How to generate free publicity and PR for your business. Media coverage is a blessing for small businesses - as your profile goes up, so will your sales.
Table of contents
- 8+ tips on how to “beat” the LinkedIn algorithm
- 7 Tips on Using Instagram to Build Brand Awareness (and Profits)
- Pillar 1: Building a Basic Brand: Looking the part
- Ten ways to generate free publicity | Marketing Donut
But when is that time? However, some suggest that posting when workaholics are likely to take a break and visit LinkedIn is better. According to yet another LinkedIn article , the best time to post is going to depend on tests you perform.
8+ tips on how to “beat” the LinkedIn algorithm
Be kind to others by sharing their posts, or embedding their videos on your site. These actions increase your profile reach. You or your employees can write blog posts through Publisher and share them to your network s. The Editor-in-Chief at LinkedIn explains that Publisher posts show up in the feed for your connections and followers based on time. So, be sure to follow our engagement tips above, to keep the post circling through the LinkedIn algorithm. However, Publisher posts get even more exposure outside the homepage feed on LinkedIn. They are shown on:.
Channels are curated categories of Publisher posts found within LinkedIn Pulse. If your content is good, it could be placed in these featured areas for more eyes to see. Below are some tips to get your LinkedIn articles in front of people, benefiting your rank in the LinkedIn algorithm. When you write a Publisher post, be sure to actively share it, and use the mention feature to tag relevant LinkedIn members. For example, you can mention someone you quoted in your article, or whom you linked to.
Or, you can mention personal connections you feel would benefit from the article but never spam a bunch of random users for exposure! They might then share it with their networks, increasing your exposure. Search engines, at one point or another, need to rely on factors like keywords to determine what a URL is about. And, good internet marketers know the value of a strong headline and image. Here are some resources to get you started:. This may sound somewhat forward, but hear me out. The more followers you have, the more people are likely to see your future posts in their homepage feed.
Your content will have more potential to get those engagement signals we now know are so crucial to the LinkedIn algorithm. Use the tools LinkedIn gives you to share on Twitter. Plus, use a platform like Hootsuite to syndicate your article to multiple social media profiles, giving it an extra traffic boost. You can also start a post on the group page, inducing a conversation about your enticing, topical and relevant article. While you could use paid advertisements to help share your LinkedIn Publisher posts, you may get better conversions by leading ad-clicks to your website blogs, with specialized calls-to-action CTAs.
See our section below on repurposing your website content on LinkedIn. Plus, follow our guide to LinkedIn Ads for more on this topic: A Guide to LinkedIn Ads: How to Run a Successful Campaign. Keep in mind that the guidelines for sharing any LinkedIn content still apply to sponsored posts. See this ad from SharpSpring, and notice it stays within the realm of being useful, professional, and targeted for a LinkedIn audience:.
Always keep your audience in mind when sharing content on LinkedIn. The LinkedIn Marketing Solutions blog published a post that emphasizes the importance of audience targeting when setting up ad campaigns on its network. While you may fear spam and negative trolling, keep in mind comments are an engagement signal for the LinkedIn algorithm.
That makes them necessary to keep your content in the LinkedIn feed. When appropriate, respond to comments to keep those engagement signals going. Like we mentioned above, always use data and analytics to continually improve your content and its reach. Test the headline, photo, teaser text, share text, and even the time you shared a post. LinkedIn provides analytics to its users for this purpose. Traditionally, SEOs will say you should avoid duplicate content on your website, which can cause ranking dilutions in the search engines.
However, you can be safe from duplicate content issues when posting through LinkedIn Publisher in two ways:. Should you re-publish your blog articles on high quality websites? Get to know their likes and habits, and be known as a producer of engaging content yourself! Try it free today. Joyce Grace is a Vancouver internet marketer and freelance writer who loves making WordPress websites, gets ignited by anything Dutch, and is probably the only person on the planet who doesn't like cheesecake. If your download doesn't automatically begin, click here to download.
Facebook and LinkedIn are leading social media platforms where users can hyper-target their ads. Hypertargeting not only uses public profile information but also information users submit but hide from others.
7 Tips on Using Instagram to Build Brand Awareness (and Profits)
In the context of the social web , engagement means that customers and stakeholders, such as consumer advocacy groups and groups that criticize companies e. Each participating customer or non-customer or citizen who is participating online via social media becomes part of the marketing department or a challenge to the marketing effort , as other customers read their positive or negative comments or reviews. Getting consumers and potential consumers or citizens to be engaged online is fundamental to successful social media marketing.
New online marketing concepts of engagement and loyalty have emerged which aim to build customer participation and brand reputation. Engagement in social media for the purpose of a social media strategy is divided into two parts. The first is proactive, regular posting of new online content digital photos , digital videos , text and conversations, as well as the sharing of content and information from others via weblinks. The second part is reactive conversations with social media users responding to those who reach out to your social media profiles through commenting or messaging [22] Traditional media such as TV news shows are limited to one-way interaction with customers or 'push and tell' where only specific information is given to the customer with few or limited mechanisms to obtain customer feedback.
Traditional media such as paper newspapers, of course, do give readers the option of sending a letter to the editor, but this is a relatively slow process, as the editorial board has to review the letter and decide if it is appropriate for publication. On the other hand, social media is participative and open, as participants are able to instantly share their views on brands, products, and services.
Traditional media gave control of message to the marketer, whereas social media shifts the balance to the consumer or citizen. Social networking sites can have a large impact on the outcome of events. In , a Facebook campaign surfaced in the form of a petition. The US presidential campaign had a huge presence on social networking sites. Barack Obama , a virtually unknown Democratic candidate , utilized 15 different social media websites to form relationships with the millions of American citizens who utilize those networks. His social networking profile pages were constantly being updated and interacting with followers.
By the end of his campaign, Obama had 5 million social media network supporters 2. The use of social networking sites in his marketing campaign gave Barack Obama's campaign access to e-mail addresses, as posted on social network profile pages. This allowed the Democratic Party to launch e-mail campaigns asking for votes and campaign donations.
Small businesses also use social networking sites as a promotional technique. Businesses can follow individuals social networking site uses in the local area and advertise specials and deals. These can be exclusive and in the form of "get a free drink with a copy of this tweet". This type of message encourages other locals to follow the business on the sites in order to obtain the promotional deal.
In the process, the business is getting seen and promoting itself brand visibility. Small businesses also use social networking sites to develop their own market research on new products and services. By encouraging their customers to give feedback on new product ideas, businesses can gain valuable insights on whether a product may be accepted by their target market enough to merit full production, or not.
In addition, customers will feel the company has engaged them in the process of co-creation—the process in which the business uses customer feedback to create or modify a product or service the filling a need of the target market. Such feedback can present in various forms, such as surveys, contests, polls, etc. Social networking sites such as LinkedIn, also provide an opportunity for small businesses to find candidates to fill staff positions.
Of course, review sites, such as Yelp, also help small businesses to build their reputation beyond just brand visibility. Positive customer peer reviews help to influence new prospects to purchase goods and services more than company advertising.
Pillar 1: Building a Basic Brand: Looking the part
A short film released on March 5, , by humanitarian group Invisible Children, Inc. This minute video aimed at making Joseph Kony , an International Criminal Court fugitive, famous worldwide in order to have support for his arrest by December —the time when the campaign ends. In early , Nike introduced its Make It Count social media campaign. The campaign kickoff began YouTubers Casey Neistat and Max Joseph launching a YouTube video, where they traveled 34, miles to visit 16 cities in 13 countries. They promoted the makeitcount hashtag, which millions of consumers shared via Twitter and Instagram by uploading photos and sending tweets.
One of the main purposes of employing social media in marketing is as a communications tool that makes the companies accessible to those interested in their product and makes them visible to those who have no knowledge of their products. It's the only form of marketing that can finger consumers at each and every stage of the consumer decision journey. Of the top 10 factors that correlate with a strong Google organic search, seven are social media dependent. This means that if brands are less or non-active on social media, they tend to show up less on Google searches. Instagram has an interaction rate of 1.
This has changed the ways that companies approach to interact with customers, as a substantial percentage of consumer interactions are now being carried out over online platforms with much higher visibility. Customers can now post reviews of products and services, rate customer service, and ask questions or voice concerns directly to companies through social media platforms.
Handling these interactions in a satisfactory manner can result in an increase of consumer trust. To both this aim and to fix the public's perception of a company, 3 steps are taken in order to address consumer concerns, identifying the extent of the social chatter, engaging the influencers to help, and developing a proportional response. Twitter allows companies to promote their products in short messages known as tweets limited to characters which appear on followers' Home timelines.
Facebook pages are far more detailed than Twitter accounts. They allow a product to provide videos, photos, and longer descriptions, and testimonials as other followers can comment on the product pages for others to see. Facebook can link back to the product's Twitter page as well as send out event reminders. LinkedIn , a professional business-related networking site, allows companies to create professional profiles for themselves as well as their business to network and meet others. Additionally, companies have voiced a preference for the amount of information that can be gleaned from a LinkedIn profile, versus a limited email.
WhatsApp joined Facebook in , but continues to operate as a separate app with a laser focus on building a messaging service that works fast and reliably anywhere in the world. WhatsApp started as an alternative to SMS. Whatsapp now supports sending and receiving a variety of media including text, photos, videos, documents, and location, as well as voice calls. Whatsapp messages and calls are secured with end-to-end encryption, meaning that no third party including WhatsApp can read or listen to them.
Whatsapp has a customer base of 1 billion people in over countries. Whatsapp is also used to send a series of bulk messages to their targeted customers using broadcast option. Companies started using this to a large extent because it is a cost effective promotional option and quick to spread a message. Still, Whatsapp doesn't allow businesses to place ads in their app.
Yelp consists of a comprehensive online index of business profiles. Businesses are searchable by location, similar to Yellow Pages. The website is operational in seven different countries, including the United States and Canada. Business account holders are allowed to create, share, and edit business profiles. They may post information such as the business location, contact information, pictures, and service information. The website further allows individuals to write, post reviews about businesses, and rate them on a five-point scale. Messaging and talk features are further made available for general members of the website, serving to guide thoughts and opinions.
In May , Instagram had over million users.
The user engagement rate of Instagram was 15 times higher than of Facebook and 25 times higher than that of Twitter. Many brands are now heavily using this mobile app to boost their marketing strategy. Instagram can be used to gain the necessary momentum needed to capture the attention of the market segment that has an interest in the product offering or services. Moreover, it can be accessed by the Internet as well. Thus, the marketers see it as a potential platform to expand their brands exposure to the public, especially the younger target group.
On top of this, marketers do not only use social media for traditional Internet advertising, but they also encourage users to create attention for a certain brand. This generally creates an opportunity for greater brand exposure. Many big names have already jumped on board: Fashion blogger Danielle Bernstein, who goes by weworewhat on Instagram, collaborated with Harper's Bazaar to do a piece on how brands are using Instagram to market their products, and how bloggers make money from it. Bernstein, who currently has one and a half million followers on Instagram, and whose "outfit of the day" photos on Snapchat get tens of thousands of screenshots, explained that for a lot of her sponsored posts, she must feature the brand in a certain number of posts, and often cannot wear a competitor's product in the same picture.
Founder of Instagram Kevin Systrom even went to Paris Fashion week, going to couture shows and meeting with designers to learn more about how style bloggers, editors, and designers are currently dominating much of the content on his application. Instagram has proven itself a powerful platform for marketers to reach their customers and prospects through sharing pictures and brief messages. The company can present a more personal picture of their brand, and by doing so the company conveys a better and true picture of itself. The idea of Instagram pictures lies on on-the-go, a sense that the event is happening right now, and that adds another layer to the personal and accurate picture of the company.
In fact, Thomas Rankin, co-founder and CEO of the program Dash Hudson, stated that when he approves a blogger's Instagram post before it is posted on the behalf of a brand his company represents, his only negative feedback is if it looks too posed. We're trying to create a moment.
Snapchat is a popular messaging and picture exchanging application that was created in by three students at Stanford University named Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown. The application was first developed to allow users to message back and forth and to also send photographs that are only available from seconds until they are no longer available.
The app was an instant hit with social media members and today there are up to million people using snapchat every single day. YouTube is another popular avenue; advertisements are done in a way to suit the target audience. The type of language used in the commercials and the ideas used to promote the product reflect the audience's style and taste. Also, the ads on this platform are usually in sync with the content of the video requested, this is another advantage YouTube brings for advertisers.
Certain ads are presented with certain videos since the content is relevant. Promotional opportunities such as sponsoring a video is also possible on YouTube, "for example, a user who searches for a YouTube video on dog training may be presented with a sponsored video from a dog toy company in results along with other videos.
Companies can pay YouTube for a special "channel" which promotes the companies products or services. Websites such as Delicious , Digg , Slashdot , Diigo , Stumbleupon , and Reddit are popular social bookmarking sites used in social media promotion. Each of these sites is dedicated to the collection, curation , and organization of links to other websites that users deem to be of good quality. This process is " crowdsourced ", allowing amateur social media network members to sort and prioritize links by relevance and general category.
Due to the large user bases of these websites, any link from one of them to another, the smaller website may in a flash crowd , a sudden surge of interest in the target website. In addition to user-generated promotion, these sites also offer advertisements within individual user communities and categories. Platforms like LinkedIn create an environment for companies and clients to connect online. Blogs can be updated frequently and are promotional techniques for keeping customers , and also for acquiring followers and subscribers who can then be directed to social network pages.
Online communities can enable a business to reach the clients of other businesses using the platform. To allow firms to measure their standing in the corporate world, sites enable employees to place evaluations of their companies. There are also specific corporate standards that apply when interacting online. Blogging website Tumblr first launched ad products on May 29, These posts can be one or more of the following: For the users to differentiate the promoted posts to the regular users' posts, the promoted posts have a dollar symbol on the corner.
On May 6, , Tumblr announced customization and theming on mobile apps for brands to advertise. Social media marketing involves the use of social networks , consumer's online brand-related activities COBRA and electronic word of mouth eWOM [81] [82] to successfully advertise online. Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter provide advertisers with information about the likes and dislikes of their consumers. A good service would result in a positive review which gets the hotel free advertising via social media.
However, a poor service will result in a negative consumer review which can potentially harm the company's reputation. These small groups rotate around social networking accounts that are run by influential people opinion leaders or "thought leaders" who have followers of groups. The types of groups followers are called: Marketers target influential people on social media who are recognised as being opinion leaders and opinion-formers to send messages to their target audiences and amplify the impact of their message.
A social media post by an opinion leader can have a much greater impact via the forwarding of the post or "liking" of the post than a social media post by a regular user. They can review products and services for their followings, which can be positive or negative towards the brand. OL's and OF's are people who have a social status and because of their personality, beliefs, values etc. The platform of social media is another channel or site that business' and brands must seek to influence the content of.
In contrast with pre-Internet marketing, such as TV ads and newspaper ads, in which the marketer controlled all aspects of the ad, with social media, users are free to post comments right below an online ad or an online post by a company about its product. Companies are increasing using their social media strategy as part of their traditional marketing effort using magazines, newspapers, radio advertisements, television advertisements.
Since in the s, media consumers are often using multiple platforms at the same time e.
Ten ways to generate free publicity | Marketing Donut
Heath wrote about the extent of attention businesses should give to their social media sites. It is about finding a balance between frequently posting but not over posting. There is a lot more attention to be paid towards social media sites because people need updates to gain brand recognition. Therefore, a lot more content is need and this can often be unplanned content. There is two general ways of doing so. The first is where each sector approves the plan one after another, editor, brand, followed by the legal team Brito, Sectors may differ depending on the size and philosophy of the business.
The second is where each sector is given 24 hours or such designated time to sign off or disapprove.
If no action is given within the hour period the original plan is implemented. Planned content is often noticeable to customers and is un-original or lacks excitement but is also a safer option to avoid unnecessary backlash from the public. Although the second route can be significantly shorter it also holds more risk particularly in the legal department. Unplanned content is an 'in the moment' idea, "a spontaneous, tactical reaction. The content could be trending and not have the time to take the planned content route.
If a company sends out a Tweet or Facebook message too hurriedly, the company may unintentionally use insensitive language or messaging that could alienate some consumers. The main difference between planned and unplanned is the time to approve the content. Unplanned content must still be approved by marketing managers, but in a much more rapid manner e.
Sectors may miss errors because of being hurried. When using unplanned content Brito says, "be prepared to be reactive and respond to issues when they arise. The plan involves breaking down the issue into topics and classifying the issue into groups. Colour coding the potential risk "identify and flag potential risks" also helps to organise an issue. The problem can then be handled by the correct team and dissolved more effectively rather than any person at hand trying to solve the situation.
Traditional advertising techniques include print and television advertising. The Internet has already overtaken television as the largest advertising market. Social networking sites don't always have ads. In exchange, products have entire pages and are able to interact with users. Television commercials often end with a spokesperson asking viewers to check out the product website for more information. While briefly popular, print ads included QR codes on them.
These QR codes can be scanned by cell phones and computers , sending viewers to the product website. Advertising is beginning to move viewers from the traditional outlets to the electronic ones. While traditional media, like newspapers and television advertising, are largely overshadowed by the rise of social media marketing, there is still a place for traditional marketing. For example, with newspapers, readership over the years has shown a decline. However, readership with newspapers is still fiercely loyal to print-only media.
The Internet and social networking leaks are one of the issues facing traditional advertising. Video and print ads are often leaked to the world via the Internet earlier than they are scheduled to premiere. Social networking sites allow those leaks to go viral , and be seen by many users more quickly.