“I don’t understand why people talk so much about online marketing. The only conversing on line I do for my business is email, and if I had my way, I would never use that”. “I don’t need no “tweeter” (not twitter) or “face-thingie” for my business.” That is what I heard when I recently sat in on a regional chapter of some DJ associations.
These were professional DJs, full time DJs whose sole income came from the business of providing music and master of ceremony services for many different types of event such as weddings, parties and fundraiser. My honest reaction was “!?!?!?!?!?!?”
Like most people my age I started using the internet in the mid 90s on some very slow 14k, 28k, 33k and 56k modems so the internet has been in user friendly swing for almost 20 years. That should give almost anyone plenty of time to learn the most basic of internet skills. If nothing else the average user has had almost 10 years to at least learn from videos on Youtube.
In July 2006 Youtube revealed that more than 100 million videos were being watched every day so there has been more than enough time to embrace social media. Facebook was open for anyone over the age of 13 to join as of September of 2006 and as of march 2013 had 1.11 billion active users.
Twitter was started in march of 2006 and currently boasts of 200 million users sending over 400 million tweets a day. If those numbers alone were not enough for the above mentioned business owners to at least dabble in the social media world, lets break it down into Who, What, Where, When and Why it can benefit a company of any size.
Who? – WordPress Hosting SEO reports that 93% of marketers use social media for business. I would say that number alone earmarks social media marketing as “The Norm”. Who, on the other side of that marketing, does it reach? The SEO goes on the say that 80% of Facebook users prefer to connect with brands on Facebook and … and ready for this … 23% of Facebook users check their accounts five or more times a day.
Most of the larger business hire at least one employee for social marketing alone and have a public posting regiment of 4 times a day on each of the social media sites. If that is not enough yet, 56% of Facebook users check in at least daily while the website Techi reports that 7% say they have checked a message “during an intimate moment” … AWK-WARD!
Nearly half of all Facebook users follow brands on Facebook and do so to take advantage of promotions and lets not forget the 18% that follow to just complain about a product or service as reported by MarketingProfs. Without a doubt people are using and responding to businesses on social media.
What? – Inc.com reported statistics that more than 50% of buisness currently devote 6 or more hours a week to social media marketing, 30% are spending more than 10 hours a week and 12.5% spend more than 20 hours per week on social marketing, so what is all this time invested on. Business see social media marketing to be a personal connection to it’s followers and a “don’t forget about us” effect to others that see reposts by their friends.
Followers can receive DM or direct messages about product news, updates and purchasing specials. Branden Hampton, manager of @notebook said “by making things personal, you put yourself at the level of your customers … and bring your business to their level. This is what will truly help you grow your brand.”
So with that info it bares to ask the question … what are you posting? If you are a business owner or DJ / emcee that works for a company that offers some sort of service, are you posting on your personal page and or the business page something that your consumer wants? Are you posting positive things or always complaining or trying to tear down others? Think how someone you currently or may possibly do business with would feel if you would say what you post on your page to their face. Would that person still be a customer or worse take a negative response to you and your business making others give their money to your competitor?
WordPress hosting SEO reports that nearly 70% of brand followers are based on recommendations from friends. In short … You are what you post. Pam Dyer of Social Media Today Lists the below guidelines for effective posting on Facebook and Twitter.
Best practices for Facebook posts
- Keep things positive – Being positive breeds engagement and encourages sharing.
- Provide information – The most appealing updates are ones that offer something, but don’t disclose everything — this increases the likelihood that fans will click.
- Provide a link – If you’re going to provide a link, use Bit.ly, TInyURL, or another link-shortening service so you can track how many people are clicking through.
- Include images – Posts with images get the highest amount of engagement on Facebook, so be sure to include one when you can. The perfect size is 800×600.
- Make your posts mobile-friendly – Use simple imagery that can be easily seen on mobile devices. 70% of your fans read your posts on their phone.
- Engage with users – Posts aren’t the only activities that grab attention — comments and responses do too. Engage with people and build relationships through conversation.
- Be available – Post when the audience is listening, not just when your business is open. This will ensure more user engagement.
Best practices for Twitter posts
- Call to action – Give a clear call to action so your readers know what you want them to do.
- Punctuation – Don’t sacrifice grammar because you only have 140 characters.
- Format – Use questions, facts, and figures to engage your audience and drive retweets.
- Mentions – Use @ mentions to prompt influencers to engage with you and make sure you respond.
- Retweet – Retweet relevant content for your audience. Don’t forget to leave 20 characters so people can add content or comments.
Where? – Lets take a look at where the demographic you are trying to reach spends it’s time at when it comes to social media. First up Facebook holds the biggest market share of all of the social media sites. The percentages of men and women on social media are nearly the same. The biggest difference is women are nearly five times more likely to have and be active on Pinterest than any other site with the largest percentage of those between the ages of 18 and 49 … the wedding years.
City dwellers are significantly more likely than rural residents to be on Twitter where rural residents hold the highest percentage of Instagram users over both urban and suburban. With Facebook’s ethnic data unavailable Pew Research Center shows that “blacks and hispanics are more likely than whites to use Instagram and less likely to use Tumbler”.
Education plays a part in your marketing focus. Pinterest attracts higher-educated affluent women than any other. The demographic that has the lowest social media interaction is among those who did not finish or only have a high school diploma. Annual income is the only factor that does not seem to show a difference in social media interactions. You are just as likely to be active using some sort of social media despite having an expendable income or not.
When? – As someone who makes his living in the music industry I decided to ask my peers when was the most effective time of day for their posts. Surprising to me their numbers seem to match exactly that of any other business or corporation. Here is a list, by social media sites, of the best and worst times to post.
- Facebook – Best 1pm – 4pm / Worst 8pm to 8am / Traffic Builds after 9am / Peak time Wed 3pm
- Twitter – Best 1pm to 3pm / Worst 8pm to 9am / Peak time after 11am Mon – Thur.
- LinkedIn – Best before and after business hours, 7am to 9am and 5pm to 6pm Tuesday thru Thursday.
- Pinterest – This is the one social network you should focus on posting during weekday evenings and on the weekends. Specifically 2pm to 4pm and 8pm to 1am on weekdays. The best time to pin items on Pinterest is on Saturday morning. (Engagement rates are higher on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.)
A lot has been said about social timing. Getting your content in front of the right people involves getting it out at the right time on fast-paced social networks.
Why? – After all of the above information do we really need to ask that question? If by now you don’t believe that timely, relevant, positive posting on the right social media sites will benefit your business or company you should take out an add in the phonebook (please don’t get me started on those statistics). The old adage of ‘what got you to where you are today is not enough to get you to where you need to be tomorrow’ is more relevant today than when it was penned last century. If you don’t use the outlets of social media because you don’t know how is no excuse.
There are endless videos, tutorials, and how to sites to get you started using social media. Now you might say “I don’t have the time”. To me that is like saying “I don’t have time to fix my car when it is broke”. I believe using social media for marketing is an absolute essential to the growth of your business. Even if you give up 15 minutes a day to do a quick post can benefit a lot. Sites like Hootsuite allow you to monitor all of your social media site in one place and it even allows you to set up automated posts for a future time. One site, one stop and all your posting can be done days in advance.
Think of social media just another storefront to your business. It’s a way to stay in touch with the very people that frequent your business and a way to meet new and potential customers. I know this article is going to fall on a lot of deaf ears but I hope it encourages you to at least give it a try. The internet highway is a big beautiful road and you won’t know where it takes you until you get in your digital car and take a drive.