Category: Digital Branding

Digital Branding

What to Look for When Hiring an SEO Company?

Every business looking for a top SEO company to improve their rankings should know that just as a good company can make your business thrive, a bad one can make your traffic crash and burn. With so many SEO companies offering their services, choosing the right one can sometimes turn into a real minefield. Fortunately, we’ve compiled a list of tips that will help you navigate it and ensure you always pick the right SEO company for your business.

What to Look for

Many high-quality SEO companies will have similar features that make them stand out from the crowd. These can help you identify when an SEO company is a good match for your business.

They Have Specific Ideas

A good SEO agency will treat the work they do for your business as a partnership. This usually means that they will suggest improvements you can take to increase your ranking, but you will have to be open to suggestions and actually implement these changes.

These suggestions will hopefully come in the form of concrete, fleshed-out ideas. An SEO company will often ask you to add or improve a part of your business website. And if you’ve chosen the right company, following these suggestions will see your organic traffic and ranking increase.

There are a number of things a good SEO company may recommend:

  • Opening social media accounts and integrating them into your website
  • Adding a blog section
  • Adding or altering content on your homepage
  • Creating a network of internal linkbacks
  • Optimizing the SEO performance of your content
  • Improving site speed and performance
  • Doing a link audit and removing spam links

They Use Transparent and Proven Methods

The first and most important thing you can ask a prospective SEO company is exactly how they will improve your rankings. Even though you’re basically asking them to describe their whole job, the answer should still clear and concise.

A good SEO company will answer in a way that describes all the things they will do, how and why they will do them, how long it will take, and what results you can realistically expect.

They Deliver Concrete Results for Known Clients

As mentioned above, a good SEO company will be able to show you the results of their work. Even though that work won’t always be amazing (remember, even the best can’t really offer any guarantees), their work should show a clear impact on their clients’ rankings.

Here are some of the things you can expect to see from a good, well-prepared company:

  • A list of sites that can add backlinks to your webpage
  • An audit of your website with actionable suggestions for improvement
  • Recommendations for new content
  • Regular reports with clear results of their work

In addition to this, be sure to ask an SEO agency for a list of their previous clients. Although you shouldn’t expect to get their entire contact book, they should be able to name a couple of high-profile clients on the spot.

What to Avoid

Of course, all SEO companies weren’t created equal. Sometimes you’ll run into a company that simply isn’t the right fit for your business. Any of the following points could be a huge red flag and you should avoid a company if you spot them.

They Offer Bought Linkbacks

Touching on what we mentioned earlier, if an SEO company offers a pitch containing a ‘secret method’ they use, you should look for someone else. By now, SEO is mostly a level playing field, where the best practices are widely known and are based on Google’s search algorithm.

Mentioning a secret method is usually just an evasive way of saying the company uses ‘black hat’ methods. These are the methods that go against the Google algorithm’s rules and include things like buying a large number of backlinks. Sure, you may see a temporary increase in traffic, but eventually, Google will catch up to you and your site will get penalized.

Also, Google is under no obligation to regularly report on any changes they make to their search algorithm. This is simply a time-saving measure since they can make as many as two changes per day. Therefore, the SEO company’s ‘secret method’ could very well become obsolete tomorrow.

They Don’t Ask for Your Website Info

Every good SEO company will do their prep work and ask for access to some of the vital information about your website. This info will let them identify strong and weak points and let them for an SEO strategy to increase your rankings.

They will usually ask for things such as the credentials to view or edit your Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, CMS or social media accounts. An SEO company might also ask for a list of target keywords or reports and audits done in the past.

If an SEO company asks you for access to this type of info, it usually means that they’re taking the work they do for you seriously. On the other hand, if a company asks for complete admin access to all your data, logins and reports, beware. They might be trying to trap you by holding your data and credentials hostage in order to keep the contract going in the long term.

They Guarantee Top Results

No SEO company worth their business can guarantee you the top spot on the Google search results page. The ones that do are either flat out lying to you, or are simply exaggerating the fact they can get you on the first page of a Google search.

The Google algorithm is an ever-changing math equation devised by a machine learning AI that analyzes our searching habits. This very fact makes it so no one can guarantee to get you to the top spot of the results page. And if they do, you should give them a wide berth.

Conclusion

Hopefully, the tips above have helped you on your journey to finding that perfect SEO company that will unlock your website’s full potential. If you know any useful tips and tricks we may have missed, please post them in the comments below.

Digital Branding

3 Benefits of Shoppable Instagram Posts for Your E-Commerce Business

There are numerous features of Instagram coming up over the last few years. One of which is the shoppable posts of the photo-sharing platform, among others. The feature will take your e-commerce business to another level and boost your sales. The shoppable post option helps brands in tagging their products on sale within an Instagram post. It will make the life of online shoppers easy because they can shift from your Instagram post to your e-commerce website’s ‘Add to cart’ section with a few simple clicks. 

According to an article published on https://www.inc.com, big brands like Vogue, GS as well as Elle USA will test the tagging products option in their posts, which can be purchased via Instagram. Read on to learn about the three benefits of shoppable posts for your online store. 

1. Beneficial for small e-commerce businesses

The photo-sharing site will benefit small e-commerce brands if they use one-off and bespoke content. Make sure you post simple but appealing pictures and videos relevant to your business. Your shoppers will love viewing such posts. Apart from photos or videos, interesting or funny captions interacting with your prospects will help you grow your e-commerce business. The use of apt and related hashtags that your customers use will boost engagement level for your e-commerce business. Use not more than 4-5 hashtags! It will help in growing your community and once you realize your business objectives, including a couple of shoppable posts into your feed. It will result in a better fan following and leads. Besides, you can gain накрутитьлайки в инстаграм. What more do you want? 

2. Improves your storytelling abilities 

Shoppable posts will boost your sales, especially if you are into the beauty, food, furniture, art, crafts, and décor business. Spend some time creating attractive Instagram posts related to a context that will enhance your natural storytelling cachet. Moreover, the story will make sense to your targeted audience. You need to build a narrative with your Instagram shoppable posts. All you need to do is collect products you want to sell, brainstorm ideas, and create a narrative theme for your shoppable posts. 

Weaving a good story will drive user engagement, thus piquing consumer interest to shop for your products. 

3. Positive impact on your audience 

Instagram’s new shoppable posts feature will help you outshine your competitors in the e-commerce landscape provided you know the rules of the game. Then, determine what your potential customers want from your e-commerce website. Reap the benefits out of Instagram Stories in a creative way to produce a positive impact on your current and potential customers. Consult with micro-influencers, test with video content, including a couple of vertical video content. 

Try testing every Instagram feature to help you to expand your e-commerce business and improve the bottom line. The top brands are doing it and so can you. It will take some of your time and effort to see positive results. 

Conclusion 

Shoppable Instagram posts are the best that can happen to any e-commerce business, small or big. Make the most of this new feature to generate leads and turn them into your loyal customers. 

Author Bio

Ariya Stark is the owner of a fashion brand, and she has admitted to using her social media profiles for gaining website traffic. She also visits накрутитьлайки в инстаграм for getting more likes on her posts.

Digital Branding

10 Autoresponder Benefits For Business Marketing Strategies

These days, you should use an autoresponder for your local marketing strategies. This marketing tool will send your messages out automatically to individuals who have an interest in your business. It is also the best way to stay in contact with your customers and prospects. The key is inviting them to become subscribers for your messages about your services, products, and business. It is automatic, easy, and one of the best returns on your marketing investment that your company will ever achieve.

1. Turn anonymous visitors to your website into subscribers.

When people show up at your website for the very first time, one of the best ways to start a conversation with those visitors is to offer something valuable to them in exchange for them providing you with their email address and name. The best marketing automation software services usually recommend that this is a trial offer, a no-obligation consultation, a free report, or anything else that is of high quality and has a high perceived value. After a visitor subscribes to your autoresponder series you can keep sending them email messages for as long as you want, or until they unsubscribe.

2. Easily build long term relationships with your subscribers.

Since you are able to write automated messages ahead of time and have your messages scheduled to be sent automatically to your subscriber list on whatever date and at whatever time of day you specify, you can send a message to all of your subscribers very easily any time you want to Your autoresponder can do all of your work automatically for you on a 24/7 basis. Whenever subscribers hear from you regularly it builds that expectation that they will continue hearing from later in the future as well.

3. Allow you to do continuous marketing without needing to hire additional people.

Since your autoresponder can send out marketing messages to your customers and prospects regularly, it won’t be necessary for you to hire additional staff to do the marketing. That can save on marketing dollars and your marketing department investments will enjoy a much higher return.

4. Follow-up error-free without missing any customers.

It can be hard to follow-up with everyone you meet. However, when you use an autoresponder to send marketing messages about your products, services, and business, it won’t ever miss a single customer or prospect who has subscribed to your mailing list. They will always receive the messages that you send out to them.

5. Constant communication generates repeat sales

It is very likely that people who like doing business with you will continue doing business with your company regularly. Especially if you have services or products that they basis often. When you use an automatic messaging system to send out messages about your services and products, it will remind your customers to purchase what they need from your company automatically and regularly. An automated selling tool is the best thing that a business can have!

6. More subscribers will be led to your website or blog.

When you sent out messages to your subscribers, one of the things that you can do is direct them to your website, your blog, your video channel, or articles. These are all different channels that provide useful information on your business. If your business has things that people want, they will want to know how they can obtain your company’s offerings. They can be directed by an autoresponder message to the precise location that they need to learn more about what they know to know to make their purchasing decision.

7. Receive measurable results.

There are measuring devices built into autoresponders that will tell you the locations of your subscribers. You also will be provided with information that shows you which of your messages have been ready by the most people so you can format messages in the future in ways that get more subscribers to open them. You can determine the best time of day for sending out your message so that your subscribers read them right away. Your autoresponder will track how many new subscribers you get each day. These results can be used to determine what future messages and information you want to send out to your subscribers.

8. Ensures improved e-mail delivery.

Autoresponders have been specially designed to deliver emails on time to your entire subscriber list. Specialized autoresponder systems work a lot better compared to other types of e-mail delivery systems. That allows you to be confident that your subscribers are getting your messages delivered to them.

9. Use your e-mails to help brand yourself.

You can brand your company and yourself in the e-mails that you send out to your subscribers by adding your contact information, your tagline, your logo, or anything else you would like to emphasize about your business.

10. Allows you to duplicate your efforts very easily.

All of the above tasks can be duplicated after you have done them once for your list. You can have separate lists for different product lines, groups of subscribers, other services, or whatever other reason you might have for wanting to have separate lists for sending out messages.

Digital Branding

Key Tips on Creating an Ecommerce Marketing Strategy

Ecommerce is one of the most revolutionary transformations ushered on the internet. It has streamlined the virtual exchange of goods and services across different industries globally. Because of its capacity to streamline business processes, many established and budding entrepreneurs have shifted the majority of their transactions online.

However, given the volume of ecommerce websites in the market today, it’s crucial for you to develop an effective marketing strategy to stay top-of-mind with both existing and prospective clients. If designed correctly and with the help of the right ecommerce marketing agency, such an initiative will help you optimize your advertising and sales process.

In this article, let’s learn surefire tips on creating a marketing strategy for your ecommerce business.

Sign Up for a Google+ MyBusiness Profile

One of the primary ways to establish a web presence for your ecommerce business is Google’s My Business Profile. It’s the internet giant’s free web platform that streamlines the dissemination of information between business owners and their customers. It provides an outline of your business right when people are searching for you on Search or Maps. Among the critical information your customers can access instantly are the product’s price, reviews, and location if you have a brick-and-mortar counterpart for your online business.

Google prioritizes listings uploaded on Google+ My Business Pages in local searches. Thus, optimizing your profile will help boost your local search results ranking.

Here are other vital ways of how this platform can help you enhance your marketing strategy:

  • Having a Google+ My Business Profile increases your chances of getting into Google’s most sought-after local three-pack. These are the search results that appear even before the organic results, thus increasing web clicks for your business.
  • Aside from having a fuss-free platform on top of your website, you also get to enjoy creating content in the form of texts, photos, and videos. It also has an Insights feature that’ll allow you to track your customers’ essential site activities, such as inquiries, calls, or web visits.
  • Since Google runs multiple verification steps before allowing businesses to get listed for local searches, potential customers can make sure that your company is trustworthy.

Educate Customers with Useful Blog Content

Content is king when it comes to ecommerce marketing. However, in a data-saturated marketplace, you need to ensure that the content you put out adds value to the lives of your potential and existing customers.

With thousands of blog posts being published and circulated online daily, how do you intend to win the hearts of your target audience?

  • Showcase your expertise in the industry by creating content that’ll help your audience make informed decisions. Remember to write for humans and not merely for keyword ranking.

For example, if you’re running a clothing website, outline tips that’ll help users find the right fit and style for their budget. Don’t make it sound like your shoving down the products you sell to your customers’ throats. Ensure that your brand voice remains friendly and reliable, not intrusive. You can also publish easy-to-follow hacks that’ll guide your customers, or inspire them to produce some organic user-generated content.

  • Play with relevant visuals. Given a person’s diminishing online attention span, it’s essential to capture your audience’s attention through compelling visuals. Whether you’re into B2B (Business-to-Business) or B2C (Business-to-Customer) business, you can bank on appealing and useful infographics to simplify complex topics relevant to your brand. With the right ratio of text, image, or moving graphics, you can establish brand authority across different market segments.
  • Remember to write blogs with high EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). These three principles are significant benchmarks by Google’s content raters, as indicated in their Quality Rater’s Guidelines.

Reach Out to Relevant Online Influencers

Suppose you already have the right product and service, a functioning website, and a smooth distribution channel. How can you then outshine competitors who promise the same marketing offerings as you?

  • Although in-house content marketing for your ecommerce business is a good step towards attracting quality leads, it’s also essential to enhance your content distribution channel to achieve maximum exposure.
  • Today, people hold in high regard online influencers’ reviews on specific products and services before making a purchase. Many people, especially the millennial market, find their candid first-hand experience reliable and value-rich as opposed to the outbound content most brands distribute.
  • With the level of influence these so-called “everyday experts” have over your potential buyers, it’ll undoubtedly play to your advantage if you consider tapping them to create and publish content for your product or service.
  • Look for online influencers that’ll best represent your brand. As a rule of thumb, remember not to rely on the number of their following alone. Instead, choose an influencer that you think will generate quality engagement for your product or service.

In a Nutshell

When finding ways to create an ecommerce marketing strategy, remember not just to sell but add value to your customers’ overall experience. Kick-start your campaigns with concrete, realistic, and measurable marketing plans today. Define your goals and develop tactics that’ll help you achieve it!

Digital BrandingLocal Branding

How to Nail Your Small Business Branding 

Do you believe that branding is only meant for large corporations and companies in the world? If your answer is yes, then you will be surprised to know that small businesses need branding just as much as the market leaders. However, you should also know how to get it right. 

Remember- starting a small business is only the first step but you can take these additional steps to take your enterprise to the next level with branding:

1. Start with a Logo

One of the most important aspects of a brand is the logo- there is no question about it. You can study various examples like Coca-Cola, Nike, Apple, etc. All of them are considered top brands and they all have iconic logos. What this goes to show is that even if yours is a small and generic business, you can project it as a big and trustworthy brand by creating a unique logo. Then, once you are happy with your logo you can work on improving your brand awareness. This can be done in several ways. For instance, you may wish to Create Stickers with Cricut as this can be a great marketing tool, especially for small businesses.

2. Work on Your Relationship with Customers 

You can’t build a brand without bolstering your bond with your customers. So, learn how to build strong customer relationships online and apply methods that can help them trust you more easily. These include improving your public messaging, becoming more accessible to the customers, and providing better customer service.

3. Use Social Media to Your Advantage

Social media provides you one of the most inexpensive ways to market your business. You can use it to connect to your target demographic and also open a channel for them to communicate with you i.e. share feedback and complaints. This can go a long way in establishing a brand.

4. Find Your Voice

Let’s say that you sell handcrafted wood furniture in a particular city. If you have competition, then how will you stand out? If all the businesses sell handcrafted furniture, then what makes you special? Well, branding is the answer.

By finding your unique voice, you can attract new customers easily no matter how crowded the marketplace is. There are various ways you can go about it too. For instance, you can create a brand that’s all about providing employment to the veterans, or you could be a brand that appeals to the college students who need affordable and long-lasting chairs, tables, etc. 

5. Don’t Let Your Customers Down

Small businesses often take unethical measures to fight competition which is the opposite of what you want to do if you want to create a brand. For instance, some businesses start offering subpar products or ignore the complaints of their customers which only hurts their reputation. 

Strong brands have strong customer bases because the customers take pride in being their patrons. That’s something which can only happen if you offer exceptional customer service and treat them with the best products that you can provide.

6. Never Take Your Eyes off the Target Demographic

As a business owner, you want as many customers as possible. However, you simply can’t sell to everyone. There is only a small portion of the market that you can target for your products/services. So, it’s important that your messaging, logo, slogan, etc. are appealing to the kind of individuals you want to focus on. 

Brands are important to small businesses, and there is no way around it either if you want to maintain your market position. That said, the tips shared above are quite effective and proven to work. So, apply as many of them as possible and you will see a considerable rise in foot traffic/online traffic to your store/website. Good luck!

Digital Branding

Seeing the Red Flags: How to Spot Fake Printing Businesses Online

https://www.pexels.com/photo/coward-cowardly-crime-cyber-crime-271078/

 

There is no denying that the Internet has made doing business easier, more convenient, and faster. However, the sad fact is that while you also want to ensure that all that speed and convenience also comes with safety and security issues. There are so many websites that are scams, fraudulent, or fake. The ease and speed of the Internet has given rise to so many cybercrimes that it has ballooned into a $1.5 trillion (yes, with a “T”) industry.

There are many types of cybercrimes, such as third-party content injection (where external parties can “inject” content into your system where you connect to unsecured WiFi connections), fraud ($40 brand new iPad anyone?), or most commonly, phishing.

 

What is Phishing, exactly?

Phishing is a type of cybercrime where a scammer will try to gain your sensitive information, particularly financial information, by providing false pretenses. There are various methods of phishing, such as sending out fake emails about your bank account getting hacked, or websites asking you to “validate” your account. Usually these messages have a link attached that will lead you to another website where you will enter your financial information, thus making it available to the scammer. These messages will often appear as legitimate emails from banks, online payment portals, or other financial companies, luring you into a false sense of security.

When you try to buy checks online, you are a prime target for these scammers because you will need to provide your financial information in order to complete the ordering process!

How Can I Protect Myself?

While there is no 100% guaranteed method of protecting yourself from scammers online, there are ways to avoid websites that can make you a more vulnerable target. Here are some tell-tale signs that you can look out for, and if you see even one of them, you should immediately close that window.

  1.     The URL is your first clue

You might think that a suspicious URL would be a dead giveaway, but you would be shocked how many people don’t take the time to actually check the address bar when they visit various websites. Trusted and reliable websites will have a URL that begins with “https://” and there is a small padlock icon on the right side of the address bar. Google will even do a lot of the work for you; if the site is safe and trusted, it will highlight the URL in green. If there is something suspicious about the URL, it highlights the whole address bar in red and you might even get a warning message!

There’s even a concept called “The Line of Death”, which is an idea that an Internet user should not trust anything below a certain point on your browser, as it is easy for a scammer to make the website appear legitimate. In the case of websites where you will give sensitive financial information, the “Line of Death” is as early as the address bar.

  1.     Trust seals should be available

Many companies that handle sensitive financial information for their clients will go out of their way to show that they invest in their security protocols, so you will most likely find trust seals on top of their website. These can include logos from trusted anti-virus companies such as McAfee or Norton, or even an accreditation from the Better Business Bureau. However, it is also quite easy to just copy-paste these seals into a website’s layout, so make sure to click on these seals to see if they are legitimate.

  1.     The content CAN be a red flag

In the past, it was quite easy to spot a website that was fraudulent. These websites often used stock images, the layout was cheap, and the grammar of the content was horrible. These days, however, scammers have gotten more sophisticated, and you can find fraudulent websites that are difficult to distinguish from the real thing at a glance. If you are in doubt (some websites do use generic images and content while still being actual businesses), try looking for other details such as a physical address for the business, contact numbers, a policy page, or customer reviews. Most scam websites won’t go as far these details because they simply won’t have the time, manpower, or resources to create such a detailed scam website. They want to be able to scam as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time, so they go for quantity over quality.

  1.     Google can be your best friend

Google can be a useful, if not completely foolproof, tool in determining if a website is legitimate or not. You can use their Google Safe Browsing Transparency feature. Simply copy-paste the URL of the website in question, and Google will give you an idea whether or not you can trust a website. However, the simplest way is still the most basic way: if in doubt, just close your browser and look for another website.

Digital Branding

Essential KPIs that Matter to Savvy Social Media Managers

This post is contributed by Olu Bunmi.

 

Social media managers must master and monitor certain essential key performance indicators (KPIs) for more effective social media management, which encompasses the process of strategizing, creating, and managing content and interactions across social networks.

Doing this per network can be time-consuming and confusing without measurable KPIs, and given several such indicators, social media managers must decide which ones align most with their business goals. This would inform what strategy, approach, and platforms will be most effective.

In this post, we’ll be highlighting seven (7) such social media KPIs that should inform your social media marketing strategy and help you improve productivity, results, and ROI for your business ASAP, but first

https://pixabay.com/photos/twitter-facebook-together-292988/

What is Social Media KPIs?

Social media KPIs are social media metrics that measure the performance of your social media activities. Some of these are vanity metrics that do not really impact your bottom line but are measured simply because they’re measurable.

Recently, Instagram announced it will be hiding the number of likes from the public in selected countries as a test case. The aim is to get users to focus more on engagement than the number of likes. If your entire Instagram marketing revolves around a number of likes, for instance, you may need to start considering other ways to get more Instagram followers to grow your business for social commerce purposes.

This brings us to

The Evolution of Social Commerce

In the early 90’s, retail websites were like mere online product brochures with limited accessibiility and functionality, cahracterized by poor UI and UX. The term ‘Social Commerce’ was coined in 2005.

These days, social commerce has evolved and improved and  differs from social media marketing. As a social media manager, understanding this difference will most likely be the difference between just promoting brand visibility and actually making sales.

Creating online brand awareness with the aim of creating visibility and driving traffic to your social media page is social media marketing. This does not guarantee sales, even though it promotes sales. Direct sales resulting from social media marketing is social commerce because at this point, you can measure ROI.

Social Media Marketing by the Numbers

Statista reports that social media global penetration rate is now 45%. Meaning nearly half the world’s population or 3.48billion people are on social media, growing the worldwide total by 288 million (9%) since this time last year.

  • As of Q4 2018, Facebook had 2.32 billion monthly active users.
  • As at April 2019, Instagram had over 1billion monthly active users.
  • Youtube currently has 1.9 billion monthly logged in users

This shows how social media is shrinking global space and creating opportunities for large scale commerce for businesses.

Furthermore,

  • 95% of young adults between the ages of 18-34 are most likely to follow a brand on social media
  • Currently, there are over 60 million businesses using Facebook Pages
  • 6 million of these businesses use Facebook Ads.
  • 78% of people who complain to a brand via Twitter always expect and receive a response within an hour.
  • On Instagram, top brands get to see a per-follower engagement rate of 4.21% which is 58 times higher than on Facebook and 120 times higher than on Twitter.
  • 90% of Instagram users are less than 35 years old, making it the best social media platform to target millenials, etc

Why Businesses Need a Social Media Strategy in Place

Without a social media strategy in place you’d be beating about the social media bush. As more businesses go online, your competition increases as evident in the foregoing statistics. To stay ahead of the game, you will need an effective social media marketing strategy that will boost visibility, sales and customer satisfaction.

To implement your social media strategy, you’ll need a platform.

Here’s how to pick the right social network for your kind of business:

  • Identify your audience and their favorite social networks with the highest engagement. You can identify your targeted audience by studying their demography, which includes their age range, gender, income and social trends that interest them.
  • Identify the resources needed for a successful social marketing plan, bearing in mind that each social media platform is unique. This will ensure that your business goals and network align.

Next step is to find a good social media manager who can help coordinate and implement your social media strategy.

Following are seven (7) key areas to judge your social media manager’s performance

7 Essential KPIs For Savvy Social Media Managers

Measurable metrics generally vary per network, some are similar. Following are 7 key social media KPIs you should watch:

  1. Audience Growth Rate

This indicates how fast your brand is growing. This can be tracked by identifying the number of new followers for the month divided by the number of your total audience. If you’re currently focusing on Instagram, here’re smart ways to get more Instagram followers.

  1. Click Through Rate

The number of clicks on links you post show how eye catching the title and images in your posts are. This typically shows if it got the attention of your audience. You can calculate this by dividing the number of link clicks you have by the number of people who have seen the post.

  1. Likes

This also shows how interesting your content was, and it helps in favoring your page visibility for platform algorithms. Instagram is currently experimenting with hiding likes from the public to encourage more engagement.

  1. Shares

Shares indicate that your posts are interesting enough to warrant recommendation, and this can be used to measure your virality rate by dividing the number of people who shared your post by the number of people who saw it. This also shows your amplification rate. Also note the number of mentions you get, for virality.

  1. Comments

Note that relevant content sparks conversations and engagement is one of the top areas you should pay attention to on social media. Engagement is often evident in the comment section. Authentic engagement means you’re doing a lot of things right.

  1. Reviews/Feedbacks

Customer testimonials help to build trust and credibility for your brand. You can also measure this by creating a survey to evaluate customer satisfaction with your products or services.

  1. Impressions/Profile Visits

Although not every social network displays the number of new people who visit your profile, most do, and this will tell you how well all other factors above have influenced people who heard of, or came across your brand to check it out. It shows you your reach.

Conclusion

As a social media manager, the success or failure of your social media strategy or campaigns largely depend on you. Knowing what to and how to measure this success or failure rate (progress) is key. Let us know which social media metrics or KPI matter most to you.

 

Author Bio:

Olu Bunmi is a freelance writer who loves to write business, ecommerce, entrepreneurship and social media content.

Crisis management
Digital Branding

Handling Of Crisis Management

In your company, a crisis is an event or circumstance that alters the regular dynamics of business processes. Appearing unexpectedly, crises can come from both internal and external factors. Industrial or occupational accidents, strikes, problems in customer service, product failures, or policy changes might produce internal crises while changing economic policies, social changes, or natural phenomena outside the control of the organization might upset a company as well and require crisis management.

Such moments of difficulty are natural in any company, and it is important to understand how to identify a crisis in your company. Before a negative event upsets the normal flow of business, becomes public, and threatens to harm the brand, it is time to activate crisis management techniques before the crisis calls into question the image of the company in front of consumers.

An administrator should know that no matter how bad the situation is, it can always get worse. By applying such proactive techniques, the company does not destabilize after that event.

One of the first questions that usually arise is: “Should you speak or remain silent about the situation?” Poorly conducted communication in times of crisis, with misconceived statements, will enhance what is already ruined, but choosing to keep quiet is usually not an option in crisis management. If the company doesn’t speak out about something that is obviously happening, journalists can write whatever they want.

Crises can destabilize your business

Employ Crisis Management Techniques

When Is The Best Time To Act?

When situations arise that break down the normal functioning of the organization, it is time to immediately proceed to implement business crisis management tips such as those offered at www.PR360.com to develop strategies.

Once the importance of having excellent business crisis management strategies is understood, the next step is to design your plan. Given this, several questions may arise, such as: what factors should you consider? What should you do first? Who makes decisions? What resources do you need?

The management of business crises includes all the actions or measures taken to address the different scenarios to be presented at three different moments along a timeline:

  • The pre-crisis or prevention stage
  • The crisis
  • The post-crisis or recovery stage

Pre-crisis is the most crucial stage because all possible risk scenarios are projected here. You should analyze your strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats. This will develop strategies, that is, a Pr 360 Business Crisis Management Plan.

In this first stage, Pr360 should follow the following steps:

Evaluation And Identification

It is recommended to audit possible known risks. An activity or production process can perform risk analysis by conversion-based PR Agency. It is also feasible to conduct drills and exercises with different scenarios.

Meet crises head on

Crisis Committee

After identifying the risks, you need to assemble a committee chaired by the top executives of the organization and composed of those responsible for the areas involved. The makeup of the committee signals that you are serious about addressing the problems and ensures that the committee has the authority to develop policies to handle them.

Prepare the Business Crisis Management Plan

After completing the previous steps, a strategic plan is drawn up. This must contain a description of all the processes and the risks identified, and instructions and procedures to follow to address each emergency.

Apply The Plan

After the pre-crisis stage, and once the corresponding plan has been developed, you will have a tool with defined strategies to deal with any emergency, with specific specifications for each moment of its development.

Measure plan effectiveness

Measure The Effectiveness Of Your Business Crisis Plan

Crises are seldom solitary events. To be better prepared for the future, your plan should contain mechanisms to measure the effectiveness of your actions. If you properly manage the crisis, you will be in better shape to identify and respond to future disruptions that are a part of running a business.

Top Tips For Handling A PR Crisis

It’s a worst-case scenario that can befall even the most prestigious organization: a public relations crisis. From a string of bad reviews to a serious financial scandal, a negative incident can have a powerful impact on a company’s reputation — no matter how small or diplomatic it is. That’s why it’s critical for every business to have a reaction plan in place. Here are some do’s and don’ts when navigating a PR crisis.

In today’s digital age, news can go viral almost instantly. The implementation of a swift and effective crisis management plan is essential. An organization should address the issue head-on, whether it’s with an apology, an explanation or an announcement. If an immediate, informative response is not possible, the business should at least communicate that it’s looking into the issue and give a reason as to why there will be a delay. Above all else, it’s important to take responsibility for what happened.

Before sending representatives to address the media, make sure they fully understand the response strategy and are given enough information to answer questions. If time allows, set up a practice session to ensure they are prepared. Emphasize that the company’s message must be consistent across multiple channels.

Refrain from saying “no comment,” as these are two of the most damaging words in PR. Shutting down communication leaves a gap for others to fill, and what they say may be worse than the truth. If an organization is waiting for more information, it should let the public know that it is working on a response or a reaction to the situation.

For more tips on how to handle a PR crisis, see the accompanying infographic.

News Exposure provides a variety of media monitoring services, including TV broadcast monitoring.
Digital Branding

The Most Efficient Ways to Make Money on Instagram

A lot of people are discovering the benefits of working on the internet. It would seem like being stuck in a dead-end job from 9 to 5 is not that appealing anymore. But you know what does sound attractive? Mastering Instagram and making it the sole source of income.

There are definitely more than one way on how to monetize Instagram, and if you are looking to get started yourself, this article is the perfect place to find some inspiration.

Start with Building an Audience

Before moving on to the methods, it is important to note one thing – your monetization will not come to fruition if you do not have enough followers and decent engagement. Instagram is all about those two.

Building account takes time, but that is not enough. You will also have to:

  • Optimize your profile by adding contact information in your bio. Consider including a couple of keywords and hashtags as well. It becomes much easier to find you on Instagram.
  • Keep to your schedule. If there are one or two days of no posts, that is not a big problem. Nevertheless, you should still try to post at least once or twice every day.
  • Quality images. Visuals play a very important part of Instagram. If your images are not looking great, you will lose credibility, especially in the long run. Get a camera if your smartphone is not good enough.

Your account will grow faster if you follow these tips. And once you have a hefty number of followers, you can move on to the monetization.

https://unsplash.com/photos/tMI2_-r5Nfo

Writing a Blog

Not a conventional method, but quite a few bloggers have moved on from a standard website blogging to Instagram. This behavior suggests that finding an audience here is easier. Even more so if you prefer to show off pictures instead of writing walls of text. 

Monetizing a blog is pretty easy as well. You can promote other people’s products by mentioning them in your posts, or redirect your readers to an online store.

Influencing

Top influencers make thousands of dollars by posting a simple picture with themselves and a product.

Becoming an influencer is a lot of work, but not out of your reach. If you have a decent strategy and are willing to work towards this goal, it should become a reality sooner or later.

Dropshipping

Similar to blogging, a lot of entrepreneurs are finding Instagram to be another great channel of increasing sales. Since the audience which comes from organic traffic and social media is different, it is not that surprising to see such a behavior.

It does not mean that you need to have a website to start dropshipping. Instagram by itself is more than enough. Just make sure to not run out of content to post.

Affiliate Marketing

Putting shortened links in your posts and bio can bring money if you can convince your followers to click the link and make a purchase.

Affiliate marketing is different from influencing because your goal is to make a sale rather than try and raise brand awareness. Therefore, the words you use in posts will also change. Read this guide on affiliate marketing to make the most out of it.

Grow and Sell Accounts 

After you get more experience with growing Instagram accounts, you can easily make a business out of it. A lot of people have no patience themselves and are looking to cut corners.

The internet is full of people who are willing to buy an account which already has thousands of followers. Try researching which niches are high in demand, and build a few accounts for sale.

Instagram Marketing

All those Instagram models in pictures are definitely not the ones who write the posts or edit videos. There is someone else behind it, and if you can learn Instagram marketing, that person could be you.

Showcase Your Products

There should be plenty of individuals who would be happy to purchase your products if you have a talent for creating something unique. A few of the most popular ideas would be:

  • High-quality pictures which could be used for promotional posters;
  • Handmade accessories or jewelry;
  • Custom-made phone cases, t-shirts, calendars.

Even a single post with something truly spectacular could create a snowball effect and give you more than enough customers for the future.

In summary, Instagram certainly creates more than enough opportunities for those who are willing to give it a try. Instead of hesitating, put these doubts aside and start. Even if you set extremely low expectations at first, you can build on from that to a point where making money becomes the easiest thing ever.

Digital Branding

How to Maximize Your Instagram Ads Strategy To Boost Your ROI Fast

Instagram is massive right now. Do you how huge is it these days?

Well, in 2019, IG’s ad revenue is set to hit a staggering 10.8 billion dollars. The platform generates that kind of revenue because they have over 2 million active advertisers.

Amazing, right?

So, what’s up with all the Instagram-mania? Instagram’s visually focused nature is a fantastic platform for brands who want to showcase their products and services. On the plus side, millions of Instagram users are actively seeking out brands that deliver the most visually stimulating experience.

So, how do you ensure that you maximize the platform? We’re breaking it up to five effective tactics on how you can maximize your ads strategy to boost your ROI, setting you off to the right direction in no time.

https://pixabay.com/photos/instagram-social-media-web-pages-1519537/

Research your customer interests

One of the first things that you should add on your list when developing a strategy is your target audience research. For you to be able to maximize Instagram’s greatness to the full, you need to start by knowing your audience first. Gaining valuable insight into their interests, preferences, and other behaviors pave the way to creating a successful Instagram strategy.

Think of your buyer’s persona. What’s the typical profile of an average customer that you want you market your products to? Then, check your Instagram demographics. By knowing key statistics such as age, gender, and their location, you’ll get your content out to your target audience using that data.

Deliver the type of material that most of your audience can relate to. Doing so shows that you care about the same things and have the same interests as your followers.

Leverage user-generated content

User-generated content, also known as UGC, is any form of content that’s created by users or past customers about a specific product or brand. The authenticity it creates makes the user one of the brand’s advertisers as well.

In a survey, almost 76% of individuals say that they trust a content more if ‘average’ people share it compared to a traditional advertisement. There’s no doubt that a vast majority of people believe the recommendations of others more.

UGC generates more engagement on Instagram and is critical to the success of brands in the platform. As more and more users engage in your material, your posts will be prioritized. As a result, more people will stumble upon your content on the Explore tab.

Building relationships with customers

Social media is here to stay, and it’s incredibly crucial that you build and foster relationships online, as it is in real life. According to VoyMedia, “By building meaningful relationships with your customers, they’ll eventually turn into the most loyal followers, sharing your products and services to their circle and other communities.”

So, you need to identify what your customers value about your products and services, as well as in their life. Actively engage with your followers, so that people will feel that they have someone whom they can personally talk to, or have a connection with.

Unlock the power of Instagram carousel

Until much recently, Instagram allowed users to post multiple images in a single post. These are known as image ‘carousels.’ Ever since it was released, brands and businesses are thinking of creative ways to incorporate them in their ad marketing strategy.

 

So, if you’re launching a new product or service, it’s an excellent way to drive your audience’s interest, and ultimately, sales.

What’s more, you can also incorporate photos with videos on your Instagram carousel to promote various campaigns. As you know, videos can covey extensive information in just a short amount of time. Therefore, it’s a great way to share product photos without saturating your feed or being over promotional about it.

Use the right hashtags

Why are hashtags so important? Well, they make your content a lot more discoverable and puts you in front of new users. But the challenge is finding the right amount of balance when it comes to choosing specific hashtags in your account.

Knowing the right hashtags to implement is essential. Study your competitors and other top influencers in the platform to find the best hashtags that work out for you. Find the ones that are relevant and trending. Also, get familiar with Instagram’s lingo and scour for evergreen hashtags. Making all of these a habit is vital.

Understand your CTA

Call-to-Action also known as CTAs, play a crucial role in directing people what to do next. Through CTAs, you can ask people to buy your product, get in touch with you, or visit your site.

 

However, not all of them are created equal. The key here is to be as creative as possible to encourage people to take action. Tease your followers, make them understand why they need your product, and help persuade customers to take action by using active language.

Additionally, injecting a sense of urgency will make your customers feel like they’re missing out if they don’t make immediate action. CTAs like ‘for a limited time only’ or ‘available to the first 150 customers’ never fail to work its magic.

Measure what’s important

Now that you have a good idea of what type of content you’ll be creating, you have to deal with metrics to help you track things. Measure the performance of your posts, as you find the ones that drive the most engagement.

 

As your numbers grow on Instagram, it makes sense to start checking the numbers and watch how it progresses. Tracking your Instagram metrics will give you insight with what’s working for your business to help your business and brand grow.

To wrap it up

There are a lot of opportunities to make your business flourish in the world of Instagram marketing.  The good news is when it comes to boosting your ROI, you don’t need to have millions of followers. All you need to have is to develop a solid Instagram marketing strategy that helps connect your audience on a meaningful level as you meet their needs.