Month: September 2014

 

Last week we posted ‘How to Find that Sweet Social Media Spot for you Audience‘.  So we thought we’d follow up with some social media etiquette tips because once you find your sweet spot, you want to make sure that you approach it the right way.

Social networking has taken hold like never before and along with providing the proper content, one must know the right way and the wrong way to share, present, and push the content, which can all be referred to as social media etiquette.

How to be Facebook Polite

• Facebook is 42% male and 58% female
• Currently has 757 million daily active users
• The average Facebook user has 250 friends
• Canada is the most active country on Facebook!

Consider that it’s okay to update several times a day, but to space out your posts to every few hours. When you do post remember that Facebook is a social forum so respond to every comment good or bad.

The Pareto Principle also referred to as the 80-20 rule, states that for many events 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. This applies to Facebook as well, so entertain and inform your audiences first, sell to them second.

Facebook is all about engagement, so post entertaining content regularly and make them feel welcome on your page.

Twitter Tips

• Twitter is 35% male and 64% female
• Has 100 million daily users
• 46% of Twitter users tweet once a day

Twitter is the mother ship of hashtags, so use them to your fancy but use them well.  Respond to question and comments as quickly as possible, like most social platforms Twitter is about engaging.  Don’t use all your characters so that your followers have space to retweet you.  Keep it positive!  Avoid sharing too much personal information; Twitter should be about relevant information that engages your followers. Twitter is there for quick and easy conversation, so keep your updates short and response times even shorter!

Google Plus

Google Plus is 63% male and 37% female

Always +mention users when commenting on their posts, and when sharing a post add your own comments to it first.

Compartmentalize your followers with Circles so that you can share targeted content to the correct groups. Aside from Circles, Google also offers the ability to format your posts. Take advantage of this and use it for style.

Instagram

• Instagram has 75 million daily users
• 1.2 billion daily photo likes
• 46% male and 54% female

Don’t ask people to follow you, its unprofessional.  Keep your posts clean and avoid selfies, food, and family photos.  If you want people to engage with your photos, engage with theirs. You get out what you put in.  Use hashtags appropriately.

LinkedIn

• 120 million daily users
• 1.2 million products and services on LinkedIn
• 37% male 63% female

First and foremost on what separates LinkedIn from other social networks, is that its primary purpose is to serve professionals in a professional setting. So keep your posts industry-related.  Use groups as place to contribute information, not as a place to promote your company. Personalize your connection requests, this isn’t Facebook, tell them why you’re connecting.

Pinterest

• 16.1 million daily users
• 20% male 80% female

Always link back to the original source and remember to give credit!  Don’t use images that have nothing to do with your clickthrough content to get more pins or clicks. You don’t want to come off as a spammer.  Pinterest is about curating content, but the most important thing on Pinterest is to make sure your links are in order, whether they lead to your own content or someone else’s.

Now that you know your manners on social media, go forth and socialize!  What about you?  Do you have any social media tips to share?  Insightly includes fully integrated social media information on your contacts.

About the Author:  Ivan Serrano is a web journalist and infographic designer from the Golden State. He specializes in social media, global business and technology. Ivan also loves to practice his photography and watch as much “Bay Area” sports games as he can.

Recently Google announced in Google Drive for Work.  At Insightly we’re excited by the security, visibility and control that this offers our Insightly for Google Apps users.  The ability to quickly and easily add files to support general customer information helps users better engage with their customers.  However, while one of the main benefits of a CRM is collaboration and information sharing, there is always data and information that might be sensitive and should not be available to all users.  This new ability to control attached files with audit reporting and security controls will be a welcome update to our users that want to have the best of both worlds — the ability to collaborate and implement file privacy where appropriate.

Social media has taken the world of marketing by storm, and many small businesses have been left scratching their heads, not quite sure of how to take advantage of what this new medium has to offer them. If you find your company in such a position, there is no need to fret., because transitioning your marketing efforts might be easier than you think! That being said, there are a few ideas you should keep in mind before diving into the deep end.

Don’t Advertise Products, Boost Your Brand

Many businesses who are new to the social media world will often make the mistake of solely advertising or promoting their products and services via social channels. While it’s acceptable to advertise every once in a while, those who are following your brand want to see more than what you have to offer. Engagement is a huge deal nowadays, and if your brand’s social media resembles anything like nails on a chalkboard, you’ll likely end up losing followers faster than you can gain them.

The idea behind social media is simple: be social. Relate to your audience as much as possible. Post engaging images, videos, and gifs to grab your followers’ attention. Do your research online and talk about trending topics. There are hundreds of ways to engage with your audience!

While ROI is certainly an important factor to consider when evaluating your brand’s social media efforts, only focusing on selling products and services through these types of channels could be a death sentence for small businesses. Instead, focus on selling the concept of your company and make every attempt to be as social as possible with your fans and supporters. If you build a community of supportive followers, they will likely choose your brand based on brand loyalty alone. This is where the advantages of social media really come into play.

Pick the Right Platform

Not all platforms are created equal. Depending on where your audience is most likely to be found and what type of content you want to share in order to build an audience, you might want to consider putting more effort into your social media strategy on specific sites:

Twitter

●    Focuses heavily on short text messages (140 characters max)

●    Uses hashtags to organize content

●    Includes video and image options

●    Frequently used to promote links

●    Call-to-action very important within community

●    Often used to communicate with companies

Although other sites might be one-stop-shops for many perusers of the internet, Twitter serves a very important purpose for other reasons. Though this platform does offer image and video features, they are not utilized as much as they would on other sites, like Facebook. For quick, real-time updates, Twitter is ideal for real-time marketing, news, and events.

Twitter Tip: Because business Twitter pages are easily accessible to the site’s users, it’s important to note that many customers often use Twitter as a means of getting into contact with other businesses if they are experiencing issues or have comments. The quicker you are able to respond, the better!

Facebook

●    Typically used for catching up with friends/family

●    Strong focus on presentation of news/articles

●    Uses hashtag in much the same way as Twitter

●    Posts can link to other business pages within text

●    Includes group creation to help build fan base

●    Paid ads blend in seamlessly with other content

As one of the top social media sites on the web, Facebook is essentially the home page for millions of users. Unlike other sites, Facebook’s personal users (aka: your audience), enjoy utilizing this site to stay up-to-date with their friends and family.

Because there is little room for free advertising, a brand shouldn’t be taking the same approach with Facebook as they would with Twitter. When it comes to getting your content seen on this channel, you need to make sure that it’s shareable– content that Facebook users would want to share with their friends and family as well.

Facebook can be effectively used for a B2B audience as well. Like boosting a personal brand on Facebook, content will play a very important role in your marketing strategy. While we would love to be generating leads all the time, aiming for posts that create buzz, customer satisfaction, and engagement is key to continuing and expanding lead generation.

Google Plus

●    All Pages have a Page Rank on Google

●    Circles allow you to create devoted groups

●    Frequently used for live Google Hangouts

●    Similar to Facebook, used to share text/images/videos

●    Strong community building opportunities

●    Wide selection of tools connected to Google services

Google Plus has proven to be a very valuable social media tool over the past few years. In addition to the many services that you can make use of as a member, actively sharing and being a part of the community will get you noticed. One of the most incredible tools available via the social site is Google Hangouts, which allows you to start a live video chat with people in your circle and groups. Some companies have used this feature as a means to reach out directly to their customer base and address their every concern. Google Plus has also proven to be excellent for B2B marketing.

There are many more social media sites out there, but if you’re trying to figure out where to start, these are the three you need to consider above all others. If you’re looking to connect with your customers, you may want to focus on the capabilities offered through Google Plus and Twitter. If you want to build communities and be a part of the everyday life of your customer, a website like Facebook might be just what you’re looking for.

No matter which site you choose to focus on, remember to focus on your audience first and make them a priority over monetary gain. The end game here should not be to make direct sales, but rather to create long time customers who will keep coming back for more because they know they can trust you. Keep that in mind and you are sure to see success.

If you have experience with these and other social sites let us know which ones work for you.

About the Author:  Megan M. Ritter is an entrepreneur, gaming enthusiast, and online journalist from California. With a background in social media marketing, she enjoys researching, implementing, and sharing her strategies in her writing. Follow her on Twitter to find more of her writing.