Leads Generation with Social Media

Sales is the blood and soul of any business but it is as difficult to make sales as it is easy to spell the word. But don't worry any problem can be solved with a pinch of creativity and courage to experiment with the things. Lead generation is a step prior to the final closing of the sales process and as a business you must try out new ways to gain more and more leads. These days’ social media and lead generation are going hand in hand and you will be wise decision maker if you will use social media smartly for your own growth. It can be from any channel like Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Vine and Slideshare. This blog will help you in preparing yourself to check out 8 most prominently used social media platforms by the businesses these days.

1. Be social on social media : It's not that enough to be on social media just for the sake that other are doing . Though it's important to engage more and more leads but what is essential is that you must behave according to the culture at social media. By culture I didn't mean that to follow certain rules and regulations but  you should not miss out the aspect of the social media! There are many ways in which you can engage a wide audience. Some of the ways are as follows-

• Create a company page in a professional manner but talk to your audience in a friendly way.
• Watch out for the questions that pop-in from time to time and answer them as honestly as possible.Try to be neutral.
• Spot the people with an interest either in your products or services or the similar ones.
• A guest blogger on the site of your competitor could also become your customer one day!

     2.  The 10:4:1 ration of social media : You should include links on social media in a set ratio of                          10:4:1. You need to try  out this ratio for business success in the following manner:

• 10 posts taking the user to an article by a third-party.
• 4 posts linking the user to one of your company’s blog post specifically, It can be anything like some latest updates of your company, new launch, answers of customer queries etc.
• 1 post taking the user to your company landing page having a registration form with an offer.

     3. Learn and employ different features of social media : Your content should be meaningful, informative, evocative  and at the same time quick to read as a user on social media doesn’t has much time to spend on 1 post only.  It is highly important to be flexible on social media especially with your content. You cannot afford to be lazy and post just same content on all the social media platforms that you use. For example, if you are using Pinterest that caters to a younger audience with images, you should focus on images that are Impressive enough to tell a story to your audience. Remember that Pictures speaks louder than words.

     4. Be specific with your ads on social media : Prepare an ad for the social media with all the components of a good ad viz. a clear cut CTA i.e. call-to-action, relevant images at appropriate places and a language that is a blend of professional and general tone. Your ad should focus on demographic lead generation and it should be appropriate according to the social media platform you are adopting for business promotion activities.

 

   5. Develop unique content with a pinch of creativity : Content is king! It is true not just for the websites but for the social media platforms as well. Always pay attention to the fact that the content you are creating and posting has the potential to go viral. This calls for your creativity and understanding of your target audience. A content that is shared and has a wide presence online is able to generate keen interest in the minds of the audience or the leads. The leads will get an impression that you are an industry leader and will be compelled to think about you as a better option in the market that they can place their trust on.

 

6. Optimize on Tweets : You can use a tweet for business growth by leveraging it in various ways. You can either embed it as a link on your web page or use it as a testimonial. Tweet on one of your most viral blog and then link it with your company’s web page so as to induce interest in the minds of the readers and enhance your professional image.   

 

7. Optimize Vine posts : Vine is a medium for young audience and hence you should not shy away from being lively here. To score high on this parameter you can employ a professional videographer and assign him the interesting but challenging task of coming up with a video that appears as a prank video. The length should not be very high but only 6-8 seconds.

8.Be updated with the industry news : Build comradeship within the industry and be updated about the latest news. Be the messenger of the industry news and help out your readers to gain good knowledge about your industry. This will actually promote among them a positive feeling about you as a business that is quite active in the industry.

 

Follow the above mentioned tips with trust and confidence for your benefit and experience the difference sooner than later!   

 

 

5 Good Reasons You Should Go For PPC

Have you been wondering lately whether to invest in PPC or SEO? Which is the right route for you to grow business in the way you desire? SEO may eat away your money without promising any good results but PPC is one such thing that has beaten SEO and has become the darling of business owners. Here are 5 ways that help you out to go for PPC .

1.       You are the master with PPC 

You have a direct control over many important things such as landing page, the keywords, the visibility of your ad copy and others. You  can easily compare two ad copies to get a data that can prove to be very helpful in making the right decisions regarding the required changes in the new ad copy. You virtually have good control over the keys!

2.       Category leadership is easy with PPC 

Imagine you have invested in SEO and the ad have also succeeded in grabbing the first position in the search results. What do you expect next? A higher click-through rate, isn’t it? But sad you are still competing with many ad copies who are smartly attracting the viewers towards their beauty! Need not worry much, if you can ensure that the ‘Quality Score’ of your ad is good, you can boost up your ROI. 

3.   Continuous feedback

If you are cursing PPC for not producing the desired results, then you should feel guilty about it. Yes! You are doing nothing but wasting your time and energy in criticizing an important medium of advertisement which your competitors are not only using but have mastered the art as well. In order to obtain the maximum out of PPC, you need to include more and more feedback in your PPC strategy.

4.       You have the actual data with PPC 

Google has adopted a new policy under which it doesn’t shares the referral data related to the keyword organic search. It gives the security reason for the same. There is nearly 40% data which can’t be accessed by the businesses. But the wise decision  made by smart business owners some time ago to pay for PPC and obtain the related data in the form of useful and understandable statistics. How can you boost up your ROI with no relevant data? So, trust PPC for relevant data collection and analysis.

5.       PPC unperturbed by frequent algorithm changes 

With SEO, you may jump from your seat in exhilaration one day for ranking high on Google but may squeeze to a mere living object after witnessing a shocking 70-80% decline in your rankings. The reason may be a slight change in Google policies governing the content quality and the resultant ranking of your business. If you are a PPC lover, you will be happy to know that the PPC world is not affected by frequent algorithm changes unlike SEO. Google has its own rewards for the giant credit card holders who actually shell down money  for each click. The quality score may face some changes but PPC as a whole doesn’t gets a bad or irreparable effect.

Businesses are trusting PPC more and more for its many beneficial features against SEO as discussed in this blog. So, when are you going to be smart and trendy in your business operations? 

Google+ - Latest social media tool for the marketers

In the month of January last year, Google+ grabbed second position beating Twitter to become the second most popular social network. This good news came to Google+ by the Global Web Index. The businesses were initially reluctant about the idea of setting up the page on Google+ but it did not took a long time to get their opinions changed. One of the main reasons behind it was that Google has integrated its various services like the Android based ones, Google Maps and YouTube in addition to others with Google+ so as to unite the social media with the online marketing campaignsand the different social networks.

Google+ is proud of extending its services to nearly 350 million users who are actively using this social networking platform.There are planned hangouts organized by popular brands which are not just limited to the fashion industry but various others such as Cadbury, Burberry, Coca Cola, Samsungto name a few.The brands’ interactive activities have raised by 45.5% in a period of two quarters viz. Q2 2012 and Q1 2013. A popular example of Google+ hangouts is that ofBurberry, a luxury brand recently introducedits ‘Kisses campaign’ on Google+.

 People usually draw a comparison between Facebook and Google+ but there is a lot of difference in the way the two operate. The interesting features such as sharing a video that can be seen by the entire group, easy participation in the hangouts, interconnectedness with various Google platforms, frequent competitions and prize distributions and its ability to work as a customer relationship management tool are all making Google+ an attractive option for the businesses these days. Google+ can not only help in ranking high in the search results but has evolved as a unique online marketing tool. 

The main advantage of making Google+ your ally in business for social networking is that the businesses need to use a code that connects them to the Google page. The Google+ page appears alongside the search results and hence, it is a great tool for discoverability of the brands. The setting up of a page on Google+ is not just easy but is also free of cost and quite easy to activate. It enables the users to search for their known-ones easily to form a community. The latest Android devices are appearing with thesupporting feature for Google+.

  

Top 5 Trends of Social Media Marketing 2014

Social Networking platforms are now appearing from almost every corner of the world. But are you frequently following all the social media trends to improve your various marketing campaigns?

Boost your Social Media Presence

Hello everyone once again I am back with the very interesting topic. We all know that how social media marketing is evolving so quickly and for this we need to get updated always to get the maximum results. Near about more than 200 social networking sites are actively used by all over the world and the level of their participation is also emerging.

Now the point of discussion here is how can we enter into the conversation and engage with potential people and the vast industries?

The Answer of the above question is by fostering your social media profiles. Yes of course like other web marketing platforms we can boost and optimize our social media profile for various channels like LinkedIn, Twitter , Google + and so on.

Let’s see how we can boost our Social media profiles:

• Selection of the right channel: To select the right social media channel is the most important step to be considered. Don’t get pressurized to be active on every social media platform. What is more important is to understand which channel is relevant for you and focus your efforts in optimizing those channels which works best for you. If we will talk about Facebook and Twitter, they are the prime channels to build the relationship with your audience by providing them perfect tweets and clear posts representing you and your company whereas channels like Youtube, Instagram, and Pintrest which are video led platforms showcase your visual content in the better ways.
• Create Persuasive content regularly: Remember that great content is always appreciable by others. It will not only arouse the interest of the people but inspire loyalty among your potential audiences. If you want to publicize informative, persuasive stories, interesting facts and researches throughout the year over different social media channels then its best to develop the content calendar to schedule the postings. It will not only give consistency but it avoids splurges of posts or delays.
• Flexibility: I have read it somewhere that Social media is a fluid and dynamic environment, so it requires a same approach from you. Be flexible as per the demand of Industry. No one like the outdated content, if important information breaks make sure you are the first one to tweet or post. Through this you will be always updated and upgraded in your audience eyes.
• Join the Conversation: Always be into the conversation with your audience to build the relationship with them. Request your fans and followers to give feedback on your recent activities on different social media channel and make them feel that they are the part of your company and their opinions valued you the most by listening them properly. Remember that to be a good conversationalist; you need to be a great listener. However don’t get into the trap of self promotion, represent yourself as an Industry Expert by commenting on relevant issues or trends.
• Appreciate your Followers: In order to nurture and grow your relationship with your audience, keep an eye check on your new followers on different social media channels and thanks them for following you. Observe carefully the various activities of your followers, understand in what they are interested and tailor your content according to their need.
• Put social media icon in all your communication: Always use your social media digital signature in all your communications – from email signatures, presentations, direct ails and letter head. Never missed any opportunity to let your audience know that how social much active you are and you want to build a relationship with them through your social media channels.

I am sure this will give you an idea of how to boost your social online presence.Share your views too-  I would love to hear from you about your experiences, your thoughts and feedback.

Koenig Offers a Free Lesson on Social Media Marketing

Koenig Offers a Free Lesson on Social Media Marketing

Koenig Offers a Free Lesson on Social Media Marketing

Koenig Offers a Free Lesson on Social Media Marketing

Understand your Reader’s Psychology – they are your king

Earlier when  I am not at all aware with the power of content , I was always wonder that why people write so much on different topics everywhere on internet, then slowly and gradually I have started understanding that  the roots of internet is content. When I started writing for different websites, I have realized that writing is not difficult but to write as per your reader psychology is dam difficult task. And here you have to think a lot means think wisely. What you want to convey through your writing. One thing is for sure whatever you are writing; there is some goal behind that – whether you want to increase the traffic of your website, blog, people should subscribe for your newsletter or more lead generation, or just the brand awareness. So keep in mind that not just writing anything is important- powerful content matters a lot.

As I mention above that to write influential you need to understand the psychology of your reader first. What they expect from your post. Let me take an funny example-  if you are writing about how to download the guitar lesson then I am sure that this is something your reader can’t expect from you … Oh common!!! they know how to download the material from internet, so at the end of the day you got the worst feedback after that you can’t even think of writing for another couples of days but hold on if you write “learn Guitar in the most effective and easy manner in just few steps” you hits the target- people who are really interested in learning guitar can turn on your prospective readers, after that you sit aside and measure the success of your writing.

We have usually understands that people are saying that content is king but that is just for the interpretation. Saying that Readers are king leaves no doubt because they are the one to whom you are writing for.

Readers decide that how much they want to read and what they want to read. It took a fraction of seconds to divert the mind of your reader if they didn't found your post useful or relevant to their need. Because the destiny of every blogger is controlled by the reader.

Lets highlight few of the points to understand how to cater to their interest:

• Shape up your content as per your readers requirement.
• Write less but deliver more.
• Value the feedback of your readers given on your earlier post- take it as a tool of improvement rather than criticism.
• Don’t ignore the other factors while writing like the time the post was published, the length of post, topic, who shares your post, and so on.

I am sure till now you have understand that if your Readers are happy that is the most important metrics of your success. Keep writing!!!

I would love to hear from you about your experiences, your thoughts and feedback – after all you are my readers and your feedback is king.

Facebook Marketing

Effective Facebook Marketing Strategies

In 2013 it has been estimated that there are near about 1.11 billion facebook users.

Logo Reflects Your Brand Identity

Business Logos generally defined as an iconic face for your company to the world. It shows the graphical representations of the core values and objectives of the company. It is one of the essential branding components of the companies today. Never forget that a good logo can lead to a boost in your sales and conversions and a poor logo can turn off your customers any time.

According to the sources Twitter had paid only $ 15 for its unique logo and Nike had just spent $ 35 for its logo. What all we need to understand is that to design the impressive logo you don’t need to spend huge amount of money to attract your potential client towards your brand. Moreover it’s all about the mind game where you need to spend some time and efforts in the brainstorming that what you want to convey through your logo to the People.

Following branding and marketing strategy need to be considered before making the logo for the company:-

• Definite Purpose: - Corporate and business logos must be designed with some definite purpose because they act as a face of a company. As we know that images speak louder than words, so your logo which is the combination of fonts, images, color, visual elements and typography all these things need to be so perfect to convey the relevant information about the company along with some sense of meaning and a feeling of trust. Don’t forget that your well defined logo will become the advertising and marketing support in future. 
• Designing Principle: - The logo should be designed in such a manner that it will give some identity to your business. The selection of colors, fonts, images, text and slogans should be very unique in its own way so better choose wisely. Every single symbol you used in your logo make people think of traits that are associate with your company.
• Brand Identity: - Always remember that people identify your brands with your logo only. So a good logo works as a brand identity for your growing business. It appears everywhere on your marketing material like on stationeries, websites, business cards, brochures, pamphlets, hording etc. Even now days people are so much socialite and they are using their brand identity or we can say that logo images  in all social networking sites so that they can capture the attention of the people from all over the world. Most of the time a well designed logo can contribute a lot to the success of your business whereas a shabby logo can reflect amateurishness.
• Don’t Play with the size: - When it comes to logo design size does matter. Logo size plays an important role because it comes everywhere on your marketing material. So a wrong size can spoil the branding. Make sure your logo should be legible at all sizes.
• Be Different: - Different and Uniqueness is your first priority while choosing the design for your logo. Though it’s very easy to copy someone designs but its damm difficult to be innovative and creative, so while making the logo for the companies dare to think different and always stand out of the crowd. So try variety of colors, designs, fonts that works best for you. In short we can say that play with different designs.
• Follow the rule of K.I.S.S (Keep it simple and stupid):- Since from the starting of the designing process or in the brainstorming step don’t mess up with the complicated designs always keep your logo design simple. The simple design is more recognizable by the people. For example the logo of the Nike company – swoosh is an extremely simple design but it is the one of the most recognizable logo in the world. 

                  Let us look some other Examples of the Great and Successful logos:- 

Promote your Brand with Instagram

Promote your Brand with Instagram

Capture and Share the World’s moments- well said by Instagram Team. A smart and stupendous photo and video sharing social networking service, which allows you to click anywhere, apply filters and share it with the people around the world. You can share it with Facebook friends, Twitter followers, Google + followers and with everyone through Social Networking sites. 

With the emergence of Social Media Mix in the marketing, Instagram is becoming one of the platforms for giving a buzz to your business. Yes! It means that now you can promotes your brand in the most fascinating manner. Since from the 2012 the day when facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion, its popularity is touching the peak among the users and the brands. There are currently over 150 million monthly active users. 

So now the question is are you using Instagram for your Brand Promotion? Many of the large scale businesses, high ended brands beginning to realize its effectiveness and actively uses it to promote their brand and targeting the right audience to make it visible to a new market.

Following are the tips which we can use for the success of the company via Instagram: 

• Get the Advantage of Photo and Video Sharing Feature: Sharing the great quality of Photos and Videos with the people is the amazing feature of Instagram and I must say being a company you can derive the full benefits out of it if your advertising goal is brand Promotion. Convey your message to your target audience through photo & video content in a most effective manner. It should be less confusing but more interactive.  Use 15-second, editable, filter-enabled video with Instagram and give your brand an ability to get more personal and engaged with your new audience.
• Don’t think too much about when to Post: Since Instagram is the mobile based, interactive Social networking mobile apps which is used by the user almost every hour, So don’t waste time in thinking when to post as there is no fix schedule  of posting. What makes Instagram awesome is that post anytime when you feel like.
• Use Pertinent and Popular Hashtags: Hash tags are the great tools which we can use in our post or photos to get more exposure. Maximum users of these social networking sites used hashtags on a particular topics. In fact there is a correlation between the hashtags you use and the success of your content. So it is highly recommended that use Hashtags at least 1- 3 per photo in your posts. It gives you more opportunities to get engaged and interacts with your users.  #loves, #cute, #Follow are few of the top tags on Instagram.
• Follow your Followers: To make a healthy relationship with the people to whom you are follow- Always follow them back. You never know when they become your prospective clients in future.
• Don’t Hesitates to tag other brands and people: Tagging is the powerful feature on Instagram. It allows you to tag other in your posts, so don’t hesitate to use this feature fully.Tag people, multiple brands which are relevant to your content post and add some credibility to your posts.
• Host the contest on Instagram: Being the large scale business and companies organized photo contest on Instagram by using appropriate hashtags .Recently Samsung camera company used the hashtags #liveIn the moments to promote their Instagram photo contest on their facebook page. Here you can also take the help of other social networking sites to update your potential customers about your upcoming contests and events related to photography on Instagram through your status.
• Optimize your Profile: Make your company profile informative on Instagram by using great words, specific images and brand information in a concise manner.
• Industry Related Hashtags: If you are in company event and clicked a lot of photos, use them in your account with relevant hashtags so that event coordinators, your employees and other attendees can find them.
• Always Post something new and updated: Your followers are looking forward to get the Fresh, updated and innovative information from your side. So always give your followers a first look of an event, product or news feature.
• Get more Followers from Facebook : According to the  great aspiring entrepreneur and CEO of Tint  (Organization which helps to develop the relationship with the customers through social media) – Tim Sae Koo  states that cultivate the 3 important things in your Instagram account :

·         Connect it with your Facebook Account to increase your followers

·         Use relevant and popular Hashtags

·        Following others to get engaged with them by liking and commenting on their Photos.

Social Media Trends

Social Media Marketing will be the most lucrative Industry in 2014. It will allow getting the best out of it not only for the small business but for the bigger brands and companies too. The trends which we saw in 2013  will still continue in 2014 .What all you need to understand is how  you communicate with your clients , how to develop the healthy relationship with your customers and last but not least understanding the power of great Content.

The trends which we all can follow in 2014 for the Social Media Industry are as follow:

•  Priority to the Mobile devices:  As we all aware that mobile devices are with everyone and it promotes your brand anytime anywhere. So you need to focus on the point that every business website should be compatible to the mobile devices and it need to be optimized for mobile. So if you are an entrepreneur or running a small scale business this is the high time to switch to a mobile site if you haven't yet, and start thinking that how people interacts with your business through mobile devices, how you can connect to the right customer at right time through their phone which include Mobile Apps, SMS, and emails which can be particularly designed for the mobile devices.
• Blogging Will always Remain The #1 : It is your great content only that seals the deal and holds the attention of the client, driving the maximum traffic to your business and all is possible through Blogging. Blogging will always consider be the no. 1 tools for lead generation. So if you are a good writer and you have a subject knowledge don’t wait, start writing for the potential people who seeks your tips through the great content.
• Valuable Content not just the content: Google, Face book and other relevant social media sites value your great content not the spammy content. So before writing think twice about the content which is really worth and reverberate with your customers.
•  The power of Google +: The new social network Google + is spreading faster now and people are switching over to the Google + from the Facebook .  Google + is on beta stage which is about to launch Promoted Post like facebook and it allow you to get your content out to the large audience or we can say that right person at the right time than ever before.
•  Word of Mouth is still holds the power : The word of mouth marketing is one of the most powerful way to get in front of the large no of customers in a new way. The more your best customers spread the word for you or promote your brand verbally the more chances, you can gain trust in a new clients and can convert them into a fruitful leads.
•  Pictures speaks louder than word: It is right to say that Images speaks louder than words , as now days there are so many sites which are coming up with Images and people are using it as a tool to demonstrate their messages to the large no of audience. Few of them are Instagram, Pinterest etc and yet more to come. But the text is still alive, what all you need to focus is how to mingle your images with your text which compliments your message.
•  Video Impact: Videos always arouse the curiosity in the mind of the consumers to learn more about your business. Whether it’s informative, educative or entertainment, people will never miss the chance to see a video which highlight your message in a most beautiful manner. It still creates a meaningful relationship between business and consumer. But make sure that like your sites, your video content should also be compatible and optimized for mobile.
• Share Share and Share: The only thing which you can do at the initial level of your branding is to share your content with as many as people possible, so that you can directly communicate with your customer, you understand them and they understand you positively. Sharing will give you the extra benefit that it helps you to get good rank in SEO.