Here are the 5 steps you need to take (yes, NEED to take) to grow your business:
1. CLAIM YOUR LOCAL BUSINESS

I am amazed at how many local businesses do not claim their accounts on Google, Yelp, Facebook or other local review sites. Perhaps it’s a lack of time or just a lack of knowledge. I often hear both from business owners who tell me they don’t have time to manage yet another social platform or they don’t want to get negative reviews so they don’t even go there.

Consumers are more tech-savvy than most businesses and they use the tools that business owners refuse to get on board with. This is just crazy! If you are running a business, you’d better learn to use the technology to connect with consumers or hire someone who knows how to do it for you.

I hear people say “I hate Yelp. People just buy fake reviews” or “I refuse to get on Facebook, it’s all political junk now.” Here’s the deal: It doesn’t matter what you like. It matters that your consumers are using these tools and talking about you whether you’re listening or not. If you are ignoring them, you will be missing opportunities or worse, you will miss out on the feedback people have to help you improve. Now, with that off my chest, let’s talk about how to do this.

To claim your business on most of these accounts, you can simply type your business name into the platform (example: Go to Google and type in your business name). If it asks, “Is this your business?” or if you don’t see a page or profile at all… Claim it! If it is claimed you will typically see a section on the right that opens up with reviews, photos, a map, and more information.

On Facebook, when you search for your business name, you may find other pages that customers have “created” when they “check-in” and didn’t find a page already. These become Place Pages and they stay there collecting comments and reviews until the business owner claims that business. Now you have to do clean-up work to merge or delete those pages. The price to pay for neglecting your social audience all these years.

If you haven’t claimed it, you will have to verify that it is indeed your business, with Google, Facebook, or the other sites by having an automated system call the number that is publicly listed for your business or mail you a postcard with a code on it. This postcard often gets tossed out with junk mail so be on the lookout for it. You have to follow the instructions on the postcard and enter the code to validate or verify the account. It’s kind of a pain, but it’s not rocket science. Get it done.

2. GET YOUR LOCAL BUSINESS ACCOUNT READY FOR ONLINE VISITORS

Now many companies that have done step one think that’s all there is to it. WRONG! You are just getting started. If you simply signed a lease or purchased a building but did nothing else to the space, you are not ready to invite customers in. The same holds true with your online accounts. You are now ready to build out the space to soon invite people in.

Be sure to fill out your profile on any social or review platform as completely as possible. Include lots of photos, videos (if they allow it), details like your contact information, your business hours, information about parking, or finding your entrance if it can be tricky to locate the door. Anything that you can do to make it easy for people to do business with you.

Photos are very important so don’t leave this to the few ugly photos you have with trashcans in the background or that are dark and creepy looking. (I’ve seen some photos on accounts –especially restaurants—that would keep me away for decades!) If you need to hire a photographer for a couple of hours, it’s worth it. Customers will often load photos of your business when leaving reviews and these will be added to your photo area on your profile. Be sure you are mixing in some nice, well-lit images on a regular basis.

3. MANAGE YOUR LOCAL BUSINESS ACCOUNT

Now that your place is looking sharp, it’s important to keep it that way. Don’t open the doors and then abandon the shop. Customers will likely post images to your Google account, along with their reviews. Be sure to check in on your accounts at least once a week, if not DAILY. Download the Google My Business App, the Yelp for Business App, or any of the sites you are using. They all most likely have an app to help make it easier for you to manage messages, reviews, and even upload new photos on the go and with ease.

If you are uploading regular images it will help to offset the occasional bad image of your business that gets loaded by customers. When I say “bad image” I mean those images of your business looking empty or with a dirty dish on the table. You can’t take them down, but you can help others see other images mixed in.

4. CONTINUE TO BUILD YOUR LOCAL BUSINESS ACCOUNT ON GOOGLE MY BUSINESS

Many don’t realize that Google My Business took the place of Google Plus, in the sense of allowing us to load a regular post and lots of information on our business pages to connect and inform our customers.

While you don’t have to post daily, it is ideal to update your posts at least every 7-10 days. Google keeps your post “in circulation” showing it prominently on your profile for about a week. Make a point to add a new post each week sharing events, promotions, or information that answers the questions of your customers.

Reviews are a huge part of your profiles on any of these sites…thus the reason they are called REVIEW SITES. Now you may think that if you build it they will come, but unlike Kevin Costner, we have to do a bit more work to get regular reviews flowing to our cornfields. (If you have no idea what I’m talking about here, Google field of dreams and add it to your list of must-watch movies this weekend!)

Google and other review sites want to see that you have reviews coming in regularly. If you get 10 reviews the week you open, and the people posting the review all have the same last name as you, it may seem a bit suspicious. Get those initial reviews but then make a point to ask for reviews monthly…or weekly! It’s never a great sign when you see a few great reviews all posted three years ago and nothing since.

When a customer compliments you on the service they’ve received, thank them and then ask if they would mind sharing that on Google, Yelp or Trip Advisor. Let them know where you’d love to have that review posted. Even better have cards printed up with a reminder to ‘Share the Love on ________.’ Send them a thank you email for telling you about the service they received and add a link directly to your review page on your favorite review sites.

Let people know that it is super helpful to your business and how much you appreciate it! If you do this on a regular basis, you will keep those reviews fresh and growing. This will definitely help new customers to not only find your business when they are searching, but they will see how incredible you are!

5. RESPOND TO ALL COMMENTS—GOOD, BAD OR INDIFFERENT

The last step is to manage your local search account and reply to every comment or question left for your brand. Yes, this means even the negative comments or complaints. It’s terrible when I see a business page and there are comments or great reviews and no one has bothered to respond to them.

The absolute worst thing you can do is delete a negative comment. The person will either come back and post again with even more fury or worst, they will post somewhere else where you have no control. On Google and Yelp, you can’t necessarily just remove a comment left by someone, but you can on Facebook or other review sites. DON’T DO IT! This will bring out every troll hiding under bridges and they’ll be wielding pitchforks. They can be relentless and ugly. Instead, use negative feedback as an opportunity to make things right in the public eye. Let people see how you step up and fix a problem. This will do more for your reputation than having 25 glowing 5-star reviews. Let people know how much you appreciate their positive reviews.

So when you sift through the many hats you wear as a business owner and you set that marketing hat on your head, take some time to show love to your review sites and they will in turn, show you love right back!

The post LOCAL SEARCH: How to show up in searches and keep SEEING STARS… 5 Stars appeared first on Link Moser - Fractional CMO.

Here are 5 ways to maximize the use of your Google Calendar:

1. Google Calendar is extremely user-friendly.

There are several ways to ensure that you are making the most of it… Google Calendars lets you search — this is a given considering it was created by one of the leading search engines on the internet today. But, when searching for one’s name, appointment, or event, simply type it in the search bar to find exactly what you are looking for.When creating events on Google Calendar, it prompts you down the creation list… it will let you share it with others, invite others, add a google meets, add a description, and even add a location if needed. Google Calendars has made it extremely user-friendly, leaving the frustration, out of the creation.

2. Create your Google Calendar personal to you.

Start by syncing all your devices together, that way you can access your calendar from anywhere. You can create personalized calendars… whether this be for your work schedule, professional sporting games, birthdays, and much more. You can arrange appointment slots, ensuring that your events, appointments, and overall schedule, will not overlap or interfere with anything else within your day. To do this, you can take the event and drag it within your calendar, setting it for the exact time and date you would like.

3. Make your Google Calendar customized to your liking.

When creating a “Calendar,” you can pick the color you would like — for example, maybe your work schedule is yellow, your birthdays are blue, and your events are green… customize it however you desire. Other features include adding attachments to your events, hide them as you go, add locations, add descriptions, invite guests, and always have access to editing your events.

4. Organize your Google Calendar in a way that fits your needs.

Through Google Calendars, make your events shareable (if you desire), create events based on emails (this can ensure your events, won’t overlap, and keep you organized), and even enable “working” hours. Google Calendar will organize these events in a way that is personalized to you. When creating an event on your Google Calendar, you can invite guests, and add a location… you can also add notifications to specific events, to ensure that you are ready for that upcoming event. You will have the option to make it reoccurring, all the way up to the time of the event… This will keep you more organized than ever before.

5. Who doesn’t love a shortcut?

Google Calendars created several shortcuts, to ensure you are getting the most out of your time while using the calendar. Here are some of the most useful shortcuts Google Calendars offers:

T = Move calendar view to today
C = Create an event
Q = Quick add an event
G = Jump to any specific date
E = Edit events

You can see the shortcuts that Google Calendar offers, under settings… general… to keyboard shortcuts.

Google Calendars has created one of the most user-friendly, organized, personable, and customized platforms to use. If you or your business is not using Google Calendars, it might be time to reconsider!

Please reach out to us here at Link Moser if you have any questions about automating your events, scheduling appointments, or setting up a google meets… we pride ourselves on being ‘Google Pros’ around here.

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LinkedIn rolled out with Business or Company Pages in November of 2018, so it is a fairly new resource to using LinkedIn. Naturally, as with all new things, people have questions:

• Why is it important to have a LinkedIn Company Page?
• What are the benefits?
• What will I gain from having a LinkedIn account for my Business?

If you have a business I’m sure you have heard of brand awareness. LinkedIn Business Pages are another way to increase your company’s brand awareness, as well as increase your searchability. Both of these action items will lead to your business showing up in Google searches and exposing your products and services to a greater audience. Brand awareness and searchability are two things any business strives for- if you plan on being successful!

Now, let’s refer back to the main reason LinkedIn was invented: Networking. Having a LinkedIn Company page allows you to network with other businesses, other professionals (both in and out of your industry), and even future employees. Networking is important for many personal and professional reasons, but it is also important for technical reasons.

The technical reasons we are referring to are things like increasing your engagement, page reach, and account views (aka searchability). The best thing about technicalities is that there is typically an answer to your problem. Engagement low? Interact more with other accounts and businesses. Page reach not where you want it? Create a stronger call to action to drive people to look at your page or product. All good things, right?

While your LinkedIn Company Page will benefit the business itself, it will also increase the quality of your team on a new level that you may have never thought of. When creating a LinkedIn Business page, you are now allowing your employees to network on their professional level. You give them a space to network within each other, with other professionals in your industry, and on behalf of your business itself.

For example, an employee of yours puts on her personal LinkedIn that she works at your company. She connects with someone that may be seeking a resource that you offer. She has now put a personal feel to your company, which then leads back to them referring back to your LinkedIn Company Page, and then utilizing your resource. It’s a win, win for everyone.

A looked over benefit to LinkedIn Company Pages is the ability to be relevant to your consumers, and to keep an eye out for what your competition is doing. LinkedIn has 706 million users globally, with 2 more users added every second — the platform is large and will reach an immense amount of people if the effort is given. However, there are A LOT of other companies on LinkedIn, and unfortunately, there are other businesses like yours. In short, the relevancy of your customers, compared to how many users there are on LinkedIn, is that your Company page can have an audience, but that audience may be following your competitor since your business is not set up on LinkedIn. You can’t compete in the race if you’re not signed up for it, right?

So, what do you think… are you going to create that LinkedIn Company Page?

If you’re unsure where to start, or still need a little bit more convincing, reach out to us at Link Moser! Our Social Media Gurus will ensure you are set up and ready to conquer the Business Pages of LinkedIn.

The post Why Have a LinkedIn Company Page? appeared first on Link Moser - Fractional CMO.

When he sits down to write the letter, he aims to make the letter understandable but informative and is careful not to include too much investment jargon that the “regular Joe” might not understand. So, to keep it readable, he writes the letter as if he’s writing specifically to his sisters. He creates that personal connection for them so they feel as if they are truly a beloved asset to the company and not just an investor. It’s like he’s writing them a love letter.

So how can we take this idea to heart as marketers and create that connection for a prospective customer to a business?

When you’re creating content, writing to a single person is different than writing to a group of people. You want to write content specific to that one person who has a problem that your brand or company can help solve. Most marketers tend to write as a brand writing to another brand– you need to write a love letter to your audience (maybe channeling your inner Noah writing to Allie in “The Notebook”?), not just the regular “buy this because you need it” marketing copy in order to sell something. Writing this way creates that personal connection and helps your customer feel like your brand truly values and cares for them.

So how do you do this? How do you identify that one customer to write your marketing love letter to? This is where your buyer persona comes in.

Developing One Buyer Persona for a Brand
One of the first steps to a successful content marketing campaign is creating a buyer persona (also known as a customer persona) and then creating your content to target that persona. While some companies identify multiple personas, here at SocialKNX we like to take the perspective that you are developing one buyer persona for that brand in order to create that personal connection. In creating your buyer persona be sure to include primary demographics (age, sex, income), goals and motivations, identify any behavior patterns, and likes/dislikes. The more detailed you can be in creating your buyer persona the better- these personas help provide insight for how you should proceed with your marketing and how you can deepen that personal connection to create that amazing content that draws them in.

It’s important to also keep in mind that your target audience is slightly different than the buyer persona(s) you are creating. Your target market is a particular group at which a product or service is targeted at. A buyer persona is the semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer. Remember, you are aiming to understand their goals, buying patterns, and identify any pain points and how your business can help them. It’s all about CONNECTION, CONNECTION, CONNECTION. This will allow you to craft content and marketing messages that will “Attract.Engage.Delight” your customer and also help guide your branding.

It’s also important to put yourself in the shoes of the buyer persona you are creating content for. When writing, imagine how you would feel if you were delivered that message– would you feel like you are a part of the company or brand? Would you feel valued and loved? Would you feel like they are truly trying to help you solve the problem that you have?

Writing that Love Letter (aka Your Content Marketing Plan)

So when you sit down to create your content marketing plan for the next 30-days, look at it like you are writing to your best friend or significant other. How does what you are offering make their life better? Create that connection that will make them want to jump up and give you a running-jump hug in the rain (yup, we went there with The Notebook reference again). You want your person to feel like you wrote that content with them in mind- like you were inside their head knowing exactly how your brand or company can solve that nagging problem. And they still feel loved- not that you just sold them something and moved on.

The post Relationship Building With Your Buyer Persona appeared first on Link Moser - Fractional CMO.

Just like your wardrobe and home decor, your blog posts could use a freshening up every now and again! After all, you don’t want people reading your blog post only once before it ends up in the blog post graveyard, never to be seen again. Sprucing up old blog content is key to maintaining your site’s relevancy and visibility over time. Think about it this way- a new visitor comes across your most recent blog post and likes it, so they might poke through older blog posts, too. So, it’s important to update and maintain the quality of those older posts from months or even years ago.

Before you dive into updating your blog, do a quick inventory check of your blog content. Go through all of your old posts and figure out how each one benefits your business and future goals.

Strategically plan on which blog posts you will focus your refreshing efforts. For example, some posts may be more shareable, have higher conversion rates, or resonate with your visitors more – this includes time spent on a page, bounce rate, etc. So, you will want to focus on posts with higher engagement before posts that didn’t drive as great of an audience.

Refreshing your old blog posts involves optimizing them to increase the amount of traffic they receive and refreshing the content so that it remains relevant and factually accurate. In fact, Hubspot was able to triple their leads using this exact same tactic! Additionally, freshening up your blog posts can improve your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) since it updates the date of your post on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERP’s).

Five Tips to Freshen-Up Old Blog Posts

• Re-Edit Your Content: Select old blog topics and give them a facelift! Update and add keywords that are high-ranking on Google. Keep in mind though, depending on how much editing you do, it could result in an entirely new post. If this is a direction you’d rather take, link back to the older post in order to avoid duplicate content – duplicate content pages can hurt your search ranking on Google. Re-editing your existing content doesn’t necessarily involve coming up with brand new ideas or adding to your blog posts’ word count. Even small changes can deliver huge results!
• Update Content to Make It Current: Especially in certain fast-paced fields, things that were true a couple of years ago may no longer be relevant or may be outdated theory-wise. You will want to be sure you are replacing content that refers to old platforms, theories, practices, or concepts, and replacing it with the most recent information to make your blog post more useful to visitors. Readers are more likely to share your posts on social media and other channels if they think you are an expert in your field or see you as a relevant thought leader in a certain area.
• Add, Update or Replace Visuals: By adding more or replacing old visual content, you are making the blog post more interesting and increasing the time someone spends on the page, which will have a positive impact on your search rankings. It’s always good to add quality images by changing out your featured image for example, (here at SocialKNX we love Unsplash and RawPixel!) Depending on what your content is, you may want to consider other engaging pieces of content such as videos, infographics or even polls. Finally, everyone loves gifs! Not only are gifs entertaining, but they can help you demonstrate a point easier and more clearly as well.
• Duplicate Content in a New Form: If you have the ability, consider creating video content on the same or a similar topic to an old blog post, then republish it as a new post. Just be sure that your video is relevant, clear, and helpful to your audience. Video content is proven to draw attention and interest faster and longer than written content. Be sure to capture the attention of your audience with a good HOOK. We all know the attention span of online browsers is short, so make sure your audience stays interested throughout your entire video. Also, make sure you are not limiting your audience – include subtitles and transcripts for each video!
• Add Influencers Into the Mix: To help spread your refreshed blog post content even more, enlist the help of influencers! You can do this in a variety of ways- reaching out to them directly, tagging them when you share your updated blog post on social media are just a couple of examples. This can even create a potential partnership and expand your audience to include the influencer’s followers as well. Be sure to check out our blog post on How to Employ Influencers in Your 2020 Marketing Mix too for some ideas!

Refreshing your blog posts can go a long way with your SEO efforts and keeping your content at the forefront of not only your regular visitor but new visitors’ minds as well!

Here as SocialKNX, our team of digital marketers can help you both create and refresh blog post content! We LOVE coming up with keywords and optimizing your content to maximize your exposure on the web. Contact us today to see how we can help you!

The post How to Keep Old Blog Posts Relevant appeared first on Link Moser - Fractional CMO.

Only 52% of viewers actually watch a video all the way till the end. If a video is under 60 seconds, that number jumps to 68%. These days, it’s hard for marketers to hold the attention of consumers- small bites of consumable information are what people seem to crave right now- as a result, marketers are tailoring content to consumers’ short attention spans.

While the long-standing “2 minute” rule is still a good guideline to go by in regards to your video length, it’s important to tailor each video length to the specific platform on which you are posting the video. Odds are, someone is more likely to watch a 4-minute long video on YouTube, but only last a minute if the same video is on Twitter.

How Long Should Your Videos Be?

In a nutshell, your video really should only be as long as it needs to be in order to convey the message you are intending. The video should be engaging all the way through – providing information that is valuable or that tells a compelling story without any “fluff.”

Facebook

Facebook videos can technically be up to 240 minutes long, but let’s be honest, nobody wants to watch a 240 minute video on Facebook. On Facebook, videos organically get exposure on a news feed when they are at least 3 minutes long. That doesn’t mean that all of your videos need to be 3 minutes long – you want to focus on the message of the video rather than time limits. The video itself is what captures interests and sparks engagement, not the length of the video.

Some other things to keep in mind when creating a video for Facebook: use eye-catching imagery early on in the video as the first few seconds will automatically play as viewers scroll through a newsfeed. In these first few seconds, it is crucial to include only the information you need to get your point across.

Instagram

Instagram essentially has three different options for posting videos: Instagram Feed, Instagram Story, and Instagram TV (IGTV).

Instagram Feed
Videos posted in your Instagram feed can be up to 1 minute. That being said, Instagram is now set up so that if a video is posted to IGTV (more on IGTV below!), a 10-15 second preview will also show up in the regular feed. According to Hubspot research, videos that are, on average, 26 seconds receive the most comments on Instagram. Similar to Facebook, people are scrolling quickly through their Instagram feed and may not want to stop to watch a long video.

Instagram Story
With Instagram Stories, each video uploaded directly to your story can be up to 15 seconds, but you can also post a longer video that will be broken up over multiple 15-second Instagram Story scenes. Statistics say that a story with 3 “parts” tends to be the most engaging.

Instagram TV (IGTV)
IGTV was designed with long-form videos in mind, so like Facebook, your video should only be as long as it needs to be in order to get the point across. Previews of your IGTV video now show up in the Instagram feed, and users must then tap “Keep Watching” to watch the rest of the video.

Twitter

Originally, Twitter had a 30 second limit for video uploads, but it has now been extended to as long as 2 minutes and 20 seconds. However, since Twitter users are used to short updates, it’s usually best to keep your videos on the shorter side. You could always consider creating short teaser videos and linking out to the full video on another social media platform like YouTube.

YouTube

The audience for YouTube is different from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter because users turn to YouTube specifically for video content! As a result, viewers are prepared for longer videos as they are not aimlessly scrolling through a feed. Similar to Facebook, YouTube rewards videos that have more engagement (watch time) and will feature them more prominently in search results. 6 to 8 minutes is usually the ideal length of a video on YouTube, BUT if you can get the information across in less than 6 minutes, avoid stretching the video out with filler content.

While we do live in a fast-paced, ‘results NOW’ world, a benefit of longer videos is that they can build loyalty and create engagement with your brand on social media – as long as you make sure you are optimizing the videos for the correct social media platform to maximize your views and engagement. When a viewer spends more time watching your video, it typically means the content resonates with them personally, increasing their interest in your company. Video content can help your target audience get to know your brand, create that personal connection and establish that long-standing loyalty!

Here at SocialKNX, we know that different social media channels may require different strategies. Reach out to us today to see how we can help you break your content into byte-sized pieces that get shared across the social media universe!

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If LinkedIn is the serious business platform for sharing articles, finding jobs, and congratulating people on their recent promotions, Instagram is the peek behind that stodgy curtain where we get to see a more relaxed side of you, and your business. We know it’s true that people buy from those they know, like, and trust, so it makes sense that Instagram is the platform that allows you to invite your audience a little closer to get to know you better, and hopefully they will like what they see.

If you have been dragging your feet on embracing this tool, or find all of its parts just too confusing, this guide will give you all the information you need to finally get moving. There is a lot of information in here so get comfy.

I’m going to break this into segments for you since there is so much to cover. Consider this a guide that you will refer back to over and over.

We will do a deep dive into the 4 types of posts that live on Instagram:

• GRID
• STORIES and LIVE STREAMS
• REELS
• IGTV

Next, we will explore the 3 parts to your posts:

• CAPTION
• PHOTOS
• FREQUENCY

(how often you should be posting, which is a question we get almost daily at SocialKNX.)

We’ll wrap up with the different types of content you can rotate in. You don’t want everything to be promotional and as a business owner, you certainly aren’t on Instagram to just share photos of your dogs (although if you are, be sure to drop the name of your account…I love following those accounts). By rotating in different categories or types of content you will have a well-balanced feed or collection of posts.

Let’s take a look at the 4 types of posts on Instagram:

1. Your GRID (AKA: your feed)
This is the hub, the main posts on your Instagram account. The photos here are typically a bit more staged and planned. Consider this the place for your BEST SELF to show up. Your feed is a mix of real images of you, your team, and the occasional (beautiful) stock images or graphics. A carousel post (one that has 2-10 images) can be loaded into one post and will give you more opportunities to have that post seen. If someone sees only the first photo and scrolls by, Instagram will show that post again but start on image 2 or 3 where the person stopped, so your chances are better to grab someone’s attention. Keep this in mind when loading multiple images too. Put those eye-catching images first!

2.STORIES and LIVE Streaming
Stories are those short blips that look as if it is a visual diary of someone’s day at times. If you post only one image or short video, you will see one long continuous line across the top. Each segment of your story is a dash. When I look at someone’s story and see tiny dots, it seems like a big commitment and I usually pass but if it’s great content I will click through each one. Watch your analytics to see if you are overwhelming people with too many segments here.

Stories are where a brand can be more casual, funny, authentic, and it is where you can definitely point people to your other content. Use stories to promote your latest podcast, blog post, or even your latest Instagram post (Grid post). You can also go LIVE in your stories area. When you go to add a post from your home page, you will notice several options- POST-STORY-REELS-LIVE.

Instagram recently extended the amount of time you can go LIVE from 1 hour to 4 hours. My thought is, who is watching a LIVE for 4 hours? This happened during COVID quarantine time, so I believe it was to accommodate all of the classes and events that suddenly went online. 4-hours is also the limit on Facebook LIVES so it makes sense. When you finish your Instagram LIVE, you will be asked if you want to save or download the video. This allows you to edit it or chop it into small sharable pieces for IGTV, Stories or even on your other social platforms.

Another feature that is tied to your Stories, is the highlight button. You may notice that some people have little circles under their bio. These can be categorized and created by you to save segments of your Stories that otherwise will disappear after 24-hours. You may create a button for EVENTS, LAUNCHES, TESTIMONIALS, TEAM MEMBERS, etc. After you create some Story segments you will start to see which pieces you want to tuck away in your highlight buttons. You can always go later and clean out old segments.

Use a tool like Canva to create cute buttons and brand them with your colors.

3. Reels
Reels is the latest roll out and it’s Instagram’s response to TikTok. With fun video effects, you can create educational or just entertaining 30-second videos. The best part of Reels, at least at the time I’m writing this post, is that Instagram is giving special treatment to these video clips as they are trying to get more people to catch on.

When you record a Reel video, it goes onto your feed with a special Reels icon. People can click on the Reels icon on your profile (under the highlight buttons) to watch more of your Reels, and better yet, if someone is watching a Reels video from someone else, Instagram will prompt them to watch more Reels (from other people) and your content is more likely to be found. [Read more on the differences between TikTok and Reels HERE]

4. IGTV
This is your space for Long-form video. Let’s just say that this is Instagram’s response to YouTube. Anytime a video post goes over 60 seconds it will show the first 60 seconds in your feed and then have the KEEP WATCHING option that takes people to the IGTV section of your profile.

If you are creating long-form educational and informative video content, this is a great way to share it. After loading it on your feed and in your IGTV, you can make a short story to promote it. It creates a web of links crisscrossing from one area of Instagram to the others.

The post The ULTIMATE Instagram Guide for 2021 appeared first on Link Moser - Fractional CMO.

Unprecedented.

In these uncertain times.

In these challenging times.

New normal.

Now, more than ever.

If you hear those phrases one more time you’re going to scream, right?

It’s been one year since a world pandemic shut down most of the United States and the way we conducted business and marketing activities drastically changed. As marketers, now that a year has passed, we are forced to take a good look at the ways marketing has (rapidly!) changed in ways that might be permanent.

Preserving a focus on community and empathy was brought to the forefront of marketing efforts during the darkest days of the pandemic – and is definitely a marketing “trend” that is here to stay. The shutdown certainly caused anxiety and stress to be consistent emotions in our daily lives. As marketers, ensuring that messages are empathetic and compassionate is something that is necessary to continue, even a year later. You want to make an effort to be human and speak to consumers without the sales pitch. (Remember- marketing is all about creating that connection!)

And when was the last time you checked out those buyer personas you created? You may have had a crystal clear picture of your buyer persona in the past, but, as we know, things have changed! Businesses are finding all sorts of new buyers for their products or services. Think of all the family members that have learned how to use Zoom just for family get-togethers; Zoom isn’t just for businesses any more.

Have you started doing more online ads since the pandemic started? Well, that is also a “trend” that is going to stay consistent as consumers continue to go online to find the answers and solutions to their problems or needs. Additionally, your digital marketing efforts should still collect data in order to help craft your buyer personas and create impactful digital marketing campaigns using social media, email, paid ads, and more. Your data can help you decide where you’ll need to double-down on marketing efforts that are working and where you need to make tweaks to efforts that aren’t.

You know those 5 statements we opened this blog with? Hard truth: Those statements aren’t unique anymore! Consumers have become “blind” to seeing those statements and they are likely to just keep scrolling past your message. Continue to use phrases and words that are engaging and eye-catching and create that connection. Think outside the box! Remember, you need them to realize that your product or service is solving a problem of theirs!

The pandemic might have shifted the marketing landscape, but it has also created opportunities for brands to effectively reach and engage with consumers at different stages of the buying journey. As the economy continues to recover, there could be an increase in consumer spending, so you want to make sure you’re staying in front of your current and potential customers’ needs.

And of course, there’s social media! Many people have turned to social media for socializing and are now active on a variety of social media platforms- even those who swore they wouldn’t be on TikTok when the pandemic started! This surge in social media use has led to businesses putting a higher focus on building and maintaining strong customer relationships on social media, allowing marketers more efficient and effective communication with their audience.

So while we’ve passed the one-year anniversary of the COVID shutdown, it’s not necessarily a time for celebration. We’ve all adapted in personal and professional ways, and as marketers, we’ve adapted our marketing strategies. That being said, the primary goal of marketing efforts still stays the same: generate brand awareness, increase customer leads, create consumer loyalty, and ultimately grow your business.

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Email marketing is one of the most effective online marketing tools around right now. The algorithms that social media platforms use are always changing, so your content might not be getting in front of the amount of eyes you were hoping for. Email marketing gets you directly in front of the eyes of the consumer, so you don’t have to worry about some unknown algorithm affecting your ability to market to potential customers.

You can read more in the blog post linked above about why email marketing is huge right now, so we won’t repeat ourselves here! That being said, how exactly can you go about GROWING your email list to start email marketing? That’s where Landing Pages and Lead Generation (Lead Gen) come into play!

What are Landing Pages?
Landing pages are one-off pages (created on your website, or some email marketing services like MailChimp also offer landing page creation), that allow you to take the prospects that you’ve attracted and convert them to leads. One way of using your landing pages is to create a social media post or blog with a CTA that entices the customer to click, where they then get taken to a landing page.

Landing pages can be designed in a variety of ways. They can be set up so users simply enter their name and email to join your newsletter, or perhaps you’re offering a complimentary pdf on a subject they are interested in. When you don’t have a landing page, you can’t gather information about the people visiting your website, which makes it difficult to understand who they are, market to them, determine if they are even in your target market, and eventually convert them into customers. It’s also worth considering doing some A/B testing on your landing pages to see which one is converting more quality leads for you.

Need some inspo? Check out HubSpot’s list of some landing pages to get your creative juices flowing!

What is Lead Generation?
Lead Generation is the process of attracting leads (potential customers) into your sales pipeline with the hope of nurturing them throughout the buying process to help convince them why they should choose your product or use your service. In short, Lead Generation is the initiation of customer interest into products or services that you offer. Landing pages are one of the top ways to create quality lead generation for your business or company, AND build your email marketing list.

Here at SocialKNX, we can craft landing pages that will not only help you grow your email list, but also generate leads to help you grow. As your email list keeps growing, we can also create drip campaigns to keep your leads interested until they become a customer. Reach out today and let’s plant that seed!

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As a marketer, you most likely rely on social media apps to use this data so you can accurately target your audience for any ad campaigns that you may be running. Obviously, you want to make sure your content is getting in front of the right eyes! User privacy is something that is *very* important to Apple, so despite the pushback from Facebook, it’s highly unlikely that Apple will reverse course and change, or even get rid of, this new feature.

So, what do you do now?!
Initial data is actually more promising than we all thought, with opt-in rates much higher than previously anticipated: 39% overall and 26% average per app. Keep in mind those, these are just preliminary numbers, so this could change over time.

Our friends at Hubspot have given us a few quick tips to help navigate these privacy changes

• Believe it or not, there are other phone makers out there besides Apple! (Android, we are looking at you!) So, you can still target your ad campaigns to those users effectively and rest easy. Remember, when setting up a Facebook ad, you can specifically choose to target Android users.
• Rely on your website a little more now. Make use of Google Analytics, or whichever analytics tool you prefer, to pay more attention to where your users are coming from, and what they are searching to get there. Then, you can create target personas or target audiences based on that data. (Data is king, remember! ?)
• Revisit, and refine, your organic content. Take the time to go through your content and make sure everything aligns from your website to your social media. Remember, you want your messaging and brand to be consistent in everything that you post organically! Use any relevant data (back to bullet #2!) to help strength, or refine, your content strategy.

While this iOS update has many marketers and business owners concerned about their ability to target future users and generate quality leads, the true impact of this update won’t really be known until the full rollout is complete. Like in the past, us marketers have adapted to updates and changes, such as moving from traditional marketing to digital, and from one platform to the next. We will get through this together!

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