Category: Social Media

Top 7 Tips For Your Christmas Social Media Strategy

Top 7 Tips For Your Christmas Social Media Strategy

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With the Black Friday rush over and the start of December rapidly approaching, you may have noticed people already getting in the mood for Christmas. Soon the trees will be out, lights up and the awful festive jumpers will begin to appear more and more often around the office. Everyone is winding down for the end of the year, and it’s all about to get even more relaxing the closer we get to Christmas.

Now is the time to really grab the attention of your audience and secure some excellent opportunities for starting the New Year on the right foot. Lets take a look at the top 7 tips we’ve put together for putting a festive spin on your social media marketing campaigns whilst also ramping up that engagement rate throughout December.

1 – Festive Competitions

Christmas is all about giving, and people absolutely love freebies and giveaways around this time. You will have to think of something relevant to your audience as well as your services, but putting a Christmas themed competition on your social media platform is a great way of enticing some engagement. A festive-themed photo competition is a good example, where a submission of your audience’s Christmas decorations nets them an entry draw for a special discount, voucher or free product. Not only does this gather you some interest and engagement, it’s also fantastic for UGC – user generated content.

2 – Get “Christmassy” On Your Pages, Logos and Cover Photos

This is a simple and quick win, but it’s one that is often over-looked by businesses during the festive period. Even something as easy as adding some snowflakes, holly berries or a Christmas hat to your logo, background or cover photos shows that your business is current. It can also be the difference between making your business stand out against those that don’t have any eye-catching additions on their pages.

3 – Create Facebook Shopping Channels

The closer we get to Christmas, the more people are in the mood for making last-minute gift purchases. By adding your products directly to your Facebook business page, you are opening up another channel for sales whilst you are engaging with your audience. As a bonus, you can create collections and group your products for specific targeted audiences, such as the best products for mothers, fathers, him/her etc.

4 – Add a Festive Hashtag

You can piggyback on a trending hashtag, or create your own twist on a popular hashtag that is more relevant to your brand. Either way, hashtagging your content is a powerful way to distribute your content and entice more engagement from a wider audience.

5 – Create Christmas Discussions

Sparking a healthy debate can make for some serious engagement on social media, and Christmas has some classic topics for discussion. Mulled Wine vs Eggnog, Do you enjoy watching the Queen’s Speech? How early is too early to crack open the alcohol on Christmas day? Just asking a simple question, or better yet adding in some polls and imagery, can spark a discussion and ramp up those engagements.

6 – Create a Christmas Gift Guide

Creating content focused on your ‘top 10 Christmas gifts for him/her’, with links to your select products and special offers not only keeps your social media platform current and festive, but it also drives views and potential customers to make a purchase. Whether sharing this organically or creating a paid Facebook ad campaign you could find yourself netting a tonne of new traffic, shares and hopefully some sales.

7 – Christmas Count-down

Users enjoy structured content, so by having a day-by-day countdown to Christmas with specific content each day, you’ll often find people coming back to your page to see what’s next. It could be a tid-bit of information on each day, a special offer, product reveal or even a daily Christmas-themed trivia question as we get closer and closer to the 25th.

Get the Most out of Your Facebook Campaign

Are you planning to put some, or all, of the above into practice on your Facebook business page? Get the most out of your activity by utilising Facebook boosted posts and Facebook ads. Even just a small budget can make a huge difference on the level of engagement, enquiries and sales you can generate through your social media posts. Thinking of giving it a go but unsure of how many people you can realistically get your content in front of? Fill in our quick form below and we can show you just how big of an audience is out there:

FREE Facebook Audience Assessment

10 Tips to Get Your Tweets On To Google

10 Tips to Get Your Tweets On To Google

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When you’re trying to occupy a lot of space for your branded search results as a way to combat negative reviews or content that may not be flattering, Twitter can provide a quick increase in the canvas you control on page one. It’s also just a nice way of dominating your brand exposure and there is a plethora of other benefits to having a great social media footprint.
A carousel of tweets can be pretty attention-grabbing and takes up a significant amount of vertical space on the results page. You also don’t have to have a verified Twitter account to end up with a carousel!

Let’s take a look at 10 tips for increasing your chance of gaining a featured tweet carousel on Google:

1. Get at least a few hundred followers

Interactions with your tweets is a key factor here; the more followers you have, the more likely your tweets are to have likes, replies and re-tweets. Growing your follower count can be a lengthy process in itself, but try following accounts with similar interests and tweets, being active and interacting with other tweeters and return-following.

2. Be frequent with your tweets

This is another very important factor. Don’t go in short bursts of tweet-fests and then leave your account dormant for days, weeks or months. Be consistent with your tweeting habits; try tweeting at least a few times a day, generally within business hours so that you can also maximise your engagement.

3. Increase your engagement

If you only tweet out self-promoting content, you’ll find it difficult to have high engagement rates. Tweet about topics that are interesting to your audience, reply to others’ tweets and look at the bigger picture. Interaction is key in engagement.

4. Interact with others

Try having conversations with other Twitter accounts and companies. Engage with communities and topics as a whole and you’ll find your tweets getting far better engagement.

5. Tweet what works

Take note of what type of content is working for your particular audience and maximise your interactions around it. Use humour if it’s relevant and appropriate; likewise you can find that taking a controversial stance on a popular topic can also lead to increased interactions. Try to avoid frequently asking for retweets or likes, it can often come across as too self-serving and may turn your audience off.

6. Interact with popular hashtags and events

Keep a keen eye on trending hashtags and interact with the communities around it. Conferences, concerts, sports games and other events often have custom hashtags for those discussing things happening, and if you are involved with one of those events, you can rapidly get interactions with others posting on the same hashtags.

7. Utilise compelling content

You’ll find that people are more likely to interact with interesting content such as videos, images, animations / GIFs and memes. Experiment with what your audience likes, just try to keep it relevant to the purpose and personality of your profile.

8. Use emojis

You’d be surprised just how much of an impact the use of emojis will have on drawing readers’ attention and increasing engagement. Even Twitter’s official blog has endorsed their use and how they can increase interaction.

9. Tweet humorous riffs involving other Twitter accounts or current events.

A fairly quick way of getting a lot of likes and retweets is to tweet something humorous that directly involves another Twitter account or a popular event. This can be cooperative, or it could be contrary.

10.Be consistent

Whilst this does incorporate point number 2, we can’t stress it enough. A few tweets a day, daily. Depending on whether you are a business or personal account, you should be posting more on week days for the former but don’t neglect scheduling tweets for the weekend to maintain your presence. Alternatively you may find that if you load the app on your phone, it is easy enough to pause at various moments throughout your day and engage just a bit on Twitter.

Getting The Most Out Of Twitter

Getting The Most Out Of Twitter

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Twitter can be an extremely powerful platform in your online marketing strategy, but you may often find yourself unsure of where to even begin. Don’t worry, we have a few tips and tricks to share with you on how to get the most out of your Twitter strategy.

Branding & Persona

It’s important to establish, before you have even sent your first tweet, what your tone will be throughout your entire Twitter campaign. Be original and fresh but remember to convey your brand, ethics and values. Most importantly, you will want to engage and connect with your target audience in a way that is personal to them.

Plan Your Content

Simply having a reactive and spontaneous approach to Twitter probably won’t work for your business. In fact, businesses that do extremely well on Twitter generally have a well planned editorial calendar, with content prepared around holidays or key events. Combine this with analysis what content has performed the best, and you can have an effective plan of your daily content going forward.

Use a Scheduler, But Don’t Forget About It

Being able to schedule your tweets around prime times is very useful and it can allow you to keep your Twitter active without having to manually tweet at that time. However, we don’t advise that you fill your feed with scheduled tweets and leave your account unsupervised. Check back frequently to engage with your audience and reply to any tweets you have received to maximise the reach of your content.

Engage in Twitter Chats

Participating in Twitter chats is one of the best ways to not only grow your follower base, but to grow it with the right kind of audience you are looking for. You can find topics in Twitter Chats on just about anything you can think of, and the type of users that engage on Twitter Chats are those that are looking to make long lasting connections with like-minded brands and individuals. Be active on Twitter Chats with replies, retweets and following interesting accounts and you’ll be surprised how quickly you can grow your audience with quality individuals.

Adapt on the Fly

Whilst we do encourage a well-planned schedule and calendar for your content, don’t miss out if an opportunity arises. Sometimes the most engaging tweets are created on the fly, so don’t be afraid to get involved in conversation even if it deviates from your content calendar. Just remember to keep your brand persona and voice consistent.

Variety is the Spice of Life

Your Twitter should never be a one-sided affair; you should have a healthy mix of your own tweets, re-tweets, @replies, questions and conversation starters. Mix up your content and experiment with different forms of engagement to see what works best for your brand and your audience.

Twitter Introduces New Content Filters

Twitter Introduces New Content Filters

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Twitter, one of the world’s leading social media platforms, will be introducing new filters to help users filter out more notifications and content that they may not want to see. We wrap up all the latest news regarding this update and how it will affect your experience.

One of the major features of the new filters on Twitter is that it will allow users to filter out notifications from accounts which have the following:

  • Have no unique profile picture (still use the default egg avatar)
  • Twitter accounts which haven’t verified their email address
  • Accounts which haven’t confirmed their mobile phone number

How to use the new notification filters:

  • Go to your notifications
  • Click on the settings wheel
  • Click through to advanced filters
  • From there select the notifications you wish to mute

In November 2016, Twitter announced that they were rolling out an update to the mute feature. This allowed users to filter out and mute certain keywords, phrases, hashtags, usernames, emojis, and conversations you didn’t want to see from your timeline.

Alongside this update Twitter have now introduced a new feature, which allows you decide how long you wish to mute these keywords, phrases, hashtags etc. from the timeline – the four options are as follows:

  • 24 hours
  • 7 days
  • 30 days
  • Forever

Twitter is also introducing new features to crackdown on abusive tweets and content. Twitter said it’s working to algorithmically identify abusive content itself – even if users don’t report it.

One of the first measures is that if Twitter identifies a profile with abusive content it will limit them so that only their followers can see their tweets.

In a statement Twitter added: “For example, this change could come into effect if an account is repeatedly Tweeting without solicitation at non-followers or engaging in patterns of abusive behaviour that is in violation of the Twitter Rules.

“Our platform supports the freedom to share any viewpoint, but if an account continues to repeatedly violate the Twitter Rules, we will consider taking further action.”

There will also be a new feature where Twitter will notify you (via your Notifications tab) when they receive your report of an abusive account.

Facebook Introducing Dislike Button on Messenger

Facebook Introducing Dislike Button on Messenger

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Facebook will trial the use of a dislike button, which users will be able to use in the Facebook Messenger service.

The social media site is rolling out a new set of trial reaction buttons that can be used in reply to an individual message. By hovering the small face that appears next to three dots by a received message, it is possible to see the range of one-click responses.

The new reactions are only available to certain users, and Facebook may not make them available to all messenger users, depending on the success of the trial.

Alongside heart eyes emoji, laughter, a shocked face, crying, angry, a thumbs-up; Facebook has introduced a thumbs down – which has been referred to as the ‘dislike’ button.

“We’re always testing ways to make Messenger more fun and engaging,” a Facebook statement said. “This is a small test where we enable people to share an emoji that best represents their feelings on a message.”

This new trial is an extension to the reactions which were introduced to posts on the main Facebook page in February 2016.

Facebook announced at the time, “For more than a year we have been conducting global research including focus groups and surveys to determine what types of reactions people would want to use most.

“We also looked at how people are already commenting on posts and the top stickers and emoticons as signals for the types of reactions people are already using to determine which reactions to offer.”

Another interesting development for Facebook.

How To Optimise Your LinkedIn Company Page

How To Optimise Your LinkedIn Company Page

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LinkedIn is one of the most popular social media sites, giving companies the platform to promote their brand and products to other professionals. If you want to be visible on LinkedIn then correctly optimising your company page is vitally important – here are some tips that could help.

Company Name

This is pretty basic but it is obviously important. Use the most common name of your company – no need to add LLC, Inc. etc, unless you are identified that way.

Company Description

Although you have 2,000 characters to describe who you are and what you do – only the first two lines of your description will show, with the rest under the ‘see more’ link. So getting your company across inside the opening sentence is vital – make sure people can read those first two sentences and know who your company are and what you do.

Company Logo & Image

The LinkedIn image specification for the banner image is 646 x 220 – take time to design a vibrant and visually striking image that can draw in visitors to your page and grab their attention. Alongside the banner image there is a company logo image space with 300 x 300 minimum (square layout). Again take time to resize your company logo, making sure it fits well and doesn’t blur.

Company Specialities

LinkedIn also gives you the option to list up to 20 ‘specialities’ for your company page. Think of these as keywords for your company that will allow people to see what services you provide. So pick these keywords carefully and give yourself the best chance of being found by LinkedIn users.

Content & Publications

Now you’ve correctly created and optimised your company page, you are ready to start posting content and publications. But what kind of things should you be posting? The answer is easy – any blogs, photos, guides and links that can be useful to your followers.

Keep your feed constantly up-to-date with following:

  • Company blogs posted on your main website
  • Any positive company mentions or employee mentions in publications
  • Share posts published by employees
  • Share videos and photos related to your company and industry

Obviously there is a lot more you can do to your company LinkedIn page (create showcase pages for specialised subjects for example) but as a basic start-up you won’t go far wrong by following this guide when setting up your page.

Surprising Social Media Stats

Surprising Social Media Stats

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Social Media Stats That Will Blow Your Mind

Social Media is one of the most powerful tools in the world and it is hard to find a person who doesn’t have a profile on Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pintrest or any other social media channel.

We have compiled a list of surprising social media stats taken from the Nielsen’s 2016 Social Media Report, which was released this week.

Women Use Social Media More Than Men

The report shows that women spend more time using social media channels than men. Males spend an average of 4 hours and 23 minutes using social media each week, but females spend a staggering 6 hours and 33 minutes on social media – a huge difference.

Generation X Love Social Media

A very surprising statistic shows that Gen X (ages 35-49) are the age group who spend the most time using social media 6 hours and 58 minutes each week. Ages 18-35 (Millennials) were second with 6 hours and 19 minutes. A statistic you would expect to be the other way round.

Social Media Users Spend Online

41% of users who spent less than two-hours on social media spent up to $500 online – but consumers spending more than two-hours on social media spent over $500 on online purchases in the last year.

Brands Are Important

Nearly 30% of consumers who use social media platforms for more than three-hours a day said that interacting, engaging and showing support for their favourite companies and brands is important.

Social Media Informative For Users

About 37 percent of all consumers said they use social media to find out about products and services, while about 32 percent use social media to receive exclusive offers, coupons, or other discounts from brands.

Purchases Linked To Social Media

At least three-quarters of U.S. social media users made an online purchase within the last year, but only 46 percent of non-social media users made an online purchase during the same timeframe.

The power of social media continues to grow!