SOCIAL MEDIA PIONEERS @ SHATTERPROOF, A NON-PROFIT

Holly Jespersen, PR & Social Media Director
Shatterproof
www.shatterproof.org
@ShatterproofHQ
Connect with Holly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/holly-jespersen/3/62/950

About Shatterproof:

Shatterproof’s mission is to protect our children from addition to alcohol or other drugs and end the stigma and suffering of those affected by this disease.

1. How did you get started in social/digital media?

I have been in PR & Communications for almost 15 years and in keeping with the times, I started to get engaged with social media. Social Media has been a key part of our strategy to expand our outreach to young adults.

2. Can you share some of the unique opportunities and challenges of Social Media Marketing & Communications at a non-profit?

The ability to really reach people and engage with them during their time of need—really develop some personal relationships, is definitely a unique opportunity that social media offers.

A key challenge is that there is not enough time in the day to personally engage with all. Also with the nature of our cause-addiction-emotions run high and we have to be very sensitive in word choices and image selection. Tone is incredibly important.

3. Can you tell us about a non-profit campaign that really resonated with you? One that you wish had been your idea?

Of course the ice bucket challenge for ALS. I don’t know one non-profit person who does not think that was genius and that their organization had thought of it their selves. Brilliant campaign.

4. What forms of media do you currently use in your SM? Photos, Video, Audio, Infographic? Which ones are offering the best performance?

Photos and videos. We would like to begin to use infographics. I find graphic images to receive the best response from our audience.

5. How does Social Media help Shatterpoof further their mission to “protect children from addiction to alcohol or other drugs and ending the stigma and suffering of those affected by this disease?”

Using social media we are able to communicate the mission to a wider audience and really unite and empower Americans to join together in support of our critical mission.

6. Please share some of your favorite Blogs and Twitter handles with us along with a little bit about why they are your favorites.

It’s A Lush Life-my friend Alison Hudson’s blog (@lushlifeblog) and my other friend Amber Murphy’s Can’t Keep a Sober Girl Down (@CntKpASbrGrlDwn), TheFix.com (@_thefix), Veronica Valli’s Recovery Rocks (@VeronicaValli) and After Party Chat (@AfterPartyChat)

7. What is the best career advice you’ve received?

To take risks, be myself and don’t compromise my integrity.

Read more about Shatterproof and how to take action athttps://secure.shatterproof.org/page/signup/-weareshatterproof-pledge?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_content=share!

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HOW E-COMMERCE COMPANIES CAN DRIVE SALES WITH PINTEREST

 

When it comes to E-commerce the goal of any digital marketing strategy should be to drive traffic, improve conversion rates, and sell products. The recent rise in popularity of social media websites, like Pinterest and Facebook, has provided online businesses a new and improved way to turn website traffic into sales. Pinterest is a social media platform that can no longer be ignored. Its staggering growth has made it a popular website for E-commerce companies to use for increased traffic and higher sales. For online businesses that are trying to use social media in the most effective way possible, there many ways to drive sales with Pinterest and take advantage of the free flow of converting traffic it can provide.

Many social media marketers are aware of how beneficial Pinterest is and have begun capitalize on it. The site is still in its infancy and has a lot more room to grow.  When it comes to targeted web traffic Pinterest is still virtually untapped. The first thing to remember in order to drive more sales with Pinterest is that the majority of users are already in a buying mindset and are simply browsing products looking for inspiration. With this in mind it’s important to have all products and services clearly displayed and optimized. Ideally optimized product and landing pages are highly converting and will encourage website visitors to share the content. Not only does this mean more sales are possible but the more that the content gets shared the more traffic can be driven to your website.

After optimizing the landing and product pages the next step is to improve general on-page SEO and make the e-commerce website and Pinterest page more user-friendly. When it comes to driving sales and attracting customers a variety of SEO methods must be used. Some effective methods include adding a detailed “About” section, using high quality images, and using the right targeted keywords in all content. Users will tend to visit your Pinterest page looking for high quality images and valuable information. By filling out the product and pin descriptions in detail random but relevant keywords will be targeted. Detailed descriptions also provide a lot of value to the visitor, which is great for SEO. Using all of these methods and techniques will increase the amount of web traffic reaching an e-commerce site and result in more sales. It’s suggested to use Google Analytics to track the habits of visitors to any website. Analytics will tell a Webmaster where the website traffic is from, how long any traffic is visiting a website, and whether or not it’s clicking your sales links.

Another feature of Pinterest that’s often overlooked, but can is often used to drive sales, is the level of customer interaction and engagement that the website provides. E-commerce companies are now provided with a forum to converse and build relationships with customers and the people interested in their products. Since each product will be listed with a high quality image it becomes a lot easier for online discussion to flourish and for e-commerce companies to participate. This is in stark contrast with social media websites like Facebook where it’s only possible to talk about one product or service at a time and where anything important will get pushed down the page. Customers that can get answers and interact with online businesses are more likely to purchase a product that company has for sale. With the current state of online sales it’s safe to say that e-commerce businesses are now competing on value rather than price and the more value you provide the customer the more sales will be made.

While Pinterest has already exceeded every other online social media platform when it comes to e-commerce sales, conversions, and targeted buying traffic the platform is still only beginning to grow. Pinterest has many years of expansion ahead and for now it remains a great market for e-commerce businesses to expand into.  Using Pinterest to gain website traffic and drive sales is one of the most important factors of sustainable long-term growth and for e-commerce businesses this is the key to success.

Have your own tips or tricks for leveraging Pinterest? Leave them in the comments for our readers!

 

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Get More out of Twitter

 

Looking to increase your followers? Wondering how to get more Retweets, Replies and Favorites?

Here are 3 tips to help you get better results on Twitter:

1. Choose the right times to post.

Most analytics companies will tell you to post during lunch and after 5pm, when the workday is over. Instead, we would recommend testing 3-4 different times per day to post and measuring the results. Continuously test different post times, types of post and different keywords in your post to continuously optimize your plans. As your followers grow, your results will likely shift so test, test, test.

2. Don’t just push out content and cross your fingers.

Think about the types of posts. There are 3 main categories of posts: links, images and comments. Consider the outcome you desire and use the appropriate type of post.

Links – Use high quality content to drive traffic to your site and gain new followers and retweets.

Images – Post compelling images to increase engagement with your followers.

Comments – Comments allow you to engage with followers as if you are speaking with them directly.

3. Mention other brands and individuals with their @handle.

If you’re tweeting about a great new lineup from @seanjohn or a great new episode of @DuckDynastyAE, mention their handle in your tweet. This will ensure that they see your post. Hashtags are great, but they will not get you the direct exposure you receive from @mentions.

 

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MASTERING SOCIAL ROI – THE LIFTMETRIX APPROACH

Social ROI is often thought of an impossible task. The reality is that calculating ROI on social media is a more daunting task than other marketing channels (Television, SEM, Display, etc.) because you are getting more data back.  In this post, we’ll show you how you can calculate your ROI using the same methods you use when calculating your ROI across all digital channels such as display ads, search engine marketing, lead generation, etc.

How to Calculate an ROI on Social Media InfoGraphic – Click Here

If you are asked what the ROI of your SEM campaign is, you quickly analyze your ad buy and realize you paid $X per click and those clicks either directly generated $Y of revenue or that they performed Y actions that you value at $Z per action.

At LiftMetrix, we help you take all the data you are getting back from social media and apply traditional media math (the same math used to value ROI on television, display, and SEM) so you can get a clear picture of the value you are generating from all these networks.

Let’s start with the Return:

The first step of the process is to understand what are the different buckets you are measuring internally and from your existing marketing channels – CPM rates, CPC rates, CPA rates, etc and then applying it to social media.

If your last post generated 1M impressions on social media and you internally value an impression on a digital channel at $1.00, then that post just generated $1K of return for you from brand awareness.

If you have been buying ads on social media, you can be even smarter by applying you ad rates. Let’s say on your last 100 campaigns on social media, your average CPM was $0.50. Now that same post instead generated $1K of return for you from brand awareness.

Let’s also say that the post generated 100 clicks to your website. Typically, you spend on lead generation or SEM about $3.00 per visit to your website. Now you generated an additional $300 of return from site visits.

Now, let’s say that people who came from the post ended up purchasing $20,000 of e-commerce on your website. Now you generated an additional $20,000 of value.

So your ROI across brand awareness, site traffic, and e-commerce was $21,300.

Now you could make the argument that I don’t care about brand awareness or clicks to the website because they are just mechanisms to drive our main goal of e-commerce, so the true ROI is $20,000. Or you can make the argument that we acquired a customer so there is value in the click by itself. The true ROI really depends on how you think about your business and what your objectives are.

Now let’s look at costs.

Let’s say you spent $100 to boost the ads, $500 in creative costs, and you allocated $1,000 of your social team’s budget to this post. In total, this post cost you $1,600.

Your true “ROI” is 11.5x. (assuming the $20,000 return).  Now you can easily compare this to SEM where you spent $1,000 for 100 clicks that generated $10,000 of revenue or a 10x ROI.

This process obviously gets tedious fast when you start to measure all the different metrics across the different platforms and as you start to value additional things like the “Likes” and “Comments” on the post.

This is what we do for you at LiftMetrix.

We automatically group all your analytics across different platforms into 7 buckets: audience development, social impressions, social engagement, website visits, site engagement, revenue, and customer acquisitions.

Based on your own internal rates, advertising rates, industry rates, or actual amounts in the case of e-commerce, we will break down your ROI by group as well as social network.

We then perform a lot of analysis based on how you define your ROI to give you real-time content recommendations as well as targets for your team to execute against on a daily basis.

Don’t be scared of ROI ever again.

How to Calculate an ROI on Social Media InfoGraphic - Click Here

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5 REASONS THE #ALS #ICEBUCKETCHALLENGE IS CRUSHING IT!

By Kristin Calve, VP of Revenue @LiftMetrix

The #alsicebucketchallenge has been a smashing success in terms of participation, virality and fundraising capacity. Here are 5 reasons our team believes this campaign has become such a global phenomenon.

1. The Content – #als is certainly a worthy cause, but it’s the amazing content that’s driving the viral train. Each post is unique, and witty, creative and downright laugh-out-loud funny. People who rarely, if ever, post are going all in on the ice bucket challenge. And the demographics are incredible — from giggling grandmas to cooing infants, A-list celebs to lunch-bucket line workers. In an ugly and dispiriting summer of “no we can’t” suddenly the country is ringing with a full-throated “yes we can!”

2. The Format – Video is an incredibly compelling form of visual communication, especially in short takes like the #icebucketchallenge. And, again, people who may never post or are reluctant to post photos of themselves, are sharing a video of themselves with their entire social network plus the social networks of anyone they may tag/challenge. At least in part, for the icebucket the medium IS the message.

3. The Algorithms – Multiple people are usually tagged in each post, which drives the opportunity for social impressions through the roof. Each post with a tag can gain an exponential audience. In addition, the way the algorithm works on Facebook, the hashtag and high level of engagement on each post is driving almost ALL of the videos to the top of newsfeeds.

4. The Virality – On Twitter, people following the hashtag, including many celebrities, are driving the challenge viral. News reports about blooper videos and celebrity stunts are triggering wave upon wave of driving clicks, likes, shares and comments.

5. The Psychology – Watching video after video appear at the top of your newsfeed can be addictive. Indeed, at a certain point you can start to feel left out. Many of us were proud to have been challenged (and to have accepted and met the challenge) before “cool kids” like David Beckham, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Lopez, Justin Timberlake, et ilk. The fact that the challenges are delivered by video makes them more personal than email chains or simply tagging people in posts. You’ve been called out publicly, and now you’ve got to figure out who to name next!

As of the publishing of this post, #als had raised $53.3M from the existing supporters and 1.1M new donors. We at LiftMetrix congratulate all the donors and participants who have met the challenge. You can read more about the challenge here, and you can make donations directly online at the ALS Website.

 

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SOCIAL MEDIA PIONEERS @REEBOK

By Kristin Calve, VP Revenue @ LiftMetrix

Ben Blakesley has been with Reebok since February of this year. We were fortunate to catch up with him at the Social Media World Forum in New York earlier this summer, where he spoke about his experience in social media in general and specifically at Reebok. I also spoke with him a few weeks after the conference and learned more about some of the initiatives he’s led since joining Reebok. What follows is an edited summary of our discussion.

“A Communication Revolution”

Blakesley’s enthusiasm about social media is infectious. We asked him what he loves about social and the challenges faced by corporate brands such as Reebok.  “What makes social media a communication revolution,” Blakesley explained, “is that you can build relationships across miles and have scale. Sales happen because of the relationships.  It’s not just to push out marketing messages. What’s great is that we can scale these 1:1 interactions.”

“No One Has It Figured Out”

What about the future of social media? “Even though social media marketing is maturing,” he said, “no one has it figured out. It is going to constantly shift. It will look very different in five years. It would be foolhardy to think anyone has it figured it out and you can copy their model. Marketers will continue to shift their tactics.”

Engaging with Instagram

We asked Blakesley about Reebok’s strategy on Instagram. He explained that Reebok is starting to put a higher priority on the platform. So they put together a pilot program with just four employees. Each week Reebok turns its Instagram account over to a different employee who, working with just a few simple guidelines, is free to post what he or she will. The first four were hand-picked, choosing a group with varied backgrounds and interests. The point was to showcase the interests of Reebok people. The program has generated a lot of engagement. “It creates content and transparency to consumers. It shows that we at Reebok practice what we preach,” Blakesley said.

He elaborated.  Reebok’s brand “is all about community,” he said, noting that the company differentiates itself from competitors as “a community of active people who want to get out together to participate in diverse fitness activities. They don’t have to struggle to find time to get out or build their schedule around fitness activities. Being active is their way of life.”

A key difference between Reebok and many corporate brands is that they don’t pick a message and then search for an image to support it. At Reebok, they share images that represent them and their audience well.

Be Authentic

The bottom line is that to be successful on social media, brands need to be authentic. Reebok’s initiative on Instagram shows their audience that Reebok’s employees are authentic brand enthusiasts who are living an active lifestyle and that Reebok’s corporate environment is truly a community.

 

Ben Blaskely is the Senior Manager of Global Social Media, Reebok. He is the author of “Get Social: A Practical Guide to Using Social Media For Business.” Follow him on Twitter @benunh and check him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/benblakesley

Check out Reebok on Instagram at reebok and on Twitter @Reebok

 

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4 SEO TIPS TO HELP YOU BECOME A TWITTER SUPERHERO

If you are using Twitter for SEO purposes, then you must definitely be finding yourself in a fix. Though Twitter has changed a lot after its IPO, the fact that you need to stick to 140 characters still remains the same. Those who do not understand social media, often feel too caught up with this restriction. However, those who understand that Twitter can turn out to be a powerful tool for expression are able to use this platform for getting leads and ranking higher. Ever since Google has started to include Twitter to its search results, it has become more important for people to pay attention to Twitter as well as Facebook. Take a look at some of the best SEO tips that you should be using this year.

  1. Focus on the first 42 characters- yes, it is the first 42 characters of your tweet that will be included in the Tweet titles and will be becoming the catchiest words that you say. Hence, you should be including your keywords in these characters only and come up with an eye catchy phrase as well. Links can be added after these characters are over.
  2. Write keyword rich tweets- you don’t have to stuff keywords in your tweet. Of course, the tweet will rank higher on Twitter search if you do so, but users will gladly ignore a keyword stuffed tweet and move on to read something that they find useful. Therefore, write keyword rich tweets but make sure that they don’t look artificial. Maintain a clever natural flow.
  3. Take good care of the bio- you get 160 characters for your bio. So you got some great ways to use it for making the most of Twitter. Make sure that you are including all the phrases that mean the most to you and add them in order to relevance. Avoid using too many hashtags. You will be featured on Google with this bio, so make it look awesome.
  4. Choose a username wisely- a username that comes with worthless characters doesn’t count. Your Twitter handle is important in deciding your real ROI. So make sure that you chose a relevant name.

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4 TIPS FOR LEAD GENERATION ON TWITTER

1. Engage your prospects in conversations: Pay attention to what your leads are saying on Twitter.  When it makes sense, engage them in conversation on their page.  To discuss details, move to direct messages.

2. Be active on Hashtags: Hashtags are an easy way to get noticed by your prospective leads.  Post meaningful content to hashtags that apply to your leads and chances are good they’ll become your next follower-and maybe client!

3.Follow Friday: Increase your followers every Friday with Twitter’s #FollowFriday.  Tweet the names of Twitter users you’d like others to follow and tag it with ‪#followfriday and/or ‪#FF and be sure to follow back! This is a great way to meet new people in the twittersphere and hopefully drum up some new business connections.

4.Twitter Lead Generation Cards: Twitter Lead Generation Cards are a great way to gather lead information at no cost.  The cards make it a snap for users to access more information about your brand or offering. Users can seamlessly and securely share their email addresses with your company in a few simple steps.  Click here to learn more.

 

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5 REASONS YOUR BRAND SHOULD USE SOCIAL MEDIA

(No Matter How Small)

1. Social Media helps build relationships. Advertising and promoting your business on social media does more than increase brand recognition. It gives the opportunity to build personal relationships with your customers and increase brand loyalty.

2. You WILL find your customers on Social media. No matter what your industry is, you will be able to connect with your audience on social media. Facebook is the most visited website in the world. But it is important to remember it is not the only social media site that can help promotion.

3. Social Media allows Brands to gain the trust of the consumer.  By offering tips and advice regularly you earn the trust of your consumers. When they are finally looking to buy something that you have been recommending they are more likely to buy it from you.

4. Social is excellent for PR. Sure, there are going to be negative comments from time to time and it is easier for unhappy people to make public displays of their complains. But it gives your company a real-time and very public way to correct those complaints. Answer every comment and show how willing you are to go out of your way to make the consumer happy.

5. It is possible to Measure Return on Investment. You can measure engagement and relate it to sales or you can use a tool that does it for you. Not sure how? Check out a free trial to LiftMetrix now.

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