Showing posts with label SEO Tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SEO Tips. Show all posts
Saturday, 3 January 2015
How to Host a Slam Dunk Instagram Contest
Instagram has become “the next big thing” on the social networking scene. It had been steadily gaining in popularity over the last year, but when Facebook acquired it, it really gained prominence and became a serious social contender for online marketers. If your business is not already using Instagram for Businesss in your social media marketing strategy, it should be.
Many brands are finding and creating great engagement opportunities with Instagram. One of the best ways to use Instagram for marketing your business is to host a contest on the network, helping to build buzz for your brand and drive traffic to your site.
Here are a few tips for how you can host a successful Instagram contest to promote your brand:
Offer a Great Prize
The first step to success with any contest is to offer a great prize that will get people excited and generate a lot of buzz for your brand. Offer up the best prize that you can afford. Some great options are gift cards, electronic items and vouchers for travel. If you can’t afford to offer a great prize yourself, work together with advertisers to sponsor a prize.
Choose a Complementary Theme
A good Instagram contest is focused around a theme. For instance, you may ask users to submit their best photos of their road trip, or you may ask them to submit their best interpretations of how your products or services impact their lives. Choose a theme that is fun and interesting and that is related in some way to your brand.
Use Hashtags
Hashtags are the best way for you to keep track of submissions. Users can tag their photos, and you can click on the hashtag to see all of the entries together. Hashtags also help to create more exposure for your contest and your brand by creating a trending topic that will reach more users. Make sure you pick a very specific hashtag to track your contest, and use your brand in it somehow. Choose a hashtag that ties into your contest.
Require Follows for Entry
Leverage your contest to get more followers by requiring people to follow you in order to enter. By building up more followers, you’ll generate a lot of new leads for your business and have opportunities to promote yourself to a whole new audience. You may also consider offering additional entries for actions like sharing the contest on their blogs or other social networks, which will also help you to create more awareness for your brand.
Instagram is a great way to promote your brand. As the network grows in prominence, it offers more and more opportunities for creating more exposure for your business or website. Use these tips to run a successful contest on Instagram to help your business get more exposure and more traffic.
Elynn Fish is founder of The Fish Firm is a boutique business development and marketing firm that expertly blends new media, digital marketing and on-line branding with traditional media, marketing and public relations to improve business exposure and profitability in respect to today's new consumer behaviors.
The Secret To Mining Gold In The Social Media Revolution
In one of my recent posts You Can’t Understand A Conversation That You Aren’t A Part Of... an industry colleague Martin (Marty) Smith jumped in the conversation and sparked much interest! It struck me that the Social Revolution really has created new and different consumer behaviors... forcing "Business As Usual" to change...
We've seen today’s market begin to understand that Social Media plays a large role in brands and businesses remaining relevant, earning creditability, engaging customers and attracting new business... As a result, consumer behaviors are now drastically different which has moved us into an era where brands and businesses must interact directly with their customers - on the consumer's terms. Unfortunately, we aren't seeing brands and businesses champion the desire or ability to do so.
In light of this conundrum, the goal here, is to help brands and businesses understand how Social Media has changed consumer behavior, why Social Media is where consumer conversations are happening and then, to provide specific ways for brands and businesses to interact with, respond to and learn from their social audiences.
Social Media Has Changed Consumer Behavior
Statistically speaking, Social Media is a key locale where consumers are making up their minds about certain brands, products, and services while also expressing how they feel. It is important to know that 65% of people learn about new products, brands and services via Social Media networks while 70% of these people hear and respect others’ experiences regarding these products, brands and services.
With the combination of 65% of consumer’s conducting significant online research prior to any type purchase and the known fact that 90% of consumers trust peer reviews over advertisements proves that Social Media has created what Eric Qualman has identified as a ‘world-of-mouth’ effect rather than the old school ‘word-of-mouth’ effect.
Another thing to consider is why we use Social Media networking; it actually impacts the way we act and feel. In light of this, The Nielsen Social Media Report of 2012 states that 76% of people feel mostly positive after networking via Social Media. One reason this is the case, is because it empowers people to know what is going in their world... Keeping up with brands and businesses along with their peer's experiences create a consumer whom is eager to try out a new brand, service or product... or not.
Social Media Is Where Consumer Conversions Are Happening
The lines between Marketing and Customer Service have become blurred with Social Care or Customer Service via Social Media. This has created an immediate imperative for brands and businesses to not only be active on the Social Graph but to also be ready and willing to react and interact on all Social Media networks.
Just as customers choose the information they want to view and when and where they want to view it, they also choose what they voice as well as when and where they make their voice heard. According to the The Nielsen Social Media Report of 2012, 53% of people compliment brands and businesses on Social Media networks. While on the other hand, 47% of the time, people express concerns, make inquiries and/or complain about brands and businesses the say way.
We recently reviewed The Great Social Customer Service Race Study and while knowing that 47% of Social Media users engage in Social Care, the alarming truth of this study is that if these big brands aren't getting it right - the rest of us are most likely missing the mark by a long shot.
Social Media Requires A Two-Way Conversation
Interact With Your Social Audience: With proof that interaction with social audiences is critical The Fish Firm has provided a few specific ways to do that with basic digital conversation tips.
- Talk to them by replying to their comment(s)
- Be willing to consider what they want
- Join or start social conversations by asking them questions
- Comment on what your fans and followers say
- Listen to their responses
- Watch their reactions
- Share their comments or information
- Thank them for their engagement and interaction
Respond To Your Social Audience: Using a Social Media manager tool such as HootSuite, set up streams with key words related to your brand, business and industry to find valuable information.
- Monitor what is being said about your brand or business indirectly
- Find opportunities to help a person when no one else is reaching out via their inquiry
- Start conversations among those talking about things in which you can be of value
Learn From Your Social Audience: The Fish Firm also recommends establishing internal processes to expand your social reach, leverage new found knowledge and create new knowledge.
- Mold and refine your findings from your interactions into messages aligned with what you’ve heard and seen
- Request your audience's input on new products or services with an online poll or survey
Over the next few years, businesses that rise to the top will do so by embracing these concepts of interaction! As Marty so eloquently stated... "The point we can safely say is the brands and businesses that make connecting with their social audience a priority will mine the gold of the social media revolution!"
What is your interaction experience with your social audience? Be sure to comment down below. If you have any other interaction ideas, please suggest away!!!!!!!
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Elynn Fish is the Founder and President of The Fish Firm of which specializes in Turning New Media & Modern Marketing Into Money by helping small business owners and entrepreneurs increase online sales and attract new business.
Marketing, Sales & The Missing Link
This old school theory of Interruptive Sales or “finding the customer rather than the customer finding you” via print, TV and radio media results in ‘leads’ hitting the ‘funnel’ for the sales team to cherry-pick from the ‘top’ based only on their own per-conceived notion of a ‘good lead’... while in reality, only 5% of these leads are ready for that all-important ‘sales call’. So, what happens to all the leads? How are they nurtured into a sales ready position?
Traditionally, THEY ARE NOT! This is why ‘sales’ has always been a ‘numbers game’ rather than an ‘attraction’ game... thus, the missing link! Social Business.
Interruptive sales tactics have lost their effectiveness in leads-to-sales conversion and revenue acquisition as a result of media’s ‘social’ convergence and the shift in consumer buying habits.
The combination of 1) consumer’s conducting significant online research prior to any type purchase and 2) the known fact that 90% of consumers trust peer reviews over advertisements and 3) social media networks creating a ‘world of mouth’ effect regarding brands rather than the old school ‘word of mouth’ effect have created an acute demand for better targeted online customer communication designed to attract the prospective customer with Social Business rather than interrupt them at each stage of the sales cycle.
Over the next few years, businesses that rise to the top will do so by embracing Social Business! Because they understand that by informing people with valuable information in a constant, strategic flow of one-on-one conversation - of which is ‘absorbed’ on the customers terms - is more effective than mass broadcasting. This approach attracts prospects to your business that are both interested and informed about your products and services before they ever ‘hit your funnel’ while also serving to lock down loyalty among current customers.
Today, we must realize that the internet and social communication has leveled the playing field allowing more businesses to compete for consumer attention regardless of size and budget. So to attract and move prospects further down the sales funnel - until they are sales-ready it is of paramount importance to nurture this cycle with strategically implemented messages developed from content that is relevant and of high quality and then ‘execute’ the message via social media networks.
Think about it: if the buying process has changed, then for maximum demand generation and lead conversion - marketing and sales must follow. So, it’s time to STOP doing Interruption Marketing and START doing Social Business Marketing! Please share with us some of the ways that you are doing this!
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Elynn Fish is the Founder and President of The Fish Firm of which specializes in using New Media To Turn Modern Marketing Into Money by helping small business owners and entrepreneurs increase online sales and attract new business.
You Already Have Your Secret Marketing Weapon
It seems paradoxical that the more you give away, the more people are willing to pay for your services but it's true.
This exact approach has worked quickly and effectively for me for years. The key is that it's got to be good and of high relevance to your target audience. This builds people's confidence that you consistently know your stuff and that you can be counted on for long-term value. People soon realize that if you're willing to give away such valuable expertise, think how great the solutions they pay for will be!
So how do you share your expertise with your target audience? Through writing and speaking. And it starts with being able to get your core ideas down on paper in a way that catches your audience's attention and compels them to action.
If the idea of writing an article or giving a speech feels overwhelming, stay with me. I'm going to show you how easy it can be if you follow a basic formula that works every time.
Formula for Success
1. Brainstorm a short list of things that your clients struggle with. What problems drive them to you? Why are they willing to pay good money for your services. Remember, it's not about you -- it's about them, their pain, and their needs. This is now your list of topics for articles and talks.
2. Pick one topic and answer the following questions:
So how do you share your expertise with your target audience? Through writing and speaking. And it starts with being able to get your core ideas down on paper in a way that catches your audience's attention and compels them to action.
If the idea of writing an article or giving a speech feels overwhelming, stay with me. I'm going to show you how easy it can be if you follow a basic formula that works every time.
Formula for Success
1. Brainstorm a short list of things that your clients struggle with. What problems drive them to you? Why are they willing to pay good money for your services. Remember, it's not about you -- it's about them, their pain, and their needs. This is now your list of topics for articles and talks.
2. Pick one topic and answer the following questions:
- What's the problem?
- What's the lost opportunity?
- Why is this important to address?
- What will happen if it's ignored?
- What's your solution?
- What tips do you have for implementing your solution?
- What example can you use to illustrate your point?
3. Write your answers to these questions and don't worry about how it flows or even that you're using good grammar. Just get your ideas on paper (or into the computer). Notice that by now, you have at least a page written. Pat yourself on the back and keep going.
4. Go back and clean up what you've written, add a catchy title and some headlines to break up the text, keep your paragraphs short, add some bullets or numbers to guide the eye. Maybe add references or a diagram. Step back and review what you've done. By now, you've got an article!
5. Ask a couple of trusted colleagues, clients or friends for feedback on your draft - really do this because it helps! Plus, it's a great confidence booster and low-risk way to share your writing with a small audience first.
6. Put your new article on your website, offer to send it as follow up when networking, send it to current clients and break it out into social media messages. Whatever you do, don't let it languish... USE it as a way of sharing your expertise.
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Elynn Fish is the Founder and President of The Fish Firm of which specializes in Turning New Media & Modern Marketing Into Money by helping small business owners and entrepreneurs increase sales by attracting new business and engaging current and previous customers.
Elynn Fish is the Founder and President of The Fish Firm of which specializes in Turning New Media & Modern Marketing Into Money by helping small business owners and entrepreneurs increase sales by attracting new business and engaging current and previous customers.
10 Qualities Of A Successful Social Media Manager
Book Review of Heather Mansfield’s Social Good
Social Good introduces key points regarding necessary qualities and standards of an effective social media manager.
The following points validate the importance of managers being able to stay human while being willing to ‘go viral’. They respect effective social media management as both an art and a skill and that some personalities are more likely to experience success than others.
1. Has a passion for the topic or cause and for social media — You can hear it in his voice and read it in his tweets. A good social media manager has passion for his topic and enjoys participating in social media.
2. Is friendly, patient and responsive — Social media managers enjoy engaging with and responding to comments on social media sites. They relish discussing ideas and issues online, and they do it with patience and kindness. They are attentive to their communities on an almost daily basis.
3. Is creative and detail-oriented – Willing to be creative is what makes exceptional social media campaigns stand out from the rest. It’s not that they have to have creative juices flowing all the time, but they do something different, which set her site a part from the rest of the sites. Her mind is constantly at work dreaming up new campaigns, and rather than shying away from being different and taking risks, she embraces it.
4. Has experience in online communications — Just because someone is 19 and came of age using Facebook in his personal life does not mean that he can manage and implement your online communities on social media sites successfully. Untrained interns were fine two or three years ago, when the Social Web was still in its infancy and everyone was experimenting. But that era is over. The truth is, in terms of results in social media, you get what you pay for, and if you want the best person for the job, you need someone who has at least a year or two of professional experience in Web 1.0.
5. Reads blogs about social media and mobile technology — A good social-media manager is a regular reader of Mashable, TechCrunch, Social Media Today, Social Times, Mobile Marketing Watch, All Facebook, About Foursquare, Nonprofit Tech 2.0, Beth’s Blog, TechSoup, NTEN, and other such blogs. Social media moves very quickly, and your platform will fall behind or miss opportunities to explore the “Next Big Thing” if your social media manager is not regularly browsing these blogs for breaking news about tools, upgrades, and emerging trends.
6. Is not overly confident about her social media skills – Over confidence about their social media skills prevents most social media managers from getting the necessary training. Every second of every day, platforms on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, WordPress, Foursquare and other social media make obvious mistakes that are counterproductive to their presence on these sites. Please get training! Take webinars, attend boot camps or workshops, or go to conferences that focus on the how-to of social media.
7. Thinks like a journalist — Well-written, timely content is what drives the Social Web. Old news is not share-, like- or re-tweet worthy. This is why blogging has become so central to a successful social media strategy. It allows social media managers to respond to breaking news by quickly and easily creating content that can be posted and shared by others on the Social Web. I need to adhere to this one more so. I tend to fall behind on the newsworthy of a piece.
8. Is mobile — Social media managers should be comfortable with the idea of posting status updates and tweets from any location at any time, when necessary. Whether we like it or not, the news cycle is now 24/7, and as a journalist for your cause, you need to be, too. The best social media and mobile technology practitioners embrace these new tools, experiment with them and are willing to sacrifice some of their free time outside of traditional office hours in order to be available to their communities 24/7.
9. Is willing to mesh his personal life with his professional life online — It’s a whole new Web. It’s social. It’s mobile. It’s public. You have to be willing to be on Facebook personally or LinkedIn professionally. You have to be willing to merge some of your personal life with your professional life online. That’s a tough one for me, but I still think you can do this and draw a line. For a good social media manager, privacy is a concern, but it is not a crippling one. He takes responsibility for his own privacy and takes steps to protect it where and when he wants to.
10. Takes steps to prevent social media burnout – For the entire social good it can do, social media does have a downside. Social media managers are bombarded with messages all day long on social media sites. It can be too much for the mind to process sometimes. A good social media manager knows when to draw the line and takes time away from her communities when necessary.
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Elynn Fish is the Founder and President of The Fish Firm of which specializes in using New Media To Turn Modern Marketing Into Money by helping small business owners and entrepreneurs increase online sales and attract new business.
FACEBOOK FOR BUSINESS IS DEAD AS WE KNEW IT!
Recently, Facebook dropped a bombshell by not only acknowledging that Facebook pages’ organic reach was declining but also by telling us we shouldn’t expect them to recover. Facebook’s VP of Product for Facebook Ads, Brian Boland, went on to explain that “this is the new world we live in now — and that we’d better get used to it.”
It’s true that many platforms go through a similar cycle: first, they present a great free opportunity, then more and more people grab it — decreasing the return for everyone — until finally, the platform focuses on those ready to ‘pay-to-play’. It happened with Google Search; it happened with Mobile Apps. And now that Facebook has become a publicly-traded company with ambitious revenue targets, it is now happening here.
So, what does the decline of organic reach on Facebook exactly mean on a practical basis?
What Boland explains in his post is that more and more brands, businesses and people compete for an attention span which is limited. The time each of us spend on Facebook has significantly grown over the last few years — but at a much lower rate than the amount of content collectively published. The result is that every time a person logs onto Facebook, “there are 1,500 stories that could appear in their News Feed” and Facebook’s algorithms now — to drive ‘pay-to-play’ — mercilessly filter ‘stories’ posted by business’ causing most of us to no longer ‘make the News Feed cut’… Thus, Facebook for business is dead as we knew it!
So, what can I do about the decline of organic reach on Facebook?
This solution is in recognizing that today, successful marketing on Facebook requires implementing the following factors as a strategically balanced combination. Mastering these components will give you the best chance you have to expand your Facebook Page’s News Feed organic reach to bring new customers in the door and increase spending among current customers and will also position your business for it’s best return when it’s inevitably time to start ‘paying-to-play’.
- Optimize Post Performance
- Spark Social Commerce Success
- Tap Into Real-Time Marketing
- Embrace A Multi-Approach Campaign
- Discover The Value Of Social Data
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Elynn Fish has been in the Digital Communications Industry since 2002and started The Fish Firm in 2011. Her passion to help small businesses thrive in light of today’s new consumer behaviors has made her an Industry Leader in Social Media, New Media and Digital Marketing.
Elynn excels at providing expert on-line and on-the-ground business development strategies and marketing solutions to help her clients build robust, effective communities for the purpose of driving predictable cash flow and profitability.
7 Steps To Get Going With Networking
Whether you're an introvert or an extrovert, feel like you have the gift of gab or just don't know how to make small talk, networking know-how is very important for your business success. There is a notion in business that I believe most of us subscribe to that says "all things being equal, people will do business with and refer business to those they know, like and trust." And the key to this is obviously being able to develop relationships.
Think of networking as the cultivation of mutually beneficial, win-win relationships. In order to be win-win, there must be GIVE and take (notice the emphasis on give). Networking shouldn't be viewed as "events" where you go to sell your business. When effective networking is taking place, the parties involved actively share ideas, information, resources, etc.
Networking it is one of the most cost-effective lead generation activities when used wisely, appropriately and professionally. But, maybe that seems easier said than done. Here's a seven step plan to really get going with networking for your business.
1. Check out several groups to find the best chemistry and perceived value. Most groups will allow you to come and visit at least a couple of times before you have to join. Go and ask around to find out why others have joined and what value they get out of belonging.
2. When you find a group or two, join and go to all the meetings you can. Don't go just once or twice expecting things to happen and then if they don't quit. Building mutually beneficial, win-win relationships will take some time. Being regular and persistent will pay off.
2. When you find a group or two, join and go to all the meetings you can. Don't go just once or twice expecting things to happen and then if they don't quit. Building mutually beneficial, win-win relationships will take some time. Being regular and persistent will pay off.
3. Get involved - be visible. Do as much as you can to make yourself more visible within the organization. Volunteer to help with meetings, be on committees, or become a leader or board member.
Being involved does a couple of things for you and your business. First, you'll get more opportunities to establish connections and get to know some of the contacts you've made even better. Secondly, the higher the visibility you have in the group, the less you'll have to work to make new connections. Instead, as new people come into the group, they will likely seek you out because they view you as a leader within the organization.
Being involved does a couple of things for you and your business. First, you'll get more opportunities to establish connections and get to know some of the contacts you've made even better. Secondly, the higher the visibility you have in the group, the less you'll have to work to make new connections. Instead, as new people come into the group, they will likely seek you out because they view you as a leader within the organization.
4. Keep your circles of contacts informed. Don't just assume that running in to someone once a month (or even once a week) will cause them to start doing business with you or sending it your way. You need to let them know what's going on when you're not at that particular group in order to inform and educate them.
Send them invitations to your events or open houses. Send them an email to share big news or success stories, especially anything of relevance to them or those in their networks of contacts. If you have valuable ideas, information and resources to share with others - look at building a scalable way to use this as a follow up tool.
Send them invitations to your events or open houses. Send them an email to share big news or success stories, especially anything of relevance to them or those in their networks of contacts. If you have valuable ideas, information and resources to share with others - look at building a scalable way to use this as a follow up tool.
5. Work at GIVING referrals and sharing valuable information. That's right, you need to be willing to GIVE before you get. That means you need to get to know other members and what makes a good prospect for them. What kinds of information might you have access to that could be useful to them?
For example, don't assume that a basic resource you may have won't be of great value to someone. Be willing to ask if it could be of help to them and if so, have an efficient way to share it.
Want to get better at actually giving referrals? Here's a simple question to ask someone you're connecting with. "How am I going to know when I meet a really good prospect for you?"
Want to get better at actually giving referrals? Here's a simple question to ask someone you're connecting with. "How am I going to know when I meet a really good prospect for you?"
Just the fact that you are willing to explore giving will elevate your know, like and trust factor.
6. Focus on Quality, not Quantity, Quantity, Quantity. It's not necessarily about the number of connections you make, but about the quality of the ones you do make. Are they mutually beneficial, win-win relationships?
Quality connections will be identifiable because all involved parties will be actively sharing ideas, information, and resources. Staying in touch with and following up with a smaller number of quality relationships will generally be much more productive than trying to follow up with a larger number of superficial contacts.
Quality connections will be identifiable because all involved parties will be actively sharing ideas, information, and resources. Staying in touch with and following up with a smaller number of quality relationships will generally be much more productive than trying to follow up with a larger number of superficial contacts.
7. Be persistent, but be patient. The goal of a networking event shouldn't necessarily be to come away with prospects every time you go out, but to come away with great connections. Networking usually takes time to get the relationships developed and nurtured.
Don't approach networking as a scary proposition or a necessary evil for being in business. Take the pressure off yourself and really focus on how you might be able to connect with someone you meet. Focus on them first and look for ways to be useful to them. As you become known as a connector you'll eventually reap what you sow.
Don't approach networking as a scary proposition or a necessary evil for being in business. Take the pressure off yourself and really focus on how you might be able to connect with someone you meet. Focus on them first and look for ways to be useful to them. As you become known as a connector you'll eventually reap what you sow.
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Elynn Fish is the Founder and President of The Fish Firm of which specializes in Turning New Media & Modern Marketing Into Money by helping small business owners and entrepreneurs increase sales by attracting new business and engaging current and previous customers.
Elynn Fish is the Founder and President of The Fish Firm of which specializes in Turning New Media & Modern Marketing Into Money by helping small business owners and entrepreneurs increase sales by attracting new business and engaging current and previous customers.
Eight Easy Ways To Rock On Instragram
If your brand is looking for social engagement — and if you’re not finding it on Facebook, Twitter, or other social networks — you should start using Instagram today!
Recently, Forrester studied more than 3 million user interactions with more than 2,500 brand posts on seven social networks and confirmed what marketers have long suspected: People don’t engage with branded social content very often.
On six of the seven social networks, the brands we studied achieved an engagement rate of less than 0.1%. For every 1 million Facebook fans those brands had collected, each of their posts received only about 700 likes, comments, and shares. On Twitter, the ratio was about 300 interactions per 1 million followers.
But one social network absolutely blew the others away when it came to delivering engagement: Instagram. Our study found that top brands’ Instagram posts generated a per-follower engagement rate of 4.21%. That means Instagram delivered these brands 58 times more engagement per follower than Facebook, and 120 times more engagement per follower than Twitter.
On six of the seven social networks, the brands we studied achieved an engagement rate of less than 0.1%. For every 1 million Facebook fans those brands had collected, each of their posts received only about 700 likes, comments, and shares. On Twitter, the ratio was about 300 interactions per 1 million followers.
But one social network absolutely blew the others away when it came to delivering engagement: Instagram. Our study found that top brands’ Instagram posts generated a per-follower engagement rate of 4.21%. That means Instagram delivered these brands 58 times more engagement per follower than Facebook, and 120 times more engagement per follower than Twitter.
Here are eight easy ways to rock engagement rates on Instragram:
1. Share humanized, relatable photos.
What do popular instagram accounts all have in common? Their photos are highly personal, relatable, and they can’t be duplicate. They connect with their audience. Take photos that are unique, humanized, and connect with your audience. The best way to relate with your audience is to ensure the photos are not “perfect.” If there is emotion, they are more likely to comment or like the photo.
Instagram is not a place to just post pictures of your business. It is a place of human connection.
A beautiful image that captures people’s attention.
2. Connect your Facebook account.
Since Facebook owns Instagram, all of your instagram photographs can easily integrate with Facebook. Connect your Facebook account to your Instagram account so that your instagram activity gets streamed to Facebook. That gives you access to all of your Facebook followers, thus by connecting your Facebook and showing off your beautiful photos, you are more likely to get more Instagram followers!
One of the best kept secrets of Instagram is that it helps you auto-follow or “follow all” of your Facebook friends in literally just seconds.
3. Use relevant hashtags.
Instagram uses hashtags to organize photos. Some hashtags are more popular than others, but it is important to always use relevant hashtags. Instagram’s search engine is much more powerful than Twitters, because people use it to search for interesting photos. It is much easier to “digest” a photo than to read someone’s thoughts on Twitter. At most, use 3 hashtags. Anything more than 3, people believe the photo is “spammy.” The more people who interact with your photo, the better likelihood you will get more instagram followers.
Top 20 Hashtags on Instagram:
#follow
#love
#instagood
#me
#cute
#tbt (throwback Thursday)
#photooftheday
#eyes
#nice
#beautiful
#happy
#girl
#l4l
#instacollage
#picoftheday
#throwbackthursday
#christmas
#instadaily
#like
Use popular hashtags, but don’t over do it.
4. Filters Matter
What made Instagram so popular so fast?…..Filters. They give each photo a unique sense of beauty, and they make each photo so personalized. By making your photo inspirational, breathless or memorable, people will be more likely to engage with your photo, and want to follow you because they want more beautiful photos.
On Instagram, you are how you filter. This is a fun infographic about filters.
5. Timing is everything
If you post an instagram photo in the middle of the night, but most of your followers are asleep, does anyone see it? People check instagram at two key times: In the morning and on their way home from work – those are the two most popular times. Below, the chart says the best time to share is on Wednesdays at 5-6PM. Definitely consider sharing photos during these two times because it will yield maximum possible engagement results. An instagram photo has a lifespan of around 3-4 hours before it goes away.
As you can see, Wednesdays between 5-6pm is most optimal time to share.
6. Have a clear CTA – Call To Action
“Double tab if this made you laugh.” Or, “Comment with a witty caption. The best instagram accounts always have a clear CTA. Fans are twice as likely to engage with a photo/post if there is a clear call to action. The more engagement you have the more exposure you have. The more exposure you have, the more potential you have to get more instagram followers.
Unique way to encourage engagement.
7. Follow others and like their beautiful photos!
Treat others the way you’d like to be treated. The same applies for Instagram. If you want to get a lot of new likes, comments, and followers, you should be doing the same for others. Engage, engage, and then engage some more. It’s important that you don’t spend all of your time on instagram shouting one way messages and only uploading photos (instead of liking and commenting other people’s photos). While exploring, instagram users may stumble across your username by seeing a comment you wrote on a picture. Personally, I’ve followed someone because they liked a photo of mine. Use that same logic and apply to other people’s instagram accounts. Be active. The more active you are, the more exposure you will get. The more exposure you get, the more potential you have to get more instagram followers.
Comment and like on other people’s photos to help gain Instagram followers.
8. Combining multiple images
Pictures are powerful. Some say they are worth thousands of words. Pictures can also tell a story. I use a tool called PicStitch to combine photos to make my photo that much more engaging. By combining multiple pictures, you encourage likes, comments, and ultimately, get more followers. Make sure it is a great picture/story though — great content is key!
Great picture. Amazing story.
Let us know how these tips to get more followers on Instagram worked for you!
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The Fish Firm is a boutique business development and marketing firm that expertly blends new media, digital marketing and on-line branding with traditional media, marketing and public relations to improve business exposure and profitability in respect to today's new consumer behaviors.
13 Questions That Will Lead You To Your Perfect Marketing Strategy
A marketing strategy is how you plan to use the resources available to you to build an ongoing case that your business, products and services are the obvious choice for a narrowly defined ideal customer.
If you accept this expanded view of marketing strategy then I would suggest you answer the following questions in an attempt to measure where your strategy stands today and where it could go if your understood and integrated it fully as your business model.
Here are the 13 questions to ask yourself!
- What about this job, work, or organization are you passionate about?
- How does this business serve a higher purpose for you and your customers?
- What value do you really bring that benefits your market in ways that your competitors wouldn’t dream of proposing
- What’s the dominant personality trait that you need your customers to associate with your business?
- What does an ideal client look like?
- What is the simple 10-word core message that explains and excites?
- How will your market become aware of your business?
- How will your market come to trust that you have the answers?
- What are the revenue sources that you can tap to grow this business?
- Can you describe the perfect customer experience throughout your organization?
- What resource gaps and constraints do you need to overcome to achieve your strategy?
- What partnerships do you need to create in order to achieve your strategy?
- What would the result of using this strategy model to run your business look like?
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Elynn Fish is the Founder and President of The Fish Firm of which specializes in using New Media To Turn Modern Marketing Into Money by helping small business owners and entrepreneurs increase online sales and attract new business.
Improve Your Marketing Results With These Simple Steps
Review Your Past Marketing Results
Take some time to review all of your marketing activities and try to understand which ones worked best. By "worked best" I mean, which ones resulted in more clients, more customers, more sales, or more growth for your business?
Your goal each year should be to understand which marketing activities bring you more business and which ones do not, so you can concentrate on the activities that work, and delete the ones that do not.
Even if you did not have an organized marketing plan, or marketing activities that you implemented consistently during the past year, if you are still in business today, then there must have been some form of marketing going on.
Marketing isn't only things like running an advertisement, or sending out a direct mail piece. (See "Is That Really Considered Marketing?" below to better understand all the different forms that marketing can take. You may be surprised to realize you've been marketing more than you know!)
Direct vs. Indirect Tracking
Take a look at what you did do. Can you directly or indirectly track any new or increased business to these activities? An example of direct tracking might be: You attended a networking event and someone that you met; contacted you, referred you or made a purchase.
For each marketing activity you did over the past year, ask yourself the following questions:
1. Did I get any new clients, customers or increased sales as a direct result, or an indirect result, of this activity?
2. If the answer is yes, quantify the result by asking yourself: How many new clients, customers or sales did it generate?
At the end of this exercise, you will have a list of all of your marketing activities, and the results connected to each one. Which activities brought you the most business? Are there any activities on your list that did not result in new or additional business?
Use What You Learn To Plan Future Marketing
Use this information as you begin to plan your marketing for next year. Plan to spend more time, energy and/or money on those activities that brought you business and sales. Delete those activities that did not.
If you don't have any way to track your sales or new clients, don't worry. What does your gut tell you about where your new business came from? Additionally, see the Question of the Week for tips on uncovering marketing results even if you didn't track very well. And if nothing else, be glad that you now know what you need to do next year to ensure your future marketing success.
Is That Really Considered Marketing?
Any time you talk to someone about your business, product or service, in person, at an event, over the phone, or through a brochure or some form of media, you are marketing. Any time you send someone an email or a thank you card from your business, you are marketing.
Be aware of any time you are communicating with current customers, or potential customers. Take the opportunity to make them aware of new products or services, special offers or programs, or even milestones or changes in your business.
Do you include your business card every time you mail a letter to a client or prospect? Do you have an email signature that includes your business name, your phone number, your email address, your website address and possibly even your tagline? You should. You are reminding people about your products and services and making it easy for them to find out more if they so choose.
If you truly believe that your products or services can enhance people's lives, then it should be easy to share the word at every opportunity. After all, if people don't know about you, they can't benefit. Put this way, it is almost a disservice to NOT market.
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Elynn Fish is the Founder and President of The Fish Firm of which specializes in Turning New Media & Modern Marketing Into Money by helping small business owners and entrepreneurs increase sales by attracting new business and engaging current and previous customers.
Elynn Fish is the Founder and President of The Fish Firm of which specializes in Turning New Media & Modern Marketing Into Money by helping small business owners and entrepreneurs increase sales by attracting new business and engaging current and previous customers.
Five Easy Ways To A Radical, Rocking & Revolutionary Website
It is an excellent idea to build a website that is interactive and successful. Why build one if your goal isn’t to gain attention from viewers, other media and to get feedback from your audience? Follow these five steps to help find your website success!
Create Your Content Plan
The fastest way to a popular website is to provide content that helps your targeted audience solve their problems. For example, if a website were dedicated to marketing, a good Content Plan would be to help your visitor identify their problem, provide a few free resources to help them solve their problem. While realizing that they probably can’t resolve it on their own, create a flow that will help them connect the dots as to why your services are what they need!
Once you have your Content Plan, actually keeping your visitors on your page and getting it all right is another story! Keep your readers engaged by asking questions, using metaphors and analogies, being funny and telling them stories. Writing For The Web is an excellent resource for getting it all right regarding web copy and common mistakes.
Develop Your Design
Website design consists of branding, a design theme and a way to interact with your visitors.
Branding - Creating logo and graphics has historically been expensive but with so many Web 2.0 tools today - it is pretty much a cinch for anyone! A great resource for a logo design is LogoTournament.com. I’ve used this before and had a blast! Pixlr and PicMonkey are both great Photo Editor tools. In my opinion, Pixlr is a bit more advanced while PicMonkey is better for beginners.
Design Theme - Creating a consistent theme across each of your webpages is simple today as well with tools such as Word Press or Webstarts.
Interaction - To encourage interaction, set up a forum or blog where people can chat about their thoughts. Another idea would be to set up a poll in which people could vote and cast their opinions. Trivia about a certain product would be an excellent way to educate viewers about something that you'd like people to endorse. Links to news articles are a way to keep people informed about what goes on in the world.
Clarify Your Call-To-Action
A Call-to-action encourages people to respond to your webpage, Tweet, Facebook Post, Bog Post, etc. Simply asking your visitors to comment or leave a post is one of the most effective ways to accomplish this. But don’t forget to stay in the game! As the one asking your audience to rate, comment, subscribe or make a response - your visitors will have more incentive to express their opinions when you are actively involved in the conversation.
Using inspirational quotes from famous entrepreneurs is a good way to give opinions and inspire conversations. To get an audiences attention, try reaching out and ask them to vote on upcoming changes to a product or service or ask their opinion in what the changes should include! Allowing input from your visitors and customers is a great way to help a business become better!
Supplementing Social Media Into Your Site
Using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. is a great way to promote your business, attract more consumers, earn increased traffic and create a positive affinity between you and your viewers.
Julie Blakley of Postano.com says that “Harnessing the power of Social Media and bringing it back to your website can not only drive higher time on site, higher rates of engagement, and hopefully better conversion rates, but it can also allow brands to fully connect their online presence into a cohesive online strategy.”
There are things you need to consider when using social media on a website. First, where should each discussion be happening? Second, a good social strategy must be taken into consideration. Finally, the constant monitoring of social conversations is key to making your website very handy-dandy.
Optimize with Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
There are several items of interest that drive SEO such as Blogs, Key Words and Link Building.
Blogs - Brandignity says it well... a blog provides the opportunity for Internal Linking, External Linking and One Way Links. Internally Linking together like minded blog posts by following other bloggers will pass power between pieces of content. External Linking gives you a well rounded SEO approach by linking to sources within your copy that expand upon it, provide credit from another source or validate your statement with statistics or research. When your content is good your community will provide One Way Links by sharing it or interacting with comments.
Key Words - A great tool to help you determine the best keywords for your site is Google AdWords. To leverage key words include them as tags or meta-tags for each web page and then repeat those key words throughout your copy. Also remember to include this practice within your blog posts!
Link Building - This occurs by building back links to your site and/or by earning reactions and responses to your Social Media messages. Back Linking has traditionally been time consuming and expensive and does not address the ‘relationship quality’ that is so vital to today’s business. In response to this, Search Engines have begun to show a higher interest in reactions and responses within Social Media Networks for stronger organic rankings. This helps to give a huge search advantage over competing websites.
Building a website that proves to be popular is very beneficial in expanding your exposure and helping your business to make profits. Please share your thoughts and opinions... Do you think that these ideas will work for your website? What has worked for you that we’ve left out? Be sure to comment and rate the article.
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Elynn Fish is the Founder and President of The Fish Firm of which specializes in using New Media To Turn Modern Marketing Into Money by helping small business owners and entrepreneurs increase online sales and attract new business.
5 Questions to Ask Before Outsourcing Your Social Media Services
With the strong emergence of social media in the Internet marketing world, every Tom, Dick and Harry has come out saying they are social media experts. To choose the best social media consultant for your company, ask them the following five questions:
1. When engaging in social media marketing, will you keep my targeted audience in mind? Most social media companies will focus on making the connection, but it needs to be targeted.
2. Do you create a system to take the online conversation offline? You need to have a system that consistently gets your website and information in front of your prospects.
3. How engaged are you in social media conversations? Your social media consultant must understand direct response copy writing techniques that encourages conversation.
4. When focusing on social media profiles, do you focus strictly on keyword optimization and being found first for your niche? If you want to create a connection, you need to have prospect-focused copy within the profile.
5. How can you ensure that my social media messaging stays consistent with my branding? You need someone who will keep your brand in check and work to reinforce it through social media.
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Elynn Fish is the Founder and President of The Fish Firm of which specializes in using New Media To Turn Modern Marketing Into Money by helping small business owners and entrepreneurs increase online sales and attract new business.
6 Features That Make Your Mobile Website A Great Experience!
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The Fish Firm is a team of Marketing Technology Experts that help businesses make money with Marketing Technology Solutions proven to close the gap between what today’s consumers expect and what businesses are providing.
Elynn@TheFishFirm.com • 815-713-5292
Gain ‘Facebook Favor’ To Land More Fanpage Posts In Your Fan’s News Feeds
The average person is on Facebook to connect with family and friends. But when brands understand this and tailor their content to their fans, so that fans find the content interesting, inspirational, informative, valuable and/or helpful, then fans will remember them and are then more likely to begin to like, share and comment on their posts. This then helps build brand name recognition and loyalty, which in turn can help fuel potential sales opportunities down the road.
This though is not an easy task or a quick fix for a number of reasons. Because Facebook determines what Post’s make it into various News Feeds; those who like your Page and / or your Posts, may never actually see your future Posts - unless they go directly to your page...
With Facebook’s recent changes, the industry has learned it is best to post fewer Posts with the objective of gaining high interaction rates per Post. This wins your Fanpage ‘Facebook Favor’ with the result being that your Posts show up in more News Feeds. Posting more Posts and/or having less interaction per Post creates ‘Facebook Spam’ and results in fewer of your Post’s showing up in your Fan’s New’s Feeds.
Most of us are familiar with the number at the bottom right of each post that reads ‘#### people saw this post’. This represents Impressions which is a measure of the number of News Feeds Facebook decided to send your Post through. There is no specificity as to if it was even seen by your Fan or not... if it was seen, we have no idea if there was interaction and if there was interaction we don’t know to what level.
Since this is mis-leading, the data points to analyze should focus on the number of people introduced to your brand as well as the number of people who have consumed your Fanpage and Posts. You want to know how well your Posts are reaching new people and how many and what Posts are actually being consumed.
The Fish Firm Has Cracked Facebook’s Algorithmic Secrets to provide priceless knowledge; How Often to Post, When to Post & What to Post; Specifically for YOUR PAGE and YOUR FANS!
By trending your data from a baseline and then once per week for four weeks while using key data to tweak your Post Frequency, Post Times and Post Types; we learn how well your Posts are performing in both reaching new people and in actually being consumed. This is how we capitalize on creating a high-performing post strategy that increases the number of your Posts that actually land in News Feeds the type of Posts that best engage your Fans.
Let Us Help You Turn Your Fanpage Into A Lean, Mean Marketing Machine in Just 30 Days!!!
ONLY $249... DETAILS HERE!
Reaching Social SEO Outcomes With Four Action Steps
Listening, Content, Socialize and Measure could just as well be represented as a cycle, but I think the forward direction is important because you can’t reach outcomes without action.
Any good social media marketing effort needs to begin with some kind of Listening program. That means using social media monitoring tools to collect, sort and manage social content according to topics being monitored. Content is the glue that makes search engines work and content is a critical part of the social sharing experience within social media.
Speaking of sharing, socializing with other like-minded individuals as a personal experience can fold well with brand interactions as long as the needs of the buyer persona has been reconciled with business objectives. Successful efforts within the social web can be measured, and should be, in a variety of ways. Measurement justifies objectives and it’s important to identify the right tools for monitoring real time and web analytics.
Here are a few more details on each of these steps. Think about how your company is implementing these steps in your own social media marketing efforts. Are you taking shortcuts? Are you following through? Have you found more important steps to follow?
Listen
An essential start and ongoing component for a social media marketing and optimization effort is to leverage listening tools. As companies struggle to understand where the social web fits within their online marketing strategy, a social media monitoring program (listening) should be implemented immediately.
Collecting social web data, organizing and managing it is essential for tapping into the conversations, influencers and real-time marketing opportunities that abound in today’s internet environment.
Content
Content makes the Social SEO world go round. One of the biggest growth areas in Online Marketing is the business of creating, optimizing and promoting content. Brands are becoming publishers. It’s no longer enough to simply publish features and benefits information on products and services. Customers want more.
Marketers would do well to create a Content Marketing Strategy and inventory content assets such as web pages, images, video, audio, rich media and file types such as HTML, PDF, MS Office docs, Structured Data Feeds and RSS to assess what can be promoted via social channels and be ranked in search results.
Content can be searched when it is optimized and a well planned digital asset optimization effort that works in sync with social networking and promotions can efficiently get content to those that want it and also facilitate better search visibility. That is the essence of Social SEO.
Socialize
With insight into the appropriate social media channels, influentials and a rock solid content marketing optimization strategy in place, it’s important to have a plan on how to connect with the communities where customers and prospects spend their time. Three key pieces to socializing your marketing efforts include:
1. Publishing frequently to generate traffic.
2. Fostering sharing to increase discoverability.
3. Nurturing potential customers with Digital Marketing Tools.
Measure
Success comes in many forms and with social media marketing and social SEO... It’s the combination of social media monitoring and web analytics that provides the most actionable value. Social media monitoring tools are not only effective for initial Listening, but also to determine the social effect of your optimized content marketing on the social web.
Off site engagement can be monitored, measured and analyzed in combination with web analytics tools that provide insight into what social traffic does once they get to your web site. Leveraging monitoring and analytics to inform future content creation, keyword optimization and social promotion is essential for staying ahead of the competition and being effective at meeting customer needs.
Following a basic structure like the four steps listed above can help make a social media test or even a modest social media marketing program a lot more productive.
Please share your insights or experiences!
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Elynn Fish is the Founder and President of The Fish Firm of which specializes in using New Media To Turn Modern Marketing Into Money by helping small business owners and entrepreneurs increase online sales and attract new business.
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