Social media is a community building tool which helps your brand to build authority and engage with customers. It’s important that this be authentic and relevant to your customers. Check out more advice on social media on our blog.

Hand holding a yellow hashtag in front of a pink background

Are Instagram Hashtags Dead in 2023?

In the dynamic landscape of Instagram marketing in 2023, the age-old question persists: “Are Instagram hashtags dead?” While the debate continues, one thing is clear – Instagram hashtags are far from obsolete. However, the game has evolved, and in the current era, keywords reign supreme, reshaping how we approach content on this ever-popular social media platform.

The Evolution of Instagram Strategies


Keywords Take Center Stage

In 2023, the Instagram landscape has shifted towards a more nuanced approach. While hashtags continue to play a vital role, keywords have emerged as the kings of content optimization. The entire caption box and even the bio, including the ‘name’ field, are now SEO battlegrounds where the strategic use of keywords can significantly impact visibility.

 

Rethinking the 3-5 Hashtag Myth

The once-prescribed “3-5 hashtags” rule has become a point of contention. In 2023, it’s clear that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t necessarily apply. Influencers and marketers are experimenting, some finding success with a more restricted number of hashtags, while others swear by the full 30. The key lies in understanding your audience, monitoring performance metrics, and adapting your strategy accordingly.

 

Phone showcasing an Instagram profile in front of a plate of burgers

The Power of Keywords in Captions and Bios

As Instagram becomes increasingly SEO-centric, optimizing captions and bios with relevant keywords becomes non-negotiable. Crafting compelling and keyword-rich captions enhances discoverability, making your content more accessible to a wider audience. The ‘name’ field, once a mere identifier, is now a valuable space for strategic keyword placement.


Example in Action:

Before: “Enjoying coffee on a Sunday. #CoffeeLover #SundayVibes”

After: “Savoring a relaxing Sunday with my favorite brew. ☕ #WeekendCoffee #SundayChill”

 

The Renaissance of Niche-Specific Instagram Hashtags

In the quest for optimal engagement, niche-specific hashtags are experiencing a renaissance in 2023. Instagram’s refined algorithms favor content specificity, making targeted hashtags essential. Collaborating with micro-influencers within a niche and utilizing their branded hashtags has proven effective, fostering authenticity and deeper connections with the audience.


Example in Action:

Before: “Fitness journey! #Workout #FitnessGoals”

After: “Elevating my fitness game with targeted routines. 🏋️‍♂️ #HIITChallenge #FitLifeJourney”

 

Girl with space buns pointing to a sign of 341 likes

Micro-Influencers and Their Instagram Hashtag Magic

Micro-influencers, once overshadowed by their larger counterparts, are now wielding significant influence in the hashtag game. Collaborations with micro-influencers within specific niches contribute not only to increased engagement but also to the creation of a genuine community around a brand.


Example in Action:

Before: “New skincare routine! #Skincare #GlowingSkin”

After: “Trying out @MicroInfluencer’s recommended products for radiant skin. ✨ #MicroInfluencerTips #SkincareRoutine”

 

Brand-Generated Hashtags: The Community Catalyst

Brand-generated hashtags are more than trends; they are community catalysts. In 2023, brands are leveraging custom hashtags to encourage user-generated content, turning customers into brand ambassadors. This approach not only strengthens brand loyalty but also adds a human touch to the brand-consumer relationship.


Example in Action:

Before: “Our customers are the best! #CustomerAppreciation”

After: “Join the community! Share your moments with #BrandCommunityLove. 🤝❤️”

Striking the Right Balance


Keywords, Hashtags, and Balance

The sweet spot in 2023 lies in finding the perfect balance between keywords and hashtags. Rather than viewing them as mutually exclusive, successful Instagram marketers intertwine both elements seamlessly. A carefully curated combination of relevant keywords in captions and bios, along with a strategic selection of hashtags, can elevate your content above the digital noise.


Example in Action:

Before: “Exploring nature’s beauty. #Nature #Adventure”

After: “Immersing myself in the tranquility of nature. 🌿 #NatureEscape #OutdoorAdventures”

 

Macbook and iMac on a desk with a white bookshelf and potplant

 

In the ever-evolving world of Instagram marketing, the question isn’t whether hashtags are dead, but how they coexist with the new ruler of the realm – keywords. The advice of limiting hashtags to 3-5 may not be a universal truth in 2023. Instead, influencers and marketers must embrace experimentation, monitor results, and strike a delicate balance between the power of keywords and the enduring relevance of hashtags. As Instagram’s SEO landscape continues to mature, those who adapt and master this delicate dance will undoubtedly rise above the competition, carving a distinct space in the hearts and feeds of their followers.

Ready to elevate your Instagram game and boost your brand’s presence? Cloud9 Marketing is your trusted partner in navigating the ever-changing world of social media. Our team of experts are here to craft a personalised strategy for your business. Book a consultation today!

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5 strategies to grow organically on social media

Organic growth on social media is essential for any brand or business looking to build a solid online presence. To increase your followers and engage with your target audience, it’s essential to have a clear strategy and effective tactics. Here are five strategies you can use to grow organically on social media.

1. Develop a consistent content strategy: Creating quality content that resonates with your target audience and actively engaging with them is the key to organic growth on social media. Developing a content strategy and schedule that allows you to post engaging content regularly will help you build a loyal following.

2. Utilize user-generated content: Incorporating user-generated content into your social media strategy is a great way to build trust and engagement. Encourage your followers to share their content featuring your product or brand, and thank them for their efforts.

3. Leverage influencers: Partnering with influencers in your industry can significantly increase your reach and boost your organic growth on social media. Find influencers who align with your brand values and mission, and ask them to promote your product or service.

4. Focus on relationship building: Social media is all about relationships. Take the time to build relationships with your followers by engaging with them and responding to their comments and messages. This will help you establish a loyal following and grow organically.

5. Analyze and adjust: Analyzing the performance of your posts and campaigns is essential to understand what’s working and what’s not. Use data to track your performance and adjust your strategy to maximize your organic growth.

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Social Media Influencers
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What is Influencer Marketing (and does it really matter)?

Influencer marketing, a spin-off from celebrity endorsement, is on the rise. More and more companies are realizing its power and seeing a massive return on investment. Here’s our guide to why it’s effective and the best way to go about using influencers.

What is it?

An influencer is someone, usually with a high social media following, who has the ability to influence the purchasing decisions of others. They have a following in a particular niche and actively engage with their audience. You can use different types of influencers depending on your business needs and budget. Micro Influencers have between 2,000 and 100,000 followers but can produce significate results.

Measure

While the amount of followers plays a large part in how much influence someone will have, engagement is something that shouldn’t be ignored. Someone with 20,000 followers is likely to get more engagement than someone with 200 followers, but the idea is to be able to reach real people. Followers have to be earned not purchased, and, while bots and unqualified followers will have an impact on initial social media credibility, it is important to measure engagement. High engagement levels mean maximum results.

Get the right influencers for your product or service

There are thousands of influencers out there so how do you know which one is right for you? You need to look at how aligned a bloggers content is with your messaging. Even though they may have thousands of followers, and high engagement levels, if they are not relevant to your business, then the results will be less desirable. You want to choose an influencer who can naturally incorporate your brand into their own style. Working with an influencer who is passionate about your product or service will reflect in their posts. Find someone who you feel fits in with your brand voice.

Where can you find them

There are many sites to find influencers: Upluence, AspireIQ and Hypr are just a few. Make sure you look at metrics. These sites will show you a break down of their analytics so you can get an indication of how much of a return on investment you will receive.

The gift that keeps on giving

The beauty of influencer marketing is that it doesn’t stop with that post. Unlike other forms of marketing, posts about your product can come up months after the post. You will get the most results at the time of posting but it is not uncommon to see a second ‘spike’ especially if it is connected to an event.

Here at Cloud9 Marketing, we can help you with all your social media needs. Contact us for help on how you can use an influencer to promote your brand.

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What is Real-Time Marketing and Why is it Important?

Real-time marketing is nothing new, but thanks to the power of social media more and more businesses are starting to embrace it as an effective form of online marketing. RTM is bold, loud, and undoubtedly one of the best ways to garner attention. And even better, RTM doesn’t require fancy technology, extensive planning or complex automation: All you need is some clever timing. Here’s a breakdown of what real-time marketing entails, and how you can use it to increase traffic to your website and increase sales.

What is real-time marketing?

Businesses use real-time marketing to interact with their target audience based on current local, national or global events and trends. Brands can engage with their consumers and connect them to what they need at critical moments. This doesn’t mean that brands are jumping on every Internet trend, but rather adding value to certain online conversations.

RTM is the antithesis of planning ahead, as it relies entirely on relevant news and current crazes. Businesses use real-time marketing for live event promotion, location-based deals, and most commonly for social media engagements. One of the most notorious RTM strategies comes from OREO, and their single tweet during the infamous 2013 Super Bowl blackout.

What are the benefits of real-time marketing?

 

It’s impactful

Marketers often struggle to come up with new, innovative ways to engage the always connected consumer. Real-time marketing offers a solution. Enabling marketers to adapt their message to a specific context, RTM cuts through the noise and allows businesses to connect with people in the right place at the right time.

It increases engagement

With RTM, businesses can reach people interested in their products or services wherever, whenever. Instead of blasting out generic messages across all social media platforms, you can personalize these messages to spark a dialogue with consumers, and increase the quality of engagements.

It diversifies your content

While it’s important to show your expertise through longer forms of content, sometimes shorter pieces can have more of an impact. These bite-size pieces of content, such as graphics or tweets, offer a quick and easy way to inform and engage your audience, giving them something to remember!

It increases a sense of urgency

Everyone wants to be in on the latest trend. When businesses tailor marketing to consumers in a time of need, their products or services become more appealing. Urgency motivates people and incentivizes them to engage with your brand. By structuring your advertisements to reflect a current event or trend, consumers will recognize how useful your products or services are in the current moment.

It’s inexpensive

Real-time marketing does not require huge amounts of money, making it one of best ways for small businesses to market their products or services. With a bit of swiftness and creativity, you can easily connect your brand with current and potential customers through relating to the most popular Internet topics and crazes.

Whether or not you’re using real-time marketing for your brand, it’s important to be in the loop with what your customers are talking about online. Here at Cloud9 Marketing, we specialize in social media management, as well as brand story-telling and graphic design. If you want to take your businesses marketing efforts to the next level, schedule a free consultation with us to get started!

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How to Measure Social Media ROI

To measure social media Return on Investment (ROI), most businesses use the following formula:

Profit/ Investment x 100 = Social Media ROI

But this can be more complicated that it seems. For starters, how do you calculate profits? How do you work out which social media goals to set in the first place? And how do you prove which specific marketing campaigns were the ones to spark interest and drive sales?

If the concept of social media ROI feels a little daunting, you’re not alone. But calculating ROI doesn’t have to be complicated and time-consuming. We’ve composed a simple step-by-step guide that will help you measure your social media profits, and save a whole lot of time and money in the long run.

By seeing which of your marketing efforts deliver great results, and which ones don’t do so well, you can focus on the campaigns that really matter to maximize your ROI.

#1 Define your goals

Before anything, you will need to carefully identify your key performance indicators. KPIs will show you the progress of your business goals, and make sure you stay on track.

The more specific your goals, the better. Brand awareness means something different to everyone, so make sure you agree on a single, quantifiable awareness goal that you will be able to measure afterwards. For example, you could track new followers, clicks on links, or online purchases made.

#2 Track your goals

With your goals clearly defined, it’s time to start tracking. An easy – and free! – way to track website actions like sales and downloads is with Google Analytics. For tracking social media interactions such as shares and likes, Buffer is also a great tool to use.

#3 Attach a dollar amount

Once you’ve tracked your actions, you’ll need to assign them a monetary value. This is where it gets interesting, as there are many ways to do this. You could…

  • Work out how much you earn on average from each customer
  • Calculate how much each online visit is worth to your business
  • Work out how much the average purchase is through your site
  • And finally, work out your PPC costs e.g. how much you would end up paying to achieve the same actions through ads.

#4 Track your social media expenses

For the final step, you’ll need to deduct your investments from your overall ROI. These often include:

  • Man-hours- Deduct the amount of time you or your employees spend on each specific social media campaign.
  • Content- If you paid for content, such as a freelance blogger, you will need to factor this in.
  • Social media tools- While Twitter and Facebook are free, often social media tools and services are not.
  • Ad costs- Remember to deduct the amount you spend on social media advertising, such as boosting Facebook posts and promoting tweets.

With your stats in front of you, you can calculate your ROI using the formula at the top of the page and see which of your social media marketing campaigns come out on top. Just remember your social media investments might be paying off whether or not you see a direct, immediate increase in revenue- so stick with it!

We understand that social media takes practice and may not be at the top of your to-do list if you’re running a small business. Our team at Cloud9 Marketing are social media whizzes, and would love to give a helping hand to boost brand awareness, improve online credibility, and increase sales. To put our social media management to the test, please get in contact! 

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Choosing the Right Social Media Platform for Your Small Business

So you’ve launched your website and opened your doors, but what’s next? To fully target your ideal demographic and start bringing in consistent sales, you’ll need to start marketing your business on social media. But even something as simple as choosing a social platform can be harder than you’d think…

In order to maximise your results, you need to make sure you choose a platform suitable to your business goals. Many small businesses make the mistake of tackling every social platform channel at once. However, we recommend starting with the most popular platform, and leaving the more experimental campaigns for later on.  Let’s take a look at some of the most major social platforms, and see how they are suited to your audience, preferences, and other demographics.

Facebook

Facebook is the universal social media network, with more than 2 billion monthly users. With over a quarter of the world’s population scrolling through their news feeds, you have an unparalleled opportunity to reach virtually anyone, anywhere. However, because it’s so vast, you’ll need to be strategic when it comes to generating engaging paid and organic content. You’re up against a lot of competition, so post content that sets you apart from other similar companies.

One great advantage of Facebook is that it has a very low cost of advertising, with many advertisers saying they spend less than $1 per lead. For more information, here’s how you can optimize your Facebook Business page for success.

Instagram

As the fastest growing social channel, brands are rushing to Instagram to showcase their business to a largely younger audience. With over 800 million monthly active users, Instagram commands a 2000% better engagement rate than Twitter, and 58% better than Facebook.

Instagram is great for small businesses who want to turn heads with visually interesting products or services, like real estate businesses, local restaurants, and retail stores. Features like Instagram Stories and Instagram Live make it easy to connect with your consumers, as you can humanize your brand and build trust with your customers through these more candid moments.

LinkedIn

With a community of over 450 million professionals that love to engage with other brands, LinkedIn is the typical choice for B2B businesses whose main goal is lead generation. Allowing you to access a whole new demographic you may not have been able to find on other platforms, LinkedIn offers a targeting unparalleled in the realm of digital advertising. However, while the temptation may be to develop as many connections as possible, fewer, more personal connections can often provide greater value.

Youtube

This one may seem unexpected, but as the world’s largest video site (and second largest search engine), Youtube is definitely something you should eventually turn your efforts towards.

Video is now surpassing text as the best medium to engage with your online target audience, as it commands more attention and evokes emotion faster than written content. While it requires a bit more effort than other platforms, it’s really not as difficult as it seems. Weekly content doesn’t need to be completely entertainment orientated, as how-to demonstrations and interviews do just as well. Once you establish yourself on the video sharing site, it also makes it very easy collaborate and build credible connections with other relevant local businesses and influencers.

With a bit of practice, social media marketing is an art form that you can master. However, we know that posting consistent content across your social media channels is not the easiest thing to do when running a small business. If you need any help getting started, Cloud9 Marketing can create and manage your social media campaigns with effective strategies that drive quality engagement. To see if our social media management works for you, please get in contact! We’d love to help.

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Facebook Advertising
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Facebook Advertising | What It Is and Why You Need It

Whether you are a new start up or a multi-national corporation, Facebook advertising is a tool that can’t be ignored. With 1.71 billion monthly active users and 1.13 billion daily active users in June 2016, Facebook is an undeniable force when it comes to connecting with your target market. With recent algorithm changes organic advertising (posts that aren’t paid for) are seeing a declining reach. Due to the large number of businesses using Facebook as a marketing tool, Facebook wants to ensure people’s timelines are not cluttered with spammy sales pitches therefor serious advertisers now need to pay to have their content seen. The upside to this is Facebook advertising is it’s affordable, laser focused and highly effective. Here we discuss more about what Facebook advertising is, and why you need to be using it.

What is Facebook Advertising?

Advertisements on Facebook are built in a business page, therefor in order to start advertising on Facebook a business and a personal page are needed. When creating a Facebook ad, you are essentially generating a Facebook post which will be displayed in the timelines or the right sidebar of your desired target audience. A new integration also allows you to have your ads displayed on Instagram. Facebook advertising is completely customizable and affordable. You can create an ad on Facebook for as little as $1 a day.

How Does It Work?

Facebook ads can be built via the Publishing Tools tab on a Facebook page, by boosting a post or with a Business Manager Facebook Account. A Business Manager Account that features an Ads Manager portal gives you the most control and insights when advertising with Facebook. When building a Facebook ad, you first select your advertising goal; examples of these include driving more traffic to your website, getting people to download an app, getting more page likes or generating phone calls to your business. Once your goal is defined you can select an audience. Audiences can be selected using location and demographic information, by remarketing to website visitors, targeting those who have submitted lead forms plus many other methods. After defining an audience, the budget and duration of your ad can be selected.  Finally, media (photo or video), and text can be added to create the perfect ad to reach your desired customers or clientele.

Why You Need to Be Doing It?

Simple put, people spend a ridiculous amount of time on social media. In the US, people spend nearly two hours a day on social networks. Organic reach on Facebook is a thing of the past and recent data shows less than .5 percent of Facebook fans will actually see your posts and updates. Facebook offers laser targeting allowing you to reach motivated customers when they’re online. Businesses can target location, demographics, age, gender, interest behaviour and connections. To get even more granular recent purchasing behaviour, life event targeting, look-a-like audiences and remarketing ads can also be used. Never has advertising been so cost effective and precise as what we are seeing with Facebook advertising.

Businesses around the world are seeing enormous results with Facebook advertising. If you haven’t started yet what are you waiting for? Let us help you achieving your online goals and reach your target market through Facebook ads. Contact Cloud9 Marketing today to learn about our affordable and effective social media packages for companies big and small.

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digital marketing ipad
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Hashtag 101- How to Use #Hashtags Like a Pro

How to use Hashtags

There is a lot of confusion surrounding hashtags. They seemed to pop up out of no where and now have over run the social media space. Hashtags done properly can be immensely powerful marketing tools but when used carelessly can be extremely annoying and possibly detrimental to your online reputation. We could sit here and bore you with the history of the hashtag, and how they’ve evolved in the digital space over the years but we will leave that to PaultheTrombonist in his hilarious video History of the Hashtag # while we enlighten you on how to apply hashtags in each of your social channels like a Pro.

What the #eck is the purpose of a hashtag?

Love them or hate them, hashtags are here to stay. There are many examples out there of hashtags done well (and probably even more of hashtags gone bad) but overall they serve three main purposes:

  1. To filter and categorize information
  2. To connect with people and unite messages
  3. To add to a brand

Here at Cloud9 Marketing, we represent a lot of businesses in the tourism industry here in beautiful Whistler, B.C. We obviously want people across social media platforms who are interested in travelling and visiting places like Whistler to view our posts. Because of this, we always ensure to append #Whistler to our posts. Other common hashtags we use are #ski #snowboard #adventure (you get it).  By doing this people interested in these topics can simply click on one of the above hashtags and all of our beautiful and engaging photos and posts will appear. If you went on Twitter or Instagram right now and typed in a hashtag that interested you (like #winewednesday for example), you will see thousands of posts all displaying the hashtag and theme.

If you run a business and want to connect with potential fans and followers, hashtags are an excellent way to do so. Say you have an online dog treat business and want to get more people following you on social media and ultimately order dog treats on your website. Conducting initial research on popular hashtags used in your industry on sites such as Tagboard will give you a good idea which tags will be popular with your target market. By consistently appending these hashtags to your posts you will get more likes, comments, shares and retweets simply by people interested in and following those hashtags.

Hashtags are also great tools for branding. If you have a promotion you are running or want to communicate your slogan or brand strengths in your posts, appending them as hashtags is a great way to communicate the message to your fans and followers. Take Coca Cola for example, their recent Share a Coke campaign has penetrated the social realm and the hashtag #ShareACoke has been appended to all of their relevant posts. The more your social community notices branded hashtags the more likely they are to engage with them.

Are they for all social channels?

Hashtags were born on Twitter, and are still important additions to any post on this channel although generally only one or two can be included due to the character limitations. Instagram is also the perfect platform for hashtags and relevant and trending hashtags are sure to increase engagement of your posts. Instagram has a maximum of 30 hashtags per post but it’s recommended to insert 5-10 relevant, trending and catchy tags. Unlike Twitter and Instagram, where hashtags unite the entire community of users, Facebook hashtags generally only unite current friends and followers, or large brands who don’t have their setting set to private. For that reason, individuals don’t use hashtags as much on Facebook as brands do however if you’re going to use them, it is suggested to keep them minimal, 1-2 shows the most engagement.

Hopefully now we’ve demystified the hashtag and you are ready to put them to use in your own social media strategy. Still confused or need help with your online marketing- we are here to help! Contact Cloud9 Marketing today and find out how we can assist you.

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search engine optimization SEO digital marketing
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10 Interesting Marketing Stats Not to Ignore

Marketing has come a long way in the last few years, if you ask people in the industry many would probably agree there have been more changes in marketing in the last 5 years, then there has been in the 50 years prior. With the explosion of the internet, uptake of mobile and ability to seamlessly track and monitor advertising spend and ROI online, it’s no surprise businesses around the world are diverting their budget to digital in 2016. Here are some key Marketing Stats that are so important to the way a business markets their products and services in both the B2B and B2C space, they simply cannot be ignored.

  1. In 2016 67% more leads will be generated by companies with an active blog

Content marketing is essential for optimal SEO performance and is the best way to drive traffic to your website. Blogging about useful, informative and engaging information that is relevant to your target market will drive traffic to your website, ultimately increasing conversions for your business.

  1. The average person now spends more time online then TV and all other media combined

This should come as no surprise. Smartphones, tablets and computers have become an extension of people’s bodies and people now turn to the internet instead of traditional media like TV, print and radio to get information.

  1. Total spending on Internet advertising is predicted to grow 12.9% next year. The Internet will become the largest medium for advertising in 2016 (ahead of TV)

Internet advertising is cost effective, highly targeted and traceable. These three features along with potential reach have seen the internet surpass TV for total ad spend.

  1. Social ad spending has doubled over the past two years.

Social media advertising is easy, cheap and effective. With platforms like Instagram now offering ad functionality, total social ad spend is expected to continue with double digit growth over the coming years.

  1. By 2019 mobile advertising will represent 72% of all US digital ad spending

As smartphones become more functional, and websites more mobile-friendly consumers will increasingly use their mobile to research and purchase products and services online.

  1. Digital marketing spend is forecasted to account for 35% of total budgets in 2016.

How much has your business allocated to digital marketing this year? Companies have noticed the value of online marketing and larger portions of budget are being spent on digital marketing.

  1. The top four channels for increases in digital marketing spend last year were email marketing (61% of marketers increasing spending on this channel), social media (49%), mobile marketing (40%), and SEO/PPC (38%)

Most businesses have a combination of email marketing, social media, mobile marketing and PPC as part of their digital marketing portfolio. It is getting rarer for companies not to leverage all four of these components to varying degrees.

  1. Mobile commerce is growing fast, 87% of internet users now have a smartphone – mobiles are revolutionizing business

Around the world smart phones and mobile uptake is becoming the norm presenting an enormous opportunity for mobile advertising.

  1. 93% of shoppers buying decisions are influenced by social media

Although social media is not known as the best conversion platform it is absolutely essential for brand awareness and influencing customers to choose your company over the competition. To increase conversions, social media advertising is very effective.

  1. Marketers who have prioritized blogging are 13x more likely to enjoy a positive ROI

Content marketing is commonly agreed by marketing experts to be the most important SEO element and those who commit to prioritizing blogging are seeing results.

There is no longer a question of having an online presence or not, and a website that’s not producing fresh content, or a social media presence that’s sitting stagnant, can do more harm then good online. The question now is having the right mix of online marketing components for your business to ensure you are reaching clients with the right message at the right time.

At Cloud9 Marketing we specialize in creating customized digital marketing strategies for our clients in Whistler BC and around the world. Whether it’s social media, SEO, web design, graphic design, content marketing and blogging or branding, we deliver results-driven, customer-centric and highly engaging digital marketing services communicating unique brands to the right people at the right time.

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whistler social media marketing
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How A Social Media Professional Will Improve Your Brands Reputation Online

Hiring a professional to manage your brands social media has immense benefits. With over 3 billion internet users around the world a social media professional could be your ticket to having your business seen and heard online.

If you’re familiar with social media, you may wonder why it’s best to outsource this part of your business to a professional. Even business owners who are confident and fluent with social media could probably make better use their time in other areas of the business. Agree? What may appear simple on the surface, the complexities of social media become quickly apparent when you begin to target your efforts and measure your results. Social media professionals can help grow your business online and improve your brands reputation. Here are the benefits of out-sourcing your social media to professionals.

Strategy

The most important tool for creating a successful social media presence is having a rock solid strategy. A social media professional will work with you to establish goals and objectives that will create the direction of your strategy. A social media presence without a strategy is like a train without a track. You’re moving, mostly forward, but are you actually getting to where you want to go?

A social media strategy will assess and define primary and secondary target markets which will determine the most appropriate social media channels to use. Once it’s clear what channels will be used a detailed posting calendar can be scheduled. Social Media professionals will use tools such as Hootsuite or Sprout Social to plan posts in advance. This avoids wasting time daily trying to figure out content. Spontaneous posting gets some of the best engagement and is important alongside scheduled posts.

A strong social media strategy is one that evaluates objectives, market research, channel coverage, hash tag strategies, target market, social media scheduling and engagement tactics.

Engagement

Social Media is much more then posting a few comments and pictures. A successful social media presence involves constantly building, networking and growing channels. It involves sharing meaningful information that helps your target market solve their problems and it includes sharing catchy, relevant and trending images, text and videos.

Being successful online involves a two-way exchange. A small portion of the content should be broadcasts of special deals, offers and events, but a majority of the posts should be about providing useful information to your fans and followers. Creating conversations around topics with fans and followers as well as industry and key influencers maximizes engagement.

Varied Skill Set

Social Media professionals have a varied skill set and can use graphic design, copy-writing and SEM skills to enhance your image online. Having appealing photos and videos, with catchy and concise copy that is delivered at the right time is key to increasing engagement. The importance of a varied skill set is often overlooked when business owners try to manage their own social accounts, or delegate them to front-line staff. Customers know a professional social media presence when they see it.

Reporting Metrics

Analyzing social media metrics is essential for determining if the goals and objectives set out in the strategy are being met. Metrics also provide insight on what’s working well, and what’s not working enabling a shift in strategy if necessary. Important metrics that your Social Media professional will monitor include Fan/Follower Growth, Impressions, Reach, Engagement, and Demographic Information.

With over 1.19b monthly active users on Facebook, 271m monthly active users on Twitter and 396m members on LinkedIn social media is the best vehicle to connect your business with current and prospective customers. As the online marketplace becomes increasingly competitive and complex across industries, having a professional manage your social media is more important than ever.

Cloud9 Marketing in Whistler, BC has Social Media professionals who provide results-driven strategies for a diverse range of clientele.  If you are ready to get serious about social media contact Cloud9 today.

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