HANDBOOK. The Essential Social Networks Guide for Marketers. Table of Contents.
1. Introduction. 3 3. LinkedIn. 22
The Multi-Faceted Art of LinkedIn 23 Social Media Marketing 4 Tone and Style 25 What Defines Consumers In the Branding Business 27 Today 5 Advertising 29 Their expectations of your brand 7 Top 10 Takeaways 32 The Trends Defining Social Media Today 8 4. Facebook. 33 Personalized Data is Now Facebook 34 Your Best Asset 8 Strength to Stand out 36
2. Twitter. 12 Tone and Style 37
Twitter 13 Advertising 38
Tone and Style 14 Top 10 Takeaways 43
Customer Service 15 5. Instagram. 44 Power of Influencers 16 Instagram 45 3 Effective Types of Targeting for Twitter Advertising 17 Tone and Style 47
Top 10 Takeaways 21 Advertising 51
Top 10 Takeaways 54
Be Recognizable Across Networks 55 All Marketing is Now Social 56
falcon.io • [email protected] 2 1. Introduction. The Multi-Faceted Art of Social Media Marketing.
Welcome to the age of the connected customer.
ithin living memory, consumers With that in mind, why would a business, had a choice of exactly one which probably offers its customers many Wphone company that offered product or service options, offer only one exactly two boxy plastic telephones. There content strategy for everybody? were three television networks and one type This guide will help you bring custom of coffee (it was called “coffee”). These things content to each of the main social channels were considered to be the fruits of a vibrant and to your advertising strategy. Use this as free market. To today’s younger consumers, one source of inspiration in your content it sounds like some sort of bleak totalitarian calendar planning process. All stakeholders dystopia. There is no longer any cultural or - such as marketing, sales, and customer economic cue to tell people to make do with service - should consider the diverse needs of anything utilizing a one-size-fits-all format. the modern consumer.
falcon.io • [email protected] 4 Traits of the modern consumer: • Socially active
• Mobile-first mindset
• Willing to do the research
• Short attention span
• Open to new ideas
Expectations of brand:
• Relevance above all
• Real time response
• Social customer service
• Social fluency
What Defines Consumers Today. Does your social strategy acknowledge the following?
Socially active
Have you ever heard someone lament how anti-social millennials are isolated because they’re too busy on their phones to make eye contact? It turns out that those occupied eyeballs mean just the opposite. The average consumer has seven social media accounts and engages with 3.5 according to the Global Web Index. Life is lived on a screen to an extent more than ever. Everything from casual chat to crucial conversations take place on social media. They happen quickly and spread exponentially.
falcon.io • [email protected] 5 Mobile-first mindset
83% of millennials sleep with a cell phone nearby according to Pew Research. Which means the start of a potential customer’s journey is rarely more than an arm’s length away. The rise of mobile phone usage has changed the way we interact with each other, when is the last time you asked someone for the time? Mobile usage has also changed the way we shop, according to a BI Intelligence report, mobile commerce will make up 45% of total e-commerce by 2020.
Willing to do the research
Consumers are not shy about asking friends for recommendations. They do their homework and post reviews. According to a global study conducted by Nielsen, 53% of respondents use a mobile device to compare prices and 52% look up product information on a mobile device.
Short attention span
Choices are infinite. The second something gets boring, or it appears that there will not be a payoff, all those options start to look more and more interesting. For example, nobody will stick around for long intros on autoplay videos. Start with a bright pop and draw in viewers before they start getting itchy scrolling thumbs.
Open to new ideas
The more choices consumers have, the harder it is to be loyal to one brand. This is good for new brands who haven’t established a loyal base and potentially bad for existing brands that risk losing loyal customers. It’s paramount that brands establish an emotional connection and deliver personalized content to win and keep loyal customers.
falcon.io • [email protected] 6 Their Expectations of Your Brand. Social media has changed the customer-brand dynamic.
Real time response Personalization
Have an issue with a product? Chances are you’re not The entire social experience is already personalized. going to reach for a phonebook to find an 800 number. Users pick what they want to see from whom. Advertisers Today’s consumers are on social and expect to find microtarget to tiny niche demographics. People are brands there too. According to The Social Habit and Jay getting more and more adept at telling when they are Baer, 32% of users who have interacted with a brand on presented to them with someone else in mind. Social social expect a reply in 30 minutes or less. 42% expect a media platforms are offering more and more ways response within 60 minutes. to show different things to different people. Market research and your own social data will bring patterns Social customer service to light. Profile your customers and show them just the things that resonate with them. Using the phone to place a voice call is increasingly rare. It is far easier to use social media for customer service Social fluency because there is no voice-activated menu system and no hold music. Also, the public nature mediums like No, you don’t need to parse the Urban Dictionary for hot facebook pages make consumers think they can publicly new slang. Fluency means knowing your brand voice, shame brands into getting what they want. Brands can sticking to it, and practicing basic etiquette. Fluency choose to treat this as an annoyance or as an opportunity means not posting big blocks of text on Instagram or to deliver customer service. Often, organizations will using a hashtag for a tragic recent event to sell product. separate service and social responsibilities. Advanced To some extent, this is a matter of recognizing it when brands are breaking down those barriers. you see it. This is where good management and quality control comes in.
falcon.io • [email protected] 7 The Trends Defining Social Media Today. The last couple of years saw these trends shape and shake the medium.
Chief social trends that are here to stay:
Chatbots Mobile Video/live streaming
With Alexa, Facebook Internet usage increased Video began to take over Messenger bots and by 26% from 2013 to 2015. social networks this year countless others, chatbots This enormous growth and plans to stay. Cisco are here in force. They’re was largely driven by predicts that by 2020, video mobile friendly and mobile (+44%). Mobile use traffic will account for 82% can handle a deluge of has changed the way we of all consumer internet. customer interactions in interact with one another, a snap. Chatbots are here when’s the last time you to stay and poised to play asked someone for the a major role in customer time? engagement going forward.
Organic vs paid advertising
Reports eulogizing the death of organic posts may be exaggerated, but it is undoubtedly in decline. Cluttered newsfeeds and the ever-changing algorithms of major networks are the top reasons for this decline. Most brands (86%) these days do both paid and organic, with paid social media ad spend expected to reach $41 billion dollars in 2017.
But there is a lifeline for organic posts and it’s precisely the same one that gives a lot more bang to your advertising buck. By curating the most relevant posts to users’ newsfeeds, algorithms have simply codified what already sets successful social marketers apart: whether paid or organic, the success of any post rides on the quality of the content and how relevant it is to the people who see it.
Welcome to a more personalized world of marketing.
falcon.io • [email protected] 8 Personalized Data is Now Your Best Asset. Personalization is everywhere - it’s almost mandatory. Advertising is not any different.
The good news is that when you deliver customized advertising content, consumers are willing to respond with their intention and an open mind. According to research conducted by Yahoo, consumers prefer personalized ads, finding them more engaging (54%), educational (52%), time-saving (49%) and memorable (45%) than general-audience ads..
People Want Personalized Marketing onsumers prefer personalized ads, finding them more engaging.
Research conducted by Yahoo
Marketers have been seeking to personalize content for decades, understanding that personalized messages are the most successful in terms of conversions and sales. Initially, the channels available were just too inflexible. If you advertised in a newspaper, you may have been able to choose between a city and suburban edition, but that’s about it. The internet has changed the game, paving the way for Big Data initiatives that allow businesses to collect huge amounts of information, analyzing it to reveal insights about individual customers. You should also use available tools to carry out sentiment analysis that will also reveal how they feel towards brands and marketing. Remember, the ultimate goal of your personalized marketing is to surprise and delight your customers.
Targeting, but with fluency
Part of social media fluency is exercising good judgement and using common sense. There is a creep-out factor that comes with recognizing that businesses you’ve never interacted with know so many things about you.
falcon.io • [email protected] 9 There is a fine line between providing personalized A data-driven approach to content creation will ensure marketing messages and invading someone’s personal that your brand interactions speak to your real target space. When a customer chooses to follow your status customer, not just who you assume them to be. updates, that doesn’t necessarily mean they actually want After some time and analysis, you should have useful to be your friend. This comes with experience. To an segments to work with. Within these segments, use extent, this is a matter of social and cultural calibration social listening to analyze each touchpoint with your on what is appropriate on each platform. All the big data brand. Situate customers in their consumer lifecycle and in the world can’t fix bad judgment. discover what excites, frustrates and endears them. See who they take advice from. Build a content framework with data and Using concrete data insights about your target social listening audience will provide a frame on which you can build great content. Given the necessary intimacy of microtargeting messages, social listening is the key to successful Design for total customer experience personalized marketing. The good news is that the necessary technology and platforms are now in Real personalization is about invoking a positive place to help gather background information on your emotional reaction from your customer during all customers and prospects and connect that to an active interactions, not just the fun ones. Being timely and social presence. Use them systematically to gather the relevant on some pop-culture ephemera can be useful in information you will need to run an effective personalized garnering buzz, but it can also be a distraction. Creating campaign. consumer value should be the goal. Be meaningful and The process can be simplified by centralizing the aim to provoke an emotional connection between brand data collation and analysis process. As you interact with and consumer. prospects, you have the opportunity to collect more Forrester’s Case Study: Drive Real-Time Marketing information and use it to increase your knowledge and As Part Of Your Digital Transformation Journey, April, understanding of the individual. Take that data and 2016 noted that ‘MasterCard realized that consumers combine it with what your own sales data tells you about want offers to be more than just personal, relevant, customers and their lifecycle. and timely. By tapping data and crafting content that You can then use these observations to segment elicited emotional sparks, the firm increased its campaign prospects based on their interests and anticipated needs transaction volumes by 25% compared with traditional rather than broad demographic data. Tapping into needs marketing campaigns.’ An increased conversion rate of and interests will be more relevant to consumer and 25% might sound like a dream, but it’s possible with the advertiser alike than “best guess” messages based on right strategy. what you think these people enjoy.
“Customers expect to be spoken to contextually and quickly in whichever channel they happen to be in. If it’s not personalized, they’re not interested.”
Ulrik Bo Larsen
falcon.io • [email protected] 10 Personalization goes beyond marketing
There is no denying that it is easier to make one advertisement and plaster it on every available digital surface. But the time and effort will be worth it. Eyeballs are expensive, so it is in everybody’s interest to stop spending on the ones you don’t need and take advantage of your exposure to those you do. In the long term, effective social media teams build an infrastructure that is greater than the sum of its parts. Continued social listening offers advance warning on market changes and new trends. Personalized content allows for experiments and testing. A better understanding of the entire consumer lifecycle helps maximize value over the entire relationship. And isn’t that what great relationships are made of?
3 Must-Ha es for a Personalization Strategy:
Intention o er assumptions alue o er reach Scalability
falcon.io • [email protected] 11 2. Twitter. I C I A F L F
O
R
P E A Twitter. R T N
The high-volume, interactive and real-time way to engage.
With 310 million users, Twitter is a must-have network for any modern brand. But how do you employ this rapid-fire social network to your advantage? In this chapter we talk about:
• Who your Twitter audience is and how to pitch to them
• The professional application and benefits of Twitter
• Tips for effective promoted and organic posting
Who is your Twitter audience?
You’re probably thinking millennials and you’d partly be right. According to Pew Research, 24% of internet users (21% of all U.S. adults) use Twitter. They tend to be younger (37% are aged 18-29) and more educated than the US population as a whole. And they’re slightly more likely to be male than female. Also according to Pew Research and contrary to stereotype, Twitter users are actually less likely to use the platform on a daily basis than Facebook or Instagram users. Less surprisingly, eight out of 10 access Twitter via mobile.
falcon.io • [email protected] 13 Tone and Style.
Be on point and to the point.
ith such a constrained character count, it’s short and sweet or nothing at all. The upside is that it forces you to be punchy and to the point. The downside is that there is little room to clarify and explain. Brevity has Wthe potential to cause misunderstandings and uncharitable interpretations. Good tweeters can finesse complicated thoughts into compact statements. Then, there are hashtags. If any kind of current event or trend is relevant to your communication, make sure you have the relevant hashtag. Don’t tack on a list of irrelevant trending hashtags in an attempt to gain traffic. Instead, take a look at trending hashtags and figure out if you can bring value by incorporating that trending topic into your social postings.
Hashtag hacks
#1 Use them, they work #4 Shorter is better They may sometimes seem like a bit of frippery, but Not just because of the tight character count. It also Tweets with hashtags get twice the engagement of those makes the hashtag more memorable and makes you without, and are 55% more likely to be retweeted work harder to come up with the clearest, catchiest keyword. #2 But don’t overdo it Tweets with one or two hashtags have 21% higher #5 Let Twitter hook you up engagement than those with three of more. The most popular trending hashtags in your geo-location can be found in the sidebar of your Twitter.com home feed or the mobile search tab. Using these will plug you #3 Content for days into current conversations – but again, consider whether If you need inspiration, try using a popular hashtag your brand has any real voice in these, or will just be associated with a day of the week. For example, use hanging about like a boorish party crasher. #throwbackthursday or #TBT with a photo from the early days of your brand or the prototype of one of your products.
falcon.io • [email protected] 14 Customer Service.
Where Twitter is the tool for the times.
Advertisers reported to Twitter that over 80% of their social customer service requests come through the platform. Both customers and companies benefit with social customer service. Customers who receive fast and thorough answers will be more likely to repeat purchases and refer friends. Anyone visiting your social media channels can tell the difference between a customer-friendly space and a place where frustrated people scream into the void.
Source: Twitter
.
of customer service Over the last 2 years, there The cost per resolution via requests on social media has been a 2.5x increase in Tweets is 1/6th that of happen on Twitter. Tweets to brands and their resolving through call centers. customer service handles.
People use Twitter for customer service every day.
falcon.io • [email protected] 15 The Power of Influencers.
Don’t underestimate how Twitter influencers can drive purchase decisions.
hink of influencers as a kind of digital age hybrid between endorsements and word-of-mouth. Working with them can drastically extend your reach and amplify your advertising investment. TIn a recent survey by Twitter, 49% of respondents said they relied on influencers for product recommendations. That’s only slightly less than the 56% who rely on friends. Crucially, 20% of respondents say an influencer tweet inspired them to share a product – and nearly 40% say they made a purchase based on a Tweet from an influencer. In addition, while brand tweets alone were found to boost purchase intent by 2.7%, campaigns mixing brand and influencer tweets doubled that to 5.7x. Potent stuff.
Finding your influencer buddy
This is where social listening is once again invaluable. Fortunately, finding influencers on Twitter is considerably easier than on other networks. You can begin by entering a search query featuring your brand or topics and hashtags relevant to your business. This will surface the groups on social media talking about what you offer. Further filtering will help pinpoint the people whose reach you wish to leverage. Falcon Listen includes a tab that lists the top 25 influencers within the topics and time range beingmonitored .
“Nearly 40% of Twitter users said they had made a purchase as a direct result of a Tweet from an influencer.”
falcon.io • [email protected] 16 3 EffectiveTypes of Targeting for Twitter Advertising.
Here are three ways to target your audience on Twitter to ensure the money you spend on ads is being used effectively.
1. Tailored Audiences: Here’s how to deliver ads on Twitter directly to the people who have shown interest in your brand. First, you need a list of users to upload to Twitter. This list can consist of emails, phone numbers, Twitter or mobile advertising IDs, visitors to a specific web page or even users of your mobile app.
No list? No problem! You can also use social listening to generate a list of users to target on Twitter. With Falcon, a Listen report monitors what’s being discussed or posted to social networks and online sites. By entering the keywords and topics relevant to your brand, you can identify industry trends, consumer needs and the factors that sway their decision-making.
A hypothetical company sells organic clothing for babies and toddlers. This listen report made in the Falcon platform is pulling Twitter mentions with the query words, ‘organic, cotton’ and either ‘baby’ or ‘toddler.’ In the screenshot below, you can see the top trending keywords that have been most commonly used with the query words. You can also see profile information about the authors of the relevant tweets. That list of authors can be saved as an Audience, that can then be exported as a list which can be uploaded to Twitter as a tailored audience.
falcon.io • [email protected] 17 Create ad copy that is relevant to each list. Keep in mind, Twitter requires a Top Tips minimum list size so you may have to combine lists.
In the clothing company example, from the Listen report, we know there’s an audience created interested in baby clothes and an audience interested in toddler clothes. With this information, you can create ad copy which is relevant to each group.
Expand your reach by targeting similar users. Take advantage of Twitter’s Top Tips expanded targeting feature to reach users similar to your tailored audience. This is useful for top of funnel marketing and lead generation campaigns and allows you to expand your brand reach.
2. Handle targeting: Display ads to users who are similar to the followers of the usernames you selected.
Targeting @usernames allows you to reach users with interests similar to followers of any of those accounts. For example, enter @TwitterAds to target people likely to be interested in advertising on Twitter. Search Twitter for @ handles to include.
Add keywords to make your audience more precise - this will allow you to target Top Tips the people from the handles selected who have tweeted with the keywords you add on only. Layered targeting will help you better match your ideal customer.
You can also exclude keywords by adding negative keyword to make sure you filter out anyone who are tweeting about things unrelated to your category.
falcon.io • [email protected] 18 In the example here, a Pizza company has selected a list of competitor handles to target their followers, such as Domino’s Pizza and Pizza Hut, but to tailor the targeting further in order to avoid waste, additional keyword targeting is layered on top as well. This will limit the reach to followers of the competitors who have tweeted about the keywords selected.
falcon.io • [email protected] 19 3. Engager Targeting: Target people who have viewed or engaged with your organic or promoted tweets, this is Twitter’s version of remarketing. Audiences of people who engaged with or saw your Tweets are automatically built for your customized targeting.
Engager targeting adds an interesting twist to standard retargeting as it allows advertisers to reach audiences already interested in your brand without using first party data. That’s advantageous as first party data –such as website visits and email addresses – limits reach making it hard to scale. Engager targeting is scalable and easy to execute and allows content tailoring. Example: retarget users with sequential content by showing campaign #2 to those people who have already engaged with content from campaign #1.
Use engager targeting to market recommends starting 30-days before Top Tips events such as conferences and it. The 30-days afterwards provide webinars. Event marketing provides an equal opportunity for continuous an opportunity to engage attendees engagement using engager tweets. and non-attendees before, during These could showcase highlights, and after the actual event. Twitter content or experiences from the day.
falcon.io • [email protected] 20 Top 10 Takeaways.
Eight out of 10 access Twitter via mobile
Incorporate trending hashtags into Tweets while adding value to the conversation
Advertisers reported that over 80% of social customer service requests come through Twitter
Both customers and companies benefit with social customer service
Nearly 40% of Twitter users said they had made a purchase as a direct result of a Tweet from an influencer
Expand your reach by targeting similar users
Add targeting keywords to make your audience more precise
Filter out unrelated tweets by using negative keywords
Use audiences who engaged with your tweets to create customized sequential campaigns
Tailor ads and targeting with more precision by selecting the type of tweet that had user engagement
falcon.io • [email protected] 21 3. LinkedIn. LinkedIn.
The professional forum for brands and individuals.
As well as being the number one network for B2B marketers, LinkedIn is one of the most effective networks for generating leads, building brand and product awareness and of course recruiting. Here’s what we’ll cover:
• How to create content that resonates with a professional audience
• Employing this recruitment powerhouse
• Tips for advertising
About LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a social network with connections and a news feed like Facebook, but stripped of the cat photos and silly memes. A strong set of norms permeates LinkedIn and keeps profiles and posts largely businesslike. From a social selling prospective, LinkedIn allows you to reach prospects at the beginning of their customer journey or job search. In this chapter, we’ll cover how you can utilize LinkedIn to promote yourself and brand.
falcon.io • [email protected] 23 Who is your LinkedIn audience?
LinkedIn is comprised of 450 million professionals worldwide. According to Pew Research, 29% of Internet users (25% of all U.S. adults) use LinkedIn. 50% of LinkedIn users have college degrees and 45% have an annual household income of $75,000 or more.
falcon.io • [email protected] 24 Tone and Style.
What kind of content is relevant to your LinkedIn audience?
n LinkedIn, there is no need to be the first to reference an obscure meme or figure out what some sliced-and-diced demographic niche is O What more likely to consider cute. Trend-chasing and social Your brings in posturing are seen as inappropriate. passion money LinkedIn is not a virtual hangout, nor is it a space for personal expression and creativity. It is a tool, picked up as needed and put down when the work is done. Users are looking for jobs, looking for business prospects or looking to improve their own personal brand. If you can What your The show your usefulness in furthering any of these three company does sweet spot goals, you will succeed on LinkedIn. If you can’t, you may best not want to even bother. One good way to show usefulness is to share well- curated articles with information relevant to your current or potential customers. If possible, write your own and best at likely piggybacks with what your company is most host them on your website, where they can find more passionate about. Lastly, consider what will interest your information about your product or service. For example, audience and inspire them to purchase your product. at Falcon.io, we appeal to social media managers by The intersection of these elements is your content sweet explaining that our platform can make their job easier. spot. We showcase how they will never miss a message and According to a Content Marketing Institute/ can benefit from having both a calendar and social inbox MarketingProfs survey, 85% of respondents stated that in one place. content creation contributed to increased B2B success Treat content creation as an opportunity to borrow over the last year. The report also stated that 59% of from the expertise of other departments at your respondents said their content marketing strategy company. Sales, marketing and customer service/ included a “content mission and a differentiated story/ engagement can work together to produce functional value to deliver.” content that creates value and shows your expertise. LinkedIn research reported that 74% of buyers making Check out the chart on the right, it illustrates the a large purchase and 62% making a smaller purchase balance you should strive for when creating content expect sales professionals to provide ‘new or different for your brand. Think about what makes your company insights.’ It isn’t always easy to come up with new insights, unique and better than the competition. What you’re especially in a content saturated market.
Shift your focus from big-picture, sweeping insights to a pitch that zeroes in on Top Tips information that will be useful to your target.
falcon.io • [email protected] 25 Images
According to LinkedIn, posts with images result in a 98% higher comment rate. For inspiration, look to Think with Google’s LinkedIn page. The page features colorful posts with compelling data points that are simple, effective and shareable.
Use statistics and data that are relevant to your followers. Since the goal is to add value, avoid being too self-promotional. The better you know your customers and target audience, the better you can create relevant content. Once again, keep it straightforward and businesslike.
falcon.io • [email protected] 26 In the Branding Business.
Don’t underestimate the power of employer branding.
inkedIn still reigns as one of the top social networking sites in terms of active users, according to Statista. When it comes to recruiting employees to join your team, LinkedIn remains the industry go-to. This was further reinforced in L2016 with the introduction of Career Pages’ Life, Overview and Jobs tabs. LinkedIn reports that brands using these have experienced a 60% increase in pageviews per visitor, and 175% increase in job views. However, LinkedIn’s job listings compete with other sites, like Monster and a panoply of industry or affinity group specific boards.Wired.com describes the value of niche sites, “All of them offer one simple promise: here’s a place where you can connect not with everyone, but with the people who really matter to you.”
Bring the right candidate to you
With the announcement of Next Gen Career Pages, LinkedIn for Business can now present a solid product that focuses on its core area – employer branding. This latest update is a clear indication of the network’s future in this direction. The new LinkedIn Career pages are focused around three main tabs: Overview, Jobs and Life, with the latter two centered on reaching more of the right talent and offering a glimpse of the company culture. With this, LinkedIn is also introducing more visual elements to the page, allowing companies to better showcase their company personality and spark the applicant interest.
falcon.io • [email protected] 27 Here’s what you should know about the three core functionalities of Next Gen Career Pages:
#1 Connecting brands to top talent On the Jobs tab, LinkedIn is making it easier for companies to find the best job candidates, while sparking interest in positions by listing jobs relevant to visitors. Potential candidates can even see relevant employee insight that could help them determine if the company environment is suitable for them. Does the company have a startup working culture? Which working locations have most employees? Does your skillset match with those of current employees? Now you can see it all before applying.
#2 Making your company stand out According to Linkedin’s Global Talent Trends, 2015 report, 70% of the world’s workforce is ‘passive’ talent, or people who are not actively searching for jobs but open to offers. This highly customizable feature lets you showcase everything that’s cool about working at your company through pictures and video. With a little multimedia razzle-dazzle, you can potentially turn idle browsers into keen applicants. This tab is a paid feature that will allow brands to showcase important moments and allow visitors to deep-dive into company culture, values, activities and benefits. The tab can also be customized in multiple ways, including by geolocation and interests. Geolocation is a major breakthrough for multinational companies.
#3 Showcasing quantifiable results LinkedIn will now showcase a full range of company insights and analytics that could help companies analyze the health and evolution of their LinkedIn marketing activities, a first for the platform. The update is mainly focused on employee insights and helping companies determine what type of candidates they attract and what actions these candidates undertake. Impressions, clicks, likes, social engagement – it’s all there, plus overviews of wider trends and benchmarks.
falcon.io • [email protected] 28 Advertising.
Reach the right people to achieve your business goals.
Does LinkedIn advertising work?
With its more than 467 million members in over 200 countries, LinkedIn is the go to place for work tips and resources for decision-making and career growth. It is where your ads won’t get lost among all the family and personal posts of other networks. LinkedIn’s less chatty, more business-minded character encourages a more in-depth engagement with your sponsored content. With users seeking professional resources, this is an ideal platform to engage your buyers earlier in process by sharing blog posts, handbooks, and webinars to slowly build brand relationships and attract new followers.
Powerful advertising tips
• Strong copy: Be succinct and follow your company voice.
• Personalized images: Leverage demographic and behavioral information to create images that resonate with specific audiences. Always A/B test to determine the most compelling imagery.
• Strong call to action: You can’t get what you don’t ask for.
• Mobile optimized: Keep your ad copy short and optimized for easy click through. With a shorter copy, your call to action and destination URL will still remain on the top, but with a longer copy, users have to click ‘read more’ to see the full description.
falcon.io • [email protected] 29 Sophisticated targeting
There are 15 targeting options available based on the information users must supply to set up a profile. To take advantage of this information, you first have to know who to target. Start centralizing your audience data across touchpoints with a customer experience tool like Falcon. From there, you can use social listening to get a snapshot of who makes up your audience. With the wealth of specific professional information, brands can create hyper-targeted campaigns based on job titles, school, industry sector, skills, and LinkedIn groups. Here are some of the strong targeting options to consider:
Location Job Title Schools Groups Company Name Job Function Degrees Gender Company Industry Job Seniority Fields of Study Age Company Size Skills Years of Experience
Interest based targeting
LinkedIn’s interest based targeting identifies audiences based on either LinkedIn group memberships, skills or field of study. This is a great way to reach people in your product category. For example, if you are trying to reach Social Media Managers in the financial sector, target relevant professional groups and add skills or field of study.
falcon.io • [email protected] 30 Job function targeting
A strong advantage of LinkedIn advertising is the up-to-date nature and authenticity of their data. Users tend to give their accurate title and keep their profiles current. This makes job title or function targeting effective. Use title targeting to create position-specific, relevant content directed to exactly the right people. Narrow down your targeting further to decision makers or larger companies by selecting job seniority or company size.
Sponsored InMail Target account lists
This is the most direct way to engage with prospects Does your sales team have a targeted list of companies on LinkedIn. According to Linkedin, InMails garner a to reach? LinkedIn’s Account Based Marketing (ABM) response rate three times higher than a regular email. provides the opportunity to reinforce your message by However, like standard email marketing, pitches can creating a campaign targeting a list of your own audience come off as blunt and impersonal without a carefully- data. This is an effective way to reach influencers and crafted message. If you take your time writing, they will decision makers, but note that it is currently only take their time reading. As with other mediums, use a available to LinkedIn-assisted clients. (Not self-service.) specific call to action.
falcon.io • [email protected] 31 Top 10 Takeaways.
Keep content professionally focused
Quality content boosts your bottom line
Competitors are starting to emerge and pose a challenge to LinkedIn’s position as the top site for job listings
Use imagery that conveys relevant data
Buyers expect sales pitches to provide value
Take advantage of Next Gen Career Pages to solidify employer branding
Build brand relationships and attract new followers by sharing blog posts, handbooks, and webinars
Write strong copy, personalize images, use a clear call to action and optimize for mobile
Create hyper-targeted campaigns with the targeting by profession and demographic information
Reinforce your message to your audience with Account Based Marketing
falcon.io • [email protected] 32 4. Facebook. Facebook.
Make your mark on the world’s largest social network.
Whoever you are and whatever your brand seeks to sell or do, if it isn’t on Facebook, it might as well not exist. In this chapter, we’ll cover:
• How to get your message heard
• Leveraging Facebook’s unique features to connect with customers
• Effective ad targeting
About Facebook
Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with over a billion users logging in every single day. Were Facebook a country and its users citizens, it would be the largest nation on earth. Domestically, “roughly eight-in-ten online Americans (79%) now use Facebook, a 7% increase from a survey conducted at a similar point in 2015,” according to Pew Research. The Facebook nation is on the move. As reported in the multibillion-dollar juggernaut’s 3Q 2016 results, 1.66 billion users accessed Facebook from a mobile device each month, which is an increase of 20% from last year. Over 80% of the company’s advertising revenue comes from mobile.
falcon.io • [email protected] 34 Who is your Facebook audience?
Everybody. From the great-grandfather with handwritten instructions taped to the side of his screen to a 14-year-old girl who is supposed to be doing her homework, Facebook has the broadest reach of any social network.
Your people are here
+1.2 billion users +1.66 billion users 100 million hours log in every day users access Facebook of video are watched from mobile each month every day
falcon.io • [email protected] 35 How to Stand out.
Don’t get overwhelmed or swallowed by your competition.
acebook is the digital crossroads of the world and at the forefront of digital evolution. They’ve acquired over 50 companies and continue to define digital trends. It can be overwhelming to establish a presence that’s valuable to Fcustomers. Don’t be afraid! We’ll walk you through how to navigate some of Facebook’s unique features. Social customer service
Nothing looks worse on a brand’s Facebook page than a series of unaddressed complaints from users. Customer service issues can bring out the worst in people, and it shows. If you are not using social media to answer customer questions and complaints promptly and thoroughly, you are both failing your customers and leaving a detailed receipt of exactly how poorly you performed. Customer care is an essential element to creating a positive customer experience. It is with that in mind that advances in social customer service are being developed to interact with customers quickly and cheaply. Facebook’s “Bots for Messenger” is a new frontier for customer service. The tool helps answer customer questions quickly, which frees up staffing resources and makes customers happy. Brands that don’t answer customer questions on social media risk frustrating their customers and wasting money on outdated service methods. With chatbots, brands can program the answers to common customer questions, essentially creating an automated customer service page.
Dark posts
Though they sound ominous, the “dark” just means that you get to choose who gets light shined on what. Dark posts don’t appear on your timeline and only get inserted into the feeds of users you pick based on the demographic categories you are interested in. Which provides you the opportunity to create highly targeted messaging to each of your segments without spamming your fans with a multitude of posts. For example, even in a general segment of “qualified sales leads”, you can split that segment into sub-segments of males, females, age groups or geography and create ads designed for each group. You can test multiple ad copy and imagery variations per sub-segment to determine which versions performs best with whom. With Falcon’s Measure function you can track the performance of dark posts and make changes in real-time, or for future campaigns to optimize your social ROI. You can also create and advertise dark posts straight from Falcon’s Publish. It’s also easy to find dark posts again using Falcon’s calendar and filter features.
falcon.io • [email protected] 36 Tone and style.
Everyone is here, here’s how to make your message heard.
s Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos stated, “Your brand is change from text-laden status updates to photos has what other people say about you when you’re coincided with a lot more time spent on social media Anot in the room.” When beginning a Facebook sites, especially Facebook. campaign, as with all your marketing efforts, you need to “100 million hours of video are watched every day,” have a consistent tone to ensure that people are saying on Facebook according to AdAge. Mark Zuckerberg and thinking the right things about your brand. has been outlining his vision for Facebook’s ‘video- Chances are, your business has a branding strategy first’ strategy, saying, “We’re making progress putting that will lend itself nicely as the foundation to build a video first across our apps and executing our 10 year social identity. It helps to lay out some guidelines to keep technology roadmap.” everybody on the same page and ensure continuity. It goes without saying that brands must cultivate Do you want to project a young and cool image? Is it visual elements to be noticed on Facebook. Some important that customers view you as technical experts? products or services lend themselves to visual marketing Pick a tone and stick with it. more than others, but there is always an angle. Even if you aren’t selling something tangible, show someone Images + video using or explaining it. Many brands are starting to use Facebook’s live video feature to reach large audiences in real time. For starters, Humans are visual creatures and just as soon as the your brand could try hosting a live Q&A session, webinar technology became widely available, people started or product demo. using the internet to share photos and videos. The rapid
Image Size Guide.
Cover Image 51 x 315
Profile Image 1 0 x 1 0
Shared Link Highlighted Image 1200 x 630 1200 x 1
Native Video 12 0 x 20
Shared Image 1200 x 1200 YouTube Video 15 x 15
falcon.io • [email protected] 37 Advertising.
Get your message in front of the people who matter.
Ad objectives
The reason Facebook and other social networks notify us when someone has liked a post or added us as a friend is simple: it feels like we’re being recognized. There are many metrics that Facebook offers to show you that a post or an ad campaign is “working”. Reach, clickthroughs, impressions, comments and likes are all metrics used to evaluate social media success. However, it is worth considering what relation those numbers have to your goals. For example, ads optimized towards post engagement will be delivered to people who like and comment a lot, but those are not necessarily the same as the people who tend to buy your products online. So consider carefully what your actual business goals are, and make sure to always align that with your ad objectives. Given that Facebook will automatically deliver the requested goals in the method cheapest to Facebook, it is important to rely on your goals, not their metrics. Go for continuity and real customer value instead of chasing likes.
Targeting
Think of targets as a series of concentric circles, with each layer going out from the center as a more attenuated connection to your brand. At the center lies your existing customer base. Facebook offers a wide range of targeting options, but the trick is to figure out the salient characteristics of your ideal targeting persona, a person similar to your existing customer base. Imagine that you own a bakery and want to expand to online mail order. After surveying your customer base, you find that they are high-income and mostly over the age of 65. If your baked goods are expensive, the income part surely matters. However, do your treats have a special appeal to seniors, or is the composition of your existing fan base a function of your store’s proximity to a retirement community? The good news is, that with the help of Facebook’s pixel and custom audiences, you already know exactly who your customers are and their behavior online.
falcon.io • [email protected] 38 A Facebook pixel may sound complicated, but it will make your advertising on Facebook much more effective. The pixel allows you to gain rich insights about how people use your website, measure results better, and build audiences for targeting. After installing the pixel on your site, Facebook will start building a pool of people who have visited your site. These audiences are created separately from your ads, so you can choose yourself when and who to advertise to. These are referred to as Facebook’s Custom Audiences. Besides website visits, Facebook allows you to upload your mailing list into its ad targeting platform so you can get in front of the people who already know you very easily.
Note: Be wary of interest targeting, which is essentially the social version of a cold call. Facebook determines interests by onsite actions, websites with pixels, pages liked or ads clicked. Those likes and clicks can be made for any reason. For example, how often does a friend ask you to like his or her business? You may not be interested in the business, but want to support your friend. Want to find out what Facebook thinks they know about your interests? Take a look at your own Facebook ad preferences here.
Another thing to be cautious about in general when setting up targeting is the risk of becoming too narrow. It can be easy to think you know who to target and who will convert better than Facebook’s algorithms. However, in reality that is often not the case. If you narrow down the audience too much, Facebook’s algorithms won’t have any wiggle-room to do their magic and you’ll end up with worse performance than if you had selected more broad targeting. Although Facebook recommends not targeting fewer than one million users per ad set, brands can achieve a solid performance with only a few hundred thousand.But if you go lower than that, your performance will most likely suffer. A social media management platform can streamline this process. With Falcon’s Listen, you can enter relevant keywords and dive deep into interests and traits of the conversation’s participants to achieve better ad targeting.
falcon.io • [email protected] 39 Lookalike audiences
Imagine a set of people who are just like your existing clientele in every way except for one: they’re not your existing clientele. That is a lookalike audience. Facebook allows you to input a user list or pull that data from people who interact with your page, and find others who are just like them. You can then advertise to that audience, which, so the theory goes, will behave like their compatriots and buy your product. Lookalike audiences take a lot of the guesswork out of ad targeting, but you should make sure to compare the results from lookalike campaigns with other types of targeting.
Really know your audience
The more you know about your audience, the more effectively you can target them. With the Falcon Audience profiles base, brands can gather data from all customer interactions into personalized profiles. Using this centralized data, you can create custom target groups based on anything from shared hashtags to locations, purchase history or any label attached to these individuals. This data can be plugged back into the Facebook advertising platform to target advertising more effectively. Falcon.io won a Facebook Innovation Spotlight Award in the Personalized Marketing at Scale category. This award corroborates our position that customers expect to be spoken to contextually and quickly in whichever channel they are using. The more data points you have on your audience, the better you can understand how to target effectively.
falcon.io • [email protected] 40 Ad formats
Facebook offers a variety of ad creative options you can select. Here’s a rundown of which option to select based on your campaign goals and the audience you’re trying to reach.
Carousel ads Single video
Facebook Carousel ads offer up to five clickable As we told you earlier, Facebook is heading cards for each ad that offer the opportunity to towards becoming a ‘video-first’ platform. Videos play with imagery, copy links and CTAs. With are here to stay on Facebook, however, the way multiple side-by-sides ads, you have the chance users consume video is changing. According to to better tell your story. You can showcase research conducted by Facebook with Nielsen, multiple uses of a product, or multiple features. 47% of a video’s value is delivered in the first You can add a CTA to every frame, which offers three seconds and 74% of the value is delivered users more opportunities to interact with you in the first ten seconds. So, you have to make an ad. The best part of carousel ads is that you impression fast to hold a viewer’s attention. Also can select the option to automatically put the interesting is the fact that according to Digiday, best-performing images first - it’s self-optimizing! 85% of Facebook videos are watched without And it works: research by Kinetic Social found sound. Facebook’s testing revealed that videos carousel ads achieve ten times more traffic than with captions increase video views by an average Facebook’s other formats. of 12%. Instead of focusing on finding the perfect soundtrack for your video, focus your efforts on Single image telling your story through compelling visuals.
If it’s not broke, don’t fix it... an image is worth a thousand words, regardless of the cliche, single image ads are simple, straightforward and get results. Image ads are a fast way to draw attention and require little production.
falcon.io • [email protected] 41 Slideshow Canvas
No need to drag out a dusty projector to play Facebook describes Canvas as, “A Full-Screen these modern slideshows. This ad option allows Ad Experience Built for Bringing Brands and you to upload or use stock photos to tell your Products to Life on Mobile.” As we covered brand story. Your slideshow can contain three to earlier, 1.66 billion users accessed Facebook ten, sound and text. Slideshows are a great way from a mobile device each month. Canvas ads to produce a video without equipment or editing are immersive and interactive, when you click on experience. Also, slideshows require less data one it expands to the entire mobile screen. If you than videos to play which makes them a good have the design resources, here’s your chance to choice if you’re targeting users in areas with truly make your brand standout on mobile. slower wireless connections.
Take control of your social advertising by using a social media Bonus Tip management platform like Falcon to promote your ads without having to use Facebook’s native tools. In Falcon you can create, deliver and optimize the performance of your ads.
falcon.io • [email protected] 42 Top 10 Takeaways.
Facebook use on mobile is rapidly increasing
Steer away from business jargon and focus on colloquial language
Facebook is heading towards a ‘video-first’ platform
Use dark posts for A/B testing and to reach prospects without annoyance
Create an automated customer service page with chatbots
Align ad goals with business objectives to ensure optimal performance
Social listening can better inform ad targeting
Select an ad format based on your audience and campaign goals
Attract new fans and customers with a Lookalike audience
Create custom target groups with centralized data
falcon.io • [email protected] 43 5. Instagram. Instagram.
The up-and-comer network has arrived.
Instagram overtook Twitter in 2016 and now boasts 600 million monthly users. Once just the place for pretty pictures, Instagram is now the network brands want and need to get a handle on. In this chapter we highlight:
• Who is your Instagram audience
• How to snap a shot and pitch like a pro
• The advertising possibilities you need to know about
About Instagram
In the beginning, the internet was just text – it was all the primitive computers of the day could process and push through the slothful data connections available to early users. Since then, every advancement in speed and processing power has come with new ways to share visual stories. Instagram is the logical end point of this development: the platform’s basic unit of communication is the square image or video, with captions, comments and likes a distant second-place in terms of importance.
falcon.io • [email protected] 45 Who is your Instagram audience?
In stripping away the text and going nearly entirely visual, Instagram has achieved staggering success. Over 600 million people around the world use Instagram. 59% of users are between the ages of 18 and 29, according to Pew Research. Also according to Pew, 31% of Instagram users earn more than $75,000. Put it together and you have the marketer’s dream: attention from millennials with disposable income.
As noted above, Instagrammers skew younger. They are adept at using digital devices generally and social media specifically. Since Instagram the platform is built around Instagram the app, it skews mobile even more than other social media platforms. Unlike parent company Facebook, there is no real difference between a brand page and a personal profile. That means that you do not have the same level of customization you would on Facebook and you must make your case in the same amount of space that, for example, your cousin has to show you how well his new fried macaroni and cheese ball recipe came out. Make it count. You can make this work for your brand. There are a variety of influencers on Instagram from which to choose based on your target audience. Hard-working Instagramers from all walks of life have made a name for themselves. Instagram has become culturally pervasive, even brands have parodied ardent users. Many are more than willing, whether in exchange for free product or actual promotional consideration, to put your brand in front of their audience.
falcon.io • [email protected] 46 Tone and Style.
Stand out or step away.
f Facebook visuals are candid and casual, Instagram is the opposite. If you can’t make it stylish and mood-appropriate, don’t bother. Your post will be surrounded on all sides by aspiring auteurs and preening professionals. Successful IInstagram accounts have a recognizable style. Depending on what you sell, you may not be able to showcase your physical products, like if you sell something such as insurance.
Images
When establishing an Instagram account, stick with the basics: high quality, crisp imagery that viewers can quickly understand. If you’re an experienced photographer or have a an established audience, you can take a few more liberties. Some brands waste time with uninteresting product photography straight out of the catalog. If they’ve bothered following you, users probably know what your product looks like.
Get the picture
When you scroll through your Instagram feed, it’s easy to see the difference in image quality and composing between your friends and brands. Instagram is the place to tell your brand’s story with visuals that align with and project your brand. Attention to detail is critical. Beyond crisp resolution, every element of the shot needs to work together as a whole to create a visual.
falcon.io • [email protected] 47 Here are our tips to make your brand stand out:
• If you’re taking pictures on your • Avoid selfies and sparingly use big phone, avoid zooming in while smiling group photos. Instead, try taking the picture, instead,crop the to capture a candid moment that image afterwards. This will avoid doesn’t look like you’re at a photo the image appearing pixelated. studio.
• Look for symmetry. Position • Take a lot of pictures at once and • Keep your photos simple. Avoid yourself behind the subject of your review later. If you’re taking shots cluttered background or elements photo and look for angles. Use the of a company event to highlight that obscure the main subject of grid lines feature on your phone company culture, move around your shot. for help. and take lots of pictures.
Looking for more tips for taking a great shot? Check out this awesome guide.
falcon.io • [email protected] 48 Banner pictures
Giant square, banner photos, tiling; many names for making many photos into one larger picture. Whatever you want to call it, they can be eye-catching and compelling. There are also an increasing number of apps to help you get the picture. Use this sparingly though, because when you upload all the pictures you’ll be spamming followers’ feeds with seemingly random pictures.
Timing
The Instagram feed moves fast. That means that a user who checks each morning may have a lot of content to scroll through before they reach the post you made yesterday at noon. In order to appear high up on a feed, you must know when to reach your audience. Ideal posting times will vary based on several factors. Work schedules, time zones, even sunset times changing with the seasons can change your audience’s social media habits. Given the number of potential variables, easy formulas are elusive, so testing is crucial. Set a posting schedule in advance and compare similar posts made at different times of day. Once you have an ideal time of day, consider the ideal day of the week. Since people are more likely to make online purchases on Mondays and Tuesdays, your ecommerce calls-to-action should be used then. Save the memes for a Thursday.
Another key timing consideration is the ability to reply quickly to comments on your Instagram posts. That takes an engagement tool like Falcon’s Engage inbox shown below. Failure to act fast can mean a missed opportunity or a critique left to fester.
falcon.io • [email protected] 49 Influencers and UGC
The line between user generated content (USG) and influencer content often blurs. Brands need to be cautious when choosing influencers to promote their brand. Just take a look at several well-publicized celebrity spokesperson fails that featured images with accompanying text instructions from the brand. As you can see, Scott Disick accidentally pasted the posting instructions from the brand he’s representing.
A lesson to all, always proofread after you cut and paste.
What a disaster! Keep your influencers relevant and make sure they have the autonomy they need to do good work while monitoring their output for quality. You can’t just sign on the dotted line and hope for the best.
Shop now
The problem with Instagram used to be its lack of links anywhere on the platform besides the bio section. You can now use Instagram’s ‘Shop Now’ button to link product, however, it’s still a good practice to add a link to your bio so customers have easy access to your website. Also, write ‘link in bio’ on posts featuring your products. Instagram’s ‘Shop Now’ button, which is an appealing option for brands and customers. ‘Shop Now’ provides users a direct link off of an Instagram post and to somewhere a purchase can be made. While this feature may indeed be the difference between spending money on the platform and leaving it be as an exercise in artistic license, you do not want to use it 100% of the time. Consumers know when you are creating value and when you are just shilling. Make sure at least some posts are just artistic, fun or otherwise non-sales. It’s important to note that the majority of traffic on Instagram is on mobile. Make sure the landing page you’re sending users to is mobile-friendly.
Hashtags
One way to reach eyeballs on Instagram is through organic growth - putting out content and waiting for the followers to find you. Starting from a baseline of zero, you could be waiting for a long time. There are, however, some ways to get things moving. Instagram hashtags, unlike Twitter’s, are a little less obtrusive because they are not in the body of the post. That means you can use about as many relevant hashtags as you can imagine so people searching for those hashtags can find your content. At Falcon.io, we achieve higher reach and engagement using at least two hashtags. Instagram’s powerful Explore search tool makes it easy for users to search for content using hashtag. Consider using one branded hashtag, that’s relevant to you and an industry hashtag relevant to users. For example, we use #falconio and #socialmedia.
falcon.io • [email protected] 50 Advertising.
Instagram is a rising advertising star.
nstagram advertising can extend your brand’s reach, strengthen value and generate higher conversion lift. As it is owned by Facebook, Instagram advertising is purchased through the Facebook Ads Manager. You can also use the Isame advertising techniques. Successful social advertising and ROI rides largely on overview and approval processes to ensure each ad plays a considered role in a bigger picture. For that you need a platform content calendar. In the case of Falcon, you can manage all Facebook and Instagram promoted and organic posts in the Publish section. Like Facebook’s Power Editor, Falcon allows you to create ad sets and campaigns, and then publish them directly to the networks – ensuring all stakeholders have clarity.
falcon.io • [email protected] 51 Ad formats
Brands advertising on Facebook may not think it’s necessary or relevant to showcase their products on Instagram as well. However, Instagram provides unique opportunities for brands to stand out and showcase their identity. Marketers can extend their reach and conversion lift by advertising on Instagram without requiring a new creative and messaging strategy. Bottom line, always focus on solid creative. If you have successful Facebook ads, try repurposing the same content on Instagram. There are three types of Instagram ad formats, photo, video and carousel – you can see these described in-depth in the Facebook section. Select a format based on your campaign goals, but regardless, focus on bringing out your best creative.
Dynamic ads
Ever had an item you left in a shopping cart follow you around from platform to platform, teasing you to buy it? That’s called dynamic retargeting and it works. This allows you to tailor your ad content better and make your campaigns more relevant. Instead of testing multiple different ad versions to see what works best, you can dynamically tailor the content based on your visitors’ behavior.
falcon.io • [email protected] 52 Ad Tips Here are some of our best tips to optimize your Instagram advertising.
• Make your ads look as native as possible: • Include hashtags to make your content “blend in, don’t stick out”. searchable, but make sure you are using hashtags properly. Don’t spam your audience • Check out organic content for inspiration and with 20 hashtags, but consider using the insights into what interests your customers. hack of adding dots and spaces to push your hashtags below the fold. • Since Instagram is a mobile-first platform, make sure you’re website is mobile optimized. • Use dynamic ads to make your ad content relevant and tailored to your engaged • Use video ads to increase engagement. audiences. Instagram’s research shows that adding video to an existing campaign performs better than campaigns with static photos only..
Measuring results
Typical Instagram users scroll through their feeds without leaving the app. This passive scrolling differentiates Instragram from other social platforms. Since users are less likely to click on links, make sure you look beyond clicks when evaluating your performance metrics.
falcon.io • [email protected] 53 Top 10 Takeaways.
Make your photos stylish and mood appropriate
Successful Instagram accounts have a recognizable style
Select high quality, crisp imagery that viewers can quickly understand
Choose influencers wisely, seek relevancy and monitor output
Don’t zoom when taking photos on a phone, crop afterwards
Drive purchases by linking a product to your website with Shop Now
Instagram is a mobile first platform, make sure your website is mobile optimized
Use the same Facebook targeting techniques and ad content that works for your brand to extend your reach and engagement on Instagram
Add relevant hashtags to make your content searchable
Use dynamic targeting to tailor your ad content with higher relevancy
falcon.io • [email protected] 54 Be Recognizable Across Networks.
Wherever your brand appears on social media it needs to be recognizable, meaning on-brand and authentic.
rand fidelity and consistency have always been challenges – and the omni-channel, real-time and rapid-fire medium of social media has introduced special challenges all its own. Ultimately, all our efforts on social will be blunted if our Bbrand identity slips aways from us. Here are some last pointers to help you make your mark on social. Look the same everywhere Pick your networks and post consistently Each network has its format and foibles, but you can still stamp your brand clearly on each page and post. Ensure If you choose to use a particular network, lean into it. If your page company profile and bio are as identical as you post only once in awhile in a haphazard fashion, you space allows, and ensure key brand elements such as will be lucky to achieve anything let alone a worthwhile you logo are presented the same everywhere. brand presence. So don’t post on all the networks out there if you lack the resources to be truly active on them. Keep brand voice in mind It’s far better go with two or three that you can regularly feed with fantastic content. You are obviously not going to talk quite the same on Twitter and LinkedIn, but your brand personality should Repurpose with care always shine through. It is recommended to define your tone, messages and topics of interest, and align these Repurposing content for different networks or channels with your broader brand identity. There is always space is obviously a time and resource efficient way to work. It for humor; social is nothing if not the place to showcase is also a reliable way to carry over key brand elements to the endearing, human side of your company – but don’t other networks. But here, like everywhere, the vital red try to be VICE.com when you are closer to The Economist. threads can unravel if there is no centralized overview – Be funny your way, not this week’s latest viral way. which brings us to our final pointer...
A content calendar will save you a lot of hassle
A content calendar is simply mandatory in any serious social marketing department today. Aside from establishing and smoothing workflows, it is where that crucial overview can be maintained and disparate teams kept on the same page. Social media is mass-communication in the hands of everyone. No marketing team can hope to compete in this exciting and noisy space if it doesn’t have its own internal communication in order first.
falcon.io • [email protected] 55 All Marketing is Now Social.
he days when social media was an outlying, even novelty, tactic are well behind us. But we are still all Tpioneers here, and will always have a lot to learn. That’s the beauty of being a marketer in the social media age. Each network has its challenges and benefits that can be mapped to your company’s. We hope this guide has taught you something new, and tantalized you with the host of possibilities out there.
Visit our website to disco er how you sol e more www a on io of the challenges that modern marketing brings. @FalconIO Falcon.io [email protected]