The Social Pro Posts
School is in session (or will be very soon for some!) August is rushing past and September will be here very, very soon.
It’s time to get started planning your Marketing and Advertising Strategies for the holidays.
The early bird gets the worm! Here are 5 things you can do right now to make sure your business is ready to heat up those sales this holiday season:
1. Get Social
Social Media requires consistency to reach an audience. Now is the time to crank up the activity on the Social sties that best suit your business. Start growing your followers with targeted advertising, send weekly emails with useful information to your customer database and invite them to watch your Social accounts for sales and promotion updates. read more
Many people think advertising and marketing are the same thing, while marketing can generate sales it is not “advertising.” Branding is marketing, but a strategic part of marketing.
It can get confusing.
Here is how it breaks down, what marketing, advertising and branding mean, as well as why they are all important to your business and its success.
Marketing Grabs Attention
Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings (products/services) that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. (American Marketing Association) read more
“Social proof, a term coined by Robert Cialdini in his 1984 book, Influence, is also known as informational social influence. It describes a psychological and social phenomenon wherein people copy the actions of others in an attempt to undertake behavior in a given situation.” (Wikipedia)
If your friends jumped off a bridge would you jump off too? Psychology says you would. Social Proof is a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others to reflect the right behavior for certain situations. read more
Move over Halloween Margarita recipes, home décor ideas, and knitting projects, make room for automobile sales.
Oracle Data Cloud (ODC) analyzed new vehicle registration data and found Pinterest users were 28% more likely than non-Pinterest users to buy a new vehicle within the first 90 days of its release.
Additionally, Pinners were 31% more likely to buy a new SUV model after its release.
Pinterest by the Numbers
“Pinterest is a visual discovery engine for finding ideas like recipes, home and style inspiration, and more. read more
Though most engagement occurs on a more personal level on LinkedIn, it is still important to make sure your business page on LinkedIn has the necessary information for people to learn more about your business.
Here are 6 tips to get your Business listing in order and start leveraging it for potential new business.
1. Update & Edit Business Info
Ensure the information about your business is up-to-date and accurate. Your listing should include a link to your website, the business phone number, contact information, and all other information using the fields LinkedIn provides. read more
- Do you have a Yelp profile?
- Do you have Yelp reviews?
- Do you get constant calls and emails from Yelp Sales Reps offering help to “boost your visibility” on Yelp?
If you have wondered if it’s worth it or not, you need to judge for yourself.
What is Yelp
Yelp is a business directory service and crowd-sourced review form designed to help local businesses by publishing crowd-sourced reviews about businesses. (Wikipedia)
Allowing consumers to view reviews and make purchasing decisions based on these reviews.
Yelp by the Numbers
- 35 million unique visitors, on average, visit the site monthly.
- Over 184 million reviews were written on yelp (by the end of Q1 2019.)
- 45% of consumers say they are likely to check reviews on Yelp before visiting a business.
The five most reviewed business categories on the site are:
- Restaurants
- Home and Local Services
- Beauty and Fitness
- Arts and Entertainment
- Events
How consumers find reviews on Yelp:
- 75% use the Search feature.
- 21% look up the business directly.
- 1% link to reviews through email.
- 94% find reviews via Social Media (46% of these people find the links on Facebook.)
- 03% find business reviews via display advertising.
Pros
Claiming your business profile is free. Once claimed you can upload photos, menus, services, address, phone number, etc. You can also add links to your website and Social Media profiles. read more
In case you don’t want to view the video:
- 23 Billion Active Users
- Used by All Ages
- 53% Female
- 1 to 2 Updates per Day
- Content Type: Text, Links, Images, Video
Benefits:
Great for local promotion of events/services/products, builds community, finds new audiences
Challenges:
Organic reach is low, paid advertising is beneficial
- 1 Billion Active Users
- Largest Demographic: 18 to 29-year-olds
- 68% Female
- One Update a Week
- Content Type: Image and Video
Benefits:
Great for Visual brands and making connections with new and existing customers.
Challenges:
Creativity required.
- 590 Million Active Users
- Largest Demographic: 25 to 54-year-olds
- 56% Male
- 1 to 2 Posts per Day
- Content Type: Text with Image
Benefits:
B2B lead generation, recruiting.
Challenges:
Become a thought leader in your industry.
- 250 Million Active Users
- Median Age: 40
- 80% Female
- 30 Pins per Day
- Content Type: Images
Benefits:
Drives traffic to website and blogs, great promotion for ecommerce retailers, assists in creating leads read more
Facebook is still the Social Networking Goliath, for most businesses it is the main platform used in a marketing strategy, and for good reason.
Here are a few updated stats to show that Facebook has not slowed down its effort to permeate our lives and some very good reasons to start using Facebook to market.
Facebook Mission:
“Founded in 2004, Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together. People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them.” read more
Facebook Watch is the video-on-demand service operated by Facebook. Launched in August 2017 it provides original video content that is produced for the company by partners.
In June 2018, Facebook launched six news programs from partners including BuzzFeed, Vox, CNN, and Fox News. In addition to original programming, Facebook Watch also distributes content licensed from other companies. On November 30, 2018, it was announced that the streaming service had struck a deal with 20th Century Fox Television to stream television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly. read more