Staying ahead of the curve is the only way for a business to gain and keep a competitive edge. One of the main concerns you should have as a business owner is spreading the message about your brand to consumers all over the world. For years, entrepreneurs have used the power of social media to inform consumers about the products and services they provide.
Studies show that businesses spend anywhere between $4,000 to $7,000 a month on social media marketing. While learning cutting edge Google search tips or focusing on Facebook users is important to the overall success of your business, you have to dig deeper to find untapped marketing potential.
Finding out about and utilizing the power of new social media platforms to bring traffic to your website is vital. This is a great resource for learning how to use social media for enhancing traffic to your website:
https://www.daniweb.com/digital-media/digital-marketing/tutorials/520081/3-major-steps-to-drive-social-media-traffic-to-your-site.
Read below to find out more about new social media platforms to pay attention to in 2019.
Steemit is a New Twist on the Reddit Concept
As any marketing guru knows, content is still the king of the Internet. Business owners and entrepreneurs have used Reddit for years to promote their content. On Reddit, users are rewarded when their content gets upvoted. These upvoted pieces of content generally gets pushed to the top of user’s feeds. While Steemit uses a similar concept, there are some noticeable differences.
The first difference is that users are rewarded with Steem coin if their post catches fire on the platform. This platform was founded by Dan Larimer, who you may know as the CEO of BitShares. This block-chain based social media platform boasts over 1.2 million users, which means there is potential for generating lots of sales leads with the right content.
Are you new to the world of Steemit? If so, check out these tips for adequately marketing your business on this platform.
Inform Your Followers About Your Business
The main goal for most people using Steemit is to create viral content that will rise to the top of user feeds. While this is a great goal to have, you need to first work on establishing who your company is and what it does to the Steemit audience
Instead of trying to pack this important information in one long post, try breaking it up into a series of smaller blogs. By spreading the posts out, you can increase the chances of users actually seeing and engaging with them.
Be Sure to Allow Follows
Having success on Steemit will require you to build your following. The best way to do this is by enabling the “Allow Follows” feature. When this feature is enabled, you will be able to avoid accepting individual followers on your page. However, people can follow your page.
This means that you will not have to worry about cluttering up your Steemit feed. However, when the “Allow Follows” feature is enabled, other people on the platform can see all of the posts you make in their feeds.
Always Include a Call to Action
Developing great content for your Steemit profile is a must when trying to attract attention and sales leads. Some business owners fail to realize how important selling themselves in this content is. The people who read this content will want to know more about your company and what it can offer them.
Each piece of content you put on Steemit should feature a call to action. This part of your content will inform the reader what actions you want them to take. Getting them to visit your website or contact your company directly is a great use of a call to action.
Without this vital piece of content, the reader will be confused about what you want from them. Over time, you will learn how to craft an effective and persuasive call to action.
TikTok is Taking Over the World
One of the most popular social media platforms to arise in the past few years is TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com). People who use this platform create short videos that are played on a loop. This concept was first used and perfected by Vine, but TikTok is taking it one step further. With TikTok, users can add music, text and cool effects to their videos to make them more engaging and entertaining.
This platform has nearly 500 million monthly users. Once a video is created on TikTok, users are able to add hashtags to them. With these hashtags, other users are able to search for and find videos they are interested in.
While TikTok started out as a place for weird and funny videos, many marketing professionals and business owners have found a way to push their products or services on this platform. If you are thinking about using TikTok to promote your business venture, consider the helpful information below.
Using Hashtag Challenges is a Good Idea
For most TikTok users, participating in challenges is something they enjoy doing. There is usually a large list of challenges users can participate in. One of the most popular brands to embrace the power of TikTok challenges is The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
Each week, Fallon and company create a challenge that receives millions of participants. Before you can use challenges for the purpose of marketing your business, you will have to devise an engaging concept. Creating a challenge that asks users to produce videos of them using the products or services your business offers is a good idea.
Not only will this challenge generate a buzz about your business, it can also provide other consumers with social proof. Creating a catchy and memorable hashtag to accompany this challenge is also important. While it may take a bit of trial and error to figure out how to navigate the TikTok realm, the work you put in will be worth it.
TikTok Paid Ads Can Be Effective
Perhaps the most exciting TikTok news for business owners in 2019 is that the platform is now offering paid ads. These ads started to surface in January of 2019. As of now, there are four basic types of ads you can use on this site.
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The Branded Takeover
The Brand Takeover ads offered by TikTok will feature GIFs, videos or still images. The selling point of these ads is that they can be linked back to a company’s landing age. The only drawback of the Brand Takeover ads is that they are limited to one category per day. TikTok is offering people who invest in these ads metrics regarding impressions, unique reach and clicks. With this information, you can easily decide if a particular Brand Takeover ad is worth the money being invested.
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In-Feed Native Video
The In-Feed Native Video is the second type of ad being offered by TikTok. These ads are short videos that can be no longer than 15 seconds. The In-Feed Native Video is displayed in full-screen and users can skip them if they choose to. These types of ads will probably be used by companies seeking website clicks or app downloads. While In-Feed Native Video will offer the same four metrics as Brand Takeover ads, they will also feature addition metrics like average video play duration, engagement and video view time.
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Hashtag Challenge Ads
TikTok will also offer Hashtag Challenge ads on their platform. These ads can be used to promote a particular challenge you have submitted. When purchasing these ads, your challenge with feature the TikTok Discover banner. This banner is designed to increase the overall engagement with your challenge. Metrics measured in these campaigns will be things like views, hashtag page views, banner clicks and video engagement.
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Branded Lenses
Last but not least is the Branded Lenses. Most people are familiar with the AR lenses offered by Facebook and Snapchat. The TikTok lens will be very similar. Businesses can buy a Branded Lens to offer TikTok users. These lenses will be available for 10 days and will be featured in key spots in the TikTok app.
Create Live Video Broadcasts With the Help of Caffeine
Are you looking for a new and unique way to engage with your audience? If you answered yes, then using live streaming videos is a great idea. Luckily, the team at Caffeine.tv make creating and publishing this type of content easy. All of the videos created on Caffeine.tv get put into a feed. Once in the feed, users are able to react to how they feel about the content with emojis.
Not only can you stream videos of yourself, you can stream footage straight from your television or computer screen. The videos with the most views receive compensation via Caffeine’s newly launched monetization program.
Younger audiences are flocking to video streaming platforms in record numbers. This is why you need to find a way to use live video to push your brand. Here are some of the things you can do to make your live videos more entertaining and engaging for your audience.
Have a Basic Outline of What You Want to Cover
Clear, concise and entertaining videos get the most views on a platform like Caffeine.tv. Before you decide to start your live stream, make a bulleted list of what you want to cover. Having this loose outline of what needs to be addressed can help you.
Avoid trying to write out an entire script for the video. In most cases, a fully-scripted live video will come off as disingenuous or boring. Taking the time to go over in your head what needs to be covered can help you avoid rambling or talking about subjects for too long.
Product Demonstration Videos are Popular
Some business owners make the mistake of creating live videos that tells viewers about their product. Ideally, you want to actually give viewers a firsthand look at what the product does. Creating a demonstration video is a great way to drum up interest about your product.
Not only will this demonstration video give a view the ins and outs of the product, it can also reassure them that it works properly. If you carry a variety of different products, creating live videos for each of them is essential. Be sure to look at the feedback from Caffeine users on your first video. Doing this can help you optimize future content to ensure it meets the needs of your audience.
Offer the Viewer Incentives
If the main goal of your Caffeine live stream is to drive traffic to your website or get views to invest in your products or services, offer incentives to accomplish these goals. Many companies offer coupons to people who watch their videos. Creating coupon codes to offer in these videos is a great way to get views to take action.
With the creation of specialized coupons, you can track just how much engagement your Caffeine videos are attracting. The only way to fully optimize your various marketing campaigns is by tracking these types of metrics.
Make It Easy For Viewers to Take Action
Every live stream video you put on Caffeine should feature a call to action at the end. This part of your video is designed to tell viewers what action they need to take next. Without this vital piece of the video, consumers may come away from the video watching experience with unanswered questions.
The call to action in your video needs to be simple and to the point. The easier you can make it for viewers to take the desired action, the more success you will be able to have. When making an outline of your Caffeine video, take the time to fully write out your call to action. By doing this, you can get your point across without making mistakes.
Don’t Let Social Media Innovations Pass You By
The biggest mistake you can make as a business owner is ignoring the need for change and innovation. Facebook and Twitter are saturated with ads and content. This means you will have a hard time breaking through the noise. Instead of focusing solely on these well-established social media platforms, branch out and try something new. The social media platforms mentioned in this article are great venues to advertise your business and inform the general public about what you do.
