How To Use Facebook To Drive Traffic To Your Blog

How To Use Facebook To Drive Traffic To Your Blog

Facebook is the most visited social network across the globe. With the ever-growing popularity and importance of Facebook, make it a crucial social network for your business to get on and optimize effectively. Facebook is not only a great tool to connect with friends, family and colleague and more across the world but it’s also a great tool to increase traffic to your blog.

If you are running a blog and write quality content then without reader your efforts as a marketer fail. Facebook offers a great opportunity to increase your blog readership. So, here I have explained different tactics that help you to get more traffic to your blog with using Facebook.
Facebook-Blog-Traffic

Social media is not about the exploitation of technology but service to community.
1. Complete Your Facebook Profile:

Just like all other social network your Facebook profile is the first impression on the site so try to make it a good one. First of all, think about your goals for your Facebook profile. If you want to use it as a tool to establish yourself as an expert in your field and get more traffic to your blog, you need to ensure your profile includes all the information to support your expertise. Be careful about the types of photos, video and personal interest you include in your profile, though. Also, for getting more traffic to your blog, you’ll need to make Facebook friends related to your target audience. Complete your profile with a personalized yet professional summary.
Useful tips on completing your profile:

Make a trustworthy profile that brief who you are
Make a complete profile with professional summary
Complete your profile with basic information and add a website
2. Find Friends On Facebook:

Find people on Facebook with using the search tool. You can search by name, company and more. This is a great way to connect with your friends or followers to build your network. You can also find people to friend by looking through the friends of people you’re already friends with and looking for the Facebook groups and pages to find people with similar interest to your own. This way you will get more traffic, visibility and engagement on Facebook. When you find people who match your criteria and might be interested in your blog content, go ahead and send them a friend request.
Useful tips for finding your Facebook friend:

Find blogger, co-worker, social media marketer etc. and build network with the people who has similar interest
The more friends you have on Facebook, the more people will see your Facebook updates
Add your friends and follow people to build your network
3. Create Group:

There are many types of groups available on Facebook. But, if you can’t find the group that suitable to your business and want a specific group for your business then create your own groups on Facebook. You can create a group for any topic or reason on Facebook and invite people to join it. Also, send an invitation to all of your Facebook friends to join the group. Creating your own group helps your business as well as you can build trust and develop the reputation as an industry leader by providing a space where people can share ideas and tips.
Create New Group
Useful tips for creating your own Facebook group:

If you want particular group according to your requirement then create your own
Select the name of the group and invite your friends to join
By creating a group, you can build network with many people
4. Be Active On Facebook:

In order to get extra traffic to your blog from Facebook, you need to be active and post frequently. You need to actively update your status, share useful content, join conversation and engage with other people. In this way, you will get more visibility and traffic to your blog. Share your blog on targeted groups as well as like or comment on a group because it is the great way to get more exposure and connection while engaging in the conversation. By building a relationship with your Facebook friends, you can indirectly grow your blog’s audience as well.
Useful tips for being active:

Update your status frequently to build trust and increase your click through rate
Like, comment and share someone else’s update
Share useful content, join conversation and engage with other people
5. Make Short Updates:

Yes, you want to get more traffic to your blog and your blog will have too many texts. On Facebook, you need to use short text for getting more engagement and visibility. If possible, make your update in one sentence and under the 140 Twitter character count. Nowadays, most of the users are using Facebook on mobile as well. So consider these things when you are creating your text. Make sure you should have a very short description of no more than one sentence summarizing the content of the blog.
Make short Updates
Useful tips for making short Facebook updates:

Keep your text as short as possible for getting more engagement
Keep in mind your mobile readers and create the post
Write 4 or 5 sentence that summarizes your article and choose the most intriguing to post on Facebook
6. Make Your Images Big:

Facebook posts including images get more engagement than the posts without photos. Make your images attractive because with this type of images you’ll get more Facebook likes, shares and comment as well. Use large size images in your Facebook blog post updates. No one like to read a couple of text so include a photo in your post that represent the subject if the post. If you have the good image along with your post someone will actually click through to the blog. The posts without graphics are often overlooked because they are not visually attractive and take more time for the reader to become engaged.
Useful tips for making big size image:

Upload visually appealing yet attractive image to increase click through to your blog
Ensure your Facebook and blog site metrics to analyze the success of your full sized images
Use a shortened link in your full sized image posts, to keep your text cleaner
7. Ask Questions:

A common tactic used by many bloggers and brands alike is to ask questions. Ask a question that grabs the reader’s attention. Ask a question that is clear, short and intriguing. Keep your reader in mind and prefer to ask the question related to your blog post. There are many ways to ask questions like personal views, fill in the blanks, trivia etc. Another option is to essentially poll your audience and ask their feedback on something then give the solutions in the blog post you are sharing. This way you can encourage people and they click to your post.
Ask Questions
Useful tips for asking the questions:

Ask a short question that is easy to reads and related to your fan page
Questions naturally invoke a reply. Use short, curiosity invoking questions to get more clicks to your post, sharing, liking or commenting actions
Use different types of question from opinion getting to problem-solving
8. Skip The Link:

While you are sharing the post in your timeline or in a group, there’s no need to keep the link in the text of your post. Make sure you make your update clean. Remove the link in your text before you post in. The image and summary of your blog are clickable directly to your blog post. Here’s what I mean make your Facebook status update, with the link to your blog post then after deleting the link and your update will have a clickable image, without cluttering the link.
Skip The Links
Useful tips for Skipping the Link:

Without the link, your Facebook update is more readable
If you are using a full sized image then only you need the link
Delete your blog link before you post it to your fans
9. Share Other People’s Blog Content:

Sharing other people’s content is also the great way to drive more traffic to your blog site. Social media is all about sharing so you need to share blog content from industry leaders, your fans, and other sources. Share blog that is related to your business and related to your target market as well. With using these tactics, your customer will appreciate your informative content and the businesses you have shared will be likely to share your content to their Fans also.
Useful tips on sharing other people’s content:

Make sure you are sharing other people’s content from a trustworthy source as well as your blog benefits your customer
Add link to their Facebook page when the blog is from another business
Expand your network with industry leaders and Fans that create the sharing opportunity
10. Use Facebook Share Button:

Once you have fresh content, you need to make it shareable; your first step is to add a social share buttons to your blog. Facebook share button make it easier for a reader to share your blog post within their network. Also, consider asking for a Facebook share if you feel you have a particularly helpful blog post. You can remind readers at the end of your blog by saying something like, “Did you find this blog post helpful? Feel free to share it on Facebook by using the buttons below.” Keep in mind that people are mostly going to share something that is useful to them. When you are creating content, always keep your customer’s benefits in mind.
Use Facebook Share Button
Useful tips for a Facebook share button:

Make sure you have Facebook share buttons in your all blogs
Use this buttons to share your links with your groups but ensure you check your updates directly on Facebook
Use sidebar buttons on your blog post for getting more shares
What do you think? Have you found this tips that work well for driving more traffic to your blog? If you have additional tips for getting more traffic to your blog then share your insights and experience in the comment box below.

How To Use Hashtags Effectively In Social Media Marketing

How To Use Hashtags Effectively In Social Media Marketing

Hashtags are a crucial part of social media marketing. It is a great way of labeling and finding social media updates. It makes your own content discoverable and allows you to find relevant content from other people and businesses. The hashtag allows you to connect with and engage other social media users based on a common theme or interest. Indeed, hashtags help you in getting engagement on Twitter and Instagram.

Hashtags can increase awareness, get your content seen by more people than just followers and increase your social shares. By simply incorporating #hashtags into your social content, you can expand your reach and increase your audience. Knowing how to use a hashtag is fundamental to your success on social media. Here you can find seven innovative ways to use hashtags in social media marketing.
Hashtags-socialmedia


The power of social media is that it forces necessary change.
1. Keep It Simple And Relevant:

When you are choosing a hashtag, it is important to make sure that you pick something that people are searching for and can easily remember. There are lots of hashtags scattered in the social media universe, using a hashtag that is long and difficult to spell or pronounce, will probably not give you a good result. However, unclear and generic hashtag will also not get the result as you want.

Your hashtag should be short, precise and simple to spell that gives your audience a clear idea about the topic of the conversation. The key to finding out what topic your audience can relate to and is already talking about. The hashtag helps to categorize your content and let people follow a trend and even help you to engage with a community. You need to use the hashtag that is relevant to your content and company as well as simple to use.

2. Utilize Trending Hashtags:

Trending hashtag is a hashtag topic that has become very popular. Maybe you have heard people are talking about what’s trending now. Sometime, it is referring to the hashtags that are trending or are the most talked about right now. Trending hashtags are continuously changing according to the latest trend. When you see the trend that relates to your business, engage in it with using the tag. With using, a trending hashtag in your content update, you can get your message seen to a huge audience. More and more people can see your updates rather than just your Fans and Followers.

In addition, trending hashtag is the great way to increase brand’s visibility. Before you use a hashtag in your social media post, make sure it adds value to your existing conversation. If your post does not add value, it is likely to be ignored and lost in plenty of posts. If you have informative post then more and more people reshared your post and it increase your brand awareness.
Utilize Trending Hashtag
Tips on how to use trending hashtags:

Be the first in using trending tags to get more exposure for your content and brand.
Find trending hashtags on Twitter, Google+ and other hashtag monitoring sites hashtags.org and Trendsmap
Use niche trending hashtags to connect and build relationships with your targeted market
3. Use Hashtag On Multiple Social Media Channels:

Hashtags may have started on Twitter but now all social media platform supports hashtags except LinkedIn. Hashtags give your brand more exposure so you can spread the word about your product to the massive audience. In addition, when you use it on multiple times on different channels, people will easily remember your hashtag. You can use the hashtag before the keyword in the mind and this way you will find useful content.

Twitter: Because of character count restrictions, don’t use more than 2 hashtags per tweet for best engagement.
Facebook: Use 2 hashtags on Facebook try one popular hashtag and one custom hashtag for your brand.
Google+ : You can also use a hashtag in Google+ to find and join a conversation about a particular topic. Click on hashtag to show related content.
Instagram: It allows up to 30 hashtags but keep it to 11 per post for the highest level of engagement.
Pinterest: Use only 2 hashtags, it’s a category of search so use your unique hashtag to help pinners to find relevant content.
4. Search The Hashtag Before You Use It:

Check each social media networks to make sure that your hashtag isn’t being used for the wring reason. Also, ensure that you don’t choose something that can be interpreted in a different way. It is worth making sure that another brand isn’t using hashtag specifically for their own promotion as well.

When you are using hashtag properly, it helps to create online conversation, increase brand awareness and increase your sales as well. Before using a hashtag, always you need to search to see if other people are using it and what they saying. If you want your tweet standout, tweeting on a negative hashtag is not the way to do it.
Search hashtag before use it

5. Don’t Over Use Hashtags:

Make sure to use a maximum of two hashtags for each post. Including too many will leave the impression that you are spamming your followers. Usually, you don’t want to use more than one or two hashtags per post, with one hashtag is the best choice. Additionally, it will be important to avoid using them in every single post that you make, as social media users are wary of businesses trying too hard to promote themselves. Use these organizational tools when it makes sense to use them and you’ll reap the rewards of a more engaged subscriber base.

6. Be Specific And Unique:

As a marketer, you want to able to reach your community with the use of a hashtag, especially during special events and Twitter chats. However, if you want others to join in on the conversation you need to engage with each other, you have to use the hashtag that is more unique. You can’t use generic hashtags, such as #marketing or #seo and expect people to re-tweet your post. Nowadays, people are using an unique and specific hashtag for better engagement with an audience.
Be specific and unique
Undoubtedly, hashtags are the powerful tool for brands marketing on social media. For getting the great result, you need to use a hashtag that is well chosen and properly utilized. Although, the uses of hashtags differ depending on the channel, following the best practices can increase their performance. As a marketer, you also need to stay current on the ever-evolving features of social media and constantly changing user preferences.

7. Create Brand Engagement:

The key of a hashtag is the ability to connect your brand with many popular and incredibly visible topics, which will drive new viewers to your social media presence, also give you the opportunity to engage with them. When you use hashtag carefully, it helps you to enhance your visibility and even improve customer relations. The more comfortable your followers feel with your brand the more likely they will be to attempt interacting with you by social media.

You don’t want to ignore them but you it’s not necessarily want to use hashtags while conversing with your followers. However, you don’t need to use a hashtag in every post but it’s mainly important to remember that you should not use them while responding to someone. Whether it’s a retweet or a reply, avoid using these character in when they are not required.

Adding keywords within your hashtags isn’t enough to enhance your online presence. You need to ensure your hashtags are short, conversational and unique. However, hashtag plays an important role in social media marketing strategy. Are you regularly using a hashtag on all social media platforms? We’d love to know more about it. Leave us a comment below with your hashtag insights.

Hidden Gems Of Pinterest That Online Sellers Should Know

Hidden Gems Of Pinterest That Online Sellers Should Know

If you are running an eCommerce site, undoubtedly you want to make sure that when potential buyers are interested in the products you offer, they are able to find you before they find your competitors. But how do you ensure that you’re being as visible as possible online?

There are several ways to market your eCommerce products but Pinterest is the best tool among all. Pinterest is a visual platform for the eCommerce site to market your products as well as ideal for brands to showcase their eye-catching products. Having an active Pinterest presence will enable you to promote your pins to a wider audience. Pinterest gives the huge opportunity for both consumer focused and business to business companies. To help you find out hidden gems, here I have compiled a list of lesser known features that help you to fulfil your business goals on Pinterest.
Pinterest_Gems


Social media marketing is about identifying the essence of engagement.
1. Add Pins to Twitter and Facebook:

This feature saves your time for sharing your post on Twitter and Facebook because once you have created your pin you can directly share on Twitter and Facebook. Do this during the time you think your audience is engaged on those two socials and expect to get noticed more!
When you are sharing pin on a social network, try to make pin description about 200-300 characters to get more repins. For Twitter, 100 characters are best for engagement. When it comes to Facebook posts of 40 characters receive higher engagement. So, when you are crafting your pin descriptions with the intent to share them on Twitter and Facebook then do your best to highlight the most important points in that first sentence. It’s apparently what people on those platforms respond to most.

Here’s what it looks like on Twitter once it published. Do you see how the first characters shows up before it shares the Pinterest URL?
Add pins to Twitter
When sharing on Facebook, it will be shared on your Facebook personal timeline, not your Facebook page which is for business.
Share on Facebook

2. Send message to pinners who follow you:

You can easily send pins to fellow pinners (if you both follow each other), Facebook friends or email contact and include a personalized message. This is also a great tool to send to your prospects. Invite popular pinners to collaborate on a group board. Email them a pin that they will find helpful or something to help them solve their problems.
Send message to pinners
Invite a pinner to collaborate on a group board.

Start a group discussion based on your content you have shared.
Send pins to your most engaged followers that you think they would like to enjoy along with a link to your board or website where they can find more content like it.
You can interact with fellow pinners in the comments. Monitoring the comments section of your pins is a great way to get feedback on your content and give your audience the personal interaction they want.
3. Rich Pins Make Pins More Useful:

Rich pins are the great way to have your content stand out amongst the Pinterest crowd and give your products a better visibility. Rich pin provides extra information and makes it easier for people to engage with them. In addition, a rich pin rank higher in search results on Pinterest and gives your content a broader reach. Right now Pinterest offers five types of Rich Pins: movie, recipe, article, product and place. Here are the following Rich pins:

Recipe Pins: It shows ingredients, cooking time and serving details
Article Pins: It shows article title, author and brief description of its content. You can use article pins to post content on your blog or other online material your audience will find valuable and they can use Pinterest to bookmark articles they want to read.
Place Pins: This Pin include a map, phone number, and address, you can collect them onto boards with map overlays. This Pin helps customers to locate their stores. You can also gather Place Pins your customers will find useful or interesting.
Movie Pins: It is useful to those in the film industry and includes reviews, cast members, and ratings.
Product Pins: It is a great eCommerce tool. It shows the item’s price, whether it’s in stock, and can alert pinners when the price drops.
4. Group Board Settings:

By creating a group board and collaborating with pinners who have a high number of followers, you can widen your reach on Pinterest considerably. Also, inviting a contributor to a board is simple. If you are the owners of a group board then ensure that you keep tabs on what Pinners are pinning on that board. However, actively check group activity what pinners are pinning which will help you in getting new followers.

First of all, go to your board settings and decide which boards you want to receive an email notification from when someone pins on that board. It will helpful to gather market intelligence and to see what other content is popular out there. This will also increase your followers as well as increase the number of repins.
Group board settings

5. Label Your Boards and Pins with Keywords

Whatever you write on your Pinterest board whether it’s a title or description that matters a lot. You need to add caption all your pins and label your boards with keywords that your potential customer may be searching for. The title and description of your board easily grab the eyes of the reader and they pin your image. For example, if people are looking for the latest trends in eCommerce then you should name one of your board “latest eCommerce trends” or have a caption for a pin related to eCommerce. Just like people started searching the information using Twitter, they will do that with Pinterest.

6. Pinterest Analytics:

Pinterest analytics feature helps you understand how pinners are engaging with content from your site and Pins from your profile. If you want to get Pinterest analytics then you need to create the business account first. You can also easily convert your personal account to a business account. Once you create a business account, you will get an update on future products and service that will provide great ways of reaching and understanding your audience on Pinterest.

One of the features you’ll benefit from is receiving analytics on how your pins are performing through Pinterest’s analytics. Just verify your account and you will see which pins are pinned from your website or blog. By knowing this kind of information helps you to see what’s working and what’s not.
There are three types of analytics:

Pinterest profile
Audience
Website
Pinterest Analytics

7. Customize Your Cover Image:

As an online seller, you need to pin eye-catching yet attractive product image as the cover for your board. So whenever you found great image pin as the cover board. If you want to change board cover, then go to the board and click edit. Then click change cover and pick a new cover for your board and adjust the picture to the frame by clicking or dragging. Click save changes to save the cover, then save changes to save the board. Pinterest even allows you adjust the viewable portion of the image so that you can get the best look for your board.

Which Pinterest features have worked for your business?
I am excited to hear from you which features are helpful to you and what works in getting more growth and success for you on this platform. Share your thoughts and suggestions in the comment box below.

The Complete Facebook Marketing Guide For Your eCommerce Store

The Complete Facebook Marketing Guide For Your eCommerce Store

Are you tired trying to market your store online? Facebook is still one of the great social platforms when it comes to increasing your brand awareness, increase sales and marketing your online store. If you want to market your products then you have to market your store. If you put a bit effort every day, then Facebook marketing is worth for you. Facebook drives lots of traffic to your online stores and it is helpful in building your business as well. Here I have compiled few marketing strategies for your store that help you a lot.
facebook-ecommerce

Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make but about the stories you tell.
1. Define your goals:

Define your goals
First of all, you need to set up a goal. If you have set up a goal, then promoting your store on Facebook is very easy for you. Without any specific goal, you will not achieve a desired result. You should set a goal for Facebook marketing that aligns with your goals for your shop. If you go a little by Facebook analytics, you could come up with goals like:

Increasing Facebook Likes: Think about similar to building your email subscriber database for your blog or business.
Increase Engagement: This is where your subscribers, fans and followers can be nourished as part of your community from initial level to highly engaged fan.
Boost Sales: At last, likes are good and engagement is best but you do need calls to action to make sure that something happens.
Choose a goal that you think is achievable at the same time a bit of an effort. Take your time in establishing your goals as this will help maximize the impact of your Facebook marketing.

2. Improve your Facebook fan page:

Improve your Facebook fan page
If you have set up your Facebook page, now it’s time to optimize it. Consider the Facebook page as a landing page. Generally, few people come to check out your Facebook page but those that come should click. Either they click and like the page or they click and go check out your store.Here’s are the tips how can you do that:

i. Improve your cover photo design:

The cover photo is the first thing that visitor notices when they visit on your Facebook fan page. So try to convey your message through a cover photo. You can include your store’s link in the cover photo. In addition, you can include a discount code in the cover image with a call to action (discount coupon works because people are more excited to check out a producyt when there’s discount). Make the collage of your cover photo that includes all the products so that visitor immediately knows what your store is all about and also the variety of products attracts people to check out your shop.

ii. Add call to action to your page:

Facebook has new feature call to action buttons that you should use on your page. You can choose from a few pre-defined set of action buttons that can be embedded on your page. You should choose shop now and enter the link to your shop.

iii. Include your store link in the “About” section:

In the about section you can include few things like you can include a physical address, add a video, brief description about your page, store, work and the most importantly add a link. Add your store link to your Facebook page’s about section. Anyone checking out your profile will be able to visit your store.

iv. Pin a post:

If you pin any post in your Facebook that stays on the top of your Facebook page no matter how many other posts you put there. A pinned post is kind of a promotional post for your Facebook page. You can pin post on your Facebook page at the time of seasonal promotion or you have something exclusive to promote. Other times, a pinned post may have a discount on it.

v. Link the cover photo to your store:

The cover photo is just another photo where you can add the description. You can use this space to add a link to your store. Include your store’s link in the cover photo’s description. If anyone checking out your cover photo, will see the link and be interested in checking out your shop.

3. Make your daily plan: What and how to share:

Make your daily plan
Keeping up your daily posting schedule is the difficult part of Facebook marketing. If you want to make your Facebook marketing strategy worth, keep your Facebook page active. In order to stay active in your page, post daily to your Facebook page. Daily posting doesn’t mean 1-2 post per day, you can post lots of times a day. Let’s say you want to post 10 times on your Facebook page. So you don’t make your page looks spammy but you need to make your page interesting with your products. You can schedule your post like:

2 inspirational quotes
1 interesting product video
1 Funny GIF
2 product items from someone’s store
3 of your own products
1 article related to your product
This is just for an example but you can plan something that makes your page looks interesting. However, if you want to save time and effort by posting all these posts easily on your Facebook page then social media marketing tool like SocialPilot helps you a lot.

4. Creating your outreach plan:

Creating your outreach plan
Only scheduling your post is not enough, you need to reach out to people, groups, admins and engage with them to increase your followers. The more fans and you have on your page, more people will see your posts. If you want people will notice your Facebook page then here’s what you can do on daily basis:

i. Engage with Facebook group:

An important part of getting other people to notice you is by engaging or interacting with other people’s content. Interact in a Facebook group by Liking and commenting few posts in the Facebook group. Also, share that post in your profile, page and give suggestions.

ii. Reach out to other similar Fan pages:

Reach out to page admins of other related pages because if you share their page on yours then they also do the same thing for you. This works only with pages that have the same number of fans as you do.

iii. Promote your product related post in Facebook group:

You also need to promote your product related post. Instead of directly posting your product and link to the group, firstly you need to promote that post on a Facebook page and then share that post in the group. In this, you can promote your product and your fan page as well.
If you want to maximize the reach you need fans on your Facebook page. Many sellers have no business or fan page but get traffic to their store through promoting in groups. So, instead focus on building your Facebook page with a simple daily plan and you’ll always have a marketing channel ready.

5. Evaluate the result:

Evaluate the result
There are lots of things you can try in Facebook marketing but first of all you need to find out what works better and what doesn’t. If you are not measuring the impact of your effort then Facebook marketing can get a little boring. At last, check out how much traffic has come through Facebook. If you did all the things properly then you can see an increase in Facebook traffic. If you are evaluating the result of your efforts then you can get more ideas on what to do to make your Facebook marketing campaigns and what works better for you.

How do you market your eCommerce store on Facebook? What’s working for you? If you have additional tips to share for marketing eCommerce store then let us know in the comment box below.

6 Common Mistakes That Damage Your Brand on Facebook

6 Common Mistakes That Damage Your Brand on Facebook

Having more than 1.59 billion monthly & 1.04 billion daily active users, Facebook has now overtaken the major traditional advertising market i.e. newspaper ads, hoarding etc. which are primarily used for branding and business visibility. Those mediums are also used to generate leads and sales but Facebook has changed the whole scenario. Nowadays, Facebook is not only a place for networking or gup-shup but it is also a leading platform for businesses to acquire more customers, generate leads and improve branding and visibility across the globe.

mistakes-facebook

The key to great marketing is remembering that even though you’re all about your brand, your customer is not.
On the other hand, Internet users are becoming smart and knowledge savvy while doing any transaction or interaction on social media platform.

They check how many people have like your FB page
They check when you have shared interesting content last time
They check how active are you on social media networks
… any many more such thing to measure your credibility and branding

If you think, Facebook is the right platform for your business and your branding, you need to make sure that you do not do any of the following mistakes for your facebook brand page.

1. Share Content with Your Own Branding:

One crucial thing to bear in mind is that a ‘dead’ social media account is truly worth than having not one at all. There is no meaning of creating a Facebook page for your business if you are not able to remain active on it. In order to maintain your presence on Facebook, you need to share interesting content. But maintaining a presence is time-consuming work with lots of extra efforts.Good news is that there are numerous tools available in the market to make your social media sharing easy and effective.

One of the biggest drawbacks of such tools are, it mess up your brand page with their branding. let me share with an example of Hootsuite.

creative-hotsuit
As shown in above example, if you are using automation tool like Hootsuite and shared something on Facebook page or profile then it shows “Published by Hootsuite” with your post. Though it looks small thing, it makes the following impression to your fans and followers.

Your page is managed by robotic tools. Where is human?
When someone click on “Hootsuite”, it takes a user to their website. Are you a source to drive traffic to their page? Aren’t you draw your fans attention to other stuff rather than your content?
It’s very irritating to show someone else’s brand name or product name on your profile or company page.
Glad to share that SocialPilot understands the importance of branding and allows you to have their own brand name when any content shared on the Facebook page. With using personalized Facebook branding feature, you are able to share something with your own brand as shown in the second image “Published by Creative Glance” instead of automation tool name. It also helps you to share content on Facebook without affecting on branding as well as drive traffic to your desired page and website. Check out our blog regarding personalized Facebook branding to know how it works.

2. Don’t Post Funny, Boring or Off-Brand Content:

We know every time talking about business or products on your Facebook page reduce your existing customer’s interest. But make sure you are not posting too much funny, boring or irrelevant posts on your Facebook page that your audience won’t be able to relate to it. whether you are posting text, images or video, everything should be a reflection of your brand.

Offer variety but make sure you don’t go out of context. If you own a company that makes mobile phone covers, it doesn’t make sense for you to post about a startup project just because you think it’s cool. Being on brand is an important forecaster of engagement– just because people like your product doesn’t mean they share all of your interests, so give them a mix of content related to the product.

3. Don’t Use Irrelevant Hashtags:

In order to grid with a massive audience, many companies are using an irrelevant hashtag on their Facebook page. If you are using trending hashtag for promoting your products or service that gives more likes and visibility for the certain time but ultimately be harmful to your brand. If you are using proper hashtag then it helps you to make engagement with your target audience as well as makes the positive impact on your brand.
Hashtags are necessary for successful social media strategy because it has its own meaning, purpose and importance. There’s no doubt that you’ve used a hashtag here and there and there’s nothing wrong with that.


Not Using Proper Hashtags
Here you can see the online pharmacy store has used trending hashtag #valentinesday for promoting their store. Instead of using this type of trending hashtag on your brand page, make sure you are using the hashtag that is relevant to your brand or product.

4. Response Rate Must Be Higher Than Your Competitor:

The response rate is important on your Facebook page because it shows how responsive you are and that creates the brand impact. Your fans and customer not only expect you to respond but they expect you to response quite quickly.

When it comes to responsive about your brand, take a look at the example of Magestore and Amasty.
Response Rate

As shown in the above example, Magestore and Amasty are competitors of each other but Amasty replies within an hour and Magestore replies within a day. If you want a response rate to show up on your page, you have to do your best to respond to a message as quickly as possible.The response rate is as important as the number of likes and comments your content receives. The majority of people expect brands on Facebook to respond at least within a day. So, check out your Facebook page twice a day, connect with your fans and engage in conversation on your page.

5. Don’t Buy Likes and Followers:

Sure likes are important, more likes mean your message reaches more people but the main focus should be winning brand promoters and not just likes. Don’t be fooled into paying for followers or likes for Facebook for marketing purposes. When you are paying for fan count and likes, it only increases your numbers but doesn’t give engagement with your audience. Actually, it is harmful to your brand and bad method so you should avoid this.
facebook_like
For example, if you have thousands of likes on the Facebook page but if people don’t know about your brand and don’t relate to your target audience then it doesn’t make any sense to have this kind of likes on your Facebook page. Nowadays, internet users are more educated so they know if you don’t have the engagement in your page then it means you have paid likes. It is time wasting activity if your audience is not engaged with your post.

6. Remove Negative Comment of Visitors:

One of the important thing about your business page is the fact that your fans can post to your timeline as well. When your fans do post to your timeline, don’t ignore them. Facebook is all about engagement so it is a bad idea to ignore their comment or message. You need to build your relationship with fans and responding to them is a great way to create a value. Responding to your visitors post not only shows you’re concern but also shows interest in engagement.


Don't Ignore Visitor's Post
Here’s a great example. The leading company Samsung got a negative review about their services and customer support. Also, Samsung has not given any response to their customer. If you ignore this post then it creates a negative impact on your customer’s mind.

In addition, Facebook gives you the ability to review the post before they are being published so if you find the post that is not relevant to your brand then delete from your Facebook page. But the best way is respond and engage with the customer as well as make them a feel that you are concerned about their problem.

Facebook is the great platform for businesses but only if you avoid this mistake. It’s also the best way to make a successful Facebook presence. so, if you enjoy reading this blog,then share your opinion in the comment box below.

Simple Guide On How To Use Pinterest To Market Your Ecommerce Business

Simple Guide On How To Use Pinterest To Market Your Ecommerce Business

Have you been struggling to figure out how Pinterest could help to market your eCommerce business? Pinterest gives a huge opportunity for both consumer focused and b2b companies. It is increasing used by eCommerce businesses to promote their businesses as well as products. It not only helps you to increase engagement and sales but also can help you build a strong brand name.

pinterest-ecom-business

Don’t find customer for your products, find products for your customers.
If you’ve been ignoring Pinterest until now, here are a few stats to get you thinking.

More than 75 million registered users on Pinterest.
In terms of getting traffic, Pinterest is popular social platform for eCommerce compared to Facebook and Twitter.
Almost 80% of its users are women.
Buyers referred from Pinterest are 10% more likely to buy your products.
Buyers are increasingly using Pinterest to find relevant products.
If you think Pinterest is the great platform for your business, follow below guide on how to use Pinterest to market your eCommerce business.

1. Categorize Your Product Under Different Boards:

First of all, you need to start by setting up your Pinterest page. Categorize the content on your Pinterest profile, as you would do on your eCommerce site. Almost all eCommerce business dealing with various products belonging to different categories, so you have to create different boards to pin different categories of products. If you categorize the products then not only it will help people to browse through your products but also helps them to follow your board as per their interest. This way people can find the exact products what they are looking for.

Have a look at how one of the top eCommerce brands use Pinterest for some effective naming inspiration. You can choose simple board using keywords such as “clothes for women” or “design for bedroom” or any seasonal approach by naming your board like “get set for festivals” or depending on your brand or business requirements.
categorize your products

2. Share Appealing And Visual Content:

Pinterest is a visual platform so it is important to share interesting, engaging and appealing content. It will encourage new followers to re-pin your content. Pinterest users like inspirational photos, quotes or image but that should be very useful and informative. Be creative while sharing content on Pinterest and check which type of content gains more engagement from your target audience. You can also use Pinterest analytics to find out what drives the most traffic. If you have added the pin it button, you’ll be able to see what people are pinning from your website and re-pinning from your boards so you can create more of it.

3. Include Hashtags On Pinterest:

Just like all other social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, you can use hashtags on Pinterest when sharing your pins. It serves the purpose like monitor brands and trends. Hashtags are great for search purpose and can help track content entries. But, one thing you need to bear in mind is that hashtags are only useful when added within the descriptions or profile names. However, hashtags are clickable and if you are trying to increase a reach of a pin, use simple or trending hashtags. When a similar hashtag is clicked your pin will shows up in a search result. Hashtags are effective only if you use brand specific hashtags.

Include hashtag on Pinterest

4. Add Relevant Keyword In Your Description:

It is vital for you to describe each pin you include on your Pinterest account. This helps in ensuring people who view the pins pinned on your different boards understand the products showcased better. If you add a relevant keyword in your product description then people can search related product image. In this way, search engine will select your Pinterest images using the text description.

So whenever you are writing your pin descriptions, make sure you are applying the keyword most people would use to find your content. For example, if you want to show your pin in the name of “social media” when someone searches on the web then use the word “social media” somewhere in your Pin description. In this way, people can easily found your content and create more followers as well. The more followers you have, the more exposure you will get.

Add relevant keyword

5. Use Rich Pins:

Rich Pins are pretty useful. There are different types of rich pins and one most widely used by eCommerce owners is product pins. With rich pins, Pinterest is able to pull additional information about the stuff that you pin and that makes your pins much better!

Product pins makes shopping via Pinterest a lot easier. Different from a regular pin, these pins show where the product you are pinning can be purchased, the current price and direct link to the product page. Also, the product pins prices are updated in real time and if any user pin the product pin on their board they will be notified when the price is updated. In short, it is the great way to convert your visitors into buyers.

Use rich pins

To use Rich Pins, follow two simple step:

1. Include the proper metadata to your website content. This metadata is different for each type of rich pin so you need to add multiple types to your site and Pinterest will prioritize them.

2. Authenticate your Rich Pins and apply to get them on Pinterest. Once you’ve completed step one, you have to enter your site’s URL into Pinterest’s validator page to ensure there are no mistakes with the metadata. After everything is finalized, you can click Apply Now. Find out more on Pinterest’s developer’s page.

6. Schedule Your Pins:

Like all other social networks, consistent sharing strategy is important on Pinterest in order to build your followers. With using scheduling tool like SocialPilot, you can save time and effort by planning your content in advance as well as evenly spacing out your pins throughout the day. With scheduling your pin on Pinterest, you can easily maintain your presence and engage with your audience. Also, the SocialPilot extension makes it easy to schedule anything on Pinterest directly to your boards. Whether you want to share your product image or content, you can easily create your posting strategy for future according to your requirement.

How do you promote your eCommerce business on Pinterest? I am excited to hear from you how you are using Pinterest, share your thoughts and opinion in the comment box below.

Tips On How To Use Twitter For Successful Business And Marketing

Tips On How To Use Twitter For Successful Business And Marketing

Are you thinking about how to grow your business with using Twitter? Twitter is the great marketing tool for small businesses. If you use Twitter strategically, it helps you engage in conversation with your customer, increase the reach, grow your brand, and generate qualified leads.

No matter what type of business you are running whether it is a retailer, B2B solution provider, mobile app company, you can use Twitter to make meaningful connections with a relevant and engaged target audience. These connections can lead to action across a network of loyal customers for your business. Here in this blog, you will find few tips that help you in successful business and marketing on Twitter.

Twitter Business

Twitter is a great place to tell the world what you’re thinking before you’ve had a chance to think about it.
1. Pay Attention to Your Twitter Profile:

It sounds like simple. But, you would be surprised many people and businesses start a profile and leave everything blank except the Twitter name. Your profile is all about the first impression so try to make it a good one. After coming across on your profile people take the decision whether or not to take interest on your profile. So make sure that you are completing your profile. Include website link in your profile because this way people can trust you on Twitter also people will approach you with much more confidence. This will give you recognition, respect, increase traffic as well as more business opportunities coming your way.
Pay attention to your profile
Useful tips for completing your profile:

Use company logo in your profile picture
Add your bio that describes your company and add link to your website
Also you can add brand related keyword in your bio
Add background photo that should match with the branding of your website
2. Build Your Twitter Community:

If you want people to follow you, then you have to start following other people first. This doesn’t mean follow every people you see but you can follow your customers, friends, colleagues, related businesses, influencers in your field, interesting and informative users. So, start following people, many of them will follow you back, especially if they are your customers and know your brand.

Once you have started following people, you should engage with them as well. The main point of using Twitter is to create meaningful relationships and that can’t be fulfilled if you are not tweeting about your brand. You have to active on Twitter by liking or rewetting someone else’s tweet.
Useful tips for building community:

Start posting tweet about what’s going on your business
Follow back the people who follow you
Stay connected to your replies, follow and favorites
Interact with people by responding other people’s tweet
3. Share Interesting Content and Images:

Twitter is the great platform for sharing interesting information. Based on your target audience you should tweet blog, images, video and quotes that your audience will enjoy. Visuals are a great way to get people’s attention, so add them in your tweets whenever possible. This is the best way to start the conversation with other users who are interested in the same type of content and offers. For example, if you are running an online store then you have to tweet the video or image of the products. At the time of festivals, tweet about the latest offers with the link of your products page.
share interesting content and image
Useful tips on sharing images:

Get creative, think about your audience
Share video, quotes, attractive product image etc.
Image and video get more shares, views and clicks than plain text tweet
4. Be Active and Engaged on Twitter:

Start tweeting! Conversation on Twitter is just like face-to-face meeting you have with customers each day. Also, observe what other people are doing on Twitter and create your own Twitter marketing strategy. But main focus should be on driving interactions with your followers by retweets, replies, mention and favorites. When people favorite, reply or follow you, it’s vital that you respond to them. This way you can build a great impression of your brand across the platform and will help you to grow your following further. The more you engage on Twitter the more content you have out there, and people will easily find you. Customer like it when someone interacts with them as it shows the human face behind the brand.
Be active and engaged on Twitter
Useful tips for being active:

Tweet varieties of posts in a multiple times a day rather than one
Short tweet gets more engagement so keep your tweet as short as possible
Start conversation in twitter chat and engage with people
5. Use Hashtags:

Hashtags are the great way to increasing the exposure of your tweets. Without hashtag, your tweet will only be seen by your followers but when you use tweet with the hashtag can be seen by anyone on Twitter. If you are using hashtag then anyone can search for the hashtag that can easily find your tweet. The hashtag allows your tweets to reach an audience beyond your followers.

Before using any hashtag, you have to find out which hashtag you should use in order to reach the wider audience and achieve the highest level of engagement. For example, for a digital marketer, the hashtag #marketingtips will reach a more targeted audience and more followers than simply using the hashtag #socialmedia.
Use hashtags
Useful tips on using hashtags:

It is a great way to organize tweets around a specific keyword or topic. But don’t use more than two or three per tweet.
Use hashtag that is already popular, try and focus on one that are useful for your target audience
You can also use trending hashtag in your tweet for getting more follower
6. Automate Your Twitter Marketing:

The key to successful tweeting is to tweet often. The more you Tweet the more engagement you will see. So, you have to tweet at least three times a day like in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening. Also, it is found that tweeting at 5 PM is the best time to get more retweet. However, 12 PM and 6 PM you will get highest CTR at the end of the workday.

Twitting multiple times a day, every single day can be quite difficult, why not make things easier for yourself? You can use SocialPilot to schedule your posts on Twitter and make your task simpler. It not only saves your time and effort but also help you to increase engagement and your twitter presence.
Automate your Twitter marketing
Useful tips on twitter marketing:

Optimize the timing of your tweets
Posts at least three times a day for more engagement
Scheduling your tweet help you to make your task simpler as well as increase your presence
Twitter Marketing is an essential for spreading business information and taking your business to next level. Using proper strategies not only gives your successful business but also gives more engagement as well as followers. How do you use Twitter for your business? Do you have any other marketing tips to share? I would like to hear about it in the comments below.

How to Effectively Manage Your Instagram Marketing?

How to Effectively Manage Your Instagram Marketing?

Instagram is a new hub where people can find the visual identity of a business. Whether you want to increase engagement with your audience or drive sales, you should consider using Instagram. If you haven’t tried Instagram marketing yet, it’s time to get started.

Instagram Marketing


Why is Instagram important for you?

With 300 million users on Instagram, it is the fastest growing social network. It allows a brand to showcase products and stories to create a community of fans and customers. Instagram is not only important for retailers or restaurants; it is the most effective brand-building platform for every type of business. Pictures tell a thousand words and Instagram is really effective in getting attention.

In fact, visual content is the great way to build a connection with your customer, drive engagement and ultimately web traffic and sales. More than 40% of people respond better to visual information than just text. So, if you are not on Instagram, you are missing one of the best, easiest, social media opportunities to build community.

Check out the statistics and facts that prove its importance:

Instagram offers brand engagement that is 25% higher than all other social networks
96 % US fashion brands are using Instagram
Photos are still generates 36% more likes than videos
Post with at least one hashtag average 12.6% more engagement
Post tagged with a location receive 79% higher engagement
70 million photos uploaded each day
The average users spend 257 minutes on the app
We’re happy to announce that Instagram reminders are finally available on SocialPilot! Just like all other social media platform, Instagram gives the opportunity to be creative with social media marketing by interacting with current and potential customer in a visually compelling way.

To get started sharing post to Instagram, just follow these steps outlined below:

How SocialPilot works for Instagram?

1. Connect Instagram account to SocialPilot

Log in to your SocialPilot account (or sign up for one). Once you have logged in, click on the “Connect Account” from the sidebar. Just like other social media networks, click on “Reminder for Instagram” icon to add Instagram account. It will open a small popup asking for a username. Add your Instagram username. That’s it.

Untitled-2

2. Create post:

Create a post with SocialPilot just like you did for all other social networks. Simply you need to add text, select your Instagram account and select an image from your system. If you are sharing any article from other websites, you can even select an image from the article too. Click on Add to Queue or Schedule button to create your post.

SocialPilot - Create-Post

Note: Instagram is not providing the public API to post in their platform and that is the reason we are introducing reminder feature. As Instagram requires posts to be published through its mobile app, you need to have both the Instagram app, as well as the SocialPilot mobile app to publish on Instagram. You can download it on the iTunes App Store or the Google Play Store.

3. Get push notification on mobile device:

On your scheduled post time, You will get Push notification from us on your Android or iOS device. Tap on the push notification on your phone to be directed into the SocialPilot mobile app. Review the post and when you are ready to publish, tap open In Instagram. Make sure you are logged into the Instagram account when you wish to publish to.

Once in the Instagram app, you can filter the image or tag users and a location. The caption you composed in SocialPilot for this image was copied to your device’s clipboard. Paste this content on your caption field in Instagram.

Instagram_Flow

4. Share on Instagram:
Finally, tap Share to publish your image to Instagram.

125 Amazing Social Media Statistics You Should Know in 2016

Social media marketing is the excellent way for branding. With using social media marketing you can effectively put your brand among good targeted clients and audience. Having the latest social media statistics and facts at your fingertips makes your strategies and creative ideas more relevant and successful.
social-media-stats


Social Media Statistics:

More than 3.5 billion active internet users
Over 2.5 billion people have social media accounts
Nearly 1.8 billion people as active social media accounts
1.6 billion active mobile social accounts globally
CLICK TO TWEET
As the Internet gains another 225 million active users around the globe, social media growth is set to continue in 2016. In this blog, you will find the latest statistics for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn.

Facebook:

Facebook was launched in February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum and Chris Hughes. Check out below statistics to know more about Facebook.
socialmedia-statistics-facebook

There are more than 1.6 billion daily users on Facebook
Every 15 minutes or 8 per second 7,246 people are added on Facebook
Every minute there are 150,000 messages sent
There are 500,000 Facebook “likes” every minute
79% users are using Facebook from their mobile
745 million daily mobile users
Over 350 million photo uploaded daily
Average 21 minutes users spend on Facebook daily
927 million hours users spend on playing Facebook games per month
Facebook generates $1.4 million in revenue every hour
Nearly 4.6 billion likes are generated everyday
75% of Facebook’s ad revenue comes from mobile advertising
There are 40 million active small business pages
People share 1.3 million pieces of content on Facebook every minute of every day
1,00,000 friend request made on Facebook every minute
There are 890 million people log in to Facebook daily
52% users are female and 48% users are male
There are estimated 81 million fake Facebook profiles
1 billion mobile app link enabled on Facebook
34.5% of users are between 18 to 29 age group
Image posts get 179% more interaction than average Facebook post
Posts ending with question get 162% more interactions than normal post
140 number of language available on Facebook
Facebook drives 23% of all website traffic
30% of the U.S. population gets its daily news on Facebook
30% of the U.S. population gets its daily news on Facebook
CLICK TO TWEET
Twitter:

Twitter is one of the platform which is the best catalyst of brand awareness. It was founded by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, Evan Williams in March 2006 at California. Take a look at the below statistics to get a better idea about Twitter.
socialmedia-statistics-twitter

There are 100 million daily active users on Twitter
There are 325 million monthly active users on Twitter
78% of users are using Twitter on their mobile device
Twitter ad cost 33 % less than other paid channels
Total 500 million tweets are sent per day
55% are female users and 45% are male users
63% of brands worldwide have multiple Twitter accounts
About 71% of tweets are ignored and only 23% generate a reply
81% millennials check Twitter at least once a day
29% promoted tweets boost offline sales
37% Twitter users are aged between 18 to 29
86% Tweet including link have higher engagement rate
88% of B2B marketers are using Twitter for sharing content
42% international brands post 10 tweets per day on average
65.8 % US companies use Twitter for marketing
There are 391 million Twitter accounts with no followers
81% Twitter user has less than 50 followers
44% of Twitter account have no tweets
46% of Twitter users follow news organizations
58% of top brand have over 1,00,000 followers
86% ad revenue comes from mobile
Tweet with image receive 18% more click through rate
Average 170 minutes users spend on Twitter
Approx 20 million fake Twitter users
29% user consider desktop and laptop for tweeting
58% of top brand have over 1,00,000 followers
CLICK TO TWEET
Pinterest:

Pinterest is popular image sharing website launched in march 2010 by Paul Sciarra, Evan Sharp, and Ben Silbermann. To know more about Pinterest, take a look at below statistics.
socialmedia-statistics-pinterest

There are 110 million active users on Pinterest
Over 176 million Pinterest accounts have been registered
57% Of Pinterest users pin, re-pin and interact with food related content
55% of all mobile device used for pinning are iPads
71% of are female users and 29% male users
80% traffic comes from mobile device
58% pin made with Tablet and 12 % with desktop
34% Pinterest users are aged between 18 to 29
Average 98 minutes users spend on Pinterest per month
83% of active users prefer to follow brand rather than a notable celebrity
Majority of daily active pinners are under 40
66 % of content that users Pin comes from brand website
92% of all Instagram posts are photos
30% users are using Pinterest from mobile
There are 146 million fashion brands on Pinterest
20% of total social referrals to eCommerce site come from Pinterest
Pinterest Pins with prices get 36% more like than those without
93% pinners shopped online in the past six months
Image without faces receive 23% more repins
More than 2.5 billion page view per month
14 million items are pinned everyday
27% of active Pinterest users follow a brand on the network
100 million food related board and 146 fashion related board exist on Pinterest
It has more than 50 billion pins on more than 1 billion boards
Pinterest engages 29% of total digital population
27% of active Pinterest users follow a brand on the network
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Instagram:

Instagram was founded in October 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger at San Francisco. Nowadays it is the most popular platform among men and women of all ages. To know more about Instagram take a look at the statistics below.
socialmedia-statistics-instagram

There are 75 millions daily active users on Instagram
Almost 85 million videos and photos people are uploaded everyday
Over 40 billion photos have been shared so far
Instagram currently has more than 430 million active users
53% Instagram users are aged between 18 to 29
97% of all engagement on Instagram are likes
51% of Instagram’s audience is male whereas 49% is female
1.7 million photo Instagram users like every minute
Post with hashtag create 12% more engagement
Post with location gets 79% higher engagement
96% of US fashion brands are using Instagram
90% Instagram users are under age 35
Total 50% retailers are active on Instagram
32% US teens consider Instagram is the most important network
47% adult user access Instagram on smartphones and 53% are using tablet
70% of Instagram user log in at least once a day
42% of teens are using Instagram on their mobile device
35% check Instagram multiple times a day
Photos with face gets 38% more likes
When Instagram introduced videos, over 5 million were shared in 24 hours
25 number of language available on Instagram site
Instagram earns $ 595 million in mobile ad revenue
Average 21 minutes users spend on the Instagram per month
36% of photos gets more like than video
42% marketer focused on Instagram
Photos with face gets 38% more likes
CLICK TO TWEET
LinkedIn:

LinkedIn is business-oriented social networking platform founded by Reid Hoffman, Allen Blue, Konstantin Guericke, Eric Ly, Jean-Luc-Vaillant in May 2002 at California. To know more about LinkedIn, take a look at the Statistics below:
socialmedia-statistics-linkedin

There are 300 million people use LinkedIn
1 million professionals have published post on LinkedIn
LinkedIn users spend 26% of their time using the mobile app
25 million profiles are viewed every day
41% access LinkedIn from their mobile device
3.5 million creative professionals follow influencers on LinkedIn
23% LinkedIn users are aged between 18 to 29
More than 3 people sign up every second on LinkedIn
32% job seekers are using LinkedIn
42% of user update their profile regularly
35% of LinkedIn users access the site daily
66% user generated tweet comes from mobile users
39% of users pay to use LinkedIn via premium accounts
20 number of language available on LinkedIn
91% of B2B marketers are using LinkedIn for sharing content
Total 46% users are female and 54% are male on LinkedIn
More than 3 million have created a company page on LinkedIn
1.5 million total number of LinkedIn groups
98% posts with images get higher comment rate
Post ended with question receive 50% more engagement
81% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to launch new products
Post including link receive 200% more engagement
Average users spend 17 minutes on LinkedIn per month
13% users don’t have Facebook account
59% of LinkedIn user don’t visit Twitter
Post ended with question receive 50% more engagement
CLICK TO TWEET
Now it’s your turn?
Is there any statistics here that seemed particularly surprising or true from your experience? Feel free to share your views or input in the comments, it would be great to hear from you.

Source:
https://www.brandwatch.com/2016/03/96-amazing-social-media-statistics-and-facts-for-2016/

http://www.meltwater.com/sg/blog/35-stupendous-social-networking-facts-and-stats/

http://www.globalmediainsight.com/blog/twitter-users-statistics/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/2015-instagram-statistics-you-should-know-katy-elle-blake

10 Useful Tips For Getting More Engagement On Instagram

10 Useful Tips For Getting More Engagement On Instagram

Do you know how to use Instagram to promote your business? Do you get enough interaction with your brand? Do you know how to get more engagement using Instagram?

Instagram is a great way to connect and engage your customers. With more than 300 million active users, and almost 85 million image and videos uploaded every day, it is the awesome visual platform for business. Using Instagram in a right way you can get success in marketing your business. Whether you are new or you want to find out how to get more Instagram followers, here you will find few tips to market your brand more accurately on Instagram.

useful-tips-instgram

1. Constantly Update Your Profile:

Customize your Instagram profile to make it look good, tell your potential followers who you are and give them a reason to follow you. Start by creating your username. Just you need to ensure that your username is searchable like your business name. If your business name is already taken, try keeping your business name as the first part of your username so that people searching for your business are more likely to come across you.

Make sure your profile is public. To make your profile public, open Instagram, open options and make sure “private account” is turned off. Also, choose a profile picture that’s on brand with your social networks like your company logo.

2. Update Your Bio:

Update your bio with informative information about your brand. Add information that allows people to know who you are and what your business do. Also include the hint of the personality, here are a few examples for inspiration:

@Staples: “We make it easy to #MakeMoreHappen”
@wdywt: To be considered: Tag your on-feet photos with #WDYWT
@caratlane: We’re Obsessed with Making Beautiful Jewellery Accessible #CaratLane
Use this space to feature a call to action, branded hashtags and website links. Adding the link to your product page is important because the majority of your traffic generates on the mobile device so it is easy for your followers to visit your website and buy your products. For Instagram users who are new to your brand and come across to your account for the first time then this section is very important.

After that enable notifications so you can see when people share or comment on your photos. This will allow you engage with them more quickly. To enable notifications, go to options and then push notification settings. Select from everyone for every category.
bio

3. Reorder The Filters:

Instagram filters are all about fun. Choosing the right filters can actually lead to move views and engagement. It is found that filtered photos are 21% more likely to be viewed and 45% more likely to be commented than unfiltered ones. So you need to find out what works the best for your business.

Additionally, if you use Instagram a lot, chances are you have a few favorite filters you use all the time and others you never touch. If you want to make editing photo easier then you can reorder the filters in the filters in your editing window and even hide the ones you never use.
To reorder the hide filters, just upload a photo and start editing it, as you would when editing a new post. When you get to the filters page, scroll to the very far right of your filters options and click manage. If you want to reorder the filters, simply hold your fingers down or three grey lines on the far right of the filters, you’ll like to move and drag it to reorder.

4. Respond To Your Followers:

Make sure you are responding all the comments you receive both positive and negative because it is a big part of engaging your audience. Also, thank people for kind comments or for tagging their friends. Reply to comments where people ask you questions about the photo or about your business. If you ignore their comments, it shows them you are not interested in building a community.
Show them that you care about what they have to say. Respond to comments and try to follow them back and engage with what they’re sharing when relevant. This will lead to creating strong connection and more engagement as well.

respond_followers

5. Make Use Of Captions:

Use the photos that show exactly what followers will get from your product. If you are an author show your book’s cover or use a photo of someone reading your book. If you are into eCommerce business, share some of your products.

Although, Instagram is visual platform and your photo captions plays a huge role in helping you get more Instagram followers. One of the best ways, to get more likes and followers on your Instagram photo is to use photo caption that ask the question. This is the great way to drive not only photos like but comments and engagement also.

use_caption

6. Use Quality Hashtags:

Instagram allows for a maximum of 30 hashtags per post but try to limit the number of hashtag per caption to around three. Additionally, using the relevant hashtag in your captions will help your posts appear to more people beyond your followers. Depending on the industry, you are in the popular Instagram hashtags that can be used to get more visibility on your photos. Before using any hashtag, find out which hashtag you should use in order to reach the wider audience and achieve the highest level of engagement. To find the hashtag your audience might be using, research in the Instagram app the “explore” tab. When you search any hashtag, it will show you a list of related hashtag at the top of the screen.

For example, when I search for #contentmarketing on Instagram it shows me relevant hashtags like #blogging, #content, #businesstips etc.

hashtag

7. Find Suggested Users:

If you are new into your business and you do not know who you should follow, use Instagram’s suggested users setting. This is the great for you and helps you to find uses to follow who have similar interests. These users who you start following will often return the favor and follow your brand back if they like your photos.

Just open Instagram and go into your settings option by clicking on the bottom far right icon. Then, in the top right of your Instagram profile, click the gear icon. Select “Find & Invite Friends” and at the bottom, you’ll find “Suggested Users.”

8. Post Consistently:

Considering your follower count, you need to post consistently. This gets your brand seen regularly by your followers. They will be more appropriate to become more regular customers this way too.

Create defining elements of your account. If you’re consistent with the content of your photos, the filters you use, and how you caption your photos, you’ll start to be seen as a leader in a particular area. Use hashtags to help users interested in your content focus discover your Instagram feed. Keep in mind that the goal is to ensure your photos appear in the feed of your followers so they can interact with them. The more you post the more your brand is visible to your followers. If you want to post consistently while saving time, and effort then schedule the post with using social media tool. This is the best way of building a loyal following and community.

9. Find Perfect Timing For Posting:

Before you post on Instagram, two things you need to keep in mind that is your audience’s time zone and what time they are often checking Instagram. Mostly all users prefer to check Instagram in the morning and in the evening. For example, if you are running a business with New York or London base followers then consider posting according to that time zone.

Not all brands have the same time to post on Instagram. So you need to analyse which type of photos are getting more liked and comment and according to that you need to find the active times. Also decide the post frequency, Post at least 2-3 times a day. The most effective way of determining the best time to post on Instagram is by testing how your photos perform at different times of the day. If you notice that photos you post in the mornings are consistently earning you more likes, comments, or followers than those posted in the afternoon or evening, then set your content sharing schedule accordingly.

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10. Use Video Also:

Instagram allows users to upload videos of up to 15 seconds. Instagram video also helps your brand stand out on the platform. It is also the great way for businesses to engage with fans. However, you can introduce new products, create employee attentions or showcase company culture and behind-the-scenes moments with short simple videos that can either be their own campaigns or a teaser for larger products with video.

Instagram is a great platform for sharing, engaging and branding your business. So, if you haven’t started using Instagram for your business, consider using it to the top of your list. Share your views on what has helped you to create a more engaged Instagram following in the comment box below.

10 Useful LinkedIn Features You Might Not Know About

10 Useful LinkedIn Features You Might Not Know About

With more than 300 million members, LinkedIn is the most popular business oriented network. But are you using all the possible feature of LinkedIn?
How do you know LinkedIn? May be not as well as you think. Here I have compiled a few features that can save your time, expand your network and drive your business goals.

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1. Hide your connections:

With using this feature you can have the flexibility to control how open or private you make your connections to others within your network. You can set your settings so that your connections are only visible to you or those who are also connected with you. If you make your connection private then it’s only visible to you. This will stop competition, recruitment companies and other accessing a network of potential clients, employees and channel partners you have worked hard to build a relationship with over the years.

In order to make the required changes scroll to the upper right hand corner of your LinkedIn profile and select privacy & settings. Just click on the link “select who can see your connections” and from there choose the option, “only me” when this is done, save your changes.
Hide your connections

2. Export Your Connections:

Want to move LinkedIn connections to other contact management system? LinkedIn allows you to easily export your connections. You can easily download a spreadsheet either .CSV or .VCF format and a list of your connections including their name, current company name and email address. If you want to export your contact then click connections in LinkedIn’s top navigation, click on the settings gear icon in the top right and click export connections under advanced settings on the right.
Export Your Connections

3. Delete, Manage And Edit Your Skills & Endorsement:

Skills and endorsement area is very important when you are building LinkedIn profile. By clicking on this you can endorse someone or to have someone endorse you. It adds tag so that make your profile more easily found by search engines and LinkedIn searches also.

While LinkedIn allows up to 50 skills listed. I recommend that you should only have 3 or 5 skills and expertise listed on your profile. However, you need to do some research online along with speaking to some of your clients about what skills or expertise your target market are looking for in an expert within your field before including them in your profile. If a skill is unique that has not been entered into the database so you can add manually. To edit this simply select edit profile in the drop down menu. Then scroll down to the skills and expertise section of your profile and click edit.

Within this area, you can remove any endorsement you no longer want, add new skills you want to be endorsed for and manage the endorsement you have received with particular skills or expertise and many more. After finishing this click on save to ensure all your changes are updated.
Delete, manage and edit endorcement

4. Create LinkedIn Showcase Page:

LinkedIn showcase pages are the perfect way to segment your inbound LinkedIn traffic. If you can create a business unit that is directly connected to a specific target audiencethen you need to create a showcase page. It allows companies to target different buyer personas by providing single pages that focus on specific products, product categories and service. LinkedIn users can also follow specific showcase pages without having to follow a company’s main page or its other showcase pages, allowing your business to change the page closely to the audience specific to the page.

If you want to create showcase page, click the edit dropdown at the top right of your company page and select create a showcase page. You can create up to 10 free showcase pages per each parent company page.

Showcase pages were basically custom-made for B2Bs to better generate leads. LinkedIn writes, “It makes sense to create a Showcase Page when you want to represent a brand, business unit, or company initiative. These pages are intended develop long term relationship with a specific audience.”
Create showcase page
Tips for making showcase pages as good as possible:
• Create showcase page just like your company page
• It is vital to keep the name of the page short so it won’t be shortened in the display sidebar.
• Use the word that your audience will understand and relate to
• Showcase pages are just another way to get more leads interested in your product or service
• Add website link, image and industry just like for regular page

5. Hide Your Identity When Viewing Profiles:

The “who’s viewed my profile” box is on the right side of your LinkedIn page when you first login it, you can see vague attribute of people who have clicked on your profile, such as the company the person works for, sometimes their name and someone labeled “Anonymous.” If you don’t want others to see information about you when you look at their profile, you need to change the setting.
Find the settings page and click the link for “select what others see when you’ve viewed their profile”. When you select this you will see the pop up, then select the appropriate option, either you can select anonyms profile characteristics or you will be totally anonymous. Then click save changes.
Hide Your Identity

6. Save Searches:

When you go through the work of creating a highly specific targeted search, you’ll want to save it. Saved search is the great way to stay active in your prospecting. LinkedIn allows users to save up to ten job searches and three people searches. So after conducting a search just click on the save search option on the right allows you to save a search and easily run it again later. In addition, you can choose this option to receive weekly or monthly reminders via email once new members in the networks or job match your saved search criteria.
Saved searches

7. Show Media Files On Your Profile:

Did you know LinkedIn enables you to include a variety of media like videos, documents, Photo, links, and presentations to the Summary, Education, and Experience sections of your LinkedIn profile? This allows you to showcase different projects, show samples of your work, and improve your LinkedIn profile. Just click the edit profile, then look for the media icon for each section, placed between the pencil icon and the up/down arrow.

You can also reorder your profile sections. For example, you want your job experience to show up in front of your summary. Click the Edit Profile button on your LinkedIn home page, and look for the up/down arrow icon at the top of each section. Click, drag, and drop where you’d like it placed.
Show Media files

8. Make Contact Without Making a Connection:

If you want to get in touch with someone on LinkedIn but you have yet to make the one-to-one connection, you can join a common group. Once you have joined a common group, you can send message as member of the same group even if you are not directly connected. On the comment section you will see an option to report privately in the drop down under comment conversation. By clicking this, you can send message without making a connection.
Make connections

9. Maintain LinkedIn Relationship Note:

Under each connected profile, you will see the option to add relationship notes. Using this feature you can add the information like how you met, add reminder notice and other important context.
The reminder notices are great because you can set feature and recurring alert with each content. If you click the recurring option, you could set up a reminder to call or follow up with the person on a weekly, monthly, every three month or custom basis. However, in relationship panel all the information is kept private so that only you can see this.
Maintain Relationship notes

10. Take Advantage Of Advanced Search Option:

LinkedIn’s advanced search feature gives a much richer search experience as well as the best way of identifying the exact type of the people who are targeting. For example, say you want to find out if you’re connected to anyone who works at a specific company. Type the company name in the company field in Advanced Search, then filter the results by “Relationship” to see if you have any first- or second-degree connections to any employees.
In addition, you can filter your search by location, industry, past company, school, profile language and nonprofit interest.

Advanced Search

Which of these useful features did you know already? I would love to hear what you are really using or what you have found useful in the comments box below.

The Ultimate Guide On How To Manage Social Media Privacy Settings

The Ultimate Guide On How To Manage Social Media Privacy Settings

Are you worried about your online privacy? Have you checked your privacy settings on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Instagram recently? As a marketer, we are using social media to promote our business, yet we still need to be conscious of our privacy.

In this post, you will find out how to manage the social media privacy settings so you can share only those information that you want people to know.
social-media-privacy

Social media is an amazing tool, but it’s really the face-to-face interaction that makes a long term impact.
Why do you need to check your privacy settings?

The photos and content uploaded to the social media platform are not always secure, so it is vital to learn and understand how to use the privacy features your social media sites have to offer.
You have to bear in mind each social media platforms has its own settings and some are more complicated than others. We’ll go through privacy settings for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram.
facebook
Privacy tab, your profile, and photo settings are three places to set privacy setting. Let’s take a look.

1. Facebook Privacy Tab:

You can access the privacy settings by clicking the down arrow in the right portion of your Facebook, just click on the settings and then select privacy settings from the list of the option. First of all, change the default setting on your post under who can see my stuff? you can share the things with the public or with friends. You can also manage the privacy at the time you post on your timeline by using the audience selector. This control remembers your changes so future posts will be shared with the same audience unless you change it.

It has also a feature that many people don’t know is that the capacity to limit the audience for old posts on your timeline. For example, let’s say you were posting publicly every time on Facebook and you want to improve your security. Then just click the Limit Past Posts button and the content on your timeline you’ve shared with friends of friends or public will change to friends. But the people who have already interested with the post, including liking, commenting or tagged in may see the post as well. You also have the option to individually change the audience of your posts. Just go to your post that you want to change and choose the different audience.
FB Privacy

There are few other things you can adjust like choose who can send you a friend request. Also, determine who can look you up that includes your personal information like email and phone number to find you. Moreover, if you want to adjust who can tag and who can see what content you are tagged in, go to the Timeline and Tagging.

2. Facebook Profile Settings:

Next is update your privacy settings on your Facebook profile. Go to your profile, click on About. Here you will see the basic information. You will see various sections like work, education, contact, family and relationship, life event etc. On each section, you will find a number of items in it and each item have a privacy setting. If you want to make necessary changes then just you need to click the edit icon on the right side of each section and choose who can see the information public, friends or custom.

Fb-about
Here you can customize each section within your profile, so your privacy is set to your comfort level. For example, if you want your work and education publicly known or if you want to hide your contact and basic information, you can set according to your requirement.

3. Facebook Photo Settings:

At last, adjust the privacy for the photo section. You can set your photo setting in a two ways one is by album and other is by an image. If you upload the photos into an album directly then click the audience on the bottom right side of the album to set privacy. For albums with images you have uploaded individually, you need to click each image and enter the privacy setting there.
Fb-photo
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Twitter’s privacy settings are very simple. Either you have a private account or not. By default protect my tweet is off, and everyone, whether it is your follower or anyone searching Google, can see your tweets. To change the privacy settings on your Twitter account, go to your setting menu. Just click security and privacy below the account option on the left side of the screen. Select protect my Tweets if you want to approve each follower instead of allowing everyone to read your tweets.

Twitter-privacy
In addition, Twitter gives the option to add a location to your tweet. When you tweet with the location, Twitter stores that location. You can change the location on/off before each tweet. You can also decide whether users can find your Twitter profile with your email address or your phone number. After you have made any changes make sure you click the save changes button at the bottom.

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LinkedIn’s privacy setting is little different from Facebook and Twitter. Still, you have some choices. To change your privacy, scroll over your setting buttons in the top right corner and select privacy & settings. There are many privacy settings here but most deal with how your information is shared on the LinkedIn.

If you want to decide which information anyone can see on LinkedIn, click edit your public profile. If you want to keep your connections private then deselect everything.

Linkedin-privacy

You can also make other changes under privacy control includes who can see your activity feeds, your connections, Unfollow, block people and much more. Just click the link of the setting you want to change and make the proper adjustment. Make sure you save your changes before you navigate away.

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Pinterest is also a user-friendly site in terms of privacy. Pinterest wants your pins to be visible to other users so you can get the most advantage from the site. People want to find your pins to repin and share them.

1. Search Privacy:

If you don’t want to show your pin in search then you can change the settings. To make necessary changes, on the right side of your profile go to the setting, click on the account setting. Here you will see many elements. Just click on “Account Basics”, find search privacy option and then select “yes” if you want to hide your profile from search engines.

2. Secret Boards:

If you really want to keep some pins to yourself then you can create a secret board. To create a secret board, go to your profile under create board option you will find an option to create a secret board. Just you need to click the plus symbol to create a new secret board. If you create a secret board then only you and people you invite can see these boards. Here you can create as many secret boards as you want. Just you need to add a name of your board, description, categories and so on.

Pinterest secrete board

Note:
You can change the secret board to public but you can’t change a public board back to secret. To go public just select the secret option to no.
instagram_share
Just like Twitter and Pinterest, Instagram’s privacy settings are much simpler. By default, everyone can view your profile and posts as well as tag you in photos. You can make your posts private so only your approved followers can see them.

Instagram is a mobile-based networking tool, the desktop site has limited feature and you cannot edit the privacy of your image there. So you need to use the mobile app for changing the privacy settings. Go to your profile page by tapping the user icon on the bottom right of the navigation menu. Tap edit your profile and scroll down.
Instagram
At the bottom side, you can change the private account on and off. If you set private then only your users can see your photos. Even though you switch to a private profile, your current followers stay the same. In addition, if you want to block a particular follower, find that user’s profile click the settings button on the top right corner of the page and then tap to block a user.

Note:
Even if you have a private post and you like a public post and comment on a photo or video that public user have uploaded. It is visible to everyone. Also, you can remove yourself from a photo you were tagged.

It’s your turn now!
What do you think? What are the other social media private settings we need to consider? Do you have any recommendation to share? we would love to hear your views in the comment box below.