I recently learned that Facebook is testing a dedicated video channel. YouTube, the leader in online video, has been feeling a pinch ever since Facebook released the option to directly upload videos to the platform.

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Targeting your ads is the most important piece of your paid strategy when it comes to attracting your ideal clients. Instagram ads rolled out a few months back, and I had to write this quick post to make sure everyone knows NOT to use this targeting feature:

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Creating a social media report can be excruciatingly tedious if you don’t know what to measure.

Collecting and reporting data has two main benefits:

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It’s pretty easy to get caught up with the “vanity metrics” on social media. You work hard to provide value to your followers, and with a good strategy and tons of effort, you slowly grow your follower count. So how come there seems to be an ongoing up and down? Followers come and then followers go. This is especially prevalent on Instagram and Twitter, and we’d be lying if we said it wasn’t a bummer!

BUT! [Read more…]

This blog about Instagram Mistakes is a feature from my good friend Michi Moore, founder of the Pretty+Profesh Community!

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Live streaming has quickly become one of the best ways to reach your current and potential customers.

Belle Strategies is a boutique Social Media Marketing company based in South Florida. Our team mixes innovative strategies with attention to detail for an online presence that produces tangible results. For assistance growing your brand on social media, contact us!

Live Streaming Tips: Three Things to Do Every Time You Stream

Belle Strategies is a boutique Social Media Marketing company based in South Florida. Our team mixes innovative strategies with attention to detail for an online presence that produces tangible results. For assistance growing your brand on social media, contact us!

Live streaming has quickly become one of the best ways to reach your current and potential customers.

This week, I have partnered up with Michi from Pretty+Profesh and I’ll be taking over her Periscope stream every day at 4:30 pm EST to talk about some of my most effective live streaming tips!

On today’s (Tuesday) stream, we’ll discuss picking a platform. If you miss the broadcast, that’s ok! Here are my top three live streaming platforms and why they could work for you.

Periscope

One of two mainstream apps, Periscope is Twitter’s live streaming platform that offers users the ability to jump on a live broadcast anywhere, anytime. Unless told otherwise, it automatically shares a LIVE notification with your Twitter followers, and offers viewers the ability to share your broadcast with their Periscope, Twitter or Facebook followers. The interface is extremely user-friendly, and it offers tons of great opportunities to connect with new, like-minded people.

Meerkat

The other mainstream app, Meerkat was introduced first but has not been able to keep it’s users coming back as regularly as Periscope. Ironically, Meerkat has a few capabilities that most brands/marketers love, but it seems they MAY not be enough to keep this platform on the up and up. Meerkat allows you to pre-schedule a stream up to 24 hours in advance. It also allows for a takeover where a viewer can jump in and control the stream. These are two hugely useful tools for any marketing campaign, but when it comes to the data – more live streamers use Periscope on a daily basis.

Blab.im

Some may not consider Blab.im a “live streaming” platform, but I do think it falls under that category because it allows it’s users to broadcast live – sooo, there’s that! If you haven’t tried out blab yet, you’re missing out. It’s Google Hangouts meets AIM Instant Messenger meets Periscope – and it’s as fun as it sounds. You can have your own “show” with up to three other guests (four people in the room at once) and there is a sidebar chat area where all the viewers can participate in the show. Users can jump in and out of seats creating a rotating round table feel. With users blabbing from all over the world, the networking opportunities should not be underestimated.

Be sure to check out the the tips from the rest of the week: Monday | Wednesday | Thursday

For more live streaming tips and other social media marketing trends, keep up with me on Twitter and Periscope @bellestrategies.

Belle Strategies is a boutique Social Media Marketing company based in South Florida. Our team mixes innovative strategies with attention to detail for an online presence that produces tangible results. For assistance growing your brand on social media, contact us!

I’m going to give it to you straight here friends. Are you prepared for this?

It does not matter how many TOTAL followers you have; it matters how many TARGETED followers you have.

Anyone in the social media marketing field knows this (and preaches it loudly from mountain tops) but outside of our bubble, many business owners haven’t realized this important fact. Targeted followers are the type of people who are most likely to engage with and buy from your company.

So how do you gain targeted followers? The principles are simple, but like anything worth having, it takes time and effort and doesn’t happen over night.

Here are my three favorite hacks to gain targeted followers:

1) Post Relevant Content

You can call me Captain Obvious on this one, but it bears repeating. I see too many businesses that COULD be making waves within their markets posting all the wrong content.

If you can’t determine what is relevant and what is not, look at your proposed options as if you were a consumer. In the words of the amazing influencer Brian Fanzo, think like a fan!

What would you want to see if you had no vested interest in your company yet? Go from there.

2) Get Your Hashtags Down

If you aren’t familiar with how Hashtags work, it’s very simple! Potential followers are using them to find your business. You read that right. Hashtagging your content properly means you show up where your potential followers can find you.

Research other businesses like yours to see which hashtags work for them and use analytics like hashtracker.com to determine the best ones for you. General rule of thumb: Facebook and Twitter – 3-ish hashtags; Instagram allows up to 30 and I recommend using them all up.

3) Engage Authentically

Every company, no matter how large, is run by people. Your consumers buy from you because somewhere along the way, they made an emotional connection to your brand or product. How does one make an emotional connection to paper towels you ask? I buy the same brand my mom always had around, don’t you?

Humanize your brand by engaging regularly with your followers. Respond to comments; thank people who take the time to appreciate what you’re doing; answer questions thoughtfully for everyone to see; reward them for their loyalty.

Last but not least, share! Share relevant content created by others in your industry. I cannot overstate this! Sharing is caring, and when you engage with purpose, the good karma comes back to you.

I have a fourth hack for those of you who want to gain targeted followers and have a budget to spend…

4) Utilize Facebook Advertising

Facebook has the most robust advertising platform of all the networks, and while many argue that the demographics are skewing too “old” nowadays, it’s the “old people” who have all the money.

If you are trying to gain targeted followers in the 25+ demo, you should be using Facebook Ads. They recently redesigned the Ads Manager UI, so bypass that enticing “boost” button and dig into their seemingly endless targeting options. Stretch your dollars by targeted location, age, gender, interests, purchase behavior and so much more.

That’s it! Just remember: There is no quick fix. And don’t even ask me about buying followers, just get outta here with that!

If my tips helped you, feel free to share them. Also, you can find me on Periscope @bellestrategies streaming all about this and other social media topics; find me there if you have questions – it’s always fun to engage live.  It’s my new addition!

Belle Strategies is a boutique Social Media Marketing company based in South Florida. Our team mixes innovative strategies with attention to detail for an online presence that produces tangible results. For assistance growing your brand on social media, contact us!

Live streaming has quickly become one of the best ways to reach your current and potential customers.

This week, I have partnered up with Michi from Pretty+Profesh and I’ll be taking over her Periscope stream every day at 4:30 pm EST to talk about some of my most effective live streaming tips!

On today’s (Monday) stream, we’ll discuss keeping it real. Specifically – how to inject your personality into your streams. If you miss the broadcast, that’s ok! Here are my top tips for being authentic on live streaming:

Introduce Yourself

It’s crazy how often people forget to introduce themselves when they stream. The most important thing you can do to get off on the right foot is let the viewers know who you ARE! Name, reason for streaming, and a little personal anecdote – short and sweet but perfect for every intro. For example:

Hey guys it’s Rachel from Belle Strategies! Today we’re talking “Keeping it Real on Live Streaming” and I’m extra excited because this topic is super fun AND…after I’m done, I’m going to get some tacos.

Now don’t go off on some random taco tangent of course! I’m simply saying that sharing something a little silly about yourself is an easy way to break the ice and not go into robot broadcaster mode.

Don’t Overdo the Pre-Production

Ladies I’m talking to you here (mostly). Live streaming is supposed to be in the moment. You don’t need “night on the town” hair and makeup or the perfect outfit. People are going to connect with you a lot more if you’re just being the real you – it makes you so much more relatable. That’s not to say you shouldn’t look put together if you’re streaming for business purposes, but don’t feel like you need to overdo it.

Ignore the Trolls

This might not seem like something you need to do to “be yourself” but consider the alternative: You’re in the middle of a stream where you’re delivering awesome content…then you stop to engage in the negativity. You end up wasting time and energy blocking the accounts; and worse, you’re wasting your viewers’ time. In my opinion, ignore the trolls. Engage with the supporters, and forget the rest!

Be sure to check out the the tips from the rest of the week: Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday

For more on this and other social media marketing trends, keep up with me on Twitter and Periscope @bellestrategies.

Belle Strategies is a boutique Social Media Marketing company based in South Florida. Our team mixes innovative strategies with attention to detail for an online presence that produces tangible results. For assistance growing your brand on social media, contact us!

“How do you know it’s working?”

It’s likely the #1 question asked to social media managers – and it doesn’t have to be difficult to answer.

Social Media ROI (return on investment) is an important business metric; measuring the success of your campaigns is the only way to understand it’s level of efficiency. HOW to measure those campaigns is where things could get tricky. Social media ROI has proven to be difficult to measure because more than anything, it’s a branding tool.

The key to keeping your clients happy and feeling accomplished is setting the right expectations for success. It’s not just about “likes” anymore; here’s how to measure social media ROI:

Design | Execute | Analyze

• Track the time you spend working on your posts and visual assets. Include research (like reading this post). Your platforms will track the money you invest in ads, but only you can keep tabs on the man hours.

• Create custom links for your social media posts so you can see your best traffic referrers. Use bit.ly or google custom URLs if you’re fancy!

• Use Google Analytics to see which platforms send the most traffic. You’ll be able to tell because of their robust metrics paired with your custom links.

Some of the other metrics you might consider are brand mentions, eCommerce conversions, profile/post engagement, customer service call reduction and more.

There is no “standard” for measuring social media ROI; each company should define their key objectives to determine which metrics to track.

A great place to start are these four areas:

• Financial: Have sales increased or operations costs decreased?

• Brand: Has more credibility been established?

• Audience: Is your audience happy and are you better serving them?

• Digital: Have your efforts increased the company’s overall digital impact?

Belle Strategies is a boutique Social Media Marketing company based in South Florida. Our team mixes innovative strategies with attention to detail for an online presence that produces tangible results. For assistance growing your brand on social media, contact us!

Social media is a big piece in the content marketing puzzle. The best part about this content marketing “puzzle” is that it’s like one of those made-for-kids, easy-to-put-together kind of puzzles. The second you see how it all fits, it’s a cake walk. Here is all you need to know to be successful at content marketing:

Create Content With VALUE

Mistake to Avoid: Don’t blog about what’s going on at the office with Bob. No one besides (some of) your employees and Bob’s family really care at all about his office-related accomplishments. Cut the “company updates”!

Do it Right: Tap your knowledgeable employees for 20 minutes a week and have them craft relevant, valuable posts about their profession. Maybe Bob is a training manager; have him educate people on the best ways to freshen up outdated training content. Bob can inject his blogs with personality, but the focus should always be adding value and creating credibility.

Use eBlasts Sparingly

Mistake to Avoid: Don’t spam your subscribers with irrelevant “newsletters”. Can we all agree we get enough email? If your email isn’t giving your subscribers something that makes their lives easier, don’t even send it.

Do it Right: Instead of thinking of these correspondences as newsletters, think of them as “credibility-builders”. Going back to the first point, no one needs to know about the company 5k. Give your subscribers knowledge they can use. Try a discount code. Let them in on upcoming events with a pre-sale option. Provide insight into a new tool or product that will streamline their business. Once again, the focus is always adding value and creating credibility.

Pay Attention to Detail

Mistake to Avoid: Here’s a question for you: Have you put an intern, or anyone under 25, in charge of your content marketing? Blogs, social media posts, eBlasts – so many of us consider this “menial” work – so we push it off on the intern or we hire someone inexpensive and green to do it for us. The mistake here is that the content your company is creating makes an immeasurable impact on your brand, and grammatical errors, irrelevant copy, and a lack of cohesion will hurt you. Nothing about content marketing is menial, and businesses should give it as much effort as they give every other department. Don’t trust your digital credibility to someone inexperienced.

Do it Right: At this stage in the game, there are enough talented prospects for hire who understand the content marketing puzzle. Recognize that this person is wholly responsible for your brand outside of your four walls (unless you run commercials and print ads). Take time finding the right fit for your company, and bring them into the fold as much as possible so they can accurately market you throughout the interwebs.

When done correctly, your content marketing strategy will have your audience appreciating and expecting your killer content. Be the expert they can rely on; help them overcome hurdles. Companies who put the time and effort into cultivating awesome content can thrive; so get to it!

Belle Strategies is a boutique Social Media Marketing company based in South Florida. Our team mixes innovative strategies with attention to detail for an online presence that produces tangible results. For assistance growing your brand on social media, contact us!

Sorry ya’ll but I just have to clear something up! ShortStack.com recently put out a blog featuring an infographic titled “How to Manage Your Social Media Accounts in 34 Minutes a Day or Less”.

How nice to think you can effectively manage your entire social media branding in about a half hour, how nice.

The problem is that there are so many misconceptions in this infographic (below) and I’m going to lay them out for you. There is a difference between helping people work more effectively and (innocently, but still) devaluing a profession.

Take a look at their breakdown of those 34 minutes here, then let me give you an accurate description of how a social media manager keeps a brand green and growing:

We’re all busy so I’m going to make quick work of this:

1) Aside from the text-only post we rarely make, posts with images or videos include prep time. How did your logo get on that? When did that #brandedtag get added in the lower corner? How did the video get on YouTube, with key words and all? Hmm. 1-2 minutes to make a post is accurate only if you disregard any prep work that went into creating the asset accompanying it.

2) A few “scheduled” minutes a day to check notifications, DMs, etc? C’mon man. You know we have your accounts ping our phone in real-time whenever someone is interacting with your brand. We are engaging with your followers when they engage with us, that can’t be scheduled. And errmmm it takes more than 120 seconds!

3) The 7 Minute Twitter morning is cracking me up. Find me someone who can visit three websites, find “at least” three blogs they like, write branded copy intros about why they are sharing the blogs, and get everything into their scheduling tool in 5 minutes and I’ll shave an eyebrow.

All in all, the infographic is a really nice reminder: How can you better use your time to be more productive? I like it. I am all about productivity! But I think it’s a bit misleading for people who may be considering hiring a social media manager. And since that’s how I make my dolla bills, I had to speak up.

Any other SMMs have an opinion? Let me know on Facebook, @bellestrategies on Twitter or @bellestrategiessocial on Instagram.

“How do you know it’s working?”

When is comes to social media ROI, this is likely the #1 question asked – and it doesn’t have to be difficult to answer.

Social Media ROI (return on investment) is an important business metric. Measuring the success of your campaign is the only way to understand it’s level of efficiency.

HOW to measure the campaign is where things get tricky. Social media ROI has proven to be difficult thing to measure because in most instances, social media is used a branding tool. How does a company measure the value of branding?

Thanks to this thorough and insightful infographic by MDG Advertising, you can see the opportunity is there! The key to keeping your clients happy and feeling accomplished is setting the right expectations for success.

It’s not about “likes” anymore; here’s how to measure social media ROI!