As a social media marketing manager, I hear this question a lot when talking with clients. “If I post about us clearing up tree stumps or hauling away leaves… who cares?” For the most part, I would have to agree. I mean, would I care or want to follow a Facebook page or Twitter feed with that type of content? Probably not, but here’s why it’s important to post relevant content: it’s about perception in the end!

Let’s face it – we probably don’t follow our local sewer repair company because… well, it’s not glamorous or something you want to see “flooding” your newsfeed. However, as a consumer (and a digital one at that), whenever I find myself in a pickle or need a service, I go directly to the prospective service provider’s website and social media platforms.

Why? Because these outlets indicate to me how up-to-date the business is and how current their approach is to what’s happening in and outside their industry.

I am sure we have all visited a businesses website or social media to find that nothing has been updated since 2014 or a post on Facebook has been posted in 15 months. To us as digital consumers, this tends to leave a sour taste in our mouths. I mean… what’s the validity of this company in an age where digital content is king? No updates, no current content… next company, please.

It’s about perception, and this is how I explain it to businesses that are not as sexy or “followable” as a dog/cat kennel or other businesses that often have more engaging content. Every business needs to stay current on all social media platforms. It builds trust, validity, and eases the mind knowing that someone is taking time to make sure there business is current and up-to-date. When a company takes time to post relevant content, this translate to us, the consumer, that they take pride in their company and want to be in the best possible position to snag a lead(s).

In addition to up-to-date content, it’s possible that customers will be looking for someone to answer their questions quickly. They may send a message to your Facebook page about your services or availability. If you don’t have someone regularly monitoring these messages, potential business might be lost to a competitor with stronger customer service relating to their social media presence. Not only should you post regularly, but checking and responding to messages regularly is imperative in the digital age.  

So, yeah, posting daily as a “foot fungus expert” may seem useless, but as far as perception goes, it’s priceless.

In an age where everything is judged on the surface, it’s crucial to have a healthy digital presence. So post away – you never know when someone will drop in to validate your businesses.

Not sure where to get started with your social media presence? Contact Clix and talk to us about your pain points and how we can help!

The post Social Media is About the Perception of Your Business appeared first on Clix.

Our business development team understands that in order to grow your business, it is our job at Clix to understand the human side of the work you do. We get to know your leadership team and learn what drives you. Our team discusses your products or services and what makes you stand out from the crowd. We want to know your goals and are willing to adapt to the changes in your goals over time, often adjusting our strategy when necessary. Using digital marketing and the various tools and software available to us, we create strategy that focuses on what our partners need and want from their business.

The human side of business not only needs a dynamic team to work as your marketing partner, but a willing and open minded client that understands the expectations we have in place for them. We thrive on communication and make the best progress on campaigns where there is a collaborative creative process. We love coming up with creative solutions, and we’re most successful when our clients are engaged in the ongoing process of improving their campaign. At Clix, we are ready and willing to listen to the concerns you have about the progress of your campaign.

The benefits of collaboration go beyond the business itself. As your business grows, the employees and families who have contributed to your success also see the ways in which their success is affected. Communities can benefit from the human side of business growth because companies can better contribute and give back to them not only through jobs, but through charity events and fundraising sponsorships.

Digital marketing offers up your business to potential growth you may not have envisioned. You might find yourself having to hire more people to keep up with the number of leads you get per day because your local citations have been standardized and the content on your website is a robust resource. You may find customers tell you the information you provide on your social media platforms enticed them to call, or the follow up emails you are sending through marketing automation provided them customer service no one else has. And to think this can all begins with simply becoming a partner with a robust, adaptable, and knowledgeable digital marketing partner.

If you have a desire to make your business better through tapping into the potential that digital marketing provides, you can go far. But you also need the right partner who will be transparent and honest with you along the way. Clix is that partner and has the track record to prove it. If you have questions about any of the services we offer, don’t hesitate to reach out.

The post The Human Side of Business Development appeared first on Clix.

Digital marketing offers a number of solutions for getting honest, constructive customer feedback. Through a variety of channels such as automation marketing and a focus on local citations, you can use the tools and software digital marketing offers to collect and analyze evaluations of the services or products you provide.

Automation Marketing and Customer Feedback

One of the most clear-cut ways to use digital marketing to benefit your business, automation marketing, allows you to create campaigns that drive engagement and feedback from customers. Campaigns might be focused on surveys to gauge customer satisfaction, or even something as simple as an automated follow up to an opened promotional email can help you determine whether or not your marketing efforts are paying off.

But automation does not exist in a vacuum, and neither do any of your other marketing efforts. An effective automation marketing campaign still relies on high quality customer service from your team, such as personal phone calls to customers or email checkins to touch base when appropriate.

Your automation campaigns are also an opportunity to increase usage of your website, using blogs, website pages, and other digital resources to benefit your customers, giving them the right information they need to make decisions.

Customer Service Software

When people think about digital marketing, they might not realize they can use tools like tracking numbers to not only record their own business calls, but to make more informed decisions about what their staff are doing on the front lines. Using call recording can open up a lot of avenues for internal improvement and allow business owners to hear the questions their customers ask in real time.

At Clix, we have had clients use call recordings to make informed decisions about their staffing and better serve customers’ needs in the office. We also take a proactive approach and give recommendations following our call reports in order to continue to be an active partner in your business success.

Form fills also provide our clients insight into the information customers are seeking. More often than not, having a report of the number of form fills and quality of leads helps our clients determine new information about customers they might have thought about or make adjustments to their website copy in order to move their campaign along. Plus, unlike having an email address on your website – an email address that could be in many other places or handed out by customers via word of mouth – a lead from a form fill can be directly correlated to the success of your digital marketing campaign.

Website Content and Customer Participation

Many businesses may not realize the kind of resources available to them to make their customer service even better, but using your website and other avenues for sharing your content can make a difference. From regular blogs and news updates, to using video and social media to drive engagement to your website, a robust website can set you apart from competitors in big ways.

If you’re ready to use digital marketing to gain customer feedback and grow your business, contact us today!

The post How to Use Digital Marketing to Get Customer Feedback appeared first on Clix.

Launched on October 6th, Moments came to life from a prior idea under the name “Lightning.” Through the lightning symbol under the “Moments” tab, the origin of the idea plays out. The expansion of Twitter Moments serves as a way to provide news, sports, entertainment, and fun in a space that is less evasive and personal compared to the traditional structure of Twitter.

So what goes into Twitter Moments? According to Mashable, Twitter hashtags play a role. However, timely content that is relevant to users appears as the central focus for the company. Nevertheless, the factors that contribute to what you view in the Moments feed will surely alter and change somewhat in order to continually provide an enhanced user experience.

In a visual format unlike the standard Twitter feed, users trying out Moments see pleasant graphics to draw them into single featured stories. Apart from user experience, the grid layout executed in Twitter Moments illustrates the importance the company placed on design. Although the layout of Twitter Moments is different, actions such as the typical retweet and favorite tool, among others, still exist in order to create a sense of brand consistency.

The mobile interface for Twitter Moments offers snackable content in its ability to allow users to go full-screen with a story and simply swipe to go to the next tweet within a given Twitter Moment.

Once you swipe through all the tweets, Twitter will inform you that you are  “caught up” and allow you to either share the content or move forward to the next item of news within Twitter Moments.

Worried about not being able to see past Moments? No worries – Moments do not expire, thus giving users the ability to explore past ones easily.  Moreover, the Moments feature allows users to temporarily follow a live event, such as The Super Bowl. When the event is over, you do not receive updates in your feed. The aspect of non-commitment related follows allows the platform to become an even greater source of real-time entertainment and news without overwhelming the user.

Overall, if you are already sold on Twitter or still need some convincing, Twitter Moments offer a visually pleasing way to get information in a clean, easy to use format.

The post Twitter Launches Twitter Moments appeared first on Clix.

Burger King recently rolled out the red carpet, wrapped a PR firestorm in silk, lobbed it out to McDonald’s, and McD’s failed miserably. Burger King recently took out a full-page, open-letter-style ad in The New York Times and Chicago Tribune, calling for a truce with McDonald’s and suggesting they join forces to create a “MCWhopper” burger for the sake of world peace. 

BK proposed the two corporations partner with Peace One Day, a nonprofit group seeking to raise awareness of the International Day of Peace, and raise money via the sales of the MCWhoppers.

BK even went as far as building a website, designing packaging, uniforms, and producing a the PR pitch heard around the world… MCDonald’s quickly stomped the idea out with it’s red floppy oversized wingtips, and the public is not happy.

When @bluskyz00 asked entrepreneur, investor, author, public speaker, and digital media wizz Gary Vaynerchuck,  “What do you think of [McDonald’s] response to [Burger Kings’s] “PeaceMcWhopper” idea? Seems like they missed a big opp.”

Gary responded with one of his usual, energetic, ADD-saturated rants that I love him for. Basically, he effectively said that he thinks business is going in a direction where public battles via social media and public forums is going to be the norm, and that McDonald’s is taking a more ‘serious’ approach to BK’s lighthearted request. He also goes on to say, “We are clearly living in interesting times where Burger King can make a micro site to make this announcement and McDonald’s official answer is in a Facebook post – in sentence form.

If you haven’t realized that communication has changed forever in our society please let this be [the] moment…”

I know this doesn’t necessarily answer @bluskyzoo’s question, but I think Gary makes a good point. This social media bellyflop may stand as a small marker in history as the time times officially changed. (and McDonalds was mad an example of)

Check the full video pitch here:

The post Wake Up McDonald’s appeared first on Clix.

A little over a year ago, Facebook first introduced their carousel ad format. Now these ads, formally known as “multi-product ads,” were constructed to be a solution to help businesses promote multiple products across all the devices their customers are using.

What is a Facebook Carousel Ad?

Carousel ads offer advertisers the ability to highlight 3-5 products or attributes in one location. Each product can have its own image and should have a short description. Similar to other Facebook ads, the carousel ads have highly developed targeting capabilities but the difference is your campaigns goals must be set to conversions or website clicks. (A great way to track Facebook conversions on Google Analytics is by adding a utm tracking code—which we can get into in a separate post.)

The carousel items can be set up one of two ways: customize the order in which they appear, or set the ads to automatically rotate.

Carousel ads on Facebook aren’t just appealing—they work well. According to Facebook researchers, they have seen these ads drive 30-50% lower cost-per-conversion and 20-30% lower cost-per-click than single-image ads.

When Do You Use Them

Use the carousel ads when you want to display multiple products or topics at the same time. When items are grouped together it can potentially motivate a single action to take place from a prospective customer who is looking to either sign up or purchase something. It’s imperative to feature creative and esthetically pleasing photos, each with a clear focus and relevant captioning to support your overall message.

Are you ready to get started and create carousel ads for your business? Do you need help with setup, management, or creating ad copy? Contact The Clix Group today!

The post Improve Facebook Ad Performance with Carousel Ads appeared first on Clix.

Recently, Facebook made an update to ensure all data throughout the platform is consistent and up-to-date to make audience data more relevant and meaningful for Business pages. Facebook is removing all memorialized and voluntarily deactivated accounts from all Pages’ like counts, so be prepared to see a drop in Page likes.

There are two major benefits to removing these types of accounts: Business Results and Consistency.

Business Results
Removing inactive accounts from Business Page audience data will provide your business accurate insights on people who are following your Page and make it easier for businesses to find their targeted audience through tools on Facebook.

Consistency
Facebook was already filtering out likes and comments that were generate by deactivated accounts from individual Page posts, so this update ensures that the data continues to be consistent.
What To Expect
As you may have already noticed, some Business Pages will see a dip in the number of Page likes as a result of the recent update. It is important to remember that the likes that were removed represent those who were already inactive. Moving forward, any account that is memorialized or deactivated, the like will be removed the like count.

The post Facebook Update Connected to a Decrease in Page Likes appeared first on Clix.

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This blog post will provide professional tips on how to effectively use Instagram to increase your following.

ProTip 1: If you have an e-commerce business you’ll want to make a note. For every product and product category for your store, you’ll want to do keyword research to see which are the most popular hashtags on Instagram focused around those product categories. You should be able to come up with a handful of hashtags for each category of products you sell online as well as popular hashtags that describe your brand and products you offer overall.

For example:
{Brand Keyword Hashtags}
#MadeUpStoreName #WomensFashion #WomensStyle #Instagram #WomanAccessories

{Product Keyword Hashtags}
#JBrandJeans #HudsonJeans #MichaelKors # BBDakota #MonogramJewelry #PuraVidaBracelets

{Location Keyword Hashtags}
#SaintLouis #Missouri #MissouriFashion #STLFashion

Once you find all of the hashtags that are relevant to your brand and products, store all of them in a document that can be accessed easily. (It will come in handy each time you made a post)

*Important Note: Make sure you aren’t over-using hashtags. A general rule of thumb should be about 3-7 hashtags per post.

ProTip 2: If you feel like you’ve missed out on a lot of potential post activity, don’t fret. You have the ability to go back and edit each post and add hashtags.

ProTip 3: Pay attention to the filters. The filters are there for one reason – to enhance your photos appearance.

The following are my favorite filters:

1. Normal (No Filter)
2. Hudson
3. Valencia
4. Amaro
5. Rise

Upgrading your photos appearance can certainly affect the engagement of each post. Plus you might have some followers who favor one type of filter over another, so pay attention to which filters you use for each post.

ProTip 4: Pay close attention to the time of day your followers are engaging. I would suggest to post around that specific time to get the most engagement on each post.

ProTip 5: Don’t post too many time in one day. Try not post more than 4 times a day, seven days a week. There’s a possibility your brand could lose followers if  you post too often. People could get annoyed.

ProTip 6:  Look at your competitors followers. One of the best ways to attract a larger following is by seeking out the competition. Look at the followers one of your competitors has and begin to follow about 75 of them. Like some of their posts and comment if you want. Then wait and see what happens.

They have already shown some sort of an interest in your brand by following your competitor, so why wouldn’t they want to follow you? If you see success in that, try it again with another competitor.

Want more ProTips or want to learn more about other social media platform strategies? Contact The Clix Group today. Let us help you generate the leads you want and a larger online following.

The post Professional Tips to Gain More Instagram Followers appeared first on Clix.

Here are the available actions to choose from right now:

1. Book Now
2. Play Game
3. Watch Video
4. Contact Us
5. Shop Now
6. Use App
7. Sign Up

How it works:

Page admins can choose from the calls-to-action listed above and link it to any destination (on or off Facebook). This feature makes your cover photo even more important because of the location of the CTA button. It’s important to be sure the design of the photo doesn’t make the button less visible to the Facebook fans who aren’t used to seeing it there. Or, you could possibly use the cover photo to draw attention to the new CTA.

At Clix, we recently set up the call-to-action button on our own Facebook page. We decided to use the “Watch Video” option in order to take our fans to our company Vimeo account so they can watch our client testimonials. We are eager to see the results that accrue over the next few weeks. Please stay tuned so we can share our results!

If you’ve been testing the CTA button, let us know what results you’ve found!

The post Facebook Rolls Out New Feature appeared first on Clix.