Category Archives: Social Media Marketing

New Social Media Marketing Tool: What Is Klout and How Much Do You Have?

Last Updated On March 14th, 2024Social Media Marketing, ,

If you pay attention to social media marketing, you have probably heard about Klout and wondered what it is. Here’s everything you need to know about the social media marketing tool, including why you should be using it.

What is Klout?

Klout is a social media marketing tool that analyzes who your brand influences and who influences your brand on social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and more. Klout’s main goal is to let you know how much influence the content you’re posting is having on your online community.

How does it work?

Klout rates your content on a scale of 1-100, 100 being the best. It gives you a list of people whom you influence and people who influence you the most. Once it gives you a Klout score, it breaks it down for you with graphs that tell you how much impact your information is making on your social community. It lets you know whether your scores are good or bad, whether you’re more influential or less than the average person as well as your “Klout Style,” which describes how you interact with your following.

So why is this information important?

Having a better understanding of who you’re influencing and how much impact your content is making on your online community can help you create the content you want and in turn, the online reputation you want for your brand. It’s always useful to know how you are impacting your audience (i.e. your customers), so you can be sure that the social media path you are taking is the right one or whether you need to turn around and reevaluate your options. Find out how much Klout you have; get started here!

5 Social Media Marketing No-No’s to Avoid

Last Updated On August 13th, 2014Social Media Marketing, , ,

BadsocialmediapracticesSocial media networks are a powerful marketing tool. However, when used incorrectly, they can actually do damage to your reputation, annoy your customers and drive potential customers away. Here are 5 social media faux pas that you should never commit.

1. Using your social media network exclusively as a sales tool. This is the surefire way to get “unfriended” and “unfollowed.” People already have enough advertising coming at them from all angles online and offline, they don’t want it overtaking their social networks where they come to communicate with friends, family and their favorite brands. It’s okay to send some sales messages but they need to be spaced out between engaging, useful content that your reader will enjoy. People love to hear about promotions and sales but too much advertise-y talk will definitely turn your followers off and encourage them to give you the boot.

2. Posting the exact same content to your Facebook as you do to your Twitter. This makes it obvious that you don’t really pay attention to your social networks; you’re just on there to spread your message, not interact or engage. You want your fans to follow you on both Facebook and Twitter, right? Well then why would you post the same thing on both networks? Those who do as you wish and follow you on both will get duplicate information and no one wants to waste their time on that.

3. Asking your existing fans to help you find more followers without rewarding them for doing so. Nothing will make your current fans feel less important than begging then for more fans. They’ll think, “What? Are we not good enough?” and who wants their fans feeling unappreciated? Everyone wants more fans, but don’t beg your current audience to help you find more. Instead, make your content so great that they’ll want to share with other and recommend you to their friends.

4. Pretend the negative feedback you receive on your social network just didn’t happen. Let’s face it, we can’t make everyone happy. There will always be a disgruntled customer who will try to leave rude comments on your brand’s Facebook or Twitter. When this happens, it’s important to address those irritated customers in a concerned manner and try to troubleshoot the problem. One annoyed customer can potentially go on to tell their friends about their bad experience with your business. That’s why when a less-than-impressed customer is brought to your attention, do what you can to make them happy. If they hated the food and service at your restaurant, invite them to come back for free and try it again. If you handle the problem with grace in public on Facebook or Twitter, you’re allowing the world to see how much you care about every customer.

5. Open a promotion to “new customers only.” It’s great that you’re promoting a special discount on your social network; but don’t ruin it by only opening it up to new customers. This will make your current customers feel left out and unappreciated which is a definite no-no. Keep in mind that it’s important to reward your Facebook and Twitter followers as a whole, because they already are a segmented group of your entire customer base.

Stay away from these 5 social media marketing no-no’s and you should be free from the dreaded “unfollow.” Remember to always post engaging content that your followers will be interested in and good luck in your social media marketing endeavors!

Social Media Marketers: How to Prepare for the New Facebook Changes

Social Media Marketing, , ,

Facebook has been making subtle changes for a while now, but after the recent F8 conference in San Francisco, Mark Zuckerburg announced that the whole look of Facebook will soon be changing with the release of “Timeline.” But how will this affect online marketers? Here are some things online marketers should be aware of before the arrival of the new Facebook.

1. “Likes” will be a thing of the past. With the new Facebook, anyone can “[verb] a [noun].” In other words, they’ll be able to do a lot more than “like” a company. Companies will be able to get creative and make up their own verbs then encourage their fans to use them. This will help brands stand out from the crowd and it will also make interacting with the page more interesting. Example: For a clothing store’s page, instead of fans “liking” something they want to buy, why not choose the terms “want” or “need” so fans can express their desire for the newest trends that the store carries.

2. Your page “likes” will no longer show up in the news feed. Prior to Facebook Timeline, when our friends “liked” a business page, the activity was posted in our news feed. This was a valuable way to spread the word about your business page on Facebook. However with the arrival of Timeline, stories like this will show up in the “Ticker” which is a small, fast-moving newsfeed that scrolls on the top right of the page above the Facebook Chat. While people may still see their friends’ “likes” in the Ticker, it’s not as prominent as the activity appearing in the news feed. Solution: Make your page engaging. When you have a truly engaging, fun Facebook page, people will want to “like,” it and interact with it and it won’t matter as much whether their friends are doing it too.

3. Facebook will be putting more of an emphasis on engagement. In the past, Facebook has been more concerned with the numbers, i.e. how many members the social network has. Now that the network is up to 800 million members and still climbing it has decided it’s time to concentrate more on engaging those members. Timeline is meant to be more than just status updates to tell your friends what you’re doing. It takes it a step further and actually creates an online scrapbook of your entire life; things you like, do, place you’ve been, people you know, etc. Timeline will make Facebook more engaging and encourage people to spend even more quality time on it. For companies, users spending more time on the network means more opportunities for them to interact and spend time with the brand.

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