The onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic only advanced our shift to online communications. Now, remote work and virtual communications seem the norm. Everyday meetings are done over video conference calls, and title events are taking place through virtual platforms. Online events are no longer just webinars but expos, seminars, concerts, and more. 

The Creator Economy’s Social Influence 

This shift towards online communications has been beneficial not only for business owners but also for content creators and marketers. With the increasing demand for useful and entertaining content, communities emerged and grew, looking towards one another for answers, pass-times, and connection. 

To keep up with the demand for content, creators and marketers both know it’s important to have a toolkit with everything you need to keep your brand running smoothly. For many, this tool kit includes editing tools, distribution channels, emails, and newsletters. For others, it may consist of events – both micro and mini – that bring brands together with their customers. 

The Learning Curve of Virtual Events 

Virtual events have become a necessity for everyone. However, the learning curve of how to evolve IRL events with virtual events was not easy for everyone. According to the Event Manager, 72% of live events were unsuccessful when pivoting to virtual format and maintaining profits.  

This surprisingly large percentage is likely due to the disconnect when moving to a virtual event. Things that work in IRL events don’t often translate flawlessly online. One of the biggest challenges for marketers is maintaining user engagement from the promotion stage to the well after the event. 

Immersive Events are the Future 

Thankfully, there are several options available online that allow content creators, marketers, organizations, and more to connect, educate and promote all in one place. The best part is that there are options to blend virtual and real-life events, whether your event is large or small. 

Companies like Airmeeet, who enabled more than 120,000+ event organizers to stream 150 million minutes of video to audiences around the globe in 2021, help companies worldwide to create opportunities between virtual, IRL, and hybrid events. Their technology features the only AI-driven smart speed networking technology available in the immersive event space and offer a 360-degree engagement profile. It’s a great fit for marketers and others who want to remain hyper-focused on boosting their engagement at each step of their funnels. 

Other companies, such as Living Popups, focus on helping brands integrate AR/VR for live events. Adding AR/VR into your event enhances the event’s immersive experience while also giving a creative option to those who want to experience the event from the comfort of their homes. 

Most importantly, virtual and hybrid events break down geographical barriers. Brands and content creators can reach a wider audience by creating immersive events that allow them to interact with their audience directly from anywhere in the world. 

Whether you are looking to enhance your existing online event, shift a live event to virtual or hybrid, or build a new way to grow your audience, having a platform or application that helps you manage your event in one place is an important tool to have in your toolkit. In 2022 and beyond, we’ll see more options emerge with creative customizations to improve our new virtual/hybrid reality.

The post How the Creator and Social Economy has Changed the Virtual Event Landscape appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

1. Neil Patel

If you’ve followed the wonderful blogs from the founder of Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics, and Quick Sprout, you’re sure to be aware of Neil Patel’s keen sense of marketing advice and entrepreneurial wisdom on what’s new and exciting in the world of marketing.

Patel can increase your search traffic, convert online visitors into customers and create Social Media traffic without using ads.  As a regular contributor to Forbes, TechCrunch and Entrepreneur.com, Patel is here to stay on top for the foreseeable future.

2. Gary Vaynerchuk

As CEO of VaynerMedia, Gary Vaynerchuk’s agency specializes in an eclectic vision in social media branding and distribution. The host of #AskGaryVee show (a way of producing top value answers for questions about social media, startups and entrepreneurship) and author of “Crush It!: Why NOW is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion” will answer that very question for you.

3. Andy Crestodina

Andy Crestodina is the founder of Orbit Media and has been in the digital space since 2000. Specializing in web design and content, but knowledgeable on all topics digital from search to analytics, Andy is as much a Chicago evangelist as he is a digital evangelist. Andy is a content king and has published hundreds of articles on the topic of digital marketing and has written a book to boot “Content Chemistry”- in it’s third printing.  He is a national speaker and founder of Content Jam. In addition to repping the Windy City, Orbit Media helps its clients produce beautiful sites and content marketing pieces that lead to sustainable growth and jealousy from competitors.

4. Lisa Song Sutton

Lisa Song Sutton is a former Miss Las Vegas who has become a full fledge entrepreneur with her Sin City Cupcakes Company as well as Liquid & Lace, Fundamental Elements, and Elite Homes Us.  She also writes about Women in Business and Entrepreneurship for Forbes as well as hosts “Live With Lisa,” a TV show that gives business tips and tricks based on her own experiences.

5. Ian Cleary 

Ian Cleary is an award-winning Tech Blogger on RazorSocial who can help increase your blog traffic on any given occasion. If you’re looking for help to market your business more effectively, look no further.  Ian can help give you a better system for your social media content exposure that can save time with better results.

6. Sujan Patel

Sujan Patel is the co-founder of Web Profits and is one of the leading experts in digital marketing.  His agency helps companies leverage the latest marketing strategies to propel their businesses.  With over 13 years of Internet marketing experience, Sujan has led a comprehensive digital marketing strategy for many Fortune 500 companies.

7. Vincenzo M. Landino 

Vincenzo M. Landino is a Creative Director, Public Speaker and Brand Correspondent who also hosts the Brand Boost Podcast.

He is also the co-founder of Aftermarq, video content consultants who specialize in digital storytelling and brand amplification.  Vincenzo has worked on campaigns for Mazda, Kia Motors, Tinder and Zoomph.

8. Brian Fanzo

As founder/CEO of iSocialFanz LLC, Brian Fanzo’s social strategy consulting agency offers the #ThinkLikeAFan philosophy which enables storytelling campaigns for plenty of Fortune 50 companies.  Brian co-hosts a weekly show #Cloudtalk, as well as a SMACtalk Podcast.

9. Josh Steimle 

Speaker, writer, and Entrepreneur Josh Steimle has been published in Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc, and Time -just to name a few- and has helmed the digital agency MWI since 1999. In addition to numerous publications Josh has held positions consulting with government on issues of tech and startups as well as working with non-profits in an array of fields. His role as a speaker focuses on the role of CMOs as well as digital marketing. His agency, MWI, has offices around the world and specializes in all things digital, from design to SEO.

10. Regan Anne Hillyer

Looking to unlock greatness? Regan Anne Hillyer is an entrepreneur, philanthropist and Mindset Coach who can help with that potential. As a founder of Regan Hillyer International, her company is dedicated to providing personal development and business training for all men and women looking to unlock their true potential.

Whether your business is just starting up, just taking off or well into its prime, the latest digital marketing techniques can always give you the added boost to push your work into the cutting edge of tomorrow.  These are some of the Social Marketing influencers who could quite possibly do just that.  As we approach 2017, these industry experts should prove themselves to be true leaders at the top of their game

The post The Top 10 Social Marketing Influencers to Keep An Eye on in 2017 appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

TOMS has always been a company with a strong social identity. Some consumers have even said that the main reason they buy TOMS shoes is to support their One for One model. And the backlash the company has received in recent years doesn’t seem to be hindering them. If anything, the criticism has propelled TOMS to be more vocal about the causes they support.

Like any contemporary business, TOMS uses social media networks, but they use them quite differently. Most businesses use their networks to draw attention to their product and emphasize the value it will bring to the reader’s life. TOMS doesn’t do that. They know that everyone knows TOMS, and they know they don’t need to focus on their apparel. Instead, they focus on causes. This is the key ingredient for why TOMS is the current leader of conscious marketing

TOMS= Global Awareness + Social Media Networks 

As of this writing, here are the topics of TOMS’ latest Tweets: the recent ISIS attack on Brussels (which happened earlier today), providing safe water, protecting sea turtles, and Earth Hour. Perhaps their mission is best summarized by another recent Tweet: “Your #TOMS purchases have a great impact. Thank you for helping us change lives!”

They’ve also used social media platforms to create mini-campaigns. For example, on Twitter, they’ve used hashtags to designate different causes and drive conversation: #OneForOne, #TOMSAnimalInitiative, and #givesight are just a few. And those hashtags are populated by not only TOMS’s posts, but also by Twitter fans who are spreading the mini-campaigns to their networks.

Their Facebook uses similar yet more targeted tactics. Most of their posts follow a formula: They express joy or gratitude about their ability to help people around the world, then they link to a product or cause-related page. This simple formula creates massive interaction (and presumably conversion) among readers.

And readers are responding in droves––dedicated droves. A quick glance at the posts on TOMS’s page shows an endless list of users who are proud to represent TOMS and advocate their brand. Look at any of TOMS’s social media networks, and you’ll find the same group of users who are unabashed brand advocates.

TOMS also excels at creating iconic campaigns that both promote the brand and get people involved. Last year, the company held their 9th annual #WithoutShoes campaign to worldwide acclaim. They made it a breeze for people to get people involved; for every person who took a photo of bare feet and used the hashtag, TOMS donated a pair of shoes. They took something that people were already doing-–taking and hashtagging Instagram photos––and made that a native part of a marketing campaign. Hundreds of thousands of people participated, and good feelings were had all around.

The True Genius Behind TOMS’s Marketing

There’s no doubt that TOMS boasts one of the most memorable marketing campaigns of the last several years. The real secret of their success, however, is that they’ve been able to get so many people to participate.

Think about the people you know. How many of them have TOMS shoes, apparel, or even coffee? Now, think again about the people you know. How many of them actively donate to charities? Chances are, you know people with TOMS gear, but you may not be sure who donates to charities.

That’s because there’s a rather ironic reason to the success of TOMS campaigns––they make people feel like they’re participating than something bigger than themselves. In reality, people are benefitting in some way. They get goodies and feel like they’re making a colossal change; in many ways, many TOMS advocates are social justice warriors.

Think about the One for One campaign. If you buy a pair of shoes, you are giving one to a child in need, and that makes you feel good. But you also get the instant gratification of getting a pair of shoes.

On social media networks, people get the instant gratification of belonging to a group. They take a quick picture, use a hashtag, and instantly join a community of people who are making a change in the world. No matter the medium, TOMS fans get instant gratification of some sort.

That’s not to say that TOMS consumers are shallow or don’t care about global issues; they do. But TOMS builds all of their marketing campaigns knowing that people will feel good about themselves, and that good feeling will make them come back to the brand. The TOMS brand is one that users are proud to be a part of, and they’re proud to tell everyone about it.

The post Why TOMS Shoes is the Leader of Conscious Marketing appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

We all know building social influence can be a very slow process. However the process can be supercharged by partnering with a well-known brands by joining, as Mark Burgess coined it, the social employee revolution.

The Undercurrent of the Revolution

Before you garb yourself in Phrygian cap and begin tweeting Vive la Resistance #socialemployee, let’s take a few moments to explore what social employee programs entail. Burgess’ set the framework for the social branding tactic in a 2014 TedTalk entitled: The Rise of the Social Employee. His expertise in this matter is a culmination of years of experience working in senior marketing and advertising positions.

Burgess, who currently teaches an online social media marketing course for the MBA program at Rutgers University, explains that a social employee is a social media expert who is empowered by the company to become a “change agent.” He or she is given training, guidance, and permission to integrate their “personal brand and their professional side.” And through this integration, the employee utilizes the business’ authority to act as an ambassador for the brand.

Essentially this is a push for brands to start encouraging their employees to engage genuinely on social. This will ultimately lead to a win-win situation for both brand and employee in the long run which we’ll dive into next.

The Tangible Benefits

The beauty of the social employee program is that there are tangible benefits for both the company and employee. The company is given a large pool of individuals who are engaging in genuine advertising for the brand. Social employees are particularly powerful because “90% of social users do not trust traditional advertising,” but “78% trust recommendations from peers.” Empowering employees have far greater advertising potential than investing money in a television advertising campaign.

1 out of every 6 job seekers land a position with the help of social media

The employee is made more employable. They are given time at work to build their social media influence. When they eventually leave the company, they will have a stronger personal brand and a portfolio of skills on their social media platforms. This is incredibly powerful because 1 out of every 6 job seekers land a position with the help of social media.

The Pitfalls We Must Avoid

Becoming a social employee can be a game changer, but individuals should not rush into a social employee program. There are two main pitfalls that can transform a social employee experience into a nightmare.

Inability to be genuine – Social employees should be “believers in the mission and the vision and the values” of the company they plan on representing. Until the employee leaves the company, they will be a living, breathing representative of the brand. If they don’t believe in the mission of the company, it will be very easy to accidentally tweet a comment that doesn’t align with the brand. The comment could potentially twist potential customer’s perception of the brand. The moment management notices, the social employee probably won’t have a job there much longer.

Deciding who maintains ownership of social accounts –  Don’t sign up to be a social employee, unless the company has given you permission to retain ownership of your social accounts after you stop working for them. Companies unfortunately have a history of trying to claim the rights to social media accounts employees have worked on while at work. In 2012, a Pennsylvania company took over a former employees social media account, changed the name and picture on the account, and tried to claim all of the relationships the employee had developed.

Even though the former employee eventually reclaimed the account, the experience cancels out any potential benefits of becoming a social employee. Why become a walking, talking advertisement, when the company might betray your trust by attempting to wrangle your social media accounts away from you?

Individuals can increase the chances they will achieve personal and professional success by joining the social employee revolution. Many company like Dell, AT&T, Domo and Cisco have set up programs that simultaneously allows the business to benefit from peer recommendations and the employee to build their social influence. Just be sure that before you sign onto a social employee program, you are the right fit for the company and the social employee policy is the right fit for you.

The post Join Us in the Social Employee Revolution appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Day 4: Growing your Following Honestly

Once your content is launched, you can finally start working on follower growth. This is a process that you’ll be following for the rest of your Instagram life. If you want to see real organic growth, you will always have to work hard for it. But above all you’ll have to remain honest. IG users these days are primarily composed of millennials. These people grew up with social media and they can spot a ‘faker’ a thousand posts away. This is the mantra we live by with our social accounts: 

A photo posted by Social Media Explorer (@socialmediaexplorer) on Aug 17, 2015 at 1:59pm PDT

Find a Hashtag: Ideally one that is extremely targeted and industry-specific. An example would be #marketinglife if you’re in the marketing industry. Here you’ll be able to find other accounts that are within your demographic.

Identify Similar Accounts: Once you identify other successful accounts in your niche from targeted hashtags, you can study their following by clicking on the “Followers” button. This is a treasure trove of leads that have already proven an interest in your niche by following similar accounts.

Engage Targeted Users Intelligently: I recommend really taking time to approach this in a genuine way. Many people will like multiple posts on other users’ accounts hoping they notice them and return the favor. Ultimately this method never really leads to sustainable growth. I’ve noticed a higher return by taking the time to write out a thoughtful comment or even liking only one or two posts that actually spoke to me. When thought comes before action, people will always notice. At times it can even be appropriate to send a personal message to your biggest fans telling them how much you enjoy their content. Don’t ask anything from them, usually just going out of your way to compliment them will be enough to keep you on their minds for years to come. 

Use the Right Tools: My secret weapon is CrowdFire for so many reasons. This app can do pretty much anything, including help you tag key followers, unfollow inactive accounts, identify your most engaged followers, and even see who recently unfollowed you. The app is free for one account so it’s a must download. Knowing who your key followers are and maintaining a whitelist of your biggest fans will help you visualize where to focus your efforts. Having 10 brand advocates will always be more valuable than 100 ‘follow backs’.
*NOTE: This app does include a rather spammy feature that lets you bulk follow any other user’s followers or to buy Instagram followers. This feature will get you a huge amount of followers. But I don’t recommend using it very much, as these followers will not be very engaged, having no real attachment to your brand.

Day 5: Finding the Magic Hashtags

Really, you should be searching for hashtags from Day 1, but I recommend establishing your “core tags” soon after you start posting. Instagram only allows you to post 30 tags per photo, so go back to your list of similar accounts and see which they’re using consistently. Now that IG has included a “Top 9” feature for each hashtag, there has emerged a bit of a magic formula for finding quality tags.

Essentially, you want hashtags that are both targeted to your niche but also fairly non-saturated. The way to tell if it’s saturated is to click the tag and look at the photos in the Top 9 section. If these posts are seeing over 100 likes on average, you should avoid this tag as you’ll likely get buried and unseen. Tags that have under 100 likes can be more viable as you have more of a chance of being pushed to the Top 9.

Of course this formula is dynamic in that your tags should change as your posts get more engagement. For example, once your posts start seeing over 100 likes each you should search out higher traffic tags that you feel you’ll have a chance ranking within. This is a huge opportunity for free and easy exposure but finding that magic tag is the hard part.

Day 6: Tracking What’s Working

Like any social channel, you have to track each action to optimize all future efforts. I really only use Iconosquare, which is perfect for seeing the intimate details on nearly every facet of your account. This tool lets you identify content that’s working and your engagement levels on a monthly basis. It even lists your top followers, helping you know where to target your follower interaction.

When you know which content is seeing engagement, refine refine refine! When I noticed my posts involving related background images and shorter quotes working better, I decided to focus on these types of posts more often. After doing so, my posts saw a direct increase in engagement almost instantly. Iconosquare also has a feature that tells you which time of day is working best. With these small refinements you’ll continue to see steady, consistent growth.

Day 7: Keeping Momentum

Keeping momentum means staying active. Instagram needs to be a daily part of your routine. Think of it as a small pet that needs constant care and love to grow healthy and strong. Here’s how to keep momentum as your profile matures:

Reach Out to Key Followers: Way too many people underestimate the power of a simple gesture. First use Iconosquare to list your top 10 followers. From there all you have to do is routinely like and comment on their posts to foster a relationship. Trust me they will notice and we all know how powerful word of mouth can be.

Ask For Help Intelligently: The instagram community is a helpful and caring bunch of people. You’d be surprised how many people would be willing to mention to your account in a post, but I recommend you go one step further. Instead of simply messaging someone and asking them for a shoutout, come to them prepared with an original piece of content you made specifically for their profile. Don’t even ask for a feature or mention, trust me they’ll do that on their own.

When thought comes before action, people will always notice.

Keep Things Interesting: Your fans are likely following hundreds of other accounts. What is going to keep you standing out in their newsfeed? What makes you special? Running occasional contests or giveaways will always give you a burst of engagement however I feel these methods are too temporary and inauthentic. I recommend simply asking a question of your userbase, devote a post to asking what people feel about a certain subject. As one of our previous posts showed, users tend to respond 30% better with a call-to-action in the post. With a question you’re igniting conversation and nothing could be better for a brand.

The post How to Gain 500 Instagram Followers in 7 Days the Honest Way – Pt. 2 appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Tumblr skews young and passionate, and is well known for active fan communities surrounding books, television series and movies. While Gen-X fandoms congregated on forums and discussion boards, millennials geek out over their shared passions on Tumblr. Typically, using an extensive number of animated GIFs. Sharing content (aka “reblogging”) is the primary activity on Tumblr, which makes it both extremely viral and a perfect platform for fan activation.

So, to better understand the nature of Tumblr we’re going to dive into how major television networks are utilizing the network to their advantage.

Start with a question

When I was digital marketing manager at CafePress, I quickly discovered our fan-created content related to hot television and movie properties like The Hunger Games and Supernatural met with a warm welcome on Tumblr. But would fans appreciate or resent direct engagement from “official” accounts for these properties? That’s the big question Spredfast sought to answer.  

Is it worth the time for television shows to engage with the Tumblr community, if their fans are already proactively sharing content?

“Is it worth the time for television shows to engage with the Tumblr community, if their fans are already proactively sharing content?” Media brands need to know if having an official presence boosts fan activity, or inhibits it.

Arriving at a clear answer was more complicated than you might think.

The time and place for being original

The report analyzed almost 300 Tumblrs dedicated to 85 current television shows, from traditional broadcast, cable, and streaming services. The key metric for engagement on Tumblr is “note counts.” “Note counts” measure how many times a post has been liked or reblogged. However, attribution for shared content is cumulative. In other words, original content shared by official network accounts adds to both their own note counts and the fan accounts who share it.

Because fan Tumblrs function as curators, they pull the best content on a topic from multiple sources. Network Tumblrs post more original content — they’re half as likely to reblog content than fan Tumblrs. But those fan Tumblrs are incredibly prolific, posting from four times as many sources as network Tumblrs.   

This means that looking at note counts alone makes the fan Tumblrs appear more popular than network accounts. By diving deeper and looking only at original content, it turns out network Tumblr accounts get 32 percent more reblogs than original fan-made content.

The key to fan activation

Clearly, the presence of official TV show accounts is a vital source of the original content, which fan accounts use as a springboard. The Tumblr community of superfans doesn’t just engage with official TV show accounts, they do so enthusiastically. Official accounts have much bigger interaction rates than fan accounts.

The key to fan activation on Tumblr is creating a centralized, dependable source of original content for fans to enjoy and share. These findings showcase a clear opportunity for media brands to take advantage of the high volume of activity on Tumblr to create deeply-engaged, passionate fan communities around their IP.

Image content is the most popular shared content type on Tumblr, and there’s no question the popularity of animated GIFs has helped it grow as a natural fit for television and movie fandoms. 

We’re only skimming the surface of the potential for Tumblr. If you want to really learn the in’s and out’s of this dynamic channel we recommend Downloading the Free report from Spredfast. Who knows, you might just find your place among the Tumblr stars.

Huge shoutout to our friends at Venngage for helping create these stellar infographics.

While Spredfast is a sponsor for this post, all opinions are true and our own. 

The post Using Tumblr to Inspire Fan Activation appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

It’s ironic (and a little tragic) that right about the time a platform reaches critical mass, develops the infrastructure to support advertising, and accumulates enough data to provide useful business intelligence, we’ve moved on to something else.

So it’s encouraging that the latest deep dive report from Spredfast embraces the maturing social media landscape with open arms. The Smart Social Report takes a high-level look at the state of social media marketing, and benchmarks the social maturity of top platforms and brands. Some of the findings are what you might expect, and others are actually quite surprising.

Whaddya mean, “Mature”??

The report used a combination of publicly-available metrics to determine Social Maturity. These included audience size, responsiveness (time to respond to inbound communication), posting volume, use of rich media, and audience engagement. They plotted the metrics on a matrix (say that five times fast) to determine maturity level.

The networks included were Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+ and Snapchat. The report looks at 50 leading brands from ten different industries: Retail, Media/Entertainment, Sports, Electronics/Tech, CPG, Financial Services/Insurance, Automotive, Telecom, B2B, Travel/Hospitality.

Reaping the benefits of maturity

At a high level, the report found that the oldest platforms saw the most sophistication. Brands have had time to master these more established social spaces. Thanks to their relative stability and more robust business features, it’s easier to get budgets and resources approved and measure ROI.

It’s also not surprising to learn that different industries have reached maturity at different speeds, arriving in “herds.” And just because a brand has mastered one platform, that doesn’t mean they own the social space.

Spredfast found a high degree of variance across channels, even for the same brand. In fact, it’s possible the most mature brands in a given platform achieved that dominance by maintaining a tight focus on it. The payoff of that focus is accelerated success on that channel, but the cost is fewer resources and less time to devote to others.

Overall, the report provides an interesting overview of the state of social media marketing, with some unexpected (and actionable) insights. For example, they discovered a clear opportunity for brands in one vertical in particular to seize an untapped opportunity on one of the most popular social platforms: Pinterest. You’ll have to download and read the report yourself to find out where that opportunity lies.

There was too much good information in this report for us to fit in one blog post, so look out for our follow-ups that drill down to their findings on two up-and-coming channels: Tumblr and Instagram.

While Spredfast is a sponsor for this post, all our opinions are true and our own. 

The post How Brands are Adjusting to the Maturing Social Media Market appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

You have the non-stop content generation mills soullessly churning 20+ posts per hour about the latest trends in marketing. And then you have what I like to call the Badass Social Voice Influencers. These select few are defined by how they push the limits of social as a whole. They use the freedom of the internet to foster creativity over conversions. What makes them truly badass is their bravery to speak their minds even when it may not lead to retweets or any real ROI at all for that matter.

I wanted to share my top 5 badass twitter influencers so you can learn from example. These people are artistic with their approach. They act as modern poets, using each tweet as an opportunity to change the collective consciousness.

Anyone can repost old blog articles. I believe social is moving away from this type of content in search of raw intelligent insight. If you can learn to master the art of speaking genuinely while giving fresh insights you too will notice a following that gathers to watch your every tweet.

Donald Miller

@donaldmiller

I hope I’m not stepping out of line when I say that Donald is a modern poetic genius. Each tweet stands alone as wholly inspirational and captivating. Through intelligent wordplay he forces us to question our methods and act with intention. Honestly there were times I assumed he was quoting some great philosopher when it ended up just being another of his stellar musings. He’s also a great resource for learning how to improve and define your brand

In Three Words: Poetic, Quotable, Brand

Ryan Holiday

@RyanHoliday

I first followed Ryan after digesting his stellar book The Obstacle is the Way. Little did I know that following him would be akin to reading an entire new book one tweet at a time. Ryan takes inspiration from classical literature and somehow incorporates these ancient wisdoms into a modern relatable context. The result is an everflowing stream of introspection and reflection. Not to mention, he really loves calling brands out on their bullshit. The fact that he just went on a huge tirade against Jezebel won him some major points in my book.

In Three Words: Introspective, Meditative, #QuitYourBullshit

Rebekah Radice

@RebekahRadice

A lifestyle guru in your Twitter feed. One second she’s spouting hardcore #realtalk motivation, the next she’s sharing a great insight on the latest twitter privacy policies. What I love about her is how unafraid she is to stay true to herself while embracing her role as a budding leader in the space. Stay real Rebekah, we appreciate the honesty.

In Three Words: Honest, Humble, Enlightening

Oli Gardner

@oligardner

Oli is the type of guy we all want to be on Twitter. Unafraid, conversational, unique, bold and refreshing. I have no idea how this dude is able to cram so much insight in 160 characters. Not to mention he’s constantly giving his tweets 110% effort, going as far as creating custom animated GIFs for a laugh. Couple his humor with all the insights he shares from founding Unbounce and you pretty much have to hit the follow button. Don’t resist it. Give in to his charm.

In Three Words: Humorous, Bold, Unconventional

Pam Moore

@PamMktgNut

Pam lives up to her reputation as the ‘Social Nut’ of the industry. Her feed is a full on bombardment of marketing wisdom the likes of which you probably won’t find anywhere else. It’s a tangy blend of 60% of the latest content buzzing around the rumor mills and 40% original quotes for taste. Her intelligence really shines through with each post and I especially love her direct approach to marketing. She’s also a good example for how to engage with other users on social, always open to having a casual chat with one of her many users.

In Three Words: Thoughtful, Energetic, Wise

…Bonus!

Product Hunt

@ProductHunt

If you made it this far, you get to see my favorite account in the world. Essentially it’s a feed that features the top products from across the web each day. This is basically where most marketers ‘in the know’ tend to find their tools before they reach the masses. There’s just so many damn cool things that are guaranteed to grab your interest. It’s a fun way to stay in the loop on the latest tools for growing your brand.

In Three Words: Totally, Awesome, Tools!

Thanks for reading everyone. Now go out and be brave with your interactions. We have complete freedom to be and say what we choose. Learn to appreciate this freedom and use it to be remembered. 

The post Top 5 Badass Twitter Influencers to Inspire your Social Voice appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

I learned how to reframe and systematically prioritize my objectives in life. Trust me not everyone would gain the same lessons that I had from living out of a small backpack for a year. But for me, it was transformative and taught me most of what I know about people and consequently marketing as well.

Here’s what I learned:

Go Where the Locals Eat

A common issue you’ll run into when you enter a new city is finding a reliable place to eat. By reliable I mean: doesn’t leave you immobilized and cramping the next morning. You can scour the top TripAdvisor reviews for the best place, but you’ll usually end up in a soulless tourist trap. Every seasoned traveler knows to keep an eye open for the small nondescript taco stand with a line of locals wrapped around the corner.

The same can be said for social media. Avoid following advice from “tourists” who don’t actually understand or use the space as intended. Go listen to the locals, follow regular users and learn from them. As marketers it can be so hard for us to remember that most people use social media for their everyday life. We’re so entrenched in analytics and trends that we end up disrespecting the space. You will never find a local eating in a Hard Rock Cafe, just as you’ll never find a Twitter native responding to a constant barrage of links to your website. So, go where your users are and learn their language. Speak to them like humans and respect their attention because you’re in their space and they don’t owe you anything.

Ask yourself: How are people using social media in their everyday life? What are they saying, what voice do they respond to and how are they using the medium? How can I add value to their social real estate with my thoughts?

Learn to Value Relationships

Life on the road can be tremendously lonely. Friends tend to come in peaks and valleys. Typically you’ll be alone for days or weeks at a time until you find a fun club and are suddenly overwhelmed with new faces and names. However, without fail the next day everyone will go their separate ways, leaving you right back where you started.

This lifestyle forces you to appreciate quality over quantity with your relationships. When you travel you only have time to stay in touch with maybe 10% of the people you meet.

The same can be seen in social marketing as well. Focusing on how many followers we have is something we’re all guilty of. Watching that number grow is addictive, but truthfully it’s a complete waste of time as most people will fade into the noise. Choose to focus on who matters. Identify your best followers using tools like Social Draft or Social Rank and laser focus your attention on them. Make them your best friends, the ones you stay in touch with after the vacation.

Ask yourself: Are you guilty of saying things like “I only have 100 followers”? If so you’re one of the lucky ones. This means you now have the opportunity to create 100 deep and meaningful relationships with people who chose to be with you. Don’t fall for quick fixes in life, take your time, be yourself and the right people will find you. Having a small following means having time to engage and keep your humanity. If your engagement is stellar your followers will grow in size and quality. Period. Your engagement is a filter that allows you to sift through the masses leaving only the best behind.

Forget What’s Familiar and Embrace the Unknown

When it comes to life and social media, there is no one formula that is “the answer.” I thought I had a pretty ideal life before I left for my trip. I owned a nice place in Austin, Texas and thought I had it all figured out. However, pushing myself to explore new lifestyles has ultimately led me to learn things I never could have imagined or even known existed.

Travel is about taking you out of whatever you consider normal and showing you that “normal” can be defined seven billion different ways.

Your social strategy is not perfect and frankly it never will be. I don’t care how many conversions that grumpy cat meme got you last week. To be truly successful you have to forge your own path. You have to push yourself to hit the restart button even and especially when you think you don’t have to. When you’re at your best you’re still not perfect, so take note of what’s working and start again.

Ask yourself: When is the last time I’ve refreshed my social strategy? What am I learning from my current strategy? How can I refine my strategy further from what I’ve learned so far?

Always Keep Perspective (Especially When Everything Goes Wrong)

I remember sitting on a park bench in Mexico reading Ryan Holiday’s The Obstacle Is the Way when one particular passage popped out and latched itself onto my brain forever. It’s become a personal mantra for me and it goes like this:

“We must try:
To be objective
To control emotions and keep an even keel
To choose to see the good in a situation
To steady our nerves
To ignore what disturbs or limits others
To place things in perspective
To revert to the present moment
To focus on what can be controlled”

For me, travel is 100% perspective. It’s about taking you out of whatever you consider normal and showing you that “normal” can be defined seven billion different ways on this earth. There is no one normal and there is no one right way to view or interpret a situation.

Use this mindset the next time you have to do damage control for your brand. If you have a customer complaining about your product, I want you to first calm your nerves, place things into perspective and realize where they’re coming from. Then focus on what can be controlled and analyze what you can do to reach the best possible conclusion to the situation.

At the end of the day you don’t have to travel to learn or gain new perspectives. Sometimes it can be as simple as taking a walk in a poor neighborhood you usually avoided, or writing an article for your corporate blog that challenges a popular opinion. The point is to constantly refresh your perspective and to embrace whatever life throws at you with an intention to learn.

Approach your marketing with the intention to learn no matter the outcome. Push yourself into unknown territories and focus on real lasting relationships. You’ll see results instantly both within your following and yourself.

The post How Traveling the World Can Reframe Your Marketing Perspective appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Umm…okay…no it wasn’t.

I’ve thought long and hard about our unintentional blog-hiatus. In fact, as primary editor of this blog, I thought about it day and night. And day. Publishing five (worthy) posts a week surely isn’t easy, but it turns out that it’s actually easier than publishing zero. That sounds odd, but it’s true. But the silence was necessary, it was transparent, and I learned a lot during our time between the words.

It’s Okay To Take A Break

We’re a small (but powerful) shop here at SME Digital. We work very hard for our amazing clients, often logging semi-insane hours to provide WOW every chance we get. And that means that we need to find time to replenish. To put it bluntly, we get tired from time to time, and we’ve gotten very good at recognizing when we need to zen out and take a breather.

Last week, we all needed a breather. It doesn’t show in our client work (nor will it ever), so the blank space is evident in our business. The blog, our social channels, our engagement, and our represented brand all take the hit…and that’s okay. Yes, it’s important to stay active and take care of the house. The house is super important.

However, I would argue that it’s more important to take care of those who inhabit the house. Take care of those who inhabit your house. It’s the only way that you’ll have a house at all.

Inspiration 101

The truth of last week is that we could have posted all five days. We had some ideas; I had some words saved as drafts. But, to be perfectly transparent, we had little inspiration. And we just can’t, and we won’t, publish uninspired words. Those posts do no good; those strung-together nouns and verbs are just noise; and those posts are worse than silence.

We’re committed to “Holy Smokes” content on this blog. We don’t always hit it, sure. But we’re still committed to it. And serving you “Holy Smokes, that was boring” doesn’t count. We want “Holy Smokes that was amazing/honest/crazy/inspiring/etc.” That’s our commitment. And sometimes inspiration takes a holiday. That’s just the truth of it.

So if you’re living by a strict calendar, prepare to die by it. Blog deadlines should be a motivation to those of us who live for the pressure. But, for Pete’s sake, don’t blame a deadline for putting out crap. No one will thank you for it. If you need a break, take one. I can attest to the fact that the world will keep turning.

Less Should Be More

Following up on the learning above, here at SME, we might be posting less going forward. It’s time for us (ahem, me) to give up the notion that we must post every single day. Seriously, that’s crazy talk. Instead, our new schedule will be, we post when we have something to say.

Now, don’t let last week’s silence fool you…we have LOTS to say. In fact, we might actually end up posting five times a week, but it won’t be because we have to. It’ll be because the posts are important, are inspired, and are necessary. And I expect you, dear reader, to hold us to that.

If “Holy Smokes” content is why you are here, and you just aren’t getting it, call us out on it. Leave a comment, email me, tweet BS. Because if we aren’t providing value, then we have some soul-searching to do. Last week, we soul-searched, and it was super-important. This week, is it your turn?

Truth Time

I’m writing a post this week about why we didn’t write any posts last week. Yup; I get that it’s odd. But I’m also hoping that you will ask yourself why you published last week (if you did). Did you publish out of inspiration or obligation? Did you share posts because you couldn’t help but spread the word, or did you passively pass along more noise? Don’t passively pass along more noise.

Our wish here at SME Digital is that we will up-level the conversation around marketing, culture, measurement, and whatever else we can’t shut up about. And I hope it’s your brand’s wish, as well. It’s not easy, that’s for sure. But let’s prioritize shutting up over contributing noise. And let’s be okay with the silence. Because that silence…it’s where the real inspiration happens.

The post Shhh….What We Learned From Silence appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

In reality, however, the amount of traffic you manage to attract from social media and the level of engagement you manage to drive from it depends largely on how you structure your social media posts and the share worthiness your content.

To help you understand this better, here are some of the key points you need to keep in mind while creating a strategy for driving traffic and conversions from social media.

Use High Conversion Keywords

On all social networks, certain keywords generate more engagement than others. They attract more clicks and get more exposure. Using them intelligently in your social media updates can increase the visibility and effectiveness of your posts.

Here are some of the high conversion keywords for leading social networks

• Facebook – Where, When, Tell Us, Inspire, Submit, Deals, Discount, Warns, Amuses
• Twitter – ReTweet, Follow, Social Media, New Blog Post, Check Out, Help, Top,
• LinkedIn – Created, Improved, Increased, Developed, Reduced, Researched
• Google+ – Share, Promote, Increase, Create, Discover

You can find more of these words in this post

Expand Your Reach With Hashtags

You must’ve seen people use different hashtags with their social media posts and updates. Hashtags expand the reach of your posts beyond your immediate followers and help you reach new audiences. At the same time, they help you create social media discussions, chats and trends that can be used for wide ranging purposes.

Using 1 or 2 hashtags per post can significantly increase the effectiveness of your social media content and help you drive more traffic and conversions. Here’s a quick look at the optimal hashtag usage stats for the top social networks.

Twitter

• Tweets with hashtags attract 2x more engagement (retweets, favorites, replies)
• There’s 21% more engagement on Tweets with 1 to 2 hashtags.
• If you increase the number of hashtags more than 2, the engagement levels fall by an average of 17%.
• Almost 40% of Tweets with hashtags get Retweeted.

Facebook

• Hashtags were not very effective when Facebook first started, but in the last couple of years hashtags have been an effective source of traffic and exposure.
• Using 1-2 hashtags per post can get you an average of 593 interactions per post.
• But if you increase the number of hashtags to 3-5, the average interactions fall down to 416 per post.

Google+

• From its early days, Google+ has encouraged the use of hashtags.
• Hashtags are automatically added to your posts based on the content but you can edit hashtags as well.
• Google+ also shows a list of related hashtags that can be used to gauge the interests of your audience.

You can find much more about hashtag usage in Neil Patel’s Ultimate Guide to Hashtags.

Use Visual Content For More Engagement

Social media, by nature, is designed for visual content, and it’s no surprise that image based content attracts more engagement as compared to simple text based posts. So it’s important that you regularly include images, videos, vines, GIFs and other forms of visual content in your social media updates.

These stats show the impact of visual content on different social networks.

Facebook

• Image based posts attract 39% more engagement.

Google+

• Videos get 28% more engagement
• Images receive 94% more +1s
• Animated GIFs receive 39% more +1s.

LinkedIn

• Images based posts attract 98% more comments.
• Linking to YouTube videos results in 75% more shares.

Twitter

• Including images, vines and videos can get you 200% more engagement as compared to simple text Tweets.

Use Short and Concise Updates

Against the common belief, shorter updates attract much more engagement on all social networks as compared to the longer ones. This is probably because social network users have very short attention spans and don’t usually have the time to read long and detailed posts.

Here’s the ideal character count for some of the leading social networks.

1. Twitter – Tweets shorter than 100 characters attract 17% more engagement.
2. Facebook – Surprisingly, Facebook posts with less than 40 characters received 80% more engagement than longer posts.
3. Google+ – If the headline of your Google+ posts is longer than 60 characters, the engagement levels fall by 18%.

Create Share Worthy Blog Content

Your social media engagement and conversion rates have a lot to do with the kind of blog content you create. If the quality of your content is low, then most of your optimization techniques will be ineffective.

In general, social media users prefer highly actionable and interesting content written in a fun way. Your headlines matter a lot as well. Just look at some of the headlines of Buzzfeed articles. Their articles and updates attract thousands of social shares every day because of their headlines and innovative content ideas. You can find some great blogging ideas in this post, or you can use MyBlogU to brainstorm new blogging ideas with other bloggers, create share worthy posts like interviews, and even hire quality freelance writers to help you create viral content.

Apart from high quality content, sharing free tools and resources also attracts increased engagement and social shares (for example tools this QR Code Generator or this SEO Audit Tool).

Identify and Amplify Top Performing Content

Driving traffic and conversions from social media is not just about using random and isolated techniques. It’s equally important to identify the right channels that are sending you social media traffic, the content that is attracting the highest engagement, and the pages on your website/blog that can be used to amplify such content for even more social engagement.

I’ve personally found TrenDemon as a great tool to get all these insights. You can integrate it with your Google Analytics account to get real time stats on your best converting social content and the channels that can be used to amplify it (learn more about Google Analytics integration in this post).

You can use this information to promote your existing and new blog content and attract increased social media love.

Use a Social Media Friendly Website Structure

Just like your content quality, the structure of your website also has a direct impact on the number of shares and social media followers you manage to attract. Most of the times, visitors find you either through your social media updates or from Google search results. You need to have a website structure that encourages these visitors to share your content and follow you social media.

Here are few things you can do to achieve this

• Enable Twitter Cards: Twitter cards display additional information about your links, blog posts or products. Thy also increase the engagement levels on your Tweets.
• Use Facebook Open Graph: Add the Open Graph meta-tags to your blog so that your featured image is always displayed. You can find detailed instructions on using Open Graph in this post.
• Add Social Media Sharing Widget: I recommend using AddThis or DiggDigg to add social media sharing and follow widgets.

Wrapping it Up

Driving conversions and traffic from social media requires a combination of tweaks to your posts, and some structural changes to your website and blog. At the same time, you need to keep a close eye on your social media stats to understand which content is performing well and how you can leverage it to increase your overall social media engagement. If you can get this combination right, you can create sustainable stream of high converting social media traffic to your blog or website.

Have you tried any of these techniques in your social media strategy? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.

The post 7 Effective Ways To Increase Your Social Media Traffic and Conversions appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Wait, brands learn from NASCAR? Unless your fans are spending hours of their time with your brand/content, and truly enjoying it, yup.

Lesson #1: It’s Exciting

I have run an embarrassingly large number of social properties over the past several years, often juggling many, perhaps too many, at one time. The last thing that I wanted to happen…something exciting. But that’s because I was the driver. If you’re the driver, I highly doubt that you want anything exciting to happen on your page. Slow, steady, and expected are usually a good sign for us. But put yourself in the shoes of your fans. In NASCAR, anything can happen at any time: a crash, debris, a blown tire or engine, an in-race fight. That’s the selling point of the sport. Anything at any time, so keep your eyes on the screen. As a fan of several brands, I have a really hard time thinking of any that provide this level of excitement (or really any level of excitement). Slow and steady, repetitive and expected, single-file and spaced out. That’s incredibly unexciting. Maybe today is a good day to shake things up and bring your fans to their feet. They’d sure appreciate the action.

Lesson #2: It’s About the Crew

Those less obsessed with the sport might believe that the driver is pretty much 100% responsible for the outcome of any particular race. Not by a long shot. Yes, the driver is super important; yes, the driver has to keep the car on the track; yes, the driver plays a critical role in positioning him/herself for a win. But the support crew, I would argue, is just as important. If the pit crew misses a lug nut, has trouble with the fuel, or violates any number of rules, they can sink a driver in mere seconds. If the spotter misspeaks or a crew chief takes a bad gamble, disaster is imminent. Though the driver has hands-on-the-wheel control, s/he would be nothing without the crew. Yes, you may be the person physically controlling your brand’s social channels, but where would you be without your team? NASCAR drivers generally do an excellent job recognizing the work that their crew does. Today would be a mighty fine day for those of us on the front lines to do the same. Maybe buy them a coke, or spray it in their face if they helped you to a win. The recognition will be appreciated.

Lesson #3: Consistency is King

Going back to Lesson #1, excitement, or at least the possibility of such, is a great technique for keeping eyeballs on the track. However, if you live by constant excitement, it’s likely you will die by such. No driver wants to get caught in a wreck every race, and no fan wants to watch 300 caution laps. Excitement is key, but so is consistency. Winning a big race certainly means an awful lot, but it doesn’t win the trophy. To win it all, there is nothing more important than steadiness. Finish every race; finish in a good position; get better as the season continues. Winning a battle…HUGE. But winning the war is the ultimate goal of every driver…and marketer. So take time to shake things up and take smart gambles, take some time to celebrate momentous wins, but recognize that to win the season, there’s a lot of hard work and keeping your eye on the prize. In social, that prize is up to you, but I can guarantee that you won’t win if you don’t even qualify for the race. Today, make sure you at least have a shot at the win.

Lesson #4: The Rules Change

If you watched 10 laps of a race seven years ago, then again two years ago, then again this year, you’d likely believe that the sport is static. But that’s far from the truth. NASCAR is constantly changing the rules, from in-car track-bar adjusters (implemented for the first time last week) to this year’s radical changes in pit officiating. The teams that don’t keep up are simply sunk. Thankfully, there are no officials in social media, handing out penalties to brands (though that’s really not a bad idea…), but the bottom line remains: lose track of the quickly changing rules, and your brand will fall woefully behind. And once you get two laps down, it’s awfully difficult to catch back up. Maybe today is a good day to set aside some time to review and/or learn the rules of your chosen social outposts. You just might be surprised how much things have changed.

Lesson #5: The Track Changes

Similar to Lesson #4, environmental change is a constant in NASCAR. From the track rubbering up to track temperatures fluctuating, every little variable affects the way the car handles. Keeping up with (and keeping ahead of) these changes is vital to a victory. Those who can predict when the wind is going to shift (literally) can surge ahead of the pack. Sound familiar? Social is nothing if not constant change. If you don’t know what’s around the next right turn, you might just end up in the wall. Today would be a great time to stop looking in your rearview mirror and start thinking a few laps ahead.

Lesson #6: It’s All About Sponsorship

It’s almost impossible to succeed in NASCAR without major sponsorships. Every once in a blue moon, a grassroots team will make some noise, but victory lane is almost exclusively populated by big brands and big money. And in exchange for that funding, the sponsors get a lot of airtime; NASCAR drivers are nothing if not vocal about the sponsors. It’s an imperfect analogy in social, as the driver (you or your brand) is the one ponying up the cash, but paying for sponsored posts and social advertising is becoming a must on virtually all platforms. And in many cases, it’s those sponsorships (aka sponsored posts) that lead to the reach and engagement needed to make a difference. We can debate all day about whether pay-for-play is smart, necessary, or even fair, but the fact remains that there is only so much racetrack, and its space is limited.

Lesson #7: It’s Waaaay Harder than It Looks

As the white flag is waving on this post, I’ll keep this one short and sweet. NASCAR is not as simple as turning left, and social marketing is not as simple as doing it right. The complications are endless, so take time today to thank your team, be their cheerleader, and maybe even give them a standing ovation. Because in this social marketing race, there’s no end in sight.

The post Can Social Marketers Learn Anything from NASCAR? appeared first on Social Media Explorer.