Developing a Joined Up Approach to your Social Media and Customer Communications
In this post I show how we use different tools and plugins for our different social platforms to let software services take some of the key pounding out of online publishing.
Here is my summary of our process and the tools we use. We're always interested to learn about new tools or other approaches, so let us know if you have other suggestions.
The diagram shows the approach we use on Smart Insights to support content sharing across the main social networks while minimising the resource needed. We aim to publish two to three posts daily as a target, balancing advice and updates on major developments in digital marketing. These are posted to our blog and then we use tagging of topics in different categories to surface the advice in…
Examples of social media workflow to review and respond to online comments about a brand
A while ago, I received this question by email, it describes a common concern of managing brand reputation given the growth in consumer comments in social media:
"I would be interested in any case studies or examples of controlling social media discussions, especially in a case of negative flow".
The questioner went on to explain that in her case, in the health sector, and many health and looks treatments etc. create a lot of social media input. Experiences, questions, complaints etc. Also, in some cases, competitors are creating negative posts. She explains that example is where companies have faced non-satisfied customers that are creating a lot of noise in social media.
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Example flowcharts for managing…
How Can You Harness Facebook’s Tremendous Advertising Power?
With over two billion monthly users, Facebook can give you access to thousands or even millions of members who may be interested in your products or services. The tricky part is figuring out how to use the platform and its unique targeting features to get the best results for your budget. While some aspects of Facebook advertising are fairly straightforward, others require a bit of trial and error before you can get them just right. Fortunately, we’re going to let you in on our own insights to help you avoid some common rookie mistakes. Even if you’re a veteran Facebook advertiser, you may be guilty of making some of the errors on this list. But don’t feel bad! It can all be fixed.
Rookie Mistake #1 - You Haven’t Clearly Defined Any Goals
This may seem elementary, but many rookie Facebook advertisers jump into…
How does social media compare to other channels for B2B Marketing?
Social media marketing might initially appear to be the sole preserve of the business-to-consumer (B2C) marketer. But according to this research into B2B Social media marketing by Omobono, not only can business-to-business (B2B) marketers benefit from social media, but it could be their most effective marketing channel of all.
In a survey of 115 marketing specialists in B2B roles, Omobono found that 79% rated social media as the most effective marketing channel, with 38% noting that if they had extra budget for next year, they would spend it on social media.
'The overall results show just how far B2B marketing has shifted away from broadcast media (owned or paid for) and towards social engagement,' notes Fran Brosan, Chair and Co-Founder of Omobono:
'Social media now comes out as the most powerfully effective…
Messenger apps have a bigger audience than social networks. Here is how to reach them.
Messenger apps are big. The top four messaging apps - Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat, and Viber - now claim nearly three billion monthly active users combined, which is more than the combined active users on the world's four largest social networks (source: BI.com).
Brands understand that one of the key ways of being increasingly relevant to customers is to be where they are; more specifically, communicate where their customers communicate. This of course was a key reason why many early-mover brands began to shift budgets away from TV and towards social networks. Fast forward to 2017, and being ‘where your customers are’ means focusing on one-to-one chat apps like Facebook Messenger and China’s WeChat. Indeed, in terms of the latter, users can not only use the app…
3 examples demonstrating the benefits of social listening for financial services
In a decade, social media has gone from somewhere we share photos of our cat, rant about politics, get passionate about sport, and learn how to use eyeliner - to a vital part of a company’s marketing strategy (although there are still a lot of cats).
While most industries jumped on board, according to Marketo, the Financial Services Industry (FSI) is still falling short.
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This post targets the finance sector, but, the real-life scenarios and advice apply to any industry. Take a look!
Where are Users Talking?
In general, the finance sector does at least have a presence on social media. But, it’s not engaging with its audience, so it’s wasting its time.
74% of consumers use social media to guide…
Our recommendations and reviews on email marketing broadcast software options
Since I delivered one of the first training courses on Email marketing in 2001, I have regularly been asked for recommendations for affordable E-mail broadcast software packages for Email marketing and sending Enewsletters. Today, email services are far more sophisticated when I first became involved with Email marketing 15+ years ago. The main changes are:
All Email services have some features of Marketing Automation including dynamic content, automated email sequences based on actions and lead-scoring scoring based on content interacted with (particularly important for B2B Email marketing)
Many email services are now part of broader 'Marketing Cloud services' particularly relevant for larger businesses. These are covered in our enterprise marketing cloud review
This post highlights some of the options for businesses of different sizes that are most commonly used in the UK and delegates on my E-mail marketing courses have recommended to…
Understanding how GA 'UTM' values can give you more insight into your social media marketing
There are some key questions every marketer should ask of any social media initiative... Is anyone actually listening? How are they interacting and what are the business outcomes? To answer the last question on how social media links back to leads and sales on a business website, Google Analytics and using UTM values for campaign tracking are a vital, but often missing ingredient which we explain in the new CommuniGator social media measurement whitepaper.
This form of media has now become an integral part of our lives and continues to evolve. A few years ago the emphasis was on B2B companies being active and creating pages on sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter… now the conversation has swung and is moving towards the idea that every marketing campaign must be social.…
Can Handwritten Communication be relevant The Digital Age?
Social network usage is growing at an unprecedented rate. With the number of worldwide social networking users expected to reach 2.5 billion by 2018, around one third of the Earth’s entire population, Skype, email and text exchanges have become commonplace. However with this comes an influx of digital marketing; of spam-like emails and mailing lists, which head straight to junk or delete. It is, therefore, becoming recognised that perhaps this is not the best way for companies to market their products. Statistics show that 95% of emails are never even opened. Does this suggest that handwritten marketing communication is making a comeback?
Past: Internet Marketing and its Issues
Since the beginning of the digital age, the internet has been exploited by companies who are looking to project their service or product to the world. It is a simple way by which businesses can reach out to…
Research shows how PR specialists use social networks
This new Social PR Survey, including data from the Social Journalism Study shows how important social media is to PR Specialists. So how are PRs using social media? Is it to post their own content, repost content, monitor brands, engage with the media or join in conversations? As you'd expect, it's popular with more than 2/3 using social media on a daily basis. This report shows how it breaks down.
So, how active are PR Professionals who are using social media?
As expected, reasons for using social media include promoting their own content (74%) and a secondary goal is to reach out to the media.
The most used platforms when using Social Media for PR?
In terms of the preferred platforms, they primarily promote their content across Facebook and Twitter, with the latter…
