Social Media

In order to achieve success on Facebook you need a community. That’s a fact. Facebook is the king of social networks with millions of active users per month and there are well over a few million active Facebook pages so if you want your page to stand out from the crowd you will need to grow your audience and get more Facebook page likes. If you’re managing marketing for one of these businesses, you already know how hard it is to attract new “likes” to your page.

 

Invite friends to “Like” your page

The invite feature allows you to ask certain friends or all friends to like your business page. You can then ask them to invite their friends. People you have as friends on your personal page are likely to ‘like’ and ‘share’ the post from your business page and this will increase the number of people that will see the post and possibly the number of likes and visits to your website.

 

Link to your page to your personal Facebook page

Your Facebook profile page is highly visible so use this to your advantage by including a link to your page right below your profile picture so your friends and people who will add you can see it straight away and go to check it if they are interested.

 

Share interesting content not just links

This type of content gets more likes and shares and as a result the page gets more fans and followers. People love to share great content, and when your Fans’ friends see that great content, they too may share it – or even better, they may “Like” your page. It’s an easy way to get more likes on your Facebook page. People are very visually-oriented, so photos and videos are more likely to capture people’s attention than wordy status updates. Posting awesome content is a great way to get your page to spread virally.

 

Be Consistent

Getting more Facebook Likes isn’t just about profile optimization and an initial push. To continue growing steadily, you need to maintain an active, ongoing presence. By now you know that you should publish engaging, interesting and entertaining content. But how often should you post? There is no magic number but there are best practices and analytics to guide you. Post 5 times a week so you’re “top of mind” for your Fans.

 

Time it right

There is no “magic time” to post like we mentioned earlier, so mix it up and see what works best for your page. It really depends on the business type. Posting often increases your visibility on people’s timelines, making it less possible for your posts to be overlooked or skimmed over. If you can become known for posting interesting and funny status updates, photos and videos, people will be more likely to stop and take notice when your name appears on their feed. The more people who actually pay attention to what you’re posting, the more people who’ll be inclined to like each post.

 

Find out what interests your community

People will be more inclined to keep visiting and to share your content if you maintain regular, interesting, and updated content that they are interested in. And you want them to share that content, so ensure that it’s the type of content people love to share, such as photos, photo sets, videos, and links to really interesting articles.

 

 Add the “Facebook Like” tools to your website or blogs

Using the “like” buttons or boxes makes it easy for people to find your fan page and to “like” it from your site or blogs. Add it to your site or blog, preferably toward the top so that it’s clearly visible. This works especially well because the people on your website are warm leads and likely to be interested in the content you post on your Facebook Page.

 

 Promote your Facebook Page on Twitter and LinkedIn

Place your Facebook link on other social media networks. For example, use your Twitter address link box to place your Facebook page URL rather than a site address. Your new and existing followers will be able to get to your group page only by one click. Whatever community you join, always be sure to include a link back to your Facebook page so the readers can find and connect with you there.

 

Use a call to action

If you ask your followers to Share, Like or Comment they will be more than likely to do it for you. If you don’t ask people to take action and like your page many people, simply won’t.

 

Get your followers to Upload and Tag Photos

If you host or attend the same event with several of your followers take a photo, post them to your page and then get your fans to tag themselves in the pictures. If you can get your fans to upload pictures to your page, or tag themselves in pictures you uploaded, this will post to their walls as well and will lead to additional traffic for you as their friends will be able to see it as well.

 

Create an awesome Facebook page experience

Do your best to give an awesome experience for those who interact with you on your page by creating and posting epic content. The viral feedback this can send into many people’s Facebook news feed will enable you to pull in many new free fans for your page. Go above and beyond when engaging with your community and they will spread the word.

 

Organise a Facebook Contest or a “Fan of The Month” Promotion

Organize a contest on your Page and give a free gift. This will help you in getting more followers because the people that already like your page are going to invite their friends as well to take part in your contest. You can add a rule that all the participants must like your page in order to be eligible to win the prize.

 

Promote your Facebook page in real life everywhere

Print your Facebook page URL and stick it in your store on the wall, in the windows, on the receipts or flyers that you hand over to your customer. You can put a sticker on your car underneath your company name, print it on other marketing materials that you hand out. There are also plenty of options for free advertisement.

 

Measure and analyse

Use Facebook Insights to find useful metrics on your Page performance. You can view metrics like reach, number of engaged users, engagement rate, and new Page likes. These metrics will help you understand what’s driving your likes and engagement, so that you can adjust your posts accordingly. Keep the analytics so you can compare the details and see when you were busier or received more likes.

 

In the end the success of your Facebook Page depends on how you use and manage it. If you follow all the above tips and work continuously on your page it will definitely be starting to get more and more likes within a few months. Having a good number of Facebook fans on your business pages is very important for credibility and ranking purposes.  There’s plenty more to learn about growing a Facebook audience that can provide new business opportunities.

We hope we were helpful with this guide and you will be able to use this information on how to attract more Facebook fans. Please like our Facebook page www.facebook.com/eDivertUK/ If you have any questions, or don’t have the time or resources to build your own social media strategy, please contact eDivert on 01628 637 900 or e-mail us on info@eDivert.co.uk . Check out our website www.edivert.co.uk/our-services/social-media-management

Social media is one of the most powerful marketing tools for your business, if you use it correctly you can create a strong personal connection with your prospective customers. Marketers in companies that sell B2B often make a mistake of not having a social media plan in place. If this is you, don’t worry – our guide helps you to find out everything you need to know, so you can choose the right platform for your needs, find your audience and build a strong online brand that will encourage your B2B business to grow.

 

1. Which social network is right for your B2B marketing strategy? 

If your company is just starting out on the web and needs to pick a few social media networks to rule over, here is our guide to choosing the best platform(s) for your B2B business, and how to make the most out of them.

 

Facebook: Most people know this site. It’s hardly surprising, as it’s the biggest social network based on global reach and total active users.  It builds brand loyalty and reputation. Establishes your business as an authority through interesting content and informational posts. Facebook is great for businesses who sell products and services to consumers, so B2C. But businesses, whose B2B marketing plan includes targeting small local businesses can get real results on this social media platform.

 

Twitter: This is a micro-blogging platform, where you have 140 characters to share your message. Twitter shares breaking news and quick updates. Businesses use it to promote new products, content, or brand contests, or to collect instant feedback from their audience. Twitter is used by individuals, celebrities, and businesses of any size, including the largest multinational corporations. Especially this last group uses it as a customer care platform.

 

LinkedIn: It has been described as Facebook for business, an electronic CV.  But LinkedIn is much more than that. It doesn’t only allow individuals to share their job history. It’s also effective in allowing your business to build its profile and network by getting involved in discussions, job-postings, company descriptions, employer/employee research. LinkedIn is used by individuals, recruiters and businesses – especially B2B service providers. Many companies with a sales team use the Business Services for their lead generation and business development.

 

Google+: Google+ is kind of a black sheep in the world of social media. However here are some important reasons to rethink your decision and have a serious look at what Google+ for Business can do for you. In case you didn’t know this; everything you post on your Google+ for Business page is immediately indexed by Google. Google+ is a great platform for you, if you have a small to medium size business.

 

Instagram: This is a photo sharing platform, launched in October 2010. It has recently introduced video functionality, which allows users to post 15-second videos on the site. Instagram is for everyone who wants to share their lifestyle, food, fashion, personalities and luxury brands. You can add hashtags in the caption or in the comments of your post. If you add hashtags to a post that’s set to public, the post will be visible on the corresponding hashtag page. A great platform for businesses who sell products to consumers.

 

That’s a lot of social networks and there are even more that we won’t have time to discuss in this blog. Not all of these will work for your business. If you have limited resources, try to focus on one or two social media platforms when you start.

 

2. Create social media objectives and goals 

Like any good strategy, a strong purpose and a good set of objectives is important. This set of purpose and objectives has to be relevant and aligned to your overall aims and objectives. Focus on the S.M.A.R.T. strategy for goal setting to ensure your objectives are:

 

S – Specific

M – Measurable

A – Attainable

R – Relevant

T – Time-bound

 

One of the key things you need to decide is how you will use your social media presence. What you decide will affect the type of content you post and how you measure your success. Some common ways of using social networks include:

 

• Building buzz around your products or services
• Increasing brand awareness
• Driving more visitors to your website
• Increasing leads
• Finding out more about your customers and their needs
• Providing customer service
• Recruiting new talent
• Improving customer loyalty

 

In all cases, these objectives should be directly tied to your business goals, and they should be achievable. Also, make sure your objectives are time limited so set a date to your goal and size of the growth you are planning to achieve. Once you set your objectives, make sure you can measure them, find the right tools to track and analyze each one, so that you can quantify your progress. Not only will this let you know when you have arrived, it will also help you to spot problems early and adjust your course if you need to.

 

3. Consistency is the key

Making the effort to keep your messages consistent can help you cultivate a loyal customer following. It is important to keep the content you share on social media channels consistent. Don’t bombard your users with the same content again and again. Keep the pace a bit varied; Twitter users and Facebook users expect very different posting frequencies from businesses. It is fairly common for businesses to post on Twitter four or five times per day, while on Facebook they may only post once or twice a day.

Fans also do not like being constantly advertised to. Get a bit creative and utilise the power of social media creatively. Facebook and Twitter can be much more than simple promotional streams. Use the power of effective frequency* with your posts so your followers will get to know your brand. There are some factors that impact your sharing frequency, including your type of industry, your recourses and the quality of the content of your posts.

*Click below to read our blog about Effective Frequency:  https://edivert.co.uk/blog/item/effective-frequency-how-many-times-does-your-potential-customer-need-to-see-you-or-your-adverts-before-they-buy

 

4. Time your social media posts 

Create your plan to deliver your post around the time when your audience will definitely notice them. There is a lot of research available but they are normally conflicting. Timing is difficult to get exactly right, and a big part of this is because we all have different schedules and routines for using social media. The key to successful social media engagement is to post content during peak hours and days — for your audience. The best time to post is different on every social media network. Different businesses may find different days and times work best for them. In fact, timing often depends on the platform you’re using, how your target audience interacts with that platform, the region(s) you’re targeting, the content of your posts and your business goals. We researched the internet for a general point of view and we think that for a lot of business the times below will work well:

 

5. Characterise your target market

 Knowing your audience is important in creating an effective social media plan. It’s well worth spending time thinking about who you need to connect and engage with on social media. Who is interested in your product or service? Is there anything unique that could appeal to a certain audience?

Think about the next level, who those people might be associated with. Word of mouth is a powerful thing and it’s rife amongst social media folk, so connecting with those that are connected to your target audiences can be worthwhile.

Also identify your key influencers. These could be people that stand out within your communities, people that others listen to, people that create action. People with game-changing opinion and ideas. People who challenge the norm. Or simply people that talk sense.

 

6. Test, evaluate and adjust your social media marketing plan

To find out what adjustments need to be made to your social media marketing strategy, you should constantly be testing. Build testing capabilities into every action you take on social networks. Track page visits driven by social media with Google analytics. Record and analyze your success and failures, and then adjust your social media strategy in response. The more you post, the more you’ll discover which content, timing, and frequency is right for you.

How will you know? It’s best to get a reporting tool. Most major social networks will have basic analytics built into the site; it’s just a little easier to seek and find this information from an all-encompassing dashboard. These tools can show you a breakdown of how each post performed in the important areas of views, clicks, shares, likes, and comments.

The most important thing to understand about your social media plan is that it should be constantly changing. As you attain goals, you may need to adjust them or find new goals for each network. New challenges might present themselves that you need to address. This is a plan that is meant to change, so be flexible and open to these changes.

 

7. Build a content plan.

Great content will be essential to succeeding at social media. Your social media marketing plan should include a content marketing plan, comprised of strategies for content creation. Your social content should promote your business, convert readers, and generate profit. It should share ideas and stories from thought leaders in your industry or like-minded businesses and it should be based on personal interactions and build your business brand. Think about how you can deliver real value to your audience.

Content could be any of the following, depending on the social media network, your target audience and the product or services that you sell:

• blog posts
• infographics
• pictures
• videos
• (professionally appropriate) jokes
• quotes
• did-you-knows
• informative statistics
• quick tips

Also, keep in mind that you can’t just post your own content. You will also actively need to Like, Share and Follow others in order to create engagement. In addition, if you share content for a few weeks and then don’t post for a month, you won’t continue to grow. You must be continuously active on social media in order to grow.

A solid social media strategy is not for the light of heart. It will take you several hours to build your first plan. The next part is execution, which is even harder. You need to commit to following your strategy for months until you start seeing any real results, which still won’t be that impressive. Trust me though, if you keep at on a continuous basis, you will start seeing some great results. In the beginning, you are investing your time and resources so that you can get those results. Keep that in mind in the months ahead.

We hope we were helpful with this guide and you will be able to use this information when you are building your next social media plan. If you have any questions, or don’t have the time or resources to build your own social media strategy, please contact us on 01628 637 900 or e-mail us on info@eDivert.co.uk. Check out our website www.eDivert.co.uk

The hashtags big break was in 2007, originally invented by Chris Messina adding tags to where he was tweeting from and what it was about, but it wasn’t until the San Diego forest fire when the hashtags really took off. In 2013 Facebook began to allow the use of the hashtag which is used in a similar way to twitter hashtags.

The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. When hashtags first started being used, it was a very organic process that worked simply because of a group mind-set that people like to categorize topics and this was one way to make it easier to do so. Now that they are so common, they really only show up spontaneously if there’s a breaking news item. Otherwise, they’re used to promote, praise, or pan people, brands, events and anything else people want to discuss. Anyone can make a hashtag at any time, simply by typing a phrase of the form “#topic” in a tweet. Many television shows have embraced the hashtag revolution. TV shows regularly appear in the Twitter trending topics during prime time. Special events such as awards shows and reality TV shows are especially popular for live tweeting and becoming a trending topic could compel people to tune in.

 

How do I create my own hashtag?

Hashtags are a crucial part of social media marketing. But you have to use them in the right way! We decided to put together a little guidance about the do’s and don’ts of hashtags on 4 social networks:

• Twitter
• Instagram
• Facebook
• Google+

 

We will now break it down how we use a #hashtag in all different social media platforms.

 

How to use #hashtags on Twitter.

Twitter is what started the hashtag craze. Tweets with a hashtag get double the engagement vs. tweets without them. Which is reason enough to give them a try! People use the hashtag symbol # before a relevant keyword or phrase (no spaces) in their Tweet to categorize those Tweets and help them show more easily in Twitter Search.

– Make sure there are no spaces or punctuation in the words following the hashtag, as it will break the link.

– Hashtags can occur anywhere in the Tweet – at the beginning, middle, or end.

– Hashtagged words that become very popular are often Trending Topics.

– If You Tweet with a hashtag on a public account, anyone who does a search for that hashtag may find your Tweet.

– Tweets are restricted to 140 characters, so you don’t want a hashtag taking up 50% of the letters in your tweet. There is however no limit to Facebook post lengths, but keep them short to avoid annoying your fans and friends.

– Don’t #spam #with #hashtags. Don’t over-tag a single Tweet. It is recommended to use no more than 2 hashtags per Tweet.

– Use hashtags only on Tweets relevant to the topic.

 

How to use #hashtags on Instagram.

You can make it easier for people who don’t follow you on Instagram to find your content by using hashtags. Hashtags make your Instagram images and video more discoverable.

While hashtags originated on Twitter, they quickly became part of other social media channels. At this point, Instagram hashtag density tends to be much greater than Twitter’s because companies realize the success of their Instagram marketing depends on proper hashtagging. The hashtags help organize and categorize images and video content, which aids the process of content discovery and optimization on Instagram.

– As a general rule, every image and video your business uploads to Instagram should include a short caption. While you can include up to 30 hashtags, consider using no more than three to five hashtags.

– Failure to use hashtags renders Instagram content virtually private. On the other hand, using the right hashtags helps put your content in front of people searching for keywords and phrases associated with your brand or business.

– Social media marketers can take advantage of hashtags to increase their reach as long as they choose hashtags carefully and don’t overuse them.

– Choosing specific tags will help you connect with other like-minded people on Instagram.

– Relevant tags will help you attract new followers who will take a genuine interest in your photos and continue liking and commenting on your photos over time

– Pay attention to the other hashtags used on photos that use the same tag as yours. You may discover a popular hashtag you hadn’t thought of on your own.

 

Regular Instagram users see hashtags as tools for improving the network experience, whereas online marketers see the potential for building communities, increasing brand recognition and extending business reach.

 

 

How to use #hashtags on Facebook.

Facebook announced in 2013 that it incorporated hashtags as a way of bringing conversations about public events, people, and topics to the forefront.

However, Eric Convino, founder of Creative Signals and an SEO expert said “Facebook is a more intimate, person-to-person sharing environment, Twitter is less intimate to one’s ‘circle’ of family and friends. When you understand that Facebook is designed around a closer knit personal community than Twitter is, it isn’t hard to make the leap to where hashtags do not really make sense on Facebook,” he explains. “Facebook is a repository of someone’s life where Twitter is like a thought-stream, at least in terms of usage. The primary use of hashtags – for brands to promote products, companies to promote events, and users to immerse themselves publicly in a conversation about a topic – plays much better to the accepted use of Twitter,” Covino says.

So, to sum up: We’re simply not interested in directly communicating with brands on Facebook like we do on Twitter – or in talking to real people like we talk to brands. Still, if you decide to use #hashtags on Facebook you can use the following guidance below:

– Start using strategic hashtags in your public Facebook posts (profile and page). Others will see your hashtags as clickable links.

– Each hashtag on Facebook has its own unique URL with a status update box at the top. Drive traffic to that URL from other sites to spark more conversation.

– Include hashtags even when posting on mobile. Hashtags don’t work in exactly the same way on a mobile, but they are searchable and clickable.

– Use #hashtags to start a conversation with a group. Every word you make into a hashtag will be grouped into its own status update box!

– Think about your industry and target market, and the types of hashtags you use on other social networks.

– Use tags in trending topics related to your industry.

– Capitalize the #FirstLetterI­nEachWord of your hashtag to make it more readable.

– Don´t overdo your post with hashtags, 1 – 2 is more than enough.

How to use #hashtags on Google+

Google+ launched in June 2011. Features included the ability to post photos and status updates to the stream or interest based communities, group different types of relationships (rather than simply “friends”) into Circles, a multi-person instant messaging, text and video chat called Hangouts, events, location tagging, and the ability to edit and upload photos to private cloud-based albums. It is an interest-based social network that is owned and operated by Google Inc.

 

When Google+ started supporting hashtags, the news was met with some skepticism. People wondered if Google+ was blindly following Twitter and Facebook.

On the surface, Google+ hashtags look much the same as they do on other social networks. Just as you would on Twitter or Facebook, you construct a hashtag in a Google+ post or comment by typing the pound (aka number) sign “#” followed immediately by the text you want for the hashtag. The hashtag must be all one-word, with no spaces.

What you need to remember to use # correctly on Google+:

– Pair your hashtags with images!  Photo-sharing is the most popular activity on Google+, so make sure you are including photos and other images complemented by appropriate hashtags to give your posts the best opportunity to be viewed by the most people.

– Set a realistic goal of using 2-3 hashtags per post.  You want to cast a wider net than you would with only one hashtag, but using too many can muddy the waters and detract from the message you aim to send.

– Include hashtags when you post to communities.  This is the best way to foster and track the conversations you initiate and participate in.

– Take advantage of trending hashtags that are pertinent to your content.  This is a good way to gain additional followers, provided the hashtag you are using really does connect to the content you are sharing.  It can also be a great way to come up with new content that fits.

– Run hashtag-connected campaigns and track metrics related to those campaigns.  This is how you will be able to refine and improve your Google+ hashtag-use in the future.

 

We hope you’ve found this information useful and that it will help you use the #hashtag correctly on your social media platforms. Correct use will improve your lead generation and gives you a maximum result of growing your followers, likes and connections.  If you have any questions we are currently offering a free review on any of your social media platforms until the end of March 2016. Please feel free to contact us on  info@eDivert.co.uk or check out our website www.eDivert.co.uk for more information.