Month: April 2018

Figuring out the best times to post on social media is never easy. People browse at different days and times depending on the platform. The ideal time to post on each social network is when your audience is most likely to see and engage with your content. But, how do you figure out those perfect times? In reality, there are no exact magical times to place every post in front of your whole audience. But, based on research, some posting times are proven to be more effective than others. Sprout Social also furthered this specific topic and researched best posting times for different industries.

Thankfully, there is a handful of secondary research available to use as a resource. In fact, CoSchedule recently combined its data with more than twenty other studies on this specific topic that claims its findings will help you get more traffic, more engagement, and more followers.

Before diving into the best times it’s important to consider audience location. Eighty percent of the U.S. population is in Central and Eastern time zones. So, these time zones would be ideal for a United States audience. If you’re trying to reach a global audience, it’s recommended to create different social handles for different regions. Or, you can target their time zones according to demographic research from Google Analytics.

 

 

Instagram

 

Audiences are engaged throughout the week, thanks to our mobile devices.

Best days: Monday and Thursday.

Best times: Between 8-9 a.m., 2 a.m., and 5 p.m. Avoid posting from 3-4 p.m.

Sunday is found to be the least engaging day.

 

Facebook

 

Facebook is still dominating social media with 1.4 billion daily active users. The best days to post is during the workweek because users are known to be active on their computers and mobile devices. Use Facebook analytics and Fanpage Karma(free) to track data and find best times based on engagements. Analyze every detail of your Facebook’s posts and determine best posting times with Fanpage Karma, a free analytics platform.

Best days: Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

Best times: 9 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m.

Posting at 3 p.m. will increase clicks, while 1 p.m. will increase shares.

 

Twitter

 

Users are often online scrolling through their feed during their downtime. Use Twitter Analytics and Followerwonk to track and determine best times to tweet.

Best day: Wednesday.

Best times: 12 p.m., 3 p.m., 5-6 p.m.

B2B performs 16% better during business hours.

B2C performs 17 % better on weekends.

 

LinkedIn

 

LinkedIn is used by 25% of U.S. adults, mainly for professionals during work hours.

Best day: Aim for the middle of the week: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Best times: 5-6 p.m., 5-6 p.m., and 12 p.m.

Best time to post if midweek from 5-6 p.m.

 

How do find the best time to post?

 

Know your key audience

Research and build a profile for your audience based on demographic and psychographic information. What social networks do they check frequently? Where do they get their information? What websites do they visit?

Test different posting times

Figure out best times to post based on previous post engagements.

Consider audience location

Watch competitors

See when your competition receives high engagements and what type of content they are posting.

Continue to monitor and tack

While monitoring the results of your social media marketing campaign is essential, it’s also important to see who is saying what about your business. This provides an opportunity to respond with answers and be aware of what’s circulating.  

 

 

 

Learn how you can increase the open rates in your emails.

 

 

1. Appealing subject line

 

To make sure your hard work doesn’t immediately get tossed into the trash, your subject line needs to convince people that your email is worth opening. Introducing the email’s call to action with a short and sweet phrase does this. The subject line needs to make audiences feel special, so use personalized phrases.. Including the words “thank you” have the highest above-average engagement levels (Adestra, 2015). Another way to grab attention is by using numbers and compelling questions, especially if you know it’s relevant to the recipient.

 

1. Use customized content

 

People are drawn to content that is intended for them. The open rate for emails with a personalized message was 17.6% compared to 11.4% without (Statista, 2014). Hence, do your research and have an understanding of who your different target audiences are and their wants. Then, Segment your subscribers into lists by demographic and psychographic information, to increase relevance. According to the Direct Marketing Association, segmented and targeted emails generate 58% of all revenue. It’s  important to avoid incorporating spam words like: “Free access”, “Get it Now”, or “Winner” that may make the email appear in the junk mail. Also, build organic SEO by including keywords and phrases into your email’s content to create an opportunity for click-throughs to your website.

 

1. Valuable content builds trust

 

Emails should offer something of value. Whether it’s an exclusive value (offers), valuable information (tips), or emotional value (inspirational), if subscribers receive value from what you, they will start to build trust and continue to open your emails. Keep in mind the frequency of your sent emails. Hubspot reported that 78% of consumers have unsubscribed from emails because a brand was sending too many emails. Eighty six percent of consumers would like to receive promotional emails from companies they do business with at least monthly, and 15% would like to get them daily (Statista, 2015).

 

1. Land email at the perfect time

 

If your first email does not receive your desired open rate, it’s ok because you can use it as an opportunity to test the best delivery time. You want to schedule the delivery time when a majority of your subscribers are actively looking through their inbox. So, once you send a test, analyze and choose the distribution times that produce higher open rates. Hubspot reports that 11 a.m. ET has the highest click-through rate for email sends. Another noteworthy time finding from Tomasz Tunguz is, 66% of unsubscribers occur between 5 and 10 p.m.

 

Messaging for a social media strategy is the number one way to gain public favor and increase brand integrity. It’s important to balance your content production of frequency and quality. While sales are important, it shouldn’t be the primary focus of all your content. No one wants to follow an account that feels forced. So, when drafting your next content calendar, add the 70/20/10 rule:

 

70 percent of your content build brand awareness.

This content should focus on your brand story in a fun and engaging manner. Use it as an opportunity to create your brand voice and differentiate yourself from others. Aim to make your posts become shareable.

A few examples are:

• Sharing an inspirational story

• Posting videos

• Giving shout-outs

• Sharing interesting articles

• Posting funny memes

 

20 percent of content should be other people’s content- shares and reactions

Here is where you share the love and build your network. It’s a perfect opportunity for relationship-building with other brands, influencers, and followers. Make sure the content is still consistent with the mission and culture of your business

because you don’t want to confuse your audience. Your brand should genuinely believe in what’s being shared.

 

10 percent of content should be promotional

The smallest portion of your content should be self-promotions. Your sales pitch should remain just as seamless as the other weekly posts. Remember, social media is communicating with your audience, not at. Each post doesn’t  have to be completely straightforward like, “Buy now!” or “Partner now!”. Sharing your success stories or case studies is a more subtle way of communication your call-to-action.      

 

Benefits of Organic SEO

Eighty percent of organic SEO attracts search traffic. Why? Because organic search engine optimization does not feel forced or unnatural. In fact, it is known as natural SEO because it focuses on unpaid methods like high-quality content creation, link-building, and keyword enhancement which greatly increases a site’s page rank. Think of organic SEO as organisms, meaning they will grow, expand, and adapt over time in response to readers’ desire.

In present-day SEO, you can not include as many keywords as possible to reach the people who are searching for you. It actually does the opposite. Loading your webpage with keywords to manipulate a site’s ranking can be recognized as “keyword stuffing”, harming your site’s ranking. So, although producing organic SEO is time-consuming, it is a valuable asset in increasing your websites’ traffic.

 

Benefits:

1. Low-cost investment.

While pay-per-click ads are guaranteed to be placed in front of potential website viewers, the cost adds up over time and only ends up reaching a smaller audience. With organic SEO, you are spending significantly less and building long-term ROI.

2. Credibility.

Seventy percent of the links search users click on are organic. Why? Because people can tell the difference between forced content and natural. Organic SEO builds your company’s credibility, creating long-lasting relationships.

3. Gain domain authority.

Using organic SEO increases your domain authority and increases your search rankings, pushing competitors down the list.

4. Long-term optimized search presence.

Organic SEO will forever remain on your site and Google will continue to give you more credit for links that have been linking to you. Meaning it will continue to increase rankings and long-term ROI.