by NextGen | Jan 15, 2024 | Digital Marketing Tools, Facebook Ads
Last October, Facebook announced the first three generative AI-powered features that will become available to advertisers in the Meta Ads Manager in 2024. I am very happy to see that Facebook has finally started to embrace generative AI and after almost a year after it went mainstream.
Those three features are expected to help advertisers maximize productivity when developing creatives and improve ad performance, and here they are.
Background Generator
Advertisers can use this feature to create multiple backgrounds for product images and adjust the image backgrounds for different audiences.
Image Expansion
This feature allows advertisers to seamlessly resize images using generative AI. Nowadays we have to crop down images in order to have them fit different aspect ratios, with this new image expansion feature we can expand images instead of cropping them and the extra space will be populated by AI generated content.
Text Variations
This feature can be used to generate multiple versions of the ad text. Rephrasing tools are not anything innovative but the Facebook text variations feature promises to generate text that highlights the selling points of products/services.
Here you can learn more about those new and exciting generative AI options for Facebook ads.
Thanks for reading!
Aneta
by NextGen | May 24, 2020 | Social Media Marketing
In this blog post I explain why every YouTuber should be on TikTok. I hope this content is useful for all YouTubers and brands who are interested in developing a presence on TikTok.
Misconceptions About You TikTok
Let’s first talk about some common misconceptions about TikTok. It is really sad that those misconceptions are circulating the internet and are deterring people from joining TikTok, even thought TikTok is an amazing platform with lots of opportunity for everyone.
TikTok is just a lip-syncing app
The most common misconception about TikTok is that TikTok is a lip-syncing app. This is totally not true today. It is really annoying that so many people still believe that TikTok is a lip-syncing app. I think this misconception originates from the fact that TikTok started as a lip-syncing app a few years ago and then it was known as Musical.ly.
However, ByteDance bought Musical.ly. and turned it into TikTok in 2017. In recent years TikTok has grown to become much more than a lip-syncing app. If you log-in TikTok and use it for a few minutes you will realize that there is a wide variety of content on the platform. The lip-syncing videos are definitely not the majority of videos on TikTok today.
TikTok is not a serious platform
Another common misconception about TikTok is that TikTok is not a serious platform. Some people say that all TikTok videos are just jokes or teenagers fooling around. While many videos on TikTok are funny and light-hearted, there are also many serious creators and serious brands who are doing very well on the platform with serious content.
On example is Dr. Julie Smith, she is a psychologist and mental health expert. So, obviously she creates very serious content. She has over 700k followers!
Another example is the account of PD Marketing. They are a marketing agency that creates videos about marketing on Tiktok. They have over 400k followers!
Therefore, if you are a serious brand or a serious content creator you should dismiss TikTok as a joke.
TikTok is just for kids
Another common misconception about TikTok is that TikTok is only for kids. It is true that the audience on TikTok is a little bit younger than the audience on other popular social media platforms. However it is not just kids on TikTok! Based on data released directly from TikTok, about 26% of the users on the platform are between the ages of 25-44. This doesn’t sound too young to me! There is almost a billion people on TikTok and many of them are in their 30s or 40s.
TikTok will eventually shut-down like Vine
And the last thing that I want to mention in this blog post is not really a misconception but a rumor. There is a rumor that has been circulating online that TikTok might eventually shut down. Some people think that TikTok will disappear similarly to how Vine disappeared. This makes some content creators and brands doubt whether they should join TikTok. Why go through the trouble of creating good content for TikTok if it is going to disappear in a couple of years? However, I completely disagree with that attitude!
First of all, we do not know for sure if TikTok will disappear in near future. I personally do not think it will disappear. Even if it does disappear, it is not a waste of time to join TikTok today. It is worth making an effort to create an audience on TikTok because you can move that audience to YouTube or other social media platforms.
Why Every YouTuber Should Be on TikTok
I understand that every content creator and every brand wants to have presence on multiple social media platforms. Successful YouTubers want to develop a presence on other platforms and they normally choose Instagram as their secondary platform. I am really surprised by this. Why Instagram? TikTok should be the secondary platform for YouTubers not Instagram!
TikTok and YouTube are both video platforms
I have watched many videos of business coaches on YouTube. Most of them have very helpful business channels on YouTube. Towards the end of their videos they ask you to follow them on Instagram. Then you visit their profile on Instagram and you see the business coach on the beach playing volleyball and drinking Piña-Coladas. That doesn’t make sense!
People should have a consistent presence across all social media platforms! If you are a business coach on YouTube, your profile on Instagram should also be professional. But, this is hard to achieve for YouTubers on Instagram because Instagram is a platform that is focused on pictures, not videos.
Therefore, the first reason why every YouTubers should be on TikTok is because TikTok and YouTube are the only two major social media platforms that are focused on video. That means that you can use your YouTube content and re-purpose it for TikTok! This is a lot easier to do than creating new pictures for Instagram. I re-purpose my YouTuber videos for TikTok all the time and it takes me only a few minutes per day to do this. Therefore, I think that TikTok is the easiest secondary platform to develop a presence on if you are a YouTuber.
It is easier to grow an audience on TikTok
Another reason why I think every YouTuber should be on TikTok is because I think it is a lot easier to develop an audience on TikTok than YouTube. TikTok is a new platform, it is not as saturated. Therefore, you can develop your audience on TikTok and then hopefully some of your followers on TikTok will also subscribe to your channel on YouTube.
In my example, I uploaded my first YouTube video on March 10th and I started my TikTok account on the April 8th. Therefore I started YouTube and then after a month I started TikTok. Today is the 24th of May and by today I have 133 subscribers on YouTube and 530 followers on TikTok. So, for me TikTok grew 3-4 times faster than YouTube!
How I Use TikTok
I started my YouTube channel earlier this year because I wanted to share my experience in digital marketing with other entrepreneurs, marketers and online personalities out there. But, my channel didn’t really grow much in the first month. Then, in early April I decided to join TikTok. By that point I already had many videos that I had recorded for YouTube that I could share on TikTok too and I saw TikTok as a good secondary platform to help me grow my YouTube channel.
I use the same footage for TikTok and YouTube. I record videos with the primary intention to share them on YouTube, therefore I need to make few adjustments to them before I can publish them on TikTok.
Shorter duration
The first adjustment that I need to make is to shorten the videos because on TikTok each video can be up to 59 seconds long. I one video weekly video for YouTube and each video is about 10 minutes long. I take that weekly YouTube video and cut out 7 one minute segments to post on TikTok that week. Then I post one short video on TikTok each day.
Horizontal orientation
The second adjustment that I need to worry about when I post YouTube videos on TikTok is the fact that on YouTube the videos are horizontal and on TikTok the videos are vertical. That means that when you take a YouTube video and publish it on TikTok you will get a big black box on top of the video and below the video. You need to put something in those black boxes in order to make the video look better on TikTok.
In the top black box I normally put the title of the video. While in the bottom black box I normally add a sticker. However, the bottom black box is not that much of a problem because all the hashtags and the captions that you use for the videos on TikTok will appear in the bottom black box. Therefore, half of the bottom black box will be covered by those items.
Music
The last adjustment that I make to my videos in order to make them more fun and interesting for people on TikTok is to add music to them. TikTok has a very large music library, but I there are a few ambient songs that I like and use a lot for my TikTok videos.
Thank you for reading this blog post about why every YouTuber should be on TikTok! I have also created a video on this topic. Click here to watch the video on YouTube. Watch the video for more detail about this topic. If you are completely new to TikTok and would like to learn more about this platform click here.
by NextGen | May 17, 2020 | Digital Marketing
In this blog post I will share with you what I love and hate about marketing. I have over 10 years of work experience in the field of marketing. This field, like any other fields, has both good and bad sides. I hope that the information that I will share in this blog post will be very useful for people interested in marketing careers and entrepreneurs who are considering doing marketing for their own business instead of hiring a marketing agency.
Why Marketing Matters
So why does marketing matter anyway?
The first reason why marketing matters is because in today’s world you cannot have a successful business without good marketing. Even if you have amazing products, unless you also do really good marketing campaigns nobody will find out about your products and buy them. Also, there are many examples of mediocre products that have become very popular because they have been marketed very well. Therefore marketing is the key to business success.
The second reason why marketing maters is because the marketing function is the heartbeat of every modern business. The most common business functions are: finance, strategy, operations, human resources, product development etc. However, modern businesses revolve around the marketing function because the marketing function is the closest to the consumer.
Marketers spend a lot of time trying to understand the target market of the company, and what people in the target market need and want. Then marketers share that knowledge with the product development team that works on creating products, the finance team that works on pricing products, the strategy team that works on creating the strategy for the business, etc. Therefore marketing is the most central business function.
What I Love About Marketing
1. Marketing Requires Both Creative And Analytical Skills
The first thing that I love about marketing is the fact that it requires both creative and analytical skills. In order to be a good marketer you need to create engaging content for your audience. Also, you need to understand the numbers and why some campaigns did better than others. So, the thing that I love the most about marketing is that marketers get to work on both creative stuff and analytics. Not many other business fields require both of those skills.
2. Marketing Is A Very Dynamic Field
The second thing that I love about marketing is the fact that it is a very dynamic and ever changing field. So, let me give you an example. When I was in college I had a cell phone with buttons on it, it didn’t even have a touch screen! I was one of the few people in my class who had a cell phone back then. And, I graduated from college in 2006 which is not that long ago, right?
When I was learning marketing in college mobile marketing didn’t even exist. Today mobile marketing is everywhere and it is very important. You cannot be a successful marketer today without doing mobile marketing. Over the 15 years since I graduated college marketing has changed so dramatically while all other business functions (finance, human resources, etc.) have largely stayed the same. I am really excited to see how marketing will evolve in the future.
3 Marketing Is A Very Broad Field
The third thing that I love about marketing is the fact that it is a very broad field with many different areas. First you have the divide between digital marketing and traditional marketing. Then within digital marketing you have many different channels, such as social, email, SEO etc. Then there is content marketing which is about developing engaging content. Influencer marketing which is about which is about being an influencer or working with influencers. Affiliate marketing which is about developing a network of affiliates for your brand. There are so many other areas within marketing. It is a lot of fun being a marketer because during your career you can work in many different areas while still staying within the same field of marketing.
4. Marketing Is Global
The forth thing that I love about marketing is the fact that it is a very global profession. I have worked with people from all over the world during my career as a marketer. In the last three years since I have been running my digital marketing agency I have worked with clients from 30 different countries. I love being exposed to such diversity and learning about our world by working with people for different backgrounds and cultures. This is especially important for me because I come from a very small country. My country has only two million people, which is roughly one quarter of New York City. So, you can fit four of my countries in NYC! I love the fact that as a digital marketer the world is my market and I am not limited to just working in my local community.
5. Marketing Is A Growing Field
The fifth thing that I love about marketing is the fact that it is a growing field with many career opportunities. The fast growth of the marketing field has created a big shortage of people with the right marketing skills. Therefore, you can always find many career opportunities in marketing if this is what you want to pursue. However, the key is to always stay up to date with changes in the marketing world and to constantly upgrade your skill set as the field changes.
What I Hate About Marketing
1. Marketing in on 24/7
The first thing that I hate about marketing is the fact that marketing in on 24/7, so you never get a break if you are a marketer because the internet never sleeps. This can be very draining and challenging for some people. Especially if you are one of those people who wants to disconnect and forget about work for a while.
As a marketer you always have to be connected and monitor what is going on. If there is something interesting going on you have to respond right away or otherwise it will be too late. Therefore, if you are a marketer you can travel a lot because all your work can be done on a computer, but you have to make sure you always have good access to the internet.
2. It Is Hard To Keep Up With Marketing
The second thing that I don’t like about marketing is the fact that it is very hard to keep up with all the new trends, all the new technology and all the new best practices in the field. It is really hard to always be in the know when it comes to marketing.
For example the Google Analytics Certificate, which is a very popular certificate in the marketing field, is only valid for two years. That means that you have to re-take the test and get re-certified every two years. This is the case with many other certificates that are popular in the marketing field. Therefore, if you are a marketer you have to always keep up with changes in the field, which can be challenging to do and requires a lot of effort.
3. Data Overload In Marketing
The third thing that I don’t like about marketing is the data overload. There is so much data available to marketers today that it is overwhelming. We have data about the customers, demographics data, purchasing behavior data, data about social media, data about website visits, etc. When you open Google Analytics or Facebook Insights you see so much data there that your head starts to hurt! So, we are bombarded with so much data every day and we have to determine which data points mean something and which data points are just noise. This can be very confusing at times and it is something that I don’t enjoy about being a marketer.
4. It Is Hard To Measure The Offline Impact Of Digital Marketing
The forth thing that I don’t like about marketing is the fact that it is very hard to measure the offline impact of digital marketing. What does that mean? Well, me and my team promote our clients on the internet and many people find out about our clients through the activities that we do online. However, it is really hard to attribute any offline sales to the online marketing efforts of me and my team. Many times we don’t get any credit for offline sales that have happened as a result of our efforts.
I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post and that you found it helpful. I have also created a YouTube video about what I love and hate about marketing. Click here to watch the video.
by NextGen | May 10, 2020 | Uncategorized
In this blog post I will talk about the marketing tools that we use at my digital marketing agency. More specifically, I will talk about three categories of tools: tools for scheduling posts on social media, email marketing tools and content design tools. All of the tools discussed in this post offer free plans. So, you can use them for free, how exciting!
Tools For Scheduling Posts On Social Media
The first category of tools that I will cover in this blog post is tools for scheduling posts on social media. All marketers use scheduling tools because it is a lot easier to have all posts scheduled ahead of time instead of having to worry about publishing posts every day. Also, scheduling tools make management of multiple social accounts easier because you can connect several social media networks to a scheduling tool and publish the same post on multiple networks with just one click. This is a big time saver!
Buffer
Here is a screenshot from my favorite scheduling tool, Buffer. All scheduling tools offer similar features, but I prefer Buffer because I like the look and feel of it.
The first thing that you notice on this screen shot is a big text box. This is where you enter the text that you want to use for your post, including any links and hashtags. Under the text box there is a button with a plus sign on it. You can add a picture or a video to your post by clicking on this button.
Across the top you see the logos of Facebook and Instagram. This is where you can select the social media networks that you want the post to be published on. If you select both Facebook and Instagram the content will automatically be published on both networks. Isn’t that just so easy? In addition to Facebook and Instagram you can also connect Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest Boards to Buffer.
The last thing to note here is the “Add to Queue” button. Click on this button to select the time and date when the post will be published. You can select “Share Now” to publish the post immediately or “Schedule Post” to publish the post at a specific date and time in the future.
The free plan on Buffer includes 3 social accounts and 10 scheduled posts per month. That means you can connect 3 social media profiles and schedule 10 posts across those 3 profiles per month. The cheapest paid plan on Buffer costs $15 per month and for that price you can connect 8 social accounts and schedule 100 posts per month.
Hootsuite
Another very popular scheduling tool for social media is Hootsuite. Hootsuite has an important role in social media marketing because it was the first scheduling tool that became popular and widely used. Hootsuite is a little bit older than Buffer, it was launched in 2008 while Buffer was launched in 2010. I think the user interface of Hootsuite feels older and clunker.
However, you get more value with Hootsuite because it is a bit cheaper than Buffer. On Hootsuite you get 3 social accounts and 30 scheduled posts per month for free. While on Buffer you get only 10 scheduled posts per month for free. The cheapest paid plan on Hootsuite costs $19 and for that price you can connect 10 social media profiles and schedule unlimited number of posts per month, unlimited!
Tools For Email Marketing
The second category of marketing tools that I will cover in this blog post is email marketing tools. Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing channels today and it is a much older channel than social media. People started using email in the late 80s while Facebook was created in 2004. Since email is a very mature marketing channel there are a large number of email marketing tools that you can use to create nice looking emails and manage your contact list.
MailChimp
MailChimp is the most popular email marketing tool. It gained popularity over the years because it used to offer a very generous free plan. In recent years MailChimp has reduced the number of emails that you can send for free and the number of contacts that you can email for free. However I still think that MailChimp offers good value for free. In addition, MailChimp is very intuitive and easy to use. Therefore MailChimp is my favorite email marketing tool.
Please see above a screenshot from the MailChimp. This is what MailChimp looks like when you first log into it. As you can see the initial user dashboard is very simple.
Across the top you will notice a menu with several items. First there is the “Create” item that you can use to create things emails, ads, landing pages, sign-up forms and other things within MailChimp.
An important item in this menu is the “Audience” item where you will find your contact lists. Also, please note the “Reports” item where you will find stats, such as open rates and click through rates, for emails that you have sent in the past.
With the free plan on MailChimp you can have mailing lists with up to 2,000 contacts and you can send up to 10,000 emails per month. This free plan used to be more generous but in recent years MailChimp has lowered the limits for contacts and emails that are part of the free plan. However, I think that MailChimp still offers a very generous free plan. While the paid plans at MailChimp start at $9.
Klaviyo
Another email marketing tool that I would like to mention is Klaviyo. This is a tool has become very popular in recent months, especially for ecommerce brands because it offers very easy integrations with ecommerce platforms such as Shopify and WooCommerce. You can have up to 250 contacts and send up to 500 emails per month via Klaviyo.
And the last tool that I would like to mention in this blog post is AWebber. AWebber is well known tool for email automation because it has the best features and options for email automation. Currently AWebber does not offer a free plan, but they offer a free 30 month trial.
Marketing Tools For Content Design
The last category of marketing tools that I will cover in this blog post is tools for content design. In other words, tools that you can use to create beautiful pictures and engaging videos for your social media profiles.
Canva
I suppose you have all heard about Canva. Canva is by far the most popular tool for graphics design for social media. Canva offers many useful features for free. If you don’t have a Canva account already you should definitely create one today!
One of the best things about Canva is the fact that it has all the recommended dimensions for social media content so that you don’t have to worry about sizing. For example, do you know the optimal dimension for a YouTube thumbnail? I don’t. However, I can just go in Canva, select “YouTube” thumbnail and Canva will automatically create a blank YouTube thumbnail in the recommended size.
Another cool thing about Canva is that it has thousands of pre-made templates that you can adjust and use for your social media profiles. For example, on the left side of the graphics below you can see a mother’s day template that I found in Canva. You can use this well designed template and re-purpose it for something else by changing the colors, the text and the picture on it. I decided to turn this mother’s day template into a father’s day template. On the right side of the graphics below you can see the father’s day version of the template. It took me literally 2 minutes to turn the mother’s day template into a father’s day post on Canta.
So, instead of creating graphics for social media from scratch many marketers use Canva to create beautiful graphics for free. The templates help us save time, but they also help us improve the visual appeal of the graphics. Even if I had all the time in the world I don’t think I would be able to put together such professionally looking and visually appealing graphics for social media if it wasn’t for Canva.
As I mentioned before, Canva offers many great features for free and most people who use Canva don’t pay for it. However, because I personally have a subscription to Canva. The subscription costs $13 per month. With the subscription I have access to more templates, more pictures and more storage space for my account. The subscription also allows me to share designs with my team using Canva’s team functionality.
Kapwing
Besides Canva, another tool that I would like to mention in this blog post is Kapwing. Kapwing is a great tool for video editing. I use Kapwing a lot for resizing videos especially resizing YouTube videos to use for IGTV on Instagram. With the free version of Kapwing you can resize videos that are up to 7 minutes long. This limit used to be 10 minutes, but unfortunately Kapwing recently decreased the limit for editing videos for free from 10 minutes to 7 minutes.
I hope you found this blog post helpful! I have also filmed a YouTube video on this topic for my YouTube Channel.
If you are interested to learn more about social media marketing you can also read the following two blog post that I have published recently: Posting Frequency Recommendations For Social Media, Social Media Strategy – My 3 Step Process.
by NextGen | May 3, 2020 | Social Media Marketing
Most of us marketers understand the importance of posting frequency for achieving success on social media, however most of my clients seem totally clueless about this issue. To be honest with you, most of my clients had never even thought about the optimal posting frequencies for their brands before starting to work with me. I decided to write this blog post in order to create more awareness about the importance of posting frequency.
Why Posting Frequency Is Important?
Posting frequency is one of the trickiest decisions that you will have to make for your social media strategy. There are many factors that you need to evaluate carefully when making this decision. Also, you need to understand the significance of each factor for your brand and your audience. If you make the wrong decision about your posting frequency you will end up posting too frequently or too infrequently, and both of those scenarios can have very negative consequences for your business.
Posting too much, or too frequently can have the following negative effects on your social media presence:
- People will get annoyed by you and unfollow you.
- Your followers will feel overwhelmed with the amount of content that you produce.
- Social media networks will show your posts to a lower number of your followers because social media networks like to maintain a variety in user’s feed.
- Your profile will look like a content dump and therefore it will not be attractive to new potential followers.
Posting to infrequently can also have several negative effects on your social media presence:
- Your followers will forget about you if you don’t see any posts from you in a while.
- You will get labeled as “inconsistent”, which is one of the biggest sins on social media.
- Social media networks will show your posts to fewer people because they will think that you are not serious about growing your brand.
- Your profile will look abandoned and therefore it will not attract new followers.
5 Factors To Consider When Selecting Posting Frequency
1.The amount of time you have available to create good content consistently.
When debating the posting frequency for your brand the first thing that you need to ask yourself is how frequently you can create good quality content for each social media network and have the bandwidth to do that consistently.
For example, I decided that I have the time to do one good quality long video for YouTube per week and seven good quality short videos for TikTok per week (so that means one videos for TikTop every day). I made this decision taking into consideration the fact that I have about 5 hours per week available for making videos. I spent the rest of my time on marketing activities for my brand (which is very important) and on client work (which I really enjoy).
To be more efficient with your content you can post the same content across multiple platforms. You can post the same picture on both Instagram and Facebook, or post the same short video on both TikTok and Instagram. However, you need to adjust the content appropriately for each platform because the content requirements such as size, aspect ratio, orientation (horizontal or vertical) are different for every platform. YouTube videos are horizontal while TikTok and Instagram stories videos are vertical. Also, please remove any links form the photo captions on Instagram because it is not possible to link out of Instagram. It is a common mistake for marketers to copy over exactly the same caption, with links, from Facebook over to Instagram.
2. The Average Shelf Life Of Posts On Each Social Media Network
Tweets have very short shelf life, a tweet is considered “old” after only an hour or so. Therefore, some brands, for whom Twitter is an important network post “only” 100 times per day. While posts on LinkedIn and YouTube have a very long shelf life of a few days. Some YouTube videos are even considered “evergreen” and they keep getting views months or years after they have been posted. Therefore, when selecting the posting frequency you should consider the shelf life of posts on every network.
3. The Number Of Followers You Have On Each Network
The more followers you have on a network the safer it is to post more frequently. For the networks where you have less than 1,000 followers you should be very careful not to overwhelm your audience by posting too frequently.
4. The Average Age Of Your Followers
Younger people generally tend to spend more time on social media than older people. Therefore, if your target audience is mid-career professionals or older you should air on the side of caution and post less frequently.
5. Whether Your Brand Is a B2B Or a B2C Brand
B2B stands for business-to-business, while B2C stands for business-to-consumer. An example of a B2B brand is a furniture company that makes office furniture. While McDonalds is probably one of the best known B2C brands and they sell fast food directly to customers. B2B brands tend to post less frequently than B2C brands.
Recommended Posting Frequency For Each Network
Facebook
The recommended posting frequency for Facebook ranges from 3 posts per week to 1 post per day.
If you have less than 10,000 followers Facebook will split the daily reach of your posts between all posts that day. For example, if you normally get a daily reach of 400 and you post once per day that one posts will achieve a reach of 400. While, if you post two times per day each one of your two posts will achieve reach of 200. Therefore, it really does not make sense to post more than once per day on Facebook.
Hubspot performed research on this topic and analyzed 13,500 Facebook accounts of their customers. They found that pages with under 10,000 followers had 50% decrease in engagement when they posted more than once per day.
Instagram
Even though Instagram is owned by Facebook they are not as strict as Facebook about punishing brands that post more than once per day. Posting frequency on Instagram ranges between 1 to 3 posts per day. Where 1 or 2 posts per day is the recommended posting frequency.
LinkedIn
The posting frequency on LinkedIn ranges between 2 times per week to once per day. You should not post more than once per day on LinkedIn under any circumstances! Since LinkedIn is a professional network it is best to post during the workweek and avoid posting during the weekends. The recommended posting frequency for LinkedIn is between 2 and 3 times per week.
Pinterest & Twitter
If you create a lot of content for social media you should use Pinterest and Twitter as your outlet. The posting frequency for those two networks ranges from 3 to 30 posts per day. Yes, 30 posts per days! Where the recommended frequency for Pinterest is about 10 pins per day. While the recommended frequency fro Twitter is about 15 tweets per day. You should spread out the pins and tweets throughout the day.
I hope you found this blog post useful. I have also filmed a YouTube video on this topic, link to video.
Do you need help with social media marketing? We can help you! Get a quote here.
by NextGen | Apr 25, 2020 | Digital Marketing
In this blog post I will share with you the first three steps that I you need to make in order to develop a winning social media strategy for your business if you are an entrepreneur, or a winning social media strategy for your clients if you are a marketer.
I run a digital marketing agency and over the last three years I have developed over 100 social media strategies for clients. Even though every social media strategy is different and you cannot use a cookie cutter approach when developing strategy there are three fundamental steps that are always start with when working on social media strategy for my clients.
STEP 1: Define Social Media Strategy Goals
The first step in the social media development process is to define your goals for social media. Brands have three goals when it comes to social media: to drive awareness, to develop a community and to drive sales. So now let’s dive into each one of them.
Drive Awareness
Drive awareness is about creating awareness for your brand on social media and helping people find out about the products and services that your business offers. If this goal is important to you, you should focus on the reach metric for your posts. Identify the posts that have achieved the biggest reach in the past. Then create more posts that are similar to the posts with the best reach.
Develop Community
Develop community is about creating an engaged community for your brand on social media. This goal has two dimensions. First, this goal is about creating engaging content that will provoke many comments and likes. Second, this goal is about engaging with other people and businesses on social media. If this goal is important to you, you should engage with people and business in your target audience by commenting and liking their posts. Some of them will reciprocate that and engage with your content in return.
This goal is very hard to quantify and it is the most time consuming goal for social media. However, I think that this is a very important goal. One of the primary purposes of social media is to create communities of like-minded people.
Drive Sales
The last goal that I want to discuss today is the “drive sales” goal. There is a reason why I decided to talk about this goal last. Many brands like to use social media for driving sales. However, in my opinion social media is not the best channel for driving sales. When people want to buy something they Google it, they don’t search for it on Facebook! Therefore Google is a much better channel for driving sales. While, social media is a much better channel for driving awareness and developing community communities.
If driving sales from social media is important to you, then the best option is to run paid ads. Also, you should work with influencers and micro-influencers too. They can promote your products and services on their profiles for some compensation.
Based on my experience, these three goals are the most common goals that brands have for social media. As a first step in your social media strategy development process you should decide how important each one of those goals is to you. Then, you should decide how much time and money you want to allocate towards each one of them.
STEP 2: Define Content Categories For Social Media
The second step in the social media development process is to to define your content categories. Before you start creating content for social media you should think strategically about your presence on social media and outline your content categories.
Some common content categories include:
- Motivational/Inspirational posts with quotes
- Funny posts
- Posts with interesting questions for your audience
- “Behind the scenes” posts from your team
- Posts highlighting the features of your products of services
- Posts with interesting information about your industry
The content categories will be different for every brand. A fitness coach might have a “short workout videos” category, an architect might have a “beautiful buildings” category, and a clothing brand might have a “recommended daily look” category.
Also, you should align the content categories to your social media goals discussed in Step 1. Ask yourself how each content category will help you achieve each social media goal.
You should measure the results achieved by each content category over time and replace the low-performing content categories with new content categories. For example, if one of your categories is “questions” but you see that nobody answers your questions you should replace the “questions” category with anther category that will resonate better with your audience.
STEP 3: Select Social Media Networks
The third step in the social media strategy development process is to select the social media networks that you are going to focus on. I recommend that you start by focusing on three social media networks. Many brands want to develop a presence on all social media networks in parallel. This is a mistake. Don’t stretch yourself too thin! You need to have enough time and resources for each network. If you try to develop presence on as many social media networks as possible you will find it difficult to develop a following on any of them.
To select the best social media networks for you brand you should take into consideration the format of the content (photos or videos) that you already have or plan to create and the user demographics of each network.
If you plan to focus on photos you should consider Instagram and Facebook as your top candidates. If you plan to focus on videos you should consider TikTok and YouTube as your top candidates.
Every social media network attracts users from different demographics. As part of your social media development process you should select the social media networks that attract users with similar demographic characteristics as your target audience.
Thank you for reading my blog post! I have also created a YouTube video on this topic. If you need help with social media marketing please schedule a call with me to discuss your marketing goals.
by NextGen | Apr 18, 2020 | Social Media Marketing
In this blog post I will give you a quick introduction to TikTok. First I will explain to you what TikTok is, second I will share with you what I love about it, and third I will share with you its the biggest downside in my opinion.
I have been managing TikTok profiles for about a year. This blog post is based on my experience managing TikTok profiles. I decided to write this blog post because many of my clients have become increasingly more interested in developing a presence on the platform.
1. Introduction to TikTok
TikTok is an app that is available in the AppStore and on GooglePlay. It is also the hottest new social media network! According to a report published by Sensor Tower, the leading provider of market intelligence and insights for global apps, TikTok was the second most downloaded app worldwide in 2019. It was second only after WhatsApp. So, in 2019 it was downloaded more than Facebook or Instagram!
Profile Example
The profile layout in TikTok is very similar to the profile layout in Instagram. Your profile picture and you user ID are at the top. Then there is a row of numbers that includes the number of people who you follow, the number of people who follow you and the total number of likes that you have received on the platform.
Under the row of numbers there is a row of buttons. The row of buttons consists of an“Edit Profile” button, a button to link your TikTok profile to YouTube and Instagram, and a button to view your saved posts. The middle button is the most important in my opinion. You can use this button to help people find you on Instagram or YouTube.
Content
TikTok is unique because it is a platform for short videos. Other well established social media networks are mostly focused on pictures. More specifically, on TikTok you can post videos up to 1 minute long. It is very important to pair those short videos with appropriate music from TikTok’s extensive audio library. In addition to music, the app offers a variety of other features such as special effects, filters, stickers, transitions etc. You can turn your ordinary videos into very interesting videos on TikTok. Those features are a lot of fun to use, but be careful to not over-use them.
2. What I Love About TikTok
Organic reach vs. paid reach on social media
Marketers like to use social media networks to drive brand awareness and reach potential new customers. There are two ways to reach people on social media, through organic or paid reach.
Organic reach is the number of people who see your content without paying for distribution. When you post something good on Facebook you would expect the Facebook algorithm to work well and show that content to a bunch of people who would be interested in seeing it. But, that is not how the well-established social media networks work nowadays. When you post something on your business page on Facebook, that post will be shown only to people who have already liked your page and a few of their friends. When you post something on your business profile on Instagram that post will be shown primarily to people who already follow you and only a few additional new people.
Paid reach includes the people who see your content as a result of paid promotions. As Facebook and Instagram have grown over the years the organic reach on those networks has been decreasing and it is almost non-existent bow. Therefore, in order to reach new people on those well-established social media networks nowadays you have to pay for it.
Organic reach on TikTok
The thing that I love the most about TikTok is the fact that it is not as greedy as Facebook and Instagram. If you post something on TikTok that post will be shown organically to a good number of people. If you post something really good on TikTok it will be shown to many people on the platform.
Marketers work very hard to create good-quality engaging posts for clients. It is very satisfying when our good work is rewarded with good organic reach. I love the fact that TikTok still does that, you can still achieve good organic reach for your posts on TikTok!
3. The Biggest Downside of TikTok
TikTok is different than other social media networks because it is a platform for sharing short-videos, not pictures, text or links. In my opinion, the fact that TikTok requires a different content type is the biggest downside of the platform.
Most of my clients struggle with creating content for TikTok. Brands are just not used to thinking about creating videos for social media. They are not there yet! My team has also struggled with creating short, authentic, videos for clients for TikTok.
I hope you found this blog post helpful! I have also recorded a video about this topic for my YouTube channel. Click here to watch the video. If you need help with social media for your brand, click here to learn more about the social media services that we provide.
by NextGen | Apr 11, 2020 | Other
The Coronavirus pandemic has created a major economic crisis and has put many businesses in survival mode. In this blog post I will give you some advice on how you can help your business survive the Coronavirus crisis.
I have an MBA from the University of Michigan, one of the best business schools in the world. After business school I worked as a business consultant for a Fortune 500 company in NYC. As a business consultant I helped executives deal with a variety of different business crisis. Therefore, I decided to write this blog post today with some basic steps that you can take to save your business the unprecedented global economic crisis caused by the Coronavirus.
ADVICE #1: RESEARCH FINANCING OPPORTUNITIES
If your business has any physical locations your revenues must be way down this month. It is difficult to generate sales when most people have been asked to stay at home. Even if your business is an online business you probably have not been spared from the global economic crisis. I run a digital marketing agency and my revenues are way down this month too. When people are not allowed to go outside money doesn’t circulate and there is less money for everyone.
On the positive side, governments worldwide have been very proactive about helping businesses overcome this challenging situation. Governments from countries impacted by the Coronavirus have put together huge business support packages for local businesses of all sizes. In the USA president Trump signed a $2 trillion virus bill, the largest stimulus bill in USA history. While the UK government announced a £330 billion business loan package, the largest peacetime business support effort in UK history!
If you are a business owner, my first advice for you is to perform an extensive research about business financing! Try to find all the government financial support programs that your business is eligible for. Then, you should also research financial support programs at business-related governmental agencies (e.g. the Small Business Administration in the USA), charity organizations and even commercial banks.
However, before you apply for any program, please make sure that you thoroughly review their terms and conditions. Governments and banks have announced very “creative” financial support programs to help local business survive, but those programs have very non-standard, terms and conditions too. Therefore, it is very important that you review the fine print for those programs before signing up.
ADVICE #2 NEGOTIATE
You know that good negotiation skills are very important for success in business. The Coronavirus crisis has has totally flipped our world upside down! As a result, everything is up for negotiation and re-negotiation right now.
I have experienced this in my business too. Some of my clients have asked for discounts during the Coronavirus crisis. Also, I have offered discounts to some of my long-term clients too. I value my relationships with my long-term clients, and since some of them are struggling right now I have proactively offered them discounts.
If you are a business owner, the second advice that I have for you today is to re-negotiate your expenses! Make a list of all your reoccurring expenses and then call the suppliers/vendors to negotiate. You should be able to get many deals and discounts in the current economic climate.
ADVICE #3 WORK ON YOUR BUSINESS
As business owners normally we are very busy working “in our business”, and we don’t spend a lot of time working “on our business”. What does that mean? Working “in your business” means doing specific and repetitive daily tasks for your business like an employee would. For example, if you are a fitness coach,when you have sessions with your clients you are working “in your business”. As business owners we are also employees of our businesses, therefore it is understandable that we have to spend some time working “in our businesses”.
On the other hand there is the concept of working “on your business”. When you work “on your business” you look at your business as the boss and you think about how to improve the business entity as a whole. When you work “on your business” you think about new processes that you can introduce to run the business more efficiently, you think about new products to introduce to the marketplace, and you think about the skills that you need to develop or acquire in order to grow your business.
If you are a business owner, the third advice that I have for you today is to spend the additional free time that you have during the lockdown to work “on your business”. Think about how to reorganize and improve your business now sot that it will not only survive the Coronavirus crisis but will thrive after the pandemic ends.
I hope that the advice that I shared with you in this blog post was helpful. I have also recorded a video on this topic that you can watch on my YouTube channel. Also, please subscribe to my newsletter to get monthly updates on hot topics in marketing and business.
by NextGen | Apr 3, 2020 | Other
The Coronavirus pandemic has changed our world in the last couple of months. Of course our health is the most important thing during this pandemic. However, many people have let the Coronavirus crisis impact on other areas of their lives, beyond their health. In this blog post I will share with you three pieces of advice about how to limit the impact of the Coronavirus crisis on your life. Let’s first stay healthy and then say no to the Coronavirus when it comes to other areas of our lives.
I am not a doctor, therefore I cannot give you medical advice on how to protect yourself from the virus. But, I have experience in dealing with crisis in the business world. l worked as a business consultant at a Fortune 500 company in NYC for a few years in the early 2010’s. As a business consultant I helped executives deal with many business crisis. So, I decided to write a blog post about how to deal with the current Coronavirus crisis, and how to limit its impact on your life.
ADVICE #1: DON’T FOCUS ON IT
When we are in a crisis situation it is very natural to completely focus on the crisis, to try to find all the information that is available about it online, and to constantly follow the news. I must admit that I am guilty of this too when it comes to the current Coronavirus crisis. I spend about 3-4 hours per day watching news from all around the world about the Coronavirus pandemic! And, I realized that obsessively gathering information about the Coronavirus is not helpful at all. Such behavior is expanding, not limiting the impact of this Coronavirus crisis on my life.
The first piece of advice that I have for you today is to not focus on the Coronavirus crisis so much! It is ok to watch news about the pandemic for 30 minutes to an hour each day. Of course it is very important to be aware of all the preventive measures that your government is taking to limit the spread of the virus. But, you definitely don’t need to watch several hours of Coronavirus coverage on TV every day. Say no to the Coronavirus by not focusing on it so much!
ADVICE #2: KEEP YOUR DAILY ROUTINE
Crisis situations cause disruption to our daily routine. Due to the recommended social distancing measures we are forced to stay at home for extended periods of time. Normally we spend a lot of time in the office and outside. So, the Coronavirus has definitely turned out daily lives upside down!
In order to minimize the disruption caused by this crisis on your life you should try to maintain normalcy as much as possible. Even though you are not allowed to go outside, or go to work, you should try to maintain your daily routine as much as possible inside your home. Even though you don’t have to commute to work now, you should try to wake up at the same time that you normally wake up. Then, you should try to work from home during normal business hours. And, you should try to have dinner at normal time too. Let’s say no to the Coronavirus trying to maintain our daily routine!
ADVICE #3: THINK LONG TERM
When you are in a crisis situation it is very normal to spend the majority of your day thinking about how to get out of the crisis. During the Coronavirus crisis many people are concerned about potentially contracting the virus. But, many people are also panicking about the economy, about losing their job or about bankrupting their business.
Earlier this year I decided to start a YouTube channel for marketers and entrepreneurs. I must admit I was very concerned about the future of my YouTube channel when the Coronavirus outbreak started. Just as I was starting to upload videos to my channel the Coronavirus outbreak started to develop and everyone became obsessed with the Coronavirus. My videos were not getting many views which was very disappointing. So, I debated whether to continue making videos during the Coronavirus pandemic.
After some serious thought I decided to not give up! I decided to keep making videos because the videos that I will create over the following couple of months will live on YouTube forever, well after the Coronavirus pandemic is over. Hopefully people will start discovering my videos after their current obsession with the Coronavirus. I know many of you are facing similar decisions about whether or not to continue certain activities during the Coronavirus pandemic. My advice to you is to think long-term when making those decision. Say no to the Coronavirus by thinking long-term and continuing to do things that could be helpful for your brand or your business in the long term!
Thank you for reading this blog post! Click here to watch a video about this topic that I created for my new YouTube channel.
by NextGen | Mar 26, 2020 | Remote Work
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has changed the world that we live in. Currently about one half of the world is quarantined at home. So, many people around the world are trying to continue with their jobs and work from home. Working from home is different in many ways from working from the office. I run a digital marketing agency and I have extensive experience working from home because digital marketing is done via the internet. In this blog post I will share with you some advice about working from home. I hope that this information will be helpful for many people who have had to adjust to working from home in the last month or so.
1. Team Communication
Communication is very important in the business world. Many surveys have shown that the number one skill that employers look for when they hire new people is communication skills.
Good communication is even more important when the team works from home. It is a lot easier to work together with your team when everyone is together in the same office. When your team is physically together you can just walk over and ask people a question any time. However, when everyone works from home it is a lot more difficult to get in touch with people.
Teams that are new to remote work often try to communicate via email or ad-hoc call to other team members during work hours. In order to improve team communications while working from home I suggest using one online communication tool for the team, such as Skype, and asking everyone to be “online” on that communication tool during work hours. On Skype you can have several different statuses, such as: online, away, offline. Therefore, my suggestion is to ask everyone to be “online” on Skype during work hours. This will make it a lot easier for team members to reach out to each other when they need help.
2. Stay Focused
It is a lot more difficult to stay focused when working from home. At home we have many distractions such as: the TV, music, neighbors, children, pets etc. I have a cat and she is my biggest distraction when I work from home.
Therefore, when you work from home you need to make more of an effort to stay focused. Please do not think that because your boss cannot see you while working from home you can slack off. If you do not take your job seriously while you work from home that will show in the deliverables that you prepare and will have an impact on the results of the team.
Even though it is a lot more difficult to stay focused when you work from home you really need to make an effort! My suggestion is to designate one area of your home as “work area” and try to remove all distractions from that area in order to make it easier to focus on work.
3. Team Management
Another topic that is important to discuss when talking about working from home is team management. It is a lot easier for team managers to manage the team when everyone works together in the same office. Normally there is a lot of informal communication going on the office and therefore it is a lot easier to make everyone is aware of upcoming deadlines, milestones and project activities.
When the team works from home team communication needs to become a lot more intentional. Therefore team managers need to schedule more virtual team meetings in which they will talk with the team about upcoming deadlines, milestones and project activities. This also means that in a work from home environment team meetings become a lot more essential.
I hope the information that I shared with you in this blog post is helpful! You can also watch a video on this topic on my YouTube channel. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions when you work from home during the coronavirus outbreak. Stay safe, stay home!
