There is one concept in the world of social media marketing that proves to be the key to marketing on social media. Businesses who learn this concept state their social media marketing finally improved. Without this knowledge, no amount of time, money, utilizing new trends or modern techniques made much of a difference. What made a difference was making this shift in thinking about attracting customer. Get ready to learn something that will change your marketing for the better.
the Customers do not want to know about what is going on with your business. Customers want solutions and information. Customers do not care about your events, photos, or sales pitch. Customers care about learning and finding content to solve problems. The key to social media marketing is to provide content that fills the needs of the audience. The goal of social media marketing is not to talk about your business, not to sell, and not always posting updates or pictures. The goal of social media marketing is to find an audience, provide the information they are looking for, and solve their problems. Look at an example - A dance studio utilized many social media accounts. The business was posting pictures at events, key dates, and sales ads. They were posting beautiful images and advertisements that very few engaged with. All this effort and social media accounts were not growing or generating more sales or website visits. Until the strategy changed and became more about what the audience wanted to learn. So the business did research(social listening) and made some key changes that focused more on content. The research led to learning about the audience and what they wanted to learn. The new posts were short instructional videos and photos, how to's, and infographics. Consisting of teaching trendy dance moves and videos to get in shape. They also shared tips to be more flexible and how to use dance to relieve stress. These ideas came from social listening and focusing more on information for the audience. Yes, you do want to eventually sell to the audience, but only at the right time. With social media, 20% is selling, and the other 80% is content. Once you have an engaged audience and built trust, then talking about your business and selling a product or service can be useful. Think about it, digest and use it. - The goal of social media marketing is to find an audience, provide the information they are looking for, and solve their problems. Doing this is not easy and finding the right audience and content takes time and patience. Starting with this concept in mind will ensure a more success social media marketing strategy. Please comment here about how you will use this concept. Or, if you already do tell us how you have utilized content in your marketing. Follow me on Facebook for weekly marketing updates. Dr. Kellie Emrich, DBA Professor of Marketing The Social Prof
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Would you want a salad without dressing? What about watching a basketball game without a referee? How about social media marketing without analytics? The answer is No. Without analytics, you would not understand if a strategy is working. There are numerous resources out there, and it can be confusing. Keep it simple to start and build as you learn. Be sure to start by defining your social media goals. Examples include brand awareness, brand loyalty, generating leads, or customer service. Below is a summary of some of the most popular goals for social media and what key indicators you could use.
The great news is that each platform makes this data easy to find and track at no cost. Finding analytics on each platform is a little different. Here are some of the most common platforms and where the platform keep analytics.
Twitter – Find analytics on the Twitter analytics dashboard Facebook – Find analytics on the Insights tab. These are only available on a Facebook Page (not profile) after receiving 30 likes. Instagram – To see Instagram analytics, you need a business account and 100 followers. Each of your posts will show “view insights” to click on and you can see how each post performs. You can also look at all analytics by clicking in the upper right corner icon, then insights. SEM Rush is my favorite analytical tool that I do pay for because I find the resource beneficial. You can analyze data in more detail and bring in your website data and SEO. Also you can view audience behaviors, track competitors, keep up on keywords, keep up on trends and do social media listening. 
I suggest downloading some of your key analytics and keeping the data in one excel file or workbook. This allows you to prioritize key performance indicators and not get overwhelmed with the amount of data each platform gives you.
Likes on social media is a measurement that many of the the platforms talk about removing. Instagram has been removing likes for public view in other countries and is starting to do the same in the US. The reasoning is to reduce social anxiety. Click on the social prof facebook page below and look for the recent post on this topic. Vote for if you agree or disagree and in the comments state why you voted the way you did.
 I know I say it often when talking about social media marketing, and here I go again, no selling your product or service on a blog. For marketers, I know that it is tricky. Consumers go to blogs for information, not to see advertisements. Too much selling can diminish the value of a brand. Instead, offer knowledge while building trust and respect. That’s not to say we do not provide links or offers. The key is providing an abundance of information, so your potential audience clicks through to your business to find more. For all content marketing outlets on social media, stick to an 80/20 Rule. Provide content 80% of the time, sell 20% of the time. Always have these five tips in mind –
 Remember, it takes time to establish good blogging habits. Be willing to use trial and error learning from what is working and not working. As you write, you will get better and better and learn more about what attracts an audience in your industry. You can have fun, learn, and blog all at the same time. Please offer any additional tips especially on how you ensure your writing is properly edited? Additional Resources for Content Marketing
Wheel of Content Types Storytelling Content Marketing Process Storytelling for Social Media Content marketing is about telling a story that builds relationships and identifies you as a potential guide to solve problems. Telling stories can transform information into solutions and show we care about helping our audience. “Developing the content in our content marketing strategy is developing the stories of us. It’s the big ideas that we represent. It’s the differentiated experiences we want to create. It’s what we REALLY do for a living. For better or worse — it’s that simple.” Content Marketing Institute Not all of us are storytellers. I had to go out and find help. The best resource I found was from https://www.mystorybrand.com/ created from the book “Story Brand” by Donald Miller. The story brand template on the website offers a great way to get started with storytelling. Fill in the blanks with his prompts and it will make you think creatively and start to generate a story from your ideas. Key Points I learned from using the Story Brand Template
Airbnb - https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10153215613209727 A rather massive brand that has taken the world by storm settles into an amazingly powerful bit of storytelling, and shows the rest of the world how it’s done. Airbnb felt that telling a story that was simply inspirational was surely the best way to get people feeling emotions and buying into the brand it had created. And it worked. Honorable Mention: Google is Telling a story, literally Google don’t really have to market anymore, they are simply working on ways to keep their fans happy. And this video is a perfect version of that. Good luck with your storytelling and please let me know if you have any other ideas or resources to help create stories on social media. Dr. Kellie Emrich @thesocialprof  After reading this article take a shot at creating your own Buyer Persona.
blog.hootsuite.com/buyer-persona/ I love these infographics that explain how to create compelling posts on each social media platform. Each platform is just a little bit different, so it is essential you know how to create engaging posts for each one. After reading and researching articles like this, I have found three specific details that should be in every social media post. 1. 2-3 Hashtags - You might have one branded hashtag, but then you want to research 3-4 other hashtags., Be sure to use more specific hashtags instead of generalized hashtags. (An example of a hashtag that is very general is #socialmediamarketing a better hashtag could be #socialmediaforentrepreneurs) 2. A Call to Action – The information you provide should be so exciting that your audience wants more. Be sure to provide links that continue your audience to explore your business further. Examples – subscribe here, join our community, book today, get more information, risk-free quote 3. Use Keywords and Trigrams – Be sure to do keyword research. These are terms your audience uses on the internet to find information. Including keywords in your post will help you be found on social media. Trigrams are three-word phrases that are the most powerful phrases on social media. The chart below was taken from Steve Rayson’s research on 100 million headlines. Taking the time to create meaningful posts can help to generate engagement and interest for your product or service. Also click on the You Tube video below to learn how to create your own Infographics for your website or social media platforms. Trigrams 
Speech Bubble – Allows for a conversation view between users. Speech bubble could be useful for businesses to converse with customers and track and manage these conversations.  Social media is an excellent way to find and connect with customers to grow your business. 77% of Americans have a social media profile (www.statista.com). Social media for small business does not have to be scary or too big to take on. Start with an easy tool called Social Media Listening. Social Media Listening is using the internet to learn about customers. Find out where your customers are, what they are talking about and how you can help them. Hootsuite is a great place to start your social listening, plus it is free (well.. to get the most out of it you may want to pay for the advanced version but it’s not expensive). Open a Hootsuite account here - Hootsuite Account. They will walk you through adding streams and networks. Be sure to search the following;
Hootsuite is great, but also start a spreadsheet or other tracking tool to take notes and keep track of your research. You want to find out what keywords your customers are using on the internet, what problems they have, what content they are interacting with, what platforms are they on, what competitors are doing and any information that is relevant to your business. Once you have Hootsuite set up you can use the resources below to add to your social listening.
Below is an excellent overview of the demographics on each platform if you are not sure where to start. Click here for more platform data. Think about the demographics of your business. Once you have started your social media listening you will be in a great position to develop a Social Media Marketing Strategy.  Keywords are those words a potential customer types in a search engine or social media platform to look for information. If you are a business owner you want to be at the top of the search. To do this you need to use keyword on your website and your social media platforms. To find key words Google Trends is an easy place to start. The simple process is below. Also use other free keyword sites like https://www.wordstream.com/keywords. Start a spreadsheet and keep track of all your keywords. Look for themes and words that come up over and over. These are the words you want to incorporate into your website and social media platforms.
 2. Enter search terms, click on compare to search for more than one term. 3. Use the drop down arrows across the top to narrow your search for locations, time periods, Categories and web searches. For example, if you click on the arrow next to each search term below you can make custom selections  4. You can also subscribe to get updates on events/keywords that are being searched. From the menu on the left click on subscriptions and fill in the box that looks like the one below. You can get updates sent right to your email.  Stop Waisting Time on Social Media, Find the Right Platform for You!Deciding which social media platforms are right for your business is difficult. One thing for sure is DO NOT open a social media account with no goal in mind. Be sure to understand the benefits of each platform and how they fit the goals of your business. Take the time to find the right combination that will benefit your business. Start by finding 1-2 platforms to develop, then start joining other platforms. Here is a summary of the benefits of some of the top Social Media Platforms: A short message communication tool that allows you to send out messages (tweets) up to 140 characters long to people who subscribe to you (followers). Also known as microblogging. Twitter allows you to post breaking news, important messages, announcement and other up-to-date information. Facebook is the largest social platform in the world, boasting more than 2 billion active monthly users. About 61% of users are Americans between the ages of 25 and 54. Users can post comments, share photographs and post links to news or other interesting content on the web, chat live, and watch short-form video, images to videos and textual content. Facebook works well for:
A web-based pinboard or bulletin board with greater organizational functionality. A highly underrated platform, Pinterest is a visual-based social network with more than 100 million active monthly users. People typically pin or save images they found on the web (or on Pinterest itself) to different boards (used to categorize their image collections). If you sell any type of product, Pinterest is a social network you need to be on. Promoted pins allow you to target specific types of users and link directly to your shop or product pages. According to Shopify, 90% of users plan their purchases using Pinterest. A photo and video-sharing social networking service owned by Facebook. Like Pinterest, Instagram is a graphics-heavy social network. Instagram has a younger audience. If you’re in retail, beauty, food or art, this platform will work very well for your business. YouTube Offering video-based content, YouTube is ideal for businesses that can offer DIY videos, tutorials and educational information, such as:
What advice can you give about a social media platform that can benefit a business? Or, share Pros and Cons of any platform you have used.  Always start with the why, even though must of us begin with the what or how. Simon Sinek has studied how leaders act and think. In this Ted Talk he uses that knowledge to explain what, and in what order, Entrepreneurs should think. He describes a golden circle your business should be centered around to tell WHY you are in business. Everything else follows. I believe this TALK is a must for anyone in life as we are all in the business of ourselves. This talk will help you get and stay focused. You will make more money, and attract more customers/jobs when you find out how to start with your WHY. Sign up for my email list as I am collected Simons Sinek worksheets and resources and will mail them out when I have them compiled. Contact Information Here is the link to the Ted Talk https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action The time of year has come for final exams, project deadlines, and a need to keep ourselves or our kids focused. I started using an app called MOMENT, which monitors cell phone usage. I could not believe how much I was using my phone (I am not telling!). I also put the app on my children's phone. When they saw how much they used their phones they were shocked too. Having this data for the kids, and myself helped to set limits. The kids could see what they were doing and how long and we used this to talk about making better choices and monitoring their own usage Limits do not always work so here are some easy to use programs that can block or reduce access to social media or websites. Anti-Social: Blocks a site for as little as 15 minutes up to 8 hours. It will not let you access a site once you block it, so you are committed to staying focused. StayFocusd: This is a Chrome app that tracks time and limits access to websites. You can also block an entire site for good. SelfControl: This one is free and for Mac users. Can block access to websites. Happy monitoring and blocking! Often we marketers are overwhelmed with new ideas and strategies. Our minds are hard to slow down as information is consistently flashed in front of us. When it comes to content marketing the same is true. So many steps, templates, and strategies it can be difficult to figure out where to start, even when the answer could be simple. Take it from me as someone who has taken certification after certification and used template after template to develop content. The answer comes from looking at SOLUTIONS. Content is created to solve a problem for a customer. For those customers who are researching what their challenges are and those that are already using your product/service as a solution. Content is creating knowledge about the solution you are providing. Notice I said Solution not a product or service. The one thing you need to know about content marketing is to focus on the solution to customers problems. Break out of the current mold concentrating on a product our service and instead talk about the solution the product/service provides. Answer these questions and think of content that could support your answers. What is the customer doing when they first show symptoms of a problem? What is the customer doing when they first show signs of evaluating alternatives? What is the customer doing when they have defined their solution? It's Not About the What its About the Why! Buyer Personas Social Media is a great place to conduct research about your customers or potential customers. The research allows a business to create buyer personas. Buyer Personas are fictional representations of your customer allowing you to customize content, needs, and behaviors to different groups. Taking target marketing one step farther and the payoff is worth it, see the infographic below. Start defining Buyer Personas by researching the following about your customer. Start an excel spreadsheet to keep track of your research for each of these categories. 1. Demographics - Where do they live, age, gender 2. What are their interests 3. What are their careers, education, income? 4. Buying Motivations? 5. Buying concerns? 6. Favorite websites and platforms? 7. Competitors – Similiar Web Finding this information is simple but may take some time. You can start with googling keywords you think the customers are using, going on each platform and joining groups or following key influencers. Google trends or Google alerts also help monitor customers. I have a feedly.com account so I can keep track of the blogs, news and websites I follow in one place. Once you have some research you can group similar characteristics then describe and name similar personas. Look for similarities on who they are, what they do, why they do it and how they do it. Adding a fictional name and a picture helps you remember the persona. Below you will find an example. Remember take your time creating buyer personas and be willing to edit personas as you continue to research and learn about your customers. Share the persona you have created. Click on the link below to download the Buyer Persona Worksheet  “Don’t get caught up in all the shiny new things” is my favorite peace of social media advice. New Social Media tools pop up all the time and it can be a real time waster exploring new resources. My advice is pick one or two you think can benefit you and explore that resource. Always stay focused on getting to know the platforms you are using in your social media strategy. Start small and expand your platform and resources as you listen to where your customers engage. My favorite resources right now is the Heminway Editor. For a $19 life time member you get access to an editing tool that works from anywhere, even your phone. Social media marketing includes writing whether we like it or not. So, for non-writers out their getting some help with editing content is essential. Grammarly is a great one as well and it is free for you to down load today! What is your favorite social media resource? What advice do you have about handling all the new and shiny tools in social media?
Dr. Emrich Always Learning As Marketers, we need data. Data helps us understand our audience and the content that will resonate with them. Social Media analytics help measure how our activities are performing against objectives on different social media platforms. My 2 favorite measurements to get started with analytics are Reach and Conversion Rate. REACH is the followers (Twitter), fans (Facebook) and group members (LinkedIn) a business is able to acquire. TRAFFIC and CONVERSION RATE is how many visitors/customers you get to your website that come over from social media. These measures are easily available on each social media platform and google analytics. See website below for detailed instructions.
https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/10-metrics-to-track-for-social-media-success/ What are some other social media analytics and tools you could use to track social media performance? This is a very interesting article on Lowes. I personally would have never expected a big company like this to have figured out social entertaining so well. How do you think Lowes is using social media to publish content and entertain customers? What can you learn from their strategy about social media marketing in general?
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