You want to get more social followers for your business, build stark raving fans, drive more leads and increase revenues. Who doesn't? But have you tried things like getting a buyer persona template whereby you can use your personas to create more targeted content? Are you able to create more targeted content for each group of customers and have more successful marketing campaigns and stronger results? Or are you withholding traditional marketing practices? Many companies tend to choose to leverage the services of experts in the field of social media management and brand-building strategies, like Tom Baker for example. These experts can come up with actionable plans to help out with key areas of establishing an online presence and more importantly, getting more customers talking about the brand. Here are eleven secrets to get more social followers. Post the articles: Sounds basic...and it is. Each day, I receive content that I think my community will like. I sift through those and select a daily piece of interesting info to share. (Here is a free content source for you!) Share a work/life balance tip: Your social media followers want to know you're a real person with similar struggles that they have. Note this when you share that type of content. (Example: Maybe you're posting a list of some type...say, "Especially #2!" Then you raise curiosity to see what #2 is.) Ask a question with the post: People are more apt to answer a question, than to randomly comment on a post. If somebody posts a photo and asks you a question, such as, "Which is your favorite?" regarding a list you post, people are more likely to click through, read and have a comment. Be a genius. Attract customers and prospects by showing how smart you are, sharing info that is about the industry, relevant and, well...HOT. Posting educational articles for your industry and target audience makes you a more relevant partner for customers and helps keep you in tune with your target persona. Another way to get a larger following on a social media platform like Instagram, is to Buy your Instagram followers with Upleap. Tie the post to real people or events at your facility: Bring the post home with a comment about a person on your staff or an event happening. Commenting, "Ms. Shayna wouldn't approve of this article, would she?" would certainly raise comments, especially if Shayna is popular! Staff comments: Encourage your employees to comment on the posts on your page. Often, people are reluctant to comment, as they don't know the human behind the post; but, if their specific contact at your company comments, this often will get them to join the conversation. Caption this: Did you find an image associated with one of your pieces of content particularly compelling? Ask your fans to caption it! Faux number the post as a "tip:" Periodically post article using a random numbered tip to increase engagement. This is true whether or not the tip is part of [...]

HOT!Content makes your social streams work. Are you wondering whether social media marketing is right for your business, but you don’t have the time and expertise to get started? Engage121 developed a daily dose of hot content, named HOT!Content, just for you. Social media success starts with finding and posting articles that are interesting, entertaining, and informative. Sounds hard, right? And do you really have the time? HOT!Content provides you everything you need to get started in social media: 1. A daily email containing 5 articles ready for you to post; 2. A one-click system that posts articles to your Facebook page and Twitter account; and 3. Most importantly, an easy way to promote your posts to build your community. Best of all - it’s FREE! Simply request your own personalized HOT!Content here.

It wasn't so very long ago that a business needed only 3 things to ensure a robust social media presence: a posting platform, an intern to research your content, and an internet connection. Those days are long gone and these days, after Facebook algorithm changes, only 3-5% of your community will actually see what you post. That's why knowing how to boost organic social traffic is so important for you and your business. While it's clear that the only way to be seen completely is to pay for the privilege, there are adjustments you can make to your content strategy to gain a marginal improvement in your organic reach. It starts by finding an expert Social Media Community Manager. The following changes, implemented by a savvy Community Manager, along with a modest social media advertising budget, will make sure your message appears to all of your community, and your best local prospects. First, we recommend you find a social media expert to review what topics are trending, in real time, across all of your social platforms. By taking this approach they will help ensure you're plugged in to what's being talked about, and improve your chances of your posts getting a higher score for relevancy. They will also help keep you from falling into the most common "default" kind of posts – those that are all about you. Why is this important? Facebook's algorithm penalizes over-promotion by reducing how often a business's posts appear in their community members' news feeds. Another factor is the newsfeed and notification settings that Facebook users can apply. Your community members can choose to "Get notified" when you post and "See first" in their newsfeed and, when they do so, your reach is improved. Also consider your post types. Facebook's News Feed algorithm analyzes the type of posts that individual users tend to like. Users that often interact with photo posts are more likely to see more photo posts in the News Feed, and users that tend to click more on links will see more posts with links. A good Social Media Community Manager will review where you're getting the most engagement and adjust accordingly while maintaining a good mix to engage the whole community. Finally, a great Social Media Community Manager knows how to create conversations with your community. It starts with great content they know will resonate with your target audience and that they will want to engage with. That engagement is facilitated by asking questions like "what's your favorite" or "Pro or Con?" Trivia questions, relevant to your business, can also be highly engaging. (Facebook also publishes a lot of good information on the basics of community management -- click here to see an overview.) In conclusion: While you will still need to spend money on paid promotions to maximize your reach, a great Community Manager will know how to put these organic tactics and strategies in place, to maximize the results of your advertising dollars and boost organic social traffic. Their [...]

Fantastic! You understand the value of social media for your business and have your pages set up. Now what? Take the time to do it right so you don't have to make the time to do it over! Creating a growing and engaged community – the kind that rewards you with increased organic reach – is a strategic imperative, not tactical. Our Social Media Assistant service does this thoroughly, and thoughtfully. A great social media presence begins with great content. Many businesses stop here. But, while great content essential, it is only the start. Social media is practically the main form of communication we now have to connect with audiences, promote and bring in business through this medium. There are supportive structures that can help with this area such as looking to buy active Twitter followers to push up numbers and appear bigger to target audiences, as well as running social media events on Twitter, Instagram, etc. but just like we mentioned before, it is only the start. The following is a "soup to nuts" checklist of the things that need to be done to be successful using social media for business. You can think of it as a social media audit that helps you to understand where you're sitting from a business perspective and ensure you are made aware of the key components that can be optimized. It is also a list of all of the services our Social Media Assistant service takes care of for you to guarantee your social community growth and engagement. Know your audience. First, consider that your interests may not be the same as your customers' and prospects'. This is important as it is your customers and prospects that you want to engage. Getting help through an organic Instagram growth service to boost you at the start can help, but that doesn't replace doing the research to hone in directly on your market. It can simply help you meet it sooner. The closer we match their interests, the more likely they are to engage with your posts. That's why we always check out the pages and interests that our community members are engaging with. This helps hone your content strategy for maximum impact. Post regularly. Our research tells us that the best practice for businesses is to post content at least 5X a week. It's also important to post no more than 2-3 times a day or your posts turn into "white noise" and won't get the attention – and engagement – you desire. Our service taps into curated content that will resonate with your community...and beyond. Promoting posts is a must: That's because only 3-5% of your audience will organically see those posts. We know how to target these promotions so that your community is not only engaged, it's growing! Use trusted content sources. While it's great that businesses create original content, nothing has quite the cache, trust or credibility of an article done by the Harvard Business Review, Wall Street [...]

Social Media offers businesses a rich, and sometimes confusing, selection of platforms to choose from. However, they can be a great way for new businesses to establish themselves and meet new clients. Anyone starting a new business knows how difficult the process can be, which is why many people will take advantage of the many resources available out there, like the list of the best registered agents on this page, for example. A registered agent will help make sure all the legal aspects of a business are all in order, leaving you free to manage everything else like establishing your brand and finding clients. Setting up a strong social media presence is one of the best ways to raise awareness about your brand and find new business. Some social platforms are even considered "mandatory" and others have specific demographics that make them better suited to some businesses than others. How do you know which platforms are right for you? At Engage121 we've been managing social media for businesses since 2008. Last year we developed a social media concierge service – Social Media Assistant – that knows how to optimize and manage a business's social presence. Here's where we start: Across all platforms: We ensure messaging, contact information, and photos are consistent across all platforms: Profile descriptions should be as close to identical as possible across all platforms. For Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ they can be. Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest all have a 160 character limit, which will constrain the description. Bottom line, by simply understanding how kennected can help you, we make sure your profile descriptions follow best practices to optimize your social branding. Contact information should be explicit – i.e., we make sure people don't have to ask for your phone number, address or website. Since we're putting all this energy into getting "found" on social we make it as easy as possible. Profile pictures should project a professional image. We choose a high-quality photo that visually represents your business. Logos work, but for many professionals such as realtors, doctors, attorneys, or CPAs, for example, a professionally created headshot is recommended. You can find a Rhode Island headshots photographer here if this is something you might be interested in. Profile pictures should be consistent across your social platforms, although size requirements differ. We also establish a business page on each platform. For Facebook this is a requirement and only a business page has access to Insights analytics and advertising. It is also against Facebook's Terms of Service to use a personal page with commercial intent. And, while only "required" for Facebook, this is a best practice across all platforms and one that we firmly believe in. Next are platform-specific recommendations and considerations: Facebook: As the platform with the greatest number of members (1.6 billion and growing) we focus here first. Facebook should have a place in every business's social strategy. We thoroughly complete the "About" section with location, website, and phone number. For many of our client's businesses, we [...]

If you are on social media, you need to take advantage of Facebook ads. There are plenty of agencies like Voy Media who are trained in Facebook Ads that can help your business grow their online presence. But don't just take our word for it, take a look at our results. For the month of January, we added Google Adwords into the mix and wanted to share performance results. First, the ads we ran were as similar as they could be given the ad requirements and/or constraints of each channel. That means that targeting, calls to action, and creative were all kept as closely aligned as possible to get a good read on the performance of each. The results? At first, we were blown away by the results: In every metric except Cost Per Click and Cost Per Conversion Facebook ads outperformed Google Adwords by close to 300%+. Conversion costs of the Facebook ads ran roughly 1/5 of what they cost using Google Adwords. But it really makes sense, doesn't it? For starters, Facebook offers very powerful behavioral targeting that's superb for segmentation based on actions. Plus, as a social platform, Facebook ad placements enable, or even encourage, digital "word of mouth" through Likes, comments, and shares. At the end of the day, if our end goal was simply to build our brand, then Google might have been a more cost-effective choice. But clearly, if your goal is conversions in a niche market, Facebook ads deliver the performance we want. Regardless of the online ad channel being used, it's important to note that twice as many ads were delivered to mobile devices than desktops. For our Facebook ads, the mobile clicks outperformed desktop by almost 400%! Want to optimize your digital ad spend for mobile and desktop? Give us a call, or schedule a review with one of our social media experts. We're doing just that for thousands of small businesses across the continent!

1. How often should you post content on your social media sites? This is a question we get all the time. Some businesses post 4 times a day, others post once a week, and some post monthly. For instance, if you have luxury homes for sale delray beach, then you might as well post it on social media to attract more customers. The same can be said for any and all real estate opportunities that people may not know of, an example of this is when people want to sell their homes but they want to do it quickly and preferably close to the price point that they have set out, this is where companies that do 'We Buy Houses' would come in useful, so having that promoted will help companies and customers as one. Realistically, what success in this field comes down to is face-to-face interaction with customers of real estate. Let us take this example into consideration where this particular team in Milwaukee Real Estate Commercial Sales and Leasing has its own website. Not that they would restrict their promotional activities to social media alone. They might get on to the field, talk to clients, talk to their close ones, build a professional network, and many more. The whole point narrows down to imply that social media alone is not a business tool. Yes, social media is a useful tool in this business, but face-to-face interactions, such as giving a good listing presentation, etc, is where success is built for a real estate agent/business. Although, many agents and businesses like to keep a social media account going to keep their customers interested once they have successfully got them. Social media is an excellent place to show off your latest listings. Whilst some estate agents would argue Myrtle Beach real estate sells itself, uploading some images onto Instagram might just speed up that process. What do you think is the correct answer? once a week every day once a month other If you selected "D" you'd be correct. 5 times a week is the best practice for small businesses (that includes real estate brokers and agents) according to our Engage121 research. 2. What's the biggest impediment to posting regularly? lack of writing skills lack of time lack of content According to a recent RISMedia survey "B" was the winner with 45% of real estate offices saying they just didn't have enough time. 31% admitted they didn't have the skill and 15% said they didn't have the content. 32% admitted they needed to post more frequently. 3. How do you define great content? entertaining industry focused timely broadly relevant all of the above I'm betting everyone answered "E". This answer was pretty obvious. What is NOT obvious, however, is how to find content that meets all of these criteria. The easy (and fast, and inexpensive) answer is Engage121's Social Media Assistant that gives you: ✓ Engaging, curated, regular content ✓ Full-service social media management ✓ Best-in-class social media advertising We [...]

We love small businesses, their potential and their passion. And we’d like to do our part to help them navigate the road to social media success. These days every business, large or small, must have a consistent social media presence to be taken seriously. And we’re here to help with a fantastic high-quality free social content service! It’s called Hot!Content and is delivered via our Engage121 Mobile app and/or an email Monday through Friday. Here’s how it works. Every night we receive over 3,000 digital content feeds and we keyword scrub, depending on the industry or vertical a customer is in. Once the content has been topically narrowed we run it through our historical database of (hundreds of thousands of) social media posts and the performance of each. That means we can predict what content is going to resonate with each business’ prospects and current customers. The end result is that every business day you’ll get 3-5 articles to post to all of your social accounts immediately, and you can even schedule them for later or throughout the week! Could your small business use a steady stream of top-flight curated content? (We know the answer.) Signing up is easy. Just click here to register, select the industry that fits your business and connect your social accounts.      

Today, over 40 million SMBs have an active Facebook business page.  Of those, 2.5 million are marketing partners paying to advertise their goods and services on Facebook.  Most are SMBs and this is good news for Engage121 clients. Facebook’s new Professional Services Search – replete with consumer reviews – is an important innovation that will yield great results for Engage121 SMBs once it’s fully launched. Its focus is hyper local and, considering that 71% of digital shoppers said they are more likely to respond to an ad for a local business than a larger operation, search results will be more relevant – and productive – than ever. Of course, it will also yield great results for Facebook as it takes on Yelp and Alphabet (formerly Google) to keep people on Facebook for all their research and shopping needs. (Clearly Yelp stockholders are concerned – price is down almost 20% since the FPSS discovery.) Facebook clearly understands the value of the 40 million SMB business pages and is investing in better servicing that segment.  By focusing here Facebook ensures a) better advertiser satisfaction; b) a better user experience; and c) increases in ad spend.  Win-win across the board. We see better targeting, richer data, and improved performance in our (not too distant) future.  Good for Engage121 and good for our clients.  Another win-win! We’re excited to see how Facebook rolls this out and will keep you updated on opportunities as they develop.

It’s been a splendid year for us here at Engage121. And that’s not only because we are proud to serve over 11,000+ clients. We have worked hard, and we are delighted to look back on 2015 and see each of our clients enjoying growing & engaged social community. There have been lots of learnings for us this year – both from changes in and on the platforms that we use, and from our customers. A really special thanks to our customers who are our inspiration to innovate! Here’s hoping you, our clients and future clients, have a wonderful and relaxing holiday (and, of course, growing and engaged communities!). 2016 is going to be another great year for us all!