Sep 13, 2017 | Blog, News
Regular versus Business Instagram
Instagram is the favoured social media platform for many visual based business across Australia. There are around 400 million monthly users on this platform so there are huge opportunities to get yourself know. And if you’re a business owner, Instagram is an awesome way to build or market your brand in a creative way.
But to some, there is confusion over whether to have a personal business instagram account? Others will say, I’ll just switch my instagram account to business account but then will think how will I share updates to my followers that are more personal? Deciding is not easy so let me give you the difference between the two.
Personal Instagram Account
It is normal for us to regularly publish pictures about our every day life. That’s why we have account for personal use. If you do love taking photos and you have a personal blog then it’s ideal to use your personal account. A personal account is usually for yourself.
If you’re account is full of images of your kids, family, you might want to keep that personal. If you’re images reflect a part of your brand and then you might consider transitioning your account for professional use. Or even better, have 2 separate accounts.
Business Instagram Account
A professional business account needs to focus on your customers and not your friends. Your customers and readers don’t necessarily need to see pictures of your baby or your dog or the bag that you’ve just purchased. You can post this type of content, but it would not be all the time.
There are lot of benefits that Instagram can do in helping you grow your business and having a business instagram account can work for you Let’s check some of these benefits:
- It can build trust with your customers by telling stories. Since you can share pictures about your business in a more casual way, this can build personal rapport with your customers.
- You can easily target your market through hashtags. If you’re business is targeting millennials then Instagram is the best place to market your business because they are the age group that uses Instagram most of the time.
- Having an active account can earn engagement and warm from your audience.
I hope this helps you decide how to use Instagram and what type of account to use!
If you want help getting more out of your social media marketing, please download our free step by step guide today!
Sep 7, 2017 | Blog, News
Accepting LinkedIn connections
LinkedIn is the best social network for professionals. In Australia it is a platform that is used mainly for connecting to colleagues and other work related matters (and for recruiters to head hunt for talent!).
As a social media tool, LinkedIn is built around making connections; and has prompts to encourage you to grow the number of people you are connected to. But one question I’m often asked about is ‘Should you accept requests from people you don’t know?’ The short answer is: it depends. Below is the longer answer.
The next time that someone send an invitation in your LinkedIn account, think twice before accepting it. Not just because you don’t know the person but this is because it is part of LinkedIn’s official rule. This is under Section 8.2 wherein it states that members agree not to “invite people you do not know to join your network.” This is because LinkedIn’s purpose is to build connections that are appropriate and build genuine professional communities. But, and this is a big but, as long as you do your due diligence, it is ok to accept a connection from someone you do not know.
You might also consider these factors when it comes to accepting connections from LinkedIn.
- Check the profile photo. If there is no photo, I’d say no.
- Personal message. I’ve been impressed by those who have taken the time to craft a personal message before sending me a request.
- Other people they are connected to. If you have lots of mutual connections, then maybe this person is fine, and could add value to your network.
- Browse through their profile. The profile says a lot about that person so check interests, current job or past jobs and other important details. Knowing this will help you in deciding whether or not to accept the invitation.
Quality over quantity is key when connecting with other on LinkedIn. Remember, LinkedIn is designed to build connections to help you in your professional life so before accepting, always take a little time to think about it.
If you want help getting more out of your social media marketing, please download our free step by step guide today!
Sep 1, 2017 | Blog, News
Planning content with Buzzsumo
Social media content is a great way of communicating to and building relationships with your potential customers. One of the best ways to promote businesses of all sizes is through developing a strong content marketing strategy. The tool I love using when it comes to planning content is Buzzsumo.
However, you can’t simply fill in a website with all and any content that comes to mind and then expect it to bring potential clients. You need to have relevant content that will appeal to your target audience and will answer their questions. But what tool can help you in doing this? Buzzsumo is a great tool to find out what content performs best. This tool allows a user to find out what the content is popular by website or by topic.
With the use of Buzzsumo, it can help you identify key influencers based on keywords. But what can Buzzsumo do in your business?
- Buzzsumo allows you to identify which content is being shared the most and who shared it which is important. Thus, this gives you the details on who is the influencer and knowing who has the public’s trust and attention can give you the understanding on who you can follow for inspiration.
- Buzzsumo can provide you keyword alerts so you will be notified when content is posted or updated. Keeping up to date with trending content, and then sharing it across your own social platforms, can help increase reach into new audiences.
- Buzzsumo can give you an analysis on how your competitor is doing. Knowing and understanding what your competitors can do and what is working and what is not working for them can help inform what you do. This will give you insights on what works best for you and it will help you to avoid things that are not effective.
Writing content is a tough task and no matter how we allot a certain time to gather and think of new ideas, we rarely devote enough time to curating and creating good content. Buzzsumo, to my mind, has proven to be an effective tool when it comes to improving your content marketing strategy. Just always remember in using any kind of tool or system just like Buzzsumo will depend on what you want to achieve and where are you in terms of your own content marketing.
If you want help getting more out of your social media marketing, please download our free step by step guide today!
Aug 12, 2017 | Blog, News
Using hashtags to grow your audience
Everyone wants more Twitter and Instagram followers. Whether you’re trying to grow your personal or business account, it can be challenging to grow your audience. Trying to stand out on an application that has over 600 million users is not an easy task at all. One of the best (and often misused tools) is hashtags.
But before you use hashtags, let us have a quick look at what is hashtag and why do you need to use this. A hashtag is the pound sign (#) and in social media it is used to draw attention, to promote and to organise content around a particular topic. Instagram (and for the most part Twitter) is a medium where hashtags are required for content to be seen. The thing about hashtags is that using the right one can increase you visibility immediately and increase engagement with your audience. Just make sure that you use a hashtag that is in line with the content you are posting.
Instagram has been the popular social media platform in Australia. Australians love using Instagram, especially during weekends. Australian women dominate social media channels with a booming of 58% using Instagram videos and 66% using Instagram images (Datafication). The hashtags that they have used and become popular in just a matter of 24 hours were #australia #cute, #fun, #sydney, #love, #sydney, #lol, #fitness, #music, and #instagood.
Like any other social network there are ways how to use it (and importantly how not to) so let’s check how to use a hashtag and how can it help to grow your audience.
- Don’t forget to use the right hashtag. If you use the right hashtag on your content then you are more likely to reach and discover new users. It will be easier for your audience to notice your photo if you use a specific hashtag that is trending. Just remember to make it relevant or your will be shadowbanned.
- Timing of your Posts. Yes, you have outlined what you will post but consider also when the right time to post it. When is your target audience likely to be online?
- In addition to using branded hashtags (#yourbusinessname), try using industry specific hashtags, and even more general ones. If you wan to know what to use, do a quick serch in Instagram and see how many posts come up – that will tell you what is popular and what isn’t
- Share your daily activities. Want to catch the follower’s attention? You can give glimpses and tell what you’re actually doing. This is a great way to make your audience feeling inspired.
Instagram allows users to post up to 30 hashtags but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to use all of them. It’s all about engagement and you need to publish when your audience is active. And don’t forget to measure your efforts so you can tweak your content. Always remember that using a hashtag is easy but you have to make sure that it is relevant and accurate in order for you to be noticed and in time, you will see that your audience is increasing.
If you want help getting more out of your social media marketing, please download our free step by step guide today!
Aug 5, 2017 | Blog, News
How Often Should You Email Your Database?
One of the strongest ways for companies to engage and to communicate with their customers is through email marketing. By using email, they can keep in touch with their clients and inform them about their services and new products. The use of email marketing can amplify a businesses’ marketing strategy through nurturing existing contacts.
So how often do you need to send out your emails to your clients?
Based on Australian research, one possible reason why customers unsubscribe is because you send too many emails with not enough valuable content. Some people consider these emails as spam. Companies should be careful in sending emails to avoid their accounts from being reported. In Australia, there are strict rules that need to be followed to comply with the Australian spam laws. The following are the three simple steps that will help you do responsible email marketing and abide with Australia’s legislation.
- Make sure that you ask for the person’s consent before you send this type of marketing. This is mostly done through Opt-in mailing lists.
- In any email marketing, you should always remember to identify the organisation which is responsible for the sent emails.
- The customers must have an option to unsubscribe with the emails sent to them.
Although there is really no hard and fast rule on how many times you should email your database because it depends on what you are trying to accomplish, you should always err on the side of caution. Regarding on how often you should send emails, there are some guidelines that you can follow in order to make sure that you’re still on track when it comes to updating your database.
- Send email a minimum of once per month. If you blog once a month, or have monthly offers for your customers, this is the perfect frequency for you. Make sure you commit to once a month, and no less, as you still want to remain front of mind for your database
- Send email a maximum of once per week. We recommend sending emails a maximum of once per week, unless you have breaking news or something urgent or compelling to say. When you send out emails in a daily manner, your customers will simply unsubscribe you or even report the emails as spam.
Clearly, there is really no perfect answer on how often you need to email your database. But one thing is for sure, whether how many times you send out, daily, weekly, or monthly, you have to remember that the content is the key to make your email marketing strategy effective. Always make it a point that your email provides quality, valuable content.
If you want help getting more out of your social media marketing, please download our free step by step guide today!
