All social networks are not equal.

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are social media standards – but what about other platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, or YouTube – is it necessary to have an account on all of these too? 

Not to mention using the new features released on existing platforms like Facebook Live and Twitter Moments. Social Media statistics are constantly changing, it can be overwhelming, especially if you’re a one-man (or woman) show. 

It’s important, that you figure out who you’re trying to reach on social media and where your customers can be found. Once you determine the best one or two platforms, stay consistent and master your marketing strategy there first. Then you can widen your efforts to other social networks.  

Facebook & Facebook Live

79% of internet users (68% of all U.S. adults ranging from 18-65+) use Facebook
Facebook is still the most popular social media platform – so having a page here is highly recommended

Facebook, like most other platforms, has become more visual-driven, so incorporate imagery and video when possible. Try using the Facebook Live feature for events to reach potential students who may be unable to attend or are out of the area. You can also use Facebook Live for a Q&A session with your admissions team or show off your campus on a video tour.

Facebook Video has become a vital aspect of Facebooks offerings. Videos will autoplay, though most times users will not hear the audio along with your video. Clever marketers will use this to their advantage, and we have seen a resurgence of “silent movies”, videos that communicate visually.

Twitter

36% of internet users use Twitter, with the largest percentage being between 18-29

11% of American adults get their news on Twitter

With a 280-character limit, Twitter is great sharing short snippets of information about your school, upcoming events, photos from previous events or even linking to articles/blogs on your website.

Again, incorporate imagery when possible and keep an eye on trending hashtags to gain more visibility (but only use them if they actually relate to your school or an event you’re holding – there have been many Twitter disasters with misused hashtags).

Twitter can be great for interaction with your followers, allowing for quick messages or callouts, and has a shorter-lived message lifecycle.

LinkedIn

Most of us consider LinkedIn to be focused on only companies or businesses – but that’s not true. Schools, colleges and universities can also create a page for their alumni to link their education history to and as another resource for potential students looking to learn about your school.
Consider creating an alumni group to encourage community and involvement of past students, as well as an additional way to keep them informed of events and fundraising opportunities.

YouTube

YouTube has been around for quite a while, but a lot of schools and businesses still aren’t utilizing this powerful network, even though YouTube “reaches more 18-34 and 18-49 year olds than any cable network in the U.S.” 
Try using YouTube for video tours of your campus, event highlights, recruitment videos, student and alumni videos, you can even upload your Snapchat stories as a video reel. With the rise of video, there are endless possibilities and you can link posts on other platforms to your videos on YouTube.
YouTube videos are great for cross-promotion. Embed a link to them on your Facebook feed or at the top of your Linkedin profile.
Snapchat

The newest player in the game, and possibly the hardest to envision a use for – but 78% of Snapchat users are under 24, which is a large part of one of your target audiences.

Snapchat is based on images or videos that only last for 10 seconds, and can be added as a “story” for your school. These stories can be downloaded as one video that you can then use for other platforms such as YouTube and Instagram.
Snapchat does offer advertisement opportunities – but let’s start small for now. One use of this channel would be to have students “take-over” for a day and show a day in the life at your school.

Try highlighting all aspects of your school; academics, arts, music, athletics, campus life, even different clubs and organizations.
Instagram & Instagram Stories

32% of internet users use Instagram but the majority of these users are between the ages of 18-29. If you’re trying to reach this age group, utilizing this platform could help.

Instagram is almost entirely visual-based but this doesn’t mean you need to hire a professional photographer just to use this platform. You can easily edit any photo taken on your smartphone (just try not to use the Lo-Fi filter for every picture!).
One way to encourage user engagement is to ask followers to submit or tag your school’s account in their photos and videos of your campus or events and repost these images.


Planning is important. Posting randomly or sporadically are not characteristics of a successful social media strategy. Of course, it’s okay to post occasionally when the mood hits you and you have something interesting to share. Yet, such spontaneous posts should be additions to a regular posting schedule. 

Consistency will heighten anticipation for your content, interest in your brand, and overall engagement. To make sure you see those benefits, you may even use a scheduling tool. That way, regularity is easier to achieve and time is also saved.

You can also learn much from companies like yours that are struggling in this area. Using your expanding knowledge of social media best practices and what you learn from your strongest rivals, you can pinpoint what not to do. You don’t have to go the trial and error route. Let competitors try and err for you!

How to Make a Facebook Cover Video

How to Make a Facebook Cover Video For Your Business Page

What are the benefits of a video cover on Facebook?

When a user visits your Facebook Page direct, the cover is the first thing they'll see. They'll probably start scrolling for content, but that first image or video is a unique opportunity to share a positive first impression. 

Your Facebook cover tells people who you are, what you do, what you're like, and what your company is all about.

As such, a video cover can offer an even more immersive and engaging way to hook in viewers - for example, you could:

Introduce people to your brand and its people

Share your latest product offering

Promote an upcoming sale or event, etc.

Uploading a new Facebook video cover takes just a few steps, along with some tweaking to make sure it looks as good as it can be. You can choose to feature a previously-uploaded video or upload a new one. My preference would be to build and upload a video that is custom-made for your cover; one that will inspire fans and also meet Facebook's best practices (more on this below).

Here's a quick step-by-step for both options:

Choose from Videos

Hover over your cover photo and choose 

'Change Cover'-> 'Choose from Videos'

Select a video that you've previously uploaded to your 

Page and click 'Confirm'.

Drag your video around in the cover area until it's 

positioned as you like, then 

click 'Next'.

Use the arrows to go through the video thumbnails until you find one you want to use as the first frame. 

Also, choose here whether you want the video to loop or not.

Once everything is as you like, click 'Publish'.

Upload Photo/Video

Hover over your cover photo and choose 'Change Cover' -> 'Upload Photo/Video'

Select a video stored on your computer.

Once it's uploaded, drag it to re-position the video 

up or down as desired, then click 'Next'.

Scroll through the video thumbnails until you find a thumbnail that you want to use as the first frame. 

Also choose here whether you want the video to loop or not.

Click 'Publish'.

Facebook recommends uploading a video with a resolution of at least 820 x 312 pixels, but 820 x 456 pixels is ideal

Videos can range in length from 20-90 seconds, and as noted in the previous step, you have the option to make them loop

When people visit your Page, the cover video will 

start playing automatically

The video will play with the sound muted, so consider how your video will be received with and without audio. 

There's a mute/unmute option in the lower right-hand corner of the cover video.

Social Media Marketing Trends for Business

Let's discuss what on the horizon for social media marketing

Tablets Will Grow In Use vs Print

Tablets became widely known when Apple unveiled them in 2010. However, ipadforsocialmediatoday several companies have introduced cheaper tablets which are replacing print in every home.  A lot of popular publishing houses have been switching to tablets from the usual print. Print media is diminishing rapidly. The Amazon’s Kindle Fire, a low-cost tablet has been taken over a significant segment of the print market.

Visualization More Important Than Ever

For all the exciting and informative things founds online, whether it is a couple of kittens playing, a baby laughing, or a top commercial featuring a popular model, there is always an element of video. With a video, people tend to accept and attach on a much deeper level due to the usage of visually-rich and interactive elements depicting a proper message or story. And as a consequence, audience is tempted to take considerable action in terms of likes, sharing, etc.

With time, brands have been able to capitalize on the introduction of highly-engaging video features on different social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram.

For this trend, we are going to focus on video aspect only since businesses are seizing the opportunity to differentiate their brand in the competitive industry.

Mobile users are tending to spend more time than ever with their smartphones, with the excitement to watch videos online being proportionate as well. It is clear from the following stats that online video is growing rapidly in popularity.

YouTube registers more 18 and above years-old audience during peak TV hours than any cable TV network.

Advertisers on prime time broadcasting TV could gain 56% more audience of 18 to 49 years-old through advertising on YouTube.

Plainly from statistics, it does not come as a surprise that Facebook recently revealed the count of 1.65 billion active users watching about 8 billion videos each day.

Consumers are more tempted from videos because of the deeper attachment they experience from the visual on-screen elements. Realizing the need, the trend of promoting high-quality video content is very much likely to soar high in future.

Master Micro-Moments

Mobile gadgets have proved to be a major influence in customer interaction and engagement with brands across the globe. But the surprising thing for most people is the concept of “micro-moments”, which has powered the shift to mobile phones. From long-term goals such as planning to purchase a home, or something as small as acquiring a quick grocery from the nearest store or even locating the ingredients of a dish from your phone, etc., countless of these micro-moments stimulate the impulse to reach out for our mobile phone.

As per Think with Google, micro-moments are highly critical and evaluative touchpoints where customers expect brands to cater their needs with reliable information, regardless of the time and location.

Whenever a customer feels the need to inquire about something, an astounding 96% of users reach for their smartphones to conduct the required research at that very instant. Only successful brands have the tendency to correctly anticipate and address the exact micro-moment needs by providing the right information at the right time to customer in need.

A useful, quick and one-touch access to the needed information becomes the basis of acquiring customer trust and building long-lasting relationships.

HASHTAGS FOR BUSINESS AND BRAND - Social Live

Why create your own hashtag for brand, product and use it on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms.

Businesses can use hashtags for a variety of reasons.

If the hashtag is already in use by a community, it’s can be a great tool for networking, lead generation and more. But businesses may choose to create their hashtag for a number of reasons, including:

Encouraging event participants to live tweet
Hosting a Twitter chat
Hosting an online Q&A
To promote a product launch
To show support for a charity or cause
The list is as long as there are reasons for using Twitter itself.

Be sure that you understand what purpose your hashtag will serve before your create it.

4 steps to creating your own hashtag

Ready to jump in and create your own branded hashtag? It’s not overly complicated. Here’s how:

Brainstorm. You want this hashtag to represent your brand and the way you will be using it – but you also want it to be short and sweet.

Come up with a list of several potential hashtags that could be used based on your business name, event, etc.

Including the year works for hashtags that will be reused yearly (for annual events, for instance), and including “chat” somewhere in the hashtag is common for weekly or monthly Twitter chats.

Research. Next, check to see that your ideal hashtag isn’t already in use. Since you’re looking to create a community around your hashtag, you want to start fresh – you don’t want to encroach on another community’s space.

Use Twitter’s search to see if and when your hashtag has ever been used, and go down the list you created in the brainstorm until you find a suitable, quiet hashtag.

Promote. Your hashtag is going to be pretty quiet if no one knows about it! Tell your ideal community – your followers, your business connections – that the hashtag exists, and let them know how you will be using it. You can send an email blast, write a blog post, put up signage in your store… use whatever promotional tools are available to you to get the word out.

Monitor. Once people know about your hashtag, it’s time to use it!

Make sure you monitor the chatter, and chime in whenever it makes sense. If you’re hosting a weekly chat, monitor and use the hashtag during that hour or so each week. If it’s an event hashtag, be sure to monitor it in the days and hours leading up to the event, during the event itself, and post-event for photos and feedback.

  ‪#‎hastagtips‬ ‪#‎socialmedia‬ ‪#‎sociallive‬ ‪#‎sociallivellc‬ ‪#‎ferndalewa‬

Should my business be on Instagram?

Last few posts we did a series on hashtags and we hope your using the tips. This next few days we will cover ‪#‎instagram‬

What Is Instagram?
...

Instagram is a social media network focused on visual images.
60 Million Photos shared every day.

There are no status updates or 140 character limits, and instead the entire update is one square image (and an optional caption).

Users ‘follow’ other users that they are interested in, and can then scroll through image after image on their newsfeed.

Ideally, you should caption the images that you post on Instagram to give your followers context, such as ‘New product ready to roll out in Autumn 2014! ‪#‎fashion‬ ‪#‎handmade‬’.

The caption helps users understand what they’re looking at, while the hashtags make your post searchable for anyone who is interested in that category.

For example, users interested in ‪#‎PlusSizeFashion‬ can look at only images that contain this hashtag -- if you use it, you’ll show up with thousands of other plus-sized designers and fashion bloggers.
While it was launched in just 2010, Instagram now has around 200 million monthly active users. Today there are over 1 billion on Instagram.

Using Instagram can allow you to show a more casual side of your business -- your products in use, the process of manufacturing them, the pile of boxes to be shipped out during Christmas shopping rush -- and build your brand through a visual story.
‪#‎sociallivellc‬ ‪#‎socialmediatips‬ ‪#‎sociallive‬

Another Perspective on Instagram with more than 500 million user

Instagram has more than 500 million users, the social media platform that provides a great marketing tool for you to reach potential customers for your business. 

In order to improve your Instagram marketing, you need to increase your following on a steady and consistent basis. After all, the more people that come in contact with your brand and follow you on Instagram, the larger your audience is that you can potentially reach every time you post. 

Here are seven easy to implement Instagram marketing tips that will help you grow your brand.

Cross promote Instagram posts.

Want to easily add new Instagram followers that already love your brand? Post across all over your other social media profiles Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. and invite them to follow your Instagram profile. They are already following you on social media, so they are obviously interested in what you offer, so give them another way to socially connect to your brand.

Don’t assume that your posts will reach everyone that’s connected to your brand on social media. Many people move away from certain social media platforms and some aren’t as active on some than they are on other networks. You want your followers to be connected to as many of your social profiles as possible to increase your reach per post.


Create an interactive hashtag.

Creating an interactive hashtag is a great way to create instant engagement -- just make sure you are using hashtags the correct way. A very simple strategy I have used for some of the larger brands I consult for is creating a hashtag that customers use to tag photos of them with the product that they just purchased. 

For example, creating a hashtag that your company can search for to re-post the pictures of your customers with your product will accomplish two things:

It will cause more of your followers to use the hashtag and post images of them with your product because they will want to be featured on your page
Every time someone posts using your hashtag they are exposing all of their followers to your company and products.

Show what you do in a creative way

Focus on the solution you provide, not the products you sell. On Instagram, it’s essential to add value to your customers and look pretty while you do it. Never underestimate the fact that your most important asset (and downfall) on this social media network is visual content.

If your business is service-oriented, focus on showcasing the process behind providing the service. Show your company culture, share your mission with the world, or simply share some tips and how-tos. It’s possible to upload photos, short videos and story lines.  

Try Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories have a slideshow format and are only live for 24-hours (though they can be saved to your device to be re-used later). This new feature is a direct competitor to Snapchat’s Stories and is now being heavily developed by Instagram. These are some of the benefits of using Instagram Stories for brands:

Stories are prominently displayed at the top of follower timelines just under the Instagram logo.
Can be used to capture behind-the-scenes content that doesn’t have to be as high in quality as regular posts.

Makes it easy to experiment with different content types: photo, short video, Boomerang (GIF-like image), video filmed backwards (Rewind) and live video.
Tagging other accounts, e.g. @instagram in Stories is ideal for collaborators and influencer marketing.

Fun additions like face filters, text and stickers help you edit images on-the-go.
Story search for hashtags and locations make them more discoverable.
All photos and videos you add will play in the sequence they were added and you can add as many as you like. Instagram Stories adverts became available to all businesses globally in March 2017. 

You can use these to target new audiences and add CTAs to your collages which can be especially useful for promotions. Check out Single Grain’s ultimate guide to running Instagram Stories Ads for a full step-by-step guide to creating your first one.

Note that Stories are only available on the mobile app and it’s possible to send Instagram Stories as a direct message (DM). We’re yet to see widespread use of sending Stories privately for businesses, unless you’ re planning to send tailored short videos to prospects.

Collaborate and @mention others

Instagram is one of the strongest social media channels for highlighting collaborators and sharing customer success stories. Even if you don’t officially partner with a non-profit organization, you can give to charity or do a fundraiser a couple of times a year. 

It’s all good as long as the cause aligns with your brand values and mission. Take into account that not everyone is monitoring hashtags on social media, so tagging an account is usually a better choice if you want to get noticed.

Another technique involves the use of ‘shout-outs’. An unpaid shout-out is when you partner with another brand that has roughly the same number of followers as you to promote each other to your audiences and you both benefit from increased exposure.

The paid shout-out is for those with a bigger budget as it’s essentially an influencer campaign. This usually involves paying a brand (or influencer) with a much larger following to promote your product or service. It’s a great way to gain a large number of new followers quickly, providing that you create a strong call to action and the influencer’s audience is genuine.

Good news for businesses with Pinterest announcing they are bringing back affiliate links to their site.

After a fifteen month absence from all affiliate links on Pinterest account's, they are back. 

Pinterest announced today that they have worked out all link, spam and poor user experiences from their page and board links.

Pinterest users reported ongoing issues with broken images, spam images and bad redirects were destroying the excitement on the site, so an executive decision was made to remove and cease support for affiliate redirects, links and trackers.

The decision to return to the use of affiliate links is based on the improved spam tracking technology that can help ensure that the affiliate experience does interfere from a Pinterest users experience.

Pinterest expects this to encourage businesses to again start using Pinterest as a location for services, products and brand identity as businesses will be able to link to other social media sites and share their messages.

Another objective of supporting affiliate Pins is to support the international users and encourage them to create boards and more content for Pinterest, which will also open the international markets to businesses that would not normally reach this audience.

The restoration of affiliate links on Pinterest is a plus for all users and Pinterest alone as more participation on the network will provide additional revenue sources to community members who have previously found a solid return on their time investment.

The more engagement, the more appealing the network is to just about everyone who comes into contact with it.

Find Wi-Fi around the world (and find your business too)

Find Wi-Fi around the world (and find your business too)

After being released to several countries last year, Find Wi-Fi is now available worldwide.

The tool allows users to find the closest Wi-Fi hot spots based on businesses who have shared their Wi-Fi through their Facebook Page.

To access “Find Wi-Fi,” they only need to open the Facebook app, click on the “More” tab and then “Find Wi-Fi.” They can also search through the map to find available hotspots and learn more details about the businesses providing Wi-Fi.

Do we really have to tell you all the benefit that your free Wi-Fi can give to your business?