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7 Ways to Boost Your Twitter Following Organically

When you’re looking to boost your Twitter following, it’s tempting to want to make it happen overnight. Nobody wants to have 43 followers when you could buy thousands all at once, right?

However, buying followers or resorting to other black-hat tactics simply won’t get you the kind of long-term engagement you need to maintain a consistently strong Twitter profile. In fact, as this article notes, black-hat social media can do serious damage to your brand.

That’s why when I recently set out to boost our own following on Rallio, I started by focusing on quality over quantity. (There’s a place, of sorts, for quantity as well, but more on that in tip #3.)

Today, I’ll share with you a few things I’ve learned about boosting your Twitter following organically. I welcome additional insight from those of you who have gone through this process, too.

#1: Like and Retweet

The simplest way to begin attracting new followers is by liking and retweeting posts. The more engaged you are with other profiles, the more you’ll be seen, and the more you’ll gain new followers yourself. As a general rule of thumb, aim to retweet at least one or two new people daily.

When retweeting, make an effort to add insight of your own or call out what you like about the post or article you’re retweeting. You can, of course, simply retweet without commentary, but also add your own 2 cents from time to time. This makes it clear you put thought into the retweet and didn’t simply click a button.

[bctt tweet=”The simplest way to begin attracting new followers is by liking and retweeting posts. #findfollowers” username=”rallioHQ”]

#2: Fit It In When You Can

You don’t have to overwhelm yourself spending time on Twitter. Some people like to carve out a chunk of time every day or so, and others will hop on there throughout the day. Or maybe you alternate between these approaches like I do.

Sometimes I’ll devote focused time, and other times I might just need a break from what I’m doing, or might be waiting at the doctor’s office, or … you get the idea. I like this strategy because it allows me to get on Twitter at different points in the day rather than one specific time when I won’t necessarily find anything or anyone worth tweeting about. Also, it prevents me from exhausting myself thinking I have to get on Twitter at 11 a.m. each day.

Try out both strategies and see what works for you. The point is to make it work!

#3: About That Quantity …

Although it’s imperative to have quality followers with whom you engage regularly, sometimes you have to cast a wide net to find those quality people. Some Twitter users will follow several people initially and then later weed out and unfollow accounts that don’t prove to be worth their time.

Note that once you follow an account, or when someone follows you, you’ll want to make an effort to engage with the account and gauge its value.

[bctt tweet=”Sometimes you have to cast a wide net to find quality #followers.” username=”rallioHQ”]

#4 Thank People … Sparingly

Do not do not thank every single person who likes and retweets your tweets or follows you. That practice will get old fast, and you risk flooding other people’s timelines with your thank-yous.

Instead, thank people for specific reasons. For example, if you found a post to be insightful, mention it along with the user and say why you found it valuable. You’ll show you’re actually reading people’s tweets and you’re willing to recommend those you think are worth a follow. Eventually, others will do the same for you.

Here’s a good list of other ways to thank your followers, say, by visiting their website or commenting on a blog post. I like the following approach as well from @twitrartexhibit thanking an artist for her submission to #TwitterArtExhibit. It’s specific and creatively worded:

#5 Locate Influencers

Who are the thought leaders, the movers and shakers in your industry? Find five or 10 of them, and start engaging with them across multiple platforms. That is, don’t stop at Twitter, but rather engage with them wherever they roam (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. … check out this article for more tips on engaging with influencers).

Once you have a fairly established relationship with influencers, reach out directly. You can start simply by asking if they’d be willing to answer a burning question related to your product or service, and then featuring their responses on your blog.

You can then tweet out your new post and mention your influencers, too, so they’ll (hopefully) share your content with their readers. In time, you’ll gain valuable partnerships through which you share each other’s content, create special offers and always have a rich source of content.

#6 Share More Than Once

By some estimates, the life of a tweet is something like 18 minutes. However, you can extend its lifespan simply by sharing the tweet multiple times.

Here at Rallio, we use Coschedule to manage our blog post creation coupled with social media posts that we schedule out over several days’ time. For example, this blog post will get a lot of mileage once I create social media posts about it for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

You can word your social posts differently each time for the same piece of content, whether it’s a blog post, a press release, a video or an image. It’ll read like a brand-new post, you save yourself some time, and you get the most out of every piece of content.

[bctt tweet=”Extend the life of a tweet by sharing the tweet multiple times. #socialmediatips #twittertips” username=”rallioHQ”]

#7 Use Hashtags

My colleague Becca Edwards wrote an extensive piece, How to Be a Hashtag Expert, that will help you master the hashtag game. She breaks down what a hashtag is, what it can do and how to use hashtags effectively. I recommend giving it a read, as it’s an important part of growing your following.

In addition to using hashtags in your own content, you can search hashtags related to your product or service. When you do, you’ll be able to find and join conversations around pertinent topics.

What other ideas do you have for gaining Twitter followers organically? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Categories
Reputation Social

7 Ways to Build Your Personal Brand on Social Media

We often talk about leveraging social media to boost a brand’s reputation, customer base and connection with its audience. But let’s not forget about the importance of building a personal brand as well. People are more likely to buy from people they trust, and social media offers multiple ways to build that trust with your target audience. Let’s look at a few.

1. Identify Influencers

Locate influencers who already have an audience that’s similar to yours. The goal is to establish relationships with them so they’ll be willing to collaborate with you and keep your name top-of-mind among their followers.

Don’t go too over-zealous here; you can’t start following them and then immediately ask for favors. Begin by inserting yourself into conversations, retweeting their posts and mentioning them in your own content. Over time, you’ll build a mutually beneficial relationship while also building your own following.

2. Give Back

As you gain new followers, always remember where you came from and offer to be of help to those who have helped you. This could mean connecting with customers to ask if there’s anything you can help them with. It could mean reaching out to influencers and offering to return the favor if they’ve helped you in some way.

Don’t wait for them to come to you, either. Make it a habit to reach out regularly to your circle. You’re not selling anything, but rather offering your time, your talents and your resources in a way that alleviates a burden or answers a question or a need.

[bctt tweet=”Offer your time, your talents and your resources in a way that alleviates a burden.” username=”rallioHQ”]

3. Join Groups

Both Facebook and LinkedIn have many different types of groups, and chances are there are several that relate to your business. These are places where you can showcase your area of expertise by answering questions, posting your own content and simply being a friendly face among other members.

You don’t just have to join groups specifically related to your business, either. For example, if you are a mom running your own business, you can join various mom-related groups on Facebook. When a need or a question arises, be a voice solving a problem.

4. Be Patient

It takes time to build relationships. You need to be engaged regularly with your target audience, not simply post something once or twice and think people will remember you or care who you are. The key is being a problem solver, not a salesperson butting into conversations. By being of service, you’ll build trust and people will learn that you’re the go-to person for XYZ.

I’ve seen this concept in action in a mom group to which I belong on Facebook. A real estate agent I know makes it a point to answer housing- and mortgage-related questions. Does she shove listings in front of people? No. She just solves a problem.

And people remember her! Anytime someone asks such a question, it seems like at least one or two people tag my friend. Here’s a perfect example in a screenshot taken from that Facebook moms group. I’ve darkened out the names and images to protect their privacy, but my friend is the one who was tagged by another member and replied “Thank you!”:

oc-moms-fb-screenshot

5. Step Outside Your “Industry” Box

In the case of my real estate agent friend, she doesn’t only engage in conversations that relate directly to her industry. Sometimes she simply responds to kid-related questions or other topics that illustrate who she is as a human being. She’ll also show her capacity for compassion by posting links or comments about human interest stories or fundraising efforts.

What are some interests you have? Hiking, fashion, traveling? Get engaged with posts around these topics. Show people that you’re about much more than just selling products or services.

6. Spark Conversations

You don’t have to wait for other people to strike up a conversation. Try asking a question or posting a poll about something that’s sure to get responses. In our moms group example, you could ask for recommendations of a pediatrician, a school or an extracurricular activity. People love to add their two cents, and you’re sure to get a lot of responses!

Avoid topics that could potentially steer your personal brand down a path you don’t want to be on, such as politics or religion. The last thing you want is to ignite a war among your followers, or worse, with you personally.

[bctt tweet=”Avoid topics that could steer your personal brand down a path you don’t want to be on.” username=”rallioHQ”]

7. Stay Consistent

Above all, present a consistent image of yourself across all social media platforms and media types (text, video, etc.). You can’t be all things to all people, so just define your voice, your image and your target audience, and then stick with it. People will be checking you out across all different platforms, so you want to come across as the same person regardless of where they find you.

What strategies do you use to build your personal brand? Let’s hear your thoughts.

Categories
Social

21 Quick Ways to Start Blogging Now

Have you ever thought about starting a blog but stopped short anytime you sat down to write? Whether due to other distractions, procrastination or just plain old writer’s block, there will always be times when the words don’t flow freely from your fingertips.

I can relate. I get busy with a ton of different things, and suddenly I can’t seem to come up with one decent blog topic, much less sit down and write something. Because I feel your pain, I’m taking the time today to write up a quick list of blog topic ideas. This is as much for me as it is for you, folks.

Why Blog?

First, a quick word about why any of this matters. If you have no blog or if your blog hasn’t been updated in weeks or months, you risk falling short on your marketing goals, harming your brand’s image, and losing out on opportunities to engage with your audience and prospects. Or if your blog posts are primarily sales pitches for your products and services, people aren’t likely to read them and engage with them.

Your blog’s primary goal is not to sell, at least not in the direct sense. It’s there to build your credibility, instill confidence in your brand and show customers why they should do business with you. Much like your social media pages, your blog should solidify relationships with your audience and establish you as the go-to expert in your field.

So yeah, blogging matters. Moving on.

[bctt tweet=”Your blog’s primary goal is not to sell. #blogging” username=”rallioHQ”]

About Those Ideas …

If you read none of the above, I won’t be offended. Simply cover your eyes, point to the screen and pick any of the following ideas for your next blog post. And then get writing!

#1: Write up a customer success story.

Solicit feedback from customers, and, with permission, write about their successes. You can do a roundup of success stories or go in-depth with one particular customer. Solicit more success stories at the end of your post. You could have an endless supply of content from success stories alone.

#2: Discuss news items or trends.

Is there a current event or trend that may affect your customers (positively or negatively)? Research and write up a list of solutions, an opinion piece or ways to capitalize on a trend. You might even generate a healthy controversy or discussion that gets people talking!

#3: Pull together a roundup of helpful resources.

Let’s say your business caters to new moms. What are the best blogs, books, websites and community resources for them? That kind of information gets shared over and over again.

#4: Review products or services.

Is there a product or service out there that complements your own? Contact that company, and offer to write a review about it on your blog. The company might even send you something for free in exchange for your honest review. Tip: If you plan to include any affiliate links in your blog, it’s a good idea to let readers know you may be compensated for purchases originating from your site. Keeps things honest! Here’s some more information about promoting affiliate links and monetizing your blog.

#5: Write an FAQ.

Readers have questions. You’ve got answers. A thousand words later, voila! You have a blog post.

via GIPHY

#6: Create a video post or a podcast.

Videos are more popular than ever. Discuss a topic of interest to your audience, give a sneak preview of forthcoming products or services, or broadcast from an event.

#7: Create an infographic related to your industry. Dig up facts and figures about a topic, and make them look pretty on an attractive visual. Be sure to share the infographic on all your social channels, especially Pinterest.

#8: Attend a conference. Write about your experience. What helpful information did you learn that you can share with your audience?

#9: Teach something. Pick a complex topic, and dissect it for readers as a how-to piece or a series of posts.

#10: Discuss your biggest mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes on the path to success, and everyone loves to read about them. Talk about the ways you’ve learned from mistakes and turned things around in your favor. For example, this article details 17 Biggest Mistakes That Killed Deals on Shark Tank.

#11: Get personal. Go behind the scenes to show a glimpse at your real life outside your business. Discuss how your personal life influences your business life, say, if you are inspired by your children to be successful.

#12: Spotlight your customers. Create a regular feature where you highlight your customers and why they are special to your business. Include a snapshot or two!

#13: Offer tips and tricks. You don’t have to do complete “how to” pieces if you don’t want to. Simply write up a list of tips on getting the most out of your product or using your services in different ways.

[bctt tweet=”#BlogTopic idea #13: Offer tips and tricks. #blogging” username=”rallioHQ”]

#14: Get inspiring. Write a post about why you do what you do. Use your words to inspire readers to pursue passions of their own.

#15: Interview someone. Whether it’s a celebrity, an employee or an expert in your industry, you can email a list of questions to somebody influential and then write up their answers. Here’s a blog with several celebrity interviews to give you some ideas.

#16: Tell the story of how you got started. Walk your readers through your humble beginnings and how you got where you are today.

#17: Do some good. Volunteer alongside team members for a local charity, such as a food bank. Write about the experience and invite support for the charity in the community.

#18: Thank your mentors. Who are the people who have mentored you on the road to success? Give them kudos and describe what you’ve learned.

via GIPHY

#19: Take a poll. Maybe you are considering implementing a new product or service. Ask customers to tell you what they think about your ideas by way of a survey. You can use SurveyMonkey or a similar program to create a poll easily. Later, you can share the results in another blog post. Two for one!

#20: Create a “best of” list. Pick anything related to your business. If you’re the business that caters to new moms, for example, you could create a “Best Family-Friendly Restaurants” post.

[bctt tweet=’#BlogTopic idea #20: Create a “best of” list. #blogging’ username=”rallioHQ”]

#21: Get more mileage out of previous posts. Like the “best of” idea above, this one works for your very own blog. At the end of 2016, for instance, you could write a post highlighting the “Best Posts of 2016.”

What other ideas do you have for blog posts? Let’s help each other out in the comments section.

Categories
Social

How to Make a Good Offer

In marketing for franchisors and franchisees, we often get asked this question: “How do we make a good offer?” Everyone’s trying to figure out how to turn online interactivity into off-line, in-store sales. And when done right, a compelling offer can do just that.

When you’re working with an advertising agency, they will collaborate with you and manage the entire process from creation to analysis. But you don’t always have that luxury, especially when you’re working at the local level. Oftentimes the most effective ads are the ones you can create from one-on-one interactions with your community and learning from them.

So how can you create offers as compelling as or even more effective than the national campaigns?

Before looking at how coupons can be created well, let’s make sure we’re viewing them through the right lens.

Advertising Is Experimentation

You conducted science experiments in your biology or physics classes, right? Maybe you did that Mentos and Diet Coke experiment, or dropped feathers and a bowling ball from a balcony? All these experiments yielded the expected results: the Diet Coke and Mentos create a reaction that erupts, and the bowling ball will hit the ground before the feather.

But what happens if you change the elements by one? What if you drop the Mentos in a jug of milk? Or what if you dropped feathers and a bowling ball in a vacuum chamber?

Different elements mixed together produce different results. So you can’t see someone’s campaign and expect that the results will carry over immediately to you. All factors would have to be exactly the same for that to happen, and even then it might not.

Advertising campaigns are psychological experiments. Theories, not guarantees. So treat every campaign as a learning experiment.

While you may expect to get incredible results each time, that’s not often the case. It may be due to the budget, audience, type of offer, phrasing of the description, the image itself or something else.

[bctt tweet=”Ad campaigns test theories, results not guaranteed.” username=”rallioHQ”]

It’s easy to get discouraged when an offer you’ve worked so hard on and pushed online doesn’t bring in any customers. But having an attitude that no coupon can work only hurts your efforts to find a coupon that does work. Instead of getting upset or throwing offers out altogether, realize it’s simply an experiment and see what you can learn from it.

With that in mind, let’s look at how to create a compelling offer for your customers.

Strategy

When you’re creating an offer, start by thinking of your audience. If you’re not thinking of your customers first, no matter how much money you put behind this offer, it will flop.

Are you trying to reach as many people as possible? Then make sure your offer is as wide as possible to be redeemed by the most people. On the other hand, if you’re targeting a niche audience, create an offer specifically for that audience and their needs.

If you’re struggling to think of ideas for a good offer, ask yourself these questions and write down the answers that come to mind:

  • Which customers are more likely to be returning customers?
  • Which customers would we like to see more of?
  • What’s a popular item/service?
  • What’s a highly requested item/service?
  • Will we have any beloved items back in stock soon?
  • Will any beloved items be going out of stock soon?

If you have time and spend, run multiple offers for your business. Through testing the type of offer, you can see what incentive has more pull for your customers.

Execution

Now that you have your starting foundation — the compelling offer for a specific audience — you need to actually create the collateral marketing that offer. But this is easier said than done, right?

While you’re creating your offer, review these elements to make sure you’re optimizing it for the highest rate of action and completion:

Clarity

Firstly, make sure you have clarified your offer and what it is for your customers. Simplify it as much as possible, and put it in the language they are used to. Don’t use internal product numbers if you use descriptive names front-facing.

Now is also the time to spell out any terms and conditions you have for the offer. One per customer, by appointment only, expires at the end of the month and other details should be ironed out now before the ad gets pushed live.

Image

Keep your image simple and eye-catching. Think about all the other images your customers are going to be seeing. Does it stand out? Is it too overwhelming? Was it taken well? Is it high enough resolution to see it clearly?

Urgency

Adding a sense of urgency or a limit to the ad can increase clicks, engagement and ad uses. Phrases like “Limited time only,” “Only a few days left” and “Only the first 10 customers” can motivate people to act fast while the offer is weighing on their minds.

Note: If you don’t have a way to remind people about the offer after they’ve saved it, you might find a higher engagement rate than opt-in or claim rate. Try to get them to sign up for a reminder or send it to themselves so they won’t forget.

Social Proof

If you can, add a numerical figure to endorse your product. Has the offer been downloaded a thousand times? Have hundreds of people endorsed your product? Has your service saved a customer thousands of dollars or given them hours back in their day? Use that to your advantage and state it in your offer.

Promotion

OK, so you’ve created your offer and are ready to promote it. How do you market your offer?

Organic Promotion

Good ol’ fashioned word of mouth and social sharing. Post your offer or a link to learn more on your major social media networks, and email it to your subscribers. For a lengthier campaign, spend some of your marketing to create handouts or in-store collateral about your offer.

Paid Advertising

Whether through social promotions, Google PPC, display advertising or magazine inserts, advertising can effectively reach the people you’re trying to reach. Or it can flop.

Before you start, review the expected results you’ll get from each and have a way of tracking which campaigns are driving people to convert. Most social media ad networks have analytics in place and conversion pixels you can use to track what people do with your ads. Make sure to implement unique coupon codes for separate distribution channels to clearly be able to analyze the results at the end of the campaign.

Influencers

Why try to reach your audience through commercials when you can connect directly with them through an influencer? If you know you’ll be running a campaign in a few months, reach out to someone who has a large following made up of your audience and see if they’d be willing to work with you to promote your offer. While some influencers may work for the branding and awareness, most will expect to be compensated for sharing your offer with their audience.

Management

Great, now you’ve pushed your campaign out to all your fans, you’ve sponsored your posts across Facebook and Twitter, and you’ve reached a large audience through a local influencer in your industry. You’re not allowed to lean back, put your hat over your head and take a nap! You need to keep engaging and managing the offer throughout the life cycle of the campaign.

Monitor

Keep checking in on your campaign. If you’re running multiple ad campaigns, what results are you seeing so far? Are some performing better than others? Are you finding any issues with your campaign so far? You’ll only know if you’re being alert and watching the progress.

One of our clients was running their campaign and wasn’t seeing any results from their ad set. When they reviewed the ad campaign, they realized they had shared the wrong URL: It was off by one letter. They were able to fix it because they were observing and monitoring their campaign.

[bctt tweet=”Be on top of what’s happening during your campaign” username=”rallioHQ”]

Adapt

As in the above example, if you’re monitoring your campaign, you can make changes on the fly. Alterations can be simply made online, while you might not be able to make them with direct-mail or print pieces.

With online ads such as Facebook ads or Google AdWords campaigns, test different versions of the ad at one time. Then during the campaign, see what’s performing the best and pause the other ones. Copy the best performing ads and tweak their language, imagery or landing page to see if they improve the results. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Review

Once your offer campaign has ended, it’s not the end. You’ve reached the most important part of the ad campaign: the review process.

Brand Awareness

Before, during and after the campaign, analyze how much your audience discusses your brand on average. The best campaigns produce high awareness during the campaign, and the after-campaign average is higher than the before-campaign average. Review your campaign analytics and look at web mentions to see how frequently your brand and the offer are mentioned.

Brand Engagement

As much as you can, track how people talked about your offer and campaign. It can be easier to do with digital campaigns since you can see how many people liked, shared, retweeted and mentioned your offer. But you can also use a monitoring software such as Mention to track specific campaign keywords across the web to see if anyone found the offer a different way.

ROI

Probably what you’re most interested in determining, the ROI (return on investment) of your campaign gets to the bottom line of whether your offer and promotion process produced the results you were expecting. Don’t forget to compare these figures with your other campaigns, the cost of an average purchase and the rate of new to returning customers.

While looking at the entire ROI of the campaign, make sure to also look at the ROAS, or the return on ad spend. To do this, divide the return from the ad campaign by the ad spend for that campaign. Calculating the ROAS for each advertising or promotion channel (including organic) can help you see what methods of delivery bring the best results for your campaigns.

Learning

Remember at the beginning when I said ad campaigns are experiments and you’re testing your theories? That won’t mean anything if you don’t determine what you’ve learned from them. Maybe this campaign reinforced your ideas about your customers and what they’re interested in. Or maybe the results were unexpected. Review the analytics and come up with new theories based on these results.

Successful campaigns are grown and discovered through testing, trial and error. Make the best guess for what your audience will react to, and then track the results. Regardless of whether it was successful or an abysmal failure, look at the data, make adjustments and try again.

Categories
Social

The Real Reason Social Media Is a Problem for You

This is not a post telling you all the things you’re doing wrong on social media. Nor is it a list of things you should be doing to increase your social presence.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I’ll tell you what we will be discussing today. It has much more to do with mindset than mistakes or lists of things to do.

Don’t get me wrong: Those lists of action items for your social media pages — such as those you may have read in many of our other blog posts and others out there on the interwebs — are not to be discounted in any way. By all means, you need real strategies and ideas to make your social pages work for you.

But at the same time, you don’t want to view those tasks as loathsome. Wouldn’t it be nice to get excited about tackling social media marketing? You see, as with anything we do in life, our attitudes about it make all the difference between failure versus success. Dread versus enjoyment. Disgruntlement versus joy.

It’s All About Mindset

As someone who actively pursues ways to shift my mindset from negative to positive — via personal development books, websites and a regular yoga practice — I wanted to invite you to shift the way you think about social media in general.

That is to say, if you have the mindset that social media is difficult, time-consuming and tedious, then it most certainly will be so. If, however, you view it as an asset to your business, then you will more easily embrace social media and take steps to make it work for you.

You might even start to enjoy social media marketing. You with me here? Great! Let’s dive in.

via GIPHY

Problem or Opportunity?

The first thing is to start thinking about social media as an opportunity for your business rather than a problem. I know what you’re thinking: What kind of opportunity, aka return on investment, are we talking about here?

It’s a tricky question because you cannot simply measure your ROI based on direct dollars. Your customer engagement and the growth of your audience over time are other measures of success that deliver value to your organization. Ultimately, it’s the combination of metrics, both tangible and intangible, that paint the complete picture of ROI for your business.

Some metrics are measurable in dollars and cents; for instance, if you create a coupon offer using Rallio’s proprietary technology, you can easily track exactly how many people redeem the coupon. If, on the other hand, you post a photo of you and your staff volunteering at the local soup kitchen, and you earn several likes, shares and comments, then the return is less measurable. Here, you’ve increased your customer engagement and enhanced your business’s reputation.

Both of those metrics are critical in considering what kind of opportunity social media presents. And each leader in your company probably has a different idea about which metric is more important.

If there’s one thing we can agree on, however, it’s that there is undeniably plenty of opportunity for the taking in social media. How you choose to view those opportunities is up to you and your cohorts. Let’s take a closer look at the different types of opportunities around which you can create a mindset for success.

[bctt tweet=”Think about social media as an opportunity for your business rather than a problem.” username=”rallioHQ”]

Tangible Returns

As I mentioned above, online offers present some of the easiest ways to see a tangible return, but here’s the key: It only works if 1) customers can easily redeem the offer, and 2) you are able to track redemptions.

My colleague Becca Edwards goes into great detail about how to create slam-dunk online offers in this post, and I highly recommend reading it. And be sure to get in touch with us via sales@www.rallio.com to see how our coupon technology works at a brand and local level.

With online offers, you have a chance to see which types of offers work the best, and then you can lather, rinse and repeat with future offers, or create similar offers your audience would like to see. If an offer doesn’t get a good return, you can tweak things going forward so you have more people redeeming the offers.

Not-So-Tangible Returns

On the other side of the coin, you see returns that have more to do with analytics, such as organic and paid impressions, ratings and reviews, and engagement with posts. You see how people respond to different types of posts by liking, sharing and commenting on them. Over time, you see the number of page likes grow.

In this post, you can learn more about the social media analytics that matter most to your business. In the meantime, take a look at two main opportunities that are present in building your brand on social media.

  1. You get to interact one-on-one with customers. Think about it. There was a time when the only way to have real conversations with customers was if they showed up in your store or if they sent you an angry email. Nowadays, you get to chat with them and respond to their comments, questions and complaints in real time. You get to show them there are real people with real personalities working at your business, and they care about their customers!
  2. Build a following, and you stay top of mind with customers every day. If you put the time into engaging with customers regularly in a non-salesy way, they will be more likely to visit your page often and share it with friends. Then, when you have a chance to meet a need or present an offer, they will want to listen to your message and take action. Over time, you will become the go-to person in your industry, and when a need arises, you’ll be the first person they think of. How’s that for an opportunity?

[bctt tweet=”Nowadays, you get to chat with customers in real time. #socialmedia” username=”rallioHQ”]

Less struggling, more ease. That’s what we’re going for here. And ultimately, more money in your pocket if you successfully grow your audience and engage your customers to buy.

Think you can shift your mindset to embrace social media as opportunity? Or are you already there? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Categories
Social

7 Things Your Competitors Can Teach You About Social Media

Competition isn’t a bad thing in business. It keeps you on your toes, allows you to improve continually, and gives you a chance to see what works and what doesn’t with your target audience.

Social media has made it easier than ever to research your competition and take a lesson from their customer interactions. Knowing what to look for as you check out their social profiles can give you a huge advantage in the marketplace. Here are a few things to investigate on your competitors’ pages. 

1. Identify Your Target Audience

You might not already know who your target customer is, especially if you’re a new business. Start by tracking down businesses that offer a similar product or service, and then hop on their social pages.

From there, you can begin studying the types of people frequenting the pages and interacting the most. Are you seeing mostly moms, young professionals, teens, millennials? Male or female? Read the comments to get an idea of who your target customer might be.

2. Study How They Engage With Customers

Now examine how your competitors interact with your target audience. Are their pages littered with complaints from customers that have gone unaddressed? Or are complaints handled promptly to customers’ satisfaction? How about positive comments? How are those handled?

Not only will you learn customers’ likes and pain points, but you’ll also identify how you can pick up where your competition is leaving off. Make it your priority to respond to customers within the hour, using a friendly tone of voice and wording that’s appropriate for your target customers. Your diligence and attentiveness to customers will earn you a reputation of being trustworthy, respectful and helpful (while your competitors flounder!).

via GIPHY

3. Mimic What’s Working

Which competitor posts are getting the most likes, shares and comments? Which posts inspire positive reactions from customers?

On pages with heavy customer engagement, you’ll get an idea of which type of content resonates with your audience. Is it curated content, case studies, images, quotes, videos? A combination of posts? Take note of the most effective posts so you can repackage similar content and calls to action on your page.

Also, although the majority of your content should be non-promotional in nature, you’ll want to sprinkle in posts about special promotions and contests. Be aware of how often your competitors post self-promotional content and how customers respond so you can learn the best ways to present this type of content.

4. Avoid What’s Not

On the flip side, which posts get negative feedback … or no feedback at all? Here’s where you have a chance to be a fly on the wall to know how an audience reacts to certain types of content.

Side note: If the page overall doesn’t appear to get any customer engagement, it could be because customers are not seeing the page in their newsfeeds. Whatever the reason (lack of advertising, for example), that page might not be the best example for you to study. However, if the page gets interaction on some posts but not all, then you can be reasonably confident in studying how customers engage with the content.

In the case of negative responses to posts, take note of content that makes customers angry or upset. That’s not to say you should never post anything controversial, but do so cautiously. While thoughtful dialogue and debate is good, offensive is not, and you probably don’t want that kind of commentary on your page.

[bctt tweet=”Be a fly on the wall to know how an audience reacts to certain types of content.” username=”rallioHQ”]

5. Identify the Best Times to Post

In addition to the types of content, be aware of the times of day when customers seem to interact with content the most on competitors’ pages. Look at key times of day, such as early morning, lunchtime, dinnertime and late evening. Over time, you can identify patterns and post your content when your audience is most likely to see it.

6. Establish Yourself as an Expert

As a business owner, you are an expert in something. Perhaps your competitors have already demonstrated their expertise with a target audience, and you might think there’s no room for another one. That’s simply not true!

You can involve yourself in conversations that give you an opportunity to showcase your ideas, knowledge and authority on the subject. Join Facebook and LinkedIn groups that relate to your industry. Track keywords on Twitter and Instagram so you can respond to users’ comments. Go wherever your target customers are hanging out so you can become top-of-mind with them.

Avoid saying anything negative about competitors, as that just makes you look desperate. Instead, rely on your own expertise to convey information with confidence. Your customers will pick up on your tone and learn to identify you as the go-to person on a particular topic.

I’ll give you a great example. I’m a member of a Facebook group that’s just for local moms. People post all kinds of comments and questions on there, and sometimes people will post something looking for a good real-estate agent. Oftentimes, in response to these inquiries, people in the group will tag a friend of mine who has established herself as the go-to person for any questions about home buying and selling, mortgages and the like. She didn’t do it by bashing competitors; she did it by providing great customer service, helpful information and a friendly tone of voice. Simple as that!

[bctt tweet=”As a business owner, you are an expert in something.” username=”rallioHQ”]

7. Post Content That They’re Not Posting

As you’re noticing what competitors do post, note what they don’t post, too. Start brainstorming ways you can communicate with customers in fun, novel ways. Creativity goes a long way toward gaining loyal followers!

What information have you learned by studying competitors’ social pages? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

 

 

Categories
Reputation Social

Should You Try to Get More Facebook Likes?

The quick answer is no. You should try to get more engagement.

The long answer is more complicated.

First off, let me make a few disclaimers here. I’m not addressing the businesses that have five, 10 or 30 likes. If your business only has as many likes as you have employees, you need to boost your likes to at least a couple hundred. I’ll write about how to get those first initial likes in another post.

But let’s say you have 350 likes. You may think it’s most important for you to get 1,000 likes, and it does help build social trust for people who find you from their friends and family. But after your first hundred or thousand likes, you may be wondering if you should still be prioritizing growing the fans on your page.

Why does the number of likes matter?

Having a following on social media sites, including Facebook, indicates to your customers and people checking you out that you are well-liked, that people respect your business and approve it. Just like the numbers on a sales page (“6 million people have taken my course and changed their lives”), a high number of likes gives social proof and credence to your venture. The theory goes: The more fans, the better your business must be.

Then why not keep trying to grow your Facebook page and surpass POTUS and Rihanna? Why stop when you still haven’t reached 10,000 fans or 100,000 fans, or even 1,000 likes?

Because likes don’t mean people care.

I know, that sounds completely contrary to everything I’ve said so far. Hear me out.

Over the past few years, Facebook has dwindled the amount of posts from businesses in a person’s newsfeed to 1 to 2 percent. That’s because people have used Facebook less when they’ve seen more advertisements and posts from businesses than from their friends. And people have specifically said they want to see more of their friends’ posts, so Facebook is catering to the needs of the people to keep a strong and active community.

[bctt tweet=”Likes don’t mean people care” username=”rallioHQ”]

Facebook’s decision makes marketing more difficult for business owners and their Facebook brands. Whereas before, every post you created could come into a person’s Facebook newsfeed, nowadays only 2 to 3 percent of your audience will see a post from a business they follow.

So your fans may like your business as a whole (“Yeah, I like buying my groceries at Home & Heart Co.”), but that doesn’t mean they like what you have to share. And if they don’t like what you’re posting enough to engage and share it with their friends, then your very large page will be very, very quiet.

Now, here’s the catch.

You should still try to get more Facebook likes, but as a secondary goal. Your first goal should be engaging with your current fanbase.

Pro Tip: Likes don't mean people care

At this point, you might have just enough likes in comparison to other local businesses and can start focusing on crafting engaging posts. But what if you have thousands of page likes with hardly a share on your posts?

First, review your content and make sure you’re not making any of these social media mistakes. Then, analyze your content for engagement and see what type of post gets the most engagement.

Start posting the most engaging content more frequently, and keep monitoring what gets the most shares. If you’re looking for ways to create more shareable content, check out these ways to get more shares on Facebook.

When you have a post that has outperformed all your other successful content, sponsor it on your Facebook page to your fans and their friends. This boost will act as the spark to generate more organic engagement on your page posts (but will only work if you’re posting similar content regularly.) Keep analyzing your content engagement to create more and more shareable Facebook posts.

Remember, the transition to having an engaged Facebook page doesn’t happen overnight. But here’s the funny thing: Having an engaged audience will bring more people to like your page anyway. So in a way, you’re growing your page likes without focusing on it.

Yet you’re not growing your likes for a number; you’re growing an engaged audience. And that, even if small, is much more important.

How are you engaging your audience? And in what ways has building an excited fan base also grown your following? Let me know your strategies in the comments, or tweet us on Twitter.

Categories
Social

Best Ways to Build Your Brand on Social Media

It’s every brand’s dream to have a huge following on social media. When your customers are talking about you in positive ways, they’re doing much of the work to spread awareness of your brand, for free.

Still, there are brands that struggle to establish themselves on social media, and they can’t figure out why. Today, we’ll explore the best ways to make a name for yourself so you can spend less time chasing down customers and more time nurturing relationships with your fans. Make these strategies your top priority, and you’ll see your business grow exponentially.

Respond to Your Customers

This point is perhaps the most important of all because it can make or break your reputation. Most customers nowadays will not pick up the phone and call customer service when an issue arises. Instead, they’ll take to social platforms such as Twitter or Facebook to air their complaints. J.D. Power estimates that 67 percent of consumers have used a social channel for customer service, and for that reason, it’s imperative that you have a system for “listening” and responding to these concerns.

Consider the following exchange between Jet Blue and one of its customers when, during a flight, the passenger’s TV wouldn’t work:

Within minutes, Jet Blue responded:

The customer, pleased with this response, tweeted back: “One of the fastest and better Customer Service: @JetBlue! Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving”

Not only did Jet Blue help its customer, but it also helped its own reputation. Can you imagine the backlash if Jet Blue had ignored the tweet or tried to defend itself?

Don’t Just Respond. Go Above and Beyond

You should also use social media to respond to positive comments from customers and to exceed expectations. Author and business consultant Peter Shankman writes about his experience of jokingly requesting that @Morton’s deliver a porterhouse steak to Newark Airport upon his arrival.

Not missing a beat, Morton’s picked up on the tweet and, you guessed it, did exactly that. Shankman was understandably blown away.

While Shankman makes it clear that his tweet was in jest and he had no expectation of a Morton’s steak actually being delivered, he nonetheless marvels at this feat of customer service. The lesson here is not necessarily to meet customers’ every whim, but to seize opportunities to go above and beyond whenever possible.

Shankman writes: “Stay on top of what people are saying about you. Respond accordingly. Perhaps most importantly, have a chain of command in place that actually lets you do these things in real time. Had Morton’s had to get permission to make this happen, at 5:10pm on a Wednesday night, there’s no way it ever would have.”

Make Social Media Your PR Platform

Although there’s still value in taking your message to media outlets, the beauty of social media today is that you can also deliver your message directly to customers. Let’s be clear: It’s not about sounding like a PR pitch when you interact with customers online. Rather, think of it as an opportunity to build trust and confidence in your brand.

One of the best ways to help your message resonate with customers is by creating local, personal content. Images of customers (taken with their permission, of course) are a powerful way to let your clientele speak for you without you having to “sell” anything to your audience.

For example, a hair salon can show photos of a client before and after getting a cut and a style. This provides an opportunity to discuss their services, products and hairstylists in a way that resonates with their audience. An automotive repair shop can show photos of a dented car alongside “after” photos showing the results of their repairs. You get the idea.

[bctt tweet=”It’s not about sounding like a PR pitch when you interact with customers online.” username=”rallioHQ”]

Create a Community

This tip closely follows the one above. Once you establish yourself as a trustworthy brand where people don’t feel pressured to buy, then you can begin to create a community of followers who want to follow whatever you’re up to.

One great way to accomplish this feat is by posting real-life photos of yourself, your staff and your lives outside of work. Become more of a friend to them than someone trying to sell them something, and they’ll be eager to receive your updates.

You can take things a step further by creating offline events and publicizing them on social media. For example, a yoga studio could plan out special workshops and classes to be held in-studio, create the events from its Facebook page and invite followers. Bringing the offline world into online conversations encourages people to connect with one another and with your brand.

Be a Thought Leader

As a business owner, you have expertise in certain subject matters. What knowledge do you have to share with the world? Social media provides the perfect platform to educate communities and demonstrate that you are the “go to” person in your industry.

Try creating a webinar on a topic and promoting it on your Facebook page. If you have a white paper or another thought piece, you can breathe life into it through a webinar and take questions from your audience. You’ll build not only your community, but also your brand awareness and bottom line.

woman-hand-smartphone-desk

Network With Complementary Businesses

Businesses used to have to rely solely on in-person networking events such as chamber of commerce meetings to meet other business owners. Now you also have the ability to network with people around the globe online.

There are likely dozens of businesses that complement yours beautifully with which you can build relationships and a strong referral network. When fellow business owners hear a need from a client that they can’t meet but that you can, you want to be the first person they think of. You can develop mutually beneficial networks, tagging one another on social media whenever possible.

Seek out those networks where you have something in common and build from there. Let’s say you’re a mom in business; you can locate other business-owner moms through various Facebook groups and by using hashtags on Twitter and Instagram. As you focus on building relationships with these people and not selling, you’ll find that people you have never even met will refer business your way simply because you share the commonality of being a mom.

via GIPHY

What other ways do you spread the word about your brand without coming across as salesy? Leave your comments at the end of this post.

 

Categories
Social

6 Reasons to Improve Your Online Offers for Better Results

To drive more customers into your store, the easiest solution is to create an online offer and share it far and wide. People who are interested (and who weren’t before) now flock to your establishment to get that discount, and now you have a busy, thriving local business.

But that’s not always how it works out, is it?

Instead of the rush and clamor to enter your store, it may be even slower than usual. People trying to redeem their coupons may be getting frustrated with the current process. Or you may wonder whether what you’re offering is really making a positive impact on your growth.

If you’re thinking you can improve your results, here are six reasons why your coupon codes may not be driving the return (and the customers) you want:

You’re Overdoing Them

Do you only post coupons on your Facebook page? If so, you might be devaluing your products and services to the customer. Here’s why:

When you casually create coupons, you dilute the actual value proposition of your brand. Moreover, you’re saying that the coupon value is the “real” price over the listed one since you’re using that discount constantly. Coupons and discounts can effectively boost sales and create a larger customer base, but excessive coupon use could hurt the long-term success of your business.

You’re Using the Same, Repeatable Coupon Code

With the complexity of creating new coupon codes on POS systems, it can be simple to create one or two new coupon codes and disperse them everywhere. But using the same barcode could be costing you a lot of money in sales.

[bctt tweet=”How much money have you lost to employees scanning one reusable coupon?” username=”rallioHQ”]

Remember, coupons are a marketing tool to get people into your store. But it’s not unheard of for employees working at a register to have a printed coupon with a code on hand to scan repeatedly for customers. As customers go through the checkout stand, they keep swiping the same coupon for each transaction, even those who weren’t being incentivized by the coupon to buy anything. That could be thousands (or millions) of dollars each year that you’re losing to misusing your coupons.

You’re Making them Difficult to Save

Once a customer has found your coupon, how easy do you make it to save? If you’re like many companies that use online coupons, you’ve posted it as an image or embedded it into your website. Some savvy people will know how to email themselves the link, save it as an image or even screenshot it. But without a clear call to action on how to keep the coupon (like a send to email or text it to me option), you’ve made it much harder on your customers to save your coupon for future use.

You’re Making Them Frustrating to Redeem

Wait, you’re saying I have to print this out and bring it in? Since you only offer one per customer, I have to sign up for your club so you can track it? How many things are excluded from this offer in the fine print? And I have to download your app to redeem it?

An example of a coupon with one too many restrictions
An example of a coupon with one too many restrictions

These examples describe hurdles your customers would have to jump before purchasing from your business. Again, coupons create an incentive for new customers to try your services and introduce them to your brand, so you want to make their first experience as simple and easy to complete as possible.

You’re Making it Hard to Find a Location Near Your Customers to Use the Coupon

If you only have one location, you shouldn’t be concerned about directing customers to the right place. But with tens, hundreds or thousands of locations, you want to help potential customers find the location nearest them quickly.

For multi-location businesses, it’s important to display all the stores near the person who’s looking at the coupon. Even if it’s been shared to someone on the other side of the country, they should see the locations offering the coupon that are nearest to them. With our coupon feature in Rallio, we automatically queue up the nearest locations to the customer in a map on the coupon.

You’re Not Calculating the ROAS

ROAS? Don’t you mean ROI?

Actually, no, ROAS is slightly different from the ROI. To be a bit technical, the ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) calculates the revenue received from a specific campaign.

ROAS = revenue / advertising spend

Online merchants can track ROAS through tracking codes and confirmation pixels, on their website, but how do you track an online coupon to a physical visit at a brick-and-mortar store? Unless you have a system in place that connects the online ad spend to the purchase amounts, you won’t be able to track the success of your coupon campaigns. And you won’t know what offer really has the greatest impact.

I’m curious to know how you currently use coupons at the local and national level. Do you create one type of coupon across the brand? Does each franchisee or owner create their own on top of the overall offers? How do you make them easy to use for customers while tracking their success? Let’s discuss in the comments and compare with other brands and local businesses.

Also, I want to let you know about a coupon option to make your offers more successful. If any of these reasons were major pain points for you and you’re looking for a solution, I want to offer you a demo of Rallio.

We’ve worked with multi-location businesses that have thousands of locations, and coupon creation, management and analysis turns out to be much more complicated than it seems. To help our clients, we built a coupon technology to save them money, time and effort. Now they are less concerned about losing a fortune with online coupons and have seen incredible results from people sharing them with their friends.

If you’re interested in seeing how our coupons work at a brand and local level, send us an email at sales@www.rallio.com.

Categories
Social

How to Reach More People on Facebook

It’s the question every franchisee and brand marketer has been asking for the last few years, ever since Facebook diminished the reach of page posts to 1 to 4 percent of all page followers: How do I get more people to see my content?

The answer lies with the amount of engagement your posts receive. See, Facebook created an algorithm that shows content to people based on what they’ve engaged with in the past. If you don’t engage with a Facebook page, then Facebook will show content from that page to you less.

And now based on customer feedback, Facebook will be restricting the content shown by pages in people’s News Feeds, focusing on what content received shares.

Us marketers are losing our minds. We’ve worked hard to build our audience and our follower base, so why is Facebook doing this?

Over the past few years, Facebook has seen a decline in original sharing by individuals. Less people are creating unique posts about things happening in their daily lives. And Facebook wants to ensure their userbase stays connected and shares unique, individualized content with them and not their competitors.

We can learn from their decision. In fact, knowing the problem Facebook’s having helps us create better content for our business, our customers, and for Facebook. Win-win-win, right?

Bottom line, we need to create more content that people want to share. Firstly, because Facebook now focuses page posts’ organic reach on the number of shares it receives. And secondly, because when a person shares a post, they can write their own comment about the post before they share it. In a way that gives the page post new life from the perspective of the person, personalizing it to their friends.

Powerful.

So what are some types of posts that can get more shares? Here are a few you can implement at the local level:

6 Ways to Get More Shares on Facebook Posts

    1. Local events and celebrations: Think holidays, local fairs and parades, and even the special anniversaries and success stories about your employees. Did one of your interns just graduate from college? Are the owners celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary? Did you have a booth at the July 4 celebration? Post these local, heartwarming stories on your page and focus on the person or event. (Not the time to ask people to share.)

    1. Customer stories: With their permission, take a photo of your happy customer and feature them on your Facebook page. If possible, share a part or all of their story on the post. Use this opportunity to feature people who had part of their life change through your service or product, and include others who simply have a positive story to tell.
    1. Curated content: It’s easier now than ever to look for similar, popular content that other pages are sharing or that your customers are posting. Take a customer’s photo from Instagram and post it to all your pages linking back to the original poster. Or find an interesting post from another Facebook page and share it on your wall. If you find it shareable, your customers will, too.

[bctt tweet=”Businesses need to post the content people want to share” username=”rallioHQ”]

    1. Helpful, relevant articles: Sometimes the most interesting thing in the world is a bit of good, old-fashioned information. Whether it’s a thought piece or breaking news, a perfectly timed article can be a viral hit among your community. Stay aware of current events in and out of your industry, and when you find a piece that’s really powerful, share it with your followers. Or, better yet, figure out what they want and write it yourself.
    1. How-to videos: Now, don’t pass this one by because you don’t think it’s relevant to your business. While it would be best to have the how-to video be about a topic customers can apply to their lives (such as tax or insurance tips), people will also share how-to videos that they probably won’t do but are cool, interesting or “mind-blowing.” Look at this video below: Few people are going to make those cookies, but they’re beautiful enough to share.

    1. Facebook live: Remember the Chewbacca-mask lady? She originally went live on Facebook before going viral across the world, and all because she shared something a bit ridiculous with her followers. Don’t be afraid to be a bit silly; people are looking for authentic and transparent businesses, so opening up a bit and showing what you’re really like (with or without the Chewbacca mask) can brighten someone’s day.

    1. Funny videos: If you have a creative idea — like these dentists who like to post their dubsmash videos to Facebook — then post a few videos and see how people react. Do they comment with a bunch of emojis? Do they tag their friends in the comments (a form of sharing with a few people)? Do you see them sharing on their Facebook pages or on their friends’ pages? Test different videos and see which ones generate the most shares from your customers.
    1. Sponsored posts: Artificially creating shares can lead to more organic shares. And Facebook’s made this easy for businesses to do, indicating that if your posts aren’t encouraging organic shares and engagement, then you can pay-to-play with the ones that are. While it’s easy to boost any post, wait until one gets more reactions, likes and shares than the others, and sponsor it to your audience and their friends.

How are you working to increase engagement on your Facebook posts? And what posts on your page get the most shares? Let us know in the comments what you’ve seen work and not work for your business.

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