Social Media Interaction, the University Brand and Recruitment Performance

This paper was in response to a call for research to explore brand identity, meaning, image, and reputation (BIMIR) in higher education in the Journal of Business Research. The paper was written in collaboration with Stuart Roper and Fiona Lettice. The study set out to determine whether use of social media platforms would raise the value of universities’ brands by increasing demand for places. If social media use were found to improve brand performance, the study would then determine which aspects of social media would be of the greatest value.

Rutter, R., Roper, S. and Lettice, F., 2016. Social media interaction, the university brand and recruitment performance. Journal of Business Research69(8), pp.3096-3104. Download PDF

Figure 1: Example of a Tweet aimed at prospective students by the University of East Anglia (UEA)

Introduction – While many effective methods exist for enhancing brand image, use of social media is increasingly becoming the most common across all sectors, as it allows almost universal access.  Although considered controversial in some quarters, Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) have begun communicating in the tone of the marketplace in order to attract students, their de facto customer base, amid inbuilt inequities in both material assets and reputation. Universities with a well-established history of excellence, such as those in the Russell Group, have a significant advantage over newer HEIs or those which are smaller or have restricted access to funding, but the relatively low cost-to-engagement ratio of social media enables all HEIs to embrace it. The research question being: can institutions with lower reputational capital compete for students by increasing their brand presence?

The hypotheses – four possibilities were considered:

  1. The level of HEI initiated social media activity on Twitter and Facebook positively and significantly relates to student recruitment performance –  the first hypothesis would be shown to be correct if a clear connection could be demonstrated between those institutions which initiated a greater amount of social media activity and those which experienced an increase in student recruitment.
  2. ‘The level of HEI social media validation on Twitter and Facebook positively and significantly relates to student recruitment performance – for the second hypothesis, the connection would need to be made between success in recruitment and numbers of followers on Twitter or likes for HEIs’ Facebook pages and posts.
  3. The type of tweets, direct user interaction and website links will significantly moderate the relationship between social media followers and student recruitment performance – placing intrinsic value on type rather than amount of engagements, could be shown to be correct through analysis of whether potential students were finding answers to questions, using links supplied via social media and demonstrating satisfaction with their interactions.
  4. The level of social media use, direct user interactions, website links on Twitter and Facebook Talking About will be significantly different between Russell Group and non-Russell Group HEIs – a difference would have to be shown between the numbers of tweets and/or Facebook Talking About (FTA) relating to those HEIs in the Russell Group when compared to the non-Russell Group, as well as numbers of weblinks and levels of user engagement.

Methodology – Data in the form of Facebook likes, FTA and Twitter followers was manually collected and the Twitter archive of each of the 56 HEIs in the study was harvested using web scraping software. The number and type of each kind of interaction was analysed and the data distribution plotted to show any relevant trends; the information was then examined using structural equation modelling, confirming the consistency of the trends. In order to determine how these results impacted on the hypotheses, the researchers garnered information from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Services (UCAS) showing the number of applications to each HEI per available place. Plotting the recruitment figures from UCAS against the analysis of the HEIs’ social media performance allowed any relationship between the two factors to be observed at distinct points in time and conclusions to be drawn. Figure 2 highlights the scraping process and platforms used in this research.

method

Figure 2: showing the scraping process and platforms used in the research

Findings – The study shows that high numbers of Twitter followers, Facebook likes and FTA are strong indicators of recruitment performance, with Twitter followers being the most relevant factor. While a greater number of tweets does not predict greater success in recruitment, the type and quality of Twitter interaction is important; as prospective students often engage with HEIs on social media to find answers to specific questions, a swift response is more likely to create a relationship between the HEI and the individual, thereby encouraging recruitment. The amount and type of weblinks posted on social media has no discernible effect on recruitment performance. Hypothesis 4 was only partially correct, as Russell Group universities were neither making a significantly different number of tweets to non-Russell Group universities nor experiencing a higher amount of FTA. Russell Group HEIs were, however, involved in a higher average number of interactions and posted more weblinks, almost exclusively to their own sites, unlike non-Russell Group universities. Figure 3 below summarises how social media can be used to achieve the highest level of UCAS demand.

social-media-funnel-process

Figure 3: the social media student recruitment funnel

Conclusion – By engaging with those prospective students who have endorsed the HEI via Facebook likes or by following it on Twitter and making those engagements fast and accurate, social media can become one of the most effective tools at a university’s disposal. Regardless of status, those HEIs that create a strong social media presence can improve their brand image and increase student recruitment.

University Brands: The Importance of MOOCs

Whether we accept it or not, all of us are in the business of information these days. From the coffee shop to the fashion boutique to the largest of multinational brands, it cannot have escaped many people’s attention that both prominence and profile are the fundamental marketing objectives of our time. And, as the points of contact between the organisation and the consumer continue to proliferate horizontally, rather than hierarchically, it is the shared experience and the common interest which will always dominate the marketplace of this newly levelled playing field.

But how does our current information revolution relate to the spheres of higher education and to the brand identities that many institutions have carefully cultivated for themselves over the years? Will distance learning across the web ultimately prove itself to be an evolutionary leap in how we approach the sharing of knowledge and our understanding of how it is taught? And is the online model a financially viable one: that will generate not only sufficient revenues to sustain itself, but to also attract the leading institutes and the brightest students into participating? These are the key challenges facing the first generation of massive open online courses (“MOOCs”), as we see them today.

moocs-future

There is something of a strange irony when considering the length of time it has taken for the first massive open online courses to find their way into the public domain. Because the technology of the internet was originally developed with the specific purpose of allowing academic bodies to communicate and to share knowledge across the globe. It is a particularly harsh reality then that the vast majority of learning institutions have, until now, proven themselves as slow to adapt to, or to even recognise, the central role that the online world will play in the future of education.

From a technical standpoint, there is no reason why this should be the case. Both text documents and streaming media content are amongst the most basic of web content to manage. So the slow exploration of the digital realm by academia is more likely a result of factors beyond either the technical or the logistical. Instead, it should be assumed that the most frequently aired doubts raised about MOOCs by higher education institutions (“HEIs”) – those of financing, and a perceived undermining of reputations – have been the primary deterrents up until this point.

empty-lecture-theatre

In this regard, HEIs have positioned themselves alongside the corporate media, which has been equally slow in finding new ways to exploit the online environment as a method of securing global audiences. Both media and academia fear a loss of income that this may entail, but history has taught us that we cannot shout at the waves of change. Only this week, the writer and social commentator Will Self wrote of the “irrevocable severing” of media and information from an assured revenue stream. MOOCs are the way that institutions will remain active and responsive to the demands of an online, global marketplace for learning.

In this regard, the success of MOOCs will be a self-realising one. The institutions which break new ground online will achieve a greater global prominence for their brand, and as their popularity inevitably grows with a broader uptake of courses, so too will it attract the previously sceptical competitors into the market. With this added degree of competition, the quality of the MOOCs on offer will, in turn, reach new heights, and so the prestige of offering a respected MOOC will feed back to the institution itself. As with any form of online social media, success is governed by participation.

mooc-word-cloud

This is not to suggest that institutions will immediately offer a full degree through the MOOC platform, but insight and background into the subject, which will capture the imagination and whet the appetites of new students. Indeed, there are many benefits from creating an identity for MOOCs which is distinct from on-campus learning. In the USA, for instance, Ivy League universities such as Stanford provide online students with a Statement of Accomplishment carrying the Stanford brand, but not certificates or course credits. Far from being a limitation of the MOOC system, it is just such an innovative approach that benefits every party, from the student, to the HEI, to the MOOC platform itself. A Statement of Accomplishment will be an invaluable addition to any student’s CV. To the institution, it will make their brand a prominent and highly recognised one and – most importantly of all – one that is increasingly in demand.

The first MOOCs are about to go live in the UK and, tellingly, the most notable participants are those institutions which are well known for championing innovation over tradition. The University of Southampton offers students from across the globe the opportunity to learn “How the Web is Changing the World”, whilst the University of East Anglia will investigate “The Secret Power of Brands” in partnership with brand agency Wolff Olins, cementing its reputation as a world leading institution for brand leadership studies. If any one course is emblematic of the entire MOOC experience, it is this.

university-brands-online-learning

So, can universities turn a lively, open and online learning experience into a viable and self-sustaining revenue stream: one which attracts the brightest and best students in high numbers? It is still early days in the MOOC life cycle, but anecdotal evidence from across the globe is positive. In Asia, where online learning is an established part of education, individual tutors are already earning substantial fortunes by making their courses available across the web for a small fee which is still a tiny fraction of the cost for on-campus education. At this preliminary stage, it would be damaging to promote the inclusion of paywalled course content for domestic MOOCs. But their popularity would suggest that the concept of online learning is attractive to the general public and that it is, indeed, a growth market.

We are still very much at the dawning of this social media age. Although there are lessons to be learned from the early pioneers of our new digital frontier, it would be naïve to presume that we have already seen the high water mark of this new approach to the sharing of information and marketing strategy. As the online environment evolves, every organisation – from the corporate to the academic – will need to respond and reposition itself to maximise the full potential of its own brand.

Further Reading

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303759604579093400834738972.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-23069542

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=2012080915084470

http://elitedaily.com/news/business/english-teacher-makes-4-million-per-year-in-south-korea-yes-you-read-that-correctly/

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/09/hatchet-job-mark-kermode-review

Social Media Management – A Task for One Person?

Social media management is a hot topic amongst marketing managers and in general organisations typically have specialised departments dealing with specific tasks and concerns.

Human Resources handle people issues, the IT department handles system concerns, and Legal handles matters of the law. Social media concerns and tools usually fall under the jurisdiction of the Marketing department because they involve promotions and press releases.

Announcements and responses that come from a single source tend to be more streamlined and consistent to the core vision of the company.  But are companies that rely on a single person or department missing out on the full potential of social media?

Having a single person or department dedicated solely to social media functions may have its advantages, but a bigger group of people can certainly produce a more impressive output. You can either have a single person or group do 100% of the social media tasks, or have the majority of your employees spend 5% of their time attending to these tasks. In theory, having dozens or even hundreds of employees representing the company in social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook will result to a wider audience reach.

Here are some of the advantages of having multiple social media outlets:

1. More people create more noise.

Having multiple employees sending out positive Tweets or writing blogs about the company says a lot about employee satisfaction and improves the branding of the company. The message also reaches a wider audience.

2. Employees will keep up with technology and will be adept on using social media tools.

It is essential to train the employees on the proper usage of social media tools for this system to work. They need to know how to properly represent the company, and how to increase the number of followers or subscribers. This training will not only be beneficial for work but is also applicable to personal endeavors.

3. Different employees have different strengths and interests.

They will produce blogs, Tweets, or Facebook updates that relate to them personally but are relevant to the nature of your business. Your company will benefit from this because of the diversity of content that will be available online. You will reach a wider and more diverse market. Interest in your products or services will also increase. Employees can also experiment with these tools and can potentially come up with an innovative approach to promotions.

4. The feedback system will also improve when you have a large number of people checking the web vigilantly.

It is possible to report important updates and news flashes that can affect operations in the soonest possible time. You can also detect customer complaints easily and address them immediately. Generally, about 60 to 80 percent of customer complaints made via social media channels are ignored because of lack of manpower.

This results to customer dissatisfaction and a missed opportunity for improvement.

5. Employees will be empowered. Social media exposure is a huge responsibility. Your employees will feel valued and trusted.

In order for a business model like this to work, it is essential to invest in social media training and corporate awareness. The employees need to be adept with how to utilise the tools to further the interest of the business.

They need to understand that social media will be an essential part of their daily tasks. They also need to realise that they will become the front liners of the business. They will be representing the company and any post that they make will be a reflection of the company’s mission and vision.

Big Business – Gaining your Competitors’ Dissatisfied Customers

Approximately 91% of dissatisfied customers do not wish to do business with the companies that have previously disappointed them. Out of this number, approximately 13% share their negative experiences with at least 20 other people through day-to-day conversations and social media. This makes a competitor’s dissatisfied customers a perfect target for increasing its own customer base.

It is much easier to get the attention of a consumer who is actively looking for alternatives. The need is already established and all it takes is for a new company to provide a better option in order to remediate a previously bad experience. Unhappy customers also act on emotion, they are usually distraught or aggravated and will be quick to switch when they see something better. While also usually being a great source of useful information, dissatisfied consumers provide feedback on what the market wants and values, importantly what your competitors are lacking. This is useful information when deciding how to approach a new marketing strategy, or what products a company should develop in the future.

Where to Look for Customers You Can Convert

An integral part of the ‘finding customers’ that can be converted strategy, is to make it easy for them to locate your company. Dissatisfied customers actively search for better options and alternatives. Businesses should invest in good online communication media, including a website that ranks well on search engines, for instance Google and Yahoo. The site should also be easy to navigate, filled with relevant content and information. Obviously you can also attract people’s attention by investing in more traditional media, such as local television commercials (budget permitting), or interesting print adverts, for instance featured reviews. Once you make your presence known through marketing mediums, your team can communicate the features and benefits of your product to your target market and competitors’ customers.

You should also be aware as regards to when and importantly where people post complaints about your competitors. For instance by checking online forums that cater to your niche market, even perhaps local groups that receive specific complaints related to your industry. This could also take the form of tapping into social media sites, by searching for specific mentions made by disgruntled customers about their personal experiences, when using a product similar to your product or service.

Further, brands could also visit locations of which their target market converges. Find these locations and be involved in events and activities that your target market participates in. Connect with competitors’ dissatisfied customers, in order to provide them with details on how your product can better satisfy their requirements. This is also a great way of getting ideas with regards to what a competitors weaknesses are, also what can be done to further enhance a current marketing approach.

The Art of Converting Customers

Marketing is all about convincing your potential customers that they need what you have to offer. Usually for the most part, it can be difficult to grab the attention of consumers that are bombarded with thousands of marketing communications per day. Dissatisfied customers however are far easier, they are already interested in the product or services that a company has to offer, and already know what they like and dislike.

Here are some steps to follow to successfully gain the loyalty of your competitor’s disgruntled customers:

1. Monitor

Devote some resources to monitoring competitors. This can take the form of checking on public sources such as Facebook, Twitter or blogs to get an idea of what competitors customers are complaining about. Observe how competitors deal with these complaints, to see how they can be improved upon. Use analytics and tools to identify main issues, focusing resources on how to provide better solutions to these problems.

Companies should also watch out for top influencers within their industry. Certain blogs, websites, or social networking sites actively influence a substantial chunk of a target markets’ consumers. These sites may deal with product reviews, customer satisfaction, or industry updates. Creating great relationships with these influencers can potentially provide sound business results, helping to convince customers that a new company can provide better solutions to their needs.

2. Improve

No matter how great a company thinks their product is, there is always room for improvement. Use the information gathered from monitoring competitors and work on making products or services better. If potential customers are unhappy with the customer service provided by competitors, attract them by training your front line support staff to provide not just better, but the best quality customer service available.

3. Close the Deal

Approach prospective customers in a positive manner, for example by not insulting competitors. Begin by discussing the most common product or service errors made within the industry and discuss what strategies or improvements that your company has made to avoid the same mistakes. The ideal result being the realisation that your companies product is a better option and it better meets their requirements. Build customer loyalty by emphasising what your company can do better, not simply by bad-mouthing competitors.

4. Deliver

Customers will always find something to complain about, but they can be contented, as long as a company deliver upon what was promised. Set the correct level of expectations by making goals clear from the start, “Under promise and over deliver” so that customers are not repeatedly disappointed.

Conclusion

Customers who have been disgruntled with previous providers, bring with them the potential for establishing a strong and lasting business relationship with a new company, make that company your own. It is important for brands to create a method of identifying where to find unfulfilled customers and how attract them in order for them to try out a better offer, make that your offer.

Process improvement should not be underestimated; companies should always be willing to invest in product upgrades that will meet customers’ expectations and needs. Deliver on what has been promised and only promise what can be delivered. Companies that are able to attract the dissatisfied customers of their competitors, will have a great opportunity to grow their own number of loyal customers, particularity more efficiently in comparison to those who target people who have not yet decided to use a product or service.

How Do Universities Use Social Media?

Social media is often criticised as being a source of distraction in an educational environment. Networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter keep students from paying attention in lectures or engaging in productive seminar activities. These sites are often used to communicate with friends and are rarely associated with learning. Innovative educational institutions however, have begun to appreciate the value that social media can bring to education. These sites, after all, are the best channels to reach out to students and grab their immediate attention. Realistically, a Facebook post would have a bigger chance of being read, compared to words written on internal intranets; students respond better to methodologies that are more relevant to modern life.

Here are some ways through which social media can be used by universities:

Social Media as a Tool for Lectures

Believe it or not, social media is a great way for lectures to improve on their discipline. It is an excellent way to research trends and topics that can be used for lecture plans and seminar activities. Social media sites are overflowing with fresh ideas and trends that can easily be used and applied to lectures and discussions, for example in a marketing lecture it would be appropriate to have the latest marketing practice to back-up theory. The Internet also has a wealth of information in the form of educational blogs and websites. Teachers can also use these sites to connect with colleagues from other locations.

Social media is incredibly effective, in terms of reaching out to students. Teachers can use sites like Twitter to send out blasts about topics and activities that will be discussed in future sessions. Course assignments, unit outlines and assessments can also be made available online. Lecturers can even post information, trivia, or snippets that are related to the courses they are teaching. All it takes is the creation of an account that students can follow or subscribe to.

Some universities have already gone as far as creating their own social media platforms. These platforms allow teachers to upload assignments, lecture materials, and learning paraphernalia with ease and sophistication. They can also freely communicate with their students to update them on topics that have not been covered during class. Customised learning sites are also highly preferable because of the level of security that they offer the students. Filters for unacceptable words and language can be set up, and access to mature sites may be blocked. These sites can even be set up in such a way that teachers and students can access their files anywhere online connectivity is available.

Social Media Benefits for Parents

Social media can be an effective tool to reach out and communicate with parents. Universities in the United States often sponsor extra-curricular events and activities that promote student development. Posting these events online is a great way of informing and inviting parents to provide support and encouragement. Sites like Twitter and Facebook may be used as “broadcast accounts” to disseminate information. These sites are easy to maintain, easy to use, and free of charge.

Parent feedback is also a critical aspect of education. Parents need an avenue wherein they can express their opinions regarding certain policies or decisions. It can also be great to hear constructive criticism or recognition for outstanding activities and events. Not all parents may have the time to write formally and it is often more convenient for them to express their sentiments via transparent, online posts.

Student Participation via Social Media

Students are more receptive with teaching approaches that involve technology or mobile devices. They are more interested in using learning tools that come in the form of mobile phone applications or games. Universities can capitalise on this type of technology by using social media tools.

The Facebook Groups service is an example of an online tool that can be used for education. Professors can serve as administrators for the page and require their students to join as members. Here they can communicate and assign tasks, exchange files, participate in polls, or watch educational videos. Notification settings can be made in such a way that members are made aware every time a new post is made. An added incentive for the students would be the fact that they will have access to their colleagues’ Facebook accounts, obviously if their privacy settings allow and once they are approved as friends. Pinterest is also gaining ground in terms of popularity. With this service, students get to share web links or photos that are relevant to certain topics and subjects.

Social media can aid long distance learning. With simple uploads and profile modifications, learners from across the globe will have access to reading materials and videos without being physically present in school. This is perfect for students who are revising at home, or for external individuals to the universities looking for high quality learning materials. The iTunes University application, for example, provides a wide range of lectures and online courses from some of the best universities in the world. Communication between schools located in different parts of the world is also made easier through social media, for instance Universities that have a main campus and a location in London. International students also have an easier time keeping in touch with friends and family, while still gaining the full learning experience from their University.

Conclusion

Social media tools are easy to incorporate into existing curricula because most of the students already have existing online accounts. It does not take long for students and faculty members to learn how to use services and requires few resources and little training time when compared to other communication media. Some educational institutions may continue to resist this kind of development because of the possibility of abuse. However, this concern can easily be addressed by providing students and faculty members a strict list of guidelines that they need to follow at all times.

Social Blogging – How to Make Blog Posts More Social?

Blogging is an excellent form of self-expression. The writer is able to impart his thoughts, opinions and knowledge, using a media form that is accessible to millions of potential readers. This scenario, however, is limited by the fact that a blogger’s reach, only goes as far as the number of people who wittingly or unwittingly discover the blog. A well-written article can be lost into the Internet oblivion, if nobody knows that it exists.

Do not fear however, this is where social media comes in. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ complement blogging, by serving as indispensable platforms for article distribution and advertisement. Bloggers need to play the social game if they wish to be heard. The more they interact with readers, the bigger the probability of getting more hits and page views.

Here are some tips on how a blog can become more social and visible:

Buttons for Social Sharing

Satisfied readers or online guests, who stumble across an interesting read often wish to share their discovery to their friends and contacts. They would want to let someone who could benefit from the article or someone who has experienced a similar situation read what has been written. They will not however  in the majority of cases, spend the time copying or typing a page URL in order to send it through email or SMS, which involves too much time and effort for most. Social Sharing Buttons are a great solution to this predicament as within a few simple clicks, your page will potentially be shared to an exponential amount of new viewers.

Shareaholic is one such social sharing service. It has over 1.5 million users and is a familiar tool found in a lot of active websites. Aside from the more popular social networking sites, you will have the option to select from over 100 other sites and services. The icons can be customised to become animated and do not take up a lot of space so they load relatively fast. There is also an option to show the number of shares on each network. One of the best features of this service is the fact that they provide analytics, users will get an idea as to which pages content is socially the most popular. They will also know which channels are used for sharing and distribution.

Maximising Twitter

Twitter is a great way of letting people know about your blog and your new articles. Once you gain a substantial following, it can then just be a case of regularly posting updates to reach out to your readers. Many bloggers are not aware that Twitter has an “Embedded Tweet” feature that allows them to incorporate and display any tweet into a blog entry.

Here are the steps on how to properly embed tweets:

  1. At the bottom the Tweet permalink page, click on “Embed this Tweet.”
  2. Once the pop-up box comes up, simply choose between HTML, Link or Shortcode.
  3. Copy and paste the code into your blog.

Once the embedded tweet is displayed, viewers can see your message, follow you, reply to your tweet, or even retweet the entire post. Once again, this service makes it so much easier for readers to share a post that they find really interesting or informational.

The “Tweet This” feature is yet another function that will capitalise on reader engagement.

This feature literally grabs a visitor’s attention and pushes them to take action, it works best when you give your readers encouragement, for instance “ready to tweet”. The actual pre-defined tweet text needs to be something that a user would want to post on their feed, something that they think will take people’s interest. They simply need to click on the “Tweet This” link, and their followers will have access to the tweet, which conveniently has a link to your blog post. The Click to Tweet site is a free service that you can use to create a Tweet This link.

Social Commenting

Social commenting is also a great way of interacting with your readers. This gives readers an opportunity to potentially make praise of blog posts, or provide constructive feedback on things that you can improve on. Readers will be able to share their own opinions on the topic and bloggers even use the comment section to get inspiration for future articles or publications. Commenting services such as Facebook Comments Box and Disqus have even made it possible not to limit commenting and interactions within the blog.

Facebook has released the Comments Box, a plugin that allows users to comment on your site using their own Facebook accounts. The great thing about this service is the fact that users have the option to “Post to Facebook.” This means that your link will be posted to their timeline and will appear on their friends’ News Feeds. Their friends in turn can like your page, and even participate in the discussion by adding their own comments to the box.

Disqus, on the other hand, is another commenting platform that allows users to share any discussion thread or comment to their own social networking sites. Users are also given the option to use @mentions or social tagging, which effectively brings in other users to the discussion. To make things more interesting, Disqus also provides a voting system that highlights the best content and votes down the bad ones.

Conclusion

To summarise, a blog post is only as great as the number of readers that it can potentially reach. Customising your site to include social media tools is an excellent way to allow your readers to share what they like and to gain more readership and following. All bloggers need great content and an exceptional social media strategy in order to succeed.

The 5 Big Reasons Why Tweets Fail to Go Viral

A harsh reality of the Twitterverse is that at any given time, 70 to 75 percent of tweets fall on deaf ears, or as the case may be, on blind eyes. In the never-ending onslaught of messages that is Twitter, you have to stand above the crowd to get noticed.

There are five major reasons that most Twitter users can’t seem to make a tweet go viral. Learn about them, and better yet, learn to avoid them.

1. No Call to Action

Like a good landing page, your tweet should contain a call to action. Something as simple as “RT”—meaning “retweet this”—is preferable to nothing at all.

There are two elements to the call-to-action concept with regards to retweets: the implied call to action, and the explicit. Your explicit call to action, “RT” in the example above, should be short and to the point. Your implied call to action is the value of the tweet itself. A well-written tweet should sell itself to users, urging them to send the tweet along to their friends.

A tweet containing little more than a link has no chance of going viral. You should strive to make your tweet as unique, compelling, and valuable as possible. While this may be obvious, it is all too easy to forget once you find yourself working with only 140 characters.

Keep in mind that Twitter users are constantly bombarded with tweets, and indeed, retweet requests. Stay ahead of the game by demonstrating to your followers why they should retweet your message. Don’t rely on the explicit call to action.

2. Low Quality Link

A power Twitter user, the type that has the kind of following that you can’t wait to tap into, has no interest in sharing a low quality, spammy, or otherwise irrelevant link with their followers. One of the main laws of Twitter marketing is that you should never link directly to a landing page—not if you want others to spread your tweet around for you. Instead, link to well-written, thought-provoking, and valuable content. The page that you link to can contain a link to your landing page, but be careful not to draw unnecessary attention to it.

These are things that big Twitter users do take the time to look at before deciding whether to do you the favor of a retweet or not. Keep this one question in mind when writing your tweet and deciding what to link to: “How will this benefit my followers?” Then, demonstrate to the big Twitter user that you have their concerns and interests in mind.

3. The Wrong Time of Day

A tweet is a very short-lived entity. Unlike Facebook posts, tweets exist in the moment. If your tweet doesn’t get picked up, that’s it. One of the most important things you can do to help your tweet go viral is to identify your target demographic, and then determine when the largest number of those people will be online. For most niches, this means avoiding posting your best tweets in the middle of the night or late in the evening.

Tweet primetime seems to be from around 9 am to 3 pm Eastern Standard Time. Getting them out earlier in the day also gives them plenty of time to be retweeted before tweet volume winds down in the afternoon. If you find yourself in the evening needing to get a tweet out, you may be better off waiting for morning. It is always a mistake to tweet the same messages to your followers multiple times.

4. No Hash Tag

A hash tag is composed of the “#” sign followed by a word or phrase that represents your tweet, it can be your brand for instance. Before you use a hash tag, you should visit hashtags.org or a similar site and see if anyone else is using the tag that you want to use.

Sites like hashtags.org group tweets by hashtag, creating a saerchable database of related tweets. By creating a body of useful tweets on a single subject with a hashtag, you can instill confidence in your followers. A tweet containing such a hashtag is valuable for both you and the people you hope will retweet for you, and hence has a much greater chance of actually being retweeted.

5. The Tweet is Difficult to Understand

Finally, while Twitter is much more laid back on the surface than other networking sites such as LinkedIn, don’t make the mistake of being overly carefree when it comes to spelling and grammar. Your followers and prospective retweeters will judge you based on both.

Your grammar combined with the elements above all come together to form a conclusion about you and your message in the space of just a few seconds. Try to keep any message that you want retweeted at 110 to 120 characters or less. This way, the person retweeting your message may have the chance to add a few words or a hash tag of their own, or an @Reply.

Always keep in mind that a retweet is usually a “you scratch your back, I’ll scratch yours” proposition. Give your followers incentive to retweet your messages, and they will. Ask yourself, “What’s in it for them?”

Attraction Marketing: A Viable Alternative to Traditional Marketing Methods

Attraction marketing is a relatively new marketing concept. You can use it to draw potential customers, who also happen to be interested in what you sell, to your brand. Combined with the ever-expanding power of the Internet, attraction marketing can be a phenomenally powerful asset.

Traditional Marketing

Traditional marketing strategies such as running radio and television commercials tend to become less effective over time. As customers are bombarded by these non-stop advertisements, they become less sensitive to them.

In fact, while traditional marketing ploys may increase sales over the short term, they can contribute to a phenomenon known as “brand fatigue” over the long term. Brand fatigue refers to the tendency of customers to lose interest in a given brand after being exposed to it for an extended period of time.

Traditional marketing increases brand fatigue and decreases interest by bombarding customers with impersonal, outrageous, occasionally misleading, and often flat-out annoying advertisements. These one-size-fits-all messages must be—but seldom are—exemplary to stand out from the crowd and deliver stellar results. To achieve this, there is a better alternative.

Attraction Marketing

Attraction marketing deviates from the beaten path in that its main goal is to demonstrate to potential clients a brand’s worth by providing a valuable product or service for free. In the Digital world, for instance in business to business, this can take the form of a company or individual giving away valuable insights in the form of a digital book.

To master attraction marketing, you must study your demographic. You must learn what they want, and then demonstrate that you have it. This doesn’t have to mean giving away your entire inventory. The idea is to give them something of value, while leaving something of even more value off the table.

Making this information freely available on a website, and then using sound SEO principles to rank highly in major search engines, means that you won’t have to bombard people with advertising that they likely won’t be receptive to anyway. Your customers will come to you, hungry for the information that you have to offer.

Attraction Marketing and Social Networking

Platforms like Facebook and Twitter are saturated with users who share links to sites with valuable information. When you foster goodwill between your brand and your prospective customers by offering a high-value report, blog, book, or newsletter, you stand a good chance of getting a mention from these users. This highlights the importance of coupling attraction marketing with a strong, active social networking presence. By creating a profile for your company on these sites, you will give fans and satisfied customers a place to direct potential leads to. Don’t forget to leave links to your social networking profiles in your free ebook, report, or newsletter. By doing so, you can create a self-perpetuating cycle in which new customers discover your brand and old customers promote it.

Common Attraction Marketing Mistakes

New attraction marketers often make the mistake of not spending enough time actively participating in communities surrounding their niche. You can overcome this tendency by joining forums that are related in some way to the product that you are selling. The stronger the relationship, the better.

Post insightful answers to questions while letting your forum signature promote your brand. Demonstrate to members of the community that you are a leader first and a business second. A forum signature containing a link to your site accompanied by a good answer can do more for your business over time than paid advertising.

Secondly, you must take care to properly identify what your market wants. If the solution that you offer them is not a valuable proposition, it won’t matter how much of it you are offering for free. A great place to start is at the forums that you have identified. Look for threads that are posed as questions, and watch out for questions that are posed again and again. These indicate potential shortages of supply in the market, that is, information that is desired but not available.

Successful attraction marketing hinges on creating relationships, demonstrating value, and delivering on promises. While you may have to put more work into it than you would for radio ads or Internet banner ads, the potential long-term benefits of an effective attraction marketing campaign can outweigh any short-term benefits seen with these traditional marketing methods.

Top Tips to a More Successful Blog

The success of your blog is determined by the number of visits that it receives from your target audience. Your content needs to appeal to their interests, and they should know where to find you in the first place. Without your readers, you will end up wasting the information that you are posting. Being at the top takes a lot of hard work and creativity, and you should know how to maximise the tools that are available at your disposal.

Here are some tips on how to attract more readers and increase your website traffic:

1. Know Your Audience

You must have a comprehensive understanding of your target audience. Learn about the things that they desire and the type of information that they want to know about. Using surveys is a good way of gathering information about your target market. You can create an online questionnaire and ask for feedback. You can also consolidate comments from previous customers and readers and assess the types of posts that they are more inclined to comment on. Knowing what your readers want will make it so much easier for you to decide what kind of content should be posted on your site.

2. Use Social Media Tools

You need to utilise social media tools to reach a wider audience no matter how good your content may be. Having great content does not automatically gain you a wide readership or audience. Fans need to be able to share your content with their own followers and subscribers using social media plug-ins and share buttons. Most of the major social media tools including Twitter, Facebook and Google+ provide options for sharing.  All you need to do is to make these buttons available and visible on your web page.

3. Capitalise on Hot Topics

Once you have identified the general topics that interest your readers the most, you need to create multiple content revolving around these hot topics. Find different angles or points of discussion that pertain to the same basic concept or idea. If your audience is interested in planting corn, for example, then you can write different articles on how to plant corn, the challenges faced by corn farmers, the biggest misconceptions about corn farming, suggestions on how to maximise corn harvest, and earning from corn farming. The key is writing multiple articles on the same topic without being repetitive.

4. Harness the Power of Emails

It is a known fact that most readers who visit your site will no longer come back for a second glance. There is a big possibility of them losing the original link that they clicked on or simply forgetting about the name of your website. It will be your responsibility to attract these readers to be returning customers. Having them sign up or subscribe to your page using their email address is a great way of encouraging them to come back to your site.  Once they sign up, you will be able to email them links to your latest blog posts on a regular basis.

5. Guest Blogging

Take a look at the most popular blogs in your industry and you will notice that there are multiple writers providing content. There are a lot of advantages to having guest bloggers write for your website. First, it provides variety and fresh ideas for your site. You will also have other people promoting your website as they promote the content that they provide to you. You will also forge strong alliances and friendships with other bloggers and authors in the industry. Lastly, you do not have to provide articles and content all by yourself.

Applying these tips to your blog will improve the chances of increasing and maintaining a healthy traffic of loyal readers. Building your presence online using social media tools and tactics is a great way of boosting your business and gaining more customers.

Improved Search Engine Rankings Using Social Media

One of the best ways to improve website traffic is by gaining a good search engine ranking position from search engines such as Google and Bing. Online users who type in specific search phrases or keywords are provided a long list of related sites; however the vast majority only go as far as reading the first page. Unfortunately this can be the case, no matter how excellent your content may be and it can remain in obscurity, unless the website improves its search engine ranking method, with the aim of propeling it to the first page of the search results.

The “game” of optimisation used to be simpler; today webmasters can resort to a number of unethical means (such spamming) in an effort to gain top rankings. This can result in useful content often being difficult to find, as online viewers are required to click through a long list of irrelevant websites before finding the information they need. However recent updates made by the top search engines, have focused on providing “natural search results.” Google, for instance, recently released the Penguin update which aimed to reduce low-quality back-links, over optimisation, and illicit SEO strategies.

More than ever, it has become essential for writers and bloggers to provide online content that is both compelling and informative. It is also important to focus on building a strong network of natural back-links that serve as portals to the website. The more links there are out there, the higher the chances of a stray reader stumbling upon your page.

Here are some social media techniques that you can use to drive audience to your site:

1. Social Media as a Tool for Encouraging Back-links

Social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook are great tools for building strong links to your webpage. Google and Bing have both made confirmations that links used on these social media sites are used in their algorithm. Fortunately, both sites have made it easy for webmasters and writers to integrate their blog links into post creation. For instance, once new entry is posted, it is possible to have Facebook and Twitter post updates and inform followers. Google+ is another great way of reaching a wide audience base, the more “+1” votes recieved on a blog post, the more visibility it gets.

Optimal times for posting upon social media platforms exist for certain demographics; however another method is to post multiple times, although not excessively. Scheduling tools are also widely available online, which enable authors to have certain links posted repeatedly over a pre-determined period of time. This way, you can reach potential readers who have varying schedules of activity or may be in different time zones. Scheduling also spares webmasters from the monotony of having to manually create updates featuring the same links.

2. Social Media as a Source of Content Ideas

The concept of search engines is that users are looking for information, based on certain keywords and phrases. If your goal is to get many readers, then you will likely attract more people by writing about content that interests them personally. The more interested people are about your article, the higher the likelihood of them sharing your link with other users. Thus, it is beneficial, to entice readers to share through social media network,s while providing them with the content they crave.

Social media sites are also excellent places for finding ideas on article topics of current interest. They have become tools that provide information based on what the majority of users are interested in, at any given time. Twitter for instance, has an easy to use search bar and “Trending Topics List” that will give you an insight into what people are currently talking about and showing interest in. Use these methods to find topics that fit your blog portfolio and provide interesting information or insight that will attract attention and let potential readers find it by making it available online.

3. Encourage Social Media Following and Re-Posting

Social media is the best tool to encourage direct access to your website via links. While being very easy to use, readily available, widely accessible and in terms of the future, being relatively safe from any algorithmic changes that search engines may make, for instance calculating page rank. In other words, it would be wise for a blogger not to simply rely on search engines for page visits, but to maximise the usage of social media to attract a strong following.

Most social media networks provide sharing buttons that can be clearly displayed on a website. These can easily be attached to your blog, using codes that are obtained by visiting the social media platform support page. Having these buttons displayed visibly on your page will encourage readers to share articles or entries that catch their interest.

As a last resort, another approach is to directly ask for help from your followers. Adding simple phrases like “please re-tweet” or “please re-post” is enough to encourage other users to share your post. This is particularly true for well-written and informative content. However it is important not to seem desperate, as this may impact upon your followers.

In summary, social media tools can be used to drive attention and traffic to your site. However, the content of your site remains the biggest factor in attracting readers. Content, after all, is king. No matter how extensive your social presence is, poor content will not get a good mileage. The best way to maximise your tools is to become an industry expert or authority figure in the topics that you are writing about. Gaining credibility in your craft will result in more social media following and repeat visitors to your site.