You may have heard the concept of the 80/20 rule or the Pareto principle. It states that for many events, 80% of the effects come from the 20% of causes. But what is 80/20 rule when it comes to social media and why is it important?
In social media, the 80/20 rule states that 80% leads are generated by 20% marketing effort. This rule is applicable generally in marketing. Engaging your audience on social media is a very tough job; there is no definite formula on this. The basic concept of the 80/20 rule is that; 80% you should post valuable, entertaining content while the other 20% is to promoting your products or services through posts with a strong call to action.
This should be on the 80% of your time. Make all your posts about your audience and building that relationship. People rely on social media primarily to be entertained, if you’re not doing that then you’re not having a conversation with your target audience. Audiences always like interesting and educative content, they react to these type of posts and also have time to share this with their followers. So 80% of your social posts should be appealing and interesting, funny and informative.
Your posts should be of course shareable and have quality content. These posts can include articles, videos, photos, questions, interesting facts, news and many more.. This content should provoke your audience interest and engagement and your audience should feel the connection to your brand.
And remember – you don’t have to create all of this content yourself, you can curate it by sourcing content from others and sharing it with your social media community.
But we know that engaging your audience is also a difficult task so let me give you tips on how you can get the 80% educational content.
check what kind of posts people are reacting to
check what your competitors are sharing on their social media accounts
highlight those which is “must read” and don’t just simply share content
prioritise visual content, like images and especially video
Just remember that 80% of your posts should be in engaging your audience and not merely talking about your business.
20% – Promote
In the remaining 20%, the content should be about your brand or business. Every bit of information regarding your products, services, offers and all other information should be listed. When you promote your products or services, just make sure that your audience can benefit also from it. You can do this by promoting discount or special offers and you can also remind them about what an excellent experience they have by purchasing from you.
Tips to creating promotional content (20%)
develop a persuasive call to action
link back to your website
include information that benefits your customers: special offers discounts, promos, etc
Having a persuasive call to action is very important because this leads to the growth of your target audience, and is more likely to generate traffic to your website. This is because it will inspire your audience to know more about your product or brand and they will tend to dig deeper.
There is really no universal formula to successfully building a social media presence for your brand and keeping your audience engaged to it. However, in most instances, it is ok to use the 80/20 rule as a guide to ensure that your followers would be interested and will keep coming back for more.
If you want help getting more out of your social media marketing, please download our free step by step guide today!
One of the most asked questions I get is “what is the point of hashtags and how do I use them?” To start with the first question, hashtags are useful (depending on the platform) in categorising content and making it easier for people to search for certain topics. They can help you follow live events, or breaking news. They are also great for filtering out topics you don’t want to engage with.
No one person or brand owns a hashtag. You can think one up and just start using it. But if you want to use them effectively to grow your following and amplify content, then you need to be more strategic in your hashtag approach.
Let’s look at some general principles for using hashtags across your social media channels:
Curate your hashtags for each channel. So, for Twitter, use 2 to 3 in a tweet, and include them contextually in your content. On Instagram, you can use many more, but don’t go overboard. LinkedIn has functional hashtags, so feel free to include 1 or 2 in your post. And while Facebook has functional hashtags, the jury is out on whether or not they are actually effective in amplifying your content.
Use a mix of trending, general and brand hashtags. For example, I might use #possumdigital, but as it’s not a widely used hashtag, I might also want to use something more general like #socialmedia or #digitalmarketing.
Keep your hashtag simple and easy to remember and use. You don’t want followers misspelling a well thought out hashtag only to lose the opportunity to generate effective conversation.
Avoid using hashtags that don’t relate directly to your content. Social channel algorithms are smarter than us in this respect, so just because a hashtag is trending, doesn’t mean you should force it onto content that is irrelevant.
Mix it up! Don’t use the same batch of hashtags every single time. Just like you need more than one channel to market your business, you need more than one group of hashtags to get your content seen by different people.
My best advice is to come up with a list of hashtags that you can use and swap out on your posts across social media channels. Make sure you keep it updated with trending ones, and remove any that may get banned or are no longer being used widely
If you are a photographer, a florist, or own a food based business, chances are you are on Instagram. For visual based businesses like your, is Instagram the right platform for you?
The short answer is yes!
Australia alone has 5 million active users on this platform. Australians, most specially women are fond of instragramming for random purposes. Some are consuming this for entertainment, education and now, even for businesses.
It enhances customers’ experience more nowadays as it has been considered as photo and video centric allowing people to share images and videos, record stories and go live.
Instagram for Business
Users are instagramming today, not only just for fun. What better way to tell the story of you business than through inspiring images?
In Australia, 31% of businesses are using this social network to market their business.
And if you started off with a personal account for your business and want to change to a business account, this is relatively easy; and using a business account will allow you to get access to analytics and insights. What you need to do is connect your business Facebook page by following the in-app prompts from “Switch to Business Profile” button found in Settings.
Once created, you can optimise your profile by changing it to your business name (if you haven’t already), username, profile photo and other details. Add as well adding your website and a short biography to let your followers know basic info about your brand.
Why Instagram is perfect for visual based businesses?
User friendly
Navigating Instagram app is very easy once you’ve started to engage with it. As this platform is only about sharing images and video, there are few things that you need to do.
It’s also be easy for followers to show interest in you through liking, commenting and reposting.
Ability to add great content
As they say ‘images tell the story in a thousand words’ you can use your imagination to create stunning images and video to tell the story that word alone can not. It will instantly be displayed in the news feed and people following can see it. Too, making sure you add in an enticing description/caption with appropriate hashtags can amplify the reach of your content.
Grow your community through interacting
Just as followers can interact with your content, you should also interact with content from others, especially influencers in your industry. There are several options to do it:
Liking – this is the simplest way. Double-tapping the photo or tapping the heart button under the post means ‘Like’. It’s the easiest to do, but if you really want to boost your visibility, move to the next option.
Commenting – Posting comments and reply to images can be done by hitting the button next to like button, type the comment and send. Even better if you can tag in the account name of the image you are commenting on.
Mention – @ can be use to tag the other users on comments and posts. This will allow the specific person to get notified and can help you get noticed by more people. Just don’t spam
Direct message – Instagram Direct is sending private message, photo and video to other people. This is one good way for you to answer client’s inquiries, questions, suggestions and allows you to take private what you don’t want on your public page.
Instagram has been helping many businesses to grow through posting images and videos that tell the story of their business. As many people prefer visual content, this platform has the potential to increase your visibility online and drive more business for you!
If you want help getting more out of your social media marketing, please download our free step by step guide today!
With so many social media channels consuming our everyday lives, it’s sometimes a little hard to know which one to use for which occasion. The picture below gives a fun and succinct way to determining the social media platform where it is most appropriate place to be telling your followers what you’re up to – especially outside of work hours!
And it also goes without saying, think before you update. There’s nothing worse than having to explain to family, friends or your boss exactly what you mean by THAT tweet.
So what social media platform do I use?
With over 300 social media platforms to choose from, it’s no wonder that there can be confusion about which one to use. It’s important to note that you can (and indeed should!) recycle your content, especially if it’s directing traffic to your website. However, you need to be using appropriate tone, language and messaging based on what channel you are using.
I love this image as it gives a simple flow chart (and who doesn’t love a flow chart…) on what update goes where. Though posts Google+ and Foursquare are unlikely to be seen by anyone!
Things to think about
These are the important things to consider when choosing a social media platform to post on:
Am I happy for this post to be public?
Where am I updating from? Are you at a community event, or out to dinner with friends?
Is it business or personal? And following this, can you justify your update to your boss?
How personal is the information you’re about to share?
Is what your about to say of interest to your friends or co-workers?
Over to you!
What to you take into consideration before tweeting or posting? How much personal information do you share with the world?
If you want help getting more out of your social media marketing, please download our free step by step guide today!
A lead magnet is an incentive like a free piece of content or a discount, that marketers offer to potential customers in exchange for their information such as email address or or phone number. If you are serious about growing a decent sized email database, you’ll need a lead magnet in your marketing collateral if you want to generate leads online. Usually a lead magnet offers a downloadable piece content, such as video, report, eBook and others. But it can also be an offer like a try before you by or percentage discount.
Getting an email address is a step towards building a relationship with your new lead. Because an email address is a personal piece of information, if you want their email address, you should offer something for it in return. By simply asking your subscribers to submit or give their email address and join your list may not have a great impact at all. But if you offer something to them in exchange of their email, the results will be better.
A lead magnet is a critical part of website optimisation because it enables websites to capture leads. It is also the first step in building a successful email campaign. By using a solid and engaging lead magnet, your business can build a huge email list and cultivate an audience of potential subscribers and return visitors that you can promote your content to. Never underestimate the power of a large email database.
What makes a Quality Lead Magnet?
Your lead magnet should offer something nothing else offers. What makes you different to your competitors, and how can you reflect that in an offer?
Offer a Bundled Package. Many of your competitors are offering different free resources. Try to tempt your visitors with a package of resources rather than a single one. If one free resource can have significant value, just imagine how much more if you offer many?
A great lead magnet should offer solution. You should be able to come up with solutions to your audience problems. Your subscribers have specific problems and they immediately want solutions, if you can’t provide it to them then you are unlikely to have anyone take up your offer.
Lead magnets should add as much value as possible. Avoid giving or setting unrealistic expectations. You can also explain why your lead magnet is valuable to them. Explain to them what you’re offering to them in exchange of their email address.
Your lead magnet should have a specific target. You should be able to know who you’re target is and who it’s designed for.
In today’s world, building a solid email list is critical for your online success. One of the best ways to get more email subscriber is through lead magnet. Believe it or not, having a well thought out lead magnet will help your business to grow.
If you want help getting more out of your social media marketing, please download our free step by step guide today!
