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Social Media Trends to Watch For in 2019 by @donnaamos

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Social Media Trends

by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor 

Social media is here to stay in a big way. One of the best ways for businesses to connect with a target audience is to maintain an active presence on social media channels. The era of, “My business is open, come and see me” is long over. Now, savvy business owners know they must go where consumers are and establish a relationship. Social media is THE place to do that, easily and relatively cheaply.

Therefore, as you embark on planning your social media marketing strategy for 2019, get on board with these important trends. They either gained popularity or became firmly established during 2018, and will play a vital role in how you connect with your audience in the coming year.

A “Pay to Play” Strategy

In the early days, companies could fully expect that 16% of their followerswould see their Facebook updates. By the end of 2018, that reach had plummeted to about 6% or less. Other social media platforms have followed suit. The day or organic reach has ended. Social media platforms will not give away what they can reap a huge benefit from – your followers. Now, you must pay to play.

Now, in order to reach your target audience on any social media channel, you must invest in sponsored posts, boosted posts, and social media ads. Fortunately, social media advertising is one of the most affordable means of marketing available. If you handle your own keyword research and audience targeting, Social media marketing is much more affordable than pay-per-click advertising.

Video is the Preferred Media of Most Users

Now is the time to get on board with video marketing, if you haven’t already. According to research by Wyzowl, “97% of marketers say that video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service, and 76% indicated that it has helped increase web traffic and sales.”

That is easy to accept when we also realize that 95% of Internet users have watched explainer videos to learn more about a product or service, and 81% have bought a product or service as a result of watching a company’s advertising video. No other form of media can boast these high use and conversion percentages.

Video is the absolute best way for a company to put a face to their business. It enables prospects and customers to get to know who leads and works in a business. Video gives businesses an opportunity to show not only what they do but also “who” they are. In our current climate where users seek a personal connection, this is a critical factor.

The Rise of ‘Live’ Video

Live-streaming will continue to emerge as a powerful way to engage people on social media. According to statistics compiled by Go-Globe, two-thirds of all internet traffic in 2017 was streaming video. By 2020, 82% of internet traffic is expected to be video content. And most of that will be live streaming. The interactivity of live video makes it a powerful tool for marketers to engage with their audience and strengthen the relationship between a brand and its followers.

The authenticity of ‘going live’ is a key factor that audiences want, as it helps build trust and loyalty with your company. Even if problems arise when you are ‘live,’ followers are likely to understand that and it may even further strengthen their trust in your company, as only authentic content leaves room for genuine mistakes.

Quality Long-Form Content

Word count isn’t everything when it comes to ranking high on search engines like Google, but SEO experts agree that long-form content can give you an edge. Users and search engines alike want to see high-quality content of more than 1,000 words, and we see that such content consistently outranks articles with 500 words.

Therefore, more publishers are requiring writers to submit articles over 1,000 or 1,200 words, and more company blogs are beginning to embrace similar long-form content. These comprehensive articles that are rich with information and insight, will go far to both attract readers and give Google and other search engines a reason to rank them more favorably.

Building Community

Building a community in social can help you to build trust with your followers. Groups on LinkedIn and Facebook are being encouraged on both platforms. And once you begin building that following you have to immerse yourself and be engaged.

Using hashtags in Twitter and Instagram can help you to find conversations that your community are having and allow you to join in.

Communities can also help to segment your audiences and customize your messaging. By the way, building community is the perfect way to build your personal brand and can be the beginning of influencer marketing!

Personal Branding

Particularly for small businesses, putting a real, human face to a brand name helps to build loyalty. A brand that’s more relatable, and has the human element, naturally garners more trust, and trust is essential for building relationships. Many companies have used the tactic of promoting their brand by promoting the business owner.

His or her face essentially becomes the brand, closely associated with the company logo. He or she personifies all that the company is about, or at least what they wish to portray. By enabling your audiences to get to know the character and expertise of company leadership, your business can strengthen its brand reputation.

What other important social media trends do you see emerging for 2019? Share your thoughts and insights with our readers in the comments below.

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How the LinkedIn Algorithm Works by @donnaamos

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linkedin algorithm

by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor 

When you visit LinkedIn or the LinkedIn app, you see your homepage feed. This page acts very much like the Facebook feed, where you see updates from your friends or Pages you follow. However, your LinkedIn feed does not show every post from your entire network. It only shows content that LinkedIn judges to be relevant to you. You can, of course, use the setting at the top right of the page to see posts based on recent activity instead of relevance. 

That’s because LinkedIn has implemented a process for content distribution across its network that utilizes four filters, in order to reduce spam and/or inappropriate content. If you include LinkedIn in your content marketing strategy, you need to understand how the LinkedIn algorithm filters your posts and chooses whether to show them or not. 

Filter #1 Quality Level

Every time you post any type of content, the LinkedIn algorithm judges it to be spam, low quality, or quality. In a blog post describing the strategies used to keep the newsfeed relevant, Director of Engineering, Rushi Bhatt explained: “Our online and nearline classifiers label every image, text, or long form post as “spam,” “low-quality,” or “clear” in near real time.

Filter #2: Level of Engagement 

If your content passed the initial round, it appears in the LinkedIn feed temporarily. This is when the LinkedIn algorithm watches and measures the amount and types of audience engagement your post earns. If your post is gaining likes, comments, and shares, you will likely pass this stage. However, there is no definitive number of likes, shares, or comments that determine a pass or fail. 

Filter #3: Your (and your Content’s) Credibility 

At this third filter, the LinkedIn algorithm will look beyond the content of your post and more at who you are to determine if your post should keep showing up in user feeds. According to Hootsuite, “This stage is also when the algorithm decides whether to ‘demote’ your content, sending it backwards in the queue for another chance at winning credibility. 

If your post looks ‘suspicious,’ but the algorithm doesn’t want to make a definitive call on it (giving you the benefit of the doubt), it will remain in the feed but not show very highly or very frequently.” Basically, LinkedIn looks at you and your network to determine whether or not this is a spam post and whether your network will find it valuable. 

Filter #4: Human Editors

It is at this point that human LinkedIn editors take a first look at your content. Up until now, only a small batch of people have been allowed to see and interact with your post. Most of the other determinations are made by LinkedIn algorithm bots that are preprogrammed to search for unpublicized factors. 

At this point, editors review your post to determine whether it should keep showing, if it should be included in a particular channel, or whether they can derive any takeaways from it for future algorithm tweaks and product development. As long as it keeps getting engagement, your post stays in the mix, continuing its algorithmic journey through the feed.

Here is a great infographic that details how the LinkedIn algorithm works. 

How to Optimize Your Posts for LinkedIn 

Follow these three tips to optimize your posts around the LinkedIn algorithm. 

  1. Create Great Content– Vary between text, images, videos, tips, opinions, quotes, and simple sharing links to other great content. Be sure all your content is optimized for mobile users, since about 60% of LinkedIn users access the platform on their phones.  
  2. Leverage the LinkedIn Bias– Since LinkedIn is a more professional-leaning social network, you should focus your posts around topics that LinkedIn admits a bias toward: 
    1. Career Helps
    1. Industry Relevance 
    1. Credible and Trustworthy Sources 
  3. Grow Your Network– A large network of followers spells credibility on LinkedIn, so use these tips to expand your network in 2019: 
  4. Ask all your employees to follow your company and set it as their workplace on their profiles.
  5. Follow influential people in your industry who are prominent on LinkedIn.
  6. Join and participate in relevant groups, sharing your content when appropriate.
  7. Comment on content relevant to your industry.
  8. Set up links to your LinkedIn page on your company website and careers page to encourage more relevant follows.
  9. Mention people when you post something and they’ll like or share if you’ve named them in your post. 

What are some other suggestions you have for optimizing your content to take full advantage of the LinkedIn algorithm and get your posts viewed? We’d love to hear your suggestions or ideas in the comments below. 

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Trends to Watch in the final 365 days of the Decade by @SBSLEducSoltns

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by SJ Barakony | Featured Contributor

 

2019 awaits. How ready are you & your business for these 13 trends?

 

Can you believe it?! Yes, its true: we’re less than 2 weeks away from another New Years’ Day; so, let’s dedicate a toast to our businesses, our families, & friends!

Not only that … did you notice?  It’s also the last year of the first decade of the ‘new’ century.

 

Where were you on 01 Jan, 2010?

 

Was your business even open?

How did you communicate with your clientele?

Have you rebranded since then?

 

…  That’s NINE years ago, believe that!

 

The Mindset of the Futurist

 

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”  — Buckminster Fuller

 

#quotestoliveby #futurist 

( Click to Tweet the above )

 

Many thought leaders, chief amongst them the futurists, visionaries, and creative disrupters, know of Fuller. He laid this cornerstone of thought and its now part of his legacy, to be embraced by generations not yet born. It is from this core thesis that we’ll push ahead – unveiling a market basket of trends that your business will be impacted by in some manner in 2019 ( & beyond. )

 

 

A Bakers’ Dozen

 

Laying out 13 that I, as a futurist, am personally invested in tracking; each of these are invigorating and, in the hands of the benevolent & bold, will usher in as yet unknown amounts of potential energy to our nation(s), states/provinces, and localities:

 

Mobile revolution

Smart Cities

Blockchain / Crypto currencies

Gig Economy ( Conceptual Age )

Automation ( AI, Machine Learning, Robots )

Autonomous Vehicles \ Drones

Holistic Wellness ( > sickcare )

Decentralized [ social & news ] media

Self directed education & learning ( schooling & credential seeking )

Communities / tribes

Social enterprises ( modern mutual aid societies )

Principles > politics

Holocracy ( future of ‘work’/places )

 

 

In pursuit of a deeper understanding of the bright future which awaits

 

Even a rudimentary understanding of 1, some, or perhaps all of the 13 trends shared above won’t be embraced at deeper levels of awareness, acceptance, and consciousness without continually reading, listening ( podcasts, audio books ), & watching ( videos, webinars )

 

Two #mustread books in this space are linked below, to further illuminate your path.

I wholeheartedly suggest investing in them as a holiday/Christmas present for yourself & for those whom you hold most dear.

 

A Whole New Mind

The Code of the Extraordinary Mind

 

Suggested Follows out in the ‘Twitter’verse

 

Futurist Rankings by Ross Dawson

Generations Timeline – After the Millennials by Anne Boysen

Gold vs. Cryptos: Invest or divest … Here … from Gerald Celente

4 questions to test your intellectual humility via Daniel Pink

 

 

Don’t Argue, nor Debate

 

Instead, as we see, hear, and experience more & more creative disruption which impacts our professional sphere ( inc. our business’ cashflow, income streams, etc. ), shall we abandon the negativity, time loss, & win/lose (or worse, lose/lose) outcomes from arguing & debating?

I propose an equivalent swap of the above two non futurist, consumerist terms for those that produce & add value:   Discussion & rational discourse.

 

As 2019 dawns, I thoughtfully (channeling one of my many informal mentors, Mr. Dale Carnegie), throw down a challenge:

 

Whether with yourself ( self talk ), your staff, clientele/customers, or a prospect, engage in thought provoking win/win discussion or a structured rational discourse with him/her/them in the next several weeks

 

Word Play: Choices to make to embrace the transformation underway in our workplaces  

 

As we ascend the ladder from unconscious incompetence on up to unconscious competence, let’s fully embrace how exciting each of these trends will be in our ongoing entrepreneurial journeys & resolve to learn new words

Some which are becoming anchored to the past as these 13 futuristic trends continue to evolve, expand, & replicate:  ‘employee’ ; ‘hierarchy’ ; ‘college for all’ ; ‘health care’ ; ‘cash’.

Does this indicate that these (let alone others) will disappear forever? Not necessarily. Yet, the early adopters in our business networks will already grasp the above, and quite a number more will eventually ‘see’ as you have/will!

 

 

Websites, articles, blogs, & organizations: Learn More & Take Action

 

Define. Learn. (then) Do.

We’ve defined a vision for 2019 & beyond. With numerous resources are embedded in the post already, let’s expand your learning zone:, what if you want to self educate even more?!

 

Ever more important, investing time in additional concrete steps to ‘future’ prep your business venture would be wise. I’m applauding you proactively, if you choose to do so!

 

 

Trends Research

Future Frontiers

A-speakers

Mind Valley

 

Future Today

AdWeek.com

Visual Capitalist

Futurism Blogs

 

In short …

 

  • 9 years down, 1 to go in the decade #ThinkItOver
  • Suggested Twitterverse follows
  • A bakers’ dozen trends
  • The futurist rankings & further resources to dig into
  • Don’t argue, debate, or fight the existing; discuss & set time for rational discourse
  • Word swaps:  let’s ‘play’ on a 2020’s field
  • What’s coming is exciting & transformational; fear not!  Embrace. Encourage. Uplift.

 

Thank YOU for reading!

& …

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5 Tips For Organizing Your Social Media Over the Holidays

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by Chelsea Tobin

We all know that getting everything prepped in time for the holiday season (both in life and in business) can get a bit overwhelming and hectic. One of the last things you want to be thinking about is making sure your business’ Instagram channel is updated over this period! So here are 5 tips for preparing in advance and organizing your social media marketing over the holidays.

1. Schedule in advance
Make use of a scheduling tool to plan out and schedule all your social media posts in advance. Popular tools include Buffer, Hootsuite, Later, Sprout Social and CoSchedule – to name a few. Taking the time now to get these all your posts in place means you’ll only need to check in on your social media channels ad-hoc to make sure everything is running smoothly.

2. Minimize the amount posts
If your regular posting schedule usually involves 5-10 posts per week, your business probably doesn’t need to be posting this much over the holiday season. This will of course depend on your kind of business (and whether you have an e-commerce store making the most of holiday specials!), but I recommend cutting the posts back to 3-5 per week if you’re a small-medium business.

3. Factor in key dates
If you’re stuck for social media content ideas during this period, don’t forget that you can utilize the key dates over the holiday season (e.g. Christmas, Boxing Day, New Years) and create posts around these. Even a simple “Merry Christmas” post will likely be appreciated by your audience – and will help keep your page active to keep the social media algorithms happy!

4. Let your audience know you’ll be less active
You don’t need to tell your audience exactly when and where you’re going on holiday, but a courtesy notice to let them know that you (or your business) will be less frequent and available on your social media over the holidays will set expectations for if/when some people do decide to get in contact with you.

5. Set time to respond and engage
Even though you’ll be enjoying a break from business (and even social media), make sure you designate a bit of a time each week to not only check your channels, but also to respond to any comments and messages. It’s important not to abandon your social media entirely; a little of engagement will go a long way when it comes to maintenance and growth of your channels.

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With the desire to go “digital nomad” and help businesses with their social media marketing, Chelsea founded her boutique social media agency, Queen of Swords Media, in 2018. She attended Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Business (Marketing major) and a Bachelor of Communication Studies (PR major). She enjoys speaking and writing about her journey so far in the world of business, self-development and mindfulness as a young millennial woman navigating her way through life, and of course social media. You can find her on Instagram here – https://www.instagram.com/queenofswordsmedia/

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Crafting the Perfect Social Media Story for the Holidays by @DrRKayGreen

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by Dr. R. Kay Green | Featured Contributor

More and more platforms are unveiling “stories” — ephemeral social media posts that disappear after a set amount of time. Snapchat is arguably the platform that first had success with this format, but Facebook and Instagram have also unveiled their own story platforms.

Businesses are taking note of this feature, with more organizations than ever turning to story functions for holiday marketing. The reason they are doing this is because consumers are engaging with this content in a way that they simply do not do with natural posts. Which begs the question: why?

Why are social media stories so popular with consumers and businesses alike? What makes this format so conducive to holiday marketing, in particular? And, perhaps more importantly, how can your business leverage social media stories to make your holiday marketing a success?

One of the main features of social media stories is that they are humanizing. When done correctly, they come across as more friendly, less like an ad than your typical campaign.

Also, with natural posts, it is difficult to do more than one post in a row. When consumers follow a lot of friends, family and businesses, their dashboards become clogged, and even if a business posts one post right after the other, it is unlike that they will show up this way on someone’s news feed.

Stories are different. Your consumers can easily click from one video to the next. This makes it so that you can tell a cohesive narrative. This, in turn, allows you to make an emotional connection. This is critical when it comes to reaching modern audiences.

Allowing viewers to click through also engages them. Instead of traditional posts, in which they are more or less passive consumers, stories allow your followers to get involved.

Today’s consumer does not want to be treated like a tool, and they do not want to be pandered to by faceless entities. Instead, they want to get to know the people behind the brand. And what better time to do this than over the holidays, when many are gathering together for parties and fun?

This is why holidays in general are a perfect time for social media story campaigns. Holidays are the perfect time for engaging, humanizing stories that treat followers like family instead of business leads.

There are, of course, right and wrong ways to create a social media story. Above all, social media stories should be fun. Take advantage of the temporary nature of these stories to be more witty and easygoing than you would be with your typical posts.

When crafting a social media story, focus on two things: emotional and personal.

Stories that focus on emotion will be far more engaging to your consumer. You should aim to make them feel something.

In addition, you should be personal. Give your followers a look at who you really are — not just as a brand, but as individual people. Does anyone in your department have an inspiring story related to the holidays? Now is the time to ask.

Avoid creating a “sales pitch,” and do not make a story that is so long that your consumers will get bored and click away. If you do all of this, you will be able to create a social media story that engages and makes an impression on your followers. And that will last even after the holidays are over.

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Dr. R. Kay Green – Marketing Expert from RKG Marketing Solutions Inc. from Atlanta, GA.

Dr. KayDr. R. Kay Green is the CEO/President of RKG Marketing Solutions Inc. With over 190,000+ Twitter followers, 35,000+ Facebook Likes, and the Top 1% LinkedIn profile designation, Dr. Kay, a self-motivated trailblazer, is the Quintessential “New-Age” Professional Woman, and PhD Marketing Pro. She earned a Doctorate of Business Administration in Marketing, and has completed PhD coursework in Leadership and Organization Change. She also holds a Master of Business Administration in Marketing and Management, a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing, and an Associate of Arts in Marketing Management.

She is affiliated with several prestigious universities and has instructed over 350 courses online. A popular speaker on Marketing and Business topics, Dr. Green is currently featured on Huffington Post, Black Enterprise, Black News, The Network Journal, Business Review USA, Digital Journal, College View, Business New Hampshire Magazine, Bay State Banner, Reader’s Circle, North Dallas Gazette, Harlem News, Top News Today, One News Page, NE Informer, Women in Business PR News, Consumer News Today, Women PR News, San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, Chicago Daily Herald, The Miami Herald, and Book News Articles.

Twitter – Facebook – LinkedIn

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Social Media Trends to Grow Your Brand by @luckifit

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by LaKisha Greenwade | Featured Contributor

Is social media here to stay? Absolutely! Actually, it is an understatement.  Social media will continue to expand reach by integrating with non traditional platforms in the next few years.

When building a brand, please know that you are ‘tardy to the party’ if there is no online presence outside of a webpage.  A fan page on a popular platform is not enough today and considered Pre-K in the school of Business Building.

What does this mean?

It is no longer optional to curate regular fresh content for your audience and interact with your followers.

I have heard many moans and groans from business owners who just want to work on their business versus in it. I understand. However, that is not an excuse to allow your business to suffer due to discomfort with the ever changing social media landscape. To prevent overwhelm, create a content calendar or contract out social media management duties and ads services to:

1) achieve an online presence in platforms where your customers reside,

2) grow your customer base and mailing lists, and

3) prepare yourself for new social media launches and trends that impact the way your customers research brands.

Do you still need convincing?

Well, 4 in 10 internet users say they follow their favorite brands on social media. Over one-third of online shoppers use social        media to “find inspiration” for a purchase and 59% of Americans with social media accounts think that customer service through social media has made it easier to get questions answered and issues resolved.

It is imperative to establish and grow your presence on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or Google Plus.

Facebook is the most widely used platform with 79% of the American population.   LinkedIn is a platform growing in importance for the Business to Business community, especially with use of video. It is critical for those seeking to build their personal brands to create some focus here. Twitter recently launched a service to help brands reach target audiences payable directly to the platform.

This is just the beginning.

Social integrations are guaranteed to dominate in the near future. Once you have established consistent online presence, consider how one of the upcoming trends will aid in your brand building efforts.

  • Artificial Intelligence and Voice programs such as Alexa;
  • Chat bots;
  • Video; and
  • Social Influencers.

It is possible for you to:

1) create micro content for voice focused platforms,

2) improve customer service interactions with chat bots,

3) improve brand knowledge with video on all platforms (especially YouTube), and lastly,

4) integrate the use of social influencers to build brand awareness.

These featured trends of today will become mainstays of tomorrow. Do not delay auditing your brand presence on social media and invest in resources to enhance it for growth. It’s a move you won’t regret.

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Wherever the Camera Goes So Do Consumers by @ScotDuke

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video marketing

by Scot Duke | Featured Contributor 

Have you ever wondered why more videos are being produced?  

If you have, I can certainly confirm the answer being partly explained by this statement…

Wherever the camera goes, so do consumers.  

Yes, consumers are turning to the internet to find videos on subjects and products they are interested in learning more about.  YouTube now has become the Go-To site to check out a new product or service…or just about anything.

A video offers a consumer more than just the product information, it offers a view of the product they cannot get even from seeing it at a brick and mortar store.  Videos allow the consumer to see who is selling the product or services. Videos have become the go-to media for

The Social Video Factor

Add the Social Video factor and the impact of the message about a product or service multiplies.  

Social Videos are rapidly becoming the way to sell a product while building consumer trust.  If an e-commerce site does not have a video of the product they are selling it will more than likely be passed by for a site that does offer videos.

Social Videos are now starting to become the mainstay media used by many professionals and service business people.  Since 2008 the increase in the number of videos posted to the internet has increased nearly 400%.  Sales are bound to follow that popularity.

So how do you go about getting ahead of the movement businesses are making to produce Social Videos?

  • Consult with a professional social video producer
  • Focus only on producing quality videos
  • Develop a long-term digital marketing strategy

Make sure the camera is where the consumers want it.

Let me know how I can help.

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How to Skyrocket Your Traffic By More Than Double Thanks to This Platform by Caz Wilson of @socialkitchenlv

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by Caz Wilson | Featured Contributor 

This platform is one of my favorites for driving traffic to a website and for growing brand awareness.

No doubt you know this platform well, but probably you would not think to use it for business. Or maybe you do and you’ve seen how well it can work. In either case, I hope here to make a compelling argument for why, Pinterest is something you should be using to drive traffic to your website.

Although Pinterest isn’t a social media platform in the traditional sense, Pinterest is thought of more as a search engine, almost like a visual Google. Because of this, Pinners have a certain bias and are in a searching frame of mind when they come to Pinterest. They’re looking for a solution, for help, for ideas, and for inspiration. If your business is what they find, and they like what they see, they’ll go ahead, click through on the pin and more often than not, continue to buy your product.

Pinterest is a must if your business targets women, operates in the wedding or the fitness industry or is very visual (think home decor, party planning etc.). When set up correctly and used consistently, Pinterest can be the greatest driver of traffic to your website allowing you to remarket to these highly interested people and overall provide great value to them.

Thyroid Refresh, a lifestyle support platform for thyroid patients, attribute a significant amount of their daily traffic to Pinterest. They launched their membership site in the Spring of 2018 and prior to their launch, we worked to build their audience with useful, helpful pins and a strong identifiable brand. One of the amazing things about Pinterest is that, unlike other social media which you might be using, a pin lasts forever and can gain momentum. We, therefore, created consistent, eye-catching pins to establish Thyroid Refresh in the market. Useful, value-adding infographics also worked well, all of which pointed to the website.

As Thyroid Refresh grew on Pinterest, it started to establish more and more traffic from the pins and the re-pins. After they launched, Thyroid Refresh published more content which their audience just loved. Pinterest is the perfect platform for a pre-launch strategy.

Hopefully, I’ve convinced you about the power of Pinterest. If you’re looking to get started, here are some quick tips to get you started, or to get your Pinterest working harder for you:

1. Create boards and content which your audience will love

Have a clear idea of who your target audience is and what content they will enjoy. Then curate boards with that audience in mind. Your goal is to be a resource, a place for inspiration for your audience.

2. Have a strategy to consistently pin content

As with most platforms, Pinterest loves consistency. Plan to pin once a day, or better yet, set a scheduler like Tailwind to do the heavy lifting for you!

3. Create incredible pins

As with anything online, quality content is king and this runs true for Pinterest. Great headlines, eye-catching pins and quality content will go along way on Pinterest as people read, pin and then repin your content

Putting these super simple tips will work wonders for your Pinterest efforts and get you started to maximizing this platform for your business.

What questions do you have about Pinterest? Leave them in the comments below…

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B2B Social Media: Does Not Have To Be Painful by @ScotDuke

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by Scot Duke | Featured Contributor 

It is really good…I mean REALLY GOOD…to see businesses who service other businesses finally reaching out to find out why their very expensive venture into social media marketing is not working.  Truly, many of them need to start all over and change their thinking on how to market to other businesses.

No Differences

The question people ask is…why does the social media for B2B businesses have to be different than the social media used by B2C?  In reality, they don’t have to be different but the opportunist of the digital strategy world will persuade B2B’s away from being social.

First of all…social media is based on being social within a market to get a message out on a product or service a business offers.  If you missed it…the key word here is…yes…Social..not Sales, not advertising, not marketing…but social.

Social media marketing might initially appear to be the sole preserve of the business-to-consumer (B2C) marketer. But according to this research into B2B Social media marketing by Omobono, not only can business-to-business (B2B) marketers benefit from social media, but it could be their most effective marketing channel of all.

It is all about social

Being social is what B2B’s feel they have no need in being when in fact they need to be even more social within their channel of their industry than their close cousins, B2C.  I am sure there are some B2B who need to take another approach to what they socialize about, but overall casually talking to another business owner about a service or products they need for their business is no different than socializing with a consumer.

What B2B’s do not immediately understand is social media is a trust builder.  Trust builds loyalty and loyalty to a business is the key to solid business relationships.  

Social is Social

It is true, hammering everyone on Twitter about your businesses services is not going to go anywhere and getting 1500 LIKES on your business’ Facebook page does little to nothing to building trust.  However, having conversations in a social space like Google+ where the content of what is discussed is placed immediately in the Search Engine makes tremendous sense to business representatives of a B2B business.

There is no need in making B2B social media painful..like so many feel it needs to be.  Posting only links to your business’ blog or to an article supporting your business’ products just bores the people targeted for the message.  Offering a reason to read the article..or a thought about the article…or a statement about the article being placed in the social space asking questions of a viewer is the core of social media.  Why make it a pain for the person who posts nothing but links to find nobody is looking at it and for the viewers who have to wade thru thousands of posts from B2B’s who are lost out in La-La-Land with their digital strategy?

Suggests for B2B Social Media

Make it social…

  • Post a video introducing yourself and the problem your business solves.
  • Reach out into the online social communities and join in the conversation
  • Be more you than what you feel your company wants you to be.
  • And most importantly..be social..show some respect to others…it pays huge dividends.

Let me know how I can help.

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Personal Branding on Instagram by @marketingbride

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by Jeannette Bridoux

While growth is crucial for building your online presence, the foundation is your branding.

Here are my top tips for building your personal brand on Instagram

1. Get inspired by other influencers

Make a list of people in your niche who you aspire to be like who also have a similar audience.

Use 2017bestnine.com to find their best performing content so you can gather new content ideas to get tons of likes and comments.

2. Create your icon

Whether it’s simply using a specific color in your posts or using the same set of emojis, you need to establish what your iconic thing will be so when people see it they think of you.

Sometimes, it’s your unique look. Most people know me for my blue hair.

3. Establish a Theme

You need some sort of consistency with your Instagram grid, so it creates a holistic image of your personal brand. For me, I post a lot of videos of my vlogs as well as pics of my various manifesting journals and planners because that’s a big part of my life.

What interesting things can you share with people online so they can get to know the real you?

✨Preview & Planoly are great tools for planning out what your Instagram grid will look like before you post.

4. Use your Instagram Story & Highlights

Since Instagram added stories, people are now more likely to look at your story before your latest posts.

Instagram stories are great for posting short content with a call to action.

– Swipe up to watch (10K+ Business accounts have this feature)
– Check my link in bio for my latest blog
– See my featured story now to get the latest details

✨ Plus with Instagram story highlights you can feature your important Instagram stories which promote your newsletter or latest freebie.

5. Show your face

Unless your personal brand icon is you specifically not showing your face, like @thenakedprofessor, then your face should be prominent in photos you take.

People connect with people. By showing that beautiful face of your followers will feel like they know the real awesome you.

 

References:

Planoly: https://www.planoly.com/
Preview: https://thepreviewapp.com/

2017bestnine.com

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Jeannette Bridoux is an Instagram Growth Expert & Personal Branding Mentor.

She is the founder of Gold&GlitterCo, an Instagram Growth & Marketing company and co-creator and mentor of the Dream Team Secrets Inner Circle, an online Instagram Mastermind group.

She’s a digital nomad who enjoys speaking, traveling and advocating for mental health awareness.

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