The year 2014 saw a great deal of milestones in the number of smartphones adopted along with innovation done to mobile technology. This 2015 is set to be another important year for social media networking and to specially watch closely how companies utilize it to reach their potential. Areas to focus on strongly to better leverage conversions from visitors include having a very up-to-date blog that offers industry advice, a mobile-friendly website and a clear social media strategy.
So if you are marketer, blogger, analyst, writer, expert or any other professional the blog you manage needs to offer the latest and best information your industry has to offer. Secondly, there is an old saying that content is king and design is queen. So try to find a design that really sticks with your visitor’s exquisite tastes and don’t forget that any piece of content posted on a blog is meant to trigger an emotional response. Once you are able to create that effect you are well on your way to generating more than just potential leads.
Separately, publishers are also using social media networking by constantly looking, digging, searching, researching, testing and executing technologies that can potentially be the next successful business model. Social media networking platforms or social networks are the answer to targeting specific audiences. It is why there is such a heavy emphasis and plenty of how-to articles on the web explaining the importance producing content that does more than sell.
Monetizing a website is a challenge, yet companies carefully developing these technologies are fulfilling the needs of brands or publishers to accurately reach their customers.
As an example, Trendemon, is blog optimization platform that aims to increase website’s traffic and earnings through identifying the pages in your sites that yield the best ROI. Then, Trendemon presents your readership with those pages and syncs it with content discovery platforms for further monetization and engagement.
Looking at other competitors in your field is another good way to gaining insight into what is working for them. Analyze thoroughly what sort of content they are distributing to the masses and how are they tailoring it to each individual social media service they currently use. Remember to have a clear vision of what your products and services are designed to do. The last thing you want is throwing yourself at the wolves and be fully unprepared.
Social media practices for greater traffic and engagement
To kick off a successful year one must continually learn the game of social media marketing and really not waste any precious time. A Visual.ly infographic best summarizes in ten steps what you should do to succeed:
- More visuals
- Create content
- Engage users
- Find your time
- Test social ads
- Make it move
- Hashtag right
- Optimize your posts
- Post 80/20
- Master mobile
Good quality content has to be the sort of standard you want to make available to those reading your blog. Nevertheless, just a piece of text by itself on a webpage without any images or illustrations loses a lot of sway and interest with the communities online. When you accompany a powerful image and anchor the relevant text the results the majority of the time will tend to be higher in website traffic and engagement. So learn to include great visuals with any content you post or publish online.
Social media is never about you and what you are doing personally. It is about the needs and concerns of users. So share meaningful guides that resonates with audiences.
Automation is a great tool to have and to use on social media. But too much of it can make you seem less human and more of an annoying sales robot. So automate some processes but be mindful of the best times to post and not every social network works exactly the same way. The times when is best to share content are all going to vary for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google Plus, etc.
Social ads are the next frontier for advertising and marketing. Still in its early stages social commerce is becoming an incredible source of business for online retailers, so check out Twitter’s ads or Pinterest’s promoted pins to see how you can add additional customers via these services.
Video is a big part of raising brand awareness and we all love entertaining footage. So learn to take advantage of auto play videos on Facebook and Instagram. Featuring an expert from your company really humanizes the products and services they promote. Using YouTube is a great choice however Facebook’s native video is presenting a formidable challenge to Google’s video streaming website. According to a Socialbakers post, brands are at the present time are increasingly uploading more videos to Facebook directly bypassing all other streaming competitors.
Hashtags are useful and help raise awareness on any given topic for others to join in on the conversation. Practically most social networking companies have it enabled, so learn to use them in the right amount and do not excessively abuse this feature.
Optimizing your posts will be make such a valuable impact and difference. You cannot streamline your strategies in an identical matter for all the platforms. Because the results will be little to no engagement at the end of the day. It is about creating a dialogue and not boasting about yourself. Doing a bit of self-promotion does not always work unless you are a well-known celebrity. So post 80 percent of content that is useful for others and the remaining percentage about yourself.
Social media at its core is about creating meaningful relationships between the company and its targeted audience. The narrative has to be about delivering an impeccable experience with almost every interaction you have with users on the web.
Have a clear mobile strategy and crowdsource your blog
So if you have not immersed your business around the mobile sphere it is not too late to start even in 2015. But do not take the mobile space as some sort of a new trend because the number of users with a smartphone are astronomical.
According to an eMarketer post, the company estimated that usage of these multi-functional phones would grow to 25 percent around the globe in 2014. In addition, towards the end of the same year exactly 1.76 billion people had acquired and used a handheld device.
So for 2015 what can we expect from mobile? According to a Marketingland.com analysis it found these five possible trends:
- Mobile security becomes critical
- Smart things and wearables move beyond thermostats or Fitbits
- Retailers and other brands go back to basics for mobile web
- Mobile payments go big
- Smarter smartphones and data move from silos to integrated
These trends will be carefully monitored throughout every quarter and will see how they evolve. This year is set to be another innovative one.
The area that will need stressing and emphasizing once again is what kind of content goes into a blog. Four examples to take into consideration for how to crowdsource blog content or ideas to takeaway from Business 2 Community are the following:
- Leverage comments
- Ask for feedback with surveys and polls
- Work with industry influencers
- Take full advantage of social media
Out of these four the examples to pay extra attention to include possibly reaching out and networking with industry experts. You will learn a whole new set of things along with industry knowledge. Don’t act shy and be willing to work with outsiders. You may be surprised that upon you approaching a company or expert in any given field that they may take you up on an offer to work collectively on a shared venture for the benefit of all the parties involved.
Finally, as you may have guessed by now take advantage of what social media brings to the business game. It is one of the most dominant activities carried out today and considered unofficially the sixth continent. Why? The reason is simply because of the billions and not millions of users registered on social networks. So grab a computer or smartphone of your liking and get off on the right foot for a successful 2015!
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