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Social media growth is changing

09/20/202108/18/2018 by scmarketing

It’s likely that your organic reach is not as far reaching as it once was. Due to changes in the way that the likes of Facebook operate, content on a person’s social feed will be tailored much more to them, with less public content. But don’t fret, we’ve got a few tips here to help you maintain organic reach.

Content

We will always talk about how content is king, tailored content for your audience and making sure that you tailor content for a specific platform is no different. This includes fitting in with the parameters of the social channel. For example, avoid sharing Instagram pictures on twitter as it comes up as just a link on feeds. A tweet with just a link is unlikely to gain any activity as it doesn’t stand out to the average thumb-scroller, whereas making sure to post the actual picture would be a lot more eye catching! You need to make sure all your platforms suit the image you want to portray.

Other people’s content

Sometimes it’s worth showing and sharing other people’s content, after all social networks are all about socialising with many different people, and you may end up with other people sharing your posts too! This shows you want to appeal to your audience and have their best interests at heart rather than bombarding them purely with your own content.

The aim of providing quality content, even if it’s not your own, helps build trust with followers positioning you as a thought leader and knowledgeable about industry stories and ultimately improving your reputation. We think is highly important in social media reach.

Budget for growth

Although paying for ads isn’t necessarily an ‘organic’ form of social media growth, it can still be a great way of getting content out to your target audience that they empathise with, and so will help to increase your followers. Let’s face it, once you have new followers, they’ll be engaging with future posts that you don’t pay for.

This method is so effective that a recent study by Nielsen Brand Effect* found that people remembered an Instagram advert three times more than a regular advert, making it worth your time to invest in to help brand awareness.

Video

As we’ve said before in our blog, videos are becoming more important, with Facebook updating its algorithms to prioritise video over pictures or status, it means videos are the most likely form of content to be seen by target audiences. The live video feature helps mix content up and keep followers interested. If you want to learn more about video content and how to make your videos effective online read our tips for using video for social media for business.

Social media marketing agency

You can find plenty more tips about organic social media growth from Hootsuite. And if you want to chat more about how your digital marketing strategies incorporating social media management, get in touch with us at Smart Cow.

Sources: *Blog.hootsuite

Instagram Influencers, what’s it about?

01/30/202307/12/2018 by scmarketing

With a recent BBC article indicating a backlash by brands on using Instagram stars and influencers, we take a closer look at the cause in such a booming digital age. We also delve deeper into how this can affect brands, whilst giving our own thoughts on the true integrity of Instagram and how it supports small business growth.

The article is founded upon consumer goods giant Unilever threatening to take a stand against fake Instagram influencers – those who buy followers with very little interaction in order to become attractive to firms looking to build a customer base. The article offers a range of examples of fraudulent behaviour from Instagram stars, with one Instagrammer using stock photos on his profile rather than his own in order to gain followers, and another using a ‘bot’ to show fake engagement – a key form of measurement for company’s looking to hire an influencer. It also highlights how unfair this is becoming on hardworking social media stars who spend a lot of time and effort developing unique content to attract a quality audience being out done by these fake influencers.

Is it all about follower numbers?

However, the piece also shows how small businesses can be productive in the way they avoid fake Instagram stars. With brands opting for influencers with less followers but good quality clout and engagement with these smaller numbers. As the saying goes – it’s quality not quantity that counts!

While you may not be looking to use influencers for your business, you can certainly take heed of the actions of large brands to help make your own Instagram feed stand out from the crowd. Small details such as imagery and relevant hashtags allow followers to track your brand, making it easier to grow engagement. Both relevant hashtags and insightful words can attract many new followers and help kickstart your account. This Smart Cow blog gives a more in-depth analysis of how exactly to grow a strong brand Instagram account from its setup too.

Social media agency Croydon

If you’re looking to create a digital marketing campaign using social media and want a little help, then get in touch with Smart Cow today.

Day 12: Blog, blog and blog

07/05/202112/04/2015 by scmarketing

The importance of blogging for your SEO strategy

A lot of website owners are sceptical of having a “blog” page as they believe a blog is something for teenagers.

You should forget this misconception as a blog is probably the most important page to ensure you get noticed among the rest of your competition.

Remember, you can always call it “news”, “what’s new”, or whatever you wish.

You don’t have to spend long writing the articles, they can just be short snappy updates, posted one or two times a week. Obviously the more you do the better results you will have, but as long as they have all the right content, they will work magic for your site’s performance.

Here are 4 reasons why you need to blog:

• Drive traffic to your website

• Increase your SEO/ SERP

• Position your brand as an industry leader

• Develop better customer relationships

Drive traffic to your website:

Your blog gives you the opportunity to create relevant content for your customers. Use this as a marketing tactic to drive traffic back to your website.

Make the blog on your website the foundation for all of your social media platforms.

Your business might be on Facebook, Twitter, Google plus, LinkedIn, or anywhere else. Post links – with relevant visuals – of your blog articles to your social sites. Give your social followers a reason to click through to your website.

Additionally, post inbound links directly in your blog articles, to drive traffic to specific landing pages of your website.

Increase your SEO/ SERP:

Blogs increase your SEO. Fresh content is still a key to beating your competitors in the search engine results page.

Use keywords in your articles. List out the keywords, topics, and categories you want your business to be found with. Use these words, and related expressions when writing your posts.

Of course, whether you actively seek these out or not, blogging regularly about your business, industry, product or customer lifestyle will naturally increase your search keywords. Being intent about your words will only increase results.

Keywords and topics on your website are a significant way in which Google (and other search engines) find your site for these searched words.

Position your brand as an industry leader:

Well written articles demonstrate your company as an industry leader. By posting topics which resonate with your market and show your knowledge, you are marketing your skills for your business, service or product too.

If you are a retailer, for example, write blog posts about your products. Your customers will get to know you as the knowledge source for the products they want.

If you are B2B, post articulate, well researched articles about your service. Become the hub, or the place to be, for your industry.

You are building trust, too. The more you can show that you are well-versed in your field, the more likely your consumerr will trust you to supply what they need.

Your customers additionally benefit from learning via the information you provide them.

Develop better customer relationships:

Blogs provide another source to deepen the connection with your customer. By connecting directly on your website, your clients are able to get to know your business or product from the comfort of your online home base.

Use this. Again, build trust by being a source of information. Consumers like to be informed, and appreciate that you are the one teaching them.

Additionally, just as on your other social sites, respond to comments and interact with your consumer. If they have questions about a product you are writing about, respond to them directly on your website. Unlike many social sites, a blog is generally searchable on your site for some time. Your website comments last longer than on a Twitter response or Facebook post. Other customers will see your interactions too.

Content marketing agency

Talk to us about your content marketing needs and we’ll ensure that the best combination of channels and tactics are utilised to make you stand out from the crowd. A reliable digital marketing agency in Croydon, Smart Cow will be glad to answer any further questions.

Content managed systems (CMS) website development

11/15/202110/09/2013 by scmarketing

When the Internet first started and businesses realised that they needed to have a website presence, it fell upon the IT developers to create websites as much as they had created IT programmes in the past. This was all well and good however when the actual business client wanted to make a change to the programme they had to go back to the programmers. Being clever little business people got very frustrated with this and demanded new functionality that allowed it so that they could update the content of the site without having to go through a developer. Businesses requested the developers to create software that the business users could update themselves, unless almost putting the developers out of business.

Thus the birth of content managed systems (CMS). These are extremely powerful and allow business users to update their sites instantly and bypassing the developers. This was obviously seen as a great business benefit and has cut out much of the processes that are involved in developing a computer program which at the end of the day is exactly what a website is.

Unfortunately, many of these processes included testing both the functionality and user acceptance. Business users have been placing content onto websites sometimes without testing against the various versions of Internet browser, and relative functionality within the site. So, this then calls back the programmers to develop tools that enable draft versions and testing to take place.

mojoPortal

There are some great CMS products on the market which provide great power and functionality to the business users and at a very affordable price. Most people have heard of products such as WordPress Joomla! and Drupal, they will have their benefits as well as drawbacks to all great products. Here at Smart Cow Marketing we have assessed all the relevant CMS systems on the market and from our point of view in delivering a quality products to our clients we have opted for a product called mojoPortal. We strongly believe that this provides a combination of security and functionality as well as the ability to develop bespoke tools for our clients.

The ease of access which clients can change content within the site is second to none as well as allowing the option for version control and managing content through draft and by giving users different level of authority. We have a great team that can develop fantastic skins that go over our websites to provide a bespoke and stylish website. Smart Cow Marketing is also very proud to be associated as they recommended developer by mojoPortal.

Digital marketing agency London

Smart Cow Marketing is an online marketing agency and web development company based in Croydon, Greater London. If you have any web development needs or looking for a specialist in mojoportal development then please get in contact on 020 3137 1826.