by Fronetics | Mar 13, 2019 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media
New reports show an overall decline in social media use. With dropping numbers, why should businesses continue to use social media use? Here’s seven reasons why your brand still needs social media.
Highlights:
- Social media usage has seen a steady decline in usage over the past two years.
- Having a presence on social media shows that your business is current, approachable, and interested in meeting their customers where they are. In fact, it is often more noticeable when a business does NOT have social media accounts than when they do.
- Success should be determined when a marketing strategy delivers against business goals, where social media is a part of the overall strategy. It is a classic case of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts.
Marketers have been speaking anecdotally about the decline of social media for a solid year, but now we have data to support our instincts. The Infinite Dial 2018 report, which explores consumer usage of media and technology, has found that for the first time ever, both Facebook and Twitter use declined in 2018, from 67% to 62% and 23% to 21%, respectively. Overall, social media usage has decreased from 80% in 2017 to 77% in 2018. To put that in perspective, social media usage has increased an average of 7.77% over the last 9 years. Experts predict that we will likely see continued decline in 2019.
So, given those statistics and predictions, why should businesses continue to use social media? In a saturated market with declining audience interest, what’s the point?
Here are seven reasons why social media is still worth your time and effort
1. It’s expected.
Much like consumers expect any company worth doing business with to have a well-thought out, updated, user-friendly website, they also expect to be able to find them on social media. Having a presence on social media shows that your business is current, approachable, and interested in meeting their customers where they are. In fact, it is often more noticeable when a business does NOT have social media accounts than when they do.
2. It’s a branding tool.
Social media allows consumers who otherwise wouldn’t know about your business to discover it and learn what it’s all about. Consistently publishing to social media results in your brand remaining top of mind when a potential buyer is looking for your product or services.
3. It’s a way to build authority.
Social media isn’t just a way to tell consumers about your brand; it’s a way to show your audience that you know what they care about, what resonates with them, and that you are a trusted source of information.
4. It boosts organic visibility.
The keywords used in social media and the backlinks acquired send signals to search engines that your content is relevant for a certain subject. According to Search Engine Journal, “Google has repeatedly said that social media likes, favorites, shares, backlinks, etc. are not direct ranking signals — but there is a correlation between social media activity/popularity and how/why it is ranked by search engines.”
5. It allows for easy communication.
Whether it’s to network with industry professionals, provide customer service, or influence potential customers, social media provides a free, easily accessible way to do so. And more and more customers are expecting to be able to communicate via social media with brands.
6. It builds your brand’s reputation.
All of the above reasons factor into your brand’s reputation. By delivering resources and information to customers and potential customers, providing great customer service, increasing your visibility, and being authentic and transparent, your brand is building up an online reputation that can impact your company’s future.
7. It provides an avenue for thought leadership and acts as a distribution channel.
You’ve invested plenty of time and resources creating thought-provoking content on your website, but if you don’t share that through social media channels, how many people will find it? Social media provides an avenue for your content to be distributed and, better yet, shared with networks that you wouldn’t have had access to otherwise.
The question remains, how do we measure social media success? What does success look like?
Unfortunately, many brands fall into the trap of trying to associate an increase in sales with their social media efforts. However, more and more, marketers are realizing that this is a flawed view of what social media is all about.
We have stated before that social media should be measured in terms of potential, rather than dollar amount. A recent article on CMS Wireinterviews several professionals who agree: “Alban, the founder of Your Virtual Assistant Service, said the focus of social media should not be on ROI but on growing your following to increase brand awareness, engaging with your customers to create raving fans, and educating your potential customers about the benefits of your product.” The article continues, “Social media may or may not lead to an increase in sales, but it will give you the opportunity to build relationships with your audience and deliver ‘amazing’ customer service.”
Likewise, Ben Ricciardi, CEO of the full service agency Times10, explains , “’There is no easy way to financially quantify what each social media interaction is worth. It’s much more effective to take all the marketing channels you’re budgeting for and compare it against the general lift or decline you see in sales.”
[bctt tweet=”Success, therefore, should be determined when a marketing strategy delivers against business goals, where social media is a part of the overall strategy. ” username=”Fronetics”]
Success, therefore, should be determined when a marketing strategy delivers against business goals, where social media is a part of the overall strategy. It is a classic case of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. Vanity metrics — such as likes, follows, reach and engagement — are still important to help measure brand awareness and brand loyalty. However, given the overall decline in social media usage, these metrics must be taken with a grain of salt.
Social media is an important component of a complete marketing strategy. Despite recent declines in its use, there are still an estimated 2.77 billion people on social media worldwide. Nowhere else can you as quickly, easily, and cheaply have access to your audience. And most importantly, your audience expects you to be there.
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by Fronetics | Jan 22, 2019 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Supply Chain
Social media is an ideal way for supply chain and logistics companies to reach their audience. But too many businesses are still making these basic social media mistakes.
Highlights
- Social media only works as a marketing tool if you have a documented strategy.
- Don’t try to use every popular platform. Find where your target audience spends their time and focus on that platform.
- Don’t promote your brand. Engage with customers to build long-lasting relationships.
Video transcript:
I’m Kettie Laky. I’m the director of social media at Fronetics, and today we’re going to be talking about the basic mistakes that companies still make with social media.
As of 2019, there are approximately 2.8 billion social media users around the globe. So there’s no denying social media is a powerful tool for businesses to create brand awareness and generate leads. But it’s not going to be effective if it’s not done correctly.
There are three mistakes that businesses tend to make on social media still.
The first one is using objectives instead of strategy to drive their social media. Social media platforms are making updates and changes all the time to improve the customer experience. To weather those changes and to keep your customers engaged, it’s important that you have a strategy behind what you’re doing. The strategy should include content, the frequency of posts, and pillar content. A strategy’s also going to help you prove ROI.
The second mistake that companies tend to make is using all the most popular social media platforms. Social media platforms have differentiating qualities that appeal to different audiences. So get to know where your audiences are spending their time. For instance, if you’re marketing to millennials, you’re going to want to be on Twitter.
The third mistake companies tend to make on social media is by promoting rather than engaging. The companies that are having success with social media are finding innovative and creative ways to relate to their customers. So get your customers engaged, get them involved in your story, and you’re going to create long-lasting relationships with them.
If you need help with your social media strategy, give us a call or visit us at Fronetics.com.
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by Fronetics | Dec 11, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Supply Chain
Our most-viewed content marketing posts indicate that marketers are seeking solutions to improve their content marketing programs.
Supply chain and logistics marketers have seen the benefits (and successes) of content marketing. It is the most cost-effective method to earn leads and sales. Why? Because content marketing focuses on the way B2B byers are making purchases, finding and evaluating content through online searches.
[bctt tweet=”Content marketing focuses on the way B2B byers are making purchases, finding and evaluating content through online searches.” username=”Fronetics”]
There is a trend with our most-viewed content marketing posts this year: innovative ways to improve content marketing strategies. From increasing brand awareness to improving SEO, marketers are looking to get their content in front of the right audiences.
Here’s a look at our top content marketing posts from this past year, all focused on industry trends and ways to improve your content marketing strategy.
Top 10 content marketing posts in 2018
1. B2B Marketing Trend 2018: Influencer Marketing
You’ve probably heard the buzzword by now: Influencer marketing seems to be on the tip of every marketer’s tongue these days. But the reality is that B2B marketers have been slow to adopt this new marketing trend. Influence 2.0 – The Future of Influencer Marketing Research Report 2017 showed that only 11% of B2B marketers have an ongoing influencer program. Read full post
2. Writing for SEO: Topic Clusters and Pillar Content (NOT Keywords)
I’ve been hinting — more like, emphasizing — in our recent Writing for SEO series that trying to rank for certain keywords in each blog post you publish is a practice on the way out. You may have been wondering what you’re supposed to do instead. This post on topic clusters and pillar content is your answer. Read full post
3. 10 Ways to Grow Brand Awareness Quickly
If you took Psychology 101 in school (or even if you didn’t), you know that people are more likely to buy from brand names they’re familiar with than those they don’t know. This goes for purchasing things like medicine, and for procuring components or parts as part of the supply chain. That’s why so many of our clients come to us looking to build brand awareness as one of their main goals. They want to customers to know about them — and sooner rather than later. Read full post
4. Should Your Business Be Using Linkless Backlinks to Increase SEO?
Linkless backlinks are mentions of your business or brand without a hyperlink to your webpage. In a keynote speech in September 2017, Gary Illyes, a webmaster trend analyst for Google, said:
“Basically, if you publish high-quality content that is highly cited on the internet — and I’m not talking about just links, but also mentions on social networks and people talking about your branding — then you are doing great.” Here’s how to make linkless backlinks work for you. Read full post
5. Writing for SEO: People Are Changing How They Search
Last week, we kicked off our Writing for SEO series by taking a look at how search engines are changing. As we delve further into updated strategies for effective SEO writing for supply chain marketers, this post explores the ways in which people are changing their search behaviors, and what that means for your content. Read full post
6. 3 Questions to Ensure your Content Marketing Strategy Is Sales-Focused
I recently read an article on the Harvard Business Review that discussed pairing your sales goals with your marketing goals. This strikes at the heart of what we do at Fronetics: build a client’s content marketing strategy that will help advance their short- and long-term business goals. It sounds simple, but you have no idea how many organizations’ marketing goals are misaligned with what the larger organization is trying to accomplish. Read full post
7. Infographic: 8 Ways to Grow Brand Awareness Fast
Have you ever noticed how some brands seem to have crept into popularity overnight? You’ve never heard of them, and then, all of sudden, they’re everywhere. Their brand awareness has sky rocketed, and they’re achieving every company’s ultimate goal: Customers know about them. So what’s their secret? Read full post
8. The More Often You Publish Blog Content, the More Leads You’ll Get
Here are Fronetics, most of our clients are sales-driven. If a client’s business goals include earning leads, we are sure to align the client’s content strategy with that objective. One of the most effective ways to increase the number of leads your website attracts is to increase the frequency with which you publish content. Read full post
9. How to Identify Topic Clusters for Your Business
One of the best ways to strategically structure your content is with the topic cluster model, in which broad cornerstone content is contained on pillar pages, and related subtopics are contained in cluster content. Each grouping of subtopics and corresponding pillar page is called a topic cluster. This structure is intended to build authority and influence for your business in the eyes of search engines and visitors. Effectively using a topic cluster structure is the best way to drive relevant traffic to your website. Read full post
10. Video: Why Does Content Marketing Take So Dang Long to Show Results?
You are committed to your content marketing program. You’ve created blog posts, uploaded videos, and collaborated with industry leaders. You may have started noticing an increase in web traffic, social reach, and other engagement metrics like time on page. You’re on the right track! The problem is your lack of leads or sales. Your boss is pressuring you for results, and you’re starting to question your efforts. Are you doing something wrong? Read full post
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by Fronetics | Dec 4, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Strategy, Supply Chain
Repurposing content is an efficient way to reach a broader audience and build brand awareness.
You spent hours pouring over stats and interesting facts for a blog post. Don’t let all of that effort fall to the wayside. Breathe new life — and reach new audiences — by repurposing that content into engaging new formats.
Some social users like video, while others prefer pictures or podcasts. Taking content and changing its original format is just smart business. Repurposing high-quality content saves marketers time and money and helps to reach a broader audience.
Be picky
Not all of your blog posts and content get the same attention, and that’s ok. Some pieces will resonate more, increasing engagement and driving website traffic.
Run analytics on your content and see what pieces have performed the best. Use tools like Google Analytics to determine your most popular blog posts, your most engaged tweets, or your most viewed videos. This data will help you decide which content should be repurposed. The idea is to take one piece of content and gain visibility and expand your audience by turning it into multiple pieces of content.
The Rule of 7
Repurposing content isn’t just about cutting and pasting content. Have you heard of the Rule of 7? The Rule of 7 is a marketing principle that states your prospects need to encounter your content seven times before they take notice. That’s right, seven times.
[bctt tweet=”The Rule of 7 is a marketing principle that states your prospects need to encounter your content seven times before they take notice. That’s right, seven times.” username=”Fronetics”]
Repurposing content is a great way to take high-quality content and continue to get it in front of audiences without seeming redundant. HubSpot reports that brands who blog around 16 times or more per month get 3.5 times more traffic and 4.5 times more leads than businesses that blog fewer than four times a month. Frequency clearly gets results, but it can also be incredibly time-consuming to create new content 16 times every month. Repurposed content can help your marketing team increase frequency while focusing on quality.
Infographic: 6 ways to repurpose content
(Made with Canva)
Takeaway
How much value does your company put on content? It may be even more important than you think. Use these tips to repurpose high-quality content or yet better, start creating content with these tips in mind. Thinking about a topic and how you can turn that topic into multiple pieces of content will help your hard work go further and perform better.
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by Fronetics | Nov 12, 2018 | Blog, Content Marketing, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Supply Chain
Social platforms create an opportunity to connect with prospects but only if your efforts align with customer preferences. Here’s how brands can focus on creating content that customers actually want.
In 2018 social media platforms have made a concerted effort to keep their platforms, well, social. User experience is the top priority, and many brands and businesses feel like they’ve been pushed to the back burner.
Businesses aiming to increase brand awareness must think long-term when it comes to social media. Social media marketers need to engage with users, not simply disrupt the user’s experience. This means that content shared by a brand needs to be relevant, useful, and let’s face it, visually engaging.
The overlap between brands and users
In the 2018 Social Sprout Index, researchers found that 61% of marketers create posts that teach readers something. But that’s not all, 59% of consumers reported wanting to read posts that teach something. The connection is obvious.
[bctt tweet=”In the 2018 Social Sprout Index, researchers found that 61% of marketers create posts that teach readers something. But that’s not all, 59% of consumers reported wanting to read posts that teach something. The connection is obvious.” username=”Fronetics”]
Businesses looking to increase user engagement on social platforms need to focus on providing users with what they want. Users want you to teach them. So, showcase why your brand is a leader in your industry or highlight how your products or services can be the solution to a problem.
Most social media users are still using platforms to connect with friends and family, so it’s imperative for businesses to focus on authentic engagement. This can only be accomplished by connecting readers to useful and informative information.
“The most enlightened social marketing strategy integrates awareness and consideration stage content — opening the door with entertainment and inspiration, then carrying audiences across the threshold with education, information about new product offerings and discounts and sales.” Social Sprout Index 2018
And while 80% of marketers report increasing brand awareness as their primary social media goal, it’s not always easy to know how to get started creating relevant content that will resonate with users. Here is Kettie Laky, Social Media Director, to explain how businesses can be helpful to users on social platforms.
Video: How businesses can be helpful on social platforms
Takeaway: Focus on what’s important
It’s time for marketers to stop wasting time and resources on content that doesn’t resonate with users. Aligning priorities between what users want and what marketers are producing is key to creating long-lasting relationships with prospects. Brands who are actually helpful, not intrusive, will reap the benefits of their hard work.
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