Thursday, September 11, 2014

Smart Tips for a great content

Smart Tips For a Great Content


Build content for you audience - Have a specific kind of audience in mind when developing content. What you have to keep in mind, 'One size does not fit all' here. Define your audience based on your product and then device content specifically for them.

Make your content informative engaging and entertaining - Most people don't actually read our entire content, they skim. So in order to engage your audience to your content, make it interesting, helpful and an easy read for your audience.

Engage Consistently - Create content on a regular basis to engage with your audience. Consistency is the key while engaging with your online audience. It's like work in progress, you have to continuously keep your readers engaged with your content.

Content should be shared and viewed easily and quickly - The purpose of creating a online content is to be able to be shared and viewed to as many audience in shortest and easiest time possible. You have great social management tools like Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Spredfast, Socialoomph, choose one that works for you.

Link content to your products and services - This is one golden rule that we cannot ignore, always link your content with at least one of your relevant product or service. The landing page has to be an extension of your read, the reader otherwise feels he has landed on the wrong page and your site will have a high bounce rate.

Have a Call to Action - Another golden rule that we just simply cannot live without, always have a Call to Action in your content. 

Make it measurable -  In order to know your return of investment on the campaign you need to make your content measurable. How else would you ever know whether your campaign was successful and you were able to actually make profits through the campaign.


Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Rules of Engagement - Interacting via Social Media



Rules Of Engagement - Social Media Interaction 

 

 
Today social media is not just about posting your favorite quotes, photos or links. It's about connecting with people, getting involved– engaging with others. Sharing conversations, stories and events gives you the opening to the individual's/company's beliefs, thoughts and actions, depending on what they choose to share. Therefore what and how and where we share is extremely crucial today. 

1. Be Transparent - In the Company scenario lead by a good example. Be true and transparent, in your social interactions.Yes, honesty is still the best policy indeed! Nothing can be more embarrassing for a company's reputation than a false tweet or a facebook announcement. Be open and transparent internally about what is being communicated or will be communicated on social media. Explain discreetly why certain topics need to be withheld from media and ask them to respect it. Getting your own folks involved, makes them brand ambassadors for the company, spreading positive messages and vibes across the entire social scene.
 

2. Keep employees updated on all company news and interactions - One great advantage of having an active social-media presence is the ability to engage and interact with a desired audience. This is very helpful in marketing your company externally, attracting future employees and investors. In fact it also serves to team building, aligning internal teams and entire organizations.


3. Recognize Achievements - Recognition on social media is a positive validation among employees that immediately leads to team building and employee alignment. This also attracts your future employees and investors.

 

4. Get Chatting - Social media is a two way traffic zone, so work on building the steam and getting the conversation started. Choose a chat topic that interest your clients, (remember it's about them and not you) draw them in to the conversation. Do not focus on the selling rather create stories through which people can connect with your brand and company.

 

5. Create interesting content - Build creative strategies to engage your clients.Compare yourself to a radio station, when I turn it on I should be able to hear the latest and greatest song playing, which will make me tap my toes and snap my fingers to the beat of the song! In simple words amaze your audience. Read your comments interact with them, find out what they like and you will find great content ideas from your audience itself.

 


 



Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Snapchat 101: Q&A Style

What is Snapchat?
Snapchat is a free mobile app that lets you snap and send “disappearing”
photos to friends from your smartphone. This really popular among 13 -25
year olds, When you send a snap, you put a timer on it, anywhere from one
to 10 seconds. When the recipient opens the message, the countdown
begins, and the photo will disappear after the time runs out.
As of May 1 Snapchat has added chatting feature in their app, you simply
press and hold to share live video – and Chat face-to-face.

Really! Why is it so popular?
Snapchat lets you give a quick view what you are doing at that moments
from your smartphone, a short glimpse into your life.Why people like to use
it? My reasoning says, it releases you of the burden of creating proof that
you are here and you did that, which most social media sites have. 

Well, do the pictures really go away?
Good question. Your friends can take a snapshot of your picture and so can
you, but everytime your friend takes a snapshot, it will show up in your
activity log.The company says once a snap is opened and has disappeared,
they no longer has that data on its servers a snap might stay on is if it’s un-
opened, it will remain in queue, and on the company’s servers, for 30 days.

What platforms can this work on?
Snapchat runs on iOS and Android devices and it’s completely free. Right
now the app is not compatible with Windows phone.

Okay, I have downloaded the app, how do I send pictures to friends?
Three essential steps to follow, first, you click a photo from within the app; then, you set the timer in the lower left-hand corner of the screen; and finally, you tap on the arrow on the lower right-hand corner to send to a friend or group of friends. As of May, 2014, Snapchat introduced Chat, Swipe right on a friend’s name in your inbox to start chatting When you leave the chat screen, messages viewed by both you and your friend will be cleared.You can also use Snapchat for text messaging too.  

Really! is that it?
Snapchat is meant for fun, and share quick glimpse of your lives with your
friends, It really does’nt go more deeper than that You can add emojis,
filters, time weather features to your pictures.


 



Thursday, August 14, 2014

The Secret Life Of Your Facebook Page...

Well, as I begin penning my thoughts, I am sure hundreds and even more have been already written read and published on how crack the code and increase your presence on Facebook.
Here is what I would like to say for once, I wish there was a trick! There are no shortcuts to making your presence felt in Facebook, but there are ways by which you can be very sure your Facebook page is going to shine.

Honesty, Honesty, Honesty!
 Social media is building relationships with your clients, and we all know for any relationships to work we have to be honest with each other. What your customers would like to see on their news feed is honest and clear information about the company and products. If there are freebies and prizes to win, there should actually be one! Don't do it to earn a like or page click. Remember, "The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love and loyalty." - Zig Ziglar

Continuous Engagement
Social Media means to actually be Sociable, make connections with your customers and potential customers. There should be continuous engagements with your customers on current and relevant topics related to your product.  This will directly affect the number of likes for your page. Make your customers your family and create engaging conversations with them. Repeat your promotional messages, so it creates an impact in your customers mind. 'Repetition makes reputation and reputation makes customers.'

Page Growth
If you are creating great content and distributing it effectively, then page growth will happen, the next step is to distribute this content with paid boosting in News Feed to your relevant audience. If your targets the right people, then this will lead to increased engagement and growth in fans on the page.


 Not A Broadcast Platform!
Yes, and I repeat this again, your Facebook page is not a broadcast platform, if you have been guilty of doing that, I am sure you have realized it's not working, so stop doing it right now. Make relationships with your clients, tell them your story, people connect through stories and they will remember your story. Share your (company's) vision and passion with your readers, and they might just bond with you! Always remember the hero of your story is your audience and not you, focus on them and how your efforts can benefit them.

Lastly.... your Facebook page, is your baby, it demands consistent commitment, if you are sincere, your returns will be much higher in the long run!

Why I like Hootsuite...

Why I like Hootsuite...

Recently doing my own research of the popular “Social Media Management System” tools, I decided to make my own little list of them based on what I think I like in each of them.

Hootsuite, was launched in 2008 by Invoke Media, and ever since has been on top charts of social media tools.

One Place To Monitor Multiple Streams:
Hootsuite let's you to manage so many different social networks, in one place, currently they let you manage:
  • Twitter
  • Facebook Profiles, Events, Groups & Pages
  • LinkedIn Profiles, Pages & Groups
  • Google+ Pages (currently not personal profiles)
  • Foursquare
  • Myspace
  • WordPress blogs
  • Mixi (Japanese Social Network)
  • Vimeo, via.me, reddit, StumbleUpon, Instagram, edocr, tumblr, evernote, flickr, get Satisfaction, mailchimp, slideshare, storify (via 3rd party apps)
  • Many more!
It also lets you add more than one of the same network. This can be quite handy if you manage multiple Twitter channels, or Facebook pages.

One Post Across Multiple Platforms:
 Hootsuite allows you to post a quick update to multiple Twitter accounts, Facebook profile and page, Google+ page, LinkedIn profile, company page and groups and more! 
This is a great time saver if you want to get an flash message out to your customers quickly.

Free Weekly Email Reports:
Hootsuite sends you a weekly analytics report each week, in an email with a pdf attachment of your click summaries. It gives you graphs showing:
  1. Number of clicks per day
  2. Geographical information on the people clicking through
  3. Top referrers
  4. Most popular links 
I think it is useful to give you a brief overview as to how you are doing on a weekly basis. 

Your Own Customer Service:
Hootsuite is your own personal Customer Service in the digital world, especially for your Twitter account. Custom messages can be delegated through Hootsuite to different team members and these can be managed overall by an administrator. Hootsuite lets you to store draft FAQ messages that you can post when asked by your customers.