The Most Important 2017 Social Media Trends

Marketers have to constantly stay up on social media trends. As cumbersome and time-consuming as it may be sometimes, social media is an aspect of business that has to be paid attention to if a company wants to be successful.

The landscape of social media is constantly changing. New platforms pop up almost every day and the algorithms of existing platforms usually change just as you have gotten the hang of the first platform.

Staying abreast of social media trends can mean that you either have a really successful social media year or a really bad year. Here are the most important trends to look out for in 2017.

Live video content

Last year, Facebook and Twitter launched their live video content services and about half of all marketers indicated that live video would be a major part of their social media plan in 2017.

In order to make live video work for you, consider which social media platform your customers used the most frequently. The platform where you get the most engagement is where you will have the most success with live video.

When you plan a live stream, make sure that you are streaming content that your audience will care about. Some good examples are big company-wide events where you’re releasing new products or announcing new initiatives, question and answer sessions with your customers or with high-level executives, and/or product demonstrations.

It is important to not haphazardly throw together live video content. Your customers expect top-notch content and you have to deliver that with your live streams as well.

Messaging apps are the new customer service tools

If you haven’t noticed already, many of your customers reach out to you on social media before they call or email you. Social media and the messaging services attached to social media platforms have quickly become an invaluable customer service tool.

People prefer when they can chat with a customer service representative one on one and don’t have to wait on hold or be bounced around from representative to representative.

Meet your customers where they are. Start to train your customer service representatives in social media. Consider investing in a social media management tool that makes customer service easy. Once you start making this change, your customers will become happier and more responsive to your customer service efforts.

Mobile advertising will become significantly more competitive

Marketing on mobile devices shot up in the last few years. Once people started browsing the web and social media with their phones instead of their laptops or desktops, mobile ads started to become more and more important.

If you were one of the few brands that were early adopters of mobile advertising, good for you! But sadly, there’s some bad news for you in 2017. Mobile advertising is going to get increasingly more competitive as more and more brands start to move from desktop ads to mobile ads.

The mobile ad marketplace is going to get crowded fast and that is going to make it really competitive. Advertisers should be prepared to up the quality of their content and add more money to their mobile ad budget.

While Facebook and Twitter are still going to command a lot of the mobile ad space, Instagram and Snapchat are going to start to become more and more important. People are responding to ads on Instagram faster and better than was anticipated, so Instagram optimized ads are going to be important.

The bottom line with mobile advertising is, companies need to take a hard look at their mobile ad spend and the mobile optimization of their website if they are going to compete. If you don’t have a mobile-optimized site, get on it ASAP as it could take you down this year.

If you want to learn more about social media trends of 2017, take a look at my done-for-you system today.

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How to Create an Emotional Response with Video Marketing

How to Create an Emotional Response with Video Marketing 

Video content is an important part of internet marketing strategies. They help keep visitors engaged. It’s been found that consumers are more likely to retain information obtained from a video than information that they read.

When creating video content, being able to create an emotional response helps your content connect with viewers. They become more interested in your content and they’re more likely to move onto the next step in your marketing approach.

Here’re some of the most effective emotional triggers for video content marketing.

Using Fear in Video Content

Fear is one of the biggest motivators. You can see this in action in commercials and video content for insurance companies, law firms, and other service-based businesses. The idea of using fear is to give viewers the idea that they need a particular service or product or else something bad could happen.

Fear is most effective when there is a real danger involved. For example, you wouldn’t use fear when marketing a toy or a video game.

The Power of Guilt

Guilt is closely associated to fear. Though, it’s used in a different manner. You can often see guilt at play in content for non-profit organizations. As an example, you can watch almost any video for animal shelters, feeding the poor, and other aid organizations, and see examples of guilt being used to illicit a response.

Instant Gratification for Immediate Action

Instant gratification can be used to create a sense of urgency. This compels viewers to take immediate action. This may help with impulse decisions. Using trigger phrase such as “act now” or “limited time only” can increase conversion rates for sales, deals, and special promotions.

Create a Sense of Belonging

Another commonly used emotional trigger is creating a sense of belonging. Most people don’t like to be alone. Letting consumers know that they’ll be part of a family encourages them to take action. This type of emotional trigger is often used for service-based products.

Creating a sense of belonging can also be beneficial for helping to build a community. If you’re looking to get people to join your community, let potential members know that by joining your community they will be part of a family.

Competition and Leadership in Video Content

Some people like to be the first to try something. This can give people a sense of importance, leadership, and can be used to appeal to their competitive nature. Performance products are often marketed in this manner. As an example, athletic shoes may claim to help you jump higher, run faster, and generally excel at a particular sport.

A Few Suggestions About Choosing an Emotional Trigger

You should be careful when choosing an emotional trigger. By making the wrong choice, you could end up alienating a portion of your target audience. Obviously, you can’t appeal to everyone at the same time. But, you should do your best to avoid upsetting anyone.

Unless you’re going after a specific demographic, you should avoid attempting anything too wild or crazy. You should stick with the triggers that you’d like to see in a video for your content. You want to elicit a specific reaction to encourage viewers to take action.

People are bombarded with commercials and video content every day. In order to cut through all of these messages, your video needs to create an emotional response. This not always easy. But, if you take the time to consider the emotional triggers discussed, you’ll be off to a good start.

Consider the emotional triggers discussed the next time you create video content for your business. Along with emotional triggers for video content, there are many other ways to grab people’s attention. For additional ideas on how to do this, you may benefit by learning more about my done-for-you system.

How to Boost Your YouTube Video Views and Conversion Rates

If you’re not already using video marketing to acquire new customers, then you’re missing out. Video drives traffic and provides higher engagement rates.

You can use video to showcase customer testimonials, product details, or demos. It’s a simple way to communicate your message in a format that people enjoy. In fact, internet users on mobile devices tend to prefer video over text.

In order to drive traffic to your site from a video on YouTube or posted to social media, you need to have a clear goal. You need to decide on what you’re trying to accomplish.
After you’ve set your goal and created your video, there are a few steps you can take to boost conversion rates and get more views.

Choose the Right Thumbnail

Perhaps the most important element of your video is the thumbnail. This is the first thing that most people will see when your video appears in a search result. More than anything else, this determines whether someone chooses to click play.

When you upload a video to YouTube, you can choose a thumbnail from a selection of screen grabs. Instead of using these random images, you should take the time to create your own.

Make sure that the thumbnail is a clear image. Place the title or a relevant keyword over the image, so that anyone that sees the thumbnail immediately knows what your video is about.

Use a Consistent Brand Image

It always helps to establish a brand image, when you’re trying to make money online. Even if you’re selling affiliate products, having an identifiable brand helps you attract more leads.

In keeping with this concept, you should use a consistent brand image across your website, social media profiles, and the use of video.

For example, if you use specific colors on your website and social media profile, then incorporate these same colors in your video. You can insert title cards between scenes or on-screen messages using a theme that matches your brand.

Pay Attention to the Video Length

Viewer engagement peaks at 2-minutes and then starts to drop. So, you’ll want to keep most of your videos to 2-minutes or less. Generally, the only time that you want to create longer videos is when you have more information to provide.

For promotional videos and testimonials, shorter is better. Use these short videos to enhance your landing pages. Instead of just showing quotes from customers, show their video testimonial. Showcase the features of the product or service that you’re selling.

Include a Clear Call to Action

The final step in boosting conversions from videos is to include a call to action. You need a call to action to let people know what to do next. Though, most people make the mistake of placing the call to action at the end of the video.

You should actually place a call to action toward the middle of your video. The CTA could appear as an on-screen annotation or an embedded text overlay. Then, include another call to action at the end.

Make sure that your CTA is clear and direct. Remember that it needs to describe an action, such as “call me, book an appointment, click this link, complete this form, order today, or visit this page.”

Increasing video conversions begins with the thumbnail. This grabs attention. Then, you need to think about branding, video length, and your call to action. In addition to these steps, don’t forget to include the appropriate metadata, such as an attention-grabbing title and an informative description.

Along with these suggestions, if you want to get more marketing tips and a way to generate your own conversion-ready marketing prospects, then click here to learn about my done-for-you system.

4 Ways to Use Social Media to Obtain High-Converting Sales Leads

Being able to obtain high-converting leads is an essential part of online marketing. There are many tools at your disposal, but one of the most cost-effective tools is social media.

With the power of social media, you’ve got the ability to reach millions of internet users that are ready to buy.

You’ve probably already started using social media. But, with a few simple tips, you can leverage your existing tactics to gain more high-converting leads.

#1 Choose the Right Social Media Networks

The first way to gain better leads through social media is to streamline your efforts. You shouldn’t spread yourself out too thin. You don’t need to have an account on every single network.

Stick to the basics. Every online marketer needs a Facebook business account. In addition to this, you’ll probably want Twitter, along with one or two other networks.

When choosing your 3^rd and 4^th options, consider your target audience. For example, Pinterest contains a lot of content related to DIY projects, crafts, fashion, beauty, hobbies, and entertainment. Instagram is becoming more of a platform for driving brand awareness.

#2 Target Your Audience with Paid Ads

Social media paid ads have become just as beneficial as traditional pay-per-click advertising. You can get thousands of impressions or dozens of clicks for a fraction of the cost of Google PPC ads.

Whether you use paid ads on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, you’ll want to use targeted ads. All of these social media sites allow you to target your audience based on their interests or other criteria. This simple step helps boost conversions but limits your reach.

#3 Share More Video Content on Social Media

You should also start sharing more video content on social media. It’s known that video drives engagement, which results in higher conversion rates. So, use more video when sharing posts related to your products or services.

Posts and tweets containing videos are more likely to get noticed. They get more shares, clicks, and likes. You can now even use video in Instagram paid ads.

Creating a video to market a product is easy. You can create a short customer testimonial featuring satisfied customers. You could create a demonstration video highlighting the benefits of your product or services.

Use these videos to drive traffic to the relevant landing page. The higher engagement will lead to higher conversions.

#4 Use Keyword Research to Choose Your Tags

You should put the same care into choosing hashtags on your social media posts that you give to keyword research for blog posts and paid ads. Conduct keyword research to find the right terms and then choose 4 to 5 relevant keywords to use as your hashtags.

Place your hashtags at the end of your content, instead of using them as word replacements. This makes it easier to read your message.

The hashtags act as search filters when people use the search features on their favorite social media network. It also helps the social media network provide relevant suggestions to users. So, using the right hashtags can help you attract the right audience.

These tips are intended to help drive high-converting traffic from your social media accounts to your website. Make sure that you’re using these suggestions in conjunction with a social media marketing plan.

You should be posting a mixture of promotional and non-promotional messages to your followers on social media. If you do this and continue to use these tips, you should get a spike in referral traffic from social media.

Social media provides a great opportunity to gain more leads. If you’d like to gain even more marketing tips and suggestions, along with a complete solution for generating high-converting traffic, then click here to learn about my done-for-you system.