The DreamPix Studio

Should you follow your competition on Social Media?

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I have often been asked this question and my answer is an undeniable “yes”. It is beneficial to follow your competition a variety of reasons. I do it myself all the time.

Why should you follow your competitors?

  • It allows you to stay abreast of what’s going on in the industry. Your competitor‘s thoughts may be beneficial to your own business.
  • Their ideas will help with your own creative brainstorming sparking new ideas.
  • Participation allows you to be a part of the larger conversation. It’s all about becoming an authority in your field.
  • It is an opportunity to learn – see what works for your competition and what doesn’t and apply that knowledge to your own business.

The biggest question is whether you should follow them opening or secretly. I prefer an open and honest approach. There is plenty of business to go around and there are benefits to getting to know your competitors and mutually sharing information. The secret approach allows businesses to “steal” ideas and even disgruntled customers. There is no harm in getting great ideas from others and staying informed keeps us at our competitive best.

Why is Instagram so great for brands?

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When I first heard about Instagram, I cringed at the thought of learning yet another social media platform. That is until I saw the storyboard of my twenty-year-old pelicanson, and then I understood the craze. Instagram is a way to instantly document the special little moments in daily life and share them with your family and friends. Using his phone it was easy for my son to snap a photo of the green eggs and ham waffle sandwich that he had just ordered, the crazies on Venus Beach, or the pelican that sat down beside his girlfriend on Huntington pier.

In another time, these memories might have been lost as we didn’t have a camera in our hand 24-7. Thanks to smartphones we can savior the little things in life. Among the other pluses of Instagram:

  • The app integrates well with Facebook.
  • It has the capability of creating short video clips.
  • You can follow your friends and see what they are up to.
  • It’s hashtag friendly.

How does it benefit brands?

If a picture is worth a thousand words then Instagram should be the social media vehicle of choice for brands in the apparel, entertainment, and food industry who are trying to reach those under the age of 35. Instagram users are not just sharing selfies but they are posting photos of food, favorite stores, clothing, jewelry, sporting events, and more. It is essentially free advertising. Try it, You’ll like it!

LinkedIn as a Blogging Tool

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LinkedIn is a great vehicle to increase exposure to your website, content, and brand message. I’m referring to blog posts, videos, podcasts, webinars, white papers, and the like that have a business slant. In fact, LinkedIn has a convenient publishing platform that will allow users to either link a feed to your LinkedIn profile or create a post. It is a terrific way to increase your visibility and improve your professional brand. When a member publishes a post on LinkedIn, the information becomes part of their professional profile and is shared with their network. Why not take advantage of the opportunity to share with your connections? Isn’t that what networking is all about?

Four Keys to Effective Social Media

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Tools

Most small businesses that are just getting their feet wet using social media are unable to effectively market themselves on multiple platforms. It is best to embrace a select few and do it well rather than to jump on the social media bandwagon and be left speechless. The three most effective social media tools for small business owners are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. While each has a different style these platforms are powerful enough to build a solid social foundation for any business before they expand into other social media outlets such as Pinterest and Vine.

Time

be sure to schedule the time to work on Social Media. Whether it is a block of time once, twice or three times a week it is the most effective way to approach this very necessary task.

Timing

The timing of posts is crucial to effective social media marketing. Research shows that just before or after the hours, around meal times and Tuesdays and Thursdays are the prime posting times. There are business-specific preferences that should also be considered such as weekend postings for restaurants and bars.

Topics

Social media platforms are not an opportunity for brands to talk about themselves. In fact, 85% of the chatter should be about topics that are fun, timely or valuable. Like a good dinner guest, it is impolite to monopolize the conversation talking about oneself.

Becoming an Expert in your Field

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inthenews_snowIf you want to grow your business it is imperative to become an authority in your field. In my industry that is best done through content marketing. By regularly making blog posts, engaging in social media, and utilizing email marketing to spread the good word about your brand, product, or industry. While there may be industries where this technique does not work as well, most businesses with a product or a service will find it to be a win, win scenario.

I have a roofing client who is ever diligent about his web presence. In late October we began focusing on the hazards of New England weather as it relates to the roofing industry. We made a blog and social media posts on ice dam prevention and preparing gutters for winter weather as well as other useful tips, like using a roofing cart to transport tools and materials up onto the roof when a repair needs to be done. The excessive snowfall and recent publicity surrounding roof collapses have sent the news media, home, and business owners to the internet in search of an expert on roof snow load and ice dams. Guess who came to the top of search engine results? The online marketing effort has paid off ten-fold. While my client has received more phone calls than they can handle and the hits on the website are so high that the server has crashed, we have attained our 15 minutes of fame and have succeeded in our mission to become the go-to authority in the roofing industry.

Measuring the Results of Social Media

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Proving the value of social media is one of the more difficult tasks that I have as an online marketer. The two questions that I am asked most often by clients are, “What is the best way for me to engage my audience on social media?” and “How can I measure the results of social media marketing?” As I muddle my way through an explanation that includes some of the buzz words like “reach” and “impressions”, I am somewhat comforted by the fact that even large companies struggle to define the return of their investment in social media.

Those businesses that are most vested in social media measure their success with two measurements, “reach” and “resonance”. Reach is defined as the number of unique people who see a post when it appears in a news feed. Impressions, on the other hand, are the number of times a post from a page is actually displayed. The number of impressions is likely to surpass the number reached as one person may see the same post multiple times.

Resonance measures engagement – the number of comments, likes, and shares that a post receives. Most businesses engage in social media in an attempt to build brand awareness and customer loyalty. However, both “reach” and “resonance” can be analyzed and used to drive traffic to the company website and ultimately help them to reach sales and marketing goals.