13 Social Media Experts Share Their Biggest Piece of Marketing Advice

When in doubt about your marketing strategy, turn to the social media experts. Often the best way to learn about a craft is from someone who has been in your shoes before.

Social media marketing is becoming increasingly pivotal for businesses around the world. More emails are being sent and more blog posts are being published on a daily basis than ever before in history.

But where are marketers to go for reliable insights?

Today we gathered 13 of the world’s leading social media experts and asked them to share their best advice for marketers.

Let’s dive in!

13 social media experts share their biggest piece of marketing advice

Host note: What follows is a lightly-edited transcript of the Buffer Podcast episode #125 for your reading pleasure.

Hailley: Social media is now a key piece in the decision-making process for consumers, particularly among upcoming generations such as Millennials and Generation Z.

Brian: One study shows that 70% of millennials base their decision to buy a product based on recommendations made by their peers on social media.

Another study shows that 60% of consumers have been influenced by a social media post or a blog review while shopping at a store.

Social media truly is engrained in all aspects of our lives.

Hailley: Which is exactly where we hope to help.

Instead of asking you to take our word for the most effective social media marketing strategies and tactics, we thought we’d ask the experts.

So we scoured the web and read more than 300 pieces of advice from today’s top social media experts….

Brian: We dwindled down the more than 300 to 13 of our favorites.

Keep in mind that each piece of advice we’re about to share is from someone that has helped to build a successful brand or business using social media in throughout their careers.

Pat Flynn

Hailley: First up, fellow-podcaster Pat Flynn says to treat social media marketing like you’re going to a party, which I think is a great way of thinking about it.

Just like at a party, you wouldn’t (or shouldn’t) go around posting about your brand and product all over the place on social media. That’s very much like approaching a group of people at a party and introducing yourself using your sales pitch.

Instead, pay attention and listen to what your audience is talking about first.

Brian: In other words, Pat is advocating for adding value to the conversations already happening within your niche.

Ask your audience genuine questions on they care about and share great stories only after you’ve listened.

Eventually, people will begin to take notice and want to find out more what you have to say.

James Scherer

Hailley: James Scherer, lead editor at Wishpond, shares marketers frustrations with the fall in organic reach for brands on Facebook (especially with the announcement from the platform in January of 2018).

But he also understands that Facebook is a fantastic way for businesses to drive quality traffic and engagement.

Brian: For Facebook marketing in 2019, James recommends continuing to publish high-quality, engaging content (content which creates conversation within your community), while acknowledging the truth of the matter: Facebook Ads are the only way for your business to expose your content to a large, targeted audience on Facebook.

Sunny Lenarduzzi

Hailley: How about someone that we had on the show way back in episode #29 – Sunny Lenarduzzi who has grown a huge community on social media – and she can’t stress the importance of planning on social media enough.

Sunny points out that this is one of the most significant time wasters when it comes to social media marketing.

Brian: We’ve heard from tons of businesses on the importance of planning ahead as well.

If you wait to the last minute or ignore creating a content calendar, at least for the month, your content on social media will suffer because you’re rushing everything. So thanks for that one, Sunny.

Donna Moritz

How about Donna Moritz from Socially Sorted?

Hailley: Donna’s is a great one because it really speaks to long-term thinking on social media.

She says to not get caught up in all the trends and ever-changing social media platforms – they’re just part of the bigger picture and what works for someone else may not work for you.

Instead, focus instead on creating quality, core content on a platform that you own (your blog/website, podcast or video) that helps solve your audience’s biggest challenges.

Brian: Use that content to grow a quality, engaged email list of people who are interested in what you have to share. If you do that, your social media success will fall into place because you’ll have a library of engaging content.

Which I think it so true and such a useful piece of advice.

Gary Vaynerchuk

Moving on to arguably one of the biggest influencers and social media experts of our generation, Gary Vaynerchuk.

Hailley: When asked about all of the content he puts out in a recent interview, Gary Vee said:

“My show and my social accounts are not a platform from which I talk about what’s important to me. It’s a platform from which I talk about what’s important to you.”

Which I think is another great way of phrasing how important an outward focus is on social media.

Brian: By focusing on his audience and not himself, Gary is able to continually grow his audience and credibility because he gives his time, energy, and effort away without asking anything in return.

It’s a huge reason why he’s seen the success he has over the years. Well, that and he’s really good on camera, which is a tough skill.

Judy Herbst

Hailley: Another piece of advice I found really valuable was in a Forbes interview with expert Judy Herbst.

Judy talked about how your brand’s mission statement needs to be one that works across all channels.

The best missions are in the present leading to the future and are meaningful to all audiences.

Brian: Judy goes onto say that they are achievable, so people can see progress now, and emotional, so people can connect with them in meaningful ways.

And she gives the example of a business that’s built to help women achieve success with transparency, trust and fairness.

The key here is to find your mission statement.

Lisa Dougherty

That reminds me of the advice from Lisa Dougherty of content marketing institute.

Hailley: Lisa talks about how you can never really predict what social media algorithms are going to do next, so if we’re constantly chasing trends, you’ll always be one step behind.

List suggests to really get to know your audience, so you can write copy that speaks to their desires, needs, and interests.

And don’t get greedy – remember it’s not about reaching the most people, it’s about reaching (and moving) the right people.

Brian: She also recommends avoiding things like stock photos that dilute your brand. Opt instead for real-life pictures and custom visuals for a more authentic connection.

Finally, include a unique, clear, and compelling value proposition – one simple sentence that explains how your readers will benefit from your offer.”

Rachel Pedersen

Hailley: Speaking of reaching the right people, Rachel Pedersen, CEO of SocialWorks Digital had some great advice on using Facebook ads.

She talked about how not everyone has several thousands dollars per month to spend on ads.

If you can spend $150-200 each month for advertising, you can build a warm audience for marketing your products in 2 easy steps!

Brian: Step 1: Host a Facebook Live or record a video of you or someone from your company talking about the backstory of your product and post it to Facebook – it doesn’t need to be longer than 5 minutes!

And step 2: Boost the video with $5 per day on a video views objective. That’ll start to rack up the views.

Then create a custom audience of the video views (Facebook will dynamically update the audience) and run whatever other ad to the warmed video views audience.”

Hailley: We’ve done that exact technique here at Buffer and it works like a charm.

Molly Pittman

Which leads us to Molly Pittman’s advice on advertising. Another one of our guests here on the show back in episode #42.

Molly talks about how important it is to align your lead magnet (or offer as we know it) with your caption, your URL and your landing page. You don’t want them to feel like they’ve landed on another planet after clicking your ad.

Brian: I remember that episode well, Molly was so knowledgeable on Facebook and Instagram ads. Would highly recommend checking out her work.

She talked about how critical lead magnets are in advertising. You’re essentially giving people something free in exchange for the permission to follow up. These could be templates, a checklist, blog posts, white papers, ebooks or lots of other great things.

So not only should your messaging align from ad to landing page, but your offer has to be compelling enough to make people actually want to click. In other words, are you doing enough to stand out?

Rand Fishkin

Hailley: Let’s take some advice from Rand Fishkin.

You may not know it, but Google indexes every tweet (which makes it a great tool for search engine optimization or SEO).

Most importantly, Rand talks about how you can’t ignore that 60% of a business’s or brand’s followers are likely to purchase or recommend after following them on Twitter.

Brian: Rand suggests limit how often you share links – Research has shown that tweets without links perform better and get more engagement, surprisingly.

And engage with as many people as you can on Twitter. It’s all about building a community on Twitter, not blasting out your message to as many people as you can – it’s really an investment in the long game.

Lee Odden

Hailley: On the topic of investing in your brand on social media, let’s talk about the advice from expert Lee Odden.

Lee says that the most important element for all marketers in 2019 is “truth.” Truth, not in the sense of buzzwords like “authenticity” or “transparency” but as a response to empty marketing tactics that have forced consumers to get wise to being “sold” to.

Consumers are getting smarter about spending and partnering with brands. They are looking for brands that don’t just make quality products, but that are conscious of supporting the wellness of humanity as a whole.

Brian: This is something we’ve noticed as well this year and that’s the rise of what we’re calling purpose-driven marketing.

If you really want to set yourself and your brand apart, you have to stand for something that makes people’s lives better. Think of companies like Patagonia that have seen unbelievable success over the years by taking a stand. I really do think that’s the future of marketing.

James Cohane

And long the same lines is the advice from growth expert, James Cohane. James’ take is all about the importance of finding the right partners.

Hailley: The best part about social media, or anything marketing-related, really, is that you don’t have to go at it alone. Brian, I know you’ve seen this first-hand with partners like Mailchimp and Square and Animoto that we’ve worked with over the last few years.

By hand selecting a group of key partners to launch various co-marketing campaigns with, you’re greatly increasing the chances of success as well as the potential audience for your content.

Even something as small as a social media takeover can expose your brand to a new set of targeted customers.

Brian: It’s amazing what two brands can do together rather than trying to do everything yourself.

And if you align with the right brand in terms of messaging, and content, and values, it can really help to amass an audience quickly, which we’ve experienced first hand here at Buffer.

Adriana Tica

Our last expert piece of advice from Adriana Tica, CEO of marketing agency, Idunn.

Hailley: Adriana believes that switching things up and keeping your audience on their toes is a surefire way to grow your following and engagement on social media.

And to do that, she recommends content curation.

But don’t just share any content you come across or because it’s from an influencer or a big brand. Make sure that it’s on-brand and provides real value to your audience.

Brian: Adriana calls it going for underground’ content.

As you might expect, everybody reads content from top publications and influencers – so that’s nothing new. Spending some time to find unique content will help your brand stand out.

And if you want to automate a part of this process, you can always use tools like BuzzSumo and Curata, which I personally love. But the trouble is that those tools aren’t so great for ‘underground’ content.

My go-to sources for content that hasn’t been overshared are Reddit (there’s literally a subreddit for anything) and Hacker News. In fact, episode 112 is dedicated to finding great content in strange places.

How to say hello to us

We would all love to say hello to you on social media – especially Twitter!

• Hailley on Twitter and Hailley’s Website
• Brian on Twitter and Brian’s Website

Thanks for listening! Feel free to connect with our team at Buffer on Twitter, Buffer on Facebook, our Podcast homepage, or with the hashtag #bufferpodcast.

Enjoy the show? It’d mean the world to us if you’d be up for giving us a rating and review on iTunes!

—

About The Science of Social Media podcast

The Science of Social Media is your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation, and inspiration. Every Monday (and sometimes more) we share the most cutting-edge social media marketing tactics from brands and influencers in every industry. If you’re a social media team of one, business owner, marketer, or someone simply interested in social media marketing, you’re sure to find something useful in each and every episode.  It’s our hope that you’ll join our 18,000+ weekly iTunes listeners and rock your social media channels as a result!

The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback.

source https://blog.bufferapp.com/social-media-experts

How to Use Video Content to Raise Brand Awareness and Sell Your Product

Video content is one of the most popular mediums for businesses today, and for good reason. Video is more engaging, more memorable, and more popular among consumers than any other type of content.

And there’s data to back that up, too!

For example, did you know that 76% of businesses say video has helped them increase sales? Or that 80% of marketers say video has increased time spent on their website?

This week we’re looking to help you increase brand awareness and product sales using the highly-engaging format of video. No matter what industry or vertical you’re in, video can help you promote your business in fresh and effective ways.

Let’s dive in!

How to use video content to increase brand awareness and sell your product

What follows is a lightly-edited transcript of the Buffer Podcast episode #125 for your reading pleasure.

Table of Contents

• Part I: Where to start with video content
• Part II: Developing entertaining and unique product video ideas
• Part III: Creating your brand’s video “commercial”

Hailley: As marketers and business owners, one of the most common roadblocks we face is trying to drive engagement and traffic around our key products. It’s common across B2B and B2C! We think that video is one of the best way to solve that challenge.

A warm welcome to the show – Let’s kick it off.

Brian: The stats supporting the effectiveness of video marketing go on and on.

• 81% of people have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video.
• 85% of people say they’d like to see more video from brands in 2018.

And get this, when both video and text are available on the same page, 72% of people would rather use video to learn about a product or service.

Hailley: Of course, the number one question we get about video (and one we struggled with in the past) is: where do I start?

Where to start with video content

We’ve talked about using video on social media in episodes 90 and 110, but we’ve never really gotten into the specifics of using video to do one of the most important things for your business – actually selling your product.

Brian: It’s what pays the bills after-all.

Everything we’re about to share applies to selling your products with video. These videos can then be shares on social media, of course, as well as your website, landing pages, blog posts, etc, etc.

So with that being said, let’s get started with the very first video principal and that’s showing your product in action.

Showing your product in action

Hailley: One of the best things you can do to increase the success of your videos is to help people visualize what their lives would be like with your product.

Giving viewers a sneak peek of your product can be a nice visual companion to a landing page or product description.

Showing your product in action will make your video more interesting for users to watch. It also makes the video valuable because it shows us how the product works and what we can expect in real life.

Brian: First thing that comes to mind here is a product tutorial.

Utilizing product tutorials

Believe it or not, people LOVE product tutorials just about anywhere they can find them. Social media, your website, YouTube, you name it.

Just think about BuzzFeed tasty and their recipes. That’s essentially a tutorial sped up to make it fun. Speeding things up does seem to make them more fun!

Hailley: The best part of tutorials or explainer videos, is that it helps to move people quickly down the funnel into buyer consideration.

Again another argument for the power of video. Instead of reading 1,000 words on why your product works or why people should buy it, they can watch a 15 second video and get the exact same amount of information.

Brian: The last two things I’ll say about tutorial videos are one, they help to sell your product without sounding like it’s a sales pitch. You’re simply showing them how the product works, not saying “hey buy my product.”

A great example from company MuleSoft:

The second thing is that they work for both physical products and services. With services, it’s a bit tougher to show in action, but you can get creative with things like Q&As, ask the experts, an educational series, and more.

It just takes a little bit of brainstorming to open up the possibilities.

Featuring customer testimonials

Hailley: Next up, if you’re looking to sell your products or services with video content, is to create customer testimonials.

If you have raving fans who are always singing your praises, or even other industry experts who would be happy to give your business a testimonial, then these are an awesome addition to your overall video content strategy.

What customer testimonials help to do is show proof of demand, which is a valuable type of social proof showing others that you have lots of happy, satisfied customers.

Brian: As many of you know, social proof is absolutely critical in selling your product.

Studies show nearly 70 percent of online consumers look at a product review prior to making a purchase.

Even more telling is the fact that product reviews are 12-times more trusted than product descriptions and sales copy from manufacturers.

Hailley: Customer testimonials don’t have to be anything too fancy.

Even something simple like shooting a video content with your customers in-store and asking them their favorite products or opinions, and then mashing up the results into one video can work great for this purpose.

Or you could incentivize people to send you a video review with coupons and prizes. Or host a contest on social media.

Brian: At the end of the day, all your potential customers want to know is that your product can (and will) solve their specific problem.

One of the best ways prove this is by creating case study videos that feature your satisfied, loyal customers. These people are your best advocates.

Developing entertaining and unique product video ideas

Hailley: Moving on in our video journey, let’s talk about using entertainment and creativity in product videos that help to sell your product.

As we talk about all the time, online audiences love short, snackable content.

With this shorter format, you can create entertaining videos that make your audience laugh or get inspired or take an action.

It’s important to remember with entertaining videos, that they should be created as a part of a larger campaign, showcasing your business’s high-level vision, mission, or products and services.

Brian: Right. And that’s the key part. We’re not saying to go out and create the next viral animal video content, but we do believe there is a way to get creative with video with the goal of attracting an audience that will be interested in purchasing your products.

Naturally, that starts with an understanding of your core audience. Research where they hang out online. Where they shop. What they watch and listen to. What they purchase and what keeps them up at night.

I know that sounds creepy, but there is so much information online today that it’s possible to know your audience on a granular level.

Hailley: Once you know that, you can create videos that your audience will enjoy watching – videos that will imprint your brand in their mind and keep them coming back for more.

So I know that all sounds hypothetical at the moment, which is why we’ve gathered a few examples of what that might look like.

A great one is Starbucks that created an adorable animated video series called 1st and Main. The video series entertains the audience and showcases Starbucks as a ‘the third place’ between home and work.

Brian: There’s another example I saw recently from a company called LucidChart. LucidChart is a software system that allows businesses to visualize charts. And they created this hilarious video content about different kind of snakes (or what they call “sneks”) and named them all sorts of funny things:

And it’s not until the very end of the video where they finally say, “visualize your sneks and anything else with LucidChart.”

It’s just brilliant and goes to show how entertaining videos can capture your audience’s attention and make them want to find out more.

Hailley: The key point here is that videos like these work because they make your brand non-intrusive, and they let you have fun with your target audience. No matter what type of business you are, this kind of content is a perfect way to strengthen brand rapport.

And the last point here is to remember that while entertainment videos aren’t necessarily the strongest content for the bottom part of your funnel, they are great for the attention stage of the buyer’s journey. And equally important part!

Brian: I think many of us try to skip that attention/awareness stage and it becomes tough to make the sale down the road.

But anyways, quick summary. We’ve talked about tutorials, testimonials, and entertainment, but we haven’t covered one that I think is crucial for brands when it comes to advertising, and that’s your “commercial” for lack of a better word.

Creating your brand’s video “commercial”

Think Dollar Shave Club or Chatbooks – videos that went viral, but still focus on the company’s core product.

Hailley: Your branded company video or commercial like you said, Brian, can be whatever you want it to be. And these can be used to sell your product just about anywhere.

They can be funny, emotional, or inspirational and are a great way to portray your product in an artistic way or link it to a particular lifestyle.

Similar to what we were talking about with showing your product in action, this combines all of that.

Brian: In order to create a compelling brand video you’ll want to make sure it tells some sort of story with a beginning middle and end.

You should be able to communicate a coherent narrative through images, footage, and simple editing.

What is your business all about? Who are the people that use your product? What about your product makes their lives better? Why would they choose your product over another?

Hailley: Exactly but it’s important to not simply provide people with a bullet point list of reasons of why your product is great.

You have to convey your brand message in a way that is creative and doesn’t come across as sales-y.

That Chatbooks example you mentioned is a great one. Instead of saying “hey, you can create beautiful photo albums in minutes because our product makes it easier than our competitors.”

They feature a Mom in a house full of children and why SHE would use it.

Brian: Videos bring the product to life in a way that wouldn’t otherwise be achievable.

It’s also super relatable for parents!

Alright so a few quick tips on the video content creation process before you go:

First is that shorter is usually better. Unless you’re diving into a complicated tutorial, shorter is better when it comes to most things on social media, and that’s true for most video as well.

Hailley: Depending on what the video is, you’ll have different maximum time lengths you can get away with. A purely promotional product video? Twenty seconds or less is best. If you’re creating a video tutorial, a minute is a good point, but if it’s really appropriate you can go up to around a minute and thirty seconds.

Another thing to keep in mind, and I know we sound like broken records here, but a majority of videos are watched on mobile devices.

Create your videos in square or vertical format to make sure it looks and feels native to the platform you are posting to.

Brian: Finally, we recommend staying nimble and trying a bunch of different types of video content.

Chances are you probably won’t strike gold with your first product video.

Keep experimenting with formats, style, content, themes, and stories until you find one that resonates with your audience. You can quickly test the performance on social media organically or with ads, which is exactly what we do here at Buffer.

Hailley: We hope that 2019 is the year where video content marketing becomes a staple part of your overall marketing strategy.

How to say hello to us

We would all love to say hello to you on social media – especially Twitter!

• Hailley on Twitter and Hailley’s Website
• Brian on Twitter and Brian’s Website

Thanks for listening! Feel free to connect with our team at Buffer on Twitter, Buffer on Facebook, our Podcast homepage, or with the hashtag #bufferpodcast.

Enjoy the show? It’d mean the world to us if you’d be up for giving us a rating and review on iTunes!

—

About The Science of Social Media podcast

The Science of Social Media is your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation, and inspiration. Every Monday (and sometimes more) we share the most cutting-edge social media marketing tactics from brands and influencers in every industry. If you’re a social media team of one, business owner, marketer, or someone simply interested in social media marketing, you’re sure to find something useful in each and every episode.  It’s our hope that you’ll join our 18,000+ weekly iTunes listeners and rock your social media channels as a result!

The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback.

source https://blog.bufferapp.com/video-content

Can Twitter Threads Increase Reach, Engagement, and Referral Traffic? An Experiment

How can you increase Twitter reach and engagement?

That’s something that many marketers are thinking about, including Rand Fishkin, the founder of SparkToro, who has been wondering if Twitter gives tweets with a link less visibility than tweets without a link. And recently I’d been wondering the same.

Then I heard about Aytekin Tank’s 17-million-impression tweet.

Just a few months ago, Aytekin, the founder of Jotform, repurposed one of his popular Medium posts into a Twitter thread. He also promoted it with Twitter ads to see if he could increase the reach of his Twitter thread — and the engagement rate was as high as 20 percent!

So he continued to promote the Twitter thread. Eventually, it received 17 million impressions and the original Medium post (linked in the thread) got more than 35,000 visits.

When I learned about this story, I started wondering how Twitter threads could help marketers.  Could this be the new way to reach more people, drive more engagement, and get more referral traffic? Could Twitter threads be effective without ad promotion?

We ran a small experiment to find out.

A Twitter thread experiment

What is a Twitter thread?

According to Twitter, “A thread on Twitter is a series of connected Tweets from one person. With a thread you can provide additional context, an update, or an extended point by connecting multiple Tweets together.”

Below is an example of a Twitter thread. If you click on the tweet, you’ll see the additional tweets connected to it.

We spent $3,300,000 buying out our main VC investors.

Here’s a quick summary

— Buffer (@buffer) September 21, 2018

The plan

The objective of the experiment was to test if repurposing our blog posts into Twitter threads can 1. increase our Twitter reach and engagement, and 2. drive more traffic to our blog than tweets with a link.

Our plan of execution was very straightforward:

1. For each blog post, publish a Twitter thread and a simple link tweet (ideally at the same time, a few days apart).
2. Record the stats after one to three days

The next step was to draft out the threads and publish them. For this, I worked with our amazing social media manager, Bonnie Porter. I repurposed 10 blog posts into threads while she published them at our best times to tweet.

Here’s what our collaboration document looked like:

So how did the experiment go?

The result

I think there’s an evidence that Twitter threads perform better than tweets with a link!

A quick explanation of the data

For the Twitter threads, I looked at only the number of impressions and engagements of the first tweet and the number of link clicks of the tweets with the link (usually the last tweet of the thread). The actual total number of impressions and engagements of the threads (i.e. a summation of the impressions and engagement of each tweet in the thread) is much higher.

But as the impressions and engagements are likely from the same followers, and to simplify our analysis, I considered only the impressions and engagements of the first tweet and the link clicks of the tweets with the link.

Here are the patterns I see from our results:

1. Twitter threads tend to get more impressions

The number of impressions was higher for all the first tweet of the Twitter threads than for the tweet with a link. On average, the threads received 63 percent more impressions.

Perhaps Rand Fishkin is right in that Twitter gives more prominence to tweets without a link. He found that “Tweets without URLs definitely correlate to more engagement+amplification (but this could be a result of user behavior, not intentional network design)”.

The respective link was not included in the first tweet of the Twitter threads but mostly in the last tweet of the threads. Threads could be a good way to increase your reach on Twitter while still sharing a link.

2. Twitter threads tend to get more engagements

The number of engagements was mostly higher for the first tweet of the Twitter threads than for the tweet with a link. On average, the threads received 54 percent more engagements.

An interesting pattern I spotted is that engagement tends to be the highest for the first tweet of the threads and would decrease until the last tweet, where there would be a spike in engagement. My hunch is that most people only engage with the tweets when they first saw the thread (i.e. the first tweet) and when they finish reading the thread (i.e. the last tweet), and not when they are reading the thread.

The higher number of engagement could have also caused the Twitter algorithm to surface the threads to more people, and hence, more impressions.

3. Twitter threads tend to get fewer link clicks

This is where the experiment didn’t go as expected.

While the Twitter threads, on average, received eight percent more link clicks than the tweets with a link, most of the threads received fewer clicks. (If you were to look at our data, you can see that the average was skewed by two threads that received much more link clicks than the respective link tweet.)

Here’s my guess: For the Twitter threads, the link was attached to the last tweet or in the middle. Our followers don’t see the link immediately and have to scroll through the whole thread before seeing the link. This might have caused the lower link click number.

But as Twitter threads seem to get more impressions than a link tweet, it might be possible that Twitter threads would get more link clicks. More data is needed to verify this.

4. Overall, Twitter threads seem to perform better than link tweets

On average, the Twitter threads received more impressions, engagements, and clicks than the respective tweet with a link.

While this is true based on our data, our sample size is tiny and the number of clicks fluctuated quite a bit. I wouldn’t say it’s conclusive that Twitter threads always perform better than tweets with a link in all aspect. But it seems fairly plausible that Twitter threads get more impressions and engagements.

Limitations of the experiment

• While the blog post for each set of Twitter thread and link tweet was the same, the content of the thread and link tweet was different. This might have a bigger influence on the result than the content format. (More on this below.)
• As it was challenging to run a large-scale version of this experiment (think thousands of blog posts) with just one brand account, we decided to test only 10 blog posts. As this is a tiny sample size, the results might not be replicable all the time (i.e. Twitter threads might not always perform better than link tweets).
• The sequence of the two tweets could influence the results. People might be less responsive to the link tweet if they have seen the Twitter thread. But the effect of this should be minimal as we have already shared those blog posts before.
• The day and time of the tweets could also influence the results. We tried to publish the Twitter thread and the respective link tweet at about the same time of the day to minimize the influence of this factor.

Lessons from our Twitter threads experiment

1. Experiment with different content formats

Does this mean you should post only Twitter threads from now? Not quite.

One of the key takeaways for me is the importance of experimenting with different or new content formats. While it’s the easiest to share a link, it might not always be the best way to get results. Twitter threads are one of the many things you could test. Others include images, videos, live videos, GIFs, and retweets.

For example, we recently found that retweeting our top tweets is an easy way to extend the lifespan of the tweet and increase its performance.

2. Content is key

We found that it takes much more effort to publish Twitter threads than simple link tweets. You have to craft multiple tweets rather than just one. You have to manually tweet the threads while you can schedule link tweets.

But I think that might be why Twitter threads seem to perform better.

I believe that the content itself plays a big part in determining whether a tweet/thread does well. Crafting Twitter threads forces me to narrate a story over several tweets, and that might have encouraged me to write better tweets. On the other hand, I’m so used to sharing a link tweet that it’s easier for me to unintentionally craft a less-than-perfect tweet.

From her experience, Bonnie found it helpful to have the Twitter threads plan out in advance in a document. It makes publishing threads less of a hassle when you have everything ready to go.

3. People prefer native content

Brian Peters, our Strategic Partnerships Marketer, once said how social media platforms should be viewed as the destination for your content rather than the means to get to your content.

How does your audience want to consume your content? Do they prefer getting all the information they want through your social media posts, or do they want to click on a link and be directed to another page before they can find the information?

It depends on the content but my hunch is most prefer the former.

That might be why native content (e.g. Twitter threads, videos) tends to perform better than social media posts with links. People want the easiest way to consume content, and social media posts like Twitter threads and videos make it much easier than for them. They can get more information through the native content before deciding if the link will be relevant and valuable enough for them.

Over to you

Will you experiment with Twitter threads?

If you will or if you have, share your best-performing Twitter thread in the comments section below. It’ll be great to learn from one another’s experience. Thanks!

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source https://blog.bufferapp.com/twitter-thread-experiment

A Marketer’s Guide to Decoding Social Media Algorithms in 2019

Social media algorithms play a very important role in the ability for marketers and business owners to make an impact online. And although algorithms are often difficult to understand, we need to learn to work with them and not against them if we want to find success.

Luckily for us, big social networking sites often share updates on exactly what their algorithm prioritizes.

For example, Facebook recently shared that meaningful conversations are one of the most influential factors on the platform. LinkedIn, on the other hand, is looking to status updates from professional users that share more openly.

We’re fortunate to have an inside look at the various algorithms that power the world’s biggest networks. Today we’re covering everything you need to know about decoding social media algorithms in 2019 and what brands can do to thrive.

Let’s dive in!

A marketer’s guide to decoding social media algorithms in 2019

What follows is a lightly-edited transcript of the Buffer Podcast episode for your reading pleasure.

Table of Contents

• Part I: Inside the Facebook algorithm
• Part II: Inside the Twitter algorithm
• Part III: Inside the LinkedIn algorithm
• Part IV: Inside the Instagram algorithm

Brian: Hi everyone! I’m Brian Peters and this is The Science of Social Media, a podcast by Buffer. Your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation, and learning.

Hailley: Welcome to episode #123, I’m Hailley Griffis and this week we are talking all about social media algorithms 2019. Now, I know these can seem quite mysterious, and they really are, but there are certain things we’ve been able to figure out when it comes to algorithms and in this episode we’ll be giving you everything you need to know in a guide to decoding them for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Brian: I love a good mystery! Let’s kick it off.

As many of us have come to realize, social media algorithms play a very important role in how we as marketers and business owners are able to make an impact online.

Algorithms are often difficult to understand but they are always on and we need to learn to work with them and not against them if we want to find success.

Hailley: When you think of it, for many of us the way that we are discovering news and information is coming directly from these algorithms. When we use Google or any of the social sites like Facebook and Twitter, there’s an algorithm involved.

Brian: Luckily for us, big social networking sites do share updates on what their algorithm prioritizes.

Facebook has shared in the past that meaningful conversations are most powerful on the platform, and LinkedIn is looking to status updates from the professional users on the site that share more openly.

Hailley: The overall trend we’ve been seeing as we researched this episode is that social networks are prioritizing real connection between their users and that knowledge can truly help us make a big impact online.

For example, influencer marketing has been doing really well for this reason, as has user generated content because they are both types of content that connect people really well.

Brian: There’s a clear shift away from promotion and building purely a following on social media, to now creating community.

So today we’ll look at the things we know about the algorithms for four major social networks.

Part I: Inside the Facebook algorithm

Hailley: First up is the biggest social network on the block, Facebook.

Let’s start with what we know about the Facebook algorithm. We already mentioned that meaningful interactions are a priority for Facebook and successful Facebook pages. This means that they look for content that creates interactions between friends and family.

Those interactions can be things like, a person commenting or liking another person’s photo or status update, a person reacting to a post from a publisher (or brand) that a friend has shared, and multiple people replying to each other’s comments on a video they watched or an article they read in the news feed.

Brian: It also includes when someone shares a link over Messenger to start a conversation with a friend or group of friends, and that link ends up prioritized in the algorithm after that.

The overall theme for what we’ve mentioned so far is that Facebook wants content to create more conversations and if your content is doing that between friends and family on Facebook then it will do better in the algorithm.

What’s interesting is that the length of the comments on posts has weight as well, long form comments on a post help that post receive a higher weighting.

Hailley: While more engagement on your content means it will be ranked higher, the tricky thing is that if you ask people to like, comment or share your post, that makes the algorithm mark it down.

The other thing about your content is that Facebook prefers native content over content that will take a user to another site, which does make sense since they are trying to keep people on Facebook.

Brian: The other thing is that your credibility as a brand page affects your ranking so make sure that you keep posting consistently and have all of the information about your page filled out.

And finally, we’ve talked about this before but when you post to Facebook they show your post to a smaller group of users at first to see how it holds up for engagement before it shows it to a larger group.

Hailley: Phew! That’s a lot about the Facebook algorithm . Now, we’ll go through a few changes you can make to your Facebook marketing now that you know a bit more about the algorithm.

You might have figured this out, but your new priority is creating conversation on Facebook for the people you’re trying to reach, it’s not about you, it’s about creating a place for your audience to communicate.

Brian: Along the same lines, remember to be extra conscious with your content. Avoid asking people to like it and remember that Facebook prefers native content so use links back to your own site sparingly.

If you keep these things in mind, post consistently and keep your profile up to date, we have full confidence that you’ll be staying on the right side of Facebook’s algorithm.

Part II: Inside the Twitter algorithm

Hailley: Next up, the Twitter algorithm,! I love Twitter. And if you use it, you know that there are three different sections and they play a role in how your Tweets will be categorized on Twitter.

The sections are, ranked tweets which are recent and relevant, in case you missed it which is for older but relevant tweets, and then the remaining tweets which are in reverse chronological order.

Brian: Now the tricky thing is that users can choose to remove the feature to have Twitter show them the best tweets first, which means their timeline is simply in reverse chronological order.

For this reason, one of the main things we know about Twitter’s algorithm is that timing is critical. If you time your tweet properly and it gets engagement soon after being shared then it is more likely to be seen by others.

Hailley: A few other things we know about the Twitter algorithm are quite similar to Facebook so I’ll go over these quickly since we just chatted about them. Your tweets will be served to a smaller group of users first to measure engagement.

Engagement is key, likes, replies, and retweets weigh heavily in the algorithm and so does native content. And the credibility of the person posting is of course, also a big factor here.

Brian: How a user engages on Twitter also impacts the algorithm. Users see more from the people they already engage with and if they spend time reading a tweet or on someone’s profile they will see it even if they don’t engage with it.

Now, this information gives us so many ideas for how we can be better marketers on Twitter. To start, timing is so important. You should be aiming to tweet when your audience is online and if you aren’t online at that time then it’s really easy to schedule a tweet for then.

Hailley: The next thing is to take advantage of the fact that users see more from people they engage with and engage with your own audience. Be a member of the community and interact with others and Twitter’s algorithm will start placing your tweets in other people’s timelines as long as they are following you.

Brian: Just like on Facebook, make sure your profile is all filled out and up-to-date on Twitter to help with your credibility. Also avoid posting broken links and remember to be a human. Tweeting every minute will get you flagged as a bot in no time.

And finally, stay consistent. The algorithm recognizes people who are adding value and if you’re online, posting and engaging with your follows then your content is more likely to be prioritized.

Part III: Inside the LinkedIn algorithm

Hailley: Onto the LinkedIn algorithm! As a fun side note we also talked a lot about LinkedIn in episode 111 so go back and check that one out if you’re a big LinkedIn fan.

Brian: Like the other two algorithms, there are a few things here that are really similar. So I’m going to skim over those so we don’t sound repetitive and then we’ll focus on what’s different about LinkedIn’s algorithm.

Once again the algorithm prioritizes, native content, engagements in the form of likes, comments, and shares and your post is shown to fewer people first.

Hailley: What’s different about LinkedIn?

Well, if you’ve been poking around there recently you’ll have noticed that a lot of personal stories are doing really well on LinkedIn and that’s a part of the algorithm.

Part of that is that if a story or another type of post is doing really well within your own network, LinkedIn actually has a staff member look at it and then open it up to a wider audience. This is unique because it’s the only algorithm where there is a human involved in choosing which posts to show to more people.

Brian: We should find out who that person is and add them on LinkedIn.

The last thing about LinkedIn’s algorithm is that the key isn’t just getting your post seen by your own network, but by people in your 2nd and 3rd degree network. So now that we know all these things about LinkedIn, let’s talk about how to make this work for you.

To start, as you might imagine, the network on LinkedIn is extremely important. Whether a brand page or a personal profile you want to make sure that your connections are relevant to the type of content you are posting so that they’re more likely to interact with it.

Hailley: Next, capitalize on the personal story sharing that is doing so well on LinkedIn right now. Focus on being open and writing content that will appeal to your community on LinkedIn and it stands a way higher chance of being seen by people outside of your network.

And finally, as with the other networks, focus on native content. Don’t always link back to your own website. For LinkedIn in particular, they have been really focused on creating a great platform for video and they’re even testing out Stories for college students, so we recommend trying to play around with native images and video on LinkedIn.

Part IV: Inside the Instagram algorithm

Brian: The last social network on our list today is the Instagram algorithm! And we have so many good Instagram episodes from recent weeks so go back and check those out if you’re interested to learn more about Instagram and Stories.

Now, Instagram’s algorithm does have one main similarity to the others and that’s that a post is shown to a smaller group first.

But other than that we have a whole lot of differences! To start, the content category that a user tends to interact with the most by liking, commenting, viewing or sharing will be shown higher in their feed. So genres of content can be things like memes, fitness posts, quotes, pets, etc.

Hailley: One great thing to note is that if you’re working hard on creating great hashtags, that is a part of the algorithm for the Explore pages so more people will find your content that way.

People are also more likely to find your content if you post consistently and what’s neat is that the longer someone spends looking at your content, the more the algorithm likes it.

In fact, the more people engage with your content, the more each of your following posts will be more credible in the eyes of the algorithm.

Brian: Sort of similar to Facebook but if your post is shared via people’s direct messages then that will get your content ranked higher by the algorithm, and finally, if you’re putting in work and engaging with your audience via likes and comments, that will help drive views and engagement to your Instagram profile.

So let’s talk about what to do with all of this. Again, a big thing here is making your content engaging and engaging with others. If you can hold people on your post or profile, it will help your ranking and credibility.

Hailley: Plus, if you can make sure the types of posts you’re engaging with fall into the same content category as your own posts then that will only help drive people who already engage with that kind of content your way.

Last but not least, keep posting consistently and regularly since that does help with the algorithm as well. We do allow you to schedule posts to Instagram right through Buffer so if you’re worried about spending too much time on Instagram trying to post regularly, we’ve got you there.

How to say hello to us

We would all love to say hello to you on social media – especially Twitter!

• Hailley on Twitter and Hailley’s Website
• Brian on Twitter and Brian’s Website

Thanks for listening! Feel free to connect with our team at Buffer on Twitter, Buffer on Facebook, our Podcast homepage, or with the hashtag #bufferpodcast.

Enjoy the show? It’d mean the world to us if you’d be up for giving us a rating and review on iTunes!

—

About The Science of Social Media podcast

The Science of Social Media is your weekly sandbox for social media stories, insights, experimentation, and inspiration. Every Monday (and sometimes more) we share the most cutting-edge social media marketing tactics from brands and influencers in every industry. If you’re a social media team of one, business owner, marketer, or someone simply interested in social media marketing, you’re sure to find something useful in each and every episode.  It’s our hope that you’ll join our 18,000+ weekly iTunes listeners and rock your social media channels as a result!

The Science of Social Media is proudly made by the Buffer team. Feel free to get in touch with us for any thoughts, ideas, or feedback.

source https://blog.bufferapp.com/social-media-algorithms-2019

The Power of Purpose: How Taking a Stand Helps Brands to Win Customer’s Hearts (and Business)

Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year in the U.S., with more than 116 million people hitting the shops in search of a great deal.

But REI, an outdoor clothing and equipment brand, does Black Friday differently to other retailers.

For the fourth year in a row, REI closed its doors on Black Friday 2018, giving every one of its 12,000 employees the day off to enjoy the outdoors.

“There are things more important than buying/selling tents – like going outside and actually using them,” it explained on Twitter.

It might seem counter-intuitive to think that closing all your retail stores on the busiest shopping day of the year will be good for business. But that’s exactly what REI has found.

REI’s CEO, Jerry Stritzke believes that the relationships between consumers and brands are changing — whilst you used to be able to win people over with deals, you now need “something more”, he told Business Insider.

And it seems that Stritzke’s intuition has led REI down the right path.

“Since launching #OptOutside, we’ve watched more than 200 retailers go out of business,” Stritzke told BestBlackFriday.com. “We’ve stayed healthy partly because we’ve stuck with our core values — like giving our employees time to do what they love with the people they love during the holidays. It’s enabled us to add millions of new members and, most importantly, connect millions of people with the outdoors.”

According to data from Edelman, sixty-four percent of consumers around the world will choose, switch, avoid or boycott a business based on its stand on societal and political issues.

But taking a stand isn’t as simple as jumping in on a trending topic on Twitter, or sharing a quick piece of content here and there. It must run much deeper than that.

“You have to be walking the walk before you talk the talk,” Mike Dupree, Senior Manager for Media & Entertainment at Twitter, explained to me.

Mike has been working with brands on their content and marketing efforts on Twitter for over six years, and he recently jumped on a call with me to explain the power of purpose-driven marketing — the topic of his talk at this year’s Social Fresh conference.

Demonstration before communication

REI’s Opt Outside campaign has been incredibly successful since it first launched in 2015 because it’s not just a marketing front — even REI’s CEO, takes Black Friday off to enjoy the outdoors.

And Mike believes that this authenticity is key, not only to REI’s success, but to any purpose-driven campaign: “Being authentic is always critical in marketing, but when it comes to brand purpose it becomes even more important.”

“Any purpose-driven campaign shouldn’t be viewed as a short-term thing,” Mike explained. “The purpose has to be deep rooted in the company across all facets of the organisation — from marketing and customer service to communications and policy, and everywhere in between.”

“In short, it’s about demonstration before communication,” Mike concluded.

This is exactly why Opt Outside has worked for REI. For years before it launched the campaign, and communicated its “Opt Outside” ethos, it had demonstrated it through its actions. Enjoying the outdoors is a part of REI’s brand message, and over the years it has consistently supported nonprofit partners, and encouraged both employees and customers to make the most of the outdoors.

Having a purpose without being divisive, or taking sides

“We know that consumers will buy or boycott brands based on a social or political issue,” Mike explained. “So there’s always a risk when you choose to be bold.”

But to stand for something, and embrace a purpose, brands don’t need to create campaigns that choose sides on political, or social topics.

“We’ve seen numerous examples of brands taking a stand without taking sides,” Mike told me. “The key is to find universal issues that strike a cultural chord with anybody — something that everybody can get behind.”

For example, throughout 2018 brands have consistently helped out with disaster relief efforts after after hurricanes, superstorms, and earthquakes.

Verizon deployed mobile towers and generators to those regions prone to natural disasters so that it could assist with communication during disaster relief. It then communicated this by creating a campaign, #AllOurThanks, that enabled people to share their gratitude to first responders who are always there in times of crisis.

And Anheuser-Busch sent more than 300,000 cans of emergency canned drinking water to local communities in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia as the states prepared for the expected impacts of Hurricane Florence.

This action wasn’t a one-off, though. Water is incredibly important to Anheuser-Busch’s brewing process, and it has been committed to conserving water for years as part of its Better World focus. Since 2010, it has partnered with the River Network to host a series of local river and watershed restoration and protection projects.

3 steps to finding a purpose that aligns with your brand

The campaigns we’ve discussed so far (REI, Verizon, Anheuser-Busch) all have something in common:

The purpose they support is fully aligned with their brand — and that’s not an accident. As Mike explained:

“Ideally as a brand you decide to choose an area that aligns with your brand purpose that also connects with your overall brand ethos, and the product/service you offer. If you choose that well, having your brand be a part of the campaign shouldn’t be taken the wrong way.”

Here are three things to consider before aligning your brand with a purpose:

1. Does your brand have a right or role to be here?

You never want to shoehorn your brand into a conversation in which it doesn’t belong. “This can be a PR nightmare,” Mike told me.

The best examples of purpose-driven marketing are when brands connect with issues and purposes that they have long supported or played a part in. Anheuser-Busch’s water campaign worked for its brand because it has been supporting clean water-related causes since 2010 — it wasn’t just jumping in during a moment of crisis to try and grab some attention.

“If you’re already walking the walk as a brand, you’ll know what discussions to be a part of and where to stay away,” Mike explained.

2. Are you doing or just saying?

It’s not enough to simply jump into a conversation during a fleeting moment, you have to have actions that back up your communications.

“Consistency over time is important,” Mike told me. “If you want to build an enduring connection with your customers you have to have consistency over time. Both in what you’re doing and what you’re saying.”

Mike continued: “If it’s just a trending hashtag or we’re in the middle of a crisis and you want to jump in quickly to get some social media micro-wins, that’s not going to help your brand and it’ll probably hurt your brand in the long run.”

3. Will this stand up in five years from now?

This is a great question to ask yourself. When it comes to purpose-driven marketing, you need to think about how this campaign will be looked back on and how it might shape your business moving forward.

If it’s fully aligned with your business ethos and historic actions, you’ll more than likely look back on it as a positive. But if you’re just jumping into a trending topic, or something your brand isn’t fully aligned with it probably won’t stand the test of time.

Take the REI “Opt Outside” campaign. The team at REI knew that it was completely in-line with its business ethos, and the impact would be seen as positive — even if it did lose out on sales on the biggest shopping day of the year.

“REI is a retail brand that has a business interest in Black Friday. But it has more of an interest in embracing the outdoors lifestyle and culture than it does in one big shopping day each year,” Mike explained. “It believes that this approach will keep customers coming back, and build loyalty that lasts years, and years.”

You’re never too small to have a purpose

Verizon, REI, and Anheuser-Busch are huge brands. But that doesn’t mean a smaller business can’t make an impact with purpose-driven marketing.

Just look at businesses like TOMS. When TOMS first launched its shoes, its purpose was front and center: for every pair of shoes you buy, another pair will be donated to people in need in countries around the world.

And no matter your size, embracing purpose-driven marketing is a great way to stand out and build strong, lasting relationships with consumers.

“It’s never been harder for brands to stand out and make connections that are enduring if you can do that it’ll help your business [in the long-term],” Mike concluded.

“We see that 75 percent of consumers expect brands to make a contribution to their well-being, and quality of life — if you aren’t doing that you’ll be left behind. And that’s applicable to businesses of any size.”

Mike Dupree will be sharing more about the power of purpose during his talk at the Social Fresh conference. Social Fresh 2018 will be taking place on December 5-7, 2018 at Full Sail University, Winter Park, FL. Click here for more information or to book your ticket.

source https://blog.bufferapp.com/purpose-driven-marketing