Tag Archive for: Social Media

You don’t have to search for long to see that most businesses in Whistler conduct excellent customer service on social media. But how many businesses consider it to be their main support channel?

As we move further into the digital age, emails and phone calls are taking a lesser role when it comes to customer care. Instead, people are choosing to turn to social media to voice their complaints and complements towards businesses. Offering many benefits to both small businesses and to customers, here’s why social media is the future of customer service, and why – if you aren’t already – you should be consistently and promptly responding to customers online.

The power of social media

Social media already dominates internet activity. With over 1.5 billion Facebook users and 400 million Instagram users, the power of social media is ever-growing, and becoming increasingly accessible to people all over the world. With so many users, brands are able to reach an unlimited number of potential customers.

It’s customers preferred method of communication

90% of users prefer to use social media over other methods to communicate with brands. Understandably, people don’t want to wait hours for a response, or sit waiting on hold. Customers require instant gratification, and now expect companies to use social customer service to answer issues and problems immediately.

Phone conversations can occasionally leave customers with a negative impression of a business due to miscommunication. With text-based customer support, it is much easier for your team to understand and translate a customers issues, simplifying the process for both customers and companies.

It’s an inexpensive solution

Shifting customer service to social media has great financial benefits. On average, it costs $1 to solve a customer issue on social media…with conventional phone calls, solving the same issue often costs 6 times as much. This is partly due to the fact that customer service agents can solve problems much more efficiently through social media, and decrease the time spent on each issue.

It improves and increases brand reputation

Thanks to social media, customer service has become a spectator’s sport. But this can really work in your favour!

If you fail to respond, you’ll give off the message that you are arrogant and have nothing to offer in terms of a solution – all of which, as you can imagine, will greatly damage your reputation. However, provided you deal with situations appropriately and promptly, your outstanding customer service will play out in full view of the public. Your audience will be able to see that you are a trustworthy business that cares about your customers, and brand awareness will grow accordingly.

It benefits an integrated marketing approach

A successful marketing campaign can only succeed if it’s backed up by strong and solid customer service. Nailing the social customer service experience is particularly important for local businesses, as potential customers are likely to look up reviews before purchasing your products or services.

We cannot stress enough the importance of an integrated marketing approach. To create a seamless and positive image of your brand, it’s important to consider every aspect of your marketing strategy from awareness building to how you handle post-sale customer service. If you haven’t already invested in social media, now is the perfect time to get started. Cloud9 offer strategy consultancy and monthly social media services, and we would be happy to discuss all the ways in which you can improve the online customer experience. To get in contact, please click here.

delegate-marketing

We are a marketing agency, so of course we’re going to tell you that marketing your business is important. Unless you are offering the world’s most fantastic product or service, have no competition whatsoever and don’t care to improve performance or profits, marketing should be a priority. But as a business owner you may not have the skills, knowledge or know-how (or interest) to execute marketing strategies that work. It is important to understand when it is time to delegate any aspect of your business for the overall good, and marketing is usually one of the first areas to be handed over to professionals. Not sure if it’s time you left your business’s marketing to the pros? Here’s are some signs.

  1. Your Facebook Business Page Header hasn’t been updated all year

If your Facebook Business Page headers hasn’t been updated in months, if it contains pixelated or cropped images, or is some cheesy stock photo that doesn’t represent your business or brand, it’s a sign you are not using Facebook to its fullest potential. All of this is assuming you have a Facebook Business Page, and if you don’t, stop reading right now and hand over the marketing reigns to a professional this second. Facebook is an excellent portal for potential customers to get to know your brand, and your Facebook header is an opportunity to let them know what is new and exciting with your company, or to explore what it is that you stand for.

  1. Your last Blog Post was in 2011

If you can get past how silly the word ‘Blog’ sounds and get to the underlying function of a Blog, you will see the importance of it and hopefully stop neglecting this crucial part of your website. A Blog is a way to introduce fresh content to your website; search engines like this. Blogging about topics, products and industry news and events can help your business or brand gain authority, can provide value to your customers, and will provide you with more opportunities to be found on search engines. Don’t be that business that blogs once a year and then gives up. A regular and engaging Blog is an important part of every businesses content marketing strategy.

  1. You don’t have an Instagram Account

We know that the world of social media can be overwhelming, and that it’s hard to stay on the bleeding edge of every new social channel and update online. Instagram is now mainstream, and if your business is not using it yet, you are getting well left behind. We can’t think of too many businesses that wouldn’t benefit from an Instagram account. The visually appealing content is a great tool for story-telling and building brand awareness, and is the place to reach the millennial demographic. We get it if you’re scared of adopting new social channels into the mix, let us do it for you.

  1. Your website doesn’t display on mobile phones

Have you recently had someone tell you that your website doesn’t display well on mobile phones? Check yours right now, is it clear and easy to navigate from your mobile? If the answer is no, your website is not responsive, and you are potentially missing out on over half of web visitors because of this flaw. Mobile browsing minutes accounted for 70 percent of all browsing minutes in 2016. Websites should now be designed mobile-first, meaning appealing to mobile users before desktop users because mobile devices are what people are using to browse and buy online these days.

  1. You have no idea what SEO stands for

Do the acronyms SEO, SEM and SMM baffle your mind? If you don’t know what the all-important SEO stands for, it’s time for you to step aside and let the professionals handle your marketing. SEO stands for search engine optimization. Essentially it is how people find your business online (for an in-depth explanation, see here). This is such an important thing for the success and longevity of your business we cannot even begin to explain. Without SEO you do not exist to pretty much everyone on the internet. Period.

  1. You rather do just about everything else but work on your marketing

If you’re not jumping out of bed jazzed about marketing, you likely aren’t giving it the energy and attention that it requires. And why should you? You are running a business and probably have a lot on your plate. A good business owner knows when it’s time to part ways with different aspects of the business. If taking your dog out for a pee in the morning is more exciting than checking your web analytics, it’s time to delegate to an agency.

Lucky for you there are people that dream about digital design, study social media engagement and obsess about SEO. Here at Cloud9 Marketing we get our kicks from helping business like yours kill it online with tailored results-driven marketing strategies that get noticed. Can we help take your businesses marketing efforts to the next level? Schedule a one-hour free consultation and let’s chat.

Facebook Advertising

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.

digital marketing ipad

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.

whistler social media marketing

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.

facebook-engagement

If you haven’t noticed yet, Facebook’s organic reach has drastically declined. A post that may have reached a quarter of your fans years ago now luckily gets exposed to a small handful (if any). That’s right, the free ride is over and in order for you to be seen or heard on Facebook you will have to work really hard (or pay) for it. Besides investing in Facebook Advertising, engagement is key to your ongoing success. You can’t just slap up a few half-hearted posts and expect grand results. Like most things in life what you put in is what you get out; persistence, routine and a bit of money will be the success of your Facebook Page.

Create meaningful content

In the real world, no one wants to hear about what you had for breakfast, how you’re feeling moment to moment or your opinions and attitudes about the meaning of life. The digital world is the same. If you are constantly posting about ‘me-me-me’ people are going to simply tune out. In order to keep your fans happy and engaged create meaningful content that will benefit them! Do you offer some great products or services? Fantastic! How will it benefit your target market? How can you make it personal to each and every one of your fans? When creating meaningful content ensure you are using a beautiful or catchy image with a powerful status update or headline.

Have a call to action

What do you want people to do with your post? Do you want them to like it? Make a comment? Share it? Visit your website? Having a clear call to action is essential for making any type of progress on Facebook. When formulating a post ask yourself, “what do I want my fans to do with this information?” Perhaps you would like some basic engagement in the way of likes to increase post reach. Perhaps you want to create a conversation by asking for comments. Alternatively maybe you would like to direct your fans to your website and take advantage of an amazing deal or offer. Make this crystal clear. Not only will creating a solid call to action help you achieve your business goals but it will increase engagement and reach on your Facebook Page.

Engage with your Fans

It’s great to be in Facebook-land posting and talking away but it is all absolutely pointless unless you are listening too. When Fans engage with you, make sure the communication is a two way street! It is selfish and useless to create an amazing post with a great call to action and then abandon it like yesterday’s news. Keep the conversation going like your life depends on it! The more engagement you can get with your fans, the more meaningful your post will be and the more reach your page will get.

Stick to a schedule

Frequency and consistency are key to creating a base of loyal fans. To compete with every other business in the world on Facebook you need to stay recent and relevant in the minds of your Facebook Community. Creating a posting schedule using platforms like Hootsuite or Sprout Social can help you organize your posts in advance so you’re not wasting countless hours dreaming up posts while you could be using those valuable brain cells on much more important contributions. When scheduling your posts, ensure to switch up the content. No one wants to hear about your products and special offers day in and day out. What is appealing to your target market? Give them information that will satisfy their needs (and then slip in some information about your promotions or products too). Remember to research what is the best time of day to post for your industry. Knowing when your target market is online can make a huge impact on what type of engagement your posts get.

Pay for ads

If you spend money on Facebook advertising you shall be rewarded, and come on, compared to conventional advertising it’s pretty cheap! It can’t hurt to boost your page for a few days every month to generate new fans. One of the best features of Facebook advertising is how targeted you can be. By narrowing down your target market using geographic, demographic and behavioural characteristics you can essentially hand-pick who you want to broadcast to. Don’t forget to boost the odd post here and there too. If you have something you want heard far and wide- spend a few bucks and get that post seen!

It takes a lot of time, effort and persistence to create a successful Facebook Page with a loyal fan base. Not only is it a lot of work, but Facebook is constantly changing its algorithms to dictate how the platform operates. When operating a business, most business owners and Managers simply don’t have the time to effectively focus on their social media presence. At Cloud9 Marketing we help businesses small and large manage their online image. We understand algorithms, impressions and hashtags but most of all we understand how to get results online through social media, branding, content development, search engine optimization and more. Contact us today!

social-media-goals

You are probably tired of hearing how important social media is for your business. If you are like many you may be wondering how the effort spent on social media actually translates to a return on investment (ROI). It is not uncommon for business owners to delegate social media efforts to front-line staff, or take a stab in the dark themselves, with no notable results. Like any business venture, setting measurable goals is essential for ensuring the hours spent posting and tweeting is time well spent. Setting SMART goals on the most important social media metrics is essential for achieving results. Don’t recall SMART goals from Business101? They are goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely. Below are 5 social media metrics with an example SMART goal for each.

Followers/ Likers

Think of Followers and Likers as your audience. These are potential customers who are interested enough in your brand to tune in to what you say and do. There are two ways to generate followers and likers, organically and through paid advertising. Organic followers are the cream of the crop as these people are genuinely interested in your brand and took their own initiative to follow what you do. Paid advertising is a great way to boost your followers/likers and social media advertising is targeted so you can ensure you are recruiting your target market through these ads.

GOAL: To increase followers/likers organically by 10% between September and December 2015.

If you currently have a following of 500 people a 10% increase would equate to an additional 50 followers. This is easy to measure and a 10% increase should be achievable for most businesses.

Reach

Reach is an important metric when posting on a Facebook Page. Reach is the number of people who saw your post. Don’t confuse reach for impressions. Impressions are the times your post was viewed keeping in mind your post could be viewed multiple times by the same person. Facebook algorithms have changed significantly over the last few years and organic reach is harder to achieve. To get the furthest reach on Facebook you need to pay for advertising. Measuring your paid reach is a good way of assessing how effective your Facebook ad campaign is.

GOAL: To reach 1500 people with Facebook ad XYZ between Sept 1st and Sept 15th 2015

As your ad runs you will be able

social media for branding

As the year starts to wind down, it’s easy to become a little bit nostalgic. A lot has changed in the past few years – surely in your personal life, but in your business, too.

For instance, just think of all of the brand development opportunities that have arisen over the past decade with the advent of social media. Branding for today’s businesses is radically different than it was even just a few years ago.

Taking advantage of these opportunities is a given for today’s leading brands – and for a good reason. Here are just a few ways that social media can help take your branding to the next level.

Become Recognizable

Building a brand is about creating something that your customers and clients can identify easily. Social media can you help you expand your brand’s presence. You can be in front of your customers whenever they’re scrolling through their Twitter feed or checking out Facebook updates (which is virtually all the time) – now that sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

Create a Consistent Voice

Your brand should be consistent throughout all channels, including social media. As potential and existing clients and customers become accustomed to your social media presence, they’ll come to recognize your voice, building familiarity with your brand.

Connect with Influencers

Use social media to embrace your brand’s biggest fans. Loyal customers are worth their weight in gold: not only can you count on their continued business, you can also expect them to introduce your brand to their own personal networks. With social media, you can build a direct relationship with those influencers, like offering your cheerleaders early access to a sale, a bonus perk with their order or booking, or sneak peeks into upcoming events and releases.

Establish Trust

Social media isn’t just for connecting with your biggest cheerleaders: it’s also for connecting with your future cheerleaders. Through social media, you can really let your brand’s personality shine, building relationships with new fans and earning that coveted brand loyalty.

Be More Than a Brand

Your brand is more than just a name and a logo and social media allows you to showcase that. Through social media, you can build a community that shows what your company is really all about. Customers and clients will gain a better understanding of who you are and what you do.

Share the Brand Love

Customers and clients are engaging brands like never before through social media channels. They’ll post a picture on Instagram showcasing a recent purchase, or will Tweet their praises after a positive customer service experience. Social media – both your own use and your customers’ use – can help others share a brand experience.

On the flipside, customers will take to social media to announce when they’re dissatisfied. Savvy companies will take this opportunity to fix the problem directly with the unsatisfied customer, turning a negative experience into a positive opportunity. People are going to complain whether the company in question is on social media or not – wouldn’t you like to have the chance to hear about the problem so that you can fix it?

Listen, then Strategize

Social media is a two way street – don’t forget to listen! Your customers and clients are constantly providing feedback on your brand through social media. Scan your Facebook page, see what blog posts are getting the most hits, and scour relevant hashtags – and learn something from them. Use your findings to update your brand strategy and to stay connected to your target market.

If you’re thinking about building your brand through social media (or improving your existing social media presence), don’t hesitate to get in touch with Cloud9 Marketing. We’re here to help – this is what we do!

social media business credibility

Imagine that you had the opportunity to have a face-to-face conversation with each and every one of your existing and potential customers.

That sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? While it would be incredibly time consuming to actually accomplish this, social media allows a business to establish a more personal connection to customers than ever before.

Creating a strong connection with customers is a good thing: it establishes trust, builds credibility, and demonstrates the personality behind a company, distinguishing it from other competitors in the field. Here’s what you need to do to get there:

Be a Credible Source of Information

Show your fans and followers that you are an expert in your field by being the go-to source for relevant information. The more you share valuable information, the more you gain authority; the more authority you have, the more you are perceived to be an expert in your field.

Focus on Your Followers

Though it might seem counter-intuitive, your business’s social media is not just about you—it’s about your followers. While you definitely want to include news about your company and your product, you also want to maintain a balance by including other information that might appeal to those reading your social media content.

Take Customer Service to the Next Level

Social media provides a business the opportunity to show its customers that the company really cares. A sound social media strategy will allow you to keep your finger on the pulse, anticipating what your customers want and responding to any customer service complaints swiftly and appropriately. Social media allows you to connect with customers like never before: you simply cannot afford to miss out.

Interact With Your Community

Build trust with your customers by creating a bona fide community around your business. Encourage your followers to ask questions (and, of course, answer them!).

Engage community members to participate in your social media initiatives, and create a two-way dialogue with your customers. Don’t forget to listen: when you take the time to really hear what your customers have to say, you can gain knowledge that will help you improve your products and policies.

Let Your Customers Speak

The best way to boost your credibility is to let your satisfied customers do the work for you.

Encourage happy customers to share their testimonials on social media, and highlight their Tweets, photos, or posts on your own social media. It’s one thing to tell your customers how great you are, but it’s even more effective to have your loyal fans share their satisfaction with their own community. Begin to see your happy customers as brand ambassadors, and embrace them within your social media strategy.

Be Authentic

If you are not being fully and completely authentic in your company’s social media initiatives, then you are missing the point. It’s hard to build a connection with a phony person, and it’s even more difficult to do so with an inauthentic brand.

Use your business’s strategy and values to shape your social media strategy. Maintain a consistent, honest imagine across your social media channels. Give your customers a behind-the-scenes peek into the people and processes behind your product. Don’t be afraid to reveal your company’s true personality.

Tag Archive for: Social Media