Using Images To Boost Your Social Media

In last week’s article, we talked about how important it is to create engaging content for your social media profiles. Ideally you want to encourage as many of your fans as possible to share your posts with their social network.

 

So the crucial question is, “How can I get my fans to engage with my social media updates?”

 

A really effective method, is to use images as part of your social media activity. Whether it’s an invitation to an event, a blog post, or just a simple status update; having a visual stimulus greatly improves your chances of getting noticed on the web. It’s hard wired into everyone to pay more attention to a photograph or a graphic. If the image has metaphorical or direct links to the text, the information you release will have a much bigger impact.

 

Choosing the right image is all about understanding who your audience are and how best to get your point across using a

Evoke emotion with your images

visual cue. The image we’ve selected here evokes that feeling of sharing and support, which is what we’re all about at

Cherry Tree Marketing. It may not have direct links to our business, but we have used it as a metaphorical reference to our blogs and informative articles. Following trends in social media is important, just as understanding the latest fashion trends are to a fashion writer. Here we’ve gone for a nostalgic photo that depicts something cute, playful but which nonetheless has a meaningful message.

 

Simply typing a status update won’t grab the attention of Joe Public scrolling down their Facebook feed/Twitter feed. Interaction is the key, and even with Twitter a link to a picture invites that interaction which is so crucial to a successful social media campaign, and the pay back is that you have provided something entertaining and meaningful for your fan or follower. An increasingly popular method of tweeting is to prompt the opening of an image by generating some curiosity. Why not use this ‘teaser’ method to reveal new offers and products?

 

When promoting events it is especially important to use images in your social media posts. A poster for the event helps distil the information in a visual format rather than giving all of the information in one long line of text. It also provides your followers with something that can be shared easily.

 

However, don’t forget to keep it relevant. Although the occasional ‘just for laughs’ image can add some much-needed personality to your social media presence, don’t get into the habit of doing this as a regular part of your campaigns. Posting a cute animal picture every week, unless you run a pet store, won’t help you to engage with your target audience. You should have a clear social media strategy, and therefore a specific message, so make sure that the images you use compliment this and do not detract from it.

 

Instagram and Pinterest are the most widely used tools for sharing photos and images with your social media audience. Both can be linked with your Facebook and Twitter accounts, so it’s not too much additional work for you to use all of these methods if appropriate to your business. It not only gives you the ability to reach a different audience, but shows you’re not just a one trick social media pony.

 

The language of images is often universal, but it can also be personal. Social Media is all about communicating effectively with your audience. If an image inspires you, then it will likely inspire your audience. Twitter can only speak 140 characters, but an image can speak a thousand words.

 

Using images in your social media is all about having a go and discovering what works for your business, so get out there and try it!

 

Making Sure That Your Fans See Your Facebook Posts

Have you ever wondered why certain posts make it into your Facebook news feed, but others don’t? Why some of the pages you follow seem to appear all the time, but then you never hear from others? Or worry that your own fans might not be receiving the content you upload onto your business page?

The answer lies with Edgerank, Facebook’s optimisation algorithm.

What Is Edgerank?

Edgerank is a clever little algorithm which means all the people and pages that you interact with most, through comments, photo tagging and sharing are the ones that make it into your Facebook news feed. Therefore, if you regularly post content onto your business page which attracts interaction from your fans, then you are improving your position on your fans’ news feeds. Edgerank calculates which stories the user will be most interested in based upon the frequency of their interactions and which pages they regularly interact with.

Sound complicated?

Let’s just go back to basics for a sec. Forget the ‘social media’ element and let’s just talk good old fashioned marketing. How do you sell a product? By making sure you are selling something that your customers want to buy. How do make sure that customers buy your product? By taking your product to where the customers are. How do you communicate your product so that it is attractive to customers? By appealing to their interests, desires, passions, aspirations – your product becomes something they have to possess! Did people really think that a pair of Air Jordan basketball boots would make them shoot hoops like Michael? Neither did Nike, but that dream brought in around $2.6 billion in revenue for the company.

Facebook now has 1 billion users and counting, so chances are that more than a few of your potential customers on there, which is why you set up your business page. But are you communicating your company, brand, products and services in a way which will appeal to the people who are following your fan page? Edgerank is what will separate the social networking savvy from the social media slackers. Around 90% of users who like your business fan page will never return again, instead they will keep an eye on you via their news feed. SO if you are not posting content which activates a response, or you aren’t spending time interacting with your fans on their profiles and pages, then you’re not on their newsfeed and you’re not reaching your customers!

Is My Facebook content close to the Edge??

There are three factors to the Edgerank algorithm: affinity, weight and time decay. Affinity is achieved when your fans like, comment or share your posts. The more frequently a fan interacts with your page, the greater their affinity with your page. A weight is allocated by Facebook to the type of interaction that takes place, with a ‘like’ scoring much lower than a comment or a share. These interactions are literally what will give your posts ‘the Edge’! Time decay depends quite simply on the frequency of your posts, and is what keeps your news feed constantly changing. You need to post content with high affinity and weight on a regular basis, or else your posts will lose their value over time.

The simple answer to achieving a combination of these three factors is to research and target your potential customers in the same way as you would do before embarking upon a traditional marketing campaign. Arguably, social media makes this process an awful lot easier because everything you need to know about your fans’ Facebook behaviour, is right there on Facebook for you to look at any time! Look at your fans’ pages, see what activity they take part in and respond accordingly. Do they spend a lot of time commenting on photos and videos? Then make sure you use plenty of visual content in your posts (posts containing rich media such as images and web links achieve a higher weight score anyway, so this is a good habit to get into). What other pages do they like to interact with, and what are those pages doing that you are not? Try to get as much information about their interests, likes and dislikes as possible. Encourage fans to post on your wall, comment on your photos, and share your content. Just ask! Regularity and consistency are essential, because time decay will happen in a matter of days or even hours if you have a lot of fans or are connected to a lot of other business pages.

So What Are The Key Things To Remember?

If you take away nothing else from this article, make sure you remember these 3 crucial points.

#1 – Make sure your content is relevant to your fans.

#2 – Keep content coming on a regular basis, at least 3-4 times per week.

#3 and most importantly – Make sure that you respond to your fans.

Facebook is not just an online billboard for your business; it is a fantastic way for customers to interact with your business and for you to communicate with them. It takes a little time, but will ensure that your hard work on Facebook pays off!

Building your Audience on Facebook

Likes, that’s what your main agenda is on Facebook is right? Well, yes . . . and no. It’s true that to reach a lot of people you need to have a lot of people connected to you. However, having a lot of likes on your Facebook page doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going reach the right audience. So what can you do about it?

Engage Your Audience

The best way to build an audience is by having them engage with your content. Reading a post is one thing, but what you ultimately need is for users to Click, Like, Share or Comment on your posts. Shares and comments are the biggest factors here. Shares will give you more coverage outside of your current network; chances are your fans will have like-minded friends, who in turn have like-minded friends, and so on. Comments will enhance user awareness of your page, as once they submit a comment on your post they will be notified very time someone else comments, therefore adding to the potential for extended dialogue. To achieve this, the posts you publish and the material you share must have some meaningful link to your business or social media strategy. They need to be compelling, insightful, inspirational or humorous.

Know Your Stuff

To have a truly engaged audience, you need to really know what you’re talking about. If you are giving out information, offering a critical point of view or sharing an article, you need to establish yourself as an authority on the subject. Sharing your own content regularly is vital. Writing your own blog, taking your own photos, and updating your website with information specific to your business will support your reputation as a passionate and knowledgeable expert in your field. Obviously this won’t happen overnight, but if you do this from the beginning of your social media campaign you will see the rewards when people engage in your other posts.

 Likes

Likes on your Facebook page aren’t necessarily the best marker of how effective your social media strategy is. Users tend to like hundreds of pages, but not all will necessarily have a genuine interest in your content. In fact thanks to the recent changes to how Facebook ranks your posts, only a certain percentage of likes will guarantee that your content will reach

the news feeds of your fans. This is also due to individual privacy settings that your fans can select when they like your page. When liking your page users can now choose whether or not to add you to their news feed, and only one in ten likes will automatically result in the user having your posts published in their news feed. The problem here is that not everybody knows about this sneaky bit of Facebook trickery, but there is a solution! By clicking the like button a second time, fans can select (or deselect) for your posts to show in their news feed. If you want to try and make sure as many of your fans have this option selected, then there is no harm in asking them to check!

Insights

At the top of every administrator’s Facebook page there is a graph. You may never have clicked on this, but this is a crucial tool in understanding how effective your posts are. Insights give you an in-depth analysis of how users are interacting with your posts. Clicks, likes, shares, comments and post views are calculated into easy to understand graphs so you can see how your content reaches people and how many of them are paying attention. You can see how many

people saw your posts, interacted with them and shared them. You can sort them by these categories to give you an idea what kind of posts get you the most attention.  If you’re looking to develop your strategy on Facebook, then this is the place to start.

Interactivity

The golden rule of building an audience is to make your posts interactive. There are many ways of doing this, including:

• Images/photos
• Video
• Queries and Questions/Brain Teasers
• Opinion (stir up a debate, keep it relevant)
• Sharing another page
• Sharing events
• Response (answer users’ questions)

There are many ways you can build your audience, and if you found our information useful, or you feel we’ve missed something important let us know in the comments below. For more hints and tips about Facebook and how to use social media, please visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/cherrytreesocialmarketing

Twitter @CherryTreeMktg

Getting going with Facebook

For those of you who are reading this for the first time, we are Cherry Tree Marketing and will be blogging about social media marketing. It’s what we know and love, and we are here to show YOU how to use it to best advantage for your business.

Social media is the future of marketing. It’s fast, fun and effective. Improve your brand awareness, communicate directly with your customers, and take your marketing to the next level!

Being active on social media, especially Facebook, can really boost your business’ potential to succeed. Not only is it a free marketing tool, it is also a great way to have a conversation with current and potential customers. If you’re a small business and you’re not on Facebook, you need to seriously think about setting up a page and starting that conversation with other businesses and customers. Many small businesses now invest a lot of time in Facebook because they have the ability reach more consumers, at very little expense. However, like all marketing tools there are a few golden rules if your Facebook page is going to be beneficial to your business.

Visual Style

With Facebook pages you get a basic layout, however it’s very easy to personalise your page to match your branding. If you already have a website, newsletter or twitter page, then you want the Facebook page to reflect the colour pallet and graphics you already use on these pages. Optimise your images for Facebook, and high resolution images are a must. Be creative! Network Cumbria (facebook.com/NetworkCumbria) is a good example of how a logo can be used for Facebook.

Naming

If you use keywords to help your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) standings, then stick to these when naming your Facebook page. Keep your name simple, as you’ll be easier to find! Facebook pages regularly come up in Google searches for small businesses that have a lot of Facebook traffic.

Posting

Similarly you want to create posts based around set keywords, as this will help your SEO, but don’t repeat yourself too much. There are several ways of posting:

Text – Keep it short, not too lengthy. All types of post should contain some text, but short and snappy is the best.

Pictures – Either uploading your own or sharing someone else’s. With adjoining text, pictures are an effective way of engaging with your audience.

Video – Either uploading your own or sharing YouTube videos, these are a great tool for attracting people to your page and getting them to stay there. (Same goes for websites too!)

Events – Setting up an event in Facebook is a free and easy way to let people know about what you have got going on. Make sure that you share your events with your Facebook friends, to generate interest a build your guest list.

Web Links – Blogs, articles, interesting websites, anything relevant to your business that may interest your customers. For instance at Cherry Tree Marketing we would share articles that give our Facebook fans more information about how to use social media. If you write a blog yourself, then make sure you put a link on your Facebook page.

Content

There’s a magical balance you must aim to strike with your Facebook content. Your posts should always be relevant to your business and your audience, but don’t get bogged down by trying to post ‘business information’ all the time. Use a variety of content, comment on current affairs, local events, or post funny pictures on a Friday! Being engaging is as important as being relevant.

Follow Other Facebook Users

Sharing doesn’t just end on your page. Find like mind businesses with well developed pages, ones that could help support you. Like their Facebook pages and start a dialogue with them. Share your information on their pages. If the other page seems willing to support you, then ask them if they would share your pictures or events. This way you are opening up more channels for traffic. Be respectful of other people’s pages though; commenting on and liking other people’s posts is an effective way of increasing your reach, but remember that communication is a two way street.

Respond

Eventually you will have people posting on your wall. If you receive queries or comments, then make sure you respond! All questions should be answered to show that you care about your business and your customers. Your page is there to create a dialogue between you and your current and potential customers, not just to sell your business.

Quality NOT Quantity

Don’t feel like you have to post a certain number of times every day or every week. The quality of your posts is way more important than how many you publish. If you have nothing to talk about, then don’t! Link to quality websites, read the articles you’re sharing first, know what you’re talking about. There’s nothing worse than regurgitating a badly written article or a rubbish website just for the sake of filling your page.

Best of luck with your Facebook pages! For more information on how to use social media effectively, why not visit our own Facebook page at www.facebook.com/cherrytreesocialmarketing

The Elevator Pitch – Friend or Foe?

Your elevator pitch is possibly one of your most important tools when promoting your business, make sure your first impression is the best it can be!

At a recent business networking event, proceedings kicked off with each person in attendance giving a 45 second description of their business – in other words, an elevator pitch. This is about imagining that you are taking an elevator ride with a potential customer, and you have to quickly yet accurately describe your business to them. Now, talking for 45 seconds about a subject which you live and breathe each day may sound very straightforward, right? But if you were to describe your business in what equates to roughly two or three sentences, does it truly represent what your business does and who your customers are?

Does your elevator pitch get the reaction you want?

This is why a really great elevator pitch is so hard to get right. Within the space of less than a minute you have to say what your business does, who your customers are, and what sets you apart from your competitors. When you say it like that, it doesn’t sound so simple all of a sudden!

Let me give you an example. Here is an elevator pitch that I have used in the past:

“My business is called Cherry Tree and it is a Social Marketing business, which offers social media management and social networking services to small businesses who struggle to find the time do do these things themselves”

So lets start off with what your business does. First of all, what on earth is Social Marketing?? This is a phrase that I have sort of coined, to describe the fact that the marketing services I offer are focused on interacting with people, whether online or face-to-face and is therefore highly social in nature. As you can see, I offer several services pertaining to social media – but chances are that all you will remember is that I do ‘something to do with Social Media’. Well this certainly doesn’t help differentiate me from my competitors does it? This suggests I am just one of many ‘social media people’ all offering the same thing. So what is the answer?

The problem we tend to encounter here, is that we don’t like to think of ourselves as one-trick ponies. We need to realise that it is perfectly OK to only offer one core service. Of course this may only be one of a multitude of talents that you possess, but to attract your potential customers your core offering must be simple, clear and easy to understand. So if you had to narrow your business down to a single core product or service, what would it be?

Next comes your target market. I said “small businesses who struggle to find time” – which could just about describe every one of the 4 million small businesses in the UK. We can’t just say ‘small businesses’ or ‘retailers’ or ‘the general public’, we need to be a whole lot more specific. We worry that by identifying a much smaller group of customers we will be ignoring a huge group of potential buyers. But realise that unless you sell a product like a vacuum cleaner or a washing machine, not everybody is going to want to buy your product or service. Look to who your previous clients have been, or the type of customer who is most likely to buy from you. Where do they look for products/services like yours? What publications do they read? Are they online? Do they attend networking events? What do they all have in common? My target market became ‘sole traders who already have an established social media presence but lack the time to attend to it effectively’. This is still a potentially huge market, but makes reaching these customers an awful lot easier.

Use your elevator pitch to stand out from the crowd

Thirdly and finally, what makes you different from everybody else? For this I don’t suggest that you start telling your listeners scare stories about your competitors, I believe that you look to you own personal qualities for inspiration. You are unique, and therefore so is the business that you represent. Are you a great communicator? Is your product/service unique? Do you have some impressive results to demonstrate? Turn what you are best at into the unique selling point for your business, and it will remain at the centre of everything you do. This will also help potential customers identify the businesses whom they want to work with, and will help to establish a profitable and pleasant relationship for all concerned.

“Cherry Tree is a marketing company which specialises in providing social media management services. We primarily work with sole traders who already have an established social media presence but lack the time to attend to it effectively. We pride ourselves on building collaborative and productive relationships with our clients, and bringing innovative creative flair to their marketing strategy”

The changes may be subtle, but they make all the difference.

Exciting New Networking Opportunity in Cumbria

Are you interested in becoming part of the UK’s fastest growing business network, soon to meet for the first time in Carlisle?

NABO networking is focused on helping you build and grow your business through sharing experience and ideas with other members of your business community. Each meeting will concentrate on a relevant business growth strategy, supported by advice from industry leaders, to help your business defy the recession and provide you with support from other like-minded businessmen and women.

NABO Networking, now available in Cumbria!

Business referrals are great, but NABO is aimed at helping you achieve more than just a referral. The topics each week will cover the essential information that your business needs everyday, including topics such as: making your advertising work, the best strategies for social media, targeting your customers effectively and many more!

NABO North West Cumbria’s first Carlisle meeting will take place on Tuesday 8th November at 6pm until 8pm in the Dark Horse Bar Andalusian, Warwick Road. There will be a small attendance fee of £10 and you will be served delicious tapas and a drink on arrival courtesy of the Andalusian.
Becoming a member of NABO Networking will give you access to weekly networking opportunities within Carlisle and West Cumbria. You can choose from evening networking in Carlisle and at The Saints Rooms in Cockermouth, and breakfast networking at David Allen Accountants in Dalston. Prior to each event you will receive a complete attendance list to help you plan your event, and get a bit of additional business promotion!

For those of you who are concerned that these are going to be seriously formal events, we want to reassure you that NABO is not like that. We offer structured and serious business advice but in a relaxed and supportive environment. No business is too small or too big, we can all contribute to each others success!

As an introductory offer, if you join NABO Networking at our Carlisle launch event the regular membership fee of £200 + VAT will be heavily reduced to just £99 + VAT for a 12 month membership.

NABO events in Carlisle and Dalston will be hosted by Tanya Moxon of Fearless Feat Ltd, and your West Cumbrian contact is Nick Lawler of Winder Hall who is the NABO North West Cumbria Group Director.

To book your place please email tanya.moxon@gmail.comand if you know any other business owners who would be interested in finding out more about NABO, then please pass this on to them!

Businesses who love Social Networking – and now they’re working together!

You may be looking for a company who can set your businesses up with a professional Facebook Fanpage, or a top-notch Mobile Website. You may also be looking for someone to provide you with Social Media Management, and a Social Networking Marketing strategy. Well what if we told you that right now, in Cumbria, there are two businesses working very hard to bring you everything you need to maximize your Social Networking potential?!

Local Direct and Cherry Tree Marketing have teamed up to provide your business with a complete Social Networking service, from establishing your online presence to helping you promote your business to a global network of potential customers.

Local Direct specializes in tech-savvy marketing techniques, be they website, e-mail or SMS. Facebook Fanpages have been a real hit as more and more businesses recognize the importance of Facebook as a marketing tool for their products and services, and want to portray a professional image via Social Media. Personalized Twitter pages are also available, please enquire within!

Cherry Tree Marketing focuses on creative Social Networking strategies for your business. Networking is a real business buzz-word at the moment, with many an evening or lunchtime spent mingling and business card exchanging in the pursuit of business growth. But hang on a sec, there is a whole world of potential business contacts at your fingertips – who is talking to them while you’re out sipping coffee??

Right about now you may be thinking that you already have a website/e-newsletter/Facebook page and so why do you need us? Well, we know its Monday but please bear with us while we pepper you with a few statistics. Adam Orstow’s terrific blog Mashable recently commentated on how Facebook now has a daily active following of 800 million users. Yes, 800 MILLION. Twitter is lagging behind somewhat, but still commands a head-spinning 100 million users every single day. So, it’s fair to say that Social Media is worth getting involved in when you’ve got a business to promote!

In a nutshell, Local Direct will give you the tools to get you online and looking good in your quest for Social Networking excellence, and Cherry Tree Marketing will show you how to use them to best advantage. Together we can offer your business a wide variety of services to improve your online marketing activity; locally, individually, and very reasonably priced! You concentrate on what you do best, and we’ll do the same!

Aside from the fact that we have a service to sell, the collaboration between Local Direct and Cherry Tree Marketing is the coming together of two businesses who want to help your small business succeed. As such our core value is to work closely with you and your business, building strong relationships and working towards a shared goal – Social Media Success!