Technically Easy

Category: Internet

All posts that are related to various aspects of the Internet can be found within this group.

  • Why A Failure to Use SEO Is a Death Sentence When Marketing Your Content Online

    Why A Failure to Use SEO Is a Death Sentence When Marketing Your Content Online

    Remember the last time you searched for any type of content online. There are pages which the search engine arranges content in order of their priority.

    This priority is majorly determined by the main keywords used and those optimized by a website owner.

    You probably looked for what you wanted amongst the first couple of sites that appeared in your search engine’s results. You are not alone since only 25% of online surfers look out for any content they need beyond the first page.

    This is also the same for your content and the customers that you intend to reach. Relevance online is only determined by how well you have optimized your website and the content in it.

    This article explores the various SEO services and their crucial necessity to your business and website.

    What is SEO?

    According to Wikipedia SEO, fully defined as search engine optimization, is the process of influencing the visibility of your website or web page over the internet in a web search engine’s results that have not yet been displayed.

    The process is fully natural, and this is the reason why many refer to SEO marketing as organic.

    To put it simply, the earlier (also can refer to a higher ranking on the page displaying search results) and higher the frequency of appearance of your website within a search results listing, the more visitors who use the search engine you are guaranteed to get.

    You can then convert the visitors into customers for the products and services you have, market, or even discuss in your website.

    The way SEOs work

    As stated above, having SEO increases the chances of your website being found by people who type in queries that are related to your online content.

    Depending on the efficiency of your SEO, your website may appear either on the first or subsequent pages of a search result.

    At the moment you type in any query into a search engine like Google, it performs an analysis of all web pages with their relevance as priority and returns an appropriate list.

    There is an algorithm which is used by search engines enabling them to select the pages that appear in all search results. This is then how SEOs are advantageous since they can assist you to organically influence your priority in the list.

    Optimizing content for your website may involve a couple of practices. They include the following:

    • Editing the web content.
    • Adding content regularly to the website.
    • Adjusting HTML for the content purposes.
    • Associated coding which can increase its specific keyword relevance and or even remove barriers that inhibit indexing activities for the search engines.
    • Promotion of a site done by enhancing an increment of the backlinks number as well as the inbound links.

    The history and evolution of SEOs

    Search Engine Optimization began early in the mid-1990s when the earliest search engines began cataloging the web.

    In the initial stages, you were only required to submit the page address and various search engines would then send extractors to get suitable links.

    The links would refer to other pages and any information on the page was indexed. The indexer would always extract relevant page information including the number of words, location, specific weight of words contained, and all links contained in the page.

    The storage of such would assist in later searches for optimization.

    White hat and black hat SEO practitioners arose from the huge demand for a prime visibility as well as ranking for all website owners.

    They used early versions of search algorithms which were reliant on information offered by the webmasters including details like keywords, Meta tags and even index files.

    Meta tags have evolved to offer guidance to each specific page and its contents. Web content facilitators then developed the tactic of manipulating some HTML source attributes for various pages to be given a higher ranking.

    This habit along with excessive stuffing of keywords in content was discovered by the earlier search engines and they made adjustments to prevent any sort of ranking manipulation.

    The adjustments were triggered by the need for the search engines to grant you the user a great browsing experience not filled with irrelevant results.

    They developed algorithms which were more complex in a manner that only relevant results were displayed.

    The algorithms complexity has recently been made to detect if you apply overly aggressive tactics to gain an edge and you can possibly get banned from the results displayed after a search.

    This necessitates the need for expert SEO services for your website that ensure you are neither locked out of the search results and nor are you ranked poorly.

    Your business and website success largely depend on how highly you have been ranked.

    Are you using SEO techniques to optimize your site? What are your results?

  • The Business Leader’s Guide to Instagram

    The Business Leader’s Guide to Instagram

    When it comes to running a business in 2018, having a strong online presence is hugely important. Even if you’re running a brick-and-mortar store, it isn’t just about word of mouth or handing out flyers anymore.

    Many of your customers, especially millennials and Gen Zers, are going to find your business first online. That’s why you need to be as connected as possible.

    Running a business these days means having a beautiful website that loads quickly on desktops and mobile phones, blogging about issues in your industry, and having a strong social media presence. And one of the most important platforms when it comes to social media is Instagram.

    If you’re ready to up your game on Instagram and get as many leads as possible, all you need to is follow this guide. It’s all about using creating the right kind of account, using special hacks, and creating a good look. And here’s how.

    Establish yourself with an Instagram Business Profile

    The first and most important step of setting up your Instagram profile is establishing yourself by using an account specifically made for businesses: the Instagram Business Profile.

    Even before you think about what hashtags to include in posts and what filter to use for showing off your trending products, do this first. All you need is your business’s Facebook account, and you can connect your Business Profile to that.

    There are lots of perks to getting an Instagram Business Profile. According to the Tailwind Blog, these perks include the abilities to add additional contact options (phone number, email, address), promote posts immediately (which means more visibility), free analytics through Insights (such as gender, average age, impressions, and more).

    Additionally, Instagram approves 3rd party software for scheduling and publishing posts–but only if you have a Business Profile.

    Considering that 32 percent of teenagers consider Instagram to be the most important social media platform, this is a great way to get the attention of younger customers, which will make them loyal to your brand in the long run.

    Engage–in every way

    One of the strategies businesses overlook when it comes to Instagram is engagement. Maybe it’s because it’s a new social media platform that more traditional business leaders don’t understand, or maybe they think that a platform that only uses images isn’t going to be as important as their Facebook account or their blog.

    But considering that 71 percent of businesses had an Instagram account in 2017, this isn’t the case at all. It’s time to engage as much as you can.

    The first step is connecting with other Instagram accounts related to yours. For example, if you’re selling homemade jewelry as an ecommerce merchant, follow other businesses doing the same thing. When they follow you back, their followers will pay attention. You should also think about buying ad space from the biggest of these businesses.

    In the same vein, working with influencers will get you attention from potential customers, too.

    Then, of course, there’s the hashtag. Hashtags are powerful and extremely important on Instagram. According to Social Media Examiner, this is the best way to create the right hashtags for you: select 5-7 extremely popular hashtags (100,000-500,000 associated posts), 5-7 moderately popular hashtags (10,000-100,000 associated posts), 3-5 niche-specific hashtags, and 1-3 branded hashtags.

    This way, you’ll connect with a large number of people, but also focus on the followers who are meant for your brand.

    Determine your aesthetic

    Finally, you need to determine your brand’s aesthetic. After all, Instagram is a visual social media platform, and images are what matter most. According to Schedugram, you should:

    “Think of it in terms of walking into a store, for example. With the clean lines and crisp white surfaces, you probably get a very different feeling walking into an Apple store than you do walking into a boldly blue and yellow Best Buy.

    They have some similar products, but their overall vibes are incredibly different. This same rule applies to your brand’s Instagram account. The style of the photos you curate within your feed say a lot about the overall personality of your business.”

    Once you know a bit about your ideal customer, you’ll get a better idea of what colors and looks to use. Don’t forget that this look should exist not only on your Instagram account but also on your website and other social media profiles.

    Instagram now has over 800 million monthly active users, so the more established your aesthetic, the more success you’ll have.

    These are some of the best strategies for using Instagram for your business. What other strategies do you use to attract customers online?

  • 5 Sure Ways to Get More Facebook Shares

    5 Sure Ways to Get More Facebook Shares

    More investors are reaping the perks of using social media as a marketing platform. You must do this right if you want to be part of the business individuals who use social media sites like Facebook to their advantage.

    Social sharing is one of the proven ways of driving more traffic to your business. This means that if you are relying on the medium to market your business, you must create top-notch quality that will impress readers to a point where they will want to share it with their friends, relatives, and other networks.

    When your visitors share content with others, more people will get to know about your entity. You will also benefit from more links leading to your website.

    This will typically result in you enjoying top Google position as you will gather more ongoing traffic from the post. If this is not happening already, here are five tried and tested methods that you can use to improve social sharing.

    1. Often post updates when your audience is online

    It is important to post fresh content when your audience is online, so that they do not miss anything you have to say. Posting after every hour may not give you desired results as your readers may deem this as excessive.

    Try and find the right time to post on a daily basis to give your readers something to distract or entertain themselves.

    Go through your data to identify the best time to post. Easily access this on the Facebook Page Insights on the post tab to know when your fans are mostly online.

    This data can help you make educated guesses on the best posting time. It is advisable to experiment with different times both non-peak and peak hours to find out what works best for your brand.

    2. Track progress

    Find out the number of shares Facebook from service providers who specialize in tracking Facebook shares.

    This is the best way to track progress, especially when you are not in a position to stay online at all times. The results will let you know how you performed in the sector.

    Keeping tabs on the shares is important because you will get to know the content that you should be posting and the ones to ignore.

    3. Come up with posts specifically for Facebook

    Content that might work well for Twitter or Instagram may not necessarily work for Facebook. For instance, GIFS are perfect for Twitter and hashtags incredible for Instagram, but both do not perform well when used on Facebook.

    Make sure you create appealing content that will bring in the results you want on Facebook, if you want other people to spend their time sharing it with others.

    4. Include eye-catching videos and images

    Adding videos and images to your content can help to get the attention it deserves on Facebook. This, however, does not mean that you should go out and pick any images or videos available.

    Try not to include typical pictures. Instead, go for the eye-catching ones that are bound to evoke emotions from viewers. Try and make your audience think, cry, or laugh.

    Use a great combination of filters and colours to make your images stand out to increase chances of them going viral. Maintain an excellent thumbnail when using videos to draw attention, so as to achieve the maximum engagement.

    5. Ensure social sharing works on mobile

    Many businesses tend to ignore this fact, something that can hurt their business in a huge way. Note that more traffic nowadays comes from mobile devices.

    For this reason, you must make sure that your social sharing icons work perfectly across various mobile devices.

    Numerous options are available when you want to make this possible. An example is installing plugins that will include share buttons on your pages.

    Test this first before installing to make sure it works in the right manner.

    Running a business website or blog today is no easy fete. You must find the right ways to market your products, if you want to stay in business for a long time.

    Facebook shares are one of the ways to keep you at the top. Make sure you are constantly producing shareable content on Facebook, so that you can work with effective social media campaigns.

  • e-Commerce Smarts: Driving Long-Tail SEO

    e-Commerce Smarts: Driving Long-Tail SEO

    In the competitive world of e-commerce and online marketing, every brand wants to get in front of as many eyeballs as possible. But what about getting in front of the right eyeballs? You know, the ones that will actually convert.

    While any e-commerce SEO strategy should include plenty of keywords with large search volumes, it’s often the more specific, less-searched-for keywords that end up driving conversions. I’m talking about long-tail keywords.

    Let’s learn more about what long-tail keywords are and why they’re a big part of any e-commerce company’s organic marketing campaign.

    Long-tail keywords

    Long-tail keywords generally contain at least three or four terms and thus are more specific in nature than their high-volume counterparts.

    It might take years of dedicated effort to rank well for high-volume keywords, but you can grab search real estate for strategic long-tail keywords in just a few months or even less depending on the lack of competition.

    And here’s the interesting thing. Even though long-tail keywords carry much lower search volumes, they actually make up around 70 percent of all search queries.

    You probably already know the vast majority of long-tail queries that relate to your offering, but maybe you haven’t spent time targeting them because the larger keywords seemed like dollar signs. Make a list of all of the relevant long-tail keywords you can think of.

    Be as specific as possible. Then plug them into a free long-tail keyword tool like Keyword.io for further suggestions. Additionally, free e-commerce websites like Shopify offer long-tail keyword plugins to help you track your efforts.

    User intent

    So now that we know that there’s value in targeting long-tail keywords and ranking for them will be much easier than ranking for highly searched keywords, let’s address why long-tail keywords usually have much better conversion rates.

    Basically, it all boils down to something called user intent. Ranking well for widely searched keywords will increase site traffic and brand awareness, but broader queries also mean broader user intent.

    This brings a lot of top-of-the-funnel or unqualified traffic since it’s impossible to know what the searcher is really looking for.

    A long-tail keyword, on the other hand, has already reached a certain level of specificity in a searcher’s mind; they have a pretty good idea of what they’re looking for.

    Here’s an example:

    • User A is looking for a new pair of pants, so they search for “men’s pants.”
    • User B is also looking for a new pair of pants, but they have a better idea of what they want, so they search for “olive green chinos.”

    According to Keyword Planner, “Men’s pants” is searched around 3,600 times a month while the grammatically aesthetic “mens pants” is searched 22,000 times each month.

    Even if you’ve managed to rank for this ultra-competitive keyword (which would be an impressive feat on its own), there’s a good chance that when user A visits your site, you won’t carry a style of men’s pants that they want.

    And that’s OK, we can’t be everything to everyone. However, you’ve just whiffed on the sale.

    Conversely, we can tell User B has a more concrete idea of what they want by the specificity of their search terms. This means that if user B lands on your site, you sell olive green chinos and have a decent chance to earn the conversion.

    Of course, this assumes you’re doing everything else right, such as displaying detailed product info, high-resolution photos of models wearing the chinos from different angles, and you’re offering a simple interface.

    “Olive green chinos” is only searched 380 times a month, but is undoubtedly much easier to rank for than “men’s pants.” So you make the call. Would you rather spend years trying to rank for “men’s pants” or a few strategic months earning a top five spot for “olive green chinos”?

    Getting ahead of your competition with voice search optimization

    Long-tail has been a vital organic SEO strategy for years, but it’s becoming even more crucial with the widespread adoption of voice search through mobile and smart home assistants.

    People are increasingly turning to Alexa, Siri, Cortana, and Google Home to answer both pressing and spontaneous curiosities. According to ComScore, by 2022, half of all searches will be voice searches.

    Since it’s atypical for humans to ask a question or describe something through minimal speech, it’s safe to say most voice searches will be long-tail keywords. For e-commerce companies, this presents an exciting opportunity to get ahead of the competition by optimizing for voice search.

    But it won’t be easy. Ranking for long-tail keywords requires a lot of content creation and proper optimization. Long-tail terms are unique, so it’s hard to have one page rank for multiple long-tail queries.

    So grab your thinking cap, create a list of long-tail queries and analyze the user intent behind each query. What is the motive of the searcher? Informational, transactional?

    When you’ve assembled a list and have a good idea of each term’s user intent, start outlining a plan to create the various content that’ll have you ranking well, and hopefully, driving more conversions.

  • 5 Things Can Boost Your eCommerce Business

    5 Things Can Boost Your eCommerce Business

    After days, weeks and even month of hard work, your ecommerce website is finally ready to conquer the online world. From an idea in the back of your heard, to the process of turning concept to the reality of a published site, here you are, ready for the next step: getting sales.

    Easier said than that in an increasingly competitive online world, but just because the road to success might require a lot of work, and a smile or two from lady luck, doesn’t mean your site won’t be among the few ones that will make it to the top.

    Here is a brief SEO guide for ecommerce websites including 5 tips that could help you along the way:

    1. Bring targeted traffic to the site

    It is important to make sure you understand what targeted means. If traffic is the key to a website success, qualified traffic is its holy grail. Whilst thousands of visitors to a website is what we all ultimately strive for, nothing is more important than ensuring that the visitors who come to your site are actually interested in the products or services you specialize in.

    That means that traffic for the sake of it is not sufficient. What you really need is qualified, targeted traffic!

    There are many ways qualified traffic can be brought into a site and they all fall under the category of internet marketing:

    • SEO or search engine optimization will ensure that the content in your site and the structure of your site is aimed at providing your user with an optimal experience and a wealth of information visitors are looking for. SEO is a complex process which requires a lot of work and an adaptability of thoughts some people possess more than others. For that reason, you might want to enlist the help of a professional firm specializing in SEO.

      If you choose to do this yourself, then be prepared to set aside time and effort in order to familiarize yourself with the requirements of SEO.

    • Advertising: A sometime expensive process, advertising represents the quickest way to bring qualified traffic to a site. There are many advertising platform you can choose from including google AdWords, Facebook ads, pay per click systems etc. The idea is to test the waters so to speak by going small, to see where any dollar you might spend in one platform will generate more traffic for your site in another.

    2. Upsell and cross-sell products

    An often-neglected area of online ecommerce sites, upselling and cross selling products within your site can be one of the best (and most economical) ways to maximize revenues.

    We all know how tough it is to not only bring visitors to a website but to turn them into customers and the idea that they should be able to come in, click on the BUY HERE button and then be allowed to leave doesn’t make any sense.

    You have worked hard to bring them to your site, you’ve convinced them that your product is what they are looking for and they have made a purchase. Now is the time to tell them about the other products or services you specialize in which might be of equal benefit to them. Say you specialize in health supplement and your customer has just selected a one month supply of one of your products.

    An upsell campaign might present him or her with the opportunity to earn discounts on a 3 month purchase instead. Another one might be to offer further discount if the order is marked as auto renewal.

    A cross-sell campaign might tell them that the particular product they have just purchased might work even better with this other one.

    Upselling and cross-selling is a unique way to increase sales revenues. Make sure you use this system in your own e-commerce site.

    3. Don’t let abandoned carts go to waste

    Customers, for a number or reasons often choose not to complete a purchase on sites. E-commerce sites will usually have the necessary tools to list abandoned carts and as a savvy business owner, you should at least try to find out why the cart was abandoned in the first place. The good thing about an abandoned cart is that you already know who the customer is and the details of his or her email.

    A simple set of recovery emails can go a long way in turning these abandoned carts into actual purchased. Here is a sequence of emails you could send:

    • Thank the customer for initiating a purchase and remind him or her of the products that are waiting in the cart.
    • Remind them how uniquely impactful these products can be and how they have made a difference in the lives of so many other people who are using them.
    • Offer an incentive, like a discount code valid for a number of days only.

    There are also specialized recovery tools which you can use. These tools come at a cost but claim that through their appropriate use, they can help you recover up to 50% of all abandoned carts.

    4. Work on your content, fine tune your descriptions, add photos, videos

    Make sure your SEO tags and titles are informative and accurate. Don’t rely on automated descriptions pulled by your e-commerce management software from the content of your products page.

    The idea that once a product page is up, there’s nothing else that can be done to improve it is false. On the contrary. Search engines actually like regularly updated content.

    5. Use social media

    Making used of social media is an important aspect of a successful eCommerce business.

    Recent research indicates that social media platforms such as Facebook generate more traffic than google. As the world begins to incorporate the use of social media in their online activities, so should you.

    Many companies with limited advertising budgets start on Facebook and for good reasons. Using FB ads has been shown to boost sales by up to 37 percent for some and it would be a mistake not to try.

    Facebook targeted audience can help define a customer base that is going to be highly interested in your products and services and the more targeted your audience the less money the ad will cost.

    Spending less for more qualified traffic is a win-win situation and considering social media is driving sales more than ever, it is an advertising platform you should definitely not pass.

    As final thoughts, it is important to remember that e-commerce sites have the potential to be highly rewarding in terms of revenues earned from sales. The mere fact of putting a site out there is not sufficient though.

    As a business owner, you will be required to apply both time and effort to ensure that your site becomes successful. If you are prepared to do the hard work, follow the guideline above, then you will give yourself the tools to succeed where many others have failed.

    It’s up to you!

    Author Bio

    Erica Silva is a blogger who loves to discover and explore the world around her. She writes on everything from marketing to technology, science and brain health. She enjoys sharing her discoveries and experiences with readers and believes her blogs can make the world a better place.

    Find her on Twitter: @ericadsilva1.

  • Spread the Word: Generating Interest in Your New Business

    Spread the Word: Generating Interest in Your New Business

    Starting a new business can be tough. What can be even tougher is getting people to pay attention to it once you’re up and running. In the digital age, word of mouth moves fast and trends spread like a wind-driven wildfire. The tricky part is generating the spark in the first place.

    So, how do you get the word out? If you’re saving money with reasonable hosting prices, you can also use a number of inexpensive methods to get your business noticed. These tips will help you begin generating interest in your new business to spread the word.

    Think ahead and budget for advertising

    Have you created a budget for your advertising or public outreach? If so, you are already ahead of the game in comparison to other fledgling businesses. However, most young companies prefer to put off advertising until they can afford it. This really depends on your goals and your financial obligations.

    That being said, having the cash on hand to invest in an advertising strategy is a huge help in spreading the word about your company. Common strategies include paying for ads in the local newspaper or pay-per-click advertisements on popular search engines.

    Social media is a powerful tool

    When you’re starting a small business, there won’t be a lot of extra money. As a result, advertising can be last on the list budget-wise. Social media platforms sometimes offer deals or limited-time discounts on promotions and advertisements from your business. These are usually month to month arrangements. That way, when you decide you’ve gotten everything you can out of the deal, you can cancel it.

    Engagement Builds Followings

    Speaking of social media, one of the best ways to spread the word is to be active and engaged. When you get feedback from customers, whether it’s negative or positive, responding to them helps build your brand. Existing customers like being able to communicate directly and new customers will see how much you care about customer satisfaction. This can also serve as damage control if a customer is unhappy. Being responsive and proactive can nip problems in the bud before bad press can propagate and harm your business—particularly when it’s just getting started.

    Cross-promotion and networking

    Networking with other small businesses can reveal cross-promotion possibilities, in which you can help one another generate business. With cross promotion, complementary organizations agree to promote one another in social media and on their websites. A jewelry company can promote your brand of silver polish, just as a sporting goods store can offer discounts for outdoor activities. Finding a symbiotic business willing to exchange promotions may take some time and effort—but it’s always worth it when it works.

    Word of mouth is a powerful Tool

    Having a solid product or a service people can count on is just as important as getting your brand out there. If what you’re providing is of high quality, satisfied customers will tell others what made them so happy. While social media, networking, and publicity are all key to generating interest in your new business, providing people with something they need and doing it well is what will tip the scales in your favor.

  • What to Look for When Shopping for eCommerce Stores

    What to Look for When Shopping for eCommerce Stores

    One of the easiest ways to acquire an online store is by searching an ecommerce marketplace platform like Exchange by Shopify. This platform allows you to shop for online stores or to list your own for sale.

    If you have been doing this for a while and now want to sell for a profit, you can do so on Exchange. If your journey as a store owner is only beginning, you can also find stores for sale on this platform.

    There are plenty to choose from in different industries and niches. In order to make the most out of your shopping experience, and to make sure that you find what you are looking for, make sure to inquire about the following details.

    What’s in the box?

    Buying a store won’t always result in the same kind of purchase. On top of the actual store itself, there are many other factors that pertain to the maintenance or profit generating abilities of said store.

    For instance, you can get the previous owner’s email list when you buy the store, or the previous owner’s physical inventory. This depends on whether or not they are willing to give it to you for the agreed upon purchasing price.

    Most of the time, a store listing will specify what else is included in the deal. This is so they can make the overall deal sweeter. Some even agree to offer their personal support after the transaction is made.

    A store for your own size

    You can purchase an established online store or acquire a tiny startup store. Depending on what kind of store you are interested in, you will find different price tags attached to the offers.

    Keep in mind that you don’t have to start from scratch, but you have the possibility of starting anew without the actual headache of finding a domain, setting up the website and everything else related to starting up the online business.

    You can skip all of these and get a startup store, which will allow you to create your own logo and rebrand it, making it yours completely. Alternatively, you could just buy an already established store that’s already doing well.

    If you eye a store that already generates a pretty penny, you can take it over and set yourself up for smooth sailing.

    Checking out the categories

    On Exchange, available websites are shown in categories that represent each store’s main trade. For instance, if you are looking to buy a store that sells beds, you might find them in the furniture section.

    If you want to invest in an online shop that trades in sports goods, you will mostly find all eligible candidates under the Sports category. The same principle applies for all other categories.

  • How To Bootstrap Your Social Media Efforts on a Shoestring Budget

    How To Bootstrap Your Social Media Efforts on a Shoestring Budget

    Social media marketing is a beast everyone wants to tackle. According to Pew, approximately 79% of internet users are on some form of social media, which makes it a vast audience to reach.

    And while posting is free, this is an area that’s become astronomically competitive.

    From Fortune 500 companies to your local coffee shop, almost every company looks to try and improve their social media. Make no mistake, this is an ongoing process and one that will require a fair amount of persistence.

    However, once you’re in the habit, you’ll be growing an audience in no time. Here’s how:

    Familiarize yourself with the different platforms

    One of the first steps you need to take is looking at the different platforms you’re on, as well as how to maximize your efforts for each. This is mostly dictated by your industry at hand, as well as what type of strategy is used for each.

    For example, a fashion company would most likely find its biggest following on Instagram given their visual content, making it their primary channel. Granted, they’d also most likely provide content for Facebook and Twitter, however, Instagram would be where they hone in on the majority of their efforts.

    Depending on your brand and the following you’re trying to acquire, look around to see what some of your competitors are doing, as well as how they’re building an audience.

    This includes focusing in on the “must do’s” like Instagram, which over 70% of brands are currently using.

    Start scheming the different variations of content you’re going to include (I.E.: Updates, team building, campaigns, etc.), as well as how often you’re going to post. Deciphering all of this beforehand will give you a much clearer head moving forward, enabling you to see what works and what doesn’t.

    Look at strategy templates

    Another good practice starting out is looking at different strategy templates, as these will give you a good skeleton to stick to. A common mistake that people fail at with social media is hitting a wall, where after a couple of weeks, they run out of things to post, making the practice feel ineffective and eventually forgotten.

    However, that’s why templates are great to keep you on track.

    Follow some bloggers and thought leaders you admire in social media and start checking out their posts regularly, as well as if they have any guides available. This will primarily be useful in breaching into new platforms you may not be familiar with.

    For example, while everyone’s on Facebook, approaching it from a marketing perspective is a entirely different ballgame.

    Don’t be afraid to experiment a bit, because this is one aspect of learning social media that will only help you grow stronger.

    Study other use cases

    If you’re looking for outside inspiration, then use cases are going to be your best friend. These include taking pages from other industries’ playbooks and looking at how you can implement something for yourself.

    For example, let’s take an indie film like People You May Know, which utilizes its trailer as the focal point, then builds from there.

    A strategy like that could be utilized for a video campaign, especially if you rounded it out with a hashtag and consistent posts of examples.

    Start keeping a document or notebook around and jot down some campaigns you see, no matter if they’re in your industry or not. Talk about what you liked about it, as well as what made it effective.

    Getting in the habit of this will give you an entire backlog of work to pull from in your efforts, and will additionally give you more appreciation for other’s social strategies.

    Experiment with paid advertising

    Although going after paid advertisements can be a pretty expensive venture if you go into it blindly, understanding how this process works can actually bolster your sales tremendously.

    The key here is knowing how to tackle the audience you’ve established, including becoming more familiar with targeting practices, as well as engagement. Because although it’s going to take a little bit of time to gain a favorable ROI, it also is a practice that you’re eventually going to have to face.

    Take a look at your current finances and see what you might be able to possibly afford to experiment with. Honestly, this might be something you need to loan out, which a balance transfer could help you tremendously with.

    And finally, always start out with the platform you feel most comfortable with, as it will give you a better acumen of how successful your posts are.

    What are some inexpensive social media strategies you’ve found helpful? Comment with your answers below!