Social media platforms are constantly changing and updating their algorithms; Facebook is no exception. Recently Facebook has been favouring native video and ‘meaningful interactions’ between users. This means that businesses posting about products and services are not a priority. Unfortunately, as seen below, this also means that growing an organic audience on Facebook is becoming more difficult. So how do you, as a business, reach your audience? Ads. You need to pay-to-play.
Facebook is consistently changing their algorithm to be more pay-to-play which is affecting how business’ Facebook posts perform. Toronto marketing companies have noticed that organic reach is on a steady decline, which means fewer people are seeing your posts unless you put money behind them. This is because Facebooks’ latest algorithm change favours native video and ‘meaningful interactions’ between users.
Writing a personal blog or business blog is a great way to increase your web traffic and show off your brand, however finding the right post ideas can get hard. We know it’s tedious work, so we’ve put together 7 ways to help you come up with the perfect blog post ideas.
Do your keyword research. Use sites like StoryBase that show you how popular certain keywords are. Particularly search for those ending with a question. This is what people are really looking for, and what you need for your blog post to get found.
Everyone wants to know about the telephone button (#) that has now become a social media phenomenon. Whether you love or hate them, they seem to be everywhere and everyone is using them. As a marketing consultant who specializing in social media marketing I like to determine what’s working and what’s not. So do hashtags work or is it just a myth like “warming up an engine before driving”. Are people just using hashtags because it’s a popular thing to do these days, do they actually work, or are they just #Annoying?
As it turns out, they work! Here is a breakdown of how do hashtags work and 3 tips on how to make them work.
Hashtags originated on twitter but have now spread to most major social media platforms, including but not limited to Facebook, Instagram, Google+, and Pinterest. Hashtags work 3 ways to:
In Canada, we’re all excited about tennis phenom Milos Raonic. This bleet (somewhere between a blog post and a tweet) draws a line between how he’s handling the same type of pressure to win that you do as an aspiring internet marketing pro.
Imagine that: you’re just 21, you’re now ranked #19 in the world, you’re at the French Open (having flown in from your new place in Monte Carlo) and the press is speculating you’ll face Nadal Monday if you continue to do well. That’s a far cry from little ol’ Thornhill down the road from our Brand Mechanics garage.
So how do you handle the incredible ramp up in pressure; not just pressure to win but all the offers that come from your new elite status?
“I have lot of people who say no for me, so that makes it easier,” he said. “But also, you have to understand you won’t be able to do a lot of things later unless you’re winning, and winning is the most important thing. So you just don’t get caught up in other things. Anything that could make the slightest difference in your results, unless it’s mandatory or something you want to do, it should be ‘no’ most of the time.“
In the world of internet marketing, social media is the young phenom. And within Social Media Marketing, there’s all sorts of bright flashy buzzy offers like QR codes, Pinterest or Foursquare (weren’t they where you had to be last year?). Or even Read More
Met a great prospective client last week who handles the marketing for a store chain who said ‘our company isn’t into couponing’. Boy, I can relate to that. As someone who has been in the same job trying to stimulate traffic but hold onto profit margin, I understood why someone wise said that coupons are like alcohol.
“Coupons are like alcohol; originally a stimulant, than a depressant.”
The biggest problem with coupons of course that nine times out of ten erode margin you end up subsidizing those who are already loyal without a demonstrable change in activity outside of them coming to expect the discount every time they show up. You’re effectively saying,
“Here. Go ahead. Reach into my pocket and take some profit margin.”
So what’s a poor internet marketing guru to do? Well, you’re better off identifying an activity that can grow your profits: such as rewarding your brand’s advocates for recommending you to their social network. Use Social Media Monitoring to identify those fans with the biggest networks and give them something to talk about. So here are 7 ways to provide non-monetary rewards to your biggest fans including specific examples from real-life marketers.
1. Invites Them To A Special Event
I love my local businesses that shut their doors after hours and have a party for their best customers. My local hockey shop does it annually for the men’s hockey league. It’s a great way for them to network and thank key decision-makers. It works for special company product launches as well.
2. Give Them Direct Access To Senior Staff
While research into ‘why people follow brands online’ shows that the number one reason is couponing it also indicates how interested people were in potentially being able to Read More
I don’t trust you.
Not if you’re a corporation that is. And I’m not alone as over the past 30+ years we’ve grown to trust corporations less and less and each other more and more. Word-of-mouth as a marketing concept dates back to when consumers first climbed out of the primordial ooze but what is new is that it’s on turbo-charge and been made into a powerful internet marketing tool thanks to social networking and the explosion of reviewing and rating tools.
Don’t trust me on this?
Don’t blame you. So here are 15 statistics that underline the internet marketing power that comes from activating your most valuable resource: your fans.
Came across this great example of ‘fanning the flames’ thanks to a mention by Ann Handley of Marketing Profs on a podcast.
‘Fanning the Flames’ is what I refer to when you use Social Media Marketing and other tactics to activate your fans and get them to talk about you. It’s just like blowing on the embers of a fire to turn it into a roaring flame.
It’s not only an amazing site with great digital storytelling for a relatively small business – check it out here at Amy’s Ice Cream – but here in this grab from their Facebook stream they’re using monitoring of their name on Twitter to capture positive comments about them and then reposting that onto their Twitter and Facebook streams.
Stats are showing only 1 in 10 fans will actively, publicly talk about a business so when they do this is an awful cool way (pun intended) of getting your fans to share the love across channels.
Hope this helps.
Bob Nunn is an award winning internet marketing consultant based in Toronto passionate about getting brands tuned up for the online age and dessert. He’s the founder of BrandMechanics.ca and a regular speaker and guest blogger. Give him a call to see how Brand Mechanics 9-point social media marketing audit can get you on the road to a winning plan.
Is The Social Network Oscar-Worthy? The short review from a Internet Marketing Consultant in Toronto and long-time Oscar movie watcher.
10 Charts on Time of Day and Week for Social Media Marketing including eMail Marketing, Facebook, Twitter, Mobile and blogs. Collected by Toronto-based internet marketing consultant Bob Nunn.
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