4 Social Media Marketing Don’ts You Should Know (And the Dos)

Social media marketing is not an option in today's business environment. For every business, big or small, smart use of social media is the way to go. To optimize your use of social media, these are some caveats that you definitely should pay attention to. 

Don't Forget Your Links

Your website is your anchor when it comes to marketing because that's where you properly showcase what solutions you have to offer, what your brand is about, and what your business cares about. All roads should lead home, and by roads, we mean Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and just about every other social media platform you're on.

Don't Post Text Only

A chunk of text after another won't cut it.  Your audience will soon tune out. Not good for your business. Remember, with social media marketing, and indeed, all types of marketing, visuals always go a long way. Imagery is appealing, captivating and more impression leaving. Mix up your text with an infographic, a video, or photo(s).

Don't Ignore Negative Reviews

One of the mistakes marketers do is to ignore negative feedback, believing if they do so, it will go away. In fact, these are the reviews that deserve your attention the most, because it shows goodwill and desire to fix mistakes. Instead, initiate dialogue with the customer. Ask for their contact so you can reach out and listen. Take this as a lesson on how to handle such a situation in future. It's a win for everyone.

Don't Spam Your Followers

There's nothing more annoying on social media than seeing the same person fill your news feed with the same info time and again. Brands are not exempt. Inundating your followers with the same material, or even mixed up content, but without a break, will drive customers to hit the unfollow button. Instead, schedule your content in such timing that it's relevant, fresh, and insightful every different time. 

With these simple guidelines, you are guaranteed a smooth and productive use of the very handy social media to market your business and stay ahead of the curve.

Please contact us to speak with one of our social media marketing experts today. 

Three Helpful Tips to Create More Successful Social Media Campaigns in 2020

Creating a social media campaign can be a lot of work, that’s why today I’m going to go over some helpful tips and tricks on how to make the process go a lot more smoothly. We’ll be talking about things such as the Pomodoro technique, using a planner, calendars, and other tips to help you keep a clear mind to be your most productive self during the creation of your campaign.

1.     Pomodoro technique: What is it? The Pomodoro technique is essentially a way to better manage your time while working for maximum productivity. It is working in intervals, generally people will work 25-30 minutes at a time, followed up by a 5-minute break, then you continue these intervals until you reach your fourth interval, then you will take a long break up, around 30 minutes or so. This helps to keep your mind fresh, and not become overwhelmed from too much continuous work, it is works very well, and is personally one of my favorite techniques I have developed over the years.

2.     Using a planner: Using a planner is exactly how it sounds getting a planner and filling it up with all of your different goals, aspirations, meetings, project due dates, etc. This helps to keep your mind focused on what you are doing in the present, because you’ve already written down all of the other things you need to do, and when you need to do them by, so you don’t stress about them as much as you usually would. It is also a good idea to create mini goals, or steps that are achievable along the way to a larger goal, as this keeps your motivation and lets you know you’re on the right path. Using a planner can pay huge dividends in your life, if you have various different things you are focusing on at once.

3.     Using a Wall Calendar: Is one of the easiest ways to keep yourself on track for whatever endeavor you are currently tackling in your life. Simply put a wall calendar in a place you pass by or see frequently such as in the restroom, a spot in your bedroom or kitchen, and each day you accomplish a step to a goal you are working towards put a big X through that day, this is you playing mind games with yourself essentially because after a couple weeks it will begin to form a nice chain and you won’t want to break that chain. Even if you do, because as we all know in life things inevitably do happen when we least expect, just try your best to never miss two days in a row, I have also personally used this technique in my own life to stay on top of habits I wish to form and have found it very effective.

We hope that this list of tips and tricks, we’ll help you to stay on track tackling your goals and to do so with a clear mind.

Three Strategies to Get more Organic Reach on Facebook

This Week I had the pleasure to chat with a Major Nationwide Brand… and they we’re wanting to find out why their Facebook Page was not getting any organic reach anymore.  It was truly an eye-opening experience as I was shocked that such a large brand that was dialed in team wise with social, but they were lacking any community engagement.  The call was actually really simple….  I said You’re Doing it WRONG if you want Facebook to play with you!   Then stayed silent… they said hmmmm?  I could tell that they we’re a little shocked with my real feedback!

Then I lead with my Top 3 Types of Posts that WORK for sure on Facebook… I said if you do these each week along with your other posts, I guarantee that you will get more organic reach each week!

1)     MEMES – Especially Funny Memes… search on Google or Make your own MEMES that are focused on the funny topics around your business… don’t BRAND them with your logos.  No one wants to share a post if it looks like a Ad Billboard!

2)     MOTIVATIONAL – Find motivation quotes around your audience and motivate them each week or even better on the weekend!  These won’t get as much love as FUNNY… but it will for sure resonate with your community weekly

3)     CONTESTS – Give away your products, services, or even just a $10-$20 Starbucks Gift Card weekly to your fans… they goal should be to have them Like and Comment on your post to be entered to the contest!  This is the for SURE way to get engagement…. GIVE TO GET!

Facebook is a community… if you try to send them to a landing page, website, or away from Facebook it’s going to COST you Organic REACH, and if that is all you’re doing on Facebook .. you will slowly LOSE!

Take these three keystone content elements and run with them.. I promise you that your community with GROW & THRIVE AGAIN.    

Pitfalls to Avoid In Your Influencer Marketing Campaign

Influencer marketing - that is, using people with a social influence in a particular field is here to stay.  It is essentially establishing a relationship with a person so that they help you create relationships. Influencer relationships work. One pitfall, in fact, is probably not using one. That said, here are common mistakes marketers make in their influencer marketing, and how to steer clear of them. 

Bad briefs

The quality of your communication is everything. A lousy brief will waste everybody's time: the influencer's because they have to edit it, and yours, because of the to and fro feedback loop. So make sure you write clear, concise, and accurate information. It's also key to give your influencer creative freedom. Provide the necessary information, not copy. Also, do not micromanage.

Choosing a Name, Rather Than Relevance

Most marketers fall into the pitfall of choosing big names as opposed to relevance. Remember, the audience of the influencer is the audience you are targeting. That's why if, for example, you are marketing new software, a leading expert in technology influencer with 15k followers is better than a food blogger with 100k followers.

Relinquishing Content Control

While it's essential to give the influencer creative freedom, it's crucial to stay on the same page. Reading from different scripts can cause disappointment and fallouts, situations everyone wants to avoid. Give the influencers a list of clearly defined deliverables. Articulate your expectations from the very beginning of the campaign. Have them include a call to action, specifying exactly what the audience should do. Again while doing all these, allow them freedom. Remember, they know their audience better than you.

Failure to Stick With the Right One

75% of marketing teams agreed that finding the right influencer is a challenge. If your influencer ticks all the right boxes of what you value in one, hold tightly to them. A long-term relationship with an influencer ensures consistency and also cements your brand's relationship with the audience.  

Treating Your Influencer like an Advertisement Agency

Working with your influencer should be about a relationship, not a transaction. Get them involved with your brand. Give them the complete experience, and not only will they be grateful, but they will also feel more connected with your brand. This is powerful because the quality of the content they share will be earnest and impression-making.

So there you go. Influencer marketing is a way to go above the basics and reach niche audiences. Avoiding these pitfalls will keep your influencer marketing game strong, and everybody wins.

Contact us  to learn more about influencer marketing.

How to Attract More Customers to Your Social Media Page in 5 Minutes!

In the day and age of fast pace social media, advertisements, and viral content, it can be confusing and often times frustrating trying to figure out ways to attract new customers to your blog, website, or social media page. Well that’s what we here at Real-Time OutSource are going to teach you to do today, in 5 minutes!

1.      First! Look at the current trends in the landscape of social media, what is hot right now? What memes are getting the most reposts and tags? What hashtags are blowing up right now? What is the funniest video on the web? Find these currently hot items and somehow make your business relevant to that, in an attempt to ride the wave, it is a very easy way to create more buzz for your business and in turn get more customers clicking your way.

2.      Is there a cause that your company is passionate about? Breast cancer awareness? Lupus? ALS? You can create something that will not only get you more customers but also more importantly create a meaningful impact. Take for example the famous ice bucket challenge, while it may seem silly and ineffective it did wonders in raising money for research and created real positive change, all off one viral challenge. Take some time to brainstorm with your colleagues to create the next ice bucket challenge!

3.      Give an incentive to future potential customers to want to visit your page, holding a contest perhaps, where if someone reposts something and follows your page, they get throw into a random drawing to win a prize! Things like this get people excited, as nothing sounds better than free. This is an easy way to create a big buzz with minimal cost. These are all unorthodox methods of creating brand awareness, guerilla marketing if you will.

4.      Other more traditional ways of getting more customers to your page, are using tools such as Google Ads which is tremendously useful it allows you to show ads to targeted demographics all across the web whether that be on Google’s own search engine, YouTube, different blogs, and any kind of website you can think of where your customer may be going to.

I hope you all have found this information useful, but always information is only good if it is being applied!

Two Most Common Mistakes Businesses make on Social Media

Today were going to be discussing all too common mistakes that appear on businesses social media posts, these mistakes will make your business look less credible and will turn customers away. We will be discussing how to remedy these unfortunate situations.

 1.      Grammar

First, we will be discussing grammar errors in your posts, on your social media pages, or your website. Things such as using the wrong there, their, they’re, or using inappropriate capitalization, makes your page look as if you did not take the time to proofread before posting it. This will make consumers think if you couldn’t even take the time to do a quality inspection on something as small as a post, are you really going to inspect the quality of your products before shipping them? It makes your overall business seem sloppy and not well polished. Ways to cure this, would be using an app such as Grammarly, which helps you to find and correct grammar mistakes while you are creating your posts. Another way would be just to thoroughly go over your posts once or twice, to ensure maximum quality. While a mistake or two will undoubtedly make its way through your defenses one way or another, taking the necessary precautions to prevent this are worthwhile and will be appreciated by your customers.

2.      Having Poor Quality Photos

Second, another common mistake we see on businesses social media pages is poor quality photos. This is very off-putting to consumers and is disappointing to see that you could not take the time to either edit your photos, invest in or pay someone to craft high quality photos for you. It makes your business look very generic, if you have grainy, low resolution photos, but with a little work you can have very nice-looking photos, which is typically synonymous with quality in consumers’ minds. This will get your customers excited to see if the pictures look this good, they can only imagine how great the actual product will be! Ways to fix this common mistake, would be to invest in a decent DSLR camera, doesn’t have to be a top of the line and there are many affordable options to choose from. You could even use some of the newer cell phone cameras as a substitute, the newer models have very capable cameras on them and with some editing can create astounding photos. That brings us to our next solution, which is investing in some good editing software, many of the Adobe Creative Suite programs are excellent options such as Lightroom and Photoshop and are worthwhile investments for any business looking to create high quality photos, logos, and among many other different kinds of marketing material.

Social Media News: In California, Instagram Leads the Social-Media Pack

The Nielsen organization reported in 2018 that adults in America spent about half their day interacting with various "media." Of those approximately 11 hours per day, social media accounts for 45 minutes for the average adult.

That makes advertising on social media important, but, given the scope and variety of the social-media universe, where do you spend your advertising dollars? There are many factors, but one useful datum is provided by a new survey from CenturyLinkQuote

. It turns out that the popularity of social-media platforms varies from state to state. For a local business or other organization that can be factored into the choice of how to connect with that average consumer.

In California, often ahead of the curve when it comes to new trends, it turns out we favor Instagram. It gets relatively more social media time than Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and some of the lesser platforms.

Instagram is one of the newer kids on the social media block. Launched in 2010 as a specialized photo- and video-sharing networking service, it is owned, now, by Facebook. Instagram made like a rocket ship, with a million registered users in two months, and, within a year, 10 million users. Now, in May 2019, it has a cool billion users. By now, the number of photographs uploaded to the site is nearing 100 billion. 

Like Snapchat and other newer social media, Instagram appeals to younger users. That means, in particular, Gen Z, those born after 1996, who are sometimes called the generation born in cyberspace and resident in the (cyber) cloud. That age cohort is now about 25 percent of Americans and estimated by next year to be 40 percent of consumer spending.

If you are a business located in California and want a significant focus on the youngest age cohort, then Instagram can't be ignored. Another plus is that Nevada is one of the half dozen states where users also prioritize Instagram over other social media (so do Florida, New York, and Hawaii). Video and real-time (streaming) video have a special place in Instagram advertising.

The "local" angle always is a focus at Real-Time Outsource

. Because when it comes to digital marketing, the personal element rules. And one of many implications of that is the user's local angle. We work to perfect the art of social marketing to increase your brand's engagement and marketing visibility--and that includes online local searches as well as national and international searches. We want to understand

 your product or service, and your company's trajectory of growth, as well as we understand the regional business environment. Talk to us 

about how your digital marketing strategy can serve your business's future anywhere, including in the California and Fresno region markets.

How to Use Social Media to Boost Your SEO

When it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), it’s commonly believed that social media signals don’t directly impact where your website ranks in the search engines.

So why bother?

Well, social media may not have a direct impact on your SEO, but it still plays a momentous role in getting your content in front of a bigger audience. This means that investing time and money in social media can produce something of a multiplier effect. Think about it this way: you create a great piece of content on social media, such as an original infographic, that attracts some pickup from other users. From here, people are more likely to publicize the data, which may in turn generate more clicks through to your site, which may ultimately lead to site visitors becoming shoppers and entrusting you with their money.

Now, all of these things are not only good for your brand, they’re also boosting your SEO score. People who write about your infographic may link back to your site, enhancing your link equity. People clicking through to the on-site infographic will spend longer on your site if the data’s well presented and interesting, increasing your dwell time (how long people spend on-site after entering via a search engine results page). People spending money with you in this way will also reduce your bounce rate (the number of people clicking off after one page).

Share regular content via social media

In the example above, link-building is a secondary benefit of solid social media presence. By sharing an infographic to the widest possible audience, you can increase the chances of getting it shared, whether it’s on social media, an industry-specific blog, or even a well-known daily like The Guardian. By sharing regular high-quality content, you also boost the chance of this happening.

If you’re looking to take your link building to the next level, then check out Click Intelligence, a full service digital agency specializing in SEO lead generation.

Partner with the right people

The stress put on some social marketers to provide quantitative results can lead to problems. When it comes to followings, many organizations get stuck in the mentality of quantity over quality. It’s worth pointing out that an account with 500 followers can have as much heft as one with 5,000 provided 5 of its followers are top industry influencers. You should be strategic about your following, drawing up lists to help you identify key industry influencers and publications in your industry. You increase the likelihood of getting a follow by simply engaging with their posts and showing them you know your onions.

As well as sharing your content to help it find a wider audience, these people are also ripe candidates for partnerships. The golden ticket is regularly engaging with them and developing a lasting partnership, whereby you willingly promote their content in exchange for them doing the same. Be willing to recommend their content on social media with your own informed comments and be prepared to give them backlinks from your own website in exchange. Influencer marketing goes both ways.

Social media may not directly impact SEO, but as you can see, investing time, money and effort in improving your profiles could have the inadvertent effect of giving yours a major boost. As Databox points out, 91% of search marketers are optimizing their brand profiles for SEO. Don’t get left behind!

Three Tips to using Snapchat for Business

When most people think about Snapchat, they think about millennials documenting their every move. There is an impressive number of snaps sent every day (several million in fact) so it is quickly growing in popularity. Because of this, many businesses are starting to look for ways to grab the attention of all of the millions of users on this social media site.

It can be tricky to incorporate Snapchat into your marketing campaign so here are some tips to help you get started.

Target your key audience. Though this is true in any marketing campaign, you need to know who you are trying to reach so you can figure out the best way to catch their attention. Otherwise, you are just wasting your time.  

Offer something extra to your valued Snapchat audience. Give them content that they won't find on any other social media site. Give them access into your daily life and business.

Contests give people more reason to check out your snaps! Everyone loves a good contest or giveaway so make sure that you offer them plenty of reasons to keep checking back. Many businesses are starting to have contests where they ask fans to take a snap while using their product or visiting their restaurant. These are often very popular, as well as fun for everyone!

As with other types of marketing, you really need to know your audience and what catches their eye. You should also give them content that you don't share at other places. Then, try to incorporate a fresh and exciting twist to your favorite contest to help you grow your business quickly. One of the easiest ways to do this is by asking your customers to take a snap with your products or at your place of business. These types of contests are really fun for everyone and can gain you a lot of attention!

Contact us  for all of your social marketing needs.

How to Utilize Story Telling Most Efficiently in Social Media!

When thinking about the ways to develop your customers trust within your business. We as business owners, or those who aspire to own and create a business, must make our company relatable, we must show that we understand their pains, wants, and needs. We must be warm, accepting and kind. Our companies must reflect the qualities of that of a dear friend, or relative, someone that the consumer can feel comfortable around. We must make our customers see and feel our vision. We owe it to our consumers to inspire them, humor them, inform them, and comfort them. If you are interested in learning how to accomplish this lofty feat, then you have come to the right place my friends.

1.      First, we must figure out what our company’s main goal is, what do we wish to accomplish? Take some time to pull out a piece of paper and brainstorm about this, write down what the impact that you wish to make on the world is, what change would you like to bring about through your company, what pain will you provide the remedy for?

2.      Second, let’s think about how you wish to attract your customers attention, do you want to appear as a humorous company through your marketing campaigns compared to the likes of Doritos, Geico, Mountain Dew, this is often a safe route, as we as human beings all enjoy laughing. Or would you consider the more serious inspirational route? Likened more so to Apple and Nike. Another route that some take is that of guilt or fear, we can look to examples of this from companies such as Red Cross, ASPCA, and PETA, these companies attempt to tug strongly on the viewing audiences heart strings. All of these are effective in their own right, it is up to you to choose which would be most appropriate according to your company’s product, vision, and goals.

3.      Third, now it is time to think about what is your company’s USP or unique selling proposition, what makes your business special? Think about the why, why should people care about your business? What change are you stirring up? Is your product genuinely more innovative than the competitions, is it your customer service that sets you apart? There are many differentiating factors within businesses even more so in products that have so many commonalities such as fruits, batteries, soaps, to give a few examples, these businesses must think long and hard about ways to create the perception that their business is somehow superior to the competitions, is your business GMO free? Gluten free? Vegan? Organic? Handmade? This where these buzzwords and many more come into play, and they are vital to your companies marketing success to utilize words such as these to their fullest potential. Let the customers know that the decision they are making is better for the environment, better for the future of humanity if that is what your company’s goal is!

I hope you’ve found this information helpful today, and it will help you to succeed in your future endeavors! Always remember that story telling is king in the world of business.