We finally reach the end of my course in Social Media Marketing. It’s perfect that we are ending on this particular subject, Social Media Marketing: ROI. Afterall, what’s the point of all these social media marketing Blog posts if we’re unable to capitalize on it??
This video/course was presented by the author Luan Wise, who has spent the last 15 years conducting B2B marketing. You can, of course, find this and other video/courses on Lynda.com.
So, you’ve got your marketing strategy, you know how to market it on social media, (because you’ve been reading my Blog, of course), so now what? How can you tell if all your efforts are producing the results you’re looking for? Better yet, how can you tell which marketing campaigns are attracting the engagements needed? With some social media sites like Facebook, the user can see by way of likes, how effective your marketing copy may be. If you’re using any Google products, you can use Google Analytics. Check out my previous Blog on that subject here. But what analytics tool do you use for Twitter, IG, LinkedIn, and even Facebook? Well, believe it or not, all four platforms have analytics built right into them. This enables you to check out how your ads are doing! They can all be accessed by-way -of your computer. The only exception, however, is with IG, which only allows the user to see this information on their smartphone. Once your on this menu, you will be able to pull the required information needed to do your calculation!
CALCULATION? That’s right, I said it!! Nothing like finishing this series off with a little bit of math thrown into the mix!! Afterall, this is an Academic Blog!! The calculation looks like this;
Using this calculation, you can determine how much revenue your copy has generated. There you go, you’re now on your way to engage your audience, and most importantly, you have the ability to see how effective your marketing campaign is!!
What did I learn?
I learned what social media is all about. As I mentioned before, I never used social media before this class, which is hard to believe, but completely true considering my last career in the Forces. As an added bonus, I learned about the marketing aspect of social media! This will serve me well, in my next career. My plan moving forward from school is to own my own mechanics garage. Learning about Social Media Marketing has given me the necessary tools to reach out to social media users, and offer deals with my business!
References:
Small Business Trends. (February 15, 2017). Social media. [Image]. Retrieved from https://smallbiztrends.com/2016/05/popular-social-media-sites.html
Social Media ROI. (January 12, 2017). Social media ROI. [Image]. Lynda. Retrieved from https://www.lynda.com/HootSuite-tutorials/Social-Media-Marketing-ROI/504398-2.html
Wise, L. (January 12, 2017). Social media marketing: ROI. [Video file]. Lynda. Retrieved from https://www.lynda.com/HootSuite-tutorials/Social-Media-Marketing-ROI/504398-2.html
Tweet, Tweet!! Welcome to this week’s Blog! Twitter: The Big Picture is brought to you by Brad Batesole, on the Lynda Network. Twitter is a social media platform which allows its users to make micro-moments for your followers to see. According to Brad, the core benefit of Twitter is to educate and engage with current and potential customers/followers (2017). Twitter is most effective when you give frequent posts. Further, 80 percent of its users access Twitter through their mobile devices, which means they are actively checking their account throughout the day (Batesole, 2017). This makes Twitter an excellent platform for you and your followers to gain and access information.
Using Twitter means creating an effective profile. According to Brad, your profile says a lot about your business (2017). For this reason, it’s important that you set it up correctly so that your name and brand work hand in hand. What does this look like? It means that you should have your name, bio, header image, and profile picture up to date (Batesole, 2017). Your twitter profile also allows you to link your LinkedIn profile to Twitter. Another customizable feature for Twitter, it allows the user to personalize their profile. In this sense, Twitter really becomes an extension of you and your personal brand.
Alright, now that were done with that, what now? According to Brad, the next step is to follow others on Twitter. However, he does make a great point to the viewer about doing your homework and check out what others in your field are doing. This can be invaluable to you because it can give a great indication of what works and what doesn’t (Batesole, 2017). This makes complete sense, especially when considering Twitter can be an extension of your business. So make smart choices, think things through before posting. Afterall, there’s nothing worse than hurting your brand by a momentary lap of judgment. Once it’s out there, its out there!
Alright, you’ve opened your brand new Twitter account, completed all the setup on your profile, customized it to your liking, you’ve done your research, so tweet, tweet….
Not so fast! There’s a ton of features worth mentioning here. Afterall, you don’t want to be on Twitter constantly do you? Okay, maybe there’s a few people who don’t mind being extremely active on Twitter, but what about those of us who are super busy with other tasks? What then? Brad explains the value of establishing a schedule for posting your tweets. This can have a profound effect on your content in that you can tweet posts around certain events or activities with your potential customers. You can also adjust your timings for content, thus allowing you to maximize your content to your viewers. After all, it doesn’t make sense trying to post at odd hours of the day. So, how can you find out what’s working and what’s not? Brad’s suggestion to this is to use analytics.twitter.com. This site gives the user access to everything needed to finetune your marketing campaign using Twitter (2017). It takes an in-depth look at the last 28 days, how many followers you’ve gained, your top follower, etc. This site also groups it on a monthly basis, allowing you the ability to see how you’re doing compared to last month, and so on.
Another great thing about Twitter is the ability to set up a Twitter advertising account. You then only pay for your ads when users take action to your advertising. Sound familiar? It should, (if you’ve been following my Blog), as I discussed a similar function with Google Adwords. You can check out my previous Blog post here. Twitter refers to their system as; cost per engagement or C.P.E. Obviously, a nice feature to have when launching a marketing campaign. It’s worth mentioning here, that your goal for using this is not to achieve a ton of engagement. What you should be trying to do with this is, build a community in an effort t increase your brand awareness (Batesole, 2017).
Finally, and most importantly….. Enguage your followers!! That’s right, when you have a twitter account, be prepared to answer questions and strike up conversations. This is very important, especially when you’re using Twitter for your business. The one thing worth mentioning, however, as your audience grows, so too does your efforts (Batesole, 2017). So, it’s VERY important to prepare for this. This may involve using a third-party tool to help you out. Brad suggests going into your settings on Twitter and setting up your email account. This can be done by organizing your emails into categories. After all, too many emails will clutter your inbox up, and not the right categories being used, and you may miss out (Batesole, 2017). So take the time, and set this feature up correctly the first time. By the way, all this talk of lots of emails…. I recommend setting up a separate email, just for these Twitter emails, for organizational purposes!
So there you have it, Tweet, Tweet! Setup can be lengthy but its extremely important to get as much functionality out of Twitter. I was very happy watching this video. Personally, I expect I will be using Twitter a lot in my new professional career, which is just around the corner. For me, I will be going back into the automotive sector, and currently, Twitter is being underutilized in the industry! Nice to get a business understanding of Twitter before I leave school! Look for my tweets, coming soon to a Twitter account near you soon! Follow my Twitter at; @Robalan76
References:
Batesole, B. (April 18, 2017). Twitter: the big picture. [Video file]. Lynda. Retrieved from https://www.lynda.com/Twitter-tutorials/Twitter-big-picture/480768/495350-4.html
Twitter. (n.d.). Twitter bird. [Image]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/twitter
It’s hard to write about Facebook for business in a positive light these days. These platforms, when used correctly and honestly, have the potential to become an amazing marketing tool. Indeed, social media is a powerful tool in which we can advertise our businesses on.
This weeks assignment is about Facebook for business. Through the Lynda.com network, you can watch an excellent video produced by Megan Adams, who has authored 11 video courses for Lynda.com. This exceptional instructor is extremely thorough about the features of Facebook. Megan’s current video/course was published in 2017, is two and a half hours in length and teaches the viewer everything from building your own page to using the advanced features of Facebook.
Speaking specifically on Megan’s video/course, I learned about the differences between a personal account and that of a Facebook page. This is something I was completely unaware of. Again, if I talk about my previous Blog article about LinkedIn, I shared with everyone my past, and why I’m not familiar with most social media platforms. That being said, I have used Facebook in the past, in fact, if I was to claim any sort of proficiency with any social media platforms, Facebook would be the one in which I thought I knew the most about. So speaking of this video/course, if you’re a business owner, Facebook is a good platform in which to establish your brand and give a call to action about your business. Through the Facebook network, users can look up local business and view their online content about their products and services (Adams, 2017).
Facebook has made it exceeding easy to build your own page. It has many features at your disposal, for example, the ease of which Facebook has made it for the user to add information to their site or adding photos or video is exceptionally easy. Other user-friendly features include Facebooks page settings, essentially allowing you to customize your page to your business needs (Adams, 2017).
Other things I learned from this video/course is Facebooks advanced features including how to create milestones, which the user can use as a self-check metric to assist in reaching your goals. Also, this video/course gives the viewer an idea of how the ratings and reviews work on your Facebook page. This is an important feature in that it tells your potential customers how others rate your products and services (Adams, 2017).
Opinion:
For its intended use, Facebook was the first true social media platform available for use on the internet. I myself have been a user of Facebook for a very long time. With uploading memories, pictures, social events and family holidays I used Facebook as a way to stay connected with family members across Canada. Thankfully in my case, those sorts of activities have been limited. Especially considering whats happening to Facebook these days. Facebook, which has been free of regulation now finds itself in troubled waters. Ironic really, when you consider it’s being ripped apart by a social media campaign against it, the #deletefacebook movement is gaining steam against the company for privacy infringements. In fact, you can now go to ANY news media website and catch the most recent allegations against Facebook. This problem is not going away anytime soon on Facebook. In fact, companies are removing themselves from the site, the most recent being Elon Musk and the closing of his companies Facebook pages for SpaceX and Tesla.
For all its intended use, Facebook helped people communicate with one another through an amazing network of friends and families. But just like nuclear power, its use can be a good thing, but it has the ability to be abused too, as we know with the creation of the A-bomb. The most disturbing part to this with regards to Facebook is that most of us didn’t see this coming. Now as we move forward, one has to ask, will Facebook survive this? And if so, what will it look like? I know, for myself, I will not be continuing with this platform until these matters of privacy are sorted out. Disappointing really, for my situation. As a student, I had to learn about the greatness that once was Facebook, to learn about all those amazing features, the ability to make a call to action for your products and services through a social media platform like Facebook, that is now tainted and riddled with questions concerning the safety of your private information. Sad when you realize you can’t trust Facebook to protect that which must be protected.
In the future, if Facebook does manage to survive this, I believe it will be a different platform altogether. As a social media marketer in training, I hope other social media platforms use this as an example of what they should not allow, the selling of its user data, as it’s their responsibility to protect it at all costs. My hope is that this will bring new legislation forward to protect users of social media, thus preventing something of this nature from happening again.
Wattles, J. (March 23, 2018). Elon Musk deletes Facebook accounts for Tesla and SpaceX. Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/23/technology/elon-musk-facebook/index.html
I use to think a LinkedIn profile was your online version of your resume. Incredible really, when you think about it, how very wrong I was with this notion. I’ve used LinkedIn for a few years now and never truly understood its value in the social fabric of online media.
That was until I started my journey in Business School. As part of my schooling, I thought it be, a wise idea to try and round out my education by taking Social Media Marketing. Now if you don’t know me, and you’re reading this, you’re probably saying to yourself; “Doesn’t every millennial these days wear their phone on their hip, constantly plugged into their social sites?” In which I would instantly agree with you! However, my case is much different. You see, I’m one of the old guys at my school. I’m a Gen X’er who’s been busy hiding out for the last 16 years in the Canadian Military. My career in the Forces took me far and wide, from fighting forest fires in British Columbia to protecting the world’s leaders at the G8 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta. And that’s just some of the domestic operations I’ve participated in. I’ve also had the distinct honor to represent fellow Canadians overseas twice, to help those who couldn’t protect themselves and to also protect the freedoms that we so often take for granted.
Okay, you’re probably very confused right now…. You’re probably having a hard time trying to understand where I’m going with all of this. I mean, the title of this Blog is LinkedIn after all. What exactly am I trying to get at here??? Well, as a soldier, we were always encouraged not to use social media for fear of security breaches. Let me expand on that; when you take a picture and post it on social media your not always checking out whats in the background, especially when you’re in the moment. Once that picture is posted, there’s no taking it back. That was a mistake that I could never afford to take during my last career. So, fast forward to now, while I’m in school, I thought I’d better get a grip with this social media thing quickly, (as I’m really behind the eight ball when compared to my school peers).
Okay, I get it. I’m still not getting down to the title of this Blog…. Bare with me for a little bit more here, I’m getting to it, I promise! Okay, back to my story here. As I was saying, I’m an ex-soldier who never used social media ever, who is now completing their Business Degree in a month, who’s now writing a Blog on LinkedIn. So here’s my answer, I’m sharing this with you right now because as part of this Blog I’m going to share with you a piece of me. You see, LinkedIn isn’t an online resume. In fact, its the furthest thing from it. LinkedIn is a platform in which you get to showcase you! Yes, it’s absolutely true, it does hold all of your work experiences and education that you have taken in the past. And it wasn’t until I took this class, indeed, this very course on Lynda.com called “LinkedIn Profiles for Social Business Success“, by Bert Verdonck, that I truly understood what LinkedIn truly is. LinkedIn is you, it’s me, it’s everyone! It’s a professional, digital, representation of you! It’s a platform in which you communicate to your network. It’s a platform where you share your professional self with everyone. It’s your personal brand (Verdonck, 2017).
Okay, I’ve done it again, haven’t I? I’ve still left something out here. Why tell you all of this? Why share my story with you? Well, I’m sharing my story with you so you can appreciate me! Or at the very least, you will be able to understand why my LinkedIn is the way it is….. So, without further ado, here’s why I shared me with you!
My name is Rob Alan, and this is ME! I’m a decorated Afganistan Veteran. You see, you can never truly appreciate what you see unless you understand it. And when I normally give out my LinkedIn profile particulars, it’s always with a handshake, followed by a conversation about me. So, for the purposes of this Blog, and everything that I’ve written so far, this is my handshake and conversation for you, my reader. Now you understand me, and who I am. Thank you for getting to know me, and visiting my LinkedIn profile!
Which now brings me back to the task at hand here! You and I, and this topic, what was it again? Kidding! Okay, getting away from all this sassiness, and back to the academic stuff, according to Bert, LinkedIn is a representation of you (2017). In fact, if you noticed earlier on in this Blog, I linked you right to his LinkedIn profile, Bert explains the importance of differentiation between you and everyone else. So what does this look like? It’s the little things, those personal touches that you and only you have. Which brings me back to his profile, right under his picture, he proclaims he’s a self-confessed “Happy Chocoholic”. Bert explains to the viewer the importance of this as a conversation starter as a way to break the ice with recruiters and other chocolate lovers (Verdonck, 2017). Now he doesn’t expect everyone should do this, what he does explain, however, is the importance of individualizing yourself. This is what is going to get you recognized by people and potential recruiters. So, case in point, why LinkedIn is not just a resume.
As part of his video, Bert gives useful advice about the importance of the appearance of your LinkedIn profile. This starts with your picture, and goes to how you write your name! Also included; a methodical explanation of each feature of your LinkedIn profile. For example, Bert’s discussion includes how to spruce up your education and your skills and recommendation sections to get the most out of your LinkedIn profile (2017).
Now, as I said before, I’ve used LinkedIn for years now. As a self-taught user, I spent countless days, (not hours, days upon days) figuring out what Bret was able to explain in just over an hour. Very impressive, this guy absolutely knows his stuff when it comes to LinkedIn. Which would have been an absolute asset to me, had I known his video existed! So, what did I get from Bert’s course? I learned how LinkedIn allows name searches to find you! Allow me to explain, you drop your name to someone who is interested in linking to your profile. The only problem with that; what if they spell your name wrong? Happens all the time doesn’t it? Really for me, it’s one of the most annoying things, especially when you’re in the scenario of actually spelling it out for someone letter by letter, and they still spell it wrong right in front of you! So, Bert’s solution to this; make a paragraph within your profile with all the common misspellings that people do (2017). Now I have to admit, this was very strange to me at first, I mean do I really want to have a weird paragraph on my profile for users to look at? But then it hit me, wouldn’t it be possible to write it in one of the sections within my profile which I don’t use, and simply not make it public? A quick look at those features which Bert had shown in his video course and boom problem solved! Here’s what I did; currently I don’t use my test score profile section on my page. So I open that up on my editing screen. Then I added all the names I could think of. When I was complete it looked like this:
Then, once that was complete, I went to edit my public profile section and simply unselected the test scores button. This makes the section visible or invisible to other LinkedIn users.
This is what my other screen looked like. The end result, I have my name search paragraph that’s needed for misspellings, but its invisible to other users!! Nice little skill courtesy of Bert, which now has the ability to redirect those people who are looking for me to my profile. Now my only problem is how do I get rid of everyone else on LinkedIn with my name?? (I’m hoping Bert comes out with another video explaining this problem)! Okay, bad humor, but you get the idea!
The other thing that I missed, which I picked up from Bert’s video; the importance of having your contact information on your profile (2017). Which makes absolute sense, after all, how else are people supposed to contact you if they are interested in you? I can’t believe I missed that, but hey, I did have to teach myself at first…..
In conclusion, no matter what your knowledge level is of LinkedIn, I highly recommend watching Bert’s video on how to set up your profile. His industry insights and experience speaks for itself. Further, Bert’s also takes the time and explains to the viewer the importance of following influential leaders, group engagements within LinkedIn, mobile app use and the importance of setting up your privacy settings. These are important factors to consider when you’re trying to establish your online presence and brand. Afterall, LinkedIn is a digital representation of you….. Don’t you want to get it right, the first time?
References:
Doyle, A. (February 15, 2017). How to use your LinkedIn profile as a resume. [Image]. the balance. Retrieved from https://www.thebalance.com/how-to-use-your-linkedin-profile-as-a-resume-2062598
Verdonck, B. (January 30, 2017). LinkedIn profiles for social business success. [Video file]. Lynda. Retrieved from https://www.lynda.com/LinkedIn-tutorials/Welcome/512777/581571-4.html
Ever wondered how to do something at home but wasn’t sure how to do it? Try YouTube. Chances are you will find yourself immersed in how-to-videos on all sorts of tasks and projects. What you may not know, however, is that YouTube can be used as a means to convey your marketing messages on your products or services offered by your business.
Make no mistake, YouTube is a powerful tool which you can link to your website or any of your social media accounts. The good thing about YouTube is its ease of use. Working just like a Google ad, you set up your video with keywords. These keywords are important because they allow for viewers to search you via search engine optimization or SEO. The YouTube platform also allows the user to group videos together so that viewers can move from one video to another. This is a powerful tool; because chances are your viewers are going to be interested in other videos you may have posted.
Still not sure how to navigate YouTube? Anson Alexander is the author of “Top 5 tips for your YouTube channel“. Located on Lynda.com, Jason lends his expertise to the viewer on the uses of YouTube. I highly recommend watching this video for helpful insights to use YouTube effectively.
Still not sure how YouTube can help promote your website and the products and services your selling? Imagine, if you will, looking to buy a brand new set of tires for your car or truck. Before you go into the store, you want to do your due diligence and research specific tires and their handling capabilities on ice/snow, or wet/dry conditions. Having a link from your site will enable your potential customers to compare performance capabilities, from the comfort of their home or mobile device. To take the one step further, you could have a video resource link, giving small tutorials on changing a tire on the side of the road, in a safe manner. This could prove very useful, especially if your not car savvy.
Another thing about YouTube worth mentioning is that those keyword searches could lead a customer directly to one of your videos on YouTube. When the customer is watching this video, you could provide a link directly to your website! In this example, you can actually bring new customers in which may not have known that your business offered certain products or services.
No matter which way you slice it, YouTube is a powerful marketing tool, when set up on your website and social media platforms, gives the viewer an inside look to your brand, and the services you offer!
References:
Ahmed, M. (April 7, 2017). A sensational video marketing tool. [Image]. Retrieved from http://in.kompass.com/e/en/article/youtube-sensational-video-marketing-tool/
Alexander, A. (October 7, 2014). Top 5 tips for YouTube channel. [Video file]. Lynda. Retrieved from https://www.lynda.com/YouTube-tutorials/Top-5-YouTube-Channel-Tips/181239-2.html
Consumer Reports. (May 10,2016). Consumer Reports 2016 tire top picks. [Video file]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ofmriTaWL8
Howcast. (January 30, 2009). How to change a flat tire. [Video file]. Howcast. Retrieved fromhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INMUrGdA_RA
Rob Alan Social Media Marketing Blog 2018 