Tag / Facebook

by caitlyncallahan14

creating my hashtag strategy

A few weeks ago I wrote an industry article about how to create a hashtag strategy. While I’ve worked in the social media industry for years, I did learn a few things about hashtag strategies and tools that I thought were really interesting. I also realized that while I use hashtags on my business Facebook and Instagram page, I don’t have an actual strategy.

So this week, I’m going to share step-by-step what I did to develop my own hashtag strategy. If you don’t have one but are posting on social media, I encourage you to read that industry article and follow these steps yourself.

First, I checked out some others in the marketing industry to see what types of hashtags they are using, and how many they use per post. I did this over a period of a week or so, and it was easy with the new Facebook business timelines.

  • Together Digital: marketing, networking, womenindigital, marketer, womeninbusiness, digital marketing, socialmediamarketer, womeninadvertising, digitalmarketingexpert, socialmediamarketing, digitalinfluencer, womenownedbusiness, womensempowerment
  • Hootsuite: digital2021
  • Content Marketing Institute: contentmarketing
  • Hubspot: CRM
  • Small digital/content/social media marketing agencies: socialmedia, writing tips, writinginspiration, personalbranding, branding, brand, business, businesswomen, entrepreneur, marketing, marketingstrategy, socialmediamarketing, knowledge, digital marketing, branding, brand, SEO, copywriting

Interestingly enough, I found that a lot of larger industry friends, like Hubspot and Hootsuite, rarely used hashtags even on Instagram. I also found that many of the smaller agencies used the same several hashtags for each post, even though they weren’t related directly to the brand but instead the industry.

That being said, I know the importance of the hashtags and decided I would still utilize them regularly and strategically in my posts.

Additionally, I did some research on what those industry leaders said about hashtag use and strategies, including Hootsuite, Hubspot, Sprout Social, etc. I read about how they recommend posting about marketing, content and social media, and noted some of the suggestions they made.

Next, I decided to tap into the tools of Hashtagify.me and RiteTag.

Hashtagify.me gave me the following recommendations related to digital marketing, content marketing, and social media marketing:

  • marketing
  • socialmedia
  • SEO
  • SMM
  • growthhacking
  • contentmarketing

Turns out you can’t do much with these tools without signing up/paying for a subscription, but I did what I could with the “free” access.

So next I turned to Instagram. In the Explore tab, I searched a few keywords to see what the most popular tags were.

  • Marketing: marketing, marketingstrategy, marketingdigital, marketingtips, marketingagency, marketingideas
  • Digital Marketing: digitalmarketing, digitalmarketingagency, digitalmarketingtips, digitalmarketingexpert, digitalmarketingstrategy, digitalmarketingtools
  • Social Media: socialmedia, socialmediamarketing, socialmediamanager, socialmediatips, søciålmediastrategy, socialmediamanagement, socialmediamarketingtips
  • Content Marketing: content marketing, contentmarketingtips, contentmarketingstrategy, contentmarketing101, contentmarketingexpert
  • Blog: blogger, blog, bloggersofinstagram, bloggerlife, blogpost, bloggers

After all of this research, I found that even though I didn’t have an actual “strategy” per say, I was using the recommended number of hashtags per post and the hashtags I was using tended to align with recommendations across the industry and social channels.

At the end of the day, I determined not much is going to change about how I currently use hashtags. However, I will be more strategic about the hashtags I use about other, more specific topics (like SEO, organic social media, SEM, etc.) I’ll also continue actively monitoring others I follow to be more aware of how they use hashtags, and what their post engagement looks like.

Again, if you don’t currently use hashtags, or you do but aren’t strategic about it, I recommend you spend some time putting together a plan or researching how you can use them better. Perhaps you’ll just keep doing what you’re doing. Or, perhaps you’ll learn something new, or better yet, get better reach and engagement on your posts and increased followers on your pages.

by caitlyncallahan14

it’s a digital world (part 1: social)

Digital marketing is fascinating. While the concept remains consistent, the execution changes almost daily. Think about social media platforms, how you use the internet, when, how and why you consume content – it’s constantly changing. Google, Facebook and other sites update their terms and advertising policies on a regular basis. That’s why it’s so important to have a digital marketing person on your team, or to hire a consultant who knows what they are doing.

While you may have a personal Facebook page, you probably don’t have the knowledge, time and effort it takes to run a successful Facebook Business page. Perhaps you read blogs, or even have a personal blog, but you may not be an expert in creating content for your business website targeted to your primary audience with the intent of increasing traffic and sales.

Or maybe you still don’t understand how all of this is important to your business and marketing plan.

I’ve pulled together a few of my favorite statistics supporting social media, content and digital marketing in a three-part blog series to help share why it’s critical to consider these tactics, and how they can help your business thrive.

Today, let’s highlight Social Media Marketing.

  • 3.5 billion people use social media, which is nearly 50% of the world population. Instagram alone has more than 1 billion users monthly. You have unlimited potential in reaching your target audience.
  • Nearly 70% of U.S. adults use Facebook. It may be the most popular platform, and one of the best to reach your potential audience.
  • 90% of millennials, 77% of Gen X, and nearly 50% of baby boomers use social media. Don’t let someone tell you that you can’t reach all generations effectively on social.
  • People spend 3+ hours a day on social media platforms. You have three hours to catch their eye with your content.
  • 54% of social users take advantage of social media to research products. It’s like another Google, but more engaging and interactive. They are looking for reviews and recommendations, they want to learn about your brand and see how you interact with your customers.
  • 71% of consumers who have a positive experience with a brand on social are likely to recommend the brand to their friends and family. Use your social presence to build your business.
  • 83% of people who sent a Tweet to a company and received a response felt better about the company and were more likely to do business with them.
  • People are 26% more likely to view ads on Twitter than any other social platform.
  • Over 46% of all social media traffic to company websites comes from LinkedIn.
  • 90% of Instagram users follow a business on the platform, and are interested in hearing from and about brands. Instagram also has the highest engagement rate with businesses.

Now, re-read all of those bullets until they sink in…

These are just a few of many eye opening stats about social platforms and their positive effect on businesses, and companies are paying attention. Marketers spent nearly $90 billion in social media ad spend in 2019, and that number is expected to continue to rise.

Each platform has their own nuances. Each has different audiences – for example, you should advertise on Instagram if you want to reach a younger audience, Facebook for an older audience, and LinkedIn for a professional audience. Each has preferences for what types of ads work best – static image? Video? Link? It can be overwhelming, which is why it can be helpful to have the help of an expert.

Also remember, it’s not all about paid advertising. It’s also about organic content and what you post on your page. It’s how you interact with your audience. Social media gives you a prime opportunity to have two-way conversations with and learn from your customers and prospects. They can leave you reviews, interact with and comment on your posts, send you direct messages – and you can respond directly back to them. It’s a chance for you to share your brand, your story, information about your products/service, educational/informational/engaging content for your followers.

With social media, you essentially have unlimited potential to share your business and interact with your customers. Do it right, and you will see increased brand loyalty and consumer engagement, and even increase in sales. Do it wrong, or don’t do it at all, and you’ll be missing out on a huge and cost-effective opportunity.

I encourage you to do some research on your own if you aren’t familiar with all of the positive effects of being active on social media as a business. Comment some of your favorite stats below!

If you want to talk further about how social media marketing can help your business, need help getting started, or would like assistance with ongoing support, send me a message today.

by caitlyncallahan14

furthering my education – for free!

Week 22

Part of being a working professional is staying current in industry trends and continuing your education.

I don’t necessarily mean taking college courses or earning degrees. For me, continuing my education happens by reading business books and blogs, watching webinars, taking free courses online, and following industry groups on LinkedIn.

One thing I became particularly interested in this week was certification courses that may help me not only further my education, but build my professional profile and portfolio.

My job has a subscription to the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and earlier this week I was browsing webinars, conferences and courses they offer. I stumbled upon a Content Marketing Certification course, originally $499, that I can access, take and complete for free. Why have I not been taking advantage of this? What other opportunities are out there?

When I’ve applied for jobs in the past, there was always a place to list any professional certifications I have. I’ve always left this blank and figured it didn’t apply to me. Well surprise – it  can and does apply to me! And it won’t cost me an arm and a leg. A quick Google search produced several marketing-related, free certifications I can take advantage of. (There are plenty more that have a cost, but I’ll be taking advantage of the free ones first!)

  1. ANA – Content Marketing Certificate Program – free
  2. Google Adwords Certification – free
  3. Google Analytics Certification – free (I’ve actually already done this)
  4. Digital Garage: Fundamentals of Digital Marketing – free
  5. Hubspot Content Marketing Certification – free
  6. YouTube Certification – free
  7. Hubspot Email Marketing Certification – free
  8. Hootsuite Social Media Marketing Certification – $199; $249; $999

I love learning and growing professionally. I’m looking forward to tackling each of these and becoming an expert! There are probably hundreds of hours of work in that list, but it’s worth it when I can use the certification as leverage to build my client book or secure new career positions in the future.

Do you have any marketing certifications? Which would you suggest?