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Over the past year, Facebook has crushed the organic reach of the posts published by many Pages. Its harder than ever to get exposure in the News Feed without paying for it. Still, Facebook has launched new features, including tools specifically for Pages, which do create some potential for new opportunities.

We wanted to get some thoughts on some of these from a true Facebook marketing expert, so we reached out to Mari Smith, author of of The New Relationship Marketing and coauthor of Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day.

Facebook has made some big improvements to its search experience, adding keyword-based search to bring up post results, among other things. You can now find who has said what about any given topic. Are there opportunities for businesses here?

The ability to search for posts seems to be rather buggy and needs much improvement, Smith tells WebProNews. So far, despite a myriad of search tests myself, Im not finding it terribly useful. Over time, however, as refinements are made, businesses will be able to surface any post created by users on their personal profile, shared with public. Ideally, well also be able to surface posts made by Pages, too.

Asked if she sees Facebooks search feature becoming more of a go-to destination for users in light of its improvements, Smith says, Not yet. Facebooks search has a long way to go. It will be interesting to see just how widely users have taken to the new tabbed design of the search results page. Its not that obvious, at first. And, its not even that obvious how to search and surface items such as friends photos, places, events, etc. My guess is most users simply use the search bar for looking up other users profiles. Facebook would do well to provide further education/tutorials on how to optimize search.

We also spoke with Moz co-founder Rand Fishkin about Facebook search recently. He doesnt see Facebook search becoming very significant anytime soon either in terms of being a place where users regularly go to look for information.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg talked a bit about search during the companys earnings call last week.

So, our view on this is that there is a lot of unique content that people have shared in Facebook, a lot of personal content, recommendations from friends that you can get that you just wouldnt be able to get through a traditional web search service or other app, he said. And were on this multiyear voyage to basically index all the content and make it available to people and rank it well. We started off by launching graph search which I think included more than a trillion different connections in the first system.

And the second round of the search progress that we just started rolling out at the end of last year was post search, which now has indexed more than I think a trillion posts, which I mean the sizes of these corpuses are bigger than anything in a traditional web search corpus that you would find, he added. So its an interesting and fun challenge to make this work. Were seeing that people immediately understand how they can use this and find content that theyve seen in News Feed before or that theyve posted with just a few keywords.

In terms of what types of content might work best for Pages when it comes to visibility in Facebook search, Smith tells us, Visual wins the game for organic, paid and search results whether images or video. Our brains process images, especially containing real people, much faster than words. Plus, our attention spans have reduced, so the quicker businesses can communicate their message in a visual manner, the better. Videos under 60 seconds are ideal, with a blend of informative and entertaining, if possible. Notice when we do a search on Google, the row of YouTube video thumbnails always stands out!

Originally posted here:
Facebook Marketing Expert Mari Smith On Utilizing The Social Networks New Features

Despite the potentially jargon-heavy title of this piece, were actually talking about serious stuff here which is why you should know what youre spending time and money doing is worth the time and money.

While I think that sentence alone should bea goodreason, Ill expand to three core reasons why knowing the ROI of your social media campaigns is paramount to marketing success.

First up is a deeper dive into my initial statement: If youre spending time on something at work, it needs to be valuable, and that value needs to be provable, preferably by tracking your company and team goals.

If it doesnt, then you should ask yourself (or the powers that be) why youre doing it. Without getting too existential about it, most people work for an organization that has some kind of goal, with metrics attached. From there, a trickle down effect of departments, teams, and individuals having goals/metrics/KPIs/whatever you call them, is fairly common.

Now I hear you saying that you have goals and metrics for your social media campaigns. I also hear you shouting, Retweets! and Likes! and Pins!

While there is nothing specifically wrong with wanting traction on social channels, a few important considerations should be applied:

If yes,you are certainly not the norm.

Whichbrings us to our second point.

If youre not tracking the ROI of your social campaigns, you probably dont know whats working, not working, and why. And you should definitely want to know that information, because its how you get to better marketing, higher ROI, and a strategic understanding of what the right mix of channels by audience is for your brand.

See more here:
Why Knowing The ROI of Your Social Media Campaigns is Important by @texasgirlerin

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To some entrepreneurs, social media marketing is the next big thing, a temporary yet powerful fad that must be taken advantage of while its still in the spotlight. To others, its a buzzword with no practical advantages and a steep, complicated learning curve.

Because it appeared quickly, social media has developed a reputation by some for being a passing marketing interest, and therefore, an unprofitable one. The statistics, however, illustrate a different picture. According to Hubspot, 92% of marketers in 2014 claimed that social media marketing was important for their business, with 80% indicating their efforts increased traffic to their websites. And according to Social Media Examiner, 97% of marketers are currently participating in social mediabut 85% of participants arent sure what social media tools are the best to use.

This demonstrates a huge potential for social media marketing to increase sales, but a lack of understanding on how to achieve those results. Heres a look at just some of the ways social media marketing can improve your business:

1. Increased Brand Recognition. Every opportunity you have to syndicate your content and increase your visibility is valuable. Your social media networks are just new channels for your brands voice and content. This is important because it simultaneously makes you easier and more accessible for new customers, and makes you more familiar and recognizable for existing customers. For example, a frequent Twitter user could hear about your company for the first time only after stumbling upon it in a newsfeed. Or, an otherwise apathetic customer might become better acquainted with your brand after seeing your presence on multiple networks.

2.Improved brand loyalty. According to a report published by Texas Tech University, brands who engage on social media channels enjoy higher loyalty from their customers. The report concludes Companies should take advantage of the tools social media gives them when it comes to connecting with their audience. A strategic and open social media plan could prove influential in morphing consumers into being brand loyal. Another study published by Convince&Convert found that 53% of Americans who follow brands in social are more loyal to those brands.

3. More Opportunities to Convert. Every post you make on a social media platform is an opportunity for customers to convert. When you build a following, youll simultaneously have access to new customers, recent customers, and old customers, and youll be able to interact with all of them. Every blog post, image, video, or comment you share is a chance for someone to react, and every reaction could lead to a site visit, and eventually a conversion. Not every interaction with your brand results in a conversion, but every positive interaction increases the likelihood of an eventual conversion. Even if your click-through rates are low, the sheer number of opportunities you have on social media is significant. And as I pointed out in my article, The Four Elements of Any Action, And How To Use Them In Your Online Marketing Initiative, opportunity is the first element of any action.

4. Higher conversion rates. Social media marketing results in higher conversion rates in a few distinct ways. Perhaps the most significant is its humanization element; the fact that brands become more humanized by interacting in social media channels. Social media is a place where brands can act like people do, and this is important because people like doing business with other people; not with companies.

Additionally, studies have shown that social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing, and a higher number of social media followers tends to improve trust and credibility in your brand, representing social proof. As such, simply building your audience in social media can improve conversion rates on your existing traffic.

5. Higher Brand Authority. Interacting with your customers regularly is a show of good faith for other customers. When people go to compliment or brag about a product or service, they turn to social media. And when they post your brand name, new audience members will want to follow you for updates. The more people that are talking about you on social media, the more valuable and authoritative your brand will seem to new users. Not to mention, if you can interact with major influencers on Twitter or other social networks, your visible authority and reach will skyrocket.

6. Increased Inbound Traffic. Without social media, your inbound traffic is limited to people already familiar with your brand and individuals searching for keywords you currently rank for. Every social media profile you add is another path leading back to your site, and every piece of content you syndicate on those profiles is another opportunity for a new visitor. The more quality content you syndicate on social media, the more inbound traffic youll generate, and more traffic means more leads and more conversions.

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The Top 10 Benefits Of Social Media Marketing - Forbes