Which social media platform will best market your business?

When trying to figure out how to market your business on social media, the available platforms and how they function can be quite overwhelming. Each has different elements that may or may not work for your type of business.  This is why we have created an overview of a few of the top social media platforms, and how they can help your company grow.

Instagram

1.) Instagram is best for businesses that have a creative element. It tends to well for those promoting food, a lifestyle, fashion, luxury or a personality. Instagram allows you to share visual content such as photos and videos. To succeed on Instagram, you should try to post at least once a day, at a time best fit to reach your target audience. The best way to figure out the best times to post is to test different times or research sites that have already collected the information for you. Also, remember to use as many hashtags as possible when posting. Unlike other platforms, the more hashtags on Instagram means the more people are likely to find and like your content. Make sure the hashtags are appropriate for your content.

Facebook

2.) Every business should be on Facebook. With 1.71 billion active users, there is a market for every business. Facebook is great for sharing interesting content, events pertaining to your business and ads. It is a fantastic place to engage with customers and bring them to your website. This can be done with your creative content or by utilizing Facebook Ads. Facebook allows you to track which of your posts are the most effective while running an ad or simply utilizing a regular post. In order to succeed on Facebook, one must create a genuine page that contains curated content and interacts with customers. Also, it is best to post once or twice a day.

Twitter

3.) Twitter is a fast paced and involved platform that everyone should be using. It allows for constant communication between other people and brands. In order to well on Twitter, a business must be able to post constantly. Information does not stay relevant for long considering how fast a more interesting topic can arise. Also, be sure to constantly like, retweet and be involved in conversations. Remember to use only 3 or 4 hashtags with your posts to help them perform better.

Pinterest

4.) Pinterest is great platform for posts related to travel, food, fashion, design and DIY. It is another creative platform that has a largely female user base. On Pinterest one can create boards of “pinned” and “re-pinned” posts, meaning photos they upload and photos they re-share from others. One should post and re-pin multiple times per day to help build a following.

 

YouTube

5.) YouTube is used to create video content. Higher quality content with interesting titles tends to do well. Also, YouTube takes away the need to run an advertising campaign on television. It is now easier than ever for businesses to create an interesting video, then post it with no additional costs. Posting interesting content that gets people talking can cause it to go viral, thus bringing more attention to your company.

Yelp

6.) Yelp is wonderful for brick and mortar stores, bloggers and reviewers. The more stars and reviews your business has, the more people are likely to use your services or visit your store. To succeed on Yelp, remember to actively engage with people who take time to review your business. Also, add as much information to your Yelp such as website links, “about us”, etc. Then be sure to update that information as changes are made.

Overall, there are many platforms that can be used to market your business on social media. The best way to figure out what works for you is to test the ones that resonate with your needs the most. Using a social media marketing company such as Bright Age can help you to strategize which platforms should be used to market your business on social media.

Workplace by Facebook Introduces Social Networking to the Office

Facebook is at it again, introducing themselves into more parts of our lives. As we have experienced, they have the ability to change the way we communicate. Facebook recently expanded its services into the office with the launch of Workplace by Facebook.

Overall, Workplace looks exactly like the traditional Facebook that we all are familiar with. The feel and features are all the same. As of now, there are no ads. Knowing Facebook, it is more than likely ads will be added later to increase ad revenue. Because Workplace is built for company use, there are extra measures taken to ensure that data and information stay secure.

Workplace by Facebook is built predominately for people who do not work at traditional desks. Some examples include baristas and retail associates. Until now there have been over 1,000 companies using the early private version. Starbucks and their 238,000 employees is one of them.

One of the main goals of Workplace by Facebook is to get rid of emails altogether. People within the company can chat with each other, replacing the need for emails. Companies can also share chat groups with other companies, allowing for even more direct conversation.

Facebook is typically viewed as a distraction in the workplace. Therefore it can be difficult to see how this new platform can boost productivity. Facebook plans to accomplish this by making Workplace solely for business use. No personal accounts can be connected to this service.

Your company can utilize Workplace by Facebook for a small fee per employee. Compared to its competitors Slack and Yammer, Workplace is far cheaper.  Facebook will charge $3 per user per month for the first 1,000 users; $2 for the next 1,001-10,000; and $1 for any users above that.

A Facebook advertising agency, like us here at Bright Age, are excited to see the potential behind this new social channel.

Facebook Marketing Grows with Launch of Facebook Marketplace

Remember the days of meeting up with random strangers from Craigslist to buy goods without having any clue about who they were coming from? Those times are soon to be gone with the launch of the Facebook Marketplace. With over 450 million people already visiting buy-sell-trade groups on Facebook, the creation of the Facebook Marketplace is a no brainer.

Prior to Facebook Marketplace, individuals were predominately using Craigslist and buy-sell-trade groups on Facebook to find local goods to purchase. The main problem with Craigslist is that it is impossible to know who you are buying from. There have been countless stories of individuals being ripped off and even robbed from Craigslist sellers. Facebook took this issue and decided to change the game.

When using Facebook Marketplace, you know exactly who is selling your desired product. The marketplace is hooked up to an individual’s Facebook profile. This allows you to get a feeling of what the other person is about before deciding to engage in a business transaction. Users can also filter by location, category and price to find exactly what they are looking for. What the feature lacks is a rating system, just like Amazon of Ebay uses, to find out whether the seller has products that truly fit their description, and what they are like as a seller.

The implementation of Facebook Marketplace is genius. On average, people spend about 50 minutes per day on Facebook. This new feature is a simple tap away within the program. The overall convenience makes it all that more appealing to users. There are similar start-up companies such as LetGo, Wallapop and Close5 who will be in competition with Facebook Marketplace. The obvious advantage Facebook has is their 1.17 billion active users. Facebook will also take action on those abusing the service. They are not afraid to remove listings or ban users altogether.

After they build upon the marketplace, it is more than likely that Facebook will integrate news feed ads or sponsored placement within this experience. They may also allow local businesses to sell their products as well. This is when a Facebook marketing agency such as Bright Age can help you to create the most effective content for your business.

Facebook Best Practices on Demographic Targeting

Many people do not fully utilize the customizable features in the creation of Facebook Ads. This is essential for receiving the full value of your ad dollars. Are you properly targeting your demographic with Facebook Ads to reach your intended audience? If not, we have you covered. In this article we’ve compiled a few tips on Facebook best practices when targeting your demographic.

Identify Key Audience Segments

Properly identifying your audience segments is one of the key principles of marketing. This allows you to create specific content that will resonate with your audience. Once you know exactly who you would like to market to, the rest of our Facebook best practices become a breeze.

Understand the “Detailed Targeting” When Creating an Ad

The second step to our Facebook best practices is to understand “detailed targeting” when creating an ad. Have you ever noticed the “detailed targeting” section while creating an ad, yet did not know how to use that feature? In this section one can specify demographics, interests or behaviors to ensure the right audience is reached.

1.) Demographics

Once you specify your audience, add their demographics to your campaign. Make sure to be specific as possible because Facebook allows you to be.  A few demographic options include education and income

2.) Interests

What interests is your product or service intended for? Whether it be cooking, shopping, outdoor activities or B2B marketing, Facebook has an interest for every industry there is.

3.) Behavior

If you are a Facebook marketing agency, you may want to find people who have recently purchased business marketing related services. By understanding their purchasing behavior, you can customize your ads better than before.

By utilizing the demographics, interests and behaviors sections in Facebook Ads manager, you ultimately waste less ad dollars on people who have no interest in your product or service.

Utilize the “Connections” Feature

The third step to our Facebook best practices is to properly utilize the “connections” feature in the Ad manager. Under this feature, one can dictate the ad to target people or friends who like your page. People who like your page can even be excluded from seeing the ad. The same principles apply to events or apps created by your business.

Facebook ads can be quite profitable when they are set up correctly and are as targeted as possible. Working with a professional Facebook marketing agency such as Bright Age can ensure the best quality and targeted ads for your business.

The Importance of High Quality Social Media Content Creation

Social media platforms such as Facebook are constantly looking for ways to improve satisfaction for their users. It is critical that your social media content creation process contains high quality, creative and authentic content. Without these three elements, making your social media presence successful is not possible.

To begin with, humans are simple. We enjoy content that can resonate with us. Self- promotional spam or boring media is not as appealing. This has to be taken into consideration during your social media content creation process.

One simple way to differentiate between quality content and self-promotion is to ask, “Why should others care or share my post?” In this context quality means to “add or give value” to your intended audience. What value can you ultimately give to others that would make them want your product or service?

In saying this, people share more authentic content as opposed to promotions. Your marketed value should not stem from a sale or special being offered. Instead it should originate from articles or quality photos. Non engaging posts can turn people away from the building of your customer base.

Platforms such as Facebook constantly improve their algorithms to weed out “click-bait” or heavily advertisement based posts. Content such as this typically gets sent to the bottom of an individual’s news feed, or simply does not appear as often. Keep this in mind during the creation of your social media content.

A few tips to remember when creating high quality content include:

1.) Use high resolution photography that pertains to your aesthetic

2.) Post consistent content that can engage your audience

3.) Create content that people want to share. Be sure to stay on top of current events and web trends

4.) Readability is a must! Create posts with short sentences that get your point across.

When creating amusing articles or beautiful posts, one can never go wrong with authentic and promotion-less content. Working with a social media management agency such as Bright Age can help your business create the best social media content possible.

5 Essential Parts of a Successful Social Media Marketing Campaign

The steps to running a successful marketing campaign have changed quite a bit in recent years.  While marketing used to be focused around television, radio, and billboards, a good majority of marketing has begun moving online.  As the internet continues to grow, so does the use of social media.  Today, it’s no surprise that social media has slowly become a powerhouse in the world of advertising.  Although much goes into a successful social media marketing campaign, below I have condensed it into the 5 most important parts.

1) Understand the Brand

To most effectively market a brand, it needs to be understood.  What is the company’s background?  What is their goal?  Who is the target audience?  Without an understanding of these basic concepts, a social media marketing campaign would be almost useless.  A great campaign marketed to the wrong audience would be a waste of time and money.  Although this first step might seem simple, it is often overlooked.  Knowing who and what you are marketing for, as well as why, is necessary for success.  This understanding also connects the marketer more personally to the campaign.  No longer is it just a product to be marketed, but they have become personally invested in the brand.

2) Creative Content

Once the brand is understood, the marketing should begin.  Creating content that is appropriate to your social media marketing campaign is essential.  For example, when working with Instagram, posting visually appealing photos with catchy taglines will work much better than content that would engage a typical user on Facebook.  The posts being shared must be both original and also appealing to your audience.  Creating content that will connect with and attract the target audience, while best displaying the brand ties right back to step one.

3) Effective Reach

When it comes to reach, making sure that your social media marketing campaign is reaching the right people in the proper ways is crucial.  Today, there is a wide variety of social media platforms available to engage users on.  Simply being active on Facebook is no longer enough.  An effective social media marketing agency will be focused on handling multiple platforms, such as Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, for your brand.  With different types of people using each platform, the use of multiple networks grows your reach more effectively.

On top of just posting to multiple accounts, participating in activities that will boost your reach is important as well.  On Facebook, choosing the correct objective and ad type is necessary for growing your reach to its full potential.  When it comes to your website, using the best SEO practices is a must.  A good social media marketing agency will ensure that your brand comes up near the top of any online search, ultimately growing your reach.

4) Engage Users

Engaging users is another critical step in an effective social media marketing campaign.  Posting on different platforms is a great start, but engaging with each user is how you perfect the campaign.  Using programs such as Sprout Social can assist you in individually answering consumer responses or questions.  Not only dealing with problems, but asking questions to your followers keeps them active in your brand.  Taking the steps to engage your users can allow for your brand to seem more personal to potential customers, a smart move in the world of marketing.

5) Report

Lastly, to run an effective social media marketing campaign, tracking the progress of the campaign is necessary.  Reporting statistics on the success of the campaign will allow for learning exactly what works and what doesn’t.  Bright Age, for example, reports stats to their clients each month to keep them updated on their progress.  By taking the reported numbers and deciding beneficial changes for future campaigns you can easily continue to please customers and grow your consumer base.

The New Facebook Tagging Feature We Love

The New Facebook Tagging Feature We Love

Marketers and Facebook advertising agencies have been utilizing Facebook and other social media platforms to launch advertisements and promote campaigns for years. Any text, video, links, 360 videos, and Live videos that specifically mentions or features a third party product, brand, or sponsor is considered Branded Content. Recently, Facebook updated its advertising policies that allows verified Pages to share branded content on its newsfeed. Verified Pages are pages are considered to be pages which are verified by Facebook for authenticity, such as big brands, celebrities, and influencers. In addition to allowing verified Pages to share branded content on its personal newsfeeds, Facebook enabled verified Pages the ability to tag the company or brand affiliated with the promoted content.

Facebook said that this new tagging tool will “introduce more transparency and allow them to better understand how their marketing initiatives are performing”. In order to tag a brand, users should locate the “handshake” icon in Page composer or the Sponsor field in Ads Manager. Then, users can type the sponsor or brand and tag them in the post. For example, in the picture below Lady Gaga tagged Intel in its video post. The video content specifically promotes the partnership with Intel and Lady Gaga, as the computer company’s technology helps elevate Gaga’s performance at the Grammy’s.
lady-gaga-intel

(Photo link: https://www.facebook.com/ladygaga/videos/vb.10376464573/10154099796834574/?type=2&theater)

Our Facebook advertising agency believes that this new content tagging feature encourages companies and brands to produce more high quality content for their customers. Additionally, this allows brands to leverage brand content more strategically, as tagged brands can follow Facebook sponsored content more closely to ensure that campaigns are successful with its target market. How does this work? Once a third-party company or brand is tagged in a verified page’s sponsored post, marketers will have access to the data and analytics of the post. However, to ensure authenticity and prevent spamming for marketers, Facebook reviews each brand tag in content posted by verified Pages.

Facebook Sponsored Content that is not allowed:

  • Sponsored cover photos and profile pictures
  • Pre-roll ads and watermarks on videos

 

Our Facebook advertising agency understands that social media platforms, particularly Facebook, are constantly evolving. In order to fulfill brand promotion strategies, it is essential to understand and implement new innovative marketing tools released monthly. To collaborate with Bright Age and develop your next successful Facebook sponsored content campaign, request an appointment here!

 

Author: Summer Malone

Summer is a social media marketing enthusiast with a passion for marketing analytics online, trending hashtags, and flux capacitors. Summer often feels sad for the TRex who is unable to connect to the internet. You can connect with Summer via Twitter @SummerMaloneMKT.

The New and Improved Snapchat 2.0

The New and Improved Snapchat 2.0

Our mobile marketing agency believes that Snapchat’s most recent update has changed the playing field of social media. The new social media marketing update now offers users more ways to interact with their friends including, stickers and photos, video and audio calls, and loads friends’ stories automatically.

Stickers and Photos

Snapchat’s new social media marketing goal is to create a more open channel for customers to communicate with friends. Snapchat’s 2.0 adds features that allow users to not only snap pictures and videos, but enables customers to send stickers and personal photos. With over 200 stickers to choose from, users can communicate more effectively and personably than what regular emoji’s offer. Also, users can send friends images from his or her photo album.

Pros:
  • Over 200 stickers to help customize messages.
  •  Send photos to friends without having to switch to text messages or another photo sharing platform.
Cons:
  • One click sends- be careful not to tap a sticker you may not wish to send.
  • Once the sticker is tapped, that sticker is sent to that friend.

 

Video and Voice Calls

Face timing? Just use Snapchat! With Snapchat 2.0 snap chatters can now video call friends. This video calling feature calls friends by using Wi-Fi or 4G/LTE. When a user receives a call through snap, they have three options, to ignore, to join or to watch. According to our mobile marketing agency, the ‘join’ option makes the phone call a two-way video, while the ‘watch’ option gives the receiver the ability to accept the call without enabling video.

Pros:
  • Creating your own GIFs is personable and fun.
  • Don’t have to two-way video chat to accept a video call.
Cons:
  • Drains data usage and/or Wi-Fi needed.
  • Ends calls immediately from a swipe.

 

Auto-Advance Stories

Before the new update, Snapchat stories were watched specifically in the order one wished. If a user wished to see a specific story, the user would tap a that story, the video would play accordingly, and then return to the main stories menu. Now, once a story ends, the next story plays seamlessly. This new social media marketing strategy makes it faster to check up with all of your friends and engage more frequently. However, our mobile marketing agency has found that since videos play one after another, many users are getting confused with which friend they are watching.

Pros:
  •  No need to click all of friends’ stories individually to load.
Cons:
  • Drains data usage and/or Wi-Fi needed.
  •  Confusion from one friend’s story to another- The quick change from one friend’s story to another can be confusing. One second a friend is baking cookies, and the next second someone is jamming out at a rock concert. If you do not take notice the snap chatters name in the top left corner at the beginning of his or her story, you may not figure out which friend’s story you are actually watching.

Snapchat 2.0 proves that social media platforms are constantly evolving and improving. Since social media is frequently changing, it is important to remain informed in order to adjust marketing strategies. Bright Age Digital Creative Agency is always up to date with the changes in the social media industry and strives to help businesses target their customers in the most effective way possible.

Author: Summer Malone

Summer is a social media marketing enthusiast with a passion for marketing analytics online, trending hashtags, and flux capacitors. Summer often feels sad for the TRex who is unable to connect to the internet. You can connect with Summer via Twitter @SummerMaloneMKT.

Why Restaurants Should Use Social Media Advertising

Reasons Why Restaurants Should Use Social Media Advertising

Continue reading for the reasons why most social media agencies believe that social media advertising is crucial for restaurants.

Directly Target Your Audience

Ever look up the best restaurants in your area? Order food online while at the office? Observe delicious photos or hashtags from foodies around the world? There are thousands of users surfing the web every day and social media advertising targets those who are looking for their next meal. With social media advertising technologies such as Facebook Custom Audiences or Lookalike audiences, businesses are able to retarget current customers, or create advertising audiences based on those who visit their website. By teaming up with a social media agency, restaurants can witness higher engagement with their target audience.

Turn Customers into Spokespeople

Now more than ever, people rush to social media platforms to share or communicate experiences throughout the day. Interacting with customers who share photos of your food or service nurtures the consumer-business relationship. Also, the more shares your advertisement receives, the longer life that ad has. Social media agencies believe that the extension of ad life allows for more outreach to friends of friends, aka potential customers. Additionally, the more buzz and mentions your company receives on social media platforms aids the Search Engine Optimization on Google, furthering increasing awareness and engagement among old and new clientele.

Boost News and Deals

Opening a new location? Offering a deal to those who Like your Facebook page? Social Media advertising is perfect for telling customers about the latest and greatest promotions. By creating a sense of urgency about certain upcoming events on social media, more consumers will visit your website or comment with questions on your social media platforms. All of this is great for strengthening your brand online and in-store. Additionally, you will be able to compare a variety of posts to see which Call To Action engages more customers. Is offering a deal causing positive chatter? Are customers excited about new menu items? All of these questions can be answered after reviewing a post’s analytics, which is usually performed by social media agencies.

Budget- Friendly

One of the best reasons why restaurants should use social media advertising is the pricing. With a variety of social media platforms, most ads are set up with a particular budget in mind, for example, spending $20/day. The pricing for social media advertisements tend to lean much cheaper and gain many more interactions than search engine advertisements. The main goal of social media advertising is not to only promote restaurant buzz, but to talk and develop deeper relationships with customers. To learn more about restaurant advertising on social media, contact us today!

Author: Summer Malone

Summer is a social media marketing enthusiast with a passion for marketing analytics online, trending hashtags, and flux capacitors. Summer often feels sad for the TRex who is unable to connect to the internet. You can connect with Summer via Twitter @SummerMaloneMKT.

A Social Media Agency’s Guide to Curated Content


A Social Media Agency’s Guide to Curated Content

By teaming up with a social media agency, your company will know about the newest trends when it happens, such as the curated content feature on various social media platforms. So, what is curated content? Twitter Moments. Instagram Spotlights. Snapchat Stories. All of these features offered on social media platforms highlight events on a particular subject picked daily. These topics or themes might be influenced by trending topics, such as the Super bowl or the Oscars. Curated content gives followers the opportunity to discover new accounts and engage with a larger audience. This is important for companies or brands looking to expand awareness and increase engagement with their target audience.

Twitter Moments

Twitter features the newest and most current articles online from a variety of categories like, news, sports, entertainment, and fun. These articles are usually less than 24 hours old, and new information is uploaded as soon as it comes in. Twitter Moments are best for those needing quick updates of worldly or trending events. As a social media agency, we specialize in knowing the newest buzz and utilize this knowledge by creating engaging tweets, thus helping companies maximize the output of their social media posts.

Instagram Spotlights

This curated tool on Instagram showcases pictures or videos published by Instagram users relating to a theme. This theme is picked daily by the Instagram team, for instance, past themes featured odd couple animal videos or rad skateboarding videos. Instagram hopes to entertain rather than inform its users with its curated content segments. By platforming random curated content with the original creator’s account handle, onlookers can explore similar hashtags or the originator’s account on Instagram. Instagram Spotlights are best for those who need a mid-day pick me up, as the featured content is usually lighthearted and bright.

Snapchat Stories

Not only does Snapchat allow users to upload pictures and videos into their own personal story, but also gives subscribers the ability to watch featured snapchats across the world according to different categories. These categories range from events like Leap Year, to cities such as, Berlin or Los Angeles. These daily themes are updated throughout the day on Snapchat and give snapchatters insight into others’ lives. Snapchat stories are for those who want a front row seat in every experience. For example, snapchats of A-list celebrities at the Oscars flooded the ‘Oscars’ feed, showcasing actors and actresses strutting their stuff on the red carpet and mingling backstage with C3PO.

How to get featured

While being chosen for Twitter Moments, Instagram Spotlights, or Snapchat Stories may be difficult to pin point, our social media agency, BrightAge, suggests that there are some indicators for content that might be featured. For example, big events like the Oscars, or Election day are extremely likely to be featured on various social media platforms. So, to increase your chance of being chosen, produce high quality content that is entertaining, lighthearted, and relevant. Until then, enjoy the numerous curated content available daily on Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat!

Author: Summer Malone

Summer is a social media marketing enthusiast with a passion for marketing analytics online, trending hashtags, and flux capacitors. Summer often feels sad for the TRex who is unable to connect to the internet. You can connect with Summer via Twitter @SummerMaloneMKT.