Are your Employees your Best Social Media Marketers?

Are your Employees your Best Social Media Marketers?

In this digital age of chronic information ODs and super-aggressive marketing, customers are often left reeling. Where do they look, what do they buy, how do they choose? There’s just too much going on and everything is literally shoved in their faces, through various channels and outlets. In such a scenario, how can you make your product stand out?

Well, I think it can be as easy as giving your brand a simple human touch. Thanks to social media, your employees are literally your best brand advocates. Come as they do with their multiple social connections, they can be your company’s viral gateways to success! Take for example the case of MasterCard which made headlines for enlisting all of its employees (7,500 of ’em) as social media brand advocates.

The heavyweight firm loosened its posting guidelines and created “social media playbooks” to teach workers how to use a variety of social media platforms.

So, are your employees your best social media marketers? Absolutely. Here\’s why you should you encourage employee advocacy efforts…

Engaged employees

Well, for starters, this is a great way to empower your employees and build your brand through their stories. All they need are the right tools, guidelines and support to present your stories in an authentic manner. Giving your employees this freedom will help you build a passionate bunch of ambassadors. Also, involving all your staff in social media will change the way different departments interact.

Marketing Made Easy

In case of a PR crisis, for example, giving your employees the permission to broadcast messages will help you reach a wider audience. What’s more, they’ll get a balanced perspective of the issue. And also, this way, your entire employee base will be marketing your brand… not just the marketing team. Imagine the reach then!

RaceGroupPoint.com

Hiring Talent

Recruiting talent is a huge pain. Well, here’s another great way to empower your HR team- look no farther than social recruiting.  Employee advocates are social recruiters in themselves! When your employees share job opportunities with their contacts, it will help you hire quality talent in half the time.

Better Brand Awareness

If your employees mention the office even casually in their posts, it will give your brand amazing exposure. The news will, directly or indirectly, reach a large audience and give your brand a boost.

Cost-Effective

You have the opportunity to tap into a diverse consumer base, through employees who are already on your payroll! \’Nuff said!

Your Customers Will Trust Information From Their Networks

Customers are likelier to trust someone on their network than a rank stranger who they know is merely trying to promote a product. When your employees act as your social media ambassadors, they will make an impression on people who get their motivations. Besides, your employees are your best bets because they’re the guys who WANT your company to succeed. Their salaries depend on it!

So, how do you create an army of social media brand ambassadors?

Earn their trust, encourage

Nothing can be done overnight. You need to first earn the trust of your own employees so that they are encouraged to support your company. If your own employees don’t use your products, why should anyone else? Also, consider rewarding those who talk about your company extensively on social media channels.

Cultivate core values

Next, identify the core values of your company, and cultivate them in your staff. Give employees free rein to work on customer relationships on social media platforms… give them a sense of ownership. And, finally, make sharing easy. How? Send out a daily newsletter with shareable links, for starters.

Give them guidelines

Employees need to be trained and made to understand that they will be held accountable if they post something that damages your reputation. Make sure you have a social media policy in place, with clear guidelines.

But, the thumb rules is… don’t force it on anyone! It defeats the purpose. Don’t be worried though: it has been found that over 50% of employees want to share news/info about their company anyway.

But, this approach comes with its set of pitfalls too…

It may appear a little too forced and staged. And people might wonder if employees were indeed forced to post. Second, not everyone wants their social networking pages to look like an advertisement for your company. Finally, even an employee with the best intentions can end up ruining things if his/her other posts are highly inappropriate.

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Just In Time to Ride the Marketing Wave: Bieber and Social Media

Just In Time to Ride the Marketing Wave: Bieber and Social Media

I am not given to chronic bouts of weeping and shrieking whenever the two magic words – Justin Bieber – are uttered in my presence. I am 26, for Chrissake. But, if the hormones and vocal chords of my teenaged niece and her global band of Beliebers have been on overdrive since 2008 – the year the pop star was ‘accidentally discovered’ on YouTube- he obviously must be doing something right.

I won’t comment on his vocal prowess- to each his own – but, there’s no denying that the 19-year-old Canadian superstar is one savvy businessman. A tech savvy businessman. After all, he was among the first to realise that mere talent wasn’t enough to ensure super stardom in this digital age. With close to 62 million likes on Facebook, 49 million followers on Twitter, 12.5 million followers on Instagram and 7 million subscribers on YouTube (his page has been viewed a few billion times), it is safe to say, Bieber has mastered the recipe to victory.

In fact, in a recent interview, the singer admitted that a lot of his success has been driven by the Internet – Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, in particular. Which is very true. If YouTube didn’t exist, Bieber might still be busking and doing pub gigs. Tweens and teens around the world might have not morphed into banshees. *The horror.*

What can you learn from Bieber’s engagement of social media audience?

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Bieber’s Crazy Social Stats.

For Starters, Know Your Audience

Don’t waste time targeting everyone. Bieber knows he’d be knocking on dead wood if he tried concentrating on 40-year-olds- his segment is young girls, and he goes all out on them. So, establish who your niche audience is and focus your energy on them. Keep them in mind when taking any marketing decision.

Rules of Engagement

Every time Bieber responds to a follower, he increases his influence over them and their social circles. Understand that conversation with your customers is critical, and try to get the dialogue-promotion balance right.

Community Building

No spamming! Bieber doesn’t use Twitter to spam his fans with tour dates and album details. He uses it to casually interact. What’s more, he said to personally responds to and doesn’t shy away from retweeting. Around 50% of his tweets are retweets! So, instead of just tweeting promotional messages, converse with and retweet your followers. This will help you build a community. Often, companies get so removed from their customer base that they forget to interact. But, maintaining dialogue is critical to staying relevant.

Concentrate on Getting Retweeted

This will maximise your company’s reach. Start by following as many industry bigwigs as possible to get, and retweet them. Likewise, reply to your followers with comments that inspire them to retweet you. As little as a ‘Please retweet’ will boost your retweet rate.

Charity Helps

Bieber tweets to benefit social causes, quite regularly; like that time when Sandy Hook shooting took place and he urged fans to pledge their support to anti-gun laws. So, get posting about issues that are close to your heart, especially if they’re linked in some way to your industry. This will definitely touch a chord.

Use Social Media to Get Feedback

Bieber uses social media to gauge what his fans want and he gives them just that. So, use social media to get feedback. No need to play the guessing game. Ask your fans to give you candid responses to your latest product, service or campaign.

Get Gifting!

Spontaneous gifts and fun contests will engage your audience and bring in new members. Bieber is known to surprise fans with free concert tickets. Figure out how you can hop on board the goodies express.

No Harm in Starting Small, Lesson is in Consistency

When he was 12, Bieber started consistently uploading videos on YouTube to benefit friends and family who missed his gigs and competitions. And look where he is now. So, whatever the social media platform of your preference, be consistent. Because, once you engage with your audiences, it’s sort of a relationship you have established. A relationship means being there for the other person… every day! Don’t worry that you aren’t as big as the big ones yet. You’ll get there.

What’s your fans’ Favorite Platform?

If it’s Facebook, use it; if it’s Twitter, go right ahead. Instagram? Focus and post with passion! It’s not about the platform that you have expertise in, it’s about the platform that you fans use the most and enjoy using the most. After all – you’re serving them!

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The Perry Recipe for Success: Katy Perry’s Rise to the Top of the Social Media Charts

The Perry Recipe for Success: Katy Perry’s Rise to the Top of the Social Media Charts

Okay, stab me if you must, but you’ve got to admit Katy Perry isn’t one of the most popular people in the world, because of her spell-binding vocal ability. Sure, she can hold a tune better than Britney Spears, but then, that is hardly saying anything (go on, stab me again). So, why/how does everyone know her, let alone, love her? Three words. Or networks.

Put together, they’ve made this Internet-incubated artiste a Roaring (the song, till date, has been viewed 308,011,579 times on YouTube) hit. One who has surpassed the likes of social czars Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga, in popularity. It has even been reported that Lady Gaga, Bieber and Perry have more Twitter followers than the entire populations of Germany, Turkey, South Africa, Canada, Argentina, United Kingdom and Egypt!

It was less than two months ago that Perry pulled ahead of Bieber in both Twitter followers and Facebook likes. How did she manage it? Well, she began by allowing fans to vote for a song from album Prism to be released early on iTunes. She also gave fans a great deal of power by asking them to create a video as a means of promotion for her song Firework (413,308,151 YouTube views), and rewarding the winners handsomely. Interestingly, she hit jackpot by asking them- not to make a video for the song itself- but to talk about the people who were most important in their lives. Human connection right there!

The easiest way to reach a larger audience base. In November, 2013, the singer came up with PrismLights- a live compilation of Instagram photos tagged with #KatyUnconditionally, to promote Unconditionally (37,626,218 views).

 Data Courtesy Statista.com.

The lady, for her part, recently owned up to her social media success, saying that she has learnt to, ‘tame the social media dragon (sic)’. Yeah, being the serious business firm you are, the very thought of taking lessons for someone who is known for waxing eloquent on candy and California might seem ludicrous.  But, when it comes to social media and these celebrities, one can only learn and hope to keep up! Here\’s a look at Katy Perry\’s rise to the top of the social media charts.

Don’t use it just to promote yourself…

… she said, in an interview, “And don’t be self-indulgent.” Makes sense, dunnit? Nothing is more off-putting than righteous pompousness. You don’t want to self-promote and come off as someone who thinks they’re better than everyone else!

Play on emotions, don’t exploit them!

When Katy Perry launched Firework, she put the spotlight on her fans, by asking them to create videos inspired by the people they love. She understands that it’s not about posting a tweet or a Facebook update, it’s about really connecting. So, find ways to engage your audience on a more humane level; play on emotions. But, don’t exploit them!

What\’s your personality?

Work on your ‘personality’. Perry- stab me thrice and be done with it- is no more special than scores of bathrooms singers from around the world. But, why are people so concerned about the goings on in her life? Because, her social media presence has a distinct character. So, give your company’s social pages a personality. By being fresh and thought-provoking, you’ll encourage retweets.

You are what you tweet. No, really.

Speaking of retweets…

You might have noticed fans are always asking celebrities for a retweet or mention. Being noticed can make anyone’s day! So, even if you’re not as famous as Perry or not famous at all, your followers will still appreciate a reply or retweet.

While at it…

… You\’ll be interested in knowing your tweets have a 12 times higher chance of being retweeted if you ask for it, and 23 times higher if you actually spell out the word ‘retweet’!

Picture makes perfect

Celebrities are obsessed with themselves (occupational hazard), so they use every opportunity to post their photos. Well, guess what- Tweets with image links get twice the engagement rate.

So, there… wear your leopard print war paint and get your Roar on!

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The Many Tunes of Social Media: Marketing Lessons From Beyonce

The Many Tunes of Social Media: Marketing Lessons From Beyonce

No one was expecting it. There was no buzz. No drum rolls. No plug-gy interviews. Just one word- ‘Surprise!’ And, a teensy video. But, Queen Bey knew exactly what she was doing when she decided to give traditional marketing the cold shoulder to announce the release of her latest album Beyonce– on Instagram. Did the tactic work? Sure. In just a few short days after the album’s iTunes-only release, Beyonce Knowles had already sold over a million copies of the digital 14-song/17-video package. Within twelve hours, the album was mentioned around 1.2 million times (beating terrible cult film Sharknado’s record with a massive margin) on Twitter. That’s around 1.2 million free pieces of advertising. With this milestone, the performer has not only cemented her reputation as an entertainer-par-excellence but also as a businesswoman who has super-keen insights into the workings of the Internet… someone who manages her own news cycle! In fact, marketing experts hail her latest coup as the perfect example of ‘anti-marketing’ which is all about directly reaching out to the customer.

Beyonce Knowles!

Beyoncé set the ball rolling about two years ago when she created an indomitable niche for herself on Tumblr and Instagram- her branding tools of preference. She topped this off with the launch of a vibrant blog- Beyhive. Still… the pop star is hardly the most-followed celebrity on social media. But, she’s proven that when you have the formula right, numbers don’t necessarily matter. What’s her formula? A combination of personal content- which create the illusion of intimacy- and carefully-curated strategic messages.

Here is an overview of marketing lessons from Beyonce.

https://www.facebook.com/beyonce/posts/10153674115500601

Visual Appeal

The success of Queen Bey’s recent album launch rode on the power of visual content. The year 2013 has been all about the emergence of visuals. Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube. And, if Twitter included more pictures in its layout, Instagram added a video feature to compete with Vine. And, since users are actively searching for content, you must plan your content so as to be discovered by new users. Visuals are a great way to generate buzz. Don’t go for a text-heavy update when you have the option of using images and videos… and GIFs!

Build Community, Save on Advertising

In social media, community is king. Which is why Beyonce used all social media- Twitter, Facebook and Instagram- to announce the launch. Twelve hours after the launch, with 5,300 tweets being spewed out a minute, her fans and admirers were doing all the advertising for her. For example, on her Facebook page, the album’s preview video of hers was shared around 70, 000 times, with over 15,000 comments… over the weekend alone. So, remember, if you can engage your users well and regularly enough, you don’t need to spend a bomb on marketing. But, remember, your audiences want to hear from the real you, not a clean, sifted version. Give them an outlet to reach out to you; perhaps through a blog or social networking sites? And, make sure you respond.

Stay Unique

For a few days, Beyoncé was available only on iTunes. That exclusivity helped the album reach the top of the iTunes charts with ease. So, sometimes, when you offer the same content on various platforms it could dilute the message. So, give your followers on each platform something unique.

https://www.facebook.com/beyonce/posts/10153670732915601

Surprise!

Everyone likes a surprise! So, work a nice unexpected element or unorthodox view into your next content outing. Or, simply break big news about your company on social media.

Tell a Atory

In her video, Beyonce talks about the reason behind her visual album and why she made it. Likewise, customers would love to hear your story, your core message. It’s called forming an emotional connect.

Make your Product Accessible and Easy to Share

Everything about Beyonce’s album release- from the announcement to the album itself- was digital. This made it easy for her fans to learn more about the album, sample it, make an informed purchase and then share their reviews.

Take a risk!

Beyoncé’s decision to do away with a big, flashy release has paid her rich dividends. So, find out ways to stand out from the crowd. What’s your next risk going to be?

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GIF Me a Piece of Social Media!

GIF Me a Piece of Social Media!

GIFs are the Internet’s latest, most animated love affair. Not that they are anything new… they’ve been around as long as any 26-year-old. But, since 2012, there has been a massive resurgence in the use of these super-addictive animated images. Fast forward to 2013, several milestones were crossed, in regard to their presence in the social media stratosphere. With the soaring popularity of sites such as BuzzFeed and Tumblr, which rely heavily on their use, animated GIFs have stormed the Internet! More importantly, just a few months ago, Facebook and Twitter started allowing its users to share GIFs, after years of resisting (in the fear that GIFs would make their spaces look too MySpacey). And, in these ever-transmogrifying, social media-driven times, GIFs have assumed an exceedingly vital role in breaking news on the web, telling stories and really just giving people a way to express themselves. In fact, it wouldn’t be too far from the truth to say that GIFs and social media have become the best of buddies.

What is a GIF?

GIF is full-form for Graphics Interchange Format and is a bitmap image format that came to being in 1987 (part of the reason why it’s so adored by those in their 20s… it was born at around the same time as them) as tacky video loops. The cryogenised relic from the Web 1.0 days was given a new lease of life by the rise and rise of social media, mainly due to its wide support and portability.

The format has since come of age and even jumped dimensions. Wigglegram, on Tumblr, for example, creates a 3-D effect by looping multiple images shot from different perspectives. It’s also much easier to create thanks to apps like GIFSoup and Gifninja. And, as I said, these can now be shared on Facebook and Twitter, thanks to a site named Giphy. Yayy!

Well, because a picture is only a picture, and a video is only a video… a GIF is a happy, convenient marriage of both! It helps you make a point, it helps you celebrate, it brings out humour wonderfully… and, the best part- it is lightweight! Also… videos, they take time to watch. And they produce sound. GIFs, on the other, are brilliant silent expressions.

Tumblr has tons of pages devoted to viral GIFs (Michelle Obama’s rolling her eyes at someone, Mindy Kaling yelling ‘I’m Sandra Bullock!’ etc) and ‘GIF’ is among its top tags. This obviously means loads of people are sharing them. At Buzzfeed, GIFs with a pop-cultural reference are live-edited and disseminated instantly. Interestingly, one of its posts- ‘Life In Your Early Twenties vs. Life In Your Late Twenties’ which raked up almost two million page views and over 173k Facebook likes in merely three days, features GIFs exclusively.

Naturally, everyone wants in on the fun. Imgur, for instance, has already jumped onboard, while Google has launched a GIF filter in its image search. Also, apps like Vine and Cinemagram owe their success to GIFs. This will definitely put pressure on all social networks to offer GIF support.

How Can GIFs be Used in Marketing?

 

They help add life to you social media profiles

Use them to enhance your blog posts, tweets, pins, streams and texts. As mentioned, a ton of sites now allow users to play with GIFs… even WordPress and Google+.

By helping you get to the heart of the matter, immediately

This format zooms in on the exact, important moment from the bigger picture and helps capture an audience. So, use them in the specific places in your website where you\’re trying to drive visitor attention. For instance, why not consider using them on your homepage or the About Us page?

Playing on emotions

GIFs connect with people on an emotional level. Take advantage of this to inspire your target audience- make them laugh, make them empathize. This kind of impact, owing to its immediate value to the user, extends its reach to newer audiences too.

Fun with emails

Email marketing is growing at over 20% every year and emails featuring GIFs have been known to pull in 12% more in revenue. Unlike videos, GIFs open in all browsers and most email service providers allow you to upload an animated GIF just as you would an image file. So, you know what to do!

Spice up your website

Bring your website’s message to life with an appropriate GIF. Get rid of those boring old still images, and engage customers with animated action. Demonstrate your product’s features through background images, product shots, demonstrations, even tex- all in the GIF format! Nothing will put the message across better.

They are the perfect video teasers

Is there an awesome video you want your customers to watch? Well, why not clip out a particularly interesting part of the video and display it as a GIF? This way, customers will want to know more, thereby increasing the clicking-through ratio, and hence, video engagement.

Newsletters

You know it… no one reads them. They’re usually boring as hell! But, what if you could surprise readers with a picture that looks like it belongs in Harry Potter? This will increase customer engagement, and help you attract new readers too.

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