10 Laws Of Social Media Marketing
Social media has taken over the world and become fundamental to so many aspects of life, including business. Marketing is no different; social media has been changed by the exponential use of social media sites. New markets are available which can be a huge advantage to any business, but there are ways to use social media more effectively. Here are some tips, which can help a business develop a more effective social media marketing campaign and presence.
- High Quality
With so much content available online these days, you need to ensure your posts are of the highest quality and really valuable to your target audience. Get a competitive edge by spending more time creating valuable content that you can share with your followers. Stellar content wins shares and likes, be useful, be informative, offer more than your competitors and you will win people’s trust and devotion.
If your campaign is only tailored around promos and self-serving social media updates, your followers are likely to switch to another business who offers them more.
- Be Focused
Vague and undedicated content is of no use to people. Your followers are following you for a reason and want to see posts that are well targeted to their interests. Stick within your niche. It is a bad idea to try to post about everything; it will muddle your message, and turn people off who can to your profile with a specific intent. Post on topics in your own niche and perfect them to wow your audience.
- Dedicate Time
Social media marketing is a not a quick activity; meaningful posts take time and thought. You need to dedicate this time to your social media marketing strategy to ensure it will be effective. There is no point rushing through a few posts once a week with little interaction; this will not create the best image of your brand and business. Social media marketing experts recommend each word and each link to be thought out with specific goals in mind, be it to build your brand, offer a more valuable customer experience, make sales, or simply engage new followers with authority content.
- Connect With Key Individuals And Organizations
To be effective and influential, you need to identify the key people or organizations who can promote your business. These organizations will ensure the audience you are trying to reach will see your posts and can increase your business. Social media is one of the best platforms to connect and network with other marketers and businesses in your niche, and cross promotions are ideal opportunities to grow your customer base. Don’t be afraid to promote others, the rewards can be substantial.
- Be Accessible To Your Followers
There is no point posting content online and not enabling people to interact with you following the post. You need to ensure you are available to your followers so they can interact with you and ask questions, which give you a further chance to promote your business and become a go-to source in your niche.
- Share And Promote Other People’s Online Content
If you want people to engage with you, you need to share and comment on their content. Social media is not a one-way street; you need to share, repost, and comment on other people’s content and they will do the same for you. This further promotes your business and increases awareness of your brand.
- Pick Your Social Media Sites
Not every demographic will use the same social media sites. To be effective, you need to pick the sites, which are used most by the people that you are trying to target. For example, Snapchat is used by young people whereas all ages are on Facebook and Twitter more. 58% of all Pinterest users are women, who shop! So, any ecommerce benefits from being on Pinterest.
- Acknowledge Your Followers
If a potential customer contacts you by telephone or comes to your office, you would greet them and provide a good level of customer service. Enquiries online is no different; if one of your followers contacts you through social media, you need to ensure they are contacted with the same priority as if they came in through your office.
- Remember Your Followers Are People
It may sound silly, but it can be easy to forget there is a normal human behind each social media post, like and comment. Tailoring your social media content to these people will ensure they feel valued and included; this is what will increase sales for your business.
- Pay Attention To Competitor’s Posts
A key method of ensuring your social media marketing works is to simply read other posts. This means you will be kept up to date with the latest trends and developments, to which you can respond accordingly. It also helps avoid replication and enables you to set your posts apart from others.
Importance of SEO In Integrated Digital Marketing Strategy
SEO is the acronym for Search Engine Optimization and is a frequently used digital marketing tool that works towards increasing the ranking of websites. It is essential for any business to keep their sites among the top (preferably top 3) search results for better search visibility. Proper SEO could help in attaining this business goal.
SEOs make use of multiple elements, like keywords, content, page optimization, link building, SEM, and so on to enhance page visibility, traffic, and ranking. SEO also works via two- tactics, i.e. On-page optimization and Off-page optimization. Both these tactics enable sites to become more user-friendly and relevant for the search engines to pick them up and put them on the top results.
Why SEO?
SEO services are a very important part of digital marketing strategy. Almost all companies want to increase their digital presence by targeting organic visits. It plays and keeps on playing a critical role in digital marketing by increasing the quantity of traffic to a website. One of the crucial reasons that keep SEO on the top of the list of digital marketers is that it not only promotes your business online but also enables you to get a high ROI if implemented correctly. 
Understanding Integrated Marketing
There is no doubt that digital marketing is taking over the market and with the advent of the internet and its increased usage, this form of marketing has touched the sky. However, digital marketing strategies are ever-evolving and marketers are shifting their focus from single-channel digital marketing strategies to integrated marketing strategies.
Integrated marketing strategy is nothing but combining different media and communication channels to spread the brand message. By using different media channels, marketers ensure that they can reach their target audience better. Integrated marketing strategies may involve a combination of:
- SEO
- SEM
- Web design & development
- PPC
- Social media marketing
Why SEO is crucial for Integrated Marketing?
SEO is not a new term in the field of digital marketing. However, it is an ever-evolving one. SEO is a great tool to enhance your organic page ranking and web traffic but it is not a magical tool. SEO is a fine blend of science and art to ensure that your website tops on the search engine result pages (SERPs).
SEO is an integral part of integrated marketing strategy and is given specific attention by marketers to promote their marketing campaigns. Let’s focus on the reasons why SEO is crucial for integrated marketing strategy and why businesses should focus on it.
- Increase organic search results: SEO, if implemented properly, can incorporate your marketing funnel in all stages. Your marketing funnel will start from the stage when your target audience is learning about your brand and its presence. As a result, putting your brand in the right place, on the top of the search result, is vital for which you will need search engine optimization. It does not stop there but incorporates other aspects of integrated marketing strategies to make your brand available at different platforms with the right content, high speed, better quality, etc.
- Enhance inbound traffic: Inbound traffic plays a critical role in the digital marketing sphere. To shine brighter, you need to concentrate on multiple marketing strategies to get more traffic to the website. Appropriate SEO strategies can help you do so in a cost-effective manner. Search engine optimizers can use elements like email marketing, social media marketing, and content marketing, among others to enhance the inbound traffic of the target customers effectively.
- High ROI: Integrating SEO in digital marketing campaigns can also help you score a higher ROI. SEO results are measurable and unlike traditional marketing strategies, you can always measure what is going and what is not and to what extent. What more? SEO strategies do not push your target customers to visit your websites or social media pages. It is not an interruptive marketing form. SEO helps you to choose the right keyword to rank your site higher, which can convince your target audience to perceive it as the right business to work with.
- Makes website user-friendly: SEO is much more than just the right keywords. Including appropriate SEO strategies in your integrated marketing campaign can not only help your target customers to discover you but also get a user-friendly (UX) web experience. When you work towards professional SEO strategies, you can be sure to offer your customers a user-friendly experience, enhanced content, and better speed, which can affect your site’s conversion rate.
- Increase conversion rate: Integrated marketing is about taking into consideration different marketing channels including social media channels, email, mobile marketing, and so on. And increasing the conversion rate in all these channels is crucial for a successful marketing campaign. Marketing is all about what type of content you are presenting, how their quality is, and how long they are? It won’t deliver any benefit if you fail to create engaging content that could connect with your target audience. Here SEO can come to your rescue by offering optimized content.
Conclusion
Adopting effective SEO strategies, therefore, is crucial in today’s integrated digital marketing setup. Visibility is all in the modern industry. Businesses need to place them at the proper spot for the target audience to find them. If you miss out on the opportunities offered by SEO, you will lose dramatically. Hence, hiring a reliable digital marketing service provider like Trudigital Marketing can help you shed all your SEO and integrated marketing woes at affordable and comprehensive rates. Contact us today to find out how we can help you revamp your digital marketing strategy and take your business to the next level.
Is Your Instagram Account Secure?
Why would someone want to target your Instagram account? You share what you ate, maybe the books you read, the shoes you bought, or that really cool image of the sky above. How is that going to help a hacker? Read on to learn more.
OK. Your obvious love of chicken and waffles isn’t going to mean a lot to a cybercriminal, not unless your password is “chicknwaffles.” But there are people who make a living from Instagram. Influencers can make millions by posting a pic of their latest smoothie or the new pair of socks they love. Their IG accounts are their business. A hacker gaining access could destroy an influencer’s reputation, their livelihood.
Businesses, too, are moving to IG as a way to reach a targeted audience with vibrant visuals. They can’t afford to have their accounts taken over by an ill-intentioned hacker. That could lead to lost customers and brand damage.
Then, there’s you, the “average” IG user. Yes, the cybercriminal might still target your Instagram account. For one, they might use your IG handle to reach out to your friends and say, “I’m stuck overseas. I need some money.” Caring friends, not knowing it’s not you, could end up a victim of a scam.
How to Protect Your Instagram Account
#1 Go Private
Instagram lets individuals, influencers, and businesses show creativity. However, you want to control who sees what you post. You may not want everyone to see your photos. Limit your content visibility to friends and family in the Instagram profile window:
- Click on the three dots in the right corner.
- Scroll to the bottom of the options.
- Turn on the Private account setting (the button should turn blue).
You can also block followers you don’t know. Click on your Followers list, and tap on the users you don’t recognize. Tap on the menu button and choose “Block User.”
#2 Disable cross-app sign-ins
Using your IG account to sign in to other applications is convenient, because you have to remember only your IG access credentials. Still, by streamlining your sign-in you are also making it easier for a hacker to compromise your accounts. Now, they can get access to one account and use that as a way into the other connected accounts.
Log in to your account and review all connected applications. You can do this by visiting the Authorized Applications tap under the Edit Profile tab.
#3 Don’t overshare
Sure, that’s the golden rule of social media. Still, we’re talking here about reviewing personal information you share on Instagram. Take a look at your profile information and review whether all those details really need to be there. A hacker could use anything specific you write in your Bio to verify your identity elsewhere. Reconsider posting your birth date, alma mater, anniversary, favorite sports team, etc.
#4 Turn off location services
Instagram’s location services can let you check in at a particular place. But by doing this, you’re giving thieves extra information they can use against you. Instead, go into your phone’s Privacy settings and turn off location services for IG.
You also don’t want to cue criminals that you’re away for a vacation with posts from the beach. You might want to share that sunny sand pic. Then, you regret it when you come home to a burgled home.
#5 Enable two-factor authentication
Of course, the starting point is to pick a strong, unique password for your Instagram account, but Instagram has added two-factor authentication for an added layer of security.
In Instagram’s mobile app you click on the Options icon at the top right to get to a menu offering this option. You will get a short link to click on. Do so, and turn on the two-factor authentication. You’ll set it up using your mobile phone. Then, in the future, you’ll have to log in with the added security of a unique code sent to your phone via text message.
#6 Review your login activity
Keep an eye out for illicit use of your account by reviewing Login Activity. This is under Settings on the desktop app and shows a list of locations from which you’ve logged in. So, if you’ve never been to Thailand, but your IG account has, that would be a red flag. If you do spot locations you don’t recognize, log out from your device, and change your password.
Need help securing your Instagram account or other social media channels? Our helpful Marketing pros have the expertise you need. Contact us today at 561-693-1978
