We had the honor of interviewing Ronda Scholting, Public Information Officer for West Metro Fire Rescue, headquartered in Lakewood, Colorado. Ronda will be speaking at our upcoming Social Media Strategies Summit for First Responders, where she’ll share how those working in public safety can use storytelling to build better media relationships. In her interview, Ronda…

As we ring in 2020 we enter not just a new year, but also a new decade. The past several years have seen huge shifts in the social media landscape and this year is sure to continue that trend. Social Media has truly grown into its maturity as a marketing channel. Social now dominates the…

For many consumer brands, the holiday season marks the beginning of a make-it-or-break-it period where every engagement, customer interaction, and the sale can mean the difference between profit and loss. In fact, some retailers report that holiday sales make up 30% of their total revenue for the year. Luckily, there is no shortage of opportunities…

With over 610 million members, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking site. As LinkedIn has matured, it has become a cohesive platform that offers professionals the ability to seamlessly connect with one another, build their networks and identify new opportunities. But LinkedIn isn’t just about finding a new job (or new talent). As a…

There is no shortage of reasons for brands to move away from the social media giant, Facebook. From the algorithm changes to the fake news stories that plagued the 2016 election and the ever-increasing cost of advertising, the environment on Facebook seems to get more challenging every day. But despite all of these reasons to…

Influencer programs are a shed load of work. Part of what makes them more complex compared to other marketing tactics is the same thing that makes them interesting and effective: human relationships. It’s this factor, the human factor, that leads marketers to feel unsure about how they can evaluate an influencer program’s success relative to…

Once considered a niche platform for the young, Snapchat has grown to control a considerable piece of the social advertising pie. In 2019, second-quarter revenue increased 48% to $388 million. This accelerated from 39% growth in the previous quarter and from 36% in the prior quarter. According to the platform, user activity is up as…

By now, you’ve probably heard of the emerging social media site, TikTok. Launched in 2016, the platform now boasts 500 million active users worldwide. TikTok was also downloaded 1 billion times in 2018, eclipsing Instagram’s 444 million downloads. Source: SensorTower So What Exactly is TikTok? TikTok is a social media app that allows users to post…

SMSsummit producer Breanna Jacobs had the honor of meeting with Danielle Sway, CEO of Sway Group, an influencer marketing agency with offices with headquarters in San Francisco and staff across the country. In her interview, Danielle shares about how Sway Group started, how they work with their network of influencers, and what she’ll be speaking…

Although the idea of chatbots has been around for quite some time (see: A Visual History of Chatbots), it has only been over the past several years that they have really come into the mainstream. Businesses like Pizza Hut, Sephora, Starbucks, and many others have used chatbots to streamline their customer service, reinforce brand awareness…

Programmatic advertising channels are rapidly becoming the most important medium for US advertisers and the world at large. In 2019, US advertisers are expected to spend nearly $60 billion on programmatic advertising. And that number is expected to grow: by 2021, almost 88% of all US digital display ad dollars will transact programmatically. Source: eMarketer…

Today’s marketers are all looking for new ways to find and attract their ideal audience. But in the fast-paced and ever-evolving digital marketing landscape, it’s getting harder and harder to reach your people and get results. Enter AI in marketing. What is artificial intelligence marketing? Artificial intelligence marketing (AI Marketing) is a method of leveraging…

The rise of influencer marketing was a fast one. 2016 saw the explosive growth of macro influencers and celebrities in marketing campaigns. By 2017, the market saw the need for micro-influencers – those with followings between 10,000 and 500,000. Partnering with micro-influencers became the best practice for brands hoping to get the most “bang for…

These days, influencer marketing is just about everywhere. It’s difficult to go onto Instagram or YouTube without being inundated with examples of brands using influencers to tap into a new audience. Why is this marketing tactic so popular? Because it works. According to the 2019 State of Influencer Marketing, 57% of marketers reported that influencer…

In April 2016, Facebook launched Facebook Live and the response from marketers was initially very positive. 25% of brands posted a live video that year (Buffer). Since then, the popular video medium has grown and been adopted by Instagram (IG Live), Twitter (Periscope), YouTube and Twitch among others. And customers have followed suit, with 82%…

Instagram Stories launched in 2016 as a response to Snapchat’s feature of disappearing content. Users quickly embraced the ephemeral nature of this feature, which took away concerns about posting too often on the highly curated platform. Since 2016, Instagram Stories has grown, with 500 million Instagram accounts using Instagram Stories every day. Both savvy brands…

For years, marketing experts have been discussing the importance of video in content marketing. In 2005, YouTube was launched. Today, it is the 2nd most visited website in the world and a key platform in reaching demographics from GenZ to Baby Boomers and nearly everyone in between. One year ago, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg said that…

Video is a highly effective form of content. For marketers, it is an easy way to communicate their value proposition and engage their audience. And as social media and social advertising has become more important in marketing, the need for video as part of a content strategy has only increased. According to a recent report…

Omnichannel Marketing vs. Multichannel Marketing Omnichannel refers to the multichannel marketing approach that provides the customer with an integrated shopping experience. The customer can be shopping online from a desktop or mobile device, via phone, in a brick-and-mortar store, or a combination of all of these channels, and the experience will be seamless. This strategy…

2018 was a year of lasting impacts on the social media industry. The year began with a post from Mark Zuckerberg announcing the biggest algorithm update Facebook had ever seen. Then, news of the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke and the GDPR went into effect. There were positive changes for marketers as well. With the expansion…

Influencer Marketing is a growing industry: it is expected to reach $10 billion by 2020. Marketers have already seen an increase in competition and costs as a result of the marketing strategy’s popularity. According to the 2019 Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report, nearly two-thirds of marketers surveyed intend to increase their spending over the next 12…

According to a survey by the Content Marketing Institute, 2019 will see continued growth in the content marketing industry. 57% of B2C marketerssurveyed expect to increase their content marketing budgets in 2019 compared with 2018. Of those planning to increase their budget, the majority of marketers (about 56%) are investing more in content creation. And…

Although Instagram is best known as a platform to share your most beautiful photographs, video is becoming a bigger and bigger part of the popular platform. With the launch of IG Live in 2016 and IG TV in 2018, the platform (and it’s users) are embracing both ephemeral and long-form video. If you don’t currently…

Lauren Brommer is an experienced digital marketer with a passion for social media. Currently at Cisco, Lauren leads the US social media strategy where she works cross-functionally to ensure customers are met with engaging content on Cisco’s social channels, insights from social listening inform the go-to-market strategy, and the power of a live event is…

We’re gearing up for the Social Media Strategies Summit in Anaheim next month! In this interview with opening keynote speaker Melinda Byerley, serial entrepreneur and the founder of Timeshare CMO, she shares insight on how 20 years in tech has shaped her marketing philosophy, her work on #DVDNation, and some common misconceptions on influencer marketing strategy….

Influencer marketing has proven to be a very effective strategy for building communities and reaching new potential customers. Last year, 92% of marketers found their influencer strategy effective and 39% of those marketers plan to further increase their influencer marketing budgets in the coming year. Why Influencer Marketing The effectiveness of influencer marketing is not…

Storytelling is the process of building a narrative to communicate something to an audience. The concept of storytelling in marketing is not a new one, but as content continues to grow as a central tenet of a solid marketing strategy, storytelling has grown in popularity among brands. Stories forge deeper connections with an audience, and…

2018 was a big year for Instagram. In April, the platform saw changes to its API that resulted in the death of Instagram bots, apps that help brands analyze their followers and limitations on the ability to repost UGC. The platform also rolled out a new algorithm, focusing on serving its users content based on…

Email may not be a new marketing tactic (the first marketing email was reportedly sent in 1978 and resulted in $13 million in sales), but it remains one of the most highly used and effective marketing channels to date. But with great results comes increased competition: individuals receive approximately 121 emails each day. This is…

For years, marketers have debated the benefits of social media versus email marketing. However, in today’s multichannel and omnichannel environment, the reality is that brands must use both to engage and retain their audiences. According to the Marketing Rule of 7, consumers need to “hear” a message at least 7 times before taking the desired…

For years, Oprah Winfrey was referred to as “The Queen of Talk Shows”. When her show ended in 2011, it was obvious she wasn’t going anywhere. Fast-forward to today, she’s now known as “The Queen of all Media”, with OWN extending beyond television to multiple digital channels. During his opening keynote at this year’s Social…

By 2021, the total number of business and consumer emails sent is expected to reach 319.6 billion. That number is based on an expected annual growth rate of 4.4% since 2017. The reason for this growth is simple: email has a median ROI of 122%. That’s over 4x greater than any other marketing channel. It’s…

In the midst of 4th quarter marketing campaigns and the race to end 2018 with a bang, marketers should also start looking ahead to the new year. It’s a good time to take stock of your social media marketing strategies to assess what’s working and where you have room to improve. There is a lot…

The Social Media Strategies Summit is right around the corner. Hopefully, you’re ready with creative strategies to be a conference networking magnet and generate tons of content from the conference. Add these five Idea Magnet tips to help you take your full creative recharge back to the office. Step 1: Decide what you want from…

According to a 2018 industry report by Social Media Examiner, 87% of all marketers indicated that their social media efforts generated more exposure for their businesses and 78% reported increased traffic to sites. Perhaps most importantly, more than half of marketers who’ve been using social media for more than 2 years reported it helped them…

Whether you are the only marketing person or are part of a marketing team at your company, you can translate your experiences at the Social Media Strategies Summit into content and stories that inspire and encourage all your audiences. Inspiration and encouragement are both great ways to recharge your audience’s creativity and your own. That’s…

“The key to understanding how youth navigate social media is to step away from the headlines — both good and bad — and dive into the more nuanced realities of young people.” I wish I’d written those words, which are from Danah Boyd. Her desire to understand the nuances of teen lives and behavior led…

The Social Media Strategies Summit may seem far away, but now is the time to start fostering unexpected connections that will make your time at the conference even more fruitful. Meeting people with diverse perspectives is fundamental to boosting your creativity, both personally and professionally. That’s why making unexpected connections is one of the seven…

Chances are that your business is already using Facebook as a paid social channel. According to a 2018 report on the industry, 72% of marketers use Facebook Ads, and 67% plan on increasing their use of Facebook ads over the next 12 months. The Facebook Ads Manager is a complex platform and understanding it is…

Facebook Business Pages are the ‘home-base’ for businesses, brands, public figures, and organizations. This important feature has gone through many changes and updates since it was first rolled out in 2009. But in 2018, marketing your business on Facebook is a pretty complex process. It’s no longer enough to create a Page and share branded…

Facebook has a whopping 2.19 billion monthly active users, with 68% of US adults connected, from college students and young professionals to seasoned execs and stay-at-home moms. Just because everyone is hanging out there, though, doesn’t mean posting for free will help you achieve your marketing goals. Nor will blowing your marketing budget on driving…

In the battle for your customer’s attention, social media marketing campaigns must continually look to push the boundaries of creativity in order to cut through the noise and engage the audience. This is challenging, especially considering the speed at which content is consumed and discarded. (If you are interested in the lifespan of your social…

Whether you fill up your social media calendar months in advance or post content on the fly, you are going to need to have a steady source of content to post on social media. This becomes a challenge for many social media marketers. Not only are we seeing an increase in the number of businesses…

Facebook Live was launched as a ‘fun, powerful way to connect with your users and find new ones along the way’ in April 2016. Since then, Facebook has shared that the platform has served over 3.5 billion broadcasts, with over 2 billion people tuning in to at least one video. As the platform matured, it…

We have put together a list of 8 awesome female executives that will be joining us on stage at the Social Media Strategies Summit, NYC this year. Nilukshi De Silva, Global Brand Marketing and Digital Media Director at Urban Decay Cosmetics (L’Oréal Luxe Division). Nilukshi is an integrated marketing and digital media strategist with a…

In the last few years, there has been a remarkable rise of influencer marketing. It is quickly becoming a go-to option for companies aiming to reach customers in a more authentic way at scale. Many marketers swear by influencer marketing, assuming you partner with the right influencers. In fact, a study suggested that 94% of…

A decade ago, the job “social media strategist” didn’t even exist. Today, close to 80 percent of all businesses use social media, and a lot more opportunities exist within the 20 percent that are slowly adapting to the new internet order. A social media strategist is in charge of a company’s social media accounts. They…

Social media has become one of the most influential platforms that brands all over the world are using to reach their audiences. It can be a powerful tool that reaches a virtually endless demographic, enabling brands to market themselves with relative ease and superior efficiency. One wrong step could land your company in hot water…

Almost every social media marketer is working for someone. Depending on the size and scope of your brand or company, it may be a marketing leader or you may report directly to high-level executives or the business owner. For this reason, it’s important to know how to create a social media report template that you…

Instagram Stories launched in 2016 as a response to Snapchat’s disappearing stories. And it worked: while Snapchat was once thought of as a threat to Instagram, the platform’s growth continues to accelerate. Since it’s launch, 250 million users have started sharing stories, and it is believed that this feature significantly contributed to the jump in…

Ever since Twitter went live, hashtags have been an important part of the way people communicate on social media. While many are random or one-off and used to add humor or context to a tweet, most of them can help you search for a particular topic, campaign, product, event, and much much more. They’ve been…

So what is the difference between digital marketing and Social media? The short answer is that digital marketing is an umbrella term for SEO, Email Marketing, Content Marketing, Public Relations, Social Media, and more. Social media is just one of the many channels that make up a digital marketing campaign. The terms “digital marketing” and…

Once primarily thought of as a marketing tactic for edgy brands (think Urban Outfitters), User Generated Content (UGC) is quickly becoming a bigger and bigger piece of content marketing strategies. And this is for good reason: UGC improves customer satisfaction, helps brands understand their audience, provides a means for users to build community, and is…

If you’re still not convinced about how important video content is, then this article can change your mind. We will share some statistics that can encourage your business to take action on video content for social media. Video content is the present and future of every social media strategy. It doesn’t matter what you’re selling…

Now more than ever, customers expect their experiences with businesses and brands to be as specialized and tailored to their needs as possible. Gone are the days when you could advertise and simply hope for the best. The digital age has created a savvier consumer with more sophisticated needs. His or her experience with your…

I have a confession to make. Sometimes I get awfully tired of all the posting, tweeting, chatting and hyping. Social media happen to be very messy and overwhelming. So I totally get the recent JD Wetherspoon decision on shutting down all its social media accounts. However, the truth is businesses can rarely do without social…

Let’s face it, social media is visual media. With the growing popularity of Instagram and Pinterest, visual assets are becoming a more and more critical component of social media content. And this is with good reason, as Dr. John Medina mentions in his book, Brain Rules: “If the information is presented orally, people remember about…

These days, it’s not enough to have social media for your business. Whether you’re a small independent startup or a large national corporation, you need to be invested in social media analytics so that you can see what’s working for your marketing strategy and what isn’t. You need to determine which social media efforts are…

Are you ready to start using video in your marketing strategy? Video is the most powerful tool for online marketing right now. If you take a quick look, you’ll see how this content format has taken over all the major social networks. It also powers the second largest search engine in the world—no, not Bing….

How much to charge for social media management depends on your experience level Unless you are a social media management superstar with a big name, your ability to prove how much experience you have is going to be a huge deal when negotiating with a client. They’re going to want you to prove that you…

Email marketing is a critical part of any digital marketing strategy. After all, data driven email marketing has the highest ROI compared to other digital marketing channels. But competition for attention in consumers’ inboxes is steep (the average consumer receives about 120 emails per day). So while it isn’t likely you’ll be moving your marketing…

WordPress (WP) is the most efficient and well-known website builder. There is no doubt that WP is the content management system of choice of many web developers and designers. Currently, WP is supporting more than 75 million sites on the Internet, and along with that are 44,000 plugins and extensions. Because of WordPress, a lot…

If your job, business, or brand depends on creating or promoting content, you are probably familiar with BuzzSumo. BuzzSumo has really created a name for itself in the marketing space. It’s an excellent tool for discovering what people are talking about on websites, blogs, and social media so that you can jump in on popular…

Why your Business needs to be on YouTube Every company that wants to succeed on social media must consider implementing video content in its communication strategy. We can confirm that 79% of consumers prefer watching a video than reading about a product. This means that video content allows your business to achieve engagement and branding fidelity, reach potential…

By now, you’ve likely decided that your email marketing strategy needs campaign automation. After all, in 2018 great email marketing is about more than blasting your subscribers with promotional offers. And we’ve got the statistics to back that claim up: relevant emails are responsible for driving 18 times more revenue than broadcast emails. Building a…

Today we are highlighting a case study that was presented by Gatorade at our #SMSsummit event in San Francisco last year, which focuses on how brands can use native ad products within social platforms in order to create compelling customer experiences. If you are reading this blog, the chances are you understand that the internet has…

If you grew up in the United States, chances are that you’ve come in contact with some products from the iconic brands Kraft & Heinz, which merged in 2015 to form the Kraft-Heinz Company. We were lucky enough to be joined last year at #SMSSummit in Chicago by Social Media Manager James Vetrano, who’s presentation…

As we ease further into 2018, we’ve already seen some seismic disruptions in the tech and advertising world. There was the now infamous (and still ongoing) Facebook/Cambridge Analytica debacle. The social media giant is still reeling from the fallout, as it shined a spotlight on ethics issues related to data harvesting. However, this topic isn’t…

Podcasts have been around for quite some time but haven’t really taken off until the 2000s. Between iTunes, SoundCloud, and Spotify it’s pretty easy to get your hands on podcasts from a variety of industries and topics. We have compiled a list of 8 Marketing specific podcasts that you should hit the subscribe button on….

Ever since the death of the newsfeed news in January marketers have been waiting to see how paid social ads would be affected. Many hypothesized that ad prices would surge, time spent on Facebook would plummet, and the platform would cease in being a useful marketing tool. And while many of the above predictions have…

Think about your car’s engine for a moment. Imagine you had all of the parts that are used to build an engine. Yet instead of assembling them, you simply dumped them inside your car. There’s absolutely no way that car will start — even though it has all of the necessary pieces that go into…

You may have just blinked. In that brief moment of time, there were likely a dozen changes that hit the world of social media, causing you to change – in big ways or small – how you go about your day-to-day. And because you wade in the social media waters every day, you know just how…

Marketers talk a lot about strategy and how to implement it for social media marketing. The right tools can make all the difference. Here is a list of the top 50 tools to help you manage, deliver and optimize your social media marketing strategies. Agora Pulse Agora Pulse is one of the most affordable tools…

As a marketer, you may think you don’t need to go to conferences because you have already established your brand and strategy and it works for you. But, not only do conferences serve as a time to get out of the office but they can be extremely informative. It can take your already existing strategy…

The era of live video thus far has been both an exciting and scary time for marketers. The business case is glaringly clear: video posts have 135% greater organic reach than photo posts. People spend 3x longer watching video that’s live versus pre-recorded. What this means, though, is sharing raw, unedited content with hundreds, thousands, potentially…

With its growing shoppable features and the increase in advertising options, Instagram is becoming more and more important for brands. The platform now has over 25 million business profiles, compared to just 15 million in July of 2017. And with this rising attention and competition on Instagram comes an increasing demand for exceptional visual content. The…

It is inevitable that a portion of your subscriber list is going to lose interest and die off. That being said, how do you control the number of people that stop opening your emails? Having your subscribers stop opening your emails but stay on your list can seriously hurt your email engagement rate or mark…

There you are, attending a conference and looking to network with some peers and professionals. You don’t know anyone. You didn’t come with a team or manager. Where do you start? Making the most out of a room can be the difference between a successful conference and a dud. Here are 9 sure-fire ways to…

As a writer, the creative cup does not always runneth over with awesome blog post ideas. This is especially true if you need to come up with quality ideas on a consistent basis. Enter the web, plus many marketers struggling with this same issue, and voila! Tons of awesome tools available to help you pack a punch…

With total revenue expected to show annual growth of 8.3%, there are a lot of good reasons to start an e-commerce store. That statistic puts the total U.S. e-commerce industry at about 652.417 million by 2022. But with a growing industry comes growing competition, and e-commerce stores must deliver an excellent experience both on-site and…

It’s no secret that chatbot and AI technology has integrated itself into almost every aspect of business. This trend is changing the way businesses do customer service, finance, operations and marketing. Many brands, big and small, have begun implementing bots into their marketing strategy to facilitate lead generation. In the recent years, Facebook Messenger has…

For this week’s Thought Leader Thursday, we’re featuring Mallorie Rosenbluth of Grubhub – one of our most highly rated Social Media Strategies Summit speakers of 2017. Prior to Grubhub, Mallorie held positions at Wegman’s Food Markets, Likeable Media, and Baked by Melissa. She joined the Grubhub team in 2016. It’s an exciting time for the company….

Hear from Temple University below about what programs they are implementing to further students education in the Social Media Marketing Industry. Temple University will be at Social Media Strategies Summit, Chicago this April 24-26th, 2018.    In today’s digital economy, Temple University is utilizing an online curriculum to prepare students to become the next digital…

Having the ability to sit down and schedule out social media posts for the week or even the month is exactly the shortcut that marketers need. Social Media scheduling tools are so valuable for that reason alone, that marketers need shortcuts in order to get their brand content out there. They need tools they can rely…

In 2018 hashtags are everyone and most people use them in their social media posts. You see them on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, events, commercials, etc. So, the question that comes up all the time is why is a hashtag so important and should I be using them?   Why hashtags are important In…

Valentine’s Day is a chance for brands to connect with their customers and share in the spirit of love, generosity, and overall appreciation. From tweeting a Valentine’s Day wish to your followers or sharing in a fundraiser, brands take this holiday as a chance to show their appreciation for their customers and community as a…

Earlier this year I traveled across Thailand for an entire month, scuba diving, yachting, fine dining – all without paying a dollar out of pocket. As a group of micro influencers with a following geared towards travel, we often looked like a mobile film crew: constantly creating content for these fantastic companies we felt fortunate…

Consider this statistic: employees are 2x as trusted as a CEO, senior executive, or activist consumer. If that stat didn’t drive the importance of employee advocacy home for you, how about this: on average, brand messages are shared 24x more frequently when distributed by employees. Employee advocacy is increasingly being seen as a key accompaniment…

As social media becomes a larger part of the marketing world and new trends, new technology and new ways of reaching audiences emerge, companies need to find the most cost-effective ways to take advantage of that medium to reach their market. Social media has introduced the idea that brands can reach a broad audience easily….

If you’re a brand trying to identify your target market, there is one place you can find them all: online. Your existing and potential customers have fully completed the digital transformation- it’s time for brands, marketers, and businesses as a whole to do the same.   What is the digital transformation? The digital transformation is…

For the upcoming Social Media Strategies Summit in Chicago, I’m at work putting together a full speaker line-up of brand marketers coming to share their stories of how they’re packing a real punch with their social media and content strategy. One of these speakers is Stacie Grissom, the head of content at BarkBox: the company…

Let’s face it social media marketers, whether you like it or not, graphic design and videography have, one way or another, weaseled their way into our job descriptions. Whether it’s creating images for blog or social media posts, or creating high performing video ads and promos, you’ve probably found yourself needing to quickly draft up…

As a marketer, the right online tool or app can make a world of difference. In the never-ending quest to turn my days into highly productive, low-stress ones, I’ve compiled a list of Google Chrome Extensions that can help you make your way towards achieving both. 1. Grammarly Even if you consider yourself a grammar…

Like most people do this time of year, your resident SMSS team have been taking a look at the events of the past year, and are planning for the year to come. As we make our own marketing resolutions for 2018, we thought our readers might also benefit from some suggestions.   Special Offer: Save…

When it comes to email marketing, the subject line is your chance at a great first impression. Within a few seconds of looking at a subject line, your subscriber will make a decision to either read or delete your content. Here are seven ways to write an email subject lines to boost email performance. 1….

By now, the holiday seasons is in full swing and marketers are trying to reach their customers with promotions, new products, and end of the year sales. Holiday shopping is a big B2C opportunity for brands. Every business tries to take advantage of the increased demand and promotional efforts go through the roof. To spread…

Email marketing is still one of the highest driving channels for many brands to acquire and engage new customers. Thousands of dollars are invested in email marketing every day.It is obvious that as social media marketing grows, email marketing isn’t going anywhere. So, should marketers align social and email marketing to drive more engagement? In…

Chatbots are becoming a reality … we all know it and marketers are starting to take advantage of the technology to interact with customers. Nothing is quite like them and it changes the way that our brands talk to target audiences. They seem to be everywhere—on every platform. They create a sense of convenience and…

Strategy. Automation. Funnels. Copy. Visuals and programming. Open and Click Through Rates. Email marketing is a big topic with a lot of moving parts. To break down the process of email marketing and set your brand up for success at every step of the way, this is the first post of an email marketing series….

In the fast-paced world of social media marketing, you may find yourself needing to wear many hats to get the job done. Graphic designer is often one of those hats. Maybe you need to have super awesome creative done by noon and don’t have time to wait for your design team to draft something up,…

Brands today have challenged themselves to come up with content that is so visually focused since Instagram has taken over with 700 million active users. Brands want people to see their products and service and more importantly click on the links and go to the websites to convert to customers. Check out these brands that…

The end of the year is (somehow already) upon us, and that means it’s time to reflect on where we’ve been and where we’re headed. Below are a collection of the biggest social media updates, trends, and feel good moments from 2017. They can provide insights on what to do (and not to do) in…

Millennials have become a trend on their own (and that isn’t just coming from someone in the generation). We have our own color (millennial pink), our own twitter trends (#thingsmillennialshavekilled) and even our own target market. If you aren’t taking advantage of the millennial age bracket in your social media strategy you are missing out…

Social media allows businesses both small and large to reach their audiences. You don’t have to have a giant budget to win at social media marketing, though! Here are 18 of the best social media campaigns from your favorite brands this year, along with the lessons you can use in your strategy. 1. Airbnb takes…

With so many brands trying to get customers attention many companies have started to participate in Experimental marketing. Brands are trying to get around people using ad blockers, no-commercial entertainment, and social media ads by creating situations that create direct connections and relationships with their customers. But, what is experimental marketing and how do you…

Creating a blog post, doing the research, and crafting that witty first opening line is only half the battle. Optimizing your perfected blog post for SEO is the other half and is the key to having your content read. Here is the how-to guide to making sure that Google shows your content on the search…

LinkedIn is a great tool for businesses. It is geared toward professionals and connections on there are with your colleagues, potential clients, and people that are in your industry. But businesses are now starting to have a showcase page instead of a personal page. Here we are going to talk about the benefits of a…

Facebook Pages used to be a lucrative way for brands to connect with customers on Facebook. However, pages have seen a decline in organic reach in recent years. One Facebook Engineering Director noted that organic reach rates for Pages could dip down to 2% on average. Ouch! This doesn’t mean it’s time to pack up…

We’ve talked a lot about how to pick the right ad objective and how to optimize your ads, but we have yet to address one very important topic… how you to design ads that convert! In this segment of “Understanding Facebook Ads” we will cover how to pick the right creative to make your ad…

Snapchat is still a platform that people are trying to figure out. Parents are still confused and asking their kids to help them and businesses are just getting on the train and trying to use the platform that is taking over the younger generation. According to Hootsuite Snapchat has over 100 million daily active users! Marketers are…

Coming up with content ideas for your social media can be time-consuming! As marketers, we have all stared at our screen and used every ounce of our creative energy and come up empty-handed. We know that social media can improve our customer retention so we want to take advantage… obviously. Here is a comprehensive list of content…

Are you taking advantage of all of Instagram’s features?  Knowing where all the short-cuts are can not only save you time, but help you keep a leg up on the competition, and keep your content fresh and creative. I’ve put together a list of 20 Instagram tips and tricks that help your social media posting…

Every smart marketer knows that a social media presence is the way to a successful brand. At this point… I think we have all got that in our minds. However, brands struggle with the presence. They might have the correct social media profiles, post all the time, and link to their products everywhere but they…

If you’re just branching out into the world of paid advertising and B2B marketing, LinkedIn ads is the way to go. With a variety of ad options, targeting methods, and tracking functions, LinkedIn ads are an effective and efficient way to market your business. However in order to see an optimal ROI, it’s important to make sure…

What if I told you there was a way to reach 64% of monthly Facebook users in one place? Such a spot exists, and it’s none other than Facebook Messenger. Messaging apps now have more monthly active users than social networks, and Facebook Messenger alone has 1.2 Billion users.  18 million businesses are already active…

Social listening is the popular new kid on the block, at least in higher education. Sixty-five percent of campuses are using social media to listen and monitor public sentiment, and 39 percent have social listening software, according to the Hootsuite 2017 Social Campus Report. In tech, intense hype (and inflated expectations) is often followed by…

Instagram has over 600 million users that are scrolling through their feeds everyday. People are engaging with their favorite brands on social media and having a strong Instagram profile is a smart move to connect with your audience and grow your brand’s awareness. These five strategies will help you boost your follower count, increase exposure…

Facebook Advertising has become today’s most efficient tool for social media marketing which is why we launched our “Understanding Facebook Ads” blog series. More from this series: Understanding Facebook Ads: 7 easy tricks to help you optimize your Facebook Ads and save money in the process. One of Facebook’s most beneficial advertising features is their objective breakdown. If…

Not seeing the conversions you were hoping for with your Facebook Ads? Here are 7 easy tricks to help optimize your Facebook Ad Strategy and increase your ROI.   #1: Categorize your audience Whenever you’re starting an Ad Campaign, it’s important to remember that each individual who comes across your ad has a different relationship…

So you have been working on all the content, copy, and social media content and you want to see your success. But, you aren’t sure what metrics to focus on. Have no fear! We will show you the top 10 metrics you should be paying attention to, see where your tactics are working. #1: Track…

Are you responsible for the copy for social media? Do you hit writer’s block, deal with spelling mistakes, grammar errors and need help with your social media posts? Here are 15 writing tools for your social media! #1: WriteRack Always hit the 140 character limit on Twitter? Us too. Sign up for WriteRack and put your entire…

We all know that social media can be a powerful tool to engage your customers, strengthen your relationships, and get to know your audience on a deeper level. So, how can you increase your customer’s retention on social media and keep them engaged in your content? Here are 5 ways that you can improve your…

These days you don’t need to have a film degree or have the super fancy equipment to make an awesome social media video. Social media marketers are using their smart phones and their untrained eyes to create compelling, interesting, and viral videos that – gasp – people are watching!  Gone are the days when you need to…

If you know a college aged millennial the chances are they have student loans. According to Student Loan Hero, the average millennial owes about $37,000 in student loans. If you add up the entire amount owed by student borrowers, it equals $1.45 TRILLION, which is $620 billion more than total credit card debt in the U.S….

Any marketing strategy is only as strong as the brand behind it. To prepare marketers with the expertise and skills they need to build and execute on an exceptional brand strategy, the organizers of #SMSsummit are putting together The Brand Strategy Conference, coming to Chicago, October 11-13. It’s the only case-study driven conference dedicated to brand…

We are just under two months away from our Social Media Strategies Summit in Boston devoted specifically to higher education, so over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be highlighting some the presentations we’re looking forward to. Bill Zimmerman is a lecturer at Penn State University, teaching in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations in…

To some people in the United States, football is a religion. Every year, hundreds of millions of viewers sit down with friends and family for an American tradition you might have heard of. The Super Bowl. Even people who don’t have a particular allegiance to a team or an affinity for the sport will tune…

Marketers understand the value of video as an integral part of a marketing strategy. The reality is that video is very time consuming, and sometimes intimidating. On the bright side, there is a big selection of easy-to-learn video editing programs that won’t eat up your marketing budget. To use these tools, you don’t need any…