Ever wonder what everyone does on Facebook all day long? Or, more specifically, do you wonder how to get people who spend all day on Facebook to spend some of that time with you? Well, take a look at this infographic from Mashable.com for some great insight. Likely, the average age of a user is higher than you thought, and you need to be posting photos or similar content if you want some kind of interaction.
Source: mashable.com
Thanks to the Internet, marketing has evolved over the years. Consumers no longer rely on billboards and TV spots — a.k.a. outbound marketing — to learn about new products, because the web has empowered them. It’s given them alternative methods for finding, buying and researching brands and products. The new marketing communication — inbound marketing — has become a two-way dialogue, much of which is facilitated by social media.
Another reason why inbound marketing is winning is because it costs less than traditional marketing. Why try to buy your way in when consumers aren’t even paying attention? Here are some stats from the infographic below.
Inbound marketing focuses on earning, not buying, a person’s attention, which is done through social media and engaging content, such as blogs, podcasts and white papers. This content is interesting, informative and adds value, creating a positive connection in the eyes of the consumer, thus making him more likely to engage your brand and buy the product. So it costs less and has better a ROI.
This infographic from Voltier Digital highlights the differences between the two kinds of marketing
Social Media and SEO are more closely related today than ever before. Good social media optimizers are aware of the potential impact from using keyword research, site architecture and structure, page optimization, link building, SEO tactics, link building social media and SEO vs. PPC.
The other day a few of our photographer friends started passing around a New York Times blog written by Nick Bilton from 2010 that happened to land in our newsfeed. Entitled, “Study Shows People Ignore Generic Photos Online,” the piece dissects eye-tracking research offered up by consultant and author Jakob Nielsen that says (as the headline proclaims) generic, sometimes called stock, photography is worthless to those who want users to interact with their site. This is especially true when it comes to selling products online.
The team here at Buzz Mouth certainly agrees with these findings, as we advocate for original photography as much as possible. And while Nielsen’s research puts the hard numbers behind this school of though, here are a few tips to keep in mind when investing in high-quality images for your brand:
Show, don’t tell. We’re not exactly going on a limb here when we say that we live in a visual society and the internet is becoming a photo- and image-heavy medium more and more. Your website is your business card for any potential customers, and with so many sites, products and businesses out there, and an easy way to stand out from the pack is to have great photos. Just don’t overdo it; a handful of great shots with your product in action will go much further than 100 generic ones of on item on a white background.
Capture the product in use. If you’re a yogurt shop, so people eating yogurt or adding toppings. If you’re a high-end furniture company, decorate a room around your pieces and shoot that. If you’re a car repair shop, show your mechanics working on a car and interacting with customers. Be genuine with the imagery you put out there and portray an accurate customer experience. (And if your yogurt doesn’t look delicious or you think your car repair shop is too dirty to put on your site – well, then that should tell you something.)
Do it right. Yes, anyone can purchase a high-resolution camera nowadays and start clicking away. However, finding the right professional photographer and having them apply their skills can be a huge boon to your brand – they might even revitalize your look or attract a whole new kind of customer. Beyond having a trained eye, many photographers today are experts in post-production software like Photoshop, a program that can often swallow hours of time if you’re a laymen.
Yes, stock imagery is an easy, convenient way to get some kind photography on your site. But, as Nielsen’s research shows, it won’t provide any benefit to you or your brand. Original photography will, and the potential benefits far outweigh the cost investment.
And, honestly, wouldn’t you rather be focused on making your yogurt (or car repair or furniture) the best in the business than spending hours trying to shoot and edit a few photos?
Read the New York Times blog here.
Facebook king Mark Zuckerberg made worldwide headlines yesterday when he announced major changes at the social network’s annual F8 developer conference. And while most users will be concerned about the Timeline feature that was introduced, businesses of all sizes are watching two other features: adding verbs and nouns to social graphs, and users no longer have to “Like” a page before commenting on it.
These new features far expand the possibilities of a brand being mentioned by Facebook users beyond just the “Like” button. They also break down the apprehension most individuals have with being associated with a brand or a company. Furthermore, the features obviously blow the doors open for higher brand awareness and provide a greater chance of viral growth — but the pitfalls are also abundant. Negative experiences can now be articulated outside of status updates, through ways that can be detrimental to a business. Again, this was always possible, but Facebook now makes it easier and offers more creative ways to do so.
With Zuckerberg announcing that 500 million people a day interact in some way on Facebook now, it cannot not be understated that running a strong, legitimate, day-to-day business is more important than ever. Can you bury bad reviews and mentions through various methods? To an extent, yes, but if someone’s friends say that they had a bad experience with your product or service, it’s a difficult barrier to overcome because it can be shared so quickly and visually. So what can you do? Your defense beyond a great product and untouchable ethics is creating your own content through blogs, videos, photos and other media while also monitoring your brand’s page more closely than you do now. Just remember that you want current customers to be able to interact with your brand online, because it will increase the likelihood that their friends and other new customers will discover your business. (This hits on the idea that Facebook believes users will continue to share more aspects of their lives and will be ever more open moving forward. That’s why they’re integrating services such as Spotify and Netflix, making it easier to discover TV shows, music, movies, restaurants, news stories and countless other aspects of things we and our friends consume.)
It’s clear that these new features and integrations are a play by Facebook to not only dominant the internet, but be the internet for as many people as possible. Your brand and business cannot afford to be passive — you have to engage, you have to create. That’s the new Facebook.
Need to drive more traffic or engage users once they arrive at your site? Try video. According to a study done by ComScore, 83.5 percent of all internet users watch at least one web video in a month.
That’s a big opportunity to introduce (or re-introduce) your business or campaign to a target audience who can each be converted into a sale. We’ve broken down a few tips to utilize video correctly to increase your social media optimization:
1. Video is well received on the web, from YouTube to Facebook to blogs. However, understand that 50,400 hours of new video are uploaded every day to YouTube, so standing out among that crowd is next to impossible. Couple your YouTube upload with as many video hosting sites on the internet that you can, which will only drive more traffic and SEO.
2. Video should be interactive — it should deliver the ability to hear, see and connect with your audience.
3. Video encourages sharing because people are likely to pass along a memorable video on their personal social media accounts. So, make it easy to share!
4. It’s a great way to show personality. Be more than a faceless company or brand. Consumers are savvy today, and traditional advertising techniques aren’t as effective as they once were.
5. Be entertaining and creative to tell your desired story or message. One person speaking into the camera for 10 minutes is not the answer.
6. Be quick and to the point — meaning, keep your video under 2 minutes. If you expect someone to watch anything longer than that, you’ve set yourself up for failure.
7. Invest in quality. This is very important because creating a poorly made video with sound and lighting issues can actually do more harm to your brand than not doing a video at all. Make sure you’re ready to make the right financial investment in quality production.
Among the many reasons to expand your social media network and utilize social media as an online marketing strategy, research is now showing that more and more companies plan to increase their budgets in this arena. According to research from Marketing Sherpa, 49 percent of businesses are investing in social media right now, but — and this is the part generating interest throughout the business world — 62 percent of businesses plan to increase these budgets in the future.
From 2009-2010, Marketing Sherpa also says 56 percent of businesses reported at least a minor shift in budgets from print to social media. There are a variety of factors for this shift, including easier to track (if not greater) ROI, the decline of newsstand sales for publications and a decrease in traditional marketing budgets. Companies have clearly taken notice of the potential increase in leads, revenue and overall brand awareness that social media can provide if managed correctly. They also understand that in order to be successful, a passive strategy of simply creating a Facebook page and a Twitter account with occasional updates is not enough.
Finally, if these facts regarding the movement towards fully embracing social media and digital strategies aren’t convincing enough we’ll end with this statistic: According to a study performed by SiteKreator, small businesses who update their website more than five times per month have 300 percent more website traffic than those who do not.
What are you doing with social media? What’s your digital strategy? What kind of content are you producing? If you don’t have an answer for these three questions, your business will be left behind.
Start finding your answers by contacting Buzz Mouth today, and read more here.