Everything you need to know about #hashtags on Twitter

In your quest for social media knowledge you may have heard the term "hashtag" mentioned a lot! Hashtags are a tagging tool that is used by many of the top social media networks, however in this article we will be focusing on the use of hashtags for Twitter. The basic premise is that you throw # in front of a keyword for example; #socialmediaagency, this tells Twitter that your post is about social media and as a result will allow users to find your tweet by searching for the hashtag.

Why you should be using hashtags

Hashtags are much more than just an indexing tool used by Twitter. Used creatively they can add humour, more information and substance to your businesses tweets. Hashtags are the fabric of Twitter, each hashtag is a link that will take users to other tweets and content that is related to that particular topic.

If you are posting on Twitter without making use of hashtags you are severely limiting the amount of people that will see your tweet and if you are aiming to increase brand awareness impressions are the name of the game.

Where to start

First thing is first, you will need to establish what hashtags you will be using. You can technically hashtag any word you like, however this is not to say that you should. Some words are more popular than others and your goal is to find the keywords that your target audience are searching for. Here at Social 365, something we do with our clients is establish a list of core hashtag and keywords that we will use through-out their social media. These core words will be featured frequently in posts and specifically tweets to increase awareness of the business in those particular keywords.

Start by thinking of words that best describe your business and search for these hashtags on Twitter, ensure that the hashtags are being used for what you are expecting and businesses similar to yourself are coming up. It is also a good idea to take inspiration from the keywords you use on your website for SEO purposes. Your goal here is to pick hashtags that have high search volume from your target audience as well as high levels of interaction on tweets. Once you decided upon your core list of hashtag you can start using these with your businesses tweets.

How many should you use

There is much debate about how many hashtags you should be use. The key thing to bare in mind when trying to use hashtags, is that your tweets must be easy to read. #Tweets #with #too #many #hashtags #canbeverydifficulttoread. It does not matter how good your tweet or content is, if people cannot read your tweet, you will not get any engagement. There is research that suggests engagement drops significantly (17%) on posts with more than 2 hashtags, therefore we suggest sticking to 1 or 2 hashtags per tweet with the priority being placed on creating an easy to read post with natural hashtag placement.

How to find hashtags that are popular near you

In addition to using your core list of hashtags you should try to get involved with the conversion related to your industry in your local area. A get great way to find out what people are talking about is to look at the topics that are currently trending on Twitter. Trending topics are topics that are getting a high number of tweets over a short period of time. Keep an eye on these topics and make use of the topic hashtag if something comes up that you think your business can have an input on.

How to make your hashtags work for you

We have covered why you should be using hashtags, what things you should be hash-tagging and how many hashtags you should be using but how do you actually apply this to your tweets? Again, the most important thing to keep in mind is that your tweets much be easy to read. If you are tweeting a trending hashtag it is best to keep the hashtag at the beginning of your tweet so that the readers know straight away that your tweet is related to the topic in question. Another method we like to use is to incorporate the #hashtag into the sentence itself, this helps reduce the amount of characters used, an important consideration when posting on Twitter. If the hashtag you wish to use does not fit easily in the main body of the tweet, simply add the hashtag to the end of sentence #likethis.

Practise makes perfect

Now you know exactly what hashtags are and how you can use them to get your Tweets in front of your target audience. With some practise you will be able to get creative with how you are using hashtags, adding personality and important links to your tweets.

George Rudge - Social 365

Top Instagram tips for Businesses

There are over 600 million active Instagram users every month and 400 million active users every day!

With statistics like these, it is clear there is a huge opportunity for businesses to market their products or services to the masses in a different way than from other Social Media platforms. 

You might have a personal Instagram account already, and use it regularly. But being successful on Instagram as businesses is a different kettle of fish! 

These tips below will help you understand how to be an Instagram guru. 

1. Show people what happens behind closed doors

i) Instagram Stories

A new update by Instagram allows their users to upload videos and pictures to stories. Instagram stories are available from your mobile, and are only available for 24 hours (unless you choose to extend).

These stories are a great way for your followers to see what is happening behind the scenes of your company and connect with you on a more personal level. 

ii) Be creative in your posts

Posting short videos (up to one minute long) and colourful, vibrant pictures to your company page helps your followers and potential customers experience your company culture and mission. 

2. Use appropriate #hashtags

i) Company or industry hashtags

Hashtags are the way to expand your reach on Instagram. Post specific, brand specific, industry specific - they are all relevant and all get your business in the limelight.

An easy trick is to create a hashtag for your company (i.e. #company name). This will allow people who are searching for your business to easily find all the content posted by you.

You can use up to 30 hashtags per post. That’s right, 30. But it's best to stick to under 10 at a time. Being specific is better than just using hashtags for the sake of using hashtags. 

ii) Worldwide hashtags

If you have established your posting schedule to include popular weekly events, use these in your posts - #motivational Monday, #wisdomwednesday, #throwbackthursday (#tbt). 

These get millions of searches everyday, so it can't hurt to include them in your post can it?

3. Find collaborators

There are plenty of businesses out there who are trying to grow on social media. Collaborating with some of these businesses could be your ticket to more followers and potentially more sales. 

You could consider using unpaid mentions rather than paying for an influencer marketer. Collaborating with another business, with similar follower size and values as your business, can be beneficial for you both. Both promote to each others’ followers and both get added exposure.  

These tips will not only increase engagement with your followers, but will hopefully help you attract new customers to the business. Please let us know if you found these tips helpful and any other tips you've used to grow your Instagram account. 

Aaron Savage - Social 365

5 Reasons your business needs to be on social media

Image courtesy of BP

So you are still not convinced that your business needs to be on social media or you think that your pages are “good enough”.

There are now over 2.789 billion active social media accounts across the globe, that is 37% of the world’s population and that number is only going one way … up! Social media is no longer just somewhere for the kids to hang out, it is a platform that has taken great ideas and turned them into global corporations all within the last 20 years.

These are some very large and impressive numbers but how can social media actually help your business? Here are 5 benefits your company can expect to gain from having a great social media presence:

1. Get to know your customers like your best friend

One of the key benefits of social media is the customer insight it gives you. All of the major social media platforms offer extensive analytic data and great tools for interpreting it. If used correctly this data can give you priceless insight into what your customers want, how they behave and how you can best position yourself to solve their problems with your products/services.

2. Access to precision advertising tools

The advertising options offered by the top social media platforms are a marketers dream come true. For example, Facebook allows you to specify target locations, interests, behaviors and demographics. This means that you can ensure your advertisements are only attracting people who are interested in what you have to offer, which greatly helps your conversation rate.

You may think that this level of advertising accuracy is going to be expensive. However, advertising on social media is one of the cheapest methods of reaching large numbers of your target 

customers, with ads starting from as little as £1 per day.

3. Higher website traffic and search engine ranking

When you have a strong presence on social media, search engines such as Google will see your business as more of an authority in your area of business. As a result, not only will your web page appear higher in a Google search but your social media accounts will be separately listed, multiplying your presence. All of this additional exposure can greatly increase the amount of people connecting with your business online and the amount of people visiting your website.

4. Valuable competitor insight

Another great benefit social media gives your business is the ability to look at what your competitors are up to. Due to the open nature of social media, companies often post content that can provide an insight into what their current strategy and objectives are, allowing you to ensure your business is keeping up to date with the changing business landscape. In addition, seeing what content your competitors are posting also allows you to see what posts are most popular among your shared customer base, important information which can help you decide what content to share and promote.

5. Improved relationships with your customers

The final point on this list is perhaps the most important. Social media allows your customers to really get to know your business (this is particularly important for online businesses that have little face to face interaction with their customers). People like to buy from business that have similar values as themselves and the best way you can get across your companies values and ethos online is through utilising social media. By posting great content and interacting with your customers you will be telling your customers more about what your business stands for than any website or blog ever could.

Why wait, start now!

In this blog I have covered just a few of the many benefits that your business can enjoy from a strong social media presence, from great advertising options to learning more about your customers.

So, if I have managed to convince you to create a social media presence for your business, start by setting up Facebook and Twitter accounts and go from there. Or, if you already have social media pages set up but they are a bit lack luster, try spending a few more hours improving your presence and you will see the benefits for yourself.

George Rudge - Social 365

4 Reasons You Need To Use Twitter Ads For Your Business

If you’re reading this, then you’re probably trying to grow your companies social media page or build a personal brand.

Most people are familiar with Facebook Ads. They're widely used in business. You probably see them all the time on your personal news feed. You might have even tried them out in the past.

What’s surprising is the amount of businesses who don’t realise how useful Twitter Ads can be. If you’re not using them, here’s why you should be.

1.     Laser Targeting

Twitter’s targeting is excellent.

For starters, you can get your Twitter Ads to do almost anything you want them to. Want more conversions? Done. Want more website clicks? Done. Want more followers? You get the idea….

The range of different targeting methods for your audience is amazing. You can target by gender, interests, even followers and keywords.

 Twitter Ad Audience

You can also base your Twitter Ad audience on the followers of key influencers in your market. All you need to begin your ads is the twitter handle of someone key in your field.

You can also use Twitter Analytics to gain insight in to your followers, your growth, engagement and much more. This tool will help you find the exact audience who respond to your tweets and what they’re interested in so you can target your Ads accordingly. Perfect!

2.     Equal Accounts

If you have ever tried social media Ads in the past, you’ll know that most platforms only let you run Ads for a company page.

Facebook? Company only. LinkedIn? Company only. Twitter? Well...

You see, with Twitter, all accounts are equal. By this, I mean that Twitter doesn't define what account you have. It can be a personal account or a business account, there is no differentiation. This means you can run an Ad for either your personal page (say if you have a personal brand) or a company page.

You can promote a tweet, a product or a website on any account. You don’t have to worry about setting up a company page like you do on Facebook or LinkedIn – run Ads from the account you want to run Ads from. All you need is a budget. It’s that simple.

3.     They Cost Less And Reach A Larger Audience

Once you’ve sorted out your audience, all you need is the budget.

Twitter Ads are cheaper than other forms of online advertisement. Why you ask? Partly because a lot of businesses don’t use Twitter Ads!

You can advertise for less and get a good return on your investment, in part due to having less competition for audiences compared to Facebook Ads.

Of course, you will need to test. Your key audience might not be very big on Twitter compared to Facebook, but it’s worth trying, especially with the costs so low.  

4.     Fantastic Reporting System

Simply put, Twitter’s Ad reporting is amazing.  

I’ve already mentioned above about being able to target your Ads by loads of different features.

Well, Twitter also gives us the option to break down the results of the Ad by audience segment. What does this mean? Well, different features of your audience’s profiles can be broken down into individual reports, including gender, keywords and interests.

If you run your Ad based on the followers of key influencers in your market, you can also generate a report to see whose followers responded more to the Ad compared to others!

If you’ve ever tried to run a Facebook Ad, you’ll know all too well that their Ad reporting is nowhere near as sophisticated.

Final Comments 

If you want to try social media advertising, there are multiple benefits to both Facebook and Twitter Ads.

These are just 4 reasons why you should at least consider using Twitter Ads to promote your business. 

Aaron Savage - Social 365

4 Facebook Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

We live in the social media age. Businesses no longer need to dig deep to fund their advertising campaigns. Old school methods like direct mail and television broadcasting are expensive, especially for small businesses! Social media has changed the way we play the marketing game.

It is now fundamental for any size business to have a presence on social media. With Facebook being the most popular social media platform, it makes sense to start here. How you ask? Here are some tips.

Creating a Facebook page 

There are 1.86 billion monthly active Facebook users worldwide, and people are hooked. Everyday people wake up, and what’s the first thing they do? You got it, they check Facebook.

Now, Facebook are very specific about the profiles they allow to be created, after all, an average of 5 new profiles are created every second! You can’t create a new profile if you’re trying to promote your business. To start building your businesses social media presence, begin with creating a Facebook page. 

How to create a page 

There are different options provided to you by Facebook, so make sure you select the one that best fits your business. Here are your options:

Choose your Page type

Establish your Username 

You want to ensure that people can find your business easily and remember you, so you must make sure you’ve chosen your Facebook username. Your Facebook username will appear below the name you gave your Page, but that’s not the only place. The username also features in your URL. If the ideal username of your business isn’t available, chose one which closely represents your brand. It’s not the end of the world if you can’t get the exact name you want, so long as it represents your brand accurately.

Analyse your audience

Hopefully, if you’re at this point, you’ve established your target audience and you know everything about these people. With Facebook Page Insights, it is easier than ever to determine who you’re reaching out to with your posts. You can find out their age, gender, location and so much more. Better still, it tells you when your audience are most active online!

Audience reach insights

The mistake a lot of businesses make when it comes to their Facebook page is not adapting to the needs of the audience when they post. If your audience aren’t getting constant updates from your page, likelihood is they’ll eventually stop paying attention or unfollow you completely. Likewise, if you’re posting too much and clogging their timelines, it could have the same effect. You need to establish how many times a day, and at what time during the day, your audience expect to see updates. Experiment with your post times till you get the engagement you want to achieve. The beauty of Facebook is you can see how each post does in terms of reach and engagement. Optimise your posting schedule and content so you can get the most out of your followers.                                                           

Post relevant content 

As much as its important to post at the relevant times and days when your audience is online, the content you post is even more important. Simply: Offer Value. When you post, you should be offering more value than you’re taking. If you are not participating in a fair value exchange, your audience are likely to not engage.

One simple hack if you’re starting off is to have a look at what your competitors are up to. Check to see what they post, when they post, what the likes and comments are like on their posts. Keeping tabs on your competitors Facebook pages will give you some good insights and tips on what you can do.   

People typically spend 20 minutes on Facebook per visit. For that brief period, you want to engage and entertain your audience. The more entertaining and engaging content you post (relevant to their needs of course), the more they will tend to gravitate towards your page. Pictures, GIFS, videos, and the infamous memes help entice your audience to comment, like, or share a post.

You don’t have to come up with new content all the time, if you’re starting off this can be time consuming and exhausting. Just make sure your pages are looking fresh by posting a mixture of content. Most importantly, make sure you’re offering your audience value. If you’re trying to take all the time, people won’t engage and your page will flop.

Try Facebook Ads

As I mentioned above, social media advertising changed the game when it comes to marketing. No longer do you have to pay large sums for direct mail campaigns, it can all be done at the click of a button and for a fraction of the price. Although they are cheaper than traditional advertising, you still need a healthy budget. But if your budget allows, Facebook Ads are a must for all businesses in the modern day.

The benefit of Facebook Ads is that they enable you to target your audience to a T. You can get down to the nitty gritty details, targeting your audiences age, gender, interests, location. You can run your Ads to increase your Facebook likes, boost your post reach, drive traffic to your website or online store, or get video views. Whatever you need the Ad to do, the likelihood is that Facebook Ads can do it.

Facebook Ad Objective

Sounds simple, right? Well, you're correct. Facebook Ads can be simple, but they can also cost you a lot of money if little details aren’t quite right.

If you define your goals early, establish your target audience accurately, and have engaging content, you should reap the benefits from Facebook Ads.

For businesses in 2017, small or large, having a Facebook page is fundamental if you want to be taken seriously. Luckily, Facebook have made it easy for you to get started. If you follow the hints and tips from this article, you should have no issue generating business from Facebook.

Aaron Savage - Social 365