Selecting a Social Media Marketing Strategy Is Easy — Here’s How

I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately from people who are trying build their brands online via social media platforms.

By far, one of the most recurring questions is this:

“There are so many social media platforms out there, but which ones are the best for my particular business?”

10 Winning Tactics for Marketing Online to Other Businesses

With over 364 million registered members and the official business atmosphere, blogs on LinkedIn are a popular choice when it comes to getting B2B customers. Besides generating stellar content, businesses can drive more traffic faster with online marketing. If you have been considering advertising online and need B2B customers, chances are high you will find one or more profitable marketing solutions in the list below.

Here are 10 online marketing ideas that have proven to be effective for B2B businesses.

3 Ways to Leverage Hashtags to Enhance Your Brand

Hashtags are so pervasive these days, Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon spoof them on TV. Companies now integrate hashtags into commercials, window displays and websites. Consumers use hashtags on Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter to filter their results and share their #TBTs (or Throwback Thursday photos).

The reason for their popularity? Hashtags allow you to find timely content online in real time. When you search a specific hashtag, you find recent, if not instant, results. These results can be refreshed and updated minute by minute. This is quite different from using keyword terms on a search engine and finding an article that could be several years old.

Also, for companies and their owners, hashtags allow you to track what’s being said about your industry and your business. 

Social Media Marketing; What's the point?

Advertisers lost control of the media years ago when the internet gave all the target audiences the power to run their own message delivery systems.

I’m not sure we had fully recovered from that peaceful revolution when another gigantic wave hit us, then another and another: Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, blogs, Yelp, Foursquare, and on and on.

Which channel serves you better?

Businesses make day-to-day choices in their operations. Decision-making is a very important aspect of daily business. As a matter of fact, whatever choice a business entity makes is essential and must play a vital role in the progress of the business. Let us take a very key department in any company, marketing; Marketing has evolved and any company looking to reach its target group must make conscious effort to make key decisions in marketing to reach its desired group of prospective customers. Due to the advent of technology, there is electronic and digital forms of marketing. Social media has made it possible for a new avenue to be created in marketing.

The 7 characteristics of successful brands

With the volume of competition that businesses face in most industries, it’s never been more important to stand out and develop a unique identity and value proposition through strategic branding. While it’s obviously important to offer a quality product or service, effective branding is often at the heart of the companies that thrive.

According to Jerry McLaughlin, “brand is the perception someone holds in their head about you, a product, a service, an organization, a cause, or an idea.  Brand building is the deliberate and skillful application of effort to create a desired perception in someone else’s mind.”

Social Media Works for Business-To-Business Sales

The chief marketing officer at a major technology provider recently voiced concerns that I’ve heard from several other CMOs: “Our customers have gotten way ahead of our sales efforts. Too often, we’re not even getting invited to the dance.” This tech company’s website, like many others, overflows with information about product features but offers few perspectives about how the products truly solve customers’ problems.

It’s a common issue in B2B markets. The wealth of information available online for prospective customers has effectively uncoupled buying cycles from selling cycles. This is a terrifying development for B2B firms, and especially for their sales and marketing teams. Bain & Company recently surveyed 370 sales and marketing executives of large technology or industrial companies. Of this group, half acknowledged that digital marketing and sales channels are significantly changing customer behaviors, yet only 12% feel well prepared for the digital disruption.

Social Media Tips from the World’s Top Airline

On a recent flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a personal response from the airline when I posted details of my trip on Twitter. I say “pleasantly surprised” because many brands rarely interact with their followers on social media. I noticed that Cathay Pacific was different, engaging with nearly everyone who used @cathaypacific in their posts. I decided to test the airline’s social media team. I requested an interview with the head of social media. By the end of the day I was having an email exchange with Dennis Owen, the group manager for social media at Cathay Pacific Airways. Again, a timely response that I rarely get with many “thought leaders” or brands.

7 things about digital marketing you must know

Digital marketing is something every company has to give due consideration to. Not an online business you say. Too bad because that doesn’t excuse you from anything. Even local, land-based businesses have to focus on the online arena, as that’s where their target audiences are.

Here are seven things about digital marketing you absolutely have to know.

8 ways to engage better with your customers

As a business owner, you’re already aware that your customers are the lifeblood of your business. And that’s why it’s important that you engage with them. The problem is there are plenty of companies out there who just don’t understand the importance of engagement and insist on shoving sales pitches down the throats of their customers. The successful brands who engage their customers understand that customers want to interact with their peers and learn something of value – which has never been as easy thanks to technology.

Still looking for ways to engage your customers? Give these eight strategies a try.

You Aren't Cut Out for Social Media Marketing

Throughout the last five years, social media marketing has been one of the fastest growing job opportunities. It’s also one of the least understood–by both employers and the employees who fulfill those roles.

Hootsuite CEO, Ryan Holmes, recently published an opinion piece on Fast Company titled, “Inside The Growing Social Media Skills Gap.” Holmes makes the convincing argument in this piece that, “The contemporary workforce is woefully ill-equipped to help companies unlock [the potential of social media].”

The revolution of engagement on social media

Social media has undergone various changes since its inception. Examples are Facebook's introduction of new features like the cover photos, scheduling of posts on pages, insights from pages, and so on. Twitter has also made some alterations on their platform. Notable among them is the "Retweet with Comment" feature which enables users to increase their character limit to more than 140 when commenting on other users' tweets. Others include sharing tweets in direct messages, uploading and editing videos, accessing location-based content and other innovative features. All these are meant to meet the changes that are going on in the digital space and for companies to stay relevant amidst the stiff competition in the industry.

The dangers of texting & driving

Image credit: www.larichesubaru.net

The proliferation of mobile applications has brought some adverse effects on people and the society, especially those who drive. The popularity of mobile devices has some unintended and even dangerous consequences. Mobile communications are linked to a significant increase in distracted driving, resulting in injury and loss of life. Texting while driving has become the number one driving distraction for many people. Drivers need to be aware of the dangers and keep their attention on the road, and not on their cell phones or other mobile devices.    

Opinion Polls: What is your favourite social media platform?

Social media undoubtedly has become a world centre stage for both the young and the old. Keeping in touch with friends, family and other acquaintances in other parts of the world has become possible through social media. For most people, it is in getting information or the latest news from around the world that keeps them glued to these networks.

Variety often makes you spoilt for choice. However, if you had the option of one, which social media network would you say is your favourite? This is the question we asked people and these were their inputs…

Ten rules of social media marketing

We all love social media, not just for fun but because of the platform it gives for better business upgrade. Leveraging the power of content and social media marketing can help elevate your audience and customer base in a dramatic way. Howev

er, getting started without any previous experience or insight could be challenging.

From maximizing quality to increasing your online entry points, abiding by these 10 rules will help build a foundation that will serve your customers,  your brand and, perhaps, most importantly, your bottom line.

Common Marketing Mistakes

Marketing your company does not have to be difficult or expensive. There are many techniques you can use to draw attention to your product or service without having to break the bank. People want the advantages that come with good marketing but sometimes, they make some pretty silly mistakes. Here are a few of them.

Social Media: Marketing's New Frontier

Technology has drastically changed the way we interact. It has made communication easy, simple and faster. The explosion of mobile technology and availability of internet access in fusion with social networks and media has ensured that communication no longer remain in the traditional formats. Marketers all over the world are making good use of this development to their advantage.

Marketing on social networks is relatively cheaper than traditional marketing. Social media basically represents low-cost tools that are used to combine technology and social interaction with the use of words, graphics, sound and videos. These tools are typically internet or mobile- based. Examples are Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Youtube, Pinterest, Instagram, you name them.