Coping With the Homogenization of Social Media

By | Social Media | No Comments

Smartphone With Social Icons

There was a time when social media was new, innovative and wildly diverse. Digital marketing companies had their pick of dozens of viable platforms that performed different services for different audiences. Consumers segmented themselves into groups depending on their interests. However, that time was long ago—at least in Internet years.

The social media landscape today is becoming increasingly homogenized. Twitter and Facebook are seemingly blurring together. It seems that if they don’t stop imitating each other, soon the only difference between the two will be the shade of blue in their logos.

This presents interesting problems for digital marketing companies. How can they continue to use social media marketing effectively as traditional platforms shift and become increasingly irrelevant? Is it still important to use different techniques across different platforms, or it is possible to use a single strategy across all platforms?

The landscape may have changed, but the fundamentals of social media marketing remain the same. In fact, the imitation game Twitter and Facebook have been playing over the past few years might actually be helpful to digital companies. It allows them to target different demographics using the same basic techniques.

Both Facebook and Twitter rely heavily on multimedia. Videos, GIFs and images yield much higher rates of engagement than simple text updates, so both platforms feature them extensively. However, despite the similarities between the platforms’ functionality, they are used by very different people.

Facebook’s population has grown dramatically older over recent years, while Twitter has become increasingly business-oriented. Young innovators—the ones who used to live on these platforms—have moved to newer platforms like Snapchat and Periscope. It’s important for marketing companies to identify their audience before worrying about how to engage with them. If anything, Facebook and Twitter are easier to use for marketing now than they ever were, simply because their populations are so conveniently segmented.

Why the Holiday Season Doesn’t Hold Any SEO Secrets

By | SEO | No Comments

Tis the season: the season, that is, for giving gifts, visiting loved ones and the widespread appreciation of conifers. The arrival of the holiday season also brings with it the proliferation of holiday-themed listicles exalting everything from exterior decoration to SEO tips for small businesses in Utah.

Holiday SEO guides are as abundant as snowfall in Utah. But as readers leaf through page after page of holiday-themed keyword lists, a sense of déjà vu begins to set in.

If that list of SEO tips set to “The 12 Days of Christmas” seems familiar, it’s probably because it is: the SEO concepts that apply to the lucrative holiday sale season are the same ones that corporations and local businesses alike should be employing all year round.

Need to research relevant holiday keywords? Great! Do that the other 11 months of the year too, just leave out words like ‘Santa’ or ‘Reindeer.’ Striving to publish the kind of useful, high-quality holiday content consumers are searching for? Guess what, you can do that all the time—just drop the holiday part. Building links and polishing your meta descriptions for local Utah shoppers? Still relevant in January.

Like last-minute studying for a test, a timely, concentrated end-of-the-year SEO push can have its benefits, but the real results come from a steady build-up of SEO strategies over time.

While local search, mobile search and website optimization are undoubtedly important during the holiday shopping season, a business that only applies those concepts during the end of the year will miss out on a ton of SEO opportunities.

Like last-minute holiday gift ideas, last-minute SEO efforts tend to fall a little short. Chances are that business competitor that’s been at the top of the search results for months isn’t going to suddenly fall with the arrival of December.

Don’t be left scrambling this hectic holiday season: plan your SEO strategies ahead of time and implement them throughout the year for maximum effectiveness and maximum returns.

A Christmas Gift to You: SEO Tips for Local Success

By | SEO | No Comments

As the end of the year approaches, the time comes to look back on everything you accomplished over the past year. Were your goals for 2015 met, or were there some things you could have done better?

In the world of SEO, success is inherently relative. And it seems like there’s always more to do to stay on top of the SEO game. This end-of-the-year season, follow this list of quick local SEO tricks, and start 2016 off right.

Establish & Verify Your Google My Business Profile

Google’s local platform is the place to start for local SEO. Verify your listing by providing a (local!) phone number or having Google send a postcard to the business address. Update your listing regularly, and don’t forget to incorporate relevant keywords.

Add Contact Info to Every Page

Consider adding a footer or sidebar to your website that includes the name, address and phone number of your business. Not only will consumers know where you are and how to contact you, you’ll also rank higher locally—whether you’re in Utah or the Midwest.

Build a Local Review Base

Reviews are increasingly important for local businesses. Consumer trust in online reviews is growing; hop on that train by asking happy customers to consider leaving a review so that your review base can speak for itself.

Optimize Your Site for Mobile

Mobile search results are increasingly critical for local businesses. Whether your company is based in Utah or on the East Coast, mobile SEO results are the driving force for many local purchases.

Check for Citation Consistency

Check that local citations on online directories such as Yellowpages, Citysearch and Localeze are not only current, but overall consistent. Eliminate duplicate listings where you find them; duplicates can seriously hurt local SEO.

Build Local Links

Build links back to your website wherever and whenever possible. Start by focusing on social platforms, suppliers, citations and even consumers for backlinks, where applicable.

Taking the time to build a strong link base among local Utah businesses will give your website that extra credibility to give your business the local visibility it deserves.

Why Visual Marketing is More Vital Than Ever

By | content marketing, digital marketing | No Comments

With so much information online, it’s vital to know what will make your content marketing stand out in the constant stream of social media feeds. So what are some tips and tricks to step up your game and cut through the clutter?

When it comes down to human biology, a picture really is worth a thousand words. According to various studies, audiences on social media are far more likely to engage with visual content than text alone. And for marketing, visual content can include videos, infographics, photos and more.

Next time you’re writing a social post, don’t forget this lesson in visual biology. Learn more in the infographic below.

Why-Visual-Marketing-is-More-Vital-Than-Ever

Facebook Messages Go ‘Ephemeral’

By | Social Media | No Comments

Facebook notifications

Social media is no longer a one or two horse race. Where giants like Facebook and Twitter used to dominate, new platforms are rising and gaining users. Facebook in particular has struggled as younger users have stopped using the platform while older generations are taking over the social network.

In a bid to hold the attention of marketing companies and younger consumers, Facebook has released multiple smaller apps to try to compete with other platforms. While Facebook Messenger has been successful, most of the others have failed with varying levels of disaster. Snapchat in particular has been difficult for Facebook to match.

Experts suggest that one of the reasons young people are leaving Facebook in droves is that their parents are monitoring their presence on the platform. In contrast, a primary reason that Snapchat is so popular is that its messages are ephemeral, meaning that they disappear after a short time. Teens can say whatever they want, with little fear of being caught or reprimanded.

In an attempt to match this, Facebook recently premiered an ephemeral messaging option on Messenger for French users. Just like Snapchat, messages will disappear after a set amount of time. It’s unclear whether the new feature will be released generally, or if marketing companies will catch hold of the idea, but one thing is certain: Facebook remains committed to staying relevant.   

B2B vs. B2C

By | digital marketing | No Comments

Regardless of client, there’s always either a B2B or B2C focus that takes place. That said, few are the people—including lower-level marketers, from time to time—who actually know much of the subtle differences between the two marketing targets.

Sure, B2B stands for “business to business” and B2C represents “business to community,” but there’s much more to it than that. Whether working with one of America’s finest marketing agencies here in Utah or elsewhere, you’ll also need to know more about both of the aforementioned. No worries—allow us to make the task a bit simpler for you by way of an easy-to-read infographic:

Fusion 360 - B2B vs. B2C (Fusion 360 Agency)

2 Key PR Tactics that Make for Better SEO Results

By | SEO | No Comments

The world of SEO is constantly evolving. Long gone are the days when buying links was still viewed as an acceptable practice (try that now, and you’ll be punished accordingly by Google). And as the world of search marketing continues to change, one thing is becoming increasingly clear. Google and other search engines value quality content (and quality links) far more than an incredibly large usage of keywords or other practices. And as a result, the lines between quality digital public relations work and good SEO are becoming increasingly blurred.

As Business2Community recently noted, “Both PR and SEO practitioners need to be awesome at creating great content, skilled at running outreach [and] brilliant at building relationships.” These tactics are not only essential for being a top-notch public relations professional, but will also play a key role in getting your company to the top of the search rankings. Here’s how.

It Starts With Content

The baseline for any successful public relations effort starts with generating quality content. Whether it’s presenting well-organized data through an appealing infographic, creating a video that provides a more in-depth look at a particular topic or even simply writing informative, well-written blog posts, quality content is the basis of everything digital marketers should be trying to accomplish.

Why is that? Any public relations practitioner worth his salt knows that a key part in generating results in the world of SEO is establishing oneself as an accessible industry leader. And the best way to do that is by presenting your knowledge and expertise through (you guessed it) content. By presenting information that is useful and helpful to your audience (ie. your customers and potentially your industry at large), you show Google and other influencers that you really know what you’re talking about.

This isn’t to say that the commonly-cited SEO practices of using appropriate keywords, incorporating images, etc. should be tossed aside. But by writing to help your audience and share your expertise and then optimizing for SEO, you are much more likely to create that quality content that is becoming increasingly valued in today’s digital sphere.

The benefits of this are two-fold. First, quality content, when housed on your site or containing links to it, provides a significant SEO boost. More often than not, this content can be one of the biggest factors in determining whether your site moves up or down in search result rankings. Second, establishing yourself as an industry authority makes it easier to accomplish the other public relations goals—influencer outreach and building relationships.

Reaching and Using Influencers

Another key component of public relations that can also pay big dividends for your SEO efforts is influencer outreach. The Internet has made this somewhat easier than before—most journalists and industry influencers are quite active on Twitter, LinkedIn and other digital media platforms, but the fact remains that successfully reaching out is still quite often easier said than done.

After all, you can’t simply blast a stock email message promoting your latest, greatest blog post and expect it to get huge results. More likely than not, such messages will simply be deleted and possibly even get you blocked as a spammer on Twitter and other networks.

First things first, you need to research influencers for your particular industry. Figure out what they like and don’t like. And don’t try to sell yourself (or your content) right off the bat. Brandwatch recommends “following them on Twitter, [liking] their posts, [and commenting] on their blog.” Actual engagement with influencers’ content (such as commenting on an article with your own, non-salesy insights) will get you on their radar in a good way.

If you do things the right way, this will likely allow for you to generate online conversations with the influencer as you comment on and share his or her content. This in turn builds a positive relationship with said influencer, which will subsequently make him or her more likely to share your content or accept your guest post idea when you pitch them.

What does this have to do with SEO, you might ask? These public relations efforts may not immediately bear fruit in helping you move up the search rankings, but the promotion of your content or publication of a guest post by an industry influencer can do wonders for your site traffic. And it’s much easier to get that promotion if you’ve already established a solid relationship with an influencer and proven that you can produce quality content of your own.

After all, influencers are called influencers for a reason. These individuals are viewed as authority figures, and as such, tend to have large digital followings. If such a person were to share a link to your site’s latest blog post, you have tapped into a potentially much larger audience than you have ever had access to before. Guest blogging on an influencer’s site also provides the opportunity to reach these larger audiences and gain authoritative links back to your own site. But in order to get an influencer to be willing to do this for you, you must build and maintain a meaningful digital relationship.

These influential shares in turn boost SEO rankings as your site gains higher engagement and high-quality backlinks. Of course, before reaching out to influencers for guest blogging and other opportunities, be sure that their content and site are actually of high quality. You don’t want to accidentally hurt your SEO by posting on a lower-quality site.

By combining these public relations and SEO practices, digital marketers can improve their clients’ search rankings and achieve the long-lasting success that yields real results.

How to Create the (Almost) Perfect Social Media Post

By | digital marketing | No Comments

Is there such a thing as a “perfect” social media post? Probably not. No single post can do everything you might want it to, or reach everyone you hope to connect with. Social media is just too fluid and subjective. Effective digital marketing companies know how important it is to ride the wave of trends, likes and favorites to success.

There are, however, time-tested tricks of the trade that can maximize your posts’ success. No two social media platforms are alike, and no two digital strategies should be identical. Each platform has its own eccentricities and knowing what works for each is crucial to increasing your brand’s digital footprint.

Fusion 360 - How to Create the (Almost) Perfect Social Media Post (Fusion 360 Agency)

Instant Classics: Advertisements With Staying Power

By | advertising | No Comments

When most people think of American pop culture, they think of the Kardashians, reality TV, hip-hop and Miley Cyrus. There is, however, a slice of pop culture that is routinely overlooked: advertising.

The creative juices of marketing agencies have helped shape American pop culture for decades. Jingles, logos and brands are as influential as Kanye tells everyone he is. From the Oscar Mayer wiener to Kit Kat’s “Give Me a Break” to the Nike swoosh, advertisements have etched a place into our hearts and minds.

Fusion 360 - Instant Classics - Advertisements With Staying Power (Fusion 360 Agency)

8 PR Tips for Pitching a Journalist

By | public relations | No Comments

In the world of PR, sometimes it feels like you’re pitching into a big empty space and the only person responding is your own echo. Digital marketing firms who understand the importance of getting a story out there know this process can be rough. From ignored phone calls to blocked emails, everyone has taken his turn at rejection.

If you’re having a particularly difficult time getting journalists to notice your pitches, it might be time to take a step back and take closer look at your strategy. Based off of common journalist pet peeves and expert advice, here are a few things to keep in mind before you send that next email.

Fusion 360 - 8 Tips for Pitching a Journalist (Fusion 360 Agency)