The Texas Restaurant Association Marketplace; Day 1

Digital Marketing Sapiens is fortunate to be taking part in the TRA Marketplace Event from June 26 – 27 in Houston, Texas. As the second largest foodservice trade show in the United States, it was easy to find the best-tasting treats across the state.

The event is being hosted at the George R. Brown Convention Center, and is the perfect place to find all the best tasting eats, innovations, and conceptions (and don’t forget about all the delicious samples! Who needs lunch?)

Check out this ultra-stuffed bacon cheeseburger surrounded by hot fries prepared by J&B Group. This was only one of the many decadent creations at the event.

This tradeshow has a booth for every restaurant looking to improve their service, from our One Question Reputation App to a high performance tortilla & tamale machine.

The entire team made sure to take some time away from our booth to explore, and we were nothing short of impressed! We were surrounded by tasty treats, an exclusive lounge, a hall full of thought-leaders, and did we mention awesome food-sculptures?

Here’s is Ramil getting ready to devour a tall stack of oversized pancakes! Nothing this digital sapien can’t handle!

The TRA Marketplace is the perfect spot for gaining valuable insight and practical advice, whether it’s from the Education Idea Center, or the TIPS stage. My favorite part about these areas is that they offer a closer look on the restaurant & food industry, as well as the new technologies that are improving the market overall.

But the trade show hasn’t ended just yet! Digital Marketing Sapiens will be there tomorrow. Located at Booth 2119, we’ll be continuing to showcase the One Question Reputation App, a powerful tool that can grow the customer base in your restaurant. Come by and see us!

This Article originally appeared on digitalmarketingsapiens.com

What Is Crowdfunding And How Can My Business Get On Board?

Crowdfunding has taken fundraising to a whole new level! Some of the most popular crowdfunding sources are Kickstarter, Indiegogo, RocketHub, and GoFundMe. These platforms are great way to fundraise money for a specific cause or start-up business.

What exactly is crowdfunding?Crowdfunding is a method of funding a project using contributions from a large number of people. No donation is too small since crowdfunding relies on quantity.

Depending on which platform you use, the fees are different. However, in general, the website will hold a percentage fee along with credit card fee. The amounts paid to a project is considered a donation.

Is crowdfunding legal?

Crowdfunding is a legal process of obtaining an investment for your project. President Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, also known as the JOBS Act, which helps the “Capital Raising Online While Deterring Fraud and Unethical Non-Disclosure Act of 2012”.

How exactly does crowdfunding work?

Traditional funding involved asking a few wealthy investors for a lot of capital. Crowdfunding does the opposite. It asks a lot of people for a little bit of money each, hence the name CROWDfunding.

On crowdfunding websites, projects are listed for prospective donors to skim through. They can see a written description, photos, or advertisement about the product or service. Fundraisers can explain their benefits as well as set up a reward system for different sizes of donations, like free products or recognition.

How successful has crowdfunding been?

Star Citizen, an independent video game, holds the record for the most ever raised through crowdfunding: over $100 million! That isn’t the norm, of course. According to Fundable, the average successful campaign collects about $7,000. That capital is a great way to jumpstart your project or finance your business. Crowdfunding is also a great way to create a loyal following base, as members who want to jump onto your business can buy into your product early and build a relationship you’re your brand by watching the project come to fruition.

Should crowdfunding be used for professional projects?

Although those over the age of 45 are much less likely to get involved in crowdfunding, don’t be discouraged! Many organizations have successfully used crowdfunded initiatives that would not have fit within their budget otherwise. It can be used to build a hospital or help a census count for a species slowly going endangered but does not have funding behind it. A famous example of crowdfunding is the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. His average campaign donation is only $27.

Crowdfunding is a great way to get the community involved as they feel they have taken apart in helping a group they believe in. Crowdfunding is a great way to get the community involved as they feel they have taken apart in helping a group they believe in!

By Sahil Maherali, Digital Sapien

This Article originally appeared on digitalmarketingsapiens.com

Why Facebook Is The Perfect Platform For Online Marketing

Over 1.6 billion active users are logging into their personal Facebook accounts every month. Asone of the largest internet-based companies in the world, this social network gives people, businesses and communities the ability to share events, products, and so much more. Never before has it been easier to reach so many people so quickly. This makes Facebook a gold mine for online advertising.

Some may argue that promoting your goods or services online is a waste of time. Those are the people who don’t understand that online marketing is not like creating a single memorable impression (like a billboard), but the creation of an online reputation that engages their customers and multiplies their reach each time a post is shared.

Take a look at the figure below and think about how this traditional marketing funnel applies to one of the newest methods of marketing using Facebook.

In social media marketing, awareness can be anything from creating an online profile to promoting your posts for millions to see.

The consideration stage occurs when a consumer’s friends and family are involved with your brand, product, or service in some way. Alternatively, consideration can also be given through online reviews. (So make sure you have a good online reputation!)

Facebook makes it easier than ever to jump through the intent stage. Whereas businesses previously had to urge consumers to remember to buy their product, customers can simply access the checkout button that allows them to purchase their product then and there.

But online marketing doesn’t stop there. Once a customer is familiar with your brand, they’ll be more than likely to continue their purchases with you. When a consumer conveys their personal image to your brand, they’ll usually take actions to show their loyalty, such as follow your page on social media or engage in an online conversation.

The advocacy stage is the ideal area for businesses to retain their customers. This is when a consumer of your brand enjoys a product so much, they feel the need to share their contentment with others on their personal profile. This is where awareness increases, and the funnel repeats for new customers who can now get familiar with your brand.

Other media outlets may be good mediums for getting your brand recognized, but with today’s mobile capabilities, selling your products on the internet and spreading awareness online will lead to conversations that only take the click of a link and the push of a button. Rather than reminding your potential customers to use your product or service with a commercial, a sponsored post can lead them to your website to conduct the sale in the comfort of their own home.

Billboards, television screens, and newspaper ads are yesterday’s advertising methods. Online marketing is the advertising of today, and Facebook is the platform for doing business in the “now”.

Businesses in San Antonio are steadily integrating their marketing methods on social media sites like Facebook. The San Antonio Spurs, for example, have established a strong social media presence and online reputation, with 6.6 million likes and posts that are published almost every hour.

If you feel like your business is ready to make the transition from traditional marketing to online marketing solutions, contact Digital Marketing Sapiens for assistance in areas like social media, SEO, web design, and online reputation. Visit their page now to view their work and get access to The Social Media Action Plan, an ebook that will help business leaders develop a social media action plan that will make effective use of all channels to deliver measurable results.

By Ramil Rodriguez, Digital Sapien

This Article originally appeared on digitalmarketingsapiens.com

Digital Marketing Jargon: Part 4

In a growing industry such as advertising, businesses are constantly transitioning from traditional marketing (billboards, television commercials, and radio ads) to online marketing (social media marketing, SEO, blogging). But usually the terms are confusing to businesses owners that are unfamiliar with digital marketing. Luckily we’ve compiled a series of web posts that will help you interpret the digital marketing jargon in order to help your business grow and succeed. At the end of this series, you’ll have one page serving as an online dictionary, which will cover all the terms discussed in each post. To continue from our last post, here are a few additional vocabulary words you should get familiar with.

Social Media – any and all online tools, platforms, or networks that allow users to generate and share content, as well as interact with others. These include social networks, blogs, file-hosting sites, etc.

Social Network –  is a type of social media platform that works like a community where users can communicate, follow, and respond to other users. Social networks usually engage in the community within their website, but also have the ability to share with other social networks (Instagram has this feature).

Spam – any message that is deemed as an unwanted or overwhelming commercial offer. These can be direct messages, email messages, social media posts, and other public or private forms of communication. In digital marketing, spam is a strategy that is avoided at all costs because it provides very little results and can give businesses a bad reputation.

Tag – a keyword attached to any content that makes it recognizable to be discovered by others on the internet. These tags help categorize content by subject, and is also commonly referred to as a hashtag in social media.

Time on site – refers to the amount of time that website visitors stay on a landing page or website before exiting. These can be individually tracked or averaged based on the total amount of visitors.

TweetUp – An informal meeting in which Twitter users gather for a designated purpose and then tweet about it before, throughout, and after the event.

Twitter – a social networking site that offers the ability for users to post a “tweet”. Each post is limited to 140 characters and can be replied to, liked, and retweeted. Twitter is a public network that connects users through follows, lists, and the use of hashtags (see “tag”).

URL – a short and more commonly known acronym for Uniform Resource Locator, a URL is a unique address for a website or file that is accessible on the internet.

YouTube – a website dedicated to sharing videos across one of the largest online communities on the internet. This site allows you to upload, view, and comment on videos, as well as subscribing to users or channels to be updated when future videos are uploaded.

If you haven’t already:

Click here to read Digital Marketing Jargon Part 1.

Click here to read Digital Marketing Jargon: Part 2.

Click here to read Digital Marketing Jargon Part 3.

Next week Digital Marketing Sapiens will release its final set of marketing terms that will make it easier for you to get comfortable and confident with the in-and-outs of online marketing. Stay connected with us through Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to be updated with new terminology that will allow your business to dig deeper into the power of digital marketing.

By Ramil Rodriguez, Digital Sapien

This Article originally appeared on digitalmarketingsapiens.com

Digital Marketing Jargon: Part 3

If you’re new to the digital marketing world, or unfamiliar with what online advertising has to offer, you are definitely not the only one. Any business that is not making this transition is either unaware of how effective and inexpensive it is to have an online ad, or is unfamiliar with the concept of digital marketing. Luckily we’ve compiled a series of web posts that will help you interpret the digital marketing jargon that will help your business grow and succeed. At the end of this series, you’ll have one page serving as an online dictionary for you, which will cover all the terms discussed in each post. To continue from last week’s list of jargon, here are a few additional vocabulary words you should get familiar with.

LinkedIn – A more professional version of social media where members can connect with other users, share posts, recruit, and hire users. This social network is very career focused, meaning that each user’s profile is used as a resume in many cases, and shows credibility from past and present experience.

Podcast – Audio or video content that is a form of online broadcasting. Podcasts usually appeal to a specific type of audience that views the content based on the host’s programming (daily, weekly, monthly) and can often subscribe to receive these audio/video files.

Profile – A description of a specified user, usually on a social network, that contains information about the user. This information varies depending on the type of social media and how one decides to utilize their personal page.

Rankings – The placement of a website’s listing on a page of search engine results.

Reach – The total size of the audience that has been reached.

Return On Investment – More commonly known as “ROI”, the return on investment is a percentage of profit from a campaign or digital marketing activity.

Search Engine – A website used to search the Web for specific keywords related to the information being sought. The results depend on the website, but typically show results including websites, images, videos, news, products, or locations on a map.

Search-Engine Marketing – Abbreviated as “SEM”, search-engine marketing is any activity that allows a website to be marketing on a search engine website. Some examples include paid placement within searches, and search engine optimization (see definition).

Search Engine Optimization – More commonly known as “SEO”, search engine optimization is the process of using website analytics with the proper copy, design, and structure to ensure that a website or web page is at the top of search engine results pages.

Every week Digital Marketing Sapiens will release a new set of marketing terms that will make it easier for you to get comfortable and confident with the in-and-outs of online marketing.

If you haven’t already, click here to read Digital Marketing Jargon Part 1.

If you missed last week’s list, click here to read Digital Marketing Jargon: Part 2.

Stay connected with us through Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to be updated with new terminology that will allow your business to dig deeper into the power of digital marketing for your business.

By Ramil Rodriguez, Digital Sapien

This Article originally appeared on digitalmarketingsapiens.com

Digital Marketing Jargon: Part 1

When thinking about how online marketing plays a role in your business, there are two questions to heavily consider:

1. Is it being done properly?
2. Is it making money for your business?

But both questions involve several terms that dig deep into the world of digital marketing and can seem confusing if you aren’t familiar with the terminology. Luckily, we’ve compiled a series of web posts that will help you wrap your head around the digital marketing jargon that will help your business grow and succeed. At the end, you’ll have one page serving as an online dictionary, which will cover all the terms discussed in each post. To start, here are a few vocabulary words you will absolutely need to know!

AdSense – Google Adsense is an advertisement application that allows web pages to enable and select ads to be placed on a website. For companies that are advertising their business, Google Adsense places your advertisements on web pages and charges based on the amount of traffic sent to you. This is called pay-per-click advertising.

AdWords – Google has a program called Adwords that is also a form of pay-per-click advertising. It allows you to advertise your business on search engines. When a user searches for particular keywords, your business appears above the results (See “SEM” for more info).

Affiliate Marketing – A type of marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by their marketing efforts.

Analytics – A report showing the amount of traffic within a website. Information within these analytics depends on the application. Most social networks offer analytics tools which show how many people view a profile and engage with posts. Google also offers an analytics platform which can practically report anything about your website and traffic.

Blog – Short for “Web Log,” this digital journal is a series of entries of publications containing content that ranges from informative, business, and political to how-to, SEO, and personal. The purpose of these blogs is based on the interest of the author(s).

Bounce rate – Also known as “abandonment percentage,” the bounce rate is the percentage of a page’s visitors who enter your website and then exit without visiting another page. Websites usually place a pop-up page within the website containing newsletter offers to encourage visitors to engage with their website.

Brand Ambassador – A person hired by an organization to represent a brand in a way that increases awareness and sales for the business is called a brand ambassador. A brand ambassador often incorporates their lifestyle to the image of the brand.

Cost-per-impression (CPI) – Also known as “cost per thousand impressions” (CPM), CPI is a term used when your web ad is charged based on the amount of people who view it.

Cost-per-engagement (CPE) – CPE is a term used when your web ad is charged based on the amount of people who interact with it.

Conversion Rate – The rate at which visitors view a website and perform the action you desire (filling out a contact form, downloading a whitepaper, etc.).

Every week, Digital Marketing Sapiens will release a new set of marketing terms that will make it easier for you to get comfortable and confident with the in-and-outs of online marketing. Stay connected with us through Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to be updated with new terminology that will allow your business to dig deeper into the power of digital marketing.

By Ramil Rodriguez, Digital Sapien

This Article originally appeared on digitalmarketingsapiens.com

Advertising on Twitter

Twitter currently has 332 million users worldwide. To give you some perspective, the US population is currently 318 million people, 14 million LESS than Twitter! With Twitter having so many users word wide, advertising on twitter is a great way to generate a strong following base and spreading your message!

When helping a client create advertisements, remember that Twitter has a complex base. Clients can select from a list of options on how to reach users who are most likely to become future clients. Some of these include:

 

• Language targetingfocuses on the primary language the user “tweets”
• Gender targetinghelps clients find relevant audiences for gendered products, such as women’s fashion or men’s shaving kits.
• Interest targetingfinds those who have specific interests, like a film, football, or traveling.
• Follower targetingfocuses on those who follow a specific twitter account.
• Device targeting goes after those who use twitter on a specific device. This is useful, for example, for iPad Cases who only wantto target iPad users.
• Behavior targetinguses past actions on social media accounts to target an audience.
• Tailored audiences targetinguses CRM lists to target specific groups of people.
• Keyword targetingtargets those using specific keywords when tweeting, such as “tools” for people who are looking for a new toolkit.
• Geography targetinghones in onthose in a specific geographic location.

Having a presence on twitter is a great way to share small snippets of information! A brief140-character limit forces users to think creatively about how they want to share their message in a form of a headline!

Twitter can also create a variety of campaigns as well. When planning a campaign, make sure you know the different types of campaigns, your end goal, and what resources you have available to use!

1. Website Clicks Campaign: The first type of campaign is called a website click campaign. This campaign focuses on increasing site visits, conversions and sales. With so many people using twitter to follow accounts that interest them, this type of campaign helps bring new leads to your business by effectively showcase your products or services.
2. Building and Audience: The second type of audience is a campaign to build an audience. According to a research statistic by Twitter, 85% of users feel they are more connected to a business after following it on social media. Building an audience is important as its creates a personal bond. Thisis a great way of softly engaging with followers until they need your product or service.
3. Engagements Campaign: This campaign is about creating authentic conversations with those who have similar interest as your company! Displaying content that customers can and want to relate to builds a brand image in which twitter users will want to engage with and read posts!

Although twitter might have a shorter character count and not as many followers on Facebook, Twitter is a great way for users to establish their businesses, create a loyal following, and help continue to grow their business over time!

By Sahil Maherali, Digital Sapien 

This Article originally appeared on digitalmarketingsapiens.com

CreatingAn Effective Marketing Plan

Businesses need a business plan! You have to know where you are going if you plan to get there in any reasonable amount of time. A business plan covers your competitive analysis, design and development plan, marketing plan, operations and management plan, as well as other key variables when operating a business.

A marketing plan is just as important, since it lays out the marketing strategy in your business plan. The marketing plan is your key to obtaining and retaining customers.

A marketing plan will include 8 key contents to create a well-rounded plan:

1. Executive Summary
2. Situational Analysis
3. Opportunities/Issue Analysis
4. Objectives
5. Marketing Strategy
6. Action Plan
7. Financial Forecast
8. Controls

When breaking these components of a marketing plan down, carefully examine your current marketing strategies and review an accurate analysis of your business’s current plans and finances. Make sure you understand what currently works and what needs improvement so the new plan can bridge the gaps.

Executive Summary:Your executive summary is a simple,1-page outline of your current standing, goals, and plan to reach those goals.

Situational Analysis: The situational analysis is a key part of the marketing plan. It first explains the macro environment of the business such as legality, supply chain, sociocultural norms, and economy. The situational analysis then explains the market which the business is within, providing information like the size of the market and segmentation. The situational analysis for the marketing plan analyzes the current situation of consumers such as demographics, participants, nature of buying decisions, and loyalty segments. This helps tie into the internal aspects of the situation like the company resources, objectives, and culture. This will all tie back together to explain the external and internal threats and opportunities which transitions to the next part of the plan.

Opportunities/Issue Analysis: This section highlights the threats internally and externally in the company and marketing plan. It also reviews the market research as well. The market research will explain the information requirements needed to complete the objectives. It also explains the research results from the market to see what types of marketing strategies have worked best.

Objectives:The objectives are also an important part of the marketing plan as they define the mission statement and vision statement. They also go into depth about the corporate objectives, financial objectives, marketing objectives, long term objectives, and the business philosophy. These objectives help set the marketing strategy for the business. After all, you won’t know whether or not your business is succeeding unless you define what success is!

Marketing Strategy:The marketing strategy reflects on the product, market shares, price, promotion, distribution, and other aspects.The product strategy reflects the product mix while themarket shares strategy explains the geographical market and customer segment. The price strategy focuses on price zoning, strategy of pricing, and pricing objectives. The promotion explains the goals, public relations, traditional marketing and digital marketing. Lastly, the distribution marketing focuses on geographical coverage and electronic distribution.

Action Plan: The action plan of a marketing plan explains how the finances and objectives will be set into play with the strategies chosen. It is also used to assign responsibility and create a timeline of actions.

Financial Forecast: This forecast is used to determine the budget for marketing, reviewing the previous budget, and breaking down the cost. The Rate of Investment (ROI) is also key here as it establishes the profitability from the marketing.

Controls: The controls segment highlights the importance of performance reviews and tracking the progress of the marketing plan. It is also key in the controls to establish a way for feedback to be received to help adjust the marketing plan for the next fiscal year. Lastly the controls are a great way to help track your profitability due to marketing.

These 8 steps will help create an organized marketing plan to help a business grow and also track its progress and setbacks.

By Sahil Maherali, Digital Sapien

This Article originally appeared on digitalmarketingsapiens.com

The Importance of Having a Mobile Friendly Website

Is your website is mobile friendly? To answer this question accurately, you must answer these questions:

1. Does your website load in less than four seconds?
2. Is the content easy to read and pictures are clear?
3. Is the content well-formatted and draw attention to key points?
4. Would you spend time on this website if it was not your own website?

If you answered “no” to any of those questions,you need to go back to the drawing board and examine how you can possibly improve your website to be a better experience for users.

But why do you need a mobile friendly website at all?

1. Mobile Users Do Not Wait!

Mobile users are very different than desktop users. They are looking for a quick and easy to read page. The average mobile user will only look at the website for 10 to 20 seconds to find an answer. If they do not find what they are looking for immediately, they leave. Mobile users are recorded to wait less than five seconds for a webpage to open. It is important to have a quick page that is easily organized to prevent them from feeling overwhelmed since they will simply sign off.

2. It’s Easy To Link Pages.

With the average person having accounts on five social media websites, it is very easy to jump from one page to another. A remarkable 51% of Facebook users are on a mobile device. Even more impressively, 83% of Twitter users access the site on their mobile device. Instagram intentionally targets mobile users, which is why about 92% of users are on mobile. These three major social media platforms allow users include a link in their posts. If your mobile website is attached to a post but will not opened fully, you are missing out on a major marketing opportunity. Therefore,keeping a convenient mobile presence is incredibly important.

3. Be Proactive, Not Reactive!

Due to the ease of entry for social media marketing, the competition is high, no matter your industry. You cannot afford to take a “if you build it, they will come” stance with your website! If a competitor’s site is more visible and easier to access, it doesn’t matter how great the quality of your work is, since mobile users will not stick around to find out. You have to invest in a mobile-friendly site BEFORE the lost traffic becomes a serious problem.

Having a mobile friendly website can help lead to engagement and possible sales. Adjusting your website to be proactive is an important step to keep your client based growing and engage more with perspective clients!

By Sahil Maherali, Digital Sapien

This Article originally appeared on digitalmarketingsapiens.com

Twitter for Business: Here’s What You NEED to Know!

Online advertising is now more effective and inexpensive as ever and Twitter has become a go-to platform for meeting business’ goals with these two concepts in mind. But this form of advertising is a two-way street that may seem overwhelming. It involves conversation, community, and knowing how to interact with your customers (and potential ones) in a way that only your business can.

Ultimately, there are three major problems that businesses face when using social networks such as Twitter:

1. They don’t know how to use them
2. They don’t know how to use them effectively, or
3. They don’t have time to learn about or engage with the platforms.

If you’re running into any one of these problems, worry not! Here are a few tips and tricks that will save you time from searching through meaningless answers and unhelpful tutorials.

Create A Twitter Account For Your Business

In order to properly advertise on Twitter, you need to create an account. Simply spreading hashtags around and getting people to tweet about your business is good for events and trends.However, when you’re trying to establish a social presence, an account on the social network is key. Sometimes literally! An account will give you access to Twitter’s advertising page, where you can create cards and promote your tweets.

Identify Your Business Goals

There has to be a purpose behind creating a Twitter page and creating a social presence. Are you looking to gain followers who can become loyal customers? Are you creating a campaign and want to get people talking? Or do you simply want users to be aware of your brand? Having a clear reason for being on Twitter with an end goal in mind will make your results more identifiable. This will save you the trouble of wondering what you’re doing right or wrong and why.

Hire Brand Ambassadors

Having representatives for your brand will get the ball rolling for your online marketing efforts. Having actual users on Twitter to talk about you and spark conversation can lead to powerful ways of being found online. You can find people who are already loyal customers and hire them to express themselves with your brand. You can also have your employees tweet about your new product. Anyone who is more than happy to be an advocate for your brand will create more customers, more advocates, and more loyal customers. The more brand ambassadors you have, the better!

Get Twitter Cards

Twitter users scroll through tweets faster than the swipe of a thumb, so your advertisement has to be eye-catching. Luckily, Twitter has an outstanding way to make your advertisement noticeable using Twitter cards. These are images, gifs, or videos that are embed with a link to your account or landing page. What makes these cards stand out is that they zoom in and out of your image – something that no other form of media on Twitter can do! Because of this, Twitter cards allow your advertisement to stand out and make users do a double-take when scrolling through their timeline.

Now down to the specifics. When creating advertisements in the form of Tweets, it’s important to remember the following:

HARD SELLING WILL NOT WORK

I capitalized this section title because it’s the NUMBER ONE way to start your Twitter advertising in the wrong direction. A call-to-action has to be relayed around your campaign or social network. Simply urging people to buy your product or service and dropping links left and right will not get you the results you’re looking for because 1)people know when they’re being sold to, and 2)there’s already too much of that going on. It’s spam! Unless you have something to offer to make it worth their attention, users will simply keep scrolling.

If you decide to use hard selling anyway, try an approach that offers value 90% of the time, and your call-to-action 10% of the time. This method is called Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, meaning you repeatedly give them whatever you have to offer without a catch, and the amount of reciprocity will bring them in for a right hook to buy.

Be Relevant

Just like Tumblr has a unique audience, Twitter has a userbase that’s all about short and sweet. Describe your campaign or business in 140 characters or less, and apply holidays, new releases, or special events to your tweet to be a part of what’s going on in the present.

Stick To The Trends

Hashtags created on your own are less likely to spark attention than hashtags that have already caught fire. Luckily this social network also has a “Trending Now” section, which allows to you to find out what people are talking about on Twitter. If you can tailor whatever hashtag is being used to your business or campaign, you know how to properly use Twitter. If you can find these trends before they appear, congratulations, you’ve mastered this social network!

Identify Your Market Audience

Follow users that fit your target market, and create a majority of tweets that are designated for that audience. They’ll begin to follow you back and engage with your posts. However, if you’ve caught the attention of another market that’s giving you a lot of attention, keep doing what works and innovate from there. For example, if you’re a custom home builder in San Antonio looking to reach millennials but are finding stay-at-home mothers retweeting most of your content, make a majority of your content relative to mothers and create the transition to engage with their children.

Use The Platform

Don’t just throw content and run! Engage with people who reply to you. Scheduling your posts with a social media management dashboard is an efficient way to get your tweets out in a timely manner, but automating a conversation or reply is a no-no. People appreciate authenticity, so be a face behind your brand as often as possible.

Study your Analytics

Being able to interpret analytics is a powerful way to be effective at Twitter. There is a Twitter page dedicated to showing you how much activity is going on throughout your page. To be able to understand how many views, retweets, and followers your page is getting over a period of time will allow you to see the results of your campaign, event, or advertisement, and adjust your strategy to improve the outcomes of your goal.

Remember: You don’t have to engage in your Twitter campaign alone! Social media marketing companies like Digital Marketing Sapiensprovide solutions designed to achieve your goals. You’re an expert at what you do, but you don’t have to be an expert in internet marketing. That’s what we’re here for. Contact us to see what Digital Marketing Sapienscan do for you.

By Ramil Rodriguez, Digital Sapien

This Article originally appeared on digitalmarketingsapiens.com