7 Tips To Step Up Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

Gone are the times when social media was just another networking opportunity brands could use to create a buzz. Social media has come a long way from being a silo where interns could learn new skills to a powerful platform that can boost a business’s bottom line.

Today social media marketing works in tandem with other business strategies to generate publicity and create awareness. Social media is a great place to start your marketing campaign from scratch.

Follow these seven steps to create a killer SMM strategy that resonates with your target audience:

1. Establish Goals

Any marketing strategy starts with goal setting.

Analyzing the goals you want to achieve helps you come up with an attainable social media strategy. The goals keep you on the right track and allow you to gauge your ROI.

Align your marketing goals with your business objectives. To make sure they are, look into the following four areas:

The networks on which you are currently active

How many of your networks are driving value

Check if all your networks are optimized to communicate your company culture

Identify your competitors and analyze their promotional activities

Keep your goals specific, scalable, realistic, and most importantly time-bound.

2. Audit Your Existing Social Medial Connect

Before implementing your SMM strategy, evaluate your existing online reach.

Create a spreadsheet where you can document the following details:

list the social networks you're actively using for brand promotions

Identify social networking platforms where you can showcase your brand

do all your profiles reflect your brand’s logo and vision? Make sure all the contact details are correct.

what is the target audience and what are their pain points

identify the preferred networking channels of your target audience

Any marketing campaign aims to understand the needs and preferences of the end-user. The above pointers will help you learn more about your target audience and enable you to focus on effective channels.

Once your social media audit is complete, formulate a mission statement for each of your social accounts. The mission statement guides actions and helps classify consumers based on their preferences for each platform. Studying the patterns they exhibit when engaging with technology gives you a clear picture of how each platform works with your target audience.

3. Build Your Online Identity From Ground Up

Once you are done with the auditing, choose the platforms where you want to promote your brand.

If your brand doesn't have a social presence yet, set-up business accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Google Plus. Every social network caters to a different audience and should be treated accordingly.

Focus on platforms that resonate with the objectives of your brand and add value to your business. Carefully pick platforms based on what they are best at.

You can study the demographic representation of each social networking site to know which is the most appropriate to engage your target audience.

4. Connect With Industry Experts And Influencers To Increase Followers

The most important reason to be active on any networking platform is to connect with existing and prospective customers. But this also means that your competitors are not too far. Use the wealth of information available on social networking sites to improvise your marketing strategy while drawing inspiration from your competitors.

When you use social media to listen to your customers, to know what appeals to them, and to understand their pain points, you can devise a marketing plan that projects you as a unique player.

Know what your target audience is busy pinning, posting, and tweeting and realign your tactics to reach out.

Finally, capitalize on industry experts. Follow them, connect with them, retweet them, comment on their posts, and use them to influence your audience. Building relationships with influencers can offer long-term value for your brand.

5. Create an Engaging Editorial Calendar

Use your mission statement to create engaging and informative content that connects with your target audience. Spruce it up with images, infographics, blogs, ebooks, and videos and post it on different platforms.

Make your content fresh, relevant, unique, informative, and engaging. List the topics you want to share with your target audience and be regular with your posts.

Schedule your content in advance and be prompt with your communication.

Network it in all right places and don’t forget to use a conversational approach.

Create event pages, integrate with hashtags, and stream videos but be sure to zero in on the needs and desires of your target audience.

6. Trace The Reach Of Your Social Media Campaigns

You can use Google analytics to analyze the success of your marketing endeavors.

Most marketers capitalize on social media management tools to gauge their productivity and scale their efforts. Analyzing data and tracking the results will help you take corrective action and your online business will continue to grow.

You can stick to your approach but be flexible with your methods if you want to generate leads using social media marketing. Evaluate your previous plans and realign your techniques to optimize effective channels.

7. Build On Your Strengths (From Good To Great)

Go creative to keep the followers you have earned. Capitalize on innovative social media campaigns that compel your audience to engage.

Use Facebook adverts to retarget your visitors. Use trending hashtags to connect with new prospects. Retweet the latest updates from your influencers and double down on channels that are driving qualified leads.

Use Buzzsumo to identify trending stories and recreate them to intrigue your audience.

Optimize what is working for you and shut down what’s not.

Digital Marketing, Social Media a Must To Expand Business: President LCCI

Entrepreneurs should use most effective tools like digital marketing and social media to give a notable expansion to their business and to keep in touch with the outer world effectively. The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) President Sheikh Muhammad Arshad talking to newsmen said the use of right technology is a must to move ahead so that entrepreneurs should focus this particular area and harness the power of digital marketing and social media.

The information technology has transformed the way of doing business while manual business functions have been automated with the development of personal computers, business software and Internet-based intranets.

MassLive Media, new digital marketing solutions company, launches today

MassLive Media, a new standalone digital marketing solutions company, launches today. MassLive Media, which will operate in conjunction with MassLive.com, offers a full suite of digital solutions including behavioral audience targeting, video executions, search engine marketing, social media advertising and more.

"We're here to help your business achieve its sales and marketing initiatives thanks to a unique blend of audience data, innovative digital presentation and social media integration," said Sally Azar, Marketing Manager of MassLive Media.

MassLive Media leverages the audience reach of MassLive.com - the third-largest news & information site in Massachusetts with over 3.5 million monthly unique visitors - and combines that with a team of digital marketing experts offering dynamic, cutting-edge advertising solutions that can scale from local community businesses to regional and international powerhouses.

"Digital media is a dynamic industry that requires our team at MassLive to constantly stay ahead of the curve in our knowledge of all things digital," said MassLive President Allison Werder.

"We hone these skills every day for our website, social and mobile outreach. Through MassLive Media we apply and expand this digital expertise to our marketing partnerships with local, regional and national clients."

The combination of MassLive's unique first party data and third party data from a reputable network of national affiliates enables MassLive Media to pinpoint messages to a specific set of customers based on behaviors and affinities unique to that reader. This provides effective, measurable sales and marketing solutions for clients.

MassLive Media, in association with Advance Local, is one of just 31 Google Premier SMB Partners nationwide, and can offer clients the privilege of direct access to Google. These benefits include executive, technical, sales, marketing, account and partner management support from one of the leading technology companies in the world. Advance Digital, part of Advance Local, has also been named a Microsoft Partner of the Year three years in a row for their digital advertising services.

Learn more about how MassLive Media can help your business activate your ideal customer at www.masslivemedia.com. To schedule a personal consultation contact Azar at sazar@masslive.com or via phone at 413-731-2479.

MassLive and MassLive Media are a part of Advance Local, one of the largest media groups in the U.S. reaching more than 70 million consumers through its 12 local news and information websites, which rank #1 among local media in their respective markets, and more than 30 newspapers. Our affiliated websites and newspapers are well known for their award-winning journalism. Advance Local is part of Advance Publications, along with Conde Nast and American City Business Journals.

Onsharp digital marketing director shares social media tips

During her "Power of Being a Social Employee" presentation Tuesday, April 12, at the Fargo Holiday Inn, she shared with the audience of about 150 a tweet from her colleague Samantha Nies: "Thankful, once again, for the flexibility from #TeamOnsharp! Working from home with a sick toddler sleeping next to me. Grateful. #ONmoments."

"That's great 'social proof' that we really are flexible in those moments when it makes a difference," said Jensen, who has more than 15 years of experience in digital marketing.

She said building company culture and recruitment is just one way a social employee program can help further an organization's goals. It can also boost sales, bring attention to community impact and volunteer efforts, engage students, and recognize and thank co-workers for their work.

The social media concepts and strategies Jensen outlined during her lunchtime business training session, hosted by the Fargo West Fargo Moorhead Chamber of Commerce, can help companies and nonprofits of any size extend their reach.

"Onsharp is a really small company," she explained. "We have 16 full-time employees, 12 of which are on our social employee team, and about 60 percent of our social reach on Twitter comes from our social employee team."

Jensen defines a "social employee" as anyone who uses social media to build trust, nurture relationships, share expertise, grow professionally or achieve professional goals. "If you use social media for any of these things, you're a social employee," she said.

For companies without a social employee program, she suggested first involving "anyone with a public-facing role," such as media, media relations or sales.

Just having a few people working on it can make a big impact.

"Statistics say that employee social networks only overlap with brand networks 2 to 8 percent. That means the people who your employees are friends with, only 2 to 8 percent of them have taken that next step of following your brand accounts. There's huge opportunity for you to speak to a wider audience," she said.

Focusing on Twitter, Jensen shared tips for effective social media engagement using examples from local professionals at places such as RDO Equipment Co., the chamber and CCRI (Creative Care for Reaching Independence).

Her tips included:

• Share industry trends and connect them back to what you and your company do.

• Interact with customers at trade shows and conventions, bringing offline relationships online and vice versa.

• Recognize customers and partners with mentions, likes and retweets.

• Give followers a behind-the-scenes look at your office or job.

• Share what you love about your job.

"You can pack a lot into 140 characters," she said.

The chamber's next business training session, "Know Your Customer and How They Buy So You Don't Get Ubered," featuring Johnathon Rademacher and Eric Dukart of Sundog, is scheduled Wednesday, May 11, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn.

10 Hottest Digital Marketers to Follow On Twitter

Digital media marketing has been a hit, and in 2016 it will be better, bigger, and larger than you can ever imagine. If you want to learn how to use twitter to create visibility for your business or brand and to triple your revenue in 2016, then you have to learn from the masters.

Twitter is a widely use social media networking platform that is integral component of most online marketing initiatives.

Ladies and gentlemen I presence to you the hottest ten digital media marketer you must follow on twitter to get the best tips, latest information on how you can use digital marketing to promote your business effectively

      1 .  Kerry Butters

            @kesbutters FOLLOWS YOU

TECH & SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER | markITwrite CEO | Author | Tech Reviewer | Contributes to @getresponse@SMExaminer @xensystems and many more!

2.  Efe james

            @Mediacriers

Entrepreneur/ Digital Marketing Evangelist / Motivational Speaker/ Internet Marketer// #Socialmedia Expert/ Follow Us!

3.   Jose Javier Garde

             @jose_garde

#MarketingDigital #SocialMedia,#PersonalBranding #SEO,#Management,#Marketing, #Sales, #Strategy. Convictions, Determination are keys to achieving success.

4.  Sam Hurley ➤➤➤➤➤

            @Sam___Hurley

Growth Hacker + Digital Marketing Influencer in SEO | Social Media | PPC ➤ Head of Search https://goo.gl/92Zbw6  ➤ Top 10 PPC Expert ➤ https://goo.gl/GO06ZX 

5.  Zipper SEO

            @ZipperSEO

Zipper SEO & Web Design is a Michigan based SEO, SEM & social media marketing firm with locations in Detroit & Grand Rapids.

6.  Michael A. Stelzner

            @Mike_Stelzner

Founder: Social Media Examiner; host: Social Media Marketing podcast; author: Launch & Writing White Papers; committed Christian & dad. Snapchat: mikestelzner

7.  Social Marketing

            @socialhelp

Focused on #SocialMarketing. Lead generation #strategy for businesses using #SocialMedia. Part of@Socialselling labs media owned by@kokasexton

8.  Social Media Today

            @socialmedia2day

#Publishing & #distribution of world's best thinkers on #SocialMedia best practices, tools & #socialmarketing. Host of #smtlive & #socialshakeup15

9.  Jeff Bullas

            @jeffbullas

#1 Content Marketing Influencer,Social Media Marketing Strategist & Speaker,Forbes Top 10 Social Media Influencer,#1 Global Business Blog.

10.             JAB Social Marketing

                     @JABSocial

Social Media Marketing made easy!#JabSocial #SocialMedia#SocialMarketing #SMM #SME Connect with me: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/janbeytell 

Efe James is the CEO/MD of Net link Media Limited, a digital marketing agency aka media criers, he has a special focus in  Social Media Marketing, mobile marketing, email marketing, and business development  process, sales promotion, and his an expert in website and E- commerce development.

Eight Properties of a Good Marketing Strategy

A technique isn't an objective. A system offers you some assistance with achieving an objective. It's not the objective itself.

A system decides repeatable strategies. Things you can do over and over to accomplish your objective

A system joins components to objectives utilizing measurements. An extraordinary promoting system gives a shut circle between your business objectives and the properties of "fruitful" strategies. It gauges viability of variables utilizing measurements.

A computerized showcasing system influences the center of a business. A genuine promoting system has extensive effect on the essential objective of a business. Nothing less.

An advanced methodology has a particular objective or objectives. The methodology ought to go for a quantifiable end.

An advanced promoting methodology is oblivious to storehouses. I comprehend the truth of extensive associations. Everybody works their own turf with a major No Trespassing sign on their office entryway. Be that as it may, the technique ought to incorporate those domains into a solitary vision. It's the beginning stage. Try not to point of confinement conceivable outcomes at step one.

A showcasing methodology withstands change. Imagine that, three months into your vital arrangement, another channel, strategy or instrument shows up on the scene. Everybody needs you to attempt it. That might require an adjustment in strategies, yet not an adjustment in procedure.

A methodology rises above channels. A procedure is not an one-channel arrangement. Or possibly, a great procedure isn't. Putting all your vital eggs in a solitary wicker bin is an on a very basic level imperfect technique.

5 most common digital marketing strategies

In a virtual age, wherein maximum customers have computer systems and cellular devices, having access to web sites, social networks, and other online media, has emerge as a part of every day residing. hence, many corporations have adopted digital advertising techniques to preserve to promote their services and products to these customers through those channels.

in line with worldwide stadistics (by way of the arena financial institution), extra than 2 million humans have net get entry to nowadays, out of which 70 percent makes use of it day by day. it is for that reason that organizations are making an investment a mean of 12 percent to 20 percentage in their annual earnings on virtual advertising and marketing. below are the five maximum not unusual virtual advertising strategies:

1. Social Media
Social networks are an green and low value device to sell new services and products, increase emblem awareness, maintain loyalty from customers, growth internet site traffic, and improve client experience. consequently, social media has come to be an green channel to create new clients as well as driving brand loyalty. Many gear are available to marketers to create and hold an internet presence, as well as developing and keeping demand.

the biggest social networks are: facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram. To control massive scale social networks, tools like: Hootsuite, Podium, and Buffer, are normally utilized by virtual marketers. those also facilitate reporting, traffic analysis, web and/or mobile segmentation, among other functions.

2. pix, motion pictures, and blogs
in keeping with information by using Zabisco, a virtual design employer, 40 percent of on-line users respond better to visual information in place of textual content. There are several motives why visible content must be part of a advertising approach. for instance, the brain methods visual information faster than textual content content statistics; articles with videos appeal to three instances greater visitors than articles without movies. nowadays extra than 85 percent of users inside the usa watch videos on line.

3. e mail
in step with ExactTarget, one of the most famous equipment for electronic mail marketing automation, e mail is an clean manner for manufacturers to attain their customers; 77 percent of consumers who give their e-mail address might be open to get hold of more facts through e-mail.

There are other groups like Salesforce and steady touch, who also are engaged in developing electronic mail advertising automation gear. They can help you design campaigns and e-mail templates the usage of HTML and CSS, in addition to automating the sending of such emails, and analyzing outcomes which include: variety of individuals who opened the email, whether or not they clicked on the product or promoting, among different measures.

4. Smartphones, drugs, and others devices
in step with infographic via Aden Hepburn, founder and director of VML (WPP - Y & R brands) in Australia, 56 percentage of the populace has a telephone; 50 percent of customers use their phone as their primary source of on line seek, and 72 percentage of tablet owners save from their capsules every week. today, human beings use their cell phones more than every other digital device. The mobile platform is constantly growing, and is one of the maximum important, in terms of selling products and services. this is why manufacturers spend a whole lot of their advertising and marketing budget on this digital channel.

five. seo (seo), search Engine advertising (SEM)
the most important on-line search engines, through variety of customers, are: Google with 182 million users, Yahoo with 173 million, Bing with 162 million, and Ask with 69 million users.

Google, for example, makes use of natural positioning techniques (search engine optimization), stated through its acronym: seo. This consists of generating free traffic from herbal, natural, search results. hence, the intention of seo is to boom the visibility of net pages in engines like google, with out resorting to bills advertisements. A second method is search engine advertising (SEM), which includes paid advertisements in search engines like google. as an example, Google offers Adwords, which operates under a pay-in line with-click pricing version for commercials.

conclusion
virtual advertising is on a continuous growth path thanks to the ever growing quantity of continually-on line users - basically due to the explosive increase inside the cell space. it is essential for marketers to evaluate extraordinary strategies in looking for where to invest their marketing budget to get the quality consequences and boom conversions.

should marketers have interaction and how can it be finished efficaciously?

should marketers have interaction and how can it be finished efficaciously?

From the fulfillment of social networking sites to the explosion in consumer-generated content material, we've got seen a dramatic shift in how consumers have interaction with the net. The upward thrust of social media as an influential advertising channel has, but, caught many inside the enterprise off shield. on line marketing has been criticised for its innovative boundaries for years, however adjustments inside the internet panorama have created new opportunities to have interaction with clients in ways no longer viable thru offline channels.

With the possibilities, but, come specific demanding situations for marketers, a lot of whom have naively dealt with the web channel as they would a mag or tv spot and in the end alienating themselves from their target audience. With social media mainly, it's miles essential that advertisers make certain that advertising and branding is furnished as applicable content, rather than brash product placement.

however what is social media and the way can we, as entrepreneurs, ensure that it is greater than a fad?
Social media describes online resources that humans use to percentage ‘content material’: video, pictures, pics, text, thoughts, perception, humour, opinion, gossip, information — the listing is going on. these assets consist of blogs, vlogs, social networks, message forums, podcasts, public bookmarking and wikis. famous examples of social media applications consist of Flickr (on-line photosharing); Wikipedia (reference); Bebo, facebook and MySpace (networking); del.icio.us (bookmarking) and international of Warcraft (online gaming).

To many — perhaps a majority — of business humans, customers and even entrepreneurs, social media is a misunderstood idea. when discussing social media, pundits regularly emphasise ‘media’ as being most critical, whilst in fact the ‘social’ detail is key. with the aid of permitting people to proportion and engage with each other, social media permits ‘content material’ to end up extra democratised than ever earlier than.

advertising is no longer one dimensional

while advertising with conventional media like newspapers, tv and information websites changed into approximately delivering a message, advertising and marketing with social media is ready building a dating and communication together with your audience. advertising is now not one dimensional; it's miles now a two-way process enticing a brand and an audience. advertising inside social media isn't always pretty much telling and giving a message, alternatively it's miles approximately receiving and exchanging perceptions and ideas.

Cynics argue that advertising has no vicinity in ‘social’ media and that advertising in truth destroys its foundations through undermining its human element. A in addition vulnerable argument may be made with regards to conventional media outlets and advertising and marketing, arguing that advertisers dictate editorial content material. at the same time as this is from time to time the case, newspapers and the whole media enterprise as we know it nowadays would no longer exist had been it now not for advertising and marketing greenbacks. at the same time as entrepreneurs ought to tread carefully with social media, the onus is on us to creatively engage instead of alienate our audience. effectively advertising to social media can be hard however it's miles possible. ultimately it's far a remember of supplying content rather than simple messages that customers can relate to and appreciate.

Two Reasons Why Email Marketing Beats Social Media Marketing In Lead Generation

If you used social media right, you can build a genuine relationship with your customers. You find out what people are saying about your brand and it enables you to share interesting  contents with your targeted audiences. Regardless of whether they are in B2B or B2C, most businesses can't afford not to have social media marketing presence.
There is some thing that social media is not great for, is LEAD GENERATION. What is lead generation? lead generation is the initiation of consumer interest or inquiry into products or services of a business. Social media works effectively for many marketing activities, but generating new leads is not one of them. One study in 2014 from the management consulting firm Mckinsey & company suggests that email conversion rates are 40 times higher compared to facebook and twitter combined.

Here are two reasons why email marketing a relatively old channels, better suited for lead generation

1. There are too many noise on social media

The very reason that make social exciting and wonderful also make it a difficult marketing channel. On daily bases , Twitter user generate 500 million tweets, on facebook, users post 55 million status updates per day. On Instagram, over 70 million pictures are posted per day.

2.You can say more on email

Some times it require more than 140 characters to get that lead. Though email need to be short as well, but at least you are not limited to a certain numbers of characters.   

So what do you think, Right or wrong?