With Facebook recently announcing their new Graph Search function, social media continues growing into an astronomical advertising titan. Getting messages injected into an audience now only takes a click of a button. But the button you click determines which audience hears your message. After all, Facebook attracts a separate audience than Twitter or Instagram.

Rather than leave you wondering which platform works best for your social media marketing needs, we compiled a list of statistics from last year’s social media activity. Glance through the facts, look for key information relevant to your advertising strategy, and then make an educated decision.

Facebook

• A photo of Barack Obama currently holds the record for most likes, the current total sitting at 4,445,255. (Source: Facebook)
• 25% of Facebook users don’t use any privacy control. (Source: PR Daily)
• The average Facebook user has 130 friends. (Source: PR Daily)
• Links containing adult keywords are shared 90% more than any other link. (Source: PR Daily)
• Over 488 million people regularly use Facebook mobile. (Source: All Facebook)
• Approximately 23% of Facebook users check their account 5 or more times per day. (Source: Socialnomics)
• One in every five page views online occurs on Facebook. (Source: All Facebook)
• Over 300 million photos are uploaded to the site each day. (Source: Jeff Bullas)
• Around 77% of business-to-consumer companies and 43% of business-to-business companies claim to have acquired customers from Facebook. (Source: Business2Community)
• More than 80% of users prefer to connect with brands through Facebook. (Source: Business2Community)
• An average Facebook user has 130 friends and likes 80 pages. (Source: Digital Buzz Blog)

Twitter

• There are more than 465 million Twitter accounts. (Source: Jeff Bullas)
• The average Twitter user has tweeted 307 times. (Source: Diego Basch)
• Approximately 175 million tweets were sent every day in 2012. (Source: Jeff Bullas)
• Around 750 tweets per second are shared on Twitter. (Source: PR Daily)
• 1 million accounts are added to Twitter every day. (Source: Jeff Bullas)
• Barack Obama’s presidential election victory tweet holds the record for most retweeted tweet ever with over 800K retweets. (Source: Guardian)
• The average Twitter account follows or is followed by 51 people. (Source: Diego Basch)
• 32% of all Internet users are on Twitter. (Source: Marketing Land)
• 69% of follows on Twitter are suggested by friends. (Source: Web Analytics World)
• Approximately 50% of Twitter users use mobile devices to tweet. (Source: Tag.Microsoft)
• 34% of marketers claim to have generated leads using Twitter. (Source: Digital Buzz Blog)

Instagram

• There are 8,500 likes per second. (Source: Instagram)
• More than 40 million photos are uploaded to Instagram every day. (Source: Instagram)
• Around 25% of Instagram users upload more than three pictures. (Source: PR Daily)
• Approximately 23% of all Internet users have an Instagram account. (Source: Marketing Land)
• Instagram currently has 90 million monthly active users. (Source: Instagram)
• In August of 2012, Instagram had an average of 7.3 million daily active users. (Source: All Things D)
• There are approximately 1,000 comments made per second. (Source: Instagram)
• In 2012 alone, Instagram users liked 78 million photos. (Source: Digital Buzz Blog)

Pinterest

• Approximately 97% of the fans of Pinterest’s Facebook page are women. (Source: Media Bistro)
• The average user spends 16 minutes on Pinterest per visit. (Source: Media Bistro)
• About 80% of Pinterest users are women, and approximately 50% of all Pinterest users have children. (Source: Search Engine Journal)
• Over 80% of pins are repins. (Source: Media Bistro)
• The most popular age group on Pinterest is 25 to 34 year olds. (Source: Media Bistro)
• Pinterest pins with prices receive 36% more likes than those without prices. (Source: Shopify)
• Around 69% of Pinterest’s visitors found either an item they purchase or wanted to purchase, compared with 40% of Facebook users. (Source: All Facebook)
• When surveyed, 43% of people prefer Pinterest to interact with retailers or brands. (Source: All Facebook)
• 57% of Pinterest users interact with food-related content, the #1 category of content. (Source: Blog.Compete)

Google+

• The #1 occupation of Google+ users is “Student.” (Source: PR Daily)
• More than 2/3 of Google+ users are male. (Source: PR Daily)
• The Google +1 button is used more than five billion times per day. (Source: PR Daily)
• Google+ is adding 625,000 new users every day. (Source: PR Daily)
• More than 42% of Google+ users are single. (Source: PR Daily)
• Only 8% of Americans over the age of 12 have a Google+ profile page. (Source: Edison Research)
• At least 60% of Google+ users log into their account daily. (Source: Tecmark)
• Sites with a +1 button generate 3.5x more Google+ visits than sites without the button. (Source: Hubspot)

As you can see, the importance of social media in today’s business climate cannot be emphasized enough. Plus, it’s easy to get started. Simply log into any social media platform, create an account, and join the online conversation.

If you have any questions, or need our help starting a social media marketing campaign, feel free to contact us.

The post Surprising Social Media Statistics from 2012 appeared first on SEO Website Design.

Building Community with Valuable Content

But value isn’t an unattainable thing. Companies all across the world create valuable content each day, using their creations to expand and engage both new and existing audiences. So, how do they do it? How can a company set out to create valuable content in order to attract individuals? Moreover, how can a company then convert those interested individuals into customers?

Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s discuss “value.”

What is Value?

Quite simply, “value” is something that helps or heightens an individual’s everyday experience. It’s something the person uses, either consistently or only once, to make their life easier, more convenient, and more enjoyable. Overtime, people come to view that something as worthwhile or significant.

For companies working in today’s Internet era, “value” often translates into a video, photo, article, or some other online creation. But it’s important to remember that all of these examples are merely containers for content, and it is the content itself that people find valuable.

However, if it’s the content people care about, the question then becomes, who actually cares about your content? And who will care so much as to find it valuable?

And that’s exactly where we find the truth behind valuable content: it’s not about what you create – it’s about who you’re creating it for. Your audience determines the value of your content. Not you. Your job is to provide them with something that they view as valuable.

Focus on Your Audience

Imagine having a conversation with someone who only talks about their life, their problems, their desires – them, them, them. No matter how hard you try to divert the topic to something else – weather, sports, work, money, anything – they turn the conversation back to focus on them.

It’d be annoying, right? Well, that’s exactly what audiences hear when companies focus on self-promotion rather than providing worthwhile content. There’s a huge difference between creating valuable content and talking about yourself, your plans, your goals, your objectives, and so forth.

Create content that keeps people engaged, as if you were in an ongoing conversation. Release content that may interest your audience, then listen to the responses and create the next piece of content based off audience response.

Engage to be Engaging

We’ve talked before about what it means to run a successful social media campaign, in which the topic of valuable content was briefly described as “giv[ing] people something worth sharing.” While true, this sentence doesn’t go far enough: creating an audience is as much about giving people something worth sharing as it is about listening to what the audience has to say.

Plus, listening shows empathy. It shows a company cares about what its audience has to say, and you’re viewing them as people, not numbers. This instills trust and respect, while also offering ideas for creating valuable content. Keep your mind open to what the audience has to say, because you never know what could spark the next big creation.

Of course, possibly more important than creating valuable content is how you provide that content to your audience. After all, even the best content means nothing if no one sees it.

Valuing Your Value

Obviously, companies want to attract individuals so as to convert them into customers. That’s basic business. However, how you go about converting customers has an impact on the valuable content that you create. For example, Mail Chimp, a leading provider of email services, offers tons of e-books on their website, all of which are absolutely free. No secret charges. No additional costs. These e-books are free for everyone to enjoy.

So, what good does this do Mail Chimp? First, these e-books prove to customers that Mail Chimp is an authority in the industry, because they know so much about email marketing that they wrote numerous books on the topic. Second, offering these e-books for free shows customers that Mail Chimp actually cares. The company isn’t in it just to make money. They genuinely want to help people.

And since the books are actually informative, that’s exactly what they’re doing: helping people. What did we say earlier that the definition of “value” was? (Hint: “Quite simply, ‘value’ is something that helps or heightens an individual’s everyday experience.”) You better believe that’s what Mail Chimp’s e-books do, and you better also believe that people view Mail Chimp’s e-books as valuable resources.

Providing audiences with informative and free resources is an effective way of leveraging valuable content to attract dedicated customers.

From Content to Customer

So, how exactly does valuable content turn into an increase in customers? Simple: people share valuable content. They see it as so worthwhile that more people need to know it exists. This act of sharing introduces your company to newer audience members that may have never been exposed to your services, thus making an impression on the individual. The more impressions you make, the more opportunities of selling your company to customers.

And since their first impression of your company comes from valuable content, they’re already skewed toward viewing your company in a positive light. By doing this, you not only introduce valuable content into an established audience, you also utilize that established audience to bridge social connections into other established audiences.

As long as the content you create provides audiences with worthwhile information or helpful services, your company will see an increase in those drawn to your company. Moreover, you’ll create a community based around your products or services.

The Community Conclusion

Building a community requires engaging individuals on a level other than sales or advertising. You must provide people with a reason to gather. Furthermore, you must provide a deeper reason for people to continue gathering around your company.

To put it simply, you must be creative, consistent, and helpful, providing people with an experience that contributes to their everyday routine.

Is this easy?

No, of course not. If it was, everyone would have a huge community.

But it’s also not impossible. And when you do create a community that relies on your content, the results are unlike anything your company has ever experienced.

The post How to Use Valuable Content to Create a Community appeared first on SEO Website Design.

However, countless companies misunderstand the process of creating a free Facebook coupon page. They either think it’s too hard or too complicated, when it is in fact among the easiest additions to incorporate into a Facebook page. Plus, a free Facebook coupon page is the perfect way to convert customers.

Step-by-Step Instructions to Create a Facebook Coupon Page

Assuming you have a Facebook page already, the first step is to download the app Static HTML: iframe tabs. It’s free and easy to install. All you have to do is push this big blue button:

To access the app, click “Edit Page” in the top-right of your Facebook page’s Admin Panel, and then click “Update Info.” Next, click “Apps” in the left sidebar, as seen here:

You’ll see Static HTML: iframe tabs listed among your added apps. Click its middle option of “Edit Settings,” which will pop up the following window:

This window allows you to add the new tab to your Facebook page where customers can access a coupon code. In addition, it controls the name and the thumbnail image of that tab. Here’s a visual example of the tab we created:

Now, let’s set to actually creating the coupon page. Head back to your Admin Panel and click on the newly created tab. You’ll see a page like this one:

The “Public content” section is what a user will see if they have yet to Like your page, while the “Fan content” section is what users will see after they have Liked the page. Simple enough. So let’s create your “Public content” first, since it’s already selected. Click the “Edit” button located to the right of “Public content,” which will bring up this section:

This is where you want to put an image that entices someone to Like your page. But take notice: clicking “upload image…” prompts a message saying that you have to upgrade your Facebook page by paying $12/month. Don’t do that. Instead, upload the photo you want to use onto your website’s server. Then, place the following code into the “index.html” tab:

Obviously, replace “yoursite.com” and “yourimage.png” with your website and image’s actual names, and add any file names, if necessary. This will call the image into the app, allowing you to bypass the $12/month charge. When you’ve finished with the “Public content” section, do the same thing with your post-Like image for the “Fan content” section.

And voila! You have successfully created a free Facebook coupon page.

The post How to Create a Free Facebook Coupon Page appeared first on SEO Website Design.

To answer these questions, I interviewed our social media experts to get an inside opinion on what makes social media marketing a worthwhile investment. And now, this information is yours to enjoy. Let’s get to the goods:

#10. Being Social

Here’s a redundant statement: you have to be social during a social media marketing campaign. The problem is, too many companies view social media as a one-way conversation. They put out content and then ignore customer responses. Companies that view social media sites as an open conversation are the ones succeeding and selling to customers, because they’re interacting, engaging, and making impressions.

#9. Valued Content

Successful social media campaigns give people something worth sharing. An article, a photo, a video – it doesn’t matter the medium, all that matters is it adds something to a user’s life, be it happiness or sorrow or an educational tidbit. People want to tell each other about interesting things. But the thing has to be interesting enough to be told to others. Don’t just throw together a half-assed video and expect it to go viral.

#8. Accessible

A large part of being social is being accessible. After all, people cannot be social if you aren’t available to talk. You need to continually check your social media accounts for updates or notifications, because one missed Tweet or Facebook post could result in a lost customer. Don’t become obsessed, but definitely be committed to your accounts.

#7. Patience

Similar to search engine optimization, social media marketing success doesn’t happen overnight. In fact, some companies have had to keep their accounts active for years before they attracted attention. It’s all a matter of being patient and believing in your company’s products or services. Continue pushing quality content and people will eventually discover you.

#6. Focused Marketing

Successful companies use their social media accounts like magnifying glasses for their messages. They stay focused on specific topics relevant to the company’s products or services. Quite simply, a highly-focused content marketing strategy is much more powerful than one utilizing a broad topic approach.

#5. Relevant Companies

If you provide worthwhile content that attracts an audience, you may even attract the attention of a relevant company within your industry, which may then share your content with their followers. Of course, you could also contact such companies to attempt a content sharing negotiation. Having another authority within the industry share your content could create a huge increase in your account’s followers.

#4. Narratives

As mentioned before, creating quality content is vital to a social media marketing campaign’s success, but it goes even further than that: content must tell a story. People love reading about stories, seeing stories, sharing stories – we’re a story-based culture. If you can craft a long-term content strategy that follows a single narrative, such as telling how your company got started or how a specific product was developed, people will follow along. They’ll want to see how the story progresses and concludes.

#3. Be Truthful

It’s cliché for a reason: honesty is always the best policy. Talk to your customers like you’d talk to friends and family. Lying or hiding information creates distrust and a lack of transparency, which can drive customers away. Honesty instills respect into customers, because it shows them that you care about their opinion. And people know when a company is being honest or covering something up.

#2. Empathetic Responses

When a company has hundreds or thousands of followers, it can be hard to remember that those numbers are all people. Each one is an individual trying his or her best within this wild world. Giving one of your followers a worthwhile, personal response could be the needed impression to convert them into a loyal customer, because it shows you recognize their existence and took the time to give them a meaningful response.

#1. Listening

Lastly, the most important part of a successful social media marketing campaign is to listen to your customers. Hear what they’re saying and acknowledge it. Don’t just brush it off and move on with your day, because your customers will do the same to you. And by “listen,” I don’t mean argue. I mean actually listen. Hear their complaints and comments, think about them, and then give an honest response in return. People appreciate it when you take a moment to hear what they have to say.

The post 10 Traits of a Successful Social Media Marketing Campaign appeared first on SEO Website Design.

No matter the scenario, it all starts with someone creating a ripple effect in the big online ocean known as social media. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Youtube – these are now the channels in which people communicate, yet too many companies fail at engaging audiences through these social channels.

And here’s why:

#10. Undefined Objectives, Goals, or Conversion Metrics

A social media campaign, like any marketing initiative, needs definable goals. It needs something to strive toward – something that returns an investment for the company. And no, a Facebook page’s number of ‘likes’ is not a tangible goal, because ‘likes’ are arbitrary. People can like a page and then simply take the page out of their newsfeed, ignoring all sales messages. Instead, focus on goals like connecting with product reviewers, industry analysts, journalists, and other individuals that may help spread your company’s name. People will like your Facebook page or follow your Twitter account along the way.

#9. Viewing Social Media as a One-Way System

Piggybacking off the previous reason, many social media campaigns fail because they take the “social” out of the campaign. Instead of engaging with customers and creating future messages based off responses, companies continue pushing out content without even considering what their audience is saying. You have to be social in a social media marketing campaign. That’s the whole point. You put out a message, people discuss that message, and then you respond to their responses. And remember, cater your messages/content based off what your audience is talking about. Great conversation is relevant to what’s happening.

#8. Hiring an Amateur

Here’s a common scenario: A business owner hears about the wonders of social media marketing yet knows nothing about the industry, so he hires a fresh-out-of-college employee to handle the company’s social media accounts. And then their social media marketing tanks. Why?

This fails because the fresh-out-of-college employee doesn’t properly connect with the company’s audience. People know when a social media account is run by a robot/uncaring employee. They want to interact with someone who cares about the company. More importantly, audience members want someone who cares about them.

#7. Viewing Social Media Marketing as a Mass Dialogue

It’s true – social media marketing connects a company with countless individual. However, the problem is that too many companies miss the true purpose of this kind of marketing: connecting one-on-one with customers. The benefit of new-age marketing is that you connect directly into someone’s life, and you can sway a person’s perspective simply by taking the time to provide them with a targeted response. Don’t just release messages and walk away from the computer. Sit down, watch what people say, and provide meaningful, personal responses. It’ll be worth it.

#6. Excessive Advertising and/or Product Pushing

Ask yourself: Why do people follow corporate social media accounts? Maybe the individual hopes to score exclusive online deals. Maybe they want to be the first to know about new products or services. There are a bunch of answers, really. However, the one answer you’ll never hear is that people want to be inundated with product advertisements. No one wants to subjugate themselves to advertising, and no one wants to see a company spew sales pitch after sales pitch. It’s gross and annoying, and a quick way to get people to forget all about your social media account. Sparse advertising is okay, but too much is exactly that: too much.

#5. Saying a Whole Lot of Nothing

Like a conversation in the offline world, a successful online dialogue has to start with something interesting. People don’t want to see a stream of boring posts about how the social media account handler is “stuck in traffic” or “enjoying a sunny day” or “staring out a window.” Please, spice it up with something fantastic, even fictional, to give your audience a reason to read your social media announcements.

#4. Inconsistent Activity

Again, part of owning a social media account is being social. And part of being social is being consistently involved with other people. You cannot post twenty times on a Monday and then disappear for two weeks, expecting people to come rushing back to your account. A social media account must be active throughout the week, because consistent messages remind people that you exist and you want to have a conversation.

#3. Using a One-Size-Fits-All Strategy

A social media marketing strategy must be tailored to the product or company it’s intended to advertise. In addition, it must also be catered to the audience most susceptible to that advertising. Using a template or cookie cutter social media marketing campaign will result in an ineffective or less-than-satisfactory outcome, because you are missing the lynchpin to a worthwhile social campaign: passion. You need to connect with people based off the emotional and visual perceptions people have toward your product or services, and this begins by examining how your company views its own products and services.

#2. Lack of Executive Involvement

For whatever reason, many CEOs and company presidents do not participate in their social media marketing campaigns. Instead, they let hired professionals or amateurs handle the accounts. This is a huge, huge, huge missed opportunity. Social media connects directly into an individual’s life, and having a company CEO openly interact with a community can build trust, transparency, and a lasting impression. People like to see big business executives take a moment out of their day to talk to customers.

#1. Ignoring Complaints

Here we are, at the number one reason why social media campaigns fail: ignoring customer complaints. You see, social media marketing campaigns are all about opening a conversation with customers, but sometimes what those customers have to say is not going to be positive. After all, this is the Internet, and people love spewing hate and anger online, because they can release their emotions and then walk away. The problem is, if someone leaves a negative comment or response on your social media account, you cannot walk away, nor should you delete or ignore the comment, because fighting negativity with negativity is a surefire way to get customers riled up.

Instead, use the open dialogue to talk to the customer. Inquire about the complaint, talk about what happened, and show the rest of the community that you care about your customers. People remember being treated with respect and dignity, and they’ll often tell others about the experience, too. Properly handling an open complaint shows the online world that you’re in the social media scene to listen, not just talk, to actual individuals.

The post 10 Reasons Why Social Media Marketing Campaigns Fail appeared first on SEO Website Design.

Review 2012 Social Success

Even before thinking about 2013 campaigns, you must review 2012’s collective social media data. All of that information helps you to determine which audiences reacted to your engagement and which ignored social media attempts. Make sure to assess every social platform – e.g., LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instragram, Google+, and so forth – because you may find one attracts more individuals, while another converts more customers, in which case it’d be a matter of using the best of both campaigns to enhance audience attraction/conversion rates.

Talk to Your Team

Nothing kills a social media campaign quite like poor communication. For example, imagine a writer creating an elaborate post that’s meant to be launched on a specific day, but the writer fails to inform whoever controls the social media accounts, so it’s either sent out too soon or too late. This returns a less-than-expected result. Too many of these kind of results and the whole campaign suffers. Instead, bring your team together – sales, marketing, social, creative, branding – and make sure everyone understands their roles and the lines of communication.

Gather Corporate Assets

Analyze all sales and market assets currently within your company. Such assets include presentations, giveaway opportunities, published reports, mobile applications, online videos, instant messaging, and so forth. Seeing all of this together gives you an idea as to what kind of campaigns you can run. Do you have a lot of copy-based assets? Start there. Plenty of giveaway items? Focus a campaign on that. Basically, work with what you have.

Examine SEO Opportunities

At the end of the day, a social media campaign should be benefiting your website’s established search engine optimization rankings. For this reason, you want to research SEO keywords that have previously driven business to your organization, using them as a stepping stone for campaign creation. Also, always track your social interactions in Google Webmaster Tools and Analytic. Information is the strongest tool for modifying campaign results.

Set Realistic Goals for 2013

Don’t let the excitement of a new year get the best of you. All social media campaigns goals must be grounded in attainable, realistic goals. You want to look back on 2013 and say, “Yes, I accomplished what I set out to achieve.” This means your social media campaigns must resonate with your customers, engaging them on a meaningful level that fulfills their needs, which in turn fulfills your needs. Remember, these are actual people, not just numbers, and you have to provide a worthwhile experience/product to attract their attention.

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