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Where are you going with your SEO, digital marketing, social media marketing, mobile marketing post pandemic? Start by asking what baby boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z are doing on social media.

During the pandemic, social media became critical to marketing. While spending on traditional advertising is on the decline, social media spending increased from 13.3% of marketing budgets in February 2020 to 23.2% in June 2020 — a 74% increase.

Social media platforms are now the main source of information and have surpassed print and other digital media platforms. The pandemic was a catalyst to the rise in social media usage with ever more people relying on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to stay up to date – not to mention the explosion in TikTok.

Recommendations for a Post-Pandemic Future

Having a bold presence on Twitter, Facebook, or other social media platforms is vital. Social networks offer marketing strategies that give a unique ability to connect and bond with customers in meaningful ways.

If there’s one thing we learned in the pandemic, it was that agility and adapting quickly were the best traits marketers could exhibit. We saw more innovation than we have seen in decades, and this should continue. We should learn from our responsiveness and remember that it can save or pivot our businesses again in the future.

Undeniably, social media marketing provides you with a platform to brand, sell, and market your products and services.

A powerful social media marketing strategy must include a process for identifying new features and channels so that you can quickly create content for them. One such example is Instagram Reels, which has “reel-ly” taken off!

Today, research yields fast results so that you can pivot a campaign in no time at all. You can identify influencers and creators who resonate well with your audience and work with them to create engaging content.

This is a good time to give your ads, emails, videos, webinars, and podcast episodes an overhaul to let your customers know that you are in touch with their needs and ready to face a brave new post-pandemic world.

Do you feel you lack social media talent? No problem! WSI New Media Marketing and our agency partners can help you realize the true potential of social media and brand advocacy. Contact our friendly team now online or at 336.763.4006.

Many businesses today take a digital-first approach to marketing, either de-prioritizing traditional marketing or doing away with it altogether. The reality is that integrated marketing, employing methods from both approaches, is the most effective solution. In fact, the line between traditional and digital is starting to blur, meaning that integration is rapidly becoming the norm.

Mixed media platforms should be considered

A typical marketing campaign will consist of a variety of tactics working together towards a business’s goals. You may post blogs or vlogs on your website, while offering print collateral either in PDF format or in strategically chosen legacy media outlets, while also driving customers towards these through social posts. It is plain to see how traditional media tools are working seamlessly alongside digital ones. Most marketers will use these integrated approaches as a matter of course. Rightly so, since building a marketing plan around one method or platform is extremely limiting. You can still keep your digital platforms at the core of your marketing journey, while making clever use of wide-ranging conventional methods to help build awareness and drive your audience towards your digital platforms. 

Make use of these mixed media approaches carefully, looking for what works and utilizing it fully and thoughtfully. Digital media are rapidly evolving, effective, accurate and wide-ranging. Traditional methods, however, are still very effective for specific, targeted purposes. When you find the right mix, you are sure to enhance the power and effectiveness of your marketing efforts. The key is to find ways to enjoy the agility and versatility of digital media, while employing traditional tools to hit a mass audience and reinforce your brand. Remember that your customers are not limited to either traditional or digital media, but are exposed to varying combinations of both on a daily basis. Your approach should be equally flexible. Know your audience and research their media consumption habits to ensure that you create the ideal mix of digital and traditional media.

WSI New Media Marketing is a full-service digital marketing and search engine optimization company in Greensboro, North Carolina. Contact us for expert help with your SEO, social media marketing, and other digital marketing tactics and strategies.

Mobile marketing is on the up-and-up thanks to the ubiquity of the smartphone. As a savvy marketer, you need to know what your options are, and figure out what is best for your business.

These ubiquitous phones can do more than the phones of yesteryear, so staying updated with the latest trends is essential. However, marketers must remember that not everybody has the very latest phone, so you need to cater to everyone to maximize your campaign’s reach.

How To Optimize Your Mobile Marketing

Here are five basic tips:

1. “Horses for courses” applies to social media marketing too. Every platform has its own limitations so don’t try to use the same material across channels that work differently. Also remember that social media marketing should be concise and instantly understandable. Consider data limitations for some users so have optional extensions for rich content.
2. Create a clear call to action (CTA) so viewers can be converted to clients. Conversion rates can be improved by using only one CTA and avoiding navigation links that could be distracting. Go back to basics and use contrasting colours.
3. Make your message stand out from the many others on every channel by being relevant and personal as well as designed for SEO. Use information you know about your customer like their names, previous purchasing data, etc. Add your personal signature too.
4. Encourage two-way communication by enabling the receiver to instantly and easily reply to the campaign. In this way, you have opened a conversation from which you can glean data, receive valuable feedback and encourage loyalty.
5. Use the data you obtain to continually test, measure, and improve.

Some Very Successful Mobile Marketing Campaigns Listed

One of the smartest digital marketing strategies of 2021 is Anheuser-Busch’s pivot from brewing beer to manufacturing hand sanitizer during the COVID-19 pandemic: They announced to the Twitterverse, “We have a long history of supporting our communities and employees – this time is no different. That’s why we are using our supply and logistics network to begin producing and distributing bottles of hand sanitizer to accommodate the growing needs across the United States.” This endeared the brand by reaching the hearts and minds of Americans.

Another ingenious mobile marketing campaign was the collaboration between dating app Tinder and British Football Club, Manchester City. By partnering with the men’s and women’s leagues, Tinder planned to interact with fans using games, AR experiences and stadium events. The global fanbase of the team pairs well with Tinder’s global reach (now in over 200 countries and 40 languages).

Take some inspiration from the brilliant campaigns out there and put your marketing creativity to the test. Anything is possible in today’s digital world.

Get in touch with New Media Marketing to help you set up mobile marketing strategies that deliver real ROI that improves your customer affinity and engages your employees.

Here’s what you need to know about how Clubhouse can enhance your social media marketing business.

What Is Clubhouse?

Clubhouse is a live audio app that works by invitation only. It works on both Android and IOS devices. It makes it possible for a user to go into a room and listen to what is being said and even participate in the conversation with up to 5000 participants. The feature that people really love about the app is that it does not save conversations. Once the conversation is over, the data disappears.

According to The Guardian, “The exclusive invitation-only social networking app is a hybrid of conference calls, talkback radio and Houseparty.”

How To Use Clubhouse For Your Business

It is great for networking and learning. When you are an audience member, it is easy to find like-minded people.

Meetings are simplified using this app and because it is audio, it doesn’t eat up too much data for those who are on the move.

By clicking on a person’s icon in a meeting, you can see the person’s bio. You are able to see how many followers they have, who those followers are and what interests the person has. You can also see what CLUBS this person is in. This type of easy-to-access data is invaluable for advertising and marketers.

There is an algorithm which makes a decision about what content to show you based on who you are following.

There is no private messaging on this app. A lot of the networking from Clubhouse happens off-platform, for example on Instagram and Twitter.

There are two ways to start a conversation: you can schedule one or spontaneously start one up. For marketers, this is a great way to be instantly responsive to happenings in the industry or the world at large. Social media marketing can be boosted by hosting talks by industry experts or launches without even having to go to the effort of planning a full-scale event.

Celebrities such as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have made appearances on Clubhouse. While in Europe,  its popularity was boosted when German podcast hosts Philipp Klöckner and Philipp Gloeckler started an invite-chain over a Telegram group, bringing German influencers, journalists and politicians to Clubhouse.  Reuters has reported that the demand for membership is now so high that a market for them has sprung up on platforms like Reddit, Craigslist and eBay.

It is time to add Clubhouse to your digital marketing repertoire. Contact New Media Marketing for more information on how this new social media marketing platform can create the emotional connections that improve customer affinity and retention and engage employees.

Social media remains one of the most influential forces in the world today, and this situation is unlikely to change during the course of 2021. If anything, social media will continue to ascend as the most popular, immediate and most far-reaching mode of communication. As we are now nearly halfway through the year, the dominant trends have already become apparent. Some of the most notable are the increased popularity of ephemeral content, the continued growth of social commerce, the dominance of video content, recycling of user-generated content and the role of social media in the realm of “fake news.” 

Recycling user-generated content

The power of user-generated content (UGC) has become readily apparent over the past few years. It works so well because it encourages engagement and makes users feel that they are contributing members of a community, rather than just a passive audience. Marketers can leverage UGC to great effect, using it to deepen their current audience member’s engagement and draw in new members through reshares. Viewers want social currency, a feeling and perception that they are insiders in a community that matters to them. The best thing marketers can do is provide them with opportunities to do so. Offering a platform for their content and sharing the best examples of it is a perfect means to that end. Make sure that the content also serves your brand, of course. Then both you and your users can enjoy the benefits. 

Fake news acceleration on social networks discussed

“Fake news” became something of a buzzword over the past four years, and the controversy came to a head in 2020 with all kinds of false allegations surfacing on social media about the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines, and the presidential election, among other things. Social media became a way for fake news to spread like wildfire. The accelerated spread that social media facilitates meant that unverified  claims could go from one side of the world to another in record time – and rapidly become accepted by millions of audience members as undisputed fact. Social media platforms and governments have been forced to take action. Facebook and Twitter have ramped up their moderation efforts.. Social media marketers will need to be cognizant of the stricter regulations on content.

Social media’s usage predicted for 2021

From the point of view of the social media marketer, there are several emerging trends that may well be game-changers this year. We will focus on three of them:

• Social commerce is ascending: Social commerce has already been around for quite some time, but not all marketers have leveraged it successfully. In fact, digital marketers continue to plan and implement excellent online strategies that don’t involve social commerce at all. In 2021, social, conversational and live commerce is set to become central marketing strategies. The tools are already available on social media platforms. It’s time to learn to take full advantage of them.

• Social messaging is becoming the standard for customer service: As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, various types of remote communications, from Zoom meetings to conversational marketing, are becoming the norm. Customer conversations have quickly moved away from call centers and emails to social media platforms and messaging apps. It is vital that marketers take full control of these platforms and use them to enhance their customer experience.
• Micro-influencer marketing is becoming more important: As far as influencer marketing is concerned, brands are becoming more interested in influencers with smaller followings, who speak to focused niche audiences. These micro-influencers offer greater value for tighter marketing budgets.

WSI New Media Marketing is a full-service digital marketing and search engine optimization company in Greensboro, North Carolina. Contact us for expert help with your SEO, social media, mobile marketing and other digital marketing tactics and strategies.

When you create your content marketing, you risk losing business if you do not make a conscious effort to make it inclusive. Inclusivity and diversity are not just buzzwords. They are concepts that are currently dominating our social, political and academic dialogue, and influence your clients’ purchasing decisions. A 2019 consumer survey indicated that 64% of consumers take action after seeing an ad they regard as inclusive. If you ensure inclusivity in your content, you can reach new customers and stand out from the competition. In short, inclusivity in your digital marketing is good for your brand and for your bottom line. Here are four ways to make your content more inclusive.

1. Rethink the way you create content

In order to reach more people, stop and reconsider how you are communicating with your audience. Written content is still the most common form of communication, and Google’s search algorithms are still heavily dependent on text. However, you may be leaving out a large audience by focusing only on blogs. Video and audio content will reach those people who prefer to consume their content in this way, rather than reading, but these formats are more critical and inclusive than that. Captioned video content can bring your message to the hearing impaired, while audio content will enable you to reach the vision-impaired community. You don’t have to create new content for each format; you can simply repurpose the great content you already have. Think about your audience and your message and then diversify your platforms to reach more people.

2. Remember that inclusivity is about more than demographics

While it’s important to consider gender, race, age and other demographic factors, your content marketing should be far more detailed and data-driven. Research your audience deeply and then think about how to reach specific sectors of it. What does your research tell you about your customers? What are their values, habits and goals? You can then devise content that reaches them directly.

3. Use images to improve inclusivity

Most companies rely on stock images to add visuals to their online content. As a result, their choices are limited to what the various libraries offer. However, stock image creators are working to make their collections more diverse and inclusive. You can make your search terms more specific when hunting for images, to ensure that you make inclusivity a priority in your search. Add phrases like “African American”, “Hispanic”, “senior”, “gay” or “disabled” into your searches. The options you find will help you to add both diversity and inclusivity to your content. 

4. Be careful with your pronouns

Most bloggers use the word “you” in their content. This practice is generally good in principle because it makes the reader feel that they are being addressed directly. Things get a little more tricky when you need to use the third-person form to refer to a hypothetical person (for example, your customer). “He” and “she” are inherently exclusive and can make some readers feel as if your content isn’t taking them into account. Some people then use the plural form – “they” and “them” as a way of getting around this, which can be a good solution. 

WSI New Media Marketing is a full-service digital marketing agency in Greensboro, North Carolina. Contact us for expert digital marketing services, including content marketing and social media marketing.

Setting up a social media marketing strategy can seem like a momentous task and that could be why some businesses end up doing just the bare minimum when it comes to building their online social media presence. Others hire a digital marketing agency to help them out. Challenges abound, like finding the time that is required to do your social media correctly, and then also which platforms to choose? There are so many platforms today that all have enough traffic to merit consideration – so where does one start?

Have a clear vision for your company and set some goals

Your vision for your company should determine your goals. Ask yourself what you would like to achieve from your social marketing strategy. Not sure? Here are some ideas.

1. Increasing brand awareness
2. Generating more sales
3. Growing your audience
4. Capturing, let’s say 50 or 100 more email addresses a week
5. Responding to all social media comments and queries

Choose the right channels

 A golden rule here is to do a handful of channels and to do them well. Pinterest, for example, is a graphics-heavy platform with 71% female users so that may not be a good channel to use if you are selling a service or appliance more suitable for men.  Facebook is by far the biggest platform with over 2 billion monthly active users and is great for lead generation and to show the human side of your business. Linkedin, on the other hand, is great for B2B businesses and editorial content and has a slightly older audience than some of the other platforms with most users being between 30 – 49 years old.

Analyze your competition

Keep abreast of what your competition is up to, not to copy them, but to rather gain valuable insight on what is (or is not) working for them. Look out for posts on their pages that perform well and then analyze why. You can then adapt your campaign based on your conclusions.

Plan your content

In January 1996, Bill Gates wrote an essay entitled “content is king” and great content is certainly key to inbound marketing which draws your audience to you. Great content is still key to inbound marketing and also arguably the most important part of your digital marketing efforts. It helps you to build trust and to connect with your audience. 

Create a content calendar to clearly outline your content strategy. If consistency is a problem, think about how a theme could help. For example, on Instagram, you could run all your photos through the same filter to ensure consistency. Or, you can lessen your workload and increase your credibility by inviting consumers to submit user-generated content (UGC) in the form of photos or videos.  And if you’re not a professional designer, there is no need to fret as you can create engaging imagery relatively easily with a free app like Canva.

In summary – Your social media strategy cannot be a static exercise and will need to be constantly adapting and evolving to work for you. Companies with a clear strategy and realistic goals in place will be much more successful with their digital marketing campaigns. Find out more by reaching out to WSI New Media Marketing in Greensboro today.

As part of your social media marketing strategy, you should include paid social media, dark social media, and influencer marketing. Here’s why:

Paid Social Media Marketing 

Social media marketing has progressed to a point where sharing the odd post – no matter how well-crafted – with your followers and expecting them to do the rest is no longer effective.

To target your ideal customer, nurture their buyer journey, and ultimately get them to purchase from your website, you need to take advantage of the fact that all social networks now offer post promotion. Not only does paid social media put your message in front of far more users, not using this tool actually puts you on the back foot. According to a 2018 survey, 92% of small businesses are increasing their investment in social media.

Even though advertising on social media gives immediate visibility to your brand, don’t give in to the temptation to spend, spend, spend! From elementary user demographics to psychographics such as values and attitudes, interests and lifestyles, and personality, social media platforms have parameters to enhance your targeting.

But first, you need to determine whether Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or Instagram is the best fit for your ideal client. It’s all about utilizing the appropriate platform to target the right audience with engaging content.

Facebook is by far the biggest of all the social networks with 2.41 billion monthly active users. An average Facebook user clicks on 11 ads per month. Their advertising costs vary depending on many factors like your industry, location, and objectives, but the average price for an advert decreased 4% in Q2 2019. Facebook is therefore a good place to start.

Dark Social Traffic 

Not to be confused with marketing on the dark web, dark social media refers to the sharing of your content without your knowledge. Although you cannot track the impact of dark social media with your regular analytics, more than 80% of sharing from marketing websites happens “invisibly”.

If you think of it as a digital word of mouth, it makes sense that this is even more powerful amid COVID-19 social distancing, working from home, and digital communities.

So how do you get in on this action? Make sure that you include buttons on all your output that encourages sharing through email, text message, or direct social messaging. Moreover, include a strong call to action to go to a landing page, read another post, or sign up to your email list.

Having a prominent, respected trendsetter in your niche share your content in this intimate way will drive mass traffic. That’s where the next category comes in.

Influencer Marketing 

As consumers are bombarded with ever more marketing messages, so they tend to filter out an increasing amount. One way to catch the attention of prospects is to leverage the power of humans in your digital marketing.

Marketing guru Seth Godin notes that “People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories, and magic.”

From published authors in serious fields to mainstream celebrities for younger audiences, influencer marketing uses the trust they have established with their large following to punt your product by supporting or endorsing your brand or co-creating content.

This is not an overnight strategy, as you need to build a relationship with influencers in your niche. Engage with them to the point where they value your expertise and enjoy your content. Slow and steady is the name of this game, but the results are well worth the wait.

If you are looking for a world-class social media marketing agency to keep you current and competitive, then you are in the right place. WSI New Media Marketings social media services can help you realize the true potential of social media for meaningful conversations and winning relationships. For more information about our digital marketing agency in Greensboro, contact us today.

Securing the services of a top social media agency is one of the most important things you can do for your brand. People have probably told you a thousand times that you need a social media strategy to drive traffic to your website. However, do you know how it actually works? How do you convert Tweets and Facebook posts into website traffic? How can you make your social media posts count? Here’s what you have to do to increase traffic to your website by way of social media.

Start with your profile

Before you do any posting on Facebook and Twitter, make sure you have filled in your bio, company page, or About section correctly. This is where many people will first become acquainted with your brand, so you need to ensure that you make a good impression. Also, don’t forget to add a link to your website. As people read about you for the first time, they can click back to your website and get more information. Whether or not this person turns into a customer, they automatically one more visitor to your hit count.

Promote your blog

You may have a great blog with informative, entertaining and topical content, but it’s no good if nobody reads it. You can’t expect to maximize visits to your blog through SEO alone. Social media is the most essential and most effective way to draw eyes to your blog. 

Allow readers to share your content

Now that you’ve attracted readers from social media, let them help you reach even more new audience members by embedding a social sharing tool on your pages. This allows them to easily pass your content on with a single click.

Pay attention to your audience’s habits

It’s no good posting great content when your target audience isn’t even on social media. Find out the peak time of your audience – the time when they are most active – and schedule your posts to go out during those times. This requires a little trial and error and guesswork at first, but you will soon be able to see when your audience is most active. You can make use of free tools such as Followerwonk to help you with this research.

Focus on visual content

People would much rather watch a video or quickly scan a GIF or meme than read a lengthy article. So make sure you hold their attention by posting visually oriented content. It doesn’t have to be only pictures, but it’s best to cut back on the text and add in more visuals. Even if you do post links to articles and blogs, make sure they have a picture to attract attention.

WSI New Media Marketing is a proud member of the global WSI digital marketing family. In addition to building brands through PPC advertising, website design, mobile marketing and SEO optimization, we are also one of North Carolina’s top social media agencies. Contact us and see what we can do for your brand.

Facebook ads are a crucial part of any social media marketing strategy, and as a social media marketing agency, WSI New Media Marketing in Greensboro, North Carolina, has a lot of experience with Facebook advertising. With the complexities behind Facebook Ads, it is increasingly important to understand what you’d like to accomplish with your advertisements on Facebook and how to best achieve the goals you have set for yourself. 

5 Best Practices for Your Facebook Ads from a Social Media Marketing Agency 

1. Set the correct goals to drive value 

With so many different advertising objectives available to your business, it can become difficult to pick the correct goals to aim for in Facebook advertising. The best plan is to determine which goals will produce the most value for your business, and aim for those objectives. Value-driving objectives no longer just include likes on your page or clicks to your website but should include conversions and brand awareness. Being popular on Facebook may help your business to reach more audience members, but if those views don’t convert into sales, they are not worth the advertising budget. 

2. Make use of Facebook’s Placement Optimization 

Placement options on Facebook include Facebook and Instagram feeds, the Audience Network, and Facebook Messenger. If you choose to activate all the placement options available to you, the Facebook Ad platform will learn which placements are the best at achieving your objectives in a cost-effective manner, enhancing your campaign performances without all the research effort from your side.

3. Choose the Campaign Budget Optimization option 

Similar to the Placement Optimization process, the Campaign Budget Optimization lets the Facebook Ad platform find opportunities to achieve your set goals across your ad sets and give priority in the budget allocation to the ads that are performing well. This option takes away some of the control you have over your ads but can help you to spend your budget more effectively across your Facebook Ads. 

4. Understand when broader targeting might be better 

For a long time, Facebook Ads that targeted small, niche groups performed better than broader target groups. Due to the increase in targeting and competition, it may cost more to target a smaller group with your Facebook Ad. This aspect of the Facebook Ad platform makes it crucial to understand when targeting a broader audience may be more cost-effective. If you’re trying to make your budget go further, set your audience broader so Facebook Ads can reach different people at a lower cost. 

5. Create for mobile, always 

The statistics for mobile use of social media platforms alone should indicate that mobile-first creation is key to achieving success in social media marketing. If your advertisement doesn’t load correctly on a mobile device, it won’t go down well with social media users. 

If you need assistance with your social media marketing, SEO optimization, and Facebook Ads, contact WSI New Media Marketing in Greensboro, North Carolina, your local SEO company and marketing agency today.