5 Ways to Run Social Media Contest

5 Ways to Run Social Media Contest

Social media contests are the most trending activity on social media. In a way we can say that contest is one of the most emerging way to increase footfall on your social media platform. Running a social media contest is a new way which boost up your business, also it increase list of subscribers, get new twitter and facebook followers plus one can get more re-tweets and likes on the page and can create a fun experience in the process. In this blog, we are sharing 5 recommendations, choices for you to consider, and options to keep in mind when you’re running or going to run a social media contest for your own business.

-           Know what you want

Are you trying to get newsletter subscriptions, expose certain products, gain brand recognition, or drive up Facebook fans? Knowing what your goals are will guide the process.

-          Choose the type of contest
     
      Sweepstakes contests are the easiest to enter, with the lowest barrier of entry. Photo or video contests with fan votes get the most engagement. Caption contests or quiz contests are other options. Winners can be randomly selected, picked by you or a panel of judges you select, or voted on by other readers.

-          Decide how long the Contest will Run

If you’re running a photo or video contest, stretch contests out longer by having several rounds of voting. Even if you don’t have a huge budget but just want to spur some engagement, you can also do a flash contest. These contests – often one-day contests done every week or two – brings small bursts of engagement without emptying your marketing budget.

-          Choose a Platform

Decide whether you want the contest to run on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Choose one and stick to it, though you can still cross-promote your contest on other social networks. Want an all-encompassing campaign? Popular options for contests include Rafflecopter, Offerpop, Votigo, PunchTab, PromoSimple and Giveaway Tool. Many have free trial plans or versions that are free for up to a specified number of entries. Some have forms and templates.

-          Create a plan for Artwork

Depending on which platform you use, you may need to set aside some time and resources to create artwork for the contest. Some images need to be customized for different platforms.

5 Ways to Maintain Your SEO Rankings after Reaching the Top

5 Ways to Maintain Your SEO Rankings after Reaching the Top

If you are going through this blog, you’re probably on the way to your success. Your website has achieved the desired number one spot in the search results for its targeted keyword. Now, when people type in what you want them to type in, the first thing they see is your website. Yes, it must feel really good, but does it mean that your job ends here? Certainly not! Even if you have reached the top, you must maintain your SEO rankings and this still requires a lot of work.

Your rankings will always require attention and this is exactly why we have decided to provide you with 5 useful tips about maintaining them at the top.

-          Google Analytics

Use Google analytics intelligence events to track the visitors on your website. If you have a website and are ranked number one, you surely know about Google Analytics. However, you may have heard of this tool but only the most experienced marketers know everything it offers. Google Analytics has a feature called Intelligence Events. This feature will allow you to monitor the changes that occur in your analytics and will virtually alert you if your traffic has changed. Additionally, Intelligence Events has the ability to let you specify your own alerts. Now you get the chance to configure a program to notify you if your revenue changes.

-          Internal Linking 

When you lead your website to the top, you must have spent a lot of time on internal linking. Now you probably have a post or two that are ranked extremely high for some particular keyword and this is why you have to link to your content yourself. When doing this, make sure that you don’t overdo it. Google tends to see overabundance of links as an unnatural thing and may penalize you for it. The best strategy to use is the one that seems most natural. This is why you should use every chance to link back to the post in the number one position when producing new content but remember to mix the anchor text in order to not use the same word or the same phrase when linking back.

-          Maintain Speed

Always maintain the speed of rankings it inversely depends on site speed (Check your site speed here) and you already know it. A part of the reasons why you are so high in the SEO list is undeniably the speed of your site. But, as you get on a higher level, your site is growing too and more and more plug-in, content and widgets are added to it. Do not lose the top spot by overwhelming your website and slowing it down. Make sure that the technology you are using is caching in order to prevent reloads and help speed up site load times. Also, your images have to be optimized for websites. Use Photoshop to save images that are optimized. If you want to get information about the speed of your site, use Google Analytics and the Google page speed tool. This can also provide you with some advice on how to speed up your site.

-          Optimize  Title and Description

When on the top, make sure that no one brings you down. Make sure that your link is more clickable than those of your competition and do this by analyzing your click-through-rate. There is a tool to help you do this and its name is Google Webmasters. If you notice that the CTR for a certain keyword is dropping, there is a chance that your rank will drop too. This is why you optimize your title and the meta description.

-          Focus on Generated Content

Focus on user-generated content User-generated content is the content that appears in the forms of reviews and feedback. Try to encourage this because it builds loyalty to your site and people tend to re-visit a site they started a discussion on.

5 Laws of Social Media Marketing

5 Laws of Social Media Marketing

The Grip of your content and social media marketing can help you elevate your audience and customer base in a very dramatic manner. But if you’re not having any previous experience or insight about it then it can be really challenging for you to boost up your marketing with the help of social media.

It’s really important for you to understand the basic fundamentals of social media marketing as these are the key points for you to start and understand what social media marketing exactly is. 

1. The Law of Listening

The law of listening works immensely as it gives your target audience an inverse effect, for example, the less you talk the more you’ll get to listen. Success with social media and content marketing requires more listening and less talking. This is most important thing for your target audience. Join discussions listen to their needs and interact with them so that you can create a better understanding level with them.

2. The Law of Focus

Focus is the most primary thing one should always follow. It’s always better to specialise in something than to be a wanderer who is still looking for his abilities. A highly focused social media and content marketing strategy is very helpful to build a strong brand strategy as compared to a broad brand strategy. This always have better chances of success.   

3. The Law of Quality

Quality is always on the top instead of quantity. It’s better to have a good amount of online connections who read, follow, share and talk about your brand, strategy and content instead of having numerous connections which never read, share or talk about your brand’s strategy and content. So, keep good quality of connections.

4. The Law of Patience

You need a lot of patience for social media marketing. If you’re looking for overnight success then don’t go for social media marketing as it takes time and efforts to get your target audience. Patience is the only thing you need for social media marketing.

5. The Law of Acknowledgment

Appreciation is the only thing which everyone wants at the end of the day. Building good relations with your audience is quite simple. On Social Media you can do this by acknowledging them. So, always acknowledge every person who reaches to you. 

 

Save Time on Social Media Marketing

Save Time on Social Media Marketing 

 

In the era of digitalization, one of the most attractive aspects of social media for many small businesses and the reason is it’s free. Well burning up your half a day and thinking entire day that what to promote, why to promote and how to promote your new Facebook page and after sometime you start feeling that it’s not free as it consumes the major amount of your time. While many social media tactics can benefit your marketing and business-building efforts it’s essential that you find ways to get the most from the time you invest as well as the money you invest in marketing.

To save time on social media for your small business, here are five ways to get yourself organized.

1.    Set up a schedule

Despite what you might think—or have read or heard—you do not have to add a new post to every social network every day. This can eat up a lot of time from your daily schedule and leave you feeling just plain overwhelmed. The important thing is that when you do post, make sure it is valuable content that will generate a good response from your fans and followers.
Figure out what is going to work best for you. Know what time of the day/week you can expect to get more interaction from your target audience. If you know that the majority of them are only online in the evenings, then make sure you are posting in that window. Otherwise, your fans will likely miss your latest update because they’re at work.
It is okay to post every other day or even once a week. When you start to get a feel for what your fans want and when, you will have a clear picture of when you should be concentrating on social media.
2. Create a content stockpile
As a part of your social media schedule, set up a time during the week where you or a chosen employee sit down and brainstorm content ideas for blog posts, status updates, tweets, etc. This will eliminate any stress of having to come up with something on the spot from one week to the next. Then, when the time comes to update your posts, you can just select something from the pile and post.

2.    Link your networks

When you are doing things on your own, it can be hard to find the time to post to multiple accounts. You can link each of your profiles so that when you post on one account, say your Facebook page, then it is also sent out to the others and vice versa. Tools like Buffer, Tweet deck and even Facebook Scheduled Posts can make this happen in the background for you.

3.    Use social networks for customer service

Many small businesses are starting to take advantage of social media as a way to provide better customer service. You can quickly and easily respond to any issues or comments that customers leave on social networks rather than having to wade through e-mails or have customers waiting to speak to someone on the phone.
You can do this by offering a specified time of the day for any customer service issues, letting the customers know when that is. This can be done easily on your Twitter or Facebook accounts.
Anything you can do that benefits your customers will make social media return even greater.
5. Get automated. One bonus of having a content stockpile is that you can use tools like Socialoomph, Buffer and Timely for Twitter to schedule its release automatically. This doesn’t mean you can put all of your social media posts on auto-pilot though, because that just defeats the purpose.

4 Do’s of Social Media Marketing

4 Do’s of Social Media Marketing 

We all are human beings and making mistakes is a part of our life. We all make mistakes at every stage of life even as marketers and it’s important that we not only learn from those mistakes but share with others so that they can avoid them.  In my last blog I’ve shared with you that what not to do for social media marketing and now I’m sharing what one should do for social media marketing. I hope that by the end of 2016 you guys will follow it and try to improve. Here I’m mentioning few tips for all of you I hope that it will entertain you well.

1.       Save Time, Re-purpose Content

People always say that work smartly as there’s a difference between hard work and smart work. While people waste their time on working hard and end up with zero results. For social media marketing, you need smart work to trace your followers. It’s a great tactic to re-use your old content but make sure to change the elements of your content before making it live. Simply spitting out the same information over and over again will not work.

2.       Interaction 

True interaction via social media can be a tough tactic for many marketers to master.  Finding the correct balance of self-promotion and intriguing content that inspires action can be very instrumental in using social media appropriately.  Take some time to comment or interact with your current clients and prospective clients to show that you’re there, and you care about what they are saying.  A simple tactic is to ask questions that inspire a response

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3.       Go for Multiple Media

Social media users are interested in fresh new ways of presenting content and ways that they can share it with their networks.  In fact, certain forms of media such as info graphics or videos have a tendency to be much more shareable and appealing.  Try to incorporate some new media types into your social media content plan for the year.

4.       Go with the Flow

If you’re like us you have multiple audience members to provide information to online.  This could be different verticals or even different departments within a single organization.  Do your homework, what sites do your different audience members participate in and what topics are of importance to them.