Did you know there is virtually no limit to the growth potential of your brand? While focusing on a niche or target audience is a good start to secure a foothold your industry’s market, growing your audience is essential for longevity.
There are a few tried and true ways to achieve organic audience growth, but there is one strategy in particular that offers unlimited growth potential. Lookalike audiences are a social media marketer’s key to unlocking the endless possibilities.
What is a Lookalike Audience?
In the simplest terms, a lookalike audience shares certain characteristics with your current audience members. These shared traits could indicate that members of the lookalike audience would also be interested in your product.
So, how does this information help your marketing efforts?
Let’s run through a simple example.
Say you are promoting a music festival. You notice many younger fans of your event also prefer neon coloured hair dyes. Using this information, you can create ad campaigns that target youth who purchase neon hair dyes.
Facebook’s Lookalike Tools
Facebook has fully embraced the power of lookalike audiences. The platform offers business owners access to built-in tools designed to target, track and adjust advertising campaigns aimed at lookalikes.
Even if you are a social media novice, Facebook’s lookalike tools are easy to master. The statistics and the math are handled by the website, while you are free to focus on the lookalikes you want to target. Check out this handy guideon how to create lookalike audiences with Facebook.
Endless Growth Opportunities
When it comes down to choosing which lookalikes you should target, Facebook, in particular, offers a range of options. The variance in traits lookalikes share with your core audience is ranked on a percentage scale. The higher the percentage, the fewer shared traits your lookalike audience will have with your current audience.
The best results for engagement occur at the lower end of the percentage scale. These are the lookalikes who share the most in common with your followers, so it makes sense that they would be the most interested in your brand.
Key Thoughts for Success
A higher percentage of variance means a wider audience sees your content, butthese people are also less likely to engage with your content.
Choose a lower variance percentage to ensure a higher rate of engagement.
Conduct multiple tests to measure your success rate and adjust your strategy as needed.
Interested in growing your audience with lookalikes? Sign-up for a one-on-one training sessionwith one of our social media experts and receive a FREE audit of your social media accounts!
Have you noticed how time seems to move more quickly than it did before the internet and smart devices took over? Your brain is not playing tricks on you—well, actually it is, but you are not alone.
Society is moving at a much faster pace than it ever has before. What was news today is forgotten tomorrow. Businesses must account for the short memory spans of the general consumer in their social media marketing strategies to achieve success.
Quality Over Quantity? Not Anymore!
Staying relevant to your followers requires a two part strategy. Fresh, creative and memorable content is a must; and to stay top of mind, posting consistently and frequency is just as important.
Of course, with all good things, it is also important not to overdo it and resort to spamming your followers with subpar content. The ultimate goal is to post quality content at regular intervals with shares and retweets mixed in.
Posting Frequency Quick Guide
The above chart contains the optimal number of posts per day for a selection of the most popular social media platforms. These values reflect the findings from several recent studies on social media engagement. While following this guide is a great starting point, you may need to make adjustments based on how your target audience responds.
Top Tips for Businesses
Use a content managing app like Hootsuite to plan out and schedule your posts ahead of time.
Space out your posts to ensure you have fresh content up during multiple points in the day.
Share relevant content like trending news stories and resources with your followers to encourage engagement.
On platforms like Twitter and Facebook, retweeting and post sharing will help foster connections within your industry.
Experiment with posting on different days and times of day.
The bottom line is, how often you post is just as important as what you post and when you post it. While you should avoid bombarding your followers with too many posts in a short amount of time, you do want to maintain consistency in your posting habits. Publish your posts at regular intervals on all social media platforms to keep your whole audience invested in your brand.
For more tips on how to craft a winning social media strategy check out our blog!
Facebook has been making the headlines recently for all the wrong reasons. With users feeling betrayed and violated by the social media giant, brands have heard the cries of millions of unhappy consumers and are now jumping ship.
For businesses who are hesitant to diversify and expand their social media presence, the last quarter has been a teachable moment. Putting all of your eggs (or in this case social media marketing tactics) in one basket could mean the demise of your brand’s presence on social media.
With Facebook losing the respect of desirable demographics like Millennials and Generation Z, the target audiences of most brands are now leaving the platform in droves. Brands who want to retain their connection to these audiences are looking elsewhere.
Is Instagram Where the Cool Kids Hangout?
Instagram is currently enjoying a huge increase in user base (more than 100 million users joined the platform in 2017). And, this photo sharing app is turning out to be more than just a place to post pictures of your lunch. Brands and celebrities alike are seeing more exposure and engagement from posting on Instagram. Here are a few reasons for this:
Our brains respond very positively to visual stimuli.
Instagram’s UI is clean, simple and easy to navigate, and best viewed on mobile devices which is how much of the population gets online.
With the ability to post still images, GIFs and “Stories”, Instagram offers versatility for brands who want to incorporate multiple forms of visual media in their marketing strategy.
More than half of Instagram’s users follow brands.
Online shoppers will often use Instagram as a resource for promo codes, deals and discounts.
Instagram’s developers have expanded the tools available to advertisers to allow for data collection and monitoring.
The Main Takeaways
In response to the recent backlash, Facebook has placed more restrictions on branded content and ads in general. On the other hand, Instagram is making changes to entice more brands to join up. Ads, sponsorships and branded content in general is welcomed and even encouraged.
Creating content for Instagram will mean stepping up your visual content game. Invest in graphic designers and artists with a keen eye for the types of posts Instagram loves. If you are determined to target the over 50 crowd, Facebook will do your brand just fine. If you want to join the other hot brands that have successfully won the loyalty of Gen X through Z, Instagram is definitely the place to be.
Learn more about social media branding with SocialEyes Communications! We offer training servicesthat cover the basics of social media and personalized assessments for more advanced users.
Manage your social media accounts without spending every waking moment staring at your phone or computer. Social media automation tools are your ticket to quick and easy social media management. Plan your social content ahead of time and schedule posts tailored for each social media platform using only one tool.
For 2018 thus far, here are our picks for the best social media automation tools.
Hootsuite – In terms of popularity, Hootsuite remains the top pick for most content marketers and small businesses. With Hootsuite, you can schedule your social media posts across all platforms ahead of time, interact with followers, and network with prominent social media influencers. Recently, the Hootsuite team has enabled direct posting to Instagram as well, which means no more push notifications and users no longer need to input posts manually into Instagram to post.
Best Features:
Handle all social media housekeeping for all accounts with one login.
Account monitoring that allows you to determine which type of posts do well and the times in the day when your posts receive the most attention.
Comment, reply, review mentions and send direct messages all in one place.
Crowdfire – Keep tabs on your competition and compare your progress to other brands with this automation tool. Crowdfire is particularly effective for Twitter and Instagram. Its content curation feature and follower analysis capabilities sets it apart from the all other automation tools currently available.
Best Features:
Identify and unfollow inactive Twitter users.
Monitor the follower lists of other social media users.
Curate and cross-post content at optimal posting times.
Buffer – Schedule posts across all of your social media accounts and use Buffer’s comprehensive analytics tools to grow your social media campaign. This tool has been around for over five years, so they have had a little more time to iron out the kinks much like Hootsuite.
Best Features:
User-friendly design that is easy to navigate for beginners and experts alike.
Frequent updates that ensure Buffer’s functions keep up with the changes to each social media platform.
Analytic tools with built-in flexibility giving users more control over the data they choose to monitor.
Agora Pulse – This is the ultimate all-in-one social media automation tool. It offers all of the basics like post scheduling, follower interaction, compatibility with all of the most popular social media platforms and data collection.
Best Features:
Team collaboration and editing.
Scheduling for Google and YouTube is also included.
Automate re-posts of content on a recurring schedule.
IFTTT – If you are confident in your tech skills and you want an automation tool for more unique or specific jobs, check out If This Then That. Everything you need to know about this tool is in the name. Create your very own recipes or “applets” to automate everything from social media activity to emails to home appliances.
Best Features:
Automate virtually every aspect of your online life (and even some of your offline life).
Unrivaled compatibility to a huge array of platforms and software.
Flexibility to tailor applets to meet your very specific needs.
Need some help with social media automation and management? Contact us! We have a talented team of experts who are ready to make sure your online branding strategy succeeds.
Have you ever seen a brand run a contest or a giveaway on social media? By 2018 you should be pretty familiar with the concept, but what you may not have considered yet is how this tactic could help you drum up business in a BIG way.
How It Works
At first glance, it might seem like an expensive gamble that will have you seeing red in no time. However, research has shown that consumers are more likely (about 20 %) to talk about a product if they received it for free than if they had to pay for it.
We are seeing the best effects of two strategies at work with giveaways and contests:
Consumers love free stuff. It feels like receiving a gift, so they associate positive emotions with the experience. When these recipients share their experiences with others, your business benefits from word of mouth advertising.
Another way those positive emotions are being put to good use is through cultivating brand loyalty. We give gifts to show our appreciation. It is no different with giveaways and they are often described in that way by businesses. Customers are far more likely to shop where they feel welcome and appreciated.
Creative Ideas for Freebies
A giveaway can be anything of real value. A time honoured strategy is to give out pens, tote bags and clothing accessories featuring a brand name or slogan. If you want to compete with all of the other businesses online, you will have come up with something that offers a much higher value.
New businesses often find success offering their own products or services for free. This approach is a good way to show confidence in your product, while also giving customers the chance to experience your product.
Offer a free service with the basics, then offer premium services with extra features. Should your customers enjoy the free product, they are more likely to upgrade to the premium versions. Premium features often include one-on-one staff support, less restrictive access to already existing features (like colour palettes, templates, etc.) and access to new features that allow customers to derive more value from your products.
Free trials are another way to expose your target customers to your product. Trials should last as long as it should take for users to feel comfortable using your product. Life with the product should be noticeably better than life without it. The Amazon Prime 1-month trial is a great example of this.
Running a social media contest or giveaway is simple to do and cost effective for you. If you would like to know how your business can benefit from this online marketing strategy, connect with us! If you would rather an expert take care of your social media accounts for you, we can do that too! Call us or fill out our contact form to get in touch.
As we all know, social media posts with images are up to 40 times more likely to be shared by users. But you may be wondering how and from where you can get high-quality images for your posts.
Image editing apps allow you to create gorgeous graphics whenever the mood strikes. In a matter of minutes craft eye-catching, branded image to post on all of your social media accounts. Here are our top 4 picks for image editing apps:
Canva
Why settle for a few features when you can have them all? Canva is an all-in-one graphic design app for users who need more versatility in an image editor than airbrushing and text overlays. Create posters, collages, banners, invitations, cards and flyers with this multi-talented tool.
Best Feature: Library containing more than one million stock photos, 100 fonts and 60,000 stunning templates.
Where to find it: Google Play, App Store, Web
Cost: Free with the option of in-app purchases.
Adobe Spark a.k.a. Spark Video
What if you could make beautiful, professional video clips right from your phone? Check out Spark Video from Adobe. Create compelling short video clips using your own content or have your pick of more than one million stock images. Use animations, text and overlays to spice up your clips and tell your story exactly the way you want.
Best Feature: Add your own audio tracks or select an evocative soundtrack from Adobe’s library.
Where to find it: App Store, Web
Cost: Free with the option of in-app purchases.
Aviary
Get all of the basics and a few extras with Aviary. This photo editor is powerful and comprehensive with none of the fluff. It has all of the features you expect from an editing software like colour temperature adjustments, tilt shift, blur tools, cosmetic corrections and stylized filters. Notable extras include stickers and overlays that are perfect for crafting viral content and memes. This is a great app for users who want to get in and get out without much fuss.
Best Feature: High-resolution images and a selection of effects for purchase should you get bored of the 12 effects that are available for free.
Where to find it: Google Play, App Store
Cost: Free with the option of in-app purchases.
Pixlr
Anyone with zero graphic design skills but a ton of creativity will find Pixlr to be the perfect outlet. This app offers the freedom to get as creative and unique with your images as you want with simple tools that are easy to use. With a few swipes of your finger you can create beautiful, stylized images in seconds!
Best Feature: A huge selection of photo effects, overlays, borders and fonts with the option to save your favourite combination of effects for later use.
Where to find it: Google Play, App Store
Cost: Free with the option of in-app purchases.
Interested in learning more about how to create content for social media? We offer personalized training sessions where we show you the steps you need to take to grow your business online. What are you waiting for? Sign up today!
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