In this article , we will examine five social media management tools and explain how they can make your social media efforts easier. 1 – Eve...
In this article, we will examine five social media management tools and explain how they can make your social media efforts easier.
1 – Everypost
Everypost 's black and white management panel aims to facilitate your social media marketing by accelerating the flow of your business.
After logging in, you can add your accounts in the upper right corner and choose which content to share. You can connect your Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Tumblr accounts.
The interface is quite simple. On the right, there's a great feature to create your own by pulling content from Instagram, YouTube, Flickr or Pinterest.
Most of the admin panel is devoted to writing the text of your post, shortening the URL, and scheduling your post. You have the option to share immediately or schedule for a later time.
The menu on the left is automatically stored while you work on the content and you can access it again with a single click. Archives are reserved for planning and analytics.
Everypost offers five different pricing options (one of which is free) depending on the desired features.
2 – Buffer
If you are looking for software that is easy to use, has a simple design and will make your team more effective, Buffer is definitely the key to managing your social media. Once you create your account, you can choose the social media networks you want to add.
On the left, you can add or remove networks to your admin panel as you wish and connect to your pages and profiles.
After you do this, you can create and share your content using the Content tab.
You can access reports about your social media marketing reach in the Analytics tab. You can use these analytics tools to improve your marketing strategy.
If you're thinking even further ahead, you can create a custom publishing schedule using the Planning tab. If you want Buffer to automatically share for you, you can also set the daily sharing frequency. By offering the automatic sharing option, Buffer creates the right sharing times for you according to your audience's interaction times.
On the right, you can edit your accounts, team members and link shortening options using the Settings tab.
What most people (including me) love about Buffer is that you can use it as a browser extension or mobile app. This way, you can instantly share the content you find on the internet.
3 – SocialOomph
SocialOomph offers interesting features to improve your marketing strategy. Creating an account is quite simple. You can start using it by confirming via e-mail.
At the top, five tabs help you better focus on your social media management. The first tab allows you to connect to SocialOomph by clicking on your preferred networks. Once you do this, you can manage each one individually.
Next tab: Sharing, probably the most important one. You can share updates, shorten your URLs via Bit.ly, consecutive tweets and messages on Twitter, organize your scheduling times, and more.
The third tab: Follow allows you to organize your existing follow-ups and find and follow new people who may be relevant to your business. If you want to create welcome messages or automatically follow people who follow you, you can do that too.
Finally, you can monitor your social media reach and see if your strategy is working. The Help tab allows you to learn how to link your accounts, follow SocialOomph on Twitter, and connect to the support team.
SocialOomph ensures you truly get the best possible out of your social media marketing. You can get the best efficiency with minimum effort. You can use the free version of this software, but you should know that it has certain restrictions.
4 – Hootsuite
Hootsuite is one of the most widely known social media management tools. It is used by millions of people around the world to promote their businesses in an effective and simple way. After choosing your plan as a member of Hootsuite, you can benefit from many features.
The first thing you need to do is add your social media networks ( Facebook , Twitter , Instagram , LinkedIn and Google+). Once you connect it, your admin panel will show them all in the upper left corner. From here you can easily select the channels you want to post to. You can also choose to send the same post to all networks.
Once you've decided to create your content and which networks you'll share it on, you can see the character limits for each of these platforms. You can add photos, shorten links and plan your posts from this small window.
On the left, you can access analytical data and reports for your progress and growth, management of your team's delegations, campaign management of all your social media networks, and more.
The main admin panel is where everything happens. You don't need to log in and out between your accounts. Hootsuite is fast, simple and delivers results.
To access all the features of Hootsuite, you need to have a paid plan. But most social media advertisers agree that it's worth the money.
5 – Sprout Social
When you first get into this management tool, it may seem a bit overwhelming. There are tabs and redirects everywhere. Statistics that are not usually offered in other tools are presented directly to you. But Sprout Social is different from others. Because it focuses on the need for better and clearer communication and interaction between businesses and their customers.
On the right, you can see the profiles linked to your account and the team members who help you manage them. Looking at the left side allows you to see your account's audience growth demographics and trends.
At the top, after editing the authorities you have given to your team, you can stay up to date with new news by monitoring the timelines of your social media accounts. The taskbar is not without a publishing tab, which allows you to share your posts just in time, by planning in advance, of course.
There is a unique feature in the Explore tab. Apart from seeing who is following or contacting you on social media, you can use smart search to find keywords your customers are likely to use. This will allow you to see what they are talking about and what is at the forefront for them.
Don't worry, the features of creating content by shortening links and adding images are still available.
Multiple pricing plans are available and all can be tested with free trial periods.
Does your Social Media management team use one of these tools? If they are using them, feel free to share your ideas with us.
Brands' Use of Social Media
Shall we go back to a time when everything was simpler and plainer? The date is November 6, 2007, and Facebook has introduced a new feature called Pages. Now companies could have an official presence on the social network, just like normal people ! 100,000 Pages were created on the first day. Among them were giant companies such as Coca-Cola. In the years that followed, brands competed with each other to create audiences that they could reach directly and whenever they wanted on magical social media.
Towards the last months of 2016, it is now more difficult to feel this magic. It turns out that just because you have a following on social media doesn't mean you can access it whenever you want.
With the arrival of 2017, it began to be seen that social media was not as beneficial to many brands as it used to be. So what do we do now?
How Did We Get Here?
Starting in 2012, Facebook began to reduce the rate at which updates to a Page were seen by followers. Initially, this incidence rate was 16 percent. Then, in some brands, this rate dropped to 6%. Then, after the regulations made last summer, this rate dropped to half.
This isn't some grand conspiracy theory. More content is being shared than ever before – images, GIFs, videos, etc. – and the Timestream space is now becoming even more valuable. That's why Facebook has now started automatically choosing what we see using its algorithm. Content shared by family and friends is taking priority, so company updates are no longer the priority they once were.
Facebook isn't the only one using this type of algorithm. Instagram, owned by the company, now uses algorithms and organizes the display of content according to people's relationships and interactions with those who share. Even Twitter, which has offered an advantage for years with its real-time display, has become increasingly algorithm-centric, with the "Best Tweets" being automatically arranged and appearing at the top of users' feeds.
For those accustomed to a time when everything was easy on social media (all a company had to do to get viral reach was share a cat GIF), these changes may feel like the end of the line. The days when you could communicate with your target audience with "organic posts" on social media are coming to an irresistible end.
It cannot be said that this is a secret or new information. In fact, we've known this for years. But some of us preferred to ignore it. We now need to face the harsh reality that 2017 has presented to us: Social media marketing as we know it is coming to an end. But this does not mean that businesses should give up on this area. Rather, they should do the exact opposite.
Social Paradox
Social media is more widely used than ever before and is poised for unprecedented change. It will be reborn later this year as a tool focused entirely on businesses: better targeting features, simpler to use, and more effective than before.
If this sounds a little optimistic, think again. As businesses' organic reach on social media has decreased, there has been an interesting change: The power of social media to influence purchases has increased. In one of the largest studies to date , McKinsey Marketing Agency surveyed 20,000 people in Europe and found that social media recommendations influence more than one in four purchasing decisions.
For businesses, this presents a strange challenge. Social media has never been more effective, but at the same time, getting content out to users has never been more difficult. Ignoring Facebook and other social media platforms means ignoring the 2 billion people around the world who get their news and updates from social media. But to reach these users, it is necessary to overcome more difficult obstacles than ever before.
But there are some useful solutions. Of course, spending money on social media ads is a big part of the equation. But there is more to this story than bowing to the business models of social media networks. Some creative brands follow a three-step path: Using social media ads in their content, touching their customers and even their own employees, and spreading their content to a wider audience and more effectively.
Support your content with ads
Lasting success on social media is no longer possible without paid advertising. It is a watertight fact that cost per impression has become an indispensable part of social media strategies. More than 80 percent of businesses plan to use this method within the next year.
All major social media platforms now have their own advertising programs. But the good news is that once you get over the shock of paying for Facebook posts and Tweets, social media really starts to show clear benefits for businesses.
Because social media platforms that ask businesses for money for access also want these businesses to be satisfied. So instead of sharing posts one after the other, businesses can now target both their followers and non-followers with high accuracy rates. Yes, you have to spend money for this, but the data these networks have now allows pinpointing not only certain demographics but also “similar target audiences”. Ads can then be organized according to goals (reach, website visits, etc.) and budgets can be allocated more accurately.
It is clear that these new features are already being discussed in terms of ethics. Facebook has come under great criticism in recent months for allowing it to effectively discriminate against some advertisers . The company has responded by making changes to its approach, but as targeting precision increases, the line between effective ad targeting and blatant discrimination is certain to continue to be debated.
But this is not an obstacle that successful marketers and companies cannot overcome. They will also have more data than ever before to help them make their choices. Because the returns on social media investments can now be fully measured. Paid social media analytics tools can give you real-time results, giving you a better view of your cost per view, cost per click, and other measurement tools.
To get more information about Social Media Marketing, you can request a free consultancy session by filling out the contact form .
Brands that Fascinate Their Users with Photo Sharing
Instagram started its life as a mobile application similar to Fourquare. However, its creators eliminated many of its original features in order to make the app known and loved today as a place to share, like and comment on photos. In the first three months of its existence, the app's audience reached more than one million users. Five years after its founding and almost 4 years after its acquisition by Facebook, Instagram has 500 million monthly active users. The platform's numbers are astonishing, and brands were quick to notice. Some early adopter brands started using the app in 2011, but recently the number of brands using the platform for contests, giveaways and other marketing tactics has increased significantly.
Instagram has become a platform where more than 300 million users share 95 million photos/videos and 4.2 billion likes daily. Most of the users are normal people who share their daily lives with other people, but brands that want to further increase their social media presence are now actively using the application. Most brands are not content with just having an account on Instagram, but they also increase their interaction and number of followers by sharing more than 20 posts per month.
The Most Suitable Sectors for Instagram Marketing
Intel is an example of how even brands that seem mediocre from the outside can have an interesting Instagram profile. But this job is definitely easier for some sectors than for others. Companies that offer visually appealing products or services have an advantage in using Instagram to its fullest. In addition, brands and celebrities who want to share the images behind a work will also feel comfortable in the application. Some of the most suitable sectors are as follows:
Who Uses Instagram Best?
A lot of companies have started using Instagram to market their company image, and a few of these companies are doing it perfectly. The following four brands have millions of followers because they use engaging ways to engage with their fans.
Starbucks
With more than 12.7 million followers, Starbucks makes interesting posts that invite users to interact by including images showing how their coffee is made, as well as users' posts.
Benefits of Instagram for Brands
Instagram is the most used app for many people, users spend their time looking at photos and if a brand's images fall into the timeline, the use of Instagram ensures that this brand stays in people's minds. This may enable people to follow the brand on Instagram (if they are not already doing so) and interact more with the brand.
Call to Action
One of the best things about using Instagram as a brand is that you can add calls to action to many of your posts . Brands take advantage of this by promoting discounts, promo codes, new products, contests, events and other relevant topics, and followers engage with them. Brands that add campaigns to their images may see an increase in their number of followers.
Instagram offers many opportunities to add links and calls to action. All Instagram accounts have a section in the account summary section where you can put a URL. But unfortunately, Instagram does not yet allow adding clickable links to the descriptions of posts or comments, but it is possible to do this for the images you advertise.
Like all social platforms, Instagram provides a great opportunity to show the human face of a brand. Brands can often be seen as unattainable or objective entities, but brands break this view by showing the behind-the-scenes of their work or sharing content from normal life.
This way, Instagram users can get a better idea of what a brand is really all about. Fashion brands share what happens in the background of fashion shows or photo shoots, large companies share small moments from daily office life, and this fashion is becoming increasingly common. This shows Instagram users that these brands actually have people behind their approachable and shiny logos.
Social Media Integration
To take these efforts even further, brands also use the sharing feature available on Instagram. This feature allows the images you upload to the platform to be shared with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr. The most frequently used of these are Facebook and Twitter. Even though Twitter doesn't display images as much as it used to, the social media sharing feature has become one of the best features for brands using Instagram.
Instagram takes this one step further for Facebook and offers the user the opportunity to share on whichever page they are an administrator. To enable this, allow the app to share on your behalf from “Share Photos on” by going to Settings, selecting “Sharing Settings”, then “Facebook”. Now you have the opportunity to choose your personal timeline or a Facebook page. Once you set this up, any photos you want to share on Facebook will now be automatically shared on that page you choose. After installation, this feature also applies to posts you have already shared. To do this, simply open the photo you want to share and click on the “…” icon on it. Click “Share” and select the social media platform you want to share on.
Instagram Marketing Techniques for Brands
There are many marketing strategies that can be used for brands when using Instagram . We can list some of these as Filters, Hashtags and social shares.
Instagram attracts users with the multitude of filters available. The application has dozens of filter options. You can use these filters to give your images an aged appearance or to increase or decrease light values.
hashtags
Hashtags are words or groups of words preceded by a # sign. They are used to categorize photos on Instagram, similar to their use on Twitter. Hashtags can be used to refer to a brand, product, or any other word or phrase imaginable. They also serve as a tool to search different categories, such as #nature, #happyhour and #style. Many of the user-created hashtags have become popular within the app and are used in large numbers on a daily basis, #instagood is an example of this. The best way for your brand to use this feature is to create a custom hashtag and give your fans a reason to use it. For example, Red Bull uses #GivesYouWings and BMW uses #SheerDrivingPleasure. These hashtags can be used by anyone for any photo.But one of the best ways to encourage their use is through contests.
Contests are one of the best ways to engage your existing fans and gain new ones. Most contests focus on a hashtag created by the brand specifically for that contest. The prizes given for these competitions may vary: Some brands distribute a prize every week and give the biggest prize at the end of a certain period. Some only give one big prize. We have reviewed a few examples of these competitions for you below:
RA Sushi
When Ra Susih first joined Instagram, he held a contest. To enter, users had to follow the account, post a picture at any of the RA restaurants, and use the hashtag #RAShoutOut. Each week, a winner was chosen and given a $25 RA discount card.
TJMaxx
TJMaxx had a contest for fans. For a month, he created the hashtag #MaxxStyle to encourage Twitter and Instagram users to come to his stores and buy designer clothes. Users were sharing pictures of themselves wearing this outfit using the hashtag, writing the name of the designer and how much they paid. Not only were their fashion-loving fans featured on TJMaxx's Facebook page, but TJMaxx also gave away gift cards to winners each week, with $50 to one person and a grand prize of $500.
GE Instagrapher Contest
General Electirics (GE) held a contest to choose the new Instagram photographer. Users were encouraged to share photos of the four ways General Electrics works—construction, energy, transportation and recovery—using the hashtag #GEinspiredME. 4,000 images were shared to win the grand prize: flying to England as General Electrics' new Instagram photographer and photographing the factory where jet engines are made.
A Great Tool for Brands
Instagram is a very powerful tool for brands to market their businesses. More and more brands, large and small, are exploring these tactics and finding new ways to engage with their users and expand their marketing avenues. Mobile marketing is now one of the most important areas of digital marketing and Instagram is one of the best platforms where you can encourage your target audience for fun and fresh interactions.
The best part of Instagram marketing is that people choose to interact with the brand, as opposed to brands trying to force their products on people.
How Should You Create the Digital Marketing Plan Required for Your Business?
As a business owner, you want to make sure you're in the best position to acquire new customers. One of the best ways to do this is to start a digital marketing plan.
Online marketing means much more than joining Facebook and creating a website (although these two factors are very important practices). In addition, this means that you can promote your brand and make analysis easily without having to exceed your budget.
Are you already dying to start a digital marketing plan? Luckily, this job is much easier than you think. Here's a simple guide to get you started:
Set YourGoals!
The first thing you need to do before you start creating your digital marketing plan is to determine the main goal for your business, if you haven't already. Once you have a plan for moving forward, you can determine whether a specific endeavor is worth your money and time. For example, “Will situation X help you achieve your goal?” If your answer is "no" to the question, you may need to consider an alternative plan.
A clear goal will also give you a peak to measure your success, making it easier to measure your progress. If you see that you are not making significant progress towards your goals, you can immediately see that there are areas where you need to improve and focus more.
For example, a fitness instructor can set the following achievable goals: I want to gain 20 new customers from my website by the end of 2016.
In this case, just creating a new plan will raise a few follow-up questions:
In this way, the goal you set will serve as a beacon for you as you progress.
Determine Your Target Audience
Before you connect with your customers through digital means, you'll need some time to define your target audience. In other words, you'll need to do some brainstorming to identify the people who could benefit most from your product or service.
For example, if you are a local bookstore selling children's books, you may have two target audiences: children who will read the books and adults who will buy them.
To get things going, here are a few questions you can ask yourself when creating your target audience:
Once you know who you are talking to, it will be easier to find ways to contact them.
Get ready
Company Website
Websites are to companies what hives are to bees. In short, it is the center of information about your company.
Since 52% of small business owners don't have a website, a website is a great opportunity to get ahead. This can be described as a mandatory need for every business. Whether you're starting from scratch or updating your website, remember to keep the following in mind:
Your Website Design
The design of your website should be eye-catching and the design should be useful. The design should be compatible with the colors of your brand and should be designed to be beautiful to the users' eyes.
SEO
Include all searchable words related to you on all pages of your website. Keywords are the most important elements that will make it easier for search engines and searchers to find you.
Contents
Your website's homepage should reflect you. Your home page should clearly show what your business is about and make it easy for visitors to contact you. You should also update the content regularly to ensure that it is new and accurate.
Mobile Compatibility of Your Website
Mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) account for 70% of internet usage in Turkey. That's why your website must be mobile compatible. There is nothing more distressing than visiting a website that splits the screen in half.
Looking for an easy way to stay in touch with customers who visit your website or business? Email is a great option for you! In addition to being 40 times better than Facebook and Twitter for acquiring new customers, email is an easily measurable method and is known to provide high returns.
Not sure if you have time for a productive email marketing campaign?
You can turn communication into child's play by automating your campaign with an email service provider. So you can perform this application without wasting time. It's essential to place a registration form on your website to gain new subscribers, and you can also stay up to date with great email content.
You can keep a registration form in your cash register to reach your customers offline. You can do this using a smart device like a smartphone or tablet, or you can do it the old-fashioned way using paper and pencil.
Your content may also include product updates (featured or on sale products, etc.) as well as upcoming sales. Everything your customers would like to know about your brand can be part of the content.
Social Media for Your Business
Being active on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter is a great way to reach customers and create brand awareness at low costs.
While it's important for every business owner to set realistic goals (it can take years to get 5,000 followers), remember that the more time you spend interacting with your followers on social media, the better the feedback you'll get.
Competitions, helpful tips and discount codes will be excellent ways to encourage your followers to engage on social media. To further increase your reach, you can consider ways such as paid ads and featured posts.
When you set up your social media accounts, do not forget to join online business listings (Google+, Bing, Yelp, etc.). This will increase trust in your company and give it a more reliable image. It will also enable people to learn more about your business.
You must ensure that you manage customer feedback well across all platforms. You should pay special attention to notifications, especially those that are negative. This is important for ensuring the reputation of your business while also ensuring that your customers get the personal interaction they are looking for.
Write a Blog
Trust is the most important element to maintain healthy relationships, and develop brand-customer relationships according to this rule.
Years ago, marketing was described as a one-lane road. Brands would tell consumers what to buy and why. But today, the power has shifted and is now in the hands of consumers. Customers themselves decide what place a brand has in their lives. A big part of this decision is based on trust.
While social media has been described as a great place to demonstrate your brand's credibility, you'll also need other ways to create new relationships with your customers. One of these will be the blog tab on your company's website.
You should produce content that focuses on making your consumers' lives easier and work towards creating a reliable brand so that you can be productive. When you focus on building a deep connection with your audience, you'll find that you'll achieve more than just making sales: You'll show that you value those who shop with you and remain loyal to your brand. This will give you great feedback.
Release Schedule
Before opening Microsoft Word, first create a publishing calendar. You ask why? Because it will be more difficult than you think to think three to five times a week to find something to write about, especially if you think about it at the moment you write, this becomes a process that will take quite a lot of time.
You can work forward and develop a regular publishing habit with a publishing calendar that will include at least your three-month content plan.
Some of the things you should consider when planning are upcoming local events, seminars, holidays, and other relevant events that are relevant to your business. In addition to scheduling ideas for your blog, you may also need to plan content for social platforms, emails and newsletters.
Analyze
We've covered many great ways to develop and drive a Digital Marketing plan, but how do you know if it's actually impacting business growth?
To determine the conversion rates of your Digital Marketing efforts, you should definitely do analytics tracking to measure your website effectiveness, social presence, and overall content effectiveness. You can choose one day each month to review, this will be enough. These statistics will be crucial to gauge the health of your digital marketing strategy and understand which direction it is heading.
Make Improvements
Once you have your reports in hand, you'll be able to use them to gain insight into the strengths and weaknesses of your marketing strategy. You will be able to notice weaknesses that need improvement or notes where you need to continue working.
Remember, no method gives results in a short time. You will always need to improve and renew your online relationships to advance them. You will be in constant work.
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