Lesser Known Options for Social Media Content Marketing

Be it Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, social networking sites are loaded with features and options for Social Media Content marketing, which marketers are aware about only by a hair's breadth. Particularly talking about Facebook, Instant Articles is one such feature.

Launched on April 13^th, 2016, Instant Articles is a great platform for sharing the information in a way that returns you greatest engagements, sharability and interaction; because the audience need specific news!

We all know how encumbered and weighted down social media is becoming with bountiful articles and news stories, many of which are off-topic, many not so shareable. With Instant Articles sign up, audience gets the access to filtered news and articles, exactly what they want to read about and presented in a way that makes them less likely to be abandoned and more likely to get shared.

What Makes Instant Articles News? 

Swiftness and Responsiveness

Instant Articles leverages on the same Facebook’s photo and video sharing technology that loads the articles in news feed instantly. You can upload an Instant Article 10x faster than the ordinary web articles.

Instant articles are on an average, 20 % more read and seen than standard articles. What’s more, the risk of getting dumped by audience and readers is significantly reduced by 70% if your articles is uploaded using Instant Article.

Interactive 3D imaging

Visual aspect cannot be ignored, whether it is a Facebook post or an article. With Instant Articles, you get access to immersive platform that generates 3-dimensional images for better response and interaction. Storytelling on social media becomes as easy as bedtime story for a toddler with the creative tools.

Engaging and More Sharable

Apart from the swiftness, immersive images and by and large reading experience makes these articles 30% more sharable on social media than an average web article. When you are more often seen in the news feed, not expecting engaging sounds silly.

Audience Control Lever

Instant Articles becomes your audience control lever that lets you reach their news feed in an insane way. It has a wide network and you can choose the audience you exactly want to reach out to. 100% revenue on direct sold ads on your articles opens a new window for revenue generation. Your company gets another branding feather with your instant articles handle.

Quantifiable Tool

You can measure and track the performance of your published instant articles with the help of Facebook analytics as well as your personal analytics tool. From overall traffic boost and analyzing real-time traffic reading currently to embedded cookies for fetching reader interest as well as relevant ad display- Instant Articles is a well-calculated tool for business promotion and revenue generation.

Import Used Content

Developers can import the previous articles from the CMS directly to Instant Articles with the help of a third party publishing tool or plugin. So if they didn’t read back then, rest assured for a souring number of reach and engagement this time.

How to Create a Perfect Social Media Marketing Schedule

Stop! It may not be the right word to begin the post, but it’s high time we really check on you from scrambling the content from hither and thither and simply updating your social media pages because you know this is the only free time you got to finish this off. You cannot finish off marketing in this way; instead, you need a steady plan, an effective strategy and a well-researched schedule to work on.

Here we have some elements that really make your social marketing an effective initiative to build your reputation and boost your business without devoting a great deal of time:

#1 A Formula That Works

Ever heard of 4-1-1? No, it’s not the information or directory number! It’s the content sharing ratio most acceptable across social media channels. After sharing 4 updates of relevant and useful content from others on your business page, you should post a self serving update about yourself or your company. You can use a social mediacontent marketing management tool to schedule your posts in this ratio. Once you’ve set the schedule, your tool will automatically pick saved updates from the library and post in the scheduled ratio on your behalf.

#2 Create Categories

Categories, themes or topics help you assemble the work and organize your posts in the most effective manner. Make a category wise schedule and decide how often you want to post about each topic. For more details about the ratio that works for the content curation and sharing, keep reading.

#3 The Right Content, Not Left

What do you share on social media most often? If there are quotes from marketing gurus and inspirational words from the business tycoons, let’s reconsider what’s right content. You can post text, images, links, quotes, reshares and a combination of 2-3 types of content. Maintain the 4:1 ratio with 1 unique post after every 4 regular posts.

#4 When to Post

While everyday is a good day for Facebook but between 1 PM to 4 PM, schedule your posts on Twitter between Mondays to Thursdays around lunch time. Fridays are only good for TGIF kinda posts. Mondays are just too hectic for professionals to check social updates, for maximum LinkedIn engagement, schedule your posts between Tuesdays and Thursdays.

#5 Consider Special Days

Holidays, product launches, corporate events, breaking news and season’s greetings certainly deserve a special mention on social media. Do not let your social pages let completely, robotically towing the line and stringently following the schedule. Pepper some interesting posts to break the monotony on a complete corporate ambiance.

You can create a marketing schedule using PDFs, Google Docs, Excel sheets or Google Calendar, but the best way to do it is through a profession social media management tool that is solely designed to suit social media marketing needs. Not only are you able to link all your social accounts tone platform, you also get smart social updates suggestions for times when you cannot think of something unique to share.

The 5 Biggest Facebook New Features That Your Business Can Benefit From

Facebook has always been a social media giant. With massive market capturing in the shortest span of time, and revolutionary features, the social media site has become the most well- widely used network. With the culture of not letting users get accustomed to the ruts, Facebook continuously keeps bringing around changes and new features. If you are not aware of them, you soon get out of the league. Here are the latest, the biggest new features on Facebook this quarter that you must update yourselves to.

   1. Facebook Live Video

Without the need of an additional app, Facebook lets all its users to update status with a live video. It’s interesting, engaging and really quick. Initially limited to users with verified business pages and public figures only though, Facebook live is now open for all accounts and is surely going to make it big for small businesses. Expect a much higher engagement once you roll out live videos on your Facebook profile and business page status.

     2. Better Search

No, it’s not a feature per se, but a wonderful update. Facebook now has its own search engine after dumping Bing all together after lots of news and hype although. Enjoy personalized search, enhanced search across public profiles and of course improved intelligence.

     3. Sell On Facebook

Did Facebook ask you yet “What are you selling?” yet? Sell on Facebook is a great great feature for businesses as well as service sector as you can post on your status about your product along with its description, picture, location and price. Looking at Facebook’s reach across the globe, you think we’d need e-commerce sites anymore? Doubtful, it is!

     4. Instant Articles

Limited to iOS 8 users alone in the beginning, Instant Articles is a wonderful feature now available on Android too. This lets you create interactive stories in a jiffy. You just need a Facebook page to be there, that’s all. You can directly import your articles to Facebook with the help of a third party plugin. When you select an article for Facebook Instant Articles, Fb users can instantly browse your entire article with formatting intact, through the regular Facebook app. You will love it.

     5. Facebook Professional Services

   

Another giant update that can change the way people do business online- Facebook professional services can altogether replace the popular sites like Google My Business and Yelp. This helps users find a business on Facebook and small businesses can benefit from this local search. Without a signup fee, this service can become the next big thing around in the local search niche. If you have a business page on Facebook, update business location, use keywords, improve the overall engagement on your page using an effective social media content management tool and expect your page to reach the top of the pile in no time.

Looking for new features on Twitter? Stay updated, we’re just whipping it up for you.

How to Use Twitter to Drive Traffic to Your Blog

If you haven’t mastered Twitter yet, odds are, that you will hesitate to plunge in the pool considering Twitter has already become a noisy place with experts from all fields already capturing the audience. The truth is, it’s never too late to plunge in, especially, if you are ready to learn some diving skills before. Twitter can become your favourite arena soon, if you know what it really takes to grab the attention of your twitter followers and drive traffic to your blog from this microblogging site. So let’s get started with some cool tips on how to use Twitter to drive traffic to your blog.

• Be Precise

Even though Twitter has extended a hand by not counting images, links in the 140 character count for each tweet, the platform is still popular for exactitude. Be short, precise and crisp in all your posts and do not aim to use the entire word count limit. Short is cool.

• Get Graphic

Probably many Twitter users forget Twitter isn’t just about words. While words help you in tweeting and chirping alone, images can shout out loud! Use images, graphics and GIFs and double the engagement potential of your tweet.

• Use Teasers

Forget that old school précis writing and fill your tweet space with some teasers. Do not reveal the story with the book cover; let the audience click to read what’s actually inside your blog. Be creative with the teasers you create because this can have more misses than hits, but it’s still worth it.

• Snoop a Bit

What are your neighboring businesses and competitors doing? There are many blogs and businesses that can complement you, your blog/website or business. You can create a group promotion if you can join hands with them. Keep a watch and change your twitter strategy accordingly, and ensure you’re the best, because you really are!

• Follow Others

When you follow popular Twitter users and users related to your industry, you get an access to their followers and people they follow. If you tweet on their status, you get viewed. If you retweet their posts, you get viewed again. If you can engage with their followers, there’s nothing like it. More power to you! 

• Use Twitter Ads 
  

Twitter has a geo-targeting feature that can ensure your ad is visible to only people you want it to. Apart from their geographical location, you can also choose their age group, gender, occupation, income bracket, behavior, language and interests. So if you don’t mind spending a few coins, go for Twitter ads.

Manage your Twitter presence and drive traffic to your blog with a socialmedia content marketing tool - SmartlyPost. Its free forever*.

10 Golden Rules of Social Media Marketing

Get prepared for no matter what sabotage may be tossed your way, with these Golden rules of social media marketing that will give you a leverage above your competitors to capture the potential audience without even letting them know. Although they say no marketing is bad marketing, but we all know a few wrong marketing moves can do more harm than good. So stick around these golden rules and play safe.

Golden Rule #10 | Offer What They Want

Besides information about your product or service, the audience also wants the overall knowledge about the industrial scenario. Be it a lifestyle website with tangy celebrity gossips, a health care service sharing healthy tips or an e-commerce website with latest deals, discounts and freebies – always share knowledge with the consumer and draw them to ‘buy now’ slowly. Use infographics, videos and free webinars as important and interesting tools for knowledge sharing.

Knowledge sharing is a low cost investment, a high value commodity for your followers and it significantly builds your brand value and authority.

Golden Rule #9 | Calm Down

Call to action phrases like ‘Hurry’, ‘offer only till stock lasts’ and ‘last call’ etc dilute the attention of the audience and sometimes make them assure they’ve lost it. Calm down and draw your followers to ‘buy now’ leisurely. Hard core marketing is often repellent to buyers.

Golden Rule #8 | Show You Care

Sharing informative does show you care, but that’s not enough. Respond to comments, queries and feedback gracefully, support a cause, reward the loyal customers and build a community.

Golden Rule #7 | Try Out Stuff

All hard-and-fast formulas do not work in marketing. Social media is a chemistry set-up for digital marketers. Get experimental and try out new stuff. Get weird, get creative, and stop thinking ‘what if’, lose yourself; it’s okay sometimes.

Golden Rule #6 | Keep Learning

Education for marketers never ends. Stability and uniformity are so 2005. Every so often a new trend churns up, leaving those who don’t learn- diffident. Don’t be that ‘once hero’; maintain your strengths by learning new stuff, getting updated with technology and the latest marketing lingo.

Golden Rule #5 | Connect More

Add more and more connections to your social media accounts and stay regular with your posts and updates. Even if you have a massive number of followers on your business page, your potential customers are declining. Keep your social media pages regularly updated, you can also make use of social media management tool for regularity and invite more people to like and follow your pages across various social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and twitter.

Golden Rule #4 | Know What You Want

Social media marketing is a success when you clearly define your aims and goals. So start a marketing campaign keeping your goals and ambitions in mind, focusing on your targets and consider the latest marketing trends.

Golden Rule #3 | Stay Realistic

Social media is a measurable marketing tool but it’s not magical. Don’t expect to get numerous phone calls and endless emails dropping in your inbox every minute just after you posted an update on Facebook. Unrealistic dreams will only hurt you.

Golden Rule #2 | Social Listening

Something that many miss out, but shouldn’t- social listening helps you understand what people need, what they expect and what they say about you. Keep track of public opinion using hashtags to search for posts that mention you or your company.

Golden Rule #1 | Quality First

That’s why its golden rule #1 – nothing comes before quality. Your content on social networks needs to be qualitative, not quantitative. Share what’s important, sensible and wise. funny would do, stupid wont!