When to Expand Your Social Media Team

Many businesses would like to have a simple equation for the perfect social media
team size. Unfortunately, there’s no magical equation – it varies based on the size,
scope, vertical and social media following of your company. Even two businesses
where those structure and figures are nearly identical will certainly have a different
makeup for their social media team.

Part of that is to be expected in any position. After all, each individual has a different
set of skills, knowledge, and past experience that he or she brings to the table. So no
two situations will be exactly the same and no two teams will be identical.

That being said, brands grow their team the right way by identifying the signs of when
it’s time to expand the number of people on staff. These two approaches can guide
you to healthy, efficient team growth.

A Rough Equation: Grow Before Burnout

Social media professionals run a high risk of burning out. The job makes 24/7
demandson a social media pro’s time, and that can drain their passion for the
work. That’sdamaging for them on a personal level, which is bad enough, but
it can also start to hurt the quality of their work and eventually your company.

To prevent that burnout, you’ll want to grow at a steady rate and anticipate
problems before they happen. A full workload is normal, but make sure that
both the social teamand your human resources staff are alert to the possible
signs of burnout such as apathy or continuously dropping the ball.

Burnout can be a risk no many how many people are on your brand’s team,
however, it is particularly important when you’re still at the stage of a lone manager.
When a singleperson is in control of everything, even at a small company, you’ll
want to be extra alert to their needs. It’s possible to give them support from employees
at other departments, but when many other people are chipping in a few hours a day,
it’s probably more effective to bring on a new hire.

Since there’s no set formula about growing your team, there are no hard numbers for
avoiding burnout. But periodically check in with your staff about the number of
incoming messages needing response, the volume of posts from your brand accounts,
and the average interactions needed in a day. Be mindful of the actual hours of
workload for your people. Having this data can help your company to have a
rough idea of how and when scaling has happened in the past.

Know Your Team: Goals, Roles, and Skills

Other important considerations with expanding your social media team are your needs
as a brand. What are your goals for social media? How do you plan to achieve them?
While your social media team will most likely collaborate with people in other
departments, it can also expedite your plans to have them be experts in their own right.

And of course, those goals can and should change over time. In the early stages of
building your social media presence, the focus might be on building brand awareness.
At that point, you’ll want your team to include people who excel in branding and
outreach. If there’s no expert already on your staff, it might be worth the investment
to hire somebody with that knowledge. Do you have a social media manager already
but want to get more people on board to promote your brand? Then it’s time to hire
a community manager.

While this might seem like a reactionary way to structure your social media team, your
business can develop a long-term plan for your goals that would guide your hiring.

Also, rather than seeking an equation based purely on numbers, consider building your
team based on skills. Just as other departments can help the social team to avoid
burnout, the rest of your company can shoulder some duties. Is there a person in your
marketing team who’s already giving great analytics power to your company? They
can probably handle those responsibilities for your social crew. If that individual
doesn’t have the bandwidth to meet all of the social team’s needs, then somebody
new should come on board.

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Four Business Tips for Running Your Own Business

Four business tips for running your own business.

There is a great deal of appeal to owning and running your own business. You don’t have to answer to anyone but yourself- and your customers-, you get to make your own schedule, and there’s the potential to make a good amount of money.

According to one Forbes study nearly 22 million registered companies in the U.S. are classified as self-employed, small businesses. That translates to almost 120 million individuals, or just over 50% of the working population, who get their paycheck from a small business.

Further, it’s estimated that more than 500,000 new businesses get started each month. However, with more employer businesses shutting down than start up, and half lasting less than 5 years the decision to create a company of your own shouldn’t be taken lightly.

The past four decades has taught me some very tangible lessons in owning and running a successful business. Here are my top four business tips one must employ as a business owner:

1. Goal Setting. As tact that is important both from an individual and also a business standpoint, setting achievable goals is really key.  Entrepreneurs can get caught up in the task of running the company and lose sight of where they want the company to go.  It is important that the owner have reasonable short term and long term goals that keep them focused on what tasks are really important from an ownership standpoint.  Similarly, the entrepreneur needs to have a clear cut plan for where they want their career to go.  Having that goal in place and keeping a realistic target in mind can help the owner keep focus.
   • We also recommend this informative article Inc. wrote on ‘How to Set Business Goals’.
2. People Skills.  I frequently hear owners talk about the type of business that they are in.  In reality, it all boils down to the fact that all business owners are in the “relationship” business.  Successful entrepreneurs all need to possess (or develop) people skills in order to establish and maintain healthy relationships with their staff, customers, and suppliers.  It is interesting, that of all the skill sets business owners can have, relationship skills are usually the most overlooked, but arguable the most important.  People skills, that is, the ability to foster relationships, is one of the hardest skill sets to develop.
   • Small business advocate also wrote this great piece on interpersonal skills.
3. Business Ethics.  It has often been said, that owning a business is a license to steal.  Many business owners have the ability to expand on the “grey” area in working with clients and others.  A successful entrepreneur stays successful in maintaining long term relationships which are only kept if the owner acts ethical in all areas of his ownership tenure.
   • Read more from this online magazine at Business-ethics.com
4. Money Management. At times this proves to be a hard discipline for many business owners.  If the “green” is there, many business owners think that the money in the bank account or the cash register belongs to them.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Staff, suppliers and even customers on sales discounts have to be paid first before the owner can take his or her “cut”.  The temptation of money without employing the necessary discipline of good money management is the downfall of many entrepreneurs.

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Tips for Holiday Social Media Marketing Campaigns

Follow proven social media marketing practices to end the year with strong sales. Photo credit: Phillip Taylor

‘Tis the season for holiday marketing campaigns, and advice for marketing relations professionals is as common as Christmas trees.

Social media marketing may be the differentiator this holiday season, according to MarketLive.  Almost one-third of shoppers surveyed said they have made purchases as a direct result of interactions on social media, a MarketLive survey reported. Revenues generated through social media increased almost 15 percent in the second quarter this year compared to the same period last year, and social media will influence half of holiday shoppers this year.

What Marketers are Budgeting

An Offerpop survey of digital marketers reveals important insights and best practices, saidMairead Ridge, the company’s senior manager of marketing. The survey indicates that marketers are taking advantage of:

Monetizing social platforms. More companies are taking advantage of Facebook’s buy button, Twitter’s buy button, and Twitter’s commerce partnerships with Amazon, American Express and CardSpring to increase direct sales through social media networks.

Facebook.  Although other networks are becoming more popular, 92 percent of marketers surveyed plan to allot most of their budget to Facebook over the holidays. Ridge recommends investing heavily in the proven platform and allocating less spending for other networks.

Instagram. About three-fourths of marketers said Instagram is the “breakout network” of the year. Most plan on investing in the network this year. Consider Instagram hashtag campaigns and using video in campaigns, contests, and social incentives on the network.

User-generated content. More than three-fourths of marketers planned to use more user-generated content this year. User-generated content is 20 percent more influential than other types of media.  A winning tactic is to curate consumer photos, videos, and reviews and share them across social channels and your website.

“The holidays present a colossal opportunity for social media to deliver strong ROI and close out the year with strong sales,” Ridge concluded. “Holiday marketing efforts should include an investment in the power of social media to increase commerce and strengthen brand reach.”

More Tips for Successful Social Media Marketing Campaigns

More tips for holiday marketing campaigns came from Kelly Shepsko in a Business 2 Community article.

Brand your social media. Just as you decorate your home for the holidays, embellish your social media pages on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms with seasonal photos to get in the holiday spirit.

Hold contests and giveaways.  Contests and giveaways are always popular but, depending on your industry, prospects may be more active on social media this time of year.

Support charity.  A campaign that supports your favorite charity fits in well with the season since the holidays are traditionally a popular time to give to charity. Hold a campaign to ask your social media followers to make donations.

Advertise. As your personal mailbox proves, the holidays are a good time to advertise, though the competition is fierce. Target your audience to increase your social media following heading into next year.

Be trendy. Watch for trending holiday hashtags.  To promote your content, be aware of popular holiday conversations and “hashtag hijack” when you post.

Encourage sharing.  Ask followers about their favorite holiday traditions to encourage social media conversation.  Or ask “this vs. that” holiday-themed questions that ask followers to pick one of two options such as: “Do you prefer apple pie or pumpkin pie for your holiday dinner?”

Share holiday tips and tricks. Share content that’s helpful and relevant. Holiday baking recipes and tips for do-it-yourself home decorating projects are popular.

Give a behind-the-scenes look. Post exclusive photos of your company’s holiday decorations, parties or events to show your company culture and put a human face to your organization. Consider using Instagram and Vine videos.

Measure. Track your campaign to keep tabs on website traffic, leads, number of followers, amount of engagement and especially ROI. That will enable you to find what worked and help you improve the next campaign.

Bottom Line: As more customers use social media for shopping, social media marketing campaign are more important than ever for successful holiday shopping seasons. Embracing proven social media practices will help you close out the year with strong sales.

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Small Business Web Design: Don’t Make Web Users Scroll?

If the headline of this piece makes you nod in agreement, you’ll be surprised by what we have to say.

Have you noticed, for example, that some of the most successful websites today, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google Images offer infinite scrolling?

The truth is, the last time people had any difficulty scrolling was before the turn of the century, and the idea that websites should keep their information “above the fold” is an outdated myth.

So it’s not about scrolling. Rather it’s about finding the best way to engage your market with well placed web content.

Most Web Visitors Scroll

According to an article in Time’s Business section from March of this year, 66% of attention on a normal media page is spent below the fold. Now it’s true that world renowned web usability expert Jakob Nielsen published guidelines to avoid scrolling, but he retracted that guidance in 1997, after people got used to the web!

The current wisdom from usability experts, eye tracking studies, and focus groups is that scrolling is better than paging. It’s easier for users to scroll than it is for them to decide if they should click through to another page.

This knowledge is, however, not an excuse for web developers to junk up the home page of a website with everything they can possibly throw at it. Users scroll based on the information trail you’ve provided. In other words, if the top of the page makes the content below the fold sound promising, users will scroll without thinking twice.

All Screens Are Not the Same

One practical consideration is that all computer screens stopped being the same sometime in the mid nineteen nineties.

In our office we have a number of 21” wide-screens, a 24” screen, a laptop with a 17” screen, a netbook with a 10” screen, and we have developed web applications for high resolution 55” screens.

Believe it or not, websites do not appear the same on all of these screens. So, for all of those developers trying to “keep their information above the fold,” what screen are they talking about?

And we didn’t even mention tablets and smart phones, which in 2014 are projected to displace computers and laptops as the majority devices used in online search. Have you calculated where the fold is on your iPad, Kindle, Nook, Samsung Galaxy Tab, or Internet enabled phone?

Today, Mobile Drives Scrolling

OK, honestly we don’t have a study to quote for this, but we’re going to go out on a limb and say it here first. People scroll on their phones and tablets! They do it guilt-free and joyously, with the effortless swipe of a finger.

It is beyond reason to think that, as soon as they get to a computer, they will refuse to scroll, or find it a burden. Scrolling is easy, and with touch-screens making in-roads on laptops and desk-top monitors, the finger swipe will be as easy in front of a big screen as a small one.

In fact, as the mobile market continues to grow, we expect more and more smart sites to adopt infinite scrolling as pioneered by Social Media,.

Should You Adopt Infinite Scrolling?

Probably not. We were just using that example to make a point. There are pros, cons, and subtleties to every element of small business web design, and our most valuable advice is to avoid jumping from one bandwagon to another.

Instead, carefully consider your audience and the purpose and functionality of your website, and DON’T AVOID SCROLLING just because a piece of expert guidance made when the web was new has long outlived its usefulness.

Avoid a Lot of Text, People Don’t Read Online

This is also nonsense and a misreading of how people interact with websites. Wikipedia alone is home to 32 million articles. The largest paper encyclopedias ever printed were a tiny fraction of that size.

Far from ignoring Wikipedia or refusing to scroll through its billions of words, the encyclopedia website has welcomed nearly 500 million unique visitors a month in 2014.

Yet what people tend to do online is not read paragraph by paragraph, top to bottom. Instead, they engage in scanning behavior, searching for the snippets of content that are most relevant to their personal concern.

Because of this, laying out text and information as though it were in book format is a bad idea, because doing so makes it difficult to find the desired snippet.

A layout featuring multiple headlines, short paragraphs, bullet points, break out boxes, and trending techniques like infographics allows the web visitor to scan the available content and find anchor points of interest.

Rather than limit any page to a pre-determined word length, concern yourself with effectively communicating the ideas for that page. Empathize with the problem or challenge that brought the reader to your website in the first placeand offer an effective solution that engages their interest. Then show how your company, product, or process is the best possible service provider.

Organize your information, prioritizing critical concepts at appropriate places throughout the page, and yes, a good deal of attention-catching content should be near the top of the page; after all, that’s where people start.

But if you need more convincing that people read “below the fold,” here’s a witty article by Paddy Donnelly titled Life, Below 600PX.

Summation

While prioritizing information and keeping critical concepts near the top of the page are as important as ever, the fear that your web visitors will not scroll to find useful content is unjustified.

There isn’t even any physical way to determine where “above the fold” is in a world rich with different devices, browsers, and screen sizes.

Developers who continue to maintain a strict “above the fold” mentality are actually making it a little harder for their users to find the information they need, as scrolling is by far the easiest action any web visitor can perform on any website, using any device.

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11 Social Media Statistics You Should Have Known Yesterday

Social media may be in a state of continuous change, but the importance and influence
of statistics remains constant. Depending on the data, social stats might result in the
addition of something new or the removal of an existing element in your strategy.
In either case, they serve to inspire change.

As marketers, you put a lot of work into keeping your profiles fresh and active with
relevant, interesting updates. And any adjustments made to that strategy are often
motivated by something you learned from A/B testing or inferred from a study.

Although they’re not hard to come by, we’ve identified some of our favorites.
Here are 11 social media statistics that will serve as inspiration for an upcoming
or existing campaign strategy.

1. The Most Repinned Images On Pinterest Have Multiple Colors

Images are a powerful marketing asset in general, but they’re especially important
for engagement on Pinterest. Curalate’s data science team reviewed more than a
half million images on the platform and examined 30 different visual characteristics,
 including colors and textures. The team found that pins with multiple dominant
colors have 3.25 times more repins per image than images with a single dominant color.

If you do choose the single color route, though, go with red. According to Curalate’s
blogpost, images that are red, orange, and brown receive about twice as many repins
than images that are blue.

That’s not to say that you can only add red-colored Pins to your boards. However,
it does give you something to think about when you’re trying to give a specific pin a
 bit of an edge over the competition.

2. Social Media Is Aging

More people than ever before are adopting social media, including an unlikely
demographic: senior citizens. Grossly overlooked on social, this age group is
searching on Google, browsing Facebook News Feeds, and watching YouTube.

Currently:

• 45% of Internet users aged 65 and older use Facebook
• 23% of Internet users aged 50 and older use Pinterest
• 13% of Internet users aged 50 and older use Twitter

For many brands, this is a demographic you don’t want to ignore. Of course, it all
depends on your product or service. While some won’t find value in targeting seniors,
others — such as lifestyle or health-related brands — will want to take their presence
into account when crafting outreach strategies.

3. LinkedIn Has Fewer Active Users Than Most Social Networks

Despite adding two new members every second, LinkedIn has a smaller percentage 
of active users than Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. As a result, passive
content like blog posts, white papers, and slide decks are betting suited for your
LinkedIn audience compared to more interactive content like contests or surveys.

4. 53% of Interactions Between Brands And Google+ Users Are Positive

Once labeled a “ghost town,” there are now more than 300 million people on
Google+ actively engaging through +1s, shares, comments, and recommendations.

Social media consultancy Converseon studied 2,500 consumer interactions with 20
big brands across three social networks. The study found that Twitter ranked high
(55%) for positive interactions and tied Facebook (20%) for negative interactions,
while Google+ sits happily at 53% and 18%, respectively.

Depending on your industry and target audience, you don’t want to miss out on any
of those interactions, regardless of whether they’re positive or negative. Make sure
that you’re regularly monitoring Google+ for mentions of your business or product.

5. Hashtags: Less Is More, Except On Instagram

While hashtags are a popular way to identify themes or topics across social
platforms, using too many can actually hurt your engagement rate. While Twitter
and Facebook recommend using no more than two, Track Maven found that
Instagram posts with 11 hashtags received the most interactions.

We should point out that this data represents Instagram accounts with less than
1,000 followers. For those with more than 1,000 followers, it appears that engagement
leveled off around five hashtags, which is still more than recommended on Twitter
or Facebook

6. 399 Million Facebook Members Are ‘Mobile Only’

Mobile now accounts for 62% of Facebook’s advertising revenue, which
is quite the dramatic change considering it lacked mobile ads just two years
ago. Just last year, the number of mobile-only users was 189 million. Now
399 million of the 1.32 billion people who use the social network do so from
their mobile devices only.

It’s also worth noting that while Facebook’s monthly user base has grown
14% year over year, its mobile user base has grown 31% to more than
1 billion. If you’re not optimizing the content you’re sharing for mobile,
 you’re missing out on a major opportunity to hook viewers.

7. 30% Of Tweets Mentioning Your Company Don’t Include Your Twitter Handle

When you’re tracking conversations around your brand, bear in mind that
not everyone will use your Twitter handle. If you’re not monitoring mentions
without the @ symbol, you risk missing out on a significant portion of feedback.
30.72% to be exact.

It’s also worth noting that only 9% of tweets are actually directed at your brand.
This means that more conversations are happening about you rather than with 
you. You have a great opportunity here to surprise your audience by weighing in.

If you don’t want to miss out on opportunities to delight a customer or collect
valuable feedback, make sure that you’re tracking all variations of your brand
name, with and without the @ symbol.

8. Engagement Is Strongest For Text Updates On Facebook

If you’ve ever wondered what types of content people typically engage with
on Facebook, or any social network for that matter, you’re not alone. Digital
agency Simply Zesty put together a study of some of the biggest Facebook
Pages across 10 categories and found text to be the most popular option overall.

What’s even more surprising are the results from individual industries. While photos
outperformed text in the auto, fashion, and healthy & beauty industries, text surprisingly
 exceeded all other mediums in the entertainment and music industries.

That doesn’t mean that if you belong to one of these industries that you must favor text
updates above all else. Adding diversity to your content is important in order to maintain
a healthy feed. But it’s worth considering when and how you’re incorporating different
media into your content strategy. Make sure there’s purpose behind your decision to
swap out a text update for a photo and vice versa.

9. Tweets With Fewer Than 100 Characters Get 17% More Engagement

Tweets perform better when they’re shorter. You’re already limited to only 140
characters, but tweets actually receive more engagement when you use even fewer.
Research showed  that keeping your tweet around 100 characters is ideal for engagement.

Although there’s no guarantee that every super short tweet will go viral, brevity is always
appreciated. Plus, it gives your followers extra room to add their thoughts before retweeting.

10. Capitalization Drives More Traffic Back To Your Blog

If you use social media to drive traffic back to your blog, you’ll want to spend extra
time crafting your headline. According to a Conductor study, 64% of people prefer the
 first letter of every word in the headline to be capitalized.

What’s more surprising is that 21% of those surveyed preferred all capitals. We certainly
don’t recommend that you yell every headline to your readers, but it’s worth knowing
that the formatting option resonates with some audiences.

11. More Than 3 Million Humor Pins Are Saved Each Day On Pinterest

Humor is one of the most popular and fastest growing categories on Pinterest. It also
holds the top spot on Fridays. You might not think that your editorial calendar applies
to Pinterest, but there’s actually a best day for everything on the site. Here’s how 
 the company broke down the most popular categories on each day of the week:

• Monday – Fitness
• Tuesday – Technology
• Wednesday – Inspirational quotes
• Thursday – Fashion
• Friday – Humor
• Saturday – Travel
• Sunday – Food and craft ideas

This doesn’t mean you have to stick to a set schedule for pinning, but it’s interesting
to know what’s trending throughout the week. We recommend looking at your analytics 
 to get a better sense of what’s working for your profile. You might find a new category
or two to add to your weekly rotation.

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Business Strategy and Delivering Your Value Proposition

Business Strategy and Delivering Your Value Proposition

As I mentioned in my previous article, “Are You Ignoring a Bad Business Strategy?,”your business strategy is a determining factor in whether your sales “will” or “will not” grow faster than your competition’s. Two key questions you need to ask annually as part of your strategic planning discussion are:
1. Does your business strategy encompass a clear value proposition that would be considered an “unusual offering” and is critical in your target client’s buying decision?
2. Are you delivering on the promises embedded in that offering?

The answers to those questions may be the primary reasons your sales force is not achieving their quotas.

“Unusual Offering” is not “Marketing and Positioning”

A key to the growth of your business is your ability to develop a business strategy that includes an unusual value proposition and become the best in the world at delivering on the promises in that value proposition. While every business owner recognizes the importance of “unusual offering” in helping a small business grow, many do not have one of their own. Many confuse “unusual offering” with marketing and positioning. A common mistake many owners make is to create their marketing before they really develop an “unusual offering.” Worse, some develop an “unusual offering” on paper that they cannot back up through operations. It should work in reverse. Once you develop and master your unusual offering, your target clients will easily choose you over your competition. Then you can create marketing campaigns that make it easy for people to notice you, and have salespeople that can convert the core clients as they walk into the sales process.

So How Do You Create An Unusual Offering?

In order to get your business strategy right, your unusual offering may not need to be a dramatic change from your current offering. You may already have an unusual offering that you have not isolated. You want a good bundle or aggregation of products and services that help solve clients’ needs in a special way that totally fits their situation. You may have the same mix of elements as your competition, but you can combine them differently or decide to add or subtract items from your offering in untraditional ways. You should also consider what your potential clients’ options are when configuring your bundle.

Elements That Add Value To An Unusual Offering

Depending on your core client and the options available to them, you need to consider how the following elements add value to your unusual offering:

• Price– What is their total cost today? Do they know what their total cost is? What would additional features, benefits, or services be worth to your prospect in terms of time, value to their clients, the growth of their business, reducing their stress, etc.? If you added new features, services, and benefits would they pay more for it, or would you just be increasing your cost of doing business?
• Cost/Risk Reduction– How can you modify your offering in a way that can substantially reduce client costs? How can the design of your product or service reduce risk for your client?
• Trends– What industry-wide trends are occurring technologically, economically, and environmentally that call for a new advancement in how your product or service is sold, delivered, distributed or marketed?
• Performance– What performance enhancement to your product or service is most valuable to your client? Would your client pay more for this enhancement? Would you lose clients to a competitor that made the enhancement while you did not? Is this enhancement necessary to keep up with minimum expectations? At what point does the performance improvement no longer make a difference in the client’s buying patterns?
• Customization– To what extent does customization to a product or service significantly enhance value?
• Design– To what extent does design make a difference in the usability of your product or service? Can design make your product more appealing or usable?
• Brand/Status– To what extent does brand or status influence the buyer?
• Accessible– Is there a way that you can make your offering more accessible to your target client?

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