Oficina da Marca » social network

The productive day of social media expert

Angela Ferreira — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 14:22:55 +0000

Being in social media marketer means you should always be aware of new trends in this area. Visiting social platforms should be the first thing in the morning and the last day in the evening. The researches says that 4 out of 5 people check their smartphones within 15 minutes of waking. Despite it’s a little bit shocking that kind of routine we acquire, it’s the way we live now. So to stay productive it’s beneficial to get a routine. Oficina da Marca blog suggests you some guidelines to follow.

Morning

While taking your train/bus or metro to work try to do three things: write your ideas to Evernote, read some content on Zite, catch some podcasts on downcast.

Mornings are a creative time. Don’t miss it. Shortly after you arrive to work, let’s create some content, kick of a marketing campaign and schedule everything out for the day.

Around mid-morning is the best time to monitor your keywords. Also, you should “eat some snacks” of social media: read Feefly, share using buffer and interact on Hootsuite, Sprout social or Nimble.

Mid-day

Having your lunch, you can do some catch-up of sites you follow. You can use Flipboard which is an alternative to Zite. It’s a really nice user interface and great way of catching up on content.

While having your mid-afternoon coffee, check your Disqus. It’s a great commenting system that send you notifications about comments in WordPress. Go back to Hootsuite, which check every mentioning of your brand in internet. And check some Grouphigh – the gadget that help you outreach the relevant blogs to build your relationship with.

Don’t forget to do some sports, because as the saying says – healthy body, healthy mind. But while running you can also improve yourself by listening your latest podcast. Here are some ideas what you can listen to: Entrepreneur on Fire, Marketing Profs, Amy Porterfield, Social Media Examiner.

Evening

You are so tempted to check some twitter while sitting in front of TV, but if you so tired that you just can’t hold the tablet, maybe don’t. Mind needs some rest. Better after some relaxation, check some data before sleep. That’s the time you check your traffic on google analytics, see who was on your site with Kissmetrics and check your Pinterest stats with Tailwind.

The trick with social media is that how much you would use it, you still feel that you haven’t done enough. But if you use the right tools and processes this can save a lot of time.

How to create a social media marketing plan. Part 2

Angela Ferreira — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 14:43:56 +0000

Social media marketing plan is not so easy to digest, so Oficina da Marca blog separated it in two parts. Here is the second one and you should consider to read it even more carefully then the first one, because of some important finishing touches. So if you are ready, let’s get started!

Posting strategy

There are dozens of questions connected with posting: What to post? When to post? Where to post? And so on. But the answer to them all is more personal and it’s mainly depends on your niche and audience. The thing that is the same for any niche is pictures. They are ruling the social media right now and every social platform becomes more beneficial if you use it with pictures.

Despite that you can begin with a strategy like this: start with a basic five types of updates we all post (links, images, quotes, reshares, plain-text updates). Than choose a “staple” update, a single type that will make up the majority of your posts. Finally create a 4:1 ratio of sharing: for every four “staple” updates, publish one different type for variety. This way followers know what to expect from you and as well you could do some experimenting. Just consider to develop the message according to social media.

Analyze, test, and iterate

When you decided on the posting strategy, it’s time to see how it’s going on. This is a research faze which will explain you what works for you and what doesn’t. Using some analytics is mandatory (google, buffer). Than find your average – how much is the average clicks, shares and so on. It will be your benchmark which will let you know if your new ideas helps you or takes you down.

Engage

Now you just have to automatize your work and continue doing your strategy every day. The other thing you should consider is to keep some time for your customers. They will write comments or will start discussion and you should keep in mind that it’s too important to ignore.

So this is it, now you are prepared to rock the social media world. Just keep in mind, that in social media there are no strict rules how to act, you can always try to improve things, do something different and check how the audience react to it. Who knows maybe you will be the one who will create a new shocking formula for concurring the social media.

How to create a social media marketing plan. Part 1

Angela Ferreira — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 08:36:08 +0000

What is social media marketing plan? In short it’s when you don’t post anything on social media accidentally, but have a plan for every single move in your social platforms. Of course, goals can be reach even without plan, but if to be more assure, it’s better to have step by step itinerary what to do next. Oficina da Marca prepared a guidelines that will help you to deal with it.

Decide on social media

Now there are plenty of social networks to fit every business. So you should choose the social networks that best fit your strategy and the goals you want to achieve on social media. The things that can help you to decide on social media is time, resources and audience. See how much time you can devote to prepare the material for social network. Then be acknowledge by the resources you have – like do you have more pictures, or more of information, is that information is quality one or more casual. And the most important do some little survey to decide where your potential audience gathers, which social media works the best for you platform.

Do a perfect profile

Do a monthly check for your public profile: make sure your avatar, cover photo, bio or profile info is up-to-dated. There are two parts of profile that should always be considered: visual and text. For visual part try to be always consistence. Make sure that all the photos on your social media platforms look alike. About the text, try to say what you are and not what you’ve done. Don’t use buzzwords and make sure that it would look beneficial to your followers to be connected with you. And don’t forget to be personal – social media is for that.

Find you voice and tone

Finding your voice in social media it’s not easy, but to do that it’s worth efforts, because you will be noticed and distinguished only by this. How to do that – the question may occur to you. There some questions that need to be answered by yourself. First, if your brand would be a person what kind of personality would it has. If it would be a person, what kind of relations it would have to consumer (friends, family, etc). Secondly, describe in adjectives what your company’s personality is not. Thirdly, check are there any companies that have a similar personality to yours? Why they look alike? And finally, how do you want your customers to think about your company. So after this you will have bunch of adjectives that should always be with you while creating social media plan.

Now that you have some guidelines, you can start preparing for your big debut. But just before starting we would strongly advise you to wait for other part of tips. You won’t be disappointed.

How to maximize your social network with minimum time

Angela Ferreira — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 14:54:47 +0000

Even though people are using social media every day for their personal needs, then it comes to a business social network it becomes somehow hard to control. People having a small businesses are afraid of the amount of social media that they have to take care off, so sometimes they just do nothing, or do just a brief post once in a while. But Oficina da Marca will tell you a secret – you just need one hour per day to rock your business’ social platform and to be notice in cybernetic space.

10 minutes for Facebook

Spent 5 minutes to post something relevant with your area on the wall. The other 5 minutes spend on interacting: commenting, sharing or liking posts relevant to your area. Feel free to experiment with post style to stand out.

10 minutes for twitter

Make 6-8 post per day including some tips, statistics or wit. Remember, this platform is to build brand image and keep at the forefront of consumers’ minds.

10 minutes for Google+

You might think that google+ is not useful, but here is the communities of every subject, where you can promote your blog or website. Also, an active Google+ profile is great for search engine optimization.

5 minutes for LinkedIn

Here you can post industry-relevant news in feed or link back to your professional blog. One post per day is enough.

5 minutes for Instagram

Post one picture a day. It can feature your product, reveal your working environment, local scenery or others behind-the-scene details. All social media is image driven, so link these images across multiple platforms.

10 minutes for Pinterest

Post once per day linking to your page. And also create boards that a connected to your area of interest, so that you would be easily find by others. Pinterest is a major driver of Internet traffic. Have pics link back to professional blog/site.

10 minutes for Reddit

Spend 10 minutes in Reddit and join their forum discussions.

So now that you have to do is stick to the plan and keep doing this every day.

How to become an expert of Instagram

Angela Ferreira — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 13:33:52 +0000

Knowing how to use Instagram is one thing but knowing how to be the best in it is a totally different thing. You can gain followers easily by following a lot of people who says on their profile that they follow you back. But it doesn’t make difference, if those people follow you, they probably don’t even see your post because of the loads of post they get every single minute. The goal here is to make your style unique and to make unity of your brand so that you won’t be just followed but that you would be recognized. Oficina da Marca blog prepare you guidelines how to make this happen.

Create your story

Decide what visual theme you want to represent as a brand. And keep with it. Always ask yourself is it communicate the same message. Also, make sure that your photo gives value to your followers. Try to make a story out of your products that will caught your audience’s interest.

Create your content

High resolution photo is important and appropriate filter as well. Use editing apps and combine them with Instagram ones. Product images should feature the product in 2/3rds of the picture. Also, don’t just post a product, post a reason to buy a product!

Sharing is important

Try to post your photos on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays – it’s the best days. Don’t add to much hashtags, but also not to little – 11 of them is just perfect. And try to mix them, use brand specific ones combined with industry and trendy ones.

Combine your platforms

The best things about Instagram that it has a connection with Facebook. Share every photo on Facebook. As well, try to share it on other social platforms like Pinterest, Google plus. And nevertheless, don’t forget your website or blog!

Nurture your following

As well as putting hashtags you also should use them yourself. Find relevant users in your niche by search. To extend your reach follow influencers, engagers and other brands.

Follow 5/3/1 rule

It says that you should find one person in your niche, like five pictures of his, comment three photos and that’s how you gain one follower!

Engage people

Add relevant question in your caption that encourage to comment. Reply to all the comment and start a hashtag campaign featuring it in your photos.

So these are the main principles what you should do, but take time to thing them over and to decide on the style which you want to keep. Because once you’ll start, there won’t be way back.

Why you should care about the images on social media

Angela Ferreira — Fri, 03 Jul 2015 14:02:13 +0000

The society is tired of reading so now everything in social media turns to images. Images now have the biggest impact on the internet. There are lots of examples how platforms which are based on images became unbelievable popular like buzzfeed, thechive, tumblr, reddit and many others. So what is that thing that make pictures so powerful? Ofina da Marca blog is examining it and now want to share the results with you.

Social platforms

Pinterest is new one of the favorite’s social platforms in the world. Its popularity grows so fast that is hard even to notice it. With page views up 210 percent in just the last three months, the site cements the importance of using high-quality, sharable images in web content.

Facebook also adjusted to image-based social media. They make more space in the timeline for the pictures and a huge cover photo make images an important draw for use attention.

Instagram is a new mania. That’s not surprising that Facebook was even willing to buy it for one billion dollar! Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg commented on the importance of images in the site’s future, saying “Providing the best photo-sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook, and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together”.

How images affect article

Of course, images are good for every kind of article, because it boost that content’s page views. But as well researches show that certain categories benefit more from having images than others, it’s news content, political content and sports content.

How images affect press material

The amount of view have really strong bonds with multimedia that you include. So to get the most out of you images you should add other multimedia that complements your press release and images in different ways.

How images affect local search

Researches shows that consumers are more likely to consider or contact a business that has an image show up in local search results. So choosing a high-quality photo of your business or products instead of company logo is the best choice.

How images affect e-commerce

Customers says that the quality of a product’s image is more important than products specific information, long description, ratings and reviews.

How images affect social engagement

Analysis say that Facebook posts with photos have the highest user engagement than any other post.

To sum up, images affect almost all the areas in social network. So be picky on them, choose gorgeous, high-quality images that people will really want to share and you will definitely win out of it.

14 things that your LinkedIn must have

Angela Ferreira — Thu, 02 Jul 2015 12:08:13 +0000

Linkedln can be compare to Facebook or twitter with the amount of ads it has, that’s for sure. But its distinctiveness make it popular in area, which belongs just for this social media channel. It’s network which is designed for professionals and nowadays is even seen as digital version of the curriculum vitae. And indeed, if you are applying for a job, you can almost be certain the potential employer is going to look at your LinkedIn profile. So that means it needs to be complete and optimized for maximum expose. For that Oficina da Marca blog gather all the best tips what your Linkedin profile shouldn’t miss.

USE KEYWORDS:

Try to make sure you will appear in the search while searching on keywords.

PROFESIONAL NAMES:

Linkedin is not a playground. Businesses and people are looking for solutions and not gimmicks.

PHOTO COUNTS

Adding a professional photo can increase your profile visibility enormously.

LOCATION

Businesses looks for employees in certain locations, so be specific and write down it carefully.

BE CREATIVE

Brand your professional headline, in this way encouraging people to search more about you. You’ve got 110 characters. Make them count.

INDUSTRY

Write down your specific industry so that for the right people it would be easy to find you.

BE ACTIVE

Update your status and try from time to time share something useful/insightful within your industry.

EMBRACE THE VISUAL

Show in your profile visual proves of your work (youtube/vimeo videos, presentations from slideshare/powerpoint/prezi, documents from scribd, word)

GET CONNECTIONS

You should have more of the Linkedin connections not because to show off with the amount of friends. Rather because it increases your appearance on the search.

INCLUDE YOUR VOLUNTEERING

Statistics says that 42% of hiring managers surveyed admit they view volunteer experience as equivalent to formal work experience.

ENDORSEMENTS

Don’t ignore them, it also can affect your appearance of search. Average number of endorsements per linkedIn user is 5, so here’s an easy way to be above average.

CONTACTS

Don’t forget to make yourself contactable: write down your email, telephone number.

CREDIBILITY

Ask for recommendations. They can incredibly change a point of view toward you!

JOIN GROUPS

There are 200 conversation happening each minute across LinkedIn groups. So participate in them and let others see you.

Maybe you are disappointed of the basic information that includes this list? But then check again your linkedIn profile and make sure all these basics are included. Probably, there is some little details that you miss. But if not – congrats, now you can be sure that you did everything that is in your power to make your social network appearance perfect.

Everything you should know about hashtags

Angela Ferreira — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 14:50:36 +0000

You could say that hashtags is the new fashion of a popular cultures. But in fact it’s not so new – digging into the history we can find that IRC (Internet Relay Chat) was the first which started using it to categorize items like images, messages, video and other content into groups and to make the search for relevant content easier. Although nowadays hashtags are sometimes used too frivolously causing some annoyance, still the benefits of it are hard to deny. Due to this, Oficina da Marca blog prepare you some tips so not to be lost in the world of hashtags.

Make your unique hashtag

When using Instagram hashtags are very useful. You can organize your pictures which looks like sort of a photo album. The main thing here is just to put the right hashtag. Create something unique and distinguishable and check if nobody else is using it. For instance for the event you can put “#oficinadamarcaparty” and everyone who will be at the party will be able to see all the photos from it while just searching for this hashtag.

Use as a search engine

While the Instagram is nowadays so wide with 150 million of users, you can be user that you’ll find almost everything you want just writing the right hashtag. It’s very advantageous for the businesses, as they can scope out their competitors and search for new ideas in their area of expertise.

Look for the topics

When you are looking for a particular topics or want to know what’s trending nowadays, just search for a hashtag. Put something like #politics or #fashion (whatever you prefer) and it will show you what people are talking about these the most. The best platforms for this is twitter and Facebook.

Get some instant reviews

You want to know how was that the latest movie or reviews of some restaurant, just search for a hashtag in the search engine and you will find the most honest and the fastest reviews about it. It’s good for the businesses as they can get the instant feedback about their products.

Connect with people

What is the greatest way to meet a lot of like-minded people on internet as search for the same interest with Hashtags. Ok, maybe there are, but still in this way you can meet a lot of different people from all over the world and be inspired by their ideas and creations.

Popular things can’t be popular without reasons, in some ways they are always beneficial to the people. Like in this case, hashtags are not just awful columns of crisscrossing lines and words. When you know how to use them and you use them in moderation, they really can become as undiscovered treasure.

6 Things to avoid in social media

Angela Ferreira — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 16:10:48 +0000

Social media is a strong tool for improving your or your company‘s communication. But as it can give a lot of benefit, as well it can make a bad impression about you. So read the advice Ofina da Marca picked for you and make sure you don’t do those mistakes that get your audience away.

1. Auto-posting Facebook posts to Twitter

When you post some pictures or a very long text on Facebook, on twitter you can see just the link of photo or not full text. That makes your posts look like a “spam” and also makes your Twitter look messy.

2. Over using Hashtags

Use hashtags in moderation, because loads of them in one place is hard to read, so they become not useful at all. And also, hashtags is not the kind of thing that fits all social media platforms. It is useful to twitter and Instagram, but not at all in Pinterest.

3. Starting tweets with @ when you’re trying to share with your followers

When you start post with @ referring to some person, that post will be seen just by those people who follow you and your tagged friend. So be sure that the tag goes at the end.

4. Posting too many quotes

Yes, quotes are good. They can inspire, motivate and even just cause a good laugh. But just because quotes work doesn’t mean 90% of your social media stream should be quotes.

5. Relying on collaborative boards on Pinterest

Collaborative boards was a powerful tool to successful pinning. But now search tool is a king. Using the powerful descriptions which consists not just of plain unconnected words, but mainly of descriptions that sounds conversational can make your Pinterest work pretty well for you.

6. Posting the Exact same message everywhere

Different platforms call for different approaches, so if you send the same message throw all the channels it can make your audience disappointed. Try to keep it short on Twitter, while on google+ you can go longer, making your post keyword-rich. On Instagram the most important is to make it personal: share a behind-the-scenes image from the craft you just posted or the recipe you just created. It doesn’t not mean that you can’t share the info about the same thing on all your social platforms. It just mean you should adjust it to all the channels using little corrections.

So being active in the social media is not the thing that will ensure your success. Using it right – that’s the key thing in social media.

Experts reveal how to stand-out in social media

Angela Ferreira — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 13:15:43 +0000

There is no question about it, to stand out in social media is really tough. Due to this Oficina de Marca collected some tips from experts how to be noticed and remembered in social media.

1. Use small platforms to make a personal connection. You should answer to every comment, ask as much questions as you can. Even though you have a huge number of followers, it’s their authentic connection to you and your connection to them that matters.

2. You not necessarily need to be creative, you just have to be willing to spend some more time. Neil Patel from Kissmetrics says that most people are too lazy to respond to a tweet. But by doing simple things like answering, you will stand out.

3. Be as much visual as you can. Images catch our attention, keep it and are digested faster than text. So install some features to your page like Twitter cards, so that everyone who will see your posts, will also see the possibility to share it in some other way.

4. Jeff Bullas from jeffbullas.com says that it’s very simple. You just need a memorable brand either personal or corporate, great content (both written and visual) and persistence, continuous promotion.

5. Take visual approach not only to inform but to communicate as well. Combine this with your branding and you’ll stand out in this noisy social media world of ours.

6. Help to your audience. Teach them with “how to”, help them to get a job or a new customer, invite them to events they’ll love. Improve their lives and they will remember you.

7. Seek perfection. As Glen Gilmore from Glengilmore.com says sweat to find the content that inspires and informs your target community. Listen and respond better than anyone else.

8. Blake Jamieson from Pool supply world suggest to invent your own personal technic. Many listen too precisely to what experts are saying. But copying doesn’t surprise anyone anymore, just the brand new idea can make an impact on customers.

9. Look at the others’ social networks, try to notice what catch your attention. Then look at their post stream and check carefully what resonates with our own messaging and try to adjust something to your social space.

10. Diana Adams from Adams consulting group says that rule “80/20” applies to the social media as well as anywhere else. 80% people don’t take a time to share quality content, don’t engage with the followers, while the rest 20% do those things and they stand out.

11. Have a strong visual identity on the social network. Make your one visual style: put always the same fonts, colors, photo filters, icons, the same text structure and soon people will start recognize it and will look for your posts.

12. Jason Cruz from jsncruz.com suggest to try predict the social media trends. When deciding which social platform to be on, consider just two things: where your consumers currently are, and the next place they could potentially be. Than work more on the next place.

There is no right or wrong technic for social media network. There are only those which fit your business and not.

Also see: How to unify your seo sem and social strategies to optimize your results