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Hashtags & Facebook

Hashtags & Facebook (Plus Proper Use of Tagging & @Mentioning)

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Use of Hashtags with Facebook

Most people don’t use hashtags with Facebook because they aren’t as useful as Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram. I believe they are making a comeback.

Businesses can benefit from using hashtags with Facebook in subtle ways. What if your company has one person specifically searching for what your business offers and you gained an extra fan, lead or sale from that? It would be worth that extra step, wouldn’t it?

A Few Quick Tips for using #Hashtags with Facebook:

1. Use relevant keywords to your business and the audience you are trying to target. (If you are a local business, use the name of your city, too).

2. Use tools like Hashtagify.me to find other trending hashtags related to your specific tag.

3. Don’t put your #hashtag in the middle of the #sentence. That makes #reading the sentence #annoying. Instead, write out your whole post; at the bottom of the post, add the hashtags.

4. Use only 2 hashtags at a time.

Tagging People or Companies with Facebook

While there is no such thing as hard and fast rules for social media, and guidelines keep changing as the platforms and their features evolve, there are still some essential accepted guidelines for tagging on Facebook that every business owner should know.

Let’s start by defining what tagging is. When you ‘tag’ someone, you are creating a link to their profile. It is different from simply “@mentioning” someone by name because with a tag: (1) you can click on the name and go to their profile, (2) your post may be added to the person’s timeline (depending on their settings), and (3) your post becomes visible to the friends of the tagged person.

You can tag in posts, status updates, pictures, videos, links, and comments. You can tag your ‘friends’ on Facebook, as well as people in your groups. And besides tagging people, you can also tag certain pages, events, and apps.

Tagging is simply done by typing someone’s name in the status or comment box and selecting the right name from the drop-down menu that shows up:

Facebook-tagging-example
Tagging/Facebook

Facebook Tagging has many great uses for business when used properly. You can tag your team in the photos to showcase them. You can tag partners in a post when you are promoting them. You can tag a colleague to bring them into an ongoing conversation as an expert. You can tag event participants in the photos from the event. You can tag people or pages in acknowledgment when you are sharing their content. Or you can tag to give credit to someone for their ideas, help, or support.

There are endless positive and appropriate reasons to tag, but you will notice that they all have one thing in common—there is a very apparent reason behind the tag.

The downside of the tagging feature is that you cannot prevent being tagged on Facebook. You can choose to review tags before they appear on your timeline, you can hide the posts you were tagged in from your timeline, or you can remove the tags (but not your name) from posts. But there is nothing you can do to block people from tagging you in the first place beside unfriending or blocking them.

Let’s take a moment to review some of the inappropriate tagging behaviors that will make you appear ‘spammy’:

1. Do not tag motivational quotes or similar posts with multiple random people.

Yes, it’s a fact—by tagging 50 people in your photo, you are hugely increasing the reach of your post because it becomes “visible” to all of the friends of people that you tagged. You should never use this method to increase your Facebook reach. For example, doing it once a year to wish a “Happy New Year” to all of your clients is okay. But if you are doing it on a regular basis with a sole purpose of getting more views on your posts, stop it immediately! It’s a classic spammer technique that you don’t want to be known for.

2. Do not tag people or pages to imply endorsement.

Tagging should not be used to solely promote yourself, your business, or your services. Do not tag people who have a higher reach or more influence simply to get more attention to your promo. This kind of tagging essentially puts an advertising link on a person’s timeline for your product. Being tagged in a pitch without permission and without any sales or affiliate relationship creates a false endorsement and violates basic principles of doing business.

3. Do not tag people to get their attention to your offer.

Whether it’s a new program, book, class, or something else you are trying to promote, do not tag people to attract their attention to it. I see it all the time—business owners uploading a picture of a flyer advertising their upcoming event, webinar, or program and tagging every other business owner they know to invite them. This kind of tag is usually done without any ill intent, but in essence, it’s a variation of rule #2 discussed above. People don’t like being associated with an event or an offer without a prior conversation, and tagging them does just that.

Instead, you can send a private message, you can send an email with the link to your post, you can create a Facebook event and invite people to it, or you can even mention someone’s name in the comment under your post. It’s all much better than tagging people directly in the post.

The rule-of-thumb is: If your post is self-promotional, there is usually no reason to tag other people in it unless they are part of your event or your team.

Quite simply, think before you tag. If you don’t, you can quickly lose not only the trust of your Facebook friends but also loads of followers and fans.

Use of @Mentions with Facebook

It’s okay to “@Mention” other Facebook pages in posts to be shared to a Facebook page. To mention a Facebook page in your post, type in the @ symbol and start typing the first few letters of the Facebook page you’d like to mention. Matching results will be returned and you can click on the page you’d like to include.

Please note, it is not possible to “@Mention” Facebook Profiles, only Pages. Additionally, it is not possible to “@Mention” Facebook Pages if you’re posting to a Facebook Group.

We, at Apis Productions, will be putting together one more in-depth article about Instagram hashtags. As always, if you need help with your social media management and/or graphics creation for your custom-branded posts, give us a shout! #wearelistening

Understanding Twitter Hashtags - Apis Productions

Understanding Twitter Hashtags

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Hashtags are one of the most important and efficient ways of organizing information on Twitter. Anyone can make a hashtag at any time, simply by typing a phrase of the form “#topic” in a tweet.

  • For example, if you were tweeting about reading this article, you might say “Reading #apisproductions article on using #hashtags with #twitter.” Then, anybody searching for #apisproductions, #hashtags, or #twitter would see your tweet.

  • After a hashtag has been created, other Twitter users can use that hashtag in their own tweets to add to the larger conversation about that topic. Hashtags can be as general as (#twitter) or as specific as (#twitterhowto). They are completely organic forms of organization, created and managed by Twitter users, not Twitter itself.

A Couple Rules about Twitter Hashtags

  • Make sure your spelling is correct and that there are no spaces between the words you wish to include in the hashtag. Capitalization, however, does not matter. Thus “#apisproductions”, “#Apisproductions”, and “#ApisProductions” will all produce the same result.

  • As a best practice, it’s recommended to use no more than two hashtags per tweet.

  • A tweet cannot contain punctuation or symbols.

Create Your Own Hashtag

The form for doing this is exactly the same as for including an already existing hashtag. Simply type a phrase of the form “#topic.” When you click “Tweet”, your new tweet will appear in your list of tweets, and the hashtag you created will appear in blue. Scroll over it and click on it to be redirected to the page for the hashtag. If you have really created a brand new hashtag, your tweet should be the only one on the page. Now, every time someone includes your hashtag in a tweet, it will be added to the page.

Include an Existing Hashtag in your Tweet

You can do this simply by typing a phrase of the form “#topic” within your tweet. After you click “Tweet,” your tweet will appear in your list of tweets with the hashtag in blue type. Scroll over the hashtag and click on it to go to the page for that hashtag. Your tweet will now appear when other users visit the hashtag page.

Navigate Twitter using Hashtags

Clicking on a particular hashtag (in blue) will send you to the search results page where you will see other tweets that contain that hashtag. Near the top of the page, you can select “Top”, which shows tweets containing the hashtag that has been retweeted numerous times, “All”, which shows all tweets that include the hashtag, and “People you follow” to see only tweets from people you follow who used that particular hashtag.

  • You can also get to a search results page by entering the #searchterm in the search field above the list of tweets.

  • In the “Trends” sidebar on the left, you can view the hashtags that are currently the most popular throughout Twitter. Clicking on one of these will take you to a page of search results for that particular hashtag.

Find Hashtags that Interest You

As Twitter continues to grow, so does the number of hashtags. There are many ways to find hashtags related to subjects that you are interested in. Read through the Twitter feeds of people you follow, and click on any hashtags that you find interesting.

Look for Hashtags in Everyday Life

Use of hashtags is a growing trend in advertising that can be highly entertaining, as anybody can—and will—piggyback on the marketing hashtag to say anything they want. To use one, simply add the hashtag to your tweet, and you will be joined in the conversation.

Similarly, live events like awards shows or trade shows include hashtags so that the participants can easily join in live discussions.

We, at Apis Productions, will be putting together more in-depth articles about hashtags in the near future. As always, if you need help with your social media management and/or graphics creation for your custom-branded posts, give us a shout! #WeAreListening

How to use Hashtags in LinkedIn

How To Use LinkedIn Hashtags

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Hashtags are a relatively new feature on LinkedIn, just added in 2018. LinkedIn is a very different social media platform than more casual social sites like Twitter and Instagram, so the purpose and usage of hashtags is different as well.

How Do Hashtags Work on LinkedIn?

Similar to other social media sites, you can create a hashtag on LinkedIn by using the hashtag symbol followed by your choice word or phrase. Hashtags can be used on LinkedIn updates or on articles published on LinkedIn. You can also follow hashtags on LinkedIn, allowing top content related to that hashtag to show up on your feed.

Follow these rules to ensure that your LinkedIn hashtag works properly:

  • Do NOT use spaces: Like other social media hashtags, LinkedIn hashtags cannot include spaces or it will break the link and cut the tag short, potentially changing its meaning or creating confusion.

  • Do NOT use punctuation: Punctuation, just like spaces, breaks the hashtag off at that character, shortening it and changing its meaning.

  • Make it public: If your profile is public, you’re already set. If your profile is private, however, you’ll need to make your post or article public. Otherwise, your post will only reach your existing network and not the larger online community following the hashtags you include.

To add a hashtag to an update, simply type your update and then type in your chosen tags after the # symbol. LinkedIn will offer suggested hashtags for you to click to add, or you can type in your own.

To add a hashtag to an article, you can type and edit your article on LinkedIn and click the Publish button. A window will pop up before it publishes, and here you can type in your hashtags in the field that says “Tell your network what your article is about.” These hashtags will appear above your article and will share your article with users following the hashtags you included.

You can also weave LinkedIn hashtags into your profile so that someone searching for that hashtag can find you, leading to new connections and opportunities. Include your most relevant hashtags in your headline or summary on your profile.

Hashtags also work in comments on LinkedIn – these can be used to further attach your name to a specific hashtag, branding your profile. This will categorize the original update into that hashtag, so use this feature sparingly and be sure to only comment relevant hashtags.

How To Follow Hashtags on LinkedIn:

You can also follow hashtags on LinkedIn, allowing posts with that hashtag to show up on your feed for you to interact with. Follow hashtags related to your field, industry, or brand. You can also pin your favorite hashtags to your homepage, making it easier to find related content. Your pinned hashtags will appear on the left side of your homepage under “Your Communities.” Click the pencil button to edit your pinned hashtags, or click “Discover More” to find similar hashtags that may be of interest.

Once you follow relevant hashtags, you can engage with the content that appears on your LinkedIn feed. By exploring content related to your interests, you can find new users to connect with or join in the online conversation about your industry.

Why Should I Use LinkedIn Hashtags?

Whether you’re using a personal account or a company LinkedIn page, using hashtags will help your updates and articles reach a larger audience, helping to expand your LinkedIn network! Hashtags can show that you are engaged with the content you’re sharing and connect you to similar content or users in your field.

Use popular hashtags on LinkedIn to reach a larger audience, but you can also target a more specific demographic by using more specific hashtags related to your content. Don’t use too specific a hashtag, however, as the purpose of using hashtags is to reach more users who will like and comment on your post or connect with you or your company. Original hashtags are only useful if you’re creating a brand hashtag for your company.

Hashtags will make your updates and articles more discoverable for other users, increasing visibility on your post or article and profile.

LinkedIn Hashtag Tips:

LinkedIn, unlike other social media, is a professional network. This means that your content and hashtags should be professional. You should also avoid confusing text talk or acronyms – not all users on LinkedIn will understand this shorthand.

If you’re unsure which hashtags you should use, search through similar posts or related hashtags to see what other users have tried. You can also look at a more established LinkedIn profile similar to your own to see what worked for them.

LinkedIn recommends using no more than three to five hashtags per post to avoid looking spammy or getting marked as spam by the website.

If you want your update or article to reach a specific geographic area, use a location hashtag to target your post to that specific area. You can also add a location hashtag if your post is about a certain location.

You can also weave LinkedIn hashtags into your profile so that someone searching for that hashtag can find you, leading to new connections and opportunities. Include your most relevant hashtags in your headline or summary on your profile.

We, at Apis Productions, will be putting together more in-depth articles about hashtags in the near future. As always, if you need help with your social media management and/or graphic creation for your custom-branded posts, give us a shout! #wearelistening

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Get To Know Gutenberg

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We’ve installed video tutorials on each of our clients’ dashboards. You can view these at any time to familiarize yourself and your staff about all the new features with the new Gutenberg editor. Just log into your site’s dashboard and find the plugin on the far left, bottom, labeled “Video Tutorials”.

Video Tutorials

 

 

With Gutenberg, you can create and edit your content in unbelievable ways – more than you could ever imagine. You just have to get to know Gutenberg first!

Here is an image showcasing some of the video tutorials you can view on your dashboard:

Get to know Gutenberg

 

Here’s another topic about “How to Add an Image” to your page or post:

How to add an image in Gutenberg

 

Here’s a screenshot video tutorial topic about “How to Edit an Existing Post Using Gutenberg”:

Edit Existing Posts_Tutorial Gutenberg

 

While the classic editor is available for now, we encourage you to “Get to Know Gutenberg”. The classic editor will be a thing of the past soon.

As always, we at Apis Productions are here to help you with this transition. Taking advantage of these materials now will be a huge help in the future of your site’s content editing! If you need additional information about accessing your dashboard’s video tutorials or how to play them, let us know!

 

 

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Top 5 Best Ways to Market to the Senior Audience (Especially as it relates to the Insurance Industry)

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If you want to consistently bring in new clients, you have to dabble in marketing. It can be tough, especially if you haven’t had any formal education or experience.

We’ve put together some really great tips to help you figure out what works best. Even better? All of the advice is for marketing to your target audience: seniors — especially as it relates to the insurance market.

#1: Video Marketing

The thing we need to notice is that the video content marketing we use should be tailored to the senior audience. Pay attention to how they use digital devices, and make sure your message is made to speak to that audience.

When it comes to digital screens, they can be quite small, which makes it difficult to follow the message in your video. To help with this, make sure the video uses texts, colors, and sounds that are appealing and clear. Your video, overall, should be senior-friendly.

Start a blog and use video

Consider starting a blog that includes insights and valuable strategies that engage your targeted audience. If you are talking, consider leveraging social video to get your message across.

You can start simply by leveraging Facebook or LinkedIn, or get fancier with webinars and YouTube. Either way, engaging your network around what is relevant to them while leading them to your marketing goal is the balance you are looking to achieve.

#2: Social Media

Think a senior audience isn’t connected to and using social media? Think again! Today, 52 percent of seniors over 65 say they use social media. Smartphone ownership among seniors is up, too. Now, five in ten seniors own a smartphone.

Social media channels are one of the most effective ways for brands to not only build recognition but also distribute valuable content to customers and prospects. As you examine your own marketing strategy, consider adding in a social platform or two to the mix. Use these sites as a way to distribute your blog or other content, and try experimenting with advertising, including sponsored and boosted posts.

Get to know your audience, and find out what sites they’re using. Then, you can refine your strategy to more effectively reach them. It’s easy to be intimidated by the veritable avalanche of information on what social platforms you should be using, best times and days of the week to post, and other dos and don’ts. While that information can certainly help you get going, the most important thing is to pay attention to your own audience and data.

Google yourself

Whether you know it or not, you have an online footprint. It is important to Google your name and see what others are learning about you.

Develop a great LinkedIn profile

LinkedIn is one of the first sites that will come up when you are Googled. This is a great way to control your narrative.

#3: Email Marketing

Seniors who are brave enough to dabble in the digital realm probably started by creating an email account. Email content has the convenient capability to be both creative and concise. Email can gently guide your prospects into taking a step further to user-friendly landing pages for products or events.

A critical part of marketing is creating a connection with your customers and prospects. You wouldn’t just walk up to someone on the street and say, “Hey! Buy an insurance policy!” Instead, you’d take time to create a rapport with that person, showing them the value you provide, then discuss a purchase.

Email marketing is an effective way to help build those connections. People get a lot of emails, sure, and this is your chance to cut through the noise and deliver true value to your audience. Consider creating a weekly or monthly e-newsletter that shares more about what you’re doing for customers and in the community. You could also include some information that answers common questions or helps solve persistent pain points. Over time, your audience will come to depend on the information you provide, and that sort of brand loyalty makes it more likely to not only make a sale but also create the sort of solid relationship that leads to renewals and word-of-mouth referrals.

With trust playing a huge role with the 65+ audience, a strong, owned email list cannot be underestimated.

#4: Direct Mail

Like other marketing methods, the key with direct mail is to deliver value and a clear ask. Direct mail often has a higher budget than digital methods, so it’s important to maximize your investment — and also deliver an optimal experience to your audience.

Keep text light and use visuals like images and infographics. A brief, concise piece like a two-sided postcard is likely a better option than an info-heavy brochure or tri-fold. When you craft your piece, make sure you’re giving your recipient a clear path. What do you want them to know? What do you want them to do?

#5: Talk Radio

Talk radio has a huge audience, and advertising across this platform can be very effective across an older demographic. Today, even podcasts are growing audiences across all ages. The advertising can run you a pretty penny, but it’s still quite effective.

Summary:

Communicate in ways seniors appreciate

The internet is great, and tons of people are using social media. Don’t forget about ‘old media’. Staying on top of technology is getting harder and harder these days, especially for the older generations.  Experiment with more dated types of media to see what kind of results you get. This includes flyers, phone calls, and even billboard signs.

Build trust

Seniors don’t just want to be communicated to in their favorite mediums; they want to be communicated in ways that make sense to them! As people grow older, you should use every touch point to build trust between them and your brand.

Let them know that you care about them every step of the way, and find ways to relate to them. For example: Be upfront about pricing and/or additional charges.

Remember that seniors are looking to build relationships as much as they are looking to purchase insurance, so if they can trust you, they’ll want to continue to build that relationship.

Be clear and concise

Eventually, people are going to go ask you questions about your products and service offerings, and it’s going to be up to your communication style to help them.

At Apis Productions, we are committed to helping you market to your audience. Contact us today.

video_marketing_strategy_Apis

Create a Video Strategy That Gets Results in 3 Steps

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Step 1: Talk about things your prospects or connections care about.

Here are some resources you can draw from to find content ideas that attract engagement:

  • Have you attended an industry event lately? Why not create a video covering your takeaways or tagging the new connections you made there?
  • Your company’s FAQ page is a goldmine of video content ideas. You could make a video about every topic on the page and know they are things on your prospect’s minds.
  • Have a conversation with your customer service reps. What issues are they dealing with repeatedly? Those are great subjects for a video.
  • Don’t forget about your sales team. What objections and hurdles do they face most often? Create amazing pre-sales resources by addressing them on video.

Step 2: Assess whether or not the topics you have in mind will be effective in video form. The reasoning is simple – not every topic is created equal.

What kinds of ideas work best for video?

  • Complex concepts – Video enables complex things to be broken down simply in a short amount of time by using visual, verbal, and text-based cues.
  • Personal appeals – Video connects you to prospects in a more personal way than print, graphics, or even audio. Facial expressions and tone of voice are powerfully communicated in video.
  • Emotional topics – Video allows marketers to deliver stories powerfully. Never underestimate the power of a good story – like client successes, case studies, and lessons learned.

Do the ideas you’re considering for your video strategy land in one of these 3 areas? If not, you may want to communicate the idea using a different medium.

Step 3: Where Should Your Video Live?

At first, it seems obvious that videos can live in a variety of places. YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, Instagram Stories, and more. The “where” question is key to knowing exactly what kind of video you should produce.

Ask yourself these questions when figuring out where the video should be used:

  • Will your video be the flagship video on your website home page or on LinkedIn? Then it needs to be professionally produced with the best audio and lighting since it represents your brand and mission.
  • Will the video be distributed primarily on Facebook? If so, it won’t need as much attention paid to production value and can be more casual.
  • Will the video be sent via email? You can be more personal and “natural” since you’re speaking one to one.

Your video strategy takes form based on your answers to all three questions. As you apply these three questions to your video ideas, you’ll come up with the ideal use case for your topics. This enables you to hit your exact target audience, with the topics they’re most interested in, via the channels where they’re most likely to interact with the video.

At Apis Productions, we are dedicated to providing you with a hive of solutions that work for you including video marketing. If you need more advanced methods with your video marketing strategy or video creation, reach out to us! For more information, visit this link.

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Why LinkedIn Should Be Part of Your Promotion Strategy

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Start Networking

Are you connected? Depending on your promotional needs and capacity, you might be on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Remember to take a look at LinkedIn as well. While LinkedIn might seem like a social media venue for individuals, not organizations, it can play a key role in your promotional strategy.

LinkedIn Excels at B2B Connections

Like all social networking sites, LinkedIn is an opportunity to build community. Since LinkedIn is a profile of the work that you do, it’s the place to let other businesses know how you can help them grow and support their needs. While many social media networks don’t necessarily translate into tangible leads, LinkedIn does.

LinkedIn Generates Lasting Connections

Leads come from good quality interactions with other businesses. Instead of trying to accumulate as many contacts as possible, focus on building quality connections with those contacts that you have. Use LinkedIn’s search feature to find important contacts in your area, and connect with them personally through discussion groups or private messages. Tag your existing connections in your posts to encourage communication. By making an extra effort to cultivate connections, you’ll create stronger business networks that could yield real-world customers.

Sponsored Updates Offer an Entry Point for Key Content

When you’ve created a piece of content that you’re proud of and you want to bring it to a wider audience, you can share it with a targeted audience through LinkedIn’s sponsored updates. With a sponsored update, you pay to ensure that your updates get to the audience you request, and you can track analytics to see how successful your updates are at attracting reader engagement.

Discussion Groups are a Venue to Share Your Expertise

By making useful and content-rich comments in LinkedIn groups, the community of businesses that need your information will begin to rely on you as a trusted source. Focus on commenting in small, niche discussion groups or groups specific to your region so that your posts will stand out.

If you need guidance, we’re here to help. Visit https://apisproductions.com/social-media-campaigns/ and let us know what your needs are.

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2019 Color of the Year

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Pantone has officially announced that the color of the year for 2019 is “Living Coral,” otherwise known by its official Pantone code 16-1546.

Vibrant, yet mellow, Pantone 16-1546 Living Coral embraces us with warmth and nourishment to provide comfort and buoyancy in our continually shifting environment.

In reaction to the onslaught of digital technology and social media increasingly embedding into daily life, we are seeking authentic and immersive experiences that enable connection and intimacy. Sociable and spirited, the engaging nature of Pantone 16-1546 Living Coral welcomes and encourages lighthearted activity. Symbolizing our innate need for optimism and joyful pursuits, Pantone 16-1546 Living Coral embodies our desire for playful expression.

Representing the fusion of modern life, Pantone Living Coral is a nurturing color that appears in our natural surroundings and at the same time, displays a lively presence within social media.

For 20 years, Pantone’s Color of the Year has influenced product development and purchasing decisions in multiple industries, including fashion, home furnishings, and industrial design, as well as product, packaging, and graphic design.

The Color of the Year selection process requires thoughtful consideration and trend analysis. To arrive at the selection each year, Pantone’s color experts at the Pantone Color Institute comb the world looking for new color influences. This can include the entertainment industry and films in production, traveling art collections and new artists, fashion, all areas of design, popular travel destinations, as well as new lifestyles, playstyles, and socio-economic conditions. Influences may also stem from new technologies, materials, textures, and effects that impact color, relevant social media platforms and even upcoming sporting events that capture worldwide attention.

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Why We Won’t Be Updating to WordPress 5.0 … Quite Yet

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WordPress 5.0 was just released and this update comes with tons of new features and a few major changes to the system. As exciting as this brand new version sounds, we at Apis Productions will be holding off on updating our clients’ sites — right away, though.

WordPress 5.0 has never been tested with most current plugins and themes and is likely to be buggy, potentially causing both minor and in some cases, big-time issues. Thankfully, WordPress is not automatically updated to this version. We’ll be keeping a close eye on this and update sites once we have fully tested and confirmed that there will not be any issues.

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