The Importance Of A Digital Strategy

Today’s constant growth in technology makes it imperative for companies to have a digital footprint in the online world, making it important to have a digital strategy in its marketing plan. “Without a digital marketing strategy in place, new client acquisitions, brand visibility, and impactful revenue generating opportunities will likely be damaged” (Newtek-Your Business Solutions Company, 2014). Digital Strategy plans have allowed smaller companies to compete with large corporations, build trust and loyalty, create positive brand reputation, and more.

According to Jomer (2015), there are 12 reasons a company should have a digital strategy in its marketing plan, those are:

• Levels the Online Playing Field
• More Cost-Effective than Traditional Marketing
• Delivers Conversion
• Helps Generate Better Revenues
• Facilitates Interaction with Targeted Audiences
• Caters to the Mobile Consumer
• Builds Brand Reputation
• Provides better ROI for Your Marketing Investments
• Earns People’s Trust
• Entices People to Take Favorable Action
• Makes You Ready for the Internet of Things
• Ensures Business Survival Online

Overall, digital strategies provide many benefits and a way for companies to become more connected to the consumer than before.

Within a good digital strategy landing pages have many benefits and can improve SEO. Meredith discussed in her blog, Building Effective Web Landing Pages , what landing pages should involve and how they should be organized. A primary point to focus on when creating a landing page is the “call to action” (CTA). The CTA is the primary conversion goal of a visitors who sees a company’s landing page (Unbounce, 2009). Making the CTA clear and unambiguous, visible, personalized, and have continuity creates a straight forward process for a potential consumer. It also helps remove trickery and only provides what is needed for the person of interest to gather information. Adding landing page with good content and a clear CTA can improve a company’s SEO rank with Google, Bing, Yahoo, and many other search engines (Snyder, 2016).  To measure the success of a landing pages and campaigns a company can use Google analytics or paid metrics such as KISSMetrics.com, GetClicky.com or HaveAMint.com.

There are many other ways a company can improve its SEO beyond creating a landing page. According to Demers (2014) there are 7 ways, which he considers to be advanced, to improve SEO. The tactics he list are strategic and content focused:

• Approach Keywords Strategically
• Strictly Adhere to an Originality Rule
• Strategically Adjust Your Site’s Navigation and Internal Links
• Optimize Your Site’s Load Speed
• Optimize On-Site Elements Across Your Site
• Don’t Buy Links. Earn Them.
• Be Natural

Utilizing these tactics makes landing pages and websites easy for users and search engines to recognize and understand. All of the tactics mentioned should be incorporated within a company's digital strategy plan to best optimize visibility and conversion.

References

Demers, J. (2014, September 29). 7 Advanced Ways to Improve Your Site's SEO. Retrieved from entrepreneur.com: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/237819

Jomer, G. (2014, May 12). 12 Reasons Why Digital Marketing Can Help You Grow Your Business (Infographic). Retrieved from digitalmarketingphilippines.com: http://digitalmarketingphilippines.com/12-reasons-why-digital-marketing-can-help-you-grow-your-business/

Newtek-Your Business Solutions Company. (2014, October 13). Five Important Digital Marketing Elements to Consider. Retrieved from forbes.com: https://www.forbes.com/sites/thesba/2014/10/13/five-important-digital-marketing-elements-to-consider/#3a9007fd3a3e

Snyder, J. (2016). The Top 7 Benefits of Landing Pages. Retrieved from womenwinningonline.com: http://womenwinningonline.com/the-top-7-benefits-of-landing-pages/

Unbounce. (2009). 101 Landing Page Optimization Tip: An Opinionated Guide to Conversion. Retrieved from http://unbounce.com/101-landing-page-optimization-tips/#reporting: http://http://unbounce.com/101-landing-page-optimization-tips/#reporting/101-landing-page-optimization-tips/#reporting

Social Platforms and Job Applicants

To Delete or Not Delete

 

In Melissa's article Social Media and your Future she asked if we would recommend job applicants having a social media platform. I believe with social media being integrated into the way employers recruit and seek out job applicants as well as job applicants seeking out employment, having social media accounts is appropriate. If there is one platform I would recommend it would be LinkedIn, the site is set up for people and businesses to be represented in a professional manner. This media platform is geared towards professional networking, whether seeking out employment, recruiting, or simply making new connections.

However, if actively seeking a job I would suggest an applicant temporarily deactivate its pages if it doesn't represent what employers want to see or get familiar with the delete button. As we learned employers have various ways to check out a job applicant’s social activity and representation. Some of which include illegal practices. There are ways to protect social media accounts from employer invasion, but is never full proof. “Remember that whatever goes on a network might eventually be seen by people not in the intended audience. Think about whether you would want a stranger, your mother or a potential boss to see certain information or pictures” (Private Rights Clearinghouse, 2010). Once information is put on a social or web-based platform it is always available for others to find, even if it is deleted.

 

When actively seeking a employment here are some tips that can be used to protect social media accounts and employers from viewing your information (legally that is):

 

1. Make sure personal information is private (e.g. birthday, age, place of birth) if it is needed to create social media account. If the social platform does not need personal information to be activated, avoid using it (Private Rights Clearinghouse, 2010).
2. Review privacy policies before agreeing to them (Private Rights Clearinghouse, 2010).
3. “Provide only information that is necessary or that you feel comfortable providing.  Remember, you can always provide more information to a social network, but you can’t always remove information once it’s been posted” (Private Rights Clearinghouse, 2010).
4. Only add people you know and make sure viewing settings are on “friends only” (McGuire, 2016).
5. Be cautious of third party applications and shortened links(McGuire, 2016)
6. When actively seeking a job, ask friends and family to not tag you in those fun weekend photographs (McGuire, 2016).
    
   Those are just a handful of tips. The safest route is if you’re worried about your information getting in the wrong hands, don’t post it.
    
   As stated previously, social media has become integrated in the way company’s conduct business, recruit, and even the way people seek out employment. Just like job applicants want to check out a company online and its social media accounts to be sure it’s the right fit, companies want to do the same (McGuire, 2016). I do not think it is ethical to create fake accounts or use illegal means to view a job applicant social media platform. I also do not believe because a person likes to party or uses inappropriate language on social media that is a full representation of their skill set, professionalism, or who they are as a person. With social media being so largely integrated into companies and their policies it is understandable why companies want to see who would be representing them. However, a person’s social platforms shouldn’t be taken at face value. Just think about it, how many of us know people who are nothing like what their social media accounts claim them to be, good or bad?
    

References

McGuire, L. (September, 20 2016). Your social media matters when it comes to the job search. Retrieved from career.uconn.edu: https://career.uconn.edu/blog/2016/09/20/your-social-media-matters-when-it-comes-to-the-job-search/

Private Rights Clearing House. (2010, June 1). Social Networking Privacy: How to be Safe, Secure and Social. Retrieved from privacyrights.org: https://www.privacyrights.org/consumer-guides/social-networking-privacy-how-be-safe-secure-and-social#tips

 

 

 

 

Thinking Like the Cosumer

Stepping in Someone Else's Shoes

Part of this week’s readings focused on thinking like your consumers. As we all know it is important to know the audience we market to in the fields we specialize in. This helps with the type of language we use, who and how we market to them, and how we use social media to engage with our audience. What Kerpen discusses in chapter 3 of Likable Social Media is putting ourselves in the shoes of our consumers when engaging them through social media, if it’s something I wouldn’t like or pay attention too, it’s likely my audience won’t either. While Kerpen uses these tips directed toward Facebook, they can be utilized for most social media outlets such as Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and many more.

Don’t confuse content marketing with advertising

Bombarding your followers with constant post to visit your website or check out your new product is not content marketing, its advertising (DeMers, 2016). Content marketing is fun, entertaining, engaging, helpful, and customer focused. According to Kerpen, this can be a hard concept for marketers to learn because they have to unlearn much of what they know. “With content marketing, you’re actively building and solidifying a customer relationship” (DeMers, 2016).

Using social media accounts effectively

When preparing to use social media as a form of marketing it should be used as a form of engagement not disruption. This is when a marketer should put themselves in the place of the consumer. According to Kerpen (2015) these are the questions you should ask yourself before clicking the “post” button:

1.       Will the recipients of this message truly find it of value, or will they find it annoying and disruptive?

2.       Would I want to receive this message as a consumer?

If you respond yes, you’re on the right track, but if you respond no, then it’s worth reevaluating your message. The reason these questions are important is because we want the content we post to be shared and our followers to engage. “In the long run, the organizations that will win are the organizations that engage in positive, useful communications with their customers and prospects” (Kerpen, p. 41). Posts should engage, causing followers and prospects to comment, share, and like. This will naturally create brand awareness and start the buying process.

Making sure your post get seen

Here are the questions Kerpen (2015) list to ask yourself to maximize your post viewing and sharing.

1.       When and how often should I post content? Knowing when your audience is on social media sets the guidelines on when and how often content should be uploaded. If you’re targeting teens you wouldn’t post during school hours.

2.       Do these users interact with me often? It is important for users to visit your page because they are more likely to share it, subscribe or follow, and actually view its content.  

3.       How interactive are the engagement with the post? Making your content relevant and relatable causes users to engage. The more users like, comment, and share the post, the longer it stays relevant and more people see it.

4.       Have I boosted the post? Investing money in boosting your post can make it quickly seen by thousands of people. While this is not necessary it can help.

Theses questions are here to help guide you in making an interactive social media base. Understanding communication with your followers should be two-way communication. It is not solely up to the follower to initiate engagement, but the brand should be doing so as well. It is the responsibility of the brand to know its audience, know when and how to engage with them.

Who is doing this right?

In this article 10 Brands Doing an Amazing Job on Social Media shows how brands are using social media to engage users, create relevant content, and most importantly understand and know its audience, please view.

Discussion Questions:

1.       Do you agree with Kerpen, that a company’s social media page should be customer instead of brand focused? Explain.

2.       Find a company that could increase engagement and sharing on its social media sites by putting itself in the mind of the consumer. Explain what changes need to be made and why.  

References

DeMers, J. (2016, May 28). Product Marketing Vs Content Marketing: Which Is Better And Why? Retrieved from forbes.com: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2016/05/28/product-marketing-vs-content-marketing-which-is-better-and-why/#170e90064e7d

Kerpen, D. (2015). Likable Social Media (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill.

Responding to Negative Comments on Social Media

Aimee Couture’s blog post Are you listening? did a wonderful job outlining why it is important to listen to what your audience is saying about your company, its product or service on social media outlets. "Marketers should pay close attention to anything that might affect the way their brand is perceived online" . As she stated it is important to acknowledge and make your audience feel important. More importantly strategically use the information gathered to improve the company, product, or service, and take corrective actions.

Receiving positive feedback makes the company and its employees feel great and adds to brand equity. Consumers feel important when they establish a positive online relationship and engage with a company or brand they love. The relationship seems important and authentic.

However, what do you do when the conversation is mostly negative? Delete the comments or ignore them? Avoid both when possible. Using social media to engage and listen to your audience means accepting the good, bad, and the ugly.

What you shouldn’t do:

The Do-Not-Delete-Rule (DND): "unless a comment is obscene, profane, or bigoted, or it

contains someone’s personal and private information, it should not be deleted from a social network site" (Kerpen, p. 81). Deleting the comment can cause a customer to become more upset, creating more negative post, or a hate page toward the company. With a click of a button one angry customer can easily contribute to a company gaining a bad reputation.


Do Not Ignore: "Not Responding is a Response" (Kerpen, p. 82). Ignoring a post or comment from an upset customer only shows the customer the company doesn’t care about their concerns. It also displays the same message to the rest of the company’s audience that’s watching.

What you should do:

Respond quickly and publicly, and then take it private (Kerpen, p.82): this shows the customer you care and the rest of the world sees that you listen to consumer feedback and willing to solve consumer problems quickly. When dealing with many consumer complaints or negative comments prioritize them based on the consumer’s online influence.


Turn complainers into supporters (Kerpen, p.85): if a consumer’s problem can be resolved quickly, the customer may be turned from a hater to a brand supporter . Turning an angry customer into a happy one may change their feelings about the brand, create a positive social media post, or refer the company to friends.


Consider responding with surprise and delight (Kerpen, p.87): This method goes beyond the public social media apology or acknowledgement. It means doing something extra like adding a gift card, free samples, or refunding a percentage off from purchase.

This article "10 Companies That Totally Rock Customer Service on Social Media" shows how companies listen to its audience, handle customer complaints and negative feedback, and do it well. JcPenny's is another great example of how a company's listening prevented a PR crisis. In 2013 costumers took to social media (mainly twitter) to express the companies new tea kettle resembled Adolf Hitler. JcPenny's recognized the uproar and responded to its audience immediately (Sanburn, 2013). The company addressed the issue in a timely manner and with sensitivity. Always show consumers you understand and care about their concerns. When reviewing, negative feedback, use it to help identify problems within the company and make improvements. Respond promptly to consumers who post negative comments and try to come up with solutions.

References

Couture, A. (2017, January 29). Are you listening? Retrieved from blogspot.com: http://aimeelyncouture.blogspot.com/

Kerpen, D. (2015). Likeable Social Media (2nd ed.). McGraw Hill.

Sanburn, J. (2013, May 29). JcPenny's Hitler Tea Kettle Sells Out Online. Retrieved from business.time.com: http://business.time.com/2013/05/29/jcpenneys-hitler-tea-kettle-sells-out-online/