From BBS to TikTok: The evolution of social media

Social media’s roots trace back to the 1970s with the advent of early internet communication platforms like bulletin board systems (BBS). The 1990s introduced more interactive forums and early networks like SixDegrees. The early 2000s saw the emergence of Friendster, MySpace, and LinkedIn, setting the stage for Facebook in 2004, which soon dominated the landscape.

The subsequent years gave rise to platforms like Twitter (Now X platform), Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, each offering unique ways for users to connect and share content. As of today, social media has evolved from simple communication tools to multifaceted platforms for networking, business, entertainment, and activism, seamlessly integrating into daily life and shaping global discourse.

What is social media marketing (SMM)?

Social Media Marketing (SMM) is a digital marketing approach that leverages social media platforms to promote products, services, or brands. At its core, SMM involves creating and sharing content tailored to each platform, be it videos, images, text, or ads.

SMM is about harnessing the unique features and audiences of each platform, crafting content that resonates with users. This could involve creating captivating videos for YouTube, designing engaging graphics for Instagram, writing informative posts for LinkedIn, or developing interactive ads for Facebook.

Beyond mere content creation, SMM also encompasses audience engagement, where brands actively communicate with their followers, respond to queries, and foster community growth. With its ability to reach vast audiences and provide real-time feedback, SMM has become an indispensable tool for businesses aiming to expand their digital footprint, build brand loyalty, and drive sales.

Key benefits of SMM

Some of the key benefits of SMM include enhanced brand visibility, direct audience engagement, increased traffic to websites, cost-effective promotional strategies, and invaluable insights into customer behavior and preferences. Let’s dig deeper:

1. Building genuine relationships

One of the standout attributes of social media marketing is its capacity to nurture authentic relationships between a brand and its consumers. With platforms such as Facebook, X platform, TikTok, and Instagram at the forefront, businesses can enter direct dialogues with their audience, personalizing their approach via marketing and strengthening brand identity and loyalty.

2. Interactive Marketing at Its Best

Social media’s unique selling proposition in the marketing arena is the immediacy and interactivity it offers. It provides a real-time channel where brands can promptly respond to feedback, address concerns, and cater to their audience’s ever-evolving needs. This interactive nature ensures that businesses stay agile, resonating with their audience effectively.

3. Crafting and sharing tailored content

The power of SMM is also evident in content customization. By understanding audience behaviors and preferences, businesses can create and disseminate content that not only captures attention but also drives action. Whether it’s a viral video on TikTok or an informative post on Facebook, the right content can amplify a brand’s message exponentially.

4. The TTL advantage

Beyond these benefits, SMM falls under the umbrella of ‘Through The Line’ (TTL) advertising. This method combines traditional above-the-line advertising, like mass media campaigns, with below-the-line tactics that focus on direct response marketing. In essence, SMM provides businesses with a holistic approach to reaching their audience at multiple touchpoints, ensuring a comprehensive and cohesive marketing strategy.

Social media marketing action plan & strategies

Now that you know the history statistics and benefits of SMM, let’s explore how to use the variety of methods and strategies available for social media marketers and watch video tutorials for each strategy.

How To Do Market Research! (5 FAST & EASY Strategies)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nBnUMtaooI

2. Content creation for SMM

At the heart of SMM lies content creation. This involves designing posts, videos, graphics, and stories that are both engaging and relevant to a brand’s target audience. Effective content reflects a brand’s identity, values, and messaging, aiming to provide value, entertain, inform, or inspire. The format and style of content may vary across platforms, but its primary goal remains consistent. Capture attention and encourage interaction.

Thoughtful content distribution:

Content is undeniably the King. However, it’s not just about creating content; it’s about curating and distributing it effectively. Every piece of content shared on your social media channels crafts a part of your business’s narrative and image. Ensuring meticulous curation and distribution becomes pivotal, as it keeps the audience invested, engaged, and hungry for more.

Create engagement and interaction with your content

Engagement is the currency of social media. The more users interact with content – be it through likes, shares, comments, or direct messages – the greater the visibility and reach of that content. Encouraging engagement goes beyond just posting; it’s about creating two-way conversations, responding to comments, and being active in the community.

Watch this great video tutorial by Think Media and learn how content strategy works for SMM.

55 minutes of Social Media Content strategy for entrepreneurs

I recommend @ThinkMediaTV  tutorials for all your social media marketing needs.

Efficient lead generation

Investing resources into social media isn’t just about creating a buzz; it’s about tangible business outcomes. This translates to leads that can potentially convert. Leveragin§g CTAs smartly ensures that the audience is nudged to interact more deeply, whether that’s through sending a direct message, making a call, or engaging with an advertisement.

Learn the ins and outs of Competitor Analysis for social media marketing with this great tutorial by LYFE Marketing

4. Nurturing SMM community engagement

The journey with your customer shouldn’t just culminate at the point of sale. True business value is realized when customers become loyal patrons. The key to fostering this loyalty with SMM is consistent interaction. By being proactive and engaging on social media platforms, brands can forge stronger connections with their audience, ensuring they remain top-of-mind and a preferred choice. Make sure you respond and interact with your users on a daily basis.

To (Almost) conclude our guide please Watch this great video tutorial by @ImanGadzhi and learn all there is to know about social media marketing.

Boost your social media marketing efforts via Email signatures

Promoting your social media presence using your email signature is a subtle yet effective strategy to increase visibility and engagement. Every email you send can become an opportunity to expand your social media audience.

To do this, incorporate clickable icons or links of your social media profiles directly into your email signature. Position them prominently, ensuring they don’t overshadow essential contact information. Additionally, consider adding a brief call-to-action, encouraging recipients to follow or engage with your profiles, such as “Stay updated with our latest posts! Follow us on [Social Media Platform].”

This integration ensures that every professional interaction, query, or correspondence via email also serves as a reminder of your active presence on social platforms, encouraging organic growth and increased reach.

Generate an email signature for free using WiseStamp

Final words 

Social Media Marketing (SMM) is now key for brands who shish make smart marketing

Since people today know more and expect more, companies and brands need to use SMM well. This means keeping up with changes, knowing what their customers like, and learning from feedback.

This way, they can build strong relationships, get real results, and keep up in the dynamic online world. Just like any tool, SMM is best when used by those who know how to use it well.

Valentine’s Day sales and promotion ideas

Excite your customers by offering more than your average bouquet of roses.

1. Themed bundles with existing products 

Fountain created the perfect VDay date night gift box with products that they already sell.

By combining products already offered and adding festive, holiday-themed packaging, you can create a simple and effective Valentine’s Day promotion in a flash. Adding a discounted price to the bundle is a surefire way to get your customer’s attention. 

2. Free or expedited shipping by Valentine’s Day

3.  Create Valentine’s Day gift lists 

E-commerce sites, such as Ulta, make shopping for Valentine’s Day easy by creating a VDay gift section on their site. This is an easy promotion idea that doesn’t specifically require themed products. By simply adding Valentine’s Day-themed colors and content to the suggested gift list, businesses can utilize Valentine’s Day buzz to generate sales.

Valentine’s Day advertising ideas

1. Learn to speak your customers’ love language.

Love in the time of COVID-19

Let’s face it, the pandemic has changed the way people celebrate and many are still choosing to stay at home as much as possible. Focusing on how Valentine’s Day has changed is a way to stay relevant. Hulu’s ad stays away from the traditional and in doing so speaks to a wider audience. 

2. Celebrate self-love

While many businesses use Valentine’s Day as a chance to advertise romantic love, this can be alienating to customers who are single. However, the self-love movement is on the rise and VDay is definitely a chance to celebrate.

Companies like Fred and Far are showing their customers that there are no prerequisites when it comes to treating themselves. Why wait for a marriage proposal to wear a diamond ring when you can buy one for yourself? 

The self-love angle is a way to re-frame everyday shopping and give customers a reason to celebrate themselves. Whether your products are more on the romantic side or unrelated, your customers will appreciate the justification.

3. Real love with real people

Pandora launched a video campaign featuring real people sharing what Valentine’s Day means to them.

This kind of advertising campaign puts focus on the customer rather than the product. A campaign like this one appeals to the consumer’s emotional side. This intimate look into real people creates an authentic sense of connection between the business and its customers. 

Rather than pushing the product, emotional campaigns tug on the customer’s heartstrings which tie a familiar loving feeling to your brand and make people feel connected on a more personal level.

Valentine’s Day social media campaigns

Connection is something that brings us all together, especially on the day of love.

1. Spice things up with social media contests and polls 

Companies often use social media to post holiday-related content. Using social media to launch contests with VDay prizes is an excellent way to increase engagement around these posts. You don’t need to sell flowers or lingerie to participate. Dunkin Donuts featured a VDay trivia contest on their Instagram stories, the winner of which received a secret promo code for a free drink.

2. Valentine’s Day giveaways 

Giveaways on social media are a win-win for both the customer and the business. The user-generated content from these campaigns is free advertisement and people are more likely to trust a product if it is being promoted by someone they know, creating opportunities for new and existing customer engagement.  

Ask your customers to like and share a post of yours, or create a campaign in which they post their own photos and tag your company. The giveaway should include something valuable to the customer, incentivizing participation. Even if your product is not Valentine’s Day themes, you can put a romantic spin on the copy to make it relevant for the holiday.

3. Use hashtags to spread the love

Hashtags are used across all social media platforms to enable users to explore and discover pages that share their interests. Incorporating your product into a VDay-themed post and adding hashtags as Amazon did below, will inspire customers to use your products in new ways for the holiday. This is a great example of a seemingly unromantic product being used in a romantic way. 

Increase engagement by asking your followers to participate in the campaign. You can encourage them to share similar posts and add a common hashtag. This way customers feel like they are part of the conversation while creating user-generated content and increasing exposure to countless potential customers.

Valentine’s Day email marketing ideas

Who doesn’t want to receive a love letter on Valentine’s Day? Making your customers feel valued around VDay can be as simple as sending them an email to let them know they are on your mind.

1. Send a Valentine’s Day reminder

Utilize your email lists to send Valentine’s Day nudge a couple of weeks before the big day. Change up the layout and copy to fit the holiday spirit. This email should include different gift ideas available on your site, removing friction and making gift buying as smooth as possible.

Valentine’s Day emails can be sent out again right before the holiday, urging last-minute shoppers to make their purchases before it is too late. Be sure to change up the format of each email according to how much time is left before the holiday.

On February 14th you can send a final email wishing your customers a happy holiday. A simple message will show customers that you value them and want them to feel special.

2. Test out enticing subject lines

Come up with a few different ideas for subject lines and A/B test them when sending out your Valentine’s Day emails. A good subject line will catch your customers’ eye and get them interested in what you have to offer.

If you are offering any special discounts, it is a good idea to put this information in the subject line. You shouldn’t feel the need to stick to the traditional hearts and roses, funny subject lines will set you apart. 

When sending your Valentine’s Day reminder emails, you should try different subject lines and see which one your customers are most responsive to. This way, when you send follow-up emails you will know which direction to go in.

3. Make your customers feel valued by throwing in a gift

Opening up an email from a brand you love only to find they are offering a gift with your purchase is exciting and incentivizing. If your product is not romance-related, don’t worry! This time you are the one showing your customer love. Limited-time offers around Valentine’s Day will encourage your customers to shop now while the gift is still being offered. 

Benefit got into the loving spirit with their promotional email by throwing in a gift with any $50 order. Customers are more likely to spend at least $50 with the knowledge that they will be getting something in return. 

If you are feeling especially generous, you can give your customers a gift without them having to purchase anything. This could be a limited-time promo code offering a percentage off any purchase. Remember, it’s the little things that matter.

Make Valentine’s Day a heartwarming experience

Material things are temporary but loving memories last a lifetime.

1. Give yourself a sexy makeover

Making a quality product is only one aspect of running a business. Customer experience is equally as important. Creating the right vibe can be all that it takes to upgrade this experience around Valentine’s Day.

White Castle started Valentine’s Day tradition in the 90s of decorating their restaurants and taking special date reservations for the holiday. This seems like a simple idea, but there is a reason it became so popular. Customers were so pleased with these little changes because they allowed them to form memories with the ones they love. 

Whether you have a brick-and-mortar store or an eCommerce platform, creating a memorable experience for your customers can be as simple as a few aesthetic changes. You don’t need to be face to face to create an interactive experience for your customers. There are numerous ways to tweak your site and make it memorable for your customers.

2. Create bonding experiences for your customers

People often prefer to experience something with the ones they love, rather than giving material gifts. Even if your company does not usually fit into the ‘experiences’ category, offering a limited-time holiday activity allows your customers to build fond memories around your brand. 

Collaborating with a like-minded company could be a good way to join forces to make this possible, like Williams Sonoma and Bake From Scratch did here. Collaborations also increase exposure and allow for customer crossover between you and whoever you partner with.

3. Valentine’s Day emails with a twist

When sending out your Valentine’s Day emails, consider including something that will add a little extra oomph. Allowing your customers to go from passive readers to active participants adds a fun activity element to your emails. Customers are more likely to engage with content that asks them to engage!

One example is an email Frank Body sent out which included the option to send a love letter to anyone for free. Another idea could be sending a Valentine’s template that customers can print out and color in with their children.

Get experimental this Valentine’s Day

Not everyone loves Valentine’s Day, try something new to appeal to this audience.

1. Take the humorous route

Valentine’s Day advertisements can feel a little intense, especially if you’re not a hopeless romantic. While there is no harm in taking the traditional route, funny and sarcastic ads shake things up and set you apart from all the pink text and hearts. 

Here, Twitter implemented user-generated content for their Valentine’s Day ads. This is a wonderful use of user-generated content and is more effective than if they had posted lovey-dovey tweets. Remember that not everyone is lucky in love and sometimes customers need a good laugh to get in the holiday spirit.

Twitter not only uses online advertisements but physical ads as well. If you can afford to do so, advertising on and offline is something to consider.

2. Appeal to the pet lovers

Today, buying Valentine’s Day gifts for pets is a billion-dollar market. Some people have even reported buying VDay gifts for their pets and not their partners. There is no mistaking the fact that people love their pets so why not celebrate them on this day of love? 

You don’t need to sell dog treats to tap into this market. Collaborating with a pet-friendly brand like Ampersand Design Studio and The Foggy Dog did here is one way to cater to the canine crowd. Once again, collaborations can be an excellent opportunity for cross-exposure between brands.

If you’re not looking to collab, there are still ways you can reach pet lovers this Valentine’s Day. Adding a pet-friendly gift to purchases or simply recognizing pet-owner love as significant in your marketing emails is another way to appeal to this crowd.

3. Embrace the haters

If you’re single and especially newly single, the holiday of love may rub you the wrong way. Everyone knows that misery loves company and companies like Burger King were there to commiserate on VDay 2020. The lonely hearts deserve to celebrate Valentine’s Day too.

If your product has nothing to do with Valentine’s Day, this is a great angle to push. Social media is how Burger King chose to advertise, but you can encourage single people to celebrate themselves on this day in numerous ways. If you put together Valentine’s Day bundles for couples for the holiday, consider also making bundles for self-love or care packages for the broken-hearted. 

Spice up your merch for Valentine’s Day

Excite your customers this Valentine’s Day with exclusive holiday merchandise.

1. New Valentine’s Day collections

Creating a special Valentine’s Day-themed collection will grab the attention of your customers and attract new customers looking for themed holiday gifts. If the collection is offered for a limited time, customers will want to make purchases before they lose their chance. 

MeUndies designed matching underwear sets along with a significant discount. While underwear is a common VDay gift, many brands that are not typically considered romantic use this holiday to keep their customers interested by offering something new and unique. 

Valentine’s Day falls on a time of year after the lull of the winter holidays and the new year. People have had a chance to recover from the whirlwind of gift shopping and will be excited to see new products being put out. 

2. Try something new for VDay

While creating a themed collection with your existing products is one idea, adding something new to your repertoire this holiday season is another way to entice your customers. You don’t have to break the bank to make this happen either.

KFC was designed to scratch and sniff Valentine’s to promote their shared chicken meal. This is a cute and simple way to use the holiday as an opportunity to advertise their product, which does not have much to do with romance or love. No matter what you sell, you can share the love with customers by adding something holiday-related. It’s the little things that count.

3. Change up your packaging

If you already sell something Valentine’s Day-related or don’t want to release any new products, especially for the holiday, Valentine’s Day-themed packaging is an eye-catching way to make your customers feel the love. Many businesses change their packaging according to the holidays, which alone is an effective promotion tactic even without additional gifts or special collections.

 Smith & Sinclair’s Valentine’s Day boxes take their chocolates from lust to love.

Send love to those who need it most

Charitable contributions let your customers know that you care.

1. Send proceeds to charity

A Valentine’s Day promotion focused on those in need will motivate consumers to choose your product and feel good about their holiday purchases. People prefer to support businesses that are sustainable and socially aware. Instead of pushing products, Valentine’s Day can be a chance to show your customers that you care about taking care of those who are in need. 

A Valentine’s Day promotion in which your company donates part of the proceeds will mark your business as one with customers proud of the fact that they purchase from you. If you can afford to do so, this is a wonderful way to give back on this holiday of love and make a good impression on your customers

Valentine’s Day is a chance to celebrate existing connections and create new ones. No matter the product you offer, you have countless options to jump on the love boat this holiday season. 

Whether your customers are shopping for themselves or the ones they love, these 21 ideas are sure to ignite a spark and get them to love you even more than they already do.  

Benefits of self branding on social media

1. Build new connections and networks. 
2. Attract new clients, customers, and partners. 
3. Discover speaking opportunities.
4. Boost your credibility and authority.
5. Earn recognition and trust. Establish an association with your niche. 
6. Increase your perceived value as a business person and thought leader.

Still not convinced? We go deeper into the benefits of self branding on social media near the end of this article.

16 things you have to do to create a successful lifelong personal brand on social media

If you’re trying to boost your personal brand on social media or looking for different self-branding strategies, we have 15 techniques that you can use to help you strengthen your personal brand on social media. So, let’s go!

1. Dig deep to determine your brand persona

Here’s a great example: Laura Roeder, now the founder of two successful SaaS startups, makes it clear that her expertise is in teaching others to use social media in marketing.

If you’re not sure where your expertise lie, try to think about those times when people ask you for advice; what do they ask? If they need help, help in what? What are you known for? What do you know or do better than most people?

Narrow your list down to 1-3 areas of expertise, and then search them as keywords on social media channels to measure the kind of volume and interest around them. (If no one else cares about goat yoga, you won’t get very far.)

Personal branding social media on Twitter you can search as a hashtag and use advanced search to filter by language, location, or audience. You can also use a tool like RiteTag to see how different hashtags rank on social media or enter your keywords into BuzzSumo to see which content on your niche is popular on which channels.

2. Speak your audience in their voice (but be a leader)

The next step is to think about who you’re targeting. Ask yourself what kind of language they use, what is most important to them, and how they feel about certain key issues. This will help you find the right kind of material, tone, and topics to connect with them. 

Just make sure that you’re not simply mirroring your audience, or it will come out fake. Mirroring your audience can go horribly wrong. It can turn people’s love into ridicule. So find a way to bring value where your audience wants it. Be a leader.

For example, Ash Ambirge knows her audience and speaks its language. She doesn’t try to appeal to everybody. While she will alienate some, those who will shy away from her images and language aren’t her target audience. 

3. Invest your time in specific channels (ditch the rest)

If you try to be on all the leading platforms, you’ll wear yourself out in a day, so be selective. The most important rule is to follow your audience (another reason why you need to know who they are). 

Things to think about when choosing which social platform to invest your time in:

• Facebook is one of the broadest social media channels and a great personal branding staple, but Gen Z tends to think it’s old school. If you’re aiming at millennials, this is not your channel.
• LinkedIn is the place for building authority. The Publisher area is ideal for thought leadership pieces, and you can gather endorsements that boost your brand. 
• Instagram is your home if you’re in a visual niche (think photography/art/food/design) or love to play around with filters and images. It’s also excellent for real estate agent branding.
• Reddit is for programmers, fantasy lovers, and proud geeks, but the sub-reddits are more targeted than you might think. 
• Twitter is another very broad platform, ideal for up-to-the-minute updates (think news channels.)
• Pinterest is the home for anyone into crafts and DIY, but it’s also a good option for marketers, life coaches, and real estate agent branding.

TikTok isn’t just for “the younguns” anymore, and a good video can go viral faster here than on any other channel.

Don’t be afraid to step out of the box. For example, Patrick McGeehan is a lawyer who uses TikTok for his personal brand of honest, straight-shooting legal advice, and he’s gathered almost 41,000 followers. 

4. Decide between page & profile

If you’re using Facebook, you’ll have to choose whether to run a Facebook Page, or a Facebook Profile. A Page has more authority, includes useful analytics, and allows you to run ads and post business content. But a Profile is more personal, warm and friendly. It’s easier to follow a Profile account, plus Profiles have greater organic reach, and you can’t join a group with a Page account. 

It’s usually best to start with a Profile account to build a community and gather connections, and then add a Page when you’ve got a large enough base. But the choice is yours. 

5. Complete your social media profiles (or you’ll scare people off)

Fill in all the information for each of your social media accounts. People check your bio/profile to verify your identity, and if you’ve only partially completed it, you’ll harm your authenticity and discourage people from trusting you. 

Include your real full name and good quality photo that shows your face clearly, not an arty shot of you standing in a misty field of sunflowers. If you have a personal brand logo, use that too. 

Take a tip from Vanessa Lau, whose LinkedIn profile includes a full statement about herself, the reasons why you should trust her, and links to all her channels. 

It’s a good idea to use the same username, or known variations of it, for all your social media profiles to help create a single social media personality. Knowem is a useful tool for checking which names are available on which social networks.

6. Invest time in coming up with an appealing “headline”

Your “headline” is a statement that summarizes your personal brand. On some channels, like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, you can include it in your banner image, as Amy Cuddy does here. 

You can expand it in your Twitter and Instagram bio and even more in your Facebook About or LinkedIn profile section. 

Some people like a “keyword headline” like Amy, which lists your main achievements, interests, or areas of expertise. Others prefer a “power statement headline” that expresses your vision and ideas as Eric Bandholz uses below.

7. Be consistent

Deliver a consistent look and experience across all your profiles. Authenticity is most important when it comes to choosing who to trust on social media, and if your profiles, language, or style aren’t consistent, it undermines your authenticity.

Use the same profile and cover photos

That means using the same profile and cover photos, personal brand logo, and theme colors for each account. On Instagram, you might use the same filter for all your images, or post the same style of an image on Pinterest.

Maintain a consistent voice

You also need to hit on a single consistent “voice.” Of course, you should be yourself, but you might want to keep your wacky sense of humor for your private accounts and be a bit more serious about your personal brand. 

For example, inspirational speaker and consultant Lolly Daskal has a consistent life coach branding voice on every channel. 

Be consistent with your post types

You should also try to stick to the same kind of posts, like text posts, videos, inspirational quotes, candid photos, long thought leadership pieces, etc. People will learn what to expect from you, and they’ll be disappointed if you don’t deliver. Marie Forleo’s life coach branding is very visual on social media, even on Twitter, with lots of inspirational quotes and videos. 

It’s ok to mix it up from time to time with something different, but your dominant style must be clear.

8. Import your contacts

When you’ve finished establishing your social media profiles and accounts, import all your existing contacts and connect with them on each channel. LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter all allow you to import up to a maximum number of contacts for free from your Gmail or Outlook email accounts.

9. Connect your channels so people can easily find you

Since most people are active on more than one network, share information about your other accounts on each channel. Include your Twitter handle in your Facebook profile, your Instagram page on your LinkedIn profile, and your YouTube channel in your Instagram bio, so that people will know how to find your content on every platform. 

Designer Charli Marie has links to her YouTube channel and podcast home on her Twitter bio, and ALL her social media links are easy to access on her personal website homepage.

10. Commit to your posting schedule

Your followers get used to new material on certain days or at certain times, so make yourself a posting schedule — and stick to it. Schedules also make life easier for you, so you don’t find yourself suddenly panicking that it’s been 3 weeks since you last wrote an update. 

Different channels have slightly different posting rhythms, so you’ll need to adjust your tempo according to the network. Here’s one suggestion for the best posting frequencies:

• Facebook – Twice a day
• Twitter – 5 times/day
• LinkedIn – 1 time/day
• Pinterest – 5 times/day
• Instagram – 1-2 times/day

You also want to post when your audience is online and available. You can follow advice for the best time to post to each platform, like posting between 11 am and 3 pm on Instagram, but it’s better to run your own experiments and see for yourself which times and days are best.

11. Automate posting to free up time for creative thinking

You can save time and make it easier to be consistent by using social media management tools like Buffer, Hootsuite, or Sprout Social to automate your personal branding strategy. This way, you can compose a whole week’s worth of content in one sitting, and then schedule your posts for the optimal timing on each channel.

12. Produce original content that re-enforces your personal brand

At the end of the day, your personal branding depends on the content you post. Share your own original thoughts, opinions, and experiences, and write long-form posts from time to time so you can explore issues and answer questions more deeply. 

You want to build a brand that people can relate to, but you’ll never do that if you sit on the fence. 86% of consumers say they want business leaders to speak up more about important current issues, so don’t shy away from sharing your stance on BLM, climate change, or vaccines. Just make sure you’re also courteous to people who don’t share your position. 

Do give people a glimpse into your personal life, like your travel, hobbies, or pets, but don’t overshare. People will unfollow you if you flood their feeds with too many social updates. Most of all, don’t overdo the selfies (unless that’s part of your personal brand)!

You can and should share other people’s content, but even so, it’s best to add your own introduction. Include a few words to tell your followers what made it catch your attention or touch your heart. It adds value for your followers, plus it helps them associate you with the other person’s useful content

Look at Greta Thunberg, a lifelong environmental activist that is not only creating original content that is meaningful but she is also not afraid to speak up about the current world crises. She is challenging the world and using social media to get her voice across.

13. Never stop engaging your audience 

Personal branding on social media is like forging relationships with multiple people at speed, and you can’t expect to build a relationship if you’re the only one doing the talking. Reply to comments, answer questions, and even respond to criticism on your accounts (but keep it respectful).

It’s also a good idea to ask your audience questions too, like what they want to see from you and listen to their replies. 

Gary Vaynerchuk has literally millions of followers, but he still replies to comments on his tweets whenever he can. One blogger tested Gary by DM-ing him on Instagram and got a response in 10 minutes. 

You can set up email or SMS notifications for most channels, to let you know when someone tags you, or use social media listening tools like Mention so that you can respond promptly. Ideally, you should reply to every message or tag within 24 hours. 

14. Actively make connections to build your network

As well as posting content, you should also actively make connections. If you invite someone to connect with you, make it a personal message. If someone follows you on a social media channel, follow them back (it’s polite), but also go follow them on a different channel too, to get their cross channel to follow. 

It can be worthwhile to connect with influencers, but only those that are in your field or connected to your brand in some way. Following 20 influencers just because they’re popular is transparent and makes you look needy. Instead, be like Jenny Blake, who uses her personal branding to elevate other entrepreneurs. It’s authentic, it builds a relationship, and it makes her more relatable, but it also boosts her following.

15. Get active in groups to establish a name for yourself

Facebook Groups are the best places to share your expertise and establish a name for yourself as a trustworthy voice because that’s where people go to look for help and advice. 

Facebook Groups can be used for business marketing as well. If you establish yourself as an authority in these groups, you better position yourself to sell your consultancy, service, or product, once you get a business offer up and running.

Search for groups related to your field and look for threads where you can contribute something valuable to the conversation. Avoid anything sales like the plague!

Once you’ve built traction for your personal brand, you can open a private group to nurture your loyal community. For example, Vanessa Lau has a private Facebook group where she helps people with their social media marketing questions. 

16. Analyze your efforts

You won’t know which content types are the most popular, which connections are most valuable, or which days of the week are best to post on if you don’t use analytics tools. Most social media automation tools include built-in analytics, so schedule a regular time to check your metrics and make adjustments.

What’s next for your personal branding strategy

As you succeed in your personal branding on social media, you’ll find that other opportunities start to appear for other personal branding verticals, like invitations to write a guest blog, speak at a conference, or take part in a podcast. 

Although it’s tempting to accept everything, make sure to stick to your personal branding strategy. Only speak on topics that are within your area of expertise, and choose personal branding verticals that match your brand. 

Personal branding can transform your business

When you succeed with personal branding on social media and other personal branding verticals, you’ll open up a whole new world of opportunities to attract customers, forge partnerships, and grow your business in the right direction. 

The benefits of personal branding on social media

1. Build new connections and networks. Today’s relationships blur the boundaries between online and offline worlds, especially within the “COVID year” when everyone was working from home (with very few boundaries) so the better your online profile, the stronger your offline one will be, too. 
2. Attract new clients, customers, and partners. People want to do business with other people – those they know and trust – not faceless companies or organizations. Maintain your personal brand at all times – on your personal social media feeds, at networking events, at the grocery store, even when you’re playing golf with friends.
3. Discover speaking opportunities. Personal branding on social media is a stepping stone to other personal branding verticals, where people want leaders who are well-known in their niche. 
4. Boost your credibility and authority. A strong personal brand encourages people to view you as an expert in your field.
5. Earn recognition and trust. People trust individuals far more than businesses, so when you’re well known as an individual, it will increase the trust they feel toward your business.
6. Establish an association with your niche. When you get personal branding right on social media, you’ll ensure that people think of you as soon as they think of your vertical.
7. Increase your perceived value as a business person and thought leader. Strong personal brands command a lot of attention, so people will be eager to connect with you to tap into your crowd. 

What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing is a broad field that promotes products or services on a web-based channel (‘digital’) as opposed to conventional billboard, TV, and radio-based marketing. Digital marketing includes email, social media, display advertising, search engine optimization, Google AdWords, affiliate marketing, influencer marketing, and more.

Digital marketing is also absolutely packed with tools and services to choose from to get different jobs done. And doing marketing in the digital sphere also requires a lot of supporting professionals, like designers, software developers, and analysts.

Why am I telling you all this? I’m telling you this so you know that it’s a good thing you’re dipping your toes into the digital marketing ocean now because the sooner you start the sooner you close the gap. This guide is your lift-off ramp, from here you can start your digital journey and get to growing your business.

The problem is that digital marketing is an immense undertaking. It’s made out of a few major marketing channels, that are split into dozens of smaller marketing avenues, each requiring specific knowledge and needing its own skillset.

In this article we’ll provide a basic overview of the following digital marketing channels:

1. Search engine optimization (SEO) – this basically mean making a good website
2. Social media marketing
3. Pay-per-click (PPC)
4. Content marketing
5. Affiliate marketing
6. Marketing automation
7. Email marketing
8. Email signature marketing
9. Listing Services

For most small business if you’re not online you don’t exist

As a small business owner, you can’t avoid the terms “digital marketing” and “online marketing”. But what exactly does it mean and why is it important for your business?

In the most basic terms, digital marketing refers to any activity or strategy that you use to market your business—product or service—online. And bear in mind that “online” includes on a desktop, laptop, tablet, smartphone, or any other mobile device you can think of! 

You can dive deep into the world of digital marketing, and because it relates to the digital world, it keeps evolving. New tools and strategies for digital marketing are constantly being developed.

But don’t let that overwhelm you. As a small business owner, you simply need to understand the basics of digital marketing so that you can pick and choose the activities that work best for your business.

And, no, digital marketing is not just for online businesses and e-commerce. Even if you have a physical business, like a store or yoga studio, you still need to understand and utilize basic digital marketing activities in order to reach customers. Why? Because consumers are spending more and more time online. 

According to a recent Pew Research study, about 25 percent of American adults report that they are “constantly” online and 75 percent of American adults go online at least once a day. Sounds like a lot, right? Well, you can expect it to continue trending upwards. Approximately 75 percent of consumers research a business online before making a purchase. 

That means your business needs to be online, actively digitally marketing to consumers so you can find them even before they find you.

Main objectives of digital marketing?

The main goal of digital marketing is to attract more people to either visit your website or to purchase an item. Customized digital marketing objectives can be any of the following:

• Creating a Brand Awarenesses
• Promote your brand/products/service
• Gain more audience
• Add value and Gain trust
• develop a solid relationship with your following

The end goal is essential when creating a digital marketing strategy. If you successfully determine the type of audience and the most useful medium, you have done half of the work already.

Digital marketing is an immense field. It is subdivided into many categories, one of which is social media marketing itself. Business storytelling marketing includes 4 exceptional examples of brands that succeeded in digital marketing.

Main objectives of digital marketing?

The main goal of digital marketing is to attract more people to either visit your website or to purchase an item. Customized digital marketing objectives can be any of the following:

• Creating a Brand Awarenesses
• Promote your brand/products/service
• Gain more audience
• Add value and Gain trust
• develop a solid relationship with your following

The end goal is essential when creating a digital marketing strategy. If you successfully determine the type of audience and the most useful medium, you have done half of the work already.

Digital marketing is an immense field. It is subdivided into many categories, one of which is social media marketing itself. Business storytelling marketing includes 4 exceptional examples of brands that succeeded in digital marketing.

2. Pay per click (PPC)

PPC stands for Pay Per Click. It refers to paid growth, or simply paying money to show ads on different platforms such as Google, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, and more, in order to drive traffic to your website.

It is mostly used for search engines. The person has a pay a small fee for every visitor that clicks on a particular ad. 

These ads can be inside a website or in search engines. It is not free and can cost you a lot of money without any gain if not done correctly. It would be best if you did comprehensive research and planned to use this channel of digital marketing. It is profitable only if it is done correctly.

There are several ways to invest in paid growth such as placing ads on Facebook and Instagram (or sponsored content), placing ads on Google, or bidding on keywords. You can control these ads to display only to a specific audience and also put a cap on how much you want to invest.

PPC can produce a high ROI if you write an effective ad and run the numbers correctly. But it does involve deeper research in order to start seeing strong results.

3. Social media marketing

Social media marketing is a subset of digital marketing. The amazing thing about social media marketing is that it has millions of users who you can target based on their demographics and interests. Let’s take two of the most popular social media platforms: Facebook and Instagram.

If your business has a Facebook Page or an Instagram Business Profile, then these are your social media assets! They are super easy and free to create and have the potential to reach hundreds, thousands, and even hundreds of thousands of people on social media depending on your social media strategy. 

How you market your social media assets?

When it comes to social media strategy, you have two approaches: organic growth and paid growth. As the name implies.

Organic growth means that you reach your audience organically by sharing content on your profile and engaging with other profiles.

Paid growth means that you buy ads on the platforms (Facebook and Instagram) to drive traffic to wherever you want. You can send people to your Facebook Page or your website, for example.

Both strategies are effective when done right, but there’s a lot to learn that we won’t cover in this article. For now, just know that it’s very useful to set up your social media assets (a Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and/or LinkedIn account) and to share relevant content to them multiple times a week. 

4. Content marketing

Content marketing is the use of articles, blogs, guides, etc., for our advantage. There are millions of people searching for millions of different things online. You can create a blog or article on a particular topic, and every time a person visits it, you will get paid. 

Content marketing also needs SEO for it to work entirely. Combining the perfect content with perfect SEO, you can make your website a fortune for yourself.

5 . Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is the promotion of the products and services of any other website or seller. As you might have heard the Amazon’s affiliate program, that is famous in this industry. 

You can promote someone else’s products and services, and in return, you will get a significant commission determined by the seller for every sale made from your link. Today people are using it to earn a lot of money. 

6. Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is a partnership between companies and social media personalities with enough followers to be considered an influence on a certain target audience. The partnership format usually takes the form of payment by the company to the influencer in return for promoting or referencing their brand on their respective social media channel/s.

Depending on the number of followers and their characteristics, an influencer can be paid anything from a few dollars to millions of dollars. For influencers just starting off, even a free product tryout could suffice.

The right words, at the right time, from the right person can be the most powerful motivator for some consumers, which makes influencer marketing a high ROI digital marketing channel in the right hands.

7 . Marketing automation

Marketing automation is software that allows you to handle different social media platforms from a single place. You can manage your email marketing automation, chatbot, pop-ups, and sales outreach from the same platform.

You can use it to speed up your work. It will help ease up the burden, and you can easily find everything you want in a single place.

8. Email marketing

Email marketing is a channel that allows you to reach your customers and audience via email. Although email is one of the oldest of all digital marketing strategies, it is the most effective when it comes to ROI (return on investment) – meaning that for each dollar you invest into it, it returns more than every other channel.

There are many advantages to email marketing. For starters, it is a direct line of communication between you and your customers. You send an email, and it reaches your customers directly into their Inbox. 

There are also many different approaches you can take when it comes to the content of your email marketing, which can be organized into “campaigns.”

What are email marketing campaigns?

An email marketing campaign is a goal-oriented email you send to your email subscribers. For example, you can have an email campaign about a seasonal sale or a new release of products or services. A campaign is focused on a specific announcement with the intention to have your customers take a particular action in response. 

And, NO, you do not need to be a graphic designer or email expert to send successful email marketing campaigns that your customers actually open and click through. There are a number of easy-to-use tools to help you design professional-looking email campaigns and also automate them to send when you want. 

The most popular and user-friendly email marketing tools are:

• MailChimp – One of the most popular and robust email marketing platforms. Offers different pricing plans for various business needs.
• vCita — A small business management tool that includes an easy-to-use email marketing tool. Easily design email campaigns based on professional templates and automate them to send when you want!
• TinyLetter — TinyLetter is great for beginners and was designed by MailChimp. Best of all, it’s completely free to use. 
  

9. Email signature marketing

We are a culture of email senders: Roughly 111.1 billion consumer emails are sent and received each day. If you want to make the most of your email marketing, then you have to use an email signature.

The beauty of email signature marketing is that it can be used to generate interest in what you offer even when the content of your email is not about trying to sell anything.

Every email you send will passively expose your reader to your basic business offer. You never know if the person reading your mail is looking for what you offer and is primed for buying. With a well-thought-out email signature marketing setup, every email becomes an opportunity to generate leads.

For example, let’s say you’re having an email conversation with a customer about a customer service issue. The customer has requested to change the shipping address of an order they just placed. This is not the time to start marketing an upcoming sale or new product as you handle the customer service request. But, your email signature can do the marketing for you.

All you have to do is use set up a clickable, dynamic email signature, which instantly becomes a marketing tool! A dynamic email signature, like WiseStamp, allows you to add promotional banners, photos, and other media to your email signature that enables it to act like a piece of marketing within each email you send, no matter the content of the email.

It’s a clever, non-intrusive way of promoting your product or service within your emails even when they are not focused on marketing. 

10. Online listings

Before you can even start driving traffic to your website with SEO or PPC, you first need to make sure your website is listed on search engines and local listing sites like Yellow Pages.

Listing your website is a really simple yet critical piece of your digital marketing strategy; it allows your business to get discovered online when people conduct online searches.

Luckily, it’s super easy to list your business online, and you technically don’t even need a website to get listed (you can list only your store address and hours, for example, in local listings). You can use an online listings tool to list your business on the top-ranking search engines and directories.

The process is super quick and easy, and you only need to do it once! You only make changes to your listings if you’ve updated your business information such as the website address, physical address, phone number, or hours of operation. 

4 Most common and deadly digital marketing mistakes (you are probably making)

An effective marketing strategy should include a balance of various activities that engage users throughout different points of the user journey. But, oftentimes, businesses make small, seemingly harmless mistakes that focus too much on activity A and not enough on B. How do you know which to prioritize? How do you decide which deserves more resources?

As a best practice, there are certain marketing efforts that should take precedence over others. So, don’t get thrown off balance: Here’s a list of common, seemingly harmless marketing mistakes that you need to avoid.

Mistake #1: Focusing just on traffic

Ask the average small business owner what they plan to do to increase revenue from their online business, and they are likely to answer that they’ll increase their traffic. The idea is that you double your revenue if you double your traffic. While true, that’s a very slow and expensive approach.

A much faster and more cost-effective approach is to increase conversions. Data from Eisenberg shows that for every $92 business spend to drive traffic, they spend a measly $1 on conversions. This explains why most businesses have abysmal conversion rates.

Just imagine how much of an impact it can make on your bottom line if you can double your conversions simply by tweaking parts of your website – you don’t have to spend extra, you don’t have to increase your traffic and the impact is much longer than some one-off traffic you will get if you pay for ads.

So if you believe that focusing on increasing traffic is the solution to increasing revenue, you’re going the more expensive route. Instead, focus on conversions and watch your revenue double without you necessarily increasing your traffic.

Mistake #2: Ignoring your website speed

An often-ignored, seemingly harmless mistake that can significantly cripple your marketing efforts is having a slow website. Many people give tactics like social media, increasing traffic, etc, priority over having a faster website — which is just plain wrong. This is backed by research:

• Slow websites cost the U.S. economy over $500 billion annually.
• 51 percent of shoppers will abandon a purchase due to slow site loading times.
• A one-second delay in site load times can lower conversions by 7 percent.
• In an experiment involving 33 major retailers, increasing site speed from 8 seconds to 2 seconds boosted conversions by 74 percent.
• Google uses site load time as one of its ranking factors — giving faster sites a preference over slower sites.

The above interesting facts show just how important having a fast website is. Scientists have found that we are now more impatient than ever; in fact, a study conducted by Microsoft revealed that our attention spans have declined from 12 seconds in the year 2000 to eight seconds now — that makes the average human attention span shorter than that of a goldfish (at nine seconds).

Some suggestions for improving your site speed:

• Get a fast host. If you’re using a crappy host, none of the other suggestions will make much of a difference. I created a resource to help with this, and it focuses on speed and uptime — the two most important factors when using a web host.
• Use caching. This is especially important if your website is usually served to a lot of people. The more people trying to access your server all at once, the more server resources is expended. This is solved when you use caching, however.
• Get rid of the unnecessaries. Unnecessary plugins, addons and images, while they might make your website look more fancy can tamper with its efficiency and as a result negatively impact your conversions.

Mistake #3: Not leveraging the familiarity principle or rule of Seven

In marketing, there is a rule called the “rule of seven.” In essence, this rule states that most people need to see your offer at least seven times before they really take you upon it.

If you think you can just tell people about your offer once and that’ll do it, because you don’t want to “bug” them, you’re making a critical mistake.

More than ever before, we’re overloaded with more ads and marketing messages, our attention spans are getting shorter and we have more responsibilities than at any point in history. In essence, we’re just too busy; so sometimes, if we want something we need to be reminded many times about it.

So how can you create multiple touchpoints? Start a blog, podcast, video channel, put your offer in your email signature, get on social media—use as many channels and apps as possible to further the reach of your message so potential customers engage with it multiple times.

Mistake #4: Not having a mobile strategy

When you create your marketing strategy, it is important not to underestimate the importance of a mobile strategy. In fact, mobile is just too important to be ignored, and smart businesses create a separate mobile strategy due to how important it is. Here are some facts:

• There are currently more mobile-only web users than desktop-only web users
• About two-thirds of emails are being read on mobile devices
• 80 percent of people delete an email, and 30 percent unsubscribe, when emails they receive from a brand is not mobile friendly.
• Google now uses how well-optimized a site is for mobile devices as a major ranking factor.

When you consider the above facts, it becomes instantly clear how harmful not having a mobile strategy can be to your business.

The Takeaway

In the era of increasing social networks use, social media marketing can be a huge game-changer. This industry is still evolving, so learning all about it in time can be very beneficial.

When it comes to marketing, there is no “one size fits all” strategy. Your marketing efforts should address the specific goals and vision of your business.

With that taken into account, the above mistakes are generally ones to avoid no matter your industry or growth stage. Now that you’re aware of them, make sure to adjust your current marketing activities accordingly.

It’s true that new tools and strategies keep developing as the Internet becomes more and more sophisticated. But there is no need to become a digital marketing expert. You simply need to understand the basic tools and strategies we’ve listed above in order to take control of your own digital marketing activities.

What is a good number of followers on LinkedIn social media?

How to increase followers on your LinkedIn company page

The top 3 most followed company profiles on LinkedIn

All of the tips above will help turn your LinkedIn company page into a very active and popular one. These are used by the most followed company pages on LinkedIn today.

Here are the most popular pages as of April this year:

• Google – 17.724 million followers
• TED Conferences – 17.693 million followers
• Amazon – 15.048 million followers

You may want to take some points for how to increase followers on your LinkedIn company page by seeing what these companies are doing successfully.

What Google is doing

Google is on top of its optimization game when it comes to its LinkedIn company page. You will notice that they have an eye-catching cover photo that expresses many of the areas the company is involved in these days.

Their company description is short and to the point, being only a single paragraph in length. Their location mentioned is their headquarters in Mountain View, CA.

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is when people who have large social media followings promote products and services for businesses in exchange for valuable equity (usually money). Digital Influencer marketing is considered to have high ROI due to the fact it creates similar motivation to purchase as traditional word-of-mouth from an acquaintance.

The influencer’s popularity and authority coupled with the fact it appears as if they had personal experience with the product or service makes people more open to buying.

A social influencer can be someone who is a person, group, or brand with some major pull when it comes to persuading others to take action in some way. Celebrities are usually thought of first when the term ‘social influencer’ is used. However, there are many types of digital influencers.

A good number of them turn it into a full-time job. They make a living off of promoting the products and services of other businesses. Social media isn’t the only domain of digital influencer marketing. A comprehensive influencer marketing strategy should also be aware of full-time bloggers as being key influencers.

These individuals are looked at as being genuine and garnering loyal followings. When a blogger is recommending something, they appear trustworthy because they are speaking as if they had personal experience with the product or service.

Using a social influencer marketing strategy can help your business bypass the cynicism and skepticism that many have today. People have been exposed to a great deal of traditional advertising that simply doesn’t work that effectively anymore.

That’s why adapting to the times is vital if you want to stretch your advertising dollars and make it worth it. The influencer marketing industry reached an astonishing $10 billion in 2020. A growing number of small businesses and entrepreneurs are seeing the value in using digital influencers to market and increase their brand awareness, generate leads, and get more sales.

Impact of social media influencer marketing

social influencer campaigns have been making quite an impact on the sales of small businesses. Here are some quick stats showing just how powerful influencer campaigns are in increasing leads and brand awareness.

• The average marketing budget invests $25,000-$50,000 on social influencer campaigns annually.
  
  
• For every dollar that businesses spend on social influencer marketing, $7.65 in value is returned.
  
  
• Instagram has the highest number of influencer marketing posts, clocking in at around 13 million posts. Instagram influencer marketing alone is worth close to $2 billion.
  

Social Influencer marketing has become so popular that intermediaries have popped up to act as matchmakers for businesses and digital influencers. This type of marketing isn’t going away anytime soon, so it’s a good idea to know more about it, including the types of digital influencers out there.

Types of digital influencer campaigns

When it comes to developing an influencer marketing strategy. You have plenty of options for what types of influencer marketing you could use.

We’re going to give you a list of some of the most effective types of influencer marketing campaigns used today by small businesses.

1. Affiliate marketing

This is the darling of influencer campaigns. Affiliate marketing has proven to be incredibly lucrative for both businesses selling products or services, and the affiliate influencers promoting those products.

With affiliate marketing, an influencer gets a commission for promoting a business’ product or service. With each sale made, a kickback is received by the influencer.

Let’s say you sold a course on how to take professional photos. You could reach out to an influencer in the photography niche and offer them 10% of the revenue for each course sold.

The more courses they sell for you, the more money both of you make. It’s a win-win! We recommend using Instagram for affiliate marketing for the best results.

2. Giveaways

Everyone loves getting something for free. When you run a giveaway influencer campaign, you stand to gain a lot.

These bring in a diverse crowd that interacts with an influencer when they are giving away something.

It brings in a tremendous amount of value for businesses and brands involved with a giveaway done by an influencer.

The most popular social media platforms for giveaways are Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

If you’re an artist, you can find an influencer in your specific art niche and come to an agreement with them about the terms of the giveaway. You could tell them that you want to give away prints of your artwork. In exchange, they will receive money from you for their services.

You giving something away will bring you more social media likes, followers, and engagement. Plus, you’ll be gaining more leads as well that can turn into sales.

3. Social media partnership:

Refers to collaborations, or collabs, social media partnerships are one of the most popular types of influencer marketing. There are actually five different forms a social media partnership can come in.

1. Partnerships: you have an agreement with an influencer to share in revenues or leads with them.
   
2. Collaborations: you link up with an influencer on a single project or campaign and share the rewards of it.
   
3. Cross-promotion: you and an influencer promote one another’s products and services.
   
4. Content placement: is when businesses and digital nfluencers agree to occasionally share one another’s content with their audiences.
   
5. A value-add is when you make a deal with an influencer to access their audience based on some sort of agreement you made with them.