Category Archives: Social Media

The growing popularity of Instagram nowadays as a preferred social networking site among users has led businesses to think of it as a marketing medium. If you are a frequent Instagram user, then there are many small tips and tricks that you might not be aware of. It does not matter whether you are an individual user who wants to make the most out of Instagram or a business looking to showcase their company’s product and services in the best way possible; there are still some tips that you should know about on Instagram.

1. Receive Notifications from your favourite people whom you follow

Instagram is a place where we follow those whom we like the most. It could be celebrities, business person, friends, colleagues or relatives. Suppose you wish to get a notification every time they post something on Instagram. In that case, you can do so by turning on the notifications by going to the user’s profile. Click the three dots displayed on the right side of the user profile and click the option denoted as ‘Notifications’ from the menu. You will have the option to turn on the notifications for both stories as well as posts. You will also have to enable notifications by going to your phone settings and allowing the notifications for the Instagram app.2. Post YouTube Video on

     2. Instagram

Have you ever thought of sharing a YouTube video on Instagram? You might come across some videos which you think could be useful for the followers of your Instagram account. Even though you cannot directly upload videos on Instagram, there are other ways in which you can put a YouTube video on Instagram. Some of the techniques including downloading the video, editing the video to meet Instagram video content upload requirements and then uploading the video.

3. View the posts you have liked so far

Unsure about which all posts you have liked so far on Instagram? There is a feature on Instagram that gives you a glance at the posts you have liked. Go to Profile and click the option denoted as Settings. Choose the option denoted as ‘Account’ and then click the option denoted as ‘Posts You’ve Liked’. You can see the posts you have liked. If you believe you have mistakenly liked some post, you can unlike them right away, and the user will not be notified about it.

4. Managing Multiple Accounts on Instagram

Suppose you have created a business account for your Instagram and want to manage it alongside your account. In that case, you can do so using Instagram. Navigate to the profile and click the three horizontal lines displayed on the right side of the screen. From the list of options provided, choose the ‘Add Account’ option. You will then have to enter the username and password of your newly added account. To toggle between both accounts, you can do so by going to the ‘Settings’ page and clicking the ‘Switch Accounts’ option.

5. Post scheduled for a set date and time

Instagram offers users the option of scheduling a post on a set date and time according to the user’s convenience. The feature is made available for users with the help of a social media scheduling tool. You will have to click the option denoted as ‘Switch to Professional Account’. You will be able to view Instagram as an available integration by navigating to currently connected profiles.

6. Bookmark or Save Posts that are of Interest to You

In addition to having a glimpse of all the posts that you have liked, Instagram also allows the option to save or bookmark the posts. Thus users can have a collection of the saved posts for future references as and when required. Users will have to click the ‘Settings’ icon, and they can see the option denoted as ‘Saved’ under the Account. Clicking the ‘+’ button displayed on the top-right of the ‘Saved’ page will allow the user to name the new Collection of the saved posts they want to create. Click the ‘Next button and move the images from the saved section to the new folder. Similarly, whenever you come across an interesting post, select the ‘Bookmark’ icon, which will save the posts and include them in future collections.

There are various other features on Instagram. To name a few, use the ‘Type Mode’ to improve Instagram stories, post content by other users to your Instagram Story, browse several types of video content and upload them using the IGTV feature in Instagram. There are also various other features using which you can hide, delete, and disable comments on your Instagram posts.

Covid 19 has worked as a catalyst for accelerating initiatives and ideas that were still in the wings and may have not have happened so soon if it was not for the pandemic. The future of social media may not look anything like what we have witnessed till now. Here is the forecast for social media trends for 2021.

1. Impact of a socially conscious audience – We know-how in 2020 the socially conscious audience impacted the brands, politics, and society. The focus for companies will now have to move to areas such as social justice, mental health, and inclusivity as the highly charged Generations Z and Alpha are well aware of these issues and they use social media to bring attention to them. The companies will have to go beyond words and take action on demonstrating their commitment to creating an honest social impact. They will have to reposition themselves in 2021 by using more cause-driven messaging which will drive higher engagement with the younger generation.

2. Rise of digital disinformation – The year 2020 has been very difficult for one and all and it has brought forth the issue of disinformation. The focus in 2021 for brands and social media channels will be on putting forward the truth to put an end to all the false stories. Brands will have to be transparent with the information so that there are no information gaps, thereby excluding the chance of any misinformation being passed on to the audience. They will also need to invest in ensuring that all communication channels, be it social media, email, etc. are secure and verified to avoid hackers from giving out any false information. Brand monitoring will have to be scaled up and brands will have to be careful with the information they put out to avoid any kind of controversy with the authenticity of the information.

3. The new normal for social media giants – The social media giants will stay as relevant in 2021 as they have been in the past with some new features and changes according to the current trends. There have been many negative stories that have surrounded some of the social media platforms, but they have still shown growth in the user numbers and their reach. For brands, they should focus on being on a few social media channels rather than hopping on to any and every niche platform that comes up. They should keep innovating with the new features that are offered by the selected channels and monitor closely these channels. Analytics tools will help gain consumer insight which can guide content planning and ideation. Lastly, monitor all investments made in paid social closely to optimize the campaigns.

4. Old school marketing methods for a new market – 2021 will see a rise in old-school marketing as brands switch to simpler ways of engaging with their audience. Podcasts and newsletters have gained importance once again during COVID times. Voice is likely to become big in the future with the use of voice search, voice notes, and now voice tweets as well. Companies need to focus their efforts on providing information that the consumers are looking for quickly which can be done through podcasts and newsletters which take lesser time to put together over video content. The creative segmentation of the consumer database has further led to ensuring that companies can deliver highly personalized messaging to get the information they are looking for. Omni channels influencers should be explored as they have multiple connection points with their audience, ensuring higher engagement and impact of the content they share.

5. Social gaming = gaming social – Video games served as a form of distraction during the lockdown imposed due to COVID 19. One can find many forums and groups around games which have created communities dedicated to fanbases. 2021 will see brands becoming more focused on these gaming communities grow stronger. Brands should focus on looking for communities with the right demographics to increase their customer base. They should try and understand the people who belong to these communities and what is it that makes them tick to create content designed especially for them.

6. AI marketing – Marketing today is all about connections and conversations to grow the brand, build relationships, and create sales. With the pandemic, companies have realized that it is not all about sales for the customers. It now involves information, engagement, and social issues that are driving consumers and their future retention. Brands should look at Chatbots, social media channels, and SMS as ways to provide an opportunity to its consumers to start a conversation with them. They should explore AI-based opportunities to make their prospects as connections. Humanizing the brands goes a long way in making a brand more approachable. Integrating customer service data from all channels such as chats, emails, and calls into the analytics platform will provide insight into all aspects of the customer journey from identifying key messages that engage consumers, listing down the pain points obstructing the sales process and post-sales complaints that can have a direct impact on the brand.

7. Nostalgia marketing – Positive emotions connected with ‘good old days’ help people disconnect from their current struggles. Brands should focus on connecting that positive emotion with themselves. This will help build an emotional relationship with the consumer as you made them feel good and hence, they associate your brand as a good brand. To achieve success in this, the focus of any brand should be on knowing your audience in different demographic sets. Then the next big step would be to dig deep into the historical data to target these demographic sets. Some old products can be considered for re-release to target the existing audience and entice the younger generation to buy the product. Engaging with influencers who have focussed on building communities based on nostalgia element. They can help connect with the audience that is already connected with the past.

8. Memetic media – Memes are the way forward into 2021. They are the new way to communicate and a fun way to engage communities on the internet. Memes can be both positive and negative. Since they have been gaining popularity, they have been used for malicious reasons as well. Hence in 2021, brands will need to protect themselves from memes. As memes appear across social media channels, there will be more monitoring for brands to minimize the propaganda potential of it. Brands will have to use image recognition to see if their logo features in any of the memes. Memes can work in favour of the brands. They can connect their content to popular memes which can lead to higher engagement and more virality for the brand. User-generated memes can be shared on the most effective channels giving credit to the creator to build a strong brand connection while encouraging others to create branded content too. With memetic media set to grow, there will be possible regulations that will be put in place. Ensure that as a brand you are aware of them and do not break any rules.

9. The four Cs of COVID 19 content – Even when the pandemic is over, the repercussions of it will be felt for years making it hard for the consumers to simply forget. Brands will need to adapt their communications keeping this in mind. The 4 Cs of COVID 19 content will set the tone for 2021. The 4 Cs are Community, Contactless, Cleanliness, and Compassion. The brand will have to focus on monitoring the pandemic and how they can help customers through it which will impact the communication strategy. Promoting key messaging with the focus on content that covers the needs and concerns of the consumers will help in engaging and building stronger connections with the community. Address the issue of cleanliness and have a more compassionate campaign. Be on the lookout for how the audience is responding to the brand messaging with ever-changing issues in the current scenario. Prepare a crisis plan to prepare you for the unexpected.

10. Remixing is the new user-generated content – The way user-generated content is being created and shared is new. Remixing is on the rise through apps like Instagram Reels, TikTok, and Koji. Remixing involves using the existing formats, templates, or ideas and recreating them to express the user’s personality. 2021 is all set to bring more opportunities for remixing, with brands engaging with a new audience and creating content that stands out. Giving out logos or branded templates will help users create remix effectively and encourage creativity. This will provide an opportunity for brands to engage and encourage them to create more. Consider channels that you may not be included in your strategy. TikTok helps brands in connecting with the younger, more creative audience. Remember to be vigilant of the user-generated content as all of it is not positive.

2021 promises success for those who put their consumer at the centre of their marketing strategy.  The brands who fully understand their consumers- their needs, motivations, conversation, and take action based on these insights, will survive what lies ahead. It is now the time to listen to what the customer has to say to achieve brand success in 2021.

Retargeting is a great way to increase the impact on users who have shown an interest in your company. Retargeting also referred to as remarketing, is a form of online advertising which helps your brand stay in front of the bounced traffic after they leave your website. Retargeting is a tool designed to help companies reach out to the majority of users who do not convert on their first visit. However, how you use will differ across the different digital channels.

Let us look at a step-by-step guide to LinkedIn retargeting which includes:

• Retargeting and how does it work on LinkedIn?
• What are the different types of retargeting on LinkedIn?
• How do you set it up?
• What are the best ways to use it?

Retargeting and how does it work on LinkedIn?

Retargeting is a cookie-based technology that uses simple coding to anonymously follow your audience all over the web. Small code is placed on your website which drops a browser cookie anonymously when you have a site visitor. When this same visitor browses the web, the cookie enables the retarget provider to know when to serve up information, ensuring that your information is served to people who have previously visited the site. LinkedIn uses the same concept of retargeting that is used across other digital channels. The user visits your website from a LinkedIn campaign and leaves. The website drops the cookie, and the same is used to show the same visitor more targeted ads in LinkedIn. There are some ways LinkedIn offers for retargeting. Let us take a look at them.

Different types of retargeting on LinkedIn

1. Retarget by website – Matched audience can be configured to directly impact the users who clicked on the LinkedIn ad and were directed to your website but did not convert. This kind of retargeting can only target the visitors coming from LinkedIn.
2. Retargeting by video or lead generation forms – To retarget video viewers, it is important to select the appropriate completion quartile. If the video is less than 30 seconds, choose 50% completed or higher else select 25% completed or higher. For targeting visitors with lead generation forms it is important to select the right action. To generate new leads, retarget the ones who opened the lead generation form but did not submit. For nurturing the existing leads, the focus needs to be on retargeting those who submitted a lead generation form.
3. Retargeting by List uploads – The set up allows for the list of leads and customers from other sources to be uploaded. Care should be taken to ensure that the lists adhere to the LinkedIn formatting guidelines. Contact targeting can also be done by setting up data integrations with supported partners of LinkedIn. After the lists are uploaded, LinkedIn matches them with their database. This way they are able to find leads and customers who have a profile on LinkedIn.

Setting up Retargeting

Having looked at the different kinds of LinkedIn retargeting, let us get into the details of how each one of them is set-up

1. Setting up the Insight Tag – For website retargeting, you need to set up an Insight tag that will help track conversions, retarget and help in gaining real-time insights on the professional traits of the website visitors.

• Start by adding a lightweight javascript code to your site
• Ensure that there is just one Insight Tag per domain and it is installed in the global header of the website. In cases where it is not possible, tag the individual pages of the website.
• While the tag takes time to build the audience, set up your website targeting segments right away.

Important things to keep in mind during the set-up stage

• The audience will not be matched unless the Insight tag is correctly installed.
• Provide enough time for the website traffic to build. It may take up to 48 hours for the audience to build. It may even take longer depending on the traffic to the website
• There should be 300 members in the audience before the campaign can begin serving impressions.
• Once 300 members are matched, the campaign will automatically start delivering if u have activated the campaign.

2. Retargeting by video or lead generation forms – This retargeting impacts people who have taken some action on the website by watching a part of the video or submitted a form. In this, details of the specifics like retargeting the audience that viewed 25%,50%,75%, or 97% of the video ad or opened or submitted a lead generation form and specifying which campaign needs to be retargeted should be provided.

Important things to keep in mind during the set-up stage

• Provide enough time for the audience to build which may take up to 48 hours.
• There should be at least 300 members who must be targeted before the campaign can begin serving impressions.
• Once 300 members are targeted, the campaign automatically begins delivering if the campaign is activated.
• When setting up the campaign, exclude those who have submitted a lead generation form for awareness or consideration campaigns.

3. Retargeting by list uploads – In this retargeting, you learn how to import or integrate email lists for contact targeting. The idea here to use an already available database of users who have shown interest in the business and take the advertising impact to LinkedIn. There are two ways to get started with contact targeting. One through uploading a contact list and second through connecting data integrations.

Important things to keep in mind during set-up

• Use the template provided by LinkedIn for proper formatting. Check spellings for accuracy to help get the highest match rate.
• Larger lists are likely to have better match rates. Consider uploading a list of at least 10,000 contacts or more for optimal results.
• When selecting contacts, target influencers, or decision-makers for optimal results.
• Avoid hyper-targeting which can limit the scale and delivery of the campaigns.

You may have a list of target companies that can be used for retargeting on LinkedIn.

In this, the focus is on reaching the decision-makers at the target accounts.

Important things to keep in mind during set-up

• Use the template provided by LinkedIn for proper formatting. Check spellings for accuracy to help get the highest match rate
• Larger lists are likely to have a better match rate. Consider uploading a list of at least 1000 companies or more for optimal results.
• Avoid hyper-targeting which can limit the scale and delivery of campaigns.

LinkedIn Retargeting is a very powerful tool that can be used to make a second impact on people who have shown interest in your company.

Strong customer relationships can help your business succeed, retain customers, and help in building an emotional connection between the customers and the business. One of the most efficient ways to build and nurture these connections is to create an online community. The online community becomes a platform for interaction with customers regularly. With the growth of this community, the business, its leads, and referrals grow too. However, effort need to be focussed on monitoring conversations, organizing data, and having metrics to measure, run, and grow a successful community and humanizing the brand at the same time.

What is Community Management?

Community management refers to an active effort to build an authentic community among a business’s customers, employees, and partners while encouraging conversations with the brand’s social media presence. This gives an opportunity to the people interested in the brand, to put their point across and have questions answered online. The key to community management is to directly engage in conversations with social media users and at the same time highlight those who advocate your brand.

Why is it important to have Community management?

The popularity of community management has grown and is now recognized by all types of businesses. Proper management of the community is important to the success of a brand and allows any business to:

• Get feedback and ideas from the customers through real conversations.
• Provide support when needed by the customers, fans, and prospective customers
• Increase brand awareness among the target audience
• Build relationships with the audience and the brand.
• Learn about the needs, wants, and expectations of the customers with regard to product, services, support and content.
• Boost conversion, sales, and customer interactions.
• Provide value addition to customers beyond a product or service.

There are many steps involved in building effective community management for social media. There are different tools and requirements available for each of the social media platforms. Let us look at how to build a community management strategy.

1. Choose a primary community channel – Different social media platforms are preferred by different demographics. Getting an understanding of where the target audience is spending time online will help you reap the most from community management efforts. Each platform has its unique best practices and user expectations. Understanding each platform is essential for the growth and success of community management.
2. Identify your audience – Once you have selected the social media channel, the next important thing is to identify the audience on that social media platform. By doing so, you can gain insights into the kind of content the audience is interacting with, what are their likes and expectations from similar brands, and who they engage with. This information can help in devising the content for your target audience and the platform chosen.
3. Ask the target audience what type of content are they looking for – It is not only important to identify the target audience but also know what is the content they are looking for so to create that content. This will help reach the target audience through the content they seek. Regularly asking for feedback and suggestions show that you care about their opinions and what they have to say. This helps in enhancing brand loyalty and advocacy and creating interaction within the community.
4. Identify the parameters for success – It is important to define the parameters for success. These are based on your business and what matters most to it. For example, you might want to focus on the increase in followers or the amount of content shared/like by the followers or simply increase brand awareness.
5. Goal setting – It is important to set attainable goals to achieve the different objectives of the business and measure success. Try doing a trial run in case if you have never set goals for social media community management and measure your success. Based on the results obtained during the trial run, you can make adjustments to the goals and begin collecting data for analysis.
6. Post regularly and engage with the audience – To be successful on social media, one needs to be consistent with the posts and engagement. A clear plan for posting on various social media platforms should be laid out for the audience to know when to expect content and they begin to start trusting your brand. Social media offers a great opportunity to develop relationships with your brand with the audience. It is important to let the audience know that they matter and the company values their opinions, comments, and concerns and is happy to address any questions or queries that they may have. Whichever way you choose to interact with your audience, make sure to address each person as an individual and be authentic. It not only adds a human element to the interaction but also makes the brand trustworthy to its community members.
7. Use images and content wisely – Images can be emotional and elicit a response in the community. Choose images wisely to avoid sending out the wrong message about community values.
8. Measure the results – Measuring results on social media should not just be about quantitative data as numbers don’t always reflect the impact of the efforts. These results are rarely immediate. Hence, you should decide on the method that works best for your business goals. Some of the common ways of measuring results are social listening which involves monitoring all social media accounts to look for and track all mentions, keywords, customer feedback, and discussion related to the brand, its product, and services. A deeper look at these can help analyze and give insight into what is working for the customers and followers and what activities need to be modified

Having considered the important steps in creating a community management strategy, let us gain some insight into the top 10 tips for social media community management.

1. Set community rules and guideline – Having community guidelines for all members and contributors are important to keep the conversation positive and effective and have an accurate portrayal of the brand. Having basics like being respectful to everyone, not sharing private information on the platform, not having discriminatory or derogatory comments. Creating a page with the guidelines makes it easier for any new member to access this information. The FAQ document can also provide this information.
2. Check the community regularly – It is important to check on the community members, the content being shared by your brand and its customers. Whether it is related to your forum, community website, or the brand ambassador program, it is the job of the company to ensure smooth running with people receiving the support they need, their queries are attended to and there is a sense of community.
3. Be original – There needs to be originality in the way the community is managed. The voice and branding should make you stand out to your fans, followers, and your customers who come to your community. Being genuine and human in the interactions is the key to making your community members feel valued.
4. Listen – Listening is crucial to community management as it requires thoughtful interactions with its members. This could be social listening, responding to online feedback, reviewing FAQ pages and forum regularly, listening is how the community can be improved and built. It also shows your members and audience that they are valued and that you care about their experiences within the community.
5. Appreciate – A major part of successful community management is about appreciation for the members. This helps in building trust and brand loyalty between the brand and its members. Some important tips to show appreciation are by interacting with new community members and asking them how you can make their experience a good one. Another way is by paying attention to the biggest contributors to the community and appreciating them from time to time by sending them messages.
6. Share user-generated content – Online community management is not only about your audience sharing the branded content. User-generated content such as reviews and stories can help increase the genuineness of the brand for the prospective audience
7. Ensure that you maintain your brand voice at all times – Maintaining the brand voice is critical to community management. It is what makes the community unique and stands out to its members and audience. It is important for all people working on maintaining the community to understand the brand voices through all interactions, content, and engagement.
8. Discover new ways to engage – Always discover new ways to engage members of your community. Learning why members engage in your community, their wants will help you explore new ways to interact with them.
9. Examine how your audience engages with your competition – The company can learn more about its audience by understanding how they engage and react to your competition. This will help you as a brand understand what the competition is doing that you are not. Is the competition engaging the audience in a way that they expect them to? Getting answers to some of these questions will help in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the competition in engaging and leveraging social media to gain an advantage over them.
10. Stay organized – Community management of social media is about managing a lot of information from questions asked for stories shared. It is important to keep it all organized so that the information can be used to the advantage of the brand.

Using these tips can help turn the online community into a valuable tool that drives leads, nurtures customers, attracts a new audience, and enriches the experience of working with the brand.

LinkedIn, founded in the year 2003, is the world’s largest professional network. It has grown from a platform where the users would post their resume to an undisputed leader for professional networking, building business relationships, recruiting, and advertising for niche markets. With the current member base of 706 million in more than 150 countries in 24 languages, the LinkedIn network is set for exponential growth in the coming years.

To discover more about LinkedIn, let us look at some interesting facts about the platform:

1. More than 70 percent of LinkedIn users are based outside the US. 87 million Millennials are using the platform. Out of that number 11 million hold decision-making positions. 90 million of its users are senior-level influencers. LinkedIn has undoubtedly, become a popular platform for recent college graduates with 46 million students as its users.
2. 80 percent of B2B leads are generated on LinkedIn. It is a perfect place for a B2B marketer to have their presence and use the network for lead generation. Producing content and becoming an expert in your field is another way to tap into the potential the platform offers with 6 out of 10 users actively looking for industry insights.
3. LinkedIn members want to have a mentor or to be one to others. This feature of LinkedIn was introduced in November 2017 which primarily connects members across the network for mentorship opportunities. To get started, you need to go to your LinkedIn profile and find the Career Advice hub. Enter your preferences and a list will be provided to you with recommended members based on the specifications, mutual interest, and profession. An important point to note is that this feature is available to the users for free.
4. Another feature of LinkedIn that needs a mention is the live video streaming service which was launched in February 2019 called LinkedIn Live. It gives its members and businesses a platform to build deeper connections and drive more engagement. Live videos get on average 7x more reactions and 24x more comments than the standard videos. It is helpful for the launch of new products, showcasing the people behind the brand, or to demonstrate thought leadership. All you need to ensure is that the live videos are engaging and interactive.
5. LinkedIn is the most used social media platform amongst Fortune 500 companies and 41 percent of millionaires use this network. These figures provide enough evidence that it is the place to reach your ideal customers and clients and decision-makers for B2B companies.
6. 70 percent of people who are hired through LinkedIn are hired at companies where they have connections. Who you know plays a very vital role in getting noticed on LinkedIn. It allows its users to have a maximum of 30,000 connections but you can grow your network by creating compelling content, thereby establishing you as an expert in your field.
7. LinkedIn users use some phrases in their profile that may sound unique and powerful but they may be the same words that are being used by everyone else. To stand out, you need to make a change and avoid the 10 words mentioned below with a suggestion for their replacement

• Motivated- ambitious, determined, fired up
• Passionate- enthusiastic, fanatic, zealous
• Creative- original, artistic, inventive, gifted
• Driven- energetic, enthused, dedicated
• Extensive experience- accomplished, trained, capable
• Responsible- accountable, reliable, in control
• Strategic- tactical, goal-oriented, purposeful
• Track record- stats, accomplished, performance history
• Organizational- structural, administrative, managerial
• Expert- skilled, savvy, sharp

8. LinkedIn has come out with the top Hard skills and Soft skills that companies are looking for on the network in 2020. Hard skill essentially is the ability of an employee to do a specific task which requires specialized knowledge and technical abilities and is easy to measure whereas soft skill is more about the way you do specific tasks- like how you collaborate, solve problems, adapt, and make decisions. These skills are more difficult to measure. A survey conducted by LinkedIn of 2000 business leaders found that 57 percent of them say that soft skills are more important than hard skills. Let us look at the list of skills

Hard Skills                                                      Soft Skills

• Blockchain                                               Creativity
• Cloud computing                                    Persuasion
• Analytical reasoning                              Collaboration
• Artificial intelligence                             Adaptability
• UX design                                                Emotional Intelligence
• Business Analysis
• Affiliate Marketing
• Sales
• Scientific computing
• Video production

9. 30 percent of the engagement of a company on LinkedIn is by its employees. They play a crucial role in advocating brands and help them boost their reputation and succeed. Employees have 10 times more reach across social network sites than the company’s official page.
10. LinkedIn carries 15 times more impressions for content than job postings. It has transitioned from being a recruitment platform to a professional one where people can find resources and information. It is viewed as one of the most credible sources for content and now 98 percent of the marketers use LinkedIn for content marketing for B2B businesses and lead generation.

LinkedIn as a professional platform has many features that one can explore and benefit from. Used wisely it can help a business and a personal brand grow.

Use the platform to your best advantage.

Social media has revolutionized the way users share information online.  Research by Statista shows that social media has progressed from having 2.34 billion users in 2016 to 3.96 billion users as of July 2020. It is therefore considered as one of the most powerful tools for modern marketing and branding of a website and needs to be integrated well to generate high traffic. Using the WordPress framework makes the process simpler by offering numerous choices in the form of plugins to share content through the use of social media buttons on the website.

Before we explore the top 5 social media plugins, let us identify the functionalities and benefits of using social media plugins.

• Social sharing button– help in improving the online exposure by users sharing the content from the website through their social media profiles.
• Social icons– these show the website visitors your social media presence and allows them to click the icon to automatically be directed to your profile. It is one of the easiest ways to build followers on social media
• Social logins– allow people to sign in using their social media accounts. This helps in keeping the site secure and minimizes spam. It also makes it easier for the user since they don’t have to create a new username and password to access the website.
• Social feeds– help showcasing social media feeds directly on the website. It adds visuals and gives a sneak preview of what can be expected on the social pages.
• Social comments-boost the conversation in the comments by adding social media comments to the posts. This helps in driving higher engagement and comments.
• Social locking-best content can be restricted with the social locking tool. It can be unlocked by a specific action taken by the website visitor like sharing content or following on social media.
• Automated Posting– using plugins to automate social media posting. For example, sharing older blog posts on Twitter benefits the followers as the content is always being shared.

Top WordPress Plugins for Social Media

1. Easy Social Share– Is one of the best free social sharing plugins for WordPress. Simple yet powerful, easy to use this plugin is suitable for beginners as well as experts. Easy social share buttons offer a choice of 30 different default positions such as above/ below content, floating icons, post share bar, etc. and is supported by 50 social media networks. This plugin has been ‘Performance Approved’ by WordPress plugin Wp rocket which highlights how well regarded it is for being optimized and not affecting website performance. Some of the notable features of Easy Social Share are
   • Over 55 button style templates offering a choice to the user to make the buttons look exactly as they want.
   • Share count displays the share count for individual or overall networks.
   • Follow icons to let visitors follow you and the count can be displayed.
   • Share count recovery enables the recovery of old share counts in case of switching domains or from HTTP to HTTPS.
   • Custom content helps control what content is shared.
   • After share action enables a display of message/ offer after content is shared by the visitor.
   • A/B testing uses split testing to know which social networks and buttons perform best.
   • Social media profiles can be linked using this plugin
   • It costs less than $ 20 and yet it offers more features than other WordPress social media plugin
   • It provides a simple button to subscribe to an email newsletter.
   • Use analytics and metrics to see what content is working best.
   • A live chat button can be displayed for Facebook or Skype live chat.

2. Social Warfare-Is among the best available social media WordPress plugins due to its simplicity. It does not slow down the website, unlike some other plugin. It is designed to increase shares by adding social sharing icons on the website. The buttons can be placed above/ below content or both, manually with a shortcode or floating share buttons. With the paid version some more options are available. It supports 6 social networks with the free version and 9 with the paid version. Social Warfare helps track the results with UTM parameters. Analytics can be used to see how well the sharing icons are performing to tweak them if necessary. Some of the other notable features are
   • Attractive buttons that look great.
   • Share counts display total share counts or individual network share counts. Tweet count can be displayed with the paid version.
   • Popular posts by share count can be displayed using a widget.
   • Share count recovery enables the recovery of old share counts in case of switching domains or from HTTP to HTTPS.
   • Minimum social proof offers the option of displaying share counts only after a certain number is reached.
   • Share customization controls what content shows up when a user shares content.
   • Pinterest specific share image is when a separate image shows up on sharing it on Pinterest.

3. Mashshare– A free social media plugin by WordPress, it can be customized for social media and help optimize content. It provides attractive designs for the display of three social media buttons for Facebook, Twitter, and Subscribe. It displays by default the total shares against each of these buttons to give an idea about total shares at a glance to the visitors of the site. These plugins do not have an impact on site speed. The buttons can be placed above/ below content (or both) and can be placed manually with a shortcode. The premium versions allow for positioning of the buttons like a floating sidebar or sticky sidebar. The free version supports Facebook and Twitter while the paid version includes Google +, Pinterest, Reddit, LinkedIn, Whatsapp, and some small networks. Some of the other notable features are
   • Social media plugin with add-ons helps choose the features that are required without having to pay full price for features that may not be used.
   • The plugin has caching built-in for the fast delivery of the buttons.
   • Select and share – let users share specific parts of your text.
   • Pageviews are displayed.
   • Share count recovery enables the recovery of old share counts in case of switching domains or from HTTP to HTTPS.
   • Share count is displayed just like Mashable.
   • Shortcodes allow for buttons to be placed anywhere on the website.

4. Ultimate Social Share– Is a popular social media plugin that is simple and easy to use. It offers a range of buttons with its premium version. It is active across a huge number of websites with high rating reviews for its aggressive approach for asking for reviews. The free version allows for buttons to be placed at a specific position on the page via a widget, a shortcode, after posts, or via a pop-up. The premium version supports over 100 social media networks with the free version supporting the popular social media networks like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest. Some of the other notable features are
   • Share counts across social media platforms.
   • Custom shares help choose the pictures and text to be shared.
   • Exclude pages from sharing share icons.
   • Share count recovery enables recovery of old share counts in case of switching domains or from HTTP to HTTPS
   • Exclusive design styles.

5. Add to Any– Is one of the most popular social media share button plugins on WordPress. It is active on over 500,000 sites. It most enviable feature is the number of social networks it supports and that too free. These buttons can be placed above/ below content (or both), vertical and horizontal floating bar, widget, or shortcode. The buttons can also be placed at the bottom of media pages and excerpts. AddToAny button allows the user to choose any network. Some of the other notable features are
   • Share counts across networks
   • Google Analytics integration- to track share analytics
   • AMP support
   • Responsive design
   • Share buttons help increase traffic to the site.

The website and the social media profile should work together to generate optimal results. Which WordPress social media plugin you choose will depend on what you are looking for. By making sharing of content easy will boost engagement and drive more traffic. The above-mentioned WordPress social media plugins are sure to help you add some interesting buttons to your website.

Return on Investment is a performance measure used to assess the efficiency of an investment. ROI tries to directly measure the amount of return on a particular investment. Social media ROI is a metric showing how much value is generated with the investments made towards social media. In other words, social media ROI is the sum of all social media actions that create value. Value isn’t always measured in monetary terms for social media. If the goal is to drive brand awareness, then success can be measured against reach and engagement metrics

Having a social media marketing strategy is essential for most businesses today. Measuring the success of this is even more important to understand what efforts are paying off and what is not working to shift resources or alter the efforts to gain maximum results. Let us get a better understanding of Social Media ROI

What is Social Media ROI?

Social media ROI is the metric that shows how much value has been generated with all the investments made for social media. This is usually measured in terms of money but can vary for companies depending on the objectives set.

Why do we need Social Media ROI?

There are numerous reasons why it is important to measure ROI on social media.

It can help a company

• Establish the value of social media for the business.
• Show the potential impact social media can have across the business.
• Help evaluate where the efforts and resources are reaping benefits and where they are not being utilized so that the shift in the strategy can be done.
• Help in understanding the audience.
• Support social media budget requirements.

How to measure Social Media ROI?

ROI for social media is a very tricky element to measure as it has many different meanings for different companies. Hence it becomes imperative for the company to have

• Clear Objective– social media can create brand awareness but it is not always enough. To show value created by social media, the company needs to have clearly defined objectives for it which are aligned with overall objectives of the company. They can be based on lead generation, customer acquisition, brand awareness, customer experience amongst other things.
• Goal setting– while the objectives define what social media will help the company achieve, the goals represent how and when these objectives will be achieved. Each goal must be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely.
• Track the goals– social media metrics are required to ascertain if the objectives are being achieved and the goals are met. Some of the common metrics to track for ROI are reach, audience engagement, lead generation, revenue generation, site traffic among other metrics like comments, likes, and shares.
• Social media spend– clarity about the investment in social media is necessary to determine the ROI. Four things that should be kept in mind are time spent by employees on social media, money spent on tools and platforms to achieve the goals, content creation, and funds allocated towards social ads.

Let us now look at the tools needed to calculate social media ROI

• Social ROI calculator-it is a free tool that makes it easy to calculate the return on social media investment.
• Google Analytics with UTM parameters–adding it to the social media ads’ URL will help determine how much traffic and conversions social media marketing efforts are generating.
• Hootsuite Impact: it measures the ROI of social media across paid, owned, and earned social channels.
• Facebook Pixel: allows tracking engagement and conversions from Facebook ads
• Socialbakers Ads Benchmarks– measure your social media ROI in context by understanding how the return on Facebook ads investment is fluctuating day-by-day across regions and industries
• Hootsuite Insights: helps identify conversations and trends within the industry, reach, brand sentiment, and more. It’s all backed by 100 million data sources, real-time results, and an easy-to-use interface.

How to report Social Media ROI?

• Analysis of each social media platform, ad format, and ad placement is required to assess which of them is the biggest contributor.
• Align the company’s objective with the metrics you want to Align metrics you want to incorporate in the report.
• Present data for a period of time to determine the impact of social media marketing efforts.
• Highlight the key Insights that show how social media marketing has led to the growth in business.
• Identify profitable areas and those that fell short of with an explanation.
• Work out a plan for the future that will help generate better social media ROI.

Steps to Improve the ROI on Social Media

The goal of a social media marketer is to improve the ROI. To achieve that the focus needs to be on social media optimization which means spending money where the best possible returns are expected. Let us look at ways in which ROI can be improved.

• Social media management platform should be used to track the performance of posts and investment should be made where there is the highest potential to get results.
• Content should be published at a time when maximum traction can be gained. It helps in making the most of the resources that are put in creating content.
• The study of the competitors should be done to see what content are they promoting. This will help in making decisions about future posts and how to be ahead of the competition.
• Social media is always evolving. The channels, content, and strategies that are used to connect with the target audience may be ineffective in the future.it is very essential for any organisation to adapt and change the strategy with time.

Social media is an incredible tool that helps a business achieve its objectives. Measuring social media ROI gives valuable insight into the success of the present and the past campaigns and pave the way for the future. But one must not forget that with its continuous evolution, there is always more to learn, assess, and more to achieve.