Tips for Fascinating an overstimulated media market [part ii]

Person reading Digital Marketing book.
To read the first half of this post please visit here.

[TIP THREE]

A third tip to gain the attention of the social user is to understand the difference between personal online content and business content. I know I just mentioned that you need to post more than just information about your business. and you absolutely do. But say you are a health care facility and you want to share a post about migraine headaches. An inappropriate business page post would be a meme or GIF. With poorly composed graphics about the “horror of migraine headaches”. Sure it might be funny, but it doesn’t look professional. And is best saved for sharing on a personal account.

A more appropriate post for this topic would be an infographic detailing the signs and symptoms of a migraine headache. And a CTA (call-to-action) on how to find relief in your care facility. This type of content post is also appropriate because it not only gives the follower something useful in what to look for with their migraines. But also a way to solve their issue and that benefits you as a business. If they choose to share this content, that CTA will bring their friends or others in their circle back to your business as well. Which has just brought you new followers and in turn customers.

[TIP FOUR]

The next tip is simple and yet challenging. Keep your posts short and non-generic. It is recommended that Social Media posts stay around 80 characters or less for up to 66% more engagement. And being that engagement is what you are looking for, this is important to follow. However, just 80 characters is tough. As it is 60 characters less than the 140 you are restricted to already on Twitter posts. If you are able to succeed though, you will be posting your very BEST content. Because you will have thought it through enough to figure out how to get to those 80 characters in the first place.

And of course this doesn’t include your graphic– that you are absolutely posting along with those characters; as we know are necessary for grabbing attention of users today as well. And with a great graphic, you won’t need a great deal of words.

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[TIP FIVE]

The final tip for gaining attention in a busy world is to not overextend yourself as a business owner. Whether you are a public speaker and one-man show or a corporation with hundreds of employees (or most likely someone in between), know when best to hire outside help and leave the online media marketing to the pros. Your business will do best if you aren’t overextending yourself trying to wear too many hats at once. Social Media is happening 24/7 and is most definitely a full time job when done effectively. As an owner, you already don’t have time for that.

But it’s also something you cannot afford to ignore as in this present society it is now the bulk of your marketing without the cost. Using Facebook is free, so spend some money to make sure it’s done right, and save yourself the added stress. If you need help with Social Media Strategy or Management please don’t hesitate to check out what we offer here at Killerspots.

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Contact Killerspots Creative Team for any media/marketing needs you may have. http://killerspots.com

Fascinating an Overstimulated Media Market [part I]

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[AS FEATURED in ULTIMATE MAGAZINE]

Have you had this experience? Search for an answer on Google, click on a webpage and before you can even complete reading a sentence of information; you are bombarded with an ad or a window to “sign up now”. You haven’t even decided how you feel about this information, page, media or site and already are being told what to do. It’s threatening almost.

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The same used to be true for television. Sit down to relax after a long day and within the first three minutes of your selected entertainment, you now find yourself being told exactly how to spend all your hard-earned cash. Except now we have the option to fast-forward through those advertisements. Or bypass them entirely with paid services such as Netflix.

Introduce: mobile device. According to the digital analytics firm Flurry, people spend two hours and fifty-seven minutes per day on average on their mobile devices. Which is ahead of time spent watching television. Obviously, businesses, marketers and advertising agencies cannot ignore that statistic. They must find a way to reach those customers. Enter in, Social Media.

Social Media

Social Media began as something teens were doing in AOL chat rooms. With friends, in their basements as yet another venue to box their parents out of “what was cool”.  It was the texting of this generation.  But then in February of 2004, Mark Zuckerberg took online networking to a whole new approach. What if people could connect together to build a networked community? Share their thoughts, feelings, updates, photos and even opinions beyond just one-on-one. But within an entire network of friends/family. The possibilities were endless. And now in 2015, as the social networking platforms have expanded, that online community is something a business cannot be without in order to succeed.

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The question becomes, how do we gain the attention of that audience? In the near three hour window of time they are spending in Social Media communities. How do we sell to them? These five tips will change the way your business interacts socially. While also giving you that rare moment of attentiveness from your customer.

[TIP ONE]

You do not need to use every social platform available. You might feel being on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and Pinterest is best in order to reach every possible audience. In actuality what ends up happening is that you spread yourself thin trying to keep up. on each of these vastly different platforms that you aren’t posting quality content to. The audiences that do engage and therefore missing opportunities for your business.

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It’s best practice to figure out your customer base. (who they are, where they shop, what they do and what are their needs). And then pick 2-3 social platforms that best suit that customer. You do not want to start a Pinterest page as a law firm because posting the best recipes for crockpot cooking isn’t going to bring you closer to your target customer. You are going to want a Twitter account so you can talk about the latest updates to the law and interesting articles regarding the type of cases you take on.

[TIP TWO]

Along with that idea, the next tip is to focus on which platforms people are using regularly. Posting your very best content on those platforms. In 2014, there were a reported 1.28 billion users on Facebook with those users on average spending 21 minutes per day on the site (Digital Marketing Statistics). That number is five times higher than the number of active users on Twitter; which is still remarkably high at 232 million.

What this means is that businesses are no longer in a place to ignore the use of Social Media if they want to gain any kind of attention from their customers. However, you also cannot just create a Facebook page, fill it with ads and posts about your business and expect users to follow excitedly. You must build a community online. Engage with your fan base. Give them content they are excited to read and comment on and then occasionally remind them about your latest and greatest products and/or services.

—Continued in the next post! 

Contact Killerspots Creative Team for any media/marketing needs you may have. http://killerspots.com/

Facebook has done it again. What the heck is a Beacon?

Recently I was looking over notifications for one of the Facebook pages I manage when I stumbled into this message alert atop the page about a beacon:

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Figure 1 Screenshot of beacon invitation

Facebook is certainly one for new innovations that usually aren’t introduced. But rather implemented. Therefore, I was less than shocked to see yet another “Facebook update” that I hadn’t heard of. Even working day-to-day in the Marketing and Social Media world doesn’t necessarily grant you awareness of current trends. But being that I like to have know-how of such events. I thought I’d investigate these new Facebook “beacons” and find out if indeed this was a special invitation.

Basically what I’ve found is such:

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Figure 2 Photo c/o Facebook Help Pages

A Beacon is a Bluetooth device.

Facebook plans to send these devices to businesses with great activity on Facebook within their local area for early access trial runs.

The beacon will interact with your customers’ Facebook apps while visiting your business. To let them know inside “tips” about your business. These tips are based off of comments your friends have made on Facebook, reviews of the business, photos that have been posted and more of that liking.

Beacon
Figure 3 Screenshot explaining the beacon further

According to an article posted in Facebook’s Help Center: “Your location is determined using cellular networks, Wi-Fi, GPS and Facebook Bluetooth® beacons. Viewing place tips doesn’t post on Facebook or show people where you are.”

When I clicked “Get Free Beacon” I was taken to a form to fill out name, address and business name. There’s also an option to send the device to a different address. Than that of the business page you were on. If you are like me and managing a page for another company.

Is this the future?

So far as I see it, this new addition to Facebook technology could either be a fantastic advantage for businesses and their customers. Or it could be taken as yet another creepy invasion of technology that we now need to block in our privacy settings. As a Social Media Maven and voice for many businesses soon to receive these beacons. I’m obviously pushing for the former to be true.

At this time we have not yet received the device or put it into action so only time will tell how people react. We will update once we have more information for you and try these little Bluetooth gems for ourselves.

Have you heard about Beacons? Were you invited to use one? What are your thoughts on this technology and Facebook introducing it to their platform?