by Fronetics | Aug 23, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media
In keeping with social media etiquette for businesses, you really shouldn’t do these things.
It’s easy to get bombarded with suggestions on how to interact with your customer base on social media. Amid the endless barrage of ideas for what to do, it’s worth remembering that not all social media engagement is equal — sometimes, it’s just as important to remember what not to do. (See for example #LeggingsGate.)
Let’s talk about the specifics of keeping your proverbial foot out of your business’ mouth online. Take a look at the list below of 6 don’ts for B2B businesses.
6 social media don’ts
1) Don’t assume that just because you’re online, offline rules of communication and conduct don’t apply.
It may seem obvious, but it’s all-too-often forgotten. This is a good rule, and an easy metric by which to judge any content before posting: Your interactions online should measure up to professional interactions you would have in person.
2) Don’t re-post, re-tweet, re-gram, or re-share external content without a thorough check first.
Re-posting content that’s of interest to your business’ audience is a great way to promote discussion and engagement. But don’t get sloppy. Remember that even if content didn’t start with you, if it’s posted on your company’s social media accounts, it represents your business. Make sure content is well-researched and from reliable sources. Want to re-post something controversial? Just be sure to include a disclaimer or explanation in your post.
3) Don’t forget that emotional intelligence is just as important for businesses as for individuals.
Never forget that behind every social media account is a human being. The bottom line: “bring emotional intelligence to your social media management. Take the time to address any issues with compassion and understanding.”
4) Don’t ignore comments.
Social media is all about engagement with your audience and potential customer base. Yes, responding to every comment takes time and resources, but it is well worth the effort. A comment ignored sends the message that you don’t feel that your customer’s question, concern, or observation is important. Use comments as the opportunity they are to interact with your followers, and show them that you are ready and willing to address any issues they may have.
5) Don’t delete negative comments.
Once it’s online, trust that people have seen it. Deleting a complaint will only make your business appear insensitive and evasive. Addressing negative comments demonstrates that your company is proactive about resolving issues and taking care of your customers.
6) Don’t forget the basic principals of common sense and good judgment.
This one comes from John P. David of David PR Group. It seems like another obvious one, but people and businesses violate this principle all the time. Always have at least two pairs of eyes on everything you are going to post, and anything remotely controversial should be thoroughly vetted by as many people as necessary. When in doubt, David says, don’t post.
If your company has committed any of these social media don’ts in the past, don’t panic. These platforms offer an ideal place for renewing and tweaking your image. Invest in the creation of a good social media policy. Don’t give the enormously important task of social media management to a summer intern. And, for goodness’ sakes, remember you’re a human talking to other humans.
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by Fronetics | Jul 27, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Current Events, Marketing, Social Media
In July’s social media news, platforms saw a rise in daily active users and broke records in more than one category.
Once thought to be a passing trend, social media is nowhere near slowing down in terms of growth. Next Web reported that India has taken over as the largest audience of Facebook, beating out the U.S. with over 241 million active users. Active users in India are up 27% in the past six months, twice the rate of U.S. users.
But the social media news doesn’t stop there. Facebook and Instagram are topping charts with their active users. LinkedIn and Google are boosting job opportunities through new features and search capabilities. And social media monitoring platforms are adding video to their repertoire.
Here’s a look at this month’s social media news.
Facebook reaches over 2 billion monthly active users around the world
India isn’t the only country boosting Facebook user numbers. The social media giant just celebrated having “2 billion people connecting and building communities on Facebook every month.” The company thanked its users with a personalized video and Mark Zuckerberg’s promise to take the global connection and use it to create a “more open and connected” world.
Instagram Stories reaches 250 million daily active users and adds live video replay
Instagram Stories continues to take over the ‘stories’ arena with 250 million active daily users. Snapchat, which founded the stories format, is falling far behind with only 161 million active daily users. Instagram Stories was unveiled last August and has experienced remarkable growth and success thanks to support from its sister company, Facebook. The social media platform has also introduced its newest feature, a share button with the ability to replay live videos for up to 24 hours.
Facebook tests custom audiences based on engagement with Instagram Business Profiles
Adweek reports that “Facebook is testing the ability for brands to create custom audiences based on engagement with Instagram business profiles.” This new type of filtering could allow brands to create engagement audiences, people who have previously engaged with your content on Instagram. Filters could include all interactions, users that have commented on a post, or any activity within a certain time frame. Though only in the testing stages, these custom audiences could help brands create specific messaging for targeted audiences based on their interactions with a brand’s Instagram page.
CrowdTangle adds video views to metrics
CrowdTangle, a social media monitoring platform for brands, has just added video views to its metrics for Facebook and Instagram. With video’s increasing popularity, the company felt it was important to offer its clients a way to measure how their videos are performing. “Publishers can now easily track emerging new trends and best practices on Facebook and Instagram, as well as discover great videos and video creators, see overall video views across their industry, and benchmark themselves against competitors,” CrowdTangle says.
LinkedIn creates new search to boost job opportunities
LinkedIn has created new search capabilities that make it easier for users to uncover new jobs and other professional opportunities. The new search also allows users to see the companies and job titles of the people who found them in a search, identifying opportunities that align with the user’s resume. Available on your phone or desktop computer, these new features make searching jobs and hiring managers that much more accessible.
Google launches Google for Jobs
Partnering with the biggest job searching sites — like LinkedIn, Monster and CareerBuilder — Google just introduced a new initiative to allow users to find job opportunities directly through a Google search. The new search update also allows users to receive email alerts of new employment postings in real time. “When Google for Jobs launches, it will act as kind of a mega job-search engine that will let you sort through multiple career sites in one go,” says Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
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by Fronetics | Jul 20, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media
Recent surveys show video platforms are the next big focus for marketers in terms of content distribution channels.
Social media marketing can seem a bit like keeping up with the Joneses. Which content distribution channels are your competitors using? Where are they getting the most engagement? How often are they posting and when?
We’re big advocates of social benchmarking against your competitors. But, just as much, we are always thinking ahead, trying to figure out where the industry is going next. It’s important to get ahead of the trends so that you can be right there leading the pack.
The State of Inbound has been tracking global marketing and sales trends for the last eight years, with a particular focus on inbound marketing. (Content marketing is a form of inbound marketing.) The 2017 survey included more than 6,300 professionals at from 141 countries, so it offers a very comprehensive view of current trends in content marketing.
One part of the survey of particular interest involves which distribution channels marketers are planning to invest in next. It gives us an idea of where companies will be putting their time and money in terms of social media marketing. Let’s take a look at the results.
Content distribution channel investment
The more than 6,300 marketing professionals surveyed answered the following question: “What content distribution channels do you plan to add to your marketing efforts in the next 12 months?” The chart below shows responses from 2016 and 2017 surveys for comparison.
Source: State of Inbound 2017
Marketers will maintain or increase their investment on YouTube and Facebook video — focus on the latter jumping a significant 7% over 2016. Interest in Instagram and messaging apps has also grown significantly over the last year, while marketers’ investment in podcasts, Snapchat, and Slack has decreased.
I also want to note quickly that investment in Medium has remained steady at 8%. I plan to write more about Medium as an opportunity for supply chain and logistics businesses in the near future, so stay tuned!
Misaligned priorities
Another noteworthy aspect of this survey question is how respondents at various levels of the corporate ladder answered. Do the people who set company goals have the same priorities as those tasked with social media management and content distribution on a daily basis? Of course not! Take a look.
Source: State of Inbound 2017
Broken down by respondents’ roles, the data shows a division in the priorities of C-level executives versus individual contributors. Executives show a higher preference to expand to new channels of distribution such as messaging apps. The individual contributors responsible for the day-to-day oversight, however, offer a more conservative approach, favoring more tried-and-true distribution channels.
It is also interesting to note that individual contributors consider Facebook video a top priority slightly over YouTube, while executives, directors, and managers uniformly prefer YouTube.
Our takeaway: Video, video video
Across the board, companies are turning their content distribution focus to video platforms, and the supply chain should be, too. If you haven’t heard me say it before, I’ll tell you now: Yes, video can work for the supply chain.
Why? In a nutshell, YouTube reaches more adults ages 18-34 in the U.S. than any cable network. Users browse the platform for entertainment purposes, but also for tips, information, and ideas. And anywhere people are seeking solutions, businesses should be providing answers.
Live video, too, is a trend that is not going away anytime soon. According to the 2017 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, 61% of marketers plan on using live video services such as Facebook Live and Periscope, and 69% want to learn more about live video.
Live video helps businesses promote transparency, good communication, and relatability. It’s something that will do your business a world of good in the supply chain and logistics industries.
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by Fronetics | Jun 28, 2017 | Blog, Current Events, Marketing, Social Media
In June’s social media news, more social media platforms are making changes to benefit businesses who advertise.
June has seen a lot of recent changes in big-name platforms, like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, that will directly impact the engagement between businesses and potential customers. The trend is to create apps that work harder for paid advertisers, increasing brand awareness for businesses and proving their worth through built-in tracking.
Apple has also been working overtime to keep their products competing with the big players in the social media game. New analytics and introduction of Business Chat are keeping the fruit relevant.
Facebook Rolls Out Two New Ad Campaign Tools for Marketers
Facebook delivered two new options for helping businesses grow: Valued Optimization and Lookalike Audiences. The first, Valued Optimization, “works by using the purchase values sent from the Facebook pixel to estimate how much a person may spend with your business over a seven-day period. The ad’s bid is then automatically adjusted based on this estimation, allowing campaigns to deliver ads to people likely to spend more with your business at a low cost.” The second, Lookalike Audiences, helps marketers reach people likely to be interested in a business based on people who have visited their site. Read more
Facebook Expands Click to Messenger Ads to Instagram
Facebook continues to expand ways for users to connect directly with businesses. The Click to Messenger ads have been available through Facebook for a while, and now they’re expanding to Instagram. “Instagram Click to Messenger ads let you reach the people you care about on Instagram and engage with them on Messenger.” Read more
Instagram Makes Sponsored Content More Transparent
Last week Instagram introduced a new “paid partnership tag” that will clearly identify sponsored posts on its app. “Partnerships between community creators and businesses are an important part of the Instagram experience, and a healthy community should be open and consistent about paid partnerships.” This new tag will help users determine when posts are influenced by commercial relationships with businesses. Read more
Apple Rolls Out Analytics to Podcast App
During a podcast session at WWDC, the Apple developer conference, Apple announced that its podcast app will now have the ability to give publishers data that tells them just how much of their episodes are actually being listening to. Apple Podcasts app will allow creators to track aggregated data about when users start, stop, and skip within an episode. This data will give podcasts tangible results that were once estimated from the number of downloads a podcast received. Read more
Apple Debuts Business Chat
Business Chat allows real customer service representatives to communicate directly with users through iMessage. According to the Apple Developer site, customers can use this new feature to “find your business and start conversations from Safari, Maps, Spotlight, and Siri.” The Verge reports that “there will be built-in features like Apple Pay and calendar integration, which will allow Business Chat to facilitate purchases without requiring the user to exit the chat.” Read more
Twitter Experiments with New Promotional Features for Sponsored Live Video
After entering into an exclusive partnership with Live Nation, Twitter is experimenting with new features to help promote events featured on LN. New features like an alert that users can set to remind them of the live event or a branded timeline that will put all tweets about the event on one landing page will help strengthen the relationship between Twitter and Live Nation, paving the way for more partnerships with big brands. Read more
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by Fronetics | Jun 20, 2017 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media
Live video streaming helps businesses promote transparency, good communication, and relatability.
Live video is the “it” trend in social media marketing. According to the 2017 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, 61% of marketers plan on using live video services such as Facebook Live and Periscope, and 69% want to learn more about live video.
It’s really no surprise video has gained such traction. Platforms like YouTube have made the transition from watching TV in your home to watching videos on your phone seamless. And live streaming, in particular, fits in with today’s emphasis on corporate transparency and putting a real, human face behind business social media accounts. It allows brands to drop their corporate façade and connect to users in a more human way.
And, before you say it, I’ll say it again: Yes, video can work for the supply chain.
So where do you start? Here’s a rundown of some of the platforms you can use, as well as the benefits of live video.
Live streaming platforms
Facebook Live
Facebook Live lets you broadcast in real time for up to 90 minutes per session. Users who have recently engaged (or who frequently engage) with your page will receive a notification that you are streaming live, and they can go to your page to view the video. Viewers can comment and react during the course of your broadcast, allowing you to read their remarks and respond immediately.
Periscope
Twitter-owned and run, Periscope is a standalone platform but integrates very seamlessly with Twitter. It has more than 10 million users, more than two million of which log in daily. There have been 200 million hours of broadcasted video to date with roughly 350,000 hours per day. The service lets users live stream from their mobile devices and push out those streams on Twitter.
YouTube Live
YouTube Live enables YouTube to utilize its expansive creator and advertising network to generate even more video to be hosted and monetized. YouTube makes it incredibly easy to aim, shoot and post live video.
Benefits of live video marketing
There are many reasons why live video is trending. Here are some of the benefits supply chain and logistics businesses stand to gain.
1) Customer engagement and feedback
With live video, users can ask questions and instantly get responses. Having that “in-person” experience strengthens their relationship with your company and brand.
2) Transparency
Being open about your business is a great way to gain people’s trust, and there’s no better medium for that than with live videos. By sharing behind-the-scene processes, product sneak peeks, and other day-to-day aspects of your business, you give users a much-desired sense of transparency. That ultimately will help convert visitors into customers.
3) In-the-know value
Social media users love to feel on top of their information streams, and live video gives them inside, up-to-the-minute scoop. Experiencing the video live, instead of previously recorded, gives your business the advantage of being in the moment with users.
4) Cost effective
Streaming live video is no more expensive than traditional video creation. The tools, basically a good camera, are your only overhead.
GE is doing it right
But don’t take my word for it. Look at the success of GE’s live streaming efforts. The company launched its Periscope channel in 2015, with a behind-the-scenes interview series that gained over 200,000 views.
Another particularly successful campaign was #DRONEWEEK, which gave users an inside look at the facilities creating and testing jet engines, locomotives, and wind turbines. Sam Olstein, GE’s director of innovation, says of #DRONEWEEK: “We’re always trying to tell the full picture of the GE story, which is a complicated one, so any time we can talk about the various industries and variety of expertise and disciplines, we try to find unique and innovative way to do that.”
GE used Periscope to create an approachable, open narrative around their brand. What applications have you seen working for businesses in your space?
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