According to Global Index, 80% of internet users worldwide own a smartphone. Now, take a moment to digest that. We still have massive amounts of people living in poverty in the world, in areas with no clean water or accessible healthcare, and yet the number of mobile connections globally has surpassed the world’s population.
As an entrepreneur and a certified business mentor, I’m often asked this question. How do we know if we’re on the right path? How do we measure our daily accomplishments? How do we create a business blueprint that will lead us to a pot of gold?
Hashtags have become an indelible feature across social media networks, and if you’re not using them, you’re missing a significant opportunity to engage your audience. Hashtags are a great way to group content for discovery, connect with users who have similar interests, and promote events. If you have done research on how to use hashtags, you’ve probably followed all the advice—be specific, be concise, be unique and original—and you’ve created a short, evergreen hashtag for your newest promotion or upcoming event. Now, what do you do?
Spring is coming and with it comes trade show season! Exhibiting at trade shows can be a very effective marketing activity. It also can be a black hole where your dump your money, time, and energy for little or no return. Savvy marketers know that trade shows can be very successful if strategically planned in advance. There’s a lot more work involved in trade show marketing than setting up a booth and giving away branded chachkies in return for a business card in a fishbowl. Follow these five steps to marketing your next trade show and you’ll see a much better return on your investment – I promise!
I’ve been a marketer for almost 18 years now and have had the pleasure to work with some amazing professionals throughout my career. I love when I meet someone and feel inspired by their demeanor and business acumen – it is so refreshing. It turns out I’ve noticed that successful marketers have some common traits; let’s see if you agree with me:
Snapchat may not seem like a likely social network for brands to include in their social media marketing strategy, but if your target audience includes Millennials (18-34) you’re missing a significant opportunity to connect with the consumers you want. Snapchat now has over 100 million monthly active users (Mashable), and ranks as the third most highly used smartphone app, behind Facebook and Instagram. (comScore)
If you’re not making use of YouTube in your marketing, it’s time to embrace it. With over a billion (that’s not a typo, I promise) monthly users watching over 600 billion hours of video every month (Entrepreneur), YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, with up to 30 million visitors each day. (SocialMediaExaminer)
Three hundred million users are uploading over 70 million photos each day on Instagram. With more than 200 million monthly active accounts (65% are based outside the U.S.), Instagram’s global audience combines visual imagery with likes, comments, and hashtags to fuel powerful conversations. (Instagram) Have you dismissed Instagram as a teenager’s trend, not worthy of your time or attention? I hope the above stats cause you to think again.
With over 284 million monthly active users (Twitter), Twitter provides a great way to engage with customers and prospects in real time, anytime. However, with a 140-character limit for each post, it’s also one of the most challenging social media platforms to use effectively. Twitter reports there are currently 500 million Tweets sent per day and it thrives on this fast pace of hot topics.
