points for search engines like Google to find it in keyword searches.
- Seek Out Influencers. Focus on finding online influencers who have established audiences and are likely to be interested in your products and/or services and business. Work to build relationships with them.
- Add Value. “If you spend all your time on the social web directly promoting your products and services, people will stop listening. You must add value to the conversation.”
- Acknowledge People. “Building relationships is one of the most important parts of social media marketing success, so always acknowledge every person who reaches out to you.”
- Be Accessible. “Consistently publish content and participate in conversations. Followers online can be fickle and they won’t hesitate to replace you if you disappear for weeks or months.”
- Practice Reciprocity. “A portion of the time you spend on social media should be focused on sharing and talking about content published by others.”
Plan for Success
Once you understand the essentials of social media and content marketing and how to use them to create meaningful online experiences for customers, it’s important to take the time to plan out campaigns and pick the best platform(s) that will meet your objectives. According to small business expert Susan Solovic, there are three strategies you should employ in this regard:3
- Establish Goals. “Common social-media campaign goals include attracting more followers, creating interest in a specific product or service, heightening brand awareness and increasing the amount of shared content.” As part of this process, identify the best social media platforms for the job and the best type of content to create.
- Create a Schedule. “Sit down with a calendar and plan the year. It might make sense for you to launch some campaigns that center on holidays or seasons.”
- Measure Results. Tools such as Google Analytics and the use of hashtags can help your business keep track of how a campaign is performing.
Leading Social Media Platforms
Now let’s look at seven of the leading social media platforms and how they can be utilized for your marketing needs:
Facebook: Facebook is the largest social media network in the world with more than 1.6 billion active users, 62 percent of whom log in on a daily basis. The platform offers free business pages for companies, organizations and public figures, and users can “Like” these pages, meaning they’ll automatically receive updates in their newsfeed. While personal profiles on Facebook require a mutual relationship between “friends,” business pages can be liked by anyone, without a requirement for the page creator to accept a fan. They also don’t have a restriction on the number of friends/fans they can have (unlike profiles, which are limited to 5,000 friends).4
Using the Facebook targeted advertising platform, you can create ads for specific geographic areas, ages, education levels and even the types of devices used for browsing. Ad campaigns can be run on a per-impression or per-click basis, and Facebook can show you bids for similar ads, so you know if your bid is in line with others in your field of expertise. It’s also possible to set daily limits so an ad budget can run over a scheduled time period without running out of funds. 4
To complement Facebook marketing, you also can use the Facebook Pixel, “a piece of code that you can place on your website to report conversions, build audiences and get rich insights about how people are using your website,” according to Facebook. Another feature of the platform, Facebook Live, allows you to stream live webinars, which are a great sales tool for marketers, according to Jon Loomer, a leading Facebook expert and blogger. 5 It’s easy to use because no added software is needed for Facebook users to view events, and there is no maximum number of attendees.
Here are some additional tips for success with Facebook marketing from HubSpot.com:6
- Don’t post too often. Companies with less than 10,000 followers receive 60 percent fewer interactions per post when they post more than 60 times per month.
- Use multimedia and graphics. Content can generate up to 94 percent more views with compelling graphics.
- Post at strategic times. Posts between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. have the best clickthrough and share rates.
- Respond quickly. Forty-two percent of users who complain on social media expect a response in 60 minutes.
- Use a paid budget to boost successful organic posts. You will get a better return on investment when you know a post works before you spend money to share it.
Pintrest: The equivalent of an online bulletin board or vision board, Pintrest allows users to “pin” images to their account and create “boards” with different themes. Approximately three years ago, the platform added paid advertising and in fall 2016 it added video advertising options. According to a January 2017 interview with president Tim Kendall in Adweek, “I think people have crossed into a threshold where they’re really paying attention and seeing us as a platform where they need to invest in the same way that they have to invest on Google and Facebook.”9
However, cautions Justin Sachs, in a Huffington Post article on social media marketing, “Only use this channel if you have great images to share. Quality images are likely to go viral on this site due to its visual nature. If your image is pinned by a highly followed member, it has the potential to be viewed by millions. It’s also great for promoting products.”7
Instagram: Another popular image-oriented (photo and video) social media platform is Instagram, which is owned by and can be connected to Facebook and its advertising tools.
According to Wishpond.com, “There are more than 400 million active users on Instagram every month, and every day 3.5 billion photos are liked. Use Instagram for business purposes in the right way, and you could have an instant viral marketing success….You can use Instagram to tell a visual story about your brand, instantly engage with your followers wherever they are, and even get very real user-generated content through hashtag photo contests.” Overall, an Instagram business account offers the opportunity to focus “on your brand’s unique way of seeing the world.” 12
One of the key marketing tools on the Instragram platform is hashtags, which are the primary way that users find content and businesses through mobile searches. There are no character limits on Instagram, so it’s advisable to add several tags to each post to encourage connections. It’s also important to include you business name in hashtag posts and to create unique tags if you are running a photo or video contest. This strategy promotes the content and also allows other participants to check out the competition and build community. 12
Focusing on customers is another critical strategy for success marketing on Instagram. Here are some tips from Wishpond.com to help you succeed on this front: 12
- Make your followers famous. Show your customers you appreciate them by acknowledging their cool photos, and share them on your other social sites. NOTE: be sure to ask permission to use a photo first.
- Embed followers’ photos. Instagram now enables you to embed Instagram photos on your website and other sites. Make sure you tell someone you’re showcasing their image, to make them feel appreciated, and to get their permission.
- “Like” your followers’ photos. Acknowledge your customers by liking their photos—particularly if they include your product or emulate your brand.
- Comment on followers’ photos. Engage with your consumers by commenting on amazing product-related photos they post.
- Respond to comments on all your posts. This is particularly true when then comment is a question, or even something negative about your brand.
- @mention your customers. By linking a reference to followers, you show appreciation for them, and you get to engage with your market. Do the same for celebrities and other related industry leaders.
- Focus on engaging your customer. Post images with your customer in mind, and make your business Instagram outreach about lifestyle and authentically connecting with your customers.
Twitter: Twitter broadcasts short messages (140 characters max), which are called “tweets” (also known as a microblog), and “this size cap promotes focused and clever use of language, which makes tweets very easy to scan, and also very challenging to write well,” notes Paul Gil in a Lifewire.com blog article. “This size restriction has really made Twitter a popular social tool.
“The modern internet-savvy user is tired of television advertisements,” adds Gil. “People today prefer advertising that is faster, less intrusive and can be turned on or off at will… and Twitter is exactly that. If you learn how the nuances of tweeting work, you can get good advertising results by using Twitter.”
“Twitter’s value lies in its ability for your posts to go viral: the more people share your posts and ‘retweet’ your content, the more followers you will attain,” says Justin Sachs, in a Huffington Post article on social media marketing. “Hashtags make a big difference in building momentum for your [Twitter] posts,” he adds, “so pay attention to what is trending today and include relevant hashtags.”7
YouTube: The second largest search engine on the Internet, YouTube is owned by Google, which makes its videos more likely to appear in search results than those created on other video platforms. When it comes to using YouTube as a marketing tool, the golden rule is “volume,” according to a Forbes article on YouTube marketing strategy by AJ Agrawal.10
“Ask any full-time YouTuber, social celebrity, successful vlogger or brand on YouTube and they will tell you that their viewership rose as soon as they started increasing their volume,” Agrawal notes. “Now, there is a tipping point, and you can’t simply be publishing rubbish content and expect it to perform well. The perfect intersection is quality content but published on an extremely regular basis—but it’s the regularity that often gets glossed over…When you publish content on a regular basis, you create a cadence with your audience….YouTube marketing really comes down to picking a few key areas where you feel you can deliver true thought leadership, entertainment or some kind of value, and then mass producing content that falls within those larger buckets.”
Another tip for success on YouTube (and Facebook) is to add subtitles to videos. It’s because many people watch videos on their phones without sound when in public. “You want as many people as possible to watch your content—and removing one of the biggest barriers of entry (sound) by providing a secondary option is a big win,” says Agrawal.10
Blogs: Blogs, which comes from combining the words “web” and “log,” started in the 1990s as online diaries. In the late 1990s, LiveJournal and then Blogger developed turnkey platforms, and WordPress, now the market leader, was introduced in the early 2000s. Blogs moved websites from primarily static information sources to dynamic conversation hubs, where visitors can post comments on blog articles and start online conversations.
Blogs are ideal for marketing because they can provide a steady stream of new content to draw people back to a website and offer a way for consumers and businesses to interact. According to an article by Randy Duermyer at TheBalance.com, the benefits of a blog marketing strategy include:11
- Inexpensive to start and run. “For the cost of a domain and webhosting, you can have a customized blog marketing for you.”
- Easy to use. “If you can copy, paste, type, drag and drop, and upload, you can have a professional looking blog.”
- Effective way to create return traffic to your site. “Offering tips, updates and other new content gives people a reason to return to your business website.”
- Improves search engine ranking. “Google, in particular, likes to find and rank new content, and many entrepreneurs use blogging specifically for search engine optimization (SEO).”
- Allows you to show off your expertise to gain trust and credibility with your market. “People like to now who they do business with. With a blog you can prove you’re an expert, provide helpful tips and other valuable information, all of which help consumers feel good about spending money on your product or service.”
- Connect with your market. “Blogs can allow you to have a conversation with your market. This allows you to build trust and rapport, as well as get feedback and provide customer service.”
- It can make money beyond your product or service. “You can accept advertising, promote affiliate products and get sponsors, adding additional sources of revenue to your business.”
LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a relationship-building site for business professionals and an excellent platform for business-to-business marketing. According to statistics from the company, “Over 433 million professionals are on LinkedIn. These are the decision makers, influencers, the leaders of today and tomorrow…61 million senior-level influencers, 40 million decision makers, 6.8 million C-level execs, 6.3 million small business owners, and thousands of other combinations.” Paid business-to-business ad products on the platform include “Sponsored Content” and “Text Ads,” complemented with comprehensive targeting options to reach specific audiences.
Like Facebook, LinkedIn offers company pages that can be followed by others on the platform. They are designed to help businesses build online communities and share meaningful content that can help build brand awareness. In his Huffington Post article, Gil advises: “Don’t lead with a sales pitch; start by building a connection. One of the best features for businesses is LinkedIn Groups. Businesses should establish Groups in [their] target niche or industry and invite others in [that] target market to join.”
The LinkedIn website offers three tips to improve your chances of marketing success when engaging people with your business page:
- Create a content stream. Use your company’s updates to showcase your expertise and establish your brand as a thought leader. Share a wide array of content with your followers, including insightful articles, company news, and more.
- Demonstrate value. To grow an engaged following, it’s important to lead with useful content. For every post promoting your company, make sure four posts focus on thought leadership or industry trends.
- Post frequently. On average, companies that post 20 times per month reach at least 60 percent of their audience. Stick to a regular posting schedule so followers can rely on you to keep them informed and up to date.
Author’s note: Next month, we’ll look at shopping cart programs and how to evaluate the best one for your product or service. Check out last month’s article about e-Commerce.
Lisa Cedrone is the editor of Transformation Magazine and a freelance editor, writer, and graphic designer working primarily in the spiritual and alternative healing communities. Prior to establishing her Sarasota, FL-based freelance business in 2008, Lisa spent 20 years as an editor/editor-in-chief for two of the Top 10 business-to-business publishers in the United States, serving the apparel manufacturing and residential construction/building markets. Her company, DragonFly Nation, offers a wide range of creative services, with an emphasis on cost-effective, turnkey editorial and design projects for both print and web. Contact her at lisa@suncoasttransformation.com or visit DragonFlyNation.com.
References:
1. The Experience Economy: Work Is Theater & Every Business a Stage, B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore, 1999.
2. “10 Laws of Social Media Marketing,” by Susan Gunelius, Entrepreneur, online article at https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/218160
3. “3 Strategies to Nail Before You Launch Your Social-Media Campaign,” by Susan Solovic, February 18, 2017, Entrepreneur, online article at https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/288609
4. “Facebook Marketing: A Comprehensive Guide for Beginners,” Kissmetrics blog, online post at https://blog.kissmetrics.com/facebook-marketing/
5. “Facebook Live: How to Stream a Webinar,” by Jon Loomer, January 5, 2017, JonLoomer.com blog, online post at http://www.jonloomer.com/2017/01/05/facebook-live-how-to-stream-a-webinar/
6. “The Do’s and Don’ts of How to Use Facebook for Business [Infographic],” by Ginny Mineo, November 16, 2015, HubSpot.com blog, online post at https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/dos-donts-facebook-business-infographic#sm.000016gquknyfcf97ywtlxk0esg9f
7. “The 7 Best Social Media Channels for Business Marketing,” By Justin Sachs, August 26, 2016, Huffington Post, online article at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/young-entrepreneur-council/the-10-best-social-media_b_11654820.html
8. “What Exactly Is ‘Twitter’? What Is ‘Tweeting’?” by Paul Gil, December 23, 2016, Lifewire.com blog, online article at https://www.lifewire.com/what-exactly-is-twitter-2483331
9. “Here’s What Marketers Can Expect From Pinterest in 2017,” by Lauren Johnson, January 17, 2017, Adweek, online article at http://www.adweek.com/digital/heres-what-marketers-can-expect-pinterest-2017-175465/
10. “5 Tips To Improve Your YouTube Marketing Strategy,” by AJ Agrawal, Forbes, online article at https://www.forbes.com/sites/ajagrawal/2017/01/12/5-tips-to-improve-your-youtube-marketing-strategy/#5789fb5494f6
11. “Blog Marketing: What It Is and How to Do It,” by Randy Duermyer, September 14, 2016, TheBalance.com, online article at https://www.thebalance.com/blog-marketing-1794404
12. “52 Tips: How to Market on Instagram,” Wishpond.com, online blog article at http://blog.wishpond.com/post/59612395517/52-tips-how-to-market-on-instagram