Case Studies & Resources for Dominating Social Media Marketing [MasterThread]

[AllenCrawley]

Social media is the huge driving force behind more and more successful companies today.

Why?

• It gives consumers a voice.
• It empowers them.
• It allows them to join & interact with a community of like minded people (around a company or product).
• It helps companies build a brand and a following
• It provides incredible social proof
• It provides additional exposure for businesses
• It can be used as a lead gen tool
• It provides great market insight

Find out which social channels your market hangs out at and uses the most and get in front of them.

I think we really need to get an INSIDERS megathread going on how to break into and dominate various social media platforms. This stuff is way too important to ignore, and the idea that there are dozens of us all making the same mistakes as we try to figure it out separately is kind of depressing. Actually, I think I'll start the thread now.

Use this thread as a learning tool for 'how to break into and dominate various social media platforms' and to post case studies and articles based on the power of social for business success.

I posted in another thread about Black Milk Clothing and how they've grown to a multimillion dollar company using social media and zero marketing budget.

http://www.shopify.com/blog/9721608...usiness-with-0-marketing-budget#axzz2wQK9pCq9

Here's an excerpt from that case study that provides some insight into why they feel social has worked so well for them...

"What would you recommend for entrepreneurs just getting started when it comes to marketing on social media?

It should never be about selling.

For us, It was all about sharing customer photos, the selfies, telling funny stories. To rethink our breakdown, the three key factors for our success on social media were authenticity, storytelling, and accessibility."

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Rep transferred, great thread @AllenCrawley .

My GF is heavy into the Paleo and she has a cabinet filled with Paleo spices and seasonings.
She also has a cache of Paleo sauces and snacks.

Both companies she found on Instagram.

No advertising required.

Social proof is how to grow. If your business stops because you stop advertising, you have a product problem.

I can't remember the last time I bought something because I saw an ad -- I buy everything now based on social proof. Look at the "I've read TMF " page ... 90 FN pages long. You think that's because of my great marketing tactics? My great marketing skills? Nope. It all about the product and social proof. Many of the entries there specifically say "I've told X about it!". I stopped advertising over 3 years ago. The book sells better today than it did when I was advertising it.

Marketing is wonderful. However, everything starts with your product as it's the gasoline the fans the flames of marketing.

 

[AllenCrawley]

10 Big Brand Facebook Tactics Any Business Can Use
By Jim Belosic

Do you have big-brand Facebook page envy?

Do you, as a small business owner, want your page to be popular and engaging?

It’s easier than you think to emulate what Facebook’s major players do.

In this article, I’ll show you how some of the top brands keep their fans coming back, and how you can follow their lead to build an engaging page of your own.

#1: Capitalize on Major Events and Holidays
During the Sochi Olympics, Coca-Cola hosted a contest/series called [HASHTAG]#CokeGames[/HASHTAG]. The gist of it was that they created silly Olympics-inspired games like Bottle Cap Hockey, Coke Curling, Ice Cube Ski Jump. Then, they asked their followers to play along by filming and uploading short videos of the Coke fan playing the game. The incentive was a $100 gift card.

Coca-Cola was inspired by the Olympics to host a series of games. Users who uploaded videos of themselves “competing” were in the running for a $100 gift certificate.


Your small business could adopt this idea, using any big event as inspiration. The NBA playoffs are just around the corner, and so is MLB’s spring training. Start planning now to play off of summer events like Wimbledon, Formula One racing events, and if you’re so inclined, the Handball Championships (yes, there is such a thing!) to encourage fan engagement.

#2: Crowdsource for New Feature/Product Ideas
Skype posts multiple times a day on Facebook, offering up a mix of invitations to chats that feature people such as Victoria Beckham and Vice President Joe Biden, user tips and contests.

Skype is also using Facebook to ask users for ideas for new features they’d like to see on the platform. Then, over on the company’s community page, they go the extra mile and tell their users whether their ideas are “under consideration.”

Use Facebook as a forum to ask your fans and followers for new features they’d like to see you add to your product or service.

It’s a great example of how a business can use Facebook as a mini–focus group and learn what customers really want.

#3: Show Your Fans The Fun
If it’s appropriate for your brand, go ahead and get a little weird.

Yes, most of the posts are silly, but it’s working for Skittles.

Skittles has lots of nonsensical fun on its Facebook page.

A typical day’s posts can include observations such as “Really boring pirates carry pigeons on their shoulders” and shots from the page’s ongoing BFF series, in which it posts photos from users posing with their beloved Skittles.

Skittles asks fans to post photos of themselves posing with their favorite candy. The brand posts many of these photos on the page.

If you’re a product-based company, ask your users to send photos of themselves using your product or service in exchange for a shot at a prize, or for the honor of being featured on the page (which seems to be the only prize involved for fans of Skittles).

#4: Follow the 70/20/10 Rule
You wouldn’t think of Intel as the sort of company that would have an especially engaging Facebook page, but it does.

This is a “brand-building” example from Intel. The post is relevant to the company’s followers who are interested in learning about technology.

One reason it’s so engaging is that Intel is following the 70/20/10 rule. Let me break that down for you. The majority (70%) of content that a page puts up should be brand- and business-building, meaning it’s information that is valuable to your followers. Content shared from other sources makes up 20% and the remaining 10% is self-promotional.

This is an example of content that Intel has shared from another source. In this case, it’s an article from the online lifestyle magazine BuzzFeed.

This is pretty much what Intel is doing, though it’s a little light on the “sharing” component.

Intel shows off some of its new products and features on Facebook.

Apply the 70/20/10 rule to your own content mix and generate more interest for your Facebook page.

#5: Give Good Customer Service
Have you noticed that the people who love beauty brands really love their favorite brands?

Take the Avon page, for example. The majority of the comments are just expressing love for the brand’s products.

When fans do have questions, an Avon rep jumps in and points out where they need to go for more information.

Avon uses its Facebook page to introduce new products, talk about fashion trends and highlight some of its reps.

Customer service is essential on Facebook. You don’t have to make the social network your main source for support, but you should respond and interact with your fans to answer their questions. You’ll not only boost engagement, but alsoshow that you’re human and you care about their opinions and questions.

#6: Post Consistently
Disney fans are just about the most passionate brand advocates around. Take one look at Disney’s Facebook page and you’ll notice that there is at least one post a day. They also use hashtags really well. Their [HASHTAG]#disneyside[/HASHTAG] and [HASHTAG]#ImGoingToDisneyland[/HASHTAG] hashtags get multiple tags every day.

Disney posts daily and creates unique hashtags that followers use in their own photos.

While Disney probably has a whole team working on its page, and you might not have that luxury, you should make it a point to post at least once a day.

#7: Respond To Everyone
Dove is another beauty brand that clearly has a passionate following. Dove’s page admins do a great job of responding to most comments.

I did notice that when Dove replies to their followers they don’t tag them, and I can’t help but wonder why.

Dove page admins do a great job of responding to queries and comments from followers.

Tag people in a comment stream to let them know that you’ve responded to their inquiry and/or appreciate their comment.

#8: Deliver Content That Interests Your Fans
Monster Energy uses its Facebook page to share content that fans will get excited about.

Unlike most other beverage companies, if you scroll through Monster Energy’s timeline, you won’t find one picture of the actual product. You will find its signature logo displayed on race cars, snowboards and lots of other high-action sports gear and vehicles. The brand also uses apps to further support the interests of its fans.

On Monster Energy’s Promotions app, users can click on a button to redeem downloadable content.

Not sure what content your fans want? Test, test and test! Try posting different types of status updates, related and not related to your product and company. Alsouse your Facebook Insights to see what your fans are engaging with the most, and then deliver more of it.

#9: Storytell With Video
Just because it’s a 100-year-old brand doesn’t mean Oreo approaches social media like it’s the olden days. This cookie company is creative! Oreo’s creativity really shines through in its Vine and Instagram videos, which it regularly shares on its Facebook page. Each video is fun and mouthwatering, too.

Oreo shares a fun video made using the Vine app with its Facebook fans.

If you’re inexperienced in video marketing, that’s okay. Social Media Examiner has a variety of articles on the topic, and a good place to start is with Jon Loomer’s article on using video to improve your social media marketing. Start your video creations with free tools like Vine and Instagram.

#10: Capture the Mood of the Seasons
Starbucks knows that the seasons have a tendency to affect a person’s coffee choice and mood. The popular coffee chain is a pro at crafting Facebook posts that match how fans are likely feeling and what they’re craving. Take one glance at the photo below and you can’t help but want to bundle up with a warm cup of joe!

Starbucks shares a cozy photo featuring their Via Ready Brew product.

I recently did an article for Social Media Examiner that displayed 25 creative ways to use the cover photo and one of those was to change with the seasons or times. The same idea goes for your entire Facebook page. Find quirky holidays or seasons to play with and use them to change up your page.

Source: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/10-facebook-tactics-by-top-brands/

[HASHTAG]#facebook[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#resources[/HASHTAG]

 

[AllenCrawley]

Here's a company about 1 year old now that went from $0 in sales to $120,000 per month.

The key I believe for them has been building a brand with loyal customers via social media and PPC/Media buys.

They utilize YouTube, Tumblr and Reddit very well.

http://www.shopify.com/blog/1293658...merce-brand-in-less-than-a-year#axzz2wQK9pCq9



Here is a recent reddit thread where Eric (co-founder) goes into how to build a brand:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/1zmpvl/beardbrands_guide_to_building_a_brand/

 

[AllenCrawley]

[Infographic] How to Produce Content for Facebook

http://garyvaynerchuk.com/infographic-how-to-produce-content-for-facebook/

[HASHTAG]#facebook[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#infographic[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#resources[/HASHTAG]

 

[TOS]

Great mega thread, I am following. Moreover, the last two weeks I have managed to stumble myself in the social marketing business.

I recently listened to my father talking about their marketing strategy. They are an accounting firm, pretty old and boring, and so was their marketing. They were wondering if they should use 800 $ on flyers that would maybe grant them 1 or two customers. I told him, give me those 800 $ and I will give you three customers within 1 month and you will get a brand new website. Off course he went for it, it was just a better deal and I already have my father’s trust.


So I set up a nice looking webpage with wordpress and tools to track visitors and convert them to leads. I set up a plan (strategy) on what they needed to do and what I will do with that for one month. What I saw when googling and searching forums is that a lot of people are wondering about new regulations and how they will affect bookkeeping, how one should do general small accounting tasks and what you should consider when setting up a new company.


This is what i told them to write about, send it to me, and I will publish it in their name.


Its now gone two weeks, and they have two new customers. The other guy at his firm was so happy with what I have done and how quickly they saw results that he told his friends who has an lawyer firm and they are now my new customer. Its been two weeks.


I used to much time on setting up the website with all the lead tracking tools and social integrations that I didn’t pay off with time invested. I found Hubspot wich is a service that delivers all this in a more effective package. Im setting up my company with this service now and if it works as expected, i will also use it for the law firm and new customers.


It’s only been two weeks, but maybe this is something good. Maybe we will see a niche business for Hubspots partners that delivers social media strategy and solution configuration? Maybe this is something you can try?


I don’t know but I will update here with what’s going on.

 

[Eskil]

36 Rules of Social Media

 

[AllenCrawley]

How to Build a Social Media Marketing Funnel
by NEIL PATEL on MAY 2, 2014

Who says social media doesn’t convert? Seth Godin noted: “You can use social media to turn strangers into friends, friends into customers, and customers into salespeople.”

You already know that everyone is on these social sites, so I’m not going to bore you with stats on the number of users each social site has. But did you know that you are 51% more likely to buy a product if you hear good things about it on Facebook? Or, better yet, you are 68% more likely to buy a product if you read about it on Twitter?

Now that you know social media can convert strangers into customers, the next step for you to take is to build a social media marketing funnel. To explain how you can do that, I’ve created an infographic that breaks down the necessary steps.

Click on the image below to see a larger view:



Click here to view an enlarged version of this infographic.

Conclusion
I’ve grown all of my companies through social media, and I’ve found the strategy to be very effective. The one thing I’ve learned through this process, however, is that you can’t expect your social media traffic to provide you with a high return on investment from direct conversions.

Typically, when users come to your site from Twitter or Facebook, they don’t buy right away. But they do come back to your website within a week or a month if they liked what they saw there. That’s when they are more likely to make the purchase.

The best way to get these users back to your website is through remarketing platforms like AdRoll. Alternatively, you can collect their emails by offering them a free ebook or a coupon and then get them to purchase from you through email marketing.


Source: http://www.quicksprout.com/2014/05/02/how-to-build-a-social-media-marketing-funnel/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed: Quicksprout (Quick Sprout)

[HASHTAG]#socialmedia[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#infographic[/HASHTAG]

 

[AllenCrawley]

How Brands Use Faces to Boost Instagram Engagement

excerpts...

"We’ve already seen how Instagram can help brands reach audiences through captivating imagery and video. But as with any form of marketing, there’s usually something you can do to give your content an edge — in this case, more engagement. According to a study from Georgia Tech, that something is including human faces in the photos you upload."

"Researchers found that pictures with human faces were 38 percent more likely to receive likes than photos without faces. They’re also 32 percent more likely to attract comments."

"According to the researchers, the number of faces in the photo, as well as age and gender, didn’t make a difference. On average, photos featuring kids or teens weren’t any more popular than those of adults. Additionally, men and women have the same chances of getting likes or comments. However, they also noted that people with more followers attracted more engagement, which isn’t all that surprising."

"Although this is just one study, it’s interesting to see how the elements inside your photos can impact engagement. As mentioned above, these results don’t mean that you must upload a selfie every week in order to attract likes and comments. But it’s a good reminder to balance your product uploads with content that’s more humanizing. Let’s look at some brands that have successfully integrated human faces into their photos without going overboard."

Full article here.

[HASHTAG]#instagram[/HASHTAG]

 

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[AllenCrawley]

INSTAGRAM COMODO MENU CASE STUDY

A new restaurant in New York City has implemented what it’s calling an Instagram menu, directing patrons to pictures of food posted on the popular photo-sharing site to help them decide what to order.

When three-week old Latin-American restaurant Comodo — located in Manhattan’s SoHo neighbourhood — noticed guests were repeatedly snapping pictures of their entrees and uploading them to Instagram, it decided to capitalize on the trend. The restaurant has embraced the hashtag [HASHTAG]#ComodoMenu[/HASHTAG] and added it to the bottom of its real-life menu, encouraging guests to add, share and check out photos of food offered at the establishment. It aims to help people decide what to order by searching the hashtag and seeing what others post.

This activation is great for different reasons:

1. It taps into an established consumer behaviour, building on top of what people are naturally doing, and not forcing users to do an extra effort to engage with the business
2. It takes advantage of user generated content, and not just for the sake of leveraging UGC. Comodo’s campaign turns UGC into customers’ recommendations helping out to pick a dish from the menu. That’s really important because customer reviews are significantly more trusted – nearly 12 times more – than descriptions that come from manufacturers, according to eMarketer
3. It turns customers into advocates. Every brand is aiming to leverage the word of mouth potential that social networks offer, turning customers into advocates. Comodo’s campaign does it by just guiding Instagram users’ activity, not by asking to do something new

The results are good so far:

Almost 200 pictures have already been tagged in Instagram with [HASHTAG]#ComodoMenu[/HASHTAG], in just a couple of weeks. [I just checked as this article was written in Nov 2013 - now 1,760 pictures have been tagged with [HASHTAG]#ComodoMenu[/HASHTAG]]

The campaign is generating great PR for Comodo restaurant. It has been mentioned in a total of 472 tweets and 109 blogs have posted about the campaign. In total, it has generated 703 mentions of the Restaurant since they opened.

How to improve this activation? Maybe every dish should have its own hashtag to properly guide consumers and be able to discover pictures from each dish on the menu. I think it would be much better, especially when people are already used to place more than one hashtag on every picture.


Source: http://xavierfeliu.com/instagram-comodo-menu-case-study/

[HASHTAG]#casestudy[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#instagram[/HASHTAG]

 

[AllenCrawley]

Instagram Tools I Use Daily

I've been sharing my experience with building up a company branded IG account and running promotions on my progress thread and thought I'd share the tools I use to do so.

The following are the apps I use daily. I've upgraded to the paid versions on all of these.

• InstaFollow - I use to track those that unfollow me and also use to unfollow those that don't follow me back
• Instagress - I use to automate the liking and follow process of those in my market
• FilterStorm - This is my go-to editor when I want to have total control over the editing of my photos. Controls like levels, curves, gradients, masking, depth of field, etc.
• VSCOcam - I use this photo editor when I want to apply quick and easy edits and filters.
• Made with Studio - I use this when I'm inspired to design a great photo or to create promo ad. You can add text, shapes, design elements, etc. Really great app.

The following are apps I use on occasion. I've upgraded to the paid version on these as well.

• AfterPhoto - add text to a photo with masking capabilities. Check the site to see the cool things you can do with it.
• FontCandy+ - great app that allows me to add text to photo quick and easy.
• PicStitch - used when I want to create photo collages

The following are new apps I've downloaded that I've started playing around with.

• Steller
• Storehouse
• Split Pic
• Instablend
• Hyperlapse
• Flipagram

 

[Tiago]

Dan Zarella's "How to get more clicks on Twitter"
If image doesn't show correctly, here's the link http://danzarrella.com/infographic-how-to-get-more-clicks-on-twitter.html

[HASHTAG]#twitter[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#infographic[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#resources[/HASHTAG]

 

[AllenCrawley]

How To Build A Massive Following On Instagram

• by Richard Lazazzera
• May 29, 2014

Used correctly, Instagram can be a highly-targeted, visual advertising channel for your brand. In fact, in arecent study it was discovered that Instagram provides brands with 25% more engagement over other social platforms. This mean that Instagram is a prime channel to build your brand for your ecommerce business.

Like any social network out there, there are right ways to use it, wrong ways to use it, and clever ways to use it.

In this post, we will show you how to most effectively use Instagram to increase engagement and build a massive following.

Use The Right Hashtags
Your goal on Instagram is to engage your current audience while also growing your following. Posting new, interesting and engaging photos will satisfy the first requirement but to begin growing you'll find hashtagging your photos to be extremely important. Hashtagging your photos makes it easy for people to find your photos that are searching for those specific terms.

So which hashtags should you use?

Just like with Twitter and other social sites, users on Instagram use certain hashtags over others. If you use the right hashtags within your photos, you're much more likely to reach new users and be discovered.

Here are the current top 20 hashtags on Instagram according to Webstagram:

• 1.[HASHTAG]#love[/HASHTAG] 546,312,756 posts
• 2.[HASHTAG]#instagood[/HASHTAG] 252,226,047 posts
• 3.#me 238,166,943 posts
• 4.[HASHTAG]#follow[/HASHTAG] 208,003,100 posts
• 5.[HASHTAG]#tbt[/HASHTAG] 205,718,608 posts
• 6.[HASHTAG]#cute[/HASHTAG] 203,174,797 posts
• 7.[HASHTAG]#like[/HASHTAG] 193,577,034 posts
• 8.[HASHTAG]#photooftheday[/HASHTAG] 189,818,506 posts
• 9.[HASHTAG]#followme[/HASHTAG] 183,736,791 posts
• 10.[HASHTAG]#tagsforlikes[/HASHTAG] 171,593,674 posts
• 11.[HASHTAG]#happy[/HASHTAG] 165,534,554 posts
• 12.[HASHTAG]#beautiful[/HASHTAG] 163,122,231 posts
• 13.[HASHTAG]#girl[/HASHTAG] 162,838,871 posts
• 14.[HASHTAG]#picoftheday[/HASHTAG] 140,266,148 posts
• 15.[HASHTAG]#instadaily[/HASHTAG] 126,075,675 posts
• 16.[HASHTAG]#fun[/HASHTAG] 124,017,892 posts
• 17.[HASHTAG]#smile[/HASHTAG] 120,121,394 posts
• 18.[HASHTAG]#igers[/HASHTAG] 118,454,910 posts
• 19.[HASHTAG]#selfie[/HASHTAG] 117,998,320 posts
• 20.[HASHTAG]#friends[/HASHTAG] 117,809,423 posts

To see a larger list of the top hashtags, check out the popular tag list on Webstagram andPopulargram.

If you looked at the list above and said “But none of those apply to my products or brand”, you're likely correct.

Using hashtags is one thing, using the right tags is a completely other thing. Popular tags like the ones listed above will likely net you additional engagement and likes, however, they will not lead to increased long-term engagement, new interested followers and most importantly, sales.

If you want to tag your photos properly, you'll need to find and use the most relevant hashtags. This means doing the appropriate keyword research to make sure you're using the most relevant hashtags that not only describes your brand, but is also being searched for on Instagram.

To find relevant hashtags, you’ll want to use a free online program like IconoSquare (formerly Statigram) or Webstagram.

Below, I used Webstagram to find relevant, related and popular hashtags for my men’s accessory brand by searching for key hashtags that are closely related to my brand.

As an example, searching the hashtag [HASHTAG]#MensFashion[/HASHTAG], I was able to pull the following list of additional keyword hashtags along with the number of times they have been used (popularity).

You’ll want to go through this exercise trying different keywords that describe your brand and products, building out your hashtag keyword list as you go.

Keep in mind that Instagram allows for a maximum of 30 hashtags per post. Additionally, the popular words will change over time, so make sure you revisit your hashtag keywords every few months to make sure you're using the best possible terms.

Protip #1: Here’s a trick that I use for my ecommerce businesses. For every product and product category for my stores, I have done the keyword research to see which are the most popular Instagram hashtags around those product categories. I came up with 15-20 popular hashtags for each category of products I sell, as well as a base of 5-10 popular tags that describe my brand and product offering overall. Finally, I also created a list of popular local specific hashtags that relate to my brand.

For example:

(Brand Keyword Hashtags)
[HASHTAG]#mybrandname[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#mensfashion[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#mensaccessories[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#mensgoods[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#fashion[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#mensstyle[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#instafashion[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#menswear[/HASHTAG]
(Product Category Keyword Hashtags)
[HASHTAG]#bugatchisocks[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#happysocks[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#corgisocks[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#socks[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#sockswag[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#socksoftheday[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#sockgame[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#sockswagg[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#socksofinstagram[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#happysockday[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#sockwars[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#funsocks[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#happysockday[/HASHTAG]
(Location Specific Keyword Hashtags)
[HASHTAG]#Toronto[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#TorontoFashion[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#TorontoFashionBloggers[/HASHTAG]

All of these groups of keyword hashtags are stored in a page on Evernote. This makes it easy and efficient when I’m on the go to post a new Instagram image, optimized for the most relevant keywords. I can easily open my Evernote and copy my standard brand, product and location specific hashtags to post with each photo.

Doing the work upfront of researching, organizing and saving the most applicable and popular hashtags will save you a ton of time down the road, increase your engagement and help garner new followers.

Protip #2: If you’ve been posting to Instagram for a while and feel like you’ve missed out on all these opportunities to build your audience by using keyword hashtags, fret not. You can still go back and post a comment with your new hashtag keyword lists and watch the likes and followers roll in.

Use The Right Filters
Keyword hashtags aren’t the only thing you should pay attention to. The Instagram community respond to certain photo filters more favorably than others. Using these preferred filters can have an impact on your engagement.

Here are the 10 current most popular filters on Instagram according to Populagram:

1. Normal (No Filter)
2. Valencia
3. Earlybird
4. X-Pro II
5. Amaro
6. Rise
7. Hudson
8. Lo-fi
9. Hefe
10. Sierra

TrackMaven recently did a study on Instagram accounts to see how filters affected engagement and found that Mayfair, no filter and Inkwell drove the most interaction.

More important than the overall Instagram communities favorite filters are your particular audience's favorite filters. Consider this custom graph which correlates filter usage to engagement from your own Instagram account:

You can use IconoSquare to review the performance of your own account to understand what is and is not currently working for you.

Post On The Right Days And Time
Beyond adding the appropriate hashtags and using the best filters, you should also be considering the timing of your posts.

A targeted approach is to analyze what has and has not worked for you in the past. By visitingIconoSquare’s optimization section, you can get a detailed analysis of your posting history vs. engagement. This report will also highlight the best times of the day and days of the week to post.

The dark circles indicates when you usually post media. The light gray circles shows when your community has been interacting. The biggest light gray circles represent the best times for you to post.

You may want to consider using a scheduling program to schedule your post. For that, you can use a (paid) program like ScheduGram.

Steal Your Competitors Followers
One of the best ways to find and attract new following is by seeking out your closest competitors' Instagram accounts and engaging with their audience. These people have already shown some level of interest in the products you carry simply by following your competitors' account.

So how do you effectively steal your competitors' followers?

You can steal your closest competitors' followers by engaging with them. There are several ways to engage with Instagram users, and predictably, the more work you put in, the more followers and return engagement you’ll get out of it.

The three types of engagement on Instagram are:

• Follow a user
• Like a photo
• Comment on a photo

I ran an informal test with my business account to see how my competitors' followers responded to my marketing advances. I targeted the followers of a close, local competitor. Since I know many of his followers would be local, I added my city to my profile to create a greater sense of familiarity between my brand and the people I am targeting.

I began by simply following 100 of my competitor's followers. Later, I followed another 100 of my competitor's followers but I also took the time to like one of their photos. Finally, I followed another 100 of my competitor's followers and commented on one of each of the 100 user's photos as well as liked that same photo.

Here were the results:

• Follow: 14% followback
• Follow + Like: 22% followback
• Follow + Like + Comment: 34% followback

Although the are many variables and the test was far from scientific, the results were clear. The more you put in and engage with people, the more you’ll get out of it.

Sponsored Posts And Product Reviews
All this optimized posting to your account is great but if you really want to make an impact, you need to post to other, larger accounts in your niche, exposing your brand to a wider audience.

So how do you do that?

First, unlike the tactics above to grow your account this one isn’t free. However, if done correctly, it’s good value.

To get started, you’ll need to make a list of large accounts in your niche. For example, if you sell beauty products, you’ll want to find large accounts from beauty bloggers.

You may already be following these accounts, if not you’ll need to find them. One of the best ways is to use Webstagram and search for some of the closest hashtag keywords you uncovered in the beginning of this post. When you do a search for your keywords, not only will it show you the related keywords, but it also shows you the top Instagram accounts that feature those keywords.

There are a few things to look for in the profiles results:

• Large following - Usually 20k-200k
• An email address in the profile

If there is an email address in the profile, it usually means they're open to sponsored posts. You’ll want to email them and ask them their sponsored post pricing. In general, I have found the average rate to be around $20-$50 per post, depending on the size of their following. However, if you're selling an unique and original product, you may also want to consider sending them your product to review and post. The more natural and less advertisement like the image, the greater the engagement and response usually.

Here is a great product placement from Maxim model Ashley Sky that received over 16 thousands likes:

Men’s fashion and accessory startup, Bachelr admittedly used this approach. They paid larger men’s fashion accounts approximately $50 per image to post tasteful images that highlighted some of their products:

The results from the Instagram sponsored post promotion was a flood of traffic to their Instagram account and website, supposedly causing their server to crash.

In a final example, Classified Apparel used the tactic of getting featured on a larger account to jump start their Instagram following. Starting with only 22 followers, they were able to net nearly 3,500 new followers in less than 24 hours. A few months later and they are now sitting at 10,000 followers.

Instagram Tool Roundup
There are hundreds of tools out there that can help you and your Instagram strategy. In this post I mentioned five key ones help you build your audience and engaged them.

• Populagram - Find popular hashtags, filters and people.
• Schedugram - Schedule your Instagram post for the most engaging times.
• IconoSquare - Info, analytics and insights into your account and followers.
• Webstagram - Find the best hashtags for your posts and people for your sponsored posts.

Conclusion
In this post we talked about the most effective ways to use Instagram to build a targeted following, but it's not always a numbers game. As with any social network, the most successful strategy overall is to be authentic and social.

If used correctly, Instagram can be a highly-targeted, visual advertising channel for your products and brand that can lead to a healthy stream of revenue for your ecommerce business.

About The Author
Richard Lazazzera is an ecommerce entrepreneur and Content Strategist at Shopify. Get more from Richard on Twitter.



Source: http://www.shopify.com/blog/14288561-how-to-build-a-massive-following-on-instagram

[HASHTAG]#instagram[/HASHTAG]

 

[AllenCrawley]

Grace and Lace was on Shark Tank this season. Here's the full video of their appearance.

Here's a couple articles. Both are quick reads.

http://blog.bigcommerce.com/grace-and-lace-take-on-shark-tank/

http://prettypinteresting.com/2013/11/18/mompreneur-monday-grace-and-lace/

Their initial success came from selling to family and friends. Then she uploaded them to her Etsy shop. She credits facebook and pinterest as a major referrer of sales as well as blogs.

 

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[AllenCrawley]

How Fresh-Tops Built a Successful Fashion Brand with Social Media Marketing

Nella Chunky is the founder of Fresh-Tops - a hipster-chic fashion brand powered almost exclusively by social media.

With massive followings on sites like Instagram and Facebook, Fresh-Tops is a perfect example of an audience-enabled business powered by products that people love to share.

By focusing on being relevant, networking and creating a brand people want to engage with, Fresh-Tops is a hit among hipster teens.

"Our marketing strategy is completely focused on our social media.

We use Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram and Twitter to share pictures of our clothing. Then our fans share
those pictures with their audiences.

This social influence is very powerful. People tend to shop where their friends shop and they feel left
out if they’re not involved."

Read case study here.





EDITED to add:

Keek was mentioned in the case study as a new social site that has generated a lot buzz recently. Get your brand an account on this and any new social platform that pops up. Even if you don't plan to use that platform you'll at minimum will be protecting your brand.

[HASHTAG]#casestudy[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#facebook[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#instagram[/HASHTAG]

 

[AllenCrawley]

[Infographic] How to Use Twitter Like an Expert

http://garyvaynerchuk.com/infographic-how-to-use-twitter-like-an-expert/

[HASHTAG]#twitter[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#infographic[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#resources[/HASHTAG]

 

[AllenCrawley]

Your Twitter Profile Has a New Look, Here’s Why It’s Better

Messaging is a critical component of your marketing strategy, but selling a product or service on social media requires more than a carefully crafted text update. Rich visuals have become a major player across social networks, especially on Twitter. Photos within tweets have become increasingly beneficial, and now a new profile design has pushed images more into the foreground.

Today Twitter announced a new and improved web profile that features a photo-focused layout. Similar to your Facebook Page, your Twitter Profile now includes a larger header image and more prominent profile picture. While you could already customize your header, as you can see on Michelle Obama’s profile, the image now spans across the entire top portion of the page — as opposed to a smaller box.

As a marketer, this means that you’ll need to prepare a new design for your Twitter Profile. Obviously the specs for header images will change, although Twitter hasn’t released specifics for those quite yet. Additionally, no rules regarding the types of images have been announced, such as text limitations or use of promotional materials. The downside is that you lose the ability to customize your profile’s background.

You’ll also notice that the Photos and Videos section of your profile has taken on a new two-column layout which displays all of the media you’ve shared on the platform. It certainly helps to make this section more engaging. In addition to the design makeover, Twitter has also released some new features that will benefit businesses using the service.

Best Tweets
Now tweets that receive significant amounts of engagement will appear slightly larger on your timeline. As you can see on Kerry Washington’s profile, tweets with high retweet and favorite counts have been enlarged. We should point out that this only applies to your content and not the content of others that you retweet.

While photos and videos help tweets stand out in the main Twitter feed, increasing the size will help text-only posts stand out when followers visit your actual profile. Additionally, this can help you quickly identify tweets that resonate with followers, whether on your own profile or that of a competitor or partner.

Pinned Tweets

Just like pinned post on Facebook Pages, Pinned Tweets anchor one of your tweets to the top of your profile. This is a great way to show visitors what your business is all about, in addition to your bio. For brands, it could also help drive awareness around a Promoted Tweet or hashtag.

By pinning it to the top of your timeline, you’re ensuring that it will be seen every time someone visits your profile. It’s also a good way to draw more attention to noteworthy photos, videos, and special announcements. As of right now, there are no details available regarding time limits, so pinned tweets will remain in position until you remove it.

Filtered Tweets
This features gives you the ability to choose which timeline to view when looking at other profiles. Now you can select from these options: tweets, tweets with photos and videos attached, or tweets and replies. This is a helpful option if you spend a lot of time combing through Twitter feeds. It also enables your visitors to choose what type of content they see from brands. Seeing tweets with replies can be beneficial for customer service purposes, while media alone is great for followers looking to engage.

The new look and features are available today to a small group of members, including film stars @zacefron and @channingtatum, musicians @JohnLegend and @weezer, boxer@FloydMayweather, and the Australian Football League @AFL. The redesign will be rolled out to everyone in the coming weeks; however anyone just signing up will automatically start out with the new profile.

[HASHTAG]#twitter[/HASHTAG]

Source: http://sproutsocial.com/insights/twitter-profile-new-look-heres-better/

 

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[AllenCrawley]

[Infographic] [HASHTAG]#HowTo[/HASHTAG] Produce [HASHTAG]#Content[/HASHTAG] for [HASHTAG]#Instagram[/HASHTAG]

http://garyvaynerchuk.com/infographic-howto-produce-content-for-instagram/

[HASHTAG]#instagram[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#infographic[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#resources[/HASHTAG]

 

[AllenCrawley]

Tumblr
Tumblr is customizable social site that lets users effortlessly share anything that they want. Due to the fact that almost everything is sharable, it isn’t hard to imagine that there are currently over 189 million blogs that have churned out more than 83 billion posts.

Profile Picture – 128 x 128

Although there is a profile photo associated with your Tumblr page it doesn’t appear very frequently throughout the site. It will appear as a thumbnail adjacent to your posts within a follower’s feed. It also appears next to the buttons to follow you on Tumblr when someone visits your page.

Your profile photo will also appear somewhere on your Tumblr profile page. Whichever theme you choose is going to play a part in where the photo appears and how large it is. Some brands choose a large image while others keep them subtler. Just make sure to mind the minimum and pick an image that fits not only your brand, but that also fits your page’s layout.

Image Guidelines

• Minimum 128 x 128 pixels.
• JPG, GIF, PNG or BMP

Image Posts – 500 x 750

These are the posts that you send out to your followers that will also appear on your page. Due to the fact that Tumblr is so customizable and each theme is so different, not all people are going to want to post the same size photos.

Image Guidelines

• Dash image sizes max at 1,280 x 1,920, and show in feeds at 500 x 750
• Images can’t exceed 10 MB.
• Animated GIFS must be under 1 MB and max at 500 pixels.

Source: http://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-image-sizes-guide/

 

[AllenCrawley]

Great resource below for all the different photo size requirements of the various social networks. Very handy.

Always Up-to-Date Guide to Social Media Image Sizes
Whether it’s a weekly joke, dialogue guidelines or decision trees, brands spend countless hours honing and personifying their brand on social media. But few tactics are as effective at conveying a brand personality on social media as a well-used image.

In this quick-scroll world of social media, the visual face of your brand is often times the first thing your audience sees and it might be the one thing they remember. You can’t cut and paste an image and reuse it across all of your social networks — each one has different and constantly-evolving guidelines for images.

To optimize your social presence, you must ensure that the images you’re using to represent you or your brand are the highest quality and the best fit for the various networks and placements. To help, we’ve outlined the best image sizes for each social network and image types; and to ensure you’re as up-to-date as possible, we’ll revise the article as the networks change their formats.

Along with all the specific dimensions, we’ve also included a few quick tips to help you decide which photo best fits each position.

Networks
These links will make it easier for you to navigate to the specific network you’re looking to get image sizes for.

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Google+
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn
• Youtube
• Instagram
• Tumblr

Twitter
Don’t let its logo fool you — Twitter is not just for the birds. In fact, with 255 million monthly active viewers sending 500 million tweets per day, Twitter is one of the social media networks that your customers will most often use to discuss your brand.

Profile Photo – 400 x 400 (Displays 200 x 200)

Your Twitter profile photo is the main image that represents you or your brand across the network. It’s going to be seen across the site in a number of places by a number of people so make sure it’s of the highest quality. Here’s the places your profile photo will be visible on the site.

On Your Page

The largest display of your profile picture is on your homepage and can be viewed by your followers as well as individuals who stumble upon your page (assuming you don’t set your page to private).

In-Stream

A smaller version of your profile picture appears in a follower’s Twitter stream every time you send out a tweet. It’s also going to appear in the stream of your followers’ followers every time that they retweet you: so make sure to choose a picture that suits you or your brand!

Who to Follow

Your profile picture is also going to appear next to a link to your page in the “Who to follow” box. This is located directly to the right of your twitter stream. If you want to make sure that you’re gaining followers it’s important to choose a photo that is recognizable.

Image Guidelines

• Square Image – recommended 400 x 400 pixels.
• Maximum file size 100 KB.
• JPG, GIF, or PNG.

Header Photo – 1,500 x 500

Your header photo is the image that spans the top of your Twitter profile page. It’s quite a bit larger than your profile photo so make sure to save it at the highest resolution possible. Since you have much more room to be creative with this picture, and since it will probably be the first place a visitor’s eyes will fall, make it something captivating.

Image Guidelines

• Recommended 1,500 x 500 pixels.
• Maximum file size of 10 MB.
• JPG, GIF, or PNG.

Find more information on profile and header photos at the Twitter Help Center.

In-Stream Photo – 440 x 220

Twitter gives users the ability to attach photos to any of their tweets. However, when you attach a photo to a tweet, Twitter needs to create a separate link for that photo, so ultimately you have fewer characters to work with. The photos that you upload are going to appear in the streams of your followers and the streams of their followers should your photo get retweeted. Photos that are included in public tweets may also appear in certain Twitter search results.

It’s also important to note that Twitter may collapse your photo into a smaller version to fit seamlessly in a user’s stream. In order to make sure that Twitter is displaying the portion of the photo you want followers to see, make sure the width of your image fits the minimum requirements and that your content is horizontally centered.

Image Guidelines

• Minimum to appear expanded 440 x 200 pixels.
• Maximum to appear expanded 1024 x 512 pixels.
• Appears in stream collapsed at 505 x 253 pixels.
• Maximum file size of 5 MB for photos, and 3 MB for animated GIFs.

Find more information on in-stream photos at the Twitter Help Center.

[Due to photo and character constraints I'll be adding each social network sizing info in a post of it's own below. All size info contained within posts 40-47.]

 

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[AllenCrawley]

 

[AllenCrawley]

Why Social Media ROI is Like Playing the Piano

Source: https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/social-media-roi-how-to-calculate-roi-1234958648.html

The ROI of Social Media
If you're in the business of social media marketing, I'm willing to bet you get asked about social media ROI about every ten minutes. I know I do. The thing is, figuring out how to calculate ROI is pretty straightforward with all of the metrics and attribution data available (and it's about to get even better with "holy grail" products like Facebook Atlas), but for some reason, I'm still dealing with skittish CMOs who cling to their multi-million-dollar TV spots because "they just work".

So here we are in 2015, and the questions about social media ROI are still coming. Clearly, I need to explain it differently. This isn't so much about how to calculate ROI, but instead, I want to explore the underlying concept of "return on investment" (or return of investment, if you're weird). Let's start with a piano:

What's the ROI of a piano?

For me? About $26.50, but that is mainly people paying to get me to STOP

For Elton John? About $400 million dollars.

What's the ROI of a Basketball?

For me: A negative amount equal to the cost for repairing my torn meniscus. I have literally lost money playing basketball.

For Kobe Bryant, on the other hand, the ROI is about $220 Million.

What's the ROI of playing video games?

See where I'm going here? I used to bet on games of Madden in college, so maybe I made about $50?

Then there are guys like Lee Jae Dong, a professional gamer from Korea who has made about half a million bones in prize money alone. That doesn't even count endorsement, or his team salary… Keep in mind that he's 25.

What's the ROI of a YouTube channel?

Ok, I actually did pretty well here since my views can convert to booksales/new clients, but let's talk about the real winners on YouTube like Jenna Marbles who, with 1.7 billion views, has earned something like $3 million with her channel.

And while we're talking about YouTube…

What's the ROI of playing with Disney Toys?

For me? I dunno, maybe I could eBay them for a few bucks…

But for the person behind the DisneyCollector YouTube Channel, playing with toys has grossed over $5 Million in YouTube ad revenue ALONE. Five million bucks. For reviewing Disney toys.

What's the ROI of a Camera?

For me? Literally nothing. Like absolutely positively zero dollars.

Annie Leibovitz, on the other hand, is rumored to have a $100,000+ day rate, and has used cameras to amass a $20 Million fortune.

What's the ROI of spray paint?

For me? A $350 fine…

Meanwhile, a Banksy canvas is worth something like $32,000.

What's the ROI of cat photos?

For me? Probably some lols in response to my next email.

For Ben Huh, they created a multi-million dollar Cheezburger empire.

Ok so let's get back to my original point and and talk about social media ROI. Through these examples, I hope you now realize that ROI isn't about the tool, it's about investing the time and effort to use it correctly. The "I", the investment, isn't monetary, it's not about throwing money at something. It's about investing the time, the effort, the blood, sweat, and hustle into becoming the best. It's about execution. If you want to make money doing something, you need to be really good at that something in order to see the returns you're looking for.

So when it comes to social, you need to learn the platforms. You need the combination of creative, copy, and strategy. You need to be able to understand the insights, iterate and execute against them. Only when you've reached that point, my friends, can we start to have a real conversation about social media ROI.

 

[AllenCrawley]

[Infographic] How Snapchat Fits Into Your Existing Social Strategy

http://garyvaynerchuk.com/infographic-how-snapchat-fits-into-your-existing-social-strategy/

[HASHTAG]#snapchat[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#infographic[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#resources[/HASHTAG]

 

[AllenCrawley]

[Infographic] How to GIF Your Way to Success on Tumblr

http://garyvaynerchuk.com/infographic-how-to-gif-your-way-to-success-on-tumblr/

[HASHTAG]#tumblr[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#infographic[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#resources[/HASHTAG]

 

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[Tiago]

Social media is all about interacting. I've seen it so many times, pages pushing and pushing content, without ever replying to a single mention.

People like social media why? Because it gives them a voice. It gives them the possibility to share their own opinion to the whole world, regardless of age, sex, ethnicity.

It makes the brands become more human. I was in Amsterdam and visited the Heineken Experience Museum. After that I tweeted "Wow, the Heineken Experience is one big awesome marketing hook!", to which they replied "It's education ". Instant likeability! It's awesome when a big company, which often can even scare us with their size, reply to your tweet. Needles to say, I bought a Heineken beer after that.

 

[AllenCrawley]

3 Tips for Getting Your Pinterest Pins in Front of More People
By Jennifer Beese on November 19, 2014

Over the years, Pinterest has evolved from a simple product discovery and scrapbooking site into a powerful personalized search platform. Since launching Guided Search back in April, search volume per user has increased by 25 percent. Personalized search provides big opportunities for content, but it also challenges brands to Pin more strategically in order to reach target audiences.

The key to getting your Pinterest Pins in front of more people is understanding how people explore Pins to begin with. Therefore, let’s dive deeper into user behavior and explore other ways you can leverage Pinterest’s feature set to achieve your business goals.

Understand Pinners’ Mindsets
Researchers at Pinterest have begun to understand why and how people Pin. So far, these reasons can be summarized into four different mindsets. Understanding and developing a strategy around them can help you figure out which type of Pins to add in order to reach your goals.

1. “I’m Just Looking…”
This person is browsing Pinterest without a particular goal in mind. It’s an undefined need for someday in the future. They might be thinking that they’re interested in travel and healthy eating, or they could just be wondering what Pinterest has to show them today. Either way, they’re looking to be inspired and it could be your Pin that does just that.

2. “Maybe I Could…”
This Pinner might be exploring a new interest or considering a new project. The need is more defined, but the timeframe is still some vague point in the future. He or she might be thinking, “Maybe I could travel to Europe someday,” or “Maybe I could pull off patterned pants.”

3. “I’m Narrowing it Down…”
This person might not know exactly what they’re looking for, but they know they’ll need to figure it out soon. Here the need isn’t very defined, but the timeframe is much sooner than in the previous two mindsets.

The thought process here could be “I need to get my brother a gift but I have no idea what,” or “I need to replace my running shoes but don’t know what brand or style is best for me.”

4. “I Know What I Need!”
The Pinner here knows exactly what they’re looking for and they need it right away. They have both a defined need and short timeframe.

He or she may be thinking “I need a place to kayak during my Florida trip,” or “I need a squash recipe to cook tonight.”

As Pinterest has pointed out, these mindsets mirror the customer journey. “People start looking, get inspired, narrow down their options and then make a decision,” explained Larkin Brown, a researcher at Pinterest. Armed with that knowledge, businesses can add all kinds of Pins to help consumers every step of the way.

“What’s more, most people don’t come to Pinterest with explicit goals — it’s the Pin itself that triggers a certain mode. A Pinner might move between modes on a specific interest over time, and because of Pinterest’s grid layout, they bounce between different interests and modes in a single visit.” – Larkin Brown

Reaching Pinners Through Search
Search is an important way for Pinners to find content from your business. One of the best things you can do to improve this process is to sharpen your Pin descriptions. Think about what people who are looking at a certain Pin might have searched for, and mention the most compelling and distinct parts of the Pin in your description.

However, it’s important that you’re captivating Pinners and not just dropping in keywords. Carefully craft your Pin descriptions to make them aspirational as well as actionable. It’s also important to include thoughtful descriptions on the content people Pin from your website.

Promote Your Pins


Pinterest began working with a small group of advertisers back in May to test Promoted Pins. Since then, the company has tweaked the product to make it more relevant to Pinners and help advertisers understand how ads impact their business. As of October 2014, Pinterest has started testing the following:

• Better Reporting: To help advertisers better understand how Promoted Pins are performing, Pinterest will begin communicating how often your ads are shown or how many people bought a product after clicking on your ad.
• Relevant Targeting: Promoted Pins will be more relevant and displayed from brands that members have shown interest in. The company currently uses recently visited websites and information from its ad partners to display more relevant Promoted Pins and recommendations.

Know Who You’re Trying to Reach
Pinterest has traditionally been a female dominated platform; however, that trend seems to be shifting as the platform grows. According to the company’s head of engineering Michael Lopp, the service has doubled the number of male active users in the past year. In fact, men now make up one-third of all new Pinterest sign-ups, and the growth rate for men is higher than for women.

If you’re promoting a Pin, you’ll be asked to pick at least one keyword to reach people in search results. Keep in mind that people use Pinterest differently than other search engines, so it’s helpful to consider the phrases commonly used on the platform. From there, you’ll be asked to refine your audience based on gender, location (currently limited to the U.S.), language, and device. It’s worth noting that 75 percent of all of Pinterest’s traffic comes from mobile.

Even if you’re not promoting a Pin, you’ll want to keep a close eye on your Pinterest Analytics for more information about the people who interact with your Pins — both from your profile and your domain. Knowing where your audience is from, what language they speak, and what gender they identify with can help you target your content better as well as figure out new marketing opportunities.

Source: http://sproutsocial.com/insights/tips-pinterest-pins-visbility/

 

[AllenCrawley]

Which Social Media Platforms Are Best Suited for Your Business?
by NEIL PATEL on SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

With all the social media sites available today, which ones should you leverage? In an ideal world, you would use them all. As a small business, however, you don’t have enough time and money to do so.

With your limited resources, which social media platform would you pick?

If you think Facebook and YouTube are your best bets because they are most popular, think again. Just because a site is popular doesn’t mean it is a good fit for you business.

To help you decide which social media platform is best suited for your business, I’ve created an infographic that explains what social sites you should be leveraging based on real data.

Conclusion
If you had to guess which social site performs the best for Quick Sprout, which one would you choose?

If you chose Facebook or Twitter, you’re wrong. Quick Sprout’s audience is mainly people who own businesses, and my number one traffic source – as far as social media platforms are concerned – is actually LinkedIn. I generate my LinkedIn traffic through groups such as this one.


Source: http://www.quicksprout.com/2014/09/...rce=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email

 

[AllenCrawley]

PINTEREST SUCCESS STORY

Moorea Seal

With the help of Pinterest, Moorea Seal went from college grad to successful business owner in just a few short years. The jane-of-all-trades designer, who has almost a million followers, runs a booming online shop and a beloved boutique in Seattle.

In 2009, Moorea Seal was an illustration grad, facing a bleak, post-economic collapse career landscape. To make things work, she juggled blogging, graphic design, jewelry making, music and nannying all at the same time.

After joining Pinterest, Moorea amassed a huge following because of her thoughtful, eclectic boards. Her Pinterest notoriety led to collaborations with brands like Gap, Madewell and P&G. Outlets like The Huffington Post wrote features about her rising star.

“Pinterest gave me a huge boost, basically the boost that anyone with big dreams has ever hoped for,” she said.

A few years later, Seal and her business partner starting talking about opening an online store selling handmade products by U.S. designers with portions of the proceeds donated to charity.MooreaSeal.com, powered by Shopify, opened in July 2013.

“It wasn’t until Pinterest that I truly found my creative voice, my specific perspective, and my clearly defined style,” she said. “When I started to make specific boards—from clothing I love to design, holiday decor, even beautiful eyebrows—when I saw all of my Pins in a big group, I saw myself through those images.”


Showcase




Discovering in-store sales

Pinterest is still the biggest traffic driver to MooreaSeal.com and accounts for a large portion of its sales.

In May 2014, Moorea Seal opened a storefront in Seattle and about half of its in-store customers visit from around the world because of Pinterest and other social media sites.

“Pinterest is a huge source of traffic and sales for both our online store and store front,” Seal said. “I wouldn’t have opened our online store in the first place if it were not for Pinterest and the massive following that was constantly asking where they could purchase all of the beautiful products I was Pinning.”

Keeping Pins fresh

“The most important part of marketing on Pinterest is to add Pins that are natural, personal and lifestyle focused,” Seal said. “The most successful images are beautiful and memorable—not just because of the product but because of thoughtful styling and environments.” Moorea Seal stays on top of promoting new products on Pinterest with regular photo shoots, plus they also collect and promote images from their followers and customers.

With a growing following, Seal scored a 2-book deal with Sasquatch Books Publishing House. The 52 Lists Project, slated to be released Sept 2015, focuses on self love and list making. This book is based off of a blog series that gained rapid traction on Pinterest, earning some of her highest repins.

Her second book, focused on investing in your home and in yourself, is in the works and will be released in 2016. “Without Pinterest, I would have never had the opportunity to write a book at the age of 28, let alone 2 books!” Seal said. “It’s been a wild journey, and I wouldn’t be here without Pinterest.”

Source: https://business.pinterest.com/en/success-stories/moorea-seal

 

[AllenCrawley]

7 Steps in Creating a Winning Social Media Marketing Strategy
By Michael Patterson on March 4, 2015

Social media was often seen as the wild child of the marketing department—the place where interns started their careers and brands could say random things with little to no repercussions. But times have changed, and the industry has matured.

Yes, social media is still a wonderful place for brands to have a little fun, but it also has a real and measurable impact on a business’ bottom line. Thus, social media can no longer live in a silo; it must be work in tandem with the rest of your business strategy.

To ensure that your social media marketing campaigns contribute to your brand’s greater business objectives, we’ve put together a 7-step guide to coach you through the process. We’ve also incorporated a checklist you can use to make sure you’ve done it all right. Click here to jump right to it.

Step 1: Ensure Social Goals Solve Challenges
Goal setting is a staple of all marketing and business strategies. Social media is no exception. Of course, with a range of social capabilities, it can be difficult to determine exactly what your objectives should be. For guidance, look to the challenges before you.

• Has website traffic dipped?
• Is customer loyalty low?
• Do you need to do a better job of building a positive brand reputation?
• Do you just need to make people aware that your product exists?

A smart social media marketing campaign can answer each of these questions. Prove your team’s worth by tackling them head on. To get you started, we pulled together a few common business obstacles and social objectives that can help brands overcome them.

Challenge: Low Website Traffic
The world is online. A brand’s website, therefore, is one of its most important marketing tools. Low website traffic can mean fewer customers and lower profits.

To combat this challenge, your social team should focus its goals on creating links directly to the website (whether they’re from your own social posts or influencers’). Link to useful content, subpages and company images to position your website and your brand as a resource rather than just another cog in the corporate wheel. This traffic should increase leads and, in the long run, revenues.

Challenge: Decreasing Customer Retention
According to The Chartered Institute of Marketing, it costs 4 to 10 times more to acquire a customer than to retain one. To keep your customers around, use social as a tool to support, communicate and engage. A good social relationship with your customers should translate into a better perception and offline relationship with your brand. By developing a strong social bond, customers will be more likely to stick with your brand time and time again.

Challenge: Poor Customer Service
People turn to social to engage with businesses. Therefore, it is important for brand to be ready to help them on any channel they can contact you through. Arm your social media team with the materials, education and authority to respond to customer questions and issues. When you do so, you’ll be equipped to respond to your customers in a timely and accurate way, regardless of how they reach out to you.

Challenge: Weak Brand Awareness
Social allows you to reach a broad audience. But honing and perfecting that message takes brain power and time. To create authentic and lasting brand awareness, avoid a slew of promotional messages; instead, focus on creating meaningful content and a strong brand personality through your social channels. Determine relevant hashtags and industry influencers you can engage with, and tap into those resources to extend your brand’s overall awareness.

Step 2: Extend Efforts Throughout Your Organization
Social has long lived within the marketing department, but that doesn’t mean it can’t (and shouldn’t) have a hand in nearly every business function, from human resources to research and development. To create a fully integrated social media marketing campaign, you’ll need to involve and integrate multiple departments, especially if your goals have a direct impact on them. Work with that team to determine how you can best support their goals and what key performance indicators are important to them (we’ve outlined some ideas on both below).

Sales
Social selling is a term that has grown in popularity since the rise of social marketing. By searching for sales opportunities and then engaging in a helpful and authentic manner, social media can be a great way to prime the sales funnel and find new leads.

For example, someone started a LinkedIn chat, asking about social media tools. Sarah Nagel, Sprout’s own community manager, jumped in to provide insight and offer a recommendation.

Customer Service
Social media is quickly becoming one of the most important channels through which companies interact with their current customers. Social is an easy and very public way for customers to air their grievances with your brand. If you aren’t responding, it can hurt your reputation and customer relationship.

GrubHub is an example of a company that is really succeeding in social customer care.

@kayreimz We’re sorry to hear about the trouble! Can you DM us that order #? We’ll take a look.

— GrubHub (@GrubHub) February 25, 2015



By taking the time to engage with a dissatisfied customer, GrubHub was able to turn a negative experience into a favorited tweet!

Human Resources
While the HR team probably spends a good amount of its time on social media looking through the profiles of applicants, it can also use this as a way to increase overall application numbers. Showcase job postings on social media and encourage your employees to share them to their networks as well. Beyond just job postings, social is a useful tool in showcasing your company culture to the world. Highlight some behind-the-scenes images of what it is like to work for your company so you can improve the perception of your brand among candidates.

Research and Development
Your brand’s social audience represents a group that is highly engaged, invested and interested in your product or service. Why not leverage that to serve as an online focus group for your company? Asking for and listening to customer feedback on social media is a nimble and easy way to get instant feedback. Additionally, social media can help expose gaps in a product or service.

Marketing
The marketing department, specifically advertising and PR, traditionally has a strong role in the social media strategy. But there are always new ways to ensure people are aware of and excited about your brand through social. Whether you’re debuting a product, ad campaign or initiative, ensure that social has a strong hand in spreading the word.

Step 3: Focus on Networks That Add Value
Just because a network has billions of users doesn’t mean it will have a direct contribution to your brand’s objectives. Instead of trying to be everything to everybody, focus your efforts on networks that hold the key to your target audience and objectives.

Each network has its own strengths and weaknesses, and each social media marketer should carefully pick and choose which networks they want to take advantage of. Here are some of the most popular networks as well as what they’re best at.

Facebook
With an audience of 1.23 billion monthly active users, Facebook offers an opportunity to reach a broad range of customers and potential customers. In fact, the chart below breaks down Facebook’s demographic representation—your target audience is most likely represented in some way.

But how can Facebook contribute to your overall goals? Because Facebook’s Newsfeed is a very visible place for social posts, it’s one of the best places for you to distribute your content in order to increase brand awareness, drive website traffic and to distinguish yourself as a thought leader. This strategy is even more effective when you take advantage of Facebook’s targeting capabilities that allow you to tailor your messages to users with certain interests.

Twitter
Where Facebook has the volume of users, Twitter has the volume of messages. In fact, there are over 500 million Tweets sent every day. With all those social messages, there is a great chance that someone is either mentioning your company or starting a conversation that you would be interested in joining.

That’s why Twitter is best to use as a customer service and business development channel. Monitor the network for inbound messages from dissatisfied customers, and quickly turn them into happy interactions. At the same time, look for prospective customers.

LinkedIn
LinkedIn has a robust network of over 332 million users, most of whom frequent the site with a “working” mindset. The advantage with this is that LinkedIn is an amazing network for B2B social media marketers. Whereas sites like Twitter and Facebook catch users more or less on their personal time, LinkedIn gives you access to customers when they’re at their professional best. Use this to build relationships with future customers.

Google+
One of the great things about Google+ is that if you have a strong presence on the site and someone searches for your company through Google, a snippet of your profile will appear on the results page.

Another great feature of Google+ is the ability to hyper-target your potential customers by Communities. Communities are groups of people who get together to discuss specific topics, so if you can find one that your customers are likely to be in, you can post content there that might interest them.

Step 4: Create Engaging Content
Once you’ve involved the right stakeholders, department and networks, it’s time to start building engaging content for your social channels. This content—whether a video, tip sheet or simple tweet—should all ladder up into your business objectives. Below are just a few examples of good content for social and how to use that to support your goals.

Videos

• How-to videos can be a proactive approach to social customer care—answer your customers’ questions before they’re asked.
• Behind-the-scenes videos give your audience a sense of your company culture and brand personality.

Guides

• Position your organization as a thought leader and elevate your brand by developing engaging content that speaks to your customers.
• Guides should cater to your target audience, ensuring you’re actually adding value.

Infographics

• Internal or external data can be turned into a beautiful, insightful infographic.
• When done right, infographics can be some of the most socially shared pieces of content, so make them engaging and resourceful.

Get ahead of the game by planning your content in advance, using a social media editorial calendar. We’ve put together this 4-step guide for creating a social media editorial calendar that should help you get started. Sprout also has a full suite of social media publishing features that include the ability to schedule and queue posts.

Step 5: Identify Business Opportunities Through Social
With millions of messages being sent across social channels every day, there is no doubt conversation happening around your brand. Social media monitoring, therefore, should be an essential part of your social media marketing strategy. Below are some ways you can monitor social media to identify larger business opportunities for your brand.

Brand Mentions
People who are mentioning your brand on social are some of the highest quality leads you can drive. They’ve already proven they know your product/service and have an interest in reaching out to you. Engage with them, foster that relationship and potentially create a brand advocate. If the mention was less than positive, use the opportunity to showcase your stellar social customer care and prove that you are listening.

Industry Terms
Think of some of the words you use when discussing your brand, and make sure to look out for their use on social media. By monitoring these terms, you can identify relevant hashtags you should be using, conversations you should be having and influencers with whom you should be engaging.

Competitor Info
Keep a pulse on the competition. Social media can give you insights into your competitors’ marketing plans and help you identify gaps in your product or service.

Step 6: Engage Instead of Ignore
We can’t say it enough: Whether someone is commenting on a post you’ve made, writing on your wall or mentioning you on Twitter, it’s important to always stay engaged. Shockingly, our social study shows that 5 in 6 messages on social requiring response are not answered by brands. If customers are consistently ignored, they’ll eventually ditch your brand all together and look for an alternative.

Be sure to respond to customers who have left negative feedback about your brand as well. Too many companies have lost favor with their fans by trying to delete the messageand sweep it under the rug.

Here’s an example of how Jimmy John’s social team handled one such situation.

This was a situation where Jimmy John’s reached out to someone a bit frustrated with the store’s hours and turned it into a positive experience. Taylor even favorited the final tweet from Jimmy Johns!

Step 7: Track, Improve and Market Your Efforts
You won’t be able to really begin analyzing and improving your efforts until you’ve successfully got steps 1-6 operational. This final step is actually a step back, letting you figure out what’s working and what’s not.

Use a Tool to Track Success
Sprout Social was created with social media marketing in mind. Sprout offers a full suite of social media analytics, which help you pinpoint exactly which of your messages perform best. You also can use tools like Google Analytics, which integrates with Sprout, to see which of your posts are driving traffic, conversions and overall revenue.

Build on Success
Once you have a good understanding of which content is driving the most engagement, site visits and conversions, you can use that knowledge to increase on your success. Write content and social media posts that are similar to the ones that have worked in the past. This is an ongoing process that will help you hone your unique social voice.

Share Your Success
The last step is to let the company know about the successes you’re finding—especially those who have a stake in the strategy. This allows you to prove the worth of social media and showcase its broader implications across your entire enterprise.

Plus, it doesn’t hurt to show off how hard you’ve been working. Need help? Use the checklist below to make sure you’ve got all your ducks in a row.

Social Media Marketing Checklist
We wanted to give our readers a few resources that they could use moving forward. First, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention our own platform which includes robust tools for social media marketing.

Second, we thought that this 7-step social media marketing checklist would be a great way to help all of our readers creating and auditing their own strategies. We encourage you to share it with colleagues or use the embed code to put it on your own site!






Source: http://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-marketing-strategy/

 

[Tiago]

That video pretty much sums it up.

You know the most awesome feature on Twitter? It's twitter.com/search. From there, regardless which company or product or niche you're in, you can simply search for keywords that connect with your business and reach out to people, even though they don't follow you. Just provide them value.

Yesterday someone asked for a good healthy pancake recipe on Twitter. Boom went and googled an awesome recipe and replied to their tweet with the article. Instant likeability and a followback.