Social Media Posting Frequency

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Last week I read with dread a Tweet and subsequent blog post answering the question “How many times should I post on Social Media Sites?” It even went so far to advise readers the ideal “number of times/day (or week)” for social media posting frequency. In reading the post, it really made me consider… Wouldn’t it be great if my Magic 8 ball told me how many times to post and what to post on social media sites?

Wouldn’t it be great if it everyone knew the magic social media posting frequency? The problem with giving that bit of advice is, in telling clients “how often to publish on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter” or anywhere else, is that individual company needs and goals are not being considered!

Instead, I would argue that completing a social media audit is the first step in determining social media posting frequency. Determine what a company has first THEN develop a well thought-out marketing plan. Here is what I suggest doing to help determine how often to post to social media.

First review, review and re-review all available analytical information. Look at Google Analytics, Twitter and Facebook Insights, or other available analytical data. Then answer the following questions:

  1. Does the analytical information indicate when potential clients are viewing shared content? Wednesday at noon seems to be a hot time for many of my Facebook clients, however a friend of mine who is a divorce attorney has found that weekends are when more people are viewing his content.
  2. Does the information offer insight into what the audience is looking at, what they are reacting to AND what content an audience is taking an action on? Knowing this will help determine what content “moves the needle.”
  3. Are the individuals viewing the content the desired “audience”? One of my clients encourages the office staff to “Like” everything on Facebook. While this is all well and good, a better idea might be to ask the office staff to comment and share the content to increase the reach of the post.
  4. What are the company goals in sharing content on social media? Is the goal to become more visible to an audience? Is becoming an industry expert the goal? Should posts only share the latest deals? It’s always good to take on the 80/20 rule where only 20% of shared information is self-promotion. It is important though tat all content shared is still relevant, and liked, by the audience. Sometimes it’s not about what moves the needle,  but instead just a venue to share good information.

My final bit of advice when considering social media posting frequency, is to consider the time and resources available for the platforms being considered. There is nothing worse than wanting to participate on all of the social media platforms when they can not be managed properly. There must be time available to share, collect and analyze the data. Take the bite that you can actually chew and don’t have eyes bigger than your stomach!

Social Media Image Size Guide [INFOGRAPHIC]

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I have been updating a couple client social media sites recently and realized that it has been a while since we updated a social media image size guide. In fact, June 2013 was the last time I published information on correct sizing of images!

The size of social media images changes from time to time, so having the most current data available is paramount. Each social media profile has unique size specifications and failure to properly size images may result in misalignment, cutting off part of the image or simply not being able to post them. There is nothing more frustrating to me, than seeing a company that does not have consistent branding across all social media profiles, so please feel free to print and reference this social media image size guide.

This infographic is a great source to reference when creating the correct size images for your LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ and YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

Having trouble managing your social media? Need assistance with analytics or even initially creating your social media presence? Perhaps a social media audit is necessary. Regardless of your need, PWB marketing can assist your company in getting the most from social media.  Call our office today at 734-995-5000 for your social media answers.

 

PWB Has Moved

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Please note that has of February 23, 2014, PWB Marketing has a new address. It’s nothing grand really, we just moved across the street. Imagine if you will, that if you had been watching us prepare for the move, you might have noticed us playing Frogger on State Street. Hopping back and forth to check on progress in the new diggs was a big deal, especially through the bitterly cold weather we had!

Please use our new address for future mailings. Our phone number will remained the same!

PWB Marketing Communications
2750 S. State St., Suite 4
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
734.995.5000 general

2015 Predictions: Increated “Because we can!” Website Hacking

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As promised in last week’s post, at PWB we have a couple of our own predictions. Keith Kopinski our  Senior Art Director, predicts that, “As we roll into 2015 we will see an increase in website hacks.  Hacking has always been in the mix, but I think the trend will continue to rise and we will see more and more sites compromised with the reason cited being ‘Because we can’.” To listen to news stories you begin to feel that way too. Here are just a few of the greatest hits from the last couple of years:

As Keith said, hacking attacks happen, and they are becoming ever more common. In Verizon’s most recent Data Breach Report, there were 63,000 confirmed security incidents in 2013. Sixty-three Thousand! That’s a lot of hacking. Certainly you can not stop what is going to happen but there are ways to help mitigate the problem.

So what can you do? Here are a few tips to slow hackers down and possibly stop them:

  1. If you have a blog, use a validation form for comments. This should help prevent someone from inserting HTML code that may cause issues. causes trouble.
  2. Don’t use generic Usernames suck as “admin” to log into your website.
  3. Update the security patches on your site. This may necessitate checking for the latest security patches and to make sure that they are installed properly.

Of course other top tips include using strong passwords and avoiding spam-like websites, but I would also add that it is necessary to be aware of what is happening with your website.

Recently one of our PWB clients experienced a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack from overseas. These type of hacks typically flood a site with traffic until it falls offline, because PWB is helping to manage their paid advertising platform and runs constant analytic reports, the hackers were discovered before considerable damage had been done.

So will hacking “Because we can!” become more prevalent in 2015? Only time will tell. We’ll re-visit this next year to see.

 

2015 Social Media Predictions

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There is always interesting discussion at the end of one year looking into the next – What are the social media predictions, trends and hot topics to look forward to. This year I thought to analyze several of the expert predictions for what is to come from a recent Business 2 Community post.

Many marketers are looking forward to a “buy” button availability. During summer 2014 the “buy” button has been tested on Facebook and a roll-out to the rest of us seems to be in the eminent future. And who wouldn’t love the one-click opportunity to buy when the products or services seem impending from those potential Facebook clients.  As the article says, this is a strong prediction for 2015!

With the introduction of the ‘buy’ button both on Twitter & Facebook, social commerce will truly get its wings. To ensure the most targeted offer on social for customers based on demographic & behavioral attributes, vendors will build cross channel consumer profiles. Customers will benefit with more relevant offers and companies will benefit with a more comprehensive customer profile across social and traditional channels.

Impending Facebook algorithm changes will make it harder to be promotional. post too many “look at me” posts and your content will not be shown to your target audience. In this social media overloaded society, it will be increasingly important to create content that engages your audience.  Starting in January, content on Facebook pages will have increased scrutiny, that why I think that this next statement is likely true for a 2015 outlook. It’s a no-brainer really, work smarter and not necessarily harder. Invest more on sharing your influence and expertise and less on the shameless self-promotions that many are getting tired of seeing. It is not about quantity, but instead good quality!

Businesses will no longer strive to push content out daily. Instead, they will focus on longer form content (stats show effectiveness here) that provides context, hard data and analysis.

 

Another thought shared by one of the 25 industry experts I agree with, as well as disagree with. As far as social media predictions go, it is certain that social media will continue to be further integrated within business practices, how can it not? What I disagree on is that business owners should never choose their social media channels before considering their overall marketing plan – Just because a social platform is out there, does not mean that you should be there. Be sure to choose the right platforms for your business to be on. Also always be aware of the implications of being there. Do you have the manpower to properly manage the platform? Is your voice being heard? Are your customers there? Careful consideration needs to take place FIRST!

Social media will continue to be more closely integrated with day-to-day business practices. DISAGREE: Social media will continue to be more closely integrated with day-to-day business practices. Many businesses will think social first when crafting a marketing plan or developing sales outreach strategies. In addition, businesses will continue to invest more of their marketing and strategy budgets toward existing and new social platforms, as well as social analytics. Specifically, as the organic reach of promotional content faces more challenges, paid placements will become essential in reaching potential customers via social media.

Feel free to read more of what the social media predictions for 2015. There are several more thoughts that merit careful consideration. No matter what happens though, during 2015 we will continue to find more businesses participating in social media to reach their customers.  Next week I will have share several of the PWB staff predictions for the coming year too, so check back. Until then, have a happy, healthy and safe New Year!

Understanding CTR vs. Conversion Goals

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I am working with a couple of AdWords clients right now that are really struggling with meaningfully analyzing the return on their AdWords campaigns. I suggested that they add conversion codes to better understand what may be working when the question came up, “Well what is the difference between Clickthrough-rate (CTR) and Conversions? I’ve been looking at the CTR as a means of identifying how well my campaigns are doing, so why will looking at conversions be better?”

To understand this we first need to understand the difference between “Clickthrough-rate” and the “Click conversion rate”.

The Clickthrough rate (CTR) is the number of clicks your ad receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown. In this example, the ad was available to be seen by 343 individuals (impressions) and was clicked on twice. That would mean the ad had a 0.58% Clickthrough rate. .58% of people clicked your ad after it was shown to them.

Converted clicks are the number of clicks that convert within a chosen conversion window. This means that you know how many clicks resulted as a result of an “action” being taken. The Click-conversion rate therefore is the number of converted clicks divided by the total clicks that can be tracked to a conversion. Here are some more details on conversions directly from Google.

Still confused about what a conversion is? Many clients are.

To determine what your company conversions are, you need to determine what action you want visitors to take. If you are a B2C company, then it is likely your conversions are sales which can be quantified by revenue. For B2B companies this often gets trickier. To determine conversion goals consider what you would like to see visitors do.

  • Do they have the option of signing up for a newsletter?
  • Are there areas of your company website with specific calls to action?
  • Does your website include tools for clients that could be launched or downloaded?

All of the above listed ideas are actionable activities that likely carry some weight within your company. Conversion goals therefore should be very specific to your business and include actions on a webpage, calls from ad extensions, or actions from a mobile app. Create good, strong conversion goals, and you will be amazed at what insights you may be able to see as a result.

 

 

Marketing Failure Should Not be a Dirty Word

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“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might has well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.” ~J. K. Rowling

While watching the Blood Moon eclipse this morning I was reminded about an experience I had this past weekend. Perhaps that was due to the fact that it was dark and peaceful outside, and my mind was allowed to wander. Whatever the reason though, I wondered again, why the word “failure” strikes fear into the hearts many.

One of the things I enjoy doing in my personal life, is to lead future generations through the lessons taught in scouting. I am a scout leader for both of my children – Boy Scouts  as well as Girl Scouts. Lessons in failure, perseverance and overcoming obstacles are commonplace. So too, are those lessons about winning. So when sitting in an adult training session last weekend, we were asked, “What types of things make for a successful outing?” One of my answers was ,”Sometimes I have allowed the kids to fail, and in doing so I may illustrate some of the pillars of scouting.” (Which happen to also be life lessons.)

The room fell silent, and I received many icy stares which caused a cold rush of fear to wash over me. The reactions throughout the room were pretty amazing. The facilitator then icily responded, “We don’t call it failure, we call it learning from mistakes.”

Yes that is true, however there is nothing wrong with using the word failure. Would I use that word with the kids? Probably not, but a failure is still the opportunity to learn and can be a fun challenge to overcome. I realized this morning that the same can be said in business. Failure is not a dirty word in marketing!

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

So many times clients are put off when hearing the word “failure”, when they really shouldn’t. Marketing failure is going to happen. Whether you are creating a new ad strategy, trying something new on social media, running new creative or creating a new brochure, there will be hits and misses.

“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” ~ Bill Gates

Failure only happens when we give up. Failure happens when we don’t learn from our mistakes. Failure in marketing happens only when we walk away without tweaking the creative. Yes one could say simply stating that “learning from our mistakes” should be used, or that we can use the term “challenges”, “obstacles” or otherwise, but the word “failure” should not be considered a dirty word. That’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it!

Do you think that “failure” should be banished as a word used in business?

“You make mistakes. Mistakes don’t make you.” ~Maxwell Maltz

Facebook Scheduled Posts

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Today as I was looking to load several “scheduled posts” to share on Facebook I ran across a snag – WHERE did the little clock icon go? For those of you that have scheduled posts in the past, there used to be a little clock icon at the bottom left of the post field. When you clicked on it, you could choose a future date and time that posts became visible to your audience.

For some reason though, within this past month, that has changed. The little clock is gone. I understand that change is inevitable. For example if change happens to make things easier or better in some way then I am all for it. In this case though there appears to be no reason for it. The simple button is gone. It feels like the change was made only to justify someone’s job at Facebook. I’m betting that at some point in the future the little icon will be back.

So, how do you schedule a post now you ask? I’ll show you. Next to the word “Post,” on the dark blue button at the bottom of the post field, look for a small arrow. Hover over it to find 3 options.

  1. Schedule a post
  2. Backdate a post
  3. Save a draft

This feature is only available for pages and not personal Timelines. I’m sure it is just as easy to do as it was previously, I simply disagree with the change.

 

 

 

 

Content Calendar for Content Marketing

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I have been working with one of our clients for a few years on their search and social media campaigns. As we have recently made some significant changes to their website and overall marketing platform, I started to consider some new metrics to include in their monthly analytic dashboard. Metrics for content marketing, are key to understanding campaign performance!

Typically I include data on:

  • Performance of paid marking campaigns – Whether PPC or Facebook Ads
  • General analytic data including time on the site and the number of new visitors
  • Social media metrics that are provided in Facebook Insights including which posts generate a conversation or motivate someone to take an action
  • What keywords are bringing in those searching, which ones generate the greatest traffic and which ones promote conversions

In general, the dashboard includes the whole 9-yards. Whatever the client needs to see to prove ROI, and more often than not, the general trends. With content marketing, I like to be able to see what motivates a action, whether that is an email, phone call or a spike in traffic on the site.

It’s not always easy to measure. In fact I don’t get to see the information on who calls the client, but I do get to see the emails that come in as well as watch the trends.

As we have been creating a new marketing campaign that will include radio ads, billboards, print campaigns as well as their PPC and social platforms, I thought that a content calendar might be helpful. The calendar I created for them shows the days and times content is posted. It’s a simple Excel calendar and the client loves it!

It doesn’t require much of my time to manage yet has left a big impression with my client. They really appreciate at a glance, seeing what is happening for their business. Their content calendar allows them to view the current month, however it could just as easily be used to plan content for the coming months. I created something specific for the client however here is a nice, free content calendar template.

New Facebook Admin Changes

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Most Facebook Page administrators know the frustration of posting updates and commenting on a post on it. First you needed to be either using the page as the “business” then you needed to toggle back and forth to “use the page as.” Within the last few days though I have noticed Facebook Admin changes that have made posting, commenting and liking a page a little cleaner.

Facebook Page Administrator

Users can still use the top drop down arrow (#1) to choose the Page they wish to administer. This allows the Facebook Admin to view only the content for that Facebook Page including the Wall for that page. In doing this Page Admins will know they are on that page by how the name appears at the top. It clearly indicates what Facebook Page being viewed and worked on. This will allow the Facebook Admin to also view who posted comments (#2) on the wall should there be several Page Admins.

In 2011, Facebook introduced the option to post on a Page as an individual or on behalf of the business or group the Facebook Page represented. This was done by clicking a link at the top of the page to either post as “PWB Marketing Communications” or, as in my case, as “Tammy Mayrend”. Pages now automatically post as the page you are administering for.The toggle link at the top of the page is no longer visible. In posting this way, I still see some personal content, the user can still see their name and profile icon, however when typing in the content field, the update posts as “The Page” (#1).

I know, terribly exciting, so what are the Facebook Admin changes? This is where I get a little excited. I work with multiple Facebook Pages with several of the Pages having multiple Page Admins. Sometimes posting to a Page is challenging to those who don’t post  often. I know many Page Admins who struggle with Liking and Commenting on posts without clicking over. In essence they “Like” and “Comment” as the Page and forget to toggle over to “Like” or “Comment” as themselves. This latest Facebook Page change, helps those sometimes users.

The change I noticed is this:

See the little drop down arrow above the comment field? It allows Page Admins to choose to “Like” or “Comment” as themselves OR for the Page! Such a silly little thing to get geeked about but it sure does make life a little simpler.

And before you ask, no, this is still not the case for those administering sites through mobile. I signed into the Facebook Pages App and that option is not there. I know many Page Admins that struggle with this since mobile is how they access Facebook 90% of the time. This Facebook change appears only to be for desktop users.

So Facebook powers-that-be, can we make this change for mobile platforms as well. If not for the Pages App, then at least for Facebook mobile.

Having difficulty with social media management? We can help. Call us at 734-995-5000.