Written by Ellen Bartolino Banner ads get a bad rap, and are often thought of as old-school due to their disruptive nature. But believe it or not, there's way to make inbound-y banner ads that actually drive results. However, even marketers that recognize the value of banner ads struggle to design ones that don't seem spammy, let alone ones that get desired...
By Christina Newberry With 500 million monthly active users, Instagram is second in social media popularity only to Facebook, making it the photo-and-video-sharing network of choice for consumers and brands alike. Users upload more than 95 million photos and videos every day, and those posts garner 4.2 billion daily Instagram likes. A single post—done right—can rack up tens of thousands (or...
By Emily Copp Finding the right influencers and building relationships is hugely important for your brand. It will help you reach a wider audience, target ideal customers, and create more trust between you and your social following. According to a McKinsey Study, marketing-inspired word-of-mouth generates more than twice the sales of paid advertising and customers have a 37 percent higher retention rate....
By Sarah Dawley You do it all. From planning long-term strategy and reviewing your analytics to wolfing down a sandwich while you create images for Facebook with one hand and reply to people individually on Twitter with the other. No matter what social media hat gets thrown at you—designer, analyst, copywriter—you’ve got to be ready to wear it. The good news is...
By Kendall Walters Facebook boasts a whopping 1.65 billion monthly active users. It remains the most-used social media site among all ages, accounting for one in every six minutes spent online and one in every five minutes spent on mobile. Simply put: everyone uses Facebook and they use it a lot. The Facebook algorithm determines what any one of those users sees in...
By Christina Newberry Since Pinterest ads only recently became available to small and medium-sized businesses, you may not have a fully developed strategy for advertising on this important social platform that reaches 100 million monthly active users. It’s time to change that. Pinterest is a social network that users often visit specifically to gather information about potential purchases: 93 percent of Pinners...
By Matthew Kushin Today’s college students are digital natives. An 18-year-old entering her college freshman year this fall was around six years old when Facebook was released and around eight years old when the world met Twitter. Because college students can barely remember a time before social media, many are beaming with confidence about their social media savvy. But comfort and...
By Christina Newberry You may have heard that LinkedIn has 433 million users, 40 percent of whom check the platform every day. Those numbers are certainly substantial, but they aren’t the statistics that really matter for a business-oriented network like LinkedIn. What really matters is that one in three professionals in the world has a LinkedIn account, and 49 percent of...
By Michael Aynsley Compelling visuals may be what Instagram is all about, but an effective Instagram caption will push the engagement needle, getting you more Likes and comments. And engagement, dear readers, is key. With the recent changes to Instagram’s algorithm, posts now appear in feeds “based on the likelihood [the audience] will be interested in the content.” That means that a...
By Emily Copp Just like reading the right textbooks can help you pass a tricky exam, following the right people on social media can give you insights that will help you grow your brand. If you’re looking to make your Facebook feed a little less about weekends at the beach and more about the latest in social media marketing, we’ve got you...