Social media can be a powerful tool in any digital marketing strategy. It is a great way to reach a wide audience, build relationships with customers, and increase brand awareness. By taking advantage of social media, businesses can create content that is engaging and informative, while also providing a platform to communicate with customers and potential customers. Here are a few tips for utilizing social media to your digital marketing advantage.
Create a plan for how you will use social media in your marketing efforts. This should include deciding which platforms you will use, how often you will post, what type of content you will create, and how you will measure success. By having a plan in place, you will be better able to leverage social media to reach your goals.
Create a content strategy that will help you engage your target audience. This should include creating content that is relevant to your target audience, using visuals and videos, and utilizing different social media platforms to reach different audiences. Also, consider including influencers in your content strategy to help amplify your message.
Measure and track the success of your social media campaigns. This will help you understand which strategies are working and which ones need improvement. Keeping track of the data will also help you adjust your approach in the future to ensure that you are getting the most out of your social media efforts.
By following these tips, you can effectively utilize social media to your advantage in your digital marketing efforts. With a little effort, you can create a powerful social media strategy that will help you reach your goals and engage your target audience.
Digital marketing is an important part of any business’s success. It’s an effective way to reach potential customers and build brand awareness. However, many businesses struggle to make the most of their digital marketing efforts. To help you maximize your digital marketing campaigns, here are three essential tips.
Create quality content. Quality content is key when it comes to digital marketing. It’s the foundation upon which all your other efforts are built. Make sure your content is engaging, relevant, and informative. It should also be optimized for search engines to help your content appear in search engine results.
Use social media effectively. Social media plays a critical role in digital marketing. It’s a great way to reach out to potential customers and build relationships with them. Make sure to post regularly and use social media to promote your content and drive users to your website.
Measure and track your results. With digital marketing, it’s important to track the results of your efforts. This will help you identify what’s working and what’s not. You can use analytics tools to measure website traffic, conversions, and other metrics. This will help you make informed decisions to maximize the effectiveness of your digital marketing campaigns.
By following these three tips, you can take your digital marketing efforts to the next level. Quality content, effective social media use, and tracking results are essential for success in digital marketing. With the right approach, you can reach more customers and increase your brand awareness.
Churches the world over are facing a crisis of membership.
According to a 2015 Pew Study, the average number of Americans attending a church service at least once a week dropped 4% to 36% between 2007 and 2014, while the number of people attending “seldom or never” increased by nearly 5% (30%) in the same period. Similarly, in a 2018 study, Gallup highlighted that the average number of Catholics attending a church event once a week is down to 39%—a 6% drop over the previous period.
The majority of those choosing to skip out on their regular church services are members of younger generations, with the average age of a typical church-goer falling around 69 years. Not all churches are falling victim to lower attendance; on average Protestants are continually reporting steady attendance, though fewer and fewer Americans are actually identifying as Protestant. Ultimately, total numbers for Protestants are in decline. Churches that are bucking the trend of falling church attendance are those reaching out through social media, apps, technology, and live streaming.
But, it makes intuitive sense, doesn’t it?
If you want to reach a younger audience, you must speak to them in a language they understand. For today’s youth, that means technology. They live in a world of Snapchat, Vine, Twitter, and YouTube. If this is how Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X are interacting with each other, the traditional ways of their parents’ and grandparents’ churches simply won’t speak to them.
It’s time for churches to make a change. Not in message, but how that message is delivered.
Finding a place for new technology in your church
A lot of the issues facing churches today are less about the actual problems being fought and more about how they’re approached. For example, many churches are having difficulty retaining their young members. In fact, a Gallup study showed that membership among the 21- to 29-year-old demographic is down 4% from 40% in 2007. A Pew study, highlights that Millennials are distancing themselves from the rigidity of organized religion, while nearly half of believers not attending church regularly claim preferring to worship individually, according to separate Gallup research.
Taken together, the research suggests that instead of focusing on adhering strictly to the traditional in-person-only format, churches should focus on attracting new members and reaching existing members in new ways. By centering church efforts on attracting and engaging with the community in new ways, you show them that a good, moral message can still be engaging, fun, and meaningful.
One way to do this is to interact with this audience on social media, through live video, GIFs, and Snaps that speak to their hearts and digital desires simultaneously. Likewise, many successful churches are adopting new tools for worship including bible study apps for smart devices. These approaches support the changing worship style of young generations while ensuring that the community built around the congregation is strengthened.
How live streaming church services benefit your congregation
What is live streaming?
Live streaming is an interactive broadcast of video on one or multiple, various online social platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. Live streaming incorporates live commenting and chatting to help spur engagement. For several years now, video content online has been taking over as the most engaging and popular on the internet.
Because more than 44% of Americans not attending church list preferring to worship on their own as the primary reason they no longer visit services, churches can use live streaming to open their programming up to those who have chosen to forgo more traditional church events. Live streaming allows your congregation to enjoy a more casual atmosphere and experience a greater level of openness. An article in the Kansa City Star addressed just how some churches are reaching out successfully to younger generations:
By updating long-considered immovable church more—dress codes and preaching styles, attitudes toward the secular, a willingness to discuss the taboo—and embracing modern music and technology (AD3 preaches not from a Bible but from his iPad), these churches brim with youthful vivacity.
Live streaming is a simple change churches can make in order to free younger people from the rigid rituals and judgement of more traditional churches.
Why stream live church service?
Why use live video on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter?
Facebook’s umbrella of social tools and YouTube are far and away the world’s most popular social networks. Of the top 6 social apps by user count and engagement, Facebook products fill 3 of the highest slots. YouTube comes in second only to Facebook’s main platform itself.
Both Facebook and YouTube, as well as a number of other popular networks like Twitter, have live video options and adoption of this technology is impressive. The number of Facebook Live videos from 2016 to 2017 increased 4x, while some experimenting from AgoraPulse show that engagement measured in watch time, comments, reactions, and shares is all significantly higher for Facebook Live video than standard uploaded video. How significantly? On average, live streamed video on Facebook shows 2x more reactions, 13.9x more comments, and 4.3x more shares.
As more and more people seek new ways of building their spirituality, they are searching for connections all over the web. Consequently, there is a growing opportunity to reach your congregation and new members with live stream. Live video of church services, prayer groups, or bible studies can be streamed on numerous engaging social platforms simultaneously using tools like A. Smith’s Streaming package. Believers can worship at home, on their commutes, in a cafe, or in the park.
Strengthen community
Social media at its very foundation is meant to facilitate connection and communication. This fundamental function allows you to connect to members of the church and for them to connect easily with one another. Ed Stetzer at Christianity Today highlights, “[t]hrough Facebook and Twitter or through a church blog, I can easily communicate directly with the people in my congregation, throughout the day and week” and “[t]hrough social media, a new attendee can connect to other church members before he or she ever has a chance to meet at a church gathering or a small group.” Because it is a powerful tool to connect community, church leaders who are serious about strengthening roots within the community should prioritize social media, content, and spreading their message through these channels.
With an effective live stream strategy, you can build a powerful presence online to spread your message, reach your congregation, and connect with other believers.
As a business, how likely is it that potential customers will come through your door? The whole point of an online presence is to entice customers into your store, your leasing office or your showroom so you can convert them to paying customers rather than just browsers online.
Further, nothing is more frustrating as a customer than finding out that you have been given the wrong information about where a business is located. As a customer, how likely are you to give this company your business? Not very. In fact, according to Placeable, 73% of consumers stated that they lose trust in a brand when the online listing shows incorrect information.
1. Missing hours of operation information can be a dealbreaker
There are many things that people look for in listings, whether they are looking at that search engine on a PC or on a mobile device. The top piece of information that most people look for is the hours of operation, since their search is likely for a business that they frequent quite often.
In fact, in a study conducted by local data aggregator Localeze, hours of operation were noted as the most helpful feature in selecting a business during local search. 76% of respondent reporting that they expect this information when searching and 61% believe that it is a feature that helps them to select a business.
Even if people are new to a business, it doesn’t give people a good impression if the business hours are not listed and they don’t know that it’s only open from 11 a.m-6p.m. Tuesday-Saturday .Imagine that potential customer who is ready to spend their money in store, but shows up on Monday at 7 p.m. only to find it closed. That customer is likely going to do another search on a mobile phone to find a different store and spend their money there.
2.You can’t spell NAP data (and score a citation) without an A(ddress)
While most people would assume that the number one reason people do a search online is for the address or location of a business, the address is actually behind hours of operation as the second most desired information. But, of course, the whole point of being in business is to make money doing what you love or selling what you love. And that happens by attracting foot traffic and increasing customer base.
It bears repeating that if a business address is incorrect on listing sites such as Google or Bing, then customers will not be crossing the threshold. A simple thing such as the wrong number on a street address, or even the wrong town, can mean that a customer cannot find you. The US Postal Service relies on a complex system of checks to verify and standardize addresses, and many of the search engines will default to the USPS for correct mailing addresses.
What this means for the average new business owner is that unless a business is in an established location, getting the correct address on their listing means that both the address from City Hall and the information on USPS must be consistent. If USPS doesn’t recognize that address, then a business owner must contact them to verify their new address and get that information updated on USPS’s online database.
3. Local searchers are mobile creatures
According to Localeze, mobile-phone-based searches drive in-store purchases with more than 75% of searches ending in a purchase—if a business has their listing details correct. Now if half of the people searching for a business listing on a local search engine, such as Google Local/Maps, can’t find the store’s business listing details, then the business is going to lose 100% of their business.
For ease of use for potential customers, some of those details need to be as readily available as possible in a mobile-friendly manner. This can be accomplished with a responsive website that supports cellphone and tablet-specific versions.
4. Updated, accurate websites still serve as a first impression
At the same time, more than 60% of searches on PC platforms such as website portals, Internet Yellow Page directories and local sites have a similar chance of ending in a purchase. While mobile searches are becoming more of a standard in where a customer searches, a business owner should not discount the power of a fulsome, consistent and accurate listing that is reflective of the business website.
Any listing should be linked to the business’s website and feature the exact same information, but more of it. While a website should be enough to entice a customer to visit or buy, if those inconsistencies exist, then trust issues may arise in a business’s practices before a customer ever crosses their threshold.
5. Local searchers mix it up across multiple devices, situations and times
People who search for listings are doing it in many more ways than when the Internet first coalesced into existence about two decades ago. In that time, we went from working on desktops to laptops to PDAs to Blackberries to Apples to tablets—and in each iteration, the methods of search have changed.
However, that has slowed over the last five years or so as web developers realize that they need to be smarter. Rather than designing three different sites for three different platforms, they have created websites that are scalable to the search device. And that has been helped along by the proliferation of types of devices in use everyday.
According to Pew Research Center, In 2015, smartphone ownership in America was at 68%, with tablet and computer ownership at 45%. Statista says that almost half of American adults use their smartphones the most to search for local information online, the other half being split between computers (40%) and tablets (11%). According to Localeze, like the types of devices used, what we are searching for varies by the time of day and device. Entertainment is searched for during work hours on computers, restaurants during evening using phones and health/fitness evening using tablets.
The most important part of those mobile searches is accuracy. If someone cannot find your business in a local search or find inaccurate results whilst out and about, then your business has lost the chance for that browser to become a customer. So having those listings correct in all of the device formats is a must as we, and our technology, continue to evolve in the way we interact with local businesses.
6. Local search results are trusted sources of information
Last but certainly not least is the fact that local search results are considered the most trustworthy. In a study by Neustar, it was determined that these searches, such as “used games Raleigh”, are what people do the most since they put that trust in local business more than big box, big website stores.
Think about it, would you rather find a local store where you can get that latest purse in town right now? Or you can wait a week for delivery, which is four days past the event that you want it for! Local searches lend themselves to instant gratification and that interaction between browser and salesperson will convert that browser from someone who might get just the minimum to a loyal customer who feels like a million having spent a little more, but getting what they consider to be gold!
Those interactions are what lead people to local searches and the absolute necessity of getting your listings correct. Trust leads to loyalty, which leads to more business, which leads to happy customers and business owners.
And it all starts with that correct listing in that customer’s local search.
Listings are an online summary of essential information for your business that serves as a powerful tool to help customers find you online and in real life. Here’s what you need to know:
NAP+W
No, we didn’t fall asleep on the keyboard. NAP+W is the acronym that explains all the information that should be included in business listings.
Name Address Phone number + Website
These four pieces of information are the business listings starter-pack. They provide the basic information potential customers need to have in order to research, contact and locate your business.
The effectiveness of a business listing depends on the information’s presence and accuracy. Listings are available through a variety of sources, including search engines, online directories and maps, or social sites. When it comes to listings presence, more is definitely better. Availability on as many sources as possible will create multiple avenues for consumers to find your business. But (and this is a big but), presence only pays off if the listings are accurate. Listings are accurate if the information is correct and consistent across all potential sources. Seems easy enough, right?
Why are listings important?
Listings with good presence and accuracy will undoubtedly pay off for your business. Here’s how:
No more hide and seek
Just as the brightly lit bat signal guides everyone’s favorite caped crusader (that’s right Superman, we said it!), accurate and readily available listings will help guide consumers right to your business’s doorsteps.
They even have similar shapes. Coincidence? We think not…
If a business’s listing is incorrect or missing, the majority of consumers will feel less confident about the brand, likely leading them to choose a competitor’s product or service. The availability of accurate listings ensures customers are actually able to find brick and mortar locations while they’re open for business. This means money in the business owner’s pocket and, just as importantly, it means the business can be reviewed.
“In my humble opinion…”
An ample review pipeline is an essential tool for developing a business’ online reputation and fostering brand loyalty. Reviews allow customers to communicate their experience with a business to potential buyers, but if consumers can’t find a business listed online, their opinion of it won’t be well-informed. Accurate listings create the opportunity for transparency between businesses and consumers in the form of reviews, and the availability of this information will help increase a business’s visibility.
All aboard the search engine
Consistent, accurate listings and the generation of reviews will directly benefit a business’s visibility by boosting its ranking in local search engine results. Search engine optimization is a complex tool, so why not take advantage of it by simply ensuring your business is listed accurately! Increased visibility means more customers, and what business owner doesn’t want that?
Now what?
This listings low-down provides a basic definition and describes the benefits of business listings. Create listings on sites worth lots of points to improve your listings score. We’ve ranked them by importance using a lot of key factors—how many sites reference them, traffic, demographics and more.
Have you heard that improving your SEO will help you get found online more easily? You’ve probably heard that implementing keywords into the content on your website, blog, and URL are key strategies for improving your SEO ranking. However, including the wrong keywords or too many keywords can be just as detrimental.
Although you may not always notice them, keywords play an integral role when it comes to helping a small business get found online. So let’s get to it by breaking down the long and short (tail) of it.
Do Your Own Keyword Research
Keyword research should never be a one-time commitment, but rather an ever-changing process that involves a strategy and a comprehensive understanding of your business and your industry. Including keywords that are specific to your business and industry will help to ensure that the right customers are being driven to your door rather than just any customer. Although we want to increase our customer base, we don’t want to target consumers that may not find the value in our business.
Using the Right Keywords
Short-tail keywords, or keywords composed of very generic keywords, might seem appealing because they’re searched more often than long-tail keywords, however, they’re also a lot more competitive. So, unless you’re writing content for a large organization, like Apple or Macy’s, and consumers are likely searching specifically for your product, you don’t want to enter into a sea of competitors with big brands that have even bigger pockets.
Long-tail keywords, on the other hand, may not be as frequently typed into a search engine—think, “Egg” vs. “Poached Egg with Avocado and Bechemel”. By including more long-tail keywords into the content on your page, you’ll attract a larger number of customers who are likely to search for any combination of those long-tail keywords.
Location-based keywords are keywords that directly relate to your business’s physical location. For example, if your business is a bakery in a popular neighborhood in Charlotte, NC, you’ll want to include not only Charlotte, but also the name of that specific neighborhood. By doing so, you’re more likely to target visitors in your area rather than across town who may or may not ever make it to your location.
Avoid Keyword Stuffing
Speaking of misleading customers that may not find value in your business, adding practically any keyword under the sun is referred to as keyword stuffing and is largely considered a taboo in the digital marketing world. Like with any other digital marketing rule of thumb, less is more and quality will always conquer quantity. Ideally, a website’s content should include keywords in a natural way. However, by inputting keywords into a few sentences and repeating them over and over, you’re stuffing your content with keywords. Even if they’re good keywords, it’s still too much.
Now that you’ve read through these tips, you’re ready to become an SEO expert too!
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