Skip to main content
Category

Blog

Marketing During the Summer Season: Maximize Your Strategies 

With summer in full swing, you may have seen a slight dip in engagement and sales while consumers are in “vacation mode.” It can be difficult to capture your audience’s attention as more people are spending less time on the internet and more time outside. According to a study by Fanpage Karma, they saw 39% more reactions on rainy days in spring, autumn, and winter than on sunny days. Despite the low activity, you can get the most out of the summer season with these marketing tips to encourage more interactions.

Here are 4 recommended tactics to keep your marketing strong and your audience engaged over the summer:   

Retarget Ads 

With increased sunshine, people are more likely to spend less time online, making it more difficult to drive sales and gain your consumer’s attention. Luckily, there are ways you can optimize your strategy with this trend in mind. Retargeting your ads on Facebook and Google allows brands to engage with their visitors long after they have left your website. These targeted ads will keep your business at the forefront of visitors’ minds while building trust and encouraging recent visitors to return to your site. 

Summer Holidays 

Take advantage of the Summer Holidays and find ways to tie them into your marketing strategy. You can also incorporate National Holidays into your campaign that are interesting to your unique audiences. 

Building a sense of urgency by creating timer popups for holiday sales/promotions through targeted emails is another way to capture your audience’s attention. 

Time to Experiment 

Test out new, various methods with your audience during the summer months. This could be expressing appreciation to your customers through email campaigns, partnering with other businesses to promote products/services, sending out company merch like coffee cups or t-shirts, or pushing loyalty programs that incentivize sales during a typically slow period. 

Do not be afraid to take risks and step out of the box with your marketing strategies. Creative campaigns are a great way to connect with your audience and stand out from your competition. It’s all about differentiating your company.

Take Advantage of Social Media 

You may see a decline in engagement during the summer months, but do not let that discourage you and slow down your posts. Try to incorporate that fun summer feeling into your feed and create creative content that encourages your audience to engage. This could be a call-to-action, summer-themed hashtags, seasonal videos, or hosting a contest to engage your audience. 

Make sure to be posting consistently at optimal times throughout each week. Decreasing your post times can negatively affect your posting algorithm and ultimately who sees your posts. You may need to adjust your current schedule as your audience may be active at various times of day during these warmer months.  

Marketing in the summer is full of potential, so make sure that your company is taking advantage of all the great opportunities available. Summer is the perfect time to be creative and discover new ways to engage your audience while creating maximum exposure during this traditionally slow time. 

 

Creating a Positive Virtual Culture for Your Company

Remote Company Culture

As 2020 wrapped over 50% of the American workforce had gone remote. According to a growmotely.com survey, 74% of employees expect to continue to work remotely indefinitely.  This has shifted the workforce to providing remote work from a once or twice a week perk to a full job expectation.

Organizations and companies who spent a good portion of the last 10 years building a positive in-person culture to attract and retain talent, now have to figure out how to transfer that culture online. To many, online access means more communication. To others, it leads to less interaction, less time to acquaint on a more personal level with co-workers, and ultimately less of a working relationship that generally builds comfort and positivity among staff.

One of the most underutilized marketing tactics is internal marketing. Get your team to love their work, their culture and they will organically market your company. So how do we modify our efforts of creating an in-person positive culture to that of an almost permanent positive virtual culture?

5 steps to create a positive virtual company culture:

  1. Revisit your company values, and make sure they still align with how you now function remotely. If employees feel that their work experience is not aligned with what your values state, there will be a disconnect. If need be, rewrite your company values to support your new way of internal efforts.
  2. Encourage open communication. Not like before. But really this time. Have an online wall of suggestions to make the company better and increase internal satisfaction. Microsoft Teams offers an excellent option for this through its “Channels”.
  3. Change your language. The way in which you refer to simple internal terms subconsciously sets the tone for each member. Take away terms like “daily tasks” that have a negative connotation to them. Use “Daily Goals” in your morning meeting language and end your days with each member noting their “Daily Accomplishments”.
  4. Create a positive online news board. Start progress tracking through a project management system like ASANA or Monday and share wins. This is where your employees get to share their accomplishments, co-employee gratitude, and more.
  5. Keep planning company events. Just because your company is mostly remote now, does not mean you have to cancel all events. You can hold a slew of online team-building activities or if enough of your team is local and comfortable, you can still continue quarterly/yearly outdoor events. The goal is to keep the fun current and the excitement ongoing.

What’s great about implementing all these ideas within your culture, is that these steps are all marketing tactics to increase internal brand happiness. Once your employees become accustomed to generating positivity virtually, it will trickle to their online actions as well. Those who were once reluctant to promote their work online are now embracing it and using the steps they found rewarding internally to promote where they work externally.


Ready to Get Discovered?

 

4 Important Ways to Improve your Instagram Feed!

There’s just something about Instagram that we, as a society, can’t seem to get enough of. Even with that frustrating change to the algorithm, Instagram seems to be everyone’s favorite! There are a ton of tips out there on how to beat the algorithm but it’s even more important to have a profile that speaks to your ideal audience and potential clients. Below you’ll find 4 important ways to improve your Instagram Feed AND exactly how to implement them!

First, Build Your Brand:

As a designer, I cannot stress enough the importance of your brand! Your brand IS NOT simply your logo – it is the entire aesthetic of your business. When it comes to Instagram this includes everything from the images you post to the captions you write. This tells your audience who you are, what your brand stands for and the type of audience you want to appeal to.

Building your brand is all about finding colors, images, and words that speak to what your business is all about! When it comes to Instagram having cohesiveness is key! Let’s take a look at some examples of businesses whose branding is on point ?.

Brands WE LOVE on Instagram:

@shopbando – Bando the brand is Colorful, Fun, & Creative – Just like their products and their Instagram shows this off perfectly!

@getawayhouse- If their feed doesn’t literally make you want to GET AWAY… Idk what will! Their Instagram reflects their rentals with a darker edit, which reflects their cozy cabins perfectly!

We know coming up with what to post on Instagram can be hard and time-consuming. Last month Pop Digital Marketing developed a  30 Days of Instagram Content.  The blog became so popular that it had over 300 shares in the first hour!

Next, Update Your Bio:

You have up to 150 Characters for a bio about YOUR BRAND! One mistake I constantly come across concerns bios that talk more about the individual behind the brand as opposed to the brand itself. Consumers want to know about the products they can find in your shop or the services you offer above all else. I love that you have 2 rescue dogs but unfortunately, that isn’t going to teach me about your business.

This isn’t to say you shouldn’t tell us fun information about yourself, but prioritize what you are offering and then fill in the bio with other information. Below is a little “recipe” for developing the perfect Instagram business bio.

Instagram Bio Recipe

2-3 things you offer / i.e products, services, etc.

1 personal detail (if it fits in the characters)

+ Call to action such as a promotion or a special offer – something to really grab their attention and make them click that link!!

Using this little recipe your bio may look like this:

✿ Web Design, Social Media, + SEO Expert

✿ Wife to Jeff + Mommy of 2

15% off when you Subscribe ⇣

(LINK TO WHEREVER HERE)

Bios WE LOVE on Instagram:

@girlsnightinclub – GNI Tells us exactly what they are right away and if we join we can be apart of an online community with 150,000 women!

 

@theslowtraveler – Carolyn tells us what she does followed by where she is located AND tips we can find on her blog! Perfection!

 Then, Check Your Hashtags:

Hashtags can be tricky and there are so many places to start! The simplest way to begin is by using a hashtag Generator. Type in ONE keyword about your business then you will get results all around this one keyword!

Here is an example of results we got at Pop Digital Marketing with our Keyword being MARKETING:

 

You can choose to end your hashtag research here or you can take it one step further. The size, or the number of uses a hashtag has, can make or break your image in search.  I’d suggest taking some time to research the number of uses a hashtag has by plugging it into Instagram.

For example, the hashtag #marketingguru has 154k users so the odds of your image being seen rapidly decrease! However, Instagram now has a “related” option for hashtags and this is where the real research comes in! Click through until you find hashtags with a lower number of uses – any with 50k or less are perfect!

Finally, Captions:

Your captions should represent the tone of your brand while talking about related topics. Use your captions to discuss new services or products, promotions, milestones, or even interests that relate to what your brand is about!

Captions can be a great way to tie an image into your brand. Let’s be real, we can’t always have the perfect image and sometimes those flowers are just too perfect not to post. This is an ideal opportunity to use the caption to tie the image into your brand!

In the end, it really comes down to your brand, not only on Instagram but for your entire business. Instagram is a great way to market your business and I hope these tips help improve your Instagram feed and even more importantly help reel in your ideal audience and potential clients! If you have any questions or need help at any point in the process feel free to contact us here or shoot us an email at info@PopDigitalMarketing.com

30 DAYS OF INSTAGRAM CONTENT

30 days of instagram content

Setting aside time to plan an entire Instagram feed can be time-consuming. One of the hardest parts is generating content that your followers are actually interested in. As an agency that curates and manages Instagram accounts for multiple clients, we’ve compiled a list of best practice posts to help ignite your company Instagram account into a highly engageable and followed brand leader. Below is a list of trending Instagram posts and topics relevant to 2019!

HINT: Don’t be afraid to ask your audience questions it helps with engagement and gives you insights to what they are looking for!

30 Days Of Post Material For Your Business Instagram Feed:

DAY 1: INTRODUCTION

Every Business (or blog, influencer, etc.) needs an introduction! Discuss who you are, where you are from, and what you are passionate about! This will help your audience connect with you and create genuine followers and future clients!

DAY 2: WORKSPACE

Show off your workspace and inspire others! I know I am a sucker for pictures of a decorated workspace! It’s always nice to tell your clients how you work and show off what motivates you (muscle emoji?)

Don’t have a workspace at home? Show off your favorite coffee shop and be sure to tag them!

DAY 3: PRODUCT / SERVICE

Start to show off your products and/or service! Start with your most popular or even a NEW service you just started offering! Describe the product or service briefly and then link to your actual website!

DAY 4: PET PICTURE

Do we even need to explain? Everyone loves a good pet pic!!

DAY 5: SELF-CARE

What do you do for self-care? We need to remember the importance of taking a moment for ourselves. Running a business is hard work and can feel like it takes over your life. R E L A X ~ give your audience some insights into how you take time for yourself!

DAY 6: BLOG POST

Show off a blog post! Resurface an old one or come up with something fresh! Blog posts are great for SEO and showing off your knowledge of the field or product!

DAY 7: LEARN ABOUT YOUR FOLLOWERS

Find out something valuable about your followers! Who are they, where are they from, and what content are they looking for? This gives you great insights about your audience and you can adjust your future posts to allow for engagement from them!

DAY 8: MILESTONES

Share a recent Milestone your business has reached! Maybe it is x amount of new clients or a completed project for a client!

DAY 9: CURRENT FAVORITE BOOK / PODCAST

What books or podcasts have you read that are currently inspiring you?! There are so many out there and people are constantly seeking out new ones to read or listen to! Make sure to tag the author/curator you are promoting!

DAY 10: SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTION

Here is a great way to advertise your products while offering a discount to those who follow you on Social Media! Create a unique code (INSTAGRAM15 or FACEBOOK15) this allows you to track the number of times this code was used.

DAY 11: MORNING ROUTINE

Show off your morning routine! Do you hop out of bed and turn on the computer or enjoy a cup of coffee on the couch?!

DAY 12: FREEBIE

Who doesn’t like free items?! Create a freebie for your followers that pertains to your niche! There are hundreds of freebies online so maybe search around for some inspiration!

DAY 13: PAST CLIENT PROJECT

Show off a little with a completed project you’ve worked on in the past! Showing finished projects helps establish your business and the kind of work you do!

DAY 14: COZY SPACE

Post your favorite cozy space! This can be a space in your home or a local shop! Somewhere that inspires you!

DAY 15: FLOWERS / PLANTS

Maybe you finally planted some new flowers or just treated yourself to a bouquet! Flowers will always look pretty on your Instagram and they stand out when scrolling on Facebook!

DAY 16: FLAT LAY

Take some time to find creativity in your posts! Styling flat images are one of my favorite parts about Social Media! Find some of your favorite objects around the house (even include some past projects!) and start creating a visually pleasing flat lay!

DAY 17: CUSTOMER PHOTO

Customer photos are the best! It gives you content with little to no effort! I think it is best practice to ask the customer to use the image and make sure you tag them!

DAY 18: MINDFULNESS

Just like self-care mindfulness is so important! Take 20 minutes to meditate or do a little yoga session and share how it went with your followers!

DAY 19: SHARE A HOBBY

Share what you do on the side! You never know who may have the same interest to create a connection with!

DAY 20: #MONDAYMOTIVATION

Following trends like #MondayMotivation and #TestimonialTuesday are great for others searching through hashtags!

DAY 21: NEWSLETTER

Promote your newsletter! It’s always great to offer something for those who sign up! Maybe 15% off a service of a freebie download!

DAY 22: BEHIND THE SCENES

Take us behind the scene! This is especially great for those in the creative field! It’s refreshing to see HOW something is actually made!

DAY 23: YOUR CITY

Take us on a tour of your city! In the caption, you can provide some of your favorite places to shop, eat, and enjoy a good happy hour!

DAY 24: SUPPORT OTHERS

I am a sucker for accounts that support one another and I think businesses should do the same! Give a shout-out to another company, an Etsy shop or a local shop near you! Hey, they may even turn into a client.

DAY 25: ORGANIZATION TIP / TRICK

How do you stay organized? We are all looking for ways to better organize tasks and ourselves!

DAY 26: FAVORITE QUOTE

People can’t resist a good quote! Find something that resonates with you and your niche!

DAY 27: SHARE A RESOURCE

Share a resource! We all have them and there is nothing to be ashamed of! You can even ask your audience to share their favorites to get some more ideas for yourself!

DAY 28: CROSS PROMOTE YOUR NETWORKS

Take this time to encourage others to check out some of your other social media sites! Pinterest and Facebook are always good go-to networks!

DAY 29: #OOTD

Show off one of your favorite outfits! Maybe you just bought something new or are just bored with your same old office clothing. Take some time to dress up and show off! If you have a large company or team, show them off too!

DAY 30: SAYING THANK YOU

You should always find some time to thank your followers! They are supporting your virtually and financially! It’s always nice to show your appreciation!

Let us know below your favorite type of content to create!

If you would like help curating content specific to your industry, utilizing best practices- get in touch with our team!

5 Free Tools to Monitor your Competitors’ Digital Marketing Campaigns

Creating a holistic digital marketing strategy can take months.  Effectively executing the strategy after tweaks, minimal fails and multiple learning curves can take up to a year.  One stage often omitted from this important plan is monitoring competition.   Watching your competitors online holds unparalleled benefits such as identifying market opportunities, connecting with companies you should be cross promoting, back-link insight, social listening and more.

Monitor Online CompetitionHere are 5 Free Tools to monitor your competition:

  1. Google Alerts: One of the most underused tools, Google Alerts allows you to monitor the internet for “interesting content”. You can set up alerts for your industry keywords or even for mentions and articles on your competition.  Google alerts lets you customize the email reports you receive by how often you’d like the notifications, type of sources, the origin of source, and languages. Use alerts to drive trending content ideas and see how well your competition is doing with PR.
  2. Facebook Pages: Facebook offers page admins the opportunity to “watch” competitor Facebook pages. To add a competitor page, simply go to your page insights, scroll to the bottom and type in the name of the business you’d like to watch.  You can see the company’s follower growth, engagement and even the competitor’s top post from the past week.
  3. HootSuite: HootSuite is a simple social media publishing tool that also offers numerous in-platform apps to increase the overall user experience. One of the free apps, TrendSpottr enables you to set up multiple “streams” in your HootSuite to watch trending topics, keywords, brand reputation and even identify industry influencers.  HootSuite is also an excellent “social listening” tool for when potential customers are unhappy with the competition.  Below is an example of great social listening in action.  In this instance, I had tweeted dissatisfaction to Xfinity and within minutes received this tweet from their competitor: social listening example
  4. Alexa: Alexa is a brilliant tool that my company uses prior to working with any company to analyze their overall reach. It can also be used to analytically measure competition.  You can see how the competitor’s website ranks globally, what keyword searches are driving traffic to the site, which pages generate the highest engagement, and which sites link to the competitor’s site.
  5. SEM Rush: SEM Rush offers great analytical reporting on all aspects of digital marketing performance. With a free account, you can see how your competition ranks, the keywords that generate high traffic, and even view their AdWords and video ad campaigns.

Once you have all this data at your fingertips, it is time to utilize it wisely by crafting new campaigns.  Contact websites that link to your competitors to build new relationships, start focusing on keywords that drive heavy traffic to your competition’s site, avoid social media snafu’s that failed on your competitors’ platforms, and contact your competitor’s dissatisfied customers through social listening.

Employee Brand Ambassadors | Why and How

A couple of years ago, we posted an article on Word of Mouth Marketing https://popdigitalmarketing.com/word-mouth-marketing/.  The article explained the new wave of marketing tactics utilizing current “brand fans” through social media.

To reiterate, studies have shown that consumers are 65% more likely to choose a brand based on the recommendation of another customer or employee than buying from a brand based on an ad or company promotion.  Customers today rely on trust.  They trust other people, like them making every day decisions.  They trust people, not companies.

Benefits of an Employee Brand Ambassador Program

employee brand ambassadorBuilding your brand takes consistency, time and a strong brand strategy.  It also takes a strong community of fans.  Your employees play a fundamental role in promoting your brand.  If your company is listed as the employee’s workplace on Facebook, LinkedIn or other social media platform, each and every time your employee engages in anything, they are representing your company.  Once your brand strategy and brand promise have been developed, you must train your employees in what your brand story is.  What your company represents.  The problem your service or product solves.

Employee Silence is Loud

Your employees have the potential to expand your reach exponentially.  Silence speaks volumes.  If your employees never endorse your brand, that sends a very clear message to customers.  They don’t love it. They do not believe in it.  If your employees are engaged in and passionate about promoting your company, they will “sell”.   It makes people excited to be a part of something everybody loves.  It’s also great for recruitment.

How to Build Your Employee Ambassador Program

  1. Develop your brand. This is the backbone of your program.  You cannot continue until you have this set in stone.
  2. Train your team. Your entire company must learn, understand and believe in your brand.  If they do not, it may signal that you aren’t delivering your brand promise and need to re-evaluate either your brand promise or the process of your services/products.
  3. Choose an Ambassador Leader. The Ambassador Leader is someone in your company that loves everything about coming to work. They already show their ambassadorship, share your company news online, have a strong following online and are an “influencer” online and off.  This person does not need to be in your marketing department and can be at any level of management.
  4. Make the program optional. You only want people participating if they choose to. If it is forced on everyone, it will show.  The Ambassador Leader should assemble an Ambassador Team of employees that are excited to be a part of this new program.
  5. Set expectations. Make sure the program has very clear and easy guidelines.  The easier the program is to participate in, the more employees will want to join.   If you are using an ambassador management system, provide each participant with a tutorial.  If you are not using a system, make sure create your own standard process.
  6. Don’t write scripts…..but have materials ready. Allow each team member to promote the materials in his or her own words.  Again, we want to work off trust.  If customers see everyone writing the exact same script, it becomes an ad, not a genuine referral.   If you are not using an Ambassador system, you can use google docs to place all the types of content/materials you want promoted, and track employees’ efforts there.
  7. Lead by example. Don’t expect employees to be passionate about your brand if your top executives are not.  The leaders of your company do not necessarily need to participate in the program for rewards, but they absolutely should use the material to promote on across their various networks.
  8. Measure and Reward. Make sure you have a measuring system set.  Hashtags are an excellent tool for measuring.  Choose a specific hashtag such as “PopDigitalMarketinglife” and check it on a weekly basis.  Your Ambassador Program should provide rewards as well.  Rewards must be attainable and set on a short term basis (people like immediate results).  Rewards can range from praise and recognition, gift cards, group lunches to elaborate gifts.

5 Questions to ask when Building a New Website

Building a new website is a project many companies take on with excitement.  However, after countless hours of confusing proposals from web designers, the project can quickly turn tedious.  In order to ensure you are getting the most out of this endeavor, I have compiled a list of 5 important questions you should ask when interviewing potential website designers.

  1. What platform do you recommend for my business?

building a websiteThere are many different website building platforms out there and understanding which one your designer is most skilled in is very important.  More so, you want to know why they would recommend your site to be built on a specific platform.  If you work as a photographer, Square Space may be best for you. Whereas if you have high traffic online store, Drupal may be the top option as it has the highest rating for multiple users at a time.  WordPress works great for many CMS (Content Management Systems) needs and is usually Pop Digital Marketing’s “go-to” platform due to its versatility.

Your site should reflect the needs of your customer!  Not solely the expertise of the web-designer.  A web-designer must be well-versed in all the top options in order to best evaluate which one would fit the needs of your site while also assessing what type of online experience your customers are looking for.

  1. Does my package come with a responsive design?

A responsive design refers to a site providing an optimal viewing experience across a range of devices (computer, phone, tablet etc.) while minimizing the need to re-size words or navigations.  In April, 2015, Google began to boost ratings and positions of sites that had a responsive design.

In today’s world – you should not be charged extra for a mobile ready site.  Any theme created in the last 5 years is already made with a responsive design option and all custom designs should include that in the package.  Paying extra for a responsive site in 2017 is like paying extra for air-conditioning in a car after 1970.  The demand is that 100% of sites need it, therefore it should not be an optional “add on”.

  1. Will you be using a pre-made template or custom building one?

This question is important because the price between the two options varies immensely.  If your designer is using a pre-made template or a “theme”, it means they do not have to build the infrastructure of the site, rather they are just using modules or plugins to “fill the pieces in”.  If the designer is custom building the site, they are doing everything from the ground work up.

There are certainly pros and cons to both.  Overall, a pre-made template will cost you a lot less.  Using a pre-made template means updates are done by the theme designer- not your website designer, at no extra cost and requires little from your end.  If you have an employee on your team that can routinely press the update button on the site when prompted, this may be the best choice for you.

A pro to building your own custom site is that it is made exactly how you choose.  You do not feel constricted by what a theme can or cannot do.  A con to building a custom site however is you will likely have to pay your web designer an ongoing fee to maintain the site.  What if they go out of business or show a lack of responsiveness?  You do have to consider how a long term relationship will play out with this web designer.

  1. How will the site be optimized?

The whole goal of a website should be to attract leads and develop them into a customer.  If your site is not optimized from the backend with meta data to the front end with on page relevant keywords and call to actions, your site will fail you.

As a result of search engines now measuring on-site engagement in their rankings, you must also ask your designer what they plan for the “user experience”.  Will there be a user flow plan?  What actions do you anticipate the potential customer to take on each and every page and how will your site nurture their interest?

  1. Who will update it and how often?

It is important to understand the ongoing expectations before you sign any contracts.  If you have someone on your team that can manage the sit-e great!  If not, make sure to ask your website designer what type of retainer fees/programs they offer to maintain your site updates.

This will help you avoid the common issue of possessing a great website but not knowing how to add to or edit it.  Ask your designer to include an hour or two training session as part of your contract once the site is done, but before you go “live”.

5 Actionable Digital Marketing Resolutions For 2015

As we wrap up 2014, now is a prime time to look back at what successes we’ve had at work and where we may have room for improvement.  Many business leaders are projecting the next year’s potential growth along with strategies to increase business development.  While there are many known general methods to market a business, here is a list of 5 very specific actions you MUST take to stay ahead of the curve in 2015.

5 Specific Marketing Action Steps to Take in 2015:

marketing trends 20151. Use Facebook “custom audiences” for ads. Facebook has recently launched a new way to target your ads to your current contact lists.  You can import emails or phone numbers in the audience tab in ‘ads manager’.  Then when you create the ad, you can choose that custom group to show it to. 

Why it works: With Facebook targeting options you can narrow your ads even more by age, location, and interests.  This will increase click-through’s substantially as well as provide you with more options such as Facebook offers, deals and more to present to your interested lists that you could not otherwise through email. 

2. Build your personal brand on LinkedIn. Since rolling out the ability to post blogs and articles directly on the LinkedIn platform, many savvy leaders have begun to leverage their knowledge and expertise to further their personal and business brand awareness. Make sure your profile is updated and start planning the types of posts you can contribute on the largest business networking social media site. 

Why it works: When you post quality content on LinkedIn, you position yourself as a thought leader in your industry and build yourself a positive reputation with potential customers or referral sources.

3. Get on Google My Business. Google+ has been slowly creeping up on Facebook as the second largest social networking site since it launched in 2011. Google provides you with the platform to create a personal identity along with a business page, locations for your company and it all gets tied together under Google My Business.

Why it works: Having all these elements updated and posting relevant information to your page can actually help you rank higher!

4. Brand your visuals for Pinterest. Pinterest currently has 70 million users and that number is growing by the minute. People pin articles, blogs, websites, recipes, shopping, lifestyle dreams and work ideas onto their boards, and the one thing they see when searching the site is the visual associated with the content. Make sure that each piece of collateral you produce is branded well and also includes a quick catchy title.

Why it works: By placing your logo on all your visuals, you are expanding your reach to each and every person that searches for that topic on Pinterest.  When you place a CTA title on the visual, it will increase the clicks and provide viewers with a sense of motivation to read more.

5. Re-purpose your blogs. Pick 5 of your most popular 2014 blogs and expand on them.  Take those blogs and create a “part 2” for each. Or turn one into into a whitepaper or e-book. 

Why it works: By re-purposing your successful content that you already know is popular, highly searched for and engageable, you can collect leads and take potential customers further down your funnel.

2015 will bring us many new opportunities to build our audiences and see marketing success.  Which of these actions do you plan to implement into your strategy?

 

Facebook Updates Its Posting Preferences For Pages

If you manage a business page on Facebook, your life just got easier!

Facebook has officially rolled out a new posting feature which allows admins to effortlessly elect if he/she wants to post as the page or as him/herself through a more straightforward means.  Way back in the day (yesterday), in order to toggle between the two identities, one had to click on the settings in the upper right hand corner of the whole page and change who you wanted to post as.   This was a confusing process for many page managers.

Where to find the new posting settings:

Now, each and every page post has its own spot where you can click and choose if you want to post, comment, share or like as yourself or as your page. You can also choose to comment, like or share as any other page you currently manage.  See visual below for reference:

Facebook post preference

Ways to utilize the new Facebook posting preferences to your benefit:

  1. You can create momentum on your page posts a lot faster. You can now easily write a post as the page, and quickly switch to your own persona to comment on said post.
  2. You can connect pages you manage. If you are running multiple Facebook pages for industry related businesses, why not increase both company’s exposure and engagement by commenting on one’s post under the name of the other?  This is a sure way to increase the likes of both pages!
  3. You can comment on posts of pages you do not manage- as any of your pages! Go ahead and bring exposure to your page by posting effortlessly on bigger brands! All you have to do is click on the little gray page flag in the upper right corner of the post and choose the page you want to comment, like or share as. See below for an example.

coca cola facebook page

Follow Pop Digital Marketing on Facebook for more tips!

4 Wedding Traditions to use in your everyday Social Media Strategy

wedding traditions and social mediaWe have all heard of the wedding day traditions for wearing something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue.  Originating from an old English rhyme, the 4 items a bride carries with her is supposed to bring her good luck.  Transitioning into today’s digital age, we can actually leverage these 4 elements as a means of remembering some best practice strategies for top notch social media posts!

Post Something Old:

For the bride, something old represents continuity. Psychologically, people prefer to see social media posts they are comfortable with and they can relate to from their past.  This creates a sense of safeness.  This explains why so many people love the “Throw Back Thursday” picture phenomenon. A great tip: post something exciting about an employee that has been with the company from the beginning to give your prospects a sense of your company’s stability.

Post Something New:

For the bride, something new offers optimism for the future.  One the social media spectrum, posting something new positions your company as the thought leaders.  When you are the first to post the latest events, products or news in your industry, it is your post that will get widely shared, commented on and “liked”.  Furthermore, when you are posting about your company’s news and updates, you are demonstrating your company’s ability to provide top service or products by exposing its growth.

Post Something Borrowed:

For the bride, something borrowed symbolizes borrowed happiness.  When it comes to social media, you too should be borrowing happiness and success.  There is no need to re-invent the wheel.  When you see another company’s digital marketing campaigns working well, borrow their strategy! While it’s always ideal to be the first, it may not always be practical.  It is better to be on the right bus, even if you aren’t driving, than to not get on it at all.  Tip: borrow a post but put your own unique spin on it by adding a call to action or a different opinion!

Post Something Blue:

For the bride, something blue stands for purity, love and fidelity.  In social media we know that when a customer loves a post they become passionate to spread it.  Every once in a while, post something controversial to incite engagement.   Nothing attracts more shares and comments then the posts that hit a nerve, good or bad with followers!

Use these 4 tactics in your social media strategy to ascertain your commitment to your followers and with time they will say ‘I Do’ to your services!