3 useful ways to promote your upcoming event on social media

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Hosting an event can be an immensely stressful but rewarding experience. Whether you’re hosting a free online webinar or a paid event at a local convention center, there are many ways you can promote the event without going over budget. Here are just some of the many efficient and cost-effective ways you should use to boost ticket sales and measure expected attendance.

Promote the event on Facebook

Did you know you can sell tickets from a Facebook Event page? This option is typically more effective when combined with a tracking pixel for Facebook from your events site (such as EventBrite), so you can keep track of your marketing efforts and analyze data more accurately during and after your event promotion.

Once you set up your tracking pixel and Facebook Event page, you can easily promote it by paying to boost your page, inviting people to your event, and sharing the event details on your brand or business’ usual page so your followers can sign up before it sells out!

Host a contest

Everyone loves free stuff, especially if that involves free admission to an event they would’ve paid to attend anyway. You can host a contest on virtually any social platform, though Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are the most ideal for events due to their wide reach and localized targeting options. If your event is more geared towards the professional crowd, then LinkedIn might be a better option.

Free admission or branded swag generally make for the best prizes, but you don’t have to limit yourself to one grand prize or boring text entries, either. To generate maximum hype for your upcoming event, encourage users to share content (photos or text-based stories) using a branded hashtag as their entry to your contest and pick winners on a weekly basis to keep social users interested in coming back for additional chances to win.

Hire a micro-influencer

Whether your event is a small, local gig or a massive bonanza that will attract people from all over the country, hiring someone from your industry – who has their own dedicated bunch of followers – to promote your event could work wonders when it comes to boosting your attendance figures.

By hiring a micro-influencer, you’ll get the word out in an organic way (social users are most likely to follow the recommendations of a friend or family member, after all) and you’ll get access to a base of followers that might have otherwise ignored your sponsored ads.

Four mistakes to avoid while using hashtags on Instagram

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Appropriate hashtag use is more of a skill than a guessing game. But all too often, marketers underestimate the importance of hashtags and simply slap a few relevant words onto their Instagram posts and hope for the best. If you’re marketing your business on Instagram, here are four hashtag strategies you’ll want to avoid:

1. Using Too Many Hashtags (or too few)

Using just one or two hashtags is woefully inadequate for brands trying to build their following on Instagram, but using 25-30 hashtags is also unpopular with users. Generally speaking, you’ll want to use more than 6 or 7 but fewer than 25. Better yet, be sure to separate your hashtags from the caption by inserting a few lines or several period points to push your hashtags out of the immediate caption area of your post. That’s what viewers see while scrolling through a feed before actually clicking on your post to read the remainder of the caption, where your hashtags will be hiding.

2. Repeating the Same Hashtags for Every Post

Perhaps you’re not using the maximum 30 hashtags but you’re still not getting the results you were hoping for with your Instagram campaigns. If that’s the case, then you might not be diversifying your hashtags enough. If you’re using the same bulk of hashtags for a majority of your posts, then you’re really limiting yourself to Instagrammers who search only for those specific hashtags. Instead, consider casting a wider net by incorporating at least 4-5 new hashtags into each post to help make sure you’re getting new eyeballs on your photos each time.

3. Not Creating Your Own Hashtag

Why settle for pre-made hashtags when you could get a leg up on your competitors by creating your own hashtags that audience members can use in their own posts? User-generated content campaigns are enormously valuable for brands because they give you access to free, word-of-mouth marketing. Instead of simply using your brand’s name as a hashtag, create unique and fun hashtags that will stand out and encourage other Instagram users to participate. This is particularly useful for running contests and giveaways on Instagram.

4. Forgetting Daily or Seasonal Events and Themes

There are tons of hashtags geared towards individual days of the week – #ThrowbackThursday (#tbt) or #WoofWednesday – as well as seasons and holidays. If you’re not creating specific marketing campaigns targeted to these different dates, then you could be missing out on valuable opportunities to score more viewers for your Instagram content. To avoid this mistake, be sure to research which daily hashtags are relevant to your brand and discover which seasonal or holiday-themed hashtags would be useful for adding more variety to your posts and building a greater following as a result of this diverse approach.

3 hashtagging mistakes that all brands must avoid

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When it comes to the way you use hashtags in social media posts, what does your brand’s strategy look like? Do you use as many hashtags as possible, no hashtags at all, or something in between? Although the use of hashtags is not a perfect science for social media marketing folks, there are some general guidelines you should follow to maximize your ROI for any sponsored tweet or promoted post where you include a hashtag(s).

#Using #Too #Many #Hashtags

On Instagram, you can use as many as 30 hashtags in a single post. However, studies have shown that optimal engagement with followers and your wider audience alike taps out around 9 hashtags in a single post. Using more or less than 9 hashtags typically lead to lower levels of engagement from target audience members.

Meanwhile on Twitter, studies have shown the best engagement rates tend to come from tweets with 2 hashtags. Using 0-1 hashtags lowers your chances of expanding your reach, while using 3+ hashtags clutters up your tweet and deters potential followers.

Using Irrelevant Hashtags

A major problem with some brands trying to grow their audiences is that they use very broad, popular or even irrelevant hashtags in hopes of getting their content in front of more viewers. Unfortunately, using broad hashtags (such as #cute for a clothing company or #pets for a pet supply company) can actually decrease your engagement rates because there’s only a brief window of opportunity in which potential followers will see your post, due to the influx of other posts using the same hashtag flooding yours out.

Irrelevant hashtags — defined as those that barely relate to your brand and the items/services you offer — are similarly useless for increasing your engagement rates with followers. You won’t develop a high-quality audience of potential paying customers unless you’re using hashtags directly targeted at their consumption habits and personalities.

Never Trying Out New Hashtags

A final mistake many brands make on sites like Instagram or Twitter is relying on the same hashtags for every post you make. Even if you change it up with one new hashtag in each post, this may not be enough to diversify your audience and get your posts in front of new social media users. The best way to overcome this problem is by using hashtag analytic software to assess which hashtags contribute the most to your engagement/follower rates, and continuously experimenting with a new hashtag(s) in your Twitter and Instagram posts.

Two easy ways to diversify your blog’s content

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Does your blog feel a bit blah lately? Are you running out of genuinely interesting or helpful topic ideas for your readers? Are your viewership stats stagnant or even declining? If so, then it’s probably time to start diversifying your content. Here are two simple ways to accomplish this:

Mix up your content formats

Even if you have a wide variety of topics discussed on your blog, you could be missing opportunities to reach new audience segments if you’re only posting text-based blogs with an image here and there. Let’s face it: some people don’t have the time or interest to read several paragraphs of content, which is why mixing up your content formats could help you get your brand’s message out to people who might otherwise read the headline and leave.

Different content formats may include: video (after all, over 50% of marketers from around the world agree video content has the best ROI), listicles (think Buzzfeed-type of content but more specific to your brand), audio (podcasts are great for mobile users who tune in during their commutes), slideshows (SlideShare or Prezi are popular platforms for this), infographics (you can have an affordable infographic designed by professionals on sites like Fiverr), and Q&A sessions with experts and influencers (great for driving their audience to your blog).

Bring in guest contributors

Speaking of experts and influencers: one of the best ways to freshen up your blog’s content production is by letting someone else take the reins on a subject. Depending on their background, they might have unique insight to offer what you might not have considered, which would be an incredibly useful resource for your audience. Guest contributors might even propose their own topics for your blog and encourage their audience to visit your blog (just as their guest post would likely link back to their blog/website, making it an informal partnership that’s a win-win for both of you).

4 common social media mistakes that can seriously backfire with your audience

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Social media marketing practices are always changing, but there still remain some persistent problems that some marketers can’t seem to give up on. If you’re concerned about potentially driving away your followers with well-intentioned but poorly executed marketing gimmicks, then here are the 4 most common mistakes you should avoid at all costs:

Same Posts on Every Platform

Do you post the exact same image and copy for posts on different social media platforms? Even if you change the copy or image, your followers will likely notice and unfollow you on one or multiple social channels if they perceive you’re not offering them unique content on every platform.

To avoid this dilemma, make sure you come up with fresh content for each platform. Even if you’re promoting the same product or blog post, write up new copy and find a new photo for each social website you post on.

Minimal Engagement with Followers

How often do you reply to followers’ messages, posts and comments that tag your brand on social media? If you’re not responding to at least 50% of your follower engagement, then you’re likely missing out on valuable opportunities to foster consumers’ relationship with your brand, extinguish customer relations fires before they bad-mouth your brand/products/services online, and organically grow your word-of-mouth marketing channels.

Don’t let your followers feel neglected, even if you’re too busy to respond to each person who comments on your page or post. If need be, hire someone else to manage your pages to ensure each and every customer always feels a personalized connection with your brand.

Too Much Hype, Too Many Sales Pitches

Even the most dedicated brand followers will grow tired of seeing the same flashy “SALE!!!” signs and messages telling them to “HURRY – TIME IS RUNNING OUT” if this comprises the majority of your social media posts. There’s a time and a place for deploying copy with elements of scarcity and urgency, but you should use these marketing tactics sparingly to avoid driving your followers away.

For instance, 1-2 posts per week (maximum) should urge your followers to click on a link or buy something. The rest of your posts should be informative, entertaining, or engaging – no sales, no rush, no hype. This is key to developing a highly targeted audience of potential customers who won’t flee your pages within days of following you because your posts will no longer overwhelm them with loud and obnoxious sales messages anymore.

Boring Calls-to-Action

On the flip side of having too much hype, it’s perfectly possible that you may be underwhelming your audience. If your usual call-to-action is something like “look at our website please,” “download a copy,” or “buy it now,” then you might be experiencing low engagement and conversion rates simply because your calls-to-action are too dull.

There needs to be some spark of excitement to drive potential customers to your website, which is why it’s so important to split-test ads with different calls-to-action: to see which CTA is most effective in capturing their interest and enthusiastically guiding them to the finish line, which is the checkout or download page on your website!

How the principles of social influence can improve your marketing strategy

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According to researcher and author Dr. Robert Cialdini, there are six proven methods of persuasion that can be used to influence others: Reciprocity, scarcity, consistency, authority, likability, and social proof. When it comes to marketing, these techniques are crucial for understanding your target audience and creating effective campaigns.

Here are a few ways to incorporate these six principles of social influence into your own online marketing strategy:

Reciprocity

This involves the classic “give before you get” approach. In other words, you have to offer something to potential customers before they’re willing to buy from you, whether that’s a free report, free initial consultation, or anything else of value that will create a sense of indebtedness, which psychologically motivates people to want to “give back” by buying something from you.

Here are 10 great examples of the reciprocity principle in marketing campaigns.

Scarcity

This is one of the most well-known marketing tactics: Creating a sense of limited supply or a limited amount of time to make a purchase. This generates a feeling of urgency for consumers, who might otherwise scroll past your social media ads and forget about your offer. However, it’s important to avoid creating a false sense of urgency – such as “limited time offers” that don’t actually expire – in order to maintain your credibility as a brand.

Here are some awesome examples of scarcity copywriting from other brands’ marketing strategies.

Consistency

Have you ever seen ads on social media that were completely different from the website they directed you to? A lack of consistency between a brand’s messaging, image, values, and even products/services is frustrating for consumers. To smooth out the process of converting website visitors into paying customers, make sure your social ads are relatively similar to your website and your call-to-action remains consistent in all of your marketing collateral.

Here are 15 examples of consistent brand marketing to get some inspiration from.

Authority

Trust and credibility are some of the most important things consumers look for when deciding which brand to purchase products or services from. If you don’t project an air of legitimacy and expertise (and provide warrants for your claims to authority), then you might not get the sales figures you’re hoping for because consumers are turned off by marketing messages that don’t offer a compelling reason to buy from this brand in particular over the competition.

Here are a few examples of authoritative brands and entrepreneurs to help you develop your own brand’s authority in marketing messages.

Likability

Traditional advertising is losing its effectiveness among consumers, especially those in younger demographics. Instead, consumers want to feel engaged with a brand, whether that involves personalized responses to social media messages or sending thank-you letters or emails with a promo code for future purchases after someone completes their first purchase. What this all means is that your brand needs to have the likability factor; you can’t just sell to customers. You have to develop ongoing relationships with them.

Here are some fantastic examples of brands that took their likability to the next level with social media users.

Social Proof (Consensus)

Last but not least, we have social proof. This social influence strategy entails popular opinions, such as Yelp reviews, customer testimonials, ratings on Facebook business pages, and so much more. Potential customers are more likely to buy from you if you offer some kind of social proof that demonstrates your brand’s history of customer satisfaction. While this may seem intuitive, it’s certainly surprising how many businesses have yet to claim their Yelp pages or regularly ask customers to leave reviews on their websites or online marketplaces.

Here are 8 examples of brands that highlighted social proof in their own online marketing campaigns.

3 free strategies for driving new visitors to your blog

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An optimal blog marketing strategy involves a mixture of paid and organic advertising. Whether you want to earn revenue from affiliate marketing links or you want to promote other products/services, here are 3 helpful and cost-free ways to attract new visitors to your blog:

Promote Evergreen Content on Social Media

When it comes to revising a blog content strategy, incorporating a blend of seasonal, event-specific and evergreen content is essential. While seasonal content may only be relevant to site visitors for a couple months out of the year, evergreen content could be useful to anyone at any point during the year (and possibly for years to come).

If you have a solid foundation of evergreen content, then don’t let it go to waste. Update broken links and outdated information from evergreen posts you wrote years ago, then republish the content and promote it on your social media channels. It’s a great way to freshen up your blog with minimal effort, and people who might not have viewed your content a few years ago can now see the great information and advice you have to offer (just make sure you get rid of that outdated information, which can be a huge turn-off for potential blog followers).

Use StumbleUpon for Every Post

StumbleUpon is an excellent resource for bloggers seeking new (and more) traffic on their websites. As the name suggests, StumbleUpon is designed for users to “stumble upon” new content on topics they’re interested in, which makes it an ideal platform for content marketers who want to increase the web traffic figures to their company’s or clients’ blogs.

If you want to increase your web traffic with StumbleUpon, be sure to publish only the highest quality content with visually stunning imagery to ensure people remain interested in what you’re publishing. You can organically grow your blog’s fanbase with StumbleUpon and encourage others to share your content.

Incorporate Relevant Keywords

Even if you’re not a pro when it comes to SEO, there are still many ways to produce quality, SEO-friendly content for your blog. You can conduct basic keyword analysis with Google or Wordstream to see which keywords and phrases are highly sought-after by your target audience in the search engines.

In the process of keyword research, be sure to aim for mid-range SEO keywords. High-traffic keywords with millions of other associated results guarantee your blog content won’t be seen by too many people. To avoid getting pushed out of sight by more popular sites with greater web traffic, selecting semi-popular search terms can help your content stay relevant in search engines without having to compete with much larger competitors.

SEO can be difficult for content marketers who are initially unfamiliar with it, but once you start understanding how search engine algorithms work and which keywords are best suited for connecting your content with your desired audience, it gets much easier and more effective!

Are you setting goals for your social media campaigns?

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When it comes to planning out a social media campaign, do you have certain desirable outcomes in mind before you launch, or do you simply publish your ads, monitor your metrics along the way, and think about new strategies for improvement once the campaign ends? If you’re not actively setting goals for your advertising efforts and instead taking a “hope for the best” approach, then you could be wasting a lot of money in your marketing budget without realizing it.

To achieve greater efficiency and determine what you really want out of your next campaign, revamp your approach to advertising by setting goals and developing strategies to exceed your own expectations with these tips:

SMART Goal-Setting Formula

The SMART formula outlines 5 key factors that you should consider when writing down your goals:

  • Specific: clear and concise; not left open to interpretation
  • Measurable: able to be tracked (analyzing social metrics is perfect for this)
  • Achievable: challenging but not impossible
  • Relevant: something you actually want for your brand (e.g., more followers or link clicks to your website)
  • Timely: target deadline is established so you have to achieve your goals in an efficient manner

The SMART formula is perfect for anyone setting new goals, but it’s especially useful for social media marketers who want to rein in advertising costs and get better results on your campaigns.

Adjust Your Expectations

Of course, the success of your campaigns isn’t always under your control. Sometimes, it may be an odd image or dull copy driving potential customers away from your ads. Other times, you might be advertising on the wrong platform for what you’re offering. Regardless of the reasons behind unsuccessful campaigns, it’s important to stay on track with your goals even if you’re struggling to connect with your audience.

Consistently reevaluate and adjust your goals and expectations while testing multiple ads and other features like Facebook’s Audience Network. You won’t hit a homerun with every campaign, but sticking to your goals is the best way to maximize your chances of success in the long run.

Should you host a contest on your brand’s social channels?

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It seems like everyone is hosting contests on social media these days, but some of them are surprisingly ineffective. You’d think users would pounce on any opportunity to get free stuff or recognition, but sometimes, contests fizzle out shortly after their initial announcement.

Since running contests takes a lot of time, effort, resources and attention to social media platforms’ policies (such as Instagram’s extensive promotion policies), you want to avoid creating a dud as much as possible. With a valuable prize, carefully-crafted campaign and consistent promotion however, you could create a lot of buzz around your brand.

One of the biggest advantages to running a contest on your social channels is generating lots of buzz and hype around your brand, a new product, or even a new partnership. If you have a boring or worthless prize, then social users aren’t likely to engage with your contest. However, a truly valuable prize (worth at least $20 with free shipping to the winner) could drive traffic to your accounts and website.

To create a buzz-worthy contest, you should:

  • Give users enough time to enter but not too much time (otherwise they’ll forget they entered at all)
  • Offer a valuable prize to one or multiple entrants (e.g., gift card, free product/service, cool gadget, 3-month membership, etc.)
  • Require more than a simple click to enter

In regards to the last one, you’ll want to use contests as opportunities to create leads or bring in new followers. For instance, you might ask for a person’s name and email on a separate landing page to qualify for entry, or ask users to comment on your post and tag their friends (one entry per friend tagged in the post). Offer different levels, such as one entry for liking or commenting on your post, five entries for sharing the post on their own page, and ten entries for referring others to like your page. As mentioned previously, be sure that your entry requirements fulfill the guidelines set by the social platform to avoid negative consequences.

It’s not enough to simply generate buzz around your brand; you also want some tangible benefits from your contest, such as racking up more followers. However, you don’t want bots or low-activity accounts artificially boosting your follower counts, so be sure to include a requirement about commenting, liking or sharing your post(s) to ensure your pages are attracting legitimate followers who could later convert into paying customers.

The best contests go above and beyond simply asking users to “like” their contest post. Sure, it’s easier to track entries when you use this method, but you’re unlikely to see long-term benefits from a contest based on entry likes. Instead, you should focus on user engagement above all else, which could include: counting entries based on whoever uses your branded hashtag for the campaign, hosting photo contests and letting your followers vote for the winning entries (PetSmart does annual Halloween pet costume contests this way and they’re popular on social media), and asking users to submit photos of them using your product or service for the chance to be featured on your page.

Recognizing and engaging with your followers is one of the most successful strategies for social media marketing, so don’t miss out on a potential opportunity to truly engage your audience with your next contest.

Four easy Twitter tips you can put into action today

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With short attention spans, a limited number of characters and a flood of content, it’s tough to grow your Twitter following organically. Original, engaging content is a must, of course, but beyond that there are some quick tips you can put into action today to reach your target audience.

Repeat Your Content – Tweets are rapidly lost in the fast-moving feed, and your content is only seen by a fraction of your followers each time you post. To improve engagement and reach more people, recycle your content on a regular basis.

Don’t Hesitate to Ask – There’s no need to be shy. Ask for those likes, shares and retweets every now and then. Research has shown that spelling out ‘retweet’ gets more results, so go ahead and use up a few extra characters in this case.

Get Visual – Visuals are more eye-catching, and people retain information that’s presented visually for a longer period of time. Make the most of this by creating your own unique imagery using free tools like PicMonkey or Canva.

Hashtag Smartly – Using trending hashtags in your tweets is a great way to make your content discoverable. But it can also be a minefield if you piggyback a hashtag that has a double-meaning related to something inappropriate. Use Twitter’s Advanced Search to research hashtags before using them.

An engaged Twitter following goes beyond developing brand awareness and industry authority. It can lead directly to sales. Focus on providing useful content and genuine interaction. And try a couple of these tips to give your tweets a little extra juice!