contourdigital

Essential website tips to preparing for the Christmas holidays!

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 05:19:46 GMT

The Christmas season is fast approaching, and your website plays a crucial role in keeping customers informed!

A few simple updates can reduce enquiries, avoid confusion, and build trust during your busiest time of year.

Here are the essential updates every business should make before the holiday rush begins.

Display your holiday closure dates.

Make it easy for customers to see when you’re closed or running reduced hours.

Add a pop-up to your site before your holiday period and continue it until your hours are back to normal.

Include your last operating day, reopening date, and expected response delays.

Communicate your delivery cutoff dates.

If you ship products, customers need to know whether their order will arrive before Christmas.

Display the cutoff time on your site's homepage, and on the store, product and checkout pages.

Block out the dates over your holiday period.

For e-Commerce sites:

Ensure you block out delivery and pickup dates.

For Online Booking sites:

Ensure you update your availability.

This helps customers plan ahead and avoid disappointment.

Update your Google My Business listing.

Your Google My Business listing is typically the first touchpoint users will look at to see if you are open.

Update your opening / availability hours on your Google My Business listing.

Prepare automatic email responses.

Set up auto-replies to manage expectations while you're away.

Include on the email your closure dates, expected reply times, helpful links and how they can get in contact with you if it's urgent (optional)

Final Thoughts

Improving your website’s search rankings doesn’t always require a massive investment of time or money. These five simple fixes can make a significant impact almost immediately. By focusing on speed, mobile optimization, link health, on-page SEO, and internal linking, you can improve your website’s performance and climb the search engine rankings.

Need help with your website’s Search Performance?

At Contour Digital we can help you to optimise your site for better rankings and increased visibility!

5 ways to improve your website’s rankings.

Fri, 19 Sep 2025 00:18:43 GMT

Your website is one of your most powerful marketing tools, but if it isn't optimized for search engines, you could be missing out on valuable traffic.

The good news? You don’t need a complete overhaul to see improvements. Making a few strategic fixes can significantly boost your rankings. Here are five website fixes that can instantly enhance your SEO performance.

1. Improve Page Load Speed

Search engines prioritize user experience, and a slow website is one of the fastest ways to lose both rankings and visitors. Google’s Core Web Vitals emphasize the importance of page speed, so optimizing your site’s load time can lead to an instant SEO boost.

Quick Fixes:

Optimize images by compressing them without sacrificing quality.
Minimize HTTP requests by reducing scripts and plugins.
Enable lazy loading for images and videos.
Ensure your hosting provider offers fast and reliable performance.

2. Fix Broken Links

Broken links not only frustrate users but also signal to search engines that your site is outdated or poorly maintained. Conducting a regular link audit can help keep your website healthy and improve its SEO performance.

Quick Fixes:

Use tools like Screaming Frog or Google Search Console to find broken links.
Redirect outdated URLs using 301 redirects.
Replace broken internal links with relevant, updated content.

3. Optimize for Mobile-Friendliness

With mobile-first indexing, Google predominantly uses the mobile version of your site for ranking. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, it could be hurting your rankings.

Quick Fixes:

Use a responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes.
Improve mobile page speed by enabling lazy loading.
Ensure clickable elements aren’t too close together.
Test your site with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool.

4. Enhance On-Page SEO

On-page SEO elements play a crucial role in how search engines understand your content. Optimising these elements can make an immediate impact on your rankings.

Quick Fixes:

Optimise title tags and meta descriptions with relevant keywords.
Use header tags (H1, H2, H3) to structure your content.
Improve URL structure by making it concise and keyword-rich.
Add alt text to images for better accessibility and SEO.

5. Strengthen Internal Linking

Internal links help search engines discover and index your pages while improving user navigation. A strong internal linking structure can distribute page authority and boost rankings.

Quick Fixes:

Add relevant internal links to older blog posts.
Use descriptive anchor text that includes keywords.
Ensure important pages are linked from your homepage or main navigation.
Avoid excessive linking on a single page to maintain a natural flow.

Final Thoughts

Need help with your website’s Search Performance?

At Contour Digital we can help you to optimise your site for better rankings and increased visibility!

Why Your Website Hero Section Matters

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 10:10:23 GMT

Your website’s hero section is the very first thing potential clients see when they land on your site. Think of it like a first date - you have seconds to make an impression, and if you don’t get it right, they might bounce before scrolling.

So, what makes a great hero section? It's a combination of clarity, value, and action — all packed into one clean, compelling space.

Let’s break it down:

The Hook: Your Main Title (H1)

This is your tagline — the umbrella message that tells visitors exactly what you do.

It should be:

✅ Short and punchy

✅ Problem-solving

✅ Emotionally or practically enticing

Your H1 is not the time to be vague or overly clever. Clarity wins. It should instantly communicate who you help and what you help them achieve. For example:

“Helping Tradies Build Websites That Win More Jobs.”

This kind of hook is straightforward, benefit-driven, and aimed at a specific audience.

The Value: Your Subtitle (H2)

This is where you position your business and build trust with a short value proposition.

It should answer:

✅ Why should your audience care?

✅ What makes you different?

✅ What’s the benefit of choosing you?

Using our previous example, the H2 might be:

“Professional websites built for tradies, with clear messaging, SEO in mind, and mobile-ready designs that convert.”

This reinforces the hook and offers immediate clarity around the value you deliver.

The Action: Your Call-to-Action Button

Your CTA guides users to the next step in their journey — whether that’s to book a call, browse your work, or request a quote.

Some tips:

✅ Use action words: “Start Now,” “Get a Free Quote,” “View Our Work”

✅ Make it prominent and above the fold

✅ Don’t make users think — the path should be obvious

Think of your CTA as the invitation - “Let’s take this conversation further.”

Final Thoughts

Your hero section isn’t just a pretty design — it’s a strategic space with a big job: grabbing attention, showing value, and leading visitors to action.

If you can get those three things right — the hook, the value, and the action — you’ll turn more visits into clicks, conversations, and clients.

Need help crafting a high-converting hero section?

Let’s build a website that makes a killer first impression and keeps people coming back.

Is Your Website Helping or Hurting Your Business? A 5-Point Checklist

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 02:28:03 GMT

Your website is often the first impression potential customers have of your business. But is it working for you—or against you?

A poorly designed or outdated website can drive customers away, while an optimized site can boost engagement and conversions. Use this 5-point checklist to assess whether your website is helping or hurting your business.

1. Is Your Website Mobile-Friendly?

With more than half of all web traffic coming from mobile devices, having a mobile-responsive website is essential.

Check for:

A responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes.
Easy-to-click buttons and readable text on small screens.
Fast load times on mobile devices.

✅ Fix It: If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, update your design with a mobile-responsive theme or work with a web developer to optimize it.

2. Is Your Website Fast and Optimized for Performance?

A slow website can frustrate users and lower search engine rankings. Google recommends page load times of under 2.5 seconds.

Check for:

Slow-loading pages and high bounce rates.
Large, unoptimized images or videos.
Excessive plugins or scripts slowing down performance.

✅ Fix It: Compress images, enable caching, and use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to speed up your site.

3. Is Your Website Secure?

Website security is crucial for protecting user data and maintaining trust with visitors.

Check for:

An active SSL certificate (your site should show HTTPS, not HTTP).
Regular security updates for your website’s software and plugins.
Protection against malware and hacking attempts.

✅ Fix It: Ensure your website has an SSL certificate, update software regularly, and consider using a website security service.

4. Is Your Content Engaging and Up to Date?

Outdated or irrelevant content can make your business seem inactive or untrustworthy.

Check for:

Blog posts, product descriptions, and business information that haven’t been updated in months.
Broken links that lead to error pages.
A clear, compelling call-to-action (CTA) on every page.

✅ Fix It: Regularly update content, check for broken links, and ensure your CTAs guide visitors toward the next step (e.g., booking a call, purchasing a product).

5. Is Your Website SEO-Optimized?

If your website isn’t optimized for search engines, potential customers may never find you.

Check for:

Clear and relevant keywords on every page.
Proper use of title tags, meta descriptions, and header tags.
An easy-to-navigate site structure with internal linking.

✅ Fix It: Use keyword-rich content, optimize meta tags, and improve site structure to enhance search engine visibility.

Final Thoughts

Your website should be a powerful tool for attracting and converting customers—not a barrier to growth. If you find that your site is struggling in one or more of these areas, it may be time for a refresh. At Contour Digital, we specialize in optimizing websites for performance, security, and engagement. Reach out to see how we can help improve your online presence!

Strengthen your online presence with clear Branding

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 01:36:21 GMT

As a business owner, it's easy to get caught up in day-to-day operations, but one of the most powerful tools at your disposal is a strong and clear online presence.

Whether you're just starting out or looking to elevate your current strategy, aligning your branding with your business message can create an immediate connection with your target customers.

Why Clear Branding Matters?

Branding is much more than just a logo or catchy tagline. It's how your customers perceive you, and it influences everything from your website to your social media presence. When your branding is consistent, clear, and aligned with your values, it builds trust and attracts the right people.

Here's a Quick Tip for Strengthening Your Online Presence:

Define your brand’s voice and message.

Think about the values that drive your business. Is it quality, innovation, customer service, or community? Once you know what matters most to your brand, infuse that message into your content—whether it’s your website, social media, or email campaigns. Consistency across all touchpoints helps your audience immediately understand who you are.

Use visuals to reinforce your brand.

Colors, fonts, and images should reflect your business's personality. If you're aiming for a professional, clean aesthetic, use a minimal color palette and sleek typography. For a more vibrant, approachable feel, try using bold colors and friendly fonts. Make sure these visuals are reflected everywhere, from your website to your business cards.

Regularly update and engage.

Once your branding is set, make sure your online content is fresh and engaging. Share behind-the-scenes looks at your business, highlight customer success stories, and offer valuable tips that align with your business mission.

By aligning your online presence with a clear, consistent brand message, you'll build stronger connections with your audience, ultimately leading to greater customer loyalty and business success.

If you need help refining your branding or optimizing your website, don't hesitate to reach out. I’m here to guide you through the process and help you create a lasting impression online.

Website Trends in 2025: What Businesses Need to Know

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Sat, 08 Feb 2025 10:15:23 GMT

As we move deeper into 2025, businesses need to stay ahead of the latest website trends to remain competitive.

Your website isn’t just a digital business card—it’s a crucial tool for attracting, engaging, and converting customers. Here are the top trends shaping websites this year and how you can leverage them for success.

AI-Powered Personalization

Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the way businesses interact with website visitors. AI-driven tools can:

Personalize content based on user behavior.
Offer intelligent chatbot support for instant customer service.
Predict user needs and suggest relevant products or services.

What You Can Do : Implement AI chatbots, smart recommendations, and dynamic content that adapts to user preferences.

Voice Search Optimization

With the rise of smart speakers and voice assistants, more users are searching the web with voice commands. Voice search queries tend to be longer and more conversational.

What You Can Do:

Optimize your website for natural language queries.
Focus on local SEO by including phrases like “near me.”
Use structured data to help search engines understand your content better.

Faster Load Times & Core Web Vitals

Google continues to prioritize website performance, particularly page speed and user experience. A slow-loading site can lead to higher bounce rates and lower search rankings.

What You Can Do:

Optimize images and compress files.
Use a content delivery network (CDN) for faster global access.
Ensure your hosting service is reliable and fast.

Minimalist & Dark Mode Design

Web design trends are leaning toward minimalism with clean layouts, bold typography, and a focus on simplicity. Dark mode is also becoming a preferred option for many users.

What You Can Do:

Adopt a minimalist design with clear calls-to-action (CTAs).
Offer dark mode options to improve user experience.
Use whitespace effectively to enhance readability.

Enhanced Website Security & Privacy

With increasing cyber threats and stricter data privacy regulations, businesses must prioritize security. Users expect secure browsing and data protection.

What You Can Do:

Ensure your website has an SSL certificate (HTTPS).
Regularly update software and plugins to prevent vulnerabilities.
Be transparent about how you collect and use customer data.

Final Thoughts

Staying ahead of website trends in 2025 is essential for business success. Whether it’s AI-driven personalization, faster load times, or enhanced security, implementing these updates will ensure your website remains competitive. Take action now to enhance your online presence and provide the best experience for your visitors.

Need Help Upgrading Your Website?

At Contour Digital, we specialize in helping businesses optimize their websites for performance, security, and user engagement. Get in touch to see how we can future-proof your online presence!

How Adding a Google Reviews Widget Increases Your Website’s Trust Factor and SEO Ranking

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 03:29:26 GMT

In today’s competitive online space, establishing trust and visibility is crucial for businesses. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is by integrating a Google reviews widget into your website. Not only can it enhance your credibility with potential customers, but it also boosts your website’s SEO ranking, making it easier for users to find you online. In this post, we’ll explore how Google reviews can elevate your website and provide easy steps to get started.

Understanding the Power of Google Reviews

Google reviews serve as social proof, providing a glimpse into the experiences others have had with your business. Many website owners focus solely on design and content, overlooking how impactful reviews can be in building trust. Here’s how adding a reviews widget can transform your website and business:

1. Builds Instant Trust

Displaying customer reviews directly on your website instills immediate trust in visitors. Positive reviews act as a vote of confidence, showing potential customers that others have had great experiences with your product or service.

Reviews offer powerful social proof, quickly building trust with visitors as soon as they land on your site.

2. Boosts SEO Performance

Google loves fresh, user-generated content, and reviews are a goldmine of it. These frequent updates can signal to search engines that your website is active, relevant, and valuable—leading to higher rankings.

Adding reviews is a cost-effective way to improve your SEO, helping your business become more visible to potential customers.

3. Enhances User Engagement

A Google reviews widget encourages visitors to spend more time on your website, engaging with real-life feedback from your customers. This interaction sends positive signals to search engines, showing that your site provides valuable content.

Engaging reviews keep visitors on your site longer, which indirectly boosts both sales and search rankings.

4. Strengthens Local Search Results

If your business serves a specific area, local reviews can work wonders for your visibility in local search results. Customers mentioning their location can help you rank higher for local searches, making it easier for nearby customers to find you.

Local reviews help you dominate local search results, bringing in more traffic from nearby customers.

5. Creates a Valuable Feedback Loop

Customer reviews provide you with direct feedback on what’s working and what could be improved. This insight allows you to make continual improvements, which can lead to better customer satisfaction and increased loyalty.

Actively responding to reviews helps you refine your services and show that you care about customer experience.

6. Enhances Credibility Through Diversity

A variety of reviews—both positive and constructive—can make your website appear more genuine. Customers are more likely to trust your business when they see that reviews are authentic and not overly curated.

Displaying a range of reviews builds transparency and authenticity, increasing your site’s credibility.

7. Organic Keywords from User-Generated Content

Reviews often contain keywords that potential customers use to search for services like yours. These naturally integrated keywords can improve your website’s SEO, helping you rank for relevant search terms.

Google reviews provide organic keyword opportunities, boosting your relevance in search results.

Conclusion: Start Leveraging Google Reviews Today

By adding a Google reviews widget to your website, you can simultaneously build trust with visitors and improve your SEO ranking. Reviews offer social proof, encourage engagement, enhance local search performance, and provide invaluable feedback. They are an essential tool for any business looking to thrive in today’s digital marketplace.

If you’re ready to stand out from competitors and increase your website’s performance, start showcasing your customer reviews today!

Repotting indoor plants in your home and office: Why it matters & How to do it right!

Sat, 21 Sep 2024 01:43:41 GMT

If you're an indoor plant lover, like myself, you’ve probably heard that repotting is an essential part of plant care for all your indoor plants in your home or office. But why exactly is it so important, and how do you know when it’s time to give your green friend a new home?

In this post, we’ll dive into why repotting matters and share some easy tips to help you through the process.

IN THIS ARTICLE:

Why Repotting Indoor Plants is Crucial
When Should You Repot Your Indoor Plants?
Tips for Repotting Your Indoor Plants

Why Repotting Indoor Plants is Crucial

Repotting your indoor plants may seem like a daunting task, but it’s a key part of keeping them healthy and thriving. Here’s why it’s so important:

1. Nutrient Boost

Over time, the nutrients in your plant’s soil get used up, and no amount of fertilizer can fully restore the lost richness. Fresh soil provides your plant with a new supply of essential nutrients and minerals to encourage healthier growth.

2. Room for Root Growth

When plants outgrow their pots, they can become "root-bound," with roots circling around the pot and becoming tangled. This limits their ability to absorb water and nutrients. Repotting gives the roots more space to stretch and grow, leading to a healthier plant.

3. Improved Drainage

Old soil can become compacted, which hampers its ability to drain properly. Poor drainage leads to waterlogged roots and can eventually cause root rot. Fresh soil helps water move through the pot easily, keeping your plant's roots happy and healthy.

4. Pest and Disease Control

Old, tired soil can harbor pests or harmful bacteria that may not be visible but can negatively impact your plant’s health. Repotting with fresh soil helps you eliminate these issues and create a cleaner environment for your plant.

5. Promotes New Growth

Repotting can also kickstart your plant’s growth, especially if it’s been struggling in a too-small pot. With more space, nutrients, and improved drainage, your plant is set up for a growth spurt!

When Should You Repot Your Indoor Plants?

While each plant is different, a good rule of thumb is to repot most plants every 1-2 years. Signs it’s time to repot include roots growing out of the drainage holes, soil drying out too quickly, or if the plant looks like it’s outgrowing its pot.

I recently repotted all my indoor plants using the Chunky & Funky Indoor Plant Mix from Planti Peeps . Personally I have found that store brought bagged mixes tend to retain way too much moisture leading to root rot or fungus gnats (Or in the worst case, both).

Chunky & Funky Indoor Plant Substrate is a soil-less blend of coco chunks, coco coir, orchid bark, perlite, and pumice for moisture retention, drainage, and root aeration. It’s enriched with worm castings, compost for nutrients, and charcoal for antibacterial properties. Hand-blended in Canberra with ingredients from Australia and New Zealand.

Tips for Repotting Your Indoor Plants

Now that you know why repotting is so important, let’s walk through some easy tips to help make the process smoother.

1. Choose the Right Time

The best time to repot your plant is during its growing season—usually spring or early summer. During this time, plants are actively growing and can recover more easily from the stress of repotting. Avoid repotting in the winter when plants are typically dormant.

2. Select the Right Pot

When choosing a new pot, go for one that’s only 1-2 inches larger in diameter than the current pot. This gives your plant room to grow without overwhelming it with too much space, which can lead to overwatering.

Don't forget if you are using a previously used pot to sanitize the pot first and wash it out well to ensure it kills off any bacteria and disease.

3. Use Fresh, High-Quality Soil

Always use fresh, well-draining potting mix suited to your plant’s needs. For example, cacti and succulents thrive in a cactus-specific mix, while other houseplants may prefer a general indoor potting mix. Avoid reusing old soil, as it may be depleted of nutrients and compacted.

4. Water Before You Repot

Watering your plant the day before you repot helps soften the soil, making it easier to remove from the old pot. It also helps reduce transplant shock and makes the transition smoother for your plant.

I always prefer to bottom water my plants by placing them into a small pool or a large bucket and allowing the plant and soil to soak up the water. Even go that extra step to prepare your plants by adding some indoor plant food solution to the water such as The Plant Runner Indoor Plant Food , this will reduce the shock to the plant when repotting.

5. Loosen the Roots

Gently loosen any roots that have become compacted or tangled. If the plant is root-bound, you can carefully untangle or trim some of the roots (using clean and sanitized secateurs or scissors) . This encourages the plant to spread its roots into the new soil.

6. Position the Plant Correctly

When placing your plant in the new pot, make sure it’s centered and that the top of the root ball sits about an inch below the rim of the pot. Don’t plant it too deeply, as this can cause the stem to rot.

7. Water Thoroughly After Repotting

After you’ve repotted your plant, give it a good soak to help settle the soil around the roots and eliminate any air pockets. Let the excess water drain away to avoid soggy roots.

8. Hold Off on Fertilizing

Since fresh soil contains nutrients, it’s best to wait a few weeks before fertilizing your newly repotted plant. Let your plant adjust to its new home without overwhelming it with extra nutrients.

9. Provide a Gentle Recovery Environment

After repotting, place your plant in a spot with indirect light for a few days to help it recover from any stress. Avoid placing it in direct sunlight immediately after repotting.

Final Thoughts

Repotting your indoor plants is an essential part of plant care that gives your plants a fresh start and room to grow. With the right timing, fresh soil, and some TLC, you’ll help your plants thrive in their new homes. So next time you notice your plant looking a little cramped or its soil drying out too fast, it might just be time to repot!

Happy repotting!

Spring into Action: Refresh Your Website for the Season Ahead

Sat, 31 Aug 2024 10:11:30 GMT

As spring approaches, it’s not just your home that needs a good cleaning—your website could use a refresh too! Just as the season brings new energy and growth, it's the perfect time to ensure your online presence is as vibrant and lively as the days to come. Here are some essential tips to help you spring-clean your website and get it ready for a successful season.

1. Spring Clean Your Content

Start with a thorough review of your website’s content. Just like clearing out the clutter in your home, it's important to get rid of outdated information and make room for fresh, relevant content. Update your blog posts, refresh product descriptions, and double-check that all contact information is accurate. Keeping your content current not only improves user experience but also boosts your credibility.

2. Update Your Visuals

Spring is synonymous with brightness and renewal, so why not reflect that on your website? Consider updating your visuals to match the season's vibe. Incorporate lighter, brighter images and maybe even introduce some seasonal graphics. A fresh new banner or homepage design can breathe new life into your site, making it more appealing to visitors.

3. Optimize for Mobile

With more people browsing the web on their phones, a mobile-friendly website is no longer optional—it's essential. Take the time to test your website across various devices to ensure it looks great and functions smoothly. A seamless mobile experience can significantly enhance user satisfaction and keep visitors coming back.

4. Check Your Site Speed

A slow-loading website can be a major turnoff for users. Spring is the perfect time to optimize your site’s speed. Compress and optimize images, minimize the use of heavy plugins, and clean up your code. The faster your website loads, the more likely visitors are to stay and engage with your content.

5. Enhance SEO

Revisiting your SEO strategy should be part of your spring cleaning routine. Update your keywords to align with current trends, optimize your meta tags, and ensure your content is search engine-friendly. A well-optimized website can help attract more visitors, increasing your chances of converting them into customers.

6. Refresh Your Call-to-Action

Your call-to-action (CTA) is one of the most important elements of your website. As you prepare for spring, update your CTAs to align with any upcoming campaigns or promotions. Whether you're running a sale, launching a new product, or hosting a special event, make sure your CTAs clearly guide visitors on what action to take.

7. Test, Test, Test

Before rolling out any new updates or features, be sure to test everything thoroughly. From functionality to design, ensure your website provides a seamless user experience. Testing helps you catch any issues before your visitors do, saving you from potential headaches down the road.

Get Ahead of the Game

Spring is a season of renewal, so take this opportunity to give your website a fresh start. By following these tips, you’ll not only enhance the look and feel of your site but also improve its performance and user experience. Get ahead of the game and prepare your website for a successful spring season!

Need some help?

We can help, contact us to find out how!

Sync with Google Business Profile to Save Time & Boost the SEO

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 05:20:52 GMT

We’ve added the option to connect your site’s Business Information with a Google Business Profile for an easy sync between the two platforms. This will help ensure your client’s business details are up to date and consistent everywhere online while giving your built site a great SEO start.

Since most people search for businesses online, ensuring your client’s local business listing can be easily found on Google and Google Maps is important. This new sync option between Duda and Google helps your clients enjoy this crucial benefit.

Easy to connect, easy to manage

Setting up this new sync option is simple. Head over to your site’s Content Library > Business Info and connect your Google Business Profile through your Google account.

For a faster setup, the Google Business Profile listing should pre-exist in your Google account. In addition, you’ll have to have at least a phone number or an address set up in one of the platforms to activate the sync between the two platforms.

If you need to create a new Google Business Profile from scratch, do it here .

Once connected, you can choose to set up one of two possible sync methods:

1. Automated sync of pulled data - made from the Google Business Profile every 12 hours to ensure data integrity with any updates made to your Google Business listing—without needing to go into the editor to make changes.

2. Manual, instant syncs of data - either pulled or pushed to the Google Business Profile. This requires your active click-to-push or pull data, and gives you more control over the sync process.

What will sync between the 2 platforms:

Business name
Location or address
Phone number
Social media account links
Business web address
Business Hours

To get started, head over to the Content Library section in the editor. Then select Business Info and look for the Google Business Profile sync banner where you’ll be able to connect a Google account.

A note on feature availability

The Google Business Profile sync feature is permission dependent, meaning only team members and clients with this permission enabled will be able to use and make changes to the Google Business Profile sync option.

In addition, it’s available on selected plans, so if you don’t see it in your site’s Business Info section, it’s possible you’ll need to upgrade your account plan to get it.

We hope you find this new sync capability useful!

Quick Tips to Keep Your Business (& Life) Secure Online

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Sun, 14 Jul 2024 03:20:10 GMT

In today’s digital age, safeguarding your online presence is crucial.

Here are a few practical way to enhance your digital security and protect your business and personal information:

Authenticator Apps

Consider using an authenticator app like Google Authenticator for an added layer of security. These apps generate time-sensitive codes that you enter when logging into accounts, making it difficult for unauthorized users to gain access.

Two-Step Verification

Enable two-step verification (or even three-step) on all critical accounts, especially social media platforms and you emails. This process requires you to verify your identity through an additional method, such as a code sent to your email or phone, enhancing security against unauthorized logins.

Apple’s Safety Check

If you use Apple devices, utilize Apple’s Safety Check feature to review and manage app permissions, device access, and overall security settings. This helps you control who has access to your data and devices, enhancing your overall security posture.

Change Your Password Regularly

Make it a habit to change your passwords periodically across all accounts. Tools like Apple KeyChain and Google Password Manager can help manage and secure passwords, they also let you know if your passwords have been compromised in a data breach allowing you to update that password quickly and easily.

Legacy Contact

Something to consider and to plan for the unexpected is to set up a Legacy Contact which can be done on your Apple, Google and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) accounts. This feature allows designated individuals to access your Apple ID data in the event of your passing, ensuring your digital assets are managed according to your wishes.

Implementing these straightforward yet effective strategies can significantly bolster your online security. Stay vigilant and proactive in protecting your digital footprint to safeguard both your business and personal information.

Stay secure!

Nick

Importance of maintaining your website.

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Mon, 17 Jun 2024 02:33:43 GMT

Your website is often the first impression potential customers have of your business.

That's why keeping it updated is crucial!

Here's Why:

Visibility

An up-to-date website ranks higher on search engines, making it easier for people to find you.

User Experience

A well-maintained site ensures smooth navigation and fast loading times, keeping visitors engaged.

Security

Regular updates help protect against cyber threats, safeguarding both your data and your customers'.

Reputation

Keeping your website up-to-date aligns your website with your brand image, helping to build trust and credibility with your audience.

Don't let your online presence fall behind!

Invest in regular updates and maintenance to ensure your website stands out and works in the digital landscape.

Need help updating your website? We can help!

Time to give your website a refresh?

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Wed, 01 May 2024 11:20:49 GMT

Recently, I decided to give my website a refresh. The reason? It's not just about keeping up with the times, but also about reaping the benefits of a revamped online presence.

I feel most small business owners are doing (or thinking about doing) right now; I think it's a combination of feeling the pinch of the economy, wanting to ensure everything is firing as well as it can, and it often sits at the top of our "To Do (Someday)" lists.

What should you consider if you are planning to revamp your website?

Review your current site and see what's working well and what might need changing.
An excellent way to do this is to review your site's statistics to analyse user behaviour and see what actions visitors are taking. Compare this to what you want people to do or take from the experience of being on your website.

How does your user experience feel to your visitors?
Think about the process visitors have to take to get in contact with you. Are they getting annoyed by clicking through too many links? Can they easily get in contact with you?

How well does your website reflect your brand?
Your brand is constantly evolving, and your website should reflect that. Consider the colour scheme, the layout, and the overall design. Does it align with your brand's personality? Is it visually appealing? These are the questions you should ask yourself when reviewing your site.

For many of us, our website is more than just a digital space; it's our Digital Home. Our physical visual location where our clients and customers discover who we are, what we do, and our products/services.

As your digital home, you need your website to:

Instantly build trust and credibility
Position your brand as the solution
Drive more engagement
Increase qualified leads for your business

At a minimum, we recommend you do a complete website review of your website every two years.

So, is it time to refresh your website?

2024 Words of Wisdom

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Sat, 06 Jan 2024 03:10:22 GMT

Happy New Year!

With 2024 well underway here is some words of wisdom as you begin to plan your year!

Over the past couple of weeks you have probably caught yourself saying "next year I will" but why do we wait until a new year? why not change our behaviours or habits anytime time during the year?

It might have something to do with our mindset, its very easy to see a new year as a fresh start, it is like closing the chapter on the year that was and being writing a new chapter on the year that is.

With that being said though, it is a new year!

If you haven't already taken the time to reflect on 2023 I recommend asking yourself these questions:

If you were to let go of things from last year — both in life and business — what would they be? What would you be ushering out the back door?
And, equally, what would you be welcoming in? What would you love to arrive on your doorstep?

A lot of us have already set our goals for the new year and while it is good have goals, they cannot be achieved without the helpful habits and most importantly discipline.

We all have habits that either help or hinder our success. Our habits should become second nature, they should be easy for us to do and bring joy to our life.

Some Hindering Habits:

Mindless scrolling on social media and binging shows on streaming platforms wasting time and energy.
Leaving things to the last minute causing stress and anxiety.
Not setting boundaries letting others control your life.

Some Helpful Habits:

Spending your time more productively like reading a book or studying.
Scheduling or keeping a dairy to stay organised and prepared.
Taking the time out for yourself to avoid burnout.
Delegating only certain times and days for meetings.
Working smarter, creating templates or delegating tasks.

What underpins everything is discipline, and with discipline comes consistency.

The one thing you can be consistent about is always striving to be 1% better everyday and by 2025 you will be 365% better than what you are today.

Until next time,

Nick Whiting

2024 Midnight Fireworks - Starting 2024 with a bang!

Latest Product Enhancements & New Features 🚀

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Sat, 30 Dec 2023 02:49:00 GMT

As 2023 draws to a close, the flow of new features and product updates shows no signs of slowing down! Below, you'll find a comprehensive list of the latest improvements that have recently been rolled out.

Redirect Form Submitters to a Page of Your Choice

Improve the form submission experience on your website by instantly directing users to a destination of your choice upon clicking the submit button. This gives you the power to optimize conversions and track user activity, seamlessly integrating with different marketing tools like email or CRM platforms. Whether you prefer an internal or external page, this redirection feature offers customization options to enhance your user engagement.

LEARN MORE 〉

Add a Click-To-Call Phone Icon

Introducing a fresh phone icon in the Social Icons widget, providing you with the capability to integrate a click-to-call feature directly on a website. This improvement is crafted to enhance your client's business by promoting increased inbound calls, boosting overall conversions, and enriching the customer experience, particularly on mobile devices.

…and that's just covering the last month! Keep an eye out for more upcoming updates. We have a heap of fantastic features on the horizon for 2024. ��

Reflect

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Mon, 11 Dec 2023 09:05:49 GMT

As we wind down and prepare for Christmas, now is the perfect time to reflect. Reflect on the year that was, your achievements and your successes.

Take 5 minutes right now to stop, give yourself the credit you deserve.

Recognise just how strong you are for getting through all tough times not only in the past year but every challenge you have overcome in your life.

If nobody has told you this already I about to tell you just how capable you. No matter what obstacles, or roadblocks come your way, you have the courage to keep growing, to keep learning and to keep healing. Before you head to back after reading this, look in the mirror or pull up your camera to take a selfie and say "I'm proud of you" and really mean it when you say it.

Above all I hope you realise just how awesome you are!

I know this time of the year can be overwhelming, you may feel stressed, anxious or lost. Don't be afraid to reach out and ask for help. Call a friend or use networks available to you:

Lifeline 13 11 14

Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636

For a full list of services available visit the NSW Health website.

As you begin to plan for 2024, just remember to plan time for you.

Take time everyday to do something for you, whether its to go for a walk, hit the gym, get a massage or spend 10 minutes on the beach, uninterrupted and stress free, have you time. Your mental health is import in building your resilience for your journey forward.

Until next time,

Stay safe, and have fun.

Nick Whiting

Just get it done!

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Thu, 30 Mar 2023 23:37:03 GMT

For to long I have been putting off doing the small, tedious jobs because I kept telling myself “I don’t have time to do that” or “I’m to busy right now” - and it made me realise why I just didn’t do them earlier.

It’s funny how we push the little jobs aside until we absolutely HAVE to do them. Like putting fuel in our cars, I am one who waits until the fuel light comes on before I go get fuel, not a good habit I know.

Think about how much we let slide and put off because we think its an inconvenience at the time, but when we actually make a start or get something done we realise how easy it actually was and why didn’t we just do that sooner. Even better when you realise that by doing that one little thing it fixed something else or made something even easier.

Learning from this I have made a commitment to “Just get it done!” - Don’t contemplate, don’t hesitate, just get it done, because honestly, and I know this is true for me, it’s just another thing you think about when you are trying to go to sleep or it’s consistently on your mind until it is done because you are just trying to remember it.

Now if you are thinking “I just don’t have the time to get something done right then” well do this, delegate and/or schedule to it get done. Personally I schedule it in, either by setting a reminder, putting it in my calendar or adding it into my daily run sheet to get it done, sometimes I do all three. There is not point putting it on a to-do list with the hundred other things you have to do; its only going to sit there until you look at the list again.

So take a moment to work through your to-do list and de clutter your mind of all the small things you should’ve done so long ago and start fresh be getting things done sooner.

Till next post…

Nick Whiting

Focusing on your online customers

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 06:12:20 GMT

Date: 24th November 2022

Time: 6:00pm – 8:00pm

Location: Gundaroo Memorial Hall

Join Nick Whiting from Contour Digital for a 2-hour face-to-face workshop to explore how to focus on your online customers and leverage new customers, markets, or trends through innovation. Traversing the digital landscape can be daunting, Nick will guide you on building a strong online presence covering all areas of content for social media and the purpose of a website.

Beginners to Intermediate knowledge level

NSW Small Business Month, brought to you by the NSW Government, Yass Valley Council & the Yass Valley Business Chamber is the only dedicated festival of activities for small businesses in NSW.

Helping our State’s small businesses Connect for Success. By attending NSW Small Business Month events you’ll learn new skills and new ideas to help you navigate the road ahead and get the opportunity to connect and collaborate with other small business owners and operators across the Yass Valley Region.

Check out the full calendar of events highlighting some of the engaging activities that are taking place during NSW Small Business Month in November 2022 across Yass Valley by visiting - www.yassvalley.com.au/smallbusinessmonth22

Building a strong brand

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 06:09:02 GMT

Date: 16th November 2022

Time: 6 :00pm – 8:00pm

Location: Yass Community Centre

Join Nick Whiting from Contour Digital for a 2-hour face-to-face workshop to explore how you can build a strong brand that aligns with your message and content. We will cover how to market your business, and strategies to build your brand to attract the customers you want.

Nick's mission is to help businesses and service industry leaders traverse the digital landscape — without the confusing tech jargon. Nick recently rebranded his business in 2021, hear all about the process and see how you can implement simple strategies to build a strong brand.

Beginners to Intermediate knowledge level

NSW Small Business Month, brought to you by the NSW Government, Yass Valley Council & the Yass Valley Business Chamber is the only dedicated festival of activities for small businesses in NSW.

Why users are ditching your checkout!

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 23:28:07 GMT

To create a great user experience, improve conversions, and reduce checkout abandonment, you need to perfect your checkout!

There are lots of reasons why customers abandon checkout, many of which are common across ecommerce sites. Some will be more relevant to you and your business, while others may not be as impactful but here are some of the most common reasons why users are ditching your checkout and not completing purchases:

1. Extra additional charges.

Additional costs added at the time of checkout, at the very least causes them to second guess their purchase.

2. Narrow shipping options and pricing.

Customers that get to the checkout only to find that their preferred shipping method is not available or is too costly may cause them to change their mind and abandon their purchase.

3. Overly complex checkout.

Customers are looking for a fast checkout experience, often purchasing online for the convenience. An overly complicated checkout process fails to provide the ease, speed, and convenience customers are seeking.

4. Errors and crashes.

While small errors are understandable, significant performance issues, errors, and crashes cause users to lose trust in your service, or seek a service that provides a better user experience and interface.

5. Security and protection.

Having a safe and secure checkout is a cornerstone of any e-commerce platform. Customers will not enter personal, shipping, or billing information into a service they don’t trust will keep their information safe.

6. Performance and load times.

The overall performance of your service plays a big part in whether customers rely on your e-commerce store. Keeping load times for your checkout pages fast and responsive is important for keeping customers interested in buying on your platform.

7. Missing payment options.

Inadequate payment options is a major reason customers leave checkout. The less options you have available, the lower your conversions will be.

Knowing why customers are abandoning checkout and keeping them from leaving are two very different things. You need to start with an understanding of the causes of abandonment to be able to effectively build a checkout flow that addresses — and solves — these problems, allowing you to work towards checkout optimization.

Online shoppers are seeking a convenient, smooth, seamless process that saves them time and effort. To make this possible, checkouts need to be fast and efficient for customers.

Test out your ecommerce process, is it simple, fast and efficient?

Looking to optimise your ecommerce store or setup a ecommerce space for your business?

Check out our work or get in touch with us and see how we can contour a solution for your business needs

Taking time off... for you!

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 22:31:55 GMT

Like most of us, you started working for yourself because you wanted more freedom and flexibility with your time, you wanted a better work situation or ability to be more creative, maybe its all them things?

But one of the biggest things we all forget from time to time is we are the boss, we make our own rules, and we need to build our business around our life. After all, you did quit a 9-5 job to have more freedom, so give yourself that freedom, take time off because you deserve it.

Now, I know it’s not that easy, but the fact is, you can’t afford not to get away. But getting away doesn't mean you need to take weeks off!

Have more long weekends!

If a week away is not your thing, for whatever reason, then consider simply having more long weekends. You will rejuvenate your batteries, yet still get work done.

We frequently go on weekend adventures camping or traveling around, our favourite spot is Huskissons Bay, but its is enough to recharge my creative sprit and get back into it.

Combine business and pleasure!

You can still get away and do work, there's no rules saying you can't!

The beauty of what do is i can take my work anywhere, providing i have internet haha. Sometimes when we do go away I will still do work, but its about doing the bare minimum so you can still enjoy your time off.

The key to it is having balance, don't let the work outweigh actually having time off, constantly checking emails and making calls not only defeats the purpose, it ticks off people who you are supposed to be relaxing with.

Planning for your next trip

Plan ahead!

Tell clients and customers that you will be gone ahead of time, they will understand!
Setup auto reply emails when you are away to remind clients and customer that you are away. Be clear, state why you are away and when you will be back, also let them know how they can reach you if it's urgent.
Schedule invoices, emails and social media posts. Schedule as much as you can.
Get extra work done before you go. By getting ahead, you make getting away much more doable.

Schedule extra time when you get back

Finally, don’t tell everyone you will be back in the office Tuesday, tell them Thursday. Then, when you get back in Tuesday you can have a few days of uninterrupted time to catch up.

So start planning your next get away! and plan many more!

Do it for you, give yourself the freedom you wished for and fall in love with working for yourself all over again!

Taking time off will rejuvenate your creative sprit, recharge your batteries, and make working for yourself more enjoyable. It lets you push all your stress aside and take some time out for you, or to enjoy some much needed time with your family.

Adventure, have fun and make memories!

Nick Whiting

Create Compelling Calls to Action.

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 02:19:21 GMT

What entices your website visitors to take action?

Is it easy for them to engage with you?

Think of this… when a user is scrolling down a page on your website, Full of content and images that excites them to engage with you, what do they do next? Is it easy for them to either get in contact with you or to purchase a product you’re trying to sell.

This is where a call to action (CTA) fits in place, your calling your users to take action, hence the name. But you need to ensure you have a compelling CTA that entices them to engage quickly and easily!

Here are my 6 essential strategies for creating effective CTAs!

1. Good Design.

The best CTAs need to grab the user's attention, so a bright button color that contrasts with the color of the page is an effective strategy.

2. High Visibility.

Because the CTA should be the most noticeable thing on the page, the font size should be large enough to command attention.

3. Clear Benefit.

Therefore, the user will get from completing the transaction is an effective way to get them to click.

4. Actionable Text.

An effective CTA should use action words, such as "discover", "learn more", and "buy now".

5. Short in Length.

Should be a short phrase, no longer than five words.

6. Sense of Urgency.

Users are easily distracted on the internet, so a strong sense of urgency such as a limited time offer can help compel users to take action immediately.

To recap:

Good design
High visibility
Clear benefit
Actionable text
Short in length
Sense of urgency

Get all these right and your user will engage more effectively with your business's website!

Launching Charity Challenges

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 04:18:32 GMT

Be a part of our charity engagement challenges!

One of my 2022 goals is to take part in more charity events and fundraising challenges in support of mental health and medical research for Motor Neurone Disease and Cancer studies.

Since 2016 I have taken part in The Firies Climb for MND , a challenge for firefighters to climb the 1,504 steps of Sydney Tower Eye wearing 20kg of gear to raise money for Motor Neurone Disease.
Last year I completed 3,318 push-ups in 25 days to raise awareness for The Push-Up Challenge to push for better mental health, together we raised $938 for LifeLine Australia.

Are you up for the challenge?
Now I am inviting you to join me to take part in these challenges as a team!

Our aim is to raise awareness of the challenges others face with medical conditions, and to raise much needed funds to go towards the supporting charities there to help others, whether it be for research or for the organisations such as LifeLine.

After each challenge is completed, we will donate 10% of that months total website subscriptions to the charity.

Take part with us to help make a difference and raise awareness!
Join my team in the charity challenges or donate to show your support.

Click here to see our upcoming challenges 〉

Is it time to refresh your website?

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 03:19:50 GMT

Your website is your digital home, but how do you know when it is time to give it a refresh?

The last couple of months have been filled with new clients all with exisiting website looking to give them a refresh and revamp and it got me thinking... how do you know when it is time to refresh a website?

There is a difference between updates and a refresh. Many clients update their website at least once a month with new photos and new content, but this is what we consider as regular maintenance.

We see a refresh more as a chance to review the current site, polishing the look, usability and content to ensure your site is alway modern, friendly and most importantly it reflects what you business is really about.

You can build a shopfront that lasts for years but, in the digital landscape, it is constantly changing and your website needs to keep up to date to stay relevant otherwise it can cost your customers, clicks and sales.

Your website is the digital home of your business.

It does a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to winning new customers.

In fact, most people will go to your website first before making the decision to contact you. That's why it's so important to back your high-quality real-world service with a professional and user-friendly online presence.

As your digital home, you need your website to:

Instantly build trust and credibility
Position your brand as the solution
Drive more engagement
Increase qualified leads for your business

At a minimum, we recommend you do a complete website review of your website every two years.

Does your website reflect your brand?

Businesses change overtime and your website needs to change too!

Make ensure your website reflects the image and message that you want it to. Users first impression to your site is visual, not only should it reflect your brand but it should also be aesthetically pleasing.

When your site was first built it may have been relevant then, but is it now? Have a look at your site and see what your first impression is.

Is it time to give your website a refresh?

Book in your discovery session to see how we can realign your website to your business branding.

Our Values

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 01:48:06 GMT

Contour Digital is built on transparency, honesty and integrity. Guided by clear communication and respect for one another, we see all of our client relationships as long-term, equal partnerships. We are also driven by an intuitive approach to both business and design, trusting our instincts and experience to lead us to success.

Our Values Explained.

Personalised.

We believe every business is unique and deserves a solution that is too. We start by looking at the problem and building a solution around it, not applying a poorly suited template approach.

Relatable.

Many web designers bamboozle their clients with technicality. That’s not us, we meet the client on their level, communicating in a way they can understand.

Empowering.

Our job is not to be the hero of the story, it’s to empower our clients to be the hero of theirs. We don’t hold back control, we equip them with the tools and knowledge to thrive even without us.

Entrepreneurial.

Where others see challenges, we see possibility. But what’s more we know how to manifest that into reality, by bringing entrepreneurial diligence and enthusiasm we help our clients businesses flourish.

Transparent.

We don’t hide behind a curtain of secrecy to make more money from our clients, we tell them how it is, and thus earn even greater loyalty and respect.

Partnership.

We treat our work as a partnership, we’re invested in our client’s success because ultimately we know doing what’s best for the project is what’s best for business.

Proactive.

As the experts, we always lead the process to ensure our clients feel guided and supported. We don’t wait for orders, we anticipate and act in our client’s best interests.

Forward Thinking.

Great businesses are evergreen. We think ahead, setting our clients up with systems and processes that support the business’s growth for repeated success year after year.

Our brand personality.

It’s someone proactive you can always count on to lead the way. It’s the colleague who’s always ready to lend a helping hand, who stops to listen before speaking, who invests the time to understand you.

Never trying to impress you, Contour is humble yet confident and knows exactly how to communicate on your wavelength.

Like a good friend we’ll always give it to you straight, but without taking ourselves too seriously. Interacting with Contour always leaves you feeling empowered and inspired towards action, transforming your perspective on challenges into possibility.

We’re not the type to tell you where should go, but once we know where that is we’ll always help you get there.

That’s us.

Contour is your guide in traversing the digital landscape.

Meet Nick Whiting

Thu, 02 Dec 2021 08:18:47 GMT

Web designer. Social media mentor. Fire fighter?

Yep, there’s a lot more to Contour Digital founder Nick Whiting than you first expect. While he’s branched out into many different areas and wears many different hats, he always strives to remain true to his roots.

Here’s a little bit of his story so far.

A strong sense of family and community

Although he calls Yass home now, Nick grew up in Tumut, NSW, and it will always hold a special place in his heart. If you look closely, you may even find a nod to Tumut on the Contour Digital website. Nick always loved the strong community spirit of Tumut and this sense of community has remained an anchor throughout Nick’s life and in his business.

As a child, Nick loved spending time outside and he shared his love of the outdoors with his grandfather Wally – affectionately known as Pa. He always admired his Pa’s tenacity, saying he was a fighter who was driven and dedicated. His Pa played a huge role in his life and shaped him to become the man he is today. Nick is fortunate to be surrounded by a strong and supportive family, including his Mum, stepdad Mat and partner Chloe, who have always pushed him to be persistent and reach his goals.

Discovering the digital world

Like most millennial kids, Nick grew up with an interest in computers and all things digital. He jokes that whenever anyone in his family got a new tech device, he was always the one they would come to for help with the set up.

While his interest in the digital world began as a hobby, Nick soon began studying IT and media at high school and realised its potential for a career. Then, a humble project in his Year 11 Business Studies class saw him create a business plan for a hypothetical company — Superb Website Solutions. Little did Nick know at the time that this would become the catalyst for the business he runs today.

But not before a slight detour…

Growing a business

After high school, Nick’s love of the outdoors and interest in landscaping saw him embark on a 3-year Horticulture apprenticeship. While he enjoyed studying this field, he didn’t want to give up on Superb Website Solutions and continued to build his business.

Nick starting working with his first client in 2014 (who he still counts as a valuable client today!) and gradually added more local businesses to his client roster. Just before finishing his Horticulture course, one of his biggest clients — an online building supply company — reached out to him for help with their logos and marketing. He ended up becoming a marketing manager for the company for 12 months, developing their brand and coordinating a diverse range of promotional campaigns, from TV to radio to print and beyond.

It was here that Nick discovered his true passion for the digital world and got inspired to go out on his own. However, he still sees a lot of value in his Horticulture background.

“I think having my experience and education in horticulture helps a lot with my clients because many of them are in the trade, construction or landscaping industries. I share their industry knowledge and can speak to them on their level.”

As Nick’s business grew, renamed as Superb Marketing, so too did his skillset and his offerings. The business that began with a focus on websites soon transformed into a full suite of marketing solutions, including logos, branding, digital marketing, Google Ads and more.

As a solo-business owner, Nick said it was a challenge trying to manage so many different services and he soon came to a breaking point.

“In business, you strive to be an expert in your field and at that stage, I was trying to be an expert in all those different fields. I came to the realisation that it just wasn’t working because I couldn’t be five different ‘experts’ in one business.

One of my biggest clients at the time had me working on a lot of Google marketing and social media work and it felt so far from what I wanted to be doing and what I was good at. So, I had the honest conversation with the client and he really respected that I knew my limits and knew where I wanted to go with my business.

This was my turning point. I realised I needed to get back to my roots and really refocus on websites — and that’s when Contour Digital was born.”

Finding the lesson in every challenge

“The biggest lesson I learnt in the early days of my business was to see each challenge or mistake along the way as a lesson. Whenever you’re faced with a hurdle, there’s always a way to overcome it or work around it, you just have to try find it.”

Another major lesson he learnt along the way was not to be a ‘Yes man’. Nick remembers saying yes to every client and every project in the beginning of his business, regardless of whether they were a good fit. But he soon discovered that the only way to grow was to say no and focus on his strengths.

Nick also believes that the best way to overcome challenges in business is to find a good mentor and look at what they’re doing to grow their business or move forward. Nick cites Kerwin Rae and Rami Ykmour as his two biggest business mentors who have inspired him throughout his career.

“Rami Ykmour always says ‘treat your business like your baby’. You have to look at your business in the same way you’d look at your child — you need to invest time and money into it to ensure it has a solid upbringing and empower it with the capacity to grow. And you need to be dedicated to it for the long term. Dedication is key — it’s going to get tough but you need to stay dedicated to get the job done.”

Creating a connection

While Nick loves helping businesses build a strong online presence, it’s the relationships he builds with his clients that matter most.

“I love working with the range of clients I work with and they become very much like family in a way. When I speak with them, we don’t just talk about business, we chat about their life, their family, what they did on the weekend … It’s those connections and relationships that really drive me … That’s why I love what I do, it never feels like work.”

Giving back to his community

Nick sees himself as being extremely community-minded and is always looking for ways to give back. Outside of his business, Nick also serves a Permanent Firefighter at Fire and Rescue NSW.

“I was really inspired by the way Fire and Rescue NSW engage with the local community so I joined the team in 2016. I’ve learnt so much in my job as a firefighter that I can apply within my own business such as leadership and training skills.

What I love about this job is being able to work with the community and help others. You often see people on their worst days and to be able to be there for them and support them is really inspiring and rewarding.”

In 2012 Nick received the Australia Day Young Citizen Award in Yass Valley for his work within the community.

What’s next for Nick and Contour Digital?

Over the next year, Nick is set to focus on reconnecting with his audience through Contour Digital and deliver more value through video content.

And in the long term?

“One of my big goals for the future is eventually build a team that can bring together a range of talents and expertise to drive bigger and better results for my clients … as the business grows, I’ll be able to reach out and help more people which is what it’s all about.”

Credential's

Duda badges validate your knowledge of the Duda Platform and web design. Duda is our online business partner who we are licensed with to build, manage and host our clients websites on. Duda as a custom built Content Management System (CMS) that has been created by a large, global, collective of invested digital agencies for digital agencies and we are proud to be one of them!

Site Comments

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Fri, 26 Nov 2021 04:23:17 GMT

Site Comments is a collaboration tool that enables our team to communicate with you and each other while building sites.

The entire review process is faster, clearer and more accurate, giving you better service and faster turn around to publish your site. It also eliminates the need for alternative methods of communication (such as email, messages, phone calls, etc.) and creates a single channel for receiving feedback and responding to it.

To learn more about Site Comments, see the following video:

Access Site Comments

The comments bar controls the Site Comments functions. The comments bar is located on the right of the screen and includes the following actions/tabs:

The bar can be minimized by clicking the X icon and can be reopened by clicking on the comments icon on the top bar.

Add Site Comments

To add site comment:

Click the plus + icon on the comments bar. Comments can be added to any element on the site.
Click on an element to add a comment. Hover on the element to help position the comment accurately.
Choose comments visible to everyone.
Enter your comment in the input field. You can also add an image as a comment by clicking on image icon in the bottom right corner of the comment field.
Click Submit.

Reply To Site Comments

To reply to site comments:

Open the comment you want to reply to. You can reply to comments via the comment itself or in the comments log. To open the comments log, click the Comments Log () icon.
Click the comment text field, or click Reply in the comments log, and enter your reply.
Click Submit.

Edit and Delete Site Comments

Comments can be edited or deleted by the person who creates them or by a team member.

Open the comment you want to edit or delete.
Hover over the comment, and click the more icon.
Click Edit or Delete.

Warning

Deleted comments cannot be restored and are not displayed in the comments log. There is no undo for edited comments.

Comments Log

To see a list of all comments and display and reopen resolved comments, use the filter in the comments log. To open the comments log, click the Comments Log button.

Hide Comments

To hide comments on a site, click the Hide Comments icon.

Introducing Contour Digital

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Mon, 04 Oct 2021 20:59:05 GMT

Founded by Nick Whiting, Contour Digital is here to help businesses and service industry leaders traverse the digital landscape — without the confusing tech jargon!

Formerly known as Superb Marketing, the roots of Contour Digital trace all the way back to Nick’s high school years. What began as a school project quickly grew into a thriving business before reaching a point of evolution in December 2020.

2020 was a year like no other. Despite all of its challenges, it gave Nick the opportunity to finally work on his business, rather than in it. After taking the time to review and reflect, Nick realised that his branding no longer suited the direction of his business. The name ‘Superb Marketing’ didn’t capture the true essence of his brand or what he could offer his clients.

It was time to rebrand.

Returning to the roots of the business

Nick began his business while still studying at high school and started working with his first client in 2014 (who he still counts as a valuable client today!) Initially, the business was called Superb Website Solutions before changing to Superb Marketing in 2016 as Nick diversified his services.

Since then, Nick has worked on a broad spectrum of projects, including TV commercials, radio commercials, videography, marketing and advertising management, digital advertising and graphic design.

While he enjoyed the diversity that came with this work, he began to feel a disconnection between where his business was and where he wanted it to be. Nick decided to return to the roots of his business and realign with his mission:

To empower services industry leaders with carefully-crafted websites and workflows that work hard for their business and get them back to doing what they do best.

Nick refined his core offerings to website development and streamlining workflows. But, as a natural teacher, he also wanted to be able to empower his clients with the knowledge and confidence they need to move into the digital world and thrive online. As part of his new offerings, Nick will also focus on social media mentoring and live events.

New name, new logo, new look

Contour means to shape, to fit your outline. And that’s exactly what Contour Digital aims to do.

Nick has always taken a more personalised approach when designing and delivering digital solutions. He believes his clients deserve so much more than a cookie-cutter approach — they deserve a digital home designed to suit the unique contours of their business. So, it seemed only fitting for the new business name to reflect exactly that.

Contour Digital also seeks to serve as a guide and a mentor, helping its clients traverse the digital landscape. The new branding reflects this in its visual nods to cartography and topographic contour lines. Be sure to take a closer look at the contour lines featured across the website — each represents a place that Nick feels a deep connection to, such as his home town of Yass.

The next chapter as Contour Digital

With a fresh rebrand that better represents the business and its future, Nick is thrilled to introduce Contour Digital. As the next chapter begins, Nick’s passion continues for empowering others to grow their online presence and their confidence in the digital world.

Keep an eye on Contour Digital’s website, social media and Youtube channel for more exciting updates, insights and valuable digital resources for businesses.

kudos to Robert Nowland, the creator behind our new branding.

robertnowland.net

Social Media Tips

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 01:29:49 GMT

Looking to improve your social media?

Follow these essential social media tips to get you started.

The Social Media Influence

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 02:58:08 GMT

A lot of people talk about the influence of social media, and most of the time the negative influence it has.

If we look at social media for businesses and the influence it can have on the audience we need to be mindful of the factors that contribute to a positive engagement/interaction and a negative one.

The Positives:

- Engaging with the Audience. (Replying to comments)

- Posting Valuable Content (Educational and relatable content)

- Have a Personal Touch (Share YOUR Story, be you!)

The Negatives:

- Posting Promotional Content (Win This, Buy This, On Sale)

- Highly Frequent Content (Some ad or same post over and over again)

- Ignoring the Audience (Not engaging)

Just remember that Conversation is the new lead. If you're looking to generate more leads from social media, start the conversation, engage with your audience, reply to their comments and take the conversation into a private message to then collect the data you require to generate a lead.

The only data you need today to generate a lead is a Name, Phone Number and Email address.

With this data, you can then send them more information about the products or services you provide and create a client.

Create that connection, by doing this you are adding a personal touch to your social media presence and generating leads.

Have the right influence on your social media presence.

Web Design Trends and Statistics 2021 | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 21:47:01 GMT

Is it time for a website refresh?

As businesses lean on social more heavily to reach their audiences, the importance of a strong destination page is imperative. You can have a powerful social presence with a loyal following and still fail to see a return on investment if your website fails to meet consumer needs and standards.

In a recent article, Website Builder Expert shared stats on the impact of website design on consumer behavior, and the numbers are shocking.

"It only takes 50 milliseconds for visitors to form an opinion about your website... And 94% of those first impressions are design related."

Check out the infographic below for website design stats, trends and advice

Legal Docs for Online Stores: Protection and Trust [with Templates]

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Thu, 21 Jan 2021 23:56:23 GMT

Call me old-fashioned, but when I come across a new brand or online store, I need some time to warm up to it before I make a purchase. Awesome products are not enough to make me add everything to my cart and rush straight to the checkout. I can’t provide my card information to a website until I feel like I trust it.

At the same time, as a person with a digital background, I know how to scope out almost any brand for reliability with things like Wappalyzer, Alexa, SEOquake, or by just by knowing my way around a Google search.

Unfortunately, most customers that come to your online store by clicking ads in search engines and on social media have no idea who you are and have out ZERO trust in your store. They also don’t know how to check your brand for reliability, and most importantly, they don’t want to waste time trying to figure it out.

So how can you earnestly and quickly persuade potential customers that you are a serious business, not an internet-based crook?

Legal Docs for Trust

There are numerous ways to fix the so-called “trust problem” with marketing tools like reviews, mentions in the press, misty stats, influencers tweets, etc., but one of the BEST ways to make friends with a customer is simply transparency .

How do you sell, why do you sell, how do you deliver, and what will happen after that? Uncovering the details of the entire shopping experience (including delivery) through answering these simple questions is the key to your customer’s hearts.

Knowing all the steps they’ll go through, the consequences of their purchase, and ways to get through any possible problems they might encounter gives a shopper a feeling of safety. If we know all the turns waiting for us along the road in advance, we are more likely to make the first step towards a purchase.

A great way for me to gain trust in an unknown brand is by looking at their legal docs !

These docs are also known as legal pages, terms, policies, etc. But whatever the name, the point is that these documents are a public declaration made by the brand — their obligation to comply with a level of service that will protect my rights as a consumer.

I know that if the brand breaks its own rules, the consequences will be dire for them, and they know it. This makes me feel safe. The quality of the legal docs: the structure, consistency, and even wording reflect the level of business maturity and spawns the feeling that “these guys can be trusted.”

"Legal policies demonstrate the will of the business to be transparent, creating a more customer-centric shopping experience."

Legal Docs for Protection

My life was a kaleidoscope back in the day. I’ve worn so many hats, and one of them was an entrepreneur’s cap. So I can tell you firsthand: I’ve seen selling from the merchant’s point of view. It was lots of fun; an exploration filled with discovery — but sometimes it could also be a little stressful. There were days I felt like I had all the evil eyes on me — police, fire department, suppliers, financial control service, even taxi drivers!

Fortunately, this was just an illusion. But interacting with a variety of regulatory services, I learned one thing — you have to have all your docs in order, nice and clean. Your ducks in a row, as it were. My mistake was to treat this Big Brother control as hostile to my business. But in fact, it was exactly the opposite: these regulators were trying to help me to protect my business from fines, complaints, and even legal action. They meant well.

The same thing happens when you start an online store in any niche — people begin asking questions, while the only thing you want is for them to buy your products. And the solution in this situation is 100% the same — have all your legal docs in order.

"Manage risks! Protect your business from frustrating surprises. Legal docs don’t have to be complicated. Sometimes just having them is enough."

We as e-commerce sellers have gotten used to the feeling that e-commerce has no boundaries. And yes, some rules are different on the internet. But in the world of legislation, laws, taxes, commissions, etc., boundaries still exist, and it looks like they are not going anywhere.

So do yourself a favor, get your business ready in advance. It’s not that hard, after all. We’ll show you:

Legal Documents to Have for Online Store

Ready to roll? Alright, here’s the list of must-have legal docs for any store in the online world:

Terms and Conditions . Describe the legally binding rules, terms, and guidelines that everyone has to agree with to use your website and services.
Privacy Policy . Describe how you collect, handle, and process data of your customers and visitors.
Shipping and Payment Information . Describe how you ship or deliver your products and accept payments for the orders.
Return and Refund Policy . Describe how you make the returns, exchanges, or refunds if customers are not satisfied with their orders.

In this article, I don’t want to teach you how to write a perfect legal document. Instead, we’ve provided templates of common legal documents that you can download, adapt to your niche, and add to your online store (Ecwid store, hopefully!). The templates are not universal for any type of business, product, or niche, so you’ll have to read them first and edit them to suit your needs.

But in the meantime, let’s get a lowdown on some of the A,B,Cs of legalease.

Terms and Conditions Template for E-commerce

This page is a legal contract between your business and the users of your site and services. It clarifies the conditions of use and enables you to exclude users who abuse the rules you’ve set, maintain your legal rights against potential abusers, and more.

You need a clearly stated contract to protect your website, company, and customers. Review your legal pages carefully before adding them.

Writing T&C for your store, consider including information related to the following areas:

Ownership of the site
Copyright for the material offered on the website and store pages
Liabilities and responsibilities of your business
Requirements for using the store
Notification upon modification of terms
Termination of contract
Contact information

Download template

Learn more about the Terms and Conditions Page for Your E-Commerce Store .

Privacy Policy Template for E-commerce

This page describes how personal information is collected, used, and shared on your site. Add it to your store to encourage customers’ trust.

Consider including:

Collecting personal information
Sharing personal information
Using personal information
Customers’ rights with regards to their personal information
Use of cookies
Contact information

Download template

Learn more about How to Write a Privacy Policy for Your E-Commerce Store .

Shipping and Payment Information

This page contains information for your customers about your shipping and payment operations.

Quite often, along with having a separate page for shipping and payment information, merchants answer related questions in the FAQ, which can also be a separate page or a section in the cart or on checkout. Purchasing is a sensitive process, and keeping it as transparent as possible is a beneficial practice.

Shopping and Payment information should vary depending on how you source and send products to customers. As for the payment part, it should cover frequently asked questions about payment methods in your store, possible commissions, currency exchange, etc.

Consider including the following:

International and local shipping options
Supported shipping zones
Shipping costs
Policy around returns, exchanges, damages, and lost packages
Order processing and delivery times
Payment options
Payment requirements and instructions
Contact information

Download template

Return and Refund Policy

This page describes what customers can do if they are unhappy with the product they received. Clear and thought-out return policies can improve customer satisfaction and protect your business from legal issues.

This policy can include:

Damages and issues
Exceptions like non-returnable items or items with return limitations
Exchanges and refunds
Contact information

But before writing a Return Policy, make sure your products fall under the Return regulation. Some products are not returnable under local laws. Usually, these products relate to healthcare, personal hygiene merchandise, or food. Each country has its own non-returnable products list.

Download template

Learn more about How to Write a Good Return Policy for E-сommerce Stores .

In Closing

Legal documents are not an evil thing. They help you protect your business from unexpected issues that can cost you your business (or at least a big chunk of time better spent selling!). At the same time, legal documents make your business more transparent, which is a huge trust booster from your customer’s perspective.

If you have hard times with legal docs, there’s an excellent service that can generate all necessary documents based on your business — TermsFeed . But it’s not free, so make sure it’s an investment you’re willing to make.

I hope you’ll put the templates we’ve provided to good use! Add legal pages to your Ecwid store to make sure your customers feel safe. Give them another reason to trust you.

If you have any thoughts on making our notes on the subject better, don’t you dare to keep them for yourself! Share your ideas in the comments below, and we’ll update the documents accordingly.

More Payment Options

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 03:49:41 GMT

You've got two more payment options in your eCommerce sites, making it even easier for site visitors to shop at their convenience. In addition to 40+ payment methods already available, you’ve now got Paypal Plus (in Germany) and Klarna, too.

More Convenience = More Sales

Offering multiple payment options in your online stores makes it easier for customers to shop using their preferred payment method. This reduces the chance that they will abandon at checkout and creates a better, more convenient shopping experience. Localized payment methods are particularly important for enabling visitors to choose familiar options when they shop.

About Your New Payment Options

In addition to the current payment methods already available in your stores, you’ve got 2 new ones:

Klarna - Flexible payment options, including payment by installment

Klarn is a flexible payment method in Europe and the USA that gives shoppers the choice of paying for their order immediately or at a later date, in full or in installments.

PayPal Plus - Includes multiple payment options, including direct debit and more

PayPal Plus, a popular German payment solution, includes popular local payment options such as PayPal, credit cards, direct debit (ELV) and Pay by Invoice.

Boosting Your Brand Through Social Media Engagement | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 03:37:09 GMT

Looking for ways to tweak your social media marketing approach in 2021, and maximize reach and engagement with your posts?

This infographic from the team at Crestline incorporates a range of insights and notes that might help guide your thinking around how you post, which platforms you focus on, and what you can expect to see as a result.

There are some good pointers here, but it is also important to take these notes as guides, and not prescriptive rules. In order to maximize your results, you need to experiment with each, and test what works with your online community.

Check out the full infographic below.

The Best Times to Post Your Social Media Updates in 2021 | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 03:23:10 GMT

When should you be scheduling your social posts to maximize engagement and response?

While individual results will vary, the team at Blog2Social recently evaluated the average best times for posting, based on social updates from more than 60,000 businesses and bloggers worldwide. The insights, which are listed in the below infographic, can be used as a basic guideline for post scheduling on each of the major social platforms.

Why is posting at the right time important?

The fact is that whenever you post on any social network, only a fraction of your followers will actually see your content, at least in its initial stages. The average lifetime of a social media post is different on each social platform - an average tweet, for example, will only survive 20 minutes before it drowns in the never-ending flow of content on Twitter.

Part of maximizing reach, however, is your initial post response. When people Like, comment and share your posts in their early stages, that sends a signal to the platform algorithms that your content is fresh, timely, and that it's prompting a conversation that more people may want to be a part of. That will then see your post reach more people, in order to ensure that they're aware of the trending discussion.

As such, if you post when more people are online, that maximizes your opportunity to get more initial reactions, expanding reach.

The below infographic looks at the optimal publishing times for various networks. And again, while this is not prescriptive, it may help in providing some direction and guidance for your posting experiments.

Also worth noting: Weekdays differ from weekends.

Hopefully this helps in your 2021 planning.

Wrapping up 2020

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Thu, 24 Dec 2020 01:50:37 GMT

It’s hard to believe that we're now into the final days of 2020. While most of us will be happy to see the end of what's been a challenging year, there have been some silver linings that are worth celebrating.

As I reflect on the year thats been, I am proud to see the transformations and developments we have all made in our own businesses. The way we adopted and overcome has been inspiring.

And while you’ve been hard at work helping your clients, I have had a year of many successes, here are some of my reflections on the year that’s been, and why I look towards 2021 with anticipation and excitement:

I worked with more than 40 new clients, helping them transform their business.
Launched my Get Social Series coaching workshop with the first event held in February 2020.
Published 22 new websites throughout the year.
Provided social media coaching 18 clients, helping them improve their social media presence.
Produced over 60 new insight / coaching videos for my social media audience.
Launched Superb Apparel , my own merchandise range.
Internal changes and streamlined a-lot of manual tasks
And so much more!!

Moving into 2021, I'm excited with the goals i have set for Superb Marketing, which will continue to build the foundations for our future.

I also wanted to take a moment to thank all my clients and community for your incredible support over the past year and rising up to the challenge of 2020.

Wishing you and your family a Safe and Merry Christmas!

Set Delivery Windows

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 03:01:04 GMT

Increase satisfaction, loyalty and sales on your eCommerce sites by enabling customers to choose time-slots for delivery & pick up. This gives your clients an edge over competitors, as delivery windows are a huge plus for shoppers these days, especially during the pre-holiday rush.

Set up is easy and quick

To set up delivery windows, open your store panel, go to Shipping & Pickup > Shipping & Delivery, and choose the delivery method you want to set. Click Set operating hours and then choose the delivery windows.

These hours will be displayed to customers at checkout, so they can choose the time that's best for them.

Some quick tips for setting delivery & pickup windows:

Set time for filling orders. Add an order fulfillment time, which specifies the time it takes for preparing an order once it’s been set.
Allow for orders to be made even when the business is closed. Enable customers to pre-order items for delivery, even when the business is closed.
Beat the competition with same-day delivery. Enable the “Same-day delivery” setting and set the cut-off time for placing orders.

Set Delivery Zones Quickly and Precisely

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 07:11:42 GMT

You’ve got more flexibility when setting delivery zones for your eCommerce sites. Set different zones and rates according to neighborhoods, streets and areas with the new embedded map.

Delivery zones: flexible, practical and good for business!

Delivery zones are geographic areas where online stores deliver, and many stores have different rates according to destination. With the new eCommerce Delivery zones feature, you can define multiple delivery areas for your stores, and set different rates per area.

For example, you can offer free shipping in a store’s immediate area, and paid shipping to other places. You can also offer shipping exclusively within the store’s immediate area. You can also use zones to set tax rates for different areas.

How it works

To set Delivery zones for your eCommerce site, go to Manage Store > Shipping & Pickup > Shipping Method.

Choose the delivery method you want to define.
Scroll to Set delivery zone > Zone on map.
Select to display the Create zone button and then click to open the map.
Zoom in to the delivery area, click Add new zone, and you’ll see a polygon on the map.
Adjust the polygon to the delivery area and click Save & Finish.

Quick tip to make set up even easier

If you’ve set an address as your Shipping Origin on the Shipping & Pickup page, that address will be already pinned on the map, making it even easier to set local shipping areas.

4 Tips for Creating a Shop on Facebook and Instagram | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 07:06:28 GMT

Have you looked into creating a Facebook and/or Instagram shop yet?

The option, announced back in May , is not available to all just yet, but it could provide a great way to encourage direct purchases while users browse through their social feeds, adding another element to the process.

And while it might take a while to catch on, it could easily become a habitual behaviour. Once users grow more accustomed to being able to purchase items from social posts, that could quickly become an expectation, and those businesses that fail to keep up may well fall behind.

As such, it's worth investigating the option - you can read more about Facebook Shops, and the requirements for your own, here .

To provide some additional guidance, Facebook has provided four key tips for setting up your Facebook/Instagram shop. You can view the original video overview here , but we've put together this infographic of the key notes.

The Dos & Don’ts Of Website Hero Images

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 08:29:47 GMT

The web design term “hero image” may seem a bit grandiose for any single element of a website; but is it? After all, a hero image can have a superpower. No, not heat vision. Something much more useful — super stickiness.

Generally speaking, the hero image is the very first thing that catches the eye of a user when they land on a web page. If the hero image is doing its job properly and exercising its superpower, it will accomplish three key tasks:

Capture the attention of users
Communicate an essential idea or message that sums up what the site is all about
Keep users from bouncing off the page

In this post, we’ll explain what a hero image is and cover the dos and don’ts that go along with creating one that successfully increases user engagement with a website.

WHAT ARE HERO IMAGES?

Hero images are typically large banner images of some kind that web designers place above the fold on a website. This placement makes it the most prevalent image on the entire site and one of the most important.

Given their prominence, hero images can’t be an afterthought. They can be simple or complex, but above all they need to reinforce the main values or messaging of the brands they represent. You can incorporate things like logos, images of customers, product representations, brand names, calls-to-action and more into a hero image, but just be sure not to overload the header.

Most hero images can be included in one of the following categories:

Product-focused
Contextual
Emotion-focused
Founder-focused
"Behind the scenes”
Action shots
Benefits-focused

Protip : Not every hero image needs to be an image. An interesting, high-quality animation or looping video can also serve the same purpose.

THE 10 DOS OF WEBSITE HERO IMAGES

Now that we’ve covered what a hero image is, let’s go through the to-do list for creating one that stands out and captures the attention of site visitors.

1. Resize the Images Before Adding Them to Your Website

A pixelated hero image is really more of a villain. Ensure your chosen hero image is sized appropriately so it displays properly on desktop, tablet and mobile devices. Some website builders will resize hero images automatically, but it’s always a good idea to do it yourself before attempting to add them to your website.

2. Experiment With PNGs and JPGs to Optimize Quality

It’s important to look for the right file type to save images with. Whether it’s a JPG or a PNG, this will help optimize the quality of a hero image. Just remember, JPGs are great for storing smaller photos, and PNGs are better used for images that have texts, drawings, and logos.

3. Use Photoshop or Other Professional-Grade Design Tools

As we’ve discussed, a hero image is one of the most important images on your site. That said, details matter. In order to make sure a hero image is suitable for your brand, you want to be able to make fine adjustments to its design. Design software like Photoshop and others can help you do this relatively easily.

4. Find the Best Sources for HQ Photos

Only the best will do for a hero image. If you’re talented with a camera, you may want to consider engaging in a little photography to make sure you get the exact image you want. If you are good at illustration, you may want to create your own custom design. However, if you can’t create your own hero image from scratch, you may want to check out a stock image solution. Some sources you can look at for amazing hero image ideas would include Canva , Stocksy , Pexel , ShutterStock , and Unsplash .

5. Run Tests With Your Hero Images

Try A/B testing hero images to see which fits better with your target audience. Having the test run for a few weeks will allow you to see what types of hero images viewers become more drawn to.

6. Compress Images

Avoid the nightmare of pixelated, oversized hero images and slow page load times by compressing your images. Some platforms (like ours) will do this for you automatically.

7. Use Images That Are Emotionally Persuasive

Hero images can send quite an impactful message. Images of happy customers, users accomplishing a task, or a demonstration of the benefits of a product can all go a long way towards connecting on an emotional level with site visitors.

8 . Emphasize CTA Buttons

Whether it’s animated or a simple flat design, you almost always want to include a call-to-action button with your hero image to prompt users to start engaging with your website and organization right away.

9. Use Social Proof

Most people want to know that others have had a good experience with a brand before engaging with it. Using social proof in your hero image can help alleviate any hesitancy a site visitor might have about engaging with your organization. This can take the form of a customer testimonial, number of satisfied users, or third-party recognition of your brand’s accomplishments.

10. Consider Different Screen Sizes

It should be noted that your hero image will show up across desktop, tablet and mobile. Ideally, you want to select a hero image that will look good no matter what size screen it is being viewed on. However, sometimes that’s just not possible. In this case, you may want to have specialized versions of your hero image for each device type.

THE 10 DON’TS OF WEBSITE HERO IMAGES

Equally important as knowing what to do when creating a website’s hero image is knowing what potholes to avoid. Below is a list of hero image don’ts you’ll want to keep in mind when building your next website.

1. Forget About Keyword Relevance

SEO is critically important to the success of any website. If your hero image contains text, make sure it is using the proper keywords to rank well in search in addition to stunning visuals.

2. Overwrite Your Headline

Be straightforward with words. Make the language in your header short and sweet. Compound sentences rarely work well in a hero image.

3. Lack Action-Oriented Copy

Hero images are all about connecting with your audience and getting them to take some kind of an action. Don’t shy away from giving commands and using exciting verbs in the copy you include in your hero image.

4. Skip Out on Customer Research

Since you want your hero image to resonate with your user base, you definitely want to have a good idea of who those users are. Conducting research to figure out who your core demographic is will help inform the decisions you make regarding your hero image and entire website.

5. Hesitate to Get a Second Opinion

Never hesitate to ask for a second opinion. If you aren’t sure about the decision you've made on a hero image, let other members of your creative team know and solicit their feedback. You can also send out a sample of your hero image, situated in its corresponding web page, to a small group of loyal customers you trust to give you honest feedback.

6. Lose Consistency Across Devices

As pointed out in our list of dos above, it may be necessary to use a slightly different hero image for desktop, tablet and mobile devices to ensure a user receives the best possible experience. If you find yourself in this situation, be sure to keep the images as similar to each other as possible. You don't want to create disparate experiences across device types.

7. Use Too Many CTAs

A call-to-action is an important element on any web page. When incorporated with a hero image, it can be a very powerful business tool. Even two CTAs carefully incorporated into a hero image may be beneficial. However, more than that and you're playing with fire and it's more than likely you'll overwhelm the site visitor.

8. Use Harsh Colors

Including contrasting colors in your designs can be very useful for directing user attention to various elements inside your hero image like your CTA and headline copy. However, you don't want these colors to turn off the user or make any text difficult to read. So maybe layoff the neon yellow and green.

9. Use Generic Images

Yes, earlier in this post we mentioned taking advantage of one of the many fine stock image providers out there. However, this doesn't mean you should simply download one and make that your hero image. Be sure to add customization to your images even if you've downloaded one you feel already meets the needs of your business. You don't want potential users or customers to surf the web and find your exact same hero image on other websites.

10. Think This Is Your Site's Last Hero Image

Let's say you decided on a hero image. You love it and can't imagine why you'd ever want to change it. Spoiler alert: at some point you will want to change it. Websites need to go through at least semi-regular refreshes and no hero image will stick around forever. As you inevitably go through those site iterations, don't feel compelled to keep the same hero image through multiple versions of your site. It's okay to try new things.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Hero images are an essential element of any website. They capture the attention of your customers and help drive customer conversion. Your hero image should always convey your brand value and messaging in a straightforward way.

The truth is there is no perfect answer to the question, “What should my hero image look like?” However, it does deserve some time and thought. After all, first impressions are lasting impressions.

15 Holiday Marketing Ideas To Start Using Today

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 02:01:50 GMT

It’s only October, but now is the time for web professionals to help their customers’ up their end-of-year holiday game. Even service businesses can use this special time of year to re-engage past customers and turn prospects into lifelong clients. As for retail businesses, upping your eCommerce capabilities is absolutely essential, as online shopping will likely be 30% higher than in 2019.

And web pros really shouldn’t wait to get their small business customers ready. Nearly 50% of retailers expect that consumers will start their holiday shopping this month because of the pandemic, according to the National Retail Federation .

Luckily, there are some simple ways to improve your customer’s digital presences now and use various holidays to your advantage.

These include:

Examine Your Messaging
Connect Emotionally
Create Promos for Every Holiday
Use Hashtags
Create Bundles
Optimise Your Site for Speed
Optimise for Customer Conversion
Create Holiday-related Content
Update Your Website
Personalise Emails
Use Historical Data
Take Calculated Risks
Use Video
Add Animations & GIFs
Be Thoughtful About COVID-19

1. EXAMINE YOUR MESSAGING

The best way to win people over is to sell a solution. How does your product or service make their lives easier? Focus on how you’re solving a problem for customers instead of the product/service.

2. CONNECT ON AN EMOTIONAL LEVEL

Going into the time of year when people want to feel nostalgic about past holidays, and try to recreate that, it’s more important than ever to engage consumers on an emotional level. Pull on their heartstrings whenever possible.

3. CREATE SPECIAL EVENTS AND PROMOS FOR EVERY HOLIDAY

Each holiday offers a fantastic opportunity to engage customers in a creative way. For example, Halloween can be a reason to promote your business even if you don’t sell candy or costumes. This year, during the pandemic, people are looking for ways to celebrate safely, with 74% of millennial moms and young parents reporting that Halloween is more important this year than ever.

This provides opportunities for you to help make this Halloween feel special. A gym could announce special Halloween-themed spin classes that incorporate a facial covering. A dentist office could send sugar-free candy bundles to patients. The important thing is to get creative and remind consumers that you’re thinking about them all the time, even during the holidays in the midst of a global pandemic.

4. USE HASHTAGS THAT COULD GO VIRAL

The humble “#” is one of the most important marketing tools social media-savvy marketers have at their disposal. REI’s #optoutside is a famous example. Another less well known one, #WestYellowstoneLove , is used extensively now by visitors to the town of West Yellowstone, Montana, at the west entrance of Yellowstone National Park.

Protip : Keep your hashtag simple and make sure it connects with your targeted audience. Then use it yourself to seed it in the community and ensure users adopt it.

5. CREATE BUNDLES

All kinds of businesses offer bundles, from fast-food combo meals to Dollar Shave Club packages.

And during the holidays, consumers expect deals. In fact, about one in four shoppers say 25% is the minimum discount they would consider a “good sale” and 15% say 30-40% off is the minimum they expect, according to a survey by Swagbucks .

Bundling items together or pushing a yearlong subscription can help you come out ahead in revenue and profits. The key is to use your sales data to see what items or services are often purchased together, and then offer an appropriate-sized deal on the combo.

6. OPTIMIZE YOUR SITE FOR SPEED

If you're using a platform like ours to provide sites to your customers, your sites will already adhere to Google's best practices on speed. However, if you haven't, here's what you need to know...

Speed matters. According to Kissmetrics :

47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less.
40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.
A 1 second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversions.

7. OPTIMIZE YOUR SITE FOR CONVERSIONS

Look at how visitors behave on your website. Are they dropping off from the home page after 3 seconds? Instead of sending visitors to your homepage from social media and PPC ads, create a specific landing page for each of those ads. This can have a significant positive impact on customer conversion.

8. CREATE USEFUL HOLIDAY-RELATED CONTENT

This is called content marketing or value-added marketing , which boils down to creating content that helps your customers do their jobs, or live their lives, better.

Restaurants can provide holiday-themed recipes, gyms can provide home workouts for the holidays, IT companies can provide ways to avoid ransomware at the holidays, logistics companies can provide tips on how to properly pack a box — you get the idea. What special content can you provide that ties into your holiday promotions?

9. UPDATE YOUR WEBSITE FOR EACH HOLIDAY

As stated above, every holiday is a chance to offer some kind of theme-based promotion or special event to customers, and a small business’s website should reflect and amplify these efforts. Plan to customize your website for every holiday so it feels both festive and timely. Site visitors will appreciate that you’ve gone the extra mile and added a bit of humanity to your digital presence.

Protip: Website personalization is a great tool for scheduling and implementing site changes efficiently throughout the holidays.

10. USE PERSONALIZED EMAIL MARKETING

Everybody likes to feel like they are being catered to and personalized email can be an incredibly effective tool for driving consumer behavior. In fact, a Salesforce report found that:

84% of customers say being treated like a person, not a number, is very important to winning their business.
70% of customers say understanding how they use products and services is very important to winning their business.
59% of customers say tailored engagement based on past interactions is very important to winning their business.
Customers are over 2x more likely to view personalized offers as important versus unimportant.

11. USE DATA FROM PREVIOUS HOLIDAY PROMOTIONS

Last year’s holiday data should inform your strategy and tactics. What worked? What didn’t? Additionally, don’t forget to closely track the customer engagement and conversion data you generate this year across your website, social media channels and in-person activities. You’ll need it to inform campaigns going forward.

12. TAKE CALCULATED RISKS

It can be worth taking a risk that emphasizes your brand values. Patagonia is well known for this, with examples like “ Don’t Buy This Jacket .” Taking a bold stance can build trust, tug on heartstrings, and appeal to the consumers out there that may become brand evangelists.

13. USE VIDEO WHENEVER POSSIBLE

Video is easier than ever to produce and an incredibly effective medium for driving consumer behavior and engagement. Here are a few data points that illustrate what we’re talking about:

Pages with videos are 53X more likely to rank on Google, according to Search Engine Watch .
Video marketers get 66% more qualified leads per year , according to Optinmonster.
Video results in a 54% increase in brand awareness , according to Optinmonster.
93% of marketers say they’ve landed a new customer because of video on social media.

14. INCLUDE ANIMATION ON YOUR SITE GIFS IN SOCIAL MEDIA

You can quickly send a powerful, moving message using GIFs, while creating shareable content for social media. People remember info better when paired with a visual. In fact, when people hear information, they’re likely to remember only 10% three days later, but retain 65% when paired with a visual, according to HubSpot.

It also works in email. Dell’s first GIF-centered email campaign had a 42% increase in click rate, 103% better conversion rate, and a 109% increase in revenue.

Use the Giphy GIF Maker as a starting point, and ask your web developer to use animation on your website.

15. THIS YEAR, BE MINDFUL OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Retailers are starting end-of-year holiday sales with the hope of avoiding big crowds on traditional shopping days like Black Friday. eCommerce is growing faster than ever and consumers are expected to spend 50% more time online in Q4 2020 than in Q4 2019, reports analytics firm App Annie .

Additionally, 50% of respondents to a survey by Retail Drive said they plan to use curbside or contactless pickup during the holiday season. Therefore, all businesses should continue to provide these options that reassure customers.

EMBRACE THE SPIRIT

Look at the various holidays as an opportunity to re-engage with your loyal customers and reach new ones. Plan around them as you create your yearlong advertising and marketing campaigns. Use data to inform decisions, try things, and innovate.

In closing, we want to be the first to say, from our family to yours, happy holidays!

Facebook Announces New Messenger Branding, Adds New Messaging Features

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 23:26:14 GMT

Facebook has announced a new look for Messenger, though most of the new features which are highlighted in the accompanying announcement had already been revealed previously as part of the integration of Instagram Direct and Messenger connection .

As you can see in the video, Messenger has added Rooms , collaborative video viewing , a customizable emoji response bar , new personalized stickers and color gradients in your threads . Which have all been previously announced, however there are a few new elements of note in the latest update.

The main change is the new Messenger logo, which also employs a color gradient tone.

As explained by Messenger :

"Our new logo reflects a shift to the future of messaging, a more dynamic, fun, and integrated way to stay connected to the people you’re close to."

I mean, it's not a significant difference. I don't know that it reflects "the future of messaging", but it's certainly more of its time than the plain blue of the past.

Facebook has also added new chat themes, "like love and tie-dye", which are essentially custom backgrounds for your chats.

"10 million people customize their conversations every day so we know that personalization is important when it comes to how you connect. Together with new delight features like selfie stickers and vanish mode that are coming soon, making your chats fun and personalized has never been easier."

In combination, the range of new Messenger features that have been unveiled over the past few months are significant, adding new ways to customize your chats, and engage via video, visual tools, within chat rooms and more. And taken in combination, it's clear that Messenger has evolved, even if this latest update is probably less of a shift, and more of a 'moment to reflect' on what's been added.

Definitely, the use case for Messenger has shifted in 2020. Back in April, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted that the number of Messenger video calls had doubled during the COVID-19 lockdowns, while some categories, like group video chat, had risen by 10x or more within the period. Which is why Facebook has added these new tools - while the company is also still pushing ahead with its broader plans to integrate all of its messaging tools , and implement end-to-end encryption by default in all chats.

Those two elements could still face significant opposition, especially given the recent finding that Facebook does hold monopoly power in its market , as a result of an antitrust investigation. That could mean that Facebook will eventually be blocked from merging its functionalities, or it could face further regulation. But either way, what is clear is that Messenger has evolved, and has changed significantly from a basic, SMS-style messaging app.

The advertising and branding opportunities within such are still somewhat limited, though Facebook is evolving on the front as well. And given rising usage, it is worth keeping tabs on your messaging opportunities, and considering how each new announcement and release relates to your efforts

How to Get Your Store Ready for Early Holiday Shoppers

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 22:51:53 GMT

It’s 2020, and holiday shopping (like everything else this year) will be a little different. Due to smaller budgets and pandemic concerns about supply chain disruptions, experts say the shopping season will start in October.

Why? Well, customers plan on spending less on holiday shopping this year. Plus, some people fear the gifts they want will sell out if they wait until after Thanksgiving. So, October it is!

This new timeline means that it’s already time to get your store ready for some holiday shopping. The good news is you can already cross one item off your to-do list: “Make a plan for holiday sales preparations.” We’ve already done that for you!

Read our step-by-step instructions to prepare for your holiday season sales, and download our free planner to guide you on your merry way.

Prepare Your Website

There are a lot of ways to make your store a number one destination for all holiday shoppers. But first, you have to ready your shop for a rush of new customers.

Start with testing your website speed. Then make sure all your payment and shipping options work. And most importantly: make sure your store is looking good! Your products should be displayed correctly on the site, have detailed descriptions and high-quality pictures.

Think Through Your Holiday Marketing

You may have already set your sights on some holiday discounts and special offers. However, holiday marketing isn’t just about creating a deal your customers will want. It’s also about showing related and recently viewed products, preparing gift-wrapped options, enabling selling tools for social media accounts (like Product tags on Instagram and Pinterest), creating urgency, running contests, and so much more.

C reate the Holiday Look for Your Store

The holiday season calls for a visual update—something bright, stylish and appealing. This applies to banners and popups, landing pages, covers for social profiles, newsletters, contest and giveaways pictures, as well as posts on your social media pages and even order wrapping.

It’s best to make the look consistent across all your platforms, but you’re free to experiment with different styles. There are plenty of free holiday templates online, for example, on Canva or Crello .

Add a “Holiday Gifts” Category to Your Store

Holiday shopping can be a tiresome task, so do some of the work for your customers to point them in the right direction. Create a seasonal product category with items that would make great gifts. Choose some items from your best-selling products or ones that are popular around the gift-giving time of year.

Prepare Your Holiday Newsletter

Email marketing remains one of the most effective marketing channels during the holiday season. The only drawback is that almost all sellers will try to use email for promoting their holiday sale.

To make the best of your holiday newsletters without annoying your potential customers or getting lost in a crowded promotions folder, first study past campaigns and analyze your competitors. Then think through your marketing campaign’s email subject, alternative subject lines, delivery date, offer type, and target customer segment.

Update Your Customer Reviews Page

When shopping online, people tend to rely on comments and reviews about products they are interested in. An estimated 58% of people read 4-10 reviews before they say they trust a business. That’s why it’s vital to get as much customer feedback as possible before you start your holiday sale.

Prepare Your Ad Campaigns

To make the most of your advertising campaigns, you need to be an expert on your audience. Special pieces of code — pixels — can help you with that. Install them ahead of time (aka nowish), so that you can compile some data before your sale starts. This way you’ll be able to remarket your products — show ads to people who are already interested in your items.

Remarketing is more effective than regular old advertising. It also allows you to save on ads, which often get more expensive during the crowded holiday season.

Perfect Your Customer Service

Prepare to communicate A LOT with shoppers during holiday sales. Be ready to answer endless questions, keep customers updated on their orders, and handle negative feedback in a way that it compliments your store.

Sounds like a tough job, no? Not to worry!

Minimize Cart Abandonment

Holiday season shopping can be tiring for your customer. Remember, lots of people are trying to buy gifts for all their friends and family at once! It’s easy to get distracted with other deals and offers, especially while shopping online.

That’s why it’s crucial to reduce cart abandonment in your store by setting up special automated emails. These handy little blurbs will remind your customers about the products they left in their carts, and (hopefully!) bring them back to complete their purchases.

Automate Everything

While the holiday season provides a great chance for sales growth, it’s also a demanding time for merchants. So save your sanity and use as many automation tools as possible. Whether it’s a scheduled posting app or automated ads or emails, implementing these tools will make your routine more time-efficient.

Rock Your Sale

Sales preparation might be time-consuming, but your efforts WILL pay off — literally. According to NRF, holiday sales represent about 2 0% of annual retail sales per year.

Now that your website is top-notch, your holiday marketing is well-targeted, and some of your processes are automated, you’re ready to rock your sale. Reach for the moon, and give us a shoutout in the comments below if we helped you along the way.

Celebrating 10 Years of Instagram | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 07:27:01 GMT

Happy birthday, Instagram!

Can you believe it has been a decade since Instagram launched?

As the saying goes, you must evolve to stay relevant - and the platform has done exactly that.

L et's look back in time and see how far the app has come from October 2010.

To dive deeper into the history of Instagram, keep reading.

2010

October: The first ever pic
The Instagram app officially launches, gaining 25,000 users in a day. Instagram’s co-founder Kevin Systrom uploaded the very first Instagram post of his golden retriever sitting at a taco stand, captioned ‘Test’. The picture was a sign of things to come, ten years later the total number of posts tagged #dog stands at 278m.

2011

January: Hello hashtags
Instagram adds hashtags to help users discover both photographs and each other. The app encourages users to make tags both specific and relevant, rather than tagging generic words like "photo", to make content stand out and attract like-minded users. #love is Instagram's top hashtag of all time, with 1.824B posts.

2012

April: Facebook buys Instagram
Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg buys Instagram for a billion dollars, despite the fact that Instagram had no revenue stream and was only 13 employees strong.
June: Instagram goes Exploring
A new Explore Page section is added to the app, allowing users to find new accounts to follow or interesting content to engage with. It allows users to scroll through Instagram in a new way, not just by username or hashtag, but by content suggestions curated specifically to their interests.

2013

May: Tagged photos
Instagram introduces photo tagging and a new ‘Photos of You’ tab on profiles, collating every tagged image of a user in the one spot.
June: Video sharing is added
Remember when you could only upload images to the platform? That all changed when Instagram rolled out the option to upload videos of up to 15 seconds, allowing users to share even more creative content with their audiences.
December: Sliding into DMs
Instagram adds their DM feature that allows users to send photos, videos and texts directly to another account in the app. In 2014, after just seven months of being released, Instagram announced that its DM feature had surpassed 200 million monthly active users.

2014

June: New editing tools released
This update to the image editing section allows users to not only add Instagram’s filters, but edit image characteristics like brightness, contrast, highlights, and shadows, all within the app.

2015

September: Small screen ads
Instagram allows advertisers to share 30-second in-feed video ads - twice the 15-second limit given for users.

2016

March: Minute video shares
The advertiser's advantage didn't last for long. This latest update allows users to share videos to Instagram that are up to 60 seconds in length and we start to see some slicker productions.
May: Time for a revamp
The app introduced a new look including an updated icon and in-app design. These changes almost made the app unrecognizable but were updated to better reflect the creative community found on Instagram.
June: RIP chronological feed
Instagram switches from a chronological feed to an algorithmically-driven feed, based on the users interests and interactions. The change of in-feed content caused major controversy across the Instagram community.
August: Story feature launches
Instagram launches their own version of Stories. This game-changing feature allows users to upload photos or videos which disappear after 24-hours, similar to Snapchat Stories. Instagram Stories is now one of the app’s most popular features, with over 500 million daily users.
November: Instagram becomes shoppable
Looking to path their way into e-commerce, Instagram releases Shoppable Tags. Brands can now tag shoppable products in feed posts. When users click on the tag, it will allow them to view the item and pricing, also giving them the option to be taken to the brands website to purchase.
November: Instagram goes Live
The Instagram Live feature is released allowing users to hold live broadcasts for up to one hour.

2017

February: Carousel posts are enabled
The ideal update for indecisive users, carousels make it possible to share up to ten pieces of content in the one mini album post. Content can include both photos and videos.

2018

June: The release of IGTV
Instagram doubles down on video with the launch of IGTV, a new video feature that allows users to upload long-form video content of up to 10 minutes. Creators with larger audiences are able to upload hour long IGTVs.
June: Instagram hits one billion monthly active users
Instagram hits a major milestone, reaching one billion monthly active users, after passing 800 million in September 2017. Sitting third behind Facebook, which is the number one social media platform with 2.23 billion users and YouTube coming in at second with 1.9 billion users.

2019

March: Checkout on Instagram
Instagram takes Shops to the next level and releases the checkout function. Now Instead of the 'View on Website' button when clicking on a shoppable tag, users can 'Checkout on Instagram’ enabling them to make quick and easy in-app purchases.
November: Hidden likes go global
The app’s test of hiding like counts from the public goes global. As part of a broader focus on user wellbeing, tests started in Canada, and made its way to Australia, Brazil, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand and the US. Now, testing will run everywhere to a small percentage of users in every country around the globe. Only the owner of a post can view its like count.

2020

May: The monetization of IGTV
Instagram announces it will allow creators to start making money directly off of IGTV. They confirm that ads will begin playing in IGTV videos for a selected 200 approved, english-speaking creator partners and select advertising partners, like IKEA and Sephora. The app will be sharing an ‘industry standard’ 55% cut and aim to expand this group of 200 to more creators around the globe.
August: Instagram competes with TikTok
Instagram rolls out Reels, a short-form video feature that allows users create and discover short entertaining videos, of up to 30-seconds in length. Reels can be shared not only onto the creators feed, but also on the Explore Page which is where the Reels feed is found.

Online Reviews Facts and Tips

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 02:16:31 GMT

Get the boost you need in your customer reviews.

In today’s hyper-digital world, having an online presence is key to a business’s success. In addition to websites, blogs, and social media profiles, having positive online reviews can play a defining role in the success of your business. In fact, over 90% of consumers seek out and read customer reviews prior to visiting or using a business, most of whom trust the reviews just as much as they trust personal recommendations. Online reviews are one of the most effective ways to drive potential customers to your business. Sure, you can spend thousands of dollars trying to shoot your business to the top of the google search engine results page (SERP), but that can be expensive and inefficient. In addition, while being at the top of the SERPs can show that you’re an established business, it lacks the authenticity and brand trust that an online business review can provide.

It's important to know why online reviews matter and how to get more. Reviews help potential customers choose your business & build trust.

Here are the reasons why online reviews are so important:

They increase brand trust. Consumers crave transparency and read fellow customer reviews in order to get it.
They expand your online exposure and local SEO. Since Google’s algorithm is driven by successful marketing tactics, businesses with multiple reviews show up first in local searches.
They help you gain a successful feedback loop and pertinent customer intelligence. Each online review will tell you what you’re doing wrong, how you can improve, and what your customers expect.
They improve click-through rates. It’s vital to get customers to click on your link and a good collection of positive reviews entices people to do just that.
They convert more customers. Obviously, a customer is more likely to make a purchase if they find themselves on your site. So, advertising your Google rating on your site will often seal the deal.

Recommend Review Platforms

Here is my section of platforms you should be encouraging your customers to post on:

Google Reviews

Google has arguably the most prominent online review site. For starters, Google reviews have the potential to put you near the top of the search results page (as seen below). Many businesses will see this as the sole reason for focusing on generating Google reviews. While Google’s online reviews are a great starting place, it should not be the only factor to your online review strategy. Not everyone has a Google Account, something that is required to leave a google review, meaning you must supplement those efforts with other online review sites. Besides, Google isn’t the only online review platform that can rank in the search results.

Facebook Reviews

With nearly 1.4 billion monthly active users and 890M daily active users, Facebook is an online review site to be reckoned with. One main advantage to Facebook reviews is that most of your customers use Facebook and will already be logged in (via mobile or desktop) allowing you to easily direct them straight to your review page. While Facebook reviews arguably aren’t quite on par Google and Yelp reviews, the platform is fast-approaching.

HOT TIP: I highly recommend added a review widget to your website to pull your reviews from facebook automatically and display them on your site, this will help with the conversion of visitors to your site.

How to Ask for Online Reviews

Many businesses that already have a review strategy in place will tell you that collecting reviews isn’t always the easiest thing to do. So what’s the best way to generate them?

As a general rule of thumb, don’t incentivise for online reviews. Offering an incentive in exchange for a review may lead to a biased review that might not accurately reflect that specific customer’s experience. You may argue that it’s just business and you will do whatever it takes to increase revenue for your business. I admire that tenacity, but some online review platforms like Yelp do not.

DON'T BE AFRAID TO ASK!

I recommend either setting time aside each week to send out messages or email asking for their review of your services of products, but you need to be proactive!

Now i love streamlining business and you can also streamline your review collection process by using an online review management platform that works for you and your customers. There are many online review management platforms out there but choosing one that works for both sides (your business and your customers) is key.

Managing Online Reviews

Positive online review response

Taking the time to respond to a few positive online business reviews is a great way to show that your business cares and is proud of the experience they were able to provide. Showing that your business is grateful for the company review also shows potential customers that your business thrives to create an experience like that for every single customer.

Negative online review response

On the flip side, taking the time to respond to a negative company review can have an even larger impact. In fact, 41% of consumers see a brand’s response to an online review as a sign that the brand really cares about its customers. This is a chance for your business to act fast and right whatever wrong the customer feels your business made. The above is a great example of taking a cool-headed approach in responding. They follow a few simple steps that can turn this negative into a positive for any potential customer:

They approach the review with a calm and collected response (cushioned-defense).
“Thank you for your review, we appreciate you taking the time…”
They offer a pro-active way to right their wrong.
“We’d like to do what we can to change that”
They ask to continue the conversation privately.
“Please contact our Customer Service Manager…”

What happens if the negative response isn’t legitimate? Hootsuite suggests that regardless of whether or not the complaint is legitimate, you should address it and apologize. Tell your side of the story in a sympathetic manner and offer to help correct the issue in anyway possible. Again, by addressing negative online business reviews, you get the opportunity to show that your brand has real, genuine people behind it and that you care about your customers’ experience.

Conclusion

Make it a point to respond to a certain ratio of positive and negative responses. This will help show your potential customers that you care about their experience. And, when you respond to a negative one (most everyone reading this will at some point) keep a cool head and approach it with a problem-solving mindset. Last, choose an online review management platform that works for you and your customers. Generally, text-based online review management platforms will work be more efficient and cost-effective than traditional email platforms.

If you don’t currently focus on gathering online reviews, head over to Google My Business and claim your business/location. Also, make sure you do the same on Yelp and Facebook . From there, take similar steps as mentioned above and watch those reviews flow in.

Facebook Launches 'Facebook Business Suite', an All-in-One Management Tool for Facebook and Instagram

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Sun, 20 Sep 2020 07:46:11 GMT

Facebook has launched yet another Facebook management platform, with this one, called 'Facebook Business Suite', which is focused on making it easier for small businesses to manage their Facebook and Instagram presences from a single platform.

As you can see from the video, the new Business Suite platform incorporates all of your Facebook Page and Instagram profile options into one space, and will be available on desktop or in a new mobile app.

As per Facebook , Business Suite enables users to:

Save time - Post to Facebook and Instagram at the same time and manage posts in one place to stay connected to both communities.
Stay up-to-date - Get all of your Facebook and Instagram messages, notifications and alerts in one place so you can stay up to date and respond to all of your customers more easily.
Business results - See what’s working with Facebook and Instagram insights and learn what your customers are looking for.

So instead of using Pages Manager or Creator Studio , you now have yet another way to stay across all of your Facebook and Instagram business interactions - though this one does cover a lot of functionalities within a single app.

Message management is nothing new - you can get all your messages from Facebook, Messenger and Instagram in Pages Manager already, while Facebook added Facebook/Instagram scheduling to Creator Studio last year .

But then again, the integrated message inbox could be helpful within your workflow.

While the scheduling layout adds another view:

What I like most about Business Suite, however, is the layout of its analytics tab, which makes it a little easier to get a full overview of your Instagram and Facebook performance in one place.

Creator Studio also has analytics displays, but it's more focused on video post performance, whereas this listing gives you a better, overall comparison of your Facebook and Instagram presence. That's probably a personal preference, but I do like the layout and simplicity of this format.

And Business Suite may soon have another feature that Pages Manager doesn't - according to Axios , Facebook is also planning to integrate WhatsApp messaging functionality into the app in the near future. Facebook has been working towards integrating its messaging apps over the past year and a half, and if WhatsApp functionality is indeed added to Business Suite, this would be the first app which enables responses across all three platforms.

So how functional and helpful is it? It depends on what you're trying to do, but definitely, it does integrate all the key Facebook and Instagram business management tools into one app, and it largely seems to meet its remit of simplifying the various tools into one platform.

Facebook also says that it plans to make Business Suite "the main interface for businesses of all sizes who use Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp". So it may well be the one to focus on, if you're looking to establish a central platform for your Facebook/Instagram management.

Accessing Business Suite

To access Business Suite, log into the Facebook account associated with your business. Then, if you’re eligible, you’ll automatically be redirected to Business Suite when you visit business.facebook.com on desktop.

If you’re already using the Pages Manager App on mobile, you’ll automatically see the option to opt into Business Suite. If you aren’t currently using Pages Manager App, you can visit the iOS or Android app stores to download the Facebook Business Suite app.

Facebook Business Suite will be gradually rolling out in September. Note that this product is not currently meant for those using Ads Manager for advertising. To learn more about Facebook Business Suite, visit our help center .

Essential Web Design Tips

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 08:00:46 GMT

Are you looking for ways to improve your business website? Want to know the web design factors that lead to a lower bounce rate and higher conversion rate?

Here are a few of my top tips for improving your business website!

RESPONSIVE DISPLAY

One of the most important tips is to ensure your website is responsive on ALL platforms!

42% of researchers use a mobile device during their purchasing process.

If you want users to come back and convert, make sure your site works on mobile.

SECURE YOUT SITE

Ensure you have a SSL Certificate installed on your site. SSL (https) encrypts the link between your landing page and visitor's browser.

Having a secure site is now important more than ever, not only for your visitors reassurance and trust but also for you google ranking as well.

THE NEED FOR SPEED

40% of people abandon a website if it take longer then 3-6 seconds to load.

Ensure your site images are compressed or you have the Lazy loading of images & widgets function enabled, this will speed up the loading of the site.

Go one step further and setup a logo animation while the site is loading, this will keep the users engaged and distracted from the loading site.

HAVE A CALL TO ACTION

What do you want people to do after they read your services or look at your products?

Have a call to action to convert them as a customer. Use catchy phrases to entice them to engage, avoid the word "submit" on forms, lean more towards "tell me more", " I ready" or "Send message".

KEEP IT TO THE POINT

Site copy/content should be to the point. Don't overload sentences with information, especially in your opening paragraph. Studies show that users only need 14 words to understand the majority of what you are saying, so ensure you keep it to the point, users only want to read what they are after.

USE VIDEOS

Videos are a great way to capture someones attention. Video content is the most trending and most successful content on social media.

Using videos on your website is a great way to define what your services are or to provide information on your products.

TIP: If you embed a video from youtube, remove the related videos at the end of the video, this just makes it look more professional and gets rid of any unnecessary videos showing on your website, potentially other videos from businesses like yours.

VISIBLE REVIEWS

90% of buying decision are influenced by reviews.

Display reviews from people who you have worked with or customers who have used your products. Integrate a widget to display reviews from your facebook page to make it easier. Also ask from reviews, if you are proud of your product or services, get users to write you a review!

"WHY" NOT "WHAT"

The user already know what solution they are looking for, write benefit-centric content.

Show them WHY they should work with you, "Solution-selling" method is less effective then selling the "why"

CUSTOM IMAGES

Good images increase readership, random stock images do now.

If your images are not conveying your values or brand image, your should remove then or add some custom ones which do! Get Snappin!!

VALUABLE CONTENT

Typical buyers consume 3-5 pieces of content before engaging.

Make sure your website has plenty of insightful content which ids yours customers buying decision. Use video, infographics or blogs, like this to provide value and prove your knowledge to build trust.

QUICK FORMS

Avoid having too many form fields. for each extra field you risk losing the users. keep it simple, capture the essential information but remember you can also collect the remain information later.

LIVE CHAT

44% of people say live chat with a real person is the most important feature a website can offer in aiding conversions.

I highly recommend integrating the facebook messenger chat plugin into your site, it directly link in with your facebook business page inbox. Not only can facebook users use the chat function, but non facebook users can also use it.

CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO ON HOW TO INSTALL IT INTO YOUR SITE

SOCIAL LAST

Ensure social icons are located at the bottom of the page. Don't let your readers divert to social media before they've read what you have to offer.

There are a few of my tips on ways you can increase conversion on your website and improve your site functionality overall.

If you unsure your website is built for success, i offer a free website audit where i can review your website and see what changes need to be made to your site. TELL ME MORE

3 Ways to Boost the Performance of Your Facebook Ads

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 18:22:35 GMT

When you consider the rapid adaptation of technology over time, you would expect that another social media platform would have risen up and taken the mantle in recent years, but Facebook, the looming giant in the space, has remained the most stable and powerful, seeing off all challengers thus far.

According to Sprout Social’s '2020 critical social media stats' , 89% of marketers now use Facebook as their primary ad platform, while 83% of consumers regularly log into the app. The alignment here makes sense, businesses will go wherever the audience is, and no platform has a larger audience right now.

But reach and resonance are not connected - just because you can reach more people on Facebook, that doesn't mean you're going to be able to make them stop as they scroll by and tap of click on your ad. For that, you need to establish effective targeting, you need to understand your audience and what they're looking for, and you need to align your ad presentation with their preferences.

That takes work - but if you're looking for some key tips in improving the performance of your Facebook ads, check out these pointers and tools.

1. Build Effective Retargeting Campaigns on Facebook

Reaching out to old customers, or those who've almost become your customers (i.e. expressed interest in your brand but never converted), is one of the most effective ways to boost your Facebook campaign performance.

Both Facebook and Google enable you to optimize your campaign performance based on specific interactions (i.e. events) which occur on your site. Event tracking requires some basic coding knowledge, as you need to insert relevant code parameters on your site.

Oribi is an easy to use analytics tool that makes event tracking and implemention easy. Basically, Oribi will export your designated event data into Facebook automatically for you to then use in optimizing your campaigns.

It can be an extremely useful tool for small business owners and startups that can't afford to buy conversion optimization services, or have limited knowledge of event tracking and coding.

Moreover, by seeing which customers are converting, and where they're coming from, you'll find it much easier to customize your campaigns, and get better results. I saw a boost in my engagement right away, without having to rely on more complex and expensive analytics platforms.

2. Start Excluding

Everyone who's conducted even a starter campaign on Facebook would be aware of the exclusion and focus options in Facebook's ad targeting tools. I was surprised to find through my own research that many people - even more advanced users who've been using Facebook ads for years - are not using them.

In a way, I understand the impulse to include as much of your target demographic as possible - after all, just having that audience in mind has already created a bubble to build on. Why would you need another one?

But social media ads are different than other media options. The more your audience sees them, in many cases, the less likely they are to follow the links.

Why is that? Because social media is a place to scroll and respond in the moment. Because we often buy or click on a whim, much more than if they were discovering a product from a storefront or dedicated search. This is obviously not the case on sites like Pinterest, where building lasting boards is the point, but Facebook is somewhere you go to react and share, not to curate.

This applies to Facebook ad exclusions, because you can use them to avoid over-exposure to people who, for example, have already purchased your product, or have been in direct contact with your brand. So if someone were to like your page, they can get updates there rather than be bombarded with ads every time they log in.

Here’s a detailed guide on how to exclude audiences on Facebook , and who you may want to prevent from seeing your ads.

3. Get Your Customers Involved

Testimonials in ads are nice, but they fail to catch anywhere near the power of direct user to user engagement.

You can customize your calls to action to reflect the platform by asking customers to review the product directly on the thread where they discovered it.

Not too long ago, I ordered a semi-permanent hair dye from a Facebook ad. I received a message from a customer service rep in Messenger shortly after, asking if I would be willing to provide photos of my hair, and a short review in a linked ad. In exchange, they would send me a free bottle of the same or any other color of my choice.

I really liked this approach. First of all, it's a great way of facilitating word of mouth, and instilling trust by adding authenticity to a testimonial. Second, it works well with the product - it's a hair dye that needs to be refreshed within a couple of weeks, and it gave me the option of either opting for the same color, or trying another one. This also helped to build a relationship with me, as a customer, as it gave me the opportunity to become more reliant on the product.

But what impressed me most about this approach was the eventual results. I accepted their offer, and took two photos of the finished product once I had received it. I wrote a couple of sentences about how my hair felt and how easy it was to use. A week later, I had my free bottle in hand, virtually guaranteeing that I'll use it again. My testimonial got more than thousand likes, and generated a lot of engagement, with both me and the brand itself, where they were able to answer questions, and plenty of people said they had just bought their own, were about to, or were tagging others who would also be interested.

Proof of concept, right there on the page.

As noted, utilizing advanced targeting, and understanding your audience, is key to maximizing your Facebook ads approach. Yes, you can reach millions of people on the platform, but no one will case if your ad is too generic, your audience is too broad, and/or they can't relate to the advertised product.

These tips will help you address all of these key issues.

Contactless Sign-In Solution

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Sun, 19 Jul 2020 01:37:11 GMT

With the Government regulations changing for the hospitality industry, I wanted to share a solution for you to help streamline the sign-in process at your premises.

My Guest List is being used by many pubs and clubs already to capture, securely store and manage contactless check-ins at venues for contact tracing. With My Guestlist, you can export a spreadsheet of all check-ins for a given date. Check-In data is automatically removed after 28 days, as per Government Guidelines.

Your customer's can check-in at your venue in one of 3 ways: Scan a QR code, Navigate to a URL, or send an SMS to a dedicated number with their details.

My Guest List also provides you with a PDF poster automatically generated for you to print out and display at your venue for people to see how they can check-in.

See some of the reasons both large and small brands across multiple industries are using My Guestlist vs standard QR approaches:

Free SMS check-ins for patrons, not just QR code scans.
Your business, your branding. Poster branding, form - branding and form customisation
Repeat visitor recognition, making it quicker to signin!
Multiple locations under one parent account
Advanced reporting by group, single location and any time period
Localised to specific state guidelines and requirements
Personalised success messages (e.g. Thanks for checking-in John")
Check-outs, not just check-ins
Live support

Don't forget to register as a COVID Safe Business, As a COVID Safe business, you’ll be able to show customers that you’re committed to keeping them safe, building trust with them that you are committed to making a difference. Registering your premises is optional and comes with some obligations. You’ll need a COVID-19 Safety Plan to register.

If you have completed your COVID-19 Safety Plan, you can now register as a COVID Safe business

I really hope this information will help you and your business keep moving forward, I know in times like this it can be stressful, but just remember we are all here to support you.

Please feel free to reach out to me if you need help or assistance, I am here to help you in any way I can.

Stay Safe!

It’s up to all of us to keep healthy and well.

https://www.nsw.gov.au/c…/how-to-protect-yourself-and-others

How to Manage Negative Social Media Comments | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 18:14:18 GMT

At some stage, all social media managers will have to deal with negative comments on their brand Pages or posts.

Some of these comments will be from blatant trolls - people trying to hijack the conversation, and/or making loosely connected remarks based on the original post. While others will be clear and passionate criticisms of your brand and/or product.

The former, in many cases, can be ignored (or deleted in the case of offensive remarks), but the latter needs to be addressed, in order to manage brand perception and maintain, and ideally improve, consumer standing.

So how do you go about it? What's the best way to manage negative responses?

When you see a negative comment, your first reaction may be to respond in-kind, and dish out some of your own harsh responses to put the commenter in his or her place. This approach never generally doesn't work out so well.

In order to formulate a better approach, the team from Digital Giants have put together this simple overview of how to respond to negative mentions. The steps here are basic, and easy to follow, and cover the key points that you need to keep in mind.

This can be a key element, and it's important to have a coordinated approach to such within your business.

Check out the infographic below.

How to Design Compelling Facebook and Instagram Ads That Convert | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 18:03:29 GMT

Are you considering Facebook and Instagram ads for your business? Want to create compelling ads that convert viewers into your desired action?

The team from Bannersnack share their tips for success in this infographic.

They cover the following 3 major placement areas:

Facebook desktop
Facebook app
Instagram app

Check out the infographic below for more detail.

Apply for a small business COVID-19 recovery grant

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 02:25:41 GMT

$3000 grants for small business

The NSW Government is gradually lifting the restrictions on movement and business trading that were designed to reduce the spread of COVID-19. This means some businesses can now reopen.

If your small business or not-for-profit organisation has experienced a decline in turnover as a result of COVID-19, you may be eligible for a small business recovery grant of between $500 and $3000.

This grant helps small businesses meet the costs of safely reopening or up-scaling operations. These expenses include, but are not limited to:

fit-out changes and temporary physical changes (for example, plastic barriers at checkouts)
staff training and counselling
business advice and continuity planning
cleaning products and additional cleaning services
additional equipment necessary to comply with social distancing or other public health measures
marketing, communications and advertising
digital solutions (for example, e-commerce or business websites).
This grant can only be used for purchases of eligible expenses made from 1 July 2020, and only where no other government support is available.

Note: Applications close 11:59pm Sunday 16 August 2020.

For more information and to know if you are eligible for this grant, CLICK HERE

Upload Videos Directly to Your Sites

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 18:10:54 GMT

Upload videos directly to your sites as easily as you add images and in any format you want. You’ll save time and effort, all while bringing motion, excitement and atmosphere to your sites.

Upload Your First Video & See Just How Easy It Is

From now on, you don’t need to use external services like YouTube and Vimeo to show videos on your sites. Simply upload them directly to your site via the Video widget or any row/column background. The videos look great on all devices and can be customized by displaying controls, autoplay, loop and mute.

Uploaded Videos: Better Site Speed & Quality

Videos uploaded directly to your sites are optimized and served in MP4 format. This means your videos won’t slow down your sites or impact your Lighthouse scores. They also display better in row/column backgrounds than any external videos.

Ready to give it a try?

Open any Video widget or row/column background, and click Upload Video. The videos will upload directly to your site and be stored in the site Video Picker so they are always accessible and can be reused.

Videos - A Simple Way to Say So Much

Videos are an excellent way to convey moods and messages on your sites. Use them to:
Grab visitors’ attention
Create a cool atmosphere
Show a product or service in action
Generate excitement
So much more

Introducing Site Overview

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 18:07:08 GMT

Everything You Need to Manage Your Site, All in One Place

Site Overview is your new site management tool, designed to tell your site’s story at a glance. For you Site Overview is a sleek, powerful dashboard, increasing your efficiency by giving you site info, and the ability to manage and quickly access key site actions, all in one place.

With Site Overview, your clients:

Experience the value they are getting from the site you've built for them.
Enjoy a professional dashboard customised with your brand.
Quickly access areas you've given them permissions to (blog, store and more)

Site Overview is now the default dashboard for clients with a single site. Clients with access to multiple sites can access their individual site overview dashboard, by clicking on Overview from their Site List.

The Most Common Website Mistakes Affecting Your SEO in 2020 | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 17:52:04 GMT

Are you struggling to get your business website to appear on Google? Want to identify and eliminate the SEO mistakes on your site?

The team from Sitechecker share some of the most common SEO mistakes to avoid in this infographic.

They break things down as follows:

Technical errors
On-page SEO errors
Crawlability errors

Check out the infographic below for more detail.

Need help getting your site found on google?

Book your free 30-minute audit with me at a time convenient for you. CLICK HERE

Social Media Image and Video Sizes Cheat Sheet 2020 | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 18:42:04 GMT

With social media feeds getting ever more crowded, winning attention for your business also becomes ever more difficult.

In amongst the thousands of posts, updates and Stories vying for consumer attention each day, you need to somehow make your messages stand out, and a key element in this will be your visuals, which can grab people as they scroll and get them to stop and take notice.

But in order to maximize the potential of thumb-stopping visuals, you need to be using the right presentation formats for each platform. The best header image in the world won't matter if it looks pixelated and unprofessional. As such, you need to ensure that when you do create visual content, you're doing so with the right information about what each platform requires, in terms of dimensions and formats, within each specific element.

To help with this, the team from squarelovin have put together an updated listing of all the key visual dimension data for each of the major social platforms.

It's worth keeping this chart handy, and ensuring that you cross-check your uploaded images - and to also check your visuals on mobile and desktop, and in viewer mode where possible, to ensure that your images and videos look their best.

Check out the full infographic below

Facebook Provides New Overview of How its Ad System Works

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 16 Jun 2020 17:38:26 GMT

Trying to get your head around how Facebook advertising works, and how to get the best reach and results for your business?

With more organizations looking to online options to connect with consumers, a lot of people are trying to get a better understanding of the details of Facebook's ad systems. To help with this, this week, Facebook published a new overview

of how its ad system works as part of its "Good Questions, Real Answers" series.

Here's an overview of the key points.

First off, Facebook notes that it uses two key factors to determine which ads to show users:

Audience targeting, which is selected by advertisers, and determines which people are eligible to see each ad
It's ad auction process, which is based on a range of factors relating to bid price, individual user engagement and ad quality

The first point is relatively straight-forward - as explained by Facebook:

"First, advertisers choose their target audience through our self-service tools. Audiences are created based on categories like age and gender, as well as actions people take on our apps such as liking a Facebook Page or clicking on an ad. Advertisers can also use information they have about their audience, like a list of emails or people who’ve visited their website, to build a custom audience or a lookalike audience."

So you can use Facebook's in-depth audience targeting tools, based on their profile and behavioural information related to Facebook usage and data, or you can upload your own audience information and look to either target them, or people with similar traits, via Facebook's systems.

Lookalike Audiences can be a particularly powerful option in this respect. With Lookalikes, Facebook's systems are able to match the profile data of your existing email or customer list against other profiles on Facebook, in order to find people who share the same interests and traits. The accuracy of lookalikes does depend on the amount of data you provide Facebook's system, and will vary from audience to audience, but they can be a good way to reach people similar to those who've already shown interest in your products.

But here's where Facebook ads get more complex.

After you've chosen your target audience, and submitted your ad, Facebook will then decide who actually sees your promotion by determining the best match for each individual user based on this calculation:

Each Facebook user has a range of ads that they could be shown each time they log on, based on the aforementioned targeting process. Based on the eligible ads, Facebook will then determine a 'winner' for each user based on:

Advertiser Bid - How much money you're spending on your Facebook ads - the more you allocate, the more this will contribute to reach
Estimated Action Rate - Facebook estimates the likelihood that each user will take action on an ad, based on a range of factors relating to their individual behaviors
Ad Quality - Facebook measures this based on feedback from users (e.g. how many people report or hide your ad) and "assessments of low-quality attributes" (too much text in the ad's image, sensationalized language, engagement bait).

Of these three elements, you can control the first and last point - you determine how much you're willing to spend and ad quality is based on a range of technical and objective factors, the latter being difficult to advise on in a general sense.

Estimated Action Rate is a more variable factor, which is largely out of your control - though not entirely.

As per Facebook:

"To find the estimated action rate, machine learning models predict a particular person’s likelihood of taking the advertiser’s desired action, based on the business objective the advertiser selects for their ad, like increasing visits to their website or driving purchases. To do this, our models consider that person's behavior on and off Facebook, as well as other factors, such as the content of the ad, the time of day, and interactions between people and ads."

So, you obviously can't control what people do on or off Facebook. But you can provide Facebook with more context on such, as it relates to your business.

In determining user behavior, Facebook factors in:

Things a person does while using Facebook apps, like clicking on an ad or liking a post.
Things a person does outside of Facebook that businesses share with us via our Business Tools, like visiting a website, purchasing a product or installing an app.

The Business Tools that Facebook refers to here include the Facebook Pixel , which helps to provide more contextual data to Facebook based the actions that people take on your website:

"When someone visits your website and takes an action (for example, buying something), the Facebook pixel is triggered and reports this action. When more and more conversions happen on your website, Facebook gets better at delivering your ads to people who are more likely to take certain actions"

So adding the Facebook Pixel to your website can help to improve your ad performance by ensuring that Facebook is able to target people who have visited your website, and/or those who have purchased from you in the past - or people who share similar traits to those who have.

So while you can't significantly influence the Estimated Action Rate stat, as it's based on individual behavior, you can help better inform Facebook as to people who are more likely to take action by installing the Pixel on your site, which can subsequently improve ad performance.

In addition to these notes, Facebook also provides some extra pointers:

Ads with the highest bid don’t always win the auction. Ads with lower bids often win if our system predicts a person is more likely to respond to them, or finds that they’re higher quality.
Facebook does not sell people’s data to advertisers or anyone else
Facebook does not use the content of people’s text messages or phones’ microphone to inform ads or to change what they see in News Feed

So Facebook's not listening into your private conversations , no matter how much it might seem like it. There's a range of explanations as to how it could be determining your interests around conversations you have, but Facebook has repeatedly noted, even under oath , that it does not do this.

In summary, Facebook's ad action utilizes a range of factors which are determined by Facebook's systems, and many of them are difficult to influence. But there are certain ways in which you can improve the performance of your Facebook ads.

Good creative is really the key, ensuring you're creating messages that resonate with your target audience, but these other factors will also help to improve reach and response.

You can read Facebook's full ad system explainer here .

How to Build Trust in Your eCommerce Website and Increase Online Sales | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 19:24:55 GMT

This is a subtitle for your new post

The team from Go Globe share the stats you need to know in this infographic.

They cover the following fears of online consumers:

Is the business for real?
Can I shop safely
Will I like this product?
Is there anyone I can talk to?
Do you handle returns?

Check out the infographic for more detail.

How to Sell on Facebook and Instagram | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Thu, 28 May 2020 08:33:20 GMT

Facebook recently announced its updated 'Shops' feature for both Facebook and Instagram, which will put more emphasis on eCommerce on each platform, and make it easier for SMBs to upload their catalog and start selling items direct from their posts.

But the new Shops experience isn't here just yet, at least for the majority. Facebook's working on the final details before rolling out the new Shops experience to all businesses, but last week, Facebook's VP of Marketplace & Payments Deborah Liu answered some questions about the coming update, and what users can expect, which points to some of the requirements and processes that will be in place.

A few key notes:

Business Pages will get a notification or email when Shops is made available to them
Shops will be customizable with brand elements
Product listings will be managed via Commerce Manager
Shops will be for physical goods only at launch, but Facebook will look to expand into other services, like courses and online offerings, in future
Shops will be rolling out "over the next several months"

Of course, some businesses can already create Shop type listings on Facebook and Instagram. The new, updated process will look to streamline the process, but to give you an idea of how the system will work, here's an overview of the current Commerce Manager set-up for selling products in Facebook's apps (expanded from this overview ).

You can check out the Facebook Blueprint course on Commerce Manager for more info.

ADD TO FAVORITES - NOW IN YOUR ONLINE STORES

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 26 May 2020 17:38:58 GMT

Our online store platform is improving all the time. The newest improvement: online shoppers can now tag Favorite items in your store, so they can come back later and purchase easily. This encourages visitors to return and is great for boosting sales.

Favorites are the way to go

The favorites button makes it really easy for shoppers to browse through your site and collect the items they like. They just click the Favorite button and the item is added to their Favorites list. Items that have been “Favorited” can be viewed together, on any device, by clicking the Favorites link in the site’s menu.

Customers don’t need to log into the site to see Favorites. Items marked as Favorite are stored for all site visitors.

Turn on Favorites in your stores right now!

To enable it, go to Store Panel > Settings > General > Cart and checkout and enable Favorites.

Automated Favorites Reminder is ready, too

You can also send automatic email reminders to remind site visitors that they’ve marked items as Favorite. Just go to Store Panel > Marketing > Automated emails and turn on the Favorite Products Reminder email. For more on making the most of automated store emails, see this .

5 Tips to Increase Your Brand's Engagement on Social Media | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 19 May 2020 09:23:35 GMT

Are you looking for more ways to prompt engagement with your brand's social media profiles?

Putting together a social media presence is one thing, but actually generating engagement and activity is another, and it can be challenging to get the initial conversation started, which can then prompt further sharing and reach.

To help, the team at NEO 360 Digital have put together this collection of simple tips to consider - and while none of them are revolutionary, they may prompt you to think of new ways to approach your social media activity, in order to spark more response.

Check out the full infographic below.

Social Media Image Size Guide 2020 Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 19 May 2020 09:14:09 GMT

Are you using the right-sized images for your social media profiles?

Using images which don't meet the requirements of each platform can impact your brand perception, with pixelated and low quality visuals making you look unprofessional or not up to date.

And with more people searching online amid the COVID-19 lockdowns, now could be a good time to check up on your presentation and make sure you're in the clear - and this overview from the team at Constant Contact could help.

In the below infographic, you can see the key image requirements for all the major platforms - worth noting in your approach.

WHY MULTI NETWORKING IS IMPORTANT

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 05 May 2020 18:31:34 GMT

As a business, marketing is everything. After all, a business without marketing isn't a business seen.

Businesses need to put their brand in the eyes of their potential clients, that's why multi-networking for businesses is very important. Now more then ever, business brands need to be active on at least 2 social media accounts to ensure their brand has a high exposure level.

Multi-networking is seemingly driven by two primary factors. Firstly, the widening of choice of platforms and secondly, the growing degree of specialisation among different networks. So, for example, people turn to Instagram to upload pictures and LinkedIn to network with their business peers.

Consider this as well, the average amount of time spent on social media each day is two hours and 15 minutes. During this time, the user is exposed to multiple brand advertisements. This is why it is important for businesses to not only be active on social media buy posting regularly, but to also invest in advertising on social media platforms.

Automated Store Emails: Increase Sales & Retention

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 02:00:21 GMT

As eCommerce activities become even more important these days, the competition for customer loyalty is increasing too. New automated emails can help your business stay top-of-mind amongst your customers by automatically sending emails at key points in their online journey.

Improve your businesses online sales and retention by enabling automatic emails in a click. Remind potential customers about abandoned carts, ask customers for feedback, or re-engage with customers who haven’t visited the store in a while - all automatically and with no effort from you.

You’ve got several automated emails, ready to be activated in your store panel, each one triggered by a different event. Have them sent automatically and bring customers back to finish their purchase, check out new items, and more. Add coupons to sweeten the deal and increase the chance of closing the sale; include social media links to increase engagement.

When automated emails are just what you need

Here are some examples of when automated emails reach customers at just the right moment in their shopping experience.

A site visitor abandons their cart . If a site visitor adds items to their cart but leaves before paying, an automated email sent 2 hours later may be the nudge they need to complete the purchase. If the email has a coupon, you’ll increase the chance that they make a purchase.
A customer made a purchase last year. Reminding that customer that you have new items in your shop may be just the thing to bring them back again.
A customer just bought an item. They liked what they saw in your store and may be willing to give positive feedback. An automatic email is a great way to encourage feedback.

Immediate benefits of automated emails

Enabling these emails can have so many benefits for your site, including:

Increase sales. Because these emails reach customers at just the right moment, they deliver higher open rates and generate more conversions than regular marketing emails.
Cost-effective marketing . It’s cheaper to keep an existing customer than to attract a new one. By targeting people who have already visited your store, it’s easier to convert and retain them as customers.
Reduced effort . Automated emails require no additional effort. Set them up once, and they’re good to go for every customer that triggers them.

Ready-to-send emails, already in your online stores

These emails are ready to send for all stores. To manage them, go to Store Panel > Marketing > Automated emails. Turn on one or all of the following emails.

Abandoned cart recovery email
Order confirmation with related products
Feedback request
“Thank you for shopping with us”
Inactive customer reminder
Purchase anniversary

Remember to add coupons for improved conversion and include social media links for better engagement.

When to Post on Instagram to Maximize Engagement (2020 Data) | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Sat, 04 Apr 2020 23:42:21 GMT

When's the best time to post on Instagram in order to maximize engagement?

This is a common question in social media marketing circles, and while the true best time for your brand will relate to your unique audience, there are some guideposts and pointers that you can use, based on existing data, which can help to point you in the right direction, and improve your strategy.

This week, the team from Tailwind has published its latest report into Instagram post times, broken down by industry, and based on analysis of over 1.8 million posts over the first three months of 2020.

Again, these times are not prescriptive - they're more intended as a starting point for your own research and analysis. But they do provide some good food for thought, and could end up being key in determining your best approach to Instagram posting.

Check out the full infographic below.

Facebook Publishes New Guides to Help Businesses Deal With the Impacts of COVID-19

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Sat, 04 Apr 2020 23:34:00 GMT

What a year the first three months of 2020 have been.

It feels like such a long time ago that Facebook was providing guidance for businesses impacted by major bushfires across Australia, and now, The Social Network has published a new set of guides to help businesses dealing with the latest major event - the COVID-19 pandemic, which has effectively shut down the majority of the world.

With a wide range of sectors being hit hard by the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 shutdowns, Facebook has published three new guides:

Responding to the Coronavirus: For Retail Advertisers

Responding to the Coronavirus: For eCommerce Advertisers

Safe and Sound: How Businesses Can Respond to the Coronavirus

T he short guidebooks offer practical advice on keeping yourself and your staff safe, while also protecting your customers, and maintaining connection, and operations, where possible, via your Facebook properties.

Of course, online tools can't totally replace what's being lost, which is why every Government across the world is working to provide stimulus packages and prop up their respective economies. Follow this link to help full websites and links

But with the lockdowns looking likely to stay in place for some time yet, it's worth exploring ways in which you can maintain connection with your customers, and ensure that you're maximizing all available opportunities to keep things moving within the environment we now find ourselves.

Nobody wants to be operating within a pandemic, but the more we can find ways to operate within the situation as it is, the more we limit the losses, and position our businesses to come out of the crisis on a stronger footing.

These notes from Facebook provide some key guidance and pointers on this front, and are definitely worth a look.

FREE ONLINE STORE OFFER

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 04:05:47 GMT

Excited to introduce a NEW SPECIAL OFFER to businesses looking to sell online, designed to help you during these difficult times.

To further support businesses during this pandemic I'm offering a 50% discount off my monthly ecommerce subscription plan for the rest of the year on all new stores developed from today until May 31, 2020.

I have also passed this discount onto my current eCommerce Clients.

Hopefully this help businesses adapt to the forever changing environment and assist them in still being able to maintain sustainability for their business.

Businesses will have access to several premium features, many of them specifically aimed at generating revenue right now. These features include:

Up to 500 items
No transaction fee
In-store and scheduled order pickup
Gift cards
Discount coupons
Sell on Facebook and Instagram
Square POS
And more

READY TO GET ONLINE?

CALL NOW: 0407 173 297
EMAIL ME: nick@SuperbMarketing.com.au

Or send us a message, click the icon on the right.

A great opportunity for NOW for the Future

An online store can help small businesses who have had to shut their physical business and are looking to reach their customers in a new and creative way. It can also open exciting opportunities for the future.

Bakeries, restaurants & cafes can sell packaged items for pickup that they once sold over the counter.
Beauty salons of all kinds can sell products and kits for home use.
Boutiques and small shops can sell merchandise for delivery and/or pickup.
Any type of business can offer Gift Cards, making it easy for customers to support local retailers.

ALSO SEE THE VIDEO BELOW....

Share the great news in multiple channels

Once we have set up your Special Offer Store, make sure you share the great news to your customers. Some examples for spreading the word:

A sign in their storefront window telling people about the new online shop
A newsletter sent to their customers by email.
An SMS or Whatsapp message announcing the new store.
A banner / hero image on the site itself.

To keep the store after December 31, 2020, you will need to subscribe to our monthly e-commerce Subscription.

Zoom Widget Intergration

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 21:25:03 GMT

Zoom , the hugely popular video conferencing service, now has its own widget built into the Superb Platform. Giving you the opportunity to engage with your customers with live video conferencing via Zoom. It's a great tool for creating personal engagement during this challenging period, and beyond.

With so many people working from home due to the coronavirus, it’s more important than ever for companies to find creative ways of engaging with their customers and conveying their core business values. One way millions of people are doing this is via Zoom, the video conferencing service that’s free, easy to use and accessible on every device.

Zoom is one of the top downloads on both Google Play and the Apple App store. If you aren’t using it yet, now is the perfect time to look at creative ways to engage with your client base via video conferencing on your sites.

You can even monetize online meetings by adding a PayPal widget to make collecting payment easy, and set the Zoom meeting with a password that is sent after payment is received.

Zoom is a great tool for attracting new visitors, creating a database of email addresses for future communications, and solidifying your client's reputation in their field.

Types of sites that are perfect for Zoom

While physical shops, studios, salons and restaurants are closed, Zoom can help your customers engage with their customers. A few examples:

Personal trainers, yoga teachers, etc. can host classes, enabling visitors to pay for single classes or purchase monthly memberships.
Private tutors can offer online lessons in real-time with one student or an entire class.
Restaurants can offer live cooking classes or demonstrations to promote deliveries.
Therapists can hold remote, face-to-face meetings with their clients.
Cosmeticians & hairstyles can offer face-to-face consultations that include personalized tips and more.

A bit more about Zoom

Zoom had a 1,270% increase in downloads over the past month, with numbers increasing every day. Its free plan allows for meetings that are up to 40 minutes long, with up to 100 participants per meeting.

To set up an account, you just need an email address. Download Zoom, set up an account and you can host or join meetings.
Zoom can be used on desktop, android or iOS, making it super accessible to a maximum number of people.
Zoom comes with filters to improve how you look, a selection of backgrounds, allows you record meetings and more.
After every meeting, you can pull the attendance list for follow-up communications and offerings.

To read more about using Zoom, see their website at zoom.us .

For more on how people are using Zoom these days, see articles in the New York Times , Adweek and Forbes .

Gift Cards In The Online Store

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 04:22:23 GMT

Add digital gift cards to your online stores and make it simple for visitors to buy a present, even if they don’t find exactly what they want.

This way you can boost sales & stimulate growth in your store

Gift Cards - Always in Season!

Gift cards are a great addition to your online stores. Here are just a few of the benefits:

Suitable for every type of store. Gift cards are a perfect solution for every type of offering: from clothing and toy stores to salons, bakeries, and more.
Grow sales . In most cases, people who receive a gift card spend MORE than their value. So they are truly a win-win offering for your stores.
Reduce lost opportunities. If an item is out of stock, offering a gift card in its place is a great way of securing the sale until the item comes back in stock.
Attract new customers. When your customers buy gift cards for others, they introduce your store to a new audience that may turn into loyal customers.

HOW THEY WORK

Purchasing and redeeming gift cards as a customer

After purchase, your customer gets an email with a unique gift card code and instructions on how to use it. The email subject is “Your gift card is ready”. It’s automatically sent to customer’s email address as soon as the order gets “Paid” status.

Then your customer can forward the email or send the card code and the store link to another person via sms or messenger.

Here is an example of a gift card email:

The card recipient can use the gift card to pay for any products in your store. To redeem it, they should enter the card code from the email to the field at checkout. This field automatically appears in your store after you set up a gift card.

A gift card can be used in several orders until it’s fully redeemed. A customer sees the remaining balance at checkout, after they apply a gift card.

If the order total is more than the gift card amount, the customer should pay the remaining amount using other payment methods in your store.

Other peculiarities:

Customers can’t apply more than one gift card per order.
Discount coupons can't be used for a gift card purchase. If a customer applies a coupon code to an order, the discount applies to all the products in the order except the gift card.
A gift card can’t be used to buy another gift card.
Gift cards are tax free.
Gift cards cannot be uploaded to Facebook or Instagram due to Facebook’s Terms of Use.

Viewing details of sold gift cards

On the Gift cards page in your store admin, you are able to see all the statistics on gift cards that you have sold.

If the order total is more than the gift card amount, the customer should pay the remaining amount using other payment methods in your store.

Other peculiarities:

Customers can’t apply more than one gift card per order.
Discount coupons can't be used for a gift card purchase. If a customer applies a coupon code to an order, the discount applies to all the products in the order except the gift card.
A gift card can’t be used to buy another gift card.
Gift cards are tax free.
Gift cards cannot be uploaded to Facebook or Instagram due to Facebook’s Terms of Use.

Viewing details of sold gift cards

On the Gift cards page in your store admin, you are able to see all the statistics on gift cards that you have sold.

Revenue — The total you have earned by selling gift cards.

Redeemed — The total balance that has been spent.

Unclaimed — The remaining unused balance on cards that can’t be redeemed anymore (expired or deactivated cards).

Outstanding balance, lifetime — The remaining balance on all gift cards that have been issued to date and can still be redeemed.

Pay attention to the outstanding balance. That’s the balance available on sold gift cards that customers can still use. You should be ready to provide products or services when these cards are redeemed.

To see the details on each sold gift card, click View and manage all sold gift cards. You’ll see the card's current status, balance, expiration date, the customer’s email, the order where the gift card was purchased, and more.

Resending a gift card

You can resend a gift card if the customer lost the gift card email, accidentally deleted it, or can’t find it for any other reason.

To resend a gift card:

From your store admin, go to Catalog → Gift cards.
Under statistics, click View and manage all sold gift cards.
Find the gift card that you want to resend by searching for the customer’s name, email, or the gift card’s last 4 characters.
Next to the gift card, click Actions → Resend gift card.
The gift card will be resent to the “Sent to” email address.

Deactivating a gift card

You may want to deactivate a card for any reason. For example, perhaps the order with the gift card purchase was canceled or you simply don’t want this card to be redeemed. A deactivated card can’t be redeemed, however you can reactivate it anytime.

To deactivate a gift card:

From store admin, go to Catalog → Gift cards.
Under statistics, click View and manage all sold gift cards.
Find the gift card that you want to deactivate by searching for the customer’s name, email, or the gift card’s last 4 characters.
Next to the gift card that you want to deactivate, click on its current status and choose Deactivate :

COVID-19 Helpful Websites

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Mon, 30 Mar 2020 23:10:43 GMT

Trying to keep up with the latest updates and changes can be challenging when the situation is changing daily. To make it a little easier, below is a comprehensive list of websites that contain advice on how to seek assistance for those that have been affected by COVID-19

NEWS + UPDATES + ADVICE

The Latest Coronavirus news, updates and advice from government agencies across Australia.

https://www.australia.gov.au/

The government has also launched an official app to keep Australians updated on the latest coronavirus information.

Stay informed. Download the official government “Coronavirus Australia” app in the Apple App Store or Google Play , or join the WhatsApp channel on iOS or Android.

HEALTH SERVICES

Agencies and Mental Health Support

Australian Government Services Australia - https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/individuals/subjects/affected-coronavirus-covid-19
Health Direct – If you think you have COVID 19 – FAQ’s and what to do - https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/coronavirus
Lifeline – Counselling Support - https://www.lifeline.org.au/
Headspace – Counselling Support - https://headspace.org.au/
RUOK? – Counselling Support - https://www.ruok.org.au/findhelp

BANKS

Mortgage Assistance

RENTAL

Information and Advice

Tenant’s Union - https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/renting-and-covid-19-information
Fair Trading - https://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/resource-library/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-faqs-consumer-and-business-rights

UTILITIES

Electrical/Gas – Deferral or Relief

Energy Australia – https://www.energyaustralia.com.au/home/help-and-support/faqs/how-to-reach-us-during-covid-19-situation
Red Energy – https://www.redenergy.com.au/assistance
Alinta Energy – https://www.alintaenergy.com.au/nsw/help-and-support/help-and-support/customer-support/faults-and-emergencies/covid-19/
Click Energy – https://www.clickenergy.com.au/
Origin Energy – https://www.originenergy.com.au/coronavirus.html
AGL – https://www.agl.com.au/coronavirus?cidi=A10492
Dodo - https://www.dodo.com/customerupdate

TELEPHONE + MOBILE + WI-FI

Telephone/Mobile/Wi-Fi - Deferral or Relief

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES

Information and Support

Australian Government Department of Health – Health Alerts - https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert
Australian Government Services Australia – COVID 19 support - https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/individuals/subjects/affected-coronavirus-covid-19/other-coronavirus-covid-19-support
Department of Social Services – information and support - https://www.dss.gov.au/about-the-department/coronavirus-covid-19-information-and-support
ATO – COVID 19 support - https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Dealing-with-disasters/In-detail/Specific-disasters/COVID-19/?page=2
State directory - https://www.health.gov.au/about-us/contact-us/local-state-and-territory-health-departments
Pensioners – National Seniors support - https://nationalseniors.com.au/news/latest/second-stimulus-package-what-s-in-itquestion
Institute of Public Accounts – early access to Superannuation - https://www.publicaccountants.org.au/news-advocacy/covid19stimuluspackage/temporary-early-access-to-superannuation

How the Social Platforms are responding COVID-19

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Sat, 21 Mar 2020 01:02:28 GMT

As the unpredicted global event COVID-19 continues to take impact, see how the Social Media Platforms are stepping up and responding to the event.

FACEBOOK

Facebook Adds New COVID-19 Information Panel to the Top of All User News Feeds.

As it seeks to play its part in keeping people informed about the COVID-19 pandemic, Facebook has announced that it's rolling out a new COVID-19 Information Center panel, which will be featured at the top of all user News Feeds for the foreseeable future.

As you can see here, the new information panel will feature the latest official news and updates on the outbreak, as well as links to helpful articles, videos and posts about social distancing and preventing the spread of COVID-19.

Facebook has also expanded their ban on Ads Seeking to capitalize on COVID-19 Fears.

After announcing a ban on ads which seek to capitalize on concerns around COVID-19 late last month, then expanding that to specifically outlaw all ads and commerce listings of face masks amid massive profiteering pushes, Facebook will now extend its COVID-19 ad restrictions even further, incorporating all listings of hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes and test kits.

Definitely, this is a significant concern - when Facebook announced its ban on face mask listings, I found several examples on Facebook Marketplace of people jacking up the price of masks by some 500%.

Worth noting, too, that eBay has also banned ads for face masks, hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes after seeing "unfair pricing behavior" across its listings.

SNAPCHAT

Snapchat Launches New 'Here For You' Mental Health Resource Ahead of Time in Response to COVID-19

Snapchat has announced that it will bring forward the launch of its new 'Here For You' mental health resource center, making it available to all users this week in response to rising angst around the COVID-19 pandemic.

Announced last month, 'Here For You' will provide in-app support to Snapchatters who may be experiencing a mental health or emotional crisis, with links to relevant resources and exercises to help people cope with such concerns.

WHATSAPP

WhatsApp Launches New COVID-19 Info Hub Amid Concerns Around Misinformation Being Shared In-App

Amid concerns that WhatApp is being used to spread misinformation around the COVID-19 outbreak, the Facebook-owned messaging giant has launched a new COVID-19 info hub, where users will be able to access timely, accurate information related to the pandemic.

The new info hub, which you can access here, includes tips on working remote, how to find reliable information and how to stop the spread of misinformation, along with specialized insights into how local businesses, health care workers, governments and educators can use WhatsApp to stay connected, and maintain regular activity through the app.

In a time of great uncertainty, it's good to see each social platform stepping up to help better inform and assist their users, and ensure that people are getting access to accurate, helpful resources amid the outbreak.

Preparing Your Business & Digital Presence for Coronavirus

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 23:24:37 GMT

Small businesses have had it tough the last few months, fires, floods and now the coronavirus there is no doubt that the next 6 months will be hard, harder than what they already are.

My purpose is to build businesses ready for tomorrow, and with the unprecedented events currently unfolding business may be concerned about what tomorrow will bring.

NOW is the time to be proactive!

The coronavirus is currently affecting businesses of all sizes all over the world. Fewer people are traveling, in-store traffic is down, and events of all kinds are being canceled.

However, there are steps you can take to improve and expand your digital presence that may help mitigate the fallout in this challenging time.

ENGAGE MORE ON SOCIAL MEDIA

During an ongoing event like coronavirus, social media is one of your best tools for keeping your customers updated with the latest news from your business.

It is important to keep your clients informed.

CREATE MORE DIGITAL CONTENT

Since you may not see your customers in-person as much, it’s important to remind them you’re still around and here to support them.

For service providers such as Gyms and Personal Trainers consider developing video content on exercises people can do from home to maintain their fitness.

PREPARE FOR MORE ONLINE TRANSACTIONS

Due to the Social Distancing practices being recommended, physical visits to stores and business locations may decline, a strong eCommerce solution provides an additional source of revenue.

PREPARE YOUR WEBSITE

Display messaging on your homepage about any service changes. Add features for scheduling (or rescheduling) in-person appointments. Add features for online ordering and delivery, if applicable.

BE KIND AND SUPPORT OTHERS

For some these times are stressful, like most people I'm nervous. I ask everyone to be kind, compassionate and support others, even when we are asked to stay distance.

REACH OUT

You are not alone, and you are not expected to go through this challenging time in business by yourself. I welcome anyone needing support to contact me, below is my direct email address and phone number for you to contact me on.

0402173297

nick@superbmarketing.com.au

Facebook Shares Business Messaging Best Practices Based on Recent System Changes

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Sun, 01 Mar 2020 06:53:58 GMT

After rolling out a series of updates to its Messenger for Business processes over the last few months, Facebook has this week published a new set of tips to help marketers looking to make best use of messaging to keep in touch with customers.

And with a growing number of people now using messaging platforms, it makes sense that more brands are also looking to provide connection options through the same. The risk, however, with messaging for business is that messaging is a more private surface, and can be interruptive. Overuse of messaging can have significant consequences for brands, and for Messenger itself - which is why Facebook has implemented tighter controls on how often brands can communicate via message, and keep in touch after that initial interaction.

Based on these updated regulations, Facebook's dev team has provided these Messenger for business tips.

1. Respond quickly and set customer expectations on response times

I mean, this largely goes without saying, but with messaging, timeliness is key. Facebook says that there is a "strong correlation between responsiveness and successful business outcomes", and given the more intimate, immediate nature of the medium it makes sense that customers are looking for quick responses.

There are also limits on how long a business has to reply to a message. Basically, if you're going to make messaging a focus, timeliness needs to also be within your planning.

2. Make it short and sweet

Facebook advises that brands should keep their messaging to the point - and ideally, readable within the message preview.

This aligns with how people look to use messaging, and is more likely to facilitate positive response. People generally use messaging with brands for specific queries, and they want specific answers. Keeping things focused and succinct will better provide what most are after.

3. Leverage Messenger features to send high-value messages outside the 24-hour standard messaging window

As noted, one of the key changes Facebook has made to its messaging API is to limit the amount of messages businesses can send outside of the initial contact period. Again, people generally get in touch via message for quick answers, and brands that fail to respond, but then seek to prompt those same users at a later stage, can lead to spam issues and customer dissatisfaction.

It's important for brands to understand their limitations outside the initial contact window, and to utilize such thoughtfully.

Your options outside the standard messaging window are:

Message tags - Use tags to send personal, timely and important non-promotional messages. Businesses can use tags to send account updates, post-purchase updates, confirmed event updates, and human agent responses.
One-Time Notification - Allows a page to request a user to send one follow-up message after the 24-hour messaging window has ended. This can be used for cases such as back in stock alerts where a person has explicitly requested the business to send out a notification. Make sure that the message matches the topic the user agreed to receive the notification for and this message is fully communicated on the first attempt.
Sponsored Messages - Use sponsored messages for broadcast promotional updates to customers you’ve interacted within Messenger. Sponsored messages support Facebook ads targeting and have built-in integrity controls to help us safeguard the user experience in Messenger.

4. Focus on customer value

A key tenet for businesses using Messenger for business: "Ensure that your messages clearly communicate customer value - especially notifications sent outside the standard messaging window."

Again, messaging is a more personal surface, where people generally interact with close friends and family - and as such, have push alerts and notifications switched on in most cases. Considering this, you need to ensure that your messaging is not intrusive or spammy - or they'll simply block you and you'll lose that connection.

5. Provide audiences with options to choose from

Facebook's final key point is to provide users with options on what types of messages you're going to send them, giving them more capacity to both understand and manage their notifications.

"For example, you may allow the user to select specific types of account alerts or post-purchase updates provided they comply with the Messenger platform policies."

In this way, they'll not only be expecting you to get in touch, but they'll know exactly what you're communicating, adding an extra level of context. This can reduce the potential spam factor, and ensure that your audiences feel more at ease with your messaging interactions.

These are some solid tips, and with messaging set to become a more significant platform for marketing, it makes sense for brands to be considering their options in this respect.

And really, 'respect' is the key term here. If people allow you to reach them in their private messaging channel, you need to ensure that you appreciate and respect that access. Random push notifications or vague messaging will only hurt your business - but the right communications can serve to strengthen bonds with your audience.

WebP Images For Faster Loading

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Thu, 27 Feb 2020 06:25:38 GMT

All Superb Websites are now serving WebP images for all site images, which means your site images load more quickly. This change automatically boosts site performance and requires no additional effort at your end. We take care of everything, automatically and behind the scenes.

Why WebP is great for your sites

WebP is an image format developed by Google that provides lossless and lossy compression for images on the web. Using this format, images are smaller and richer than in other formats, which enables them to load more quickly. For example, WebP lossless images are 26% smaller than PNGs and 25-34% smaller than JPEG images. See this article on Google's developer site for more details.

One more way we’re optimizing your images

In addition to converting JPEG and PNG files to WebP, we’re also adjusting the size of images so that they automatically fit their containers. It’s another effort we’re making, behind the scenes, so your sites load quickly and rank well on Lighthouse.

Note:

The change doesn't affect the image name
SVGs and Gifs are not converted to WebP
Safari doesn’t support WebP, so when your sites are delivered on this browser, images will be displayed in their original format.

Creator Studio App from Facebook

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Mon, 24 Feb 2020 21:03:11 GMT

Beginning today, creators and publishers across the world will have access to the new Creator Studio app from Facebook. The app is an evolution of and mobile complement to Creator Studio, the desktop hub dedicated to helping creators and publishers manage their content, track performance, and connect meaningfully with their audiences on Facebook. The new experience offers the same actionable insights and meaningful engagement metrics, all from the ease of a mobile device.

The Creator Studio app is designed to work together with Creator Studio desktop, so creators and publishers can easily access:

Rich Insights: Data and engagement metrics about how content is performing, like “1 Minute Views” and “Avg. Minutes Viewed”

Post-Uploading Edits and Fixes: Ability to edit video titles and descriptions, delete and expire posts, publish drafted posts and reschedule scheduled posts, enabling easy content adjustments

Connect with Audiences: Reach fans and followers in real-time, from anywhere with the ability to read and respond to Facebook messages and comments using Inbox directly in the app

Multi-Account Support: Manage multiple Pages on Facebook and toggle between them from the same app in the same session--no need to log out of one to log into another to access multiple Pages

Notifications: Immediate in-app notifications for key milestones

The app is essentially a replacement for Facebook's previous 'Creator' app, which the company shut down last March. That app was initially launched under the title of 'Mentions' back in 2014.

This new variation caters to essentially the same use case, with an updated interface and improved posting capacity.

But some limitations remain.

As noted by social media expert Matt Navarra, users are not able to upload content to the app and create new posts via the tool. You need to create posts in either the Facebook app or via desktop, then schedule them or save them as drafts (you'll note in the video above that the demonstration only shows the user changing the details on pre-scheduled posts).

That's a fairly significant limitation - but then again, the app is designed to be a mobile complement to your Facebook Page management process, not a singular management interface on its own. Facebook may look to add posting functionality in future.

Either way, there are some cool features and tools in the new app, which will no doubt provide value to many Facebook Page managers.

The Creator Studio app from Facebook is available for iOS and Android. Learn more at http://fb.com/creatorstudio

Invisible ReCAPTCHA - Stop Spam And Improve User Experience

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Mon, 20 Jan 2020 06:28:30 GMT

The contact forms on your site have an extra layer of protection with Google’s invisible reCaptcha . It protects your forms from spammers while speeding up the form submission process for real site visitors, for a better experience all around.

Invisible reCAPTCHA Benefits

Prevents spammers from attacking your sites by determine if a form submission is coming from a human or a bot.
Improves user experience by swiftly validating the reCAPTCHA behind the scenes if Google detects that it’s a real user.

Choose how you want this reCAPTCHA to be displayed - it can be shown as an icon or text in the form, to the bottom right or left of the screen.

Available now in every contact form on your new and / or existing site.

5 Rising Social Media Platforms to Add to Your Marketing Arsenal in 2020 | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Mon, 23 Dec 2019 03:59:57 GMT

Are you looking for ways to get ahead of the competition in 2020? Want to know the up and coming social media networks that may be worth your time and money?

The team from Red Website Design share five rising social media platforms to try in this infographic.

Have you considered these platforms?

Check out the infographic for more detail.

The Dos and Don'ts of Creating Brand Recognition for Your Small Business | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Mon, 23 Dec 2019 03:25:55 GMT

Are you looking for ways to generate brand recognition for your business? Want to learn the different elements that make up your business brand?

Cooper House share their guide to branding in this infographic.

They include the following branding elements:

Logo
Fonts
Colour palette
Patterns and elements
Brand culture
Advertising
Social media
Brand voice
Brand position

Check out the infographic below for more detail.

Embed your Instagram Feed 🎉

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Wed, 18 Dec 2019 06:35:33 GMT

We can now connect your Instagram feed to your site and bring this hugely popular social network directly into your site. You'll boost site engagement, ensure images are always fresh, and increase your client’s Instagram exposure and ROI.

We can simply connect your Photo Gallery widget to your Instagram account, and all up-to-date Instagram images will be displayed on the site, with no additional effort or maintenance. This means we don’t need to go into the site to update images. They’ll automatically update every time they update on Instagram creating a seamless connection between your website and social media.

The power of Instagram in 2020

Instagram is the world’s fastest growing social media platform, and has huge benefits for businesses of all types and all sizes. Here’s why:

Instagram has 1 billion+ monthly active users. That makes it the third most popular social network in the world (after YouTube and Facebook).
Instagram is increasingly popular among older audiences. Instagram has always been popular amongst younger ones, but the largest growing audience is older than 18, making it super important for businesses who market to this age category.
80% of Instagram users follow a business. And the number is growing all the time. This makes Instagram a great way for businesses to reach customers when they are not on their site, ultimately increasing engagement and conversion.

4 Best Practices for Community Management

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 11:57:34 GMT

Effective community management is key to maximizing your digital marketing performance - but it's also often overlooked. Check out these tips.

While content marketing has become an essential consideration for all businesses, it's interesting to note that most content marketing activities focus specifically on publishing schedules and getting things posted.

But there's more to content than just the publication of branded material in itself. If your goals are to increase engagement, and create prospects, then community management should also be a key driver of your content activities.

To help with this, we've established a listing of four essential community management practices which will better enable you to take action, and drive growth online. In our experience, focusing on these key activities will see you spend less time creating your content, and more time making your digital appearances work more effectively for you, by focusing on what matters most - keeping up with your reputation, responsiveness and reactions... and keeping those interested in you more interested than ever.

Here's how they work:

Daily Practice - Work on your active social connections

Tracking: View likes, comments and reactions on your social posts
Actions: Build an active and engaged community by connecting with fans

What social channels are most important to you and your target audience/s?

It's time to commit to not only actively posting or sharing content, but also responding to everyone who likes, comments, and reacts to your brand.

This is not wasted effort. Making actual one-to-one connections with your followers, visitors, and even casual passersby is important, because they could be your future ambassadors or promoters. So set time aside every day to go through your responses - both positive and negative.

And one more thing: when it comes to bots or spam-like comments, feel free to remove them. We all have.

To Do: Don't forget to visit your social profiles daily and see what's happening there.

Weekly Practice - Respond to anyone mentioning your name

Tracking: See what people are saying about your business with brand mentions
Actions: Maintain a strong reputation by quickly responding to complaints and compliments

There are several ways to track and respond to what's being said about your business or organization online.

At the simplest level, Googling your name with date ranges is a good start, but it's more important to know who, specifically, is talking about you, and that often comes directly from social networks and digital destinations where consumers comment or react.

If you have a Twitter presence, then you might already be tracking mentions, and you might respond via tweet or through direct message (DM). Other social networks may require a more public interaction, especially listings or review sites.

Your personal responses go a long way, not only to the individuals who mention your business or brand, but also others who see your responses. What happens if you're not present? Others will create lasting impressions of your business instead of you.

To Do: Check weekly on all the sites where you know visitors will look you up.

Monthly Practice - Refine your one-to-many messages

Tracking: Monitor keywords that are relevant to your customers
Actions: Adjust marketing tactics based on the performance of selected keywords

What do you offer or sell? Start by considering what's top-of-mind when people are researching, shopping for, rating, or commenting about your business (or your competitors). We recommend selecting roughly ten words/phrases that you'll search monthly through the same places as your brand mentions: your social networks, listings, or review sites.

What changes are you noticing in consumer sentiment or attitude about your industry and what you're selling? If you can understand, address, and adjust your marketing tactics to reflect these changes, then you can create a competitive advantage. It may be as simple as saying that you'll solve a problem, or meet a need differently.

To Do: Check monthly to see what your prospects are saying within the digital space.

Periodic Practice - Curate your feedback and reviews

Tracking: Collect regular feedback by sharing tailored forms on the web and/or via social media
Actions: Increase your review volume and average ratings on Yelp and Google

Through community management practices, you should also focus on enhancing your online reputation.

You have customers who are willing to offer feedback, and it's worth setting up pathways for reviews, ratings, comments and even testimonials. Try setting up a 'Contact us' or survey form on your website, and ideally ask for ratings on a five-point scale. Ask customers for reviews whenever you communicate with them, and ensure you thank those who've gone to the effort of doing so.

While often forgotten, it's up to you to encourage reviews wherever you reach customers, and then to find a way to amplify their impact on social channels.

To Do: Remember to ask for reviews, and ask fans to share them on Yelp, Google or where prospects find you.

These four community management practices are simple acts, but they can have a big impact on building your brand awareness, following and digital marketing performance. If you're trying to create a more engaged community, where fans, prospects, and customers respond positively, and want to spread the word about you and your products, these practices are essential steps that should not be forgotten in the rush of content marketing and sharing efforts.

5 Common Social Media Mistakes Small Business Owners Must Avoid | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 11:45:28 GMT

Make sure you're covering the basics - and not falling into the common traps - with this overview.

Are you struggling to achieve marketing success on social media? Are you looking for areas in which you can improve your social media marketing strategy?

The team from RevampCRM share their mistakes to avoid in this infographic.

Here’s a quick summary:

Acting without a plan
Thinking size matters
Spreading yourself thin
Ignoring the competition
Not looking in the mirror

Check out the infographic for more detail.

6 of the Best Ways to Improve Customer Experience | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Fri, 27 Sep 2019 05:57:39 GMT

Ensure you're delivering great customer experience, and generating optimal results, with these tips.

Customer experience is one of the most important factors that influences business growth - in fact, it’s expected to become the main brand differentiator by 2020. According to research, many businesses generating a billion dollars in yearly revenue could bring in $700 million more within three years, just by improving their customer experience.

Here are some key elements of focus to consider:

Figure Out Your Target Audience

It’s critical to understand who your target audience is, and what their needs and requirements are. You need to understand their pain points to figure out how your products and services can be helpful to them. This way, you can improve your customer experience.

Omnichannel Experience

Around 76% of shoppers use various channels to make a purchase. You need to ensure that their experience remains consistent across all of them. This can help give them a better experience.

Be Present

It’s imperative that you remain available to your customers whenever they need you. It helps to have 24/7 support through any means of communication so that you can help them out at all times. You should also seek to resolve any concerns as early as possible to keep them satisfied.

To provide more context around the importance of customer experience, and how you can improve it, check out this infographic from the team at Aivo.

5 Key Tips for Managing Criticism and Negative Comments Online

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Fri, 27 Sep 2019 05:52:54 GMT

As a social media manager, you're going to deal with your fair share of complaints, criticism and online trolls. Here are some tips to help manage these difficult situations.

Tips for Minding Your Manners on Social Media

Beware of Crossing the Line

I love sarcasm, but I have a really hard time with 'obnoxious'. This is especially true when people leave irrelevant, or just plain mean comments on social media posts for the accounts that I manage. I have very little patience for it, but I refuse to take the bait.

For one thing, I'm responsible for managing these brands’ professional reputations, which is something that I take very seriously. For another, I have no interest in starting a social media war. Also, it’s crucial to remember that anything you post on social media is going to be out there forever - the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Smile and Dial

A couple of decades ago, I started working as a customer support rep at IBM. It was 1995 - which was way before Facebook and Twitter - so we did most of our work by telephone. I remember keeping a small mirror at my desk, at one side of my computer, as a reminder to smile when dealing with clients. You may have heard of the phrase “smile and dial,” which has existed in the sales and customer service profession since the advent of the telephone. Believe it or not, it really worked.

With social media being one of the most popular methods of communication these days, we don’t spend anywhere near as much time on the phone - at least not for verbal conversations. But the “smile and dial” concept is something that we can still keep in mind to help us be polite, as well as to maintain our professional reputation and goodwill with our customers.

Social Media Etiquette 101

Here are a few ideas for good social media etiquette on three of the most popular platforms:

Facebook

Refrain from sharing mean or unnecessary comments on public posts. Not only will all your Facebook friends see them, but everyone else will, too, and depending on the type of Page, you may find yourself banned if you go overboard.

Twitter

Think before you tweet. Twitter has a reputation for taking a news story and blowing it out of proportion, especially if it’s political. Take pause before diving into any discussions.

LinkedIn

This platform is traditionally more professional, although it’s not as stuffy as it was five years ago. If you plan to use LinkedIn for professional networking, however, you’ll want to look professional. Be sure to use a profile picture that's more serious than one you would use on Facebook.

Dealing with social media hecklers and hasslers can be challenging, but the key is in maintaining a consistent approach, considering the source of the issue - no matter how it's being presented - and working to find solutions where possible. You won't always be able to turn a negative interaction around, but by keeping these principles in mind, you can manage how you respond on behalf of your business.

14 Types of Social Media Posts to Spark Engagement With Your Followers | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Mon, 23 Sep 2019 04:10:30 GMT

Seeking inspiration for your brand's social media posts? These tips will help to get you thinking.

Are you looking for ways to improve your social media strategy? Want to create better social media posts that generate engagement with your followers?

The team from Red Website Design share 14 types of social media post to spark engagement in this infographic.

Here are a few from the list:

Ask for feedback on your products or services
Tell a joke or share a meme
Motivational quotes
Share industry news as it happens

Check out the infographic below for more detail.

4 Key Elements of an Effective Social Media Strategy + Tools to Help

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Mon, 23 Sep 2019 00:26:05 GMT

If you want to maximize your social media marketing performance, you need a defined strategy. These tips and tools will help.

In order to set your business up for optimal social media marketing success, you need to develop a clear and documented strategy and approach for all of your efforts.

That said, a surprising number of businesses and marketers don’t actually have a documented plan. Instead, they create content as and when it’s needed, post it up and then hope for the best. A recent study conducted by Sprout Social found that around half of marketers say that their top challenge is creating social strategies to support their overall business goals.

This presents a significant opportunity for those looking to stand out from the crowd on social media. By planning your activities ahead of time, you can focus on your objectives, and on creating content specifically designed to help you achieve those marketing goals.

In this post, I’m going to outline some effective tips and tools you can use in order to better create, manage, and measure your social media strategy.

1. Use a team management tool to plan your strategy

As noted, in order to succeed at social media marketing, and to get your team working together towards common goals, you have to have a strategy. Your social media strategy will guide all the actions that you need to take on social networks, and will also help you to determine whether you’re failing or succeeding – and what you can do to improve your results.

Within your plan, you need to cover off on the following key elements:

Your overall social media goals
Buyer persona information to provide details about the ideal audience you want to target with your social media content
Social media channels of focus
Frequency of posting on each channel
The role of each of your team members
How to track and measure your results

In this initial planning stage, there'll be a lot of collaboration, a lot of back-and-forth with your team and, most likely, a lot of debate.

To help with this process, you can look to use a planning and collaboration tool so that you can handle all of the process in one place, and easily collaborate with others on your project. Plus, this also helps ensure that your plan is clearly documented at each step.

One good option to consider is Monday.com, which is a team management/workflow tool that you can also use to plan your social media strategy.

The way it works, in short, is that you create "boards", either from scratch or by using one of their templates, and invite your team to join. You can then start creating and collaborating within relevant board topics.

If you want to do all of your planning on one board, you definitely have that option - you can assign tasks and set deadlines, and use color-coded status markers to track progress. You can also keep tabs on time spent by each team member, create checklists, and much more.

You can also use different boards for different parts of the planning stage - for example, you could use a social media schedule board to plan individual updates (like the one in the screenshot above), one for a complete overview of the project/campaign, one to track social content production and so on.

Using a management tool like this is a great, efficient way to keep a handle on the various threads of your plan.

2. Use a social media management tool to schedule your updates and manage your social media presence

Another key social media marketing consideration is content - to help build your brand presence, increase awareness and grow your following, you need to schedule and post new updates regularly. If you don't, you’ll lose followers and engagement on your social media pages.

To put it in another way, without consistency, you’ll struggle to get results on social media.

That said, posting on several social media networks means that you also need to adjust your schedule to each networks’ rules and posting frequency.

And if you're thinking you can solely share updates through a manual posting process, you might want to reconsider. This can eat up hours of your time, time that would be much better spent engaging with your audience or creating content, for example. Posting manually is also more difficult to maintain, and as noted, that consistency is critical, as is meeting your followers when they're most likely to be active online.

A better way to maintain consistency for your social media updates is to schedule them. This way, you can send content to followers and still free up time for other marketing activities - particularly, as noted, creating new content and engaging with users and customers. Furthermore, you can track mentions of your pages and profiles and stay on top of overall engagement.

Agorapulse is one tool you can consider - Agorapulse can help you schedule your social media updates, while also providing a full view of your social media calendar. You can also schedule different types of content, to different networks, from within your queue.

If there’s a single post you want to share on all your social media accounts at once, Agorapulse enables you to create the post once and push to all your accounts. Adding to this, you can also reply to your audience, and like and reshare updates right in your Agorapulse dashboard.

This app also has team features built-in, through which can you can assign different social media tasks to your team members. With this, you can save considerable time and become more productive.

3. Use a social listening tool to track mentions and take action

If every time customers talked about your business online, they also mentioned your brand profile specifically, marketers’ lives would be so much easier. Unfortunately, however, this is not always the case.

People will actually rarely mention your business directly, meaning that most businesses lose the opportunity to act on such. A study by Brandwatch found that some 96% of untagged brand mentions go without a response.

Of course, tracking direct mentions is vital for your business - but beyond that, you need to track other mentions apart from your business and product names.

Generally, the most important types of mentions you should track for your business are:

Business mentions
Competitors mentions
Industry mentions

When you track these types of mentions, you'll expand your opportunities - for example, tracking these mentions can help you to:

Reply to customer complaints on time and prevent PR disasters
Identify potential leads for your business through competitor mentions
Identify customer pain points through industry mentions
Find sales opportunities

Mention.com is a listening tool which can help you to track your mentions on the web and in social media. Mention will also help you to analyze trends from conversations about mentions, and alert you to the same.

You can also filter your mentions by positive and negative sentiment, and keep tabs on the most influential people discussing your brand online. There are also options for assigning team members to select tasks to streamline your workflow.

4. Use a social media analytics tool to measure and optimize your results

Engaging in social media discussion and building your digital presence is great, but measuring the results of those efforts is equally important.

The two elements should never go without the other - this is what will help you track the effectiveness of your strategy, and what will tell you whether you’re moving in the right direction, in alignment with your overall goals, or not.

Measuring your results shouldn’t just be after your campaign - rather, it’s something that you should be doing regularly. Through this, you can update and optimize your strategy, and ensure that you’re doing everything possible to reach your agreed targets.

But what’s important to note here is that the metrics you need to measure will depend on your social media goals.

What are you trying to achieve through social media? Many businesses use social media for:

Brand awareness
Leads Acquisition
Website traffic
Customer acquisition
Sales

Before you begin your campaign, you need to state your goals clearly, and note the metrics that will enable you to determine whether you’ve achieved them or not.

A robust social media analytics tool that you can use for measuring your results is Keyhole.co. Keyhole can help you to track your campaign hashtags, keywords, usernames or URLs, while also providing more in-depth analytic insights.

Keyhole can also help you find relevant influencers who are using your target hashtag/s in their social media updates. And if you decide to partner with these influencers, Keyhole can provide analytics, so that you can better understand the impact of each influencer on your goals.

Conclusion

To produce your desired results on social media, you need to create a social media strategy - and even more, you need to manage this strategy to ensure it remains effective.

An important part is using a team management tool to plan your strategy and enhance collaboration. Then you need to schedule your updates, engage with followers, track mentions, and measure and optimize your results.

Using these tips and tools, you can take a big step towards using social media to increase brand awareness, capture leads and acquire customers.

New Study Looks at How Emojis, Videos and Caption Lengths Impact Instagram Post Performance

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Mon, 23 Sep 2019 00:15:13 GMT

Social analytics company Quintly has conducted a new study of Instagram post performance, and how various elements can impact your results.

Social analytics platform Quintly has conducted a new study of Instagram post performance, analyzing more than 34k Instagram business profiles, and 5.4 million posts, which were published between January 1st and June 30th, 2019.

The report provides an up to date perspective of what's working on Instagram for brands right now - and with Instagram's algorithm always changing, and experiments like hiding total Like counts in play, the Instagram landscape is shifting fast.

Here's a look at some of the key findings from the report.

First off, Quintly's researchers found that, despite the rising popularity of video content, images remain the most popular post type for brands on the platform, by a significant margin.

That's not overly surprising - its easier to create good-looking still image posts than it is to come up with, and create, good videos. But still, the popularity of image posts over videos - and, as you can see, carousels - means that a lot of businesses are missing significant opportunities on the platform, as Quintly's further insights show.

Clearly, brands should be looking beyond image posts if they want to maximize their Instagram performance, with even carousels seeing significantly more engagement than images. Worth considering in your 2020 strategy.

Beyond post types, the next key creative element Quintly's team looked at was captions, and whether caption length correlates with improved post performance.

As per Quintly's data, the majority of brands use more than 150 characters for each of their post captions, with many using over 300 characters in their updates.

Is that a good move?

Interestingly, for larger profiles (those with between 1 million and 10 million followers), Quintly's data showed that no caption at all was the best option to spark engagement, but for everyone else, captions of between 1 and 50 characters saw the best response rates.

So shorter captions is better, and many brands are not currently adhering to this.

Quintly also looked at the use of emojis in posts, and whether they can help brands drive engagement. Quintly's researchers found that the majority of brand profiles are currently not using emojis in their Insta post captions.

But they probably should be - according to the data, "the higher the number of emojis used, the higher the amount of interactions."

Emojis may feel unnatural for your brand posts, they may not feel authentic or professional enough. But the numbers here would suggest that they are worth trying, at least in some capacity, with posts with no emojis seeing the lowest average interaction rate.

And the last major element of Quintly's study looks at hashtags, and how many hashtags is the right amount to maximize your brand post engagement.

Unsurprisingly, Quintly found that smaller profiles are using more hashtags, with larger businesses likely needing them less for increased distribution.

And that actually makes perfect, logical sense - as Quintly found, smaller profiles which use more hashtags actually do see better engagement rates per post.

The bigger your audience, the less you'll need hashtags, but for the majority, using more hashtags looks to be a better way to go.

But then again, that does also contradict another report that Quintly published in November last year, which suggested that using no hashtags at all was a better way to go.

So what gives?

This is likely a result of combined data. In its report last year, Quintly gave an overall assessment of hashtag performance, which included profiles that had more than 10 million followers. As noted, for these larger profiles, Quintly's data does actually show that more hashtags is not necessarily better, in regards to performance.

That's almost the inverse of the chart for smaller profiles, and in combination, it may well be the case that, overall, fewer hashtags is better. But in order to get a real assesment of performance, you need to separate out the results for smaller versus larger followings - and really, it makes logical sense than smaller profiles will need the added exposure that hashtags can provide much more than larger profiles do.

But why do larger profiles see fewer interactions when they add in hashtags? Maybe their audience see this as less authentic, maybe Instagram's algorithm doesn't reward larger profiles with distribution via hashtags in the same way. It's hard to pinpoint the precise logic here, but its another element to consider in your experiments.

As an aside, a recent study from Social Insider also showed that including your hashtags in the main caption was more effective than adding them into the first post comment.

There's a heap more data in Quintly's full report, which you can access here. How your brand performs on Instagram will come down to the various, specific elements you choose to enact, but these findings will help you to improve your experimentation, and get down to a more focused approach which maximizes your results.

4 Key Tips on Building an Effective Content Curation Strategy

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 04:20:39 GMT

When done right, content curation can be a key element of your broader digital promotion and brand building process.

Consistently creating new content is both challenging and time-consuming - but in order to compete in today’s competitive digital marketing landscape, it’s a virtual necessity in your process.

From self-employed freelancers to multinational corporations, everyone's looking to maintain a constant stream of clever, engaging social media content to keep their audience interested. That, of course, also means that there's now more content being created - for example, did you know that Facebook now facilitates over 100 million hours of video watch time every single day?

The challenge is then two-fold - you need to keep creating, but you also need to stand out, and maximize connection in among the various elements vying for your audience's attention. Creating content that does this is even more difficult, which is why content curation should also be part of your content mix

Content curation can be a great way to showcase your expertise, and build brand relevance, while also lessening your effort. But despite it being an easier way to maintain content flow, many people and businesses still do it wrong.

In this post, we'll go over some key steps to help improve your content curation efforts.

1. Choose the Correct Content to Share

How, from all that freely available content, do you actually pick what to share?
A good rule of thumb to follow is: did you actually find it useful?
You should also ask yourself "why do people follow you in the first place?"
People follow you because of who you are and what you do. They follow you because the things you say, and the information they receive from following your feeds, is worthwhile to them, and adds value to their lives.

So if you don’t find something useful, the likelihood is that they won’t either.

At the end of the day, what this means is that you’re actually going to have to read the articles and watch the videos that you may potentially be sharing with your followers.

Here are a few tips on how to find the right types of content to share:

Ask Google - Once you have a topic in mind, a simple Google search will turn up relevant accounts in mere seconds. Try Googling 'Best Facebook (Instagram, Twitter) accounts for X,' and start reading some of the content. The algorithms are smarter than us, so you should quickly find exactly what you're looking for, both in terms of quality content and outreach. Leverage Your Existing Network - Your existing network should be a constant source of quality content - provided that you’ve built it out the right way from the start.
Twitter - Check the trending hashtags to see if anything is relevant to you. Also consider searching for actively trending news headlines, as well as what’s being said. And don’t forget to regularly check your existing Twitter feed. Follow Major News Outlets - The big names in news know what's likely to have impact, and what isn't. Using current headlines as a marker of trends can be an excellent way to stay ahead of the curve.
Buzzsumo - Buzzsumo analyzes trending content so that you can see what's relevant and trending based on certain keywords. It provides a simple way to assess whether you're sharing the right types of content.

TIP: Only share the best content you find. A bad piece of content can easily hurt your brand, and your image. For example, Levi's Jeans recently launched an ad campaign that some deemed insensitive to people's weight, which caused quite an uproar on social media. If you had shared that content, you may have received similar backlash.

2. Always Add Your Own Thoughts

When you're debating whether to share something or not, also consider whether it’s content that you could add your own perspective to.

For example, is it something that you:

Can summarize - We live in an age of content overload. Summarizing a long article is not only helpful, but can help to establish you as an expert. If you don’t have time to write an entire summary, a few sentences that highlight the key takeaways will do.
Ask a question about - If you’re super strapped for time, sharing a post and then asking is a great way to drive engagement. For example, an embedded video with an attention-grabbing headline and a smart question can attract as much as 10x the engagement in comparison to a regular tweet.
Can pull a quote from - Is there something that you find super compelling in a piece of content you’re thinking about sharing? If so, use it along with the share. This is also a great way to drive engagement.

3. Be Social

Social media is supposed to be social, so… be social.

At the very minimum, when sharing content, you should tag the original creator in your post so that they know that you’re sharing their content. Better yet, carve a little extra time out of your day to send a personalized note letting them know.

While you don’t need to get permission to share someone else’s content, reaching out is a great way to get yourself noticed, which can then pave the way for a variety of different opportunities in the future, like editorial collaborations and co-branded content. Plus, it's a win-win for both parties, since you're both tapping into new audiences.

Most people skip both of these steps, so be willing to go the extra mile. The results will definitely pay off in the long run.

4. Publish Your Content at the Right Time

If half of the battle is curating content, the other half is publishing it at times when it’s more likely to be seen. This often seems like an impossible feat, especially when you consider that the average half-life of a tweet can be as little as 24 minutes.

Here are the specific things to keep in mind on the main 3 platforms:

Facebook - When posting on Facebook, the best times to post are when people are unfocused and away from their work desks. People generally browse Facebook during the day when they have nothing else to do, and follow a rapid-fire pattern, so keep things catchy and high impact, and make sure to use attractive visual media.
Twitter - Twitter's demographics run more educated and professional, and more and more people are using it as a source of news, and a way to connect to a tightly curated personal audience. Leisure time like this is the perfect opportunity to give people something longer and more meaningful to sink their teeth into. Since Twitter is short-form, and the half-life of individual tweets is finite, your strategy for Twitter should involve a higher volume of content than you'd use elsewhere.
Instagram - Almost two-thirds of Instagram's users are aged between 18 and 30, with over 71% of people in this age group saying that they actively use Instagram. Instagram use runs much later than other social media apps, with the peak times being after 9pm, so keep this in mind when considering what and when to post. Also remember that Instagram is primarily a visual app that's heavily aspirational.

Putting It All Together

Sharing other people’s content on social media can be a great way to drive engagement with your fans and followers, while also fostering goodwill with industry contemporaries. The true key to success lies in what you share, how you share, and when you share it. Once you fine-tune these three prongs, however, you can expect your brand awareness to improve, engagement to increase and people to start sharing your own content much more frequently.

The end result? You’ll be leaps and bounds ahead of your competition.

Gen Z Marketing: How to Market Your Business to the Next Generation | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 04:14:24 GMT

Maximize your appeal to the next major consumer group with these tips.

Are you looking for ways to market your business to the next generation of consumers? Want to learn what types of content resonate with Generation Z?

The team from Campaign Monitor share the stats you need to know in this infographic.

They break things down as follows:

Fun facts
Social media use
Email use
Buying habits
Engagement
Check out the infographic for more detail.

Facebook May Soon Hide Total Like Counts on Posts, Mirroring Instagram's Test

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Fri, 06 Sep 2019 09:10:01 GMT

Following the same on Instagram, Facebook is now also considering hiding total post like counts in its main app.

First Instagram, now Facebook as well?

Amid testing of hidden like counts in seven countries on Instagram , Facebook is now also considering the same in its main app, with reverse engineering expect Jane Manchun Wong spotting this test Like display:

As you can see here, the post Like listing doesn't show the full count, but an indicator of Reactions to the post and an ".. .and others " summary, as opposed to a full Like listing.

Here's a comparison of the current and test Like listings:

That's pretty much identical to Instagram's Like test:

When questioned about Wong's discovery by TechCrunch , Facebook did indeed confirm that it is considering hiding total post like counts.

As noted, Instagram began its test of removing total Like post counts for Canadian users back in April , then expanded it to Australia, Brazil, Ireland, Italy, Japan and New Zealand in July . Interestingly, users in those regions can actually still see full post Like counts on the web version of the app , which may slightly skew Instagram's response data - but either way, given that the company is now considering an expansion of the same to Facebook, you would assume that the initial experiment must be showing some signs of promise, based on internal indicators.

The idea of removing Like counts on Instagram relates to that company's broader focus on user wellbeing - in an interview with CBS News in June, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri explained that:

"We don't want Instagram to be such a competition. We want it to be a place where people spend more of their energy connecting with the people that they love and the things that they care about."

The removal of public like counts, according to Mosseri, could reduce social comparison, and its associated negative impacts.

And those impacts can be significant - according to a survey conducted in 2017 , Instagram is "the worst social media network for mental health and wellbeing", with the platform contributing to higher levels of anxiety and depression, among other issues. That study , published by The Royal Society for Public Health in the UK, specifically highlighted a "compare and despair" attitude in young people, with users regularly feeling that their lives don't match up to the highlights posted on others' Instagram profiles.

When you add that to the fact that teens regularly delete Instagram posts which don't get enough likes, it's fairly clear that such metrics are contributing, at least somewhat, to these concerns. The weight of evidence, then, would suggest that removing likes can't be bad thing in this respect, but whether it will be a net positive is another question entirely.

The expansion of the program to Facebook would be a major step. Facebook, with 2.4 billion active users , is the largest social media platform in the world, by a significant margin, and while users have most definitely made their opinions known about Like count removals on Instagram, Facebook is going to hear a lot more about the same if it is extended to the main app. Facebook has also become the key platform for many older, less tech-savvy users, who would no doubt be less than pleased by such a change.

Is it worth the effort? Will the benefits be worth the blowback that Facebook will undoubtedly receive as a result?

That's likely what Facebook's weighing up now, but it does appear to be close to an expanded trial.

Where Should You Place Your Instagram Hashtags - in the Caption or in the First Comment?

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Fri, 06 Sep 2019 05:47:07 GMT

A new study has looked at comparative Instagram post reach rates when hashtags are placed within the main caption and in the first comment.

A common question in Instagram marketing circles revolves around hashtags, and whether they should be placed within your main caption, potentially cluttering your messaging, or in the first post comment, giving you a cleaner look, but, potentially, at the expense of reach.

But is that true, does placing your hashtags in the first comment reduce your post reach?

To get some answers, the team from Socialinsider recently teamed up with Quuu to conduct a study of some 650k Instagram posts, originating from 6,784 individual brand profiles. The brand profiles chosen ranged from large brands to SMBs, so the Socialinsider team separated their results to provide a better overview based on audience following.

Here's what they found.

First off, the research shows that the vast majority of brands prefer to place their hashtags within the caption of their Instagram posts.

Given that less than 10% of brands are actually placing their hashtags within the first comment, it's a fairly small pool for comparison - it's difficult to provide an accurate indicator when the majority are not utilizing this option. But using that smaller subset, the Socialinsider team then analyzed how those users who do post their hashtags in the first comment see comparative engagement, specifically, in relation to post reach.

As you can see here, the research showed that placing hashtags within the caption did result in better reach, on average, for the analyzed posts, in almost every category. Though that said, the increases, for the most part, were not significant - for profiles with less than 5k followers, the variation in average reach per post was only 3.5%, while for those with between 5k and 10k followers, the variance was only 1.23%. But still, any reduction means less exposure. The data here would suggest that putting your hashtags in the first comment is likely not worth the aesthetic benefit.

In addition to this, the Socialinsider team also found that most brands are either using seven tags per post, or upwards of 25, with a fairly significant gap in between those brackets.

Previous research has indicated that using between 9 and 11 hashtags per post leads to optimal engagement, while a study last year from Quintly suggested that no hashtags at all was the best way to go.

A lot of this will depend on your unique audience, and of course, the specific hashtags you use, but according to this data, most brands are going with seven, or a lot of tags.

And worth noting, Instagram allows you to add up to 30 hashtags per post .

There's a range of other insights in the full report which you can download here .

Pinterest Provides New Insights on Seasonal Pin Trends

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Fri, 30 Aug 2019 05:35:50 GMT

Pinterest has published a new set of insights into key seasonal trends to help with strategic planning.

As you may have guessed, Pinterest searches for topics like "get organized" tend to spike early in the new year, when resolutions are in full swing. But Pinterest says that these types of positive trends actually spike two times per year - once in the New Year period, then again before fall, as people seek inspiration "after an energizing summer".

That insight can help in your strategic planning - knowing when people are more open to new, fresh ideas, and the subjects they're looking for, could help you develop a more effective Pin posting process, and maximize your efforts.

To help with this, Pinterest has this week released a new set of data insights into a range of trends which see spikes throughout the year, and are on the rise again right now.

Here's a look at some key Pin shifts to be aware of.

As you can see here. searches for organizational topics have seen steady increases over time - in fact, Pinterest says that searches for “life organization” are up 78% this year.

Among the topics within this bracket, "sustainable lifestyle" is on the increase, as is "organization videos", and interestingly for Pinterest, "budgeting finances". If your business has an angle on any of these subjects, now is the time to start Pinning those ideas.

Pinners are also looking to inspiration to help them establish more beneficial routines:

"This year’s top searches related to “routine” are “skin care routine,” “morning routine,” “self care routine,” “workout routine” and “beauty routine.”

Pinterest says that more users are looking for help in planning out their processes, and making the most of their time.

Positivity is also a key focus among the Pinterest community, with users increasingly seeking inspirational guidance, and quotes to help them stay on track.

And lastly, 'goal setting' is a key trend of the moment, which will also, again, spike more significantly in January.

Among the key goals of interest to Pinners, “career planning” searches are up 101%. in 2019, while "dream house plans", "big family goals", and of course, "travel dreams" remain high on the list.

Not every business will have relevant product or content offerings to tie into these trends, but for those that do, this data could help to guide your Pinterest approach, and/or open your eyes to the expanded opportunities of the platform.

It's worth considering the potential fit in your Pin strategy - and not just for now, but for the coming spike following the Christmas break.

LinkedIn Provides Tips on How to Maximize Company Pages

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Fri, 30 Aug 2019 05:32:10 GMT

LinkedIn has published a new list of the most followed company pages on its platform, along with notes on what they're doing to boost their performance.

LinkedIn has published a new listing of the ten most followed company pages on the platform - which, for the most part, is likely who you would expect.

The top ten most followed LinkedIn Company Pages worldwide are:

TED Conferences (12.5 million followers)
Google (12.1 million followers)
Amazon (8.6 million followers
LinkedIn (8.2 million followers)
Microsoft (7.8 million followers)
IBM (6.4 million followers)
Unilever (6.2 million followers)
Nestlé (6 million followers)
Accenture (4.4 million followers)
Facebook (4.4 million followers)

So, no major surprises there - several tech companies, TED talks, major corporations, etc.

But while the list itself doesn't offer any startling revelations, LinkedIn has also included an interesting collection of key pointers for brands looking to maximize their LinkedIn presence, based on the performance of these top organizations.

As per LinkedIn , these are the key things that these company pages do:

Post video content - According to LinkedIn, "video content is heavily infused into the content mixes for these LinkedIn Pages, and these posts invariably tend to rank among the top performers". LinkedIn says that these companies post videos with "short runtimes, attention-grabbing hooks, and captions for those viewing without sound", with many also now utilizing LinkedIn's own live-streaming offering to provide new video types. Not all brands can access LinkedIn's live-streaming option as yet, but there's more information on the process here .
Socially Responsible - LinkedIn notes that these companies regularly highlight corporate social responsibilities, sustainability, and other socially beneficial practices on their company pages, which helps them establish better connection with their on-platform communities.
Diversity and inclusion - As per LinkedIn: "people want to follow, and do business with, organizations that share their values. Equality is top-of-mind for many in this regard, and several of the companies above are making their enlightened stances on these matters clear continually."
Highlighting Internal Experts - LinkedIn says that these organizations also seek to showcase the expertise of their employees, which can help to establish connection with users, putting a face to the brand. It can also help them attract new talent, as they see what working for these organizations can do for them professionally.
Showcasing innovation - Finally, LinkedIn notes that these Pages also utilize "creative and compelling ways to share their progress and plans", which helps to position them as leaders in their field. By presenting their industry leadership on LinkedIn, they work to further solidify their position in their respective sectors.

LinkedIn does additionally note that, above all, these companies produce great work, which is obviously key to building and maintaining reputation.

The companies above also have significant resources to create content, so it's not always a fair comparison for smaller organizations in terms of their content output, but there are some key notes here that can help to guide your own LinkedIn strategy - or at the least, get you thinking about how you can look to improve your on-platform performance.

Facebook Publishes New Report on the Benefits of Combining Facebook and Outdoor Advertising

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Fri, 30 Aug 2019 05:29:18 GMT

Facebook's latest research report looks at the benefits of combining Facebook ads with outdoor promotions.

Outdoor ads - including bus shelter campaigns and billboards - might not be within the budget of most SMBs. But for those businesses that can afford it, there can be significant benefits to running outdoor campaigns in combination with Facebook promotions.

As per Facebook :

"With the widespread use of smartphones, the high visibility of out-of-home goes hand in hand with actions on digital channels such as social media. For example, nearly 4 in 10 adults surveyed (38%) in the US say they have visited a Facebook Page or posted on Facebook after seeing an OOH ad, and 25% have posted to Instagram."

To examine the specifics of the relationship between outdoor campaigns and Facebook, The Social Network recently commissioned Kantar and Accenture to glean some insight into how Facebook and outdoor ads can work together as part of a strategic media mix, looking at users in the UK, France and Germany.

Here's what they found:

For the first element of its research Facebook examined the specific results of a recent Facebook/outdoor campaign run by Danone, which sought to reach new buyers for its French organic yoghurt. Danone utilized TV, out of home (OOH) and Facebook ads for its campaign.

"When comparing different approaches, using both Facebook and OOH ads worked best - with the combined impact proving to be 13% more efficient than expected."

That's a significant boost - again, such options will not be in the budget of all brands. But for those that can utilize an expanded reach campaign, there can clearly be benefits.

Interestingly, Facebook's study also found that outdoor ads are key for product discovery in certain verticals among younger European users.

That further underlines the potential value of combined campaigns - which is reinforced again in this element of the study.

For food and beverage brands, there are clear benefits to utilizing a combined Facebook/outdoor advertising approach, especially in the awareness phase. The increased exposure potential, combined with the ease of connection via social apps, can help guide consumers towards your product offers, and boost awareness among these audience groups.

There are some interesting considerations here - again, not all brands will have the option to undertake such campaigns. But for those that can, it may be worth considering.

How Much Time Do People Spend on Social Media in 2019? | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Mon, 26 Aug 2019 23:51:49 GMT

How much time are people spending on social media in 2019? Check out this infographic overview.

In what will come as absolutely no surprise, people are spending more time than ever staring at their smartphones in 2019.

Look around you in any public place and you'll see it - people with their heads down, their fingers swiping. Immersed in the latest news stories, the latest memes, the latest updates from their friends. It's become so prolific that some regions have implemented mobile user-specific footpaths , in order to stop people running into each other, while in Australia, some towns have started to embed traffic signals into the pavement to ensure that they catch the attention of those not looking up from their screens.

And while we know that more people are spending more and more time online, it's important to note, specifically, what they're actually doing. And for marketing purposes, which apps and tools they're spending their time in.

That's what this new infographic from Famemass is about - expanding on their previous graphic which looked at how much time people now spend connected to media, this one looks specifically at social platforms, and where people are spending their time.

The graphic incorporates insights from a range of research studies - and while the Twitter numbers seem a little low, it does provide an interesting overview of broader social media usage trends.

The Demographics of Social Media in 2019 | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 06 Aug 2019 04:34:50 GMT

Looking to get a better handle on the latest social media usage trends? Check out this quick overview of some key social media platform stats.

Social media is always changing, and not just in terms of new algorithm updates or platform features, but also in relation to usage, and where people's attentions lie.

In the past, for example, your best bet on social would have been to establish profiles for your brand on Facebook and Twitter, with others taking a lesser priority, but now that may not necessarily be the case, depending on your business.

Instagram is on the rise , Pinterest's shifting its entire use-case , while YouTube has, if anything, become an even bigger consideration . Google+ is no more , Snapchat has solidified its hold on younger users . Depending on who you're trying to reach, there's a range of different factors to take in.

To provide some quick insights, this infographic from Jones PR highlights some key social platform usage stats, and how they currently sit.

You may already be aware of these trends, but it's a good reminder, which may help you better plan your strategy.

Check out the full infographic below.

The History of Social Media | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 06 Aug 2019 04:32:14 GMT

Here's a look at how social media has evolved over time, and become the essential connective tool it is today.

It's amazing to consider just how significant social media has become in our everyday lives.

In a relatively short period of time, social media apps have evolved from cool, interesting toys, primarily used by young people, into key interactive platforms, connecting people to products, people and services in an ever-increasing range of ways .

And while the growth of - and reliance on - social has come with some negative elements , it's hard to imagine social platforms not existing.

In that context, this new infographic from the team at PostBeyond is particularly interesting. The graphic provides an overview of the evolution of social media, marking key milestones which have lead to its meteoric growth.

Seeing the growth highlights logged in the list underlines, once again, just how much has changed in the last two decades.

It's also an interesting prompt to consider your own experience - how different would your life be if social platforms no longer existed?

Instagram's Test of Removing Like Counts is Being Expanded to More Regions

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Sat, 20 Jul 2019 12:56:33 GMT

Instagram's controversial test of removing like counts is expanding into three new regions.

Will Instagram removing like counts make the platform a more accommodating, better experience? Will it actually help in any way?

Looks like we're going to find out, with the platform this week expanding its test of removing like and video view counts to six more regions, including Ireland, Australia and Brazil.

The test is already underway in Canada , with the total like count now replaced with a non-specific 'Liked by...' message below post images.

Instagram has said that it's removing likes as part of a broader focus on user wellbeing.

In a recent Interview with Gayle King on CBS News , Instagram chief Adam Mosseri explained that:

"We don't want Instagram to be such a competition. We want it to be a place where people spend more of their energy connecting with the people that they love and the things that they care about."

Individual users can still see their total like counts in the test, but they're not publicly displayed, which, Mosseri says, reduces social comparison, and its associated negative impacts.

When you add that to the fact that teens regularly delete Instagram posts which don't get enough likes, it's fairly clear that such metrics are contributing, at least somewhat, to these concerns. The weight of evidence, then, would suggest that removing likes can't be bad thing in this respect - but whether it will be a net positive is another question completely.

Sure, you won't have likes anymore, which is a measure of social proof within itself, but the images - the most commonly identified source of negative comparison - are the key part of Insta, you can't have the platform without them. Any move to reduce the potential for anxiety is helpful, let's be clear on that, but it likely won't address the most prominent issue, which essentially can't be addressed without removing the platform entirely.

Does that mean that Instagram shouldn't bother at all? Absolutely not - it's definitely worth the experiment, and mental health advocates would no doubt be in overwhelming support of the test. But it will be interesting to see the actual impacts - if they can even be measured.

It'll also be interesting to note the overall effect on like counts - will the lack of a total number increase people's propensity to like a post, or reduce it? If it leads to more likes, you can bet Instagram will be keen to keep the change, regardless of the other impacts.

But if it is fully rolled out, it will lead to other challenges. At the moment, brands looking to work with influencers can use post like counts as a measure in their assessment - someone with a million followers, but four likes on each post, is probably not the 'influencer' they claim to be. With this change, you won't be able to see that. You can still use comments as an engagement measure, and you can ask for engagement stats from the influencer his or herself, based on their analytics. But it adds another challenge, which is a subsidiary consideration for marketers, in particular, to keep in mind.

Mosseri has also acknowledged that it may not be good for Instagram engagement overall - but that's a risk they are willing to take:

"We will do things that mean people use Instagram less if we think that they keep people safe or generally create a healthier environment. And I think we have to be willing to do that."

Hopefully this is a positive move, and Instagram is serious about its commitment to protecting vulnerable users, and lessening potential harm, even in the face of declining performance metrics.

Instagram must have internal metrics to measure the success or failure of the trial, and given this expansion, you would have to assume it's already proving beneficial. Either way, it'll be a key area to watch for the industry, and Instagram marketers, moving forward.

6 Helpful Twitter Tips That You May Not be Aware of.

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Sat, 20 Jul 2019 12:51:17 GMT

Up your Twitter game with this list of helpful tips and tricks.

Twitter can be a powerful tool in any company's or professional's arsenal. The platform can help you rocket to success and stand out from the crowd - but, you'll only be able to achieve out of this world results if you know how to release the true potential of tweets.

Chances are, you aren't getting everything out of Twitter that you could be - and you might even be wasting valuable time (or even losing followers) by performing the wrong actions, or focusing on the wrong elements.

To get a better idea of what is and isn't working, you need access to hard data, while it also helps to be able to find your older messages, in case you need to access the content of some of the highest performing tweets you've ever sent out.

And, luckily, you can do all these things - so long as you know where to look.

To help you truly become the power user you know yourself to be, here are six Twitter tips that you might not be aware of, but can take your platform usage to the next level.

1. Find Your Old Tweets

Maybe you're feeling a bit nostalgic, or you simply want to locate some information you sent out in a tweet way back in the day.

Regardless of the reason, finding your old tweets doesn't seem like an intuitive process. Twitter only shows your last 3,200 tweets in your timeline, and if you've been using the app for just shy of a decade, and crossed that threshold, you aren't going to find your old messages there.

Luckily, you can use advanced search operators to hunt down your old messages.

How do you do it? By using the date operators in Twitter's advanced search :

Enter the dates and you can view tweets from any profile within a specific time frame, including your first tweets (you can read more about how to find your old tweets here ).

Ánd if you're interested, you can also check out the first tweets of any profile using ' Find First Tweet '.

2. Get Your Stats for Any Tweet

While examining your individual tweets will provide you with some basic stats (like the number of comments, retweets, and likes), sometimes, you need to dig deeper and find more valuable metrics.

The Tweet Activity view lets you do just that - just click on the bar graph icon within any tweet and you'll be presented with a wealth of information.

You'll be able to see data about the number of impressions and total engagements, as well as a breakdown of the various engagements.

This will help you learn important details about how your tweet performed, which can provide you with valuable insights about how to increase your tweet engagement in future.

3. Promote Your Tweets for Increased Exposure

You may have noticed a section in the image above which also enables you to promote your tweet. As you're no doubt aware, this option enables you to increase your tweet impressions, and gett your message in front of the eyes of more users.

If you press the 'Promote Your Tweet' button, you'll be presented with a panel where you can select a target location, choose a spending budget, and see an estimated reach for your promotion, if you choose to go forward.

And while you don't need to promote every tweet, investing in the right ones can really pay off .

If you select your top performing tweets - the true unicorns in the bunch - the cost per click can actually be very low. Twitter uses an algorithm to determine the price, and engaging content is rewarded with lower costs.

To find your top performing tweets, head over to your Twitter Analytics section . Then, select the 'Tweets' tab and click the 'Top Tweets' button.

4. Gain Super Valuable Insights About Your Audience

You know your audience is special - but do you actually know much about who they really are?

Another feature in Twitter Analytics is the ability to view demographic information about the people who read your tweets, including their various interests.

By gaining a deeper understanding of what your audience is into, you can create content that speaks to these areas. This can help you avoid getting stuck in a restrictive niche, while still allowing you to cover topics your audience wants to read about.

5. Download ALL the Data

If you want to take your data offline so you can really analyze the results of your activities, then downloading it is your best option.

This will give you a format that makes research a breeze, so you can figure out what's working (so you can do more of it) and what isn't (so you can stop doing that).

While in the Analytics section , head to the Tweets tab and click the 'Export Data' button located on the upper right-hand side.

6. Create a Twitter Moment Worth Remembering

Twitter also gives you the ability to create "Moments," a sort of slideshow collection of a set of tweets that makes it easier to tell a more compelling story.

You have to use the desktop version of Twitter to access the Moments feature. Begin by entering the Moments section (the icon on the upper left that looks like a lightning bolt) and click on the button on the upper right-hand side that says "Create new Moment."

From there, you can enter a title, a short description, and choose a cover image or video. Make sure your title is captivating, but do try to keep it short.

You can then select various tweets to add to your Moment collection. They don't have to all be your own tweets, so you do have some power to create a stunning Moment using a mix of your content and tweets from other accounts that you admire.

Once it's done, you can share it through a tweet to get the word out.

There's a heap of ways you can utilize Twitter and Twitter data to generate better results for yourself or your business. But you do need to know where to look.

Hopefully these tips help guide your approach.

4 Steps for Creating a Solid Social Media Strategy | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Fri, 19 Jul 2019 07:49:56 GMT

A social media strategy is critical to stand out from your competition and make a mark on social media. Here are the steps you can follow to create the ultimate social media marketing plan that will help you reach your business goals.

A social media strategy is critical to stand out from your competition and make a mark on social media. Here are the steps you can follow to create the ultimate social media marketing plan that will help you reach your business goals.

To find out more about how you can optimize your social media strategy, check out the infographic below. Here is a quick overview of what the infographic will show you.

1. Define Your Goals

The first and most important step of creating a social media strategy is that of setting your goals. Without a goal in mind, it will be difficult to channel your efforts to reach it.

That’s why you must define achievable goals which are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely) too.

Some of your goals can be:

Increase your reach
Increase the number of leads
Improve your revenues
Drive more traffic to your website

2. Define Your Target Audience

It is critical to figure out your target audience before starting your social media marketing campaigns. If you don’t know who your target customer is, you won’t know who to advertise to. Define your target audience based on their demographics, location, and interests.

Try to find out their pain points so that you can create marketing campaigns that show how your product can solve their problems. You should also know what sort of content they consume regularly. This will help you plan your content in a better manner.

3. Choose the Social Media Platform

Once you’ve defined your audience, you need to figure out which social media platform to use to reach them.

For that, you need to determine which social media platform is used by your target audience the most. Find out the top 1-2 social media platforms and ensure that you make your presence felt on those platforms. Make sure to cater your content to naturally fit in their feed.

4. Audit Your Performance

Once you’ve started posting content regularly on social media, you should start analyzing performance. See what sort of content works and what doesn’t.

Find out the engagement on different forms of content as well. You should also figure out the time when your audience is the most active on social media so that you can schedule your posts for that time.

Lastly, you should audit your performance against that of your competitors as well. Compare their follower bases, engagement, reach, etc. with yours.

Learn more about creating a strong social strategy in this infographic by UTM.io .

9 Types of Content to Stop Posting on Social Media

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Fri, 19 Jul 2019 06:25:49 GMT

Just as important as knowing what content to post, you also need to avoid posting the wrong things, and turning away your audience.

Here's the thing: when you post bad content to your social media channels, you run the risk of overshadowing all the hard work you’ve put into building your presence, and establishing connection with your online audience.

And because we don’t want to let you do that, in this post, we're going to outline nine content types which could be wrecking your social media - and losing you followers.

Avoid these post types in your approach.

1. Overly promotional content

Whatever your social media goals are, what matters is that you bring value to your audience.

Some brands make the mistake of assuming that what’s valuable to them is also important to their audience, and they use their social platforms to broadcast, to “sell, sell, sell”, rather than considering what really matters to people they're trying to reach.

Instead of using your social platforms to broadcast, try to use them to join conversations that are already happening. Listen to what your audience is already discussing, read what influencers are writing -then pitch your content to respond to these cues.

It may be worth considering the 5-3-2 rule, which states that for every 10 posts you publish:

5 should be curation - sharing others’ content
3 should be creation - relevant content you’ve produced yourself
2 should be humanization - personal, fun and relaxed content that humanizes your brand

2. Political or religious content

Religion and politics are two subject areas that people feel very strongly about. Whenever you post content that’s overtly political or religious, you’re unlikely to connect with all of your audience, and you're bound to be either irrelevant or offensive to those who don’t share your views.

Unless you’re a political or religious organization (and even then, it’s advised to take caution), avoid publishing anything that could be controversial - otherwise you risk offending and losing followers.

Instead, sense-check your content for neutrality before you publish it to your social feeds.

There are exceptions, especially in the modern age where consumers are looking to connect with brands that take a stance on certain issues. But the more divisive elements need very careful consideration.

3. Irrelevant viral posts

It’s tempting to resort to sharing the latest viral meme when you’re low on time and your social feeds are looking empty. But take care - chances are, your audience has already seen it, and you reposting is only dumbing down the rest of your activity.

Instead, plan your content in advance to make sure that what you post is relevant to your audience.

Social Media Tracker from SEMrush is a tool that can help - it will analyze your (and your competitors’) audience preferences so that you can start delivering content they’ll enjoy:

4. Negative or derogatory content

There’s a time and a place for voicing concerns about your clients or competitors - and it’s not on social media.

If a dissatisfied customer is complaining about you on their Twitter feed, then resist the temptation to fire back. If you treat them politely and respectfully - and if possible take it offline - then you might even find that you win them back.

5. Posts with spelling or grammatical errors

Your social media profiles, like your website, are your virtual shop windows. Making a mistake in your content - either a simple typo or a full-blown grammar gaff - can look as though you don’t care.

When you’re drafting your content, make sure you proofread your copy before you publish. Or even better, share it with a colleague to proofread before posting.

6. Brand-inconsistent content

Your social media profiles are an extension of your brand, and although you’re restricted by the format of the social platform you’re posting to, you still have creative control over your brand voice and tone.

When you’re planning out your social content, revisit your brand personas. Think about what they would be saying on social media and how they’d be saying it. Make sure that the content you publish stays as close to these styles and themes as possible.

7. The same message across social networks

Although you want to maintain a consistent brand voice, it’s a mistake to post exactly the same content across all platforms.

It goes without saying that all social networks are different. They speak to different demographics for one thing, and they each lend themselves to different content. LinkedIn is usually more copy-heavy and formal, Instagram is mainly visual and informal, while Twitter is more suited to bite-sized tidbits and GIFs.

Think about each of your social media accounts, and tailor your content to suit each one. Even if you have roughly the same thing to say, make sure that your message fits with the style and tone of each platform.

8. Unaccredited content

There’s nothing wrong with sharing other people’s content - in fact, I’d advise that you actively do this. But so many brands copy content directly from other sources, without crediting them.

The same goes for quotes - inspirational quotes have their place, but when you don’t name the quote source, it looks sloppy.

It gets worse with copyrighted images. If you use an image in your content you’re not legally entitled to use, then you could come under some serious legal fire. Instead, be sure to get your images from open-source websites, such as Creative Commons , and follow the instructions for crediting the source.

Next time you see some content you’d like to share, use it as an opportunity to connect. Click the “share” button on that content so that its source will automatically be included in your post. Alternatively, post the content to your profile and include the social media handle of the source.

9. Hashtag-stuffed content

Hashtags are super useful - they help to increase the visibility and shareability of your content across social media, they let you grow your audience, and they can open your content up to greater discussion.

That said, if you stuff your social content with reams of irrelevant hashtags, then you’ll risk making your post unreadable, and diluting the importance of the more relevant ones.

Next time you post, do some hashtag research first to ensure that the ones you’ve selected are relevant to your audience, and to your content - and that you’re following up to date best practices.

Conclusion

When you’re posting regularly to social media, it can be easy to get into bad habits, and brands often make the mistake of thinking that posting any (substandard) content is better than posting none at all.

On the contrary, posting negative, irrelevant or clumsy content can damage your brand, and lose you valuable followers. Cut out these nine content types, and you’ll give your valuable content a better chance of getting seen.

How to Use Storytelling to Connect with Your Audience on Instagram

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Sun, 23 Jun 2019 04:23:30 GMT

Storytelling has always been an integral part of digital marketing, and marketing in general - and for good reason.

While the digital age has brought increased access to information, digesting it all takes time and energy. Because consumers trust online reviews more than ever, and are able to compare products or services between two brands at a single click, marketers need to convey why their brand is worthy of their attention. Storytelling in marketing is a means for brands to simplify the complex ideas that they want to convey.

Most importantly, it works. Consumers are more likely to convert when product pages integrate some sort of story (such as the winemaker’s information for a bottle of wine), and they're willing to pay more as well. Storytelling is also how marketers can tap into younger demographics’ desire for experience over products, by making buying from them and being part of their community an experience within itself.

Need to revitalize your Instagram strategy through the lens of storytelling? Here are three key elements to keep in mind.

1. Know your values

Great storytelling begins with a clear understanding of your brand’s history and values. The historical development of your brand, easily referenced and communicated, will give your audience insight into why you’re championing the values that you do. Harken back to your company’s mission and vision to find out what angle to approach the stories you tell with your marketing strategy.

In the case of Instagram, it’s important to be able to not just write all of these out, but to translate them into visual content.

One great example is singer Rihanna’s beauty company, Fenty Beauty . Born from the desire to see a wider variety of makeup shades available, the company’s marketing emphasizes diversity, in contrast to mainstream cosmetics brands - which worked perfectly for its launch product, a foundation in 40 different shades.

Here’s where a social media style guide comes in. All your content should be guided by your company’s values, and a social media specific style guide gives you an easily accessible reference point for them, translated into a how-to for running your account.

Your guide should contain how each profile you have must be optimized, tone of voice when writing copy and answering comments, the formatting to use for each post, what your branded hashtags are, and the visual guidelines for your account - colors, fonts, logo placement, and more.

2. Maintaining harmony between image and copy

Yes, people do still read the captions on Instagram. That’s why, especially for brands, you shouldn’t shy away from giving more context to your images - unless your strategy specifically calls for the opposite.

Use your social media style guide for help with this - that’s what it’s for.

The first step is to edit your photos so that they’re in line with your brand’s personality. You don’t have to strictly incorporate your colors into each and every photo, but take care not to cause a disconnect between what’s depicted in each image and how you edit them. A brand geared towards young children and parents, for example, may not want to edit their photos to be dark and brooding.
To edit your photos and jazz up the colors, you could try using the many filters that come with Instagram, or download your own photo-editing app. One app worth checking out is Instasize which has a creative toolkit with modern filters for you to choose from, as well as other cool border tools and font options that can help make your visuals stand out while staying true to your brand.

The second step is to write out your Instagram caption. To illustrate, here (above) is an example from National Geographic’s Instagram page.

The National Geographic team doesn't shy away from long captions, because part of their brand identity is as a magazine featuring stories from around the world. They've transposed that into an Instagram-friendly format by sharing facts about each photo they post, giving credit to the location and photographer of each one. This gives their Instagram account a similar feel to flipping through one of their print publications, keeping their brand experience consistent across mediums.

Provide context and comment on the images you post, choosing the words or quotes carefully to make easy associations with the images you provide. Light colors can mean bright and cheery, low saturation can mean low-key and relaxing, and so on.

3. Use data for continuous improvement

It isn’t enough to simply communicate your brand message according to how your team sees it - you need to take into account the characteristics of your audience as well, which is where your data and analytics tools come in.

Do your research and check the analytics on your Instagram account. What demographic identifies the most with the content you post? Who views your content, and when? What kind of information can you find out about your audience, other than age and location? Putting this all together can help you tailor your message and how you communicate with fans via comment or DM.

You should also use Instagram insights to check which posts resonate the most. It’s up to you whether you prefer to create weekly or monthly reports, but a regular examination of the content that works will enable you to continuously improve upon your social media strategy.

It may even prompt a reinvention of how your brand presents itself down the line. You wouldn’t know without the data to back it up.

Lastly, remember that people want to feel a connection

Humans are social and emotional creatures, and most would also like to have an affinity with a brand whose products and services they prefer. Understanding which audience to cater to with your Instagram account, and crafting posts around that, will help you establish an instant bond with whoever decides to scroll through your profile.

With people growing more discerning than ever about the products they choose, communicating what makes you worth their attention - in the least amount of time - can make all the difference.

4 Proven Ways to Improve Customer Service Using Social Media

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Sun, 23 Jun 2019 01:23:32 GMT

These days, social media interactions can make or break a business.

Various studies have shown that the majority of consumers now expect a response from a brand on Twitter within an hour, while on Facebook the expectations are similar, with 42% of customers also expecting a response within one hour of posting.

If you don't respond to messages within that time frame - let alone the same day - chances are your customers will lose faith in your business, and potentially move on.

Brands that stand out are the ones that respond swiftly, both to messages and reviews.

In this post, we'll look at four actionable ways to ensure that your customer service lives up to expectation, and is boosting your bottom line.

1. Quickly Respond to Messages

When you receive a message from a customer, it's important to quickly address their concerns and answer their questions.

Increasingly, people are using Facebook Messenger to reach out to businesses - in order to respond to them quickly at scale, Facebook Messenger chatbots can help.

You can set up Q&A triggers so that the bot answers frequently asked questions immediately - for example, if your business often gets questions about location, you can set your chatbot up to provide your address, and even offer directions whenever "location," "address" or "directions" are mentioned over chat.

You can do this for a variety of queries, and a live operator can always take over at any time if the queries are overly complex.

2. Respond to Every Review Respectfully - and Never Argue

As a business owner, you have to maintain your cool.

No matter how rude a query may seem, or how untrue a review might be, you have to remain calm in your responses.

Fighting back against a negative review or complaint will only make you look bad, and potentially result in more negative comments and responses from the reviewer. Instead, try to approach every interaction as an opportunity.

Someone didn't like your service? Take the time to ask them why. This will ensure the customer feels heard, and you might also learn something you hadn't considered in the process.

If you're able to fix their problem, or clarify a concern, it's likely that you'll turn them around, and they may even edit their review for the better.

This is key, as reviews impact not only your online reputation, but your Google Local listing rank. It's worth taking the time to address such concerns where possible.

3. Create a Facebook Group

Building an online community centered around your business is another way you can help boost your brand reputation and presence.

You can create a Facebook group for your customers to join - members of your group can then start discussions, share opinions, ask questions and communicate about your products or services.

Make sure you establish your community rules, and assign moderators to keep the group running smoothly.

If you choose to make the group 'Public' instead of 'Closed', you can add questions which interested people will need to answer in order to join. This can help prevent bots and spammers from swarming in and hijacking the conversation.

4. Be Friendly, Respectful and Helpful

Whenever you interact with a customer online, be warm and welcoming.

It probably goes without saying, but it's key to be friendly and helpful - rather than stuffy and... well, business-like.

The same applies to your Facebook Messenger chatbots - when you create scripts for your chatbots, make them as human-like as possible. Even though it is a chatbot talking, it shouldn't sound robotic.

You should also ensure you maintain a consistent tone and approach in groups, ensuring there's a clear understanding of what members can expect from your business and related discussions. Establish a style guide to keep all group admins on the same page, and ensure that when you address any issues, that you do so objectively, and that you document any relevant decisions.

As noted, social media has become a key platform for modern customer service, one which, if you're not tapping into, you're definitely missing out.

And that expectation is only going to increase - as more brands offer improved customer service interactions via social, they also raise consumer expectations overall. If you're failing to meet that, you're failing. Simple as that.

Facebook Will Remove Certain Business Page Info Sections as of August 1st

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Sun, 23 Jun 2019 00:46:45 GMT

The only constant in Facebook marketing is change, and this week, The Social Network has outlined a new business Page update which will see the removal of certain Page information sections, with prompts urging Page admins to integrate those fields into other sections.

As you can see in this example provided by Mari Smith (and shared by Matt Navarra ), the change will see the following sections removed from your Page listing options:

Mission
Company Overview
Biography
Affiliation
Personal Interests

In all likelihood, these fields are not highly read, so it makes some sense for Facebook to remove them as part of a broader effort to streamline company Page listings. But then again, more context is better, more data for Facebook to read and categorize Pages can only help it better match people with the right information.

Maybe, as part of Facebook's broader re-assessment of the data it collects, and utilizes, the company is simply trying to reduce any unnecessary data collection in order to lessen its potential tracking and targeting issues.

The relative value of these sections will obviously be driven by your approach. Do people really need to see your personal interests on your business Page? Does your biography really matter - or is that just another variation of your Page description?

Really, it probably is - if you've described what your business is and what it does in your Page description, which is the key information panel of your business Page, then the 'Mission', 'Company Overview' and 'Biography' fields are all just variants of the same. No doubt Facebook has found that most businesses cut and paste between them, or provide vague descriptions which don't add a lot - in which case, removing them makes sense. And then you've got 'Affiliation' and 'Personal Interests' - two fields which probably don't contribute a heap of additional understanding.

When you break it down, the removals actually make sense, but it is another element to consider in your Facebook marketing approach, which may be a good prompt for you to re-assess your Facebook Page description and ensure it represents your business.

As noted, the changes are set to come into effect in August - we've asked Facebook for further clarification and will update this post if and when we hear more.

20 Ways to Bust Through the Digital Noise With a More Human, Relevant Brand

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Fri, 14 Jun 2019 05:50:35 GMT

Building a brand that's relevant, memorable and valuable online requires a lot more than fancy visuals, fast-moving video or knowing how to play the latest Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn algorithms.

Standing out from the digital noise requires more than hopping on the latest social shiny technology object. At core you have to earn attention, then trust and inspire subsequent action.

Social currency on the web today = attention + action. You need both, and to achieve this, you need to learn how to connect with humans in a real way. You have to know how to leverage the technology to be more human, make people laugh, share your story and inspire them to take action.

Here are 20 ways you can bust right through the digital noise to grow your business.

1. Be authentically you

There is only one you, so be that person, period.

The best way to attract your ideal customer, which will create energy, mutual joy and value, is letting your true colors shine. Don’t pretend you're someone, or some brand that you're not. Find your authentic voice, personality and tone and share that worth the world.

Life and business work so much better when lived in high human definition, with no filters. Share your story, and invite, engage and bring others with you for the journey.

Let them help build you. When you win, they win also.

2. Find where your passions intersect with the opportunity to create and drive business results

When you're ignited by your passions, your energy, excitement and happiness will often exude from your being. Customers will feel this and be attracted to work with you.

3. Create a content calendar and plan

Though it may seem fun to wake up every morning and spontaneously post content to your many social profiles, your results will increase exponentially if you take the time to plan out your content.

The more you can focus on the right audiences, objectives and strategies to attract your ideal audience, the more successful you'll be.

4. Know and love your audience

Think about the brands you love. What is it about them that attracts you to them?

The more you know your audience and ideal customer, the better you can create content, products and services which connect with them in meaningful ways.

Personal experiences make your brand more relevant and memorable. Look to create consistent, meaningful and unique experiences which will separate you from the crowd of status quo.

5. Know your value

You also need to know your greatest strengths and weaknesses, which will highlight your key opportunities to improve.

When you're crystal clear on the value you provide to your ideal audience and customers, your content will pop out to them in a positive way. They’ll be thinking “hey… that brand has just what I need now”.

6. Know the goals your audience has for life or business

We must inspire our audiences to connect with us with a goal of helping them achieve their objectives.

When we do this, we also achieve ours by default, as they are both one and the same.

Inspire – Connect – Achieve.

7. Create content that helps your audience achieve their goals

How can you help them save time, make more money, lose weight, feel better, get more sleep - the list goes on.

You need to know what they want, then create content that will help them achieve their biggest dreams. Then create more content that provides the path, roadmap and actionable steps to help them get to the desired state or level of success they're seeking.

8. Create content that inspires and empowers

Knowledge is power. Inspire your audience to take action with content that empowers them to win.

Inspiration does not equal a link to your blog post or sales page - you need to truly connect with the heart if you want to stomp the status quo.

Create content that's easy to digest, share and remember. Inspirational quotes or short stories that people connect with are both great ways to create meaningful and inspirational content, without spending a ton of time.

9. Get visual… as in really good visuals

Don’t simply post the same ol’ same ol’ stock images and creative for your content, blog posts, videos, Instagram, Linkedin and email newsletters.

By planning out your content in advance, you can ensure that your visuals are new and fresh, and stand out in busy feeds.

10. Double down on one specific industry or niche

Get laser-focused on a niche in which you have experience - and ideally case studies.

You should aim to become the “go to” leader and trusted advisor in your industry. Narrow your focus to streamline and prioritize content creation, influencer marketing and all areas of promotion, advertising and marketing.

11. Double down on one or two social networks

In our training sessions, we teach attendees a three-tiered approach to prioritizing social networks.

It’s always better to start with one or two social networks where you can have a major presence, versus spreading yourself too thin across more than you have time or budget to achieve a measurable return on your investment.

Going deep can help you connect, authentically, with your target audience, and build a more human brand. Less truly is more in this respect.

12. Look for the cracks of opportunity competitors in your industry are missing

For example, we hopped on LinkedIn 14+ years ago when they were still in beta, and we’ve been building our community and network there since.

While others in our industry are just now realizing that LinkedIn is for far more than job searching - and that it’s now one of the best ways to connect with professionals - we already have a solid network, including 365,000 followers, and over 25,000 connections.

These connections have been nurtured for more than 14 years and deliver one of the highest ROIs of any social network our agency leverages.

13. Double down on one or two marketing mediums such as video, visual or audio

Have you thought about digging deeper into video and/or audio?

Choose one and find ways to leverage the content you already have to reach new audiences. Add another layer of context and relevancy to not only pull over your existing connections, and re-engage them with your brand, but also to connect with new people and make new friends.

14. Tap into the personal brand 'YOU' factor

People buy from people they know like and trust. When was the last time you woke up in the morning excited to talk to a logo on social media?

Invest in your personal brand and the payoffs will be significant in regards to building relationships, earning trust and growing your business.

Learn the difference between authenticity and transparency, and know that you don’t have to share everything you do 24/7 in order to build a rock-solid personal brand which generates result.

Prioritize social networks, content and mediums that will help you connect with your ideal audience, customers, influencers and partners you want to work with.

15. Power up with the OPC – 'Other People's Content and Community'

You don't have to embark on your digital and social media journey all by yourself - connect with other leaders in your industry, such as influencers and highly connected thought leaders, both online and offline.

Share their content, build relationships, then partner up for strategic, fun and inspiring co-marketing campaigns that ignite your combined audiences.

16. Leverage smart paid media and retargeting

Imagine capturing the attention of visitors to your website or blog multiple times after their initial or repeat visits?

You can tap into the power of social media paid advertising, as well as retargeting, in order to place paid advertisements in front of them on the other blogs, websites, and social networks they visit.

Retargeting works so well because you can target and connect with your audience by increasing brand impressions. It takes 6-7 brand impressions before someone will remember your brand.

17. Leverage data

While your competition is more worried about looking, sounding and performing like everyone else, dig deep into the data. When the market starts to shift, find out why. When you feel you're losing your edge, don't be afraid to pivot. However, leverage the data, and make the smart decisions that will help you not just survive, but thrive for both the short and long term.

Oftentimes, short-term sacrifices lead to long-term gains. Success in business today is more of a marathon than a sprint. To win the marathon, you have to keep yourself and your team educated and on top of the latest trends and best practices to become the leader in your market and niche.

18. Focus on the big picture and the big wins. Stop sweating the small stuff

The right baby steps that are aligned to the bigger vision will ensure you that you keep winning. Don't get down with small setbacks or short term losses. Imposter syndrome is real and can kill your creativity and confidence if you let it.

You will win and you will lose deals, and even social media followers. However, the world is big, and there will be more where those came from.

Stay focused on your goals, and don't give up.

19. Create once use many

Create pinnacle pieces of content which you can use over and over again. This doesn't mean you post the same piece of content repeatedly - instead, you can create amazing pieces of content that can be sliced, diced and served up in different formats, mediums, lengths and more.

Get creative and work smart. This will help you stay agile, while at the same time, building a solid foundation of evergreen content that can serve your audience for months and years to come.

20. Invest in humans

You can never go wrong by investing in the passionate human beings within your community.

Learn and understand who they are, why they're there, what they need, what they desire, who they hang out with, where they hang out with and more. The more you know about them, the better you can inspire, connect with and serve them.

Inspire – connect - achieve. That's the process you want to stick to, and the one that will ultimately set you up for optimal success.

Instagram Stories vs. Instagram Feed: What to Post and Where | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Sat, 08 Jun 2019 00:48:05 GMT

Instagram is on the rise, and more and more brands are looking to establish an Instagram presence in order to better tap into their audience's interests. But there is a key challenge in modern Instagram publishing - with the subsequent rise of Instagram Stories, it can be difficult, at times, to decide which posts are feed-relevant, and which are, alternatively, Stories-worthy.

There are obviously no definitive rules around what you post in either element - the fact that you're posting at all is likely beneficial - but it can help to have some guidance on what should go where, and whether that new idea you've just thought of should become a Story or a post.

To help, the team from Animoto have put together a simple Instagram cheat sheet , which aims to highlight the differences between the main feed and Stories in order to ease your decision-making process.

There are some key considerations of note - for example, did you know that most users scrolling through their Instagram feed watch videos without sound, yet around 70% of Stories are watched with the sound turned on.

The subtle differences in behavior and presentation can make be significant within your posting strategy - check out the cheat sheet below for more details.

50 Types of Social Media Posts to Keep Your Followers Interested | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 09:45:29 GMT

Are you looking for new ideas to spark engagement with your social media posts? Want to create a social media content schedule to keep your followers interested?

Digital strategist and advisor Angie Gensler shares some of her top social media post ideas to try in this infographic.

It's a simple, but effective listing, which may be just what you need to get your social content flow on track.

Check out the infographic for more detail.

Content Consumption Habits are Evolving - Which Means Strategies Need to Evolve In-Step

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 09:41:49 GMT

Last week, I stumbled upon an interesting study by our friends over at NetLine Corporation entitled the “2019 State of B2B Content Consumption and Demand.”

The study laid out some interesting trends which, quite frankly, I wasn’t aware of, or had even considered. The results compared surveys, year-on-year, with the opinions of B2B professionals across over 300 industries, from companies of various sizes.

According to Google’s 'Zero Moment of T ruth ' research, the average consumer needs eighteen content touches in order to become a customer. That will obviously vary across industries, but nonetheless, as content marketers, we know that we need multiple content touches over time in order to nurture people into becoming paying customers. Align that with the fact that today’s content marketing adoption level by brands is pushing 90% and that's a lot of content that needs to be - and is being - produced.

Because of this, the amount of content on the Internet is growing, and our target audiences are getting flooded by this stream. According to this new study, that influx is impacting the time it takes for a content consumer to move between content touches - meaning that it’s taking longer for them to come back for more content.

The NetLine study concludes that, as content marketers, we need to “have impact with relevance, usefulness, and readability” with our content.

% Increase in Days Between Content Requests (YoY 2017-2018)

So, if we need X amount of content touches to turn someone into a customer, the above chart means that our B2B sales cycles, overall, should be a little longer than what they were a year ago.

That’s not a good thing. So how do content marketers overcome this issue of prospects taking longer and longer to come back for a second, third, fourth touch, etc.?

The answer is that we need to take our content to them.

Yes, having a hub of helpful owned content is a basic standard for content marketers today, but we can no longer expect that hub, and emailing our lists, to get the appropriate amount of content touches we need for producing a customer in the timeframe we’re used to.

Instead, we have to utilize content amplification, in order to put our high-quality content in front of our target audiences. We need to reach them where they hangout online, and do so in a non-interruptive format. And that, of course, presents a significant challenge within itself.

Content Marketing and Amplification

Today’s content amplification isn’t what it used to be.

It’s artificial intelligence (AI) driven, and has targeting capabilities like never before - that’s why eMarketer is predicting $40+ billion spent in the US this year on native advertising alone.

In addition, content marketing and its amplification decidedly outperforms the interruptive media buys brands have been doing since last decade.

The technology, for the first time ever, is enabling content marketers to scale the native ad unit creative (headlines, images, copy, etc.), targeting demographics and interests, and dozens upon dozens of social and native networks at the same time. These capabilities can literally take four articles and create over 170,00 native ad units in real time.

From there, the AI optimizes the ad units in order to only show those permutations which drive content engagement. This bodes well for the content marketers who leverage this new powerful technology in order to amplify content.

The NetLine study is the first to make me realize that, for B2B content consumers, the amount of time between content touches with the same brand is growing. Since we know that most industries (especially B2B ones) require a certain amount of these touches before a prospect becomes a customer, the logical assumption is that sales cycles should be getting longer – albeit in days, not months.

In order to fix this problem, B2B content marketers need to take their content to the consumer using advancing techniques, like the amplification technology described above. Otherwise, they risk being lost in the rising tide of content. Yes, content is important, but you need the right people to see it in order for that effort to remain effective.

3 of the Most Common LinkedIn Marketing Mistakes - and How to Fix Them

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 09:35:25 GMT

Are you making these three common mistakes with your LinkedIn content? You "hijack" your own post, You post on LinkedIn only to promote your self-interest and You don't have a LinkedIn content strategy

I'm seeing so many of these kinds of posts in my feeds, so I thought I should share with you why these are mistakes - and how you can fix them. Hopefully, these tips will help you improve your LinkedIn content approach.

1. You "hijack" your own post

I don't like to use the term "hijack," but it's the best way to describe this error. If you're familiar with the term " thread hijacking ," then I'm largely referring to the same thing, but in this case, it happens within your own post - and you're the one doing it, most probably without even realizing.

To hijack your own post means to start your update with an interesting topic, along with supporting images. You then suddenly switch topics at the end.

Here's a sample post I created to illustrate what I mean:

As you can see, the images were taken during a recent LinkedIn Local Philippines Campus Tour, and the post starts with an enthusiastic statement in reference to that event:

As a reader who's familiar with what LinkedIn Local is, it would sound interesting to me - I might think "it must be really fun holding LinkedIn Local events in campuses". Given this, I'm, keen to know more about the event - what the key takeaways were, the panelists that attended, etc. But there's no mention of any of these details - instead, the second paragraph veers into self-interest, switching focus to a separate topic that I want to promote:

As you can see, to hijack your own post means to write an update which initially gets the attention of your network, only for them to realize at the end that your main intent is to sell, not really to highlight what you've started.

Here's how you can fix it

With every one of your LinkedIn updates, remember to stick to a single main point.

In this case, I would be better off splitting the post above into two separate posts, each with a clear focus. I could then be more strategic about my posting of each, tagging relevant people, posting at ideal times, using relevant hashtags, etc.

For each of these posts, I would also have to ensure that the images I use support that single idea - otherwise, the image just serves as a "bait" to get the attention of my network. This may help get a little extra attention, but it won't help build connection and community. And worse, it could turn people off, and prompt them to unfollow, or remove you as a connection.

2. You post on LinkedIn only to promote your self-interest

I get it. You're a thought leader or a world-renowned speaker, or you might even be a best-selling author. You have speaking engagements here and there, you hold events in almost every location one can ever think of.

That's all fine, but if all you ever do on LinkedIn is promote yourself, you're not likely to maximize your reach and engagement potential on the platform.

I've seen a lot of LinkedIn members who seem very popular and well-respected in their fields, but who fail to "connect" with their network on LinkedIn.

The truth is, every LinkedIn member has "what's in it for me?" in mind. That makes sense, and is not surprising that people want to use the platform to promote themselves and their professional expertise. But the best way to leverage the platform is to build relationships, and you do that by providing value to your network - not endlessly talking about yourself.

Nobody wants to be sold to, no one wants to connect with you just so you can sell them your new online course, your newly released book or your insurance policies - or, indeed, so you can endlessly invite them to your upcoming events.

If you do so within reason that's generally okay, but if that's all you do, each and every time you post, it might be time to unfollow you.

Here's how you can fix it

Stop focusing on self-interest, and start thinking about how you can give, rather than take.

By doing this, you'll earn the right to promote your products or services, without getting ignored. If you consistently show up to help others succeed, you'll advance towards achieving your LinkedIn goals also faster than you will through self-promotion.

It's been said many times, but it is worth repeating - "People do business with those they know, like and trust".

You've got to earn the right to promote - and not overdo it - through this know-like-trust factor if you want to see real results from organic engagements.

If you only want to use LinkedIn to promote or sell, and not help or build your presence - by all means, you can do that, however, you'll likely see better results through the platform's paid ads, not through your organic presence.

If you're not willing to spend on paid ads, then you should spend time figuring out how you can build relationships by providing value to your network.

Either way, you still have to invest - you either invest money on ads or invest your time on building relationships. The results will be relative to what you put in.

3. You don't have a LinkedIn content strategy

If you're on LinkedIn to use it as "just another social media platform," that's fine - you probably don't need a strategy.

But if you want to create opportunities for yourself, in order to help advance your career, or grow your business, you need to have a LinkedIn content strategy, which is aligned with your overall marketing goals.

It's easy to see those on LinkedIn who have strategies in place, as opposed to those who are just posting at random.

Remember, "failing to plan is planning to fail". If you want to maximize your on-platform performance, it's worth taking the time to map out an optimal approach.

Here's how you can fix it

If you don't have a clear LinkedIn content strategy, stop posting now and think about it first.

Start with these five questions:

What is your goal for using LinkedIn?
Who is your target audience?
What are their pain points and challenges?
How can you help them address their pain points and challenges?
How will you measure your success?

Your LinkedIn content strategy should be aligned with your overall marketing goals - and where possible, in synch with your offline activities. Try using LinkedIn Sales Navigator , for example, to help you create more targeted content.

Having a clear content strategy, and a detailed content calendar, will help you achieve your marketing goals organically.

These are some of the most common strategic errors I see on LinkedIn - if you're making them, hopefully this post has prompted you to re-think your approach, and come at it from a more strategic perspective. Of course, it's all relative to what you want to achieve - if you're merely using LinkedIn as a supplementary channel to stay in touch with your network or current and former colleagues, that's fine, no need to heed these tips.

But if you're spending time on LinkedIn, and you want to get the most out of your efforts, it's worth considering how you can do so.

Hopefully these pointers will help.

Facebook Adds New Page and Group Ranking Factors into News Feed Algorithm

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 08:54:57 GMT

After announcing a News Feed algorithm update earlier this month, which focused on boosting content from the people you care most about, and reducing the reach of clickbait, Facebook has now issued an amendment to that update to also add in new ranking signals for content from the Pages and Groups that people are most interested in.

As per the original update , Facebook explained how it regularly utilizes user surveys to garner feedback about the effectiveness of its feed algorithm, and to help guide its focus for improvement:

"We’ve [recently] begun surveying people on Facebook to ask them to list the friends they are closest to. We look at the patterns that emerge from these results, some of which include being tagged in the same photos, continuously reacting and commenting on the same posts and checking-in at the same places. We then use these patterns to inform our algorithm."

In the new amendment, Facebook says that it recently issued two additional surveys focused on Page and Group content, and what people want to see more, or less, of:

"We know that friends are not the only reason people come to Facebook. Many people come to see the latest from the Pages they follow and the groups they are a part of. In addition to surveying people asking them which friends they were closest to, we started two additional surveys asking people 1) how interested they are in content from a specific Page they follow, and 2) how important a specific group they’ve joined is to them."

Based on the responses it's received, Facebook says that it has updated the News Feed algorithm to "prioritize the Pages and groups we predict an individual may care about most".

"Some of the indicators of how meaningful a Page or group is might include how long someone has followed a Page or been a part of a group; how often someone engages with a Page or group; and how often a Page or group posts."

What, exactly, that means - and how Page managers can use it to advantage - is unclear. There's obviously little that Page managers can do now about the time that people have been following their Page, and engagement has always been a factor in boosting Page reach. But that last point raises a question about whether it's better to post more or less.

Does Facebook mean that it will show more Page content to those interested if a Page posts more, or is it a balance thing - if a Page posts every hour, the algorithm won't overwhelm people with its updates?

You'd suspect the latter is the case - but Facebook has also previously advised Pages to:

" Post frequently - Don't worry about over-posting. The goal of News Feed is to show each person the most relevant story so not all of your posts are guaranteed to show in their Feeds."

Maybe, that's the way to go, to lean more towards more posts. Not to the point of posting every 15 minutes or something extreme, but upping your frequency could ensure that the algorithm has content to choose from to show to those users who it has pegged as being interested in your Page updates.

Groups have been a big focus for Facebook of late, so its little surprise to see them looking to find new ways to maximize the benefits of group discussion with this amendment, but a potential reach boost for Pages could be a welcome change of pace for businesses which have gotten used to seeing their Facebook referral traffic steadily decline over the years.

But then again, within the update, Facebook does say that the impact will be minimal.

"Similar to the close friends update we announced earlier this month, these specific changes will not result in an increase of Page or group content [in feeds]. Rather, they will prioritize content from the Pages and groups we think you care about most so that you see them higher in News Feed."

I mean, even that is good - getting more visibility for your Page posts can only help, though I wouldn't expect to see your Insights charts change significantly as a result.

Either way, it's an interesting amendment to Facebook's latest News Feed tweak, which may help generate more exposure for Page and group posts.

8 Ways Your Social Media Content is Annoying Your Audience

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Wed, 15 May 2019 10:49:44 GMT

We all tend to think that our content is always great. We provide value in a fun, memorable way, speaking to our audience in a manner that they enjoy.

As marketers, we all tend to think that our content is always great. We provide value in a fun, memorable way, speaking to our audience in a manner that they enjoy.

While it would be great if that were true, the sad reality is that if we aren’t careful, our content can do more harm than good. And since both paid and organic success on social media hinges on a high-quality content strategy, it's important for brands to understand what their audience does and doesn’t want to see.

Luckily for us, Adobe recently conducted a new study of 1,000 U.S. consumers, which outlines what, specifically, annoys them most about content from brands.

Want to keep your social media audience happy and engaged? Avoid these common mistakes.

39% of consumers are annoyed by content that's too wordy or poorly written

Humans are fallible, and grammatical mistakes are bound to happen when creating a ton of content. Just keep in mind that too wordy, or poorly written content, is a big turnoff for consumers.

Be clear, concise and accurate with your language. Have another team member review your content for quality just to be safe. Perfection is not a feasable goal, but keep in mind consumers want easy to understand and digest content.

28% of consumers are annoyed by content that's poorly designed

Visual content rules the roost on social media, and it's crucially important to ensure that all of your content is visually appealing, where possible.

If creative design isn’t your forte, lean on a team member to help you out, or consider starting with a template from a platform like Canva .

At the end of the day, you're creating content with a view to convert social media consumers into customers, and your efforts simply won’t be as effective if your material is unattractive.

The majority of consumers are annoyed by content that gets too personalized and creepy

Personalization is an amazing thing - however too much of it is just plain creepy.

The key to not turning off consumers is being relevant to their situation, but not so exact that it freaks them out. Facebook has had a lot of bad press about data sharing, so you wouldn’t want your marketing message to get overshadowed by someone feeling like you are spying on them.

Offer a valuable solution to their presumed situation, not a creepy nudge that you know everything about them.

23% of consumers are annoyed by content that has been seen before, or is stale

Brands in every industry are constantly pumping out content trying to achieve the same goal, but with this competition comes the mantra of 'curating' over 'creating' content.

Be careful with this - the more a consumer sees a concept, the less impact it'll have. If your brand is the 3rd or 4th to have shared the same piece of content, it looks lame and of lesser value.

Consider putting your own spin on curated content to freshen things up a bit.

Consumers are often annoyed by content that isn’t personalized to them

As a counterbalance to point three, consumers do actually prefer content that relates to their specific question or personal situation.

It's important to create content with an audience in mind, so that everything you publish will appeal to them in some way. The relevance and relatability of your content will position your brand as a resource for consumers.

Creating Content for Every Social Media Platform

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Wed, 15 May 2019 10:44:27 GMT

All social platforms should not be treated equally. When building a social strategy, always approach each platform as it's own. Go where your target audience is and create content both for them and for the platform itself.

Sara Fischer from Axios states in a recent article , "data suggests that the core function of each platform elevates certain topics because of the native format and the reasons users visit the platform." This is a great point; photos, videos and other quality visuals will always fit well on Instagram, but may not align with your Twitter presence.

So the real question is how can your brand spread its wings across multiple platforms and create content that works for each space? Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

Who are you trying to reach?
What platforms are they on?
What content do they like to consume on that platform specifically?
What can I share on each platform to naturally fit into their feed?

I'll give an example of one brand doing this right.

A newsletter I subscribe to, Girls Night In, has done a great job at answering all of these questions. The content they share on each platform varies. They know that their audience is the same but their audience will choose to follow them on different platforms for different reasons. The newsletter targets women who enjoy staying in and being comfortable. With that in mind, Girls Night In shares unique content on each platform.

On Instagram, they stick to happy images with short, witty captions.

A post shared by Girls’ Night In (@girlsnightinclub) on May 6, 2019 at 4:45pm PDT

On Facebook, they share articles with their own opinion, ideas or inspiration written out in the caption.

On Twitter, they tweet similar content that they share on Facebook (which clearly resonates on both platforms), but they also add in fun tweets into the mix.

Be smart about the platforms you choose to join as a brand and dedicate time to each platform individually. It's always better to have one strong social media presence than to join multiple platforms and not give them the care they require.

Facebook Releases New Guide on Creating More Effective Stories | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 11:23:41 GMT

Whether you like them or not, Stories are on the rise, and have grown to become a key social media content option.

The usage figures tell the ( ahem ) story - Facebook alone now sees more than 1.25 billion people using the Stories options across its family of apps every day. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently noted that ephemeral stories are among the fastest growing areas of online communication "by far", and even through your own usage, you've no doubt noticed the rise in Stories being posted, and have found yourself more inclined to tap in and view the latest vertical video update from friends and/or brands you follow.

There's no denying the rising interest in the option - and that means that, as a social media marketer, you need to also be considering Stories in your process.

So what makes a good brand story, and what are the key elements you should focus on to ensure your stories stand out? Facebook has published a new report looking at exactly that - the full report (available here ) outlines a range of key considerations in detail, but you can also get an overview of the highlights in the below infographic .

The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own (or paste your own from a different source).
To control the color or size of this text, please change the global colors or text size under the Design section from the left menu of the editor.

5 Tips for Managing a Social Media Crisis

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 04:11:15 GMT

Turn on the news, scroll through Twitter or chat with a friend these days, and you're likely to hear about yet another brand or individual suffering yet another social media-induced crisis of some kind.

It seems that every day, every hour, there's some other social media disaster. Does this mean that brands are suddenly behaving more poorly, or is this the state of how we live now?

We know that the main power of social media is amplification, and that means that both good and bad news are stories more widely shared than ever before. And admit it - when you see a brand suffering the wrath of tweetstorms, it's tough to look away. From tasteless tweets, to images shared on Facebook that never should have even been created, much less posted on our favorite fast-food page, social media crisis management has never been more important. It's now more of a “when” than an “if,” crisis’ are going to happen - and you know what they say, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

So how can you plan for a crisis you don’t see coming? Here are some tips:

1. Create a Social Media Policy

Make sure you have a documented social media policy. When you have clear guidelines for your employees on what to post - and what to never even consider posting - you lessen the risk of someone going rogue and sending your social media profiles into a tailspin.

2. Listen to Catch Issues Early

Utilize social listening to get ahead of potential issues. Done well and consistently, social listening can help prevent issues from turning into full-blown crises.

By listening intently, you can gauge how people are feeling about your brand, and over time, you'll understand the difference between grumblings and a significant change in sentiment towards your business.

If you suddenly see a sharp increase in brand mentions, you'll notice that right away as well.

3. Establish a Crisis Communications Plan

Having this before you need it, will enable you to respond quickly, before anything gets out of hand.

The key to managing a social media crisis is timeliness - your goal should be to respond within an hour of the crisis being spread.

Your social media communication plan should include:

How you'll internally communicate what is happening
How you'll determine what's actually a crisis and not simply a disgruntled consumer
Approval process for what you'll post on social media
Pre-approved external messaging
A link to your social media policy
Who'll do what, and when (per department)

No matter how well you plan, don’t expect to resolve the issue with a few well-timed posts. The most important point to keep in mind is that people will be looking to you for a response, and you need to be across it as quickly as possible.

As a first point, this can be as simple as acknowledging that there's a problem, and letting people know that more information will be coming soon.

4. Pause Scheduled Posts

Stop any posts you have pre-scheduled.

Nothing says, “We don’t care what you think” more than silly memes or posts in the middle of something serious happening. This will only make your brand look tone deaf and insensitive.

5. Acknowledge, but Don’t Argue

Queen Gertrude said it best in Hamlet: "The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

Defending yourself too early, or angrily responding in the moment, will just create doubt of your sincerity. If you've already posted that you'll be responding soon, you have time to create a video or official company statement. In the meantime, keep your responses as short as you can, and try to stay away from getting baited into another tweetstorm of what went wrong.

If people persist in trying to get you to engage further before you're ready, look to steer the conversation into direct messages, email or a phone call outside of social media. Keep in mind that more people will now be watching your pages than ever before, and stay on the high road, even if it gets lonely

Don’t...

Prematurely delete comments that are negative
Block anyone who disagrees with, or is unhappy with you
Take things personally and lose your brand voice

When you’ve come out the other side, learn...

What started the crisis?
How can we stop that from happening again?
What can we do better next time?
What worked well this time?

Mistakes happen, and more brands will see a social media crisis occur than those who don’t. The key lies in responding quickly, and in a transparent way which shows your customers, and prospective customers, that you truly care about them, and are willing to go the extra mile to prove you are the brand they think you are.

These tips will help steer you in the right direction.

5 Tips to Help Maximize Instagram Stories for Your Business

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 04:08:01 GMT

Is your business one of the 500 million users active on Instagram stories every day?

Instagram stories provide a unique opportunity to reach a large audience with engaging and timely content. If you’re still dipping your toe into the Instagram stories pool, check out these tips that will have you creating more engaging stories content in no time.

1. Consistency is key

When creating stories for your brand, remember that it’s a different audience to your personal Instagram profile. A key element to establishing, and maintaining connection with your followers is using a consistent presentation format, and that, in large part, comes down to having a go-to stories template for your content.

We recommend that brands have around four or five stories templates ready to go - then all you need to do is drop in new images and update the text and you're ready to post.

Extra Tip: Ensure that any templates you do adopt are consistent with the overall style of your brand

2. Stay on brand

Once you’ve created a branded template, using your brand colors, fonts and style across your designs is a must.

Instagram stories where created to be authentic, so if you feel that your brand’s font doesn’t quite suit the scene, decide on a secondary font option to be used just for stories.

Try these combinations:

Pair handwritten fonts with bold angular fonts.
Pair san-serif fonts with serif fonts.
Pair chunky sans-serif fonts with light serif fonts.

3. Choosing images and elements

The images you use should refer to the story, so most of the time you'll be using your own, branded content - with the exception of “inspo” stories.

You should also look to add moving elements and engaging stickers. Polls and questions also generate great engagement, and add another aspect to your content.

Adding location and hashtag stickers can also help to expand your stories' reach, broadening your messaging to a wider audience, as your story will then be eligible to appear on the location or hashtag story, and in the 'Explore' tab.

Extra tip: Post time-sensitive information, like specials, limited edition products or stories-only offers, with a ‘swipe up’ link (for eligible accounts)

4. Story highlights are a must

Highlighting your stories is a useful way to get longevity on your story content.

Customizing your highlight cover images will also ensure your Instagram feed is on brand and visually appealing.

5. Optimum story frequency

Don’t be afraid to post more than one story per day, but do take the time to plan and design your story to keep people scrolling through.

You can see where viewers dropped off your story by looking at the story viewers on each frame.

Extra tip: We like to post no more than six parts to a story, but as always, every audience is different, so test and measure where your audience drops off during your stories.

Our top Instagram Stories tools

Finally, to help you optimize and maximize your Stories efforts, here are some of the top tools we've found for creating and posting our content.

Branded templates

Over – Over is a free app which enables you to easily create templates, upload your own fonts and create a branded color palette.
Story art – Story art is another free app which provides hundreds of pre-made templates - however it’s not as customizable as Over or unfold.

Editing your stories

Unfold – An extremely customizable app which enables you to add elements as you wish. Simply drop in images and you’re done.
Cut story – Wanting to upload a video over 15 seconds in length? The Cut Story app enables you to trim your videos down, so you can fit them all into a single story.

Bonus tip: Lastly, you can now crosspost your Instagram Story to Facebook story, which is another consideration to maximize your Stories reach

4 Super Effective Strategies for Writing Copy for Social Media

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Thu, 21 Mar 2019 04:41:21 GMT

It’s no secret that social media can be a powerful platform for growing your community, as well as generating leads and sales. According to one survey of small businesses, 85% of brands report generating a new client or customer from social media.

But just being on social media isn’t enough to get followers, much less turn those followers into customers. The key lies in how well you engage your audience, which is where great, punchy social media copy comes in.

Is Copywriting for Social Media Even a Thing?

Great copy is what many of the most engaging posts on social media share in common. This is particularly true for memes, which elevate mundane images to viral status with emotional copy that runs the gamut from hilarious, ironic, to nostalgic.

Below are four examples of effective social media copywriting strategies which you can apply to your brand’s social media content.

1. Encourage Your Audience to Join the Conversation

In the early days of social media, many businesses seeking to engage their audiences on Facebook and Twitter were slow to catch up on the fact that these platforms weren’t just about self-promotion or advertising. Social media is about being social , which requires moving from one-way to two-way communication (i.e. conversation).

How brands do it: One way to encourage conversations with your followers on your social media channels is to write copy asking them questions or gamifying their responses. Examples include:

“Tell us your ideas…”
“Sound off in the comments and tell us what you think.”
“What are you looking forward to/excited about?”

In the example below, Nutella does this by asking its Facebook followers to guess which item comes next in the video of a breakfast routine.

2. Elevate Images with Emotional Copy

Sometimes, less is more when writing copy for social media. Take Instagram for example, where the average user spends 21 minutes each day scrolling through photos and videos.

On such a visual-driven platform, brevity is the name of the game. Use your captions to elevate your images and videos by conveying a message that evokes emotions.

How brands do it: For example, Barked’s Instagram post below shows a photo of puppies, which, in the grand scheme of things, isn’t special - thousands of dog photos are shared on the app every day.

But in this case, it’s the punchy copy pushing the reader to stop and think.

3. Leverage the Desire to Learn

Professional social networks like LinkedIn lean more towards content delivery and consumption, with 94% of B2B marketers using the platform as a content distribution channel. Furthermore, 45% of the people reading this content hold upper-level positions (e.g. C-Suite members, directors, managers).

These are people who constantly want to learn about industry news and updates, so your copy should seek to fulfil this need accordingly, by doing the following:

Sharing industry news
Sharing quotes from industry leaders/influencers
Sharing industry statistics

How brands do it: In this example, Deloitte had posted a link to an article written by Deloitte Global CEO Punit Renjen, giving followers of the company’s LinkedIn page a strong reason to read it.

4. Write Copy that Leverages FOMO

The fear of missing out (FOMO) is a powerful motivator that fuels many of our social media behaviors. A survey by MyLife.com shows that 56% of social media users are afraid to be away from social networks because they might miss out on events, news, and important status updates.

And unsurprisingly, FOMO can also be great way for your social media copy to grab people’s attention, especially if it uses the following elements:

Exclusivity – Copy reflecting exclusive access or first “dibs” on an offering
Urgency – Copy communicating an offering available for a limited time only
Scarcity – Copy communicating limited availability on an offering

How brands do it: In the example below, JetBlue creates a sense of urgency by tweeting that a flash sale on fares is available for a limited time only. Paired with an image showing the lowest possible fare available, the tweet communicates everything customers need to know about the offering.

Great Copy Cuts Through the Background Noise

No matter which social media platform your brand is active on, great copywriting can be the key to engaging your followers more effectively. These four social media copywriting strategies will help you to stand out from the competition, giving your audience a reason to stop and consume your content.

2019 Social Media Image Sizes Cheat Sheet | Infographic

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 04:35:47 GMT

Using effective images is key to making your social media posts stand out, but ensuring your visuals look their best can be difficult, with the platforms regularly changing their guidelines on optimal display sizes and accepted file formats

To help make your social images look their best, the team from Constant Contact has put together this updated guide on image sizes and formats, providing insights for all the key platforms (except Snapchat) along with some extra notes on each to help you stand out.

Even if you think you're across all the key info, it's worth going over the listing - again, the platform image specs are changing all the time, and it's worth ensuring you're putting your best foot forward.

Check out the full infographic below.

10 Ways to Fight the Decline in Organic Reach on Social Media

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 04:30:26 GMT

As time goes on, it feels like organic reach on social platforms continues to decline further and further, even when it already seems like you're only getting to a tiny fraction of your audience with each of your posts.

In this post, I’ve compiled 10 solid principles that will help you fight the decline of organic reach on social media, and maintain your referral traffic numbers.

Hopefully these notes will help you negotiate the ongoing reductions, and improve your performance.

1. Know the algorithms

The first part to getting over a decline in organic reach on social media is to learn about the algorithms of each social media network that you’re currently using.

In a generalized nutshell, social platform algorithms are based on three basic principles:

Recency - How long ago you published a post
Relevancy - How relevant your posts are to your audience
Engagement - How your audience reacts to posts you’ve published (likes comments and shares)

Each social media network has its own nuances when it comes to how it distributes content, but think about these basic principles, and how you can apply them to your social media content and marketing. Once you learn specifics, you can incorporate other creative ways to play into each element of the algorithm/s, and use them in your favor.

2. Go Live

Have you tried going live on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter yet?

Live videos on Facebook (and other networks) get a lot of interaction, and the subsequent reach benefits (via the respective algorithm) can help boost your brand awareness.

Let your followers get to know your team, tease upcoming events, film product demos or simply have fun with Q & A sessions.

One more benefit of live videos? You can re-use them after then initial broadcast to create even more content.

3. Feature User Generated Content

According to a recent survey by Stackla :

“Beyond being seen as the most authentic, user-generated content is also the most influential content consumers reference when making purchasing decisions. Most consumers say that they’ve made purchasing decisions based on user-generated visuals – 57% have made plans to dine at a particular restaurant, 54% have purchased a consumer packaged good and 52% have made plans to travel to a specific destination based on a consumer-created image or video.”

So listen to the people, and get moving on featuring user-generated content in your social media strategy to fight the decline in organic reach. In practice with my agency clients, we absolutely see that user-generated pieces produce more engagement than original brand photography.

Stackla's survey also revealed that:

"51% of people say they’d be more likely to continue engaging with and/or purchasing from a brand if it shared their photo, video or post throughout its marketing."

Another key element to consider.

4. Create unique content for each platform

Creating unique content for each social media network your brand is active on is another good strategy to fight the decline in organic reach on social media.

Use your network specific tools (for example Instagram Stories, poll stickers on Instagram Stories, Twitter Moments, etc.) to create more interest and engagement within each social network. Doing so will disrupt just posting images and videos, and give followers an extra incentive to follow your business on each platform.

5. Put a budget behind content

It obviously comes with some cost, but another quick way to fight the decline in organic reach of your social media posts is by using the various ad options at your disposal to give your updates an extra reach kick.

Targeting is your best friend here - unless you like to spend money on bad results. Knowing your customer is key, as there are SO many different ways to target social ads.

Consider your audience for each update, angle the post to those users, then target them specifically with your ad options.

6. Influencer marketing

Collaborating with influencers isn’t exactly instant, but it can be another option to fight the decline in organic social media reach.

The secret is to find the right influencers. Influencers who are aligned with your target consumer, and will attract the right customers for your business. You'll have to do your research, but once influencer campaigns are off the ground, you’ll open the door to more traffic, eyes, and reach on social media.

Social Media Dos and Don'ts for 2019

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Mon, 11 Mar 2019 09:26:12 GMT

How can you better ensure your social media efforts will help you accomplish your brand’s objectives in 2019? Observe these dos and don’ts.

The dos:

1. Think before you post.

What you post on your personal social media accounts can affect how people view your company. Think carefully about how posts that issue commentary on hot-button topics like religion, politics or gender issues might impact your relationships with customers, vendors and others in the business community.

2. Let your voice be heard.

On your blog and social media channels, let your readers see your personality shine through. Many people follow bloggers because they like what the writers are saying and how they’re saying it. Share your unique insight and strike a conversational tone that engages readers.

3. Be real.

Show your audience that you have real people behind your logo. It will make it easier for them to relate to your brand.

Some ways to do that are to introduce members of your team, show videos with “behind the scenes” glimpses of your staff doing what they do best and taking photos of your team at special events and activities. Also, consider promoting the personal brand of your business owner or a high-level manager to put a face to your organization. Many brand managers find it’s an effective way to facilitate loyalty and trust.

4. Set realistic expectations.

Realize that social media alone can’t grow sales.

Yes, it can help to build your brand reputation, generate awareness and increase visibility of your business. However, many other areas of your company impact customer acquisition and revenue growth.

Examples include the performance of your website, the quality of your products and services, your sales team’s skills and your customer service. You must pay attention to your business as a whole for social media to succeed.

5. Write for your readers.

Focus your content on what will help your audience and write it in a way that they will understand it. Simplifying your content doesn’t mean you have to dumb it down, but you should avoid overly complicated wording and sentence structure.

6. Personalize your outreach.

Customers expect that brands will tailor deals and discounts to their unique interests and needs. Consider embracing the potential of targeted advertising and retargeting campaigns on social media to cater to the demand for individualized content and offers.

The don’ts:

1. Don’t engage with haters, trolls, and other negative influences online.

Battling them is—and always will be—a lost cause. If you do, you’ll waste time, energy and creativity that you could be using to build your brand and serve your customers.

2. Don’t try to be everywhere and do everything.

Not every social media platform will deliver results for your business. By trying to maintain too many channels, you’ll become overwhelmed and dilute your effectiveness on those that matter most. Stay active only on the accounts that give you the best return on your time and effort.

3. Don’t post without proofreading.

If you publish posts with careless grammar and misspellings, it will reflect poorly on your brand. Before making posts live, review what you wrote and fix mistakes. Review the content again after you publish it because sometimes sneaky errors can slip by, despite initial proofreading efforts.

4. Don’t ignore your followers’ questions, comments and messages.

Ignoring your audience is the fast track to creating hard feelings, missing opportunities and damaging your brand. Keep tabs on activity on your social media accounts and respond promptly to your followers.

5. Don’t use AI as a substitute for human interaction.

Marketing automation saves time, but never use it as a replacement for person-to-person communication on social media. Your followers expect to develop a relationship with your brand, which can only be done if you’re genuinely engaged with them.

6. Don’t dwell too much on your competition.

Watching your competition is essential, but more critical to your success is developing your business and delivering excellent service to your customers. Nurture your brand’s unique strengths and capabilities rather than trying to be a carbon copy of another company.

7 Ways to Generate More Social Media Traffic in 2019

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Mon, 11 Mar 2019 09:19:50 GMT

Want more social media buzz for your brand or business? Here are my seven best tips for generating more social engagement, and traffic, in 2019.

1. Install a Facebook Customer Chatbot

You know those customer chat widgets that pop up on the bottom of a website? You can take them to the next level with a Facebook Messenger website widget.

It functions the same way as a normal website chat, but with an added bonus - every time a customer chats with you, they have to opt-in to Facebook Messenger communications.

That means you can get contact information from them, and follow up with them down the road. Every time someone talks with you via site chat, you'll automatically gain a new Facebook Messenger contact, and that's a huge win.

Upgrading your old customer chat to a Facebook Messenger customer chatbot is a great opportunity to pounce on.

2. Point to Your Social Media Accounts From Your Website

Having social icons which link out to your various social profiles is an easy way to broadcast your social media presence to your website visitors.

Ideally, you should add them prominently above the fold, so it's impossible for your visitors to miss them.

3. Make Your Content Easy to Share on Social Media

Make it simple for users to share your content on social media.

Add "Share This" buttons to any blog post, infographic, video, podcast, or any other engaging content you produce.

When you make it easy to share your content on social media, people will be far more likely to do so.

You can install a plug-in that adds share buttons on every page of your website, especially if you're using a CMS which supports it.

4. Enable Comments

Enabling comments on your content enables users to interact with you directly from your site.

The comments section of popular posts can host great discussions - just make sure your comment plug-in or widget has a way to automatically filter spam, so the comments section doesn't get overwhelmed with junk.

5. Make Sure Your Content Looks Good When Shared on Social

There's an additional step beyond just buttons which enable users to share your content - you have to also make sure the content looks inviting, once a user goes to share it.

Have you ever gone to share something on Facebook, only to find that the thumbnail or title was missing?

Chances are you probably stopped in your tracks and didn't share it - that's why, as a digital marketer, it's so key that you take the time to ensure that when someone attempts to share your content, it looks like it's supposed to.

Mark up the Open Graph tags with a super-clickable headline, and attention-grabbing image which fits the proper dimensions of each network.

6. Add Click-to-Tweets Throughout Your Content

If you've never heard of a click-to-tweet , it's a neat little tool which enables you to handcraft tweets featuring little snippets from a piece of content, like a key line or a great quote.

When you insert click-to-tweets in your content, it makes it easy for readers to post a great tweet without even thinking about it - you've done the work for them. The quote, image, headline, and link are all ready to go for them - they just have to click and post.

There's even a click-to-tweet WordPress plug-in which makes it super simple to craft click-to-tweets (though you can also do it without the plug-in, of course).

6 Tactics to Increase Your Instagram Stories Engagement

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 08:34:25 GMT

In the current state of social media marketing, it’s all about engaging the audience you currently have. It’s not always about the views or reach of our activities, but more about how many people are taking action when they see your posts.

In this post, I want to share some key tactics you can implement to help you increase your Instagram Stories engagement. And with the Stories format on the rise , it's definitely worth considering.

Try utilizing these Stories tips.

1. Tell a Story

First and foremost, the easiest way to improve your Instagram Stories engagement is to actually tell a story, one with a beginning, a middle, and an end.

I know it’s easy to just throw a photo up (I’m guilty of this myself), but giving your audience a little context will make the experience all the better for them.

2. Add Captions or Let Viewers Know to Keep Their Sound On

A simple, yet clever thing to do to increase your Instagram Stories engagement is to add captions to your video stories.

Let’s be honest here - most people don’t have their sound on when they're browsing through their IG feed. Instead of just being a talking head in a video, take a little time to write out what you’re saying to maximize your audience reach and response.

3. Use Stickers

Instagram Stories stickers are so fun, and will make your Stories more interactive .

There are two sticker types, in particular, that can help brands boost their Stories engagement:

Question Stickers

Although you can simply prompt your audience to ask you a question in your stories, using the question sticker has its own unique benefits. When you repost the question submitted, the person who asked gets a notification that their question has been answered (giving you an automatic view on your story).

Ask your audience to ask you about a particular subject, what their biggest challenges are, or what they’d like to see from you next.

Poll Sticker

People love polls. Use the Stories poll sticker to get in on your audience’s preferences, and let them help you make choices in your business (like the next flavor in your line), or provide general feedback.

A cool thing about the poll sticker is that you have easy access to a list of people who've answered your poll. You can then send them a direct message for 24 hours after the poll has concluded in order to take the conversation further.

Other Stickers

And these aren't the only Stories sticker options which can improve your engagement. Using location stickers can ensure you show up in relevant region searches, and adding hashtags to your Stories will also help you get in front of more eyes. Instagram's other sticker options - which they are adding to all the time - can also add more attention-grabbing, interactive flair to your content, and help to improve performance.

4. Use Prompts

Sometimes you have to tell people what you want them to do.

In the case of Instagram Stories engagement, you can relevant use prompts to increase time spent on your story, or retain viewership through a multiple tile story.

Here’s how:

Hold To Read - Try adding longer text messages to your Stories posts, and prompting viewers to “hold to read” the full content.
Tap For More - Start your Instagram Story with a tile which asks a question, and add “Tap for more” after the question. The next tile (or few tiles) can be videos of you giving information, or static images of the relevant info.

Get Ready To - The “get ready to” prompt can create anticipation and excitement, and help you set the tone for what’s coming next. You can prepare your audience to take a screenshot of the next slide, turn their screens horizontally, or even just simply turn their sound on.

5. 'Screenshotable' Stories

'Screenshotable' Instagram Stories can be a great interactive option.

What do I mean by screenshotable? You can offer several things for your audience to “Get ready to screenshot” - here are some examples:

Fill in the blanks - You can have so much fun with fill in the blanks Instagram Stories. You can make them simply for entertainment, or, again, to gain further insight about your audience (think of it as a survey) which you can then use to create products, services, or content. Don’t forget to brand your fill in the blank tiles, and to ask followers to tag you in their stories when they post them or send them to you via DM so you can collect answers.

Wallpapers - Wallpapers are an easy way to add value and give a little something to your audience. Your wallpapers can be quotes, or simple images. Gary Vaynerchuck has weekly wallpaper Instagram Stories which he shares with his audience. This tactic is also an opportunity for you to be creative, show personality, and reinforce branding or brand values.

Stories Contests - Gamifying any experience can be a great way to increase engagement. Apply this mentality to your Instagram Stories - you can award a prize to people who fill out your survey, or create a standalone giveaway using the screenshot and repost prompt. Again, ask entrants to tag you or use a hashtag within their story or send it via DM.

6. DM For Download

As noted earlier, in the current social media climate, it's all about generating engagement and getting your current audience to talk to you.

How to Create a Social Media Content Strategy

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 08:13:39 GMT

Content is the heart of any social media strategy - neglecting to create valuable and engaging social media content will leave you extremely frustrated with your results.

And while creating a social media content strategy isn’t rocket science, many brands miss the mark, and fail to deliver on what users are seeking from companies when engaging on social channels. To create a social media content strategy, brands absolutely need to create content that users want to consume.

So, what do consumers want from brands on social media? A recent study has interesting findings:

72% of consumers want discounts or sales
60% of consumers want posts that showcase new products/services
59% of consumers want posts that inform
56% of consumers want posts that entertain
49% of consumers want posts that inspire
41% of consumers want posts about company happenings

By understanding what users want to see in their feeds, brands can create more effective content strategies, which will help to maximize your social media success and business impact.

When building out a content strategy, we recommend approaching it in three defined phases: 'Planning', 'Publishing' and 'Measuring'.

1. Planning

In the planning phase, brands should keep in mind what they have to offer as an entity, and present those elements through the lens of what consumers want. In short, process what makes your brand special and present that story with elements of education, entertainment inspiration and provide value.

You should always align your social media content strategy with these concepts. While it’s tempting to always talk about what you offer, be conscious that there's much more to the conversation than just your brand.

Consider the third party sources you might want to include in your content plan, and don’t be shy to showcase like-minded (and non-competitive) branded content.

2. Publishing

Once your planning is wrapped up and you know what your overarching messaging will be, you'll next want to draft content in an organized way.

We highly recommend employing a Social Media Content Calendar. A content calendar enables you to set a visible plan on what kind of content is going to be published and when.

When building your calendar, there are a few elements we highly recommend:

Day - This tells you which day of the week the content will be published
Date - This tells you the date the content will be published
Topic - This tells you the topic of the content piece - very useful when trying to ensure your content strategy is dynamic and diverse (it's easy to accidentally be repetitive)
Message – This is the copy of your post - be sure to spell check
Notes – This section is where you can include reminders, hashtags or anything else that you might need to remember when it comes to publishing your content
Image – Place the link to the image that goes with your copy here. We typically use Google Drive to host these files, but you may store the images locally, which is fine. Just place that location here

Once your social media content calendar is set, you can then begin to publish. We recommend a social media management platform like Sprout Social to schedule content in advance. Very useful.

It also goes without saying, but after your content is published, you'll want to keep an eye on engagement, and reply appropriately.

3. Measuring

Sure, Planning and Publishing might seem like the only two actual steps in a social media content strategy, however, in order to optimize your efforts, you have to also measure as much as possible.

In this phase, you'll want to take a top-level view of your data for a set time period, in order to determine which performed the best. A key thing to keep in mind here is that different content pieces might have different objectives - for example, a meme that's intended to entertain should be judged by engagement, whereas a post that links to a blog post should be judged by clicks.

For those new to social media measurement, here are the key performance indicators we recommend tracking when it comes to analyzing your social media content strategy:

Impressions – The amount of times people saw your content.
Engagements - The amount of reactions, comments and shares your content wins.
Clicks – The amount of times links in your content get clicked

To improve anything, in work or life, we must measure it. Measuring your social media content strategy gives you the ability to optimize against what is working well and remove content that isn’t resonating with your audience.

21 Instagram Facts That All eCommerce Businesses Should Know [Infographic]

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 19 Feb 2019 09:39:58 GMT

Are you looking for ways to increase sales through your eCommerce website? Have you considered how Instagram could be utilized to assist your growth strategy?

The team from Adroll share the Instagram facts you need to know in this infographic.

They break things down as follows:

Usage stats
Post stats
Instagram business stats

Check out the infographic for more detail.

NOTE: Instagram Stories usage just recently hit 500 million DAU, not the 400m listed here

Source: Social Media Today

New Report Looks at the Latest Trends in Facebook Page Engagement

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 19 Feb 2019 09:31:55 GMT

What's working on Facebook now, and how can you improve your Facebook Page engagement in 2019?

To help get you on the right track, social analytics platform Quintly has released a new report , for which they analyzed over 94,000 Facebook Pages, and more than 105 million posts, in order to get a better handle on what's working, and what's not, for brands on The Social Network.

And the insights may prove key in your planning - here's what they found.

First off, in what's become a very familiar message, Quintly found that video posts on Facebook generate significantly more engagement than link posts - 258% more according to Quintly's numbers. Yet, despite this, brands are still far more likely to post links:

"55% of the 105 million analyzed posts were Link posts. Photos were used in 29% of them and videos made up around 14%."

Of course, it's logical that more businesses would post links - businesses are keen to drive traffic back to their own sites, as opposed to holding a captive audience on Facebook, while video is also more difficult to produce, especially at high enough quality for business purposes.

Really, this finding is probably not revealing anything you don't already know, especially if you stay in touch with digital marketing trends. Yes, video performs better, on every platform, and you should be looking into creating your own video content. If you can - if you can't, image posts come in second Quintly's findings, with basic status updates also driving more engagement than link posts.

Again, most businesses are looking to drive traffic, rather than simply boost their Facebook engagement - but the data shows that it may be worth mixing it up every now and then in order to increase community interaction, and subsequent reach for future posts, which could help drive better Facebook performance.

If you have any ideas for video or image-based content, in alignment with your broader strategic goals, it may be worth experimenting.

Quintly also took a look at engagement by day, and found that weekends see higher overall Page engagement on average.

There's less competition for attention on weekends, and people have more free time. If you've not tried posting on weekends, it may also be worth testing, just to see what results you get, and whether your audience is more receptive to those posts.

Source: Social Media Today

Facebook Publishes New Report on What Instagram Users Expect from Brands

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Thu, 07 Feb 2019 04:35:54 GMT

Instagram is the hot platform of the moment, but what many users - and businesses in particular - have found when trying to connect with people on Insta is that building an audience can be difficult.

People are more selective on Instagram, with the lessons of Facebook and Twitter dictating new habitual behaviors. When Facebook and Twitter were new, everyone connected with everyone - you sent a friend request to all the new people you met at a party, and you followed thousands of profiles on Twitter in the hopes that they'd follow you back. Many people, on Twitter especially, have built massive audiences this way, but users who did this also found that their feeds ended up being rubbish, a steady flow of random updates from folks they could barely remember.

The result is that people don't follow as readily on Instagram - which poses a new challenge for brands, making them work harder for attention. The benefit, however, is that once you do win over new followers, they're far more likely to become customers, because they're following based on actual interest in what you post.

So how do you do it? How do you win over more resistant Instagram audiences and build an engaged following?

That's the focus of a new report from parent company Facebook , which provides insight into what users are looking for from brands on Instagram, and includes tips on how to take action based on their findings.

First off, Facebook notes the rising potential of Instagram, with 57% of the 21,000 people surveyed indicating that they're now using the platform more than they did a year ago, and 44% saying that they'll use it even more in the coming year.

That likely comes as little surprise, Instagram's added half a billion new users within the last two years, while Instagram Stories, originally launched in August 2016, just this week hit a new milestone of 500 million daily users . It's clear that Instagram is getting more attention - though it is interesting to note the propensity with which current users are planning to go back to it, underlining the potential.

But a particularly relevant finding of the study for marketers is that many users are actually going to Instagram to connect with brands.

"When we asked people what they associated with Instagram, some of their top responses were that the platform allows interaction with celebrities and influencers. Additionally, 2 in 3 respondents (66%) told us that Instagram is a platform that allows interaction with brands. These interactions might take the form of a snack company using polls in Instagram Stories to let fans vote on a new chip flavor, or a fashion brand reposting photos of chic #OOTD posts."

Granted, interaction with family and friends was another key reason for people to use the platform, but the responses do indicate that Instagram users may be more open to brand communications than they are on other platforms.

That's particularly relevant when you consider that Facebook has been actively working to boost interaction with friends and family members in order to increase in-platform engagement. The findings for Instagram almost reflect the opposite, with users coming to see content from influencers and brands, and welcoming such within their feed - when they choose to follow those profiles.

In terms of overall usage, younger Instagram users are more likely to come to the platform daily, which is largely reflective of broader digital platform trends.

That, too, is no surprise, but it is interesting to note that despite the differences in older brackets, a lot of those users are still coming back to the platform daily. If you're looking to reach younger audiences, definitely there's value there, but older users are still fairly active. There's a broadening range of people on the visual platform.

So how can you reach these people - what do Instagram users expect to see from brands on the platform?

Respondents indicated that they want to see the following types of marketing content:

Short and well-targeted, with specific creative designed for Instagram. That makes sense, given the visual nature of the platform, and the focus on eye-catching content. If you are looking to utilize the platform, you need to familiarize yourself with what works, and not just in terms of posting like-baiting inspirational quotes, but in regards to creating content that both works to promote your business, and connects with what your target audience responds to.

Given the aforementioned habitual changes, building an audience on Instagram is not easy, it's not as simple as liking every post from every person who engages with a certain hashtag, or using the old 'follow back' approach to build up your numbers. Both those strategies may work to some degree, but whether the people you're reaching are within your actual target audience is another question.

The best way to approach Instagram is to go in with a strategy. Research the platform, look at what others in your niche are posting, what their audiences are responding to, scan through the relevant hashtag lists to see what people are posting. Once you've got a handle on what you should be sharing, set out an adequate time frame for results, then stick to a schedule and build up response data.

It takes time, but with the right focus, you can tap into the rising Instagram stream.

You can read Facebook's full "How to Connect with New Audiences on Instagram" report here .

Source: Social Media Today

Low-Cost Visual Creation Tools to Help Improve Your Digital Marketing Efforts

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Mon, 04 Feb 2019 04:33:31 GMT

When you’re working on promoting your next campaign, you should consider adding a visual punch to make it more enticing, so it stands out in busy user feeds.

It’s been proven time and time again that people are more likely to engage with posts which contain photos and/or videos, because the visual aspect makes the post more interesting to read. But if you’re on a budget, it can be tough to justify paying for platforms like Photoshop, especially if you don’t plan to use it frequently and/or don’t have a graphic designer in house.

That’s why I’m sharing some of the most popular inexpensive and/or free marketing tools to help you create stunning visuals to attract buyers, engage fans and make events and campaigns more memorable.

Design Wizard

Design Wizard is an excellent graphic design software which allows you to create high-quality visuals quickly. At present, there are over 1 million images in the library and tens of thousands of high-quality video templates. Standout features of the tool include a custom color palette, free font library and resize feature.

There are also excellent integrations included with Hubspot, Marketo, Buffer and Intercom. You can get signed up straight away on the free plan, where you can resize image designs and buy premium image/templates for $1 each. The pro plan starts at $9.99 a month and you can upload images, fonts and publish direct to social media

Canva

By far one of the most popular visual tools online today, Canva has a free version available which enables you to create various image types and gives you a taste of the full app. Canva facilitates a range of visual options - from infographics, e-books and Facebook ads to email headers - and you don’t need to be a graphic designer to use it. It’s an intuitive visual platform which even novices can use, and it includes an extensive selection of stock photos and other elements.

You’re also able to upload your own logos and images to the platform and incorporate them into your own designs. There are templates available if you’re looking for something more structured and several photo enhancing tools for any touch-ups you need.

Crello

Another popular option which is free to sign up for is Crello . The app has over 65 million free stock images, and over 10,000 free design templates, while there are more advanced design elements available for around $1/each.

Anyone can sign up and get started on the pre-loaded templates right away - they have designs for print, social media, animations, digital ads and just about anything you can think of that will work for events, e-newsletters and blogs. The app also has a community page with ideas from members, which will definitely help to get your creativity flowing.

Animoto

An affordable platform you can use to easily turn photos, graphics, and video clips into animated video slideshows, Animoto starts with a free two0week trial, with the paid version starting at $13/month.

The basic package gives you access to over 700+ styles, and 500 music tracks. It’s a platform that works to create great short-form videos for Facebook and Instagram, as it can easily convert the slideshow to the square format.

You can add any images, clips and text you see fit, then save and share to your respective platforms.

Infogr.am

This platform enables you to publish charts and infographics through a variety of templates. You can add charts, maps, videos, images and anything else you want, and share it with the one-click (or embed it into your blog).

With the free plan, you’re given access to 37+ interactive charts, but if you move up to the pro plan (for $19/month), that expands to 500+ map types, 100 projects, 10 pages/project, privacy control and the ability to download HD images.

Lumen5

Lumen5 can turn your blog posts, articles and any other long-form content into videos - you simply upload the text into the platform, choose some photos and music, and then you can share it directly to Facebook or upload it to share wherever you like.

The free version enables you to create unlimited videos, and upload your own logo and photos for the videos you create. It also gives you access to 10,000,000+ free media files.

With a pro account (at $49/month), you’ll get all the same, plus the ability to upload your own watermark and outro with square videos, no credit scene and Lumen5 branding

These are just some of the many low-cost visual tools available to help improve your online presentation. Each tool offers something different, so it's worth experimenting with what you can to find the right fit for your business needs.

What Does Facebook Know About You Really?

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Thu, 24 Jan 2019 10:51:13 GMT

Over the last couple of years, Facebook has come under intense scrutiny over how much data it collects on its users, and how it re-purposes that information, primarily for advertising. But what, really, does Facebook actually know about you, and how can such info be used to, potentially, influence your thinking and consideration? Is that even possible?

This a core issue at the center of the current Facebook data debate - while more and more reports emerge which demonstrate the depth of information Facebook can collect, the next stage is less clear, there's less context for users to understand the potential impacts of such. So what if Facebook logs data on the Pages you visit, that likely just means you'll see more relevant ads, right? So what if Facebook tracks your usage habits to show you more content you'll like?

In a general sense, for the common person, this doesn't mean anything, which is why Facebook usage hasn't appeared to change in any significant way despite such reports.

But it's that context that people really need - users need to have a greater understanding of the processes at play, and how Facebook's systems are able to do more than just show you ads for products you might want to buy. On further inspection, they can actually shape your opinions, without you even knowing it.

And that is critically important to note.

Learning You

As has been well documented, Facebook uses a vast array of tools to track your interests, habits and preferences - both on Facebook's platforms and off them.

On the platforms themselves (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger), Facebook logs every action you take, every post you like, every Page and profile you visit. Those insights are also combined with your profile data, your location info - every single thing you enter or do on Facebook's apps contributes a little more to your personal profile, building out a broader data log of who you are, what you like, etc.

And that profile can be very accurate - the most highly-cited research report on this was conducted by experts from The University of Cambridge and Stanford University back in 2015, in which they examined the Facebook profiles of more than 86,000 participants, and then matched their on-platform data against their psychological profiles, which those users had submitted through a 'personality test' app.

Their key finding? Your Facebook activity data alone could indicate your psychological make-up more accurately than your friends, your family - better even than your partner, given enough info.

As you can see in this chart, the accuracy of the model's predictions increases based on how many things a person has 'liked' on Facebook, giving the system more information to measure. That study was conducted around five years ago, so you can only imagine the same model would be even more accurate today.

The implications of this are significant - as highlighted by Cambridge Analytica, which utilized a very similar process in its data-gathering efforts, once you have a measure of people's leanings, you can also use that against them.

Former Cambridge Analytica employee Christopher Wylie explained :

"We would know what kinds of messaging [users] would be susceptible to, including the framing of it, the topics, the content, the tone, whether it's scary or not, that kind of thing. So, what you would be susceptible to, and where you're going to consume that. And then how many times do we need to touch you with that in order to change how you think about something.'

This is information warfare at the highest level - and when you also consider that around two-thirds of American adults (68%) now get at least some of their daily news content from social media, with Facebook being the prime social media news source by a big margin, that's a big concern.

It's not just the ads you see, but the information you're shown - and while Facebook is now working to address this in various ways, you can see how the additional context of what such insights can be used for is significant.

And it's not just on Facebook itself that's a concern.

Advanced Tracking

Facebook also tracks people when they're not on Facebook, and those who've never even signed up. And worth noting, Facebook's not alone in this, Google, for example, tracks similar data, but Facebook's insights have seen more misuse, and the pure size and usage of its platforms make it a more viable candidate for such actions.

In terms of tracking people off Facebook, researchers Frederike Kaltheuner and Christopher Weatherhead recently outlined the various ways in which Google and Facebook track Android users through the use of pixels which are designed to help advertisers gather data on app usage.

Advertisers may use these data tracking tools in their systems in order to track who's using their apps, and that data is taken in and stored, even if those people are not active users of either Google's or Facebook's tools.

"...the vast majority of apps share data the second they're opened, and the data that's being transmitted indicates what kinds of apps you use, when you use them, combined with a unique ad ID. And knowing what kinds of apps somebody uses, and when, can give quite a detailed picture of someone's life."

Kaltheuner provided an example using just four highly downloaded apps - 'Qibla Connect', which is a Muslim prayer app, 'Period Tracker Clue' which tracks menstruation cycles, job search app 'Indeed', and the kids app 'Talking Tom' (each of these apps has been downloaded at least 10 million times).

"That looks like a person who is likely Muslim, likely female, likely looking for a job and who likely has a child."

So even if you're not an active user of these specific platforms, they know a lot about you.

Another recent study further underlines this capacity - a combined academic team from the University of Vermont and the University of Adelaide has found that even if you're not a user of a social media platform, it's possible to create a 95% accurate profile of you, based on your friends' accounts.

"[The research team] found it was able to predict the content of a person's tweets using data collected from just eight of their contacts, and to do so as accurately as if they were looking at that person's own Twitter feed."

From this, the team could accurately predict a person's political leanings, favorite products, religious beliefs - all without these users ever even participating in social media themselves. And this is without the advanced psychological profiling used by the groups noted earlier in this post.

Not only is social media data collection concerning, it's also seemingly inescapable. And it'll likely continue to be used for ill-purpose for some time yet.

Higher Education

This needs to be a key issue of focus in the connected age, a core debate that has to be had. It may not seem immediately harmful, it may not change much in your day-to-day life. But the understanding that your perception of the world - especially in a political sense - could be largely manipulated is surely of relevant concern.

And that element is largely beyond debate - while there's no way of knowing exactly what impact the work of Cambridge Analytica had on the eventual outcome of the 2016 US Presidential Election, previous research, conducted by Facebook itself, has shown that on-platform efforts can influence election outcomes.

According to a Facebook study published in 2010, a single election-day Facebook message resulted in around 340,000 extra voters turning out to take part in the US Congressional elections that year. The experiment used two different types of News Feed prompts - one included a link to information about local polling places and a counter showing the total Facebook users who'd voted. The other showed the same, but with the addition of images of a users' personal connections who'd participated.

People who saw the second message were increasingly likely to vote themselves, resulting in a big increase in voter turnout. The scale of the test was limited, with only a small portion of Facebook users seeing the prompt. But it shows, according to Facebook's own research, that the platform can influence political outcomes.

It may not feel significant, what you like on Facebook, what you share. The content that you see and comment on within your feed. But it actually is. That's why Facebook has sought to focus on showing you more content from friends and family , because that content is, theoretically, less manipulative than the material shared on potentially biased political Pages and the like.

Because now, given the coverage of the recent political events, every bad actor knows that Facebook can be utilized for such purpose, and all of them are considering how they can do the same.

Will that make you use Facebook less? Probably not. Again, the stats show that Facebook usage has remained stable amid the various reports, people are either unconcerned, or Facebook is simply too ingrained in their interactive process to give up.

But even if you think that you're aware, that your political beliefs are solid, that your understanding of certain issues is correct, just take a moment to question the logic behind what you see. Research a little, dig a bit deeper. Use Facebook's new tools, like its Page info data option, which shows where Pages are being managed from, the Page's history and the ads it's running.

Controlling how our data is used, and misused, may now be beyond our control, but we can all ensure that misinformation is further limited by questioning what we see, and reporting what's not right.

And given the stakes, such efforts may be crucial to maintaining democracy as we know it.

Source: Social Media Today

5 Social Media Trends to Put into Practice in 2019

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 03:30:30 GMT

How are you planning to change up your social media marketing strategy in 2019? Do you want to know the latest social media trends to you should consider when mapping out your process?

The team from Hootsuite share their key digital marketing trends to note.

Here’s a quick summary of the key points:

Rebuilding trust
Storifying social
Closing the ads gap
Cracking the commerce code
Messaging eats the world

01 | BRANDS GET HUMAN AS THE CIRCLE OF TRUST ON SOCIAL MEDIA TIGHTENS

60% of people no longer trust social media networks!

In the wake of data breaches and political controversy, users trust in social media is at an all time low.

02 | CONTENT TEAMS ADAPT AS STORIES OFFER NEW FORMATS FOR SHARING

Stories are growing 15X faster then feed based sharing!

Stories will surpass feed based sharing within the next year. Brands need to embrace this new formate to reach Gem Z.

03 | MORE COMPETITION ON PAID SOCIAL REQUIRES MARKETERS TO UP THEIR GAME

1 in every 4 Facebook Pages now use paid media!

With social ad space at a premium brands will need to invest in creativity and targeting to reach customers.

04 | IMPROVED SOCIAL SHOPPING TECHNOLOGIES (FINALLY) FUEL SALES

70% of China's Gen Zers now buy directly from Social.

New Technologies are bridging the gaps between social media and commerce - from in-stream buying to live stream shopping.

05 | CUSTOMERS DEMAND BETTER 1:1 SOCIAL EXPERIENCES

Top messaging app collectively count nearly 5 billion monthly active users.

There are more messaging app users than social media uses worldwide. leading brand have made messaging apps a key part of their social strategy.

New Report on How and Why People Use Different Social Apps

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 03:27:10 GMT

Why do you open a social app? Is it to stay connected with friends and family, to check how many likes your latest post got? Maybe you're looking for news content?

There's a range of different ways people use each app. In order to glean more insight into why, specifically, users open certain social tools, Snapchat recently partnered with Murphy Research to conduct a study of more than 1,000 app users, aged between 13 and 44, to learn more about the apps they use, when they spend time on each, and how each makes them feel.

Here's an overview of their findings.

Snapchat Makes Users Feel Happy

I mean, this is a Snapchat-commissioned report, so it's not that surprising to learn that Snap comes out on top in terms of making users feel happy when they use it.

As per the report :

"In a world of apps that can make people feel anxious, isolated, or self-conscious, Snapchat is fundamentally the "feel-good" app. 95% of Snapchatters say the app makes them feel happy, more than any other app tested. Users also report feeling playful and silly while using it - likely because it’s a place where you can be yourself, stay close with good friends, and share your day-to-day."

It seems like a bit of jab at Facebook, which published a report in late 2017 which found that 'passive' social media consumption can lead to negative mental health impacts. Snapchat, according to this report at least, generally provokes the opposite user response - there's a range of potential reasons for this, as Snapchat notes, but the private, immersive nature of the app does lend itself to more active consumption as well.

But there is also a negative element in there, at least in terms of Snap's business ambitions. As reiterated in this second element of the report, which looks at the reasons why people turn to each social app, Snapchat is primarily used for staying connected with friends, not for business or product discovery.

As you can see, every other social app has at least some element of business connection - even Facebook has 'Learn about events' as a key reason why people use it. Snapchat's use-case is all about staying connected with close groups, which is the functionality the app was built upon, but it may indicate that there's less business opportunity on the app.

Of course, it's well documented that Snapchat requires a solid understanding of the platform and audience in order to succeed with promotions on the app - you can't just go in and place a generic ad and hope for the best. But the above findings further underline the need for prospective advertisers to have a keen understanding of why people come to the app, and therefore, how they can reach those users without being overly interruptive.

Snapchat is Utilized More in Social Situations

The researchers also sought to get a better understanding of when people use Snapchat, as opposed to other social apps.

As per the report :

"Murphy Research’s findings also revealed that people use different apps depending on what they’re up to. Snapchat, followed by Twitter, are the apps most used while on-the-go, commuting, socializing, and shopping. However, when users are idle, they’re more likely to be on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube."

The research also suggests that Snapchat's more commonly used when socializing - and importantly for marketing purposes, when shopping.

That could provide important opportunities for brand outreach - again, as highlighted in the first section, Snap advertising takes a dedicated, specific focus, but used well, it can be a great platform for targeted marketing.

The most obvious example here would be using Snapchat for limited time offers, geo-targeted to reach people shopping around your store/s. Snapchat has targeting options like 'Radius Targeting' and 'Location Categories' for this purpose - Location Categories enable brands to select certain locations (like 'beaches' or bars') within a chosen region, in order to serve them more relevant ads.

Given Snap users are more likely to be active when shopping and/or at social events, such targeting could be a relevant consideration for your Snap promotions.

There are more insights in the full report, which you can check out here , but the main points of note are that Snap users are looking to connect with close friends through the app, and are more likely to be using it within social situations. These are important considerations for marketers looking to reach young consumers with Snap ads - take these into account when assessing your potential opportunities within the app.

Source: Social Media Today

Optimal Facebook Posting Practices in 2019

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Fri, 04 Jan 2019 21:15:16 GMT

We're now a year on from Facebook's major News Feed re-focus, which aimed to put more emphasis on personal engagement, while conversely reducing Page post reach.

And definitely, the impacts of that change have been felt - while organic Page reach has been in decline for some years, most businesses reported significant declines in Facebook referral traffic over 2018. And while the key "solution" is to reduce your reliance on Facebook, given the network's size and potential reach, for many, that's easier said than done - the benefits, if you can get it right, are too much to ignore.

But getting it right is the real trick - what works best for maximizing Facebook performance in 2019?

That's the key question behind BuzzSumo's latest report

- the team from BuzzSumo analyzed 777 million Page posts from 2018 in order to determine the optimal post length, post type and posting times, among other factors, that can help boost your on-platform performance.

Here's an overview of the key findings

1. Video is the best performing post type

In what will come as no surprise to anyone who's been paying attention to Facebook trends over the past five years, video remains the best performing post type on the platform, generating some 59% more engagement than other post types.

As you can see, the margin for video, in terms of generating engagement, is not even close, with 'Question' posts coming in second, followed by 'Photo' and 'Giveaways'.

If you want to win at Facebook in 2019, you need to be looking into video - in fact, Facebook marketing expert Mari Smith advises that brands should be looking at a mix of 70% video posts, 20% image posts and 10% link posts.

Video remains a key point of emphasis for Facebook, and as it continues to push it's dedicated ' Watch ' video platform, you can expect that to continue. The Social Network hasn't wavered from its video commitment since 2014, when CEO Mark Zuckerberg proclaimed that the platform would be " mostly video " within five years. That would put us into right now, where the stats above show that Zuckerberg was likely not far off in his prediction.

If you want to win at Facebook, video is where you need to be looking. There are more and more options on this front, more ways than ever to create video content. It's worth exploring what you can do in this regard.

Also, if you want to know how long your videos should be, BuzzSumo has also provided additional notes on optimal length.

2. Evenings are the best times post

This is always a difficult one to advise on, as, in many ways, it will be relative to your specific audience.

As noted by BuzzSumo :

"Every target audience is different, and therefore these global numbers may not work for you. However, it doesn’t hurt to look at them and use them as a starting point if you have no other data."

If you're looking to test posting times, BuzzSumo's data suggests that evenings see the most engagement:

There are likely various reasons for this - less competition in feeds (as most businesses are posting during the day), users more active after work, users more receptive as they look for a break from the day's stress. Various studies have shown that times outside of daily work hours perform best. This is not prescriptive, it won't apply to all Pages, but if you're looking to experiment, it may be a good place to start.

3. Weekends see the most engagement

Similar to the best times data, where times outside of business hours see better response, BuzzSumo's analysis shows that weekends also perform better in regards to Page engagement.

Again, this is not definitive, it likely won't apply to all businesses, but the reduced competition in feeds, along with users having more free time, leads to more engagement with Page content.

You also, of course, need to factor in your audience. If your audience is global, then these days and times will vary, region-by-region. Depending on who you're trying to reach, you need to consider how and when they're likely to be online, and when they're free to be browsing on Facebook, and factor that into your experiments.

4. Shorter posts perform better

BuzzSumo's data also suggests that shorter descriptions produce better results on The Social Network.

Various reports have found similar in the past - the numbers suggest that you're likely better off keeping your post descriptions as short as possible, and letting the post itself do the majority of the talking.

Again, this will differ - make sure you experiment with each element and see what results you get. You should also give each test some time - if you try short posts a couple of times and see no result, that might not be enough to come to a definitive conclusion. You should come up with a defined testing period - a few weeks or a month, so you have a good test pool to compare, then use that as your basis.

There's a heap more insight in BuzzSumo's full report , which is well worth a read for anyone looking to make the most of their Facebook efforts in 2019. As noted, while reducing your reliance on the platform is likely the best approach, and diversifying your traffic from other sources is key, Facebook does remain a huge driver, when done right.

Using the data here, and further insights in the report , you may be able to boost your Facebook performance in 2019.

Source: Social Media Today

THE KEY TO WEBSITES

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Wed, 19 Sep 2018 06:22:20 GMT

Now when it comes to having a website there are a few key things you need to ensure you have right for your website to work well.

For any business, a website provides more information on the products and services you provide along with giving an insight into the business.

With multiple ways to view a website, you need to ensure the layout is responsive on all platforms, including Desktop, Laptop, Tablet, and Mobile.

Make sure your site design is Clean, Simple and Modern, allowing users to flow through the site easily and find what it is that they are looking for.

A site that is over cluttered, hard to navigate and no responsive will deter the user away. Another key thing is to ensure your site is fast, people don't have a long attention span, so the longer they wait for your site the quick they go somewhere else.

Now the most important part of any website is getting it found, this is where the SEO comes into play. Search engines now propagate sites in relevant searches based off the keywords within Titles and Descriptions. so ensure both your title and descriptions are keyword optimized and get your website listed in relevant searches.

# SuperbMarketing # Website # Marketing

A HUGE OPPORTUNITY

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Fri, 31 Aug 2018 00:35:11 GMT

Every day we are exposed to over 5000 advertisements, now this can either be on social media, TV, in the newspaper or on the good old radio.

Now the average person needs to be exposed to your brand more than 18 times to build a level of trust and make them want to engage with the brand.Now the average person needs to be exposed to your brand more than 18 times to build a level of trust and make them want to engage with the brand.

So with that in mind how effective is your current marketing strategies?

Some say you need to advertise everywhere you can for your brand to be seen, but in doing this if not done in the right way it can create a negative preference due to the annoyance of its appearance.

Now I believe you don't need to be everywhere, but you do need to be somewhere. Depending on your target market you will find different platforms work better for you, so find the one that works for you and run with it.

Be effective and strategic in your marketing methods, and ad a level of creativity to your strategies. By being more focused, targeted and strategic you will find you will have better success in building awareness around your brand rather than doing a broad approach and trying to cover multiple advertising streams.

Check out our latest and see the huge opportunity you can't miss!!

Traditional Marketing VS Digital Marketing

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 09:40:00 GMT

The debate on which is better digital marketing or traditional marketing continues. Most of the people believe that digital marketing has taken over the traditional marketing methods. In a research, it was found that the use of traditional marketing has decreased by 160% while the use of digital marketing has increased by 14%. The question arises is it beneficial to use digital marketing? In this article, we have focused on the advantages and disadvantages of both traditional and digital marketing. Read further to know which is better.

PROS OF TRADITIONAL MARKETING

Take a look at the benefits of using traditional marketing.

Good For Local Audience

The traditional marketing is great for reaching your local audience. For instance, the radio ad will be played in one location, in your city or region. The mailbox flyers will be sent to various households in a specific area. This will help you reach the local audience without any trouble.

Easy to Understand

Another advantage of using traditional method is that it is easily understandable by most of the people. The reason is that they are already used to this type of marketing technique.

Keeping the Materials

Your target audience can save the hard copy of the ad or material. This will allow them to read it or go through it afterward.

CONS OF USING TRADITIONAL MARKETING

Here are the drawbacks of using traditional marketing.

Expensive

The use of traditional marketing techniques like flyers, newspaper or posters can be costly. It is expensive to get posters and ads printed. For distributing flyers, you will need to hire people. Thus, it will increase the expense.

Less Interaction

Another downside of using digital marketing is that there is less communication between the company and the customers. The traditional marketing methods will provide customers information about your business. There is no guarantee that they will shop at the brand or not.

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BENEFITS OF USING DIGITAL MARKETING

There are many advantages of using digital marketing, few of them are:

Reach Wider Range of Audience

One of the benefits of using digital marketing is that your company can reach both local and international audience. The digital marketing allows you to have a specific campaign related to the demographics. This will make your campaign more efficient and effective.

Communication With The Audience

Through digital marketing, you can interact with your customers and get their feedback. Thanks to the social media, you can encourage your customers to take action or follow. Your customers can know more about you and your products.

Cost-efficient

Another benefit of using digital marketing is that it is cost-efficient. You will have to invest in digital ads, but it is still cheaper than the traditional method.

DRAWBACKS OF USING DIGITAL MARKETING

Digital marketing if done right can be advantageous for your company. Though there are few disadvantages of using digital market.

Competitive

In the globalized world, digital marketing has become a norm. Every business is incorporating it into their marketing strategy. This makes it difficult for you to make your brand known. It requires you to invest more time and effort in digital marketing to stand out from the rest.

In the end, it will be better for you to incorporate a multi-channel approach. This will help you in having the benefits of paper with the accessibility of a digital. It will result in increasing your performance and help take the lead over your competitors.

Why Digital Marketing Is Important

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Sun, 24 Sep 2017 12:02:48 GMT

In today’s advanced world, consumers can access information anywhere and anytime. This is because of the internet and globalization. People are consuming more and more information through computers, laptops, mobiles, and tablets.

The companies need to remember they can influence their image through Social Media. All the companies must take advantage of the digital marketing strategy to create new customers and improve brand loyalty. In this write-up, we have focused on the importance of digital marketing.

Take a look why digital marketing is important for companies.

The digital marketing provides equal opportunities for both marketers and consumers. Some of the digital marketing forms include:

Websites
Digital advertisement
Social media

INCREASING QUICKLY

The digital marketing is important as it rapidly growing and is believed to be the future of marketing. It seems that the traditional marketing forms will be soon replaced by the digital marketing. The digital way of marketing is versatile, fast and practical. This is the reason when this technology was introduced, everyone started to move into the digital age. Moreover, digital marketing will provide you a custom strategy that will give a boost to your digital channels. This helps your business in dominating the industry.

ECO-FRIENDLY

Another reason for choosing digital marketing is that it is environmental friendly than other methods of traditional marketing. You will not have to consume any materials that damage the environment. This creates a good image in front of your customers, they will regard you sustainable company. Nowadays, the digital footprint is vital rather than physical footprint.

AFFORDABLE

The digital marketing is a better option as it is reasonable than the traditional methods. The social media or email campaign can reach a wider range of audience. The cost will only a fraction of the cost of print or TV ad.

TRACEABLE

With the advancement in technology, it is now possible to keep a track of the results of your digital marketing. For instance, you have used email marketing. You can view the response rate of your customers. You can even measure the marketing success that will allow you to plan your next move efficiently.

KEEP CUSTOMERS INFORMED

The use of social media is often underestimated. Most of the companies ignore the use of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. They help in the growth of your company as it can develop trust and credibility. Through social media, you can drive more traffic to your website. This is the best and easy way to keep your customers informed about the new promotions and discounts. It is important to update the information frequently and avoid giving information all at once.

Therefore, we all are living in a digital age and it is important to have a digital marketing. The companies that fail to incorporate it into their strategy are risking it all. They will be left behind sooner than they believe.

Do you think digital marketing is important?

Share your views with us in the comments below.

UNLOCK THE FULL POTENTIAL

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Wed, 16 Aug 2017 04:56:50 GMT

It's the new kid on the block. And every business owner and social media enthusiast is trying to hack it because of the tremendous potential it has for bringing in revenue.

But what, many wonder, can you do to get the most out of social media marketing? Are there, they wonder, any guidelines you can follow? Well, wonder no more! Because here I'm providing you with three tried and tested keys that you can use to open the doors to its riches.

INTERACTIVITY
In order to successfully use social media marketing, perhaps the most important quality required is to be social. (The clue is in the name.) Don't ignore the people who reach out to you. It's rude. Make sure that no one goes unanswered. These people are the ones who are most like to be willing to share your posts and discuss your product with their audiences, so the least you can do is acknowledge them when they make contact.
These interactions also help you connect with your fans on a more personal level, enabling you to forge more powerful relationships, adding value to your bottom line by building brand loyalty. They are also mines for information which you really need, information that can help you better understand what your consumer base wants, and inform your future posts.

CONSISTENCY
Your social media world is your garden. You have to tend to it regularly if you want it to flower. Many pages lose followers due to inactivity. So make sure that you post and update your followers on a consistent basis. But don't bombard your followers with too many posts either! Too much water will ruin the crop too. And the only pages that lose more followers than those that post too little are those that post too much. So what you're aiming for is consistency: churning out quality posts at decent time intervals.
Consistency also applies to the nature of your posts. When you look at your posts holistically, they should be serving a single purpose: carving your brand's distinctive identity. This way you may not attract everyone, but you will attract the ones with whom you have a real affinity. And it is better to have a few powerful links rather than many weak ones.

THE PERSONAL TOUCH
Don't shy away from sharing behind-the-scenes details with your fans and followers. Share pictures of your employees enjoying their work, or, if you don't have employees, share pictures of yourself in your daily routine. This is a great way to connect with your fan base on another, more private level. Not only that, but if you personalize your promotional material in this way, your followers are far more likely to interact with it. Otherwise, with the amount of promotional material web users are exposed to, they tend to skip past it.

So, in short, be interactive, keep the nature and timing of your posts consistent, and give your followers the personal touch, and this amounts to "Open Sesame" in the world of social media marketing.

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIES

admin@superbmarketing.com.au (Nicholas Whiting) — Mon, 10 Jul 2017 08:50:56 GMT

3 Principles For Success On Social Media

It is undeniable: the power of social media in our world is revolutionary. Yet social media hasn't been in our world for very long, and we are still discovering what strategies work most effectively in virtual reality. Here are three ironclad principles that will help generate traffic for your social media page every time you make a new post:

ALWAYS INCLUDE A VISUAL

The human brain is said to be made up of two hemispheres, the right and the left. The left processes rational, logical information, such as in mathematics, and the right processes emotional information, such as in music and images. If your post doesn't come with a visual, it simply fails to engage the right side of the human brain! And it doesn't matter how great your content is if you can't attract your audience's attention. The visual could be a photograph, a video, a GIF, or other graphically designed work, such as an ad. However, GIFs and videos work better due to the simple fact that moving images are more eye-catching than stationary ones. I can think of only one social media platform - Instagram - where users have no option but to post with visuals. In others, like Facebook and twitter, this doesn't apply. Therefore this is probably the most important principle to abide by. Besides, a clever GIF or a memorable video conveys personality, conveys individuality, and tells your audience exactly what makes you stand apart from the crowd. Social media is a purely visual medium: maximize the influence you can wield over your audience's eyes!

KEEP IT RELEVANT

The reason that most people have made the split-second decision to like or follow your page is because they care about, or are at least somehow invested in the topic that your page addresses. When you post material there that is irrelevant to that topic, you leave these people feeling scammed. After all, that's not what they signed up for. And it is not a good idea to alienate your grassroots. You can and will lose followers for this. So every time you post something, double-check to see that it is congruous with your page. This will also help prevent you from posting too much, which is a major cause behind the loss of 'likes' and followers.

'WHEN' IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS 'WHAT'

Timing is everything. The time you choose to post something has a huge bearing on how many people will view it. Of course there is no universally ideal time to post your content. But you can figure out this time as it applies to your potential viewers in various ways, such as via the insights tab on Facebook. Once you know what the optimal time is, you'll know when to launch your next post.

And there you have it: three simple principles on how to not just survive, but thrive on the social media scene. Of course that's not all that there is to it. But these should give you a solid foundation to build on.

contourdigital

Essential website tips to preparing for the Christmas holidays!

The Christmas season is fast approaching, and your website plays a crucial role in keeping customers informed!

Display your holiday closure dates.

Communicate your delivery cutoff dates.

Block out the dates over your holiday period.

Update your Google My Business listing.

Prepare automatic email responses.

Final Thoughts

Need help with your website’s Search Performance?

5 ways to improve your website’s rankings.

Your website is one of your most powerful marketing tools, but if it isn't optimized for search engines, you could be missing out on valuable traffic.

1. Improve Page Load Speed

2. Fix Broken Links

3. Optimize for Mobile-Friendliness

4. Enhance On-Page SEO

5. Strengthen Internal Linking

Final Thoughts

Need help with your website’s Search Performance?

Why Your Website Hero Section Matters

Your website’s hero section is the very first thing potential clients see when they land on your site. Think of it like a first date - you have seconds to make an impression, and if you don’t get it right, they might bounce before scrolling.

Let’s break it down: ﻿

The Hook: Your Main Title (H1)

The Value: Your Subtitle (H2)

The Action: Your Call-to-Action Button

Final Thoughts

Need help crafting a high-converting hero section?

Is Your Website Helping or Hurting Your Business? A 5-Point Checklist

Your website is often the first impression potential customers have of your business. But is it working for you—or against you?

1. Is Your Website Mobile-Friendly?

2. Is Your Website Fast and Optimized for Performance?

3. Is Your Website Secure?

4. Is Your Content Engaging and Up to Date?

5. Is Your Website SEO-Optimized?

Final Thoughts

Strengthen your online presence with clear Branding

As a business owner, it's easy to get caught up in day-to-day operations, but one of the most powerful tools at your disposal is a strong and clear online presence.

Why Clear Branding Matters?

Here's a Quick Tip for Strengthening Your Online Presence:

Website Trends in 2025: What Businesses Need to Know

As we move deeper into 2025, businesses need to stay ahead of the latest website trends to remain competitive.

AI-Powered Personalization

Voice Search Optimization

Faster Load Times & Core Web Vitals

Minimalist & Dark Mode Design

Enhanced Website Security & Privacy

Final Thoughts

Need Help Upgrading Your Website?

How Adding a Google Reviews Widget Increases Your Website’s Trust Factor and SEO Ranking

Understanding the Power of Google Reviews

1. Builds Instant Trust

2. Boosts SEO Performance

3. Enhances User Engagement

4. Strengthens Local Search Results

5. Creates a Valuable Feedback Loop

6. Enhances Credibility Through Diversity

7. Organic Keywords from User-Generated Content

Conclusion: Start Leveraging Google Reviews Today

Repotting indoor plants in your home and office: Why it matters & How to do it right!

Why Repotting Indoor Plants is Crucial

When Should You Repot Your Indoor Plants?

Tips for Repotting Your Indoor Plants

Final Thoughts

Spring into Action: Refresh Your Website for the Season Ahead

1. Spring Clean Your Content

2. Update Your Visuals

3. Optimize for Mobile

4. Check Your Site Speed

5. Enhance SEO

6. Refresh Your Call-to-Action

7. Test, Test, Test

Get Ahead of the Game

Need some help?

Sync with Google Business Profile to Save Time & Boost the SEO

Easy to connect, easy to manage

A note on feature availability

Quick Tips to Keep Your Business (& Life) Secure Online

In today’s digital age, safeguarding your online presence is crucial.

Authenticator Apps

Two-Step Verification

Let’s break it down: