Statistics to Consider for Your Social Media Strategy

We were pretty surprised looking at some of the social media statistics for 2013. If you’re handling the social media aspect of your business, you might find it useful to know about them.

Here are some stats that will probably make you revise your social media approach:

Demographics

Twitter’s fastest growing demographic is aged between 55 and 64 years. There has been a growth of 79% since the year 2012. On Google+ and Facebook, it’s the 45-54 year bracket that has grown the fastest. This group has increased 46% for Facebook and 56% for Google+.

This goes against the common line of thinking that social media is predominantly used by teenagers. So you need to have a sound social strategy if your target demographics are these age brackets. Give special consideration to older users when using social media on these three platforms.

Facebook Mobile Users

Facebook has 189 million users who are "mobile only". In addition, mobile usage is responsible for generating 30% of Facebook’s total ad revenue. This is 7% over the figures at the end of 2012.

Before posting your content, it’s worthwhile to consider how it will display on mobile devices and tablets. Ensure that the process of sharing on social media via mobile is straightforward.

YouTube Users

As far as U.S. adults aged between 18 and 34 go, YouTube has a wider reach than all cable networks. So with them, TV is certainly not the best way to reach out. Of course, a single video might not have a wider reach than cable networks. But it definitely makes sense to use a platform which has such a huge user base.

If your social strategy doesn’t include videos, it’s time to include some right away. We suggest you make a start using simple 5 to 7 minute videos introducing your team and describing your company’s activities.

LinkedIn Members

LinkedIn has two new members joining in every second. This platform offers lots of information and conversations to professionals looking to connect within their industries. It includes groups, blogs, job listings and more.

It’s worthwhile to pay attention to LinkedIn, especially if you’re interested in roping in new users. If you make your community or group an information-rich and newbie-friendly setup, you can reap maximum benefits with the growing user base.

Though LinkedIn’s user base is increasing fast, its active users are fewer than most other big social networks. This means that you might not get as good responses with participatory content like contests and polls, as you would on Twitter and Facebook.

So if you want people to get involved, consider platforms with better active user statistics. Passive content such as slide decks and blog posts are ideal for LinkedIn.

Social Media Presence

Social media is more predominant now than ever before. It appears to be more than a fad or passing phase. It’s growing as a habit and various new platforms are coming up. It makes sound sense to invest time and efforts in social media strategies considering these stats.

How B2B Social Can Become a Tool for Lead Generation

Marketers dream of arriving at a magical formula that can help them get the lowest possible CPL (cost per lead) and the highest conversion rates. They try to leverage social and technology in optimal ways for this. We’ve found the scene is much the same when it comes to B2B.

Here are some tips on B2B lead generation from experts:

Working on User Experience

A corporate website can serve as an important instrument for lead generation. Your audience needs to be served with interesting information that it can use right away. Introduce it to all that’s possible and show how to go about it. Use leading-edge technology and web designs to create a great user experience. More importantly, ensure that your site always remains mobile friendly.

The Twitter environment is such that the volume and speed of information can be leveraged for tremendous lead generation. It sometimes proves a challenge too because with around 6,000 tweets per second, what you say gets buried in a very short while.  

Facilitating Sharing

A notable tip for nurturing leads is the use of pop-unders instead of commonly used pop-ups. While your prospective customers are filling a form, you can serve them with targeted content they need on another mini site in a window behind.

Experts strongly recommend pre-populating social sharing forms using suitable baits on different channels like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Using Twitter

For generating leads using Twitter, the principles to keep in mind are as follows:

·         At acquisition stage, try to keep it as real as possible. Present yourself in such a way that you appear as a celebrity brand without appearing vain. Your content should not appear less interesting because of overexposure. Include as much information as required. 

·         At the nurturing stage, plan how you’re going to move people from inactivity to activity. Instead of your own preferences, think about what people like. They’ll click only when they like something. You need to think about the touch points in the near future.

·         A tweet has a life span of about 18 minutes. For increased lead generation, carefully watch the audience and make adjustments according to what works during this time.

Crafting Lead Generation Cards on Twitter

·         Content must not be merely titles and headlines. It must include valuable information for those who do not know about you.

·         Users need to know an email will follow so that they check for it even if it lands up in the junk.

·         Try to keep the text simple. Consider creation of multiple images of all assets you wish to promote.

·         Encourage people to take immediate action with things like download now and sign up now. Ensure that people can access your content right away because this is not Twitter’s responsibility.

User Experience is Important

For each asset that’s downloaded, it’s a good idea to send across an automated email a few days later mentioning that users can get some additional related data points for free.

Focus on Lead Generation more than Social.

Studies showed that the use of Twitter cards as a lead acquisition tool resulted in a 996% rise in acquired leads with a 500% decrease in CPL. As against other tools, Twitter cards do not require people to click out. This resulted in a three-fold increase in ROI as compared to LinkedIn or Facebook. Importantly, followers must not be your only targets - move outside and find relevant discussions and hashtags.

7 Reasons Why Your eCommerce Site Needs a Blog

Do eCommerce sites need a blog? Yes, they do. There are plenty of reasons to add a blog to your eCommerce site. Many webmasters wrongly assume that adding a blog to their site may distract people from buying. The truth is that it doesn't. On the other hand, your blog may encourage more people to buy from you. Here are seven reasons to add a blog to your eCommerce site.

1. Blogging gives you and your business a voice

When you blog on a regular basis, you will be able to create a unique voice for your online business. When you have a blog where you post useful information about your products, consumers will feel more comfortable buying from you. People want to know as much as possible about the products they are buying. A blog will make it possible. If your eCommerce site merely lists your items for sale, people will be less sure of buying from you.

2. Blogging gives more opportunities to reach your target customer

As an online business, you want more and more people to stop by your site and buy stuff. If you frequently blog, you will have more pages on your site. All of these pages can act as great entry points. If your site only has product pages, you seriously limit your chances of getting found online.

3. Blogging attracts more search traffic

We have seen this happening in numerous cases. When an eCommerce site starts blogging, its search traffic generally goes up. Search engines like sites that are constantly updated with fresh content. Since blogging gives you an opportunity to add new and useful content on a regular basis, it will improve your search ranking. Higher search rankings will bring in more visitors and more sales.

4. Blogging attracts more social shares

You blog when you have something that you want to share with others. If it is worth sharing, more and more people will readily share it on social media. When your content gets shared on the social media, you will get more visitors. Search engines have started looking at social shares as a measure of a site's popularity. This will improve your search rankings. Blogging also allows you to post different kinds of content on your social media channels.

5. Blogging gives more opportunities to convince people into buying

Every time you publish a new blog post, you can direct customers to different product pages on your site. You don't have to blog about just one product all the time. You can also blog about trends, best-selling products, testimonials, or just about anything that will bring you closer and closer to your target audience. Remember that every blog post is a great opportunity to sell.

6. Blogging attracts more backlinks

When you post useful content on your blog, other blogs in your niche will link to you. This attracts backlinks. As you probably know backlinks play a significant role in determining your search ranking.

7. Blogging attracts more buyers to your sales funnel

If you are serious about your business, you will definitely want to explore all possible ways to attract buyers into your sales funnel. Of course, your email subscriber list is your biggest asset. Your list will grow when you provide incentives such as freebies or discounts to sign up. Your blog is a great platform to communicate these offers to your audience.