Do you know which type of posts your followers prefer?

Social media analytics let you see who your followers are and what they like.

In this article you’ll discover how to use your audience insights from Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest to improve your social media marketing.

Discover how to grow your Facebook fans without a budget.

#1: Track Follower Preferences on Twitter

Twitter provides a free analytics dashboard with key statistics about your account. You can measure your success in a variety of ways, ranging from the number of new followers to your most popular tweets.

You can access the Twitter analytics dashboard here. After you log into your account, you’ll see a 28-day summary of your profile.

See a summary of your Twitter activity for the last 28 days.

The summary shows the number of times you’ve tweeted, tweet impressions, followers and profile visits. Next to each number is an up or down arrow, representing the change over the previous period.

The right side of the screen shows a summary of your analytics for the current month.

You can view a summary of activity for the month.

If you scroll down, you can see summaries from previous months so you can compare and track your progress.

What do you do with this information? Start tracking it from month to month. Create a table and list the number of followers you have at the end of the month. Then measure the monthly and overall percentage increases or decreases from the first column or month you started.

If you want to see more detailed analytics for your profile, click on View All Tweet Activity. The page that appears shows a helpful and informative graph that lets you see the number of impressions that your tweets have earned over the last 28 days.

See the number of impressions for the last 28 days.

On the right side of the page is an overview of your engagement rate, link clicks, retweets, favorites and replies.

View detailed information about your account activity.

The 28-day range is the default setting, but you can change it to a more specific or broader range of dates. Make your selection from the drop-down menu on the right side of the page.

Select a date range for your summaries.

Below the main graph on this page is a breakdown of all of your tweets within the selected date range. From here, you can see the number of impressions and engagements and the engagement rate for each tweet.

View detailed information for each tweet.

Click on View Tweet Activity to see more information for a specific tweet. The report details how many people engaged with the tweet and the number of impressions. It also shows how many people clicked on your profile, favorited the tweet or retweeted it.

Click View Tweet Activity to see analytics for a specific tweet.

Why is this information beneficial? Because it lets you see what content is working (what your audience likes) and what isn’t. This helps you refine your content strategy to post about topics that your followers care about.

#2: Discover Fan Insights on Facebook

Facebook offers its own version of analytics called Facebook Insights (available after your page has received 30 likes). Use this information to make improvements to your content and determine the best times to post.

To access these metrics, click Insights at the top of the page. From here, you can click these tabs to view a variety of analytics.

Click a tab to view specific types of metrics.

Overview

The Overview section provides the most important analytics. It lists page likes, post reach (the number of people who have seen impressions of a post) and engagement (the percentage of people who saw a post and liked, clicked, commented on or shared it).

See metrics on page likes, post reach and engagement.

Scroll down the page to see your five most recent posts. For each post, view metrics on reach, engagement (broken down into post clicks, likes, comments and shares) and if applicable, how much money you spent promoting the post.

See metrics for your five most recent posts.

Likes

In the Likes section, you’ll see a graph showcasing your page’s growth in terms of audience. You can change the date range to see the total page likes for a certain range of dates or a particular date.

See the total number of page likes over time.

For the time period you selected, you can also see net likes, which is the number of new likes minus unlikes and paid likes.

View net likes for your page.

Facebook also lets you know you where your page likes came from: on your page, an ad or sponsored story, a page suggestion or a mobile device.

See a breakdown of page likes based on where they happened.

Reach

In the Reach section, you can see information on whether your Facebook posts are getting attention organically (people are finding your page on their own) or via paid ads.

Take a look at the organic and paid reach for individual posts.

This section also will also show a breakdown of likes, comments and shares of your Facebook posts. This data is important because it highlights how people are interacting with your page.

See how many likes, comments and shares you’re getting.

You can also view a graph of negative actions on your profile. This includes any unlikes your page has received, any posts people have chosen to hide and the number of times someone has reported your page or posts as spam. Why is this important? Because it can help you discover whether people like the majority of your posts.

Take a look at the negative activity on your page.

Finally, you can see the overall reach of your profile, including your posts, ads, mentions, posts to your page by others and check-ins. Total reach is different from post reach because it’s about your page as a whole. (Post reach is focused on individual posts to your page.)

Visits

The Visits section provides detailed analytics for page visits including the areas of your page that people visited most often (timeline, info or photos).

Discover how often people visit different areas of your page.

Scroll down to see a breakdown of the top sites that refer traffic to your Facebook page. This information tells you how people are finding you and getting to your Facebook page. For example, if you’re advertising on another website, this will tell you how effective that referral traffic is for your page.

Find out which sites are referring traffic to your page.

Posts

Want to find out when your audience is online? In the Posts section, you’ll see a graph showing what days of the week and times of the day your fans are online. The takeaway? If you post at times when your fans are online, you have a better chance of reaching them.

Find out when your fans are online.

Click Post Types to see which types of posts people engage with most often (links and photos), and the average engagement from each post (including clicks, likes, comments and shares).

Determine what types of posts get the most engagement on your page.

This information tells you what types of posts do best on your page. Maybe you have great photos that get a ton of likes, or interesting blog posts that get lots of shares. Focus on the type of content people like and are interacting with most often.

Scroll down to see a more detailed look at your posts. For each post, you can see its type (link or photo), targeting, reach, engagement and money spent on promotion. Find out which posts are most and least popular. What do you do with this information? Post more content similar to your popular posts and eliminate the types of posts people aren’t responding to.

Find out detailed information about each post.

People

The People section lets you review detailed information on your audience demographics: the percentage of women and men, ages, languages and even cities your fans live in.

Discover demographics of your target audience.

Use this information to focus your content on what your fans care about. For example, if your audience is mostly twenty-somethings just out of college, you don’t want to talk a lot about retirement. Instead, share content that’s helpful to them, like tips for finding a first job.

#3: Identify Follower Tastes on Pinterest

Just like Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest makes it easy to track your data through their analytics. The analytics dashboard helps you identify which images and topics work and which don’t so you can better tailor your content to your audience.

To access your Pinterest analytics, go here and log into your account.

On your analytics page, you’ll see two graphs: Your Pinterest Profile and Your Audience.

View analytics on your profile and audience.

In these graphs, you’ll see the average number of daily impressions (number of times one of your pins has appeared on a home or category feed or through a search), daily viewers (number of people looking at your profile), monthly viewers and monthly engagements.

Review this page to reveal your top pin impressions and the number of repins, clicks and likes in the last 30 days.

View your top pin impressions for the last 30 days.

Go back to your Pinterest profile and click on More > to get a detailed look at how your profile is measuring up this month.

Look at your monthly analytics.

Scroll down to see the boards with the top pin impressions or most popular boards. This tells you what content people like. For example, if your top board is interesting quotes, you know to keep adding quotes to the board and put more effort into it.

Find out which boards have the top pin impressions.

If you want, you can change the date range for the data you’re reviewing.

Select a date range.

To see all of your data since you started, click All-Time in the top right. You can view Most Repinned (your most shared pins), Best in Search (pins that rank higher in search) and Power Pins (pins with a high number of repins and clicks).

See a list of your most shared pins.

The Audience tab shows the demographics of your audience. You can see the average number of viewers over a monthly period (with a date range that you can choose).

View audience demographics on the Audience tab.

You can also find out where your audience is located (countries and specific metro areas), what languages they speak and their gender.

Find out where your followers live.

Take a look at the Interests tab to see what your audience is interested in.

Discover your audience’s interests.

Conclusion

Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest offer analytics tools and dashboards that provide key metrics on your accounts. By following these instructions and collecting analytics, you’ll be able to find out more about your audience and discover what content resonates with them.

Social Media Marketing

How to Use Social Media Insights to Improve Your Marketing

Do you know which type of posts your followers prefer?

Social media analytics let you see who your followers are and what they like.

In this article you’ll discover how to use your audience insights from Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest to improve your social media marketing.

Discover how to grow your Facebook fans without a budget.

#1: Track Follower Preferences on Twitter

Twitter provides a free analytics dashboard with key statistics about your account. You can measure your success in a variety of ways, ranging from the number of new followers to your most popular tweets.

You can access the Twitter analytics dashboard here. After you log into your account, you’ll see a 28-day summary of your profile.

See a summary of your Twitter activity for the last 28 days.

The summary shows the number of times you’ve tweeted, tweet impressions, followers and profile visits. Next to each number is an up or down arrow, representing the change over the previous period.

The right side of the screen shows a summary of your analytics for the current month.

You can view a summary of activity for the month.

If you scroll down, you can see summaries from previous months so you can compare and track your progress.

What do you do with this information? Start tracking it from month to month. Create a table and list the number of followers you have at the end of the month. Then measure the monthly and overall percentage increases or decreases from the first column or month you started.

If you want to see more detailed analytics for your profile, click on View All Tweet Activity. The page that appears shows a helpful and informative graph that lets you see the number of impressions that your tweets have earned over the last 28 days.

See the number of impressions for the last 28 days.

On the right side of the page is an overview of your engagement rate, link clicks, retweets, favorites and replies.

View detailed information about your account activity.

The 28-day range is the default setting, but you can change it to a more specific or broader range of dates. Make your selection from the drop-down menu on the right side of the page.

Select a date range for your summaries.

Below the main graph on this page is a breakdown of all of your tweets within the selected date range. From here, you can see the number of impressions and engagements and the engagement rate for each tweet.

View detailed information for each tweet.

Click on View Tweet Activity to see more information for a specific tweet. The report details how many people engaged with the tweet and the number of impressions. It also shows how many people clicked on your profile, favorited the tweet or retweeted it.

Click View Tweet Activity to see analytics for a specific tweet.

Why is this information beneficial? Because it lets you see what content is working (what your audience likes) and what isn’t. This helps you refine your content strategy to post about topics that your followers care about.

#2: Discover Fan Insights on Facebook

Facebook offers its own version of analytics called Facebook Insights (available after your page has received 30 likes). Use this information to make improvements to your content and determine the best times to post.

To access these metrics, click Insights at the top of the page. From here, you can click these tabs to view a variety of analytics.

Click a tab to view specific types of metrics.

Overview

The Overview section provides the most important analytics. It lists page likes, post reach (the number of people who have seen impressions of a post) and engagement (the percentage of people who saw a post and liked, clicked, commented on or shared it).

See metrics on page likes, post reach and engagement.

Scroll down the page to see your five most recent posts. For each post, view metrics on reach, engagement (broken down into post clicks, likes, comments and shares) and if applicable, how much money you spent promoting the post.

See metrics for your five most recent posts.

Likes

In the Likes section, you’ll see a graph showcasing your page’s growth in terms of audience. You can change the date range to see the total page likes for a certain range of dates or a particular date.

See the total number of page likes over time.

For the time period you selected, you can also see net likes, which is the number of new likes minus unlikes and paid likes.

View net likes for your page.

Facebook also lets you know you where your page likes came from: on your page, an ad or sponsored story, a page suggestion or a mobile device.

See a breakdown of page likes based on where they happened.

Reach

In the Reach section, you can see information on whether your Facebook posts are getting attention organically (people are finding your page on their own) or via paid ads.

Take a look at the organic and paid reach for individual posts.

This section also will also show a breakdown of likes, comments and shares of your Facebook posts. This data is important because it highlights how people are interacting with your page.

See how many likes, comments and shares you’re getting.

You can also view a graph of negative actions on your profile. This includes any unlikes your page has received, any posts people have chosen to hide and the number of times someone has reported your page or posts as spam. Why is this important? Because it can help you discover whether people like the majority of your posts.

Take a look at the negative activity on your page.

Finally, you can see the overall reach of your profile, including your posts, ads, mentions, posts to your page by others and check-ins. Total reach is different from post reach because it’s about your page as a whole. (Post reach is focused on individual posts to your page.)

Visits

The Visits section provides detailed analytics for page visits including the areas of your page that people visited most often (timeline, info or photos).

Discover how often people visit different areas of your page.

Scroll down to see a breakdown of the top sites that refer traffic to your Facebook page. This information tells you how people are finding you and getting to your Facebook page. For example, if you’re advertising on another website, this will tell you how effective that referral traffic is for your page.

Find out which sites are referring traffic to your page.

Posts

Want to find out when your audience is online? In the Posts section, you’ll see a graph showing what days of the week and times of the day your fans are online. The takeaway? If you post at times when your fans are online, you have a better chance of reaching them.

Find out when your fans are online.

Click Post Types to see which types of posts people engage with most often (links and photos), and the average engagement from each post (including clicks, likes, comments and shares).

Determine what types of posts get the most engagement on your page.

This information tells you what types of posts do best on your page. Maybe you have great photos that get a ton of likes, or interesting blog posts that get lots of shares. Focus on the type of content people like and are interacting with most often.

Scroll down to see a more detailed look at your posts. For each post, you can see its type (link or photo), targeting, reach, engagement and money spent on promotion. Find out which posts are most and least popular. What do you do with this information? Post more content similar to your popular posts and eliminate the types of posts people aren’t responding to.

Find out detailed information about each post.

People

The People section lets you review detailed information on your audience demographics: the percentage of women and men, ages, languages and even cities your fans live in.

Discover demographics of your target audience.

Use this information to focus your content on what your fans care about. For example, if your audience is mostly twenty-somethings just out of college, you don’t want to talk a lot about retirement. Instead, share content that’s helpful to them, like tips for finding a first job.

#3: Identify Follower Tastes on Pinterest

Just like Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest makes it easy to track your data through their analytics. The analytics dashboard helps you identify which images and topics work and which don’t so you can better tailor your content to your audience.

To access your Pinterest analytics, go here and log into your account.

On your analytics page, you’ll see two graphs: Your Pinterest Profile and Your Audience.

View analytics on your profile and audience.

In these graphs, you’ll see the average number of daily impressions (number of times one of your pins has appeared on a home or category feed or through a search), daily viewers (number of people looking at your profile), monthly viewers and monthly engagements.

Review this page to reveal your top pin impressions and the number of repins, clicks and likes in the last 30 days.

View your top pin impressions for the last 30 days.

Go back to your Pinterest profile and click on More > to get a detailed look at how your profile is measuring up this month.

Look at your monthly analytics.

Scroll down to see the boards with the top pin impressions or most popular boards. This tells you what content people like. For example, if your top board is interesting quotes, you know to keep adding quotes to the board and put more effort into it.

Find out which boards have the top pin impressions.

If you want, you can change the date range for the data you’re reviewing.

Select a date range.

To see all of your data since you started, click All-Time in the top right. You can view Most Repinned (your most shared pins), Best in Search (pins that rank higher in search) and Power Pins (pins with a high number of repins and clicks).

See a list of your most shared pins.

The Audience tab shows the demographics of your audience. You can see the average number of viewers over a monthly period (with a date range that you can choose).

View audience demographics on the Audience tab.

You can also find out where your audience is located (countries and specific metro areas), what languages they speak and their gender.

Find out where your followers live.

Take a look at the Interests tab to see what your audience is interested in.

Discover your audience’s interests.

Conclusion

Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest offer analytics tools and dashboards that provide key metrics on your accounts. By following these instructions and collecting analytics, you’ll be able to find out more about your audience and discover what content resonates with them.

Having a strong online presence is critical in today’s digital world, and businesses know that – That’s why everyone is on social media nowadays. However, keeping track of your social media program’s ROI and financial implications (Aka Social Media Analytics), including the impact on revenue, sales, customer lifetime value, cost per lead…etc, is still a challenge for many businesses.

Social Media has unique KPIs compared to other channels. Different businesses have different needs, however, here are the most common KPIs you should be tracking in order to not only calculate ROI for your social media efforts but also use the information to optimize and improve your social media strategy. We also have a definitive guide on Social Media Strategy if you want to ensure you are on the right track.

Engagement Rates: these could be views, clicks, comments, duration of engagement, etc. The engagement rates can be calculated by campaigns, content item, day of week, time of day in order to get a better understanding of the responses from your audience.

Share Rates: These are things like shares, likes, tweets, retweets, pins, links, mentions, etc. This can also be calculated as amplification rates by platforms, content item, fan/followers, day of week, time of day, etc.

Reach: This is defined as impressions by campaigns, content items, platform..etc

Volume and Sentiment of Online Conversations: how much people talk about / mention your product and brand.

Traffic Generated by source, content type, item, and campaign, etc

Conversion Rates: this includes new followers, likes, form completions, newsletter signups, sales and qualified leads by campaign, platform, time of day, day of week, etc.

Follower Count: number of followers via each social media channel. Make sure your followers are your target audience or people who are relevant to your industry.

Track these metrics over time to gauge progress and help demonstrate ROI.

Top Free Social Media Analytics Tools to Track Your Social Media Performance:

1) Google Analytics

Tracks website referrals from your social media channels.

2) Hootsuite, or Bufferapp

Tracks clicks on social media content and posts. They are also two of the top social media management tools. I personally prefer bufferapp because of its ease of use and intuitive social scheduling.

3) Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics, LinkedIn Analytics, Google+ Insights, Youtube Analytics

Each social media platform comes with its own analytics dashboard where it provides insights into your social media performance. Most of these data can be exported to a spreadsheet for to analyze and derive insights to improve your social media efforts.

4) Twitalyzer, TwitterCounter, BrandTweetStatistics, TweetReach

All of these tools can help you analyze your twitter presence and your post performance.

5) Tweriod, Timely and TweetWhen

These can help you determine the best time to post

6) PinReach and Pinpuff

These two tools can help analyzing your Pinterest presence and performance

7) ViralHeat, Topsy

These tools helps analyzing online sentiment and numbers of mentions, brand performance on various networks, including Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

There are many free tools out there that can help you easily measure your social media campaigns. Are you using of the tools listed above? Please comment below other social media measurement tools that you know of.  I am curious to know what other tools you are currently using.

Social Media Marketing

The Definitive Guide to Measure Your Social Media Marketing

Having a strong online presence is critical in today’s digital world, and businesses know that – That’s why everyone is on social media nowadays. However, keeping track of your social media program’s ROI and financial implications (Aka Social Media Analytics), including the impact on revenue, sales, customer lifetime value, cost per lead…etc, is still a challenge for many businesses.

Social Media has unique KPIs compared to other channels. Different businesses have different needs, however, here are the most common KPIs you should be tracking in order to not only calculate ROI for your social media efforts but also use the information to optimize and improve your social media strategy. We also have a definitive guide on Social Media Strategy if you want to ensure you are on the right track.

Engagement Rates: these could be views, clicks, comments, duration of engagement, etc. The engagement rates can be calculated by campaigns, content item, day of week, time of day in order to get a better understanding of the responses from your audience.

Share Rates: These are things like shares, likes, tweets, retweets, pins, links, mentions, etc. This can also be calculated as amplification rates by platforms, content item, fan/followers, day of week, time of day, etc.

Reach: This is defined as impressions by campaigns, content items, platform..etc

Volume and Sentiment of Online Conversations: how much people talk about / mention your product and brand.

Traffic Generated by source, content type, item, and campaign, etc

Conversion Rates: this includes new followers, likes, form completions, newsletter signups, sales and qualified leads by campaign, platform, time of day, day of week, etc.

Follower Count: number of followers via each social media channel. Make sure your followers are your target audience or people who are relevant to your industry.

Track these metrics over time to gauge progress and help demonstrate ROI.

Top Free Social Media Analytics Tools to Track Your Social Media Performance:

1) Google Analytics

Tracks website referrals from your social media channels.

2) Hootsuite, or Bufferapp

Tracks clicks on social media content and posts. They are also two of the top social media management tools. I personally prefer bufferapp because of its ease of use and intuitive social scheduling.

3) Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics, LinkedIn Analytics, Google+ Insights, Youtube Analytics

Each social media platform comes with its own analytics dashboard where it provides insights into your social media performance. Most of these data can be exported to a spreadsheet for to analyze and derive insights to improve your social media efforts.

4) Twitalyzer, TwitterCounter, BrandTweetStatistics, TweetReach

All of these tools can help you analyze your twitter presence and your post performance.

5) Tweriod, Timely and TweetWhen

These can help you determine the best time to post

6) PinReach and Pinpuff

These two tools can help analyzing your Pinterest presence and performance

7) ViralHeat, Topsy

These tools helps analyzing online sentiment and numbers of mentions, brand performance on various networks, including Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

There are many free tools out there that can help you easily measure your social media campaigns. Are you using of the tools listed above? Please comment below other social media measurement tools that you know of.  I am curious to know what other tools you are currently using.

 

On the night of the Floyd 

Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight in Las Vegas in May, most Burger King franchisees were unaware their brand had found a way to advertise during the commercial-free event, which drew a record 4.4 million pay-per-view sales, almost double the previous high, and was viewed by millions more worldwide. So when the King, the chain’s robed mascot, emerged into the MGM Grand’s arena just off Mayweather’s left shoulder, Shoukat Dhanani’s phone started to light up. His company, Houston Foods, owns about 460 Burger King restaurants, and he represents his fellow franchisees on the company’s marketing council. “Everyone wanted to know what was up with the King,” he says. Besides the millions of viewers globally, within hours the King’s appearance in Mayweather’s entourage alongside Justin Bieber was all over Twitter and Facebook, generating big-time buzz for the restaurant chain.

Media types speculated that Burger King paid Mayweather $1 million to pull off the stunt, a fraction of the tab for a 30-second Super Bowl ad. “They’re spending that money very wisely,” Dhanani says. “What we used to spend and what we used to get, and what we spend now and what we get, it’s a big difference.”

Burger King, which counts Bill Ackman and Warren Buffett as two of the largest shareholders in its parent company, Restaurant Brands International, has developed a knack for viral advertising. Under the management of its famously stingy controlling shareholder, 3G Capital, since 2010, the chain has managed to muscle into the daily conversations on social media that increasingly define pop culture. Franchisees say the buzz has translated into higher restaurant sales. And the company is doing it for far less than what McDonald’s spends on advertising.

4:1
 
The size of McDonald’s estimated U.S. advertising fund vs. Burger King’s

“Burger King has really found a way to get attention by doing the unexpected and somewhat irreverent,” says Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. “They’re generating an enormous amount of publicity at a very modest cost.”

About a month after the King’s surprise appearance at the Las Vegas fight, the mascot again popped up at the Belmont Stakes, in the private box of trainer Bob Baffert, before American Pharoah ran for the first Triple Crown in almost 40 years. Because the horse had become a celebrity, Burger King marketers figured—correctly—that TV cameras would pan to Baffert before the race, again putting the King in the sight of millions and sparking social media buzz. The appearance reportedly cost Burger King only $200,000, which Baffert donated to charity.

The King’s horse race cameo was partly about selling more chicken. A few days before the race, the company had rolled out national TV ads featuring the King to promote its 10 chicken nuggets for $1.49 deal. “We strive to create moments for Burger King to fall into organic conversations about what’s current and what’s trending,” says Axel Schwan, Burger King’s global chief marketing officer. “Our goal is to enmesh the brand into the fabric of pop culture.”

Burger King likes being edgy, Schwan says, and it has proved that it doesn’t mind doing things that might make other brands blush. In August, as the company pushed a new spicy version of its chicken fries—a cult favorite the chain returned to the menu after a flood of social media requests—it tweeted a picture of what appeared to be a stack of pornographic magazines. The skin books, their cover images blurred, were set next to a box of Fiery Chicken Fries, and the tweet read: “Hotter than your summer reading list. #fierychickenfries.” Less than a week later, a similar tweet featured blurred-out images of bikini-clad women with this message: “Hotter than your browsing history.”

In an age when office chatter has moved from last night’s TV episode to the latest viral video, part of Burger King’s marketing advantage has been its willingness to move quickly to exploit a constantly churning Internet news cycle. After the company reentered France in 2013, following a 16-year absence, social media there were besieged with negative comments from French customers complaining about long lines at the restaurants. Burger King didn’t waver in the face of the apparent customer service crisis. Instead, it printed some of the “angry tweets” on construction panels at the new locations as proof it had heard the negative feedback. That gambit generated millions of retweets, won a marketing award, and again showed Burger King to be a brand that isn’t afraid to ignore conventional wisdom. “The better it is you understand what you stand for, the easier it is to react quickly,” Schwan says.

McDonald’s remains the world’s largest restaurant company, and its sheer size has pushed Burger King to take marketing risks to stay competitive. In 2014, McDonald’s had roughly five times Burger King’s ad budget, with money for Super Bowl ads and sponsorships of the FIFA World Cup and the U.S. Olympic team. But Allen Adamson, North American chairman of branding firm Landor Associates, says size advantage doesn’t go as far as it used to because of social media. “If you have the right spark, it will generate more buzz than paid media,” he says. “Good content travels so powerfully that every year the playing field gets more level.”

A knack for attracting social media attention has allowed Burger King to punch above its weight in the Twitterverse

In June 2014, Josh Kobza, Burger King’s chief financial officer, said the company would rely more heavily on data to make sure its marketing was cost-effective and reaching the right customers, and was “shifting channels toward more digital and social media.” David Palmer, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, recently said Burger King’s marketing had “been among the most effective in U.S. fast food” in the past few years. Besides ad agencies David, RockOrange, and Pitch, Burger King uses marketing shop Code & Theory for social media and Scout, a sports-focused subsidiary of Horizon Media, for planning the King’s high-profile boxing and racing gigs.

Relying on cheaper social marketing fits nicely with 3G’s management approach. In the fast-food industry, it’s common for franchisees and company-owned restaurants to pay about 4 percent of gross sales each month into an advertising fund that’s administered at the corporate office. That means that in the U.S., McDonald’s had about $1.42 billion in its marketing pot in 2014, funded mostly by franchisees. McDonald’s corporate owns about 19 percent of its restaurants worldwide, and the company reported spending $808 million on marketing last year. But after 3G Capital took over Burger King, it started selling off hundreds of company-owned restaurants to reduce costs. Five years later, the parent owns only 52 restaurants, all in the Miami area. So it pays next to nothing for advertising out of the corporate coffers. Last year, Burger King collected an estimated $345 million in U.S. advertising money, less than a quarter of the haul at McDonald’s.

The huge ad budget differential is one reason Burger King is likely to continue rolling out marketing stunts such as its open letter to McDonald’s in August, asking its longtime rival to help it create a hybrid burger from the two chains’ ruling sandwiches; its sale would benefit charity. For the price of two full-page newspaper ads, Burger King and its hypothetical “McWhopper” lit up the Twitterverse and quickly generated chatter around its brand across social media. “It was perfect guerrilla marketing,” says Landor Associates’ Adamson. “There was nothing McDonald’s could have done. They were instantly checkmated.”

Social Media Marketing

In Social Media Marketing, the Burger King Has It His Way

 

On the night of the Floyd 

Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight in Las Vegas in May, most Burger King franchisees were unaware their brand had found a way to advertise during the commercial-free event, which drew a record 4.4 million pay-per-view sales, almost double the previous high, and was viewed by millions more worldwide. So when the King, the chain’s robed mascot, emerged into the MGM Grand’s arena just off Mayweather’s left shoulder, Shoukat Dhanani’s phone started to light up. His company, Houston Foods, owns about 460 Burger King restaurants, and he represents his fellow franchisees on the company’s marketing council. “Everyone wanted to know what was up with the King,” he says. Besides the millions of viewers globally, within hours the King’s appearance in Mayweather’s entourage alongside Justin Bieber was all over Twitter and Facebook, generating big-time buzz for the restaurant chain.

Media types speculated that Burger King paid Mayweather $1 million to pull off the stunt, a fraction of the tab for a 30-second Super Bowl ad. “They’re spending that money very wisely,” Dhanani says. “What we used to spend and what we used to get, and what we spend now and what we get, it’s a big difference.”

Burger King, which counts Bill Ackman and Warren Buffett as two of the largest shareholders in its parent company, Restaurant Brands International, has developed a knack for viral advertising. Under the management of its famously stingy controlling shareholder, 3G Capital, since 2010, the chain has managed to muscle into the daily conversations on social media that increasingly define pop culture. Franchisees say the buzz has translated into higher restaurant sales. And the company is doing it for far less than what McDonald’s spends on advertising.

4:1
 
The size of McDonald’s estimated U.S. advertising fund vs. Burger King’s

“Burger King has really found a way to get attention by doing the unexpected and somewhat irreverent,” says Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. “They’re generating an enormous amount of publicity at a very modest cost.”

About a month after the King’s surprise appearance at the Las Vegas fight, the mascot again popped up at the Belmont Stakes, in the private box of trainer Bob Baffert, before American Pharoah ran for the first Triple Crown in almost 40 years. Because the horse had become a celebrity, Burger King marketers figured—correctly—that TV cameras would pan to Baffert before the race, again putting the King in the sight of millions and sparking social media buzz. The appearance reportedly cost Burger King only $200,000, which Baffert donated to charity.

The King’s horse race cameo was partly about selling more chicken. A few days before the race, the company had rolled out national TV ads featuring the King to promote its 10 chicken nuggets for $1.49 deal. “We strive to create moments for Burger King to fall into organic conversations about what’s current and what’s trending,” says Axel Schwan, Burger King’s global chief marketing officer. “Our goal is to enmesh the brand into the fabric of pop culture.”

Burger King likes being edgy, Schwan says, and it has proved that it doesn’t mind doing things that might make other brands blush. In August, as the company pushed a new spicy version of its chicken fries—a cult favorite the chain returned to the menu after a flood of social media requests—it tweeted a picture of what appeared to be a stack of pornographic magazines. The skin books, their cover images blurred, were set next to a box of Fiery Chicken Fries, and the tweet read: “Hotter than your summer reading list. #fierychickenfries.” Less than a week later, a similar tweet featured blurred-out images of bikini-clad women with this message: “Hotter than your browsing history.”

In an age when office chatter has moved from last night’s TV episode to the latest viral video, part of Burger King’s marketing advantage has been its willingness to move quickly to exploit a constantly churning Internet news cycle. After the company reentered France in 2013, following a 16-year absence, social media there were besieged with negative comments from French customers complaining about long lines at the restaurants. Burger King didn’t waver in the face of the apparent customer service crisis. Instead, it printed some of the “angry tweets” on construction panels at the new locations as proof it had heard the negative feedback. That gambit generated millions of retweets, won a marketing award, and again showed Burger King to be a brand that isn’t afraid to ignore conventional wisdom. “The better it is you understand what you stand for, the easier it is to react quickly,” Schwan says.

McDonald’s remains the world’s largest restaurant company, and its sheer size has pushed Burger King to take marketing risks to stay competitive. In 2014, McDonald’s had roughly five times Burger King’s ad budget, with money for Super Bowl ads and sponsorships of the FIFA World Cup and the U.S. Olympic team. But Allen Adamson, North American chairman of branding firm Landor Associates, says size advantage doesn’t go as far as it used to because of social media. “If you have the right spark, it will generate more buzz than paid media,” he says. “Good content travels so powerfully that every year the playing field gets more level.”

A knack for attracting social media attention has allowed Burger King to punch above its weight in the Twitterverse

In June 2014, Josh Kobza, Burger King’s chief financial officer, said the company would rely more heavily on data to make sure its marketing was cost-effective and reaching the right customers, and was “shifting channels toward more digital and social media.” David Palmer, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, recently said Burger King’s marketing had “been among the most effective in U.S. fast food” in the past few years. Besides ad agencies David, RockOrange, and Pitch, Burger King uses marketing shop Code & Theory for social media and Scout, a sports-focused subsidiary of Horizon Media, for planning the King’s high-profile boxing and racing gigs.

Relying on cheaper social marketing fits nicely with 3G’s management approach. In the fast-food industry, it’s common for franchisees and company-owned restaurants to pay about 4 percent of gross sales each month into an advertising fund that’s administered at the corporate office. That means that in the U.S., McDonald’s had about $1.42 billion in its marketing pot in 2014, funded mostly by franchisees. McDonald’s corporate owns about 19 percent of its restaurants worldwide, and the company reported spending $808 million on marketing last year. But after 3G Capital took over Burger King, it started selling off hundreds of company-owned restaurants to reduce costs. Five years later, the parent owns only 52 restaurants, all in the Miami area. So it pays next to nothing for advertising out of the corporate coffers. Last year, Burger King collected an estimated $345 million in U.S. advertising money, less than a quarter of the haul at McDonald’s.

The huge ad budget differential is one reason Burger King is likely to continue rolling out marketing stunts such as its open letter to McDonald’s in August, asking its longtime rival to help it create a hybrid burger from the two chains’ ruling sandwiches; its sale would benefit charity. For the price of two full-page newspaper ads, Burger King and its hypothetical “McWhopper” lit up the Twitterverse and quickly generated chatter around its brand across social media. “It was perfect guerrilla marketing,” says Landor Associates’ Adamson. “There was nothing McDonald’s could have done. They were instantly checkmated.”

Using social media as part of your marketing arsenal is not just smart; in today’s landscape, it’s necessary.

But true, valuable social media marketing takes more than just an established Facebook page or occasional tweet. To see real results, it involves a strategy and tactics. 

Get more value from your social media efforts—and focus your efforts into more prosperous directions—with the following five tips.

1. Add Value to Your Profiles

Stop thinking of your profiles as an obligation and start thinking about them as an opportunity.

Your profile should do more than serve as a placeholder; use the space to add true value for your reader. What does your business do? Why should someone follow you (what’s in it for them)? This is your opportunity to sell yourself—so take advantage. And remember, your readers have short attention spans, so be direct.

For example,

“Serving Nashville homeowners for 15 years” doesn’t say anything about what you do or how you’ll help the reader—it simply serves as a tagline. To be frank, it’s a bit lazy.

Instead, try something like, “Helping Nashville homeowners to keep bugs out—and happy memories in—for more than 15 years.”

It gives an idea of what you offer, addresses the audience, and provides an idea of the benefit.

Or, try offering an incentive—for example, “Keep your home bug free for less! Follow our page for free DIY tips and a new coupon code every Friday!”

Character counts can be a bit limiting, yes—but using those characters smartly will serve you (and your potential clients) well.

For you references, here are some examples of those who have done it right:

Related Article: How To Make Content Marketing Work in a Boring Industry

2. Don't Be a Zombie

Anyone can use social media—but not anyone can use it well. The difference between having a presence and having a presence that works for your business often lies in one simple thing: not being merely present.

What does that mean? Well, as I like to put it, don’t be a zombie.

People follow—and work with—other people and businesses that they feel an actual connection with. That means that you need to interact with your readers, for starters—but also that you need to do so in a human way.

Consider dropping the formal business tone—you aren’t pitching a presentation here, you’re trying to have a conversation. So don’t be stuffy; be yourself!

3. Find Your Focus

Before you start posting away on every known social media platform, just hit pause and consider what you’re hoping to accomplish. There are so many different sites now—and each with its own quirks and benefits—that trying to use them all is like trying to boil the ocean.

Instead, take some time to build at least a basic strategy. For starters, consider who your audience is—then determine which platforms they most identify with (and use).

For example, if you’re targeting late teens or young adults, Instagram may be a fit. Targeting an older business professional crowd? You aren’t likely to have the same success on Instagram, LinkedIn or Google+ might be more up your alley.

Once you know where you’re posting, make sure you know who you are. Your goal is to become an “expert” and influencer in your niche… so determine exactly what that niche is. Then, find your own voice and use it to explain your own unique ideas and thoughts—there’s little value to come from simply restating what others in the field have done or said.

In a word, focus. Focus your audience. Focus the social media platforms you use. Focus your niche. And focus your posts to that niche.

Related Article: The Value of the Keyword: Why It Matters In Content Marketing

4. Leverage Trending Topics

Even the most creative among us will burn out trying to constantly think of new, fresh topics. Instead, make use of what’s already going on around you. Trending topics provide the automatic advantage of tying your content to something that people are clearly interested in (otherwise, they wouldn’t be trending topics).

The trick is to relate your own ideas or offerings to that topic in a way that is

1. Transparent,
2. Relevant, and
3. Interesting

As for finding what those topics are:

If you’re on Twitter, you conveniently have a list of trending topics displayed right on your dashboard.

Buzzfeed is a great site for viral content—often that comes straight to you via your Facebook or other social media feeds.

Reddit gives convenient tabs that allow you to quickly find topics sorted by newness, rising content, top content, and other categorizations.

Since hashtags have become so commonplace—in and out of Twitter, try Hashtags.org. Notably, there are fee services for Hashtags.org if you want to promote or measure your own hashtags, but there is a free component to simply find what’s hot in the now.

Finally, Google Trends is a quick and easy way to find what people are searching for—in general or by topic.

 

5. Make Use of Video

When social media first started, it was all about static updates but today’s social media landscape is filled with multimedia content. Think of how to show your audience rather than just tell them.

How-to videos, parodies, funny animals juxtaposed with content—the ways to turn your content into videos is endless. Is everyone going to turn into a viral success? Well, no but if you hit the right audience, you can create great impact in your space.

One thing to note—a simple talking head is unlikely to get you too far. Instead, think of ways to create content that directly benefits the viewer.

Think product demos, how-to videos, or give glimpses into life behind the scenes anything that adds value or insight into something that they might find intriguing is a step in the right direction.

Read more: http://www.business.com/social-media-marketing/5-practical-tips-to-improve-your-social-media-marketing/

Read more: http://www.business.com/social-media-marketing/5-practical-tips-to-improve-your-social-media-marketing/

Read more: http://www.business.com/social-media-marketing/5-practical-tips-to-improve-your-social-media-marketing/

Read more: http://www.business.com/social-media-marketing/5-practical-tips-to-improve-your-social-media-marketing/

Social Media Marketing

5 Practical Tips to Improve Your Social Media Marketing

Using social media as part of your marketing arsenal is not just smart; in today’s landscape, it’s necessary.

But true, valuable social media marketing takes more than just an established Facebook page or occasional tweet. To see real results, it involves a strategy and tactics. 

Get more value from your social media efforts—and focus your efforts into more prosperous directions—with the following five tips.

1. Add Value to Your Profiles

Stop thinking of your profiles as an obligation and start thinking about them as an opportunity.

Your profile should do more than serve as a placeholder; use the space to add true value for your reader. What does your business do? Why should someone follow you (what’s in it for them)? This is your opportunity to sell yourself—so take advantage. And remember, your readers have short attention spans, so be direct.

For example,

“Serving Nashville homeowners for 15 years” doesn’t say anything about what you do or how you’ll help the reader—it simply serves as a tagline. To be frank, it’s a bit lazy.

Instead, try something like, “Helping Nashville homeowners to keep bugs out—and happy memories in—for more than 15 years.”

It gives an idea of what you offer, addresses the audience, and provides an idea of the benefit.

Or, try offering an incentive—for example, “Keep your home bug free for less! Follow our page for free DIY tips and a new coupon code every Friday!”

Character counts can be a bit limiting, yes—but using those characters smartly will serve you (and your potential clients) well.

For you references, here are some examples of those who have done it right:

Related Article: How To Make Content Marketing Work in a Boring Industry

2. Don't Be a Zombie

Anyone can use social media—but not anyone can use it well. The difference between having a presence and having a presence that works for your business often lies in one simple thing: not being merely present.

What does that mean? Well, as I like to put it, don’t be a zombie.

People follow—and work with—other people and businesses that they feel an actual connection with. That means that you need to interact with your readers, for starters—but also that you need to do so in a human way.

Consider dropping the formal business tone—you aren’t pitching a presentation here, you’re trying to have a conversation. So don’t be stuffy; be yourself!

3. Find Your Focus

Before you start posting away on every known social media platform, just hit pause and consider what you’re hoping to accomplish. There are so many different sites now—and each with its own quirks and benefits—that trying to use them all is like trying to boil the ocean.

Instead, take some time to build at least a basic strategy. For starters, consider who your audience is—then determine which platforms they most identify with (and use).

For example, if you’re targeting late teens or young adults, Instagram may be a fit. Targeting an older business professional crowd? You aren’t likely to have the same success on Instagram, LinkedIn or Google+ might be more up your alley.

Once you know where you’re posting, make sure you know who you are. Your goal is to become an “expert” and influencer in your niche… so determine exactly what that niche is. Then, find your own voice and use it to explain your own unique ideas and thoughts—there’s little value to come from simply restating what others in the field have done or said.

In a word, focus. Focus your audience. Focus the social media platforms you use. Focus your niche. And focus your posts to that niche.

Related Article: The Value of the Keyword: Why It Matters In Content Marketing

4. Leverage Trending Topics

Even the most creative among us will burn out trying to constantly think of new, fresh topics. Instead, make use of what’s already going on around you. Trending topics provide the automatic advantage of tying your content to something that people are clearly interested in (otherwise, they wouldn’t be trending topics).

The trick is to relate your own ideas or offerings to that topic in a way that is

1. Transparent,
2. Relevant, and
3. Interesting

As for finding what those topics are:

If you’re on Twitter, you conveniently have a list of trending topics displayed right on your dashboard.

Buzzfeed is a great site for viral content—often that comes straight to you via your Facebook or other social media feeds.

Reddit gives convenient tabs that allow you to quickly find topics sorted by newness, rising content, top content, and other categorizations.

Since hashtags have become so commonplace—in and out of Twitter, try Hashtags.org. Notably, there are fee services for Hashtags.org if you want to promote or measure your own hashtags, but there is a free component to simply find what’s hot in the now.

Finally, Google Trends is a quick and easy way to find what people are searching for—in general or by topic.

 

5. Make Use of Video

When social media first started, it was all about static updates but today’s social media landscape is filled with multimedia content. Think of how to show your audience rather than just tell them.

How-to videos, parodies, funny animals juxtaposed with content—the ways to turn your content into videos is endless. Is everyone going to turn into a viral success? Well, no but if you hit the right audience, you can create great impact in your space.

One thing to note—a simple talking head is unlikely to get you too far. Instead, think of ways to create content that directly benefits the viewer.

Think product demos, how-to videos, or give glimpses into life behind the scenes anything that adds value or insight into something that they might find intriguing is a step in the right direction.

Read more: http://www.business.com/social-media-marketing/5-practical-tips-to-improve-your-social-media-marketing/

Read more: http://www.business.com/social-media-marketing/5-practical-tips-to-improve-your-social-media-marketing/

Read more: http://www.business.com/social-media-marketing/5-practical-tips-to-improve-your-social-media-marketing/

Read more: http://www.business.com/social-media-marketing/5-practical-tips-to-improve-your-social-media-marketing/