Originally on Social Media Today.
Social media dimensions are constantly changing. With every tweak or page layout change for Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+, YouTube, etc., social media marketers must stay up-to-date to get the most out of their social profiles. When creating images for social media, making sure you know the correct sizes for cover/header images, profile images and more, is essential.
Although a potentially “hot topic” in content marketing, Influence marketing has been around since the days of greek curators and royal or celebrity endorsements of soaps and beverages in the late 1800’s. Today, we’d defind Influence Marketing as the act of engaging with current and potential leaders in your industry in order to gain ranks as a leader yourself, to increase meaningful activity on social media platforms, as well as to build your digital (and face-to-face) community of brand advocates.
Are you just starting out with social media and interested in developing a content marketing strategy? After you’re done setting up your blog and numerous social media outlets, the next step is to create a clear and concise strategy for what types of posts you will make, and why.
Last Wednesday, Twitter abandoned its many recognizable icons and adopted the little blue bird mascot as the “universally recognizable symbol of twitter.” This means there will be no more logo text or the lowercase ‘t’ icon to represent twitter. Instead, the social network will simply be using just the bird as their new trademark.
Ever thought about learning more about a certain marketing topic? Now is your chance! Take time to read relevant blogs, books or magazines that address a business issue that you’ve been wanting to tackle. Fast Company comes to mind as one publication we regularly read or follow on Twitter. Some other good books on a topic many are asking about? Inbound Marketing by Brian Halligan and Twitter Marketing, by Hollis Thomases.
Here at insight180 we get a lot of questions from our clients regarding the importance of implementing social media into their marketing plans. Our answer is always “yes, invest time in this area.” Even if you’re just following and commenting on other blogs or using LinkedIn, social media is one way to stay relevant. However, the information you provide to others via your website, blog posts, LinkedIn communications and Facebook posts should be content rich and relevant. Make sure you are discussing something that followers can relate to or want to learn more about. Your followers are listening a lot more closely than you think, so say something worth hearing!
Among our clients and colleagues, we’ve seen more activity and interest in, and asked a lot of questions about, what they might do better or differently in marketing this year. Many are downright giddy that 2010 has come to a close and are looking forward to marketing their companies with renewed vigor. Insight180 has compiled a list of tips to get you started on the right foot. The first is especially appropriate for the new year. . .
Many of our B-to-B clients still debate the benefits of Twitter for their businesses. Sure it makes sense for retailers, but are other businesses going to follow us? Well, many B-to-B companies are behind their B-to-C counterparts in their efforts to ramp up, but we’re seeing more and more take advantage of social media outlets to gain clients. We understand that for a small company with limited time, it can be a tough call — it takes time to tweet, blog, or create content on Facebook. This is something that has to be developed and maintained with great thought and care. However, there are plenty of potential clients who are already online searching for services and ready to follow.
Twitter seems to be everywhere these days. At times, it’s a veritable bird frenzy. So we’ve been thinking about how, and if, it might be used to support a company’s branding.
