#i need to be a niche micro celebrity and nothing more | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

adieka · 3 years

Text

How Much Effectiveness is Social Media for SEO?

(1) How Much Effectiveness is Social Media for SEO? (2) Does Social Media affect SEO? Search Engine Optimization? (3) Do Social Signals Work for SEO? (4) How Important Are Social Signals to Rank? (5) Some Value of Displaying Social Share Numbers in SEO (6) Social Shares Help You Rank Higher in Google Is a Myth! (7) Can You Rank a Blog Post Purely on Social Signals With No Backlinks? (8) Do You Do Buying Social Links From Any Influencer Else? (9) A Social Media Content Strategy for a Niche of Maternity (10) Is Instagram Good for Backlinking? (1) How Much Effectiveness is Social Media for SEO? Christine I’m looking for information on link building using social media and how I can effectively use social media to grow our Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This is for a legit online business and I’m focused primarily on a North American and European audience. Anyone willing to point me to some useful reading? Anything from beginning to expert. 2 👍🏽 2 [filtered from 12 💬🗨]📰👈

🔗🏹

💬🗨

Peter Try “The Art of Social Media” by Guy Kawasaki. It’s not written from an SEO perspective, of course. It’s really about optimizing your social media channels and getting the most out of them, but it’s got useful tips on engagement on social. If you can be engaging on social, you can influence your rankings indirectly through all the traffic you send to your site from social posts.

Christine ✍️ Great! Thank you!

Jay You can't link build with social media, but you can have strategies for awareness and brand mentions which does help Search Engine Optimization (SEO) somewhat but only for your brand. If you don't have a brand and just have a generic web site… social media is not going to get you long lasting results.

Christine ✍️ Thanks for the reply and info. We are hoping to use social media to better establish and grow our brand. We have a number of things that we’d like to roll out over the next couple of months, so I’m trying to learn as much as possible so I don’t waste any opportunities. Do mentions have any direct effect or does that solely help awareness and traffic? Jay It's not direct, but I believe Google keeps an awareness of brand mention across the major social platforms. There's no way to know absolutely how their algorithm takes it into account, but from what I understand it does help. The problem with social media is that there's no link permanence and individual account values can't be corroborated easily by Google. However, it is a good way to both jump-start awareness as well as garnering opportunities for attracting web links that do matter in the long term. If you focus on social, your primary efforts will be: Page creation & maintenance on Facebook. Don't focus on post volume at first, focus on post quality and engagement. Make sure your posts are both attractive and interesting and trigger engagement from anyone seeing the post. This will fuel Facebook to show your page posts to more people more often. Facebook's algorithms are based primarily on engagement. If your brand/business has a visual angle to it take advantage of Instagram. Again, quality over quantity. Make people stop scrolling to want to look at your photos & like them. Pinterest is OK but doesn't usually drive social value. Twitter is good if you have truly interesting and unique things to say. All of these social platforms require regular attention, especially early on as you build up a following. Create a blog and add 2-3 posts to it weekly. Interesting topics, nothing bland. If you Google the topic you want to talk about and 8,000 other sites already have the same article with basically the same information you plan to post - write about something else. Or, if you have a truly distinct spin on a topic then go ahead, but you really need links to it to out-rank those who already have a foothold on the search terms related to the topic. As you build your main web site, also make sure to always focus on best practices. You don't need an SEO company to tell you what those best practices are, just Google for advice and you will find a million articles. SEO companies are good for helping you determine why you may not be ranking for specific terms, or how to lift your Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) a little higher, or to review your site to see if you are doing something wrong, or to look at technical stuff that you may not have familiarity with - like sitemap files, micro tagging, link building (the legit kind, don't fall for the mass backlink scams), HTML mark-up, etc. Christine ✍️ Thank you for such a thorough response. This is helpful info!

Chris Social media signals (e.g shares, comments likes on posts that mention your brand/on your page) directly help with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) but it's not a HUGE ranking factor. There's nothing amazing or special that you can genuinely read about. Getting specific ideas to help would be optimal, your business has a lot of viral potential, think voice over (VO) competitions, posting VO work/parodies , I remember the EA sports guy going viral a while back, stuff like that will help you get a lot of mentions and grow your brand. It's all about the content you produce and how normal people will interact with it. There's a lot of reading you can do out there, but ultimately doing actual SEO would probably help you a lot more, especially if you are targeting business owners.

Christine ✍️ Thanks for the response and info. We’ve been tossing around some viral video ideas, but you sparked a few new thoughts from my partner.

Doug Social media, at the moment, helps with traffic and branding if you have a large enough audience and/or wallet. Besides improving dwell rate, it does nothing to “help” with rankings on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs).

Christine ✍️ So it sounds like rolling out a well planned social strategy going for brand awareness and traffic is what we should focus on. Thank you!

📰👈

🔗🏹

(2) Does Social Media affect SEO? Search Engine Optimization? Horia created a poll. Cheers, everyone! Here's an interesting thought experiment: Does social media affect Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? More specifically, do your social media efforts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram et. al.) have any impact on organic rankings? Would love to get everyone's verdict in the poll and your opinions in the comments. Thank you! 66 votes 15 votes 10 votes

🔗🏹

Marty Marion🎓 » Horia From my viewpoint, if one objective is to generate more searches for keywords or phrases that are important to you, then social media can have a massive impact on stimulating searches… and searches result in clicks… which definitely impact Search Engine Optimization (SEO)… so I would think social media CAN affect SEO, not that it DOES all the time… I always like to look at social media strategies as PART of a comprehensive SEO plan. 💟👍🏽4

Horia That's a great argument, Marty! So I take it you see the benefits of social media from a "social engineering" point of view, where you create momentum for phrases, which in turn stimulate queries. 💟👍🏽2 Marty Marion🎓 » Horia Yes, stimulate intrigue, questions, etc that make people search for the specific subjects (phrases) that are most important to you and make sure your pages are super optimized… 👍🏽2 Lees » Marty Marion Can you give us an example from the past in which you used this technique? Or is this just a theory? 👍🏽1 Marty Marion🎓 » Lees Sure. Have used it often. For a big ecommerce lingerie company we did social posts asking men to post their favorite "sexy celebrities" from the 1950s through 1980s. Searches for "sexy + lingerie type" etc went up and so did sales through organic. For a jeans company we asked "how skinny are skinny jeans for men?". Same results. Questions seem to provoke searches. 👍🏽3

Petter I do believe that some signals are included, but not to the extent that SEO users in general should have a great understanding on how to engage the public etc. there. I believe that SEO users should work with SoMe consultants, but Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a large enough field in itself, so for my part I'm happy to let SoMe consultants take the lead there, and just see how SEO can benefit from it in the ways Marty described above (open to any venue where my clients make more money). As I see it, there are two main issues with some of the "myths" going around on how social signals has an effect on Search Engine Optimization (SEO): 1: Engagement metrics is not a direct ranking impact. If it was, then the webpages that exists to spin shareable content would win in the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs), but they don't. 2: Monitoring social media is possible, but it requires a lot of resources - and Google is already tasked with monitoring everything that can be monitored - so dedicating the amount of resources needed to be on top of this makes very little sense when there are so many other signals that aren't as "fleeting" and temporary. BUT: Google does tie in Facebook business profiles to businesses, so this might in some way somewhere feed into the algorithm, but from the little research I have done - I have yet to see any correlation between rankings and active, inactive or no business profiles on ie. FB - so if there is a signal there, then as of now it cannot be a strong one. The link from your business profile on FB is nofollow - so after march 1 2020, social media profile link might start to add value. However - visible links (written URL's that goes via redirects with nofollow) may count towards a mention when/if Google picks it up. Hashtag trends is fairly available, which could make sense for Google to tie into on queries that are fresh (I believe that at least their machine learning algorithm focusing on obtaining meaning to queries ties into this in some form or way - ie. "planking" made no sense before, but then suddenly became a trend - and I believe Google wants to be relevant on such queries and the only way to be that is to stay on top of what queries might mean). And again, like Marty stated above, Social Media has the ability to provide impact on amount of brand queries as well as other queries. So it is a valuable channel for the client to pursue. But again, I believe that our clients are better off if they have someone who solely focuses on these channels helping there, leaving us SEO users to cooperate with them but at the same time keep our focus on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). 📰👈

🔗🏹

(3) Do Social Signals Work for SEO? John Do Social Signals Work For SEO, Whats Your Opinion? 📰👈

🔗🏹

💬🗨

Kumar Yes...do work...do it on proper way.. After publishing new page or post...share it on social media..and do social signals on it.. Also after doing any guest post...do the same...👍3

John ✍️ Great Advice. Kobi » Kumar what do you mean by social signals? Kumar » Kobi most powerful social media's... Twitter - Retweets. Facebook - Shares. Pinterest.. - Repins. Share on all these platforms and do social signals...

Blair Yes they do work but for me best be Twitter signals overall if they come from popular accounts. John ✍️ Really? Do you think Twitter is better, why?

Kumar » John most powerful social media's... Twitter - Retweets. Facebook - Shares. Pinterest.. - Repins. Share on all and do social signals... You will see the positive response..👍2

Mike They only work in making your link building look less fake. No direct impact on rankings and I say this after buying 10’s of thousands of signals for numerous web pages.👍3

John ✍️ I Agree and Disagree......I seen someresults but nothing major.👍1 Tiwari » Mike It is all about quality and not the quantity. These 5 dollars bot-generated Fiverr social signal gigs are just worthless. Mike I’ve compared urls that I built links to with, and without social signals, never saw 1 case where a kw rank improved due to signals. Even on less competitive branded terms. If you know a vendor who can provide a better experience I’m all ears! Mike Nah, Ive used providers “recommended” by notable people in this group and others, never Fiverr...but I might as well have used Fiverr for the results.👍1 John ✍️ » Tiwari 👍.

Hays I've seen it work in for time-sensitive queries like events. I had a site ranking in the top 3 positions for a few top keywords after an event/raffle we had got shared a few hundred times and we had over 10,000 post engagements, that brought 7,000 visitors to the page in 3 days from Facebook. So within 24 hours from the post we were ranking for these keywords. 3 years later, after the event we still rank number 1 for our focus keyword which was the item we raffled. This last year's event ranks number 2 for same keyword and similar item.👍1📰👈

🔗🏹

(4) How Important Are Social Signals to Rank? ArtRos How important are social signals to rank? 3 👍🏽 3 [filtered from 25 💬🗨]📰👈

🔗🏹

💬🗨

Roland They can help in some areas but not a requirement for success. One very useful return from posting on social media is quicker indexing of the site promoted. Keith Webpages with a significant amounts of social engagement are likely quality pieces of content that have generated a number of other Google related signals that convinces Google to rank them higher. Doubting the causation to social signals impacting ranking that much as they are so easy to manipulate. Maggie it's part of trust and authority within your niche - but Google can tell fake social signals from true engagement. It won't affect your rank negatively if you don't have them, but they help to some extent. Peter You can indirectly influence your rankings through traffic to your site from social, so I’d say put out great content on social (or post links to good website content from social) that gets people wanting to visit your site. Steve Hi, it depends on what you mean by social signals, but as long as you mean getting likes/shares/etc for your content then I think it's definitely a positive factor. Here's a screenshot of a page of mine in the fitness niche: As you can see it has gathered over 2000 Fb shares and engagements over the years (I think 10k or more but Buzzsome has a 1 year limit to show, anyway… ) and this page ranks rather well in Google for its target keyword. Granted, I also managed to build a lot of white hat backlinks to it with outreach strategies and the Skyscraper Technique, but 1, even before I started link building to it I saw a nice little upward movement for it in the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) after I started getting so many FB shares for it, so I think all those shares definitely sent a positive message to Google. 2, the social shares helped in one more way with Search Engine Optimization (SEO): I displayed a big Social Share Counter box on this page so that when I asked other people to link to it (you know with the outreach Skyscraper link building technique I mentioned earlier) it helped me get a "yes" from more people because they saw how popular the page was already. So I'd say bottom line: yes, social signals do help a lot with SEO both directly and indirectly. Steve P.s.: Unfortunately I got all those thousands of shares back when my site was http and not https, and since I switched to https the social signal counter doesn't really work, that's why I had to rely on Buzzsumo data as proof that you can see for yourself.📰👈

🔗🏹

(5) Some Value of Displaying Social Share Numbers in SEO Neil Is there 'value' in displaying social share numbers - yes or no? (and why) 3 👍🏽 3 [filtered from 30 💬🗨]📰👈

🔗🏹

💬🗨

Fleming No not for SEO purposes. It's more to show users that your website gets engagement and has value its more to create user engagement.. Imagine walking past 2 shops one has customers queuing even outside, while the other has no customers whatsoever, which one are you likely to want to go in? Now some people will go to the empty one to avoid the queue however most will want to know what that shop has the other doesn't. Hope that makes sense Neil it did in my head as I wrote it lol Its also worth noting that a lot of those plugins you can change the number of likes retweets so it doesn't even reflect the real shares etc half the time. 💟👍🏽5 Neil ✍️ On my own website I do display the shares which may look great on some urls that get shared a lot 1000+ shares etc BUT - some urls don't get shared and then potentially have the oppositive effect - 'this url has little value' (maybe it has). Also, I do wonder whether displaying what is your website's popular pages - is this giving valuable data to competitors… all this, without the effect of slowing down the load time (albeit hopefully minimally). Fleming I just see it as a vanity metric who cares if it was shared 1200 times if only 5 read the whole thing and got anything from it? Its kind of like when people go yeah my video was view 10k times but only 4 got past the 30 seconds. Daine » Christopher is right, it is a vanity metric to a degree. But, here’s the thing. It has value because: 1. Social Proof: It encourages other people to share it, thus expanding your reach, audience, and traffic. 2. It builds authority and credibility. It shows that the piece is popular. 3. It has a hidden SEO benefit, because when conducting link outreach, posts that have been shared a lot convey popularity, and value, in turn helping to increase the chances of gaining a link. People are more inclined to link to popular content. 4. It encourages people to read it more, due to social proof. Social proof is very powerful, psychologically. 5. Social signals MAY play a small part in ranking. 💟👍🏽12

Neil ✍️ THAT is my gut feeling - and why I have stuck with it… Hazi Social proof. Fleming Does it hold much value though? when social proof can be easily manipulated as most plugins you can add the share counts etc? Daine It’s more ‘perceived’ value, rather than real value. Fleming » Daine yeah more a trust signal kind of thing. Daine » Christopher , yeah, exactly. Lancaster Perception is reality and the only reality is the one your visitor chooses to believe when they are on your website.

Micha » Daine I’d go with on this one, with these additions: 6: each share is a potential batch of new readers, therefore, possible links 7: BuzzSumo recently did a study of over a million datapoints and discovered sharing on social media is half of what it used to be. Whether that’s an ongoing trend or not, FOMO, likeability, credibility and the “follow the herd” effects are all indisputable market persuaders.📰👈

🔗🏹

(6) Social Shares Help You Rank Higher in Google Is a Myth! Martin This guy disappointed me. Are social shares really unimportant in ranking? Myth #5 Social shares help you rank higher in Google [38 💬🗨]

🔗🏹💬🗨

Janka You're disappointed by the truth? 👍🏽9

Shubham » Janka ✔️ Ronald » Janka lol, thats society in general though 👍🏽1

Fouad Why being disappointed? I think he explained it very well. 👍🏽1 Doug At the moment, there is no evidence to suggest that social shares directly help improve the ranking of a website. To my understanding, it might help with User engagement if it’s compelling content... which would likely help with rankings. (Arguably if it’s compelling content it would likely rank well anyway outside of social shares). Also, it might help get a page indexed that is currently not. Social Likes and Shares are too easy to spam and manipulate. The only thing I could see Google doing in the future is assigning authority or credibility to individuals who share content based on their voice within a certain community/industry... that might be an interesting (albeit somewhat concerning) progression on this topic. 👍🏽6 Bhati I have site which get traffic from Google and only links it has are from facebook shares. 👍🏽3

Owais » Bhati What type content the website shares? Bhati » Owais viral articles, political, national news. I have multiple sites. 👍🏽1

Farhat yup, social share is very important, it helps your URL to indexed and make engagement with the audience, which helps Google bot to understand your content is useful to users. 💟1

Carl » Farhat agreed i have a 50k sku ecommerce store we get lots of social shares

Kevin To explain it simply : Bot shares won't help SEO, because it won't drive traffic. But real human share will benefit to SEO BECAUSE it will drive traffric in the end. But this is not the number of shares / likes that matters but rather the fact that it drives traffic or no. In others words, you would better have a 1K shared post that drive 50% traffic than a 20k shared post driving 2% traffic. 👍🏽4 Smith There's no evidence that there's SEO traffic because of the social shares. He is right. It's the other way. You get more social shares because of your SEO traffic. And that makes sense. 👍🏽4 Suraj Only believe on your experience, there are share only there review. Toth They're an indirect factor. Way too easily gamed to be a direct factor, for Google anyhow. 👍🏽4 Hazra It certainly doesn't have any impact for info post. Social shares helps to gain more visibility which indirectly increases the chance of getting natural back links. That's it.. 👍🏽2 Homer He's wrong. Social shares are social signals, and will affect both indexing and ranking. It won't get you to page one alone, but it will make a difference. 👍🏽1

Hamid but you can't say that they are impacting directly to your rankings. 👍🏽1 Homer » Hamid Yes, because I have had sites move up from page 10 to page 5. They are. 👍🏽1 Hamid » Homer Great, so how do you monitor that really due to socials this happened? Homer » Hamid On the sites that this happened on, I only had social signals going to them. The content was also old and had quite jumping around in the SERPS. The site also had no real traffic going to it. I always start link building with social signals only, meaning that there was no other factor.

📰👈

🔗🏹

(7) Can You Rank a Blog Post Purely on Social Signals With No Backlinks? Lyon Can you rank a blog post purely on social signals with no backlinks? [filtered from 22 💬🗨] 📰👈

🔗🏹

💬🗨

Nabil It depends on how hard to rank for the keyword yet how powerful and specific your website, last but not the least how's your website's technical Search Engine Optimization (SEO) status. Arif If you're not an instant-lover, or you're not in rush, well... yes you can. but if you are, well this method doesn't suit you. Roger You can rank an article with just dummy text and no backlist but, for that to happen, there are certain variables that need to occur and, one of the most important is keyword difficulty/competition. Oliver There is absolutely NO evidence that social signals are being used by Google as a direct ranking factor. 👍🏽1 Tanvir I think yes .. it depends on the content you have ... like if you have good content and people visit your site from the social site ... and then they create backlink ... then yes you can rank 😃 Joe Ive been doing this for 20 years and love the variety of opinions here. In various ways there is a tiny bit of truth to many of them, but Oliver states the truth. That being said other items on the page will affect the ranking. Social signals alone will do nothing for you. Social signals combined with other things like a great description in the social post or key technical aspects of the page will get additional people to click and visit so while you may think you did it with social signals, it is misleading. No one strategy is good all by itself. That is something Google frowns upon. you need multiple strategies and techniques. Above all you need kickass content which drives traffic and engagement. you might have zero backlinks and crappy technical but if your content rocks, you have people visiting, staying and engaging, Google will still rank you. their priority is the searcher and giving them the best results for their query 👍🏽1 Jim Ranked for this, no backlinks bro

🔗🏹👍🏽2

Oliver The website has 130 do-follow referring domains (according to Ahrefs), only ONE internal link (with a keyword-rich anchor text) from the homepage would be more than enough to rank #1 for that keyword, Google still uses PageRank internally. Your website looks awesome and from what I'm seeing you have a lot of useful content, reviews, case studies, and etc.. 👍🏽1 Jim » Oliver yeah but in terms of referring domains pointing directly to this page, there's none, so yeah.

📰👈

🔗🏹

(8) Do You Do Buying Social Links From Any Influencer Else? Olga Hello! How often do you buy social links or blog posts for your projects? [filtered from 28 💬🗨] 📰👈

🔗🏹

💬🗨

Mike I never buy social links... at least not from an SEO perspective. I might approach someone with a significant following about advertising with them, but that is for the traffic, not any Search Engine Optimization (SEO) benefit. Not sure what you mean by buying blog posts. If you mean posts for your own site, I regularly pay writers to create content. If you mean guest posts on other sites, I pay for those frequently, but never through anyone selling them as a service. 👍🏽8

Wren » Mike wow so interesting. How do you go about advertising with someone with a significant following, do you get them to share your product and do they have to declare that it's a paid promotion? Mike » Wren Depends on the situation and what we are promoting. Sometimes, I might have a client willing to sponsor a YouTube video in exchange for the content creator doing one of those typical 15-30 second pitches you see on a lot of videos. In those cases, a sample of the product or a few products will be sent to them to use in the video. Stuff like that. It's never a video 100% devoted just to the product or service. Instead we sponsor one of their videos they are already doing. Wren » Mike ok, so does that mean they don't to say they have been paid for it. Mike » Wren They will say something like, "this video is sponsored by...." Wren » Mike ok cool. Cheers for sharing this with me. 👍🏽1

Singh It is not a good idea to buy a social link....in a long run it can affect your website very badly 👍🏽3

Olga ✍️ » Singh how's that? Singh The purchased social links are likely bots or inactive accounts, so they won't engage with your posts. This means your posts won't show up on Explore Pages, or on your real audience's newsfeeds. It will also make it hard to measure metrics. 👍🏽1 Olga ✍️ mm I see. That's true. Thank you! 👍🏽1 Singh Thanks for sharing

Laura Never. I share my links to my website's own social accounts. If pay-per-lead (ppl) wanna link to my pages or projects they can go ahead, I don't do any "link building" and don't find it necessary. 📰👈

🔗🏹

(9) A Social Media Content Strategy for a Niche of Maternity Ammar Hey SEO Pro's.. I've got a brand with a niche of maternity products.. I'm. regularly posting content on its social media platforms but I don't know why I'm unable to achieve any engagements or likes.. Could any of you experts please let me know what I'm doing wrong if possible please? Facebook link: https:/facebook.com/mamanmeofficial Instagram: instagram.com/mamanmeofficial Any type of help is appreciated, thanks a lot! 1 👍🏽 1 [filtered from 17 💬🗨]📰👈

🔗🏹

💬🗨

Shetty You do have a decent number of followers. What about your insights? How many people are you reaching and how many are taking action? Website clicks?

Ammar ✍️ Its not very good atm even after paid marketing as well..

Dielan Could be due to the fact you are only targeting consumers in Qatar? It’s not a very large country

Ammar ✍️ Tried removing Qatar, same results no effects :S

Lowry Try to engage your followers. Ask questions, post to articles & ask peoples opinion about them. Post a small fb survey about what baby merch products they want to see on the market. Eva You’re posting too much about your brand and products. Try posting 20% brand/product posts and 80% other. Who is your target audience? What are their challenges and interests? Share posts that solve a problem for them, that they can relate to, that they find useful. Particularly on Facebook, it’s about being social, not selling.

🔗🏹

Ammar ✍️ Tried posting tips - quotes- and stuffs like that but still no effect :s Eva » Ammar yes, you’ve posted tips and quotes but in the caption you’re selling. It’s the first thing Mums read as they scroll through their feed and they won’t even read the quote or tip in the image. You don’t have to sell in every post. Also, because you have small numbers, try sharing viral posts from similar parenting pages Ammar ✍️ Noted, What are your thoughts on post styling? are they good or do i need to change anything? Eva » Ammar I think the styling of the image is good. Just a couple of things. 1. This post, for example, [product image] I recommend that instead of writing about the business, you explain what this product actually is and how it can help a mum. 2. On Facebook don't use hashtags. 3. Try to limit the posts you have with links to an external website. Facebook likes to keep people on Facebook, not clicking out somewhere else. This one, for example, [quote image] Instead of writing about the business, write something that resonates with a mother, 'Do you feel like you need to keep your eyes open with matchsticks at the moment? Don't worry, babies start to figure out night and day by 3 weeks so (hopefully) you can get a little more sleep. Remember too, you'll have a different audience on Facebook and Instagram so try to share different content on each. Try and find a parenting group and ask mums with newborns what their challenges are and craft content around that. For each product you promote, relate it to the mother. What problem can it fix? How can it help them get more sleep? How can it help their baby sleep more? How can it fix their sore back? How can it help with breastfeeding and helping them get more milk? But also, share humor, Facebook users love humor that relates to their situation. With Instagram hashtags, look at what your competitors or similar businesses are using. Click into the hashtags, have a look at the content that is being shared and what's getting the best engagement. Ammar ✍️ These info's are gem, thanks a lot!

🔗🏹 Gergo My opinion: There are different tactics to use for different platform. Niche website built for organic traffic-turns into product selling, or other monetization methods. IG is not a platform for niche site-building, it is for entertainment! My point is, try to look for user intent perspective. People generally not using IG for finding any product to buy… imo. Another key issue is IG is full of bots, my friend tested and built 6000 followers in 3 months on a personal account with a simple code… yes it got banned, but we just wanted to see how far it goes… I assume your follower base probably full of those bots, commenting, like-ing anything, but its not a real audience with intent to buy. Haven't looked for deeper atm, but there is a huge different building a site and getting 2k traffic and converting into sales, as having as IG account and 2k followers… Sebastian Very interested. One very quickly look at the account. What comes first is mind. Is have your content made up by mother's. Join some library mother and baby groups and survey them for what are interested. Than post those on Instagram.📰👈

🔗🏹

(10) Is Instagram Good for Backlinking? Mikkel Is Instagram a good or necessary Backlink? [filtered from 24 💬🗨] 📰👈

🔗🏹

💬🗨

Andrei No, social media links are nofollow and do not pass link juice. Useless for SEO. 👍1

Ethan » Andrei that's not entirely true.The main argument being that social media doesn't directly affect your SEO. However, it does have an impact on the factors that do affect rankings such as traffic, meaning it indirectly affects your rankings. So, it may not directly increase your seo or provide backlinks but it definitely please a role in your seo ranking and should be utilized for best practices. 👍5 Andrei » Ethan sure, but that kind of argument can be made for any type of marketing, including paid ads. You gotta draw the line somewhere and say this is an SEO job and that is something else. Back to the question at hand, having a genuine, well maintained social media profile is a must for most businesses and will marginally contribute to your search performance. Having a backlinked social media account sitting idle is not going to contribute to your seo. 👍1 Ethan » Andrei true and I see your point there. However, social media plays a massive role indirectly with your SEO. I mean social platforms have there own search engines after all so this plays as another way to provide your company with more traffic to increase SEO. We all know how important local seo is and you might as well forget about it unless you have a social media presence. Social profiles will also ranking on Google so if you want to draw a line, then technically your now creating seo for your social profile and ranking on Google with it. Don't forget about how much content is shared through social media as well 👍2 Andrei » Ethan all good points! Although I think social media is not exactly critical for local seo. Is it? There is GMB and schema and some local directories. Never seen social media on this list. 👍1 Andrei » Ethan I feel like we are arguing, so I wanted to stress that I'm not, this is how I express curiosity. It might come off arguing-ish since my first language is russian 🙂 👍1 Ethan » Andrei I am not arguing either but I am glad that your clarified. I hate how facebook is used so much for that 🙄. I am curious as well and want to always better my skill and knowledge with SEO. I enjoy general conversations about it. True, but most if not all of those that rank without social media have been around since the dawn of google. If you take a new company and try to start ranking, it would be much much harder without social media platforms. If you were to take the same company and start with social media from day one, they are much more likely to start ranking on google faster and higher. 👍1 Swanson » Andrei I treat social media as another directory to update for locations. Will I manage your profile and post for you? No. But I want to make sure that your locations are listed correctly, that the descriptions and contact info is consistent with the rest of your web presence. I tell clients it’s just another channel you can use to present content they are adding for their site. 👍1

Ryan Let's say you are a taxidermist in a city of 1,000 people. You have one competitor.. All else being the same, your competitor has a website of the same quality as yours. If you have optimized Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and let's say you posted 50 posts, my guess is you would be ranking ahead of your competitor. It's not like an Instagram account will rank you, but in most cases it's common sense to have one, probably worth the 5 mins it takes to set it up. You're establishing your brand online. Could you go without it, of course. 👍2 Russ I just don't get why Instagram is so popular lol… You cannot put links in posts, which just seems daft and pointless… So if someone posts something that looks interesting, no way to find out more, you have to Google it for more info. So no backlink SEO benefit either. you cannot even share/re-post other people's posts from the app, you have to get another 3rd party app to do that. 📰👈

🔗🏹

This may satisfy you: Do You Reveal Yourself on Social Media that You are a Site Owner/Founder? Any Risk About it from Competitors, Haters?

#social media #social signals

0 notes

altajackuniverse · 4 years

Text

How Influencers Can Help You Crush Your Competition?

Stay Competitive in the Growing World of Influencer Marketing

It seems as if Influencer Marketing is everywhere. Just this week, I read and commented on two pieces about Influencer Marketing. One of these from Jeff Epstein was called "How to Stay Competitive in the Growing World of Influencer Marketing." Internet marketing recently was all about affiliates. Affiliate marketing was an effective way to reach a large audience. Brands were able to compete with each other using an affiliate publisher, or web portal, which increased their exposure and helped drive their sales. Now, ordinary individuals can gain massive reach through a single social channel. Brands that once relied on affiliates to promote their products online are turning to influencers to lend more legitimacy to their wares. Influencer marketing is the new wave of affiliate marketing. The most engaging of influencers leverage the newest, most exciting technologies to provide a better experience for their audiences. Why do Influencers Matter? Why is influencer marketing so important? First, paid advertising is more expensive than ever, and yields fewer results in most cases. Second, with content marketing investments increasing, your content has to be seen. Influencers are thought to be a good way to make your content be seen. And third, social media algorithms are throttling exposure from brand-created posts. The idea is that third party influencers and other real people have a better chance of spreading your brand centered posts. All of these are true.... What is the Future of Influencer Marketing? It doesn't take a crystal ball to see the future. Just by looking at marketing trends you can see the direction things are moving. Your analytics will also confirm the trend. More and more consumers are “cutting the cord” from cable television, instead creating their own viewing experiences using their phones, tablets, and computers. Those still tied to the tube now have the ability to skip what they want and consume digital content whenever they desire. Cord-cutting and a growing skepticism about what brand messages has strengthened the impact of user-generated content. This is making celebrities or mini-celebrities out of people with the knack for taking selfies and videos of themselves.The influencer marketing space is continually evolving. Especially as people continue consuming more and more digital content. Greater sophistication will emerge regarding the methods that brands use to customize their messaging and measure the impact of their marketing efforts. This is particularly true among the new breed of media personalities created on a daily basis. Which Platforms are used to Influence? Curated newsletters and blogs are growing in popularity. If you follow business influencers on platforms like Twitter or LinkedIn, you will most likely find them promoting an article in a newsletter or a post on a blog. If you trust what you read, you’ll keep going back. Eventually, the authors of that content will become your trusted sources of information. With time, what they say will have some sway over your thoughts and decisions. When they begin promoting a product or service, it might become a viable purchasing decision.Newsletters and blog posts are nothing new. What I’m getting at is the importance of thinking outside the box to reach your target audience. It’s becoming clear that traditional marketing methods are no longer enough to increase your brand awareness. You need to employ the people who have influence with your ideal customers.

Use These 3 Tips to Influence Others

How can you use these influencers to your advantage? To do so keep these three strategies in mind. Be Selective in Your Influencer Choices. Influencer marketing is like other forms of marketing. You must understand who your audience members are before you can reach them. Only then can you provide them with anything of value. Segment your target audience into personas based on their likes, interests, and hobbies. Then, find influencers who already appeal to those personas, rather than selecting influencers solely for their reach. You must target your audience with the correct influencer.Athletic shoe brand ASICS successfully targeted a variety of personas by harnessing influencers at different levels of expertise. To promote FrontRunners, its global health and fitness initiative, it sourced content from amateur, semi-professional, and professional runners. These influencers created profiles and blog pieces the brand used to target a wide range of readers, from those interested in distance running to those just in the market for a shoe. Relevance is still the most important element in your relationship with any influencer. Reaching the right people requires choosing an influencer who shares the same target audience as your brand. While 83 percent of consumers trust friend and family recommendations, it’s not always easy to tap a source that has authority over purchase decisions. Followers of influencers often regard their videos, photos, and other posts as endorsements from a trusted friend. Select a Niche For Your Influence. Lots of influencers reach millions of people, however partnering with them doesn't provide you with the right content to your targeted audience. Getting same results as other “mass” marketing efforts may not be the results you need. You spend lots of bucks for a small amount of bang, at least in your results. Instead, search for influencers or channels with smaller followings. These influencers often offer a more engaged and devoted fan base. They should also know their audiences well and communicate in ways that will generate more and better responses. Shoe maker Sperry embraced this method when it decided to go smaller with a 2016 campaign that partnered with more than 100 Instagram micro-influencers. The boat shoe brand sought loyalists who were already sharing primo photos of the shoes via their personal Instagram accounts and asked the customers to create similarly alluring photos for Sperry’s own account. The approach had less to do with ROI and more to do with widening the brand’s social imprint. This approach can produce greater financial rewards in the long run. Sperry saw what possibilities would come from investing in niche influencers, like what Amazon did when it invested in the live-streaming video platform Twitch. Twitch viewers watch other people play video games. The platform currently has more than 100 million monthly visitors, with nearly half clocking more than 20 hours of viewing each week. All to watch someone else play a video game. Amazon saw so much potential in Twitch’s ability to drive game sales that it bought the service for nearly $1 billion in 2014. Influencers on the channel feature products they like, earning commissions on any resulting sales. Twitch has proved an easy way to tap a big potential audience. Create Your Own Mix of Content. Think of influencer marketing like you would content marketing. Influencer marketing provides just as many types of content, and each content type connects you to a different portion of your audience.Don’t rely solely on short-form content platforms like Snapchat or Instagram. Although these platforms have viewer influence, depending exclusively on them means you might miss out on opportunities that only long-form content can provide. Instead, consider using sites like Medium to strike the right balance with your mix of content. Unlike Snapchat or Instagram, Medium provides a channel for your audience to dig deeper into topics. Visit Our Web Accessibility Blog Visit Our Business Sustainability Blog

Give Influencer Marketing a Try

You should always be curating your own content marketing material. It's important to remember that any good collection has more than one form of content. The real trick is knowing when to use a picture, video, article, or even email to further your conversation. Influencer Marketing is a Powerful Weapon Influencer marketing is quickly becoming the most powerful weapon in a marketer’s arsenal of strategies. However, using influencer marketing does come with a learning curve. It may take time, energy, and a whole lot of research to find the right influencer to promote your brand. Once you have mastered it, Influencer marketing can be a great match to help bolster your bottom line. Read the full article

#BetterBusinessAlliance #blog #brand #clickthrough #contentmarketing #customerengagement #customerexperience #digitalmarketing #Digitalmarketingstrategy #emailmarketing #reputation #searchengineoptimization #SEO #socialmedia #socialmediamarketing #userexperience

0 notes

ella-shura · 4 years

Text

evaluation

This essay will evaluate how a public figure uses social media site Twitter to communicate with their audience. The public figure this essay will focus on is singer songwriter Shura (@weareshura on Twitter). Shura has 41.7K followers on twitter on the date this essay was produced. Although Shura has achieved her celebrity status by being a talented singer, she has significantly less followers than many micro-celebrities, such as Camden Scott (@cammiescott) who is an American Youtuber with 188.8K followers on Twitter. This essay will look at how although Shura has achieved her celebrity status, she manages her social media as an attributed celebrity may manage theirs. Shura is an openly gay woman which creates interesting niche that other celebrities may not have, she makes a lot of effort to make this a topc of discussion on her twitter, so much so that she uses her sexuality as her brand, calling herself ‘The Lesbian Pope’.

Aleksandra Denton, publicly known as Shura, is a 28 year old, London based, singer, songwriter and record producer. In August 2019, she released her second album titled ‘Forevher’ which Pitchfork managazine described as “First and foremost, about queer women’ (Pitchfork.com, 2019). Shura’s sexuality is at the forefront of her music, her personal life and her self-identified brand and we see a lot of discussion around it on her social media accounts. During the time of monitoring her social media use (January 2020-March 2020), it had been five months since Shura had released Forevher, when visiting her Twitter page there is still a lot of promotional content for the album - for example her pinned tweet - which announces that Forevher has been released. However, because it has been a number of months since the release, the majority of the material on her profile has nothing to do with the album and is in fact just documenting her daily life. During the months of monitoring, Shura released a single titled ‘Elevator Girl’ allowing us to also assess how she deals with promoting a new project on her social media. Shura uses both Instagram and Twitter in equal measure, however tends to use Twitter to communicate with fans much more. According to Stever, G.S (2013) “celebrities used Twitter to communicate both with other celebrities and with members of the public or fans about their work as well as personal likes and dislikes, conveying information that revealed personal activities that are not typically shared in other forums”. This is an accurate depiction of how Shura uses her Twitter account, with particular emphasis on communicating with fans about personal matters; mainly regarding her sexuality. Baym, N.K. (2014, p224) suggests that “an audience on Twitter is not the same as an audience of listeners” they also interview Hoyem, a popular Norwegian artist who does not use Twitter as much as he says he can “count on earning a living from his music”. With over 700,000 monthly listeners on Spotify yet only 41,700 followers on twitter, why is it still so important for Shura to use twitter to maintain her brand and her relationship with her audience?

Although Shura does not perfectly fit the popular definition of a micro-celebrity due to achieving her celebrity status primarily through her talents in the music field, she still very much uses her social media to develop and maintain her audience (Senft, 2008).

Marwick & Boyd (2011) suggest that there are numerous techniques in micro-celebritydom, all of which Shura uses on her Twitter account. Firstly there is the technique of “ongoing maintenance of the fanbase”. This is done simply by Shura being active on social media. Although only a small sample of tweets were collected and analysed on the blog posts, Shura tweets something almost every day, this allows her to maintain her fan base by connecting with them on a daily basis, even if this is just by liking a tweet or replying with a simple emoji.

Another technique they suggest is “performed intimacy”. An example of this on Shura’s Twitter can be seen in the blog post relating to the tweet from 18/02. In this tweet, Shura discusses her struggles with mental health, a very personal subject, with a very wide audience. Then, she publicly discusses alternative therapies with one of her followers who recommended she tries CBT. This is an example of performed intimacy because mental health and anxiety is, for many, a personal subject which is discussed with loved ones or medical professionals; yet Shura discussed this with a fan on Twitter.

Another technique that is suggested by Marwick and Boyd is “authenticity and access”. Shura’s authenticity is clearly illustrated in the blog post containing tweets with anecdotes of her friend’s sexual experience. In this tweet Shura announces “I love lesbians”, she never attempts to hide her sexuality or be anyone but her true, genuine self.

However, Marwick and Boyd say that a micro-celebrity’s self presentation is “carefully constructed to be consumed by others”. This is where Shura deviates from the suggested micro-celebrity techniques. From assessing Shura’s tweets, it’s fair to suggest that she uses twitter as a place to engage in casual conversation with followers, whether they are fans of her music or not. And in fact, her brand is created by tweeting things that don’t seem overly constructed and make her appear to be a friendly, down to earth person such as the “me, also me” tweet from 1st February.

According to Baym, N.K (2014, pg224) artists have to make choices about how to interact with their fans, depending on who they think those fans are and what they are interested in. Shura’s primary audience is made up of queer womxn. When scrolling through her followers list we can see many of them with a rainbow flag emoji in their username or bio, which is a popular way for queer people to identify this fact on their social media sites. It is clear that Shura has a firm understanding of her fanbase and the kind of content that they want to see and interact with, she is likely aware that a lot of her fans like her because she is so openly gay. Because of this, many of her tweets are focused on things that have particularly gay representation for example, she made a lot of tweets expressing how much she enjoyed a new lesbian film ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’. This generated a lot of discussion between her and her fans about how much they also enjoyed the film. Tweeting about things that are completely separate to her music but still relatable to her followers is an excellent way to create a two way relationship with her followers whether they enjoy her music or not.

In conclusion, Shura uses Twitter very effectively to communicate with fans and followers, embracing the need to transition to an online platform to interact with her audience.

However, it could be argued that shura has in fact taken advantage of the ease of two way communication on Twitter and is using it as a replacement for face to face interactions with fans. In the chapter written by Baym, N.K, they mention numerous artists who have used twitter to facilitate in-person interactions such as Billy Bragg who has used Twitter to find and join local protesters whilst on tour. There is no evidence on Shura’s Twitter that she makes any effort to meet with fans face to face. She should be conscious that although Twitter is a useful tool to interact with fans, it should not be used as a replacement for real life, in person conversation. Some may also suggest that Shura perhaps tweets too much. Shura’s Twitter following currently sits at 41.7 thousands accounts, this is a significant number of followers, however it’s not uncommon for someone in her field to gain upwards of 300,000 followers for example, Clairo who is also a solo female performer. By replying to fans so abundantly now, she may be unnecessarily adding pressure to herself to reply to fans. If the fans she currently has now expect Shura to reply, because that’s what she has always done, it may have a detrimental impact on her relationship with fans when it is simply not possible to reply to all of the tweets. Is the rate she is tweeting and replying to fans now sustainable if and when her audience grows?

References

Baym, N. (2019) ‘The Perils and Pleasures of Tweeting with Fans’ Weller, K., Bruns, A., Burgess, J., Mahrt, M., & Puschmann, C. (Eds.). (2014). Twitter and society (Digital Formations, 89). New York: P. Lang. Last accessed: 02/04/2020 available online: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-47764-2

Cliff, A (2019) Shura Forevher. pitchfork.com. Last accessed: 02/04/2020. available online: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/shura-forevher/

Marwick, A. and boyd, d. (2011) To see and be seen: celebrity practice on Twitter. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 17(2) 139–158. Last accessed 02/04\2020. available online:https://journals-sagepub-com.mmu.idm.oclc.org/doi/pdf/10.1177/1354856510394539

RUBERG, B. (2019). #nohomo: Homophobic Twitter Hashtags, Straight Masculinity, and Networks of Queer Disavowal. In De Kosnik A. & Feldman K. (Eds.), #identity: Hashtagging Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Nation (pp. 218-234). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Last accessed: 02/04/2020, available online: www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvndv9md.17

Senft, T. M. (2013) Microcelebrity and the Branded Self. In J. Hartley, J. Burgess and A. Bruns (eds.), A Companion to New Media Dynamics. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell

Stever, Gayle & Lawson, Kevin. (2013). Twitter as a Way for Celebrities to Communicate with Fans: Implications for the Study of Parasocial Interaction. Last accessed: 02/04/2020. Available online: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gayle_Stever/publication/263257850_Twitter_as_a_Way_for_Celebrities_to_Communicate_with_Fans_Implications_for_the_Study_of_Parasocial_Interaction/links/00b4953a44862a8747000000/Twitter-as-a-Way-for-Celebrities-to-Communicate-with-Fans-Implications-for-the-Study-of-Parasocial-Interaction.pdf?origin=publication_detail

0 notes

ultratesterthings · 4 years

Text

Beautiful Stripes: Who To Believe – Experts Or Social Media?

I’ve been lied to all my life.

Recently, a review by Cochrane Library – a non-profit, non-government organisation formed to organise medical research – has found omega-3 fish oils to make “little or no difference” to protecting heart health, reported The Telegraph.

Elsewhere, seen recently on The Guardian: “Coconut oil is pure poison, says Harvard professor” and “No healthy level of alcohol consumption is healthy”.

Now they tell us it was all a waste of time and money?

Ever since I could swallow, my mother has made me take cod liver oil supplements, and those were the days before flavoured cod liver oil was popular, mind you. You can imagine what a horrifying childhood I had.

Later, when gel-covered pill versions were sold, we dutifully bought them by the bottles, believing that it could build up immunity, stave off colds and flu, and basically, make you healthy, wealthy and wise.

Yes, fish oil is no magic bullet, but most of us don’t follow healthy diets anyway. I’m convinced that all the fish oil I’ve downed all these years had something to do with me hardly falling sick, so I’m sticking to my supplements, thank you.

The thing is, there is no definitive guidebook to living smart. One day, the latest report say this and the next, the complete opposite is true.

Cod liver oil supplements were the bane of the writer’s childhood.

Who should we believe or listen to anyway? More importantly, what are our lifestyle habits and thought trends influenced by?

Do we live by what the “experts” and “study results” tell us since they sound more intelligent, or do we swing according to what social media says?

I firmly believe in evidence-based research and checking sources before buying into a story, and even then it takes a lot before I buy it wholesale.

That being said, there’s probably eight out of 10 netizens out there who will readily buy and react to what the “influencer” of the day is selling.

According to Vivek Misra in an article on www.mumbrella.asia, four out of five marketeers believe influencers to be effective outreach tools.

As it is, prospective influencers are being groomed by companies and people are taking notice of micro-influencers with specific niche audiences as well.

Coconut oil is now supposedly bad for health – who do we believe?

Apart from issues such as how much to allocate, what formula to follow and how to go about marketing a brand or trend, there is the bigger unresolved problem of fraud, fake accounts and credibility, which everyone is aware of but seems to be quietly ignoring.

At some point, there has to be some kind of tool to accurately detect fraudulent accounts and fake ROI, and perhaps, even a regulatory body set up, suggests the story.

Personally, however, my biggest beef lies with the term “influencer” itself and interestingly, during a discussion at the Travel Marketing Summit in Singapore by Mumbrella Asia, Facebook Asia-Pacific’s head of agency called “for social media influencers to stop using the descriptor unless they can prove they have actually influenced something”.

Neil Stewart argued that the term “influencer” was sometimes misleading when used for people on social media who just had “some friends and followers”. In fact, he went so far as to suggest that “Z-list celebrities” would be a more appropriate description.

“To be an influencer, you must have influenced something. I don’t necessarily think that’s true for a lot of influencers. There are plenty of ‘influencers’ who have friends, followers; they have a blog and people who see their content. But until you can prove that they have ‘influenced’ – changed behaviour, an attitude or an action – I think we could almost sue them for using a false or misleading description,” he was quoted as saying.

In response, chief strategist of social media marketing agency Socialites Rochelle Sheldon writes back in defence of the term, saying the majority of those labelled as influencers are “very hard-working, successful creatives with a unique point of view and, because of it, have gained a following of like-minded people”.

“They inspire their followers … They resonate with their stories, and yes, sometimes they even buy stuff recommended to them. And that, is influence,” he said, adding that many influencers themselves hate the word as “it diminishes them”.

Looking for a familiar face in Crazy Rich Asians? Did you spot Malaysian actress Carmen Soo? Photo: AFP

Frankly, I wish brands and companies would get back to the real business of selling. All these supposed subtle campaigns, subliminal messages and image aspirations. Consumers are now a lot more savvy and information-hungry, and it might prove to be more effective to cut to the chase and try something revolutionary. You know, like, talk about the product directly?

While still heavily under the influence of social media, I devoured every morsel of news I could get on Crazy Rich Asians. That was my undoing as all that hype and insider information gave me a certain expectation and made me overly critical of the movie.

I found it enjoyable, yes, but nothing as ground-breaking or as glowing as reviews made it out to be. (OK, I know I stand in danger of being lynched by adoring fans.)

I need to watch it again with an open mind. Without looking out for Carmen Soo, or trying to understand Carcosa’s transformation at Carcosa or analysing the mahjong game.

It’s a good old-fashion love story. Some things should just be taken at face value without reading too much between the lines …

Patsy is neither young nor does she have millions of followers so she’s sticking to her day job. Share your thoughts with [email protected]

This content was originally published here.

0 notes

ishikagupta3796 · 5 years

Text

Hip Hop Jewelry – The Coolest Trend to Follow

Hip Hop jewelry which is also known as bling-bling is known for its bold look, big size, huge rope chains and what is more important than all of that are the pendants which are famous for their massive size and unique designs including skulls, iced outcrosses, sneakers and other weird designs that may look non-traditional to us but are really attractive. Hip Hop jewelry is more common among rap stars who prefer to wear this kind of jewelry for being massive in its size and features unique designs. But this jewelry trend isn’t restricted to rap stars alone. Anyone can look charismatic with stunning gold chains as long as they are able to carry themselves well and have the ability to mix and match attire with pieces of jewelry.

The Rapper Style Hip Hop Jewelry

But wearing Hip Hop jewelry is not limited to rap stars as it has spread among other people to be worn by actors, sports celebrities and even ordinary people who always like to imitate what celebrities do thinking that they always present what is new in the world of fashion and jewelry. Creating real Hip Hop jewelry is based on using precious metals and gemstones such as diamonds.

Creating Hip Hop jewelry through using gold, platinum, diamonds and other precious materials makes wearing this type of jewelry restricted to celebrities and wealthy people but very costly and unaffordable for most of the ordinary people who want to get this type of jewelry. For this reason, a new type of Hip Hop jewelry is created to be more affordable to those who want to wear Hip Hop jewelry without wasting a lot of money and this type of jewelry is imitation to the real Hip Hop jewelry as creating it is based on using cheaper materials such as silver, palladium, stainless steel, base metals and is encrusted with low-quality and cheap stones such as cubic zirconia and diamonds of low quality.

Among the most famous celebrities who are usually seen with hip hop jewelry is Ja Rule, LL Cool J, rapper Curtis James Jackson who is widely known as 50 Cent, Beyonce, Missy Elliott, Ashanti and more celebrities whether they are males or females. Hip Hop jewelry is created in diverse sizes, shapes and types of jewelry items that we wear to accessorize our bodies and complement our clothes as there are hip hop watches, rings, necklaces, pendants, bracelets and other pieces of jewelry that we usually wear but must be heavy in their weight and must be completely and heavily decorated to be classified as hip hop jewelry pieces.

The popularity of hip hop jewelry increases rapidly among people because it is worn by many celebrities and this is why it can be considered as one of the hottest trends that are presented to us through the world of jewelry. The bigger the jewelry pieces are, the better and catchier they will be. So, if you are one of those who likes wearing massive jewelry pieces that are obvious enough to attract attention, you will need to try wearing hip hop jewelry.

Why is Gold so Popular in Hip Hop Jewelry?

“Yes, these are the big gold chains. As a rapper: I am embarrassed to say that I am in a circle without wearing a gold necklace.” One rapper once said that which illustrated the importance of gold chains to hip-hop rappers.

If you sing quite well, even if you do not wear it, the producer will send you one. The shiny gold chain, she let you shine in the crowd. There may be questions for the hip-hop jewels. Do you need to wear a big gold chain when playing doing hip-hop? What is the standard of a big gold chain for hip-hop? When does the relationship between hip-hop and the big gold chain?

In fact, the first generation of rappers do not wear gold chains, sometime later, we start wearing the gold chain, and then it becomes a fashion and a popular element in the hip-hop culture. It’s like a cowboy hat in rural music. Lips and nails in punk music, leather pants in the music of metal trace elements.

So what exactly is the meaning of wearing a big gold chain?

First, it is made of gold and it is very expensive, at the same time, it is a symbol of wealth. It’s a symbol of their attitude, their achievement, and their hard work. One of the good things of wearing these golden chains is that your wealth will not be exposed. It is a way to express joy and display for a long time. The local gangster boss said seriously, put gold in your neck, in addition to showing the wealth, more importantly, that when the crisis occurs, it can work anytime and the gold chain maybe realized its cost in critical moments.

Second, the gold necklace is actually a kind of decorative jewelry to show that I’m brilliant than the other and I have a unique ability as the jewel. The people who wear them are very cool. Bling Bling, this word is used to describe these big gold chains.

The gold chain expresses an attitude. Many hip-hop musicians like to promote “being oneself”. The richness of the gold chain matches human desires and the rapper places the gold chain in the foreground. We like to wear the gold chain and this style seems to become popular around the world. If you think it is not bright enough, then just hang up two or three, which will make you look amazing.

In short, why do rappers want to wear a gold necklace? Wearing gold necklaces show one’s achievement and attitude while not showing off their wealth. Second, it makes you stand out from the crowd. Third, you tell the world what kind of man you are wearing bling gold chains.

How to Sport Hip Hop Jewelry?

When it comes to men’s fashion, the fashion gurus have spoken, and bling is seriously in! Whether it’s custom-made grills, as advertised by your favorite celebrities and rappers, or everyday statement pieces like glamorous eyewear or sophisticated watches, hip hop jewelry for men seems to be in vogue this season. We have curated eight helpful tips from experts to help you plan your next shopping spree to upgrade your look-book.

Shine and shimmer

The whole point of the typical hip hop attire is to blend the non-conformist baggy pants and hoodies with gold, silver and diamond elements in your jewelry. Do not shy away from statement pieces, and try to construct the rest of your outfit around them. The gold Jesus pendant, for example, styled on an 8 mm Cuban link chain, would make for an amazing combination for a night out on the town. If a minimalistic accessorizing style is more up your alley, then a Gold Moon & Star Necklace from the is the chosen one for you.

Simplistic chains

Contrary to popular belief, sober and simple chains can be an equally capable standalone accessory, if styled correctly. They are best suited to gala evenings and dinners, where going all out on the glitz might not be the best idea. Instead, try styling a three-piece plaid suit, with a Cuban link chain silver, and clear gold and black glasses, for a well-put-together outfit. If you are feeling a bit bold, the gold retro round frame grey lens glasses or 14k gold square lemonade canary earrings might just give your look that extra boost to set you apart from the crowd.

All about the eyes

They weren’t kidding when they said that the eyes are the windows to the soul. Good eyewear, suited to the occasion, the complexion of the wearer, and his facial structure and shape can go a long way in sprucing up your look. It can add considerable weight to an otherwise plain and boring getup. For instance, the large white oval sunglasses, as endorsed by none other than Wiz Khalifa, are quirky and can be paired with almost everything in your wardrobe. However, the retro gold flame flip sunglasses, undoubtedly, take home the trophy for the coolest eyewear fashion.

Glam up your wrist

A bare wrist simply won’t do in 2018. The wristwatch has long been one of the most integral articles of men’s jewelry and accessories, and this year, they seem to have gone all out in their quest to carve out a niche market in the hip hop jewelry industry. Of course, you could never go wrong with infallible classics, like a stainless steel luxury watch with a prominent round dial. It wouldn’t, however, hurt to go big for a change and try out eye-catching pieces, like the white gold big face watch or the rose gold presidential watch. Bracelets, underrated as they may be, would also do a bang-on job of upping the oomph factor of your appearance. Of course, the good old chain and bejeweled bracelets will never go out of style, but nothing screams trendsetter like a quality beaded bracelet with a powerful piece, like a gold lion head, at its center.

Jesus and cross statements

The whole movement associated with hip hop began as a form of political protest, with religion being of special significance. Statement pieces, such as the Jesus piece silver, have been around for long, but it’s only recently that they are being touted as the highlights of the outfit. Here’s an essential point to be kept on the frontlines of your memory when trying to incorporate bejeweled pendants and necklaces into your – keep the remnant of your outfit simple so as not to draw attention away from the statement piece of your ensemble or go overboard.

Styling pendants and necklaces

Chains, pendants, and necklaces are the most commonly chosen accessories when it comes to men. It’s not as simple as it seems though. There needs to be a perfect balance between your clothes and your accessories, and just because the two are individually great does not mean that they will pair well together. So, if you are opting for a 10k gold cuban link chain with a micro Jesus piece, make sure that your outfit is either monochromatic or, at the very least, leaning towards the darker spectrum of the color palette, and ideally, without any exaggerated prints or patterns.

Avant-garde combinations

While most would play it safe with tried and tested looks, if you are a man, who likes a good challenge, going avant-garde might be an interesting change of pace. There’s literally tons you could do with good jewelry, the right accessories, and clothes that fit your specific style of aesthetic. There’s plenty of great new pieces, like the gold-green jade Buddha pendant necklace that’s guaranteed to make you the center of attention in the room. The great thing about the avant-garde, though, is that there is no right or wrong combination; it’s the element of the good kind of surprise that you should really focus on.

Customize what you wear

When it comes to jewelry for men, you could opt for the understated, classic look, with regular cut diamonds for your ear studs, an 18k gold Cuban link chain, and an elegant luxury watch to go with your formals. Or, crank it up a notch by settling for nothing less than customized pieces to suit your individual taste, instead of settling for off-the-rack pieces. Of course, the latter might lead to a bit of a pocket pinch, but when you think about it as a one-time investment in a non-depreciating asset like jewelry, it’s actually quite a profitable deal. You will have to work intimately with designers and jewelry technicians to figure out the final outcome of your collective efforts.

Concluding remarks

It’s always a great idea to figure out your unique choice of style before proceeding to buy jewelry. Whether you choose to make your clothes or your bling the headliner of your appearance is your personal choice, but you must always strive to ensure that they are never at conflict with one another but are instead working in sync to enhance your overall look.

#hiphopbling #Hip Hop Jewelry #stunning gold chains #type of jewelry #hip hop chain #gold hip hop chains

0 notes

veloceinternational-blog · 7 years

Text

New Post has been published on Veloce

New Post has been published on https://www.veloceinternational.com/social-media-marketing/4-ways-to-promote-your-business-on-social-media-for-explosive-growth/

4 Ways to Promote your business on social media for Explosive Growth

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push();

Want to market your business?

Not sure what actions to take for optimal growth and results?

Everyone is talking about the results social media can generate.

And it’s partly bad and partly good.

The thing is that the results brand are seeing from their efforts are results of hard work, great planning, and resources invested.

Am I saying you can’t achieve those results?

Absolutely not!

You can reach those results above and beyond, but the issue is that many brands that I come across believe that they can reach those results by sharing a few posts, leave a few comments, and then wait.

But as you probably know, that is not the case.

Social media has become more and more saturated, and to stand out, you need to take new approaches to the platform, and you need to put more effort to generate results.

In this article, I’ll provide you with 5 ways to promote your business on social media for explosive growth. This means a detailed explanation of how you can achieve the incredible results social media is capable of generating for your brand. No sugar-coating!

1. Amplify your message with micro-influencers who share your brand values

Micro-influencers has gotten all the attention in the last few years, and with all right!

You’ve probably heard about influencers, and micro-influencers are just what they sound like. They are influencers with a lower, yet much more targeted and engaged following.

As follower count increase, the engagement tends to drop. That’s the general rule of social media. It can depend on your followers becoming inactive, others creating new accounts, and some people just getting tired of your content.

TrackMaven

However, at the same time the follower count increases, so does the price of working with the influencer, because most of them base their prices on their followers and how many they can reach in theory.

The definition of a micro-influencer varies, and I’ve literally seen every single definition of them. Some people say that a micro-influencer has less than 10K followers, some people say 25K, others say 50, and some even strike with 100K.

Exactly where the line is drawn doesn’t matter, but just know that micro-influencers have a smaller, yet more engaged audience compared to celebrity influencers and big influencers.

If you are wondering about the power of micro-influencers, just look at the statistics:

82% of consumers are “highly likely” to follow a recommendation made by a micro–influencer.

Micro Influencers has 22% more ‘buying conversations’ than an average consumer.

Micro.influencers are also great because they often have highly targeted that actually care about their niche. As a brand, this is perfect, because it allows you to reach the people who truly matter for your brand, and don’t pay for a bunch of nonsense followers.

Finding influencers

Finding micro-influencers used to be tough, but with tools like Veloce influencer directory, it’s easier than ever.

Simply fill in the criteria you wish the influencer to have and click search!

Now, you’ll be presented with a list of the most relevant individuals for your brand, so just select the individual you think matches your brand best.

Remember to partner with influencers who shares your brand message and aligns with your values. This will allow you to create a better and more convincing influencer campaign.

2. Incorporate humour

Most brands are afraid to use humor, but those who dare to see amazing results.

It’s quite an interesting acknowledgement.

The truth is that as long as the humor isn’t inappropriate, everybody loves to laugh. What is it that says that you shouldn’t use it in your marketing?

Nothing!

By incorporating humor, you’ll bridge the gap between you and your audience which will make both you and your audience more approachable.

There are many good reasons to why you need to use humor in your marketing, and there are only really a few brands who can say “it’s not suitable for us” because the truth is that the vast majority of brands will see great results from making their audience laugh.

First off, humor helps build trust.

Just think about it: do you enjoy being around funny people? Of course, you do! They have a tendency to make it very easy to trust them.

Secondly, it allows your brand to stand out because most brands don’t dare to use it!

Social media is starting to get saturated, but this doesn’t mean it is hopeless for marketing. Instead, it means that you need new approaches to getting seen. And those new approaches means using strategies that few brands use.Luckily for you, humor is one of them.

And lastly, you become more approachable.

If you are in a new group of people, which person will you go to first? The person who is joking and fun of course.

These people present themselves as kind and sympathetic, and at the same time, they can give you a really good time.

3. Incorporate UGC and brand advocates’ content

User-generated content holds a lot more marketing power than your standard professionally created content.

In fact, 93% of consumers find UGC to be helpful when making a purchasing decision.What’s more, 71% of consumers also feel more comfortable buying a product after seeing other customers’ experience with your brand and products.

Creating content for social media is hard. Especially when considering the fact that least amount of posts you should share is one post a day – on each social media platform.

That’s a lot of content!

But luckily, UGC provides you with free content you can use, and the best part is that this is content that tends to be more effective in marketing than other types of content.

Some people will share UGC content around your products on own initiative, but others need a push to create it. As a small brand, you can’t expect a ton of people to share UGC around your products. Especially if you don’t have a ton of customers.

The first step to getting more content to choose from is to simply ask your audience to share it!

In fact, you can even leave a little note in their order where you ask them to share a photo of them using that product on social media.

To encourage UGC, to sort the content, and to create a sense of community, using a hashtag is the best way.

With a personalized hashtag, you’ll be able to gather all the content that comes from your audience in one place, and this also gives your customers an opportunity to interact with other people, this leading to a community around your brand. To further encourage UGC, you can reward those who share a post.

The opportunities are endless. You can give a discount code to everyone who posts, send a free product, give them a 2 for 1 deal, and anything in between.

Not only will UGC give you content to use, but it will also gain you a ton of valuable exposure because the people sharing it are sharing it for their friends to see.

4. Provide amazing customer service

When most people think about building their brand on social media, most of the time, customer service isn’t part of the equation.

It’s understandable, but it means missing out on an amazing opportunity.

The thing is that your customer service and the experience you give your customers will have a huge impact on their thoughts about you, and also if they become returning customers.

Mor and more people are turning to social media for customer service, and if you aren’t there to meet them, you are missing out on important opportunities to make your customer’s problems right, to engage with them, and to increase your customer retention.

Customer retention is one of the single most important metrics you want to keep track of and work to improve, but the problem is that very few people do.

But why is customer retention so important?

Well, just look at the statistics:

5-20% is the probability of selling to a new prospect

60-70% probability of selling to an existing customer

That’s not all either…

Source: Helpscout

Customer service on social media is an art that needs to be mastered, and if I’d go through it all from start to finish, we’d be here all day.

There’s a lot to think about when working with it, but it is most important that you know the basics and the most vital parts.

First off, you need to think about response time. This is a major part of providing a great experience to your customers.

People’s expectation on brands is that they will respond within 4 hours. But unfortunately, that is not always the case…

In fact, brands respond on average after 10 hours! That’s more than double the customer expectation.

The bottom line is that you need to invest in resources that allow you to respond to your customers in a time that leaves them impressed because response time is one of the easiest ways to measure the quality of a brand’s service.

Secondly, the world of customer service is changing, and more and more people are turning to social media for customer service questions. And it makes sense because social media is the place where people spend their time, so obviously, they will think that it’s smooth and easy to reach out to brands on platforms they’re already using.

But the issue comes when you don’t respond to your customer’s questions and inquiries.

In fact, close to 30% of people will go to a competitor if a brand doesn’t respond!

Make sure you respond to every single message, even if it’s a complaint. Or more correctly, make sure you respond to an inquiry especially if it’s a complaint!

Many brands shy away from complaints in the hopes that it will be better, but the truth is that responding to them in a good manner will help you convert then from angry to loyal customers again. If you, on the other hand, don’t reply, chances are they will tell their friends about their bad experience with your brand.

Conclusion

To generate results with social media, it’s not enough to share a few posts and wait for the results to roll in. You need to have a strong strategy and plan to what actions you will take.

All you need to do is have a strong strategy and plan to get going, then execute on a daily basis. Social media results don’t come after a day. Nor do they come after a week.

They come after consistent hard work.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push();

0 notes

straydogstory · 4 years

Text

Divest From the Video Games Industry! by Marina Kittaka

https://medium.com/@even_kei/divest-from-the-video-games-industry-814a1381092d

This piece seeks to contextualize the problems of the video games industry within its own mythology, and from there, to imagine and celebrate new directions through a lens of anti-capitalist and embodied compassion.

My name is Marina Ayano Kittaka (she/her), I’m a 4th gen Japanese American trans woman from middle class background. I work in a variety of different art forms but my bread and butter are the video games I make with my friend Melos Han-Tani, e.g. the Anodyne series.

I am not an authority on any of these topics, and it’s not my intention to speak over anyone else or offer comprehensive solutions, only to be one small piece of a larger conversation and movement. I use declarative and imperative sentences for clarity, not certainty.

I seek to follow the leadership of BIPOC abolitionist thinkers such as Ejeris Dixon, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, adrienne maree brown and Ruth Wilson Gilmore, along with the work of local (to me) groups like Black Visions Collective and MPD150. I welcome feedback, especially if you believe that something I’ve said is harmful.

This piece is inspired by the latest wave of survivors bravely sharing their stories (it is June 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic and global uprising against anti-Black racism and the unjust institution of police). I believe and stand with survivors.

The Problems

The video games industry has many deep, tragic, and intertwining problems. It’s beyond the scope of this piece to examine the entirety of games culture (I will focus on development and, to a lesser degree, distribution). It’s also beyond the scope of this piece to convince anyone that these problems exist, but I’ll be moving forward with the assumption that we agree that they do. Here is an incomplete list:

Pervasive sexual abuse

Workplace abuse, bullying, crunch, burnout, generally exploitative labor conditions

Sexism, racism, and other bigotry — the above abuses are accentuated along these intersections (e.g. the sexual abuse of marginalized genders or the exclusion of racial minorities).

Supply chain problems including conflict minerals and exploitative factory conditions

Heavy environmental impacts

Non-Judgement

This conversation may spark hurt or defensive feelings. I want to address this directly. Many people love video games, and not only that, but are deeply invested in the world of games. I’m particularly sensitive to marginalized creators who have fought hard to find a foothold in the games industry and deserve to follow their dreams. I exist more on the periphery of the games industry and my goal is not to center my personal anger or disdain — but instead to push toward a world with better games, played by happier audiences, made by creators who feel safe and appreciated.

Additionally, this conversation is not about the merits of any individual AAA (large studio) game. It’s not about creating strict rules about media consumption. It’s not about shaming people into certain beliefs or behaviors. When we try to act like our personal tastes must align with our most high-minded ideals, we encourage shame or denial — things that distance us from others.

Nor is this exclusively about AAA. This is about any situation where the power becomes the point. There can be gradations of industrial complexes and power complexes existing from the smallest micro-communities to the largest corporations. We can divest on all levels.

The Industry Promise

I believe that many of us as game creators and audiences have (consciously or not) bought into the idea that happiness and wonder are scarce and fragile commodities — precious gems mined via arcane and costly processes. Life can often be isolating, alienating, and traumatic, and many of us cope by numbing some parts of ourselves¹. The poignance and pleasure of simply feeling becomes rare.

In answer to this perceived scarcity, The Industry swoops in with a promise that technological and design mastery can “make” people feel. It does this not only blatantly in marketing copy or developer interviews, but also in unwieldy assertions that games can make you empathic, or through the widespread notion that games are an exceptionally “immersive” art form due to “interactivity”. Embedded in this promise is the ever-alluring assumption that technological progress is linear: games overall must be getting better, more beautiful, more moving, because that is simply how technology works! Or perhaps it is the progress itself that is beautiful — each impressive jump towards photorealism delivering the elusive sense of wonder that we crave.

At this point, I could argue that the benefits are not worth the cost, that the aforementioned Problems outweigh even this idealized vision of what games provide. But I’m guessing many of you might find that unsatisfying, right? Why don’t we simply reform the system? Spread awareness and training about sexism and racism, create more art that engenders empathy, encourage diversity? Isn’t it throwing the baby out with the bathwater to “halt” technological progress in order to fix some issues of bad leadership here or abusive superstar there?

Here we come to my main purpose in writing this piece: to expand the imaginative space around video games by tearing out The Industry Promise at its roots. If wonder is not scarce and progress is not linear, then the world that rises from the ashes of the Video Games Industry can be more exciting and more technologically vibrant than ever before.

Precious Gems

Take a deep breath and picture some of the happy moments of your life. Maybe some of them look like this:

Staying up late and getting slaphappy with a friend; looking out over a beautiful landscape; a passionate kiss; collaborating with friends in a session of DnD or Minecraft; a thoughtful gift from someone you admire; a cool drink on a hot summer day; making a new friend who feels like they really see you; singing a song; a hug from someone who smells nice; getting junk food late at night and feeling naughty about it; the vivid colors and sounds of a rainy city evening; drifting to sleep in the cottony silence of a smalltown homestead; getting a crew together to see a new movie; the scent of the air at sunrise; having a meaningful conversation with a nonverbal baby.

Picture the games you loved most as a child, the games that felt full of possibility and mystery and fun. Were they all the most technologically advanced? The most critically revered?

Maybe your happy moments look nothing like this. Or maybe you can’t recall feeling happy and that’s the whole problem. But my point is that happiness, joy, fun… these things are at their core fluid, social, narrative, contextual, chemical. In both its best and most common incarnations, happiness is not shoved into your passive body by the objective “high quality” of an experience. Both recent psychological research and traditions from around the world (e.g. Buddhist monks) suggest that happiness and well-being are growable skills rooted in compassion.

Think of all the billions of people who have ever lived, across time, across cultures, with video games and without, living nomadically or settling in cities or jungles. In every moment there are infinite reasons to suffer and infinite reasons to be happy². Giant industry’s monopolistic claims to “art” or “entertainment” have always been a capitalist lie, nonsensical yet inescapable.

The Narrative of Technology and Progress

Is this an anti-technology screed? Am I suggesting we must all go outside like in the good old days and play “hoop and stick” until the end of time? Let’s start by unpacking what we mean when we say “technology”. Here’s one definition:

Technology is the sum of techniques, skills, methods, and processes used in the production of goods or services or in the accomplishment of objectives. — Wikipedia

Honestly, technology is such a vague and broad concept that nearly anything anyone ever does could be considered technological! As such, how we use the term in practice is very revealing of our cultural values. Computing power, massive scale, photorealistic graphics, complex AI, VR experiences that attempt to recreate the visual and aural components of a real or imagined situation… certainly these are all technologies that can and have grown in sophistication over time. But what The Industry considers technological progress actually consists of fairly niche goals that have been artificially inflated because capitalists have figured out they can make money this way. Notably, I don’t use “niche” here as an insult — aren’t many of the most fascinating things intrinsically niche? But when one restrictive narrative sucks all the air out of the room and leaves a swath of emotional and physical devastation in its wake… isn’t it time to question it?

What if humans having basic needs met is “technological progress”? What if indigenous models of sustainable living are “hi-tech”? What if creating a more accessible world where people have freedom of movement opens up numerous high-fidelity multisensory experiences? These questions go far beyond the scope of the video games industry, sure, but in the words of adrienne maree brown, “what we practice at the small scale sets the patterns for the whole system”³.

What We Hope to Gain

The kneejerk reaction to dismantling an existing structure tends to be a subtractive vision. Here we are, living in the exact same world, but all blockbuster video games have been magically snapped out of existence… only hipster indie games remain! Missing from this vision is the understanding that our current existence is itself subtractive — what we cling to now comes at the expense of so much good. The loss of maturing vision and skill when people leave the industry due to burnout, sexual assault, and racist belittlement. Corporate IP laws and progress narratives that disincentivize preservation and rob us of our rich and fertile history. The ad-centric, sanitized, and consolidated internet that chokes out democratized community spaces. The fighting-for-scraps mentality that the larger industry places on small creators with its sparing and self-interested investment. Our current value system limits not only what AAA games are but also what everything else has the capacity to be.

Utopia does not have an aesthetic. We don’t need to prescribe the correct “alt” taste. Games can be high and low, sacred and profane, cute and ugly, left brain and right. Destroying the games industry does not mean picking an alternate niche to replace it. Instead, we seek to open the floodgates to a world in which countless decentralized, intimate, and overlapping niches might thrive.

When we decentralize power, we not only create the conditions for more and better games, we also diminish the conditions under which abuse can flourish. Many of the stories of abuse hinge on the abuser wielding the power to dramatically help or harm the careers of others. The consolidation of this power is enhanced by our collective investment in The Industry Promise (not forgetting the wider cultural intersections of oppression). Mythologized figures ascend along a linear axis of greatness, shielded by the horrifying notion that they are less replaceable than others because their ranking in The Industry evidences their mystical importance.

What’s Next?

Here is a fundamental truth: we do not need video games. Paradoxically, this truth opens up the world of video games to be as full and varied and strange and contradictory as life itself.

So. Say you agree with all or part of my assertions that collectively we may proceed to end the video games industry by divesting our attention, time, and money, and building something new with each other. But what does that look like in practice? I don’t have all the answers. I find community very difficult due to my own trauma. Nonetheless, I’ll do some brainstorming. Skim this and read what speaks to you personally, or do your own brainstorming!

Center BIPOC/queer leadership

I.e. people who have been often forcibly divested from the majority culture and have experience in creating alternatives. Draw on influences outside of media e.g. transformative justice, police abolition, and prison abolition. Books like Beyond Survival and Emergent Strategy are based in far deeper understanding of organizing than anything written here, and are much more relevant to the direct and immediate issues of things like responding to sexual assault in our communities.

Divest from celebrity/authority

Many people will tell you that their most rewarding artistic relationships are with peers, not mentors and certainly not idols. Disengage from social media-as-spectator sport where larger-than-life personalities duke it out via hot take. Question genius narratives wherever they arise. Cultivate your own power and the power of those adjacent to you. If you feel yourself becoming a celebrity: take a step back, recognize the power that you wield over others, redirect opportunities to marginalized creators whose work you respect, invest in completely unrelated areas of your life, go to therapy.

Divest from video games exceptionalism

Academics have delved into video games’ inferiority complex and the topic of “video games exceptionalism”, which is tied into what I frame as The Industry Promise above — the idea that video games as a technological vanguard are brimming with inherent value due to all the things they can do that other forms of media cannot. This ensures that gobs of money get thrown around, but it’s an ahistorical and isolating notion that does nothing to actually advance our understanding of games as a form (Interesting discussion on this here, which reminds me of Richard Terrell’s work regarding vocabulary).

Reimagine scale

Rigorously question the notion that “bigger is better” at every turn. With regards to projects, studios, events, continually ask “why?” in the face of any pressure to make something bigger, and then try to determine what might be lost as well as what might be gained. Compromising on values tends to be inevitable at scale, workplace abuse or deals with questionable entities. For me this calls to mind the research led by psychologist Daniel Kahneman suggesting that the happiness benefits of wealth taper off dramatically once a comfortable standard of living is reached. Anyone who’s ever had a tweet go viral can tell you that it’s fun at first and then it just becomes annoying. Living in a conglomerated, global world, we regularly have to face and process social metrics that are completely incomprehensible to the way our social brains are programmed, and the results are messy. Are there ever legitimate uses for a huge team working on a project for many years? Sure, probably, but the idea that this is some sort of ideal normal situation that everyone should strive for is based on nothing but propaganda.

Redefine niche

Above I suggest that AAA is niche. I believe it’s true broadly, but that it’s definitely true relative to their budgets. What do I mean by this? AAA marketing budgets are reported to be an additional 75–100% relative to development costs (possibly even higher in some cases). Isn’t this mindblowing? If a game naturally appealed to proportionately mass numbers of people by virtue of its High Quality or Advanced Technology, then would we really need to spend tens or hundreds of millions of dollars just to convince people to play it? For contrast, Melos estimates that our marketing budget for Anodyne 2 was an added 10% of development costs and it was a modest commercial success. Certainly marketing is a complex field that can be ethical, but to me, there is something deeply unhealthy about the capacity of large studios to straight up purchase their own relevance (according to some research, marketing influences game revenue three times more than high review scores).

On a separate but related note, I don’t buy that all the perceived benefits of AAA such as advancements in photorealism will vanish without the machine of The Industry to back them. People are astonishing and passionate! It won’t always necessarily look like a 60 hour adventure world, but it will be a niche that we can support like any other.

Ground yourself in your body

Self-compassion, mindfulness, meditation, exercise, breathing, nature, inter-being. There are many ways to build your capacity to experience joy, wonder, and happiness. One of the difficult things about this process though is that if you approach these topics head on, you’ll often be overwhelmed with Extremely Specific Aesthetics that might not fit you (e.g. New Agey or culturally appropriative). My advice is to 1) be open to learning from practices that don’t fit your brand while also 2) being able to adapt the spirit of advice into something that actually works for you. The benefit of locating our capacity for joy internally is that it reveals that The Industry is fundamentally superfluous and so we are free to take what we want and throw the rest in the compost pile.

As a side note, some artists (who otherwise have structural access to things like mental health services) fear becoming healthy, because they’re worried that they will lose the spark and no longer make good art. Speaking as an artist whose creative capacity has consistently increased with my mental health, there are multiple reasons why I don’t think people should worry about this.

You carry your past selves within you, even as you change. “Our bodies are neural and physiological reservoirs of all our significant experiences starting in our prenatal past to the present.”⁴

You can lose a spark and gain another. You can gain 6 sparks in place of the one you lost.

What is it that you ultimately seek from being “good at art”? Ego satisfaction? Human connection? Self-respect? All of these things would be easier to come by in the feared scenario in which you are so happy and healthy that you can no longer make art. Cut out the middleman! Art is for nerds!

Invest outside of games

Games culture often encourages a total identification with video games. This pressures developers into working and audiences into buying, conveniently benefitting executives and shareholders to everyone else’s detriment. Investing in interests wholly unrelated to video games is beneficial in many ways and there’s something for everyone! Personally, I love books. A novel is “low-tech” in nearly every way that a AAA game is “high-tech”, and yet books are affordable, data-light, easy-to-preserve, stimulating, challenging, immersive, and entertaining. What is technology, again?

Another pertinent thought: while there’s nothing inherently wrong with dating a fellow game developer, you should not enter industry/work spaces or events looking for romantic connection. Particularly if you have any sort of institutional power, you will inevitably put others in uncomfortable situations and prime yourself to commit abuse. If you want sex, relationships, etc, find other outlets, shared interests, and dating pools.

Work towards a more accessible world

In the context of an often systemically ableist world, video games can — at their best — be fun, valuable, and accessible experiences for disabled audiences. Consequently, when I say “divest from the video games industry”, I don’t want to gloss over the fact that divestment comes with a different cost for different people. Certainly accessibility within video games continues to be as important as ever, but if I’m asking, e.g., for people to “invest outside of games”, then a commitment to a more accessible out-of-game world is also extremely vital. For instance, non-disabled people can be attuned during this particular moment to the unique perspectives and leadership of disabled people regarding Covid lockdowns and widespread work-from-home, and be wary as we gradually lift restrictions of reverting to a selective and hypocritical approach to accommodations.

Invest in alternative technological advancements

What might we have the resources, attention, and energy to grow if our industry weren’t so laser focused on a constricted definition of technological advancement? For example, audio-only games appear to me an incredibly fertile area for technological advancement that has been under-resourced. How about further advancements towards biodegradable/recyclable microchips and batteries? A fundamental rethinking of the “home console” model in which each successive generation strives to obsolete the last and sell tens of millions new hardware units? Something like an arcade or those gaming lounges (but do they all have to have the same aggressive aesthetics?). The success of Pokemon GO seems to gesture at potential for social, non-remote video game experiences with broader demographic/aesthetic appeal. At the Portland (Maine) Public Library, there’s a console setup in the teen section where local kids would play and they also had a selection of console games for checkout — that was really cool! Local game dev organizations like GLITCH creating events where local devs show and playtest games with the public…

Look to small tools

Small tools such as hobbyist-centered game engines very naturally and successfully act as springboards to community. Look at ZZT, early Game Maker (e.g. gamemakergames), OHRRPGCE. Look at bitsy, PuzzleScript, Pico-8! Look at Electric Zine Maker by Nathalie Lawhead as well as this post they wrote on small tools. Small tools, by virtue of their limitations, tend to lend themselves to particular aesthetics and goals. Whether you’re ultimately playing to or against the core gravitational pull of a small tool, I think it grounds you within a certain design conversation that is conducive to community. Participating in these communities as a child (even though I rarely interacted directly) fundamentally instilled in me ideas like: people make their own fun; wonder is uncorrelated with budget; being strangely specific has value. Can other structures learn from small tools? Events, meetings, parties… what happens if we think of these as communal “engines” — structures built around a conversational core that people can use to create things or express themselves…?

Something that crosses my mind often is that it may be fundamentally healthy for us all to be “big fish in small ponds” in one way or another. The idea that there exists One True Big Pond that reflects all of our collective values simultaneously is a harmful myth that serves to direct all admiration and energy towards corporate interests and robs the rest of us of our accomplishments.

Sucking as praxis

“Professional artistry” as the capacity to maintain the shared illusion that there are indisputable measures of beauty and worth. When you allow the illusion to fail — often against your will — 1) capitalist powers will be disappointed in their inability to wield you with proper efficiency and 2) fellow small creators will be heartened because you bypassed the illusion and still offered something worthy. Failure in a backwards system can be strength. Growing as an artist can be a gloriously paradoxical affair.

Fight for history

We miss out on so much when history is lost to us, and video games are extraordinarily susceptible due to their technical dependencies on ever-shifting hardware. The Industry’s current incarnation goes beyond history-apathy to a downright historical hostility. Sustaining the narrative of linear technological progress inevitably involves shitting on the past (there are a chosen few old games that are kept accessible, but they feel like exceptions proving the rule). Emulation is a vital resource, ever on the verge of outlaw (See Nintendo’s legal actions), Internet Archive is under attack, and Disney warps copyright laws to keep their stranglehold on media intact. Overviews and longplays of difficult-to-play older games are incredibly valuable and I’m truly grateful for people who do this vital work. Off the top of my head, I’ve enjoyed Nitro Rad’s comprehensive work in 3D platformers, and Cannot Be Tamed’s retro reviews. See also: the Video Game History Foundation.

Public libraries could be a vital ally in this cause. What if libraries had access to legacy tech or specialized emulation software that made playing, researching, or recording from old video games more feasible? What if small creators or defunct small studios could get grants or support in preserving their own old work? Would disappointing institutional responses to Gamergate have played out differently if knowledge of and respect for the ongoing historic contributions of BIPOC, female, and/or queer developers were built into the core fabric of video games spaces? Would it be so easy to accept the AAA model as the pinnacle of technology if we contextualized the astounding complexity of past games like Dwarf Fortress, or the Wizardry or Ultima series — technological complexity that would not have been possible had the games been beholden to modern AAA priorities? (Talking out of my ass here, as I have never played these games. See also: modern work on Dwarf Fortress). See also: The Spriter’s Resource and it’s affiliate sites.

Expand government arts funding

I don’t know a lot about this, but… there should be more of it! I see it happening more in other countries besides the US.

Labor organizing

We can look into studio structures like co-ops. We can join unions. Those unions must be intersectional to the core (see recent events regarding GWU international). How about dual power? Many small studios could combine in overlapping networks of varying formality. They could integrate their audiences, cross-promote, build collective power so as to not be totally beholden to the will of corporations. I’m not an expert on labor though, look to others who know more.

Collaborative / open source resources

E.g. The Open Source Afro Hair Library, Open Game Art, Rrrrrose Azerty’s prolific CC0 music and the broader Free Music Archive community.

Give money

Normalize mutual aid. Normalize buying small games. Contribute to things like Galaxy Fund.

Just Play!

Play something totally random on itch.io (or another community-oriented site) with no outside recommendation. Compliment and/or pay the developer if you like something about it!

Conclusion

Thank you for engaging with these thoughts! I hope that they spark thoughts for you, and that we can all learn from each other. Feel free to reach out to me on twitter or via email: [email protected]

[Edit: at 11:20PM CDT, 6/25/20, I changed the audio games link from a wikipedia article to the more relevant-seeming: https://audiogames.net/]

0 notes

onlinemarketingcourses · 5 years

Text

Mike Allton’s Quick Start Guide To Becoming A Brand Influencer

Ok, so you’d like to become a brand influencer, eh? That’s great! Let me start by sharing two admissions about the tongue-in-cheek title of this article:

First, the only reason why I called this “Mike Allton’s” was to make it clear that it’s based on my personal experience. I am not driving a Lamborghini and selling you a $97 system for you to achieve the same. It’s just a fun way to share the answer to a question I’ve been asked a lot.

Second, there’s nothing quick about this.

If you know me, you know I’ve never written a quick anything, so buckle up for a long, thorough post. And since we’re all friends here, I need to also point out that becoming an influencer is not a quick process either.

But, before we get too much into that, let’s stop for a moment and make sure we’re all on the same page as to what an influencer is and what it means to be a Brand Influencer.

Defining Influence

At its core, being an influencer means that you are connected to other people who trust your opinion on one or more topics, and can potentially be influenced by that opinion. Which means we’ve stumbled on one of the truths about influencer marketing, which is that virtually everyone is an influencer, regardless of how small or large their online audience is.

Understand that about yourself. You are an influencer already.

So what does it mean to be a Brand Influencer?

That’s when a business chooses to partner with you in some way to help them reach your audience and leverage your influence over them. That may be a formal, paid position, or it may be an informal, cooperative venture.

And we see brand influencers all around us every day.

From celebrity spokesmen to bloggers who receive free product to test and review, there’s a massive and growing economy around the use of sociological and psychological influence. I often talk about how social networks are a sociological micro-culture and here’s another perfect example.

If you have a following on social media and share information about a particular product or service, you’re exerting Social Influence.

Typically this will be manifested as Conformity – when people who are following you want to be more like you so they pay attention to what you talk about, how you conduct yourself, and express interest in your suggestions and recommendations.

Less common will be Compliance – when someone believes they need to do something because you told them to, and considers there may be a social reward for compliance (or punishment for non-compliance.

On rare occasion the nature of the influence will be Obedience – when someone considers you an authority and assumes your suggestion to be that of a command to be followed.

(I don’t even have that level of influence over my own children, so I wouldn’t know what that’s like.)

In most instances of social influence, the influencer will share and endorse a particular product, and in so doing, either through inference or statement, share a benefit of that item. Perhaps it makes them look better (i.e. clothing) or feel better (i.e. CBD) or work better (i.e. social media management).

The more influential someone is, not only will they have a greater audience, they’ll also have a greater capacity for encouraging conformity through their posts. Keep that in mind because if you want to develop professional influencer projects, you will need to work on both aspects.

The more cognizant you are of your social influence and, specifically, your capacity of encouraging conformity, the more effective you will be at psychological influence.

At this stage, you’re now focused on helping your audience to achieve satisfaction according to Maslow’s hierarchy. Here you may employ Motivation, Perception, Learning, or Attitudes & Beliefs.

For instance, you might choose to broadcast a Facebook Live that demonstrates how to use a particular online tool that you’re an affiliate for. You’re combining your personal influence with cognitive learning to encourage viewers to consider making a purchase.

Armed with that basic information on what it means to be influential and a brand influencer, the rest of the article will be easier to understand.

My Background in Influence

Personally, I’ve been a brand influencer for many years. From the moment I signed up for my first affiliate account in 2007, I was representing someone else’s business and using my influence to encourage sales.

But just about anyone can sign up to be an affiliate, so it’s not that experience that you’re here to glean.

Over the years I’ve worked hard to develop relationships with the brands in my industry (social media marketing). I’ve been given free access to key tools and services. And I’ve been paid to partner with brands like Hubspot, Twenty20, Thinkific and Agorapulse. In fact, after being a paid brand ambassador for Agorapulse for a while, I was eventually hired full time as Brand Evangelist to help manage our entire ambassador and affiliate programs.

That’s what many of you have seen over the years and why you’re here now. You know I’ve worked with some of the top influencers and brands in my space and now you want to know how to do the same. So let’s dig into that.

My Your Quick Start Guide To Brand Influence

Whether you already have a sizable audience or are just starting out, the overall process is similar.

Step One – Demonstrate Authority

First, you demonstrate authority in your industry. This might take the form of educational blog posts, like me, or live videos, or social posts. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in! If you’re a food blogger, then you demonstrate authority by sharing gorgeous, mouth-watering images and recipes of the food you’ve created. If you’re a fashionista, your Instagram feed should be filled with beautiful imagery.

Sharing content is how you will grow your audience and demonstrate that you have the capacity to be an influencer.

Step Two – Establish a Platform

Second, as a correlation to the first step, you have to establish a platform. I love using this term that Michael Hyatt has so excellently espoused – this idea that wherever you build an audience and demonstrate authority through content, that’s your platform. It can be a website, of course, but can also be an email community or social media following, or some combination of the above.

Wherever and however you choose to build a platform – make no mistake, it must be built in order to be a brand influencer. And while there are other places and ways that you can build a platform, blog traffic, email subscribers and social followers are the tangible and measurable means by which brands can and will determine your tacit influence. So those are what we’ll discuss most throughout the rest of this article.

Stop for a moment and consider these first two steps. Are you already creating great content related to your brand and industry? Are you already building an audience of interested fans and followers? If so, great! Then you already have a sense for how these steps work. If not, that’s OK! Just understand what I said at the outset – this part takes time. I’m not sure exactly when my first real brand partnership took place, but it was most certainly after years of creating content and audience-building.

Step Three – Narrow Your Focus

Which brings me to my third step, and that’s to narrow your focus. Just as with content creation, having a narrow focus on what products and services you may choose to be an influencer for will actually help you.

Imagine for a moment that you want to be an influencer on Instagram and sign contracts with businesses to post about their stuff. Sounds great! But if one day you’re posting about chocolate and the next day you’re posting about printers and the day after that you’re talking about an app to live stream, can you see how confusing that might be for your audience? And since brands understand that, they’re going to be less interested in working with you. Savvy brands want to work with influencers who have a refined and demonstrated relationship to their industry and target market.

(Which, incidentally, is why I ignore the almost-daily emails asking me to participate in social media campaigns for things like Pet Food or Shampoo – they’re ridiculously off-brand for me and destined to fail.)

Give careful consideration then to the content you choose to write and the brands you may potentially work with. I find it’s best to write out the topics, industries, verticals and target audiences and then make sure that everything I do falls within those carefully outlined lanes.

Once you’ve gotten this far, it’s time to have some fun working with brands! So how does one get started?

IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR HOW TO WORK WITH BRANDS AS AN INFLUENCER, THIS IS IT

Step Four – Start Partnering

If you’re really lucky, or well-connected, your first brand partnership will be one where the brand identifies you as an influencer and reaches out to you. Obviously we can’t expect that to happen and, odds are, if you’re reading this article, that hasn’t happened to you yet. So let’s proceed to develop those relationships intentionally.

Identify potential partners in your niche.

Become a well-educated customer.

Write/post about them online.

Wait, Mike, where’s the money? I’m coming to that, Judy.

Like every other job or business, becoming a professional Influencer requires that you first learn the ropes without compensation. Now, don’t worry, there are plenty of other ways you can make money with your content without getting paid endorsements. But you’ll use these posts and experience to begin to develop relationships with the brands you talk about and potentially spark other opportunities. Consider this time spent like going to college. You’re there to learn and, ultimately, achieve a degree which demonstrates your competency. Your published work will accomplish the same thing (only faster and cheaper!).

The next phase is to seek out partnerships that, again, may not have any monetary compensation, but you can ask for free products or services. You might reach out to a tool provider and suggest that they, “Provide me with complimentary access to the Pro plan of your tool and I’ll take the time to publish a thorough review.” Again, if the business is savvy and understands the power of influencer marketing, they’ll jump at the opportunity!

Once you’ve done that a few times, not only will you have a cadre of free products or perhaps even tools to help your business, you’ll have a library of “sponsored” reviews that no one else knows you didn’t charge for. (Note that these are sponsored posts, even if no money changed hands. If you received discounted or complimentary benefits as an incentive or result of your activity, that’s considered an “Ad” by the FTC and must be disclosed.)

You can then point to those posts and have the metrics readily on hand to justify getting paid what you think future posts should be worth.

Because ultimately you don’t want to charge based on your time to create the content. An article review is more than that. It’s:

Promotion and publicity for the brand

A backlink for the brand

Support for the brand from an influencer

So today, my sponsored articles cost 5x my hourly rate and they’re well worth the investment.

I recommend creating a templated letter in Evernote that you can customize and tweak for each brand you’re reaching out to. I’ll share some details of what to include in a moment.

A key point throughout this process is that your goal should be to form a relationship with each brand, not make a quick buck. What has set me apart over the years is the relationships I’ve formed with brands and influencers alike. Time and again, opportunities arise for me to work with people on fun projects. Some of them are paid and some are not, but they’ve all contributed to and led to a successful career and a dream job.

I talked with Mike Allton about how to get sponsored collaborations approved. Who better to ask than someone in a company that works with influencers. Since then I have landed THREE opportunities! – Yvonne Heimann

Influencer Tools & Best Practices

When you’re ready to start reaching out to brands, the first “tool” you need is your own Media Kit. This is a page on your site, or a PDF file, that breaks down the details of your influence for a prospective brand to consider. At a high level, you should list all of your channels that make up your platform and your current audience size.

DO NOT artificially inflate the size of your platform (i.e. social followers) in any way, shape or form. Buying followers or being deceptive about the size of your audience will only lead to disillusioned and disappointed brands who, at best, will refuse to work with you again and, at worst, may demand refunds and reparations. Instead, focus on growing your audience organically and be content to work with brands who are happy to employ influencers with audiences like yours – even if that categorizes you as a micro-influencer.

You can also include here any partnerships you’ve worked in the past, which is why it’s a great idea to have done some free work.

Definitely include examples of how you might work with a brand and, if applicable, pricing.

Now, whenever you’re contacted or reach out to a brand, you can link to or include that Media Kit. Not only does it provide the initial information they’re looking for, it demonstrates yet again that you’re a professional and are experienced working with brands.

What other tools can you use that might help?

Well for sure, have Google Analytics in place on your website so that you can easily pull out the traffic numbers and any other key metrics. If you’ve published content as part of influencer campaigns in the past, you’ll want to note how some of that content performed, specifically.

And on that note, you can use Buzzsumo to measure the social activity for any URL in your site. So you can pull exactly how many Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter shares a particular post might have received.

When it comes to social posts themselves, do make sure that any time you share a link that you use UTM Parameters and establish what those will be with the brand you’re working with beforehand. They need to know what Campaign, Source and Medium tags you’re choosing to use so that they can track that activity in their Google Analytics.

Now, let’s talk social media.

You’re going to want to use a social media management tool like Agorapulse to post and schedule all of your social media activity whenever possible. With the exception of Live Video, you can plan and queue and schedule the posts in advance and set them up with Agorapulse. This gives you two tremendous benefits:

First, with that content scheduled in advance, you can view and even print a Social Media Calendar that shows every post. It’s going to be a lot easier for you to see how well you’re covering and distributing that content on those channels. And it’s something you can share with your brand partner! Again, when you’re organized and professional from the very beginning, brands will note that and be impressed. Brands want to work with influencers who know what they’re doing and can be relied on to execute properly.

Second, when you’re setting up those posts, not only can you configure the UTM Parameters within Agorapulse, you can also “label” each of those posts. Say, for instance, I was going to do a campaign for Thinkific. When configuring a set of tweets, I might add the label “ThinkificCampaign” to them. After the campaign is over I can then go into my Agorapulse reports for each social channel and see the post distribution by label. You can also then pull performance of hashtags, by post, and more!

One trick I love to use with Agorapulse is to set up a new Queue Category for such campaigns. Queue Categories are just specific sharing frequencies with custom dates and times. So, for instance, suppose my hypothetical campaign for Thinkific was going to run two weeks, and I had committed to tweet every other day. I could set up a schedule to share posts on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays at 2pm each day. Then, while creating the tweets, I can simply add them “to the queue” and don’t have to try to recall what day and time I scheduled the last tweet for. I can even create the tweets in a spreadsheet, have them approved by the brand, and then bulk upload into Agorapulse!

When it comes to email, I prefer to use Wishpond, and love that I can also incorporate various popups, bars, and landing page campaigns – even contests – all integrated together.

Just as with Social Media, make sure that you’re including UTM Parameters in any links that you email out.

Where Do You Go From Here?

One of the questions you likely have at this point is, “how much can I charge for influencer campaigns?” Like a lot of online marketing, this is a really broad, grey area. Since some new and micro influencers will participate in campaigns for little to nothing, and major, established influencers will easily pull in 6-figure contracts, what you can charge will depend a great deal.

As you’re thinking about fees, consider how much time and effort you’re putting into a campaign, and what your brand partner can expect to get out of it. That will help you to create a pricing structure that’s in line with expectations.

It’s also good to have friends and colleagues whom you can talk to and compare notes. So one last piece of advice I want to leave you with is to follow and connect with other influencers in your space. They’re likely not competition at all, but rather an excellent resource. In fact, in my industry at least, some of my best friends are peers and colleagues. We form Mastermind Groups together to share and advise and even collaborate.

In fact, it’s likely that some of your best brand partnerships will come from collaborations or referrals from friends in the business.

Think through all of the steps I outlined above, and if you still have questions, let me know in the comments below!

Source link

0 notes

sualkmedeiors · 5 years

Text

Everything You Need to Know About Micro-Influencer Marketing

The term “influencer marketing” has been doing the rounds for a few years now. And it’s much more than just a buzzword. 2017 saw an explosion of influencer marketing—every company wanted to have an influencer marketing strategy, and those that didn’t, got left behind and spent all of 2018 trying to catch up.

2019 is here, and “influencer marketing” shows no signs of dying down. But there has been a major change in the way brands approach influencer marketing. Where once it was all about the getting the biggest names, now it’s about finding influencers with a smaller yet highly engaged following.

Celebrity influencers may look great in terms of numbers, with millions of followers on social media platforms like Instagram, but in terms of conversions, they miss the mark. Why? Their following may not be as engaged with the content they put out. Not to mention the huge initial investment required to partner with celebrity influencers, which generally leads to more than a few uncomfortable conversations about ROI.

Enter micro-influencers!

What are micro-influencers?

Micro-influencers are smaller influencers who have a following of 10,000 – 100,000. This means they are able to engage regularly with their small(er) but dedicated following. They are way more valuable to businesses that are interested in actually selling their products as opposed to mass visibility. In fact, according to HelloSociety, micro-influencers have a 60% higher campaign engagement rate than macro-influencers. In most cases, the engagement rate for influencers peaks at a couple of thousand and then starts to stagnate.

Where can you find micro-influencers?

Micro-influencers exist in every industry. But like every influencer campaign, you must be careful about choosing the right ones. The best place to start your search is your own social media accounts, as micro-influencers may already be following you or engaging with your posts. Additionally, there are several tools to help you find influencers who are engaged with your industry or products like yours. It’s important to find influencers who not only engage with products like yours, but who also have an audience that matches yours.

Keeping track of your interactions with influencers and managing your relationships carefully is crucial. More often than not, a spreadsheet doesn’t cut it. So, you have to pick a tool that gets the job done and helps you keep track of your interactions. Our favorite is Influencer One.

Why should you work with micro-influencers?

In one sentence: micro-influencers have followers that are actually interested in the product or service that you are selling. By comparison, macro-influencers with huge followings have followers from all domains and niches, lowering the chance of you reaching the audience that is relevant to your product. The main reason for this is that micro-influencers are simply more authentic. This is because they have genuine interactions with their followers, have a good knowledge of their niche, and are known to be less commercial.

Micro-influencers are also more accessible to brands of all sizes, not just the large ones. While big celebrities charge tens of thousands of dollars for a single post, micro-influencers usually charge a couple of hundred dollars on average. A lower budget improves ROI and allows you to work with multiple influencers at once, which expands your reach to a more targeted audience.

Lastly, it has been proven that micro-influencers considerably influence buying decisions. According to Nielsen, 82% of Americans make purchases based on recommendations from friends. Furthermore, 31% of Americans (from Socialbakers) make purchases based on recommendations from influencers. Therefore, leads which come in via micro-influencers are more qualified than leads from other promotional efforts.

Micro-influencer campaigns that made a difference

1. ASOS: It’s not just small brands that are embracing micro-influencers, retail giant ASOS struck gold with its “ASOS Insiders” campaign where they enlist the help of fashionistas around the world—a group of twenty somethings—who give style tips to the audience at ASOSs, kitted out in ASOS outfits. The idea is that users and followers can directly buy their outfit of the day from the influencers. ASOS also works via a multi-channel strategy and use Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, as well as their own platform for this effort, to make sure that they tap into all audiences.

2. Daniel Wellington: It’s not just influencers of the human variety that are making a difference in the micro-influencer world. Daniel Wellington has partnered with furry influencers Jasper and Louie, a pair of dogs from Canada. Daniel Wellington’s marketing team has collaborated with them to work on posts featuring the pups and their owner along with a Daniel Wellington watch. It may not seem obvious at first, but the campaign allows them to tap into newer audiences that are different from the fashion/tourist segment that they’re used to.

3. Adidas: The sportswear manufacturer partnered with micro-influencers to promote a huge range of their products. For instance, they partnered with Emily Joseph to promote their line of “Ultraboost” shoes. What followed was a candid review where the lifestyle blogger noted that she had a negative preconceived notion about the product, but that soon changed after she started working out with the shoes on. This started a more authentic and organic conversation around the product, which led to effective promotion of both the brand and the shoes.

What determines success?

Influencer marketing can be a tricky game. What’s even trickier is justifying the related expense to your management team. What are the measures of success? Here are a few KPIs to get you started:

ROI: this is probably the most important KPI. It determines the return on every dollar spent. No prizes for guessing—the higher the return, the better the ROI. In order for a brand to reach its goals here, it’s important that they select the right portfolio of influencers with audiences similar to the ones which resonate with the product.

Engagement: Influencers are nothing without engagement. Likes, comments, clicks, and sometimes even reach are major determinants for campaign success.

Audience growth: Has your social media account grown? Have you got more followers than before the campaign? Have your engagement rates grown? These are some things to factor in while evaluating your audience growth after an influencer marketing campaign.

Done correctly, working with micro-influencers can be great for your brand. They require less investment, less hand-holding, and have a more engaged audience that can be harnessed for your brand and products. What are your thoughts on influencer marketing? Do you have an influencer marketing strategy? I would love to know in the comments below.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Micro-Influencer Marketing appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/modernb2bmarketing/~3/J8UukfMpWtU/everything-you-need-to-know-about-micro-influencer-marketing.html

0 notes

darkammarketing · 5 years

Text

Everything You Need to Know About Micro-Influencer Marketing

Enter micro-influencers!

What are micro-influencers?

Where can you find micro-influencers?

Why should you work with micro-influencers?

Micro-influencer campaigns that made a difference

What determines success?

Influencer marketing can be a tricky game. What’s even trickier is justifying the related expense to your management team. What are the measures of success? Here are a few KPIs to get you started:

Engagement: Influencers are nothing without engagement. Likes, comments, clicks, and sometimes even reach are major determinants for campaign success.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Micro-Influencer Marketing appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from http://bit.ly/2SayGC8 via IFTTT via Blogger http://bit.ly/2UhTVPR

0 notes

zacdhaenkeau · 5 years

Text

Everything You Need to Know About Micro-Influencer Marketing

Enter micro-influencers!

What are micro-influencers?

Where can you find micro-influencers?

Why should you work with micro-influencers?

Micro-influencer campaigns that made a difference

What determines success?

Influencer marketing can be a tricky game. What’s even trickier is justifying the related expense to your management team. What are the measures of success? Here are a few KPIs to get you started:

Engagement: Influencers are nothing without engagement. Likes, comments, clicks, and sometimes even reach are major determinants for campaign success.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Micro-Influencer Marketing appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 https://blog.marketo.com/2019/01/everything-you-need-to-know-about-micro-influencer-marketing.html

0 notes

maxslogic25 · 5 years

Text

Everything You Need to Know About Micro-Influencer Marketing

Enter micro-influencers!

What are micro-influencers?

Where can you find micro-influencers?

Why should you work with micro-influencers?

Micro-influencer campaigns that made a difference

What determines success?

Influencer marketing can be a tricky game. What’s even trickier is justifying the related expense to your management team. What are the measures of success? Here are a few KPIs to get you started:

Engagement: Influencers are nothing without engagement. Likes, comments, clicks, and sometimes even reach are major determinants for campaign success.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Micro-Influencer Marketing appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 https://blog.marketo.com/2019/01/everything-you-need-to-know-about-micro-influencer-marketing.html

0 notes

racheltgibsau · 5 years

Text

Everything You Need to Know About Micro-Influencer Marketing

Enter micro-influencers!

What are micro-influencers?

Where can you find micro-influencers?

Why should you work with micro-influencers?

Micro-influencer campaigns that made a difference

What determines success?

Influencer marketing can be a tricky game. What’s even trickier is justifying the related expense to your management team. What are the measures of success? Here are a few KPIs to get you started:

Engagement: Influencers are nothing without engagement. Likes, comments, clicks, and sometimes even reach are major determinants for campaign success.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Micro-Influencer Marketing appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 https://blog.marketo.com/2019/01/everything-you-need-to-know-about-micro-influencer-marketing.html

0 notes

archiebwoollard · 5 years

Text

Everything You Need to Know About Micro-Influencer Marketing

Enter micro-influencers!

What are micro-influencers?

Where can you find micro-influencers?

Why should you work with micro-influencers?

Micro-influencer campaigns that made a difference

What determines success?

Influencer marketing can be a tricky game. What’s even trickier is justifying the related expense to your management team. What are the measures of success? Here are a few KPIs to get you started:

Engagement: Influencers are nothing without engagement. Likes, comments, clicks, and sometimes even reach are major determinants for campaign success.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Micro-Influencer Marketing appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 https://blog.marketo.com/2019/01/everything-you-need-to-know-about-micro-influencer-marketing.html

0 notes