All posts in Social Media Marketing

The modern-day hashtag has come a long way. From its birth name, the octothorpe, to being called the pound symbol used when dialing phone numbers to now being referred to as a hashtag, used to categorize topics on social media, that little symbol has been through a lot.

The hashtag’s first appearance on the web was found on the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) application in 1988. Within the IRC, people could chat with one another about specific topics in channels labeled with hashtags. Example: if you wanted to chat about flowers for your yard, you’d go to the channel “#gardens”. Pretty simple, right?

Well, in August 2007, Twitter user and social media expert Chris Messina changed the history of digital marketing with a single tweet.

Not long after Messina’s now-famous tweet, hashtags started popping up across Twitter and their official use was instituted by the company in 2009. Other social media platforms noticed and soon adopted the hashtag as well.

Do They Drive Engagement?

Nowadays, from a digital marketing standpoint, how are they beneficial? Hashtags help drive engagement by linking consumers directly to brands. On Instagram, they help sort and organize the content posted by the platform’s 1 billion active monthly users. Not only can users search for a specific hashtag in all social media platforms, but on Instagram and LinkedIn, they also have the option to “follow” a hashtag. This allows content from a specific hashtag to pop up in the users’ newsfeed. So whether they’re following or just searching, using hashtags relevant to your brand helps reach consumers who normally wouldn’t have been exposed to your brand’s content.

Read more: How Important are Hashtags to Social Media Marketing?

Companies of all sizes today are looking to improve the effectiveness of their social media marketing — and with good reason: Digital platforms are constantly innovating the way that brands are discovered, shared and experienced. The data speaks for itself: The number of worldwide social network users is expected to reach 3.09 billion monthly active users by 2021, and global internet users spend some 136 minutes per day surfing social networks. Many organizations have responded by allocating more resources to digital marketing — technology now accounts for 29% of total marketing expense budgets, according to a recent Gartner estimate, and digital ad spend for 2020 is estimated at about $385 billion.

Yet these numbers are a double-edged sword. Consumers today react to products, services and ad campaigns in real-time through social media, creating new demands on organizations. Generating and sustaining high levels of engagement and enthusiasm online requires clarity around the firm’s goals and values.

Successful digital strategies are not about aesthetics or style, but a fit between what your brand promises and delivers. To develop your strategy, ask yourself the following questions:

Read more: 4 Questions to Boost Your Social Media Marketing

With the new year here, it’s time for marketers to solidify their strategies for more productive, effective results. The marketing landscape is constantly changing and evolving, and if businesses don’t keep up, they’ll see a drop in conversions and revenue.

For social media, this is especially true. Users continue to interact in different ways and use social platforms to engage with brands they do business with. In 2019, 79% of the U.S. population had a social networking profile.

Imagine a business that doesn’t know the first thing about how to use social media to engage their customers. You may have a large following, but if you don’t utilize your platform, you won’t see positive results.

It’s important to keep up with the upcoming social media marketing trends so you and your team create a strategy that’s effective and fruitful. Here are a few trends to watch in 2020 that you can apply to your social media marketing strategy.

Building Online Communities

What keeps users coming back on social media time and time again? When you get tired of the memes, acquaintances’ life updates and baby photos, what entices people to continue using social platforms in their leisure time?

Read more: Three Social Media Marketing Trends To Watch In 2020

As consumers deck their halls with holiday decor, they also stock their fridges with more wine than in any other season.

And with family travel at an all-time high during the last few months of the year, hospitality marketers should connect with consumers who plan ahead.

In fact, the majority of national brands start planning their marketing campaigns for the holidays in September, if not earlier.

But for digital marketers, social media allows for more leniency thanks to the seemingly “real time,” and ongoing content creation. That doesn’t mean that marketing people should wait until the last minute to plan a holiday campaign (or – even worse – wait until the day of and share a blurry iPhone pic with no CTA).

With a little bit of prepping before we get into the thick of the holidays, North Bay marketers can promote their products or services early and keep the momentum going through the Time Square ball drop.

Here are five tips for getting your holiday digital marketing started:

1. In order to look forward, make sure to look back.

Look at digital marketing insights on social media and Google analytics from the past few years. Note any trends that appear during the holidays that may differ from the rest of the year. Check out which pages on your website tend to get more traffic during the holiday months (Oct – Dec). Write these trends down, and brainstorm ideas for promotions and holiday gift sets with your team.

Read more: Holidays are great time to build social media relationships

While social media continues to play a huge role in Americans’ lives in both a personal and professional sense, there’s also a growing wariness that marketers need to be aware of. For example, a 2018 Pew Research Center study found that social media overtook print newspapers as a more popular news source, yet a 2019 Pew study revealed that 62 percent of U.S. adults think social media companies have too much control over the news that users see.

Leading into 2020, social networks appear primed for both active engagement and active scrutiny, and social media companies may quickly change how they operate as a result. For example, Twitter recently announced they would stop allowing political advertising, and networks like Instagram are experimenting with hiding the number of likes on posts in an effort to reverse the negative mental health effects associated with social media comparisons, as CNET reports.

For marketers, even if these changes do not seem to apply directly to your brand, they underscore the point that social media marketers tend to operate on rented land. The major social media networks are publicly traded companies that exist to grow their own businesses, not yours. They are the ones in control of how their platforms work, and your efforts to be successful through their mediums, such as building up your followers to reach an organic audience, can essentially be made irrelevant overnight.

Read more: 5 Ways to Dominate Social Media Marketing in 2020

Social media marketing is a form of internet marketing that relies on the process of gaining traffic or attention through social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. By utilizing these platforms to connect with potential customers, you can build your brand and increase sales.

Each platform has different resources and goals that can benefit your business in different ways. According to Statista, 70 percent of the U.S. population has at least one social media profile. By 2021, the number of worldwide social media users is expected to be roughly 3.1 billion people. So many consumers using social media every day creates a valuable opportunity for businesses who want to reach their audience through platforms they’re already spending time on. Users are active on social media platforms because these channels offer a fun and easy way to network, keep in touch with friends and family and stay connected with what’s going on in the world.

I’m going to touch on the three major social media marketing platforms that can help your business truly take advantage of all that the online marketing world has to offer.

Social Media Marketing With Facebook

Facebook takes the lead as the most widely used social media marketing platform by adults, meaning there is a never ending opportunity to expand your audience and drive traffic to your website.

Getting started on Facebook can seem overwhelming; if you’re ready to begin, check out these tips and tricks from Sprout Social to get the most out of the ever-powerful social media platform.

Read more: How To Use Social Media Marketing For Your Business

It’s time to amp up and adjust our marketing strategies for the holidays – and if you want to get ahead of the marketing game and stand out from the crowd, check out these key tips and pointers from some of the top social media marketing experts.

Included here are insights from Mari Smith, Neil Patel, Virginia Nussey, Dennis Yu, Lilach Bullock, Lisa Dougherty, Marsha Collier, Sujan Patel and Kristel Cuenta-Cortez.

So let’s jump right in – and I’ll kick things off with my own number one holiday marketing tip.

1. 1. Run Facebook Messenger Ads | Larry Kim, CEO of MobileMonkey

Ad prices get crazy competitive around the holidays.

Since most of your sales are going to come from customers with pre-existing brand affinity, you should focus the majority of your social ads budget using remarketing as the targeting option, as opposed to trying out new, unproven audiences at this critical time.

People’s inboxes will be full of offers, so try reaching your audience using new higher-engagement marketing channels like Facebook Messenger ads in Facebook and Instagram to ensure that your audience actually sees your important marketing messages

2. Go Live on Facebook | Mari Smith, Facebook Marketing Expert

Use holiday-themed Facebook Live videos to really engage with your audience this holiday season.

Facebook continues to favor content that generates meaningful social interaction, specifically conversations between people within the comments on Page posts.

Live video typically leads to discussion among viewers on Facebook, which helps get the attention of its algorithm, meaning you should see even more reach on your posts.

In fact, Facebook states that live videos, on average, get six times as many interactions as regular videos.

Strive to stand out in the News Feed and create “thumb-stopping” live video content that draws your audience in.

Read more: 10 Experts Share Their Social Media Marketing Tips for the Holidays