Why LinkedIn Isn’t Working for You

We’ve been managing our own and client LinkedIn profiles and company pages for several years now. I’ve always been a big LinkedIn fan, and I’ve seen interest in using LinkedIn for business development grow significantly.

As we work with clients who are new to LinkedIn, we tend to see a lot of the same issues that are hindering their ability to use this powerful business-to-business (B2B) social media channel most effectively. Here we share some of the most common missteps we see, and offer some advice for others who don’t feel they’re getting enough traction on LinkedIn.

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The Social Media Channels Resonating With Content Marketers Now

TikTok is a relatively new social media channel, but it quickly captured the attention of marketers and influencers around the globe. SEO.ai estimates that TikTok has more than 1 billion active users worldwide, with 150 million in the U.S. But that use may come to a grinding halt as movement is afoot to ban the site due to security and privacy concerns. Continue reading “The Social Media Channels Resonating With Content Marketers Now”

The Marketing Content Continuum

Content marketing remains a high priority for organizations of all kinds today as they struggle to stay relevant to customers while keeping ahead of the constantly changing algorithms of search engines like Google. Companies clearly need to generate a constant flow of high-quality, relevant, current content, but continually creating and updating content can take a toll and drive up costs. And finding a qualified staff that can keep up with the demand isn’t so easy these days.

The solution for a lot of companies today is Continue reading “The Marketing Content Continuum”

Mastering Hashtags: Unleashing the Power of Social Media Engagement

In the digital era, social media has become an indispensable tool for marketers, consultants, and business leaders. To maximize the reach and visibility of your content, it’s essential to understand and use hashtags effectively. Here we take a look at the fundamentals of hashtags, how they function on popular social media channels, and provide best practices for using them to enhance your social media strategy. Continue reading “Mastering Hashtags: Unleashing the Power of Social Media Engagement”

The Role of Social Media in Your Marketing Efforts

Every once in a while, I’ll come across a post suggesting that social media is dead. With all of the recent buzz about Twitter—given Elon Musk’s takeover of the company and predictions of doom—I wondered if marketers’ usage of social media is declining. The short answer is no.

A longer answer is that while social media still makes up a significant part of most marketers’ communication efforts, how they use it and which channels they use have shifted. That is likely to continue. The effectiveness of marketing channels ebbs and flows; newer channels and newer entrants to the space tend to reap the benefits of early adoption, while laggards may never experience the same results. This means that marketers of all kinds—and especially content marketers—need to stay up-to-date on these shifts and continually evaluate their social media strategies to ensure they’re making optimal use of these platforms. In this column, I look at some insights from experts in the field about how their social media use is shifting and how they stay on top of new trends. Continue reading “The Role of Social Media in Your Marketing Efforts”

How to Choose the Right Social Media Channels to Target Your Ideal Audience

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These days it’s probably safe to say that most businesses have a presence on at least one social media channel. In fact, according to a 2021 Entrepreneur article, 97% of Fortune 500 companies rely on social media. The number is probably less for smaller companies, but it shouldn’t be. Social media can be a very cost effective way to raise awareness, generate leads, and build business.

There are a lot of channels out there, though, and not every channel is right for every business – or audience. Just because a channel is getting a lot of attention – take TikTok, for example – doesn’t mean that it makes sense for your business.

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7 Steps to Social Success

In October 2008 I launched my firm Strategic Communications, LLC.  Not the best timing for such a move given the bad economy at the time, but it’s all worked out for the best; 12 years later and still going strong! One big benefit of starting a communication firm during a recession is that I had plenty of time to learn about social media which was rapidly emerging as an important channel for marketing communications. I jumped on board early, primarily with LinkedIn and Twitter, and since that time I have managed social media accounts to help my company and my clients’ companies drive awareness, website traffic—and business. I have a good following on my social channels and people often ask me to share my tips for building a solid following. I’m happy to share! Here I share “7 Steps to Social Success.” Continue reading “7 Steps to Social Success”

6 Tips for Using Social Media as a Lead Generation Tool

We launched Strategic Communications in 2008, at a time when the country was plunging into a deep recession. It wasn’t a great time to land new clients. But it was a great time to take a deep dive into something that was relatively new at the time, at least from a business perspective–social media. At the time there was an interesting talent gap that represented an opportunity for us. Most businesspeople didn’t have experience in using social media channels for marketing purposes and colleges weren’t yet educating students about these new marketing tools. So we were early adopters and spent quite a bit of time learning about and experimenting with the tools that were best positioned in the business-to-business (B2B) space: LinkedIn and Twitter.

Since that time we’ve built our social channels organically and have helped a number of clients do the same. There’s no real magic to this. In fact, the basic tenets of effective marketing via social channels are really the same as they are for using any marketing tools. We recently responded to a reporter’s inquiry about our top tips for marketers using social media as a lead generation tool. We pointed to six:

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Social Media and Your 2020 Marketing Strategy

There have been plenty of notable changes in the social media landscape as of late. New channels (like TikTok) are popping up. Legacy channels (like Facebook and Twitter) are cracking down on users and APIs whose approaches have been more spammy than strategic. Continue reading “Social Media and Your 2020 Marketing Strategy”

Communication Channels Don’t Work in Isolation: Be Strategic!

A lot of questions I see related to digital marketing tend to compartmentalize, or silo, various types of communications. For instance, questions about social media or even about specific social media channels. Or questions about blogging. Or questions about website performance. Continue reading “Communication Channels Don’t Work in Isolation: Be Strategic!”