Mega-Media Marketing: Five Tips for Harnessing the Power of Instagram

                                                                  Via flickr.com

When you think of social media marketing, or the social media landscape in general, what are the brands that come to mind? Facebook, certainly. Twitter, too. But what about the media-sharing mogul, Instagram? If Instagram isn’t already a part of your content marketing strategy, it may be time to reconsider your approach. Instagram delivers per-follower engagement at levels that are 58 times that of Facebook and a whopping 120 times that of Twitter to brands who have mastered the ins and outs of the platform.

How can you leverage this powerhouse of a platform to boost brand recognition, engagement, and bring clients to your doors? Our social media marketing experts here at Little Egg Solutions have put together this list of five tips to harness this remarkable engagement for your business and to put Instagram to work for you.

1. #HashtagsAreMarketingMagic

Just like on Twitter, hashtags are a simple way to categorize your Instagram posts and to hop on the hype-wagon when there’s a trendy topic that lines up with your industry, your company values, or your online image. They link your post to other similar posts, and that lends your content a certain level of relatability (which, in social media marketing, translates to like-ability and share-ability) and even authority within your industry.

Just Remember: Use them, don’t abuse them. Too many hashtags can be worse than none at all, and they should always work with your brand.

                                                     Via flickr.com

2. Mix It Up

Instagram is one platform that stresses quality over quantity. There’s no need to post multiple times per day, or even every single day. It’s also a place where you can liven up your presence with a little variety. Use different filters to show off the creativity of your team, use no filter to get down to the nitty-gritty. Add fun posts and serious posts alike for a balance that appeals to your entire audience in a way that you can’t on other platforms.

Just Remember: Variety is the spice of Instagram, but you’ll still want to maintain some level of consistency in language and voice to build recognition.

3. Humanize Your Brand

The purpose of social media marketing is to connect with consumers and clients on a personal level, and Instagram is an ideal platform for doing so. Behind-the-scenes photos and videos give your audience a glimpse into the inner-workings of your company, sneak peeks and celebrity sightings make them feel special, and team or employee photos give your brand an actual human face for your audience to relate to.

Just Remember: The purpose of humanizing posts is for your followers to feel connected on a human level. Don’t drown them in hype-y copy or it can ruin the effect.

4. Followers Love Feeling Special

In addition to sharing exclusive behind-the-scenes content and sneak previews or tours, there are tons of ways to make your followers feel like they’ve got an in with your business on Instagram. Hosting contests is a great way to boost engagement, and sharing exclusive coupons or deals for your followers keeps the digital word-of-mouth spreading like wildfire.    

Just Remember: One-on-one interaction is guaranteed to make your followers feel special. Respond to comments and always remember to thank the faithful with a follow-back.

5. Integrate Your Approach

The key to a successful social media marketing strategy is integration. Instagram alone can’t bring your brand to the forefront, but an active Instagram presence, coupled with integrated Facebook and Twitter posts, will go a long way to meeting your goals. Embed your Instagram videos and photos on other platforms, on your website, and in your blog for maximum impact and exposure.

Just Remember: Instagram is partnered with dozens of apps that can make your marketing much, much easier. Explore these options and integrate them into your overall strategy.

                   Via flickr.com

Instagram may not be the first name you think of when defining your content marketing strategy, but it definitely has the potential to boost your reach and your engagement if you follow the simple tips above. For more help navigating the (sometimes murky, always complicated) waters of social media marketing, talk to our experts at Little Egg Solutions today. Together, we can bring your business to the eyes and ears of those you want to reach.

Pin It to Win It: Three Benefits of Pinterest Marketing

                   Via Vectorsland

The social media landscape is vast and ever-expanding. There are dozens of platforms, each with their own benefits for personal networking and content marketing alike. One that has great potential for businesses, but that often doesn’t get the attention it deserves, is Pinterest. Our social media marketing experts at Little Egg Solutions know that maximizing your reach and your audience means using the right resources, so we’ve put together this list of reasons why Pinterest marketing could be the missing link in your content marketing strategy.

Impressive User Base

The digital bulletin board site boasts a whopping 175 million active users, with 176 million registered users total. About 85% of all Pinterest users are women, making it an ideal marketing platform for many business niches, if less utilitarian than some other social media platforms. From health and beauty solutions to craft supplies and clothing, any product whose primary market is women can find an audience within the millions of people who use Pinterest religiously. However, for active users, it’s about a 60/40 split between women and men, so if your product appeals to both, Pinterest can still be a powerful tool in your overall content strategy.

Via Supertrooper | Dreamstime Stock Photos

Content with Staying Power

The reason that many social media marketing strategies call for multiple daily posts is that the high-speed ultra-competitive feeds feature so much noise that you have to unleash a torrent of content to get a trickle to your audience’s eyes. Not so with Pinterest, where the half-life of a post is around 1,600 times longer than that of Facebook. Your content can still reach your target audience and send traffic months after it’s posted, instead of only being effective for a few hours. The lower-maintenance, less-demanding pace of Pinterest marketing is a breath of fresh air when you feel like you’re drowning in content.

High-Octane Engagement

There are two main purposes of social media marketing: driving traffic, and engaging your audience to create digital word of mouth. Pinterest is the ideal place for both of these things. Because Pinterest allows users to pin content from anywhere on the web, that means that any visual content you post (on your website, your blog, your Facebook page – anywhere) can then reach the eyes of your Pinterest followers. Then, once it does, they can add it to their own board, and you reach all of their followers, too. All it takes is one influential repin, and suddenly your five-month old post is reaching millions of new eyes and driving dozens of fresh leads to your site.

In the often rapid-fire world of social media and content marketing, Pinterest is exactly the easy-going option many over-stressed business owners are looking for. With easy-to-monitor engagement metrics, easier-to-master posting formats, and a large, loyal, and very active user base (that is more diverse than it gets credit for), the benefits of Pinterest marketing make it an ideal addition to your content marketing strategy. To find out more about how your business could benefit from expert social media marketing strategies, contact Little Egg Solutions today!

4th of July New Client Discount

At Little Egg Solutions we LOVE the 4th of July!

To kick off this holiday in style we are offering a 25% discount on all social media management packages for the first 3 months of service.  This deal expires on July 15th so act fast!  We have the tools and the knowledge to help you get your business in front of potential clients and customers.  Give us a call today!

#Insta-Classic: The History of Instagram

                     Via flickr.com

A while ago, we took a look at the annuls of #Twistory, the evolution of the social media giant, Twitter. Now it’s time to turn back the clock again and examine how the prolific photo sharing app, Instagram, became the juggernaut it is today. A company that got its start in 2010 as a small startup has managed to revolutionize the social media landscape in less than a decade; but how? Below, the social media marketing experts here at Little Egg Solutions take a deeper look into the combination of skill, innovation, cooperation, and integration (with a dash of luck and good timing) that helped to make Instagram into an #Insta-Classic!

Just a couple of friends, changing the world, one square photo at a time.

While he was still working for Nextstop, Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom created an HTML5 application called Burbn that combined elements from FourSquare and Mafia Wars: check-ins, event planning, socialization rewards, and photo-sharing, among many other features. After tweaking and polishing the Burbn prototype until it shone, Systrom left Nextstop to strike out on his own to find a team and make Burbn a reality.

When his friend and business partner, Mike Kriegel, joined the team, they decided to focus the app on mobile photography, and they cut it down to the bare minimum: photo posting, commenting, liking. They changed the name to Instagram as a reference to instant cameras (from which the signature square photo aesthetic arose) and the long-distance communications progenitor, the telegram. Eight weeks after the shift, it was ready to launch in the Apple App Store. What came next was a perfect storm of luck, timing, and old-fashioned networking that turned the pet-project of two engineers-turned-entrepreneurs with stars in their eyes into an #Insta-Classic.

(It was literally instant, too.)

As Systrom noted in his description of the company’s start, Instagram was immediately, and incredibly, popular; it soared to the #1 Free Photography App spot only hours after its launch. The unexpected and overwhelming response actually crashed their servers, and former Facebook CTO Adam D’Angelo walked the co-founders through getting back online in the middle of the night. Both the instant success and the friend-to-the-rescue were the result of face-to-face networking and the power of word-of-mouth.

The friends and investors that made it possible for Systrom and Kriegel to build and launch Instagram were the first beta testers, and they spread the word. The prototype for Burbn, and later Instagram, was first released privately, and those who used it wanted more. It was this demand and the endorsements that followed, along with some savvy business sense, that helped put Instagram on the social media map (and keep it there).

Fast-forward seven years: Instagram is everywhere.

Instagram has come a long way in the time since its 2010 Apple-only launch. Instagram is available on all major mobile and desktop operating systems, and, after a $1 billion cash-and-stock buyout in 2012, the app has been integrated into its now-parent platform, Facebook. Unofficial third-party services, as with many successful apps, abound.

Much like Twitter, the native features of Instagram, like hashtags and geolocation, and its huge user-base (a whopping 700 million monthly active users as of April 26, 2017) make it a marketer’s dream. Integrated business tools make it easier than ever to monetize posts and track engagement. Instagram has become an industry leader in its own right, spawning new occupations and propelling careers with the tap of a screen or the touch of a button.

With such a prolific reach, and such phenomenal success right out of the gate, the history of Instagram is a parable for small business owners to learn from. Flexibility, innovation, and networking are the key to building a billion-dollar company out of two friends, a little app, and a big dream. It pays to have an expert in your corner to help expect the unexpected, manage the workload, and get you back on track. That’s exactly why management firms like Little Egg Solutions exist; we help you become an #Insta-Classic, too!

25$ Amazon Gift Card Giveaway

At Little Egg Solutions we love all things summer!  

Gardening, camping, swimming...if it involves the sun and fun we are all for it.  But let's be honest. Sometimes the heat of the day requires some intense online shopping in a very air conditioned room.  

We bet you feel the same so we are excited to announce our $25 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway! Just simply like our Facebook page or follow us on Twitter and share our Giveaway post and you will be entered into the drawing.  We will announce the winner July 5th.  

Stay cool, have fun, and remember Little Egg Solutions for your social media management needs! 

#Twistory: The Evolution of Twitter

Via Creative Commons Stock Photos | Dreamstime Stock Photos

Here we are, months after Twitter’s 11th birthday, and how the social media landscape has changed in that time. Twitter is now one of the “big four” social media platforms, and a household name in 2017. But, unlike Facebook, whose origin story has been well documented and dramatized, few people know how the micro-blogging platform got its start, or how its rise to popularity began.

At Little Egg Solutions, we know the importance of social media to business success, and part of that is understanding the platform at a deeper level than the average user. So, please, join us as we take a stroll down memory lane with a lesson in #Twistory (the history of Twitter).

When did Twitter get its start?

Twitter is primarily the brainchild of the board and employees of Odeo, a then-struggling podcasting company. The goal was to create an SMS service that let people communicate remotely, publicly, and in real-time. In March of 2006, the first tweet was published on the platform by Jack Dorsey (one of the founding forces of Twitter). It read, “just setting up my twttr.” Later, in the 38th tweet, another co-creator Dom Sagolla predicted, accurately, “oh this is going to be addictive.”

The well-known 140-character limit started as a practical matter. Twitter was originally SMS-based, and 140 characters was all the space that could be allowed while still leaving room for a username. When the platform became web-based, the 140-character limit stuck as a signature of the brand. It encouraged both social interaction and information sharing in bite-sized, real-time communications, changing the face of blogging.

How did a micro-blogging platform get so big?

Addictive, as it turns out, was exactly the right word to describe Twitter’s micro-status update platform. There is some controversy about how popular the platform was in the early days before Odeo co-founder Evan Williams bought back all Odeo assets from investors, including Twitter. At the time, there were only 5,000 registered users on the platform, but whether or not Williams knew it, Twitter was about to blow up.

One year after launch, Twitter boasted 60,000 tweets a day at the South by Southwest Interactive conference. With a steadily increasing user-base, Twitter grew to more than 105 million registered users by April 2010 and 200 million registered users by September 2011. In 2013, Twitter filed a successful IPO, and now, the latest data reports 700 million Twitter users (and 500 million tweets per day). But why? The secret to Twitter’s popularity seems to be a combination of user-driven innovation, convenience, and our desire to connect with others and make our voices heard.

When did Twitter become a business tool?

Twitter has changed the way that consumers interact with brands on a cultural and individual level, and it has changed their expectations from companies that want their patronage in a couple of ways. When the “promoted tweet” was first introduced as an advertising medium, it addressed a pain point for both consumers and for companies. For businesses, it presented a new way to integrate advertising into the mobile experience, by inserting it into the streaming feed of consumers (a common practice in many platforms today).

For consumers, marketing on Twitter, which was nearly indistinguishable from other tweets (and later trends) prevented the interruption of their experience by pop-up ads and bulky banners. This catering to user experience is part of what built the expectation of personal interaction from brands, and it created a whole new way to interact with consumers and reach them where they already were: on their phones, and on social media.

The rest, you could say, is #Twistory.

What can we learn from #Twistory? We know now that Twitter is a powerful marketing tool, but it’s also an example of entrepreneurial success that small and medium business owners can aspire to. Twitter is “the next big thing” personified, and they kept that momentum turning over to become one of the biggest platforms on the web and an invaluable asset for businesses. At Little Egg Solutions, our job is to help you use social media to get your “next big thing” rolling, and to maintain that momentum in a perfect storm of marketing success. Contact us today to find out how!

5 Ways to Make the Most of Twitter for Business

1 via Creative Commons Stock Photos | Dreamstime Stock Photos

Social media is essential to the health of your business, so much so that outsourcing social media management to firms like Little Egg Solutions is becoming more commonplace. But for those going it alone, learning to maximize your impact on social media platforms can be the difference between healthy growth and dangerous stagnation. Twitter for Business is one of the most important tools at your disposal, with a massive user base and features that are ideal for business use built into the platform.

But how can you harness the power of social media in 140 characters or less? To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of five ways to make the most of your company’s Twitter for Business account.

1. Native Features Are a Natural Advantage

Twitter offers a number of features that you can use to your advantage right off the bat. You can create a feature box by making a Lead Generation Card with a special offer and pinning it to your account. You can make sure your Tweet button for your site recommends that people follow you whenever they tweet an article. You can even create a custom graphic with important information and use it as your background image. These simple tricks will give your Twitter account the personal touch that customers have come to expect.

2 via Janpietruszka | Dreamstime Stock Photos

2. Links, Links, Links!

Links are an important part of a successful social media marketing campaign, and Twitter is no exception. Now that any link, no matter the length, is read as 22 characters, URL shortening is no longer necessary to fit the 140-character limit. Tweeting links to industry-related news, entertaining articles, or useful information is a great way to engage your followers – and to gain new ones. And don’t forget to use the link feature on your account to backlink to your site so customers can find you easily!

3. Picture Perfect Posts

Adding pictures to posts, especially within the platform (as opposed to tweeting from Instagram or another third-party site) is a great way to get your followers’ attention and give them a look into the world in and around your business. Customers want to know the people behind the business, so introduce them to your team with a group photo, or snap a shot of your workspace to give them a glance at what you see every day. It builds trust by building a personal connection.

4. Find Your Voice

Developing your brand’s unique voice on twitter is every bit as important as uploading a quality profile picture, or linking your website. Twitter for Business gives you the opportunity to connect with your customers on a personal, individual basis, but on a greater scale than in-person interaction. Keep your tone in line with what your business represents, your company and community values, and use that flair to engage your audience and keep them coming back for regular updates.

3 via Peter Klagyivik | Dreamstime Stock Photos

5. Take a Multi-Faceted Approach

The first business-minded purpose that companies associate with Twitter is to drive traffic: to your blog, to your site, or to your brick-and-mortar location. But it is so much more. Twitter is the crossroads of customer service, human resources, public relations, and marketing. Address the concerns of your customers with quick, personal responses. Find candidates and contractors for your growing workforce, and help them communicate efficiently. There are countless opportunities to harness the power of Twitter to enhance your business.

With these five techniques, you can turn your Twitter for Business account into the powerful brand-building and marketing tool you’ve always dreamed of. The world of social media is becoming more and more business-friendly, with major platforms adding features to enhance your online marketing strategy with every new update, and it can be hard to stay ahead of the curve. Little Egg Solutions is here to help you navigate the waters. Contact us for a free consultation today, and see how we can help you build your business with the power of social media management.

Outsourcing Social Media Management: When and Why not to DIY

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In the long, long list of things that contribute to a successful business, social media is a crucial, but often overlooked, tool in the arsenal of small and medium business marketing skills. Having a strong social media presence, through various platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and even YouTube, is critical to building brand recognition, and having regularly updated blog and website content is essential to getting higher rankings through SEO. But business owners often find themselves floundering under the weight of these new marketing responsibilities and social media management tasks. Why not save yourself the headache, while also optimizing your online presence?

Why Outsource Social Media Management?

How hard could it be to take care of your own online presence? You update your personal Facebook status five times a day and tweet every other waking hour, right? How difficult would it be to transfer that energy into marketing your brand?

As it turns out, very. There is more to social media management for business than occasionally tweeting about a sale or posting an article about the industry on Facebook. Everything has to be optimized to get the best rankings possible to bring in clients. The necessary posting, updating, advertisement and content creation can quickly become a mountain of work that eats into the time you could be spending on more important things – like the day to day operation of your business such as taking care of your clients and customers.

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When Should I Consider Calling in a Professional?

There are two reasons to hire a social media management firm to handle your online marketing needs: too much work, or not enough business.

Too Much Work

You may find that keeping up with the constant updating and posting and optimization is simply too much work to add on to your everyday responsibilities. If this is the case, hiring a social media management firm would ease that burden and free up your time to get back to doing what you do best.

Not Enough Business

Likewise, if you’re struggling to convert traffic to sales or to attract clients, professional social media management could be an ideal solution. The experts who work at these firms know the ins and outs of SEO and social media marketing and can right the ship and generate more traffic, convert more visits to sales, and land you more clients, all while you take care of your business.

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In 2013, 86% of marketers reported that social media was very important to the health of their business, and that is still the case today. Social media management firms may seem like a luxury in the age of DIY fever, but they are an important partner in building or growing a successful business.

Social Media Management firms, such as Little Egg Solutions, help to ease the burden on small and medium businesses. They take care of the back-breaking mound of marketing and content management tasks, as well as public relation issues like brand recognition, trust, and humanization, without breaking your budget. They do all the posting and all of the updating for you, and they have the skills to make sure your content is not only top notch quality, but optimized for SEO impact.

Contact our social media savvy specialists at Little Egg Solutions for a free consultation today and find out how we can work hard so you don’t have to.