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Decoding the Concept of Influencer Activation by @shane_barker

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Decoding the Concept of Influencer Activation

Social media has become an indispensable part of our lives. People are spending more time than ever on their favorite social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and others.

With increased user activity on social channels, marketers are trying new ways to reach audiences on social media.

One of the easiest ways to do that is by using social media advertisements. However, people are no longer responsive to brands that blatantly promote their products without actually offering value.

So social ads alone aren’t enough to reach new prospects. That’s why influencer activation is becoming increasingly popular, with more brands using influencers to gain attention and trust.

What is Influencer Activation?

Influencer activation is a marketing initiative that leverages the power of social media influencers to endorse the products or services offered by a business.

Influencers are real people who have a loyal following of niche audiences. A recommendation from an influencer is a great way to build brand trust, engagement, and sales.

How to Start Doing Influencer Activation

Influencer activation helps you gain more exposure as a brand. Follow the below tips to start doing influencer activation:

  • Define and document the type of influencers that your business should hire and why.
  • Define your audience personas and select the right influencers who match the personas of your target audience. You can search for influencers on the world’s largest influencer marketing community, influence.co using your defined criteria.
  • Set clear terms and conditions in your agreement.
  • Your business values must match the ideals of the influencer.
  • Understand that every influencer is different. Avoid unrealistic goals.
  • Use proper tracking tools to measure the ROI from influencer activation campaigns.

Advantages of Influencer Activation

Influencer activation sets your brand in motion and helps to build authentic relationships with your prospects as well as existing customers. The advantages of influencer activation are:

1. Builds Authenticity, Trust, and Value

Influencer activation is one of the quickest ways to build brand awareness.

People trust the words of influencers more than ads. They take recommendations from influencers seriously. Influencers can also help to build positive sentiments about your brand and add more value to your business.

When you connect with influencers, you are actually connecting with their communities.

Advantages of Influencer Activation

Source

2. Generates Leads

With influencer activation, you reach niche audiences who are already looking for a service or product similar to yours. All you need is a positive recommendation from an influencer and people will start taking your brand more seriously. This will then result in an increase in the number of leads.

3. Increases Engagement

Brand publicity is not just about direct leads. You also need to improve overall engagement because engagement helps people to remember your brand. A business that stays in the minds of their customer sells more.

When influencers create and share content on your brand’s behalf, then people start to respond to it. Better engagement leads to more sharing and it expands the overall reach of your business.

4. Retains Your Customer Base

Always remember that your competitors are not sitting idle. They are always thinking of new and improved strategies to take your customers away. Working with relevant influencers helps ensure that you retain your existing customer base.

When people see that the person they follow is associated with your brand, they may feel less inclined to leave your for your competition.

5. Saves Money

Influencer activation is not as expensive as you might think. The best part of influencer marketing is that you can reach a niche audience at a fraction of the cost of regular social advertising.

Even smaller businesses or startups on a fixed budget can start working with micro-influencers. They normally charge less as compared to macro-influencers.

Advantages of Influencer Activation

Source

6. Fosters Innovation

Every influencer thinks differently. When you start working with one, you are actually fostering innovation. The influencer works with your content or sales team to produce innovative content and presents it before a niche audience.

Innovation is a great way to differentiate your business from your competitors and influencer activation does that for you.

7. Boosts SEO

Influencer marketing boosts your SEO efforts. Search engines take into account the popularity of a business while ranking sites. If your business is popular on social media,then it is an indirect signal to the search engines that your business is trusted by the people.

What’s Next?

Now that you understand the concept of influencer activation, start using the power of influencers in an innovative manner to reach your target audience.

Influencers not only attract customers but also help to convert them. They can help drive consumers further down your sales funnel.

They can also help you build long-lasting relationships with your customers. So, what are you waiting for? Get started and find influencers, collaborate with them, and reach your business goals now.

3 Surefire Ways to Grow Your Pinterest Traffic by @victoriahock

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by Victoria Hockaday | Featured Contributor 

If you haven’t noticed there’s A LOT of information online about how to grow your Pinterest traffic.

(Okay, who are we kidding, you totally noticed).

So, if you’re wondering “what are the most essential strategies to grow your Pinterest traffic?” I’ve got you covered!

Here’s 3 surefire ways to grow your Pinterest traffic fast, so you can grow your blog traffic and email list.

Ready to rock and roll?

pinterest traffic

1. Niche Down Your Profile

Pinterest will try to do everything it can to determine what your Pinterest niche is based on your profile and your behaviour.

For example, the pins that you pin to your boards inform Pinterest about the type of pinner you are. Similarly, the names of the boards that you include on your Pinterest profile will let Pinterest know the types of content you’re creating.

But to give Pinterest more information about your profile, you want to niche down to blow up.

Here’s how to start: Think about what your ideal audience and what they want to learn from you. What topics do you love to talk about? What results have you created for you or others? Pick 2-4 blog categories that you’re going to write about and create a Pinterest profile with your ideal customer in mind.

2. Research Keywords

Most people believe that Pinterest is a social media site where women look at recipes or interior design.

But Pinterest is more of a search engine than it is a social platform. And over the last few years it has become a marketing powerhouse for bloggers small business owners to grow their website traffic and make money blogging.

Here’s how to start: Use the Keyword research tool to find the keywords that your ideal audience is typing into the search bar. For example, if your niche is website design, then this is likely to be one of your brand keywords. When you’re onboard with your keywords use them throughout your bio, pin descriptions and board descriptions.

3. Create Fresh Content

I found out the hard way that Pinterest isn’t as simple as creating an account and sporadically adding pins to it when I felt like it.

Instead, I learned that to be considered as a “high-quality pinner” on Pinterest I have to add fresh content to Pinterest. So, I made it my number on priority to create fresh content on my blog and update Pinterest with my blog posts.

Here’s how to start: Commit to writing at least one blog post per week (or at least bi-weekly). Once you get into a groove of creating content and publishing it on Pinterest, you’ll see a spike in Pinterest traffic before you know it.

10 Qualities to Look For When Hiring a Marketing Manager by @lucyrk78

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by Lucy Render-Kaplan | Featured Contributor 

In an industry where the only constant is evolution, how do you know what to look for when hiring a Marketing Manager? If you were looking for an accountant, you would know to look for someone with accounting skills and who went to school specifically aiming to work in accounting, but very rare are marketing managers who possess an actual degree in marketing. And that’s ok! Because I believe that if people have these 10 traits, they will be just as good (and usually better) than someone that spent four years or more studying what I have been focused on learning for the past 16.

  1. Boundless Enthusiasm: Great marketers have passion for what they do oozing out of them. You never doubt they love this field, and you will never hear them say “God. Work is SO boring.”
  2. Creativity: Great marketers don’t do things “the way it’s always been done.” It isn’t that we’re trying to reinvent the wheel, but I’d argue that we’re always trying to look at that wheel in a way that no one else ever has before. And we can make you look at it that way, too. Great marketers are willing to take risks with what some may call a “crazy idea.” They aren’t afraid to fail because the WIN feels so good when those ideas connect. I’m willing to bet these people have notebooks full of ideas scribbled down, and at the ready wherever they are and ideas might come.
  3. Loyalty: I might not drink the beverage that I worked on when starting my marketing career, and in fact, I actually drink their main competitor daily, but I go on auto-pilot if I hear someone say something about that first brand that isn’t true. Great marketers don’t just work for a brand, they live that brand. That brand’s products or services are part of their daily lives.
  4. Know Their Audience: I always think of the line “I’ve made a living out of reading people’s faces…” when I think about what I do. You generally only have a couple of seconds to grab someone’s attention, and great marketers need to be able to tailor their message (I hate the word ‘pitch’) to differnet people so it makes sense to THEM. For example, I’m not going to try to sell someone in their 80s on the benefits of coconut water for strenuous workouts, nor am I going to talk about why a mental focus supplement is great for students, to a mom with 2 kids in her grocery cart and a very pregnant belly.
  5. Adaptable: No matter how much you plan, or how good you are, problems arise. Plans change. New legalities pop up. A great marketer can pivot and adapt and switch their entire focus at any point in any project. They don’t get too tied into one plan.
  6. They are Great Listeners: If you marketers are anything like me, you love to watch people. Find out what they like, where they go, what they do. What their habits are, what makes them NEED a product…We know what questions to ask to help draw people out and allow us to get to them, when we begin as total strangers.
  7. They’re Great Sales People: It might be a cliché, but it’s repeated so often for a reason. Great marketers CAN truly “sell ice to an Eskimo.” And they can get that sale before the Eskimo even realizes he needs ice. If you ever come across someone in marketing that hasn’t made sales, or thinks they don’t or won’t need to, move along! If sales puts items on a shelf, it’s the marketers that take it off, and that is because they know how to communicate clearly and show people WHY they need your product or service.
  8. See The Big Picture: It’s so easy to get bogged down in details, who needs to go where, looking at analytics, becoming overly focused on wanting to attach the brand to a specific event…it can be hard to take a step back, but we need to. The overall goals of the company must always be top of mind, and our first thought when deciding what to get involved with, what can wait, and what we can pass on.
  9. Storytellling: You definitely want someone that can tell great stories that not only draw people in, but are able to relate to. To get people excited about and choose your company over any others in the same category, you need someone that can get people to FEEL deeply and emotionally connect with the stories you are telling. You want someone that can get people to see themselves already using your brand in their lives, not just thinking it might be fun to try once. You want consumers, both potential and existing, to see themselves in the brand stories you’re marketing manager is telling.
  10. Team Player: Great marketers know they don’t work alone. Marketers best work is not born out of a boardroom or silo. Sales, Finance, Logistics…marketing is dependent and must work well with all of the employees in these various divisions. Teamwork is KEY to great marketing, and great marketers are humble enough to realize this.

I wish Top 10 Lists went to 11. There are so many other qualities that great marketers possess. What are some you don’t see on this list? Tweet me @lucyrk78 and let me know!

Mompreneurs Educating Kids by @SBSLEducSoltns

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So, you’re a mom with a business …  

… & you want them to understand your why . 

 

Aspirations

 

You’re already the CEO, COO, & CFO of your household. Yet, you desire to create a legacy, being remembered as more than just a mom-preneur who provides a product/s, service/s, or specialized knowledge to the marketplace.

So you resume the role of primary educator; you’re on a mission to educate your kids on why you don’t have to go to “work” like their friends’ moms do.

Yet, the school that you’ve entrusted to prepare them for adulthood isn’t cutting it when it comes to discussing business principles & your value system; so, what should you do?

 

Values & principles 

 

How would you answer?

“What values and principles led you to become a mom-preneur?”

 

  • Autonomy ( I like to make my own hours, pick my own clients )

  • Mastery ( my prior experience in “Y” industry is enough to be confident in my abilities )

  • Purpose ( I am driven to be a difference maker on “Z” ; I am ‘called’ to serve “X” )

  • Maximizer ( I’m not paid enough by a 3rd party to do all that my family wants  )

  • Independent ( my personality & social style align with owning a business )

  • Quality time ( I needed to spend more hours w/ family )

 

Family Culture 

As someone who embraces entrepreneurship & leadership/professional development, you might be familiar with the late Peter Drucker’s attributed quote about culture.

Having defined culture, you can better explain your decision to be an entrepreneur as not only best for yourself, but one made in the best interests of the family; including your child(ren) will enable them to buy in 

Congratulations!! You’ve taken a huge step in ensuring that they will better understand if a client calls on you at an inopportune time or if you have to adjust the family’s budget due to ups & downs in your income.

 

Family Vision

Many entrepreneurs choose to start a business based on where they see themselves going after leaving the nest of an employer = a wise step!

While Stephen R. Covey has passed, the shadow left by his legacy is so large, he’ll always be remembered for his 8 habits

 

Of them, Habit 2 [ ‘Begin with the End in Mind’ ] is foundational.

 

“Covey says that all things are created twice: first, the mental conceptualization & visualization and a second physical, actual creation.

Becoming your own creator means to plan & visualize what you’re going to do and what you’re setting out to accomplish & then go out and creating it.”

 

Apply this truth to your household; then answer these Success Law questions …

 

Why are you in business?

Do you have multiple income streams?

What dreams have you put on the shelf due to a previous decision to trade time for money from an employer?

 

Insightful Infographic 

 

How mompreneurs balance …

–  h/t to @99designs for this –

 

Visuals tell more of a story than words alone, so your impressions gleaned after studying this one will further aid in self-educating your kids.

 

School falls Short

I often advise mompreneurs of this fact; it’s a somewhat inconvenient truth:

When you send you kid(s) to a conventional school, private (secular or faith based), or public (default option), the curricula, testing, mindset, & counseling offered for ‘careers’ almost always fails to include entrepreneurship.

 

Fill in the [Swiss Cheese] Holes

Think of a “C.A.R” when it comes to addressing the above …

 

C = Complement

 

Find mentor(s), online curricula, &/or teach your kids from your own experience about business to parallel what schooling doesn’t include.

 

A = Add on

 

If your kids are in their late teens & about to/or have graduated from HS, please discuss all 12 options besides college with them.

Or, if you truly want her to get a degree, ask pointed questions of the university re: if they teach about the “E” pathway

 

Bypass the holes; find or carve a clear path

The final letter in the acronym is a bypass …

 

R = Replace

 

Creating an end-around to conventional school can be done through a co-op w/ other parents ( your own school startup ) , or personalizing your kid(s) education by home schooling.

Both of these offer far more flex to include business concepts rarely, if ever, taught in default classrooms.

 

Dealing with Doubters

 

As Rocky passionately shared, the world [of entrepreneurship] certainly isn’t all ‘sunshine & rainbows’ …

… so for those fellow moms in your neighborhood who still “go to work” for a paycheck, for a spouse who isn’t quite on board with your business, or maybe you haven’t yet ‘closed the deal’ with your kid/s …

What do you do to quell cynics & critics?

There are many answers; I’d first encourage you, as someone who has built thousands of business relationships, to be the best version of yourself.

Simplistic? Yes, however, true leadership isn’t complex; it begins w/self.  Remind yourself of this by reading the inscription on the tomb of the Bishop at Westminster Abbey.

 

Suggested Follows 

 

The MomPreneur

 

majestapatterson

 

Mompreneurs in Heels

 

Mompreneur Show

 

Inspiring Mompreneurs

 

Top 40 Mompreneurs

 

In the pursuit of knowledge 

I encourage you to review the additional resources below. A blog of this length leaves the door slightly ajar; please empower yourself to kick it wide open!

 

10 Mompreneurs Who Are Crushing It

 

Mompreneur Magazine

 

The 25 Best Business Ideas …

 

Mompreneur $

 

10 Inspiring Tips …

 

Mompreneur Media

 

In short

  • Moms with businesses & kids are trailblazers
  • Your values & principles
  • Culture into Vision
  • School needs supplements …
  • … or choose a parallel path
  • Staying the course
  • Add’t resources for you, Mrs. Mom-Preneur

 

Thank YOU for reading!

____________________________________________

Why Data Privacy in Social Media is Much Ado About Nothing by @the_mom_store

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Photo by malcolm garret from Pexels

by Surbhi Bhatia | Featured Contributor

I am sure many eyebrows are raised while reading this title, to the extent, it can draw strong negative reactions from advocates of data privacy. However, I truly believe, social media is a tool people use in full awareness to share their views, experiences, opinions, pictures, family updates, career updates and most importantly to network with those who they would not necessarily pick up the phone and call. It bridges the hesitation one would have in reaching out to a friend who they haven’t spoken to in years, or an ex-colleague they want to catch up with.

Here are 6 key reasons why data privacy is a not such a massive issue as it is being played out today:

People are fully aware of what they are sharing on social media and want to be appreciated for it

There are two kinds of people on social media- the ‘Content Creators’ and the ‘Content Consumers’. The first group are typically the content creators, they are extremely active in sharing updates about their personal or professional lives, sharing and re-sharing content and actively engaging on other’s posts. The second group are the content consumers, the passive ‘consumers’ who like to scroll through their feeds and understand what is happening in other’s lives, consuming all the content created by the first group. They comment or ‘engage’ when their interest is piqued, but mostly remain silent spectators. In the first group, people want to have the maximum likes, comments and appreciation, the ones with the most engagement become ‘Influencers’, while the second group derives information, ideas from the first, and mostly become the ‘Followers’. Both these groups are on social media with active accounts with one reason – sharing and consumption of content, and are fully aware that they are either sharing their personal details or are aware that they know the nitty gritties of practically a stranger’s personal life.

Networking on Social Media Helps People Grow Personally and Professionally

Social media is another great refuge when people need help both personally and professionally. Whether it is community support groups for alcoholism, or fighting cancer, or battling depression, people are sharing personal information and experiences to help others in their journey while having an impact through similar stories which people may otherwise may have been deprived of in their close knit family and friends. Similarly, there are professional groups  for seeking opportunities, networking with similar entrepreneurs or sharing interests such as travelling, hiking and diving. Community groups on social media are thriving with information sharing and support for like minded individuals. Here too, personal data is being shared to help others in their respective journeys, while being fully aware of the details that the other person may have access to.

Social Media uses Analytics to Target Relevant Campaigns for Products and Brands You are Otherwise Searching For

This is one issue which a lot of detractors talk about- how social media companies are using personal data to help brands target their ads towards them. First of all, lets step back and think what is wrong with it? Here is a consumer who is active on social media and is looking for interesting products and brands. On the other side is a brand, who is looking for early adopters, smart consumers and is willing to shell out money to aid the discovery process of its brand and products. Once again, people who click on ads and make purchase are not being forced to do so, they are again fully aware of the purchase they are making. In turn, young and old brands alike, benefit from reaching the masses by engaging with the customers. We at, The Mom Store, have also aggressively used social media to engage with our customers on a daily basis, and they are always more than happy to respond.

Every Social Media Tool has Privacy Settings that People Can Choose According to Their Preference

Everyone on social media today has the reins in their account and privacy settings to share as much as they like and consume as much as they need. They can choose to make a Public post, or they can choose to remain within friends or closed groups. If even within their friends group, they want to alienate certain groups or people, they have the ability to do so. Considering all social media platforms ask for a declaration that the user may be above 18 years of age, people who consent to it are adults and are aware of the extent of information they are sharing and are choosing to accept friends, who they know would have access to.

Anyone Can Report Content which is Violent, Profane, Political, or Communal towards any community

It is true that in a large platform with billions of users, content which is religious, political, violent or profane gets shared with the intent to inflict harm on a group of people or communities. All social media portals today have built safeguards to prevent this from happening, whether it is in the form of keywords, blocking certain incendiary profiles and constantly consuming feedback from other consumers who routinely ‘Report’ such content to the tools.

Fear of Third Party Apps Using Information Available on Social Media without Consent

There have been incidents where third party apps have gained access to private information and shared or monetized it without consent of the people. Yes, this can happen, and individuals can be profiled for political or social reasons, but this access has been granted to the third party apps, intentionally or unintentionally by the individual themselves. Every app download requests access to Gallery, to Camera, to Contacts, to Location, to any other information on a user’s personal profile or device and is usually mindlessly ‘Allowed’ due to lack of understanding of the impact it may have. People often sign into third party sites using ‘Social Logins’ providing a plethora of unguarded personal information instead of creating an account which will actually limit information to just an email id and name. Thus, awareness of the fine print, and repercussions of providing personal data so readily is also something that people need to be careful about. At some point, they themselves had unwittingly consented their data to be shared. Social media can create more warnings before people are about to sign in, or share profiles, but finally it is upto them to consent.

Any platform has givers and takers which form the equilibrium of information sharing. If indeed, people wanted to be so private and not share information, they would not be on social media in the first place. The success of the platforms and their consumers that run into billions of people, are proof enough that people find this useful. They want to hear and be heard, they want to like and be liked, and they want to notice and be noticed. Today, the world is small thanks to social media, hardly anyone is a click away, they can choose to connect or respond, or they can decline. The choice is theirs. So, Let’s Keep Calm and Carry On!

5 Secrets For Creating More Shareable Content by @lucyrk78

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Photo by Designecologist from Pexels

by Lucy Render-Kaplan | Featured Contributor 

Social media has already done more for marketers and sales teams than traditional marketing can do, and in less than half the time. Not only can social drive people to your website (or any landing page you’d like them to visit, really!) but it exposes you to people around the world who would never have found your company. Sounds amazing, right? We know! But it also requires new skills for marketers. With hundreds of thousands of articles, videos, photos and other methods of content shared to social media platforms every minute, how do you actually break through and GET those people around the world to even see what you’re putting out?

We’re here to share the secret: the key to getting noticed on social media and gain the attention of your target audience is to create shareable posts.

Here are just a few of our tips to get you started:

  1. Create content with a specific audience in mind.

Marketers used to have to create nameless personas of their target audience. Today, we can use real, breathing people and not constructs! All it takes is a bit of social listening to learn the pain points your business solves. You will also want to employ Google Analytics. There, you can learn more about your audience like demographics, content preferences, what platforms they spend the most time on, etc.

Keep in mind: if ALL you post is information about your company, you are going to have a hard time building and nurturing relationships with your current and potential consumers. You don’t want to talk AT these consumers, you want to engage WITH them.

That’s not to say you that you can never talk about and promote your business. You have to do that. Just make sure you’re posting about other things as well, and are sharing posts from people within your target audience (when relevant). People aren’t interested in a sales pitch article all the time. Instead, we urge you to become a member of your target audience. What would YOU want to read or learn more about? Write that. Write something that helps people and your audience is more apt to share that useful post with their other communities.

  1. User Generated Content (UGC)

Getting customers involved in creating content is one of the best ways to ensure your content will be shared. Not only will you get photos and videos and testimonials to use and repurpose, this type of content increases authenticity almost immediately.

A company can tell someone how great their products are, but when a friend tells you how great a company’s products are, you are way more apt to trust them and even purchase from that same brand.

According to Adweek, user-generated content results in 29% higher web conversions and 92% of consumers turn to people they know for referrals above any other source. Hard to deny that UGC doesn’t guide people ready to make final purchasing decisions!

  1. Add Social Media Buttons & A Call-To-Action

Don’t you find that the most obvious answers are often the most overlooked?! A super easy way of making your posts shareable is by ensuring it’s relevant to your target audience. This will motivate them to share the people in their communities, on their social platforms and with their family and friends.

Make it easy for them to share. Always add social media buttons to the original piece of content. It doesn’t matter the medium – blog, podcast, video…the buttons should be easily found to anyone looking at the content can find them immediately.

You can add these buttons alongside your content, at the top of the article or at the very bottom. You can even design these buttons in a way that as readers scroll down the page, the button follows them dynamically.

Along the same line, you can simply ask your reader to share the content! You already know that content needs a call-to-action. Create a CTA to drive the reader to share your content. The easiest place to do this is at the end of the post. These CTAs can be clever phrases, or simply a “Book now.” If readers like what they have just read or watched, they’ll share. Especially with a tiny nudge.

  1. Tie Into Emotion

If you’re like us, you’ve definitely sent a tweet saying “I’m not crying. You’re crying.” With a hashtag to reference a commercial that just aired. Or a blog post. Or a tweet. The most successful marketing sparks strong emotional reactions within your communities. The more we research, the more we see that emotions like happiness, sadness or anger tend to engage the most people leading them to share a piece of content.

  1. Create Incentives for Sharing Your Content

People like free stuff. And they like to win things and be acknowledged as having won. So create super easy contests, encouraging social shares. Don’t overthink these – a content like this can be as simple as a Tweet with a photo that relates to your business and says, “We will pick a random person at 2pm Thursday, CST that has followed these TWO steps to win one month free at ____! 1. Follow (@yourbusiness) 2. Retweet this tweet.” For Twitter, it’s relatively easy to track shares because all you have to do is count retweets.

 

What types of content do YOU find works best for your business?

 

How to Digital Market your Start-up to Success by @the_mom_store

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by Surbhi Bhatia | Featured Contributor

Planning to start-up a new business but not sure how to market it and acquire your first customers? While the initial few months can be challenging to build customer trust, brand value and go operational, social media can be a great tool to help you jumpstart your initial customer acquisition journey.

 

Go Live on Social Media Even Before the Launch

I love to call this ‘Product-less Marketing’ because you start subtle marketing even before the launch and this can be a real game changer. Set up your Instagram handle and start doing ‘Teaser’ posts. Give hints on what your product/service is about and introduce a few guessing games to increase interaction and build suspense. Have a countdown to the launch to get people excited. Also, start following influencers from your TG (target group). Understand their behavior, interaction and engagement tools they use as well as start following their followers. By the time you reach your launch date, you would have a solid set of followers who would be following and eager for your launch

 

Be Close to your First Customers and Get Them to Share their Stories on Social Media

After your launch, personally interact with your first customers, and incentivise them with gift cards and freebies to share their social media stories through their personal handles. This will have a double impact- they would come back to buy from your store again with the gift card or share it with a friend or relative which would lead to a subsequent purchase. In addition, the stories shared by them will attract their followers, and can easily be reposted by you to share positive testimonials. You could also post these testimonials on your website and request customers to write a blog to review the product too!

 

Try Out Network Marketing

Many great companies have used this tried and tested technique to gain more customers. Simply reach out to your existing customers and ask them to refer 10 (or any number appropriate) more customers using a customized discount link or coupon code that would get them store credits for every conversion. Many businesses like Uber, Yelp, Avon etc. have acquired customers through such referrals. This will also let you know who your biggest cheerleaders are!

 

Get Some Influencers on Board

Start with Influencers in the range of 10k-30k followers on Facebook, Instagram and similar portals who are willing to do a post for you in return for a ‘barter collaboration’. This basically means that they will promote for your product for free on their feeds, do a story and a post listing out its features. This is a very popular method to gain eyeballs today and ‘Influencing’ is a full time job for many social media enthusiasts who have garnered thousands of followers through continuous engagement and activity.

 

Be Present Everywhere on Social Media Channels

Create your profile on every leading social media channel- Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest and Youtube. However, ensure that the users on each of these platforms differ distinctly and even consume the information differently. Hence, make sure that you are adding unique, differentiated and relevant content on each of these channels.

 

Do SEO right from Day 1

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is critical to start ranking on search engines and increase the organic traffic to your website. While this will take painstaking efforts and time to develop, make sure you make your website SEO friendly from day 1. Use Alt-texts for all images, create good and useful content, market your website through blogs etc. Usually companies start focusing on it after a few months when they exhaust the initial marketing capital, but getting it right from day 1 can be a real game changer and show results when you need them!

 

Social Media Ads and Promotions

The best way to build brand awareness digitally is running sponsored ads on social media portals like Facebook. Since Facebook now owns Instagram, just one sponsored ad on Facebook can have your product placement across channels- Facebook Story, Facebook Feed, Facebook Messenger, Instagram posts and Instagram Stories. This can be a very useful brand building exercise introducing customers to your brand and getting them familiar as well as draw traffic to your website which could result in potential sale. One thing to be very careful while running these ads is to choose your audience carefully. Facebook allows you to not just choose the demographics, but also interests, and thus you should be aware of what interests your TG are likely to have to run a successful ads campaign.

 

When I started out my entrepreneurial journey at The Mom Store, we were able to acquire customers quickly through an aggressive presence on social media (both paid and organic) and our continuous efforts to provide a great experience to our customers. Even today, one year on, 50% of our website traffic comes through social media of which 70% is organic traffic leading from our posts about our products or our customer stories!

5 Ways Brands Can Make the Most Out of Instagram Stories by @lucyrk78

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by Lucy Render-Kaplan | Featured Contributor 

Instagram stories can be gold for marketers looking to reach a higher number of people on one of the fastest-growing social platforms. Stories keep viewers on the platform longer, meaning that brands have the opportunity to keep a captive audience on their page longer. Not only that, but Stories beat the dreaded Instagram algorithm! This is because they appear on feeds in chronological order. Engagement rates are higher and are seen by more people than photos and videos posted to your Instagram feed, so you’re missing out if you’re not already creating Stories.

Here are some of our tips on how to best take advantage of Instagram Stories:

  1. Polls

Users can add interactive polls to their Stories. This is a great way to get your audience more engaged and hear their thoughts on any topic. Do you want to launch a new product? Or are you looking at choosing between two possible flavors for an existing product? Throw up a poll and get your target audience to weigh in.

  1. Instagram Takeovers

These are great for growing your following quickly. You can either take over another Instagrammer’s account, or have an influencer take over your account for a short period of time. (we recommend under 24 hours). This is a great way to work with another influencer where you both can benefit and expand both of your audiences. Make sure to choose your influencer carefully – align with someone that works in your niche and will help contribute to your overall marketing goals. Done well, it will build authenticity and connect you to a whole new set of followers who then will engage with your brand.

  1. User Generated Content

Along the same lines of Instagram takeovers, you can increase engagement and followers by utilizing UGC (user generated content). When people mention your brand, you can hit “Add to your story” and post their content in your Stories. This way you can mention your followers and make them feel part of your brand story. People like to be acknowledged and a simple tag of their profile in your story can go a long way.

  1. Repurpose Your Blog

The best thing about blogs is that you can find ways to share the same content in a myriad of ways. Instagram Stories offer you a great opportunity to utilize blog posts and turn them into little mini articles. The most obvious examples here would be how-to articles and recipes. You can break them down into a few slides that you can visually display with voiceover or text layover in your stories.

This is easy to do.

First, choose your topic. Then use Canva or another graphic design app to create the images to accompany your Story. Then, upload the images in sequence and your story is created! Don’t forget to include a call to action at the end, to truly engage your audience. It’s always important to let people know what you would like them to do next. Perhaps it’s visiting your website – utilize the swipe up feature to take viewers there directly once they’ve watched your Story.

  1. Create Exclusive Offers

If you are looking for sales, Instagram Stories can move consumers through the purchasing funnel quickly. Here’s our secret tip: Create a story that has a special offer. Add photos or videos clearly showing what the offer is and let viewers know that in 24 hours, when this story disappears, so does the offer. When people feel that they have to act fast to get something, it intrinsically increases the value of the offer. Add a CTA (call-to-action) within the story letting people know to visit the link in your bio to claim the offer or you can have viewers swipe up to a landing page where they will claim the offer.

 

There are as many ways that brands and marketers can use Instagram Stories to their advantage as there are people using them. These are just the tip of the iceberg to get your creative juices flowing! How likely are YOU to interact with or be motivated by other’s Stories? Do you check for new Stories regularly? What brands have you seen making the most of Stories?

Leadership’s Many Flavors by @SBSLEducSoltns

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Leading from the Front with Four

 

Ground Floor : Leadership & Management

 

It’s nearing mid summer in the northern hemisphere; recently, we celebrated national Ice Cream Day! Many have favorite flavors of this delish dessert; this holds true for leadership, too.

 

Paraphrasing a Supreme Court justice: ‘We know leadership when we see it.” , yet we all don’t ‘see’ the same thing, since we view business through our own experiences, lenses, & mindset.

 

Further, let’s push a related theme up for thoughtful discussion:

 

Leadership & management are NOT differing flavors; instead, they are two landmasses, separated by a gigantic ocean. We realize this while standing on the ground floor; now, let’s climb up a metaphorical ziggurat for a panoramic view.

 

Position, power, experience, credentials …?

On level 1 & 2 of our ziggurat, we start separating the wheat from the chaff; this act drives big answers , bringing us closer to leading from the front.

 

Q> Are any of the below characteristics necessary for organic leadership?

 

  • Seniority / experience

  • Credentials

  • Power \ Authority

  • Position

  • Perks /privileges

 

A> None are truly required. For a positional leader, they might bring benefit in a company’s hierarchy; however, in a free enterprise entrepreneurial business, they’d likely delay professional development.

 

Q>> Does leadership necessitate a certain type of business structure?

 

A>> No. Most structures ‘tell‘ us that an established business has an uneven field; you’ve built a ladder for your staff to climb up a pyramidal hierarchy, &/or you’ve not empowered them to address deep issues, like customer service, in your workplace, putting a collar on their ability to organically lead.

 

Bottom Up > Top down ; front > back

 

Leading is most impactful from the bottom up if there is a structure; Why? Easy. Those people are most aware of the day to day matters impacting your business’s success.

 

Take note, founders:  if you’re one, put yourself out front, clearing roadblocks so your staff can be most effective in building a better workplace for the betterment of all.

 

“People ask the difference between a leader & a boss. The leader leads & the boss drives.“

— Theodore Roosevelt

 

Q >>> What to do in situations where staff engagement, customer service, &/or client retention are below par?

 

A >>> Leverage this call to action using a ‘Test of 3’

 

 

First of 4 Flavors : Thought

 

Your climb up our ziggurat continues! Any of 4 could be next, as we aren’t building a rigid hierarchy; instead, you’re encouraged to visually sketch out this post’s content to better grasp these principles.

 

A thought leader leads from the front by sharing learned wisdom, stories, & a vision for the future with her staff, fellow entrepreneurs, & her tribe.

 

She might call herself a futurist, a disrupter, or an innovator. No matter the lingo, she oft comes up with fresh ways to address persistent business problems.

 

Second of Four : Replicative

 

Often, an entrepreneur, especially a family business owner,, recognizes replicative leadership as = succession planning; it could be, yes.

 

I thoughtfully ask you to expand your mind, furthering the case that this ‘flavor’ is imperative for all types of businesses, regardless of size, industry, or age.

 

A replicative leader seeks to replace herself; no longer is she indispensable; she’s begun, or accelerated her ability, to work ON her business & no longer IN it, becoming dispensable.

 

Systems thinking, soft skills [ e.g., humility & adaptability, ] & a focus on a self directed education all enable the above.

 

Third of 4 : Servant

 

When we serve, we win = Truth.

 

Yet, sole proprietors & entrepreneurs with staff, especially those who’ve come from corporate backgrounds, each have big adjustments in unlearning positional leadership & replacing w/ servant leadership’s unwavering principles.

 

Allow yourself to challenge assumptions, dismissing nostalgia & past credentials earned, as you realize that serving first gives you rich tools to lead from the front, flipping hierarchy upside down.

 

Fourth of Four : Conscious

 

Leadership done well is often a lonely path. Engaging mind, soul, & spirit is far stronger than merely one. Thus, being conscious about leading yourself & others enables infinitely more progress in your business culture, while concurrently helping you buck societal winds regarding capitalism.

 

Rarely are we taught that free enterprise & capitalism are very different concepts. Those who become conscious leaders better grasp this truism & cultivate a business that embraces the former.

 

Organizations dedicated to this flavor of bottom-up leadership often hold gatherings in your local area; seek them out & turn their events into networking opportunities.

 

Suggested Social Follows :

 

SR Thought Leader

Angela Montgomery

Waters Center

SLI Lead

Greenleaf 

Conscious Leadership

 

Dig for more gold — it’s 1849 all over again!

 

This blog is a drop of water into a deep sea. Be a modern day gold prospector & start a new rush!

 

How to Become …

6 Steps …

Don’t Let the … 

Rela Leadership

The Serving Leader

5 Ways to … 

Practicing the 15 …

 

In short :

 

  • Ground floor
  • Characteristics of leadership
  • Test of 3 – CTA
  • Thought & Replicative
  • Servant & Conscious
  • Social follows
  • There’s a vast universe to explore

 

Thank YOU for reading!

____________________________________________

3 Simple Instagram Mistakes that Will Kill Your Engagement and Growth by @LeahLatini

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Photo by Lisa Fotios from Pexels

by Leah Latini

Most business owners and solo entrepreneurs would agree that having a strong Instagram presence can be a game-changer in terms of growing their audience. However, many businesses we consult with, struggle to find their groove when it comes to creating content that engages their audience in an authentic and sustainable way.

Engagement directly influences the reach your content receives on Instagram and builds upon itself over time. So, it’s incredibly important to ensure you’re encouraging maximum engagement with every post. Especially now with the latest Instagram update, engagement rates can make or break your content strategy and determine whether you continue to grow on the platform or stagnate and decline.

The following list includes the most common mistakes that can cripple your growth on Instagram, even if you have a healthy following.

1) Yeah, but what IS that? – No Context
How many times have you been browsing your Insta feed only to come across an intriguing photo that stops you from scrolling, but then ultimately confuses you? For instance, you see a food pic that looks delicious, but when you stop to learn more about this mouth-watering post, you find that there’s zero information about what it actually is or what restaurant it came from.

Many content creators would argue that a post like this can stand on its own, and people will like it regardless of the caption. The biggest problem with this argument is that it promotes a superficial engagement. It’s easy to get a quick “like” on a post based on aesthetic beauty or visceral reaction. But now, Instagram wants to reward content creators that go the extra mile to create conversations and deeper connections with their audience.

This means that if you leave out the basics of who, what, where, and when you are cutting out a massive portion of your audience that might have otherwise engaged. Give them details about what they’re looking at, and a reason to comment, question, and save your content!

2) Wordplay Overwhelm
While the story behind a photo or video is essential to building a deeper relationship with your audience, many entrepreneurs take editorial content to an extreme and overwhelm their audience with novel-length posts.

I know what you’re thinking, “But you just said that people wouldn’t engage with my content if I don’t include enough detail!”

Oddly enough, both of these concepts are true!

You have to find your audience’s sweet spot or your “Goldilocks Content-Length”. It’s the post length that’s just right and allows you to include a sufficient amount of factual detail but is brief enough that you don’t lose the majority of readers halfway through your post.

Identifying this ideal post length can be a process of trial and error to find what your audience responds to the most. However, a general rule of thumb is to limit the editorial content to under 150 words and save larger pieces for other platforms. If you’d like to create longer narratives on Instagram, consider doing so in video format and experiment with features like Instagram TV. These features are relatively new to the platform and allow you to get a boost in reach just by using them regularly.

3) Too Glossy
The third most common mistake I see with Instagram content strategies is an overuse of stock photos and graphics that are over-worked. By over-worked I mean too corporate-looking or slick.

There is a trend toward the more organic and authentic in the social media space in general. Meaning, we don’t want to be sold to and treated like just another number on a sales list.

So, while it is still important to build an Instagram feed that is aesthetically coherent and cohesive, don’t overdo it on the stock imagery and graphics. Focus on building your look and voice on the platform in an authentic, and sometimes imperfect way. Your audience will connect with your imperfections and trust you more because of them.

Many larger corporations spend a lot of time and resources, figuring out how to “look authentic” to their audiences. In a sense, how to fake small business authenticity while still operating as a mega-global corporation. This alone illustrates the power of personal connection with your audience.

For entrepreneurs, the ability to “be real” is inherent in who we are. Embrace your imperfections and don’t be afraid to add a little grit to your content strategy!