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الجمعة، 30 أكتوبر 2020

Bring it in: How to build an all-star social media team

It wasn’t long ago when organizations asked themselves if they actually needed a social media presence. Nowadays, however, social media is a must-have. It’s an integral part of a business’s brand and marketing efforts.

As you build your social media team, it should be done with as much care and commitment as you would dedicate to any other marketing role. Social media marketing shouldn’t be a side-project or afterthought that’s tacked onto the responsibilities of an entry-level marketing role. Simply put, sophisticated social media management is not an entry-level position.

That’s not to say you can’t add an entry-level marketing position to your social media marketing team. As social media has evolved, so have the expectations and capabilities of social marketers. They take on content creation, strategy development, data analysis, community engagement and so much more. Given how they’re often juggling multiple responsibilities at once, it’s no wonder that 41% of social marketers say they need more time and bandwidth to make a greater impact on the rest of their business. Those are all areas where a junior hire can support your team.

When it comes down to it, the most effective social media marketing is a team effort, but the size and roles within that team vary from business to business. In the Sprout Social Index™ Edition XV: Empower & Elevate, we found that the majority of small companies (one to 50 employees) only have one or two social marketers on their team. The number of team members increases as the size of the organization also increases, so mid-sized companies are more likely to have social teams of three to five people, and enterprise companies often have 11 or more people dedicated to social.

Larger companies might have more resources and a bigger budget for social staffing, but when it comes to creating a dynamic social media team, size doesn’t always matter.

Ready to build a strong social team? Let’s dive in.

The A-Team: The main players in social media marketing

 As you build your team, there are a few social media team roles that should be at the top of your wishlist.

The social media manager

If you can only afford to hire a single social media marketer, it should be a generalist social media manager. Social media managers know your brand inside and out. They are the ones drawing up the blueprint for your social strategy, goals and marketing plan. They are focused on developing and promoting engaging content, especially when they’re flying solo, and measuring the success of that content. This person should also be the one building cross-departmental relationships, with a little assistance from other marketing leaders, so that social can make a business-wide impact. Ultimately, this person is the Swiss Army knife of your social team and has a diverse set of skills that includes writing, communication, data analysis and so much more.

The content creator

Content is your greatest asset on social media and having a person dedicated to creating that content is a major asset to your team. A content creator directly supports the social media manager and takes some of the content burden off their plate so they can focus on more strategic work. The content creator is a strong copywriter with a creative mind. They must be on top of industry news and social media trends so that they can use that knowledge to influence the content strategy and spark creative direction.

At larger companies, a content creator might work with your brand’s creative team or social agency to develop creative assets. In smaller companies, this role might be a multimedia content specialist who can do some design, photography, video and copywriting work for social themselves.

The social data analyst

According to the Sprout Social Index™, marketers aren’t using social data to its fullest potential. But having a person on your social team who is ready and willing to put on their data analyst hat is critical.

A social media data analyst makes sense out of the raw numbers and reports and turns data into actionable insights. They regularly report on key performance indicators to help determine if your strategy is on track and performing as planned. When things don’t go as planned, they have the skills to make recommendations on how to bounce back. Perhaps most importantly, a data analyst can demonstrate the business impact of data and measure the return on your investment in social media.

 The community manager

Monitoring, listening to and engaging with your social communities are, as you know, essential. Those tasks are also a community manager’s raison d’être. While a typical community manager is responsible for advocating for a brand’s audience and community on social, they might also focus on customer care and response management. This person isn’t just friendly and engaging, they’re also strategic about building an audience, increasing brand loyalty and fostering a sense of personal connection with your brand.

This person is not a customer service representative, but they might connect customer service to community members who have reached out with product or service-related questions or concerns.

The paid media specialist

Organic and paid social strategies are like two halves of a whole, which is why they can, and should, complement and reinforce each other. Whether you aim to boost brand awareness, welcome new followers or gather new leads, combining both efforts will deliver optimal results. It is helpful, however, to split organic and paid social media team roles. While your other social media marketers focus on the art of organic, a teammate that specializes in paid digital media can optimize those efforts further and deepen the business impact of social.

The paid media specialist has a clear understanding of how each social platform works, what types of your brand content excel on those platforms and the budget necessary to accomplish your goals. They’re experimental and capable of running A/B tests. They also analyze statistics and paid data and transform insights into action that will accelerate performance.

Create balance within your team

Many companies’ social media teams will have hybrid roles, in which the employees take on the skills and responsibilities of one or more of the roles we’ve discussed. For instance, if your business can only afford to staff a lean social team of two people, the roles might be split up into one person doing strategy work, data analysis and paid promotions, while the other focuses on content creation, publishing and community management. The key is to create a balance between roles so that each person on your social team is able to accomplish their tasks without burning out.

Leverage social media management tools to power efficiency

Tools shouldn’t replace people, but they can certainly make life easier for marketers, power efficiency and help smaller teams achieve more. With Sprout Social’s full suite social media management solutions, social teams can trade busywork for more personalized, authentic, transparent experiences with your audience.

Sprout’s content calendar simplifies scheduling, which can otherwise be incredibly time-consuming, and gives social media marketers a clear blueprint of their social strategy.

You can also build automated workflows into your scheduling process. If for example, your content creator has to run each post by the social media manager for approval before it goes live, there’s a Sprout workflow for that. As your team member schedules social posts in the Compose window, they can direct the post to the person or group that needs to review and approve content. This ensures that your social content is consistent and on-brand every single time.

Workflow_from_Compose.png

Not only does Sprout help streamline collaboration within social teams, it can also improve collaboration across departments.

These days, social media is one of the first places people turn for customer service. In the event that a community manager can’t address a comment or question that comes through the Smart Inbox, they can assign those messages to customer service representatives that have a seat in Sprout.

The same is true for potential leads that you want to alert your sales team about. If a person messages your brand on social media with purchase intent, you can assign a “Sales Lead” task to that message, so your sales team can capitalize on the opportunity.

An organized content plan, simplified approval processes and streamlined cross-departmental collaboration will help your social teams make a greater impact on your business. These are just some of the ways that a tool like Sprout Social can help your team work more efficiently without ever compromising quality.

Team building never stops

To build a strong team, start strong. As you invest in social staffing, give your new hires a clear mission and a thorough onboarding agenda. At Sprout, we outline important learning goals, dates, activities, deliverables and anything else we want new hires to be aware of within their first 30-60-90 days. Providing a plan can help ground a person and make them feel purposeful right from the get-go.

Even if you aren’t actively hiring more members, marketing leaders should remain committed to team building. Social media trends (and crises) emerge at light speed so quick huddles to kick off your day can spark inspiration, illuminate priorities and mitigate any risks your content might pose.

Team building is also important because burnout is a common issue among social media marketers. If your social marketers feel supported and heard, they’re more likely to speak up if they’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed by their work on social.

A dynamic social media marketing team can make a tremendous impact on business goals all the way from the top to the bottom of the funnel. We’ve seen it first-hand at Sprout. If you’re ready to expand and hire your dream social media team, use our free hiring manager toolkit to source, assess and secure top talent.

This post Bring it in: How to build an all-star social media team originally appeared on Sprout Social.



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How marketers can stay centered around consumers

There are plenty of opportunities today to establish long-term consumer relationships.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.


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YouTube Video Strategy: How to Grow a Business With YouTube

Want more leads and sales from your YouTube channel? Wondering how to use different types of videos for different objectives? To explore YouTube content strategy, I interview Sunny Lenarduzzi on the Social Media Marketing Podcast. Sunny is a YouTube marketing expert who helps entrepreneurs next-level their awareness online. Her YouTube channel has 500,000 subscribers. Her […]

The post YouTube Video Strategy: How to Grow a Business With YouTube appeared first on Social Media Examiner | Social Media Marketing.



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الخميس، 29 أكتوبر 2020

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This post https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-listening-for-consumer-brands/ originally appeared on Sprout Social.



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How engagement trumps headlines: the election in social media

Digging below the vanity metrics reveals who is really winning the social media race.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.


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TripAdvisor launches new listings, reputation and data products to help hotels and restaurants gain insights, boost visibility

Restaurants and hotels have been hit especially hard during COVID-19.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.


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What is local SEO and how to improve your local ranking

Word-of-mouth and local advertisements may be a great way to attract customers from your area. But online search can be equally impactful, if not more. In fact, Social Media Today reports that 97% of search engine users have searched online to find a local business. And 46% of all Google searches were seeking local information.

So if a business doesn’t rank in local search results, it could be missing out on valuable traffic and customers. In other words, local SEO could be the key to staying relevant and growing your business.

If you’re fairly new to local SEO, you might have a lot of questions and you probably won’t know where to start optimizing. This guide shows you some essential local SEO solutions and helps you understand the landscape better. So let’s jump right in.

What is local SEO and why do I need it?

To understand the local SEO definition, let’s first try to understand what local search means. Local search is when someone searches for businesses, products, services or any additional information relevant to one specific location. They could be searching for “concerts near me” to find an upcoming concert in their city or “best painting service in [location]” to find a painting service nearby.

an example of Google's local search results for best painting service in baton rouge

In other words, local search is more specific to a certain location compared to general Google searches. And Local SEO refers to the process of trying to optimize your online visibility to show up in those local search results.

Local SEO is crucial because it helps you:

  • Boost your online visibility
  • Bring in more foot traffic to your brick-and-mortar location
  • Attract more targeted traffic, which improves your chances of conversion
  • Enhance your credibility and build trust

Organic search results vs. local snack pack

One of the ways that local SEO enhances your online visibility is through the local snack pack results. Google sorts out local search results into three sections – sponsored, snack pack and organic. While the sponsored results appear prominently at the top of search results pages with the “Ad” or “Sponsored” label, they cost money.

Google's local SERP for painting service in seattle, and a red box highlighting the sponsored results

The snack pack results follow, appearing in a box that highlights the top three business listings related to that particular search. This shows up more prominently than organic local search results, which means there’s a better chance of visibility if you get featured in the snack pack.

And the best part is, not every local search page features sponsored results. So your business could sit prominently at the top of the search results page, as you can see below.

An example of Google's local snack pack results for shoe stores in las vegas. These are the listings that appear under the map.

The organic results are further down, below the local snack pack results. So even if you rank on the first page of local search results, you might not show up as prominently as the businesses that manage to get featured in snack pack results.

An example of a Google SERP highlighting organic local results

The goal of your local SEO strategy should be to rank on the first page of organic local searches as well as in your local snack pack. This ensures optimum visibility and improves your chances of attracting targeted traffic.

6 ways to boost your local SEO strategy

Now let’s move on to the most important part – how to boost your local SEO strategy and improve your local search ranking. There are plenty of aspects to this, so let’s focus on the most critical ones:

1. Claim and optimize your GMB listing

GMB or Google My Business is essentially the most critical part of your local SEO strategy. This tool from Google allows you to create free business listings. And according to Moz, it’s one of the top factors that Google will consider when ranking businesses in organic local search and snack pack results.

To start, go to the Google My Business website to claim or create your listing.

Graphic from Google's page to claim your GMB listing

You need to provide the following details for your GMB listing:

  • Your full and correct business name
  • Your physical store/office address
  • Your exact location on a map
  • Your business category
  • Your phone number and website (if applicable)

Once your listing goes live, you’ll need to verify it usually through a phone call or via postcard. Here’s how to optimize Google My Business after verification:

  • Upload photos of your business. This could be photos of the inside your store/office or even around the premises.
  • Provide your business hours.
  • Provide additional categories that may be relevant to your business.
  • Provide additional phone numbers if available.

You can further optimize your GMB profile by sharing business updates and fresh content regularly. And Sprout Social makes that easier with a new feature to post directly to your GMB profile. Make the most of the Sprout GMB feature to update your customers with what’s new and share details about upcoming events. This helps you connect with your customers on a deeper level in addition to boosting your visibility in local searches.

2. Keep mobile in mind

With smartphones now being a part of our daily lives, it’s only natural that a lot of people will be using their phones to search for local information and businesses. Uberall commissioned a study, which found that 82% of respondents had used their mobile devices to conduct a “near me” search. This proves just how much people are using their phones for local search.

So it’s crucial that you cater to these searchers by optimizing your website for mobile screens. Create a mobile-friendly website so mobile visitors have no trouble navigating it or finding the information they need.

Don’t forget to add click-to-call buttons on your site and on your GMB listing. This could make a huge difference because 60% of mobile users have contacted a business directly from search results.

3. Collect plenty of customer reviews

According to the Moz study cited earlier, review signals also play a critical role in your local search and snack pack ranking. So having plenty of authentic reviews, particularly positive ones, could work wonders to boost your visibility in local search in addition to enhancing your reputation. That means you need to work towards collecting more authentic customer reviews for your business.

Maintain your focus on sites where Google would expect businesses to have reviews. So in addition to your website and your GMB listing, it’ll also collect reviews from consumer directories and social media. That means you should focus on collecting reviews for Facebook, Yelp, Thumbtack, Foursquare, Angie’s List, etc. depending on which ones are relevant to your business.

4. Focus on local link building

According to Moz, link signals such as linking domain authority and quantity are among the top factors that influence your ranking in local searches and snack pack results. So just like with regular SEO, local SEO also requires link building to boost your link profile. However, the linking domains should be more relevant to your target location.

That means you should target authority websites in your target region. This could be anything from licensing bureaus and trade associations to the Chamber of Commerce or even .edu sites.

Partnerships, scholarships, guest posting, etc. could be excellent ways to gain valuable backlinks from local sites. For example, you can see the Connecticut College website linking back to several local establishments from its “Attractions” page.

attractions page on the Connecticut College website that links out to local establishments

5. Ensure NAP/citation consistency

Moz also found that Google considers citation signals such as citation volume and NAP (name, address, phone number) consistency in local search results. This means your information should be on major citation websites; besides GMB, think Bing Maps, Yelp and Facebook. Focus on directories that have higher domain authority than on smaller listing directories.

More importantly, make sure your business NAP is consistent across all platforms and websites. Look out for any misspellings, address and phone number discrepancies, duplicate listings and resolve them to improve your local SEO.

6. Make the most of social listening

Social listening may have primarily served as a source for marketing insights, but it has many benefits beyond that. It could even help fuel your local SEO strategy if you know which insights to look out for and how to make the most of them.

Use social listening to find out what people in your target location are saying – whether it’s about your business or in general. You could even use it to collect information about audience interests, priorities and so on. Then make the most of these insights to find out how you can make changes to your strategy or even to your products and services.

For instance, you might have noticed people complaining about the lack of outdoor seating at your café. Maybe it’s time to introduce it to appeal to an even bigger audience. You can then optimize your GMB SEO by sharing updates about your new seating arrangement, for instance.

Or maybe you’ve noticed people wishing your hair salon also provided manicure services. You could expand your service offering and share this update on your GMB profile.

Additionally, your social listening efforts could also help you understand what types of local content your target audience might be looking for. You could then build a robust local content strategy to fit those needs. Plus, you might even be able to uncover long-tail keywords to use in your content optimization strategy.

Ready to get local?

These are the essentials on how to take your local SEO efforts to the next level. Keep in mind that your local SEO efforts can span across various locations. And you can even apply these ideas in your SEO for multiple locations if you’re targeting more than one area. So make the most of them to enhance your online visibility in local searches and grow your business.

For more valuable insights that could help you fuel business growth, don’t forget to download your copy of the Sprout Social 2020 Index.

This post What is local SEO and how to improve your local ranking originally appeared on Sprout Social.



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Effective Link-Building for B2B Marketers

Link-building is an indispensable part of B2B marketing. But what are the best ways to grow your site's backlink profile? This article will guide you through the most effective and sustainable link-building strategies. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

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Effective Link-Building for B2B Marketers

Link-building is an indispensable part of B2B marketing. But what are the best ways to grow your site's backlink profile? This article will guide you through the most effective and sustainable link-building strategies. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

Source MarketingProfs Daily: Search Engine Marketing https://ift.tt/31VZzxD

الأربعاء، 28 أكتوبر 2020

Online holiday sales could reach $200 billion according to Adobe

Smartphones will drive the majority of online retail traffic and 42% of sales.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.


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Mars presents: a spooktacular digital Hallowe’en

Under time and supply chain pressures, Mars used Acquia to create a digitize trick or treating.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.


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How Bacardi served up a new digital experience for consumers

Bacardi refreshes its digital experience for a shop-at-home, drink-at-home world.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.


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For Halloween 2020, old traditions get a new look to accommodate the pandemic

Like most big events this year, Halloween 2020 is going to look different from years past. As COVID-19 cases continue to rise across the country, traditional activities like trick-or-treating are on hold and parties are strongly discouraged. One study even found more than 75% of consumers say the pandemic has impacted their celebrations, leaving some people asking, “Is Halloween 2020 cancelled?”

As it turns out, the answer is no. Because if there’s one thing we’ve learned from this year, it’s that people are willing and able to adapt to make the best of the situation. In Chicago, a bar is launching a drive-thru haunted house while streaming service Hulu is hosting a similar entertainment experience in Los Angeles. And to make up for trick-or-treating, the Mars Wrigley company created a virtual trick-or-treating app for consumers all over the country to use.

In other words, Halloween activities may look unusual this year, but the spirit of Halloween remains strong. Using Sprout’s Social Listening Platform, we looked at recent conversations around Halloween to learn how people are pivoting and adjusting their traditional spooky activities. We analyzed over 13 million messages across Twitter from October 1 to 27 to learn more about how people are entertaining themselves for Halloween in 2020.

Surprise! It’s spooky season all month long

Whether because of the impending election or the ongoing pandemic, the weeks leading up to the October holiday appear to have caught some people off guard. The word “realize,” for example, showed up in over 41,000 messages about Halloween activities as people took to social to share they hadn’t indulged in as many spooky activities this year.

Historically, Halloween is a popular topic of conversation all throughout September and October. In 2016, there were over 19 million mentions of Halloween or #Halloween on Twitter and that number jumped to over 23 million in 2019. This year, from September 1 to October 27, , we’ve recorded more than 16 million mentions of Halloween or #Halloween—a 27% increase compared to the same time last year.

The volume of Halloween conversations varies from location to location. When we compare the volume of messages to the region’s population, Washington D.C. had the highest volume rate followed by Nevada and New Jersey. To find this data, we broke down the volume of Halloween mentions by state and divided that number by the state population based on estimates from the U.S. Census.

  1. Washington, D.C.
  2. Nevada
  3. New Jersey
  4. Oregon
  5. California

Interestingly, the highest volume of Halloween conversation occurs in regions where COVID cases are steadily increasing but are not experiencing unchecked community spread (more than 25 daily new cases per 100,000 people). As the holiday nears, officials like governors and mayors are taking to Twitter to share advice on how to celebrate accordingly. As social chatter around activities began picking up, more than 213,000 messages referenced safety, COVID and related terms as people asked for recommendations on how to celebrate safely.

Other annual traditions are receiving a makeover to accommodate the pandemic. In D.C., for example, the National Air and Space Museum pivoted away from their signature in-person event to an at-home pumpkin carving contest. In Portland, Oregon, drive-in horror experiences are a safe and socially distant option for thrill seekers.

On the other hand, the annual trick-or-treating festivities at the Nevada governor’s mansion were canceled as cases began to spike in the state. And universities, like San Diego State University, are issuing warnings to students to stay home during Halloween weekend to prevent the spread.

Classic traditions with a socially-distant twist

As far as 2020 Halloween ideas go, people are still thinking of ways to make trick-or-treating a reality. Nearly 429,000 messages about Halloween referenced trick-or-treating as people flex their creativity over how they get their candy fix this year. James Breakwell, author of Exploding Unicorns, shared how his kids hosted their own at-home Halloween 2020 complete with trick-or-treating.

Conversations about virtual activities and parties are also increasing steadily online, with over 8,400 messages referencing virtual or Zoom activities. Of those, over 7,500 messages reference virtual parties or Zoom parties specifically. Author R.L. Stine, for example, is hosting a virtual Halloween party for children on the 31st while the “Top Gun” movie account shared GIPHY backdrops to complete any Zoom party.

Finally, movies play a big role in keeping the Halloween spirit alive. In addition to virtual watch parties and drive-in screenings, Halloween fans can expect exclusive new content based on their favorite October classics. The New York Restoration Project, for example, is hosting a one-time broadcast featuring the Sanderson sisters from “Hocus Pocus,” a move sure to delight fans of the cult classic film.

Gaming is all-in on Halloween

One industry that was ready to tackle all the challenges posed by the pandemic? Gaming. A closer look at the Halloween 2020 social conversation revealed a healthy amount of chatter around gaming and the exclusive content offered in October.

Surprisingly, the most talked about video game isn’t available in North America at all. Disney’s Twisted Wonderland, a Japanese mobile game, dominated a good portion of the gaming conversation with more than 304,000 messages. Taking full advantage of the Halloween season, the mobile game launched a series of days-long campaigns, or ‘missions,’ to keep gamers engaged all October long.

Additionally, Overwatch fans were treated to new Halloween-themed challenges, skins and loot boxes to help celebrate the October holiday from the comforts of their home. Listening data shows a spike in conversations around this event following the initial announcement on October 10, and currently there are more than 70,000 messages mentioning Overwatch’s Halloween activities.

Not to be outdone, the ever-popular Call of Duty also joined in on the spooky celebration. The video game dropped its own Halloween event, the Haunting of Verdansk, on October 20 to the delight of Warzone fans all over the world. From October 1-27, conversations around Call of Duty, Warzone and other related terms increased 1,732%, garnering more than 29,000 messages.

The haunting must go on

Rather than let the pandemic suck all the fun out of October, people and brands are finding new ways to keep the spirit of Halloween alive. From Zoom parties to month-long virtual events to drive-in screenings, there are a number of creative and safe ways to celebrate the spooky season. And while some festivities may only be temporary, like virtual trick-or-treating, don’t be surprised if we see some new traditions stick around for the long run.

Social listening can help you uncover how people are pivoting in times of pandemic and what activities they’re turning to during the holiday season. If you’re interested in learning what other insights can come from social listening, check out our article on listening for consumer brands or contact us for a free Sprout listening demo today.

This post For Halloween 2020, old traditions get a new look to accommodate the pandemic originally appeared on Sprout Social.



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