Identifying The Three Major Types of Influencers

In a conversation about social marketing, there’s one subject that seems to surface more than anything else: influencers. By attracting the right influencers to your brand, experts say, you’ll pretty much guarantee free marketing for your business. Thing is…not many of them actually talk about how to tell whether or not someone is the right type of influencer. As with anything else, there are different breeds of influencer, each requiring a slightly different approach if you’re to succeed in courting them. That’s why today, I’m going to offer up a brief guide on identifying the three major types of social […]

Acing Social Media On a Bootstrap Budget

Learn how to establish a strong social media presence for your brand. Social media on a budget is possible!

It’s a familiar song-and-dance, especially among small businesses. Everyone’s constantly offering advice on how you can make your brand more mobile; advice which often involves “get yourself established on Facebook/Twitter/Google +/Instagram.” There’s only one problem – you’ve genuinely got neither the time nor the budget necessary to succeed in doing so.

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The Ten Biggest Changes 2015 Brought to Social Media

It’s that time again, folks. As 2015 begins to draw to a close and 2016 waits just over the horizon, we’ve a prime opportunity to look back on what transpired over the past year – and use that to prepare ourselves for what’s coming next. Of course, in this case, that may be easier said than done. See, 2015 may well have been one of the biggest years yet in the social space. We saw a ton of evolutions, disruptions, and emerging trends, and although certain constants yet remain (Facebook is still top dog, traditional ads still fall flat), a […]

5 Signs you are Addicted to Social Media

According to the Pew Research Center, as of January 2014, 74 percent of online adults were using social networking sites. While some of these people only use social sites from time to time, others let it consume their life. They are checking Twitter while they eat breakfast. They are posting to Facebook when they are supposed to be working. And of course, they are using Instagram to show the world what they are doing, where they have been, and maybe even what they are eating. Generally speaking, a social media addiction is not harmful. Sure, it may consume many hours of […]

Why Publishing Content on LinkedIn is a Good Idea

There are business professionals who publish content on LinkedIn as often as possible. There are also those who never think twice about doing so. Which group do you fit into? You don’t have to go crazy, posting to LinkedIn several times per day and turning this into an obsession. However, you should consider the benefits of adding this to your marketing strategy. If you have yet to get involved with LinkedIn, if you don’t know what this professional networking site has to offer, now is the time to adjust your approach. Here are five reasons why publishing content on LinkedIn […]

Some of the Most Common Terms in Marketing Defined

Like any field, success in event management is all about how effectively you can market yourself. Unfortunately, that’s sometimes easier said than done. See, the issue is that there’s no shortage of buzzwords floating around – and that makes it more than a little difficult to get started. Let’s see if we can’t help you sort through some of the jargon. Here’s a glossary of some of the most common marketing terms you’ll encounter while spreading the word about your event. A/B Testing: A type of marketing field test where one compares two versions of a website, email, product, etc […]

How to Harness the Power of Tweetwall

Did you know there are approximately 316 million monthly active users on Twitter? Did you know these users send roughly 500 million Tweets per day? These are the types of statistics that should open your eyes to the power of Twitter. It doesn’t matter if you are an individual user or company of any size, there are ways to use this social network to your advantage. Social Media and Events Social media continues to help event planners, organizers, and attendees communicate on a more efficient level. This includes spreading information about the event, real time photos and key moments, and […]

One Hour Per Day for Social Media: What Will You Do?

Did you know that 84 percent of B2B marketers use social media in some form? While some companies have a person dedicated to all social media marketing related tasks, others are not in the same position. Instead, they only have a limited amount of time to devote to this area of their marketing plan. Here is a question to answer: if you only have one hour per day for social media, what is the best way to spend your time? In a B2B environment, this may not sound like a lot of time. However, it is more than enough to […]

How Does Social Media Impact Political Campaigns?

It used to be that political campaigning involved actually getting out on the road and meeting your constituents face-to-face. It involved hobnobbing with everyone from the social elite to the average citizen, and drumming up support by your presence alone. And don’t get me wrong – that form of campaigning is still quite valid, and still very important. At the same time, however, it’s been supplanted, as many things have, by social media. “It is becoming increasingly difficult for campaigns and political advertisers to reach audiences through traditional methods,” Croft Media/Digital CEO Brian Donahue explained to the LA Times. “The […]

The Pros & Cons of Influencer Marketing

In a recent Forbes article, influencer marketing is defined as follows: a form of marketing that identifies and targets individuals with influence over potential buyers. Before we get into the pros and cons of influencer marketing – details which will help you determine how, if, and when to move forward – let’s take a look at an interesting formula shared in the same Forbes article: Influence = Audience Reach (# of followers) x Brand Affinity (expertise and credibility) x Strength of Relationship with Followers In other words, you want to find brand influencers with the following: A large, growing audience. […]

Five Steps for The Conversion of Fans and Followers Into Customers

Everyone’s always super keen on talking about how amazing social media is for business – how great it is for lead generation and brand reputation and connecting with consumers on a personal level. While they’re not necessarily wrong about that, a good reputation doesn’t really pay the bills. Sure, if people like your company they’ll be more likey to do business with you, but at the same time… There’s no real guarantee that a well-liked company or brand won’t still go under. It’s happened plenty of times in the past, and to businesses both great and small.  It sort of goes […]

Which Social Platform Best Suits Your Business Goals?

So, you want to start a social marketing campaign for your brand, where do you begin? It is important to chose the proper platform to begin with. You don’t have to stick to just a single platform, but it is important to chose wisely with one(s) that are aligned with your goals.  “Overusing one platform and ignoring others is a waste of your opportunities,” says AudienceBloom Founder & CEO Jayson DeMers. “There may be certain platforms that require more time and effort to provide relevant information, but a marketing campaign should never depend on a single platform.” As I noted […]

Getting The Most Out of Your Social Media Budget

According to a Salesforce survey carried out towards the beginning of this year, 70% of marketers planned to increase spending on social media and content marketing. In hindsight, that statistic’s not terribly surprising. Social networks, after all, have become a core element of our daily lives, integral to how we connect and communicate. For those marketers capable of selling to consumers through social platforms, they’re incredibly powerful, too – so much so that it borders on impossible to remain competitive without them. “With the current marketing landscape, it is critical to invest the necessary time and resources for building and […]

How to Use LinkedIn to Build Your Personal Brand

With more than 380 million registered members, spanning more than 200 countries, LinkedIn is the undisputed king of professional networking. While some people create a profile and never think twice about what it can do for them, others realize the potential for using the site to build a stronger personal brand. By using LinkedIn in the appropriate manner, you can strengthen your personal brand in an attempt to become a well known expert in your niche. This will result in more connections, job opportunities, partnership inquiries, and much more. Three Keys to Success At first glance, LinkedIn may appear scary. […]

Several Brands Doing Social Media the Right Way

This one piece of data from the Pew Research Center will tell you a lot about social media: As of January 2014, 74% of online adults use social networking sites. For this reason, it is only natural for brands to put a lot of time, money, and resources into connecting with consumers via social sites. While there are a number of extremely popular social media services, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat continue to receive a lot of attention from marketing professionals. Need help figuring out how to do social media for your brand? There is a big difference between creating accounts on these […]

Reddit AMA: What are the Pros and Cons?

Did you know that Reddit has more than 36 million user accounts? How about the fact that it receives nearly 200 million unique visitors per month? Are you aware that Reddit users come from more than 200 countries? You get the point. Reddit, while not often considered one of the top social networking websites, is one of the most powerful online brands you will come across. A lot of this has to do with the entertainment factor. A lot of it has to do with the ability to connect with users located all over the globe. Then there are the […]

How You Can Use Instagram’s Explore Page For Better Marketing

Today, we’re going to talk about something a little different. This piece isn’t strictly event management focused – though the advice we’re offering is still inarguably valuable for the profession. We’re going to talk about Instagram. As you’re no doubt aware, modern marketing is a chiefly visual business. Great copy is still important, of course, but great images are now more vital to a brand’s success than ever before. That’s why it’s not terribly surprising that Instagram has gained such a great deal of popularity in recent years – and that use of the platform by businesses has skyrocketed. It […]

Everything You Need To Know About Facebook’s New Live Video Feature

Facebook just recently made a pretty big announcement, though I’ll need to do a bit of explaining if I’m to justify exactly why it’s big. See, as some of you may already know, there’s this application called Facebook Mentions. It’s a celebrity-only application that allows its users to view a stream of posts that mention them, find trending topics relevant to their brand, and hold Q&A sessions with fans. Facebook has been working on it for a little while now – according to The Verge, it was in testing as early as 2013 – and since its launch, it’s only been […]

The Anatomy Of A Great Live Tweeting Campaign: Everything You Need To Know About Live Tweets At Your Events

Twitter and the events industry were practically made for one another. The readily-accessible microblogging social network is one of the best places to share information and updates with your attendees, and one of the best platforms for the promotion of your events. As you may be aware, it’s also an incredibly powerful tool for engagement. Trouble is, not everyone knows how to tap into that last one. “Twitter is the new social water cooler, but you don’t need to wait until the morning after a big event, show, or game to get the conversation started,” reads an article in Twitter’s […]

What A Simple Twitter Chat Can Do For Your Company

Twitter’s a powerful marketing tool – you all know that already. You have already read at length about what it can do for an event organizer, about the volatile power of Hashtags, and about the importance of keeping brand advocates up-to-date. Today, we’re going to talk about another, oft-overlooked feature of the platform: Twitter Chats. What Is A Twitter Chat, Exactly? A Twitter chat is an organized, regularly-scheduled discussion hosted and organized through Twitter’s Hashtag function. According to AWeber, the majority of Twitter chats take the form of a Q&A format: the host asks a question and directs it at […]