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Use Facebook’s Newsfeed to Your Advantage
Why Facebook?
Using social media as an internet marketing strategy is an effective way to increase “word-of mouth,” or friend to friend recommendation, of a brand while also building valuable links to the brand’s website.
Currently, Facebook leads social media sites with over 800 million users. About 75% of Facebook users “like” brands on Facebook, and 30% of Facebook users use it as a platform to share reviews and news of the companies. People are more likely to buy a product or recommend it to a friend after becoming a Facebook fan of the brand.
Facebook has recently made changes that could help small businesses to gain customers and leads through social media interaction on Facebook. Changes applied in September to the Newsfeed have positively impacted the visibility of posts and shared material. The latest newsfeed is a hybrid combining “Top News” with “Recent Stories”.
Implications of Newsfeed Changes
This hybrid Newsfeed has changed the way the users interact with posts. In the month since these updates were made, impressions per posts have gone down, while amount of “likes” and comments have increased. This is because the newsfeed prioritizes pages that are most interacted with; posts that are the most engaging with the most “likes” and comments have gone to the top of the list while less engaging content goes to bottom. Posts are also spending less time on the newsfeed. The more engaging a post, the more people will see it. However, most people will see a post only once in their newsfeed. This means that status updates, even the most engaging and shareable, are spending less time on an individual newsfeed.
Pointers to Increase Visibility
In light of the changes with the Facebook newsfeed, there are two strategies you can use to increase interactions of users with your brand.
First, create engaging and shareable content to promote friend recommendations and word-of-mouth advertising. One way to achieve this is by giving incentives for interactions. Examples of this is creating contests or discounts for “likes” of a product or brand. This has been shown to increase repeated engagements from individual users and increase “fans” of a page.
Second, to compensate for the decrease in total visibility of posts, increase the amount and frequency of posts. This includes increased responses and interaction with users posting on your page.
Finally, reap the rewards of your efforts. Remember, Facebook’s achievement of over 800 million active users really speaks volumes about how people are using the internet and the vital role social media sites are playing. Social media marketing presents a golden opportunity to grow brand recognition and loyalty in a way never before possible. Take advantage of this opportunity!
Is Social Media Really Necessary?
Most analysts agree that 2010 was the year that social media finally became a force in the business world. Now in 2011, it is fast becoming the “must do” on the list of marketing strategies in order for a company to avoid getting left behind in the online world. And, when you consider that most people no longer use the yellow pages to find a business, getting left behind in the online world can just mean your business is left behind period.
Social Media Marketing Basics
Put in simple terms, social media marketing is the act of creating a page for your brand on social media networking sites to promote your website, services, and products. Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn allow individuals to create personal or business pages to connect with friends or customers online. Through building a presence on social media sites, your business is positioned in the light of “friend” rather than just another “ad” that is quickly ignored.
Social media marketing is, above all, about the soft sell. This is extremely important to understand when building a social media campaign. Blatant advertising mixed with a constant stream of links straight back to your site can be viewed as spam in a social media environment and cause you to lose followers. Successful social media marketing is more the art of creating interest and conversation which then leads potential clients into completing a desired action.
A successful social media campaign must strike the right balance between conversation and advertising.
Create Interest & Trust In Your Brand
Reports show that people are much more likely to trust a friend’s recommendation when choosing products or services. This holds true online as well. An effective social media campaign results in followers linking back to your website and sharing your site with their “friends” through their social media accounts. The links gained through social media also provide an added bonus in how search engines value and rank your website. The links gained through social media are akin to votes in favor of your website and send a strong signal to search engines that your website is trusted.
One of the best ways to drum up sales is to get people to recommend your services or products to their their social network. Effective social media campaigns create the online version of “word-of-mouth” advertising while providing a convenient central hub to spark interest in products, services, and other topics related to your business.
Social Media & Viral Marketing
The hot words in advertising today are “gone viral.” If an advertisement or promotion has “gone viral,” it means that people are talking about it all around the web, all around the world. Social media facilitates this “viral” process because people can share links to your company’s videos, articles, pictures, or promotions with their social network. If you create something that strikes a chord in people, they will likely forward it on to their friends, who forward it on to their friends, and so on.
While the concept of social media marketing is very easy to grasp, actually launching and managing a successful social media campaign can prove to be a difficult and time consuming task. Effective social media marketing requires strategic planning, the right tools, the right voice and an understanding of the nature of the market.
Clickbrand is full service internet marketing agency providing search engine optimization, pay-per-click, and social media campaigns tailored to the individual needs of each business. Contact Clickbrand today for a FREE quote tailored to fit your social media marketing needs.
Search Engine Optimization Basics
The majority of people have made one of the “big three” search engines (Google, Yahoo!, and Bing) their main portal to search for products and services on the Web. And, people who are not using one of the “big three” search engines, are still likely carrying out their searches online via another search engine.
The search engines use algorithms to determine the value of a website which determines where the site will show in search results. For this reason, any seasoned veteran of online marketing will tell you the first step in creating a successful website is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This consists of a variety of techniques applied to your website to help ensure the site is indexed by search engines and ranks well in organic search results.
SEO Technique #1: Keyword Optimization
An important SEO technique involves making sure you use “the right” keywords in your website. Keywords are defined as the terms people enter into the search box on search engines to find products or services.
a) Keywords relating to products or services offered on the website.
b) Keywords that have a favorable search volume to competition ratio.
The search to competition ratio can be determined through a comprehensive keyword analysis. Once the optimal keywords have been identified, they are then implemented into URLs, meta tags, titles, content, and links throughout the website. Keep in mind that it is important to use keywords appropriately. Over-use of keywords, or “keyword stuffing”, is frowned upon and can negatively impact search rankings.
SEO Technique #2: Meta tags
Meta tags include the meta title, meta keywords, meta description, and alt tags. Meta tags need to be filled out correctly and placed in the source code for each page of your website. Search engines “read” your site differently from human beings. Properly filled out meta tags tell search engines what each page is about and provides the title and description that normally appears in the organic search results for an individual page.
If these tags are not filled out properly, you are taking a gamble that the search engines will “know” what each page is about, which search terms are most relevant, and will provide a good description of your site’s page in the organic search results. Leaving these tags blank often means fewer pages are properly indexed with poor descriptions showing in search results.
SEO Technique #3: Quality Links
Search engine optimization is, in some ways, a popularity contest. Search engines place a fair amount of weight on high quality links back to your website. High quality links are links coming from trusted sites as determined by search engines. It is important to implement a good link building strategy for your website as these links are similar to votes for your site to the search engines. The more votes your site has from other trusted sites, the more trusted your site will be. This affects how your site ranks in search engine results.
Gain Online Success
The above three techniques are really just the basics, there are many SEO tools to help you gain an edge in your online marketing efforts. The Web is an ever-growing and ever-changing landscape. Unless you know how to get your site on the coveted first page, someone else will take that spot right out from under you. Implementing strategic SEO techniques is just one of many important steps to achieving online success.
Clickbrand is full service internet marketing agency providing search engine optimization, pay per click, and social media services tailored to the individual needs of each business. Contact Clickbrand today for a free custom quote to fit your SEO needs.
The Art of Photography in Web Design
Browse through some websites currently out there and you might notice that photography dominates as the main artwork on many website designs. As a web designer, it would be great to hire a professional photographer and get exactly what is wanted and needed for a web design. In reality however, this scenario is not very likely. Fortunately, there are some great alternatives and resources to turn to.
Here is a quick summary of the different factors that influence what, where, and how to choose photography for a web design project.
Print vs. Web
Most web designers start out creating a photoshop document with the size intended to fit universally with all screen dimensions. However, print designers, literally design on a whole other scale. Photoshop is a program that shares compatibility useful for both the Web and Print documents. The two are unique forms of design that cross paths every now and then, but definitely have their distinguished members of the family. Below I am going to illustrate the main attributes of both and point out their differences. Read the rest of this entry »
Unleashing the Full Potential of Email Design
A common misconception about Email Design is assuming that it is just like Web Design. It is important to remember that while emails can utilize HTML and CSS features, it certainly does not function like a website. With an email, there is limited space and restrictions that you are allowed to work with, so your design must make the best use of these limitations.
iMLost without my iPhone. Navigation applications are being exerted as “must haves” in every day life.
Have you ever went a day without electricity? I bet not. Try it. Should be interesting. Well, iPhone dependence is becoming more and more common every day. There are so many applications out there that appear to be so helpful, it’s hard to think what you would do without it.
The iPhone can now be used as your very own GPS. GPS systems started out at $900 a piece when they first came out. Now they are going down in price. Who needs a GPS, when you can download an app. to get around on your iPhone for as low as $0.99! The iPhone is now being looked at as the All-In-One, helpful tool. Heck you can even use the thing as a level to put up a picture on the wall! Yeah, you have the internet to get you to Map Quest from your phone but that takes five-thousand extra steps, so why not get something customized for your phone and your patience.
Again, another new piece of technology, which started out being an auxiliary, is now a necessity for people who are highly adaptive to convenience.
Basics of Managing a PPC Campaign
Prepping for a Project: Utilizing Moodboards
At clickbrand, we like to use mood boards as often as we can. Mood boards are a great way to jump start the design process and help define the structures and goals of a project. It sets the tone, style, and overall feel of the design early on, without being convoluted with thoughts about the layout and architecture of the site. Often times, clients are unsure of what they want exactly, which leaves a project with many diverse concepts and ambiguous solutions. To design something based on these loose criteria would have a higher probability to result in something that the client might not be completely satisfied with. Read the rest of this entry »
TNS. Type Nerd’s Society. Where being a nerd is accepted! Period.
Is it real? Could it be? No, really?! Come on, you know you want to know more about typography! Typography is a very enticing and intriguing subject! Trust me you will be hooked after reading and viewing this entry!
I bet you never met someone so in love with typography? Well, I will try and make this short and sweet and show you lots of examples but bare with me 
! Read the rest of this entry »
