How do Social Media Help Increase Sales
Social media is everywhere and it has got enough power to make anything viral in no time that you can even see that soon on news channels. Social media has become life and most of us can’t even imagine our lives without it. We spend hours scrolling social media feeds and watching what friends have posted and what are the new updates by those whom we follow. The first thing most of us might be doing after picking our smartphone in hand is opening a social media app, be it Facebook, Instagram, or any other. This is how important social media has become for us. But when we talk about businesses, it holds equal or a bit more relevance and importance. Yes, you read it right, social media platform is vital for all businesses to grow and stand strong in this tough competition. You might be surprised to know that social media can also help businesses drive sales and generate revenue. After reading this post, you will get to know what you can do to increase sales through social media platforms and how they will reciprocate to the efforts made by you. Ways to Increase Sales Through Social Media Learn, learn, and learn There is no age of learning thus, you should always have a zeal to learn more. In the context of social media, it is important for you to learn more about social media marketing (SMM) before you think of changing your strategy. Why we are saying this is because without having knowledge of SMM you might end up implementing another wrong strategy and in the end all your efforts will be wasted. Thus, to change the marketing strategy and implement it in the right way and right time, you must know about the latest trends, interests of your target audience, and tactics adopted by your competitors. To learn more about the current strategy and it’s plus & minus, you can use dedicated tools available on the internet and re-plan your next strategy to get a better outcome. Define the right social media channels What will you do on social media platforms where your target audience or followers are not present? The only thing you can do there is waste your time and resources. Thus, it is important to wisely choose social media channels where people that are right for products or services are present. That is the way you can get attention and generate sales. Before starting social media marketing, you need to know that not all channels are for everyone thus, you must do enough research to find the ones that are best for you. For example, if millennials are best for your business, that your main focus should be on Instagram while you can give less attention to other ones like Facebook. While on the other hand, if your brand is more suitable for professionals, then you might go for LinkedIn to promote. Focus more on customers Now when you know which social media channels are the best ones, it’s time to target customers and that too focusing more on them not your products. The tactics focusing on only selling the products might annoy people now as such tactics have grown old. It’s time to ask people what they like or what they think is better for them. So, you need to give people options on what they feel about the products and which could be the right fit for them. In this way, they will be more engaged with your brand and you will know which of your products are trending. Thus, you can deliver what your customers are looking for and this is the right way to increase sales. Great content great results You cannot keep the content aside as, without it, any of your strategies are incomplete. So, while targeting customers on social media, it is necessary to create a beautiful, engaging, and all in all great content. The key here on social media is to be a bit informal, rather than using a strict formal tone you must try using a friendly one. This way, the target audience will connect emotionally to your brand and when this happens, businesses get loyal customers. One of the best things you could do before posting any image is to click it on your own, and if it is of your happy in-store customers, it can do wonders. Try posting such images regularly to show the worth of your customers and tell your followers how much you care about them. Another best thing you could do is post videos about tips for using your products in the right way along with benefits and some real-life examples. Seeing results would create more interest in people to try your brand and you will see it through increased sales. Ensure ease for people to buy through social media Most of the people want to buy products they like right from the platform they are on, be it an ad on any website, an application, or while scrolling social media feed. Thus, when we are talking about social media, it is important for you to make it easy for customers to get directly on the page from where they can buy the product in need. For example, if someone likes your post or ad showing linen shirts and he/she made the mind to buy one then & there. Now, if you don’t have any ‘shop now’ or similar kind of button/link on that post, the potential customer might drop the idea of purchasing the shirt at that moment, as for that, he/she needs to close the social media app and then search for your site on the internet to buy. But, if the direct button is there, all the customer needs is to click on that and he/she will be directed to the landing page to buy that product without any hassles. In this way, there will be lease chances to lose customers and the highest chances of
How to Grow Your Social Media Following ASAP
Social media is trending and it is gaining most of the attention of people across the globe. All smartphone users around the world are present on social media and that tells how popular this platform is. Now, we’ve talked about the popularity of social media let us discuss how important it is. When it comes to importance, we know what role social media plays in all our lives. It lets you connect with your friends and relatives staying miles away. But we are not here to talk about how helpful social media is for individuals rather our main focus is what social media can do for businesses. For businesses, social media has become of the pillars and without it, surviving in this fiercely competitive world is almost impossible. This platform has given a lot to businesses when it comes to their growth and survival. For any brand to succeed online, the attention of the target audience is required and no other platform than social media can give them a huge exposure. Social media for businesses is all about how many followers you have and how many more you can gain through your efforts. Remember, more the followers better will be your reputation and wider exposure a brand will get. Once you reach the end of this post while reading it, you will have enough tactics in your kitty to grow social media following ASAP. Why followers are required on social media for businesses? Followers are people who like a particular brand, category of products, or experts in a particular niche of their interest on social media. On social media, people follow what entices them, and to get followed, businesses do everything possible. Now the question here is why businesses need followers? The simple and basic answer to this question is to expose their products or services to a large audience. Remember, it is not necessary that all followers meet the criteria of your target audience, but they are still important. Having a huge follower base is very important to show the potential customers about the popularity of a brand, as more are the followers better is the popularity. People following you on the social media defines that they like your products/services even if they don’t match the category of your target audience. Such followers help in building your follower base by referencing or sharing your post on their social media accounts and with friends as well. This way, the promotion of your brand will occur. If any of your followers also have his/her own good follower base, a shared content by him/her will give you the exposure to another audience that is surely not yours. This might also fetch you some great leads or even customers. These are some of the reasons why having followers is important on social media along with their benefits. Now let us shift our focus on how to build your follower base ASAP on social media. How to speed up social media following Find trending topics and participate One of the best ways to speed up following on social media is to start participating in trending posts on social media by giving valuable comments and helping people with their queries on those posts. One thing you must remember while using this strategy is to find topics that are relevant to your business’s niche as there only you could get your target audience. While commenting on trending topics, you can also relevantly add the link of your site or a specific landing page so that interested ones can easily reach you. Don’t do it with each of your comments as it will make you sound salesy and that is not good for the reputation of your brand. You can also try replying to the comments that you find worthy, as appreciating might get you genuine leads. Promotion Another strategy that you can adopt to earn more and more followers is by promoting your social media accounts in whichever possible way you can. It could be done through your company’s website, advertisements, emails, and even through your different social media accounts. Doing this will give great exposure to your social media pages and interested people will visit them. You can also ask your followers to do it for you by encouraging them through contests or any other means you find feasible. More the promotion huge will be the exposure and higher will be the chances to get more followers. Ensure activeness Only having a social media account doesn’t mean you are done and everything else will happen automatically. Creating a social media account is just like owning land, you need to make efforts to construct a building. Thus, your active presence is a must on all your social media accounts to engage with your followers and target audience. One of the best ways to show your activeness on social media is to answer to the queries of customers & other people related to your niche. Giving relevant, genuine, and helpful answers will pose you as an expert and hence, interested ones will not hesitate in following you. Remember, active presence on social media is also a key to grow your business pages and that will help you out in building good recognition as well. Consistency is must It is necessary to give your target audience a reason to follow you and it could be done by posting new, unique, and informative content consistently. If they find the content posted by you relevant and helpful on a regular basis, the chances are high that you will be followed. So, do enough research in finding the relevant and trending topics and create engaging content to be posted on social media either in the form of images, infographics, or videos. Make sure that the content you post is user-friendly and attention-grabbing. Why we said this is because millions of business account holders on social media post daily and if your post is ordinary then it will be lost in
How to Use Pinterest for Your Business
Visuals hold some serious importance in this digital market-centric world. That is the reason why social media platforms focusing on images & videos are gaining so much popularity. One of such social media platforms is ‘Pinterest.’ It is an image-sharing social media platform that also supports the sharing of videos and GIFs in the form of pinboards. Besides simple images, infographics and GIFs are also becoming popular and people are using them to a good effect. Businesses are reaping more benefits through the use of such visuals by providing quality information to their target audience. Taking this into consideration, Pinterest is one such social media platform that is a must for businesses to grow stronger online and build authority. This post will tell you some tips on how to use Pinterest for your business & brand to a good effect and reap benefits. Tips to use Pinterest for your business Create a business account The first thing you are required to do to use Pinterest for your business is to create a business account. Fill all the required details with genuine information, link your website, and connect this account with your other social media accounts like Instagram & YouTube if you want to. Creating a business account will give you free Pinterest services like Pinterest analytics and other important tools for measuring your success. It also gives the flexibility to link your business and personal accounts and switch in between whenever required. Share your products Once you’ve created a business account, the next best thing you can do with Pinterest is to share your products by creating pins. In Pinterest, pins comprise image or video and one of the best strategies to use this social media platform for your business is by pinning your own products to share with others. It could also be done by sharing your products on other’s boards with a similar theme. Remember, pins can be created without linking back to your site, but it is advised to always include a link back to the landing page on your site to ensure users easily reach there to buy the product. Create interesting content It doesn’t matter what you are doing to promote your business online, content always holds the key. On Pinterest as well, it is important for you to post some quality content for your readers. Each of your pins must have a qualitative description so that people have the zeal to know more and for that, they will visit your website. No doubt that visuals are more important but you cannot ignore texts either as they will describe what’s there in the image. So, be creative and selective while writing the content. Connect with pinners Pinners are the Pinterest users who share images, videos, and other visuals on their accounts. Just like other social media platforms, it is necessary for businesses on Pinterest to connect with people. To connect with pinners, you can use boards that are a theme-based collection of different pins saved by users. Based on your business’s niche, you can create a board and share it with people. Not only with product’s themes, but the board can also be created to promote your brand in different ways like a board of your customers using your products, before and after the effects of using your product, benefits received through your products, and much more. Another thing you could do is participate in group boards to give wide exposure to your pins. Remember choosing the board which is relevant to your business’s niche. Ensure visibility of your pins Keywords are very important when it comes to ensuring the visibility of what you post on Pinterest. You need to make sure that the keywords you are targeting must be in your boards, descriptions, and pin names. Because that’s how you will be visible when someone searches on Pinterest. You can also optimize for Pinterest SEO by doing keyword research and also be pinning from your website. Being specific could also be a defining factor for your Pinterest SEO. Create a content strategy that delivers It is important for you to create content that is not pushy or salesy rather which is informative. Educate people on why they need the product you offer and what benefit they’ll receive through it. This is the best tactic by which you can convince people to purchase your product. The reason is that people will only buy something when they are aware of it and know how helpful it is. Your content strategy should be strong enough that pinners who show interest in your pins could be easily taken to the marketing funnel. Make it easy for pinners to shop Pinners love to shop directly and if you don’t give them enough ease to do so, it is likely that you will lose customers. What we mean by saying this is to allow pinners to shop easily through your pins by taking them directly to the purchase page when pins are clicked. Considering this will help you get customers through Pinterest and if they like your product, they’ll pin it as well and you’ll get better recognition. Engage with users Just like Instagram, Facebook, and other social media platforms, you need to engage with other users on Pinterest as well. Appreciate their efforts by thanking them for re-pinning your pins, follow them to encourage them to follow you back, ask for feedback by requesting them to re-pin products in your catalog, and much more. Engaging with users us the best way to build genuine relationships that will last for long. Remember, more the interaction, better & stronger will be the relationship. Create a contest Another tactic of using Pinterest for businesses is to hold contests by giving exciting prizes in return and that could be free goodies, discount coupons, exclusive offers, or something else like this. You can ask users to re-pin their favorite pins in your catalog for participating. This will ensure better visibility of your brand
Importance of Facebook for Marketing
Everyone is talking about the digital world and why not, going digital is making the lives of people easy. When it comes to businesses, the digital platform has done wonders and is still making a strong mark for brands that are shifting focus towards it. With all efforts made by businesses to promote themselves on the digital platform, social media should be the one to get most of the attention. The reason why we are saying this is because of the popularity that social media has gained across the globe. There are millions of social media users in the world and the numbers are rising at a good speed. That’s why this platform has become a key one for the promotion of businesses. When we talk about social media, the first thing that comes into our mind is Facebook. When Facebook was first introduced for public use, no one would have thought that it will become a necessity for brands to get the attention of the target audience. In around a decade and a half, Facebook has reached to a level where it no more requires any introduction. This social media platform holds high importance for businesses when it comes to marketing and this post is focused on telling you some key benefits of Facebook for your digital marketing efforts. Benefits of Facebook for Marketing Huge exposure One of the key reasons why social media has become so popular for businesses is the exposure it gives. Similar is the case with Facebook, it holds importance because it can give a huge exposure to your brand and makes it easy to find the target audience. People love to spend time on Facebook by sharing their thoughts, photographs, and much more. This is a big reason for its popularity and having billions of users. When it comes to businesses, Facebook offers many channels through which they can make their presence on this platform. Some of the ways include Fb ads, dedicated business pages, creating groups, joining communities, and other paid promotional activities. Engaging in such activities on Facebook will get the attention of people, and the interested ones will reciprocate accordingly. All will depend upon the strategies adopted by you to promote your business. Remember, if people like your content, they will share it with others and that’s how the exposure you will get keep multiplying. Your starting point Not all startups can have a company’s website and the main reason for that could be a tight budget. Designing a website requires some amount of money and initially, not all businesses can afford that. So, what to do in such a scenario? How to promote digitally? It should not be a matter to worry for such businesses as Facebook is there for a rescue. One can create a Facebook page to promote the brand and add relevant content at virtually no cost. Businesses can add all of their products on the Fb page with their unique points to grab the attention of people. Facebook also gives a great opportunity to businesses with a limited budget to promote using paid advertisements. They can choose from various advertisement campaigns like Cost Per Click, Cost Per Million, or Cost Per Action as per their budget. Plus, it also gives you the flexibility to set the daily limit of how much you want to spend. This makes Facebook for important when it comes to marketing. Target potential customers This is one of the most interesting features Facebook offers to businesses. With Facebook marketing, you can narrow down your target audience by setting the parameters that define your potential customers the best. For example, if your product or service is best for ladies aged between 25 to 40, you can set this parameter and the ad will only be shown to ladies of this age group. Another feature it offers is to set a certain area in which your services are available and anyone present in that area and looking for the services you offer will see your ad. This will also reduce the budget required for ad campaigns and you can use it for other important activities. Besides everything, you can also run contests for your target audience and encourage them to participate by giving something in return or attract them the way you can. Improves brand awareness and traffic Interacting with people on Facebook is a great way to get the attention of your target audience and get your brand noticed. Solve the queries of people regarding the products/services you offer and tell them how they can help in solving their problems. Considering this will also be great to improve the brand’s loyalty. Interaction on Facebook is easy and people can easily respond to your posts. In this way, you will receive more engagement thus, better loyalty for the target audience as well. People who will be satisfied with your answer will love to know more about your brand and they’ll visit your website. And in this way, your web traffic will get a boost. Gives detailed insights Another reason why Facebook is important for the marketing of a business is the insights it delivers. Through graphical representation, it can show how much people have engaged with your posts, how many followers you have gained, page likes you’ve got, recommendations, page views, actions taken on-page, and much more. All these insights are enough for you to optimize marketing strategies accordingly and derive better results in the future. Taking these analytics seriously will help you make your brand strong and ensure improved recognition & brand authority. Keep the existing audience engaged If you have an established business, then having a presence on Facebook will help you keep your existing audience engaged with regular one to one interaction and by posting relevant & engaging content. This will also let you build trust with people and maintain their focus on your brand. Through Facebook Live, you can periodically interact with your target audience in a much better
Why Follow Competitors on Social Media
Every morning when we pick our phone, the first thing that we do is check notifications in our Insta, FB, and other social media accounts. This is how influential or we can say important social media has become is all our lives. We don’t want to miss even a single notification from our friends or the brands that we follow. (https://glasshousefarms.org/) We must say that social media has become a necessity for a large percentage of individuals across the globe and even businesses as well. This platform holds so much value to the brands that their popularity and status cannot stand strong without having a presence there. That is the reason why millions of businesses are actively engaged in social media and interacting with their target audience to ensure good brand recognition and authority. Having a presence on social media gives the opportunity for businesses to learn from their competitors. Yes, you read it right, social media provides the best opportunity for you to do better than your competitors and for that, you are just required to follow them. In this post, we will tell you the benefits of following your competitors and how it could be defining for your marketing strategies. Reasons to follow your competitors on social media Know your competitors The first key benefit of following your competitors is that you get to know them. This is one of the best ways to keep an eye on the products or services they provide and compare them with yours to identify whether they are the same or different. Following your competitors will give you deep insights into their business as they share with their target audience. By acting as a loyal client, you can also get to know everything they share with their premium customers and that would be of great help for your business. In this way, you will be able to strategize better for your brand and have maximum chances of overpowering them. Know the way they react The conversation is the key to open new opportunities for lead generation and getting sales. The way businesses react with their audience decides how loyal they will be and what response businesses will get. Now here is the catch, if your competitors are getting great engagement from their target audience and it is reciprocating the way they have thought, then there has to be something in the way they interact with the audience. The communication strategy of your competitors might be different from yours and some of the others as well. Hence, the best way to know the way they react and interact with their audience is to be part of the audience and monitor closely. See how they reply to conversations, how they tackle negative comments, and what tone they use while talking with the mass audience. All these parameters will help you improve the way you interact with the target audience. Know what’s next in their kitty This is a big plus of following your competitors on social media. Companies first inform about their new releases to their target audience through social media and if you follow them, you will also get to know better. While, if you also have any upcoming new product release, it will help you make it sooner or delay according to the response of the audience on the competitor’s product. If you see that the response is good, you might delay the product launch and if the response is not satisfactory then launching your product early could be a good idea. Know what is working for them When you follow someone, especially business on the social media platform, you will be able to see everything they do on their account be it a simple post, contest, or something else. This will tell you which strategies are delivering the best results and which are improving their brand reputation. Getting insights into all this will be of great help to optimize your strategies and implement them in the right way. You can check the type of content they are posting, their branding strategies, promotion tactics, and relationship with their audience. Focusing on all these parameters used by your competitors will give you better ideas to plan for your brand. Know what is not working for them Positives and negatives are part of everyone’s life and this implies to businesses as well. Not everything you do will go in your favor and that’s how everybody learns. So along with knowing what is working for your competitors, it is also important to have an idea of what is not working for them. Doing this will give you an idea of what you should avoid doing with your marketing strategies. For example, if you see videos posted by your competitors are getting less attention than infographics, then it might not work for you as well. While, if you want to try something that is not working for your competitors, you need to be more careful and use different tactics to get the attention you desire. It is advised not to get your hopes high while trying those tactics. Know how they handle customer issues Following your competitors will give you the authority to read customer reviews and post one you want. The theory is simple, if your competitors are doing better than you, then their clients and target audience is trusting them and they are getting better customer service as well. Remember, not all wants discounts, there are some people who look for better product quality and better customer service, and such an audience is the loyal and genuine one. So, you will see that your competitors must be addressing each of the issues faced by their customers and making every effort to solve them. You will encounter that even with harsh customer comments, your competitors are maintaining a soft professional tone and apologizing for the bad experience even when it’s not their fault. To some, they might be giving compensation with the apology.
Grow your Brand with Social Media Contests
Social media is ruling the world and it won’t be wrong to say that millennials cannot imagine their lives without social media. Not even millennials, generation Y is also actively engaged with social media. This has become an integral part of our day to day lives. We love to share our photographs, emotions, achievements, and many other things with our friends on social media contests. This platform has gained so much popularity in less amount of time that no one would have thought of. Over the years, social media has also evolved a lot that now, it is not only important for people to share photographs and memories, but it has also become a key part of businesses across the globe. Considering their popularity and importance, we must say that no business can think about digital marketing without social media. This post will be focused on telling how you can build your brand using contests on social media and improve recognition. Running a contest on popular social media platforms is a great way to attract genuine online traffic, build authority, increase user engagement, and boost traffic. Let us see how you can do it. How to build your brand by running social media contests Define the goal Whatever you do, having a clear goal is a must because that will keep you focused and help reach it sooner. So, while running a social media contest, the first and foremost thing for you must be the clarity of what you want to achieve through that. Some of the common goals could be: Increase in web traffic Better user engagement Genuine lead generation Improved brand authority and reputation Strong social media presence Growth of email list These all you can achieve by running an effective social media contest. But it is not necessary that every business wants all of them, some might look to achieve only a few and that could be different from the list provided above. Thus, to strategize which type of contest you should run, it is important to know your goals first. That will make it easier for you to move ahead. Know your audience The next important thing you need to do is to understand the audience you want to target. This is necessary because knowing your audience will help you generate specific content for them to get the desired attention you want. Creating a contest according to their interest will ensure better engagement and to know what entices them, you need to understand them. Knowing your audience includes the age-group you want to target, their lifestyle, interest, and income. All of these parameters are important based upon the niche of your business and the products or services you offer. Whom you want to target must also be clear before running any contest on social media. The prize should be worthy Deciding everything beforehand is always a good idea to prevent any last-minute hassles and ensure better results. Now when we are talking about a contest, there must be a prize as well for which your target audience will take part in. Based on your business’s niche, type of contest, and your target audience, you need to decide the prize you will give to the winner of the contest. Remember, the prize you choose must be worthy enough that tempts people to take part willingly and seriously follow all the rules & regulations set for the contest. For example, if you have a business of footwear than you can offer the winner with one of the premium shoes of your brand or a massive discount on the purchase on store or online. The prize is what people will participate for and if it is interesting, more and more people will participate for the contest to make it a big success. Set clear rules Whatever contest you want to run, its rules must be clearly stated so that everyone can understand them and follow them. Try to keep rules simple and wherever possible include an example to make people understand better. If rules are not clear, it could become a problem for you at a later stage. Creating a bullet point list of rules is always better to ensure easy to read appearance. Including a link where people can ask their queries regarding the rules or contest would be a great idea. Use a predefined yet unique hashtag Hashtags are becoming increasingly popular day by day on almost all social media platforms. With your contest as well, a predefined hashtag will be really helpful. You can include this in your rules that using the hashtag provided by you is a must for every participant. Doing this will make it easy to find contest entries and minimize any chances of missing even a single submission. Considering this will also make your hashtag popular and that will be of great help in the future. Choose the type of contest Now when you have prepared all the essentials for your social media contests, it is time to decide which type of contest to run. This will hold the most importance in deciding the success of the contest. Choosing the right contest according to the business’s niche and interest of your target audience is vital. Remember, the contest must be interesting enough to grab the attention of the target audience and keep them engaged so that they reach the end of the contest. Promote your contest Be it a brand or brand’s contest, promotion is always necessary to reach out to the target audience and tell them that you are running a contest with amazing prizes. While promoting the contest, using the right channels is the key as that’s where you will drive participants from. We must tell you that never only rely on free promotions, considering paid ones also hold the key. A combined effort will get you a lot of participants that you want. Promotions can be done on popular social media accounts relevant to your business including Facebook,
How to Grow your Brand with Social Media Contests
Social media has taken up the charge of digital marketing game played by businesses to promote their brand and get success. This platform has become an integral part of marketing, especially for those who want to make a concrete presence in the market. The prime reason for social media Contests being such an important platform for businesses is its reach that no other platform has. Here, you can find people of all categories and interests, thus, it becomes easy for businesses to find their target audience. And once the target audience is found, they can further work to attract them and generate leads. Another importance of this platform is that it makes it very easy for brands and people to connect & contact with each other. Thus, queries could be easily solved and strong client-business relationships can be built. Social media gives you the leverage of trying different tactics to attract the target audience and build your brand. When it comes to trying different tactics, one of the best things that you can do on social media is to run a contest. Doing this will fetch you great attention along with better recognition. This post will tell you how you can grow your brand by running contests on social media. Let us start with why you need to create a contest. Why it is important to run a contest on social media Grow your followers Running a contest is the best way to increase your following and visibility of your posts. Through contests, you can have more followers on your social media account which means your popularity will increase. How this could be done is by making it a necessity to follow the account to participate. Plus, you can also ask participants to use a particular hashtag in their post. Your contest rules could look like this: How to enter Follow @Abc (your account name) Tag 5 friends Add this to your story using @Abc and #Xyz (related to your post) This is just an example of conditions that you can set accordingly for the participation. In this way, you are not forcing anyone to follow you & participate, they will do it willingly. Thus, you will get genuine followers through this and they will stay with you for long as well. Create brand awareness In the above point, you came to know that how creating a contests will increase your followers and your content is shared. Social media algorithms recognize when people start talking about a particular brand through their likes, comments, shares, and following. This creates a positive impact plus, gives you a chance to connect with other businesses for your promotion. To get the maximum attention, giveaways could be the best and you can ask the audience to follow your giveaway partners as well to create a strong relationship and increase brand awareness. In return to this, the businesses you connect with also introduce you to their audience. Grows email list It doesn’t matter what we do to create a strong market presence in this competitive digital world, but we cannot forget email marketing, and for that, it is important to have a fresh & quality email list. Now, you must know that social media contests could help you grow an email list that has a high chance of delivering a better conversion rate. While running a contest, you can ask your target audience to sign up or fill a short form (having a column to provide email id) and in this way, you can build a list of email addresses of people who are interested in your brand. But remember, to convince people there has to be something exciting that you need to offer them. Better engagement Businesses strive for high engagement on their social media accounts to make your brand trending. Engagement can increase the popularity of your brand and improve its recognition plus it ensures that people are talking about your brand. And, if you are popular among your target audience there has to be something important. Running contests can create a buzz on your social media account and your followers along with other people will start talking about you. In this way, you will see improved engagement and that will be helpful in building your brand’s authority. How to run a contest on social media to grow your brand Be SMART Before starting any contest, it is a must for you to first set goals you want to achieve through it and they should be SMART. What we mean by saying SMART goals is that they should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Considering this will help you achieve better results and provide motivation to do well. Let us see how SMART will work: Specific- Be specific with what you want to achieve through the contest, whether it is only followers, increased engagement, leads, or sales. If you are specific, it will help you strategize your contests accordingly and derive improved results. Measurable- Remember, you can only analyze how much you have achieved when you can measure your goals. If you cannot measure, it will be impossible for you to decide which of your efforts are working and which require changes. So, it is important to set goals that you can measure anytime to see the progress of your campaign. Achievable- Now this is something that is of most importance to keep your morale up. Let us clear this more. Achievable means that the goals you set should be on your radar and you can achieve them with your hard work. For example, if you set a goal to get 10000 followers in a month. Now that sounds a bit unreal, and having such a goal will only pressurize you up and will bring your morale down when you won’t be able to get that. While on the other hand, if you set a goal of getting 1000 or 1200 followers in a month, then it seems achievable, and getting some more
How to Avoid Being Shadowbanned On Instagram
If you are a digital marketer “what’s trending?”, don’t be surprised if he/she says “social media”. Because, for digital marketing, social media is not only trending, but it is the key to success as well. Without a social presence, it is just impossible for a business to look forward to its growth. When we talk about social media, then Instagram is surely in a few of the topmost platforms that businesses never fail to use. Focused on visuals like images, GIFs, infographics, and videos, Instagram gives the opportunity to brands to build their authority and grab the attention of the target audience by creating interesting visuals related to their business’s niche. But, in the race to win clients on this very popular digital platform, some businesses tend to use unethical practices, and, in the end, they get banned. Thus, it is important for any business to avoid such practices that lead to their social media account ban, as if it happens, all your efforts will be in vain. On Instagram, there is a thing known as ‘shadowban’ and if you don’t know, it is not a normal ban on your Insta account. This post will give you insights into the Instagram shadowban and what you can do to avoid it. As, if you are not aware of it or don’t know how to recover, you will keep making efforts for nothing in return. What is shadowban on Instagram? It won’t be wrong to say that Instagram shadowban is a kind of mysterious thing that could happen to you, especially when you don’t know what it is. Shadowban is a ban posed by Instagram on a user’s account in such a way that anything posted by the user will only appear to followers and hence, businesses won’t be able to reach a wider audience. The most interesting fact about the shadowban is that the account user doesn’t know that it is happening to him/her. This is unlike a normal account ban where Instagram sends you the notification that your account has been blocked due to so and so reasons. In this scenario, it just happens without any notifications or hint and you just keep using it normally. Let us see how you can detect whether your account has been shadowbanned or not. How to tell if you are shadowbanned on Instagram? Engagement is dropping Now you know that posts by an account that is shadowbanned will only appear to a limited number of people, and those are the followers. So, in this case, the visibility of posts will drop down and so does the likes & comments by viewers. Limited visibility means limited engagement from users and this will show up in significantly less numbers of likes and comments on your posts than before. If this continues steadily even when you are not doing anything different than before or anything wrong, then this could be a sign of shadowbanning. Thus, you need to check for other signals that are mentioned below. Now new followers Now, with this point, the theory is simple, when your account cannot be seen how will you get new followers? Thus, if you see no increase in the number of your Instagram followers for a while and you find it unusual, then the reason could be that your account has been shadowbanned. Post does not show up with the hashtag We can say that the above two factors can also happen normally with Instagram accounts due to posting of irrelevant content or some other reasons. It is not sure that reduced engagement and having no new followers can assure that your Instagram account is shadowbanned. But along with the above two signs, if you are not able to see your post having an unpopular hashtag on the news feed of any other person, then you can confirm that it is because of shadowbanned by Instagram. For this, you have to post an image on your account with a hashtag which is not so popular. Now, use someone else’s account and search for that unpopular hashtag you have used in your post. If you are not able to see your post after properly searching for that, then you are shadowbanned. Reasons for being shadowbanned by Instagram Facing a ban in anything is the result of infringement or violation of policies set by a particular authority. Similar is the case in shadowbanning on Instagram as well. If a user adopts false tactics to get the required attention and increase reach, then he/she is liable to face shadowban. Here is a list of reasons for a shadowbanned on Instagram: Use of bots Remember, the success you get with the quality of your products or services and genuine efforts made by you will stay for long, and the same is admired by social media platforms as well. While on the other hand, if you are not getting the desired success with your efforts and plan to use automatic tools to increase engagement & reach, then you are doing it wrong. Use of bots or any other Instagram growth tools is considered as a spammy practice and when noticed, you might face shadowban. Use of banned hashtags There are certain hashtags banned by Instagram due to some reasons and if knowingly or unknowingly, you are using those hashtags in your posts, your account will be banned. Sometimes, when a popular hashtag is being overused to get the attention especially with irrelevant posts, Instagram limits its use or even removes it. Now, if you use such a hashtag in your posts, this could also lead your account to shadowban. Before using any hashtag, it is important for you to do enough research to see whether it is banned or not. Your account is being reported so often Another reason for the shadowban of your Insta account could be that it is being reported by people every now and then. If an account is reported frequently by users, it gives a sign to
Everything You Need to Know About Facebook Groups for Businesses
We all know how popular Facebook is and what role it does play in our lives. When it was first introduced, no one would have thought that it will become a necessity and here we are, making it an essential part of our lives. Keeping individual interests aside, if we talk about businesses, Facebook plays even a major role than it does for personal users. This platform is so huge that any business can find people of their interest, and that’s what they want to grow and make a strong presence. In all these years since its introduction, Facebook has evolved so much and has given so many features to its users that have changed the way they used to think. It won’t be wrong to say that using Facebook, one can start their small business with little investment and grow it later on. In this post, we will be going to talk about one of the greatest features of Facebook that is helping businesses to grow fast and well. The feature we are going to talk about is ‘Facebook Groups.’ These groups help businesses find people of similar interests and share ideas. Let us see it in detail. What is a Facebook group? A Facebook group is generally created by an organization or business for promotional activities and to connect with people or businesses that share similar interests. A group allows businesses to make a community with participants who can guide, provide knowledge, and solve queries related to your business’s niche. It is also a platform to create discussions and debates on related topics. Groups let users connect with what entices them and what they like. Plus, they also let you share what you know. Group admins can decide who can join and who cannot by creating the closed or open group according to their preferences. Why businesses require Facebook groups? We are very much aware of the importance Facebook has for businesses and what it can deliver. Now, along with a Facebook account for your business, if you have a Facebook group as well which is centered towards your brand, it will be the icing on a cake. Using a Facebook group along with the marketing strategy can create a huge impact on your business. It helps build a community of people who love your brand and the products or services you offer. A group that is maintained well can improve the value of your brand and products, and that will show up later on in increased sales and leads. As we said, that the group will be centered on your brand and the niche of your business, thus posting content related to that will show your expertise in what you do and people will trust your more. Besides, groups also allow participants to ask questions, and giving relevant & to the point answers to them will build your authority. If your answers are satisfactory, they will help create a base of loyal customers who will prefer your brand over others and keep coming back. That’s how small businesses become big as one-time customers cannot help you establish strong. What is the difference between a Facebook page and a Facebook group? Facebook Page When we talk about a Facebook page, it is generally created to run ads, promotions, and connect with your target audience to ensure your active presence. A Facebook page is visible to everyone present on Facebook, irrespective of the fact whether they follow you or not or are in your friend list or not. A Facebook page gives liberty to everyone on Facebook to connect by becoming a fan. This way, they can get the latest updates about the page in their feed and interact. Facebook Group Unlike pages, Facebook Group is a bit narrow which focuses on building a small community of people who share similar interests. A group is a place dedicated to group communications over a particular area or niche. Businesses create a Facebook group to build their own community and ensure a better reputation for their brand. A group gives the flexibility to either make it publicly available, require the approval of admin to join, or keep it private and get members via invitation only. Whenever something is shared in the group, it will appear to all the group member’s Facebook feed and they can interact there, by sharing their views. It is the best place for discussions and debates around a topic within the members. How to create a Facebook group? Now when you know what a Facebook group is and what it can do for your business, it’s time to see how to create it. Let us see a step by step process to create a Facebook group. Login to your Facebook account and the top right, you’ll see ‘+’ sign. Click on that and a list will open where you’ll see post, story, life event, and more. In the list, the next thing you need to do is to click on ‘group.’ Once ‘group’ is clicked, a form will open having three sections: Group Name Choose Privacy Choose Friends It is important for you to choose a relevant name for the group according to your business. It is always better to name a group that completely justifies the products or services you offer. In the privacy section, you will find two options, public and private. Choose the privacy accordingly, if you want anyone to see the posts of the group and who all are in there, then select public. While if you want only group members to get details of your group, then choosing private will be the best. When you choose private, you also need to select whether you want it to be visible to anyone or you only want group members to find it, i.e. hidden. When you are done with the above two sections, it’s time to choose the members of your group from the list or via emails. When everything is done click
Unlimited free group video calls through Facebook messenger.
The brand-new Standalone messenger app for desktop as launched by Facebook is the newest of all and is rightly available on Windows and macOS. Audio and video calling via Messenger on a desktop browser have grown 100% in the past few months. To this, the company has proactively responded with an increase in the demand with the launch of a dedicated application. The Messenger desktop application offers numerous benefits as compared to using Messenger on Facebook.com in a web browser and is the most valuable to people right now is unlimited and free group video calls. They have even highlighted the following points about the application: Multitasking: It is simple to open Messenger in one window while you do other things on your computer that is not possible sometimes on a smartphone. Easy Connectivity: It is simply understanding that if you are connected to someone on Facebook then eventually you are connected to that individual on Messenger without repeatedly performing the same task of having a phone number, sign up, email, or any new service. Chat Sync: Without losing any Messenger history one can easily and efficiently switch between devices. Notification: Available on desktop but you can still choose to snooze or mute them if you prefer. Includes all the same features you already know: Such as Dark Mode and GIFs. Facebook Messenger Vs Zoom: The launch of a standalone desktop application that offers group video calling, Facebook Messenger is now in direct completion with Zoom. Messenger has the facility of Zoom beat when it is about cost and price, and it does not get better than free, but Zoom does offer a free plan although it’s very limited. There are some differences in the features of Zoom and Facebook messenger is that there is no limit in the number of participants over video calls from Facebook Messenger whereas only 100 participants can participate in Zoom. Although Group meetings Zoom is limited to provide only 40 minutes as a time duration, there is no time limit for a video call on Facebook messenger. The beneficial part of the Facebook Messenger has no extra login credentials but Zoom is a totally new service to sign up for. Due to these features that Facebook Messenger provides, it seems like Facebook Messenger has an edge over Zoom but there are reasons due to which the users prefer Zoom over Facebook Messenger because a user who prefers to maintain a separation between business and personal may welcome the idea of signing up to a new service like Zoom as this would help them to keep a balanced distance between their personal and professional contacts. Although with the passing time the response of the audience can be seen for the afresh capabilities of Facebook Messenger and changes that help during the usage of the service. Adding to which it is interesting to see the capacity of Zoom to keep up with the meteoric growth from businesses transition to operating remotely as a good hike is visible in the number of users from ten million to two hundred million within three months, but if Facebook Messenger ends up being used in ways similar to Zoom possibly we may see Zoom’s user growth over the coming few months.