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    Tag: Social Media Strategy

    Amp up your digital marketing these 3 ways

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    Each new year ushers transformation to the world of digital marketing. Thus, digital marketing strategies must constantly undergo a revamp to remain effective in improving customer relationships, visibility, conversions, and growth. Listed below are three ways that you can focus on remaining on top of your business and craft new strategies to achieve your desired results.

    Utilize the social platforms that will benefit your business most

    While harnessing the power of social media is a great way to reach your target audience, we recommend that you not get caught up in the craze. With so many social channels to pick from, you must weigh the pros and cons of each one and select an amount that’s manageable for you or your digital marketing team. It’s way better to be unique and authentic on the platforms where your audience engages most than to overextend your means by trying to post on every single channel. After all, if the demographic you’re advertising to spends most of their time on Instagram or TikTok, doesn’t it make more sense to spend your time creating content there? Maintaining social accounts is a huge task and if you want your digital marketing efforts to be noticed, implement your strategies in a way that best suits your brand’s personality.

    Examples of the top social platforms to implement your digital marketing strategies:

    • Facebook (recently renamed Meta)
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • TikTok
    • Pinterest
    • Snapchat
    • YouTube
    • Whatsapp
    • Reddit

    We recommend selecting two to three of the above options for your small business.

    Tell stories by utilizing your customer reviews

    Not only are business reviews valuable in developing trust with prospective customers, but they can also be used to further your digital marketing efforts. Customer feedback is a gold mine for any sized business. While business owners must listen and respond accordingly when the review requires you to get in touch, positive assessments can be used in so many ways—you can turn these reviews into stories for your blog, create an image with the review copy and place it on your social channels, or simply ensure that the reviews section of your website is up-to-date so that shoppers can read them to help answer some of their questions. All of the above examples will help you appeal to wider audiences through authentic customer feedback. 

    Strive to always be flexible and adaptable with your business

    Some digital marketing strategies might work long-term, while others will be required down the road. Change in any digital space is inevitable, so you need to be ready to jump onto new opportunities and understand that what’s working today might not be the case for tomorrow, next week, or next year. Part of growing your digital marketing strategies is embracing the pace of your niche industry and the nature of an adapting digital world, so be sure you learn how to leverage new tools and trends so that you gain the most success in each of your digital marketing efforts. 

    If any of the above amped-up digital marketing suggestions seems daunting to you or you simply want tips to further your understanding and the direction you need to go, our team of digital marketing professionals is here and ready to answer all of your questions and take on any of the workload proving to be challenging.

    Which one of our amped-up digital marketing strategies are you most excited to work with? Drop a comment below to start a conversation. 

    What social media platform is best for marketing a business?

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    With so many social media platforms to choose from, it’s easy for a first-time business owner or an entrepreneur looking to expand their networks to be overwhelmed by choice. Needless to say, if you don’t want to drown in the responsibilities of meeting each channel’s demands, it’s important to take a step back and evaluate how you will manage your social media strategy altogether. So, before you become too overwhelmed, it’s time for you to narrow in on the channels that will help you connect better with your audience and boost your brand awareness. 

    How to choose the best social media platforms for your business

    Social media marketing is an artform where businesses decide which platform(s) best fit their brand. For starters, there are a few things you should ask yourself:

    • Am I a business-to-business (B2B) or a business-to-consumer (B2C) company?
    • Who’s my ideal customer/target market?
    • What’s my goal with social media marketing? Some goal examples could be to sell, connect, or build brand awareness.
    • Will I handle posting content and answering questions or will I hire a social media management company to do it for me?

    Since there’s no single platform that will work for every business, it’s important to take the time to explore popular social channels to see their potential for brand development and marketing. 

    Here’s a list of the top social media outlets for business:

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • Snapchat
    • Pinterest
    • TikTok

    Unless you have extra staff that can help you out or a social media management company assisting you in producing content for all of the above channels, it’s pretty much impossible to be proficient in all of them, especially when conducting other business affairs. This is why you should start by picking a couple based on where you’re most likely to find your audience and build your presence there before moving onto the next platform. 

    How to measure the success of your social campaigns?

    Great! You’ve narrowed down a couple of social platforms and are ready to launch some campaigns. While you may be full of fantastic ideas to spread the word about your brand and create some traction within your industry, once those campaigns are out in the world, the next step is tracking your progress and evaluating what to do next. 

    Thankfully, most social media platforms possess free, easy-to-use tools that can help you to successfully measure the metrics of your social efforts. This will include elements like reach, clicks, reactions, shares, comments, sales, and even elements like the gender, age range, and interest in which type of demographics. While many businesses focus on sales as their primary measure of success, you must look at everything that you’re building and how things are steadily progressing. 

    Do you need any help exploring your target market, selecting the right platforms, or measuring the success of your campaigns? Reach out to our team for more information on our social media management company service. 

    Do you have any questions that weren’t answered in the blog submission above? Please drop a comment below to share with our readers.

    How do newsfeed algorithms work on popular social platforms?

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    People everywhere rely on social channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to keep them connected with their loved ones as well as admired connections like celebrities and organizations. However, each time you log onto these networks it isn’t impossible for you to see every single update from all your connections, which is why today’s social channels have gravitated towards an algorithm-based feed to better the experience for each user. 

    What is a social media algorithm?

    A social media algorithm is a compilation of rules and data that work together to decide what a user will see on their chosen platform. Each social media website utilizes a unique, ever-changing algorithm for every person’s account, which means that no two people will possess the same updates, news, and posts on their feeds. 

    How does Facebook’s newsfeed algorithm work? 

    Facebook is the largest social media platform to date, studying user’s behaviours to ensure that the content shown is what that person is most interested in. But, how does Facebook know what its users like? Well, the Like button works as the epicentre of Facebook’s user experience, allowing each user to personalize it based on who and what they enjoy most. The Like button also works as a form of positive reinforcement, allowing users to click like on content that’s shared by friends and family. Over time, all of this data governs how each newsfeed operates. 

    How does Twitter’s Timeline algorithm work?

    Below is a breakdown of the data that determines the social media algorithm:

    • Relevancy score: There are hundreds of variables that an algorithm takes into account when it picks each user’s posts. Things like the user’s history of likes, clicks, comments, shares, hides, or marked spam are all stored and used to predict future content. More specifically, the algorithm predicts outcomes by giving content a relevancy score, which sorts your social media content and places it on your feed for optimal engagement. 
    • Prioritizes friends: Did you know that you can boost the posts that you want to see more of on your account? The people you interact with most often on Facebook are given priority over other Facebook users, which means that you won’t be concerned about missing important updates from the friends and family members that you care for the most. This is done by categorizing a person or page by clicking “see post” and unfollowing the people or pages that you don’t want to see as often. 

    Your Twitter Timeline consists of a stream of tweets from the users you follow. If you’re very active on Twitter and have a lot of celebrities and friends that you care about, then your algorithm can be organized based on two approaches: “Show Me The Best Tweets First”, “Best Tweets” or the “While You Were Away” feature.

    Below is a breakdown of the data that determines the social media algorithm:

    • Show Me The Best Tweets First: This feature ranks your content based on relevancy rather than listing tweets chronologically. Based on what you’ve liked or engaged with recently, Twitter will put the tweets that it thinks you will find most interesting at the top of your timeline.
    • Best Tweets: This feature requires the user to opt-in and select content from specific users to indicate these will be the best tweets. Then, the user can refresh the timeline to have any of these tweets added to the top of their feeds.
    • While You Were Away: This feature has been added to allow users the flexibility to be away from checking their feeds without FOMO (fear of missing out). It’s completely determined by user engagement and can be turned off for users that don’t check with Twitter feeds often.

    How does Instagram’s feed algorithm work?

    This quickly evolving platform is becoming a hot spot for digital marketing, which means that it’s important for small businesses to understand how the social media algorithm works for this channel. 

    Using machine learning to aggregate six key factors, Instagram determines the content that’s the most relevant to the user.

    • Interest: This is based on prediction data that measures the type of content of posts you engage with most often. 
    • Frequency: This is measured by how often you use the app to determine what posts you want to see when you open the app again. 
    • Following: The more accounts you follow, the less likely you’ll be to see everyone appear in your news feed. 
    • Recency: How recently was the post published? This impacts if it will appear in your newsfeed. 
    • Relationship: Who shared the post and what connection do you have to them or their content? This can easily be influenced by tagged photos, engagements, or direct messages. 
    • Usage: The time you spend on Instagram also has a great effect on the content that you see on your feed.

    Do you need someone to help you to manage your company’s social media networks? Trek Marketing offers a social media marketing management service for businesses that want to outsource their social content and have a team member available to answer customer questions and comments. 

    Which of the above three social networks do you spend the most time on? Drop a comment below to share.

    Is Facebook advertising right for your business?

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    While many elements of your digital marketing strategy will consist of trial and error when it comes to effective online advertising, no platform is more powerful and underutilized as Facebook! While many e-commerce business owners tend to shy away from Facebook ads as their primary investment, it’s one of the best ways to get the word out about your company, especially if you’re also looking to reach prospective customers. As a social platform with more than a billion users, it would be silly to not include it in your ongoing advertising campaign strategy. 

    Facebook ads work for most businesses

    It’s reassuring to know that most industries and brands benefit from Facebook advertising before even contacting a professional digital marketing agency! This is partly because of Facebook’s popularity, with people from all over the world and different walks of life visiting the social platform to communicate, browse, and yes, shop. However, if you’ve already tried to use Facebook to increase your conversions, reach your target audience, and engage through product advertising, it may be the type of ad or marketing that you’re doing, rather than the platform itself. Even if your user doesn’t use Facebook often, you may be surprised at how they will still find their way to your website with the right ad coming their way. Plus, even if they miss it, their loved ones might share it! 

    Start with a goal in mind

    Why is Facebook such a great platform to carry out your professional digital marketing goals? It’s because it has the potential to put you in touch with a range of consumers quicker and more efficiently. Not to mention Facebook ads are relatively affordable, giving ample opportunity to adjust your campaign strategy as needed.

    So, when you’re looking at investing in your social strategy on Facebook, start the process with a clear goal in mind. Make sure to write down your short-term and long-term goals so that you can govern advertising decisions. Maybe you want new customers? If so, how many? And is your primary goal to increase visits, conversions, account registration, or all of the above? Be sure to keep your goals as specific as possible so that you can work alongside a professional digital marketer to tailor your ads, track your progress, and tweak your strategy as the layout of your industry shifts. 

    Understand KPIs

    Finding success with Facebook advertisements is strongly dependent on your knowledge of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). This allows you to focus on the actual net profits made through your Facebook ads, and then you can further pinpoint ways to drive down your cost per action on advertising engagements. Money is money in the business world and if able to heighten your sales without lowering profits, it makes the most sense to run cost-effective campaigns that generate higher revenue for your business. 

    Rotate types of Facebook ads

    Before you dive deeper into the world of Facebook ad campaigns, remember that you will need to create more than a single advertisement to have an effective campaign strategy. So, as a rule of thumb, be sure to develop at least three ads with the same targeted interests and goals, and rotate them within the campaign that you’re running. By doing this you’re better able to gather consumer information and compare each ad based on their CTRs (click-through rates). This will allow you to keep your focus on winner ads versus those that are underperforming.

    Are you ready to speak with a professional digital marketing team about adding Facebook ads to your current social media marketing strategy? Let Trek Marketing start things off by connecting you to your target audience using Facebook!

    Have you had any positive experiences using Facebook for advertising? Drop a comment below to share among our readers. 

    How does social media help your online business?

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    Regardless of whether you’re a new or seasoned e-commerce business owner, the realm of social media is constantly evolving. In Canada alone, there were approximately 25.3 million social networking users and that number is projected to grow to over 27 million by 2023. So, if you want to keep up with the competition in the coming years, you need to either learn to better use social networks or pass the torch to a social media marketing management team to handle the efforts for your business. 

    Social media creates brand awareness 

    While having a beautifully designed website is a great way to attract prospecting shoppers, one of the best ways to get your e-commerce business noticed is through web traffic. With an assortment of social media platforms at your fingertips, you’re able to start developing an advertising strategy that expands traditional word-of-mouth, and is amplified through shared content. Not only will visual content provide you with many engagement opportunities, but you’re also able to answer consumer questions, maintain growing relationships, and even find new leads through the use of social media. 

    Unsure of the media channels that would best benefit your business? Most established digital marketing agencies offer some form of social media marketing management service that will allow them to take the reins by strategizing ways to lead your presence online. 

    Social media builds relationships with new and recurring customers 

    Unlike traditional marketing, social media marketing provides an innovative opportunity for two-way interactions to take place between business owners and consumers. This enables a means of building and nurturing relationships by sharing content that your audience values rather than just using the platform to promote services and products. Social media also invites conversation by allowing customers to comment and share your posts! However, if you want to do well, remember to listen to your audience and further refine your social media marketing strategies through professional management. 

    Social media allows you to provide better customer service

    Whether you have your personal smartphone hooked up to your business social accounts or you’re simply religious about posting, social media works as a great tool to handle any discrepancies, customer lashing, or simple questions that need answering before a purchase is carried out. Unhappy people often take to social media to vent their frustrations and if your business has an online presence, there’s great opportunity to rectify a bad experience or offer your perspective to an unruly customer that’s only bashing you in hopes of receiving something for free. 

    If you have trouble winning customers over through online services, a social media marketing management team member may be the perfect addition to your staff, enabling them to be available to listen to customer complaints and reply promptly to offer solutions. 

    Are you a small or medium-sized business that is struggling to create a social media presence? Drop a comment below to discuss strategies that haven’t been working thus far for your online business.

    The marketing benefits of social listening

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    social listening

    There are many elements that should be involved in your social media management process. Part of what drives buyers to make purchases is your ability to connect with them and put a face behind your product. When people feel that a company supports their values, they are inclined to give their loyalty as a customer. By using social listening as a means to understand consumers you are taking full advantage of a key social media marketing benefit.

    What is social listening?

    For those of you who are not accustomed to hearing the term, social listening is the process of being aware of online conversations that are taking place amongst your customers (and potential buyers) through the use of their social media platforms. By familiarizing yourself with this practice, you are allowing it to be used as a tool to collect valuable data on topics, industries and brands.

    Social listening vs. social media monitoring

    Although both terms suggest keeping tabs on your buyers, social media monitoring is not the same practice. Though they are similar, social media monitoring is when an e-commerce business owner, or a hired social media professional, simply watch social media channels for mentions or comments about their brand. However, social listening involves a more in-depth insight into this conversation.

    Interestingly enough, there are conversations that you may find valuable as a business owner that are taking place without appearing in your notifications tab. Actually, studies suggests that only 9% of Tweets that converse about your brand are happening opening on social channels. That means around 91% actually happen without you even knowing. Through the use of social listening you’re able to track keywords, phrases, events and organizations that correlate with your branding. This kind of social media digging provides you with a stronger social presence and other beneficial insights that will aid you in better connecting with your target audience.

    What are some other benefits of social listening?

    • Strategy measurement: Strategies are simply a trial and error process. If something isn’t working, make a new plan. Social listening allows you to measure social engagement and see what is generating the most optimal results.
    • Content marketing: Since a successful business is measured by your ability to deliver good content, social listening will help you to reach your target audience by crafting posts that they care about.
    • Build a reputation: One of the most beneficial elements of using social listening is the prompt ability to handle a social media crisis. While positive mentions are the most ideal, negative mentions do happen and it’s important to tackle these issues to ensure your brands longstanding reputation.

    If you don’t have the spare time to add social listening to your social media strategy consider speaking with a member from our team to help you with the process.

    Have you integrated social listening into your social media strategy? Tell us all about it in the comments section below.

    Why do you need a social media strategy?

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    social media strategy

    The decisions you make regarding your e-commerce business have the ability to steer your company in a successful direction. In order to start defining your brand online, you need to make use of an effective social media strategy, an essential building block that will allow you achieve your target goals. Whether this detailed plan of action is focused on understanding your customers, creating innovative sales content or generating a presence within your niche, a concise social media plan will help you to stand out from your competitors. Here are a few reasons why a social media strategy is an effective way to manage your brands online reputation.

    Many purchases are influenced by social media

    There was a time when businesses only used social media to spread brand awareness, but that era of engagement has involved into something new and more marketable. Currently, more companies than ever before have invested in major social platforms in order to lure potential customers to their products and services.

    For example, e-commerce businesses use Facebook to create ads, manage a posting schedule and keep an eye on their analytics. Not to mention, social media users often rely on their social feeds to provide them with recommendations based on their search history. The perfect way for them to find their way to you.

    Lack of strategy gives your competition an advantage

    Now that you understand how frequently a social media strategy is used and how effective it can be on influencing purchases, it seems silly to not have one. After all, without the appropriate framework, you’re basically handing your competitors your business.

    Investing in your social presence by planning, prioritizing and executing active content will allow you to better communicate with your audience and will provide you with some steady insight into how you can set more appropriate business objectives.

    Everyone is on social media

    Now, this is probably the most valid reason of all… many people are already on social media. Your friends, colleagues, family and future customers are already probably active on at least one social media account, so, what do you have to lose? Why not strategically connect with your audience through means of social media?

    If you’re not incredibly tech savvy or you don’t understand how to work your way around the popular social media networks, speak with a representative from Trek Marketing and find out how to get started.

    Are there any other reasons as to why an e-commerce business should lay out a social media strategy? Tell us in the comments section below.

    A quick guide on how to conduct a competitive analysis on social media

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    competitive analysis

    Social media is the heart of modern communication. It gives business owners the power of outreach and the ability to spread beyond the simple means of selling at a community market or relying on the word-of-mouth of friends. Although the use of social media to gain product hype is not a new concept, the use of competitive analysis is still relatively contemporary. Using this tactic as part of your social media strategy is a crucial element that will help you shape your competition and understand how to market your product or service.

    What is competitive analysis?

    Competitive analysis is the evaluation of your competitors, the assessment of their strategies, the determination of their strengths and weaknesses and how it all compares to your business. In the context of social media, it’s looking at your competitor’s social accounts and better understanding the methods that they are using to create a social media landscape within your industry.

    How do you conduct a competitive analysis?

    In order to understand the scope of your competitor’s success on social media, you will first need to gather as much information as you can on them. Who are they following? How often are they posting? What kind of content are they posting? Which social accounts are they using? Once you’re able to answer these questions, gather the data together and compare between each competitor and your current social media strategy.

    How do you find out who you competitors are?

    For many businesses this is an easy answer, but for others you may need to do a bit of digging around. Just remember that Google is always a good tool to help answer your questions. By typing in keywords or phrases you will be able to see who ranks above you — BAM, your competition. Be very specific in your search efforts and also take into consideration that your competition may not be local.

    Another great method that will aid you in determining your competitors is to use your audience’s social following. Chances are they are following brands that are similar to yours and might be exceeding you when it comes to sales.

    Once you make a pool of potential competitors, narrow your list to a few of the strongest ones. From there you can start investigating.

    • What social networks are they on?
    • How big is there following?
    • How often do they post?
    • Are their followers engaged?
    • What are their strengths/weaknesses?
    • How are they a threat to you?
    • Where are your opportunities to grow?

    After you have gained some useful information on your competitors, your creative process will begin. Remember to be inspiring and not merely duplicating what your competition is already doing well. Also, it is best practice to look for a bold, unconventional and unique way to approach your future engagement. Stay organized and keep at it. Establishing a strong social media presence takes time and competitive analysis is only a single step in your journey.

    If you need a little motivation to get started, consult with a professional about your social media strategy and have them dedicate the time to complete a competitive analysis for you!  

    Did you find our tips helpful? Tell us in the comments section below.