March Social Media Updates You Need Know About

This coming March is going to be filled with plenty of new developments in the social media world for internet marketers.

Some have been in the works for months, and some have seemingly come out of the blue; regardless, these are the March social media updates you need to know about. 

Facebook introduces WordPress plugin for Instant Articles.

Combine the powers of the leading social media network and the reach of a blog platform giant, and you have the WordPress plugin for Instant Articles on Facebook.

This upcoming April 12^th, Instant Articles will be available to all publishers via a WordPress plugin. The plugin has already been tested with “a small group of publishers” on WordPress, and will allow publishers using standard WordPress templates to activate the plugin off the shelf. Consequently, users who prefer further customization will be able to extend the plugin to support any other element they want.

Pinterest Ads Manager opens up businesses of all sizes.

Pinterest Ads Manager is now available to all small and medium sized businesses, allowing all to schedule Promoted Pins.

This announcement made such big waves due to the fact that Nipoon Malhotra, an ads product lead, shared that companies who have already used Pinterest Ads Manager have seen a 20 percent increase in clicks, all within a month of starting their campaigns. Pair Pinterest Ads Manager with interest, keyword, and customer database targeting, and you have a game-changing social media update on your hands.

Facebook’s Atlas adds video-ad serving and two new measurement tools.

Video-ad serving and two new measurement tools are being added to Facebook’s Atlas, their new ad serving and measurement platform.

According to Dave Jakubowski, Facebook’s head of advertising technology, video ad serving via the Atlas platform will be “broadly available” by the end of the month. With this, advertisers will be able to understand if their online ads are influencing offline purchases through two new measurement tools. The first measurement tool from Atlas, offline actions, will tie offline sales to online ad spend. Path to conversion, the second measurement tool, will provide insight into the multiple devices that users see ads on before pulling the trigger on a purchase. 

Social Media Checklist for Business

Social Media is a very powerful marketing platform for any business, but how do you know what to do? The typical business owner ask the same questions when social media is recommended for them. How do I blog? How many tweets do I send? What should I do on Facebook? What about LinkedIn? 

This is a very simple social media checklist to help any business owner with what they should be doing at minimum for these different platforms. 

Blog Post:

• Write 3 new blog post a week
• Have 3 targeted keywords that you include in every blog post
• Share the blog post link on:
• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Google +

Facebook:

• Find and Like 5 new pages a week
• Update company page status daily
• Post about 2 interesting topics related to your business
• Ask people to comment, like or share post

Twitter:

• Re-tweet 2 interesting tweets a day
• Follow 10 new people a week
• Send at least 3 new tweets daily
• Business related
• Promotional
• Fun & Interesting
• Circulating the blog post

LinkedIn:

• Update Company profile and status
• Connect with 3 – 5 new people per week
• Ask for 1 -2 recommendations per week
• Follow 3 new companies

Google + :

• Add 5 new people to your circle a week
• Offer a Google + Hangout session for a related topic in your industry
• Share content at least twice a day to your personal Google + profile and company page
• Host a monthly Google + hangout for a topic your industry

Pinterest:

• Each month, post product images and examples of our work from our company website as pins leading back to the site
• Follow 5 new interesting and inspiring pin boards each week from other users related to our field
• Add 1 new board that contains at least 6 new pins each week

YouTube:

• Find 3 new videos each week to share on Facebook, Twitter, and Google +
• Plan a video that showcases an area of our businesses expertise
• Have video capability at special events our business hosts or attends each month. Ask for brief interviews to post to YouTube.

This checklist should be used as a guide to help any business owner with their social media platform. These are the typical minimum requirements necessary to perform properly and see results. 

Super Bowl Sunday Marketing

 

With Superbowl XLVII two days away (February 3rd: San Francisco 49ers vs. Baltimore Ravens) it is not just a day that decides the new NFL Champions but it is the largest day in marketing as well. With an average cost of $3.8 Million per every 30 seconds of air time, this is an expensive figure for any company.

For the cost of 30 seconds of Super Bowl advertising, you could buy: 

1. Over a week of Homepage Advertising : AOL, Yahoo! and other larger publishers sell their day-long homepages for an average of $500,000 a day. So for the $3.8 million cost of airtime you could ensure 7+ days of full homepage landing on a large digital media site.

2. Over 100 Million Impressions on Hulu : Hulu sells its video ads for $30 CPM (Cost Per Millions).

3. 200 Pieces of Branded Content : Buzzfeed charges $100k for 4 - 5 pieces of branded content.

4. Be YouTube for a Week : YouTube's homepage ad cost $500,000 a day.

5. 1 Month of Twitter's Trend Topic: Promoting Trending Topics on Twitter sells for about $120k a day.

6. 50 Million Forbes.com Impressions: Forbes charges $80 CPM for ads, but even with 50 Million Impressions on Forbes this is still only half of the potential audience for a Super Bowl ad.

Although these would options would get attention and drive ROI for your brand, they do not deliver the success that has been measured from Super Bowl Sunday Advertising. 

A survey showed that 36% of Super Bowl Watchers will be using a Mobile Device or Tablet during the game to see sports news and behind-the-scenes commentaries, and that 52% will use social media throughout the game to talk about plays and commercials. 

So here are some ways that you engage an audience on Sunday without a $4 Million dollar invoice from CBS:

• Tell your audience something new about your company, some breaking news that has a strong call to action from your social platform to your website. Give your viewers something to do with their smart phones or tablets.

• Try driving your viewers to a "Facebook Contest" where they can engage in  a sweepstakes offered by your company. Giveaways are always a good way of engaging your audience and getting their attention with an incentive. 

• Use Sharable content; make ads and extensions easily accessible and shareable through Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook. These social platforms will be seeing increasing traffic during the game and your brand should be part of the conversation!

• Focus on a long term connection with your audience. Your ads and digital campaigns should do more than just entertain, they should engage your audience by demonstrating your value for each customer. By valuing each person individually rather than as a group, you make their decision down the road to choose you easier. This can be achieved by sending them to a site with information about yourself and your brand/service. Strive to make them understand that you care about them, not just about sales.

Neuromarketing: What the Brain has to do with Sales

For years, Marketers have always thought the key to sales was the right advertising and SEO. As we have seen in the past 5 years with the growth of technology and the progress of apps, SEO is not where marketing ends. Neuromarketing is the newest and most advance form of marketing that is beginning to surface across the globe. Before the study of Neuromarketing, we would never have associated science with sales. But this is definitely a cup of kool-aid you want to get your hands on.

Research has shown and explained to us throughout school that we only use 10% of our brain. Of the 10% of the brain that we use, 95% of our decisions are made subconsciously. So the majority of businesses, marketers and advertisers are only stimulating 5% of their customers brain. So here are 5 tips to helping you market more towards your clients brains then just your brand:

1. IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU : Don't focus about saying how great your product or service is, but tell your customer why your product is right for them. Let your product sell itself and people will come running.

2. GET TO THE POINT :  We live in a society that everything needs to be short, sweet, and to the point. Don't give your potential buyers the run around. They want to know what the product is and WHY THEY should buy it. We are impatient creatures and we don't want our time to be wasted, so sell it short and sweet.

3. A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS :  Pintrest monopolized the market by doing less talking and more selling through visuals. What we see connects directly with our unconscious brains, which is exactly what you want to reach. Use pictures whenever possible to help sell concepts quickly and efficiently.

4. STRONG START; CAPTIVATING CLOSE : People usually remember the beginning and the ends of things more than the middle. So make sure that you start and end strong, this can make or break the deal.

5. SIMPLICITY IS THE KEY : Do not be to bold or dramatic, your brain wants simplicity. Statistics have shown that too many options when a person is looking to purchase an item can cut sales dramatically because they get overwhelmed and confused with so many options. Make the decision easy for the customer so they engage in it, and always make them feel like they are making the right choice.

Pinterest and SEO

By now, you've probably heard the name Pinterest come up in social network discussions. While it's been recognized as a great resource for DIY projects, home decor, fashion, and other itemized categories, there is also a way to look at Pinterest from an SEO perspective. Look at Pinterest from an angle of product marketing and branding, and you'll see a site that can have a tremendous impact on your SEO. As a pinning addict (you can view my profile here) and someone who has personally seen substantial blog traffic increases from Pinterest, I believe Pinterest has the power to expose your company, your products, and your message to a large audience. Here are some key points to remember and use to your benefit:

-The target (and key) demographic of Pinterest is women, who make up 87 percent of the users.

-Users spend, on average, anywhere from 17 minutes-1 hour on the site at a time, where the average Twitter user spends 36 minutes, and the average LinkedIn user spends 17 minutes. People staying longer is likely to increase sharing and "repinning," which is where the business value comes in.

-One pin can be endlessly repinned by users, exposing each of their individual audiences to the pin. Hashtags can also be used to have pins show up in Pinterest searches.

-Pinterest is visually driven, so think in terms of eye-catching, interesting, and aesthetically appealing images. Infographics can succeed here very well.

-On the account settings end, make sure your profile (which hosts your pins) is able to be viewed by search engines. Optimize your profile with keywords, and don't forget to include your location!

-Follow people in similar industries. Follow boards you like and that you would like to be included on. For example, if you sell a tech product, repin pins under the Geek, Product, or Technology categories to try and reach your target users.

-Be sure to tell everyone (via other social profiles, e-mails, and newsletters, for example) that you are on Pinterest. Get the word out!

If you have any questions about Pinterest, feel free to reach out to me:
ethomas@tandem-interactive.com