social media strategy

Five Step Plan for Social Media Success

If you own a small or medium business and are considering jumping into social media marketing, then this is the place to begin. Even if you are a larger, more established organization, your strategy may not be going as well as you had hoped. Regardless of the situation or success, it is good to periodically step back and evaluate your social media efforts to see if it is working as well as it could be!

Identify Your Audience

If you have had your business up and running for a time, I hope that you have a good idea of whom your target audience is. It is imperative to understand your specific current customer base. If your marketing demographic is not the same as who was targeted then it is time to revisit your business and marketing plan or possibly rework your product.

Demographics can be segmented into several markets so an organization can accurately target its consumers. A marketing demographic is segmented by age, gender, and income level. Other demographic factors that may affect a strategy are race, religion, family size, ethnicity, and education.

Selecting the Right Channels

Often, small business owners want to be on all social channels without really understanding the resources (time, content creation, and money) required for success on each platform. For organizations that are just starting out, it is best to select one or two social media channels and master them first. One of these should be Facebook. Although that sounds like a contradiction to the above blurb about knowing your audience, the reach of Facebook cannot be ignored. It is the largest social media channel. Even if you know your target audience lives on Instagram or Snapchat, be sure include Facebook business page in the strategy.

Set goals!

After selecting the social media channels, it is imperative to set goals. Be sure that everyone involved, understands these goals and receives benchmark reports. An example goal is of want to gain 1000 followers on Facebook within the next 60 days. Each goal is set for a specific platform and is measurable.

Goals can include:

Increase brand awareness
Sell from social media
Increase website visits
Increase engagement with content

Jumping straight to “sell 100 widgets in the next 20 days” is not likely to be an achievable goal unless you invented the next internet sensation. It is possible to work toward multiple goals simultaneously. For example, you may be building up a following on Instagram while also working on increasing engagement. Revisit your goals at least monthly. Revise them up or down depending on results. As your marketing strategy grows, there will be goals for every piece of content in addition to those set for the channel!

Profile and Branding

Each social channel has a set amount of space for a textual description related to your business. Each social profile has a profile image that appears at the top of the profile and next to comments and posts, in a smaller format. Most social channels also have space for a large banner or ”cover image” which is rather prominent. Be sure these elements are kept up-to-date. Images should represent the brand with clear images. A short mission statement or call-to-action is permissible on all social channels on the banner images.

Your social profile images may be a consumer’s first impression. Be sure profiles are on-brand at all times. Don’t just set and forget them either. Freshen up social media account images to keep things lively!

Measure

You’ve set goals and are on your way to developing a content strategy. Establish how you are going to measure those goals set up in the beginning! Some content is easier to track than others are. I have done workshops and videos on tracking the return on investment in social media. It is possible! Tagging links where possible is the easiest and best way to track. Setup ecommerce conversion in Google Analytics or other stats package. Some channels like Instagram and Snapchat are much more difficult to track ROI. You may have to promo codes and measure lift.

Productivity

Visit the metrony YouTube channel for productivity hacks and the actual tools used every day!

Social Media Strategy for Unsexy Businesses

by Admin

Is Your Business Too Boring for Social media?

Travel, beauty, fashion, tech and food are all easy topics to work into a social media strategy. These industries are naturally popular because of their broad appeal. IN addition, they are ALL easy to represent in photographs. Who doesn’t love to sift through travel photos and dream of new destinations?

Not all businesses are as easy to promote on social media. Many B2B brands are a challenge. Think of your paper for your photocopier, the company that manufactures contact lenses or other products and services. Lately, I have heard these labeled as boring or even unsexy!

Last year during a webinar about social media audits, an attendee asked about his “unsexy” business. He wanted to know what sort of content he could use. He was convinced his family-owned moving company could never be successful on social.

A social media marketing strategy for unsexy businesses is indeed challenging, but it is not impossible. The moving company is actually easy to work with on social. The owner just needed to expand his thinking and remember all the reasons why his company is helpful to their clients. Almost everyone moves at least once in their life, even if is just a temporary move to a college dorm. Not everyone uses a moving service, but they all have the same concerns and needs.

This same philosophy applies to any marketing campaign no matter if it is boring or sexy! Think about your brand’s mission, purpose, and value proposition. What is it that keeps you in business? How is your company or product better than the competition?

A so-called boring business can draw on all types of content that is useful to their potential customers. The moving company should emphasize that it is family owned and why that is an advantage over a national chain. They can convey this through blog posts. Address movers’ concerns and incorporate it into your marketing and social media plan.

These are perfect for photos and video content. Show the potential client how to pack, talk about selecting a good neighborhood for that suits their needs, remind them about insurance, point out nearby transportation and local schools. Obviously the helpful staff, clean moving vans, and happy customers all make for good content.

On January 15, I will be speaking about boring businesses at Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas. I have some case studies of large corporations including a famous municipality, truck parts, and taxes! What is more boring than taxes? Actually, I can name a few genres!

I hope to see you at Affiliate Summit West 2017.

Best Social Media Post Image Sizes

by Admin

Best Social Media Post Image Sizes

It is important to use the best social media post image sizes for your brand’s presence on the right social channel. Using an optimized image increases the likelihood of user engagement with your social post. Users are more likely to see your post on Facebook when you upload a photo or video. Twitter users are more likely to retweet or click on your post when it includes a photo.

Yesterday I wrote about optimizing social media profile images. The best sizes to use for social media profile images and the best sizes to use for social media banner images are listed in chart. They do change as the social sites update and improve themselves, so be sure to stay on top of updated information. Your social media profile photo is the image you should be sure looks great on all social channels! Put simply it is the one followers will see most often.

However, as important as the profile photos are, it is also important to optimize each social media post image. In my talk at Affiliate Summit West on How to Optimize Social Media Profile Images, I covered to best sizes to use for a post on each of nine major social platforms. A few of them use an aspect ratio that is close to that on another site. An aspect ratio of 2:1 is workable for Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram but remember we want to use large images! One way to save time and effort is to use the same photo on several social sites. The 2:1 aspect ratio photo is one way to do that.

Below is a chart with the ideal sizes for optimizing social media images.

Recommended Social Post Image Sizes

	Post	Aspect Ratio
Facebook	Acceptable: 720 x 720
	Use: 1200 x 627 (1200 x 1200)	1.91:1
Instagram	1080 x 1080 (scaled to 640 x 640)	1.91:1 to 4:5
LinkedIn	Use: 530 x 400 (1200 x 1200)
Google+	Acceptable: 500 x 500
	Use: 1000 x 1500	2:3
Pinterest	Min: 236 (in-stream pin) / 222 (small view)	—
	Use: 736 x unlimited	2:3 = more repins
Twitter	Min: 440 x 220	2:1
	Use: 1024 x 512	—
YouTube	HD 1280 x 720	16:9

Which Images to Optimize for Social Media Sharing

by Admin

Best Images to Optimize Images for Social Media Sharing

Next month I am speaking at Affiliate Summit 2016 in Las Vegas, which is a semi-annual marketing conference. My session is called, “How to Optimize Images for Social Media Sharing.” Optimizing images for for social media is very important for your social media strategy as well as your search engine optimization (SEO) plan. Even if you do not have a formal SEO plan, it is still a good idea to at least be mindful of you image file sizes so you do not inadvertently slow down the load speed of you web page(s). Load speed is a Google ranking factor.

There are three “homes” for social media images. They are:

Social post images
Social profile images
Website images

Each one needs to be optimized. All three are important to your marketing plan.

Posts with photos, links, check-ins, and videos we save on social media newsfeeds and streams are the images most people think of these images when talking optimization. We have to be careful because each social site has a particular range of sizes that are optimal. The ideal image sizes can be found in my social media post image size guide.

Most social sites have both a profile (small) photo and a larger banner image at the top of the social account. Here is a link to my metrony.com Facebook account. Facebook calls the large banner image, a “cover photo.” metrony YouTube does not have a profile images. Pintalk Pinterest does not have the banner image.

Social profile and banners are another set of images that are also important for optimizing. Many do not consider this when they think of optimization, but your profile photos deliver a critical first impression of you. Social profile photos users a lot about what your business. Be sure that the profile photo and other page elements (like a follow button) do not block anything important on the cover photo.

Remember that old saying? You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Well, it is true, sort of. The great part of being online is we can change up content and images as often as we like. When we get a better headshot, we can change our profile photos too. If your social profile photos do not tell users what you do, sell, or stand for, the consider replacing them and get some professional photography or graphic artist help if needed!

Your website is also part of the optimizing for social media plan. Although you have little control over what your readers share online as user-generated content, you can at least encourage them to share good quality images from your website. Include an image in portrait (taller than it is wide) and landscape (wider than it is tall) layout on each page. This gives the user the ability to share an image appropriate for the layout of the social site.