Facebook Ad Insights: How Big Brands are Using Facebook Tactics in Their...

Some of my key take-aways from this:

- Concentrate on your audience - use tools to analyse and understand your target market

- Make sure your ad loads quickly - Facebook is prioritsing quick-loading ads as they give a better customer experience

- Smart Marketer use their Facebook ads in 3 phases:
1: creating awareness for new customers,
2: re-targeting people who have already engaged but not bought
3: rewarding loyalty for existing customers

- leads that come from Facebook tend to be less 'warm', so the nurture sequence is critical

- Facebook advertising is more expensive than it used to be, but they are offering so much more now in terms of their toolsets etc.

How To Build A Social Media Following— Get Started

Don't know what to post about?  This is really helpful, and gives some great examples.

Some of my key take-aways:

- People are interested in the different stages of creation, not just the final product - don't ignore the struggle of the process
- Don't just post the same thing everywhere, each platform should sound and feel different as the audiences have different expectations...
- Quality content is better than constant content - although don't forget that consistency is really important.

Email Marketing Trick to Get Raving Subscribers: The Indoctrination Sequ...

My previous post noted the importance of nurturing your email subscribers - and this is a great summary for how to do this!  What I took from this video:

People have such information overload that within a week they will forget who you are, and why you are emailing them... so Till Boadella suggests you prevent this by using an ‘indoctrination sequence’ 😊

This is usually a sequence of 3 or 4 emails, the only purpose being to position you and your brand in your subscriber’s mind.  These should hit a few different triggers – such as authority, social proof, community, and likeability.

First - welcome them to your community: explain what you do, who you help and how.  Remind them why they’re receiving the email.

Then do a few story videos about yourself, what you’ve done, basically anything that positions you as an expert.

List control is really important – i.e. that people on your list trust you, and will take the actions you recommend.  A great way to get list control is to use this indoctrination sequence.

Once they’ve completed this sequence, your subscribers should then be added to the general broadcast list.

Thanks for this, Till Boadella!

Social Media Explained Visually YouTube

So, I was about to note that I think this video, which explains social media, might be aimed at kids...  Then I realised that kids already know what social media is, so it must be aimed at us older generations instead :)  Either way, it takes things back to basics, explains that it's just a way to mix content and conversations, and I couldn't resist adding it to my blog!

The Most Discussed Issues on Facebook and Instagram in July [Infographic]

The Most Discussed Issues on Facebook and Instagram in July [Infographic]

Article originally published on socialmediatoday.com by Andrew Hutchinson, August 19th, 2017

Facebook has released the latest version of its monthly Hot Topics report, covering the subjects and issues that were most mentioned by Facebook users in July.

The Hot Topics reports are a great reference point for those looking to optimize their Facebook posts and campaigns

 – not only do the reports show you what was being discussed, but who by, in terms of general demographics (male/female, younger/older), which can help provide guidance on what’s resonating amongst your specific target market/s.

So what was gaining traction on Facebook last month?

As usual, national holidays get a lot of attention on Facebook – which makes sense, people share their thoughts and opinions on such days. 

But they can skew the data somewhat when you’re trying to conduct research on what’s most relevant to your audience – it’s pretty much a given that seasonal events will come up and you need to factor them into your marketing plan where possible.

To make it a little clearer as to what else was resonating, here’s the chart with seasonal holiday mentions removed.

That makes it a little clearer – though it is relevant to note the popularity of celebrations like Christmas in July and Canada Day, as they may help planning for future campaigns.

In terms of key topics of note, younger men are very interested in the upcoming Conor McGregor/Floyd Mayweather boxing match, while the death of Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington was also a key topic of focus.  

Among older users, you can see that Le Tour de France was popular with older men, while tennis star Kim Clijsters, who was recently inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, was also highly mentioned. Country singer Garth Brooks also got a lot of attention, as did zucchini amongst older women. Not sure what the story is with that.

Over on Instagram, the story was, again, similar, though with more entertainment-related mentions (which is normally how it goes among Instagram users).

This is likely influenced by the younger user base of Instagram.

As always, Facebook has also provided Hot Topics charts for:

Australia

Canada

The UK

As noted, the Hot Topics report is always worth a look – even if you’re absolutely confident you know and understand your target market, there are always smaller trends and shifts within the data that come up, and may help refine your campaign focus in order to generate better response. 

Source article

My philosophy for a happy life | Sam Berns | TEDxMidAtlantic

My favourite quote from this: 'No matter what I choose to become, I believe I can change the world - and as as I'm striving to change the world, I will be happy'.  It just seems to summarise perfectly an incredible philosophy.  Thank you Sam!

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Seth Godin on marketing, storytelling, attention, and the future of work

Great insights from Seth Godin...  Some of the key points I took are:

'Permission marketing is the idea of delivering anticipated, personal, and relevant messages that people want to get'.

Focus on  'working our way to a place of relevance' 'patiently building an asset... and earning attention'

People 'process information by telling themselves a story'

'Redefine authentic self as consistent self'

'We need to find meaningful work'

8 Habits of Highly Successful Students

This is aimed at kids at school and is pretty basic, but wow can it be applied to starting a new business too!  It also highlights how much extra experience we really do have over school-leavers, even if they are better at Facebook :)  Nice marketing strategy ideas too...

She's a Blind YouTuber