Top Reasons to be on Social Media

Today’s COVID-plagued economy has really hit home that if you are not digital, you are dying. In order to survive and thrive, we all need to find ways to be virtual for all aspects of our businesses. Zoom meetings, video conferences, FaceTime, and so many other digital tools have now become the norm for conducting day-to-day business. In this environment, social media has become even more relevant. So, disregarding sales and marketing, here are my top reasons why your business should be on social media: 

As you probably know, the hiring and recruiting process starts long before you put that posting on Indeed. It starts with a strong company culture and helping those outside of your organization learn more about that culture. Social media gives you more bandwidth to broadcast what you are as a company and what is important to you. Are you a fun, ultra-professional, competitive organization that people want to be a part of? If so, how will people know that? The answer: social media.

When you finally do post that hiring ad on Indeed (or wherever), rest assured that today’s workforce is looking you up on social media to see what you are about. After all, this is how things work these days. If the wrong message, or no message, is there, you may be missing out on the right hire. You may be viewed as antiquated or dismissed as not being a credible organization. 

Lastly, social media gives you more choices for posting hiring ads and offers. In addition, organic posting is free, so why wouldn’t you get some content out there about that open position in your company? 

If you are not telling your story, someone else is. It could be ex-employees, competitors, or just some random stranger that you don’t even know exists. The bottom line is that people are talking about you and your company. Who do you want controlling that narrative? 

Help bring awareness to the things outside of your business that are important to you. You are donating to charities, sponsoring golf outings, and volunteering time. I know you do not want to make these things about you, but by posting about these events and causes, you are also bringing attention to them. They want attention! They need attention. It’s how they get more donors and more sponsors. Help them by amplifying their voice, and, in return, you get good press. It’s a win-win.

Yes, I know this article has to do with marketing, but it also has to do with every other facet of your business as well. Circle back to the whole hiring and retention process. How people feel about your brand extends far outside of sales and marketing. How people think and feel about your brand is directly related to what they know about it. As I said earlier, if you are not telling your story, someone else is. You want folks to know who you are, but fewer people are turning to traditional media to find out. So where will you educate people on your rand? Answer: social media.

Name recognition is something we all want. But how often do you think of this when it comes to hiring? When someone mentions your firm, does a potential applicant know who you are? Are they excited about the idea of working for such an amazing organization because they hear so much about you? Or do they dismiss you because they have never heard of you?

Sharing others’ content and posts = gaining goodwill. One of the easiest things to do is share someone else’s content. Think about it: It takes two clicks. If you are sharing the content of your current customers—especially those businesses and people who really pay attention to their social media channels—they will notice. They may even return the favor by sharing your content and commenting about what a great company you are. Consider the principle of social proof. It means this: You can say you are great all you want, and people may believe it. But once someone else says it, it’s true. 

You need to keep yourself (business) in front of your current customers in case your competitors come lurking. Back when I was a full-time salesperson, we used to say, “Your biggest client is someone else’s biggest prospect.” You need to protect your accounts and make sure that your relationship with your client is solid. Solid relationships do not come from a single approach; social media gives you an easy way to add to your client retention arsenal. 

It’s a digital world, and it’s time to start updating your strategies. I know many of you have avoided social media up to this point. I know it is an added expense of time, money, and resources. I also know it would be harmful to avoid joining the conversation that is happening out there on digital channels every single day. Not sure where to begin? Well, we would love to chat with you about how we can help. 

Someone is telling your story. Shouldn’t it be you?

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Getting Results: Why Social Media and Paid Ads Are Not Cutting It

You aren’t alone. It’s no secret that the results emanating from social media and paid ads are not delivering the way they used to. We have been fighting to get engagement, and it just seems like it is a losing battle. The few likes, comments, and shares we get are great, but they are clearly not converting to closed business. We are getting thousands of impressions on paid ads only to see high bounce rates and, again, low conversions. Brand recognition is great, but if it does not turn into actual money in the bank, we are just wasting our time. 

Social media feeds are overflowing with wish posts about COVID-19, conspiracy theories, Black Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, Trump, Biden and a myriad of other political-based articles, and your posts are getting lost in all the noise. 

People are turning away from social media and outbound marketing efforts. People are no longer finding you on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Interruption marketing is becoming a dinosaur, and people are wondering how to put their brand assets in front of qualified and interested buyers. So what is working? That is the million-dollar question. Fortunately, we have an answer. 

1. Organic search.
2. The Google My Business app.
3. Inbound marketing programs.

Organic search has been an effective strategy for a long time, but because of the effectiveness of social media and the ability to drive website traffic through paid ads, it is something we all let go by the wayside. Staying on top of search was sometimes confusing, sometimes elusive, and oftentimes expensive. With folks turning away from social media, we are now finding it absolutely necessary. Buyers are starting their search for most products and services with a quick Google Search. Yes, some other search engines have a piece of the action, but if you look at these numbers provided by StatCounter, you see that Google Search equates to 87.61% of the market share, with Bing at 7.02% and Yahoo at 3.38%. I don’t know about you, but I think I would rather place my time, money and resources by fishing in the right pond: Google. Wondering how to increase your chances of being at the top of Google pages for your keywords? We will get to that shortly.

One more note on search: We are seeing a large increase in video at the top of many search results, especially in categories such as reviews, how-to videos, tutorial videos and videos that are fitness- or sports-related. The trick is finding a way to adopt these types of videos for your business. 

Google My Business is highly underused by businesses. We tend to have a “set it and forget it” mentality when we should be spending as much time working on this as on our social media channels. Think about your own behavior when you run a search and someone’s Google My Business page shows up. All the information you see on that page can in many cases pre-empt the need for others to visit your website. Wondering what are the best practices for optimizing your GMB page? I have included a link to a great article below. 

Outbound and interruption marketing are quickly being replaced by systems that are not only automated but effective. Having a system that attracts, educates and sends interested qualified buyers to your site is what is winning the game these days. That system? Inbound marketing—specifically, video inbound marketing. VIM is becoming a paramount system. As mentioned earlier, Google is frequently placing videos at the top of its search results. More on that in a bit.

Inbound marketing-utilizing systems such as HubSpot can tie into all of your marketing efforts to produce results. You don’t need to take my word for it, though. Check out HubSpot for everything you need to know on why inbound marketing is effective.

At the top of that inbound funnel is content, content, content. Leading the charge in content right now is video. Video is replacing blog content for the simple reason that people will watch a 1-2- minute video before taking the time to read anything. You know it’s true because you do the same thing. If a video is tagged properly, named correctly, has a good thumbnail image and has a description that quickly tells you it is relevant, you will pick that over written content more often than not. 

So what do you do? You have options, but the first thing you should do is allocate time, money and resources to creating content. Content creation gives you the top-of-the-funnel asset you need to run a successful inbound marketing program. Videos and blogs are the key. That does not mean you should skip the blogging. We suggest a combination of both video and blog creation. Creating videos that people will watch and posting them on YouTube is only part of the game. While video can be more effective than blogs, it is not simply creating a video and placing it on YouTube. You need to be sure that titles, tags, thumbnails and descriptions are on point for what your prospects will be searching for. We recommend embedding these videos into a written blog that discusses the video and maybe encourages a reader to watch it. This allows two pieces of content from every video asset created. It also helps you show up in both video search results and keyword search results. When done properly, you can really get great results just with organic search from these efforts.

Well, I think you should reach out to us for a conversation, but my guess is that you are going to do some searches first, probably on Google. A search may even be what led you here in the first place. This in and of itself showcases what we just discussed. 

Looking for that link to optimize your Google My Business page? Here it is.

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Who Is Your Target Market?

One of the bigger mistakes I see businesses making with their marketing is not clearly identifying their target market. When asked, “Who is your target market?” they will typically respond with some version of “anyone”.

You cannot feasibly market to “anyone” or “everyone” –  the cost alone would be astronomical. “Anyone” and “everyone” spend their time and attention in different places. This means you would have to spend time, money, or resources to be on facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Radio, Television, Billboards, Newspapers, the list goes on and on. Don’t get me wrong, there are businesses that do all of these things – and you have heard of them. Coke, Pepsi, Target, Walmart, I am sure those names ring a bell. So if you have a similar marketing budget as they do then disregard this totally. If you do not have their budget please keep reading. 

If “everyone” wanted and was able to buy your stuff you would not need marketing. We know this is not the case and we can immediately narrow down the field with two qualification criteria: Want and Able. Isn’t that really our job when it comes to defining our Target Market? To identify reasons people might want to buy our products and services? Isn’t this just another way to qualify prospects? We have fancy tricks for this that I will outline below. Every business owner I know says that they want to talk to people that are qualified buyers, not tire kickers, and not those that are not in the position to actually buy. So start the qualification process with your marketing by clearly identifying your target market.

Use your sales qualifiers to identify your target market. As we said, your potential buyer needs to want your product/service and be able to buy it. What other criteria do you use to qualify?

• Our clients are in the Capital Region and New England.
• Our clients can invest between $1k and $5k in their marketing programs.
• Our clients have capacity and can take on more clients and customers. 
• Our clients believe in marketing and what it can do for them.
• They have a positive outlook on marketing.
• They want to have fun creating content.
• They are receptive to changing what they have done previously.
• They are willing to communicate with our team. 

Now while some of those are negotiable, some are not. We use these to help determine if a client is a good fit for us or if it is going to lead down a road we do not want to go down. I am sorry to say we have not always done this. There have been more occasions than I like to admit where we had to cut ties with a client. Because of those occasions, we now spend more time qualifying so we can say yes to the right business and no to the wrong business. 

So write down 7-10 criteria that when met would help identify the perfect client. If you are stuck here, think about your favorite clients and right down the reasons they are your favorites. These very well could be qualifying criteria. 

Another useful method for determining your target market is to identify the Demographics, Geographics, and Psychographics of the people you want to work with.

• Demographic – Age, race, ethnicity, gender, marital status, income, education, and employment are easy examples. You might also consider things like lifestyle, interests, hobbies, and other identifiers that will help you define who your target is and where they spend time and attention. 
• Geographic – Where they are physically located.
• Psychographic – Possibly a less recognizable term. Psychographics are the psychological reasons why a prospect would buy your product or service. These are typically emotionally based reasons and manifest in words like frustrated, upset, concerned. The folks over at Sandler training have a great acronym, FUDWACA. Frustrated, Upset, Disappointed, Worried, Angry, Concerned, Anxious. 

So what do we do with all of that? The 7-10 qualifying criteria and the Demo, Geo, and Psychographic info? We can use this to create a buyer profile. This buyer profile tells us everything we need to know to figure out what our messaging should sound like, where to place ads, which social media channels to spend time on, and so much more. Every ad or post you make should be based on what your buyer profile tells you will work. It will work because they will identify with the imagery chosen, and the text used, and where it was placed. They will identify with it because…. it is specifically for them! They are your target market!

I know many of you are reading this and saying (or thinking) that being too specific with your marketing will cause you to miss out on opportunities that fall outside of your target market. This is not the case and I typically explain it like this: If you are playing darts and aiming at the bullseye you will inevitably miss and hit the areas around the bullseye. The same is true for marketing. Aim for your target market always, knowing that others will see the ad, video or read the blog. Even though it was not built specifically for them they will still identify with some of it enough to take action. If they do not identify with any of it then they just are not qualified to begin with, and you do not want to spend what little time you have with the wrong people.

And of course, give us a call if this sounds like something YOU identify with.
We can help.

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Instagram’s Limitations

A popular social media platform may have looked strange to some users recently. We’re talking about changes made by Instagram. For instance, some posts from beloved accounts have not made their way onto the feeds of their followers, and engagement with content has fluctuated. What is going on, and can you prevent it from happening to your site? These are the issues:

The “limited sensitive content filter” within the Instagram app for iPhone users has restricted visibility of some posts. This means that any content Instagram deems inappropriate will not be shown to individuals in their feeds and will only be visible on users’ own profiles.

One major change is that the social media site has moved away from a chronological feed. This means that posts are not always appearing on your feed at the time they were posted. Posts are now being seen anywhere from minutes to days after they were posted.

Instagram has stated that, “We use a variety of algorithms, classifiers, and processes, each with its own purpose.” These algorithms are constantly evolving and aim to better the experience for users of this social media platform.

Five important interactions determine ranking, which will affect the likeliness of your posts being shown on someone else’s feeds. These include the number of “likes,” time spent on content, the number of comments, the number of times people have saved your post, and how often individuals have visited your profile.

If a majority of these five categories are not being fulfilled, the amount of interactions on your account may be harmed.

It has been seen in some cases that if accounts had not interacted with their followers’ pages, then their content was not shown on their followers’ news feeds.

Here are some tricks and tips from our team’s research and experience:

• Deactivate the “limited sensitive content filter” in your settings.
• Be consistent. Post regularly and keep your content consistent.
• Utilize hashtags. Do your research and use hashtags that have to do with your post, content, and page.
• Interact with your audience. “Liking,” commenting on, and reacting to your followers’ content builds relationships and elevates your account.
• Follow trends and stay up to date with new Instagram features.
• Use Instagram analytics to your advantage.

Interested in learning about our social media services? Send us an email at info@spacitydigital.com.

Sources: https://later.com/blog/how-instagram-algorithm-works/

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5 Indicators You Need Help with Your Marketing

These days, everyone’s time is short, and our collective attention is shorter. Many of you are looking for specific answers to your website questions. So, here they are: 5 indicators you need help with your marketing. 

Too often, people think, “I just need a website so I look credible.” I think that is great, and I agree 100%, but you should take that thought a step further. How do you plan to integrate your website into your sales process? How are you integrating it into your marketing? How are you using your website to automate operations or customer service? I know what you are thinking: “I don’t have that type of budget just yet.” I get it, and I agree that you need to work within your budget. I also know that a well-built, functional site can save you time and make you more efficient. If you are trying to run lean, you need to hire the right website development team. 

Ideally, you should always be directing new prospects to your website. When they look at it, they should be able to learn about who you are, what you do and why they may want to work with you. The site also should include a simple call to action such as “Get Started” or “Hire Us.” There should be plenty of content to help your prospects through the buying process, and there should be many, many, many points of entry into your automation systems. You’re using marketing automation to run your sales cycle for you so you can focus on issues other than follow-up, right?

Do you have a clean, responsive, hard-hitting website and no clue how to send people to it? Are you using inbound marketing solutions, organic traffic (unpaid), social media, blogs, video, photo and memes? Perhaps you have unsuccessfully tried paid traffic with Facebook ads, Google ads or maybe target-driven banner ads? Are you using them correctly—or not at all? You should also be retargeting and remarketing to get the prospects back again and again until they convert. Are you using retargeting pixels? And how do you define web conversions? (By the way, print is still an efficient way to send people to your website if done correctly and in the right places.)

Are you sending custom content and messaging to qualified prospects? Or are you sending the same types of content to anyone willing to receive it as well as those who do not wish to receive it? If so, get rid of your “general subscriber” email list. If you are doing your marketing right, there is no such thing as a “general” subscriber. Specificity is paramount! On this same topic, please, please, please stop buying email lists! Google has been quite clear on this, and so have all the major email marketing companies such as Constant Contact and Mailchimp. A bought list equals a pissed list. A pissed list equals low open rates and even lower deliverability. To paraphrase Seth Godin, “Get permission.” He’s right. If you are not familiar with ways to get permission to market to your potential prospects, then ask us! Speaking of email marketing: Are you automated? Are you doing newsletters? Please stop using newsletters. Although it is fine to have a digital drip campaign going to a specific list, it is not wise to keep trying to force tired old newsletters down people’s throats. You should be sending very specific, customized pieces of content to very clearly defined prospects. Who are those clearly defined prospects? See #5. The goal is to help prospects self-qualify themselves for your product or service and not waste anyone’s time.

Who is your target market? I have written about this one before, so I won’t beat a dead horse. Above, we referred to possible clients as “clearly defined prospects,” and here we are using the phrase “target market”—it is the same thing. The one thing to know is if you answered “anyone” as the definition of your target market, then we need to talk, or you at least need to read our blog on target market. If you just want the CliffNotes version, here they are: You need to be as targeted as possible. Concerning prospects, you need to know how old they are, their gender, their interests, their geography and, most important, the psychological reasons they will buy from you. We used to call this PAIN, an acronym that is a little old-fashioned. Now, we use the term “psychographics.” Sounds fancy, right? It is. I still use the PAIN acronym to help people understand the theory. Wondering what that is? Tune in to our next blog post! 

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