Forward Digital Marketing Helping YOUR BRAND Find It’s Look 👀
Start with a Brand Kit designed by our in house professionals! The brand-kit is build custom for your brand and gives you a play book to create seamless content across all of your media and digital marketing. Have a team who works on different pieces of marketing? Send them your brand-kit so that everyone is on the same page! Fonts, colors, graphics, etc. are all defined for your brand.
Yep, that is right! Your Facebook contest is probably illegal… or at least breaking Meta standards and it can get you into a lot of trouble! We understand! Your friend of a friend started a new business and did a giveaway contest that got them found by a of of people! When you see that they are succeeding, you assumed you could just do it too! WRONG.
Meta Has Standards That Small Businesses Tend to Ignore
Don’t be that business…
Small business do not have a lawyer on staff like large corporations, so often “legal” matters are not on the radar. That does not mean you are exempt! As a small or medium business owner you have even more to lose. You do not take home a six-figure paychecks. Often, you do not even see that yearly vacation! Running a small business is not for the faint of heart! That is why you have to check and recheck the standards to keep your business on the right tracks.
Can I Run A Social Media Contest?
Yes! Just Do it Right!
Running a giveaway or contest is a fantastic way to build followers and engagement for your brand. The excitement that consumers feel when they win is something is hard to match, and it is be a great way for your brand to stand out and be found! When you run a contest or giveaway, there are some techniques that make it even more successful.
Why Should I Run A Social Media Contest?
#1: Growth!
When you run a social media giveaway you are allowed to ask potential consumers to like or follow your brand. This obviously means that you are growing your network of individuals that can see your future content.
Example of Giveaway Post
#2: Build Your Brand
Please the algorithm to be able to please your following! When your consumers like, share, and comment on your content, the algorithm learns to put your posts in front of people. When you run a giveaway with clear instructions to like and comment on the post, you are inviting consumers to engage with the algorithm so that they see your content in the future! Another great way to build your community is to work with other brands. Collaborate with other content creators to reach each other’s audience.
Example of working with other accounts for giveaways or follows
#3 Increase Your Email List
Email marketing is still king! Marketing campaigns in consumers inbox is the number one marketing technique that provides long-term success. So why not use your contest as a way to build email data? Adding the option to opt-in to your email list is a fantastic way to ensure that you can connect with your audience in the future, without stressing about algorithm changes.
#4 Jumpstart Engagement
Remember that the contest buzz will die; However that does not mean that your brand buzz has to die with it! Any giveaway will generate engagement with your audience, but it is important to keep that interest up after the prize has been handed out. Remember, Forward Digital Marketing would love to help you keep your content fresh… *hint hint* We can analyze your website and social media accounts for you to build a targeted contest for long term success!
How Do I Run A Social Media Contest?
Set Your Goals
If you do not plan, you will not win! At the end of the day, you need to define S.M.A.R.T goals to be able to measure the success of your giveaway. Define what you will accomplish with the contest. Are you looking for more followers? Do you want to convert more sales? Whatever your goal is, make sure it is something that you can go back to at the end and compare data. Remember, you can get creative with what you are collecting from your consumers. It does not always have to be likes or comments, but always remember that you are within the community guidelines.
Determine the Type of Contest
After you’ve set your goals, you can figure out which contest type will fit your brand best!
Want more followers? Then your contest can be based off of simply following your page or profile. Be sure that the person or account is still following you when you announce the prize winner! Often times we see people follow and then unfollow, tricking you into thinking they are eligible.
If you are looking to generate more leads, you can ask participants to enter their email to enter to contest. These can be collected through a landing page or a separate Facebook tab for your contest.
Another unique way to build participation is by running a “photo-competition!” To enter this type of contest, participants tag your brand in their own post. This method works on many different levels, but it can be hard to execute if your brand does not have an established reputation.
Set Your Prizes
Budget, budget, budget. You need to ask yourself (or your marketing department) how much are you willing to spend or giveaway? How often are you wanting to run these giveaways? Also, is there an advertising budget for your giveaway?
Learn Your Audience
To be even more successful, you should target your contest towards a specific audience. This will help that advertising budget stretch farther. It will also help ensure that your audience is genuine and will engage in the future, giveaway or no giveaway.
Knowing your audience also means you will know where to put your contest (and learn the rules that goes along with that platform.) It also means that you are being careful to not ostracize your current followers for potential entrants.
Run A/B Testing
Before you go to far, run an A/B test. An A/B test is when you create content that is exactly the same, except for one difference. Maybe you test which product your audience would prefer to receive. Or maybe you test which platform your contest would be most well received on. No matter what, do not rush into posting a contest because you are eager to reap the benefits. If you do not put in the time to pre-plan, your giveaway or contest will not reach its full potential!
Understand the RULES!!! (each site is different)
Yes, there are rules… and you need to figure them out!
Facebook’s Guidelines are often ignored… Don’t get shadow-banned (or actually banned) for not following the Facebook Contest rules!
Facebook
You can check out the full list of guidelines here, but it is so important to remember that you need to define what the contest or promotion is, clearly. Also let your audience know that Facebook is in no way affiliated with or a sponsor of your contest.
Most importantly, you also cannot use friend connections to increase the reach of your contest on Facebook. This means you cannot have people share the post for more entries, or even tag their friends in a post as a form of entry.
Instagram
Instagram is now owned by the same business as Facebook, Meta. This makes the rules pretty similar, however it never states that you cannot use tags of other users in the comments, like Facebook discourages. Instagram does say that you cannot ask a user to tag themselves or their friends in a photo that does not show them or apply to them. Like Facebook, the contest owner must state that Instagram is not affiliated or a sponsor of the contest.
Twitter
Twitter’s biggest concern is the creation of fake accounts… so their guidelines ensure that users running a contest or promotion discourage entrants from creating multiple accounts and tweeting the exact same thing repeatedly.
Run the Contest
Now is the easy part! Make your contest announcement, run some ads and boost the post to increase reach, cross-post on other platforms and through your email campaigns, and watch it take off!
Analyze the Results
Once the contest deadline has come and passed, you’ve announced your winner, and shipped off your prizes, now is the time to look at the new collected data. How well did your contest do? Have you achieved the SMART goal you set at the beginning of all of this?
Running contests should be about improving engagement, reach, followers, and potential customers! But do not let the fire burn out. Now that you have all of these improved metrics, it is time to get serious about building great content that will keep your audience engaged and producing conversions.
I Need Forward Digital Marketing’s Help To Run A Contest!
We understand the ins and outs of social marketing, and we are data nerds! Who could be a better partner in running a successful contest? As Forward Digital Marketing, we can run social media audits before and after the contest to see just how well it did on your chosen platforms! We can crunch the numbers and measure your SMART goals for you, giving you the opportunity to focus on your growing business.
Running a contest to increase product sales? Let us help you build a beautiful e-commerce or Shopify website!
Here is Instagram’s latest tips for “HOW TO GROW AND SCALE YOUR SMALL BUSINESS!”
View the PDF here to download Instagram’s small business growth tips and tricks.
See how we’ve made it into content! You can do the same with things! Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram to learn how to make great content. Contact with us to see how we can help you make it even better!
We do not want to sound the alarm, but Instagram is experimenting with a whole new feed experience! Something creators and businesses alike should be aware of is that this will change the way you post! No more top bar of stories. No more bottom bar with feed, reels, and shopping all separated in different links… Nope, Instagram is going… TikTok?
But why? Why is Instagram willing to throw out their well-known playbook for someone else’s? Why is Instagram testing a new fully-integrated main feed?
The Background – Instagram vs. TikTok
Instagram has been working hard to take over as the top performing social media platform since it was first released in 2010. Starting out as an image sharing site for artists and photographers, it has since grown into a platform also three different video-sharing abilities: IGTV, stories, and reels. Reels are definitely a response to TikTok’s domination of in-feed videos that can be set to music or voice-overs. As of 2018, Instagram has succeeded in becoming an elite platform, having over one-billion active monthly users! It has since grown 22.9% since last year, gaining 73.5 million active users in 2021.
After rebranding in 2019, TikTok has had over 2.6 billion downloads globally; 315 million of those downloads came within the first three months of 2020, with the global pandemic motivating us to stay inside and isolated. Those early 2020 downloads is what pushed TikTok over the edge, making it king of the social media apps!
The Proof – Instagram Experimental Feed Shown
In the example posted by Alessandro Paluzzi, via twitter, you can see how the experimental feed would now be fully-integrated. Images, stories, and reels would all now be in a single flow. In this system, stories would be presented in a frame bar with the ability to swipe left to see other frames, while videos would be differentiated with a progress bar.
In theory, this would help make the algorithm more intuitive. The change would allow you to see data based off of the response to each specific post, whereas right now stories, reels, posts, and IGTV cannot be compared side-by-side because they are all separated into different areas of the app. This is where TikTok succeeds!
The video platform is able to pinpoint which specific content is engaging to the consumer. Not only that, TikTok can identify the exact point the content stops becoming engaging! TikTok not only measures if you “like” the content, but also how many times it was watched, how quickly it was swiped away from or back to, and every data response specific to that video. All of this data collection is what helps make the platform engaging to its audience- it learns the audience quicker and at a deeper level, making it even more addictive!
Knowing what content is pulling your consumers in can help you create even better future content! Better posts make for more engaged followers. More engaged followers makes your brand more authentic and inviting!
All of this Instagram feed change is just a rumor and not something that is set in stone. As we analyze our own feeds and build better content for our consumer, video content is absolutely something to embrace! TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and even Pinterest are all using the short video template as its new favorite way to disseminate information. You may not like it, but your followers do!
Connect With Forward!
In the future, we will share more ways to create videos with ease and as little pain as possible! Remember, you do not have to be in videos for your consumer to engage, but building self confidence can lead to brand confidence!
Last night (February 27th, 2022) little gold trophies were handed out to Hollywood’s greatest and meme gold was created! Will Smith, the popular singer-actor, was provoked to slapping the well known comedian, Chris Rock over some very poorly timed jokes… Luckily, the altercation has been quickly resolved and it has been de-escalated without incident. But just because the two celebrities are over it, does not mean that we are not! We love creating memes for our social media marketing!
Make Your Social Media Marketing Meme Strategic!
A GREAT digital marketing technique is to be quick to jump on a pop-culture moment and making content that fits your business niche. When Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars Award Show, the internet meme is quickly becoming a sensationion! You can take these moments and use them to your advantage by adding humor to the situation and making it about your specific market. Look at our memes below!
When the Oscars provide Meme Gold! Me vs. The Algorithm “When I Post More Than 3 Times in an Hour vs My Social Media Manager“Reels Do Not Work” vs. “Social Media Research”
The Britney Spears’ Wedding Digital Marketing Meme!
Britney Spears’ 2022 wedding was a beautiful event! The famous gal gangs features: Donatella Versace, Paris Hilton, Madonna, Selena Gomez, and Drew Barrymore
New Double Decker Plane Seats… Digital Marketing Meme
Double decker airplane seat design < Golden meme template
Forward Digital Marketing and YOU!
We love joking about the algorithm, but usually users struggle with content engagement because of a lack of consistency… We help small business create a better plan of action for their social media feeds. Also, Forward Digital Marketing helps you better understand your digital insights, making your marketing campaigns for effective. Here at Forward Digital Marketing, we do the marketing research so you can keep your business growing in other areas! That being said, be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram to see all of our advice!
We love when you build original content to support your small business! But, we also love when you share ours!
Need more help building original content to support your business?!
Connect with us to learn how we can help guide and direct your social media and digital marketing strategy!
Need a website built? We do basic website and ecommerce sites! Reach out! We would love to hear from you, today.
If you don’t manage your online presence well, there is a good chance you can lose business to someone who is running their business effectively.
You may want to follow various similar businesses to enhance your own or use these steps to get your new and current followers to be more engaging.
Follow these steps to improve your Facebook following!
Once you have liked a page, there is a 3 dot button to the right.
This will give you different options. Choose ‘Follow Settings’ at the top. If you haven’t followed the page already, you will have to select ‘Follow’ before you see the ‘Follow Settings’ option.
There will be many choices to select, but what we are focusing on is the News Feed section. By choosing the ‘Favorite’ option, this will make the posts that a page sends out appear higher as you scroll through Facebook.
Don’t forget to scroll down and click the blue ‘Update’ button or your settings will not save.
We hope this crash course gives you a better understanding of how to improve your Facebook follow settings.
Log on to your Facebook today to get started with your Facebook follow settings!
If you would like to know more, we have the answers! Visit our Contact page or follow us on our social media accounts below to chat.
Adobe defines mobile
marketing as a multi-channel digital marketing strategy aimed at reaching a
target audience on smartphones, tablets, and other mobile electronic devices
via websites, email, social media, messages, and apps. This read on mobile
marketing isn’t just for business owners, managers, or technologically sound
people. It’s for everybody because in a way, marketing connects all of us
through our mobile devices. So wherever you fit into the marketing world from
producer to consumer, it’s important to develop personalized content and keep
the attention of your audience through their little screens!
1. If it’s not obvious already… mobile users are EVERYWHERE.
A study done by the Pew Research Center in 2019 shows that 1 in 5 Americans are
‘smartphone only’ internet users. This means there is no laptop or computer in
their house or any type of broadband service. So, as everybody continues to be
on the go, so does their mobile phone! As a business, this is important to know
because you have to find a way to strategically market where your target audience
is – which is more than likely on mobile devices.
2. The number of
smartphone users increase daily.
Statista predicts that the number of smartphone users worldwide will surpass 3.8 billion in 2021. Whereas in 2016, there were only (but still a lot) 2.5 billion users.
Number of smartphone users worldwide from 2016 to 2021
This indicates yet again that people would rather be on their phone than anything else. So what does this mean for producers, managers, and anybody that develops and creates for the digital marketing world? It time to design easy to engage and mobile friendly websites, apps, messaging, accounts, and more!
3. Good mobile marketing = good mobile traffic
No, I’m not talking about when the highway is backed up. I’m talking about ways to track your audience’s responsiveness to what you are putting on the internet for them to see! Google Analytics is a popular site for looking into all kinds of reports from page visits to how users found your site to what kind of browser they were on – it’s crazy y’all! It might even be able to show you what you had for breakfast…just kidding!
4. You have Viral Potential
If you don’t believe me, just look at Instagram! Influencers, brands, bloggers, small business owners, friends and everyone in between can use Instagram to promote their content. In fact, Instagram alone has topped over 1 billion monthly users according to Adobe Spark. An app like Instagram is so easy to share videos and/or pictures by messaging, putting it on other social media platforms, copying the link, etc. Your content can be found by hundreds, thousands, and millions of people! This form of mass communication creates room for more exposure without the effort of the company. Just let the mobile marketing content speak for itself and people will share!
5. Payments made easy
This is specifically for anyone that sells any time of product or service online. We all know how it is looking through your purse to find your wallet, swiping your card or making exact change for your purchase. Comparingly, online payments are playing a significant role especially during this COVID period. So get online, sit back, and watch your mobile marketing sales go up!
Now you know – mobile is the best way to market! So what are you waiting for? Bring your business to mobile phones to see great new results!
Struggling to figure out the best way to market on mobile? No worries, that’s what we are here for! You can send us a message on our Contact Us page, give us a call, or connect with us on social media account below. We hope you learned something new from this article and don’t be afraid to reach out to us if you have any questions…that is what we are here for!
So let’s start off with the bad news first to get it out of the way…
“Email marketing databases naturally degrade by about 22.5% every year.” – Hubspot
How can that be? The biggest reason is because people switch jobs, they retire, finally get a new email address because they are still using AOL, things like that.
Thankfully, GOOD NEWS is here to stay…
“The average expected ROI is $42 for every $1 you spend on email marketing.” – Data & Marketing Association
Considering this statement, that is why the ‘quality over quantity’ phrase is so true! It does not matter if you have 10 or 200 people signed up to receive your email, what matters is their engagement. So although we are talking about how to grow in email marketing, we want to stress the importance of keeping your subscribers active as well.
In-Person
This could be word of mouth, a sign up sheet in a local business, attending craft shows or festivals in town, business cards, local events, the possibilities are endless! Human interaction is still very effective – it’s harder for people to turn you down when you are standing in front of them. Who knows, they might actually like your company after they give it a shot!
Website
Email features have become more and more popular. However, you don’t want to hound them for meaningless information. Keep it simple – name and email. You can find out details later after building a relationship with them! You can also get as creative as you want with it. Here is a simple example from Country Living:
New Content
Whether it is a free online tool, resource, brand structure, contest or promotion, you can use a landing page to gather email addresses. You want them to see it as a ‘bonus’ to get something in return because let’s face it, nobody does anything ‘just because’ if they aren’t benefiting from it. While getting your new content out there to the Internet, you could also ask them for feedback from a live chat tool. This could be through social media or your website for people that have stayed on your page for a certain amount of time.
Social Sharing Buttons
For people to want to share your content, it has got to be top notch. When you are able to fine tune it, you’ll have more confidence to encourage your subscribers to share on social media or forward your email to colleagues which makes it important to still include a Call to Action to subscribe in your emails (even though the people you originally emailed it to are already subscribed).
We hope these tips can help you get recognized in your community. Keep in mind that:
You’re only as successful as your least engaged subscriber.
Thanks for reading and don’t forget to keep up with us on our social media!
Let’s face it, everybody struggles. Some days, you may even feel like you are driving and the brakes have gone out! The awesome part about it is that challenging situations can lead to success, wisdom, new strength, and better opportunities. So whether you are struggling in the digital marketing department or just winding through life’s twists and turns, we have some helpful tips and suggestions to get you off that bus and driving your own vehicle.
#1: Stretch every dollar you have
Whether it be investing in our local businesses, fine tuning your target audience in ads, or connecting with other companies, make sure that every decision you make has a purpose behind it. For example, you only have $50 in your budget for the month to do all your social media advertising. No need to panic. You can advertise on Facebook and run your ad for as low as $3 a day. This will give your ad at least 15 days to run. That’s half of a month! While it may be frustrating dealing with numbers (I know that struggle), prioritize and make the most of it. If you know that you only have a limited amount of money to run the ad, make sure it is the best ad you could possibly create that will generate as many new followers and page likes as possible.
#2: Enhance your landing pages
If you’re seeing a good amount of impressions but not a lot of engagements, it may be because the places potential customers click aren’t grabbing their attention. When you see a cute pair of shoes you want or a special tool (for you men), you don’t want to click through 5 different pages to get to the checkout page or search the page for 10 minutes trying to figure out how to purchase them. Keep them reeled in with a simple and user-friendly website. This will have them coming back for more if they are impressed by the ease of use.
#3: Think differently to generate new leads
Establishing a strong online presence while being a small business can seem like a big mountain to climb. We know you have spent endless hours of your time pouring your heart and soul into a business. If your vision and end goal you have just seem too unachievable, take a deep breathe and know that it is okay. These are crazy times we are living in – you have no one to blame, especially not yourself. While taking that deep breathe, step back and adjust your sails. A lot of businesses have been learning new ways to operate because of COVID restrictions. It could end up being a great blessing in the end!
I have only touched the surface of what small businesses are facing in today’s society. If you’d like to read a more in-depth article of struggles within digital marketing, check out the Why Your Company Struggles to Master Digital Marketing Maturity article from Forbes.
I look at struggle as an opportunity to grow. True struggle happens when you can sense what is not working for you and you’re willing to take the appropriate action to correct the situation. Those who accomplish change are willing to engage the struggle.
– Danny Dreyer
We would love for you to comment or share this post and tell us what has gotten you a ticket on the struggle bus before. If so, how did you manage to navigate your way to a better mode of transportation?
Since we know navigating the Internet can be complicated, we came up with questions you may have regarding how to get your business on Google with answers for the experienced and unexperienced. So, here we go:
What is a Google My Business page?
It is a free tool offered by Google to set up a profile of your company, organization or business. It lets you manage how people will see your business when it shows up in their search and maps. If you have to, think of it as Google’s version of a dating website. How can you make your business profile look the best it can be for the customers looking for your service or product?
What all does the profile include?
Business name
Location
Hours of operation
Photos/videos
Reviews
Delivery method
Contact info.
Website link
There is a lot more advanced information in there when you dig deeper, but this is a great place to start if you are just setting it up. You can go back in any time and move things around, update photos, change users, etc.
Check out these statistics from a UGA Small Business Development Center webinar I virtually attended:
Do you have to have a Google account to create a Google My Business page?
YES! So if you already have one, sign in.
If not, you can find a blue box in the top right corner that says “Sign In” where you can create an account.
Next, you want to go to google.com/business where you can click on the “Start Now” button in the top right corner.
This is where you can find all the information you will enter that the public will be able to see on your business profile. It is important that this information is accurate and complete to effectively connect with your customers.
Which option should I choose to verify my GMB?
This can be different for certain types of businesses. Your options are:
Phone or email which would be the easiest.
Bulk verification shouldn’t be an option unless you are verifying the same business in 10 or more different locations.
Postcard which is sent in the mail with a code you can use to verify your account.
Note: Some people also don’t want to put their whole address on Google because they may work from home. So, if you choose the postcard verification, you will need to put your whole business address in for this method, but it will not be made public.
Another note: Google searchers will not be able to see your business if it isn’t verified. This step is VERY important.
How will I go back into my GMB and make changes later on if I need to?
Once you sign into the Google My Business, you will see a sidebar on the left side. You can go through each tab and change or update your information from there. This includes:
View Insights
Manage the users allowed on the account
Update photos
Create an ad
Respond to reviews
Add events, updates or offers,
Enter wheelchair accessibility,
and a whole bunch more.
There is also an option for the public to suggest an edit that doesn’t go through your google account to confirm that information. Check back regularly to make sure all your business information is correct.
Do I need the app on my phone?
Although it doesn’t have a desktop version, it would be helpful to have handy in case your hours unexpectedly change. It can also be easier to upload recent photos from your phone to make a post instead of going onto your computer and uploading the images from there.
There is so much information to share because it can be a complex process. However, you should be good to go if you follow the steps above.
We wish you all the best in navigating your way through the Google My Business account process. As always, we are here to help if you have any questions along the way. When in doubt, you know that you can always do this:
Don’t forget to share and follow the links below to keep up with us throughout the week!
