Like Video, Social Media, and Mobile to Acquire New Customers and Dominate Their Markets

The “New” New Media

What’s new today is the norm tomorrow and yet, after nearly 10 years of increasing relevance, social media, video marketing, and mobile phone ubiquity are still being “discovered” by SMBs.

What we call “new” media is becoming the industry standard, and so many businesses that long put off investing their advertising dollars here are piling on.

Click Here to Download This Special Report

And yet without a clear plan that takes into account your audience, your Identity, and the benefits only you can offer, that content becomes generic.

Much as many SMB businesses fail to move beyond empty platitudes that a strategic marketing plan will move away from (things like “we’re the best, customer focused, and industry leaders” which can’t be proven), the same generic content is flooding company blogs, Facebook Pages, YouTube Channels, and Twitter feeds.

If you want to stand out, you need to do something different. You need to be innovative and different in ways that are valuable to your customers and prospects.

More important than any of that, though, you need to do things that speak to your audience, no one else’s.

In the following pages, we will take a closer look at how these new marketing platforms can be used effectively to drive targeted traffic to your campaigns – targeted in a way that is unique to you and that builds relationships.

The “new” in new media is not the platform, but the medium – in this case your audience. When an individual can become a viewer, collaborator, and broadcast platform all at once to share your message with their friends, everything changes. Let’s look at how that happens.

Bicycle Company Increases Sales by $500,000 with Facebook

It’s one of the first things most SMB businesses do when creating an online presence – they create a Facebook Page.

But simply having a Facebook Page is not enough, as many find out quickly. There are many challenges. You need to generate Likes and then entice people to comment on and Like individual posts, and ideally to share those posts with their friends.

And even with so many metrics for success – Likes, comments, shares, and total page views – there is the issue of an actual return on investment, something that is not immediately clear with a social platform like Facebook.

For a lot of SMB business owners, this means hours per week spent trying to drive engagement and minimal results for that time investment. Yet, when you properly understand your audience, everything becomes much easier.

Facebook Fan Page Strategies

There are three factors to understand when running a Facebook Page:

1. It is not a broadcast platform
2. Your audience is your medium
3. Value is paramount to results

At any time, a single post can create a new relationship that can lead dozens or even hundreds of people to that Fan Page.

So it is vitally important to understand who your target audience is and what they are most likely to read and engage with.

To understand who is reading, commenting and engaging, you must watch the following:

• Insights – Facebook provides Insights, a service for you to see who is viewing your posts, interacting with them, etc. It becomes available when you have 50+ likes.
• Respond to Comments – When you receive a comment, do three things. Respond right away, make a note in a spreadsheet, and check if that person commented previously. The goal is to see within 1-2 months what triggers comments and who leaves them.
• Test Like Triggers – If a photo gets twice as many likes as any other type of post, put up more photos. But more importantly, check to see who is liking and if they engage elsewhere.

Strategic Use of Facebook Promoted Posts

Advertising is a major component of any social platform, but it doesn’t work like, say Google AdWords. Try selling something on Facebook and your results will be less than stellar.

For example, an Arizona bicycle company, State Bicycle Co. was able to increase sales by $500,000 almost exclusively from Facebook using a number of very simple strategies and targeted ad spend.

With smart ad targeting that looked at popular music choices amongst its own staff and local customers, as well as very specific types of bicycles they sold, they were able to get their content in front of the people who wanted bicycles. At the same time, those ads used content, not offers, including frequent photo contests, a Facebook Friday coupon special for fans, and chances to see new products first.

The key is not saturation but targeting and it had major positive effects for State Bicycle Co., now becoming a nationally known brand with 80% lower CPC expenses and growth from 4,600 fans to nearly 50,000 in less than a year.

Best Types of Posts on Facebook

There are many types of Facebook Posts. Here are some of the most effective and why we like them:

• Photos and Captions – By far the most effective we’ve seen in any tests. People see photos and click the like button without thinking. And in about 50% of cases, they will also like the Page that posted it.
• Local Events – Anything that speaks directly to an audience is effective on Facebook. Events, whether you are organizing them or just sharing them are a great way to engage people.
• People in Action – Show your staff doing what they do best. These are the easiest photos to post because you probably have hundreds of them and they really resonate.
• Links to Useful Information – Share a helpful link or resource, whether it’s yours or from another site.
• Long Posts on Facebook – Most people link to blog posts, but consider writing a long post just for Facebook. The original content ranks better in Newsfeed algorithms and people are more likely to read it than you might think.
• Comments and Replies – This is a hugely powerful form of content. People are drawn to comments like moths to a flame. Use this wisely by replying to comments and fostering conversation.

The goal is to make people feel that they are a part of the community conversation. That takes specificity. Too general and you distance yourself from everyone in your audience. Make people feel as though you are talking directly to them and they are more likely to engage in turn.

Google’s Billion Dollar Experiment Paying Off

For decades there was a massive technology and cost gap between small and large companies.

To produce even 10 minutes of halfway decent video would cost thousands of dollars and then you would have to pay to distribute that content.

Today, you can purchase a professional quality camera for less than $500, edit in free software on your computer, and upload to YouTube in a single day. That’s not to understate the importance of technical skill, but anyone can access the tools needed to take advantage of one of the most powerful forms of new media – Internet video.

I’ve discussed this before – YouTube is not a good tool if you plan on embedding your videos on your website. It’s not as mobile friendly as some other options, it’s easy for users to get distracted from your video, and it can pull traffic away from your site. But if you are creating marketing tools and promotional videos or promos, YouTube can be immensely powerful as a marketing platform.

Casual is the New Professional

This is all about accessibility.

Quality is important, both in video and audio, but increasingly it is not only acceptable, but expected for videos to be more casual. Handheld videos of employees at work, a tripod shot of the owner talking shop, or even you in front of a webcam discussing hot topics in your industry – these all work.

Casual does not, however, mean low quality. It simply means laid back and accessible.

You don’t need to wear a suit and record in a $10,000/hour studio to get attention. You can wear a polo on a webcam and get the same attention if video quality and presentation is good.

Google+ Integration with YouTube

When creating a YouTube channel, you can (and should) connect a Google+ profile or page to your channel.

For a personal YouTube channel this is done automatically (if you have a profile on that Google account). For a brand channel, you are prompted to create a new Google+ Page, which I highly recommend.

Not only does this provide a more socially integrated way to share your videos and drive comments, it allows you to use the extremely powerful (and mobile friendly), Google+ Hangouts system.

Quickly becoming the preferred webinar-style broadcast tool for thought leaders, Hangouts are free, they automatically record and share to your YouTube account, and they can include other people (up to 8) or can be broadcast to a large audience using “On Air”.

Five Vital Features for a Winning YouTube Channel

In addition to connecting your YouTube channel to a Google+ account, you should create an attractive, easy to navigate Channel that will build a loyal following among your viewers. You can do this by:

1. Completing Your Profile – A YouTube channel has a cover, an avatar, an About page, featured links, and recommendation Channels to follow. Fill all of this out to provide a complete overview of what you offer and why it is of great value to your subscribers.
2. Connecting to Other Social Accounts – While Google+ integration is automated to a degree, be sure to attach your Facebook and Twitter accounts as well so that all videos are shared automatically with followers.
3. Organizing Your Videos – If you upload videos in a jumbled mess they can be hard to follow. Use playlists, tags, and headlines strategically to organize and present your videos in an easy to follow format.
4. Providing Clear and Concise Calls to Action – Every video should have a clear call to action. Whether it’s to learn more about your brand, visit your website (or a landing page on that site), subscribe, or watch another video on your Channel, take advantage of the time you have your viewers’ attention.
5. Create a Professional Quality Presentation – Again, the camera and mic don’t matter as much as the presentation. If you’re not comfortable on camera, find someone who is. You can even hire someone for less than $400 to give a professional quality presentation on behalf of your brand.

YouTube is powerful, accessible, affordable, and incredibly efficient when it comes to ranking in search engines.

It may not be ideal for all video sharing, but for those marketing videos that will get the word out about your company or brand, it is a must utilize tool.

How Not to Use Twitter, Courtesy of Kenneth Cole (reference their various blunders)

In 2011, as the government of Egypt was crumbling and millions of young people were protesting in the streets, Kenneth Cole posted this to their Twitter feed:

It was a crass attempt to take advantage of an emerging news story to capture eyeballs and drive traffic to their feed and in turn their products.

It of course backfired, because it was insensitive and ignored the fact that people were dying every day in those protests.

This is not the only company to have made a mistake like this. In fact, Twitter blunders are among the most frequent, public, and embarrassing moments for large companies.

There are a few reasons why.

1. Twitter Is About Speed and Timeliness
2. It Takes Only Seconds to Tweet
3. Multiple People Have Access to These Accounts

So when you have twenty or thirty interns all tweeting the first thing that pops into their head for a multi-national company, it’s bound to happen that occasionally, one of them says something crass and insensitive.

The problem is that no one knows who said it and thousands of people have instant access to that tweet. There is no editorial process because the most effective tweets are those that capitalize on the trends that matter right NOW – not eight hours ago.

And it’s exactly how you can stand out and provide something different and unique in your feed.

7 Twitter Rules that Ensure GOOD Attention

If you’re quick and smart about how you do it, your tweets can be in front of people when and where it matters. Here’s how:

1. Define Your Twitter Voice – Define a central voice and give one or two people control over it. Don’t allow multiple people to post just to fill that feed. Fewer posts with a single, consistent voice is better than more posts with no cohesive message.
2. Schedule X Amount of Tweets – Use a tool like HootSuite to schedule a certain number of tweets in advance. This provides breathing room for companies to find things worth posting instead of rushing to catch every piece of news they can.
3. Have a Damage Control Process in Place – If something goes wrong, have a plan in place for how to respond, what to say, and when to say it. Don’t let it fester and don’t try to delete and ignore it.
4. Tweet What Matters to Your Audience – If your audience is 18-35 year olds interested in entertainment news, sure you can make jokes about pop stars, but if you are targeting 55 year old business leaders, hijacking music news trends might backfire. Know your audience and create memes that stick in their minds.
5. News Jack Smartly – Which of course means news jacking should be done carefully. Don’t make the mistake Kenneth Cole did and try to take advantage of a story that has nothing to do with your products or services.
6. Test and Target Tweets – Every audience is different so test different types of tweets. Test out links to blog posts, quotes, images, videos, short tips, and other fun easy things to see how people respond and then target your tweets according to engagement rates with those tweets.
7. Don’t Be Afraid to Saturate – Twitter is one of the few platforms where posting 5-10 times a day won’t necessarily hurt you. Most people follow anywhere from 100-500 people, so seeing your brand name every 2 hours won’t be overwhelming – in fact, most people only see one out of every 10 tweets posted at that point. You practically need to saturate to ensure you are seen by as many people as possible.

Smart Twitter use is flexible and agile in a way that blogging, Facebook Posting and other broadcast media don’t require. If you have a plan in place, you can be fast enough to take advantage of these resources without getting dinged by potential backfires.

Be With Your Prospects Everywhere They Go

As of October, 2016, 55% of all traffic on YouTube is mobile (up 34% in just two years), 75% of Twitter users access from their mobile devices, and the total percentage of global web traffic is now 20% worldwide, up from 14% the year before, according to Statista.

Since 2008, the year Apple’s second iPhone (the 3G) was released, smart phone use has increased from 92 million smart phones per year to 656 million – more than 700% growth, and it’s only continuing to pick up steam.

Mobile phones with web browsing capabilities are not a luxury anymore – they are the new norm, and with tablets becoming just as common in most US households, you can’t afford not to accommodate how people view and interact with your content.

Are You Mobile Friendly?

So you need to be mobile friendly, and that means having a website that looks good and offers the same user experience on whatever device it’s accessed on:

• Mobile Sites – Mobile sites are easier than ever using responsive design methods. Responsive sites will automatically resize or change the interface depending on the size of the screen on which it is accessed. So if someone is on a smart phone, columns are stripped out and the site becomes much flatter for easier mobile viewing. If it’s a tablet, it might be more of a hybrid between full desktop and mobile. WordPress supports this natively, as do most other popular open source CMS. If you are having a custom site built, however, it’s vital that you include this with the cost.
• Custom Apps – App development has become a lot faster and less expensive than it was a few years ago. Combined with the massive user base on iOS and Android platforms, and the perceived value and authority that comes from having a well-made app, you can get a lot of engagement from your users with a good app.
• Social via Mobile – Almost all social sites (and all of the ones we’ve talked about in this report) are very mobile friendly. Your content needs to be as well. If you link to a site, make sure it has a mobile version. If you include photos, make sure they fit on a mobile screen, and if you share video, make sure they are short and can play over 4G connections. Think mobile and you’ll cover all of your bases.

Probably the most important factor when it comes to mobile is that it is so affordable to implement a strategy in 2017.

Yes it costs more to build a responsive website than a standard one, but it’s not a huge difference in the grand scheme of things and it grows your audience by 25% (and more in the years to come).

At the same time, the engagement rates and share rates are sky high on a device that is in someone’s pocket 18 hours a day – take advantage of that and you will see a huge surge in results from your efforts.

What’s Not New Won’t Kill You

I am not a proponent of running out to open a new account with every hot trend that hits the web. It can be a dangerous, costly strategy that blurs your focus and confuses your audience.

But social media and video marketing are not hot trends – they are the standard of 21st century communication and as mobile grows in popularity, it becomes an increasingly powerful and vital part of every business’s marketing platform.

You just plain need to do it.

Whether you have no social strategy or you have been trying to find one that results in a positive ROI for your company, consider the things in this guide and how you can micro-target content and delivery to an audience that will become not only loyal followers, but the medium for that content.

When you do this, you will be well on your way to generating a more robust, streamlined, and engaging brand of content that speaks for your company and the people who love it.