10 Winners and Losers of Social Media Marketing

 

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Social media marketing is not always executed well. Watching how some brands communicate can make you cringe.

But the effective use of social media marketing can go a long way to increasing brand awareness and promote a business or campaign. Whether through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any of the other sites and apps, social media has the potential to reach a staggeringly large audience.

Social media has helped to bridge a communication gap between big brands and customers, allowing the two parties to interact. The viral nature of social media can both be a help and a hindrance and soon as you click ‘send’, the post is out there for good, often regardless if you subsequently delete it.

Here we look at the good, the bad and the ugly of social media accounts.

1. Paddy Power

Irish bookmaker, Paddy Power has become well-known for its online presence, with some of its social media posts causing quite a stir.

The company regularly taps into the biggest sporting events to gain public interest, however they sometimes stray into the controversial, tweeting campaigns related to the Oscar Pistorius murder trial and deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. The company’s tweet surrounding Oscar Pistorius, and whether or not the Paralympian will be found guilty of the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, resulted in widespread outrage. The campaign was deemed to have broken advertising rules and brought UK advertising into disrepute.

Though there is no denying the ill-taste of that particular tweet, there is no doubt that Paddy Power generates a lot of publicity and interaction through their social media sites.

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2. Graze

The company that delivers snacks to your desk hasn’t just mastered how to make them healthy, yet tasty, but Graze has also mastered the art of social media. Founded by 7 friends, the company uses Facebook and Twitter to grow brand awareness and now has in excess of 56,000 followers. The Twitter account manages to be both helpful and humorous, interacting with followers and dealing with complaints and enquiries. Cleverly their Twitter handle is their web address @grazedotcom.

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3. Taco Bell

The well-known fast food chain is leading the way in how to build up a solid social media presence. The company uses its Twitter account to interact with customers, celebrities and general tweeters alike. Whilst, over on its Vine page, the Mexican food giant regularly uploads amusing videos to keep its 138,000 followers entertained. Taco Bell’s social media presence is light-hearted, with references to Mean Girls, a Snapchat account and a heavy sprinkling of humour, and taps into who their customers are (primarily young people) and successfully manages to raise brand awareness.

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4. Greggs

In August, UK based bakery Greggs came to the public’s attention when the logo on their Google profile was replaced with a spoof version, ‘providing shit to scum for over 70 years’, as opposed to their usual ‘Always Fresh. Always Tasty’. The bakers’ social media team, however, managed to turn the incident into an exercise in marketing genius, instead using the extra attention to its advantage. Greggs’ team proceeded to tweet Google about the incident and promote their products in the process. A smart move if ever there was one.

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5. Charmin

The manufacturers of toilet roll aren’t necessarily the kind of company you would associate with great social media, however Charmin know how to work a Twitter account. The social media team regularly tweet humorous posts and vines featuring their mascots, testament to their 48,000 followers. Some of the brands most prolific tweets have included tongue in cheek references to current events, such as a tweet posted to coincide with the release of the Thor movie which whipped the Twittersphere into a frenzy but was subsequently deleted.

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6. US Airways

The usually family friendly Twitter account for US Airways came under fire earlier this year when in an exchange with a customer, the airline tweeted a pornographic image. The image, allegedly sent in error, went viral and got the company trending. While the offending tweet was removed, it was done after an hour, plenty of time for retweets and screenshots. The tweet known as ‘planegina’ will go down as one of the biggest social media fails a company has ever had. The incident proved that immediate action should be taken in such situations for damage limitation.

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7. MSN

MSN were accused of exploiting the death of Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb to increase Facebook engagement when they posted asking readers to ‘Click ‘like’ to pay your respects’. The insensitive post caught the attention of many for all the wrong reasons, showing that using a death as link bait is a big no-no.

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8. Luton Airport

In 2013, Luton Airport’s Facebook page came to the public’s attention when the company posted a joke about a plane crash, accompanied by an image. The image in question was of an incident at Chicago airport, which saw a plane slide off the runway and resulted in a child’s death. A spokesperson for the London airport subsequently deemed the post ‘wholly unacceptable and insensitive’.

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9. Epicurious

Another company failing at social media is the Condé Nast-owned food site, Epicurious who in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing proceeded to post a string of food related tweets referencing Boston. The ill-judged tweets enraged followers who branded them insensitive and deemed them to be cashing in on the tragedy. The social media team later deleted the offending tweets and issued a blanket apology, however the damage was already done, witnessed by its 385,000 followers before being picked up by the media.

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10. Delta

Showing all other airlines how it’s done, Delta’s social media accounts are a perfect blend of wit and humour, whilst remaining on brand. The brand’s Twitter account regularly references pop culture, which allows it to stay current without losing any of its integrity, a clever device which saw Delta’s Twitter following increase by almost 50% in 2013 and helped to increase engagement.

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Author Bio: This post was contributed by Rob Young of MOO the digital printers. Visit MOO online to find out how you can start creating truly remarkable products to help your business.

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11 Social Media Marketing Facts and Statistics You Need to Know

Twitter recently announced that it has started to add content to users’ timelines, and it will continue. Facebook uses the Edgerank algorithm, which was developed by Facebook to govern what is displayed and how high the display is placed on the News Feed. YouTube continuously plays pre-roll videos before sports clips that you try and watch.

It seems that organic content continues to diminish as the social media titans try to expand their advertising revenue. The late Jim Henson was famously quoted as saying,

“If you can’t beat them. Join them.”

Should social media marketers adhere to the Kermit creator’s words of wisdom and shift focus to the paid advertising side? If your organic content is not being recognized, the answer might be an astounding yes.

The social media marketing facts

Below are 11 fascinating social media marketing facts and statistics, which will blow the mind of all social gurus. Even if you consider yourself the “Cookie Monster” of paid advertising on social, the astounding statistics provided below do not lie in regards to how businesses are flocking to promote their content on social media.

• 1 Million: The number of small or medium sized businesses advertising on Facebook
• 500,000: Total number of Facebook pages promoting posts
• 2.5 Million: Total number of Facebook promoted posts
• 59%: Percentage of Facebook’s revenue that comes from mobile
• 21.7%: Facebook’s share of worldwide mobile internet ad revenue in 2014
• 45%: Percentage of ads in the 2013 Super Bowl that included Twitter hashtags
• 81%: Percentage of Twitter’s advertising revenue that came from mobile
• $200,000: Cost of a 24-Hour Promoted Trend on Twitter
• $5.6 Billion: Gross revenue that YouTube was expected to generate in 2016
• $850 Million: Amount of revenue from video advertisements on YouTube served in the United States
• $100 Million: Estimated about that Samsung spends on Facebook advertising per year, making the creator of the Galaxy phone the largest advertiser on Facebook

Advertising on more established social networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube now provide yearly data, which demonstrates the relevancy of promoting content via social media. Whether you are one of the major players likeSamsung advertising heavily on Facebook or a smaller company, like an apartmentcommunity in Charlotte, the results will speak for themselves.

Why is Instagram the fastest growing social network?

Newer platforms like Instagram have allowed selective companies to start advertising on its photo sharing application. According to Tech Crunch, the reason why Instagram is so popular is because of the limited distractions on the application (hence, no advertisements).
The real question is how social marketers will react if the organic reach via social continues to decrease. Creating compelling content is time consuming and the backbone of social. As the saying goes, “With hard work comes great reward.”
If there is no reward for the organic content that is being created, some of the most powerful social networks could start to lose users. Unless marketers accept that in order to be seen, you must pay a pretty penny. If this is the case, the statistics referenced above will just continue to grow.

Author bio: Jason Parks is the owner of The Media Captain, a Social Marketingand SEO Company.

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The 6 Steps to Nurturing the Sales Funnel with Social Media

 

For about as long as goods have been sold, businesses have tried to engage customers through various levels of interest in what has long been referred to as the “Purchase Funnel.”

Customers are lead from awareness to sale by way of incremental exposure to a brand or product. While these same principles still apply today, social media has shaken up the paradigm by shortening the gap between people and information, meaning that the funnel has changed and offers a new way to pull in customers and to build off brand loyalty to turn them into your public spokespeople.
Here are the 6 steps to nurturing the sales funnel with social media.

Step 1: Awareness

This is your introduction to the outside world, your first face-to-face with an unknown. Studies have proven that brand loyalty requires trust and since familiarity is the lion’s share of a consumer’s trust, awareness is the first step toward building that new relationship.
Where before awareness required expensive ad time across public mediums, social media awareness is about generating compelling content that are both visually pleasing and come with a locked-and-loaded call to action. Your logo, tagline, content and message all contribute to your overall awareness.
The consumers awareness is like a never-ending marathon. Your brand strength begins to fade the moment they avert their eyes and if left to fend for itself, will eventually fade into obscurity. People prefer brands they have heard of because there’s a built-in reference of trustworthiness. This means a customer’s likelihood of buying from you is directly tied to whether or not they have heard of you, even if they have never purchased from you before.

 

Step 2. Interest 

Next, you must go beyond a familiar face. Social media is not an address book where you find the names and contact info of people you already know, it is a vibrant and active social community; a network of acquaintances, associates and friends.
Treat your customers online with this culture of relationship in mind. People expect a response in the digital world because that is behavior that has become normal, even for businesses.
Regular content that connects on an emotional level will give customers a reason to follow you, and again, this is before they have even done business with you. It doesn’t mean that all the stages before the Sale are necessarily time consuming, but rather that getting to know a brand is the most reliable path toward doing business.
Talk to them, answer their questions, chime in to conversations that don’t pertain to your marketing. Keep it casual as people can tell when they’re being marketed to, but still remember that your efforts are ultimately about self-promotion.

Step 3. Conversion

Once you’ve got your hooks in, you need to turn that interested customer into a paying customer.
Give them an incentive to spend money with you right on the landing page. Don’t make them hunt for a deal, throw it out in front of them. Promotions, give-aways, and loyalty programs are all great ways to put some positive pressure on their shoulders, especially if they’re already leaning in the right direction.
Consider using remarketing techniques to give them a gentle tap on the shoulder in the event they don’t convert on the first visit. Use a remarketing cookie on your company website to harness the Facebook or Google Display Network, keeping your ads in front of them later on even when they aren’t thinking about you anymore. It works like having an ally who reminds them of their interest in you without interrupting their normal activity.

Step 4. Sales

From the moment a future customer first hears about you, you have created a lead. If you successfully direct them down the funnel, you can convert that lead into a sale.
Remarketing, social media engagement, special promotions, newsletter-style communication, blog content, and the strength of your business-customer relationship are all solid ways to bridge that gap.
It is through focused, sustained effort that you will have the most success. It is important that your efforts be consistent, and that the actual purchasing experience be pleasant, because after the sale itself, your product will do the talking. If you oversold it, you may have a disappointed customer who feels misled and is less likely to come back or recommend you.
While the end goal is the sale, social should be functioning as MORE than a sales facilitator. As Loraine Kanervisto states in her article on Facebook marketing and customer service for TollFreeForwarding.com, “[social media] isn’t just a supplement to your sales and customer service strategy — [it should be] a main channel.”

Step 5. Loyalty

In a traditional marketing funnel, sales would mark the final step. As previously mentioned, the social media world is a thriving community and a sale is only a smaller step toward the larger goal of converting your paying customers into vocal advocates on your behalf.
Remember, you have to keep those plates spinning. Customer satisfaction is as easy to measure as their continued engagement with your brand. A loyal following is self-replicating in a way that a fluctuating following is not. Poor attention to your social media and online followers after you have done business is the equivalent of locking the door behind them when they leave. You may have a steady flow of new business, but your expansion will be forever limited and dependant upon the external source of said flow.
Loyalty creates new sources of customers that come with a built-in interest level due to a personal recommendation from a friend. Word-of-mouth is your strongest asset and the wider your base of loyal customers, the more you can withstand the inevitable changes to the landscape where your business resides.

Step 6. Advocacy

Marketing is a tough racket because it is by self-defeating by nature. People don’t like ads, they don’t trust ads and are usually aware when they are looking at one. People trust their friends and peers, even someone they hardly know, over the most compelling advertisement.
This is where your funnel has been narrowing down to. The golden level of customer loyalty that turns a satisfied customer into a company spokesman. If you could simply purchase this kind of trusted authority, then you wouldn’t need to market at all.
Your brand advocates are far and away your strongest marketing asset with the widest reach at the lowest cost. They will actively promote you in conversation, and whether or not their listeners are swayed, the impact of a trusted voice speaking positively about a brand will plant a more potent seed than you could ever hope to generate on your own.
The Social Funnel has certain similarities with the traditional funnel, but where it surpasses is in it’s attention to maintaining these valuable relationships with your customers. Customer satisfaction was always important, and always created loyalty with varying degrees of success, but the current digital world makes it possible to keep all those plates spinning at the same time, a feat previously beyond even the largest, most consumer-friendly company.
Guest Author: Dave Landry Jr. is a journalist and small business owner from Southern California. He enjoys writing on social sales strategies for business as well as business finance.

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5 Clever Social Media Marketing Campaigns that Went Viral

 

Social media has provided marketers with some powerful new tools. They are global, potentially viral and free.

Businesses will often have entire teams dedicated to communicating with followers, and will spend a significant chunk of their budget acquiring new leads from the Internet.

From blogging to pay-per-click advertising, there are plenty of ways to establish a web presence. Most businesses will use multiple techniques in order to maximize results; however, as the years go by a new form of marketing has emerged; viral marketing.
We’ve all heard the term, “it went viral” when referring to heavily viewed YouTube videos, comedic memes and social media games. Businesses are now using this free technique to promote their products and services.
We have compiled 5 examples of social media marketing campaigns that went viral to prove just how powerful it can be.

1. Cadbury’s giant chocolate Facebook thumb

When Cadbury’s wanted to boost their Facebook likes they decided to construct a giant Facebook thumb out of their own signature Dairy Milk bars.  The idea started as a thank you gesture to fans for helping them reach one million likes, but quickly went viral and led to another 40,000 followers within a short space of time.  They even decided to stream a live real-time video to document the making of the thumb, which was watched by over 350,000 fans throughout the world.
Nothing draws the eye more than a mouth watering image; however, giant chocolate bars are certainly nothing new. Chocolate and Facebook are universally loved and by incorporating the thumb, Cadbury’s have cleverly managed to create an image that’s contemporary, unique and instantly recognizable.

2. WATERisLIFE’s first world complaints YouTube video

Non-profit organization WATERisLIFE created a controversial social media campaign that was inspired by humorous memes.  The company – who are dedicated to bringing clean water to the third world – produced a documentary complied of clips of the underprivileged alongside captions of common complaints from the privileged. Such examples include:

• “I hate it when my phone charge won’t reach my bed.”
• “When I go to the bathroom and I forget my phone.”
• “I hate when my leather seats aren’t heated.”
• “When my mint gum makes my ice waster taste cold.”

The video was a huge success and managed to amass over one million views within the first day. The ending caption, “First world problems… aren’t problems” significantly boosted interest in their Twitter feed as followers made their own captions and posted them on social networks along with the hashtag, ‘#firstworldproblems.’

3. Wilkinson Sword’s santa claus hostage video

During the build-up to Christmas 2013, Wilkinson Sword released a hostage video featuring three elves who are arguing about whether or not they should shave off Santa’s beard.
The video was promoted via the brand’s YouTube, Facebook and Twitter pages and received widespread attention throughout the UK. What’s genius about this social media campaign is that it was designed to get followers involved. The video was left on a cliff-hanger with the phrase, “CLICK TO #SAVESANTA” at the end.
Voters are now eagerly anticipating the follow-up video this year which will determine the fate of our truly beloved Saint Nicolas.

Aside from establishing a marketing campaign that gets the fans involved, Wilkinson Sword have created an on-going series which will bring voters back each year and remind them of their famous razors – which just so happen to be the perfect stocking filler.

4. Heinz’s “Which bean are you?” quiz

When Heinz launched their new Five Beanz product, they created a quiz on their Facebook page named, “Which bean are you?” Fans used this quiz to determine which bean they were based on questions about their personality.
In addition, Heinz gave participants who shared the quiz ten times on their Facebook page a goodie bag.
The facts and the results:

• The campaign lasted for two weeks
• Acquired 22,000 likes
• 10,000 shares
• Overall reach of 11 million

Everyone likes a personality quiz. They’re a great way to get fans actively involved with a marketing campaign without using too much obvious promotion. Television shows and film production companies have been using this promotional method for years; but until Heinz, the food industry hadn’t utilized it. Since the success of the Heinz’s quiz many other food companies have gone on to use the same marketing method with huge success.

5. Urban Hilton Weiner’s selfie coupon codes

Urban Hilton Weiner weren’t a particularly big name before their ‘pay with a selfie’ campaign, but now they’re one of the most talked about brands in fashion.
Their marketing campaign awarded those who posted a selfie wearing their clothes, along with the hashtag #urbanselfie, a $10 coupon.

 

This ingenious marketing technique accomplishes everything that any retailer would want from a social media campaign – it exposes people to specific items of clothing, encourages social sharing, and most importantly, gets people in stores and buying clothes they wouldn’t have otherwise purchased.

While the $10 coupon may seem excessive and put many companies off taking such a bold move, it’s a small price to pay for such widespread and effective exposure.

Wrapping it up

The power of social media marketing cannot be denied. Real-time marketing has become the “it” thing in advertising and nowadays all one has to do is login to a social network and within seconds they will be exposed to some form of advert; no matter how discreet it may look.
Internet marketers are now placing an increasing amount of emphasis on building communities via social networks and are integrating each platform to deliver a constant stream of exposure. In fact, acquiring a ‘Like’ on Facebook or new follower on Twitter is held in higher regard than unique website traffic. However, what’s most appealing about social media is that unlike other forms of online marketing – such as PPC and SEO – it’s completely free.
Guest Author:  James is a self-employed blogger and wannabe entrepreneur and works with Distinctly Digital. His passion is in SAAS tech and innovation. You will find James at many of the leading technology conferences across the UK and Europe.

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6 Simple Strategies To Double Your Email List Using Facebook

 

Meet Kyle Ducharme, one of the co-founders of Kao Jai Coffee. Kao Jai began in December, 2013 as a single-origin coffee manufacturer. Their first batch of roasted coffee arrived in June and Kyle was looking for a way to get fans excited about their first batch of roasted coffee beans.

Kyle had begun to get Facebook likes for his brand but was frustrated with his ability to get Facebook fans to convert into email leads:

I’ve committed to bootstrapping every aspect of my startup, so I have been doing all marketing in-house to save on costs. My highest conversions typically come from my newsletter, but I’ve found it extremely difficult to gather potential or existing customers’ e-mails by…just asking for it.
This campaign gave me the opportunity to not only get people excited about the prize, but it also helped gain crucial contact information that will hopefully result in future conversions on our website.

With the goal of doubling his email list, Kyle ran a giveaway where the winner would receive a free bag of the new coffee flavor along with a handmade bracelet from Northern Thailand.
If you’re like Kyle and are looking to double your email list, click here to join Jeff and Nathan on a live webinar coming up soon.


The 6 reasons Kao Jai’s contest worked

1. Strong incentive

Give away something that is directly aligned with what your potential customers and followers are interested in. In Kyle’s Facebook Contest, the incentive was the first bag of a new coffee flavor.

2. Brand recognition

By dragging and dropping the Kao Jai logo into the Facebook Contest, Kyle made sure Kao Jai’s brand was highly visible. This branding is critical to quickly build trust with potential contest entrants.

3. Countdown widget for urgency

At any point in time a Facebook user could get distracted by a new notification or other social distraction. Kyle was smart to include a countdown in his Facebook Contest to drive the user to take immediate action. This was critical to getting a 40%+ conversion rate. Pro Tip: Only run your Facebook Contest for 7 days or less (7 days or less on the countdown). If fans see “45 days” left, they’ll leave the contest and may never come back.

4. Easy to follow opt in form

Most folks screw this up. Making sure your email form is highly visible and easy to enter is key. Additionally, link the opt in form with ConstantContact, Mailchimp, Aweber, or other email marketing platform to easily manage Facebook Contest opt ins. You can do this with Heyo’s free contest builder. To see how to do this, join Nathan and Jeff on this live webinar. It’s free! Pro Tip: Put them in a drip campaign to build a deep, long lasting relationship!

5. Clear Facebook Contest entry steps

Kyle made it crystal clear how to enter the Facebook Contest. She told people that in order to enter they needed to follow steps 1-4 on the left side of the Facebook Contest. Make sure you make it simple and clear what people need to do to enter your contest, otherwise, they won’t.

6. The sixth element is the one most people forget

It’s the reason your Facebook contest has failed if you’ve run one in the past and wondered why your results stunk. Jeff and Nathan will be diving into the 6th element in detail on this free live webinar. Click to register now, space is limited.

Free Webinar: Double Your Email List Using a Facebook Contest

To see the step by step how to on executing a campaign like this, join Nathan and Jeff on a free webinar on July 22nd.  Click here to register.
You’ll learn 3 specific things:

1. How a marketing manager (no technical skills) launched a Facebook campaign that converted at 30%
2. How a Social Media Consultant launched a campaign for a client that captured 4500 emails in 7 days with no ad spend
3. The simple reason this strategy will work even if you have less than 1000 likes

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Blogger Research: Is it a Job or a Lifestyle?

 

It’s in the back of your mind. It’s your next post. Actually, you’ve been thinking about several topics. You have a dozen half-finished posts and a notebook full of ideas.

You’re a blogger.
Ideas can pop up at any time, any place. So bloggers tend to work at different times and many places. But where and when, exactly?
We conducted a blogger survey and asked 1,000 professionals a few questions. How much time they spend writing? How long are their posts? How often do they check Analytics? But the first numbers to jump out were the where and then when of blogging…So here’s some blogger research.

Bloggers are “always on”

Most business people work during business hours. Bloggers …not so much. When asked, bloggers reported that it’s always blog o’clock.

• 30% of bloggers write before work.
• Another 32% blog after work.
• Almost half of us write at night.
• And for 40% of respondents, the weekend isn’t a break. It’s a time to catch up or get ahead.

When do bloggers blog?

People are producing content at all times of day and night. In fact, only 22% of bloggers write during business hours and at no other time. Clearly, this isn’t a normal job.

Bloggers blog everywhere

Although a lot of writers have a favorite space, it’s clear that bloggers are working at home, at work and places in between. Here’s the data…

Where do bloggers blog?

A full 81% of us are writing from home. That’s more than twice as many as the bloggers who write from the office. The “other” responses show just how many places bloggers are willing to work:

• …anywhere I have my laptop: in bed, in my mechanic’s lobby, etc.
• …pretty much anywhere I can write – I will write
• …I’ll write drafts on my phone while on the bus, then edit on a computer later
• …on the [train], in the office, at lunch, in the kitchen, everywhere
• …at the bar with a pint
• …yesterday? My son’s basketball practice
• …igloo in winter

Bloggers seem to be saying, “this looks like a good place to blog…” and getting out their laptops. Think of it this way, the mobile-megatrend isn’t just about consuming content, it’s about creating it.

So people are working at all times from any place? What kind of a job is this?

It’s not a job, it’s a lifestyle.

That’s not an overstatement. Look at the definition of the word.

life·style (noun) 1. “the way in which a person or group lives”.

If it’s done in all places and at all time, then it truly is the way you live. Let’s call it what it is: a way of life.

This doesn’t mean that bloggers are obsessed, although it looks like some are. A tiny percentage (1.4%) are publishing more than once a day. Most bloggers are spending 2.5 hours, writing 800 word posts and publishing weekly. That’s not crazy, right?

Content, the good life

Most bloggers have simply integrated the activity into their daily lives. It might be a very balanced life. And blogging may even be a carefully developed, productive habit.

We think about it a little bit at random times. We write when we can, where we can. And we have a growing “Lifetime Body of Work” (LBOW) to show for it. And for many of us, that work is part of a vision for fortune and glory.

3 tips to get more from your blogging lifestyle

Let’s take one last look at the data and see how we can set ourselves apart from other bloggers.

1. Collaborate

If you’re spending all the time, spend some of it with an editor. Only 15% of bloggers work with an editor.

2. Optimize

Pay attention to blog optimization, making sure you’re maximizing both traffic and conversions. Only half of bloggers are optimizing their content for SEO.

3. Analyze

Watch your analytics carefully consistently. You’ll learn more making future efforts more effective. 49% of bloggers don’t check their Analytics regularly
If we’re going to live this way, let’s at least get the most out of it!

Guest author: Andy Crestodina is the Strategic Director of Orbit Media, a web design company in Chicago. He’s also the author of Content Chemistry, An Illustrated Guide to Content Marketing You are welcome to connect with Andy on Google+ and Twitter.

Double your blogging email list for free with Facebook

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5 Ways to Ensure Blogging Failure and How to Avoid Them

 

The vast majority of blogs are business failures. It’s harsh, but it’s true.

Why do these blogs fail?
It’s because they make the same mistakes over, and over. Sadly, many of these mistakes are based on misconceptions taught to them by blogging “gurus”.
These 5 tactics aren’t “mistakes.” They’re slow and deliberate strategies to make sure you can never build a business out of your blog, and you’ve probably been taught to think that they will actually help.
Read on to learn the secrets of blogging failure you need to avoid.

1. Prioritize social media over email

Without a doubt, one of the easiest ways to doom your blog is to put social media first. Here’s why:

• The average Facebook post currently makes its way to just 6.15 percent of your audience. Meanwhile, according to Mailchimp, the average email gets opened by more than 20 percent of your audience. And that’s not even apples to oranges, because I’m pretty sure nearly 100 percent of your audience will at least see your email subject line.
• The average click through rate on Twitter is 1.64 percent, and that was back in 2012. If you have more than 10k followers, you can expect that click through rate to drop to 0.45 percent. Meanwhile, the average email has a click rate of about 3.5 percent according to the Mailchimp study mentioned earlier.
• Email allows you segment your audience by their behavior and only send messages that are relevant to the recipient. This isn’t possible on social networks.
• Social media sites are built around bite-size, visual pieces of content, not blog posts. In fact, a recent study found that there is “effectively no correlation between social shares and people actually reading.” Sharing and reading are two very different activities, and a blog post that gets shared often isn’t necessarily going to get read by anybody.
• Average conversion rates are only 0.71 percent on social networks. The average conversion rate through email is 3.19 percent. That’s almost five times higher.

For all of these reasons, it’s a dramatic waste of time and energy to put social media ahead of email as a way to stay in touch with your audience.
Social networks are terrible as a customer retention tool, and they shouldn’t be used for that purpose. Social media isn’t for retention. It’s for exposure.
While there’s certainly nothing wrong with asking visitors to Like your Facebook page or follow your Twitter account, these calls to action should always take second place to email.
Take Jeff’s sidebar as an example. At the very top, you see an offer to sign up for updates and get his free eBook. Below that, you see a link to the webinar he’s hosting with Alex Pirouz, then a link to the post he wrote about setting up a blog, a call to action to buy his book, and a search bar.
Finally, after all that, you see a call to action to follow his social accounts.
Meanwhile, in the left sidebar, you see social networks being used for their proper purpose: as sharing tools. This helps get the word out so that more people can actually find out about his blog. But those visitors probably won’t be worth very much unless they sign up for email updates.
That’s the important distinction.

2. Choose a “niche” (instead of a USP)

This is one of the best ways to ensure blogging obscurity, bonus points because everybody seems to make this mistake.
Before you jump down my throat, I’m not saying you shouldn’t choose a niche. I am saying that “niche” puts all the emphasis on the wrong thing, and it can cloud your judgment. Niche comes second, if at all.
What comes first is your unique selling proposition.
If you’re already selling a product, I’m sure you know that it needs to have a USP, something that separates it from the competition. A USP doesn’t make your product “better” or “cheaper” than the competition. It makes it different in a specific way that is appealing a particular kind of consumer.
I’m asking you to do the same thing for your blog.
See, most bloggers choose a “subject” or a “niche” and start blogging about that. Then they start asking themselves how they can be “better” than the other bloggers in their “niche.” This gets problematic fast, and not just because “better” is such a vague term.
Here’s why:

• Who is going to promote you? Usually, it’s other bloggers. If “niche” is the first thing on your mind, you’re going to spend most of your efforts convincing other bloggers in your niche to promote you. But those people are your competitors. On the other hand, if “USP” is the first thing on your mind, you’re going to think about potential customers and ask yourself where those people are spending their time. You’ll quickly realize that they are spending their time in many places besides other “niche” blogs. In fact, some bloggers are potential customers themselves.
• Who are you writing for? With “niche” on your mind, you’ll usually end up writing for other experts. You need to be able to impress the other niche bloggers, after all, or they aren’t going to promote you. In contrast, with “USP” on your mind, you’re going to write for the people that matter: your potential customers.
• How will you come up with new ideas? Niches are limiting. New ideas usually come from some combination of insights from several different subjects. If the subject of your blog is too narrow, you will have a very difficult time coming up with new ideas.
• How will you avoid boredom? No matter how obsessive people are about a subject, the human brain craves novelty. If you don’t mix up your subject matter at least a little, you will bore your readers. More importantly, you or your writers will get bored, and it will show in the quality of your work. If you want to “niche down,” focus on a tighter group of people, not a tighter subject matter.
• A USP means you don’t have to be “better” than the other bloggers in your niche. It simply means that you are more attractive to a specific kind of reader with a specific set of needs.

Jeff’s blog is successful because he writes for bloggers, instead of writing about blogging. See the difference?

3. Assume building more links is always the solution

If you’re determined to fail, try to solve all of your problems by building more links.
You’ve probably heard before that “links are the most important ranking factor” that Google uses to rank web pages. So, if you build more links, your rankings go up, and you get more visitors. Right?
Not necessarily.
I’m sure you already know that overzealous link building can get you penalized by a Google employee or hit by an algorithm update like Penguin.
What you might not have considered is this. Google’s position on links has always been that “any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site’s ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.”
More importantly, from Google’s Webmaster Guidelines: “Would I do this if search engines didn’t exist?” If the answer is no, you’re pushing the limits.
In short, you shouldn’t build links unless it makes sense for reasons outside of SEO.
But there’s actually another reason why you shouldn’t place so much emphasis on building links.

Links aren’t the “most important” ranking factor.

Why? For the simple reason that there is no single “most important” ranking factor.
Look at the search results for any query. They’re never going to be arranged from the page with the most links to the page with the least, or even by some related metric like Moz’s Page Authority. There are hundreds of other ranking factors at work, and which one matters the “most” is always going to depend on context.
Let me put it this way. If your Moz Domain Authority is at 25 and you aren’t getting at least 5,000 unique search visitors per month, you’re probably placing too much emphasis on links. It’s time to diversify your subjects, stop chasing competitive search terms, focus on building a repeat audience, and start publishing more often.

4. Chase the news

Sometimes the best way to doom your blog is to copy the successful strategy of mainstream publications and start reporting the news. It works for them, right? Most of them aren’t even breaking a story. They’re just regurgitating something they found in a press release or read in another mainstream publication.
Here’s the problem. Your blog isn’t the New York Times.
Big publications can get away with regurgitating the news because they have established credibility and massive audiences. The good ones also occasionally break a story here or there before anybody else.
As a small time blogger, it’s a very bad idea to simply report the news. There’s no reason for readers to take it from you when they can hear it from a major news source.
The only way this can work is if you actually do some real investigative journalism and break a story of your own.
In general, people don’t subscribe to small time blogs because they report the news. They typically follow a blog because it offers something useful or entertaining, preferably both.
If you do discuss the news, it should be in that context. You need to offer a unique spin on it that will make it useful or entertaining in a way that fits your USP.

5. Try to be BuzzFeed (instead of learning from their example)

You’ve probably read at least one blog post titled something like “How to Copy BuzzFeed and Crash Your Server With Traffic that Resembles a Small Scale DoS Attack.” Some of these posts are pretty good, too. But trying to do exactly what BuzzFeed does is a very bad idea.
Here’s why.

• “Virality” is overrated. After analyzing a billion events on Twitter, Microsoft Research and Stanford University failed to find a single tweet that broke out of the “subcritical” regime. In other words, even the most popular tweets can’t really be considered “viral” in the sense that, on average, each person successfully shares the content with more than one friend. Instead, the most successful tweets made their way to an influential “node” in the network. In other words, it’s more about reaching influential people than it is about creating something intrinsically viral. Think “poisoning the waterhole,” not “viral pandemic.”
• While curated content can help expand your reach, it’s very transparent that you played no role in creating the content. If you don’t provide any value of your own, audiences will go straight to the source. You can’t beat sites like BuzzFeed or Reddit at curating viral content.
• While almost any good blog has some appeal to mainstream audiences, focusing too much on mainstream appeal will land you an audience that has no interest in buying from you. Don’t neglect your core audience.
• Pure entertainment is a poor motivator to subscribe to a blog. There are simply too many sites with too much entertaining content. Between Cracked, YouTube, BuzzFeed, Hulu, and Reddit, most consumers have more than enough content to keep themselves entertained. Unless you have it in you to be a professional entertainer, you can’t compete with entertainment sites.

You can learn a lot from BuzzFeed about how to get clicks and shares, but outright copying BuzzFeed is a bad idea. Your USP comes first.

Put it to work

I’m probably safe in assuming that you’re not reading this because you want to guarantee your blog fails. So let’s recap what you can actually put to use:

1. Put email before social media. Email is the best channel to stay in touch with your audience. Social “subscribers” are close to useless.
2. Define a USP, not a “niche.” Put another way, write for your ideal customers, and promote yourself where your ideal customers spend their time. Don’t write for niche experts and try to convince your competitors to promote you.
3. There’s more to the search engines than links. Diversifying, choosing less competitive subjects, and publishing more often can do just as much to improve your search traffic.
4. Write “evergreen content” that stands the test of time, as opposed to regurgitating the news. When you do discuss current events, it’s best if you add your own unique spin, draw interesting connections, or break your own stories.
5. It’s more important to provide actionable advice than it is to be entertaining. While your content will perform better if it is entertaining, entertainment should be used as a garnish or a spice, not as the main course.

Use these insights to become a genuine blogging success.
Guest Author: Pratik Dholakiya is the Co-Founder & VP of Marketing of a digital marketing agency, E2M & a creative design firm, OnlyDesign. He’s passionate about startup marketing, entrepreneurship & all things inbound marketing.

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Why Should You Spend Money on Facebook Advertising? Why ?

 

With social media being such a big part of everyday life, it likewise plays a large role in marketing. There are many different social platforms a business can use to reach out to audiences. Some are free, others are not.

Facebook is one social medium which has recently begun to shift all of its marketing and advertising features to a paid-only format. Whilst, some may argue, that adopting a “pay-to-play” marketing strategy may have driven some users away, Facebook is in many ways still a valid and valuable marketing tool.

Why use Facebook advertising?

Simply put: its custom audience targeting features. Businesses pay not only for prioritisation of their brand content, but for Facebook’s marketing tools, too. The extent of this usefulness can of course be variable, depending on a number of factors.
For example, Facebook would be an ideal marketing platform for a garden centre looking to target middle-aged women who enjoy gardening, but possibly less fitting for a business telecommunications company targeting tech start-ups. Different types of businesses may find different social media more, or less, relevant to their business’s marketing strategies.
As a generalisation, you could say that Facebook is particularly useful for B2C companies, but less so for B2B companies.

Audience targeting

Facebook utilises a number of worthwhile audience targeting methods. “But – Twitter, Google and a thousand other sites use audience targeting, too!” I hear you say. And yes, of course, they do. But the information that Facebook uses for its targeting makes it rather unique.
Facebook users build a fairly comprehensive profile about themselves when using the platform, and this can all be used to fine tune your target market.
Some of the data Facebook uses for targeted marketing includes:

• Location
• Age
• Gender
• Interests
• Education
• Job
• Life events
• Likes – brand connections, book/music/sport/film interests, etc
• Apps
• Groups
• Mobile device use
• Purchase behaviour
• Travel

Of course, this is not a comprehensive list; just a few examples. It is the combination and cross-referencing of this spread of data that gives Facebook’s marketing its value. Arguably, no other social platform uses as unique a combination of information to target its users. This is what makes Facebook particularly useful for businesses in specific industries to reach out to audiences, with relatively small amounts of time and effort.
For example, a travel company could use social media and online marketing to target audiences of certain ages and locations with relevant holidays and packages. But using Facebook, the company could further specify by targeting cruise deals at an audience who are known to have gone on cruises in the past, couples’ getaways to users who have recently married, or luxury vacations to users known to have a high income.

 

As well as traditional demographics such as age and gender, Facebook’s marketing utilises comprehensive information about lifestyle, interests and activities for a better-tailored target marketing technique.

1. Custom audience

Facebook’s Custom Audience features are virtually unrivalled by any other social medium. A Custom Audience is one a company can create on Facebook, by picking and choosing which targets to include. Custom Audiences comprise clients that a business already has a relationship with elsewhere. For example, a company could use the e-mail addresses of their loyalty-club members to create a Custom Audience on Facebook, or they could transfer a circle from Google+, through Google contacts, to a Custom Audience on Facebook.

The audience is compiled of people a brand already has a relationship with elsewhere, as they will need access to the following details to create the Custom Audience:

• Emails
• UIDS (Facebook user ID)
• Phone numbers
• App user IDs.

Users compile and upload this information, then Facebook matches it to the information its own users have input on their profiles. Successful matches are compiled into a list, and thus, a Custom Audience is created.

2. Lookalike audience

Lookalike Audiences are another unique feature to Facebook’s marketing tools. A Lookalike Audience allows users to target a new audience that has similar characteristics to an already-known audience.
There are many ways in which companies can create lookalike audiences, and many audiences they can be based on, including:

• Lookalikes for websites – targets users who are similar to those visiting a company’s website. This can be fine-tuned to specific pages or sections within the site.
• Lookalikes for pages – targets users similar to those of a certain page. Companies can only use this for Facebook pages under their control, and not those of others.
• Lookalikes for mobile app users – targets users who use a company’s mobile apps. Useful for retargeting those who are already interested in the brand.

 

By using Lookalike Audiences, a company’s net of target customers can rapidly expand. The added benefit is that users targeted through a lookalike audience have a greater likelihood of interest in the brand, than those who may be targeted through other marketing techniques and tools.

There are a huge range of online marketing opportunities available to businesses and organisations of all types, but Facebook should not be forgotten about. Facebook may have pigeon-holed their marketing options somewhat by adopting a paid-for format, but arguably, they can afford to do so. The unique features and tools that Facebook offers are invaluable for targeted marketing, promoting brand awareness, and connecting with customers. For these reasons Facebook could definitely be worth incorporating in a business’s marketing strategies.
Guest author: Hannah Corbett is an online marketing enthusiast, and content writer for Make It Cheaper. Follow her on Twitter to keep up to date with the latest news in the world of social media and online marketing.

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Learn how to make your blog a roaring success

My book – “Blogging the Smart Way – How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media” – will show you how.

I show you how to create and build a blog that rocks and grow tribes, fans and followers on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It also includes dozens of tips to create contagious content that begs to be shared and tempts people to link to your website and blog.
I also reveal the tactics I used to grow my Twitter followers to over 230,000.
Download and read it now.

Best 5 Step Guide To Using Social Media in Crisis Management

June 25, 2014/0 Comments/in Click Prefect /by Click Prefect

 

One of the benefits of social media is undoubtedly its immediacy and its timeliness. It gives the user a way to be present with their audience in almost any situation, sharing continuous information from wherever they are and enjoying ongoing discussions that can’t always be limited to a contained period.

It is this very reason that social media is one of the most widely-used ways that brands and organisations connect with their audiences, particularly in times of crisis. When hit by complications; difficulties, and perhaps even blind panic, brands need a way to cut through the fog of spectacle and reach out to their customers; taking decisive responsibility for the matter at hand and issuing a clear plan of action.
So how can brands go about doing this? Here is a five step guide to using social media in crisis management.

1. Timing is everything

Social media is all about timing.
Brands should waste no time diving into the conversation the moment a crisis strikes, and silence should NOT be an option. The sooner you can prove to customers that you are present and dedicated to addressing an issue, you will earn your customers’ trust.
If possible, making customers aware of a service disruption or impending blunder before it has even happened is highly advised. Not only will this show transparency and garner more respect for your brand; it will also give you a chance to offer instructions to customers and allow them to make appropriate preparations for the storm.

 

During any crisis, the frequency of updates is key. Social media consultancy firm Frishling advises issuing a new update every ten minutes in the immediate aftermath, even if there is nothing new to report. You may be able to leave more time between updates in the days and weeks that follow of course, and this is natural.

However, it is important to keep the pressure turned up until your brand and your customers are out of the danger zone. This is when all customer questions have been answered; the situation has been or is being addressed, and when there is no longer anyone at risk.

2. Own the conversation

In times of negativity, social media will often be the first place customers head to – not just for information, but to give their own insight and perhaps even bash your brand in the process.
Don’t let the conversation get out of control – decide on an appropriate hashtag for the events to follow and use this as a symbol across all your platforms for all trustworthy, reliable and honest information surrounding the crisis. Doing this from the very beginning will not only inhibit people from devising their own illegitimate hashtags (that can mislead customers and lead to some bad press); it will also make sure your brand is the leading, go-to source of information for everything to do with the crisis.

[Note how Southwest Airlines maintains the same hashtag for each of its social media platforms for clarity.]

One marvelous example of this was South West Airlines. Following the July 2013 crash of its Flight 345, the airline issued an official hashtag by which all news about the emergency could be traced, and was found engaging with Twitter followers barely half an hour after the incident had taken place.
This swiftness of response and boldness to step into the social media limelight garnered the company considerable admiration and respect not just from customers, but from the media and social media analysts too.

3. Stick to a designated source

It is advisable that brands limit the number of places that people feel they need to look to find dedicated information regarding a crisis. Otherwise, information can become scattered and misinterpreted; and focus can be lost.
Choose one platform on which all of the detailed information will be posted – whether it is a specific blog or RSS feed built for the purpose, or your most affluent social platform like Twitter or Tumblr. Use your other platforms to direct the flow of user traffic towards your primary source. Imagine it like a funnel, where several streams all point back to one reliable outlet.

4. Give a call to action

If there’s one thing that customers hate more than a service crisis, it’s being left hanging with no instruction or advice on what to do next. It doesn’t matter that you can’t provide an explanation for the crisis just yet – people don’t like to be kept waiting with time on their hands, so it’s important to give explicit calls to action in your updates. These can be as simple as directing customers towards external sources of advice, or giving practical tips on what they could do to minimise the impact of the emergency.
In all of your updates, you should aim for this formula:

“update/description + what is currently being done to fix it  +  call to action”

5. Don’t lash out

There will indeed be cases where illegitimate feeds of information will somehow seep into the airwaves, giving false information or unsourced explanations surrounding the crisis. While it’s tempting to react aggressively towards these feeds by attempts to censor the information or threaten legal action, it is advisable that you don’t. Doing so could further chink the integrity of your brand and lead users to thinking you have something to hide.

One such example of this behaviour comes from payday lending firm Wonga. In early 2014, the firm reacted strongly to a piece of satirical artwork created by a Twitter user which reflected negatively on the Wonga brand.  The user was sent a threatening legal notice which promised court action if the image was not removed from Twitter. Although it cited copyright infringement as its reason, neither the media or the Twitter world were impressed, and contacted Wonga with a tirade of backlash for trying to censor the user and banish creative freedom.

Leave it lie

If you’ve correctly took charge of the conversation with an appropriate hashtag as mentioned earlier, all other illegitimate information should just be left to lie. If it is necessary, warn your audience against such sources and remind them that for all official updates on the matter, you’re the one to turn to.
All that’s left then is to deliver a trustworthy, responsible and genuinely useful stream of updates that your customers can truly depend on.
Guest author: Adele Halsall is a researcher and writer for Customer Service Guru. She is passionate about consumer trends and is particularly experienced in marketing and customer engagement & loves contributing to debates related to best business practices, start-up culture and customer relations. Contact her at @gurucustomers

Want to start building your own website or blog?

The jeffbullas.com blog is hosted by Bluehost Web Hosting. For only $3.95 a month, Bluehost can help you set up and host your website/blog quickly and easily. Because JeffBullas.com is a Bluehost affiliate partner, my readers can use this link to receive a 50% discount off the monthly price and a free domain name. 

Learn how to make your blog a roaring success

My book – “Blogging the Smart Way – How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media” – will show you how.

I show you how to create and build a blog that rocks and grow tribes, fans and followers on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It also includes dozens of tips to create contagious content that begs to be shared and tempts people to link to your website and blog.
I also reveal the tactics I used to grow my Twitter followers to over 230,000.
Download and read it now.