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Pop Digital Marketing In Advertising, Blog, E-Marketing, Facebook, How to, LinkedIn, Marketing, , Tips

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.

Daniel Ackerman In Blog, How to, Instagram, , Tips

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 [email protected]

Daniel Ackerman In Blog, How to, Infographic, Marketing, , Tips

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!

Robyn Ackerman In Facebook, How to, Marketing,

Boosting a Facebook Post | Best Practices

Facebook offers a wonderful way to “boost” or “promote” your content by paying a bit extra money (as low as $5). This is separate from Facebook ads, which requires a higher level of online marketing expertise to generate success. Facebook has made it quite easy to set-up a boosted ad post which creates an attractive option to those not as skilled in online advertising to try out. I see a lot of small and medium sized business utilizing this tool lately, yet only about 1/3 of them are doing it correctly.

What is a “Post Boost”?

When your company page writes a status, shares a picture or uploads a video you are given the option to “boost” that post. See below for a visual on where the option is. Boosted posts will appear higher up on the newsfeed (note: not in the right ad column) to increase viewership.

Why you should Boost a Post?

By promoting or boosting a post, you are reaching more people. If you choose to have the post boosted, you can check a box to have it show up to people who like your page and their friends, or you can target it to anyone on facebook. You can target people based on location, age, gender and interests. This will guarantee your post is seen by those who find your business relevant.

What type of posts should be “Boosted” or “Promoted”?

First, it’s important to track your facebook insights to learn which content engages your fans. Those types of posts will perform the best as a promoted/boosted post.

Second, you have to strategically plan the desired goals and outcomes of this campaign. Are you trying to generate more likes on your page? Bring about greater brand awareness? Highlight a service or event? Generate traffic to your website? Knowing this in advance will ensure a higher return on the investment.

Currently, statistics show that boosting a facebook post works best for:

Increasing visits to your facebook business page
Creating awareness about events
Generating interest in online offers
Spreading updates and news
Contests or Sweepstakes

Best practices for boosting posts:

Make sure that the post you are paying to run has timely information. For example, do not boost a post that states a date in it: “It’s Wednesday, and we are giving away 5 free….”. By putting a date on it, anytime it runs after that day, people will ignore it.

Boost a post that generates “likes” and engagement. Don’t boost a post that requires no action from the viewer. Make sure there is a question to be answered, a page to be taken to with valuable information, or a hot topic to “like” or even disagree with. The more action (clicks, likes, shares) the post gets- the higher up it will go with Facebook EdgeRank.

Robyn Ackerman In Facebook, How to, Marketing, , Tips

What Facebook’s New Recommendation Tool Means For Your Company

In October 2016, Facebook rolled out a brand new option to ask for “recommendations” on your personal feed or in a group. Facebook automatically detects words like “I need a recommendation” or “I am looking for” and converts the post into a distinct “recommendation” post that now includes an active map.

Benefits of the Recommendation Rollout:

For the everyday Facebook user, the new rollout is a quick and easy way to poll one’s connections for nearby establishments offering the services they are looking for or events to attend. When a friend starts writing the name of the company they want to recommend, Facebook auto fills in the company page and will put a marker on the map above. It also provides quick links to that business page. Facebook is currently saving all this data to use in its next roll out of providing you with a tab of your friends’ current recommendations all in one place.
This is beneficial to your business because your customers are now able to easily promote your business to active seekers of your services! It also gives your company exposure to everyone else reading or active on the post. Your company is automatically linked, so you do not need to depend on the happy customer to copy and paste any website URLs which is a step often forgotten. Plus, if your Facebook page is set up using a CTA (Call To Action), the new visitors can convert immediately!

Potential Opportunities to Use it in the future:

As more companies build brand ambassador partnerships with happy customers, the new “recommendation tool” can be used as a simple and free tracking method. Once your page is mentioned, you will receive notification on who recommended you. Those insights will be key for rewarding your online referral sources.

Another impending future roll-out is rankings of places that receive recommendations. The more you get, Facebook will measure and eventually rank you in your industry with those numbers.

Robyn Ackerman In Facebook, How to, Marketing, , Tips

5 Key Tactics to Create Engagement on Facebook

Big brands and small brands alike all have similar goals on social media: To cultivate our online community, grow our followers and ultimately create a platform to convert new leads.

What is Facebook Engagement and why does it matter?

Many times our clients at Pop Digital Marketing ask why they should try and solicit responses, likes and shares on Facebook. Facebook Engagement Rate is measured by the percentage of people who saw a post (the reach) and liked, shared, clicked or commented on it. As a result of Facebook’s EdgeRank Algorithm, your page’s engagement rank will play a leading factor in which newsfeeds your posts get displayed in. So in short and simply put (there is a bit more to it), if people are not interacting with your posts, they will eventually stop seeing them.

5 Facebook Posts to Drive Engagement:

Contests. Create a fun contest that requires participants to comment or share the contest photo. Facebook has removed the contest requirement of using a third party application, so you can make this as simple as you want now! Facebook contests with the goal of increasing engagement also carry many other benefits if your team strategizes well. Over 38% of Facebook users are active in contests and when the rules are simple to follow that number goes up to over 52%.

What works: Try requiring followers to post a link to a product or service from your website to your page. This now increases web views and brings awareness to what you are selling.

Photos. According to Wishpond– Facebook photos attract 104% more comments than an average post. And while insights of engagement vary across different industries, there is a global statistic that engagement rates are higher on Thursdays and Fridays.

What Works: Right now, Throw Back Thursdays and Flash Back Fridays are driving many successful engagement campaigns. Another fun way to get people interacting with your photos is to ask followers to “caption” the photo. This creates “buy-in” from the followers and makes for a fun way to inspire creativity.

Ask for opinions. Let your followers know they matter. A powerful way to solicit comments are merely by asking. According to a hubspot study, the way you phrase your questions will determine the likelihood of response success.

What Works: Ask your fans a “Which would you rather” question about 2 new services you are contemplating offering. This will help with creating a sense of “ownership” and anticipation from your prospects. For more on generating comments, read this blog.

Fill in the blanks. Fill in the blank posts are another fun way to up your rankings. Use this opportunity to be light and even humorous!

What Works: While we generally post close to subjects regarding our business, fill in the blank posts can actually deter out of your industry zone. The more entertaining the post is, the higher the likelihood of generating responses. Tie it into the local weather, news or hot topic.

Like vs. Share. Like vs. Share posts are a nice little trick to utilize the draw of visuals while still extracting that opinion benefit mentioned above.

What Works: Post a picture/visual of two opposing sides (A and B) that people have strong views on and ask them like the picture if they want A to win or B to win. Note: This one won’t really give you qualified leads but is an easy way to increase your edgerank.

How to track engagement:

Using Facebook insights you can easily track each post and its success or lack of in generating engagement. It’s very important to track both your overall page engagement (how many people are clicking on your page and its tabs) as well as the individual posts engagement rates. Once you have at least 4 weeks’ worth of data, you can start creating campaigns based on what you know your audience responds to best!

Robyn Ackerman In Blog, Facebook, How to, Marketing,

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:

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

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.
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!
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.

Follow Pop Digital Marketing on Facebook for more tips!

Robyn Ackerman In Blog, Facebook, How to, LinkedIn, Marketing, , Tips, twitter

4 Wedding Traditions to use in your everyday Social Media Strategy

We 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!

Robyn Ackerman In Blog, Facebook, How to, Marketing,

Why your Company Needs a Weekly Tip on Social Media | 4 How-To Guided Steps

One of the first pieces of advice I give to new clients looking to increase engagement on Social Media is to create a monthly content strategy plan. Part of that plan involves creating a weekly tip to offer followers and fans.

The benefits of providing a weekly tip for followers include:

Positioning your business or brand as a thought leader.
Opening up dialogue for customers who may have questions about that topic.
Building trust with your followers and showing your expertise.
Learning what subjects your customers find popular through shares and likes and then turning them into blogs or e-books.
Increasing visibility on that subject with search engines (as they crawl and show public status updates with keywords relevant to search terms).
Keeping followers and fans coming back to your company page in anticipation for that weeks tip. This will in turn increase your post updates showing up in their feed.

4 tips to sharing tips on Social Media:

Pick a day of the week when your audience is likely online. You can see when they are online through Facebook insights, or timing + (which measures your google + fan activity).
Create an editorial calendar 6 months out (which is only 24 tips). Create a spreadsheet and include the month, date and time you plan on posting the tips. Add fields for topic, subject and content developer (if you have multiple experts in your company that will be contributing). Then add the field where the actual tip content belongs. The tip itself should be 2-3 sentences at most.
Hashtag your tip name. Prior to launching your tip strategy come up with a clever name that you can place at the beginning of each tip post. Examples are “Monday Marketing Tip” or “Tuesday Tips With Jon” or “Fridays Health Tips”. Keep it brand and industry appropriate and make sure it is relevant to what your customers would expect to see from you. Then Hashtag it so people can eventually search for and see all the previous tips by clicking on the hashtag. Example: #SocialMediaWeeklyTip.

Post by Pop Digital Marketing.
Create a visual of the tip. Hubspot launched a very successful 30 day blogging tip in which each day they provided a visual of a tip dealing with blogging. When you post a picture on any Social Media platform you increase the likelihood of the post getting shared and liked. You can also share the tip picture on Instagram and Pinterest!

For advice on launching or re-launching your company’s social media strategy, contact us here.

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