Belle Beth Cooper Archives | B2B Marketing Blog

23 Outstanding Social Media Marketing Guides

December 16, 2014 by Tom Pick

Though the use of social media and social networks for marketing is now nearly ubiquitous, and 78% of companies have dedicated social media teams, many marketers sill struggle with certain aspects of social marketing, such as formalizing strategies and measuring results.

Yet as buyers make increasing use of social media to evaluate the offerings of and engage with vendors, expectations will inevitably increase. Basic presence and listening tactics will no longer suffice, and certainly won’t differentiate brands.

What trends and changes in social media do marketers need to stay on top of? How are social media marketing best practices evolving? How can marketers make the best use of visual content? Which metrics are most valuable in evaluating tactical success?

Find the answers to these questions and more here in some of the best guides to social media marketing and measurement of the past year.

Social Media Marketing Guides

5 Social Media Trends for 2014: New Research by Social Media Examiner

Though published last February, this post from Patricia Redsicker remains timely. Key trends she identifies for 2014 (which will remain important in 2015) include the importance of social listening (though “only 31% of marketers think their social listening is fully effective”) and increasing use of social advertising (57% of marketers used social ads in 2013 and another 23% are [were] expected to start using ads in 2014″).

6 social media network updates that you missed by iMedia Connection

Hopefully you’ve caught up to these by now, but just in case, this post from Trevor LaTorre-Couch details (fairly) recent design and functionality changes from Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and explaining for each change the benefit(s) of each change for marketers.

10 Steps Using Social Media For Business Development by Soulati-TUDE

Jayme Soulati walks readers through 10 steps for “good old-fashioned networking” on social media to fuel business development, starting with setting goals (e.g., elevating your personal brand or asking for a meeting) and proceeding through characterizing your buyers, social sharing, engaging, and showing personality.

Brian Solis’ Conversation Prism Catalogs The Best Social Platforms by Search Engine Journal
***** 5 STARS

Kelsey Jones shares a fantastic “a visual map of the social media landscape” created by Brian Solis and JESS3 (see image at top of this post). The image calls out many of the top tools and platforms across the realms of social listening, learning, and adapting, further broken out into more specific groupings like video, social curation, and service networking.

10 Reasons Why Small Business Can’t Ignore Social Media by Marketing Technology Blog

The benefits of social media marketing are no longer questioned much, but for those still dealing with skeptics and doubters, Jason Squires has put together this excellent infographic showcasing its utility, supported with statistics, facts, and mini case studies.

52 Unique Ways to Create Social Media Magic by Rebekah Radice

Frequent best-of honorees Rebekah Radice and Peg Fitzpatrick team up to offer more than four dozen tips to optimize business results from social media, from joining Google+ communities and using a social media management tool to telling “your brand story with Pinterest boards” and using third-party apps to grow your Twitter following.

12 Most Cool Social Media Practices to Avoid Looking Like a Jerk by 12 Most

Jake Parent shares a dozen useful tips for being more engaging (and not a jerk) on social media, among them asking questions, complimenting people, and always giving more than you take: “always offer more value to people than you ask of them. In other words (be) on the lookout for problems to solve for people.”

24 Social Media Tips For The DIY Social Media Marketer In 2014 by Idea Girl Marketing

Keri Jaehnig details two dozen tips and tools for planning, productivity, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, G+, image editing (e.g., PicMonkey – an “easy online image editing tool”) and more. The self-promotion is a tad thick in spots but the tips and links are helpful.

A Scientific Guide to Posting Tweets, Facebook Posts, Emails, and Blog Posts at the Best Time by Buffer Social

Frequest best-of honoree Belle Beth Cooper reports on research showing the best times of the day and week to post updates on Facebook and Twitter; to send marketing emails; and to publish blog posts. She notes however that results vary between men and women, B2C vs. B2B audiences, and sometimes even significantly between different studies.

12 Ways Social Media Could Leave You Needing A Lawyer by Louder Online

Aaron Agius details a dozen social blunders to avoid, at risks ranging from embarrassment to winding up in court, such as using vulgar language, getting political, using auto-responses, or “insensitivity to personal struggles” (a particularly relevant but wince-inducing example).

10 things you should never say to a social media manager by PR Daily

Carrie Keenan has brilliantly compiled 10 of the dumbest (but sadly, far from most uncommon) questions asked of social media managers, among them “Hey, I use Facebook. I would be so good at your job!,” “What do you do all day?,” and the gawdawful “Can’t I have an intern/my son/my granddaughter, etc. do that for me?”

B2B Social Media Marketing Guides

A Key Secret to Jazzing UpYour B2B Content’s Visual Appeal by B2B PR Sense Blog

Writing that “Today B2B marketing departments are developing more visual content such as images, web video, infographics and Slideshare presentations,” Jonathan Pavoni demonstrates how to use Slideshare to “repurpose content, capture prospects’ attention, and drive additional leads into the sales funnel.”

Frameworks for smart content marketing programs by i-SCOOP
***** 5 STARS

While more than 90% of companies have adopted content marketing practices, many still struggle with effectiveness. To help, J-P De Clerck looks at several strategic content marketing frameworks, including the seven “building blocks” framework from Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose and the 4-step content marketing framework for startups from Lee Odden.

11 secrets of good B2B social media by Potion

Though primarily aimed at beginners / entry level social media marketers, this post is worth at least a quick scan by more experienced social pros as well. It helpfully lays out the key components of the social marketing process, from developing and sharing content through tagging, measuring, and showing personality: “people like interacting with people. What’s your brand personality going to be?”

Five Fantastic Examples of B2B Social Media Marketing by j+ Media Solutions

While B2B marketers often focus on being professional in communications and not overly personal, this post from Jennifer G. Hanford reminds readers that whether B2B or B2C, all marketing is ultimately P2P (person to person). It presents snapshots of a handful of successful B2B social media efforts, including use of YouTube, Facebook, and even Pinterest (who knew Constant Contact maintains 100+ Pinterest boards?).

Guides to Social Media Metrics and Measures

Metrics to Measure YouTube Marketing by distilled

Phil Nottingham contends that most marketers don’t understand how to quantify social media marketing success on YouTube, and aims to fix that with this post. “‘Going viral’ isn’t a business goal, neither is having a million video views…With YouTube, your goal should always be some form of increased brand awareness.”

What to measure: ROI or KPIs? by iMedia Connection

The brilliant Rebecca Lieb makes the case for defining and measuring key performance indicators (KPIs) for social media marketing efforts rather than trying to force measures of return on investment (ROI), noting that “Measuring message amplification (or brand metrics such as purchase intent, favorability, or consideration) isn’t unrelated to ROI. All are steps along the journey — critical steps.”

what’s the right metric? by bowden2bowden blog

Randy Bowden shares his thoughts on the ROI-vs-KPIs debate introduced above. He explains how each metric works and suggests that both are important, though conceding that “you can’t measure your ROI with social media totally…(and, ultimately) ROI is not black and white.”

7 Multi-Platform Social Media Analytics Tools by RazorSocial
***** 5 STARS

Ian Cleary reviews seven “very useful social media analytics tools.” He provides a brief description of each tool as well as explaining how much it costs, the main features, how it works, and an “overll opinion” of the tool’s strengths, limitations, and ideal application.

Guides to Marketing with Tumblr and Triberr

Is Tumblr Right for My Business? by QuickBooks

While noting that not every business can make use of Tumblr, Brenda Barron outlines three questions for marketers to ask to determine if the platform may be helpful to their brand, starting with how visual your business is: “Tumblr is intrinsically image-based, much like Pinterest. This makes it the perfect avenue for…businesses in industries with a visual focus.”

How to Use Tumblr for SEO and Social Media Marketing by Moz

Writing that “Tumblr is one of those social networks which is often overlooked, but which has tremendous potential for SEO and social media marketing,” Takeshi Young explains how Tumblr works, its benefits compared to other social networks, and how to use Tumblr for online marketing (including four types of content that “perform extremely well” there).

Tumblr Tips To Help Grow Your Blog and Social Mentions by Inspire To Thrive

Lisa Buben offers more tips for content distribution success on Tumblr, such as loving content (“The little heart ? can go a long way on Tumblr. Spread the love around”), reblogging, commenting, using hashtags (yes, “Hashtags are big on Tumblr!”), and how to gain followers.

This Triberr strategy can increase your distribution now by leaderswest Digital Marketing Journal

For those unfamiliar with Triberr, Jim Dougherty explains its a platform that “allows bloggers to increase their distribution by creating tribes that can (potentially) pool their collective social audiences.” For those interesting in trying it out–or already using it but perhaps not getting the results hoped for–he prescribes a three-strep strategy for increasing the reach of your blog content.

21 Vital Mobile Marketing Facts and Statistics for 2014

April 16, 2014 by Tom Pick

Gone are the days when a mobile-enabled web presence was an afterthought. According to CNN, “Americans used smartphone and tablet apps more than PCs to access the Internet (in January 2014) — the first time that has ever happened.”

Also, consider these stats from the compilation below: about half of all U.S. adults now own smartphones; that figure rises to 76% for millennials. Nearly half of consumers say they won’t return to a website if it doesn’t load properly on their mobile devices. And mobile payments aren’t just for buying lattes—three-quarters of B2B vendors say they plan to offer mobile commerce by the end of 2014.

What do advertisers need to know about mobile access? How large is the mobile share of social network traffic? How does the online use of tablet owners differ from PC users? What the key differences between mobile and desktop search?

Find the answers to these questions and more here in almost two dozen facts, statistics and research findings about mobile marketing and web use from the past several months.

1. There are now 143 million smart phones in use in the U.S., and 71 million tablets. (Heidi Cohen)

2. Mobile internet access enabled by smartphones and tablets has nearly doubled the amount of time spent online since 2010. (Heidi Cohen)

3. 91% of U.S. adults now own a mobile phone. 61% of those are smartphones. (Heidi Cohen)

4. Though according to another source, 18% of adults do not own a cellphone. (iMedia Connection)

5. Smart phone use varies by age group. 81% of U.S. adults age 25-34 own a smartphone, as do 70% of teens and half of adults age 55 and over. (Heidi Cohen)

6. The leading platforms for U.S. smartphone use are Android (53%) and iPhone (40%)). Blackberry now accounts for just 3% of the market. (Heidi Cohen)

7. 189 million Facebook users (almost one out of five) are mobile-only, and mobile use accounts for 30% of Facebook ad revenue. (Fast Company)

8. And 751 million (nearly three-quarters of the total) Facebook users access the network from mobile devices at least some of the time. (Digital Buzz Blog)

9. Twitter has more than 500 million total users. 288 million users are active monthly, collectively sending out over 400 million tweets each day. (Digital Buzz Blog)

10. 25% of smartphone owners ages 18–44 say they “can’t recall the last time their smartphone wasn’t next to them.” (Fast Company)

11. 76% of millennials own a smartphone. 73% own a laptop. (The Social Media Hat)

12. Marketers spent $4.4 billion on mobile advertising in the U.S. in 2012. That figure doubled to $8.5 million in 2013; and that figure is projected to quadruple to $31.1 billion by 2017. Search advertising accounts for about half of the total. (Heidi Cohen)

13. Mobile ads perform 4-5 times better than online ads. (iMedia Connection)

14. 25% of Americans use mobile devices (primarily tablets) only to access the Internet. And there are five times as many cellphones in the world as there are PCs. (iMedia Connection)

15. Forget branded apps though. 93% of consumers say branded apps don’t contribute to their brand loyalty. (iMedia Connection)

16. And there’s this: “99% of apps only get used once. Unless your app does something amazing that no one else’s does, then the reality is that it will get downloaded, opened and forgotten about.” (The Social Media Hat)

17. 60% of Twitter users access the network from mobile devices at least some of the time. (Digital Buzz Blog)

18. Tablet users spend, on average, 50% more online than do PC users. (The Social Media Hat)

19. Nearly half of consumers say they won’t return to a website if it doesn’t load properly on their mobile devices. (The Social Media Hat)

20. On desktop searches, roughly one-third of clicks go to the top organic result. Average CTR on mobile devices tends to skew even more towards the first position, as smaller screens offers fewer listings at any one time. (Brent Carnduff)

21. Currently, about half of B2B vendors sell through mobile (including stores and applications), while 3 in 4 respondents plan to offer mobile commerce by the end of 2014. (MarketingCharts)

83 Exceptional Social Media and Marketing Statistics for 2014

April 14, 2014 by Tom Pick

“Big data” is one of the trendiest buzzwordy terms in marketing/technology/business today.

So before it gets replaced by the next trendy buzzwordy term, here’s some marketing-related big data for you: 83 valuable facts, stats, and research findings covering strategy, social media, SEO, online advertising, email marketing, content, blogging, social networking, video and more.

2014 B2B Content Marketing Trends–North America: Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs

What do 40% of B2B buyers say about LinkedIn, that only 19% say about Twitter? Which “social” brands aren’t really social at all? What do only 48% of searches result in? What do 91% of B2B marketers do, but only 36% do well? (No, not that.) What do 73% of reporters say press releases should contain?

Find the answers to those questions and many, many more here in more than 80 social, content, search, and email marketing facts and statistics from the past few months.

4 Marketing Management and Measurement Stats

1. Just 35% of B2B marketing executives say they can calculate the ROI of their marketing spend most or all of the time. 42% say they can calculate ROI only some of the time, rarely or not at all. (B2B Marketing)

2. While two out of three U.S. CMOs say they feel pressure from the top to prove the value of marketing, just 51% of CEOs agree “that marketing’s financial value is clear to the business.” (MarketingCharts)

3. That’s likely because only 45% of CMOs are confident “that they know which metrics or business outcomes their key stakeholders care about.” (MarketingCharts)

4. “Data analytics are currently most commonly used by B2B marketing leaders to measure and report marketing’s performance (64%), as well as to justify (55%) and allocate (52%) the marketing budget. Analytics are least commonly used to fine-tune the marketing mix (14%).” (MarketingCharts)

4 B2B Marketing Stats

5. Consumerization of B2B marketing? 57% of B2B vendors say they are shifting their B2B commerce transactions from offline to online and self-service, and 44% agree “that B2B commerce is adopting B2C best practices in order to optimize the purchasing experience.” (MarketingCharts)

6. Online sales currently account for about 35% of total revenue for B2B vendors, though that’s higher (41%) among US companies. (MarketingCharts)

7. 40% of B2B buyers say LinkedIn is important when researching technologies and services to purchase; 19% say the same for Twitter. (Social Media Today)

8. B2B buyers today are 70%-90% of the way through their “buying journey” before they reach out to a vendor. (B2B Marketing)

6 Social Media Marketing Stats

9. Social media marketing budgets are projected to double in the next five years. (SocialTimes)

10. The top three social networks used by B2B marketers are LinkedIn (91%); Twitter (85%); and Facebook (81%). However, just 62% of marketers say that LinkedIn is effective, while 50% say the same for Twitter and only 30% of B2B marketers view Facebook as effective. (FlipCreator)

11. This one may surprise you: Google+ actually averages more visits per month than Facebook. Google+ receives 1.2 billion visits per month compared to Facebook’s 809 million. (iMedia Connection)

12. 83% of B2B marketers invest in social media to increase brand exposure; 69% to increase web traffic; and 65% to gain market insights. (Social Media Today)

13. Some brands perceived as social aren’t—at all. As of 2013, Apple had yet to claim a Twitter account, Facebook page, or any other type of social media presence. Ditto for Trader Joe’s. (iMedia Connection)

14. People spend, on average, 4X more time on Tumblr and Pinterest than they do on Twitter. (iMedia Connection)

7 SEO and Search Stats

15. Every month there are more than 10.3 billion Google searches, with 78% of U.S. internet users researching products and services online. (B2B Marketing)

16. 54% of B2B buyers begin their buying process with informal research about business problems; nearly 80% of the time spent researching is done line. (B2B Marketing)

17. 33% of organic search clicks go to the first result. (SocialTimes)

18. The top 4 positions, generally those considered to be “above the fold”, receive 83% of first page organic clicks. (Brent Carnduff)

(However, as noted here previously, “a lower position isn’t always bad. If the searcher clicks the ‘back’ button because the top result didn’t meet expectations, then he or she is 5-8 times more likely to click on a lower result than on the initial search.”)

19. It’s also important to consider that only 48% of searches result in an organic click. The remaining 52% result in either a click on a paid ad, leaving the search engine results page without clicking on any listing, or starting a new search. (Brent Carnduff)

20. In addition, as search intent becomes more detailed or specific (long-tail search phrases), the click distribution across the first page organic listings begins to even out, as searchers look for the best match or answer to their query. (Brent Carnduff)

21. And furthermore, long-tail searches have higher overall organic click-through rates. 56% of searches for phrases of four words or more result in a click on an organic result, compared to just 30% for single-word search queries. (Brent Carnduff)

7 Online Advertising Stats

22. Of the three major types of online advertising (search, display, and social), search is viewed as the best channel for driving direct sales, cited by 40% of marketers (vs. 26% who use display to drive sales and 18% using social). However, just over a third of marketers view each channel as valuable for lead generation. (eMarketer)

23. Landing page optimization is viewed as the most important tactic for optimizing the performance of paid search advertising, while targeting by segment is most important in optimizing display ad performance. (eMarketer)

24. 8% of Internet users account for 85% of online display ad clicks. (iMedia Connection)

25. In 2013, Internet advertising expenditures surpassed newspaper ad spending for the first time. Internet ads now account for 21% of all advertising dollars, second only to television at 40%. (Ad Age)

26. Of the 100 largest global advertisers, 41 are headquartered in the U.S., 36 in Europe, and 23 in Asia. Consumer electronics and technology is the fastest-growing ad category among the Global 100. (Ad Age)

27. The average click-through rate (CTR) for online display ads is 0.11% (roughly one click per one thousand views). CTRs aer highest in Malasia (0.30%) and Singapore (0.19%), and lowest in Australia and the U.K. (both at 0.07%). (Smart Insights)

28. Among different display ad formats, large rectangle ads (336 x 280 pixels) generate the highest CTRs on average at 0.21-0.33%, while full banners (468 x 6) generate the lowest at 0.04%. (Smart Insights)

3 Email Marketing Stats

29. Mobile matters. A lot. In 2013, 62% of emails were opened on a mobile device (48% on smartphones and 14% on tablets). (Heidi Cohen)

30. Adding social sharing buttons to email messages an increase click-through rates by more than 150%. (SocialTimes)

31. 48% of consumers say email is their preferred form of communication with brands. (iMedia Connection)

14 Content Marketing Facts and Stats

32. Though more than 90% of marketers now use content marketing, just 42% of B2B marketers and 34% of B2C marketers believe they are effective at this. (e-Strategy Trends)

33. Still, more than 70% of both B2B and B2C marketers plan to produce more content in 2014 than they did in 2013, and six out of ten plan to increase their content marketing budgets. (e-Strategy Trends)

34. 78% of CMOs believe custom content is the future of marketing. It’s not clear what the other 22% are thinking. (SocialTimes)

35. Customer testimonials are the most effective form of content marketing. (SocialTimes)

36. The top challenge for content marketers is “lack of time,’ according to 57% of B2C and 69% of B2B marketers (multiple responses permitted). (e-Strategy Trends)

37. When forced to choose only one “top challenge” in content marketing, 30% of marketers said “not enough time”; 11% said “producing enough content”; and another 11% said it was “producing engaging content.” (@Robert_Rose on SlideShare)

38. Content creation is taking an increasing share of marketing budgets. Nearly half of marketers devote at least 10% of their total budgets to content development. One in five spend 25% or more. (eMarketer)

39. The two most popular formats for marketing content are articles (including internal and guest blog posts), used by 76% of marketers, and video, used by 60%. (eMarketer)

40. 91% of B2B marketers use content marketing. But just 36% say they are effective at it. (FlipCreator)

41. The most effective B2B content marketers 1) have a documented strategy; 2) use more than a dozen different tactics; 3) use an average of seven different social media platforms; and 4) devote nearly 40% of their budgets to content marketing, as shown below. (FlipCreator)

Image Credit: 2014 B2B Content Marketing Trends–North America: Content Marketing Institute / MarketingProfs

42. The top three content marketing tactics used by B2B marketers are social media other than blogs (87%); articles on their own websites (83%); and e-newsletters (80%). (FlipCreator)

43. B2B marketers rate in-person events and case studies as the most effective content marketing tactics (see full list below). (FlipCreator)

Image Credit: 2014 B2B Content Marketing Trends–North America: Content Marketing Institute / MarketingProfs

44. The top three organizational goals for B2B content marketing are brand awareness (82% of companies); lead generation (74%); and customer acquisition (73%). The top three metrics used to measure success are website traffic (63%); sales lead quality (54%); and social media sharing (50%). (FlipCreator)

45. 60% of consumers feel more positive about a brand after consuming content from it. (iMedia Connection)

9 Social Networking Demographics Figures and Statistics

46. Pinterest is from Venus, Google+ is from Mars. Two-thirds of Google+ users are male. 69% of Pinterest users are female. (Digital Buzz Blog)

47. Women are more social than men. (Shocking, I know.) One-half (49.0%) of U.S. adult women visit social media sites at least a few times per day, versus one-third (34.0%) of men. (New Media and Marketing)

48. About three-quarters of all Internet users are members of at least one social network. (WordPress Hosting SEO)

49. Grandma and grandpa are crashing teenagers’ social media party. The fastest-growing age cohort on Twitter is 55-to-64 year-olds, up 79% since 2012. And the 45-54 age bracket is the fastest-growing group on both Facebook and Google+. (Fast Company)

50. But social media use is still much more common among the young. 89% of Internet users aged 18-29 are active on social networks, versus 43% of those 65 and older. (WordPress Hosting SEO)

51. Millennials, aka Gen Y, will account for 27% of the total U.S. population in 2014 (vs. 26% Baby Boomers), and 25% of the labor force (vs. 38% Boomers). (AllTwitter)

52. 56% of millennials won’t accept jobs from firms that prohibit the use of social media in the office, and more than eight in ten say that user generated content on company websites at least somewhat influences what they buy. (AllTwitter)

53. The collective spending power of millennials will surpass that of Baby Boomers by 2018, and millennials will comprise 75% of the global labor force by 2025. (AllTwitter)

54. Millennials are, in general, not loyal to employers (91% expect to stay in a job for less than three years) but are loyal to brands (95% want brands to court them actively).(AllTwitter)

7 Business Blogging Stats and Facts

55. 76% of B2B companies maintain blogs. (FlipCreator)

56. 52% of marketers say their company blog is an important channel for content marketing. (eMarketer)

57. B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads than those that don’t. (SocialTimes)

58. 62% of B2B marketers rate blogging as an effective content marketing tactic. However, 79% of best-in-class marketers rank blogs as the most effective tactic, while just 29% of their least effective peers concur. (FlipCreator)

59. 57% of U.S. online adults read blogs. And of that group, two-thirds “say a brand mention or promotion within context of the blog influences their purchasing decisions.” (New Media and Marketing)

60. Among U.S. adults aged 18-34, four-fiths say bloggers “can be very or somewhat influential in shaping product or service purchasing decisions. (New Media and Marketing)

61. Though 62% of marketers blog or plan to blog in 2013, only 9% of US marketing companies employ a full-time blogger. (Fast Company)

3 Facebook Marketing Stats

62. Facebook now has nearly 1.2 billion total users. (Digital Buzz Blog)

63. 23% of Facebook users check their account more than five times per day. (Digital Buzz Blog)

64. 47% of marketers say Facebook is overrated as a marketing platform. (iMedia Connection)

3 LinkedIn Marketing Stats

65. 45% of B2B marketers have gained a customer through LinkedIn. (Social Media Today)

66. LinkedIn is adding, on average, two members per second. However – LinkedIn has a lower percentage of active users than Pinterest, Google+ (?), Twitter or Facebook, which means “you’re probably not going to have as good a response with participatory content on LinkedIn, like contests or polls, as you might on Facebook or Twitter…(though) passive content like blog posts or slide decks might be just right for your LinkedIn audience.” (Fast Company)

67. Only 20% of LinkedIn users are under the age of 30. (iMedia Connection)

3 Twitter Marketing Stats

68. B2B marketers who use Twitter generate, on average, twice as many leads as those who don’t. (Social Media Today)

69. 71% of tweets are ignored. Only 23% generate a reply. (iMedia Connection)

70. Advertising on Twitter costs nearly six times as much as Facebook ads on a CPM basis; however, the CTR for Twitter ads is 8-24 times higher. (Smart Insights)

3 Google+ Marketing Stats

71. Google+ has more than one billion total users, though only about a third (359 million) are active. (eConsultancy)

72. Users spend an average of three minutes per month on Google+. (iMedia Connection)

73. 70% of brands have a presence on Google+. (WordPress Hosting SEO)

6 Visual Content (Image and Video) Marketing Stats

74. Nearly two-thirds of people are visual learners, and visual data is processed much faster by the brain than is text. (SocialTimes)

75. Adding videos to landing pages can increase conversions by nearly 90%. (SocialTimes)

76. YouTube reaches more U.S. adults aged 18-34 than any cable network. (Fast Company)

77. More than three-quarters (77%) of brand posts shared on Facebook are photos. (iMedia Connection)

78. 73% of reporters say that press releases should contain images. (SocialTimes)

79. There are five million new businesses started each year. One out of 500 get funded and achieve a successful exit. (@Robert_Rose on SlideShare)

3 Marketing Career-Related Stats

80. 79% of B2B marketing executives report noticable skills gaps in the teams they manage. The top areas for skills gaps are in data analysis, customer insight, and digital marketing techniques. (B2B Marketing)

81. Social media experts are in demand. Job postings on LinkedIn for social media positions have grown 1,300% since 2010. (The Strategy Web)

82. Looking for a job in social media? The top five cities for job openings with “social media” in the title are:

• New York
• Los Angeles
• San Francisco
• London
• Chicago

(The Strategy Web)

(That social media job had better pay well though. NY, SF and LA are all among the top 10 most expensive US cities to live in and London is the 15th-most expensive city globally.)

And One Final Statistic that Simply Cannot be Categorized

83. Food is the top category on Pinterest; 57% of users discuss food-related content. Garlic Cheesy Bread is the most repinned Pinterest Pin. (Digital Buzz Blog)

21 Fantastic Facebook Marketing Guides

April 8, 2014 by Tom Pick

Many (most?) marketers have a love-hate relationship with Facebook.

On one hand, not only is it an easy-to-use, low-cost platform with more than a billion members, but 77% of B2C companies and 43% of B2B vendors have acquired customers from Facebook, and the world’s largest social network drives 20% of all internet page views.

On the other, marketers don’t “own” their presence on Facebook, consumers continue to have privacy concerns about the site, and Facebook is constantly making changes to its interface and other functionality, including recent modifications that have drastically reduced organic reach for brands.

But the bottom line is, as Amanda DiSilvestro notes in one of the posts highlighted below, “there are two online platforms (marketers) just can’t avoid: Google and Facebook.”

So with that in mind, how can brands optimize the limited organic visibility they still have? What are the best page apps for Facebook today? What can SMB marketers learn from the biggest brands on Facebook? What are the best practices for advertising on Facebook?

Find the answers to these questions any many more here in almost two dozen of the best guides to marketing on Facebook of the past year.

Best Facebook Marketing Guides

5 Painfully Obvious But Extremely Effective Facebook Tactics Nobody Told You About by unbouce

Writing that she’s “heard that it’s easier to get into Harvard than into someone’s Facebook news feed,” Stefanie Grieser shares a handful of tips to help get your content noticed by fans, such as creating a photo collage instead of just posting a single image, and asking questions only at the end of posts.

Is there value in #Organic #SMM after Facebook closes the “Like Economy”? by Social Media Marketing 4 Business

Pondering the impact of the death of EdgeRank, Gary (@ProfessorGary) Schirr ?notes that “a post by a brand’s Facebook page could expect to reach 16% of its fans” up until the fall of 2013; but “after the algorithm change that figure seems to be 2.5%!” Will content proliferation and advertising keep small companies from being successful with social media marketing?

Infographic: Ten Facebook Page best practices by leaderswest Digital Marketing Journal

Jim Dougherty highlights an infographic detailing ten ways to boost a brand’s Facebook page agreement; for example by asking questions (ask fans to share consumer preferences or help name your new product), use images, use fan content (“People love to see their content & their friends’ content shared by brands”), keep posts simple, and have fun!

37 of the Best Facebook Page Apps for Brand Marketing by Pamorama

Writing that “One of the easiest ways to use your Facebook page to its fullest potential for social media marketing is to employ third-party Facebook applications,” Pam Dyer provides brief reviews of more than three dozen such apps here, from Facebook app suites like AgoraPlus to apps for creating tabs, ecommerce, posting/scheduling, contests and promotions, blog apps and more.

Easy-to-steal ideas from Facebook’s 10 biggest brands by iMedia Connection

Drew Hubbard shares ideas from mega-brands that “can be stolen…by even the smallest brands,” such as showcasing sponsorship of a local cause or organization; using caption contests (Red Bull does this well); documenting an event in photos; sharing an image of a cute animal next to your product (you don’t really need a reason); or giving people a look “behind the scenes” at your brand or company.

Facebook: News Feed Visibility Changes and RIP EdgeRank via V3 Integrated Marketing

Katy Ryan Schamberger explains that while the term “EdgeRank” is no longer officially used by Facebook, “the algorithm’s three determining factors—affinity, weight and time decay—still play a role in News Feed visibility, although today’s ranking algorithm is much more complex. After detailing other new features, she notes that the key to increasing Facebook visibility is to create content users find engaging.

7 Powerful Facebook statistics you should know for a more engaging Facebook page by The Buffer Blog
***** 5 STARS

Belle Beth Cooper reveals some real-world findings about Facebook use that can help marketers optimize use of the social network, such as that photo posts get 39% more interaction; using emoticons increases comments by 33%; and question posts generate double the number of comments as the average post.

Facebook Finally Gets Hashtags: 10 Smart Ways to Help B2B Marketers by Inbound Visibility

Explaining that “hashtags can help your business get noticed by putting your posts in the stream of what’s being said and bringing you together with other people that are talking about the same thing as you are,” Sunita Biddu shares tips for optimizing your posts with hashtags, among them: know your audience, be consistent in your communications, engage your fans, and be active during events: “Creating a custom hashtag for your event (e.g. fundraising, seminar, handmade trade, etc.) and sharing it with attendees is a great way of increasing your brand’s buzz online.”

Does Facebook Work for B2B Lead Generation? Hell Yes! by Marketo Blog

Writing to those “who say that Facebook is not an effective lead generation tool for B2B, I will tell them that they need a new strategy,” Jason Miller reveals how Marketo generates leads on Facebook and summarizes the experience with four helpful recommendations, among them: “Wittiness is terribly underrated. B2B marketers like to have fun too. They are not on Facebook to be sold to. Entertain them a bit, and then tie it back to something useful.”

Best Facebook Advertising Guides

Infographic: Facebook ad term glossary by Inside Facebook

Justin Lafferty presents an infographic that explains words and phases as used in the world of Facebook advertising, such as Broad Categories (“allows advertisers to target users who have information in their Timelines and actions taken related to a specific category of interests”), Conversion Specs, Custom Audience, and Offsite Pixel (“tracking code placed on an external success page which alerts Facebook” of a conversion).

The Complete Guide to Getting Started with Facebook Ads by buffer

Amanda DiSilvestro provides an outstanding guide for those new to Facebook advertising, covering everything from the four different types of Facebook ads (and under what circumstances each option works best) and progressing through how to set up a Facebook ad, how to manage ads, and how to optimize campaigns once they are up and running.

Infographic: Facebook ad cheat sheet by leaderswest Digital Marketing Journal
***** 5 STARS

Jim Dougherty (again) showcases a phenomenally useful cheat sheet detailing all of the different Facebook ad sizes, types, positions, and options available. Beyond ad dimensions, this infographic also includes helpful tips, recommendations, and potential pitfalls to avoid.

20 Quick Facebook Ads QA Steps by FB PPC

Andrew Foxwell lists 20 questions to ask if your Facebook ads aren’t performing well, or if performance takes a sudden dip. Among them: Does (the) mobile landing (or desktop) page stink? Are the targeting audiences too small? Does the client have an active Facebook page? And have you gone through the signup flow and seen if the parameters stick properly?

How to Setup Facebook Conversion Tracking and Why It Matters by SteamFeed

Writing that “the Facebook Conversion Tracking feature is a way for marketers to measure the return on investment (ROI) of their Facebook ads,” Amanda DiSilvestro (again) provides a concise, three-step process for setting up and using this capability.

A Guide to Facebook Advertising by Capture the Conversation

Confused by “the ever-changing landscape of Facebook ad types”? You’re not alone. But Leah Lesko here helpfully sorts it all out, explaining the use of, details behind, and tips for sponsored stories, promoted posts, dark posts, Marketplace ads, and mobile app install ads.

Best Guides to Facebook Cover Photos

5 Ways to Turn your Facebook Cover Photo into a Call-to-Action that Converts by Wishpond

This post provides detailed and richly illustrated examples of five ways to drive conversions using Facebook cover photos, such as promoting a Facebook Page Tab, getting more “Likes,” or promoting gated content such as a white paper–though the post does point out that “it is not easy to fit content like ebooks and infographics inside of a Tab.”

Facebook Reduces Cover Image Restrictions by v3 Integrated Marketing

Shelly Kramer says that “the latest (Facebook changes) might just make your day. The site has quietly removed the majority of its cover image restrictions, making it easier for brands and businesses to use this valuable visual real estate to promote things like sales, events and the Facebook page itself.” She then details what elements brands are now permitted to use in cover images, including “Calls to action such as ‘Buy now,’ ‘Tell your friends,’ ‘Contact us,’ etc..”

How to Effectively Use CTAs on Your Brands Facebook Page Cover Photo by Ignite Social Media

Building on Shelly’s post above, Ross Wilson delves into the use of calls to action on Facebook page cover photos, offering six tips for writing a compelling CTA (such as “Front load them with subjects and verbs. With only 20 percent content allowed in your cover photo, your CTA will be approximately the length of a tweet”) and following up with a handful of illuminating real-world examples.

Best Guides to Facebook Graph Search

Infographic: How to optimize your business Page for Graph Search by leaderswest

Jim Dougherty (one more time) showcases a nine-step “cheat sheet” for optimizing a page for graph search, from the basics like choosing the right category and making sure your business address is listed correctly through posting and tagging photos and videos (“posting photos and videos and tagging your business page in them can improve Graph Search rankings”).

Introducing Graph Search: Help People Discover your Business by Facebook Studio

This brief post explains what Facebook Graph Search is, how it works, why it was developed, and how it will be rolled out. “With Graph Search, people can search the social graph by looking for things like ‘sushi restaurants that my friends have been to in Los Angeles,’ ‘hotels near the Eiffel Tower,’ or ‘TV shows my friends like.'”

Social Media: Why Facebook’s new Graph Search will change social media marketing by MarketingSherpa

Noting that “The way Graph Search works is simple … it filters our search results by what our friends and neighbors have previously liked and shared with us,” John Cockburn explains that while graph search by no means heralds the end of marketing on Facebook, it does make relevance even more vital and means “companies will now have to find the right mix of creativity and incentives as they battle for check-ins and likes to maintain relevancy in consumer search listings.”

29 (of the) Best Twitter Guides, Tips and Infographics of 2013

January 14, 2014 by Tom Pick

Twitter became a publicly traded company on November 7 and saw the price of its shares climb 73% on the first day of trading. It was the second-largest Internet IPO ever by an American company, trailing only Facebook.

The microblogging service now has more than 600 million registered users (adding 135,000 each day), with more than 100 million active every month. There are 9,100 tweets posted per second; one billion tweets every five days.

Does anyone still think Twitter is for the birds?

With all that activity, it’s imperative that marketers and PR professionals use the platform effectively as part of an overall web presence optimization strategy. What are the best ways to drive website or blog traffic with Twitter? To grow your company’s Twitter following? To generate more engagement and retweets? Utilize Twitter advertising? Get the most out of Twitter search?

Find the answers to those questions and many more here in more than two dozen of the best Twitter guides, tips and helpful infographics of the past year.

Twitter Guides and Tips

10 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your B2B Website with Twitter Influencers by Social Media B2B

Noting that “Influence marketing is getting your industry social influencers to share your content to their Twitter followers (and) 92% of us trust peer recommendations for product choices and brand preferences,” Krista Bunskoek presents 10 ideas for getting the attention of influential Twitterers, from using RTs, @ mentions and favorites to writing about influencers on your blog (hmm, kind of like in this post).

#TwitterTips: 5 steps for a successful 140-character conversation on Twitter by MarketingSherpa

Rachel Katz offers “five tips you can use to create engaging conversations on Twitter,” from having a purpose (“It’s good practice to begin with a purpose for each piece of content shared on social media platforms. Because Twitter is limited by so few characters, this especially holds true. Every tweet should have a purpose”) to having fun.

8 Places You’re Guaranteed to Find Great Content to Tweet by HubSpot

Shannon Johnson presents an excellent collection of resources to help curate content for Twitter (or other uses), ranging from Feedly (which lets you follow pretty much anything—blogs, #topics, vimdeo and YouTube channels, tumblrs, comics, recipes, news sites, podcasts, magazines and more) to StumbleUpon. A worthy compilation, though it’s hard to believe Scoop.it didn’t make the list.

A Simple Tip to Get a Huge Increase in Engagement on Twitter by jeffbullas.com

Noting that tweets with images generate 18% more clicks and 150% more click-throughs than those without, Jeff Bullas recommends adding images to tweets (using pic.Twitter.com to take advantage of the image preview feature) and showcases four examples of brands using making good use of this tactic.

16 Ridiculously Easy Ways To Increase Retweets by Heidi Cohen

Heidi Cohen breaks down Twitter research from HubSpot’s Dan Zarrella into 16 actionable tips for getting more retweets, such as using one (but never more than three) hashtags in tweets; sharing photos (natively or with Twitpic, but not with Instagram); and using the word “please” in calls to action (but not the word “visit”).

5 Ways B2B Companies Can Generate Leads on Twitter by Social Media B2B

Carolyn Hughes suggests five ways to generate B2B sales leads on Twitter, including sharing content to drive website traffic and using Twitter to create “warm” leads: “Your new business development manager could sit down and plow through a lot of cold calls with relevant businesses but this is really a shot in the dark. However, if you start connecting with other businesses and other business people through Twitter, this is a friendly way to introduce your company and start to form a relationship.”

10 Smart Tips for Creating, Marketing and Sharing Content on Twitter by jeffbullas.com

Jeff Bullas (again) explains the three key elements of a tweet, then offers 10 tips for sharing content that resonates on Twitter, from writing a great headline and applying hashtags (judiciously) through targeting influencers and using “action words: more verbs, fewer nouns.”

6 Ways to Use Embedded Tweets to Help Your Business by Social Media Examiner

The erudite and prolific Kristi Hines presents “six ways to use embedded tweets to enhance your content, drive engagement and establish social proof,” from reputation building with customer testimonials to building website traffic with a tweet chat to promoting upcoming events.

40 useful things you can share on Twitter besides blog posts by AdamVincenzini[dot]com

It seems nearly everyone shares blog posts on Twitter. Here, Adam Vincenzini lists more than three dozen alternative types of content to share, from new apps or tools to a Twitter chat transcript, YouTube video, event, photo, or helpful tip.

Seven Tips for Finding Killer Twitter Content by Ishmael’s Corner

Writing that “It takes work to dig out fresh content that hasn’t already been trampled by the masses like the stories from Mashable that always trigger a zillion social shares,” Lou Hoffman offers seven tips for finding unique content to tweet including corporate websites, journalists’ personal blogs, and publications that are “off the beaten path.”

The 10 most clickable Twitter headlines by Ragan’s PR Daily

Allison Stadd lists the “10 most clickable Twitter headlines that will engage your followers, draw traffic to your blog or website and help differentiate your Twitter account,” such as calls to action, how-to’s, the word “infographic,” and, not surprising, top 10 lists.

4 Ways To Get Better Engagement on Twitter by Binkd

Misty McPadden looks at four common objectives for business Twitter accounts, and provides helpful tips for achieving each goal. For example, tips for generating more retweets include carefully curating tweets of third-party content, scheduling tweets, leaving enough unused characters for others to easily retweet you.

Tweet tweet – 20 top tips for businesses by Entanet Newsletter

Discover both interesting Twitter facts (such as that each global Fortune 100 company is mentioned, on average, nearly 60,000 times per month on Twitter) and practical tips (among them: “Monitor the best times to tweet using the likes of tweriod.com“) in this useful post.

The State of Twitter, 2013 by Margie’s Moments of Tiyoweh

Margie Clayman responds to 10 not-uncommon questions and observations about Twitter, ranging from common practices, tools and etiquette to queries like ““Some celebs are subscribing to the Chris Brogan method of unfollowing most of their followers. Why?”

Twitter Tips for Beginners

Twitter Best Practices: 11+ Tips for Tweeting Well by Social Media Today

Courtney Hunt provides a guide which “offers a set of Twitter best practices that helps people maximize their ability to maintain a strong signal/noise ratio and avoid making mistakes that can hurt their individual professional and/or organizational brands,” emphasizing the importance of listening, quality and timing among other characteristics.

The 2013 Twitter Marketing Guide by KISSmetrics
*****5 STARS

Kristi Hines (again) here provides an outstanding beginner’s guide to Twitter (that even veteran tweeters may want to skim) covering everything from initial profile setup and optimization through planning a content strategy, building an audience, advertising on Twitter, and becoming familiar with key Twitter tools.

15 Steps To legitimately Gain More Twitter Followers by LinksToWeb

Though the English is a bit rough, the ideas shared here by Vishnu Aniyan for growing a Twitter following are solid, from creating an interesting Twitter bio, background and custom About page to being generous in linking and retweeting others, and practicing “strategic, not aggressive, following.”

Twitter 101 in 21 Tweets [SLIDESHARE] by Social Media Today

Barry Feldman cleverly provides a helpful guide for Twitter newbies in the form of 21 tweets that explain what Twitter is, how it works, how to use hashtags, build a following, find useful Twitter apps, generate retweets and more.

Advanced Twitter Tips

Custom Timelines – Curation a la Twitter by Relevanza

Birgit Pauli-Haack explains how to use Tweetdeck to create and publish custom Twitter timelines to curate content; for example, for filtering out the best event-related tweets or a selection of tweets from a Twitter chat.

7 Big, Recent Twitter Changes you Should Know About to Optimize Your Tweeting by Buffer

Belle Beth Cooper reports on several key enhancements made to Twitter in late 2012 that not all Twitterers may be aware of, such as Twitter Alerts for emergencies and breaking news, updates for Android and iOS7, and yet another new location for the DM feature.

14 Twitter Tips and Tricks for Power Users by Mashable

Matt Petronzio shares more than a dozen tips on how to do things you may not have known you could do with Twitter, such as getting tailored trends (“You can change the list to reflect trends in your own country or select cities, worldwide and even trends tailored to your interests and those you follow”), using keyboard shortcuts, and creating user widgets (embeddable code for specific Twitter feeds).

Twitter Advertising Tips

Lead Generation Card: Now available to all advertisers, with new features by Twitter Advertising Blog

Tarun Jain explains how Twitter advertisers can use Lead Generation Cards, and highlights recently added features including new layouts, simpler setup and lead collection (including options to load incoming leads directly into a CRM system), and multi-language support.

Step-by-Step Guide for Twitter Ads to Promote Your Business by Kuno Creative

Noting that “Twitter provides its users a customized marketing strategy where they can promote events and sales, gain brand awareness among audiences not currently aware of them and even gain new followers they can advertise to in the future,” Deepak Gupta steps through the different advertising options available on the platform and how to set up Twitter ads.

Tweet tips: Most effective calls to action on Twitter by Twitter Advertising Blog

Jennifer Romanek outlines four of the most effective calls to action on Twitter, starting with asking for a download:”Promoted Tweets in timelines that explicitly ask people to download accompanied by a link increase URL clicks by an average of 13%. Promoted Tweets in search that feature this call to action also increase clicks by an average of 11%.”

Twitter Search Tips

Twitter Search 101 – How To Search by More in Media

Dorien Morin-van Dam passes along three helpful tips for advanced searching on Twitter. My favorite: “Plug the URL of your latest article (or blog post) into the search bar” on Twitter, which enables you to find all shares of that content, regardless of URL shortener or surrounding text used.

How Marketers Can Track Any Link Shared By Anyone On Twitter by All Twitter

Shea Bennett delves into specific uses of Twitter search to track shares of any link on Twitter, and narrow these searches with advanced search operators to find brand, product, blog, competitor and other types of shared URLs.

Best Twitter Infographics

How To Grow Your Twitter Audience by twiends

This creative and distinctively designed infographic illustrates a broad array of tactics for gaining new Twitter followers, from “things you can do online” (e.g., guest blogging, webinars, signing up for Twitter directories) through real-world activities, tweeting and retweeting, and other activities (such as including your Twitter handle in print ads and QR codes).

Twitter: Tweet Cheat Sheet [#Infographic] by Stormnet Media Blitz

Did you know that Twitter engagement rates for (primarily consumer) brands are 17% higher on Saturday and Sunday, yet only 19% of brand tweets go out on weekends? Or that tweets with image links generate twice the engagement rate of tweets without links? Discover lots more interesting Twitter facts and stats in this infographic.

Blueprint For Building The Perfect Tweet [INFOGRAPHIC] by All Twitter

Mary C. Long shares a blueprint-style infographic with tips for better tweeting, such as “using consistent excellence to stand out from the crowd,” “selling the headline in a non-salesy way,” and “using correct (and acceptable) punctuation.”