What is your Social Media Strategy this Christmas?

Maximise your social media strategy this Christmas and take advantage of the business opportunities in your market. Some tips that might help:

• Write relevant, compelling content
• Don’t just post for the sake of it. Provide information that will offer value to your clients.
• Teach them something new, that is relevant and that will help them gain something.
• Be sure that you use your social media activity to help you search engine rankings.
• Include search terms in your posts that contain the keywords that you are targeting as a business.

Engage with your customers

 No matter which platform you are using it is important to interact with your customers. Make sure you connect with your customers by providing feedback, promoting conversation and encouraging debate. Talk about something that is novel or new. Post images, questions. This will also get people sharing with their connections. This is how great companies ensure social media success for Christmas.

Create Value

Christmas is a busy time for everyone but it is also an expensive time. Providing value for your customers is so important. This could be anything from helpful blogs posts that are related to your product or providing discounts and vouchers online. Customers will be thankful as Christmas can be an expensive time for everyone.

Which Platform to use?

There are many platforms to choose from when planning your social media Christmas campaign. If your budget is tight try picking one platform first and see how it goes. It is better to have one good social media campaign on one platform rather than covering all social media angles and not doing well at all. Last year, Facebook was responsible for 4% of all Christmas visits to retail websites. Make sure your website is one of these this year!

Tip: Wish your fans a Happy Christmas around 23rd and make them aware of your post Christmas sales. Did you know Christmas Day 2012 was the 5^th biggest shopping day of the year last year with over 107 million visits to retail websites. Do not miss out!

Paid Advertising on Social Media

• Run targeted pay per click campaigns using Twitter
• Target people who are connected to people who like your page on Facebook. Run a competition and use PPC advertising to get beyond your friends and family – find new prospects.
• Target relevant people using their email addresses through Facebook and remind them of your offering.
• Get on front of people who visited your website using ‘remarketing’activities.
• Understand what worked before. Analyse behaviour using analytics.

At Webresults.ie, we identify the right social media strategy for your business in order to achieve maximum results. We work with your business to build an effective social media campaign that produces results. Get in gear now and maximise your businesses potential. Contact us at Webresults.ie to get started today.

Rabo Tweeties – Twitter Awards

The Rabo Tweeties is an awards ceremony to celebrate the best of Irish businesses and Irish people on Twitter. There were 14 categories in all, including celebrity, TV, sport, Vine and business. Twitter users could vote for their favourite twitter account in each category by using the accounts Twitter handle and the relevant category hashtag.  The Winners were announced at an awards ceremony in Dublin last night.

We would like to congratulate @DoneDeal, the winner of the Twitter business category, which is the Twitter account for Ireland’s largest classifieds website. Their account has almost 12,000 followers and they are very active posting links to their blog which usually has a few posts each week, they retweet some of their followers tweets which are about an item on sale through their site. They also have competitions and news from events they are taking part in.

We would also like to congratulate @SabaDublin, another business account that won the ‘food’category. Saba is an atmospheric eatery, serving tasty Thai & Vietnamese food on Clarendon Street, in Dublin’s city centre. . They again, as you would expect are very active and have almost 2,500 followers. They tweet about all their latest offers, retweet tweets from customers who enjoyed their meals there, they also tweet about events on in the city centre such as Arthurs Day and Oktoberfest, their cooking courses and sporting events.

For businesses, it is important to also ensure that you are using your social media activity to drive your rankings on Google. By taking the time to devise a focused Social Media Strategy, you can really bring benefit to your search engine optimisation.

Is your business making the most of social media? Have you got profiles set up on all the relevant social media platforms for your business? Are you active on them? Are your search engine rankings benefiting from your social media activity? If you would like to find out how your business can take advantage of social media, contact us at Webresults.ie. We offer a full range of digital marketing services including social media account management. We also run a Web Mentor Programme, where we guide your business on how to effectively manage your own Social Media activity. You never know maybe next year your business could be a nominee or even a winner at the #RaboTweeties.

Why Businesses need to Listen to What is said on Social Media

The Importance of Social Listening:

 

Social media provides businesses with a great opportunity to connect with customers and hear what they have to say about your brand. This is all well and good; however some companies fail to actually listen to what their customers have to say. If you are going to give your customers an open forum for them to express their thoughts on your brand, then you need to monitor the conversation.

 

 

Listening to Complaints:

If people are voicing their dislike for a current product, or their dissatisfaction with the customer service they received, then you need to address this and resolve the situation quickly. There is no point in merely deleting negative posts, this angers customers and only adds fuel to the flame. Think of who posted the negative comment as an angry customer causing a fuss in a shop, however this time they can be heard by potentially thousands of people.

Negative posts on social media have a distinct way of gaining traction online. One negative post can have a domino effect, causing a string of negative posts based on previous incidents. A customer who has poor previous experience with a brand may see a post criticising this brand and this may entice them to post about their bad experience with the brand. To stop this effect it is important to respond to complaints quickly and respectively, but don’t aggravate the situation!

Listening to What Your Customers Want:

 When making changes to products or services, it is good to keep the customer in mind. Social media can be a great tool for testing some new ideas. This can be done in a friendly and casual way like ‘any suggestions for what flavour our new ice cream should be?’ Posts like this can start the conversation with your customers whilst giving you an insight as to what they actually want in comparison to what you think they want.

A great example of a company who listened to their social media fans is Cadbury. In 2003 they took their much loved Wispa bar of the shelves. However by 2007 the bar had gained quite a cult status by those who remembered the bar fondly. This brought about various social media campaigns including a Facebook campaign entitled ‘Bring Back Wispa’. This group gained a large following and eventually Cadbury listened and jumped on the band wagon, which led to a hugely successful re-launch.

Conclusion:

Listening to what your customers have to say is vital to developing strong relationships with your customers. Through social media customers can be heard by many, so it is important that you hear them also.

Listening to what your customers have to say is not only an action which is of benefit to them, more importantly it is a benefit to your business. Through listening to what they have to say, your business can gain great insights as to what your customers think about your products and services. Listening to your customers through social media can also lead to product innovation as no one knows what your customer wants more than your actual customer.

At Webresults we offer a wide range of digital marketing services including the management of social media pages. For more information on how we can help your business get the most out of social media please contact us.

Inbound Marketing Essentials

 

Inbound Marketing is seen by many in the industry, as an essential tool for naturally attracting a wide range of potential customers. Inbound Marketing is a non aggressive approach to making your business known to new customers and forming a bond with current ones. When it comes to good Inbound Marketing practice, here are some of the essentials.

 

Know Your Customers:

A huge factor of Inbound Marketing is providing relevant and useful content / information for your target market. To do this you need to know who your customers are and what they are interested in. A breakdown of customer demographics and interests would be ideal.

 

Research Keywords Relevant to you:

Carry out a keyword analysis for words and terms associated with your business. The objective is to target keywords with a high search rate. Have your keywords as specific as possible to approach your target market rather than approach a broad and unreliable market.

 

Have a Strategy for your Content: (Know your Objectives)

Be sure to speak to your customers about content relevant to your industry. Your aim is to speak to each customer type at each level of the “sales funnel” (Leads – Opportunities – Proposals – New Customers).

 

Create Content Frequently:

Your aim is to now create educational, thought provoking content related to your business area. Think of what you would be more likely to share or comment on, don’t focus on sales and talking about what you do.  You need to be doing this at least once a week to keep your site fresh.

 

Insert Links:

Having both internal and external links throughout your content can both help with user experience and encourage inbound links from those external websites. Try to fit in maybe 1 or 2 links in your content.

 

Include Images:

Images help break up the content for the reader making the content more presentable when done correctly. Include an image title and alt text so that search engines can pick them up.

 

Incorporate Calls to Action:

After reading your piece of content, give the reader something to do or somewhere to go, ideally back to your website!

 

Share on Social Media:

Social Media sites provide a great platform for you to get your content out there and shared. It is a great opportunity for creating more inbound links to your site.

Why use Inbound Marketing for Your Business?

Build Your Business Profile:

Present your business as the experts in your field offering relevant, helpful information, updates, tips and advice. Generally information that is helpful to your clients and prospects when they are in the market for your products/services.

Give Personality to Your Brand:

Inbound marketing enables companies to express themselves in an informal manner. They can show what their company is passionate about and what motivates them.

Build Your Business Profile on the Web:

By offering interesting, engaging content, your contacts and followers will share your information with their contacts, building your community and getting your business in front of new prospects.

Engage With Customers:                 

Inbound marketing enables your company to engage with your customers on personal level

and build strong relationships. It makes your company more approachable to the public.

Improve Your SEO:                           

Effective inbound marketing will improve your SEO. The search engines are placing more and more priority on social media activities and links when presenting search engine results. By focussing on the terms that are most relevant and building content around them on both social networks and your site, you will build up your rankings on the search engines for terms most relevant to your business. At Webresults.ie we can help you create a successful content strategy that will maximise your SEO and social media activity to drive sales for your business.

If you would like to find out how to devise and implement a successful inbound marketing strategy for your business that will build your profile and drive more high quality customers to your business, please contact Webresults.

Spotting Trends in Customer Comments on Social Media

Do you track and log your customer mentions on social media? Learn how important it is for the future and how you can use the information to your businesses benefit!

To read the full article, visit Spotting Trends in Customer Comments on Social Media.

If you need more help with your social media marketing, tracking and web marketing, contact us.  For more information on this topic, click here.

New Business and Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing and your new business, are you up to date?  Read our article for more information on how to use social media for your new business.

To read the full article, visit New Business and Social Media Marketing.

For more help on social media marketing and web marketing, contact us.  For more information on this topic, click here.

Facebook Update Targeting Tips

Are you targeting your business page updates on Facebook? Here are some great tips for business Facebook pages, read them and let us know what you think!

To read the full article, visit Facebook Update Targeting Tips.

For assistance and information about social media marketing and web marketing, contact us.  For more information on this topic, click here.

Optimising Your Social Media Publishing

Do you think about when and where you’re publishing when you use your social media?  Read our article on Optimising Your Social Media Publishing to gain a greater understanding of how you can use your data to optimise your publishing now!

To read the full article, visit Optimising Your Social Media Publishing.

For more information about web analytics and web marketing, contact us.  For more information on this topic, click here.

The Rules of SEO

Have you got to grips with SEO? Are you confused about the constantly changing world of SEO and how to keep up with the ever changing tips?  Read our article on the must have rules now!

For the full article, visit The Rules of SEO.

For more information on search engine optimisation and web marketing, contact us.  For more information on this topic, click here.

The Facts On Social Media Analytics

Want to know more about social media analytics?  Read our article on how you can make the most of it and beat your competitors to the punch on finding the most valuable data available to your business!

To read the full article, visit The Facts On Social Media Analytics.

To find out more information on social media analytics and web marketing, contact us.  For more information on this topic, click here.