The Simple Twitter Strategy That Helped Us Generate 90% More Clicks

• After Twitter changed its rules on sharing identical tweets, we set out to experiment with new ways to boost the reach of our best tweets.
• This strategy helped us to generate 122 percent more impressions, 87 percent more engagements, and 90 percent more link clicks for our top tweets.
• It’s incredibly simple to implement this strategy  — you just need to identify your best tweets and retweet them — and it can be done using Buffer or directly on Twitter.com (and Twitter apps). 

Keep reading to see a full breakdown of this experiment and how you can implement it for your own Twitter accounts…

In February 2018, Twitter updated its rules to prohibit sharing tweets that are identical or substantially similar to one another.

Before this rule change, re-sharing top tweets (sparingly) was one of our favorite strategies for increasing our Twitter reach and engagement here at Buffer. And while it was a shame to forgo this strategy, we understand the rationale behind the new rules and are fully supportive of them.

So, rather than dwelling on what used to work, we started searching for other strategies to try.

Here’s one experiment we’ve been working on (and our results in full)…

Coming up with the experiment idea (and testing my theory)

After Twitter had made its rule changes, I noticed that Matt Navara and a few other accounts had started retweeting their own tweets as a way to boost top posts.

This made me wonder if retweeting my own top tweets could be a good way to increase my reach and engagement on Twitter.

So I tested this idea — retweeting my best-performing tweet the following day — with my own account.

And it worked!

According to my Buffer Overview Report, my tweets in June received, on average, 2,356 impressions, 93 engagements, and 30 likes. Whereas this particular tweet received 9,697 impressions, 203 engagement, and 94 likes after I retweeted it:

I saw the same pattern with several more tweets too. And as this strategy worked amazingly well for my personal account, I wondered if it would also work for our Buffer Twitter account.

So with my teammate, Bonnie’s help, we ran a more formal experiment with our Buffer Twitter account…

A Twitter retweet experiment

The plan

The goal of our experiment is to see if retweeting our best-performing tweets could become part of our Twitter strategy. We had two success criteria:

• Retweeting our own tweets should substantially increase the reach and engagement of each tweet. One of my hypotheses is that the retweet could reach a different audience when it is retweeted at a different time from when the original tweet was published. The second hypothesis is that the existing likes and retweets on the tweet act as social proof, which makes more people want to engage with it. When they do, the Twitter algorithm would, then, show the tweet to even more people.
• Our followers should find this acceptable. We were looking out for comments on our retweets to see if our followers noticed the retweeting and had an opinion on it.

We had a very straightforward plan:

1. Tweet like we have been
2. After one to two days of tweeting, use the analytics in Buffer to a top tweet from recent days
3. Record the performance of that tweet by taking a screenshot of the stats
4. Buffer that top tweet to be retweeted one to two days later
5. After one to two days again, record the performance of the retweet

We started the experiment in June and concluded it in July. Over the period of about a month, we retweeted 10 of our best-performing tweets. And we are very excited to share the results!

A quick note about retweeting

You can only retweet a tweet once.

You could technically undo a retweet and retweet it again (by clicking on the retweet icon twice). I do not have any conclusive evidence that this is beneficial and am not certain that retweeting multiple times is what the Twitter team had intended for that feature.

The results

Drum roll 

I think it was a resounding success!

On average, our retweeted tweets received 122 percent more impressions, 87 percent more engagements, and 90 percent more link clicks. The three tweets with video also had an average boost of video views by 92 percent.

(We didn’t get many replies for these tweets both before and after retweeting them. I thought I would mention this for completeness.)

Besides the increase in reach and engagement, we were also glad that our followers seem to have found the retweets of our own tweets acceptable. (Or perhaps they just didn’t voice their objections. If you saw our retweets and have an opinion, we would love to hear from you!)

Overall, the experiment validated the idea of retweeting our best-performing tweets to boost their reach and engagement, and we’re excited to integrate this into our Twitter strategy going forward.

So how can you do this for your brand’s Twitter account?

How to retweet optimally

There are two ways to retweet optimally. When I say “optimally”, I mean retweeting your top tweets at the right time to obtain the best result.

The easier and better way, in my opinion, is to use Buffer. With a combination of the analytics in Buffer and our browser extension, you can quickly identify the best tweets to retweet and schedule them for the perfect time.

Here’s how:

Schedule retweets with Buffer

Step 1: Tweet as per usual

Easiest step.  Done? 

Step 2: Find your best-performing tweets

Once a week or once every few weeks, go to your Posts Report in the analytics section of your Buffer dashboard. (This feature is available on our Pro and Business plans.)

Your Posts Report will first show you your recent tweets, with the latest tweet at the top. You could scroll down and identify your best-performing tweets with a “TOP TWEET” label. An easier way is to click on the “Most Popular” filter, and we’ll show you all your top tweets in the past 90 days in the order of descending performance.

If you are on one of our Business plans, you can adjust the timeframe in the upper-left corner.

Step 3: Schedule your retweets

Next, click on the timestamp of the tweets you want to retweet. The tweet will be opened in a new tab.

Then, with the Buffer browser extension installed, you’ll see an additional Buffer button at the bottom of the tweet. Click on it.

You’ll see the Buffer composer with a preview of the tweet you want to retweet. You could add a comment to the retweet but for this purpose, we just want to retweet the tweet. So select the right Twitter profile and hit “Add to Queue”.

A quick note about timing

For our experiment, we waited only a day or two before retweeting a tweet. That’s because we wanted to experiment with at least 10 tweets but didn’t want the experiment to take too long. My hunch is that it’ll be ideal to wait a few days or even weeks before retweeting a tweet. This will prevent your followers from seeing the same tweet twice within a short timeframe.

Also, you’ll want to space out your retweets with your usual tweets. This is so that you are sharing a mix of regular tweets and retweets, and not a burst of retweets in between regular tweets.

And you’re set!

The helpful thing about using Buffer is that you can schedule retweets in advance without having to wait until a particular day before you can retweet a tweet. If you have found your best times to tweet and added them to your posting schedule, your retweet will be published at one of your best times.

My other favorite advantage is that you can easily rearrange when your retweets will be published (or tweets retweeted), along with your other scheduled tweets.

If you don’t use Buffer, no worries. This can be done manually through Twitter, too.

Retweet manually through Twitter

Step 1: Tweet as per usual

Step 2: Find your best-performing tweets

Whenever you want to retweet your best-performing tweet, go to your Twitter Analytics’ Top Tweets. (Direct link to your Twitter Analytics: https://analytics.twitter.com/)

Twitter will show you your top tweets in order of descending impressions for the past 28 days. If you wish, you could adjust the timeframe in the upper-right corner.

Step 3: Retweet

Click on the timestamp of the tweet you want to retweet. A good rule of thumb is to pick tweets with a high engagement rate.

(Note: You have to click on the timestamp. Clicking on anywhere else will only bring up a window of the tweet’s activity)

The tweet will be opened in a new tab. Click on the retweet icon, and you’ll be asked if you want to retweet that tweet to your followers. Select “Retweet”.

The tweet will be immediately retweeted so you would want to time your retweet. Try to wait a few days or weeks from the day that the original tweet was published and preferably choose a different time from the original published time.

If you wish to schedule your retweets, we would love for you to give Buffer a go. Here’s a 14-day free trial.

And that’s it!

Over to you: What do you think of this strategy?

Whilst we loved re-sharing our top tweets, it’s best to avoid doing that now since Twitter has updated its rules. The next best alternative we have found is to retweet your top tweets. A simple, well-timed retweet can increase the reach and engagement of your tweets, without annoying your followers. This is a strategy that few brands are taking advantage of right now. So I would recommend experimenting with this and see how well it does for your brand (especially before this becomes a common practice!)

Let us know how it goes for you? 

(If you disagree with this practice, we would love to hear from you, too. It’s always helpful to have thoughtful discussions, and we can learn together.)

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

5 Tried and True LinkedIn Tips to Grow your Company Page Followers 600% Faster

While much of the focus over the last few years on social media has been on Facebook and Instagram, LinkedIn has been steadily growing its user base to more than 500 million users.

And we’ve seen first-hand that businesses are working hard on perfecting their LinkedIn marketing strategy so that they can tap into the world’s largest professional network.

A few months ago, we asked you (our readers) to let us know which social media networks you would like to learn more about – LinkedIn (53%) came in a close second, just after Instagram (62%).

To get started, we teamed up with LinkedIn to share with you tried and true tips on how to leverage one of the most valuable online resources for your business: your LinkedIn Company Page.

With this simple 5-step strategy your business can accelerate the growth of your Company Page by up to 600 percent.

Let’s get started!

5 LinkedIn marketing tips to grow your Company Page 600% faster

LinkedIn is only just getting started!

CEO Jeff Weiner plans to “develop the world’s first economic graph” with the hopes of “digitally mapping out the global economy.” A goal not far from reach seeing how LinkedIn has an in-depth dataset of company, industry, and individual contact information for more than 500 million members.

In the long-term, LinkedIn marketing will be a game-changer for businesses and brands in the B2B space. Here are 5 tips to put your business of the forefront of this trend.

1. Complete your LinkedIn company profile (fully)

Did you know that Company Pages with complete profiles receive up to 2X more visitors than those with incomplete page profiles?

Make sure your page has the following seven items completely filled out:

– Logo
– Company description
– Website URL
– Company size
– Industry
– Company type
– Location

In order to fully complete your profile, head to your Company Page on LinkedIn and select “Overview”: 

From there, you’ll be directed to your company’s information page where you can update all of the most important details about your business, including:

Make sure to upload a high-resolution company logo and a cover image that captures your brand as well as fill out the “About us” section to provide visitors with more information.

Below the “About us” section you’ll find even more important fields to complete:

Having a complete company profile (website URL, company size, industry, type, and location) are all important components in helping to make your Company Page look more legitimate and professional.

Legitimacy and professionalism are critical for brand image, and provides visitors with all the information they need to connect with your company when they’re ready.

2. Create a consistent posting schedule

According to LinkedIn, businesses that post at least once per month have been shown to gain followers 6X faster than those that don’t.

In addition, Company Pages with at least 150 followers typically get 5X more Company Page views than those with fewer followers!

You should aim to post at least once per week to your Company Page to keep your followers engaged (we post twice per week). To help you post consistently to your Company Page, set up a posting schedule so that you can easily schedule posts for your Page:

We’ve found that our LinkedIn content performs really well if we include the following:

• Descriptive caption: Helps to provide people with extra context around your content
• Eye-catching images: Clean, simple aesthetic helps your content to stand out
• Hashtags: A great way to increase the visibility of your content to new audiences
• Bonus: Add emojis, questions, and bullet points to switch up the look and feel of your content

Pro tip: Use RSS feeds

If you’re unsure what to post to LinkedIn, or if you’d like a steady stream of quality content, we suggest taking some time to add a few RSS feeds to your content inbox.

(Quick note: RSS feeds are only available in our paid plans).

We’ve been using RSS feeds in tandem with our LinkedIn marketing strategy for years and we’ve found that it provides us with a solid supply of content to share all the time. The key with RSS feeds is to customize the content  using some of the tips we shared above.

Try to avoid simply posting the headline and image provided with the article in the RSS feed. The same best-practices that you implement when posting your own quality content also apply to curated content shared on LinkedIn.

3. Re-Buffer your top content

If you find that your business is running out of content ideas, we recommend to (sparingly) re-share, or Re-Buffer, your top posts from the past. Due to sophisticated social media algorithms, it’s likely that only a very small percentage (2-6%) of your followers have seen your posts in the LinkedIn Feed.

If you have a backlog of successful social media content, it’s likely that the content will perform well again in the future.

You can find your top posts under the analytics section on your Buffer dashboard. Select your Posts Report and click “Most Popular”.

(Quick note: The Re-Buffer feature is only available in our paid plans).

LinkedIn Pulse – or the LinkedIn Feed – no longer operates as a separate application within LinkedIn. It’s seamlessly integrated into members’ feeds as articles to help enhance the content-first experience.

It’s working, too! More than 100,000 organic articles are published weekly on LinkedIn, many of which are written by top-level executives at brands around the world. However, more content means less space in the News Feed, which means your business needs a rock-solid LinkedIn marketing strategy.

Set yourself up for success by re-sharing your top-performing content on a consistent basis – a crucial piece in growing your Company Page.

4. Engage your colleagues and employees

One of the most influential groups of people that can help you with your LinkedIn marketing is your colleagues and employees. When activated, they can boost your Linkedin content while simultaneously increasing the visibility of your Company Page on LinkedIn.

Help them help you! Here’s how to get your colleagues and employees involved:

Encourage colleagues to engage with your content

According to LinkedIn, encouraging your colleagues and employees to engage with your posts will help to spread to the content their networks, therefore increasing your company’s reach on LinkedIn. As it turns out, the people closest to you could be the biggest asset in amplifying your LinkedIn marketing strategy and growth.

At Buffer, we use Slack to get employees engaged in real-time. Recently, I was looking for some upvotes on GrowthHackers for a recent Facebook study that we conducted with BuzzSumo:

We also use group brainstorming to help decide headlines for upcoming articles (with emoji!):

Statista found that 42% of LinkedIn users have between 300-999 connections. Multiply that by the number of employees at your company and that’s a lot of potential reach!

At Buffer, we also send out a weekly internal newsletter with relevant links and stories for Buffer employees to share as well as “internal report” in Dropbox Paper for the latest new in social media.

If employees and colleagues understand the importance of sharing and what to share, they’re much more likely to do so.

Encourage employees to fill out their LinkedIn profiles

LinkedIn offers a perfect explanation of how your individual profiles influence your brand and LinkedIn marketing strategy:

Your LinkedIn profile – and the profiles of everyone else at the company – are the peaks that come together to form the mountain range that is your brand.

We’re all a mountain peak!

Ensuring that all members of your team’s profiles are filled out completely is a wonderfully simple way to spread awareness of your brand. If you are in a company of 50 people, that’s 50 profiles with your company’s name with a quick link to your Company Page. And according to LinkedIn, it makes your company more visible in search results both on and off LinkedIn.

Encourage your colleagues to add your company in their current work experience on their personal profiles and engage with your Company Page posts.

5. Promote your Company Page beyond LinkedIn

No great marketing channel lives in a silo. It takes a coordinated effort across all of your digital platforms in order to see consistent growth over time.

LinkedIn recommends a few cross-promotion strategies in order to experience the maximum growth rate:

Link to your Company Page in your marketing communications, email signatures, and blogs

Email is one of the few remaining marketing channels that businesses truly own (i.e., you’re not subjected to changing algorithms and news feed updates).

One great example of this in action is when we were able to grow the Buffer Podcast by 109% in just two months by cross-promoting it on social media and email:

We also encourage all of our employees to add the LinkedIn button to their email signatures and often link to our Company Page in blog posts (see what I just did there?).

Add social media buttons or a LinkedIn “Follow” button to your website

Another great way to cross-promote your LinkedIn Company Page is to make it easy for your readers to share content at any point throughout the reading experience or while browsing your website.

By adding the LinkedIn “Follow” button to your landing pages or using sticky social media sharing buttons within your blog posts, you’re setting yourself up for long-term success and reach.

What’s your LinkedIn marketing strategy?

We’d love to hear from you in the comments below?

Did we miss any LinkedIn marketing strategies that have worked particularly well for your Company Page?

If you’re interested in reading more, check out these awesome resources:

• The Silent Rise of LinkedIn to 500M Members: What Marketers Need to Know for 2018
• How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy from Scratch
• 20+ Key Social Demographic Facts, Facebook Q1 Earnings Report is Here, What Elon Musk Taught the Co-Founder of HubSpot, & More! – iTunes
• 25 Expert Social Media Growth Strategies – Get the complete 25-day email course for mastering social media marketing
• The Best Times to Post on Social (According to Research), LinkedIn Launches Video Ads for Businesses, GIPHY Marketing Ideas, & More! – iTunes

Image credits: Unsplash

source https://blog.bufferapp.com/linkedin-marketing-strategy

To Give Your Marketing Meaning, Start With Your Mission

Facebook Redesigns Pages as Reach Declines, 5 Fascinating Facts About Gen Z, the ROI of Meme Accounts, and More!

Looking to catch up on the latest social media news, but short on time? We have you covered!

Join 17,000+ weekly listeners for the Buffer podcast, The Science of Social Media, where we bring you the latest and greatest in social media marketing news, updates, stories, insights, and actionable takeaways.

This week we have a super interesting episode lined up for you, starting with specific details around Facebook’s plan to redesign business Pages from top to bottom for “utility.” We’re also chatting about some interesting social media facts about Generation Z in 2018, the return on investment (ROI) on meme accounts, and lots more.

Let’s dive in!

What you’ll learn in this episode

What follows is a lightly edited transcript of the conversation between Hailley Griffis and Brian Peters. Short on time? No worries! Here are four quick takeaways:

• Facebook is attempting to redefine Business Pages not as just a broadcasting tool for marketing through News Feed, but a destination for customers.
• Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube are among the top social media platforms for Generation Z, though Facebook is still a daily habit for most teens for passively consuming content from friends and family.
• Many agencies and brands are switching their attention from influencers to meme accounts to run native advertisements on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
• LinkedIn is now encouraging people and pages to use hashtags in their content so that they can increase the visibility of that content in the news feed.

Facebook Redesigns Pages as Reach Declines, 5 Fascinating Facts About Gen Z, the ROI of Meme Accounts, and More! [complete podcast transcript]

• Part I: Facebook redesigns Business Pages as reach declines
• Part II: 5 fascinating marketing facts about Gen Z
• Part III: The ROI of meme accounts and what marketers should know
• Part IV: Using LinkedIn hashtags to maximize content exposure

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 #108! I’m Hailley Griffis and this week we’ve got a super interesting episode on tap for you starting with the fact that Facebook essentially redesigned business Pages from top to bottom. We’re also chatting about some interesting social media facts about Gen Z in 2018, ROI on meme accounts, and more!

Brian: You know I just realized that I don’t think we’ve ever talked about meme accounts here on the show, but I’d venture to say that they’re one of the biggest players on social media over the last few year. This should be fun!

Let’s kick off the show.

Part I: Facebook redesigns Business Pages as reach declines

Resource: Why the News Feed is Becoming Less Important for Facebook Pages

Hailley: An unescapable fact of Facebook’s unbelievable growth over the past few years is that as more Pages and people compete for limited News Feed attention, the percentage of a business’ followers who see their posts reach decline will increase. Naturally.

And as we’re going to talk about in next week’s episode (so stay tuned!), reach for Pages has dropped more than 50% on average over the last year and a half.

We’ve seemingly hit a point of no return on Facebook with a combination of increased content and decreased space in the Feed.

Brian: That’s why Facebook is attempting to redefine business Pages not as just a broadcasting tool for marketing through News Feed, but a destination for customers. Think Yelp, Google, TripAdvisor and other destination-based websites.

In short, Facebook is redesigning the Pages of the 80 million small businesses on its platform and the 1.6 billion people around the world connected to them.

Hailley: First, Pages will emphasize what many are calling “utility” related to the business. Utility might mean making an appointment or a calling option for salons, or reservations and menus for restaurants.

They’ll also be focusing on recommendations and reviews.

The recommendations users can give friends through Facebook’s special News Feed post format, which is triggered when people ask for suggestions, will now appear on Pages. And to improve the quality of reviews left on Pages, there’s now a 25 character minimum.

Brian: But one potentially controversial change is that Facebook will start showing a “Related Pages” on other Pages.

Facebook’s VP of Local Alex Himel told TechCrunch that “there’s no easy way to discover new businesses on Facebook and the focus is to make it easy to discover new businesses which we think any business will be excited about.”

Which from a consumer standpoint will be super useful. It’s like searching for a restaurant on Yelp and seeing all of the other similar restaurants on the list.

For businesses, though, that will present a challenge. Which is why providing detailed information about your business along with recommendations and review will be extremely important moving forward.

Hailley: Finally, a few smaller but still important changes.

To provide promotional options beyond the feed, all small business Pages can now post Stories to Facebook, which is an interesting play from a discovery standpoint.

Facebook is also rolling out its job applications tab worldwide so small businesses can easily find staffing. According to TechCrunch, both of these could blossom into advertising opportunities at a time when Facebook’s revenue is declining and it needs more income streams.

Alex Himel did note that 2/3s of businesses say Facebook has helped them increase sales and that Facebook will be talking more soon about how local businesses can stay relevant and visible in the News Feed.

Brian: All in all and intriguing move from Facebook that will keep a close eye on in the coming months here on the show so that you can continue to thrive as a business on the platform.

We recommend dedicated resources to ensuring that all customer inquiries via direct message, Messenger, or comments, are handled in a timely manner and that you are actively cultivating positive reviews for your business on Facebook. If you haven’t already, check out our tool Buffer Reply which can help you do that and more.

Part II: 5 fascinating marketing facts about Gen Z

Resource: It’s Lit: A Google Guide to What Teens (Gen Z) Think is Cool

Hailley: Social media usage continues to grow, with social media global penetration set to hit three billion people worldwide by 2021. And one of the fastest growing, quickest adopting generations on social media is Generation Z (or teenagers) as we know them. Gen Z is estimated to make up more than a quarter, roughly 26%, of the US population.

This week we stumbled on a really interesting report from Google titled “It’s Lit: What Teens Think is Cool” showing key demographic, marketing, and social media stats around this up and coming generation.

Some of the findings were pretty insightful and so we thought we’d share them with you today.

Brian: First of all, that title Google is just amazing. I can just see their team sitting around trying to figure out what to name the report until someone finally says “It’s Lit” haha they’re like that’s it – we got it!

So the first thing I thought was interesting is that Gen Z reported, and I quote,

“Snapchat, and Instagram are the coolest platforms.”

Facebook is still a daily habit for most teens for consumption and passively viewing content from friends and family, but they rarely post and it’s not seen as cool.

Hailley: In the report, one 17 year old was asked why she loves Snapchat and she said,

“Snapchat gives us a place to connect with friends in a fun way, without having to worry about them sharing your thoughts (unless they screenshot!).”

Which I think gives us an interesting look into the psychology of teens on social media.

Brian: Agreed. Yeah it seems like Gen Z is a lot more focused on the private or more “closed” networks that allow them to message and share with friends without everyone seeing it publicly.

Like WhatsApp, Telegram, and other chat services for example growing in popularity over the past few years.

Hailley: Breaking the stats down even further, here’s how each social platform compares to the other in terms of Gen Z and usage:

As you might have guessed, Instagram and Snapchat are in a tight race for the top, with 59% of Gen Z’ers using Instagram and 57% of them using Snapchat.

After that it’s Facebook at 53%, Twitter at 36% and Pinterest at 26%.

Brian: Yeah I thought that part was interesting because Google didn’t count YouTube as a social media network like we often do here on the show. But they do talk about it later in the report as a streaming service.

Teens report that the top 4 coolest streaming services, in order, are YouTube, Netflix, Spotify, and Hulu. And if you were to compare those with usage on social media networks like Instagram and Snapchat they’re right up there with them.

So in other words, just a ton of content consumption across the board for Gen Z.

Hailley: Another part of the study which I though was interesting was which companies Gen Z rated as their favorite. And I think this gives us insights to the type of brand marketing campaigns Gen Z finds engaging and how we might learn from those.

So at the top of the list are brands like Oreo, Playstation, Doritos, Xbox, Apple, Nike, Amazon, Chik-Fil-A, and Go Pro

and as their least favorite brands they listed Patagonia, Zara, Lululemon, Quicksilver, Oakley, Nordstrom and Sunglass Hut.

It goes to show that brands should think about the future of marketing if they want to thrive 5 or 10 years from now when Gen Z has purchasing power.

Brian: Totally, and one last thought here is that Gen Z never knew the world before the internet – before everything you could ever want or need was one click away.

As a result, Gen Z is one of the most informed generations. They value information, stimulation, and connection and they also have high hopes for the brands they choose.

As Google writes at the end of their report, “As professionals, we should see this as our challenge—to live up to the standard Gen Z has set for us and to continue to inform, inspire, and create products and marketing that facilitate the world in which they want to live.”

Part III: The ROI of meme accounts and what marketers should know

Resource: Better ROI than Influencers – Meme Accounts Attract Growing Interest

Hailley: Let’s talk meme accounts.

Meme accounts have been flooding our social feeds for several years now, each offering their own brand of witty, relatable posts.

If you’re not sure what we’re talking about, you’ve likely seen a meme in your feed at one time or another. Essentially it’s a photo or video with text around it describing the photo or video in some funny way.

Brian: From sports, to celebrities, and everything in-between, meme accounts produce some of the most popular content on social media today.

And according to Digiday, with the peak of influencer marketing slowly setting in, meme accounts offer attractive partnerships for brands and publishers.

Supposedly, some agencies and brands are now switching their attention from influencers to meme accounts to run native advertisements on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

Hailley: Digiday reported that meme accounts get a high return on investment because it is extremely hard for a brand to create the kind of wit and humor that seems comes naturally to the content creators behind these meme accounts.

They are super relatable, so they get amazing engagement.

Brian: It’s also interesting to read about the difference in cost and ROI as well. Since meme accounts are just starting to be utilized as ad platforms, they don’t know their value yet and so they’re cheaper, at least for now.

Hailley: Tim Armoo, CEO of influencer platform Fanbytes, reported that “for 1 million followers, you could be paying $15,000 to a human influencer, and for 1 million followers on a meme account you’d be paying about $1,000.

Brian: Wow, that’s pretty incredible.

But obviously meme accounts won’t work for every brand or industry.

Meme accounts are really good for driving brand awareness in certain industries like fashion, food, entertainment, publishing, eCommerce, etc., but I’d imagine it might be tough if you’re a brand in a more traditional industry like education, finance, banking, and real estate.

Hailley: I totally agree.

But you know I do think there is an opportunity for brands to great creative here even if you are in a traditional industry.

Either way, it’ll be interesting to see how this grows and play out in the near future.

I’m curious to watch how meme accounts go from really organic and authentic to a network that accepts advertising revenue. Will they become less authentic? Only time will tell!

Brian: Yes, indeed, Hailley. As with most things in social media, right?

Part IV: Using LinkedIn hashtags to maximize content exposure

Resource: How to Maximize Your Expose with LinkedIn Hashtags

Brian: Alright, last but not least, some bonus content for you today and this one went sort of under the radar, we certainly missed it on this podcast, is that LinkedIn launched a new version of hashtags and they’re actually great for spreading and finding content on the platform.

Hailley: So before I’m pretty sure we were all unclear on if hashtags actually worked on LinkedIn and if company pages found them valuable.

Until now.

LinkedIn is now encouraging people and pages to use hashtags in their content so that they can increase the visibility of that content in the news feed.

Brian: Similar to Instagram, you can now follow and search hashtags on LinkedIn using a feature they’re calling Your Communities.

You can even pin the hashtags that are most relevant to you so that they appear first in your feed every time you login.

AND you can use a new discover feature to search hashtags that shows the amount of people following each hashtag – a sort of social proof move by LinkedIn which is cool.

Hailley: Yeah so before you begin adding hashtags to your LinkedIn posts and articles, you’ll need to find hashtags that align with your LinkedIn strategy and the interests of your ideal audience.

A good place to start is to see which hashtags the influencers in your niche are using on LinkedIn, as well as on sites such as Twitter and Instagram. Pay attention to who is using the hashtag and how they use it in tandem with their content.

Then, before adding any hashtag to your own strategy, it’s important to verify the hashtag’s popularity and contextual meaning.

Brian: Right now LinkedIn doesn’t limit the number of hashtags you can add to your articles, but they do encourage users to use hashtags that are relevant.

And while you can edit an article after it’s published, you can’t edit or remove hashtags. So just a heads-up there.

Finally, for all of you using LinkedIn for business, we had the opportunity to get some inside LinkedIn marketing tips directly from the LinkedIn team which we’ll be talking about in an episode in the very near future. So check back soon!

Hailley: Thank you so much for tuning in to the Science of Social Media today. The show notes for this episode are now available on the Buffer Blog at blog.buffer.com with a complete transcript and links to all of the resources mentioned today.

If you ever want to get in touch with me or Brian, we’re always here for your on social media using the hashtag #bufferpodcast. You can also say hi to us anytime and hello@bufferapp.com

Brian: As always, thank you so much for your iTunes reviews! We know we say this every single show, but honestly, those mean a ton to us and it’s one of the main factors that helps our show to grow.

More great episodes coming up including a massive 43 million facebook post analysis, how to discover irresistible content, LinkedIn marketing, and more.

Until next Monday, everyone!

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 17,000+ 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-news-episode-108

7 Psychology Facts That All Social Media Marketers Should Know

What do psychology and social media have in common?

A lot more than you might imagine! Believe it or not, there are some very scientific reasons that people like, share, comment, click, and even purchase products online.

Understanding the psychology facts behind the way audiences think on social media is the first step in creating a better experiences, stronger relationships, and even more loyal customers in the long run.

This week on The Science of Social Media, we’re looking at 7 psychology facts that all social media marketers should know and how you can apply them to everything from content and customer support to strategy and execution.

Let’s kick it off!

How to listen: iTunes | Google Play | SoundCloud | Stitcher | RSS

What you’ll learn in this episode

What follows is a lightly edited transcript of the conversation between Hailley Griffis and Brian Peters. Short on time? No worries! Here are four quick takeaways:

• The most successful marketers regularly use psychology to help them be better at their jobs
• One of the most effective ways to build trust and credibility for your brand is to be transparent and not shy away from your flaws
• Colors are powerful tool because they have a huge affect on people’s behavior and how they perceive your brand from the very beginning
• According to a report byPsychological Science, evoking strong emotions can increase the likelihood of something being shared

7 Psychology Facts That All Social Media Marketers Should Know

• Psychology Fact 1: Transparency and building trust with customers
• Psychology Fact 2: Why emotions are a powerful tool (and even contagious)
• Psychology Fact 3: The Halo effect and how it impacts our perceptions
• Psychology Fact 4: Using reciprocity to increase action
• Psychology Fact 5: The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon and frequency illusion
• Psychology Fact 6: Color and its impact on social media marketing
• Psychology Fact 7: The 5 psychological reasons behind why people share online

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

Brian: Welcome to episode #107! I’m Brian Peters and this week we’re here to talk to you all about psychology and how it can help you with your social media marketing. We pulled together 7 things that all social media marketers should know and we can’t wait to share them with you!

Hailley: It’s been awhile since we’ve had a good psychology episode, this is going to be great! Let’s kick of the show!

Brian: Before we get started let’s talk about marketers using psychology for a moment, because most marketers are not psychologists – although if you are that’s a huge leg up!

But many successful marketers are regularly using psychology to help them be better at their jobs and connect with their audience.

We’re all about being thoughtful and honest marketers who use psychology ethically and respectfully to attract and engage an audience.

Hailley: Really well said, Brian! With that in mind, let’s jump right into the psychology.

1. Transparency and building trust with customers

First off, and I love this one, is that one of the best ways to build trust and credibility for your brand is to be transparent and not shy away from your flaws.

So if you are familiar with Buffer, you know that we’re all about transparency. It’s one of our core values and you can go online right now and look up how much money Buffer is making and even check out Brian and I’s salaries.

Now, we are not transparent because of the marketing benefits, but after becoming transparent we definitely saw more and more benefits, including marketing ones, to our transparency.

Brian: Exactly, so let’s talk a little bit about why transparency is so powerful. Well, it’s no secret that people tend to question marketing claims, and it’s for a good reason. Many marketing claims simply aren’t credible.

So the way to gain trust is to be transparency and right off the bat, point out your flaws or product shortcomings.

Be really open about what your product does and does not do. You can do this in social media posts, ads, in engagement when customers are asking you questions, there are tons of opportunities to be more open and start building trust with your audience.

Hailley: Yes, I love that you mention ads as well. I found potentially the original example of that in advertising, it’s actually still referenced textbooks today! In 1949, Volkswagen came out with an ad doing pointing our their own flaws. It’s known as the Lemon ad.

So there’s the word lemon as the headline and then a photo of a Volkswagen beetle and below it the copy reads:

“This Volkswagen missed the boat. The chrome strip on the glove compartment is blemished and must be replaced. Chances are you wouldn’t have noticed it; Inspector Kurt Kroner did.”

And then the ad went on to talk about how important attention to detail is for the folks at Volkswagen. The Lemon ad is a famous example of how to optimize credibility and it is so easy to replicate.

2. Why emotions are a powerful tool (and even contagious)

Brian: The second psychology fact that we’re touching on today is that emotions are really powerful and even contagious.

Evoking strong emotions can increase the likelihood of something being shared, according to a report by Psychological Science. And while any content that was emotional did affect the audience, the University of Pennsylvania found that more specifically, positive content had the best results. The more positive the content, the more it was shared.

This is because it makes the person who is interacting with that content more positive and happy, so they are far more likely to want to share it and spread the happiness.

Hailley: And emojis have a really interesting place in all of this as well.

So as humans, mimicking expressions when you are face-to-face is one of the ways that we become closer with each other. And scientists found that using an emoji actives the same parts of the brain and replicates the same experience as those face-to-face interactions, making us all more connected.

I wonder if it’s even more powerful with Apple’s new emojis that copy your exact facial expressions?

Brian: There are a lot of ways you can use this information to your advantage as a social media manager.

A great place to start is to look at the tone of your social posts and check them for positivity and happiness. Then, try and share more feel-good stories from your customers or in the other content you curate. A few other things that you can do are use humor in your content, and of course, add positive and happy emojis to your posts.

3. The Halo effect and how it impacts our perceptions

Hailley: Next up, let’s talk about something called the Halo effect and just how much it really affects us.

The halo effect is a type of immediate judgement discrepancy, or cognitive bias, where a person making an initial assessment of another person, place, or thing will assume ambiguous information based upon concrete information.

This is like the expression, you never get a second change to make a great first impression.

Brian: Exactly! What this means in practice is that we tend to allow a single attractive quality of a person or brand influence our judgement for other unrelated aspects.

And what we really want to emphasize here is how much celebrity endorsements can influence perceptions of a brand, where the audience might associate the traits of the celebrity with the brand or product.

Essentially what we’re saying is that influencer marketing works, it’s backed by psychology.

Hailley: Yes! Influencer marketing works and also social proof is important.

Here are some ways you can leverage the Halo effect in your social media marketing:

• You can highlighting a recognizable customer or get a customer testimonial.
• You can work with recognizable influencers or if possible get a celebrity endorsement.
• You can associate with cool companies that enhance your brand, this is something we do quite often and it is definitely something we recommend.

Onto psychology fact number four!

4. Using reciprocity to increase action

Brian: The fourth piece of psychology we want to chat through today is reciprocity.

So the concept of reciprocity is simple — if someone does something for you, you naturally will want to do something for them. This is right from Dr. Robert Cialdini’s book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

I think we’ve all experienced this. If a friend invites you to their party, for example, it may feel like there’s an obligation for you to invite them to a future party you are hosting.

Hailley: Yes, and in the context of a social obligation people are more likely to say yes to those who they owe.

So what’s interesting here is that the key to using the reciprocity is to be the first to give and to ensure that what you give is personalized and unexpected.

For social media marketers, giveaways, free content, and unexpected resources are all great examples of this.

Brian: Totally! This is again something we’ve done at Buffer, though I don’t think we knew what the principle was really called before this episode, but it has also worked really well for us.

We sent people who participated in our Twitter chat for the first time stickers, it was unexpected by them and I’m sure some people kept coming back because of that.

So think of ways you can use reciprocity in your social media marketing, and it can be anything from stickers, to an ebook, or maybe a free design template.

Just be sure you’re giving away the free thing before you ask for something in return.

5. The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon and frequency illusion

Hailley: Alright, let’s see if I can pronounce this next one. It’s called the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, or the less complicated version is the frequency illusion.

This phenomenon occurs when the thing you’ve just noticed, experienced or been told about suddenly crops up all the time. It gives you the feeling that out of nowhere, pretty much everyone you know is talking about the thing you just noticed.

And you’re not crazy; you are totally seeing it more. But the thing is, of course, that’s because you’re noticing it more.

Brian: Yes, I’ve definitely experienced this and I’m sure our listeners have too.

According to PS Mag, this phenomenon is caused by two processes. The first process is selective attention and it kicks in when you’re struck by a new word, thing, or idea; after that, you unconsciously keep an eye out for it, and as a result find it surprisingly often.

The second process is confirmation bias and it reassures you that each sighting is further proof of your impression that the thing has gained overnight popularity.

Hailley: For marketers, this phenomenon is precisely why nurturing is incredibly important. Once someone starts noticing your brand, maybe they’ve come across a Facebook post or gone to your website, then you’ll want to help them start seeing you “everywhere.”

One of the best ways to increase the effectiveness of your sales funnel is to send audiences retargeting ads and Facebook Pixel is a great tool to do just that.

6. Color and its impact on social media marketing

Brian: Now, let’s talk about color.

Color might be the part of psychology that marketers are more familiar with. We chatted about colors back in episode #61 and specifically why Facebook is blue.

Colors are powerful because they affect people’s behavior and how they perceive your brand.

You might not have thought that color could impact social media strategy, but the psychology behind colors proves they are worth the extra effort.

Hailley: Yes they are! According to a study called Impact of Color on Marketing, people make up their minds within 90 seconds of their initial interactions with either people or products. About 62 to 90 percent of the assessment is based on colors alone.

What’s interesting here is that although certain colors do tell us specific things, and we’ll get to that in a minute, but it’s less about the meaning behind the colors and more about whether or not the colors line up with what people expect from your brand personality.

Brian: Exactly! So a big takeaway here is to start considering color in your social media content and plan, but also think about how that color lines up with your brand voice and tone.

Let’s also take a look at some information from a KissMetrics infographic where they looked at color. According to them, here are what a few popular colors make us feel:

• Yellow: optimism and youth
• Red: sense of urgency
• Blue: trust and security
• Green: wealth and relaxation
• Orange: agressive
• Pink: romantic
• Black: powerful
• Purple: calm

Onto psychology fact number seven – and we saved the best for last!

7. The 5 psychological reasons behind why people share online

Hailley: To wrap up, let’s talk about the psychology behind sharing.

We’re all looking for more engagement on our posts and we want to share content that really resonates with people. Well, luckily for us, the New York Times conducted a massive study awhile back about the psychology of online sharing.

They named five primary motivations for sharing, which we will take a look at, but most notably they talk about how there’s a common thread for all the motivations for sharing, and that’s that people are motivated to share based on their relationships with their network online.

Brian: Yes, so as marketers we should really be focusing on creating and sharing content with our audience that will enhance their relationships as a result of sharing it.

Here are the five most important reasons people share online:

• They wanted to better the lives of others (94%)
• They want the content to reflect their online identity (68%)
• They want grow and nourish relationships (80% )
• They share because they like the feeling of having others comment on it and engage (81%)
• They want to spread the word about something that they believe in (84%)

Remember what we said at the beginning of this section, the common theme here is that people are motivated to share based on their relationships with their network online. Keep that in mind next time you’re loading up your Buffer queue!

Hailley: Thank you so much for tuning in to the Science of Social Media today. The show notes for this episode are now available on the Buffer Blog at blog.buffer.com with a complete transcript.

If you ever want to get in touch with me or Brian, we’re always here for your on social media using the hashtag #bufferpodcast. You can also say hi to us anytime and hello@bufferapp.com

Brian: As always, thank you so much for your iTunes reviews! It’s so awesome to read through all your kind comments there – and we actually do read through all of them so thank you.

Best of luck using these neat psychology discoveries to help you in your social media content creation and sharing this week! Let us know if any of these tactics work particularly well for you.

Until next Monday, everyone!

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 16,000+ 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-psychology-facts