Sep 192013
 

 internet-web

The great thing about content marketing is that businesses — big and small — can get started and become part of the conversation. They can make true connections with consumers and, more importantly, drive sales and leads for their products and services.

Anyone can get started without spending a penny, and great content produces long-term results. I’ve seen marketers bring in tons of business from articles written years ago. The only things you need are commitment and drive to build a content marketing strategy.

Still, it takes a long time to create content. There is no sense in creating great content to use only once and never see it again. Recycling content makes it easier to supply all the different channels you have to fill on a daily basis. I’m using the term recycle and not reuse. With recycling, you’ll be taking existing content and adding to it to create something slightly new. For SEO reasons, you don’t always want to reuse the same content everywhere — that’s duplicate content and you can get a penalty for it.

Here are tips for recycling content.

MORE:  Simple ways to recycle your content – iMediaConnection.com.

 

 


 

Jul 242013
 

seedling-growth_business

Laurence McCahill from digital product specialists Spook Studio highlights some common early-stage pitfalls, with some guidance on how you can avoid them

1. No clear vision or purpose

This should be the starting point for any startup founder, but it’s often overlooked. Too often people dive straight into their shiny solution ideas without thinking about why they’re doing what they’re doing or considering the change they want to see in the world.

Without a clear purpose, a startup can meander along without much momentum. And when things get tough which they inevitably will, you wont have much to pull you or your team through. Having a clear purpose adds some real meaning to your work, and a cause that people can rally around. It can also give your brand real weight as it has a reason for being, so it’s worth spending time shaping and articulating this. Here are two examples. Notice there’s no mention of a product anywhere:

“To be the pulse of the planet” —Twitter

“To be the earth’s most customer-centric company” —Amazon

MORE10 startup mistakes and how to avoid them | Feature | .net magazine.

 

 


 

Jun 032013
 

 facebook

We’ve put together some useful tips on how to create your first Facebook advertising campaign.

If you are a brand that’s new to Facebook advertising, the first thing you’ll need to do is open a business account.

Note: This process is a bit different than opening a private Facebook account and is used solely for business purposes. You can create a business account even if you don’t have a personal Facebook account. To get started, first you need to create a Facebook Page.

Business accounts:

Accounts are not publicly available

Accounts do not have individual profiles

Are used to manage Pages and ad campaigns

First steps:

Create a business account by visiting this link

Once there, choose from six classifications that best suit your business

MORE:   Getting Started: How to Create your First Facebook Ad Campaign

 

 


 

May 282013
 

 facebook

Marketers at Vistaprint, Dove and Nissan will have been very busy recently. All three have fallen victim to advertising appearing next to compromising content on Facebook. The companies found their collateral next to materials supporting and making light of domestic abuse which has led to a customer backlash and severe criticism in the media.

Both companies were quick to respond to the issue, with Vistaprint posting an explanation on their Facebook page, and Nissan on their Twitter feed. While Dove hasn’t replied on either platform, it’s written to campaigners to apologise. However, the fundamental problem with the Facebook platform is that it targets individuals and not the content of each of the pages where the adverts land. Because of what might be totally innocent searches of Facebook or page ‘Likes’, adverts can then appear on pages which have the worst kind of content on them. And according to Facebook’s own rules, it’s up to users to self-regulate the site. There are no protective measures in place for brands.

All of this comes at a time when the pressure group the Everyday Sexism Project has been challenging brands to better manage where their advertising appears. The group wants companies to introduce stricter practices to help prevent against them appearing to support such material.

MORE:   Vistaprint’s Facebook fail just the tip of the iceberg « iMediaConnection Blog.

 

 


 

May 212013
 

 facebook

Since the beginning of last year, we’ve seen a steady increase in the number of ad placements and supported platforms available to advertisers on Facebook. Now, knowing what options you have at your disposal is more important than ever!

Facebook took improvements in ad space pretty seriously and implementing these changes proved to be a successful – Facebook’s mobile efforts, in particular, are starting to achieve impressive results.

During the first quarter of 2013, 30% of Facebook’s ad revenue came from mobile devices, rising from 23% during the previous quarter and 14% the quarter before that. In the first quarter of 2012, Facebook mobile constituted 0% of its total revenue. The company has also begun focusing more on ads in the News Feed, opening up a lot of opportunities for advertisers.

Ad Placement Options

Currently, there are six different ad placements available to advertisers:

Homepage

All Facebook

News Feed (desktop, mobile)

Typeahead

Logout Page (available only through Facebook IO)

MORE:   Know Your Place! Where to Put Ads on Facebook | Social Media Statistics & Metrics | Socialbakers.

 

 


 

May 212013
 

Facebook is maturing as an ad platform, but are brands really seeing ROI? Here’s a case study that examines the true potential of this social network.

When Southeast Toyota Distributors decided to focus ad spend on Facebook, it didnt guarantee dealerships that sales would rise. However, after launching several local Facebook campaigns, revenue with a Facebook footprint started to pour in.

 

MORE:  Do Facebook ads work? – iMediaConnection.com.

 

 


 

May 152013
 

 Gutenberg_Bible

If only all brands made such contemporary and edgy digital content. Unfortunately, they don’t.

No doubt, digital drek is common, but fear not! If brands avoid these seven deadly sins of digital — which are as annoying as 10 straight head-on ads and as passé as an Avril Lavigne concert — they’ll be well on their way to success.

Corporate tone on social media

Kudos to companies like Kraft and Lowe’s that engage consumers with two-way conversations and social media teams. Both understand social media is not about posting $2 off coupons for cheese or lawn chairs that you have to buy right this minute. They post items that engage consumers and humanize their brand by acting like normal people and less like a car sale at the end of the month. It’s less about “sell, sell, sell” and more about “hello, hello, hello.”

MORE: The 7 deadly sins of digital marketing – iMediaConnection.com.

 

 

 

May 132013
 

instagram-logo-11

About 67 percent of Interbrands Top 100 Brands use Instagram, according to a recent study by Simply Measured.

Interbrands Top 100 ranks the top global brands each year. Brands in the top 100 include Starbucks, Nike, and MTV. According to Simply Measured, those three brands also have over one million Instagram followers.

The study found that Nike was the most popular brand to use Instagram. Simply Measured found the firm had 1,315,051 followers. Nikes followers reportedly grew over 50 percent on a quarter-by-quarter basis.

MTV was the second most popular brand to use Instagram. The study found that MTV had 1,290,237 followers. The music channels followers reportedly jumped 13 percent quarter-over-quarter.

Starbucks came in third for most popular brand on Instagram. Simply Measured found that the coffee shop had 1,205,752 Instagram followers. On a quarter-over-quarter basis the brands amount of followers grew 12 percent.

Simply Measured reported that Instagrams integration with Facebook has led it to gain ground on competing social networks. According to the study, brands on Instagram have more followers than those on Pinterest.

MORE: Study: Major Brands Cling to Instagram | ClickZ.

 

 


 

Mar 142013
 

 pinterest-logo

Pinterest has launched Pinterest Web Analytics, a tool that allows profiles with verified websites to see what Pinterest users are pinning from their sites and, as a walkthrough video puts it, understand where those pins are going.

That means brands with verified accounts like Honda, McDonald’s, and Walmart can see how Pinterest users organize and share their content on the network and learn more about how those users want to incorporate the content into their lives, Pinterest says.

“Bloggers, businesses, and organizations often ask us, ‘What are people pinning from my websites?'” Pinterest Software Engineer Tao Tao writes in a blog post announcing the tool. “These website owners help create the content on Pinterest and we wanted to help them understand which pieces of content people find most interesting.”

Web Analytics features include how many people have pinned from a brand’s site, how many people have seen the pins, and how many people have visited the brand’s site from Pinterest.

The Analytics page also has tabs for Most Repinned, Most Clicked, and Most Recent Pins. The blog post says this will give brands a better idea of what’s popular.

READ MORE:  Pinterest Adds Analytics for Verified Websites | ClickZ.

 

 


 

Mar 142013
 

page-er-jan2013-graph

Do you now how to measure your Engagement Rate? It´s an important social media metric that expresses how successful you are in engaging your audience within a social network.

It´s also a key performance indicator that has a direct impact on reach, as proven here, and drives the conversion of your fans to paying customers. We monitored the average Engagement Rates of Facebook Pages of different sizes and industries for a whole year, beginning from January 2012 to the end of January 2013, and reached the following conclusion: the more fans you have, the more challenging it gets to engage and reach more Facebook users. It´s only natural that engaging a larger fan base is more difficult, as it sets higher demands on the quality of the content – you need more people to Like, Comment on, and Share your posts in order to be successful.

READ MORE:  Is Your Business Benchmarking its Engagement Rate