What Bitly can do for Your Business

Bitly For Business:

 

Twitter is a great tool for any business with an effective digital marketing strategy. However with only 140 characters available to you, it is important that you make every character count when conveying your message. This restriction the amount of characters available becomes particularly problematic when including links in your posts. Bitly is a great tool for shortening these links as to not take up as many characters in your post. All that needs to be done is to post Link A into the Bitly Tool and the result will be Link B.

Link A:

• https://webresultsblog.wordpress.com/2013/09/16/why-businesses-need-to-listen-to-what-is-said-on-social-media/

Link B:

• http://bit.ly/1951omo

This isn’t the only function Bitly has to offer, with a range of stats, apps and shortcuts available for free.

Monitor Your Stats:

When you shorten a link through Bitly, each link is automatically saved to your personal account, these are called bitmarks. Within your account the stats tab enables you to view each bitmark’s popularity and performance. With this you can see how many clicks each link received and from which source. You can also breakdown the time of each click and view the country from where each click was received.

Purchase Personal Bitmarks:

If you wish to purchase a short domain you can have your bitmarks start with a personal beginning. Ellen DeGeneres has her bitmarks start with ellen.tv/ rather than bit.ly/.

You can also change the arrangement of letters at the end of a bitmark to be more relevant to the subject. This can be done for free by clicking on the pencil icon situated next to the bitly link. The difference in each link can be seen below.

• http://bit.ly/1951omo

• http://bit.ly/social-listening-wr

Bundle Your Links:

The option to bundle your links is a way of categorising your links and having them grouped together. This can form an easy to use archive of bitmarks for future use. People can also view these bundles so it is a good way for people to browse similar links that you have to offer.

App and Plugins:

Bitly has a free app for Iphone where you can create links and check your stats on the go. There is a helpful plugin available for chrome which is very handy for creating links quickly and another available for WordPress which can automatically create a bitmark for each blog you post.

Where your business is focused on inbound marketing activities, Bitly is a useful tool for tasks associated with content creation and link building.

If you have any questions about using Bitly or any other digital marketing tools and applications, then please contact us.

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 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.

How Can Social Media Help Your SEO? Here’s how…

Are you using social media marketing for your business yet?  Did you know that social media can rank faster than a website can?  For more information read our article on Social Media Marketing and find out ways that social media can help with your SEO and boost your rankings on search engines!

To read the full article, visit How Can Social Media Help Your SEO? Here’s How.

For more information on Social Media Marketing and web marketing, contact us.  For further information on this topic, click here.

A Quick Guide to Social Media Marketing

Have you started using social media to promote your business? Are you unsure of how to use it properly/effectively for online advertising? Our article on Social Media for beginners may be just what you need to understand how and why it is a great tool for your business.

You can read more about Social Media Marketing at A Quick Guide to Social Media Marketing.

If you would like more information on social media marketing and web marketing, contact us.  For more information on this topic, click here.