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Category: Social Media

Making Patients & Customers into Fans: Are Facebook Fan-Building Campaigns Effective?

Looking to connect with your ideal patients and customers online? Facebook fan-building campaigns are just what the doctor ordered for creating the perfect online experience for your audience as well as building your community of followers.

But before we delve into the specifics of Facebook fan-building campaigns and how this online marketing strategy can win you customers and patients alike, let’s briefly go over what fan building is. Fan building is a way for businesses to acquire likes on Facebook and to connect with all the people that matter to them. While a business can acquire fans organically, paid ads are more effective and efficient at increasing a business’s fan base and amplifying the rate of fan growth.

Part 1: Are Page Like Ads Effective at Fan Building?

Short answer: Yes. Facebook page like ads are effective.

Case Study 1:

Let’s look at Client A. Client A is a well-established business specializing in reconstructive surgery. Search Influence started a fan-building campaign for Client A toward the end of 2011 and have been actively managing it ever since.

In order to maximize the client’s budget, we focused ad copy around the authoritative nature of our client in the field of reconstructive surgery and targeted these ads to users we identified as most likely to convert (in the form of a page like) based on their interests and online behaviors.

Prior to the Facebook fan-building campaign, Client A had around 550 page likes from various organic sources. Not a shabby number to begin with, but we were able to get that number up to 21,000 within a year. Within two years, Client A had more than 30,000 fans … within three years, more than 65,000 fans. And likes acquired from our fan-building advertising campaign made up of a majority of the fan growth:

Page Likes By Source (Daily):

The above segments the daily page likes gained by source. As you can see, likes as a result of fan-building ads made up more than 85 percent of the likes gained.

Case Study 2:

Client B is a multi-location addiction treatment and recovery facility. We started running a fan-building campaign for Client B toward the end of 2012. The campaign lasted two years and increased Client B’s fan base by more than 6,000. For Client B, we focused on grabbing the attention of users by including encouraging and supportive language within our ad copy, and we targeted users that we identified as most likely to be interested in the services offered by the client or to know someone that could benefit from the services offered.

One of the main roadblocks was getting users to like a page that focused on such a sensitive subject. After all, why would anyone want to publicly like a page about addiction treatment and recovery? Well, if you fill your page with interesting content that is relevant to your business and engaging to your audience, users are more likely to follow and interact with your page. So with Client B, we first got users’ attention with our page like ads, and we kept their attention with the content on the page!

Once we stopped running Client B’s fan-building campaign, we noticed that while the fans gained from the campaign were still there … the rate at which new fans were coming in has stalled. Take that as you will, but we came to the conclusion that fan-building campaigns are, in fact, effective. Moreover, fan-building campaigns are sustainable (more on that next).

Part 2: Is Fan Building Sustainable? YES!

Fan-building campaigns are a sustainable way to increase your fan base. If you create an effective campaign with the right message and proper targeting, page likes gained from fan-building campaigns don’t just disappear once the campaign ends. Users like pages because they’re interested in the product, the business, or the brand, and they want to know what’s going on and to get updates.

That being said, just having an active fan-building campaign isn’t the be-all and end-all to building and maintaining fans. As demonstrated in Case Study 2, an effective fan-building campaign only starts with knowing who your target audience is, how to reach them, and what message will speak best to your target audience. From there, the campaign flows into what is actually on your page.

You can get page likes by having the most interesting and enticing messaging in your ads and by targeting the exact audience that should be interested … but if your page is boring and dry, you’re not going to be able to sustain the page likes you gain and maximize your fan-building campaign’s potential.

Lagniappe: Likes For Lives

A relatively recent tactic used for fan-building campaigns is called “Likes For Lives.” The concept behind Likes For Lives is that for every like a business receives on its page, it will take some sort of action to save a life. The action is usually a donation of some sort.

Below is an ad from our most recent Likes For Lives campaign we ran for a client of ours during October 2014. October happens to be breast cancer awareness month, so we decided to incentivize Facebook users to click like by pledging to give a $1 donation for every like. This particular Likes For Lives campaign gained our client 748 likes from October 10 to October 30, 2014. The average cost per like was 48 cents.

The Likes For Lives campaign generated more clicks in the 20 days that it ran compared to this client’s monthly average of 150 likes from its regular fan-building campaign. Therefore, a Likes For Lives campaign for this specific client was very successful.

One of the best ways to stand out and speak to users, no matter what type of advertising campaign you’re running, is to have a unique and attention-grabbing ad copy. And Likes For Lives campaigns provide just that. If you know who you’re trying to reach and how to create the targeting needed on Facebook to reach them, why not utilize the Likes For Lives incentive to build your fans and help a cause? Likes For Lives campaigns are a great way for all businesses, especially those with a health care focus, to gain positive brand awareness and to strengthen the fan base.

April 28, 2015
Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That: Make Social Media Fit Into Your Busy Schedule

It isn’t news that an active social media campaign is an integral part to any business model. In these modern times, simple and frequent Facebook posts can go a long way when potential clients are choosing between you and the competitor. Time, however, is also important, and budgeting out a few posts a day can take a shocking amount of it. Surprisingly, many businesses are unaware of the various ways they can solve this problem on their own.

Simple Tools

One of the best and most widely used solutions is the scheduling feature in Facebook. To use it, simply enter in the text, link, and/or image that you wish to post to your business’ profile page. Once you’re ready to publish, click the small drop-down arrow next to the “Post” button. From there, choose “Schedule,” and then pick the day and time you wish to have your update sent to your followers’ newsfeeds. Although it may take you some time to schedule all the posts you will want to share for the whole month, the amount of time it will save you overall is definitely worth it!

More Advanced

Another tool that helps companies organize their social media presence is Hootsuite. On the surface, it may not seem as intuitive and user-friendly as Facebook scheduling, but with a little practice, it becomes a lot faster. The only catch is the $9.99 per month you’ll need to pay for pro service. With the upgrade, you’ll gain access to bulk scheduling, enabling you to schedule an entire week’s, month’s, or even year’s worth of posts at the drop of a hat.

April 16, 2015
Social + SEO: Better When They’re Working Together

Modern search engine optimization has become inextricably linked with content marketing. Yet in many companies, social media strategies are developed separately from the SEO and content marketing plan. This can work—but you’ll realize optimal results by aligning social media with SEO for an overall strategy that boosts brand awareness, improves domain authority, and increases your rankings.

Here are some tips for social media strategies that can fuel your SEO and help you rank higher in all types of user searches.

Grow your Following

In the early days of social media, building a massive following was the number one goal for most marketers. Today, the emphasis has shifted from quantity to quality—but the number of followers you have is still an important factor for domain authority.

Of course, it’s equally important to develop an authentic audience. Google, in particular, can tell when most of your following is made of spam and bot accounts, so “buying” likes or follows doesn’t help—and in fact can harm your online reputation. Instead, grow your following naturally by posting interesting content on a regular basis. Engage your followers with interactive content and by responding to comments or starting discussions.

Share your Other Content

Posting links to your content—such as articles, blog posts, and downloads—along with brief commentary on social media, is a great way to repurpose your content and boost your SEO. Of course, sharing on social media will give you more eyes for your content, but the benefits to SEO go beyond that.

In addition to extra traffic to your website or blog, which is a peripheral SEO benefit, social media sharing encourages others to share your links. The more often your links are posted on other social media accounts and websites, the more domain authority you’ll build. This type of inbound link-building is much faster than traditional or manual methods.

Optimize Social Media for Search

It’s important to know that your social media posts can show up directly in search results—if they’re optimized. When you’re composing posts, be sure to apply basic SEO strategies such as including keywords, placing them strategically and naturally, and tagging image, video, and infographic posts with relevant keywords. Even if your posts don’t make it into search engine results, they’ll still increase your brand authority and contribute to a stronger online reputation.

Increase Social Shares with Viral Content

The more shares and retweets your posts have, the greater your domain authority—and the higher your search engine rankings. In order to get your content shared more often, you need to create content that people want to talk about.

Of course, every marketer wants to release the next viral sensation. There is no guaranteed strategy for making something go viral, but you can increase your chances of catching lightning in a bottle by creating content with a strong visual component (either a visual medium or a blog post that’s heavy on images, for example), and make sure it has the following characteristics:

• Informative
• Relevant
• Entertaining
• Practical
• Surprising
• Unique

Of these characteristics, the last one is the most important. Create content your audience has never seen before, and they’ll be eager to share it with friends.

Connect with Similar Companies

In the world of social media, your “competition” can be your friend—and that’s good for your SEO. Engaging with similar businesses, particularly local companies or those in similar industries, can help you grow your audience and your relevance, which in turn increases your search engine ranking.

Share content with other companies like yours and comment on their posts. Usually, they’ll return the favor by engaging with you, which will attract their audiences to your social profiles. Google will also start associating you with other brands when you engage with them, which improves your overall authority.

When it comes to online marketing, social media and SEO should go hand-in-hand. How does your social media strategy complement your SEO approach?

March 25, 2015
Filter In New Clients – The SEO Benefits of Instagram

As a business, it’s important to connect with potential customers in as many ways as possible. You maintain your website, attend networking events, and post regularly on Facebook, but could you be doing more? Enter: Instagram.

As of December 2014, there are 300 million monthly active users on Instagram and over 75 million daily users, which offers great potential to broaden your brand’s reach. You’re probably familiar with some of the benefits for adding your businesses on Instagram: it’s a visual medium, there’s potential for marketing contests, it has interesting filters, and the list goes on. But did you know there are also SEO benefits

Increased Social Activity

The debate rages on over the correlation between social presence and higher search engine rankings. Search engines deny a relationship, but the data overwhelmingly suggests that increased social activity for specific webpages means higher rankings. No matter which side you believe, I think we can all agree that positive branding and increased online presence isn’t a bad thing.

Optimized Profiles

On Instagram, you can create an optimized profile for your business with a clickable link back to your site, which contributes to your overall link profile. Additionally, Instagram is both searchable and indexed by search engines, contributing to your business’s overall real estate for a branded search.

Although images aren’t indexed directly through Instagram, there are third-party sites that utilize their API and make the images indexable by search engines, which furthers your business’s potential to appear in image searches. Some popular web viewers are Websta, Gramfeed, and Followgram.

Keeping Posts Relevant

Regardless of whether your potential customers are viewing your Instagram photos through a computer or mobile device, it’s very important to align your business with the interests of your target demographic. A basic guideline to follow is the rule of threes: ⅓ promotional posts, ⅓ informational posts, and ⅓ engagement posts.

What might that look like on Instagram?

Let’s say you are a fitness company. Your promotional post might be a photo of your company’s new running shorts right out of the box as they’re hitting the shelves. An informational post could be a photo of a healthy lunch that encourages your followers to eat well. You might also post a scenic landscape of a morning run with a fantastic filter to engage with your followers.

Using #hashtags

All posts should include #hashtags to increase the likelihood of your content being liked and shared. You can also enable sharing permissions that automatically post to other social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, whenever you share on Instagram. By seeding your content to additional social networks, it has the potential to be picked up and shared by even more people in the social space.

Mobile Benefits

Since many users access Instagram on a mobile device, there are additional SEO benefits that are more unique to the platform.

Even though Instagram doesn’t currently offer clickable links on individual posts, you’re still encouraging followers to interact with your business through mobile devices. Since Instagram users are often looking at your posts on a mobile device, they’re more likely to visit your business’s website on their mobile device as well.

Websites that are optimized for mobile perform better in search engine results because Google looks at a website’s mobile capabilities as part of their algorithm. By encouraging users to visit your mobile site by interacting with them on Instagram, you’re helping your overall SEO efforts.

As you can see, there are more reasons for your business to be on Instagram than the awesome filters. This platform enables you to boost your SEO efforts while also connecting with your target demographic and increasing your brand’s reach.

Sources:

http://www.litony.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Instagram-for-Business.jpg

http://blog.instagram.com/post/104847837897/141210-300million

http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/12/5203578/instagram-now-has-150-million-active-monthly-users

https://instagram.com/starbucks/

https://help.instagram.com/147542625391305

https://instagram.com/nikerunning/

https://help.instagram.com/365696916849749

http://m.disney.com/

March 12, 2015
Behind the Scenes: How Social Media Is Being Used in the Local Film Industry

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past ten years or so (and not just any rock, but one without TV or Netflix), chances are you have watched a movie that was filmed here in New Orleans. The city – and the state as a whole – has seen an explosion of film and television productions over the past several years, earning the region the title of “Hollywood South.”

From comedies like 21 Jump Street to Oscar-winners like 12 Years a Slave, Louisiana has even surpassed film production stalwarts like Los Angeles and New York City to become the country’s production capital – all thanks to the highly lucrative tax credits introduced in 2002.

And while the big-budget movies are driving the local industry (check out NOLA-shot blockbusters Jurassic World and Terminator: Genisys in theaters this year), this influx has also helped inject momentum into the independent film industry – more specifically, the micro-budget indie film scene. These are projects made by passionate local filmmakers looking to find a foothold in the industry at large.

These are not films the average moviegoer is typically going to be able to see or even hear about. So how do these filmmakers get the word out? How do they raise the funds to even get it made? And how do people find out where they can see these smaller films?

The best and easiest way is through social media, an umbrella term that can be divided into several different platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.). The most effective social media strategies take a multi-faceted approach into account and are tailored to suit each medium’s strengths to maximize effectiveness.

I talked to a few local filmmakers about the importance of social media and other Internet marketing strategies. I found that first and foremost on these filmmakers’ minds is exposure, whether for fundraising or promotional purposes.

Fundraising and Promotion

“Facebook is a useful platform that enabled a community to form around the project. It is very useful in promoting fundraisers and screenings,” explains Sam Bass, who has helped with the social media campaigns for two films, How to Disappear Completely and Give Light: Stories from Indigenous Midwives. “Twitter is better for engaging with people outside of your immediate community with the potential to lead to significant opportunities and connections.”

“We began our social media campaign to draw attention to our Kickstarter,” says Hunter Burke of Construct Films, who is using social media to raise funds for and promote the film Atchafalaya. “It was the quickest and most effective way to get our message out.”

Greg Tilton, director-producer of reddit doc, had a similar mindset, but he wanted to lay the groundwork for their project before asking for fundraising help. “Social media was key because I did not want our IndieGoGo campaign to be the first time someone had heard of the project,” he states. “It’s been successful because people who don’t know me or my immediate network are following and engaging the project.”

Mac Alsfeld, the writer-director-star of Father-Like Son, found social media to be most effective after the film was made. “We heavily relied on Twitter to build a relationship with festivals,” he explains. “I think it is important to show festivals that you are the type of filmmaker that will market yourself and that festival to potential filmgoers.”

Getting Help

For these filmmakers and others, this was a very important part of the behind-the-scenes process. For the most part, they were navigating the tricky waters of social media without any substantial professional Internet marketing experience – though some had help.

Burke turned to a friend who had social media marketing and crowdfunding experience. “I really owe a lot to him for educating me on what is standard, what has worked in the past, and also coming up with some wonderful ideas. Without him, I would have been totally lost.”

Lucky enough to be dating someone in the tourism and marketing industry, Tilton found it helpful to have someone more experienced to bounce ideas off of. “As I experimented, talked to her, and read a lot of articles online, I slowly built up my knowledge. She was a great sounding board for ideas.”

Thoughts on Social Media

Even without much prior experience, these filmmakers now have some very astute thoughts about the medium overall gained from their newfound experience.

“I do believe that it is VERY important to have a presence within the social media community,” declares Kenna J. Moore of Ghost of Elysian Films, who was awarded the Emerging Vision Award for a Louisiana Filmmaker at the 2013 New Orleans Film Festival and the Louisiana Shorts Jury Award in 2014. “It is crucial that our image and what is being put out there is closely monitored. I like to have a presence but stay away from all of the ‘look-at-me’ syndrome that one can easily fall victim to in most social media settings.”

“The thing about social media is that it is, at its core, incredibly voyeuristic,” says Tilton. “Many people do follow the musings of their interests, so there is a large audience to be engaged and many want to be a part of something big. You can find that audience.”

Tips for Fellow Filmmakers

As for fellow indie filmmakers feeling overwhelmed by social media, all the filmmakers have useful tips to share:

Bass: “Have a social media strategy. Know how to work it. And don’t panic when nothing happens for a week. The most important things are follow-through and relationship building.”

Alsfeld: “Show people that you have passion. Use your social media to blast information. And even more importantly, have fun. Don’t be boring.”

Burke: “We performed the best when we released media. Posting a picture, an interview with the filmmaker, or a sample of the score really got our audience interested. People really responded to something they could interact with. Make it a fun experience. Keep it simple. Leave them wanting more.”

Moore: “I’ve learned that social media has pros and cons. Some people gain opportunity and references from it. Some social media activity allows for negativity and distraction. I would encourage people to stay focused.”

Tilton: “If you have nothing to say, don’t say anything. So many people are retweeting and posting haphazardly. It’s just a jumble of buzzwords and hashtags. Just make sure it’s always quality and you will find that pays off bigger.”

Additional Resources
Here are some more tips directed specifically at indie filmmakers on making the most out of social media:

7 Tips for Promoting Your Indie Film on Social Media via Premium Beat

6 Tips on Using Social Media for Your Indie Film via Media-Match

Image Sources:

3, 2, 1 Film Image

Social not-working Image

The End Image

January 14, 2015
Old Google Plus Guidelines Go Out Of Business
Two nights ago, on December 1st, Google updated the business guidelines for pages in Google My Business (aka Google Plus). I’m here today to walk you through what’s changed and to give examples of good and bad practices of these new guidelines. It’s important to note, however, that these tips aren’t standalone. Having a thorough understanding of the “Guidelines for representing your business on Google” is essential to using this blog to your advantage.

Descriptors in the Business Name Are NOT Allowed

Back at Pubcon last year, I heard a lot about how to use descriptors and why you should be using them. While in theory it’s a great idea, when asked if we should be using this in house, my thought was that it ruins the principle of NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) consistency across the web and that Google probably wouldn’t stick with it. Sure enough, this was one of the changes two nights ago.

Before:

In addition to your business’s real-world title, you may include a single descriptor that helps customers locate your business or understand what your business offers.

Now:

Your name should reflect your business’ real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery, and as known to customers. Any additional information, when relevant, can be included in other sections of your business information (e.g., “Address”, “Categories”).

Note the word “consistently” in the new guidelines. The examples Google gives in the new guidelines say you can’t include the following in your business name:
- taglines
- store codes
- trademark signs
- unnecessary all caps
- hours info
- phone numbers or websites
- special characters (e.g. %&$@/”) or legal terms (e.g. LLC Ltd) – unless part of your real name
- services or products
- location information
My advice is to pick an official business name and stick to using it everywhere. Avoid punctuation if possible, because it just provides another opportunity for inconsistency.

BAD: Starbucks Downtown

GOOD: Starbucks

Importance of Name & Category Consistency for Chains & Brands

Now:

All business locations within the same country must have the same name for all locations.

All locations of a business must share the one category that best represents the business.

Along the same lines of not using unique descriptors, if your business has multiple locations, the name and categories of their pages should reflect the same information. Note that there are instances of when variances are acceptable to Google that you can read more about within the guidelines.

BAD: Location #1 – Name: The Search Influence, Location #2: Search Influence

GOOD: All Locations – Name: Search Influence

BAD: Search Influence Page #1 – Category: Advertising Agency

Search Influence Page #2 – Category: Internet Marketing Service

GOOD: All Search Influence Pages – Category: Internet Marketing Service

Categories Must Be As Specific As Possible

Before:

Select at least one category from the list of available categories.

Now:

Use as few categories as possible to describe your overall core business from the provided list. Choose categories that are as specific as possible, but representative of your main business.

This is one that will mostly affect major niches like doctors and lawyers, as there are a lot of general terms that could apply to these types of businesses. In the example above where I showed Search Influence with the categories Advertising Agency and Internet Marketing Service, our more specific category would be the latter. Adding Advertising Agency as an alternate would not be best practice.

BAD: NOLA Hospital – Categories: Hospital, Children’s Hospital, Doctor, Surgeon

GOOD: NOLA Hospital – Categories: Children’s Hospital

Departments Within One Location Must Have Unique Categories

Before:

Departments within businesses, universities, hospitals, and government buildings may be listed separately. These departments must be publicly distinct as entities or groups within their parent organization, and ideally will have separate phone numbers and/or customer entrances. Businesses that operate in a service area, as opposed to a single location, should not create a page for every city they service.

Now:

Publicly-facing departments that operate as distinct entities should have their own page. The exact name of each department must be different from that of the main business and that of other departments. Typically such departments have a separate customer entrance and should each have distinct categories. Their hours may sometimes differ from those of the main business.

If you choose to represent the various departments of your business through multiple pages in Google My Business (e.g. Hospitals, Schools), each page should have a unique department. Also, as per normal Google guidelines for multiple pages at one location, each page should have some unique location identifier, which would be either a unique suite number/address or a unique phone number.

BAD: NOLA University – Category: College

NOLA University Cosmetic Surgery Department – Category: College

GOOD: NOLA University – Category: College

NOLA University Graduate School – Category: Graduate School

Multiple Brands At One Location Must Choose ONE Name

Now:

If your business location combines two or more brands, do not combine the brand names into a single page. Instead, pick one brand’s name for the page. If the brands operate independently, you may use a separate page for each brand at this location.

The examples Google gives for this update seem to pertain to places like fast food restaurants where, for example, a KFC and Taco Bell are in the same building. In that instance, a page called “KFC / Taco Bell” would not be acceptable, and they would have to have two separate pages if they’d like to represent both business names.

At first, I thought this might affect car dealerships that use multiple business names for multiple pages but are at the same location. However, as long you have separate pages for multiple “brands” at the same location, you should be fine. It is important to note that multiple businesses at the same location need at least one form of unique location identifiers, whether it be a different phone number for each brand at the one location or a different suite number for each brand at the one location.

BAD: Page #1 – Name: KFC / Taco Bell

GOOD: Page #1 – Name: KFC Page #2 – Taco Bell

BAD: Page #1 – Mary’s Jeep, 935 Gravier Street, New Orleans, LA (504) 208 – 3900

Page #2 – Mary’s BMW, 935 Gravier Street, New Orleans, LA (504) 208 – 3900

GOOD: Page #1 – Mary’s Jeep, 935 Gravier Street #1300, New Orleans, LA (504) 208 – 3900

Page #2 – Mary’s BMW, 935 Gravier Street #1301, New Orleans, LA (504) 208 – 3900

No Practice Name in Practitioner Names of Multi-Location Practices

Now:

If the practitioner is one of several public facing practitioners at this location:

The organization should create a page for this location, separate from that of the practitioner.

The page for the practitioner should be titled with name of the practitioner only, excluding that of the organization.

The reason the now improper formatting is bad practice is that it impedes the user experience and could prevent someone from finding the page they’re looking for if practitioners with the practice name in their name are showing up in practice search results. This needs no further explanation in my opinion, so straight to examples.

BAD: NOLA Cosmetics: Mary Silva

GOOD: Mary Silva

Solo Practitioner Name Formatting

Now:

If a practitioner is the sole public-facing one at this location and represents a branded organization, the practitioner page should not be separate from the organization’s page. Instead, create a single page, titled using the following format: [brand/company]: [practitioner name].

Along the same lines of the last guideline, to help users find this type of business, practitioners who own a branded practice and are the only practitioner of said practice should have just one page that combines their name with the branded name.

BAD: Page #1 – NOLA Cosmetics Page #2: Mary Silva

GOOD: ONE PAGE – Nola Cosmetics: Mary Silva

What Happens If I Get This Wrong?

Some of these guidelines appear to be less enforceable than others, in my opinion. So I’d say it’s best to adhere to them and get your pages fixed as soon as possible. If it’s something like pages that appear to be duplicates because there are multiple businesses at the same location with matching info (matching category or matching phone and address), it might get flagged by Google’s algo as a duplicate page violation, but only time will tell how strictly these changes will be enforced.

If you’d like to see the old version of the guidelines to compare them to the new, my way of doing this was to use the Internet Archive Wayback Machine and look at the guidelines page on November 30, 2014. Also, Mike Blumenthal provided a concise, comprehensive list of these updates in his blog!

Hope my thoughts and these examples help. Good luck in all of your Google My Business endeavors! Also, thank you to Amanda DiSilvestro at business2community.com for the bowing to Google image.
December 3, 2014
Don’t Be An Advertising Grinch: Grow Your Profits 3 Sizes This Holiday Season
Can you believe we’re already on the verge of December? Are you prepared for the holidays? I’m not asking if you have your Christmas tree (or Hanukkah bush) picked out or if your travel plans are confirmed…we’re talking about advertising, and specifically online advertising. Hopefully, you’ve already adopted online advertising into your business’s ad strategy (if not, I just happen to know of an exceptional company that can help you get started), but this year, having an online presence for your products or services is more crucial than ever.

Therefore, it’s only appropriate that we at Search Influence help prepare you and your business for the upcoming season! Here are 8 Questions, Tips, and Best Practices to get you in the right mindset and bring some holiday cheer to your ad strategy.

1. What channels are you using?

It’s common knowledge that there are a plethora of ways you can reach potential customers online, whether it’s via email marketing, PPC, social media, etc., but which is the best for your message?
It’s easy to get overwhelmed if you think about utilizing all of these channels, especially if you consider how much it could cost you. So if you don’t have an unlimited budget, try and think about it this way: which channels are you already utilizing that you can focus on during the holidays? Which one (or two) channels might you add, even if it’s just for the holiday season, in order to build awareness and not get lost amongst all the other businesses advertising during the holidays? As with anything else during the holidays, the most important thing is to try not to spread yourself too thin. It’s better to put more budget and effort into a couple of channels than to lose your message by trying to use them all.

2. Let the Christmas creativity flow!

Your audience is already primed for the holidays – feed into it!

Creative is extremely important this time of year. Keep your ad copy fresh by changing up your creative from the rest of the year and integrating topical messages into your ads. And don’t worry about sounding cheesy — this is one of the few times you can get away with it! When people are bombarded with holiday messages, think outside of the box. How do your products or services apply to this time of year? For example, are you a culinary business with an audience inclined to embrace your new recipes and cooking supplies at this time of year? Or are you a travel agency whose key demographic might be looking to escape from the cold weather with one of your vacation packages? There are many lenses you can look through when selling your product, so don’t lose sight of the way your consumer will be feeling during the holidays. Just ask yourself: how can your business/brand help enhance the message of the holidays?

3. What are you prepared to offer?

Use “giftable” language.

This is crucial, especially if you have an online business or utilize e-commerce. It’s the holiday season after all, so people are looking everywhere for – and expecting to see – holiday deals. Remember to use gift-centric language in your ad copy. Could you market your service as a gift for your customers? Make it less about you trying to sell them something and more about what they’ll be getting from you if they turn to you during the most competitive time of year.

Think about advertising sales/offers/discounts that are time sensitive. Putting out an offer that must be utilized before the new year is a good option because it encourages people to buy now, and it could be more trackable and traceable to a holiday campaign.

On the other hand, if you’re a “resolution-related” company, your holiday advertising might expand past Christmas into the new year. No one wants to hear about gym memberships when they’re wolfing down the cranberry sauce.

Finally, if you’re going to advertise offers during the holidays, be sure to utilize offers that are truly compelling. Don’t announce something as including free shipping unless it is paired with something else; your message certainly won’t stand out if you’re offering only free shipping along with everyone else.

4. Christmas isn’t the only holiday in December,

nor should it be the only thing on which you focus your advertising efforts.
Is your product or business Christian-centric? If not, would you risk alienating a subset of your audience if you mention “Christmas” in your ad copy and/or message? This may seem like a minor opportunity, but it could be a great chance to demonstrate self-awareness and show your customers how well you know them.

Additionally, be sure to think about the time surrounding the holidays, not just the holidays themselves. For example, if you’re utilizing a mobile campaign, use the pre-holiday weeks to increase your customer base and drive mobile app installs ahead of the holiday season, and focus your post-holiday time for new device owners activating apps and devices for the first time. Lastly, remember that a lot happens in the buying cycle after December 25th. Consider using after-holiday clearance or Boxing Day specials, and keep in mind New Years and everything that comes with that – hello, resolutions!

5. Think device.

If you’re an online advertiser, multi-device targeting for this time of year is crucial. Consumers are omni-channel. People shop online and in-store; therefore, you should really boost your visibility and advertise on as many devices as possible. This may sound easy, as on Google Adwords all you need for this is to make sure your device targeting is set to “All.” However, just because your ads can show up on mobile or tablet does not mean they are automatically optimized to do so. Here are some thoughts to keep you focused on multi-device targeting:
6. Account for Black Friday/Cyber Monday.

The holiday season seems to be getting earlier and earlier each year. This year, the retail space seems to have forgotten about Thanksgiving by skipping straight from Halloween to Christmas.

Technically, you as an advertiser should be thinking similarly (thoughts about holiday shopping and marketing do start in October), but it’s certainly ok if you’re late to the party! Everyone knows the real “gifting” takes off around Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

That being said, there are certain days that have evolved online regarding holiday shopping. If you’re into e-commerce, you’re already familiar with Cyber Monday, but it might help to organize your holiday advertising efforts even more granularly, as every year there seem to be more “dates to remember.”

1. Black Friday – November 28th

2. Cyber Monday – December 1st – keep in mind: Facebook announced that this year, 25% of online shoppers will place their orders from a mobile phone on Black Friday and Cyber Monday! (https://www.facebook.com/business/success).

3. Green Monday – December 8th – usually the shipping cut off for most postal outlets to get standard-shipped packages to customer before Christmas.

4. Free Shipping Day – December 18th – a one-day event held in mid-December. Merchants are encouraged to offer free shipping with guaranteed delivery before Christmas. Like I said earlier, don’t think free shipping alone will give you an edge above everyone else – but it certainly helps! Sign up to be listed as a participant of Free Shipping Day here.

5. Super Saturday – December 20th – the last Saturday before Christmas, Super Saturday is a big revenue day, as it technically marks the end of the shopping season that is considered to begin on Black Friday. Super Saturday targets last-minute shoppers. Typically, this day is a good day to offer one-day sales in an effort to accrue a great deal of last-minute Christmas revenue.

6. Boxing Day – December 26th – As mentioned in #5, people are opening the new devices they received over the holidays, downloading apps, and/or looking to trade gifts in for something else. Online and in-store advertisers oftentimes offer deeper discounts on remaining merchandise, which can be a great way to get rid of leftover inventory.

7. Social Media Presence is Crucial.

The holidays are a very popular time for social media presence; your audience is online more often, whether it’s for shopping or to connect with friends and family. Therefore, make sure you increase your presence as well! Up your post load, produce more articles, and sponsor more updates to make sure you’re seen by your target audience and to show them you’re not “out of office” for the holidays.

However, you may have to do some shopping yourself in order to make this happen. Advertising inventory prices will be rising for the holidays across Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, so you must decide if you want to expand your budget in order to adequately boost your social media involvement.

Before you grinch out on this, consider that your potential profit might be worth a slightly (and temporarily) elevated budget. After all, Facebook reports that 46% of shoppers who used Facebook before shopping used it to look for deals, promotions and holiday gift ideas, and they often discovered these things through their news feed. (Facebook Holiday Webinar).

8. Stay organized!

This last “tip” isn’t so much about online advertising as it is about advertising in general! Like anything concerning your business, staying organized is key, but it can be even trickier around the holidays when we seem to be juggling our personal and professional lives more than usual.

Regarding your online presence, we recommend creating a promotional calendar before the month even begins. Know what days you’d like to run what ads, and become as comfortable as possible with the seasonality of the month. You can also take advantage of the ad-scheduling features on certain ad platforms – this way, you can create your ads, post promotions, sponsored updates, etc. ahead of time and then schedule them to run on certain dates/times without you having to be around the computer.

Simply put, plan ahead as much as possible! This will leave less work for you to do later when you’re trying to baste a turkey, or when your luggage inexplicably gets lost by the airline…

Now some might think this goes without saying, but remember to breathe. You do not need to implement all of these suggestions into your ad strategy! Whatever you do decide to do this holiday season, the most important thing is to document and remember the results for next year and to ultimately strengthen your marketing strategy. Just because it’s the holiday season doesn’t mean you need to stress about your advertising. But unlike the holidays, just try not to get your family too involved.

Image Sources:

Brace Yourselves

Important Shopping Dates

The Grinch
November 24, 2014
Help! I’m A Cyborg And Nobody “Likes” Me

Technology is redefining human connections, which has made social media a crucial ingredient in any marketing strategy. With many different outlets available used to communicate with your audience, how do you choose the best approach for your business? When sitting behind a computer screen, it is easy to forget the purpose of B2C marketing – building and maintaining meaningful relationships with your customers.

Here are some quick tips to create that connection through your social media campaign.

Be Receptive

Always be conscious of how your product and service will benefit the customer. Keep these benefits in mind when encouraging your customers to engage in your promotion and be receptive to their feedback. The beauty of social media is that it allows you to create a more personal approach to marketing those benefits, receiving feedback from the consumer and personally responding to his or her thoughts or concerns within minutes, demonstrating your excellence in customer service.

Be Genuine

It is critical that the voice and verbiage used for your campaign is coming from an authentic place. Eliminate the robotic, scripted tone and your audience will feel like they are not conversing with a business, but with a person who actually cares about their needs.

Be Direct

In this fast-paced society, your audience is most likely pressed for time and multitasking. Give them stimulating content in a short, digestible format that they will consider worth their time. Your mindfulness and appreciation for their time can go a long way.

Keeping your campaign personal, and showing your gratitude to your customers in a genuine way can be the key to a successful social media campaign. As long as your customer service is consistent with your social media efforts, your business can build and maintain those essential relationships.

Image Sources:

Thanks to Buzzfeed for the Mean Girls gif and for the Facebook “People First” image.

Other Source:

LinkedIn’s Social Media & Emotional Brand Attachment Case Study

November 11, 2014
Facebook Engagement: How To Make Your Fans Say “I Do”

Get more exposure to your business’ Facebook page. Incorporating these elements will enable your business to provide better and more shareable content!

There are 30 billion pieces of content shared via Facebook every month. That’s billion with a “B”! How is your business going to get noticed in this content sharing frenzy? One way is to write great and engaging posts people want to read! If people enjoy your posts, they will be much more likely to “like” the post, comment, or best of all, share it with their network– which has potential to reach a much larger, untapped audience.

If you are new to social media or find yourself with writers block, see some of our suggestions to create better and more engaging posts. Below is as brief list of the many ways in which you can create great content, but remember to pick just a few ideas per post to prevent overwhelming your reader.

1. Don’t make every post “promotional.”

For example, only posting about your business and the products you offer may not be the most exciting update for a fan to read. Instead, post about specials, sales, or events that are happening in the near future.

2. Use images whenever possible.

It has been proven posts with compelling text coupled with an image will get more engagement than plain text or a link alone. Take it a step further, instead of using stock images use authentic and unique images from your business.

3. Create a “weekly something.”

If you are a restaurant, post a recipe of the week every Tuesday. Or, if you are a dermatologist schedule a recurring post about products you recommend. Create some consistency and give your fans something to look forward to.

4. Share or repost other business’s updates that you find interesting.

Sharing or reposting other business’ great articles, posts, and pictures is a great way to grow your audience and offer great content to your fans.

5. Respond to comments that are left on your posts.

Big or small, it is always great when a business comments back on posts. In addition, you should occasionally comment on other people’s posts as well, especially on posts created by fans of your page!

6. Take a little extra time and create a unique meme for your business to share on your social media platforms.

This great tool called the Meme Generator allows you to create whatever meme you like with a variety of stock images available.

7. Lastly, share something silly every once in a while!

Found a video of an adorable elephant sneezing, two babies talking to each other, or a great gif? Share it! This will not only get your posts more likes, but good chance it will get shared a great deal with your business’s name attached to it. People love companies that have a sense of humor. It shows real people are behind the computer screen.

Image Sources:

Thanks to Pam Dyer for sharing this infographic about the “Perfect” post.

Thanks to Steve Parker for sharing this mini graphic about Facebook for businesses.

October 15, 2014
HashTag, You’re It: Tagboard Allows Businesses To Display Hashtags In One Place
Do you use a certain hashtag to promote your business on social media? Do your customers have a popular hashtag they use when posting about your business?

If you answered yes, then it’s time to get excited because TagBoard makes it a whole lot easier to keep track of popular hashtags from your fans across multiple social media platforms.

What is Tagboard?

Tagboard is a tool that lets you see all similar hastags across multiple social media platforms. The platforms that Tagboard searches are:
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Instagram
- Google+
- Vine
- Alpha
How can your business benefit from Tagboard?

Tagboard uses an easy way to search for specific hashtags! All you have to do is search any hashtag to see a feed of all related hashtags and updates from the various social networks Tagboard scans.

Take Search Influence as an example. When searching for #SearchInfluence, multiple posts populate the board. If you want to use this hashtag as your own and custom brand it, you simply click on “Create #Hashtag Tagboard.” This is beneficial to getting your hashtag out there once created and seeing the interaction once the hashtag goes viral across multiple platforms.

Once “Create #Hastag Tagboard” is selected it prompts you to complete a short form to fill out and customize to your brand and business.

After filling out the form, your tagboard is complete and ready to be shared. Simply click on the “Share Tagboard” button and copy and paste the link into anywhere you want to promote or share you Tagboard.

You can make multiple custom Tagboards for multiple hashtags. The possibilities are endless.

Bonus SEO Benefits!

As a bonus, Tagboard.com is an authoritative website in itself! Moz’s Open Site Explorer reports Tagboard has a domain authority of 68/100. When you go through the steps above to create your own hashtag Tagboard, the resulting page provides a followed link back to your website and other social media networks.

Using Tagboard to claim your hashtags is a great way to further your website’s SEO and online reputation.

What hashtag do you use to promote your business? Comment below to share your successes in using hashtags.
September 17, 2014