Social Media Weekly Round-Up 10-12-12

This Week’s Social Media Top Stories

How $15 Can Buy Your Company a Lot of Extra Exposure on FaceBook

Aaron Rains via Social Media Today writes about how spending a little bit of money can go a long way and increase exposure on Facebook.  Last week I wrote about Facebook’s new promoted post and did not see the benefits of using it for personal use, but Aaron shows us that for businesses it can lead to success. Facebook’s new promoted posts allow you to pay to have your post show up on your fans newsfeeds rather than being lost in the clutter. Aaron used a photo as his promoted post since photos have a higher engagement than text.  He included a call to action with the photo, asking them to LIKE or Share. The results he got were 48 page post likes, 25 page likes and 13 shares.  This is much higher then he might have gotten without the promoted post. Spending $15 to him was worth the investment since his reach generated new likes and more social interaction among his community.

He mentions that businesses need to be patient when doing this.  Spending the $15 didn’t guarantee him turning his fans into paying customers but it got the foot in the door.  Businesses need to put a strategy together that makes there company stand out among your competitors. Having fun with your contests and promotions will make being social with your fans come natural.  In the end make sure the post you are promoting is worthy of the money spent. Make sure the message or photo behind it is something that your target audience can relate to or would be interested in reading.

 

5 Ways to Improve your Facebook Engagement

This article from Social Media Examiner  written by Sarah Pierce talks about simple ways to increase Facebook engagement.   The whole idea of having fans on social networks is to get interaction and feedback from them.  The first idea is to keep your updates short, since most people are on the go every day and don’t have time, having a short post with little reading or picture will have a better chance of getting interactions.  Another idea is to avoid using URL shorteners when posting links on Facebook. Most companies like to use URL shorteners like bit.ly so that they can track clicks. But according to recent studies users are more likely to click a link that isn’t shortened, probably because they can see where the link will take them before clicking it. Lastly, asking questions in posts is a great way to get fans involved and voice their opinions on ideas for the company.  Make sure you research which key question words are more effective than others.

There are plenty of ways to increase engagement with your fans, you don’t have to do all of these at once, but make sure you pick ones that you think will work best for your brand.  Having a fan base that is interactive on Facebook is better than posting information and not getting any feedback.  Engagement may take a while if you are a new or small business but using these 5 simple steps can help jumpstart the process.

 

7 ways to successfully promote your Facebook contest

This article written by Aaron Lee a social media manager from Binkd.com gives us tips on running a successful Facebook contest.  Having a contest on your Facebook page is a great way to build some leads and increase engagement among fans.  But running a contest and having it on your page doesn’t guarantee success.  Aaron gives us a few ways to promote your contest to make it more effective.  One simple way is creating a Facebook Ad to go out to your target audience making sure that the ad leads back to your contest page.  Another effective tool would be to send out an email to your email list (assuming you have one) with information and a link back to the Facebook contest landing page. This is a great way to get your current customers involved.  Another simple way to promote your contest is to utilize pictures.  Post a picture that may relate to your contest and have a simple message about your contest with it.  Pictures are attention grabbers among Facebook followers.

There are more ways to promote your Facebook contest that Aaron mentions in this article but utilizing just a few can have a major impact on the success of your contest.  Some of these tools will cost you more money for the contest but in the end the more people engaged with your companies’ page the more likely you will see returns on that investment.  Sometimes you need to spend a little money to make more money.  Be sure to check out the rest of the article to get the rest of the tips for successfully promoting your contest.

 

Why Email Marketing Shouldn’t be an Ugly Stepchild

Adam Stetzer, the President of Hubshout talks about email marketing on Search Engine Watch and how it should not be forgotten.   Email has a large audience as Adam points out with around 72% of people checking their email multiple times a day.  The average email user prefers to be connected with by email instead of contacted via Facebook or Twitter, making them more likely to purchase products or services through email marketing.  He gives us a break down of 4 things that most small businesses need to do in order to have effective email marketing.  Companies need to start building an email list of clients by encouraging customers who make purchases at a register or by giving them an incentive for signing up like rewards. Once you have a list going a business needs to organize and build a monthly newsletter.  After the newsletter is done trying to build nurture emails for prospective leads can be a great investment. And the last idea is tracking results. Make sure you see who is receiving your emails, let the data speak for itself.

These 4 steps that Adam mentions are simple and easy for small businesses to follow. There are a lot of free or cheap email marketing platforms out that can be utilized to help get started.  While everyone is leaning towards social media marketing, email marketing should not be forgotten.  Not everyone (customers) use social media so having emails can increase your customer base even more.  Sending out emails or newsletters is a great way to remind your customers or potential customers about the product or services you offer, while giving backlinks back to your website.  Email marketing is more targeting since these customers have decided to give you their emails; they are the ones interested in what your business has to offer. What email platforms are you utilizing to reach your audience?