10 Tips for Better Facebook Status Updates

Facebook status updates stand out from the crowd:

1. Post an interesting fact. If you’re sharing a blog post or an online article, create a status update that features the piece’s most interesting fact or statement to stir reader curiosity and encourage click-throughs.
2. Share a tip. Begin the post with the word “TIP!” This makes your status update stand out in your fans’ News Feeds. 
3. Endorse content. Add an endorsement when you share someone else’s content or status update to change the way users react to a post.
4. Don’t always ask a question. You don’t always have to ask your fans what they think. Mix it up!
5. Inspire action. Post an image and include an ask such as, “If you’re on Pinterest, feel free to repin!” This usually results in pins and likes.
6. Tell users what to expect. If you’re posting a video or linking to a blog article that’s on the long side, set your followers’ expectations by telling them exactly how long it is so they know what they’re getting into.
7. Add a “P.S.”. In email marketing, adding “P.S.” at the end is a proven and effective way to grab the readers’ attention. Test using a “P.S.” line in a few status updates and see if it improves engagement.
8. Use short links: Instead of copying and pasting a long URL into your status update, use a link-shortener like Bit.ly to make your post briefer and more likely to be shared.
9. Use images with text.  An online tool like PicMonkey will help you add the right HTML description to your images, which improves SEO.
10. Ask users to comment. Use a give-to-get approach — e.g. ask your fans to share their Twitter handles with you and promise that you’ll follow them back. Comments are worth more than likes in Facebook Edgerank, which improves the likelihood that your post will be featured in your fans’ News Feeds.

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When Social Media Marketing Intersects Lead Generation

The introduction of internet has revolutionized the way business is done. Nowadays, the business companies and organizations regardless of their size rely heavily on internet to reach out and market their products to the people. Gone are the days when marketing meant going from door to door to convince the people to buy a product or running television advertisements.

A marketing strategy that does not include the internet is considered incomplete and is destined to fail in the current scenario. Thus, the inclusion of internet marketing in the overall marketing scheme is essential for the success of any company in this day.

However, only online marketing is not enough to get the company the noticed among the people nowadays. In this constantly shifting and changing world, the use of a new marketing technique by the name of social media marketing is becoming hard to ignore for the business firms.

Social Media Marketing

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing is a new marketing technique that has been introduced lately in the business world. Social media marketing involves the marketing of a company’s product or the company in general on the social media websites that have become very popular among the people in a very short time.

In social media marketing, the businesses try to send their message about their products to the people and encourage them to share it with other people in their social circle. This way the message of the company is sent to a larger network of people on its own without the company having to do anything about it.

The driving force behind a social media marketing campaign is one customer’s recommendation to the other through word-of-mouth. This is the reason why the traffic coming to the website due to social media marketing is called earned traffic rather being called paid traffic.

In this medium of marketing, the interaction with the customers and engaging with them on a regular basis is very important. This way the customers are kept in the loop about the new products that are to be released by the company.

Types of Social Media

Social media is the name of a broad spectrum of services and websites that are all dedicated to provide people a means to connect with other people. There are a number of different types of social media available that you can use for launching your social media marketing campaign. A few of these types are explained below:

Social Networks

These are websites that allow people having similar interests or backgrounds to connect with each other and share photos, videos and other content. These networks are ideal for social media marketing campaigns as they provide the perfect space for the companies to interact with their targeted audiences.

All a company has to do is to form a page on these networks to start their social media marketing campaign and then try to attract the people towards it by sharing information about their products with them on that page. If the people find your page interesting, they will like your page and share your content with their social network and thus, marketing your product for you.

When launching a social media marketing campaign on these social networks, companies can makes use of online content marketing too by posting articles about their new products regularly on their page and inviting the members of their page to visit their website. Moreover, concepts of online video marketing can also be used to boost the social media marketing campaign on these social networks.

Some of the most popular websites in this category of social media are Facebook and Foursquare that offer the people a place to connect with people that share their interests.

Micro Blogging

These are services that offer the people the chance to share short and concise messages or updates with their followers. These websites are also very vital for a social media marketing campaign as they offer the businesses a chance to share news snippets about their new products and releases with their fans very quickly and easily.

Making a profile on these services gets you ready to start sharing status updates about the product you are about to launch in the market. Once you have gained enough following, you can get your message across to thousands of people just by typing in short messages using mobile phones.

The best micro blogging service that can be used for social media marketing purposes is Twitter. This service is immensely popular among the people and can prove to be an ideal place for launching your social media marketing campaign.

Media Sharing

Another type of social media is the media sharing websites that focus primarily on sharing videos or photos. The users are allowed to share their photos with other people on the website.

The media sharing websites also offer a great venue for the companies to launch their social media marketing campaigns. The businesses can share the photos of the new products or the product they want to market with their potential customers.

Among the most popular media sharing websites, Instagram is by far the best websites for launching a social media marketing campaign.

Why Social Media Marketing is Important for Lead Generation

Social media marketing can play a great role in the generation of leads for a business. The reason for this is that the people following your pages or accounts on social media website like Facebook and Twitter are likely to visit your website and can also prompt other people in their networks to do the same.

The social media and content marketing that you do on websites like Foursquare and Instagram generates leads for you website too. So, social media marketing is the most important tool for lead generation in the current scenario.

Moreover, the Search Engines that are the main source of increasing the traffic coming to a website have also started giving attention to social signals and rank those websites more highly that have a good social media presence. Effective social media marketing campaigns can get your website rank higher on the Search Engines and thus increase your lead generation.

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Nearly 80% of People Participate In Online Community to Help Others

According to the research, people spend most of their time online with colleagues in professional networks (41%), followed by friends, family and experts. Only 13% report spending the most time online with their family.  Seems the closer the relationship probability, the less time online is shared.  In the survey, we had an "Other" category and it was interesting that the most common fill-ins pertained to business; most popular fill-ins included customers, prospects, and clients. Business use of social networking is definitely top-of mind for many users. 

 

We then poked around a bit to learn how, if at all people's use of social media channels varied by relationship. There is a significant different in what channel people choose to reach others in their lives. 

 

Clearly, people understand the nuances of the different communications channels and making judicious selections based on their communication needs. The finding that people use micro-blogging most frequently (45%) to reach an expert especially interesting. Perhaps it is the informal nature of the platform or perhaps the strength of relationships that are developed there, but it does seem logical that people would feel comfortable reaching out on Twitter and the like to experts to make a connection. 

 

I thought it was especially interesting (and reassuring!) that nearly 80% of respondents participate in online groups to help others by sharing information and experiences, and 66% participate in a professional community to belong to a group of colleagues and peers.  41% participate in groups to be seen as someone knowledgeable. Only a relatively small percentage use networks and community to persuade others to adopt their point of view or buy a product of service.  It has long been known in the community world that community is no place for a vendor booth - it is for the exchange of ideas and not the waving of sales flags.  Yes, direct and indirect sales can occur as a by-product of thought leadership shared in community exchanges, however, it is the content and ideas that yield value in professional communities. The data reaffirm this belief.

Read Full Article Here

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