Tag Archives: Business branding

Role of #Hashtags in Social Media and Search

Hashtags are a new way of search and find in social media platforms. It’s become so popular that most of us use it in our personal profiles to generate more visibility to our content. Etymologically it is the combination of two words hash (the symbol #) and tag, and does nothing more than tagging your content to a word or word combination preceded by a ‘#’ symbol. Hashtags makes it easier to find and follow discussions about people, topics, events, locations, promotions and more.

How it Works?

Hashtags are used in social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google+, Vine etc. Hashtags act just like an index to your content or post. Whenever someone searches for a hashtag, the posts which are tagged with the same will get popped up, resulting better visibility and search. Social media marketers use hashtags to make their content go viral. Some of the notable ever-trending hashtags are #fashion, #follow, #love etc. Hashtags are widely used in branding, event promotions and even in political sarcasms.

How to Use Hashtags for Social Media Marketing

Be Specific With Your Hashtag

Choosing a specific hashtag will help you connect with your targeted audience. The more specific your hashtag, the more targeted your audience will be, leading to better engagement. If you target espresso coffee drinkers, hashtaging with espresso will earn more specific audience than hashtaging with coffee.

Cater Hashtags to the Social Media it is Used

Do your research before tagging in different social media. Although hashtags serve the same purpose in various social media, usage differs slightly in all. Twitter uses hashtags based on a conversation or an event currently trending. Instagram uses a specific hashtag that describes the picture you have posted.

Come Up with Unbranded Hashtags

Your business hashtag do not have to mention your brand name, but should clearly tell about the service provided. If yours is a recognized brand you could even create your own hashtag and ask supporters to use it. One example is the hashtag by Nescafe – #itallstarts – which reminds people of their famous brand quote, It all starts with a Nescafe.

Avoid Long Hashtags

Use hashtags that are short and easier to remember. Your hashtag should be searchable and should be easier to type in. A very long hashtag like #ChocolateLoversInBangalore may not be typed in by many people; instead you can use #ChocoLoversBLR or an even simpler one. The whole purpose of a hashtag is to make things easier to find and engage rather than complicating.

Avoid Overusing Hashtags

Hashtags should be used according to the engagement required which is based on your targeted audience. Hashtaging all words are not advisable as it may generate false audience who may not actually need your service.

It is also to be remembered that hashtags can also backfire. Your consumers can easily use your hashtags to complaint against your service faults or to write a bad review. Hence choosing a hashtag should always comply with your service and should be done wisely.

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How to Choose the Best Explainer Video Company?

A well made explainer video in your company’s homepage could be the difference between your business scaling the podium and kneeling on the turf. Explainer videos can be used to advertise, demonstrate and market products or services in a wide range of platforms. With the advent of social media marketing companies are investing a lot on media and content strategies which include explainer videos, infographics, write ups, blogs, and other creative works.

Companies know that explainer videos have more reach and captivate the visitor. DropBox, the cloud storage and sync application used perfectly planned strategies and made explainer videos and released along with their Minimum Viable Product. DropBox used a 3 minute explainer video to increase its signup from 5000 to 75000 overnight, even before the product existed. The video alone was enough to give a clear idea of what the product did and they used it very efficiently to validate the market and sell their MVP.

The above said is only one function that an explainer video does. If you want to dig deep into the exciting possibilities of explainer videos, please head first to other blogs on explainer videos written by our team.

Choosing an Explainer Video Company

Budget

While deciding on an explainer video company the first thing most of the companies check on is the price. A custom made explainer video takes long hours of effort and considerable cost. If you are looking for a generic low cost explainer video, make sure you don’t meddle with your brand identity. Most of the small scale explainer video companies use video templates that can be used for multiple businesses. Using such a template for your company will definitely affect your brand identity. Hence, it is better to choose a company which offer great service in moderate budget rather than choosing the low budgeted or the heavy budgeted one.

Quality & Expertise

Making an explainer video requires combined effort of many creative brains.A good story, design, voice over, animation and other minor factors are possible only if a company is an expert in the field. Be sure that the company is equipped with enough talented work forces to complete your work in time with high quality. Also please check the previous works of the company for other clients to evaluate better.

Communication

Creating the apt explainer video for your business requires constant communication with the explainer video company. Out of the number of companies who provide the service choose a company which promise periodic communication with you on the work.

Who knows your company better than you? It is very important to be a part of the communication throughout the entire process of creating the explainer video. Thus you can extract your exact requirement from the company.

Feedback

Be serious on the client feedbacks about the company on social media platforms. Please check for reviews, ratings, recommendations and testimonials on their website and LinkedIn profi­le. Make sure to run a background check on the quality of the other works produced by the firm. Reach out for other clients of the company for the same. A good company could be able to provide you with the necessary portfolios and sample works for you.

Take these factors into consideration when deciding on an explainer video company. The best always reaches out to you even before you realise they could be useful to your business.

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5 Reasons Why PPC & SEO Are Better When Used Together

PPC and SEO are two sides of the same coin. However, most of the time businesses consider them individually and a combined strategy is never implemented. There are many benefits for a combined SEO and PPC strategy than both done singular.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization is the act of improving the code, content and presence of a website to increase its chances of ranking well in popular search engines. By using SEO techniques organic search results are generated. Organic search results are the non-sponsored search results that display in the top ranking of a web search.

PPC

Pay Per Click is a way of marketing in which advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. It allows business owners to list their website in search engine by paying for sponsored advertising.

Let’s have a look at some of the benefits of a combined PPC&SEO strategy.

Search Visibility

A combined SEO and PPC approach will give your business a better visibility. Top results on most Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) are PPC ads. Along with a better SEO practice you can dominate the organic search results. Being on top of sponsored and organic search results would give your company an impression of an established firm. Having a paid and organic search listing has proven to increase the total web traffic and influence the customer to make a purchase.

Keyword Selection

Running SEO and PPC simultaneously generates double the amount of keyword data to analyse. This way you can get to know better which organic and PPC keywords are getting high conversions. PPC ads are a good way to optimize keyword strategy which can be used to refine keywords for the evolving SEO marketing technique.

Combat Negative PR

Businesses are prone to negative reviews and comments in online platforms. These can be combated effectively by targeting SEO and PPC for these negative keywordsand redirecting to compliance pages. PPC can be used effectively if your company is facing allegations on products or quality. In the recent past several companies have come up with paid campaigns to restore consumer faith and brand loyalty.

Social Media Analysis

Social media is the next gen market where companies are concentrating most of their sales pitches. Targeted ads provided by social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIncan be used to deliver custom ads to selected group of people. PPC ads like this can be targeted on specific users within specific area and age group. The information analysed this way can be used to build a better SEO strategy. This data from PPC ads will be helpful in discovering user preferences, search keywords and other useful information.

Organic Content Strategy

Strategies working for PPC can be used as a torch light to frame organic content strategies for SEO. By determining which PPC ads returns more conversions, you can create title tags, meta descriptions and content for the page you want to rank organically. PPC ads return test results very quickly and you come to know what works and what does not. On the contrary organically testing the same will take more time.

Combing PPC and SEO technique, your business could harvest the trust generated by organic search and boost sales and visibility in a faster period using the power of paid advertising. Both are complimentary and each have its own ups and down. Please refer to the infographic for a comparison between SEO and PPC techniques.

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