Category: Front Page

Back in January, we asked you what six seconds could do for your company branding strategy with the advent of the new Vine app. Now, months later, we have our answer. According to Mashable, Vine has become one of the top iPhone apps of 2013 and one of the most popular social media networks since the 2010 launch of Instagram. In fact, Vine was the number one app in the U.S. App Store on April 9, 2013.

Six seconds is not much time to grab your audience’s attention. You have to be concise and creative. The good news: Vine videos are cheap to make and the perfect length of time for our ever-present short attention spans. And some big brands have been having a lot of fun exploring this new social media medium:

• USA Today – Every day, USA Today shows a quick teaser of the day’s headlines and topics.
• Lowes – Lowes Vine videos are really useful home improvement tips and lifehacks. Have a stripped screw? Use a rubber band with a screwdriver, no problem! They’ve even given their campaign a hashtag #lowesfixinsix.
• General Electric – General Electric shows off their innovative brand personality in their Vine videos. They were one of the first brands to dive into Vine and ramp up engagement, leaving viewers curious about what they’ll do next. Wanna know what happens when you combine milk, food coloring and dish soap?
• Rolling Stone – Rolling Stone Magazine has huge engagement. They often make videos asking the question, “Guess who is on the cover?” with a magazine covered in sticky notes or cigarettes or something that gives a clue to the answer hiding underneath.
• Trident Gum – Trident uses Vine to showcase their gum in unique ways. A never-ending pack of gum? Trident magic tricks? They’re definitely having fun.
• Urban Outfitters – Urban Outfitters uses their Vine account to display their products in fun ways. They share their new clothing lines, trendy collections and store displays … as well as bulldogs and spinning models.

It’s all about brand personality. These six brands have not only worked their brand personality into Vine, they’ve incorporated Vine into their marketing pretty effectively, don’t you agree? Which company uses it the best? What other companies are using Vine effectively?

Splash Media can help you with creative tactics in your online brand strategy. To learn more about us, visit our website. You can also check us out onFacebook,Twitter, andLinkedIn.

Part of every company branding strategy should include promoting your business on the major social sites—Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  In fact, LinkedIn was specifically designed as a business-based networking platform, so it makes sense to use this site in particular to build the reputation of your brand within the business community and provide it with some legitimacy and visibility for associates and potential clients.  Like every other aspect of the branding process, though, the capabilities of LinkedIn can be squandered if you don’t take advantage of them or if they’re used incorrectly, so creating an entire process around the site is required if you expect to reap maximum benefits for your business.

 

Creating a Company Branding Strategy using LinkedIn

Your company branding strategy for LinkedIn should begin with a well-designed and relevant company page.  This page will be the focal point for your business going forward, and at a minimum, should include a link to your business website, links to key staff members (who must also be members of LinkedIn), and links to your Facebook and Twitter pages.  In addition, you should take full advantage of the pre-built pages within the company page to advertise career opportunities and recruit candidates, promote your brand through the products and services page, and expand your reach by linking to affiliated groups, featured groups, industry partners, and even competitors to promote a sense of fair play as part of your company branding strategy.

Since your company page is your image on LinkedIn, it should be inviting and eye-catching.  More importantly, however, the information you present there must be valid, up-to-date, and a showcase of your industry knowledge.  Ensure that all links included on your page are legitimate and functional.  Your profile, and the LinkedIn profiles of all of your lead team members, should be complete and current.  Keep your page updated with frequent postings of news feeds about your company, comments from your other social media sites, and industry-related news.

An often overlooked yet essential part of your company branding strategy on LinkedIn is participation.  The site, albeit business-based, is still a social site, and members are looking for opportunities to interact with your business by providing insights, feedback, and suggestions.  You should give them every opportunity to do so by proactively participating in polls and groups to promote your brand and display your knowledge in various subject areas. Answering questions posted in the group forums is an excellent way to highlight your brand without appearing to be self-serving.  Any interesting content you run across can and should be shared with connections and groups to entice people to follow you.

If you want to use LinkedIn as part of your company branding strategy, you must keep your pages fresh and filled with appropriate content.  You must be prepared to interact with the people that want to provide feedback to your business, good and bad, and use it to build positive relationships.  Perception is everything in the branding process.   Remember that everyone else on the site is looking for networking opportunities just like you are, and the more active you are in the process, the more people will find you to be a worthwhile associate, expanding your circle of influence and building your brand.

To learn how LinkedIn, and the other social media sites, can promote your business and enhance your company branding strategy, contact Splash Media.  To learn more about us, visit our website.  You can also check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. 

Does your social media strategy include video content?  It should!  Because video has become one of the most effective ways to market on the web. It allows visitors to experience your brand message with very little effort and increases the length of time people stay on your page, giving your brand message longer to sink in and an important indicator of page quality.

Social Media Strategy Video Content Benefits

Support

Support your current and potential customer base with valuable content that will be helpful to them. Most people would rather watch how something works then read or hear about how it works because it’s easier for them to understand. So, use video to explain how to use your products and services, answer FAQs and share industry tips and tricks. Don’t use video to directly sell to your audience, but instead think about how you can educate them through your video content. You can then use use that video content in your social media strategy to convert visitors into buyers.

Shares

Once you’ve made a video, you can get a lot of play out of it by sharing it across multiple platforms. You can host it on your website, publish it to YouTube, share it through Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and even email it. The trend of more and more people accessing online info through their mobile devices is only increasing, which makes a quick video an ideal avenue to spread your brand message. When it comes down to it, video marketing campaigns can easily reach consumers across multiple channels.

SEO

Don’t discount the power of video search engine optimization in your social media strategy. Make sure your video content includes main key phrases that your business is trying to rank for in online search results. Keep in mind what words are your potential customers using to find you and follow through once you’ve completed the video, to optimize all descriptions and titles with those keywords to increase SEO.

You really don’t need a very large budget to operate a video SEO marketing social media strategy. Here are some tips to keep in mind when you start filming.

Best Practices

• Keep your video short. 90 seconds is the optimal length. You don’t want to lose your audience’s attention.
• Make an emotional connection. Tell a story. Give something people can relate to or root for.
• Ask a question that viewers will want to answer in a comment section or through a social media channel. This increases engagement and encourages conversation.

Video marketing appeals to an audience, conveys messages quickly and can be a very creative way to get your message across, and highly relevant and engaging video content will appeal to mobile users and stationary consumers.

To learn more about us and our social media strategy guidelines for video content, visit our website. You can also check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Pinterest, a visual site that acts as a virtual bulletin board, is the latest site requiring companies to adjust their social media management.  The site allows users to post or “pin” links to websites to a personal page, and organize the board into categories, making it easy to locate the website at a later date.  Pinterest already has 40 million users and that number grows daily.

Social Media Management

There are several tips for using Pinterest in your social media management.  The site is much more visual than other social media sites, so it is important to focus on the photos and graphics that appear on your company site.  Users of Pinterest “grab” photos and graphics that appeal to them, so consider using covers of company white papers, visuals from blog posts, pictures from behind the scenes of the company or products you sell.  When using photos of products, it’s best to use images that show those products in use, such as recipes, décor or activities.  Charts and graphs are other visuals that work well on Pinterest, as do photos of happy customers.

Dedicated Landing Page

In order to use Pinterest in social media management effectively, be sure that your pins are associated with dedicated landing pages.  Nothing is more frustrating to a Pinterest user than a pin that does not take them to a website that either explains or describes the picture they have “pinned.”  Although social media for companies traditionally focuses on bringing users to the company website, few users want to take the time to search through several pages to find more details on the picture they found interesting.  In addition, a dedicated landing page enables you to easily track traffic and measure effectiveness.

Interact with Others

To further your social media management on Pinterest, comment on pins posted by others.  This provides more exposure and helps other users see you as knowledgeable about certain subjects.  Promote your Pinterest content using other social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter.  Add a Pinterest icon to your social media links on your website to allow users to share your information with others through Pinterest as well.

Social media for companies continually evolves as new social media sites gain popularity and traction.  Although Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn remain crucial  to any social media management, Pinterest is a growing phenomenon in the genre that is gaining popularity. For more information on social media for companies, visit us online, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Facebook is a prime example of how social media and business can work together, and there is no doubt that Facebook is one of the most popular forms of social media used by businesses today.  However, simply creating a business page, and gathering followers, is not enough for social media management.  There are many ways that a campaign using social media for companies can fail.

Social Media and Business

For social media and business to work cooperatively, the business must interact with fans.  Fans that leave questions or comments on a business Facebook page expect to receive a response.  This is especially true when a customer has a poor experience with a company.  The best social media management is to require all comments and questions be answered within 24 hours to keep the interaction going with customers.

Inconsistent Posting

Because the main part of social media and business is the “social” part, businesses that rarely update their page will find that people lose interest.  Aim to post at least once per day, and remember:

• 70 percent of your page content should be information that your fans will find valuable and relevant.
• 20 percent of the content should be shared content, such as links.
• 10 percent should be promotional content.

Keep Things Light

Although it is a business page, it is important to remember that social media and business does not have to be boring.  The occasional lighthearted joke, cute kitten or human interest story will bring followers to the page as well.  Just as you encourage employees to have fun at work, social media management needs to include some fun as well.

By keeping your Facebook page current, responding to all comments and questions in timely fashion, even those that are negative, and keeping things light, Facebook can be very beneficial to your company.  For more information on social media and business, visit our website.  You can also check us out on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.