As we approach the end of the year and prepare for Christmas, we are also looking forward to the start of a brand new year. In this fast paced environment of social media marketing we can already predict many of the changes and trends that are likely to take place in 2019. With this in mind, it is important that you start to look at your 2019 social media strategy to ensure that you are ahead of the game. Some elements to consider are:
Keeping up with social media
Big changes coming to Facebook’s messaging platform
As of the 1st January 2019, Facebook Pages will need to be successfully approved for subscription messaging permissions if not, they won’t be able to send the free messaging type called ‘non-promotional subscription messaging’.
If you’re a Page admin you need to read this.
The type of content you upload
As above, the battle to be seen amongst the vast array of competitor content means that you have to make your own content stand out. Careful consideration should be given to the sort of content you’re posting and its relevance. Your content should be a rich mixture of video, live streaming and info graphics. Text heavy updates will simply not be enough when it comes to your social media strategy!
Taking advantage of new platform features such as Facebook ‘Watch Party’
It’s official! Facebook Watch Party has been officially launched! It’s a new feature for groups that allows admins to hold a live screening of pre-recorded videos that are publicly available on Facebook. Group members can watch and comment on the videos at the same time to create a shared viewing experience.
Changing demographics
When considering your marketing plan you should take into account who your target audience is. Think about the varying understanding of technology, contact preferences and tome of voice that might best appeal to each demographic. For example, graduates, teenage consumers and the ageing population means people of an older age that might not have been targeted previously should now be included in any marketing strategy.
Deciding which platform serves what purpose and how you can take full advantage
So, we now know that Facebook is looking more towards video as I have mentioned above, and LinkedIn has launched changes to Company pages so where does Twitter fit in? Twitter has announced a relatively small, but significant update, which now means that advertisers using the platform’s in-stream video ads will be able to reach a global audience with their ad content, as opposed to being region-restricted. Twitter has also announced a new update to its ‘Explore’ section which splits the latest news into sections, helping to improve relevant content discovery. Twitter is more associated to real-time content, so it might prove more beneficial to users who are looking to keep up with the latest news and events.
I hope my latest blog has given you some ideas for your 2019 social media strategy? Make sure you’re ahead of the game by using the above points to help inform your strategy or you can sign up to our monthly newsletter here.
Should you need any further assistance don’t hesitate to get in touch and my team and I can help draft a bespoke plan that will ensure your brand is on top in 2019.
By Ann Davies, Director
LinkedIn have recently launched their next generation of LinkedIn Company Pages which, they say, have been rebuilt from the ground up to make it easier for companies like yours to adopt constructive conversations with LinkedIn’s community of more than 590 million members. Click here to find out why these changes should matter to you. Why should you encourage your employees to be brand advocates?
Your LinkedIn company page will often be among the first place where prospective clients will visit to learn more about your business. Content has 2 x higher engagement when shared by employees and on average, your employees have a network that is 10 times larger than your company’s follower base.*
My team and I support companies as an outsourced service managing their LinkedIn marketing strategy. If you manage your company’s LinkedIn company page strategy, here’s my top tips on how to encourage your LinkedIn employee brand advocates:
💡 Define your social media policy, explaining what is okay for your team to share and what is not okay. By offering some guidelines will help them feel more confident in sharing your aims and objectives.
💡 Do not assume your employees know how to use LinkedIn. Offer training as some will be more active and knowledgeable than others.
💡 Get everyone engaged by setting set up a LinkedIn engagement pod or a WhatsApp group. We use WhatsApp and have seen this work extremely well.
💡 Encourage everyone by asking for news such as birthdays, work anniversaries, team news, projects they are working on, in fact anything which is relevant, including videos for those confident in doing so. Featuring employees giving an insight into your culture offers a look into the brand’s people and personality and LinkedIn pages are a great way to reflect this, especially if you are recruiting.
💡 Celebrate new business wins, client reviews, together with any PR coverage, any good news story alongside nicely designed, branded imagery. Striking visuals are key to separating your page from your competitors.
💡 Position yourselves as a thought leader by posting useful content that positions your brand as an authority in its industry.
💡 Consistently monitor employee engagement for maximum effect. Ways you can do this are by identifying Company Page metrics, measuring success such as the number of employees participating, the reach of your messaging; shares, likes, comments, new followers and click-through-rates (CTR).
💡 I would also add that you may want to consider an incentive by offering a prize for team member of the month/quarter in terms of how much they have engaged.
💡 Evaluate what is working, what isn’t and make the necessary changes to improve. Any form of marketing should be treated with a ‘test and measure’ approach and feedback from your employees will also play a crucial role in your plan.
I hope that you have enjoyed reading my tips for encouraging LinkedIn Employee Brand Advocates in your organisation. If you would like to discuss your future social media requirements, bespoke to your company, please contact me on 07752 539719 or 0161 826 7181 or email info@bizwizuk.co.uk.
By Ann Davies, Director
* https://www.LinkedIn.com
As we approach the end of the year and prepare for Christmas, we are also looking forward to the start of a brand new year. In the fast paced environment of digital marketing, we can already predict many of the changes and trends that are likely to take place in 2018 and what related actions businesses should take maximise return on their marketing efforts. Therefore, it is important that businesses start to look at their 2018 marketing strategy to ensure that they are ahead of the game and some elements to consider are as follows:
Keeping up
Live streaming is the new must for any Facebook for business user. Facebook are currently trialling their ‘Explore’ feature which, if rolled out to all users, will see Pages content be filtered into that space making way for Facebook to introduce it’s new video feature (which is said to be a big contender for the likes of Netflix and YouTube!). These new features mean that the organic reach that we have become accustomed to will soon be no more so it is more important than ever to use video, live streaming and paid advertising to get your brand noticed.
Type of content?
As above, the battle to be seen amongst the vast array of competitor content means that you have to make your own content stand out. Careful consideration should be given to the sort of content you’re posting together with its relevance. Your content should be a rich mixture of video, live streaming and infographics. Text heavy updates will simply not cut it in this evolving media-centric arena. There are some great examples at SproutSocial.
Take advantage of new features
Instagram Stories and live streaming are great features for business. Your story appears at the top of your followers’ feed as soon as they open the app and will play automatically after the previous story has finished. This means that your content can escape all the noise of the full feed and get more exposure. If a follower has notifications turned on they will be notified whenever you upload a video or go live – this is a great opportunity that should not be ignored!
Changing demographics
When considering your marketing plan you should take into account who your target audience is. Each new year sees a new cohort of university graduates, teenage consumers, and the ageing population means people of an older age who might not have been targeted previously, should now be included in any marketing strategy. Think about the varying understanding of technology, contact preferences and language that might best appeal to each demographic.
Which platform serves what purpose?
So we now know that Facebook is looking more towards video, Instagram photography and graphics and LinkedIn is still holding the fort for business related content; so where does Twitter fit in? Unless directly mentioned in a post, it is unlikely that followers will see your content. One successful strategy for Twitter is to use it as a customer services platform. Direct your customers to your Twitter to ask any questions about products and services or to give feedback. This can present challenges where complaints are concerned but as long as your appointed Twitter manager is friendly and helpful without sounding like an automated bot, using Twitter this way could be hugely successful for your brand.
Make sure you’re ahead of the game by using the above points to help inform your strategy. Should you need any further assistance don’t hesitate to get in touch and we can help write a bespoke plan that will ensure your brand is on top in 2018.
By Erran Taylor, Digital Marketing Manager
A good marketing plan should define how you are going to market your products or services. It should also include your aims and objectives and how you are going to implement them.
However, a marketing plancan be very wide-ranging and can include anything from a 10-year vision to how to increase sales in one product or service over the next two years.
With that in mind, here’s our guide to help you start your very own marketing plan.
What should your marketing plan achieve?
Your plan will rest on where you want your business to go and forms part of your overall business aims and here’s some examples of what these might be and strategies you could use:
Here’s our step-by-step tips:
Research
Carry out detailed analysis of your company, your market, and your competitors.
Identify your target customers and segment them by splitting into groups such as existing and target customers.
Examine your products or services with the objective of how you are going to market them such as:
Finally, how you are going to communicate the benefits of buying your products or service to your target customers?
Whatever your marketing plan, you should write it down:
We hope our tips have given you some ideas for your 2018 plan? However, if you would like further information about how we can help support your future business plans, please contact us.
By Ann Davies, Director and Erran Taylor, Digital Marketing Manager