How to Use SnapChat for your Business

.

It's important to remember that content on Snapchat only lasts for a short period of time after a 24 hour period of time they disappear, so it's not like other platforms where you can repurpose the content on an ongoing basis, now with that being said I think that's also the attraction of Snapchat.  Users know that the content on Snapchat is fresh and not dated, this is a big part of its appeal. 

If you think Snapchat is something that will work for you, here are some ideas you can use to get started in producing content: 

Use Snapchat for Behind the Scenes Footage

This is a great way to give your customers/prospect and insider's view of your company.  Sharing your company culture can really help to engage your following with interesting content.

Media Influencer Outreach

Like all social media platforms, Snapchat also has its share of influencers. Partnering with influencers can help in sharing your brand and conducting an awareness campaign.  It's a great way to share your brand's voice and personality, not to mention Snapchatis able to reach a demographic that's hard to reach throughout more traditional channels. 

Share Promotions, Coupons or Contests

Everyone loves a deal, so Snapchat is a great way reward your followers with promotional codes, coupons, contests, and giveaways. Be creative, it will keep your customers/prospects interested. 

Deliver Exclusive Content

Because of the uniqueness of Snapchat, it's a great way to deliver exclusive content to your followers.  We all love to be the first "in the know."

Report from Live Events

Share your live events with your followers using Snapchat. It's a perfect app to give the insiders view of what's going on. 

Evaluating the Value the Marketing Value it Brings to You

It's clear that Snapchat has the ability to create engagement with your customers as well as awareness with your prospective customers through the use of daily stories.  It has the potential to get you in front of a new audience that is perhaps being missed by other social media platforms.  However, with it come a few downfalls that you have to be ok with. 

• Your marketing message can't be recalled, this means it's one and done.  
• You currently can't drive traffic from the Snapchat app. This means it is nearly impossible to convert them through the purchase or lead process.
• In marketing departments that are already tapped for time and resources, it's one more social media platform you will have to activate, feed and monitor. 

Only you can make the determination of whether Snapchat is a good channel for you.  Like any other social media platform, I believe Snapchat will work well for some businesses and not for others. I would also say that I believe Snapchat will continue to evolve, grow and increase their marketing opportunities. The only way to know if it's right for you is to try it. Evaluate it, try to develop a content plan that is Snapchat specific and see how difficult it is.  If you find the content plan comes naturally, why not give it a try?  If you struggle you should take that as a hint that perhaps this is not the right platform for you.

RELATED ARTICLES

SnapChat Marketing. Is it right for your business?

The Muslim family were just thrown off a plane because of their religion

Most important e-commerce traffic sources

Top 6 Social Media Trends

Difference between B2B & B2C

Snapchat Marketing: Is it Right for Your Business?

.

What's the fascination with Snapchat, especially from the marketing perspective? Good question. I have to admit the "youngins" picked up Snapchat long before we started considering it as a marketing tool.  

You may be sitting there wondering what Snapchat is?  No worries, you aren't the only one, let me give you a brief introduction before we start talking about its marketing value.  

Snapchat launched in 2011.  It is a mobile messaging application.  In the beginning, it was a great way to send photos and videos without bogging down your phone's storage.  The younger kids picked up on it first. They could add captions, drawings, and even filters to their photos and videos before sending them to friend and family, thus the term "snap."   The element that attracted most users was the fact that you could only view the "snap" for 10 seconds before it disappeared.

 Poof – gone for good!  Now, you can probably see the attraction for tweens and teens.   Today Snapchat has over 100 million active users and over 7 billion daily video views.  Now, you understand the attraction to marketers.  

Snapchat closely resembles how we communicate face-to-face than any other social network. when we talk to each other, passing in the halls or just living out our lives, those moments disappear. Snapchat emulates that behavior and psychology.  Moments are temporary and that's exactly the feeling and behavior that Snapchat matched to." 

In 2013, Snapchat introduced a new feature called Snapchat Stories.  This enabled users to string together photos and videos  taken throughout the day creating narratives.   Think of it as a Twitter feed or Facebook timeline.  The stories last for 24 hours.  This new feature took hold and users continued to grow, according to Business Insider over 40% of 18-year-olds were using Snapchat.  

In 2015, they launched a new feature called Discover.  Discover took Snapchat to an entirely new level. Discover connected SnapChat users with top media companies and media companies started publishing content to the app users.  The companies they launched with included ESPN, Cosmopolitan, National Geographic and CNN.  This feature has pushed the platform into a prime position for monetization.  

Ok, so that's a brief history on SnapChat, now let's talk about why marketers are bringing it to the attention of business owners.  

.

Snapchat users have centered around the millennial generation that's one attraction, but other generations are adapting to it daily and active users continue to increase in volume.  Facebook as continually been losing the younger audience to applications like Snapchat, ComScore reports that three out of every  five 18-24-year-olds use Snapchat. The numbers are attractive and the application carries more value than just snapping photos and videos that disappear.  

There is a lot of buzz about Snapchat lately, but you are really the only one who can determine if it's the right social platform for you and your business.  It is growing in popularity and users on a daily basis, so let's explore some of the ways that Snapchat can be used so that you are able to make the educated decision on whether or not it fits into your marketing strategy.  

The challenge with Snapchat is that the marketing options are not as advanced as those available on social platforms like Facebook.   You need to have a clear understanding of the objective you want to achieve with Snapchat and how it adds value to your overall social marketing strategy.  Snapchat does take a considerable amount of time to create a presence that is continuous and strong.   

In my next blog I’ll talk about how you can get started with SnapChat

Related Articles : 

The Top 6 Social Marketing Trends that will dominate 2015-16

Understanding the difference between B2B and B2C Marketing

Social Media Optimization (SMO)

13 Times Pakistanis Owned English

This Muslim Family Were Just Thrown Off of a Plane Because of their Religion

This Muslim Family Were Just Thrown Off of a Plane Because of their Religion

Not long ago, there used to be a world where airplanes were ordinary vehicles meant to take you from one corner of the world to another discreetly. Thanks to the Egypt Air guy, a bunch of racism mixed with a dash of terrorism and topped with a garnish of Islamophobia has made air travel so much more happening, in all the wrong ways.

On March 31, 2016 Eaman-Amy Saad Shebley, her husband and three children decided to fly for their kids Spring break holidays.

Their mistake? They flew United Airlines and were Muslims.

Here’s how people have been standing up for the family:

    

   

   .

  .

    .

The reason such stories keep popping up is because each and everyone of us needs to practice tolerance in our daily lives(and over social media

Related Articles :

13 times Pakistani Owned English

Which are the most common ecommerce traffic sources

10 piece of advices from a final year

Mistakes in Social Media Marketing

13 Times Pakistanis Owned English

English plays a very important part of any Pakistani’s life. Whether it’s at school, at work, advertising or hitting on a girl, English plays a vital role. We may not always make the best use of it but we don’t hesitate to own it either.Here they don’t just take care of your appetite, they take care of your feelings as well

1- Here they don’t just take care of your appetite, they take care of your feelings as well

2- The irony of this might kill some of us.

3- Seems like they aren’t either.

4- That’s right.

5- There couldn’t have been a better name for this salon. Definitely need of some good luck here.

6- Because blasting your bum is haram.

7- Hardees? More like hard D’s

8- This frandship is wayyy too over!

9- We promise they don’t give two shits.

10- Because sughar trumps all.

11- They still managed to get the message across

12- In case your cell phone is ever “turned on.”

13- The “safest” protest ever.

FOR MORE : 

How to handle negative in your social media

What is Twitter?

How can i get more leads in social media?

Which are the most important e-commerce traffic sources?

Data from 65 million ecommerce orders shows the crucial sources of traffic for ecommerce websites

Ecommerce and online retail is a booming sector, but because the latest marketing techniques change so rapidly it can be tricky to keep up with the latest trends whilst also keeping your feet on the ground.

In a new report, Yotpo collated data from 65 million ecommerce orders representing $2 billion dollars in transactions over 120,000 ecommerce stores, and established what the industry average is for digital media.

The results make for slightly surprising reading. On the face of things, Social makes up a healthy 6%, but this is still a relatively small slice over the overall pie. Paid makes up 5%, which leaves considerable room for growth, whilst email makes up a rather small 3%. It would be interesting to see the conversion rates by traffic, as it may be that referrals from emails are on the site because they’ve decided to purchase, whilst those from other sources may be more likely to be there to browse or research. I was slightly surprised search didn’t make up a larger share, since it is how most customers generally start their buying journey. Investing in better content marketing efforts could be more than worth it for many ecommerce stores, as if done well it will attract quality links and boost SEO.

Relying too much one source of traffic leaves you exposed to risks, as just because a channel is fantastic for generating traffic today doesn’t mean it will continue to be. Some sites lost out when Panda put penalties on certain SEO linking practices. Others lost out when Facebook decided to massively restrict organic reach. If your site had relied exclusively one of these sources of traffic then the changes may have put you in some serious trouble.

The best way to avoid these risks is by hedging your bets by acquiring your traffic from a considerable variety of sources. But what is a good variety? That’s where the data comes in.

Direct

The big surprise in many ways is how large a proportion of traffic comes from direct. Fully 40% of traffic came from direct, which accounts for more ecommerce traffic than any other single source. Direct in theory is the people who have typed in the URL directly to their browser, but in reality it means anyone who arrives at the site from a source that cannot be tracked. The source of this traffic is generally links that have been sent to friends/colleagues and then copied and pasted into web browsers. Traffic of this kind is generally referred to as ‘dark social’, as it is comprised of links that are shared socially, but cannot be tracked. This means ‘dark social’ actually accounts for a considerable percentage of direct traffic.

Dark Social

By its very nature, it is difficult to accurately account for what percentage of your direct traffic is actually ‘dark social’. However with direct accounting for 40% of of ecommerce traffic it seems likely dark social is making up a large proportion of the total. A general rule of thumb is that for every three people reaching your site via social, a further 7 will be arriving from ‘dark social’, which will appear as direct. If this is true for ecommerce traffic then dark social accounts for half of all the direct traffic, which is 20% of the total traffic. This makes dark social the 3rd largest source of ecommerce traffic by a considerable margin. Bear that mind when designing you’re landing pages and crafting the copy for your social shares. Social is probably more important to your bottom line than you think.

Other statistics on the most popular traffic sources and media channels for retailers?

If you're not aware of it the xcellent Custora Ecommerce Pulse showing orders by channel is also of interest for retailers to benchmark against. This is the latest data in 2016 from the end of 2015.

It's a compilation of traffic or media sources from some of the top US retail sites which drive sales.

What channels draw the most engaged traffic?

Not all clicks are equal, and some visits are more valuable than others. Some channels bring traffic that is more likely to spend plenty of time reviewing the site, whilst others are more likely to bounce back relatively quickly. Email, Instagram and referral are the stars here. Conversely, Pinterest and Facebook bring traffic likely to spend only half as much time on site as the top performers. It is important to tie this information into budget allocation models, as a click from an email may be worth considerably more than one form Pinterest for example.

How important is mobile?

Mobile has been a buzz word in digital for several years now, to the point where it seems almost out-dated to talk about how important it is as everyone should know by now. Mobile now makes up the majority of visits across the web, but this is not the case for ecommerce. Because of the fiddly nature of payment forms, mobile accounts for slightly over 1/3rd of all ecommerce visits. If your rate of mobile traffic is lower than this it might be worth seeing if your site needs further optimisation for mobile. Responsive design should be your first priority, and if this is already in place then it may be worth a bit of user testing to see if the customer journey is as smooth on mobile as it is on desktop.

We hope this ecommerce traffic data has been helpful for benchmarking where you currently are against the industry average.

What is TWITTER ?

Twitter began in 2006 and has gained notability and popularity worldwide. Twitter is ranked as one of the top 50 websites on Alexa's web traffic analysis. The number of daily users vary, but in March of previous year. Nielsen.com ranked Twitter as the fastest growing site in the Members Communities category. eMarketer estimates that there were over 6 million+ registered Twitter users. Their research also projected that by the end of year that number will double.

Twitter is a free micro-blogging tool that allows you to post short "blogging" messages in 140 characters or less. You can post these messages using Twitter on your computer or your mobile device.

Twitter is one of the easiest social networks to pick up and start using. The Home tab will show you a feed of constantly updating tweets from people you follow. When you sign in, you'll need a nickname that begins with the @ sign. This tag will be used in other subscribers' tweets if they tweet directly to you. The Connect tab filters through the busy feed and show you interactions and mentions. This feature allows you to see when people reference your Twitter account and gives you a list of new followers.

Twitter provides a way for individuals to share information with one another in real-time. They can share news stories, reviews, complaints and even special deals.

We call these short 140 character messages "tweets" or "tweeting." These messages are broadcast to other Twitter users that follow you and shown on your Twitter profile page.

You can also use private messages through Twitter to your followers, this is called a direct message or a DM.

Twitter is meant to be used on the go. The typical Twitter user tweets from a smartphone rather than a personal computer. Thankfully, the mobile app for this social media service is even easier to use than the Twitter site. The advantage of using Twitter on a smartphone is that you can update your Twitter account immediately. When you take a quick picture with your phone, for instance, you can upload it instantly and add a comment to complete the tweet.

You cannot add personal videos to your Twitter feed. However, that problem is easily resolved. You can add any link that fits the 140 character requirement, from links to YouTube to personal websites and news feeds. Local businesses looking for a way to increase their reach can also take advantage of quick updates, creating loyalty in their followers and rewarding them with coupon links and promotional codes through their tweets.

Profiles                          9.4/10

The profile page for each user is so simple that it appears to be a weakness for this social network, but it actually works in its favor. For a site that emphasizes simplicity in all things, we'd be surprised if there were a complex profile page. Everything that Twitter members see about you is located in two small windows. First, users will see a profile picture that sits within a larger header photo that acts as a custom profile skin. The second screen allows you to input your location, website and short bio. Each of the items in a Twitter profile is optional. Twitter provides premade themes to use as your Twitter background, or you can create your own.

Search  Compare            8.8/10

The Discover tab is what sets Twitter apart in a positive and negative way. Your Discover feed shows you news stories that have either been tailored to your interests or stories that were tweeted by those you follow. If you are looking to be well versed in pop culture and current issues, you can find the Trends feed. This feed shows both keywords that have been used recently in Twitter and hashtag keywords, and follow the conversation regarding the most popular news stories. Twitter has literally taken the # sign and claimed it as its own. The downside of searching for friends on this social media site is that most users, other than celebrities, use nicknames that closely resemble their names, so it's difficult to find and connect with friends unless you know their @ names.

Security                          10/10

Twitter has a surprising number of security features. If you choose to add your email address to your notification settings, you have the option to allow others to find you by that email address. We noticed that several Twitter accounts are locked and no information can be retrieved. You can see how many tweets they have been written, how many users they follow and how many users follow them, but nothing else. When you select this option, you have to approve every tweeter who asks to follow you.

It's very easy to reset your password at any time. In what should be standard with every social media account, Twitter allows you to associate a mobile phone number with your login and password. This greatly reduces the chance of Twitter hacking.

Twitter Summary:            9.4/10

Twitter is one of the easiest-to-use social network sites you can experience. The mobile app gives you instant and constantly updated information. In a matter of seconds, you will know exactly what the rest of the world is interested in, and you can always join the conversation. A minor disappointment we have with the site lies in the difficulty associated with searching for friends. Unless they're famous or their Twitter handle is their first and last name, it's complicated to find people. Regardless, Twitter is an incredibly easy-to-use social media service, and there is a reason it's one of the top social networking sites.

Twitter is often used in campaigning, education, emergencies, protest and politics, legal proceedings, and public relations. Businesses can use Twitter to promote their products and services as well as provide customer services and listen to be being said about their companies.

How to Handle the Negative in Your Social Media Channels

Negativity often sways business away from social media. There is a fear that social media will discredit the business or destroy the reputation of the business.  We all know that dealing with negative comments in social media can be uncomfortable and unpleasant, but you can ease that by having a plan on how to handle the negativity in a way that protects your company and engages your social channels.

Having a plan will take the guess work out of what to do if someone begins to attack or take your social channel in the wrong direction.

What should you include in your plan?

Comment and Post Policy

Let’s start with the basics.  Create a comment and post policy, what types of comments and posts will you allow.  Make the policy public on your social channels.   Your policy should be clear on the language that you will allow and what comments or posts you deem unacceptable.  For example, perhaps your policy would state that foul language will not be tolerated or that all comments must be on topic.   Explain what will happen if the policy is broken.  Will you ban users for a span of time or permanently?  Will you block them?  Be as specific and as clear as you can be.

Guidelines to Handling the Negative

Now, let’s say a comment or post is on topic but it’s negative about a product, service or just your business in general.   Don’t sweat it.   Follow these guidelines and you can turn just about any situation around.

Guideline 1:  Address the Comment or Post in an Effective Manner.

Most negative posts fall into one of four categories.  They include:

• A business error
• Miscommunication or misunderstanding
• General negativity about your business.
• Disgruntled employee or past employee.

Identify the category and address the post or comment quickly. Try to come up with a positive solution.  Don’t be afraid to ask the commenter or poster if you can take it offline to discuss via telephone call or email so that you have all the details.   I always explain that the reason I’m trying to take it offline is for their own protection when it comes to privacy.

Guideline 2: Stay in the right frame of mind.  Don’t get defensive.

It’s easy to get defensive and take things personal.  Do yourself a favor, don’t!  A defensive reaction will only make matters worse.   Identify the issue, be polite and quickly try to find a resolution.   You can’t make everyone happy, that’s simply the fact, but you can give it your all to try and resolve the problem.  That’s all really anyone can ask.   Also by being pilot and not defensive other customers and/or fans will see that you are trying to move towards a resolution and most appreciate this.  I have often seen other customers come to the defense of a business if they see they are in fact trying.

Guideline 3:  Don’t Be Afraid to Own It!

Don’t be afraid to own up to a mistake or error.  They happen.  Everyone knows this.  There isn’t a company in the world that has a perfect track record.   Just deal with the issue head on by following the two guidelines above.   Acknowledge the issue and move to resolution as quickly as possible.   Never be afraid to apologize, sometimes that alone goes a long way with someone that is being negative and combative.   Hey, we screw up – it happens.

When it comes right down to it, there are only four things you need to remember and they will work for any business:

  

Step 1 – Acknowledge

Step 2 – Own it if it’s your error.  Apologize.

Step 3 – Quickly find a resolution.

Step 4 – If necessary, take it offline.

The Top 6 Social Marketing Trends that will dominate 2015-16

With new social networking platforms appearing from behind every corner, it can be hard to know exactly where to commit your time and resources. And as we move into the latter-half of 2015, it’s important to look ahead to where social networking is going, and how we can get on board.

As I think about the trends in social media so far this year, I’ve compiled a list of my predictions as to where we’re headed as we inch towards 2016.

1. Investment in Social Media Will Become a Necessity, Not a Luxury

While I’d argue that investing time and resources into a social media strategy is most definitely a necessity in 2015, I believe the tipping point in public sentiment from ‘should have’ to ‘must have’ will occur in 2016.

Businesses are already coming to terms with the need to integrate their social media efforts with their content strategy, and are seeing the impact of social media in terms of lead generation, referral traffic, and revenue.

As businesses see these very real and measurable benefits, I believe we’ll see a move away from assigning social media tasks to existing employees, and see even more companies hiring social media strategists or full-time social media managers.

The benefits of social media are many, but they include:

•          Improved social signals (which are a factor in the search ranking algorithm).
•          Company branding
•          Improved brand awareness
•          Word-of-mouth advertising
•          Increased customer loyalty and trust
•          Improved audience reach and influence
•          Social media is also one of the three pillars of SEO.

2. Google Will Become a Major Factor

While Facebook continues to lead the pack in terms of number of active monthly users (1.15 billion at last count), Google+ is quickly gaining steam, and in fact, now has the second highest number of monthly users (343 million).

With Google using the platform to collect personal information (think demographics, location, etc.), Google+ should no longer be thought of as ‘just’ another social network. It’s increasingly proving itself to be an integral part of Google’s grand scheme in terms of SEO, social signals and providing a more personalized search experience. This is especially apparent with the importance of Google Authorship, which I project will be one of the key components to Google’s search ranking algorithm by the end of 2015.

I believe that businesses who are finding themselves spread thin with their social media efforts will increasingly turn to Google+ as the closest thing we have to a ‘one size fits all’ social network.

As Google+ moves towards even greater integration with other aspects of the web – as they’ve already done with their foray into local search – I think we’ll see its growth skyrocket, both in terms of business and personal use.

3. Image-Centric Networks Will See Huge Success

We’ve seen a consistent trend in 2014 toward sharing through image and video, rather than text-based content. Visual content will increasingly become a critical piece of any solid content strategy, and social networking site Pinterest will continue to shed its reputation as a ‘women’s only’ network and become an integral part of retailers’ marketing strategies.

Other image-based social media sites like Slideshare, Tumblr, Path, and Mobli will continue to grow, and businesses will need to become more mindful about the ‘sharability’ factor of photos on their websites and blogs in order to derive significant benefit from their social media content marketing efforts.

4. We’ll Witness the Rise of Micro-Video

It seems that writing 140 characters and taking 3 minute long videos is becoming too tedious for many of us. Micro video to the rescue!

With the emergence of micro video apps like Twitter’s Vine and now Instagram’s video sharing feature, we’re seeing even more movement toward real-time video sharing. And not just any videos; with Instagram allowing 3-15 seconds per video, and Vine allowing precisely 6 seconds, users are even more likely to create and share videos from their smartphones.

It will be interesting to see if and how these bite-sized pieces of content will change the playing field when it comes to video-based social media.

5. Foursquare Will Decline Sharply

With stale traffic numbers, and significant difficulties raising capital in 2014, Foursquare continues to struggle its way towards 2015.

With other social networks like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter offering location-based features, it seems like only a matter of time before Foursquare folds and their users are absorbed into these other networks.

6. LinkedIn Will Become a Major Player for B2B Business Growth 

Still holding steady as the #1 social networking site for professionals with 238 million users, LinkedIn isn’t just sitting on its heels. With the launch of its Influencers program, LinkedIn is positioning itself as not only another networking site, but as one of the largest sources of content creation and curation for professionals.

As it grows and attracts even more users, the advantages of being “linked in” will become enormous for B2B marketers. For a guide on how to use LinkedIn for Marketing, see my article “The Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn Marketing.”

Final Thoughts

Facebook and Twitter show no signs of imminent decline, but it will be interesting to see how they innovate to keep up with the growth of Google+ as well as image and video-based networks.

With social media behemoth Facebook turning 11 in 2015 (has it really been that long?), they’ll continue to focus efforts on mobile, and on offering advertisers opportunities to better target their ads. And while Twitter continues to be the golden child amongst B2B marketers, I’m curious to see if and how the rise of Google+ will impact its market share.

While most business owners are aware of the necessity of having a social media strategy, I believe 2015 will be the year where a majority will finally understand the necessity to commit the necessary time and resources to their social media efforts. I’m excited to see which up-and-coming networks grab a share of the market, and which have already run their course. If you’re a business owner looking to build your social media presence, I recommend this article: “How to Determine Which Social Media Network Fits Your Business.”

Which social networking sites do you think we should be watching? Which do you think are on their last legs? Let me know in the comments below!

Follow me on Twitter @Xunaaay for more insights, predictions, and expertise.

How can I get more leads from social media?

This is a question I get often from marketers who are struggling to find and prove the value of social media to their business. Generally, it's followed by an explanation of the various social media tactics they have tried to address this concern.

The one thing most of them aren't doing? Segmenting their audience on social media.

Segmentation is not a new concept for marketers. We use segmentation to send emails, create pricing models, and understand the behaviors of our most loyal buyers -- so why aren’t we applying this practice to social media?

To get some ideas for ways you can use segmentation in your social media strategy, keep on reading.

1) Use social media targeting. 

When most people think of social media segmentation, they think of paid targeting options. Facebook allows businesses to target their messages to users based on data such as user demographics, interests, and geographical location. Other platforms including Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram have followed suit. Paid targeting is effective because it enables companies to get a specific message in front of a specific audience.

Lucky for budget-minded marketers, there are also some organic targeting options. Below are ways you could make use of both organic and paid targeting tactics.

Organic

Organic targeting allows users to tailor their content to specific audiences without paying to promote a post. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ make it easy for companies to do organic targeting.

Facebook

Facebook allows you to filter by gender, relationship status, age, location, interests and more. Simply create your post and select the target audience of your choice.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn allows you to target by industry, company size, function and more. This is a a great feature for B2B companies that are seeking to attract more visitors.

Google+

You can also select a specific audience on Google+ by publishing your content to a select circle of friends (you will need manually add members to the circle).

Paid

Paid targeting enables companies to be seen by social media users who are already active users and more likely to engage your offer and campaign. As a result, companies can increase their reach, expand their audience size, and achieve more quality conversions.

Almost all the social networks allow you to create targeted paid campaigns.

2) Create a group.

Social media is all about community. Building communities of people who share common interests is an easy way to segment your audience and gain valuable insights. You may decide to keep the group open (anyone can join) or closed (new members must be approved by a moderator) -- there are advantages to each.

Open Groups

Open groups enable you to gather information about how a more general audience feels about your brand. You can use this forum to have discussions and ask open-ended questions such as, “What are your biggest challenges?” or “What makes excellent customer service?” You can also test out new ideas with your audience members or discover new content ideas that they would find interesting and relevant. The advantage here is that you will have a large group to bounce ideas off of. The disadvantage? They may not be as knowledgeable about your industry as you need.

Closed groups

That's where closed groups can come in handy. Because you are approving each member's admission to the group, you can cherry-pick the most qualified candidates. Maybe they're a group of customers whose opinions you value, or list of people who have attended an even you've hosted. Regardless of what the requirements of admission, this can be a great way to get specific, helpful feedback from a group you trust -- but you may not get as many responses as an open group discussion.

3) Make a list.

Most marketers are familiar with creating lists -- we do that every time we send a new email campaign.

But did you know you can use lists to have more productive social media conversations? Social networks like Facebook and Twitter allow users to create lists of friends, followers, people who have attended an event, and more.

4) Post at different times of the day.

We’ve all heard how important timing is to marketing, especially on social media. If you have a global following, you should be publishing posts throughout the day at the times most appropriate for different geographic regions. Differentiating your publishing times allows you to get engagement from a larger portion of your audience. Additionally, publishing a message more than once or at different times of the day can help your reach a specific audience that you haven't reached before.

5) Maintain multiple social media accounts on each network.

As you become a better marketer and master ways to segment your audience, more and more people from all over the world are going to be interested in connecting with you through social media. At that point, you may find that the best way to consistently serve your audience relevant content is by setting up several social media accounts, each with a specific bent.

Keep in mind that each social media account should still serve a larger audience, so be sure to work on building your overall audience from one account before you try building out more. Also, if you decide to start building out more accounts, be sure that people can easily differentiate their purpose (ex: customer support, marketing materials, your yearly event, etc.) -- otherwise, you'll be creating more work for yourself.

So there you have it, five ways to segment your social media audience for more relevant conversations -- and eventually, more conversions.

Related Articles:

Marketing in a Virtual world

Social Media Optimization(SMO)

Benefits of Online Marketing

Mistakes in Social Media Marketing

Is Email Marketing Dead?

Understanding the difference between B2B and B2C Marketing

B2B vs B2C marketing

There is a visible difference between marketing to a consumer (B2C) and marketing to a business (B2B). However if you’re still selling a product personally experiences shows that the difference between these two types of markets runs deep. While dealing to a B2B market you will realize that you will notice that these businesses work hard to streamline the buying process in order to save time and money. This explains why a B2B purchase is based more on logic and consumer’s purchase is based more on emotion.

It is quite evident that the cost of sale to B2B market is more expensive and typically higher than B2C market. The easiest way to explain this is that a B2B transaction often takes more consideration.

Let explain these two a bit further.

Marketing to B2B

When you are marketing to a B2B you want to focus on the logic of the product. You do this by focusing on the features of the product. There is little to no personal emotion involved in the purchasing decision. You want to focus on understanding the organizational buyers and how they operate within the confines of their organization's procedures. The B2B market has a thirst for knowledge and they are information seekers. 

Be more in-depth with your marketing materials. Your most effective marketing message will focus on how your product or service saves them time, money and resources.

Your business-to-business market is more interested in the logic behind your product. They will want to hear more about the features and how it will help them in saving time, money or resources.

Marketing to B2C

When you are marketing to a consumer you want to focus on the benefits of the product. Their decision is more emotional. Consumers are different in that they demand a variety of distribution channels for convenience, not so with the B2B market. Consumers are less likely to be interested in a lengthy marketing message. They will want you to get right to the point. Consumers don't want to work to understand your benefits; instead they will want you to clearly point out the benefits to them. Your most effective marketing strategies will focus on the results and the benefits that your product or service will bring to them.

Your business-to-consumer market purchases more on emotion. They are more interested in the benefit of the product. They will want to hear more about how their product or service helps them and what benefits it brings to them personally.

For example consider this: My product is lotion.

My lotion will moisturize the skin and relieve itching skin.

If I have a B2B client they will be most interested in the feature of the client which is moisturizing the skin. If I have a B2C client they will be most interested in the benefit which is relief of itching skin.

We will be most effective in marketing if we understand what both markets need in order to make a decision.

You may also like :

Marketing in a Virtual world

Social Media Optimization(SMO)

Benefits of Online Marketing

Mistakes in Social Media Marketing

Is Email Marketing Dead?