In order to achieve success on your Facebook business page, you need an engaged community. Without it, no one will see or read your content, making it difficult to build brand awareness and deliver ROI. New social networks crop up all the time, generating buzz and excitement among businesses and tech media, but Facebook remains the giant, with has 2.80 billion monthly active users. To keep up with changing needs and trends, Facebook continues to evolve, introducing new features and functionality for users and advertisers. If you are unable to keep up, you could miss out on potential customers.
However, it’s not just about the quantity of Facebook Likes, it’s about the quality. You need to attract the right audience and engage them in ways that align with your business goals. Here is the latest checklist to ensure you have enough quality likes and following on your Facebook business page.
Optimize your Facebook Page Information
First things first! Most of the time, the only thing people see from your company’s Facebook Page is the profile picture, cover image, and short description. Make sure your brand’s images and description are engaging, encapsulate what your company does, and encourages people to like your page.
Don’t stop there, make sure you fill out as much of your Page Info as you can. Select the categories and subcategories that best describe your company, include your website URL, list your address, phone number, and hours of operation (if applicable). All of this information will help your page appear in Facebook & Google searches when people are looking for companies like yours, which can increase your Facebook likes even more!
Post engaging content
It’s important to post engaging, entertaining, and compelling content on your business Page. Facebook constantly updates its Edgerank algorithm and rewards posts that receive engagement (likes, comments, shares) with increased reach. Facebook will reward your content by letting your engaged users’ friends know on their newsfeed that they’ve engaged with your content. Recently Facebook announced that it will update its algorithm to track how long users spend reading posts. Videos are the best type of content to post on Facebook for capturing attention and driving engagement. But make sure the videos are at an optimal length to grab your followers’ attention and keep it long enough to digest the content.
Page URL
Take a quick look at your Facebook business page now – what does the URL in the browser bar look like? If it’s something like this:
https://www.facebook.com/kente-house-ghana -162166373456878/
(see all the numbers at the end?) then you’re missing an opportunity. In less than a minute you can easily change the web address of your Facebook page to something a bit more memorable, like www.facebook.com/kente-house-ghana. Click the ‘About’ tab below your Facebook cover photo, then click the Facebook Web Address option and type whatever you’d like to appear after the Facebook.com URL.
Make your Facebook business page easy to find
People looking for your brand on Facebook will be searching for your brand name. Keep things simple and make it easy for them to find you by using your brand name as your Page name. Don’t add unnecessary keywords—these will just make your Page look spammy rather than like a legitimate business presence for your brand. Your username should be consistent with your handle on other social channels will make it easier for people who already follow you elsewhere to track you down on Facebook. Like your Page name, your username should be closely related to the name of your business.
Someone who has just discovered a valuable tip or strategy on your website or blog is primed to want to hear more from you. Make it easy for them to connect with you on Facebook by adding Facebook follow and Like buttons to your site.
Know when to post content on your Facebook page
Think about how often you post on Facebook. Is it once per day? Once a week? Only once a month? You also need to analyze the time of day you’re posting on Facebook. All of this matters when it comes to increasing engagement and getting more likes. Research shows that higher engagements happen later in the week and on the weekends. If you think about it, this makes sense. People have jobs and are usually busier during the week. But as the weekend nears, they may be getting a little bit antsy and slack off if they are ahead of schedule. So they can spend more time on Facebook. People are also happier on the weekends so they are more inclined to like, share, and comment on your posts.
You also need to consider who likes your Facebook page. For example, if 90% of your followers are from Ghanaian, posting at 3 AM EST isn’t going to yield high engagement rates. Use automation tools to schedule your Facebook posts at the most optimal times so you won’t have to do it manually each day. Your posting schedule also needs to remain consistent. Stick to your strategy. Don’t post regularly for a month or so and then go silent. But you don’t want to spam your followers and post too frequently either.
Posts on your Facebook page should be kept short and concise
Nobody is going to read massive blocks of text on social media. There is just too much for them to see from their friends and family. Reading long posts from brand pages won’t be at the top of their priority lists. Social media platforms such as Facebook are designed for users to scroll through content quickly. You also need to consider how many Facebook users are accessing content from their mobile devices: Paragraphs on your computer screen will appear even longer on mobile devices. Plus, long blocks of text are difficult to read.
If you’re currently posting long content, it may be the reason why you’re not getting enough likes. A good rule of thumb is that shorter is always better. If people see your posts aren’t long, they will be less hesitant to like your page.
Invite your existing community
You have a community that’s easily within reach: employees, friends, current customers, business & industry partners. They are likely to be your first advocates and find your content interesting and shareable. Why not send a friendly personal invitation to ask them to like your company’s Facebook Page if they haven’t already?
One way to do this is by simply adding a call-to-action in a personal e-mail (i.e. “P.S. Like us on Facebook”). Add a slide at the end of your presentations or webinars to encourage customers and business partners to remind them to like your Facebook Page, if they haven’t already.
As for your industry ‘buddies,’ find their Facebook Pages and Like them as your brand. To do this log into Business Manager > click the Use Page button > click the Use Facebook As Your Page link (top right, in a skinny grey bar). It’s a great way to Like your industry partners, colleagues, & other influencer brands. Plus you’ll be able to view your News Feed as your brand and keep watch on what’s happening in your industry on Facebook.
Use Facebook Ads to reach more people
Facebook offers very detailed ad targeting, so you can laser-focus your advertising efforts and make the most of your ad spend. Putting your brand in front of your ideal audience is a great way to pick up more Facebook Likes. By boosting a post, you can extend the audience beyond people who already like your Page. This can be a great option for a post that’s already proved to be compelling. It can bring in a large number of Facebook likes from people who already follow your Page.
Facebook also offers campaign objectives relevant to every type of business. Since this post is about how to get Facebook Likes, we’ll focus on the Engagement objective, which is designed to expose your ad to a wide audience to increase the number of posts or Page Likes. Go to your business manager page for options on running a campaign or boosting posts.
Run competitions, or promotions on your Facebook page
Your business can run competitions or promotions on its Facebook to build an audience and get more likes. Even better, liking a post is a popular form of contest entry and one that’s allowed under Facebook’s contest rules If you decide to do so, make sure your competition follows Facebook’s Promotion Guidelines. Also ensure your competition is fun, easy, relevant to your audience, and encourages users to share their participation with friends. Don’t forget to utilize Facebook Ads to promote your contest. And If you use an app to run your contest, make sure it’s mobile-optimized.
Use social media monitoring to measure, analyze, and learn
Use Facebook Insights or other automated apps to find useful metrics on your Page performance. You can view metrics like reach, the number of engaged users, engagement rate, and new Page likes. These metrics will help you understand what’s driving your likes and engagement so that you can adjust your posts accordingly.
Did I forget anything? Have a question about any of the suggestions above? Please add a comment and, if you like the post, feel free to share it with your friends. Now that you know how to get more likes for your Facebook Page, it’s time to increase your Facebook reach content. Contact us today! Please Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook if you haven’t already.
Protecting your privacy online is a critical area of concern for many individuals, especially when using a credit card. If you are worried about how much of your private information is online and vulnerable to theft, you’re not alone. Online has become an extensive playground for cyber hackers and security threats because users are increasingly sharing their private information online. Protecting your privacy online an important issue. How can you know that your private information is safe online? Knowing how to protect your website and yourself while online will ensure that your private data is kept private.
All e-commerce websites require you to put in your credit card information, which potentially compromises data and allows hackers to get your information. How sure are you that your information is safe with the domain that you are using?
There are ways to protect your personal information while still enjoying much of what the web has to offer. In this article, we shall consider basic things you need to know so that your financial and personal information is protected while you visit your favorite sites. Get to know the main goals of hacking and tips on how to evaluate website security.
There are various goals when hacking websites, but the main ones are:
Exploiting site visitors.
Stealing information stored on the server.
Tricking bots and crawlers (black-hat SEO).
Abusing server resources.
Pure hooliganism (defacement).
Protecting your privacy online means not sharing everything about yourself on social media
A smart way to protecting your privacy online is by not sharing everything about you on social media. Providing too much information on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram could make it easier for cybercriminals to obtain identifying information. This could allow them to steal your identity or to access your financial information.
For example, could an identity thief determine your date of birth, spouse’s name, information of your children, your location, travel plans, or your mother’s maiden name from your Facebook account? This information is sometimes used as security questions to change passwords on financial accounts.
Unfortunately, many people don’t take this advice. In a 2018 study, the Identity Theft Resource Centre found that approximately 52 percent of respondents shared personal information through social media sites. To protect your online privacy, ignore the “About Me” fields in your social media profiles. You don’t have to let people know what year or where your hometown is located— which could make you an easier target for identity theft. You might want to limit who can view your posts to those you’ve personally invited.
Create strong passwords, too, for your social media profiles to help prevent others from logging into them in your name. This means using a combination of at least 12 numbers, special characters, and upper- and lower-case letters. And never use personal, easy-to-guess information — such as your birthdate as your password.
Look out for legitimate Domain
One of the most basic steps in checking the security of the website you’re visiting is taking a look at the URL. Many people fail to look up the URL of the website, especially if they’re already reading the content on the page. Others may give it only a basic glance–and if it looks right, they’re convinced. However, one of the most common scams simply mimics the existing content. The scam site copies the content exactly as it appears on the original page—aside from a few key details.
In many cases, phishing sites use a very similar URL to the original. For example, instead of http://www.ebay.com, it may appear as http[:]//www.ebay.com. The simple addition allows scammers to convince gullible individuals that they’re visiting the site they thought they should be on. As a result, they simply hand over their credit card information without hesitation. It’s important, therefore, that you take the time to carefully check over the URL before making a purchase.
The “S” in HTTPS stands for “secured.” Websites with this simple logo indicate that they’re transferring information through an encrypted network. Not every site offers the secure technology of an HTTPS lock. If you don’t see the lock icon on the site you’re looking at, it means that HTTPS security isn’t working or that the site doesn’t offer that secure connection. And you most likely should take your shopping elsewhere.
Browse in incognito or private mode
If you don’t want your computer to save your browsing history, temporary internet files, or cookies, do your web surfing in private mode.
Web browsers today offer their own versions of this form of privacy protection. In Chrome, it’s called Incognito Mode. Firefox calls its setting Private Browsing, and Internet Explorer uses the name InPrivate Browsing for its privacy feature. When you search with these modes turned on, others won’t be able to trace your browsing history from your computer.
But these private modes aren’t completely private. When you’re searching in incognito or private mode, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) can still see your browsing activity. If you are searching on a company computer, so can your employer. The websites you visit can also track you.
So, yes, incognito browsing does have certain benefits. But it’s far from the only tool available to help you maintain your privacy while online.
Browse with other search engines
If you’re like many web surfers, you rely heavily on Google as your search engine. But you don’t have to. Protecting your privacy online is one reason people prefer to use anonymous search engines. This type of search engine doesn’t collect or share your search history or clicks. Anonymous search engines can also block ad trackers on the websites you visit.
Switch to a virtual private network
A virtual private network (VPN) protects your privacy online by creating a private network from a public internet connection. VPNs mask your Internet Protocol (IP) address so your online actions are virtually untraceable.
Using a VPN is especially important when you’re on public Wi-Fi at a library, coffee shop, or other public location. A VPN will make it more difficult for cybercriminals to breach your online privacy and access your personal information.
You can find many free VPN solutions, but if you want maximum privacy, pay for the service from a trusted security provider.
Don’t click on just anything
One of the ways in which hackers compromise your online privacy is through phishing attempts. In phishing, scammers try to trick you into providing valuable financial or personal information. They’ll often do this by sending fake emails that appear to be from banks or credit card providers. Often, these emails say you must click on a link to verify your financial information otherwise you risk your account getting frozen or closed.
Don’t fall for these scams. If you click on a phishing link, you could be taken to a spoofed webpage that looks like the homepage of your bank. But when you enter your account information, you’ll be sending it to the scammers behind the phishing attempt. Before clicking on suspicious links, hover your cursor over the link to view the destination URL. If it doesn’t match the financial website you use, don’t click. If you receive such an email, immediately log a complaint to your bank.
Security Seals
Most eCommerce websites understand the critical importance of securing traffic to make their visitors safer. As a result, they frequently work with security providers to ensure they’re providing the highest possible level of website security. Each website security provider offers a scan seal or security seal option that can be viewed by users. Usually, this is in the form of an Iframe that can be placed on the protected website, letting visitors know that the website is credible. Any time you visit a new website for your shopping needs, take the time to check out its security seal.
Use strong passwords for your mobile phones
Many of us spend more time surfing the web, and watching videos on our smartphones than we do on our laptops. It’s important, then, to put as much effort into protecting our online privacy on our phones as on our computers.
To start, make sure to use passwords to lock your phone. It might seem like a hassle to enter a code every time you want to access your phone’s home screen. But this password could offer an extra layer of protection if your phone is lost or stolen. Make sure your password is complex. Don’t use your birthdate, your house number, or any other code that thieves might be able to guess.
Use caution when downloading apps. Some games and productivity tools could come embedded with dangerous viruses. Only buy games from legitimate sources. Don’t ignore software updates, either. These updates often include important protections against the latest viruses. If you continue to ignore them, you could be leaving your smartphone’s operating system and programs vulnerable to attack.
Use quality antivirus software
Finally, always install antivirus software on all your devices. This software can keep hackers from remotely accessing your personal and financial information, and tracking your location. And once you install this software, frequently update your antivirus protection.
Do you want to know more about protecting your privacy online whiles having fun on your favourite sites? Do you want to have your website thoroughly checked for malware, suspicious activity, or want to know more about the threats we check for and how that information can benefit you, your website–or the websites that you’re visiting–contact us here.
An alt tag or “alt attribute” is an HTML attribute applied to an image tag that describes the function of an image on a page. Applying images to an alt tag such as a product photo can positively impact an eCommerce store’s search engine rankings.
What role do alt tags play?
Its primary purpose is to describe images to visitors who are unable to see them using screen readers and browsers that block images.
Visually impaired users using screen readers read alt attributes to better understand an on-page image. Including alt text with your images ensures all users, regardless of visual ability, can appreciate the content on your site.
Alt text will be displayed in place of an image if an image file cannot be loaded.
Alt text provides better image context/descriptions to search engine crawlers, contributing to how the page is indexed and where it ranks.
With on-page keyword usage still pulling weight as a search engine ranking factor, it’s in your best interest to create alt text that both describes the image.
Optimal Alt Text Format
The best format for alt text is sufficiently descriptive but doesn’t contain any spammy attempts at keyword stuffing. If you can close your eyes, have someone read the alt text to you, and imagine a reasonably accurate version of the image, you’re on the right track. Let’s look at this example of alt text for this image of a delicious bowl of jollof rice:Okay:<img src=”rice.png” alt=”Jollof”> This alt text is only “okay” because it’s not very descriptive. Yes, this is an image of a plate of Jollof. But, there’s more to be said about this image.Good: <img src=”rice.png” alt=”A plate of delicious jollof rice with loaded meat and salad”>This alt text is a better alternative because it is far more descriptive of what’s in the image. This isn’t just a rice plate of “Jollof” (as the first alt text example demonstrated); it’s a plate of delicious jollof rice with loaded meat and salad.
Where is an alt tag located?
Alt text is contained within the image tag: <img src=”myimage.png” alt=”nike_air_zoom” />.
Best practices
Keep product image optimised for site speed and use the same keyword as the product page itself.
Keep it (relatively) short. The most popular screen readers cut off alt text at around 125 characters, so it’s advisable to keep it to that character count or less.
Refrain from keyword stuffing. You’ll be in trouble with Google if you use your alt text as an opportunity to stuff as many relevant keywords as you can think of into it. Find the best keywords to use here.
Don’t prioritize alt tags over SEO deliverables such as titles, inter-linking, and meta descriptions. Alt tags should only be prioritized for image-heavy pages that are very light on text.
Describe the image as specifically as possible. If an image truly doesn’t convey any value, it should live within the CSS, not HTML.
Alt text provides you with another opportunity to include your target keyword on a page. Thus, an opportunity to signal to search engines that your page is highly relevant to a particular search query. While your first priority should be describing and providing context to the image, include your keyword in the alt text of at least one image.
Don’t include “image of,” “picture of,” etc. in your alt text. It’s already assumed your alt text is referring to an image, so there’s no need to specify it.
Don’t neglect form buttons. If a form on your website uses an image as its “submit” button, give it an alt attribute.
A favicon (pronounced “fave-icon”) is a small iconic image that represents a website in web browsers. If you take a look at the address bar of your browser right now, I’m sure you’ll see several favicons. Well-designed ones are styled to feature a logo, the first letter of the company name or simply an image that reflects the specifics of the website it represents. In the small chance that a website doesn’t have a favicon, the browser will display a generic browser symbol.Here are examples from famous brands:Which of these favicons do you recognise?While favicons may seem small and insignificant, having one can make a huge difference in terms of user experience and online branding. In this post, we’ll figure out where favicons come from, what kinds are used in modern browsers, and how to create one for your website.
Why is a favicon important for your brand?
Favicons attract user attention and boost brand awareness. If users visit a website with a memorable favicon a couple of times, they will then easily distinguish it from others in the future. Think about a famous brand you interact with daily—like Facebook or Instagram—you should be able to easily picture its favicon with your eyes closed. Again, If you‘re like me and tend to keep dozens of tabs open simultaneously—ultimately being unable to read their names—favicons are your best friends that make finding the website you need much easier.The favicons for Facebook and Twitter have look exactly like their respective logos. So, does it mean that all you need is to minimize your logo image and upload it onto your website? Let’s dive deep into all the technical details and talk about what it takes to create a favicon.
What type of image is a favicon?
Although most modern browsers will recognize PNG, GIF, and JPG formats for favicons, Internet Explorer currently does not. It is recommended to use the Microsoft ICO format, which works in all browsers.
What size should your favicon be?
Another good reason to use the ICO format is that it can contain multiple favicons of different sizes in one ICO file. It is best to have, at minimum, a 16×16 pixel version. I usually include 32×32 and 48×48 versions as well. That way, if users drag the bookmark to their desktop they will see a nicely scaled version of the icon instead of the 16×16 version stretched out. Google recommends going with the largest possible resolution of 192×192. At the moment, Google simply stretches existing low-resolution favicons when a bigger size is required. As a result, all of the images look blurry and take away from the user experience.
General tips to consider
So, if you don’t want to lose out on clicks, consider “upgrading” your site’s favicon. And here are some general guidelines you should stick to:
Use a square icon.
A favicon should represent only your brand and not contain inappropriate symbols (like swastikas) — otherwise, Google will not show it and will use the generic symbol instead.
Favicon file should be accessible to Google crawlers.
How to create a favicon
Although there are many ways to create favicons, the easiest is to use an online tool. Use an existing image of, for example, your logo and upload it to an online generator like a site heaalth checker. Once you download the generated favicon, all that’s left is to add it to your site.
How to link to your favicon
Now that you’ve created a nice little favicon, you need to tell web browsers and other applications where to find it. Adding this line to the <head> section of your HTML will ensure that your favicon will be found:The location of the favicon isn’t really important, as long as the href attribute is accurate. Most are, however, placed in the root directory (the directory that contains the homepage). Keep in mind that it is not necessary to have multiple instances of the same favicon on one website.If you add a favicon without linking to it within your HTML, you may notice that some browsers will still find and display it. This only occurs if the favicon is in the root directory. It isn’t good to rely on this method, so if you want to make sure that applications will see your favicon, <link> to it!
Conclusion
Favicons help websites stay afloat in the vast ocean of online resources, plus make them more attractive and professional in the eyes of the visitors.If you need any help with yours, turn to our website audit for help. Among other things, it can run a full technical check-up for your website that includes finding your favicon. Well, your favicon is a very small detail that can affect the public perception of your site and brand, their recognition and even the volume of traffic it gets from search, so don’t underestimate it. It’s worth every second that you invest in it.
If you have already audited your website and have walked here to understand how meta-description works, I’m here to help remove that confusion. This article will cover everything you need to know about the basics of meta- descriptions and what makes a perfect one. You’ll also learn why your site’s meta descriptions are so important, as well as the best length for your meta descriptions (especially taking into account Google’s changing policies) and some great meta description examples.
What is a meta tag?
A meta tag is an HTML element that provides information about a webpage for search engines and website visitors. Two elements must be placed as tags in the <head> section of an HTML document. These elements are:
Title tag
Meta description
We’ve already discussed title tags in a separate post, and now, let’s move straight into meta descriptions.
What is a meta description?
The meta description is the short paragraph of text placed in the HTML of a webpage that describes its content. This is also known as a snippet. The meta description appears under your page’s URL in Google’s organic search results. The meta description will often appear when people share your articles across other websites and social channels.
Where is meta description added?
You can add a meta description in the <head> section of your site’s HTML. It should look something like this:<head><meta name=”description” content=”Here is a precise description of my awesome webpage.”></head>Here are examples:If you use an SEOplug-in, that comes with a content management system, you can add a meta description to the ‘meta description’ section, and you can preview an example of how it will look in search engine results pages (SERPs):
Why is the meta description important?
Since meta descriptions appear with your title and URL on the results pages, they have the power to influence the decision of the searcher as to whether they want to click through on your content from search results or not. The more descriptive, attractive, and relevant the description, the more likely someone will click through. Research has shown that having your content focus keyword in the meta is a relevant signal for search engines to discover you.
How to write a perfect meta description?
A great meta-description will compel the reader to visit your website and read more. Here’s an example of what it usually looks like.
1. Keywords
Do make sure your most important keywords for the webpage show up in the meta description. Often search engines will highlight it in bold as a clue to where it finds the searcher’s query in your snippet.
2. Write legible, readable copy
This is essential. Keyword stuffing your meta description is bad and it doesn’t help the searcher, as well as robots, discover you well. They’ll assume your result leads to a spam or phishing website, so make sure your description reads like a normal, human-written sentence.
3. Treat it as an advert for your web page
Make it as compelling and as relevant as possible. The description MUST! match the content on the page, but you should also make it as appealing as possible. That is what we call SEO copywriting.
4. Length
Google cuts off the displayed description tag at about 150 characters but may index up to 185 characters. Other engines may index up to 250 characters, but will still only display about 150. Therefore, try to say what you’ve got to say in 150 characters or less, but feel free to use up to 180, and even up to 250 if you’re not concerned with the entire thing getting indexed by all the search engines. Aim for about 1-2 sentences (140-160 characters) long
5. Keyphrase
Use your primary keyphrase at the beginning of your description tag, giving it higher “keyword prominence”. Don’t overuse your keyphrase though, or it can be considered “webspam”. Higher than zero keyword prominence is good, but higher still is not always better.
6. Use natural-sounding language
Use proper grammar, and try to peak interest in the subject. Also, consider making an actual “offer” in your description tag. Remember, you want the reader to click your ad, but not just to record impression. Now let me ask you? how many times have you skipped over a search result because the two lines of text you see (the description tag) in the SERPS looked gibberish?
7. Do not duplicate meta descriptions
As with title tags, the meta descriptions must be written differently for every page. Google may penalize websites that indulge in mass duplicating of meta descriptions.
Examples of good meta descriptions
Since you only have 160 characters to work with, writing a great meta description takes more than just throwing a few words together. To help you get your creative juices flowing, here are some examples for your inspiration.
Helpful online tool for checking your meta descriptions
Below is a helpful tool that you can use to test your meta descriptions as you write them.SEO Analyzer— This tool analyses the health of a website. It will provide you with a list of issues that makes it easy to see where exactly a website is struggling, including missing and duplicate meta descriptions:
Conclusion
Remember, the primary reason for a perfect description tag is NOT so you can rank higher, (since Google, for example, is currently not using the description tag in their algorithm). The primary reason for a good description is to compel the reader to click on you, instead of the competitor.
Have you ever wondered what heading tags (H1) are? If you’ve thought about either of these questions, this article is meant to teach you all about using the h1 tag to improve your onsite SEO. Heading tags (H1) are pieces of HTML code that allow you to make certain words stand out on a page. Content must be useful and unique to attract your target audience. But if it’s not visible, people will not know about your compelling, informative content. Thus, before you can have your audience’s eyes, search engines must see your content. To attract search engines, you need to think about your heading tags (H1). To understand how headings work on a web page, let’s consider a writeup in a Microsoft word document. The title of the article is usually bigger and more pronounced than other words. It may be bold, coloured, or have some other format quality that makes it stand out. Whatever the case, this allows you to scan a word document and pick out the sections you want to read.They differentiate the heading <h1> and sub-headings <h2> to <h6> from the rest of the content. The number from 1 to 6 determines the importance and the position a heading has in the overall hierarchy of the heading structure.Header tags and H tags are some other ways to describe the same thing.
Why are heading tags (H1) important?
An H1 tag is critical. The heading acts as an information guide for the search engine bots. It makes certain words stand out, which allows readers of your website to see what the page is about immediately, and determine whether or not they want to read it. It also helps tell search engines what your page is about, and when used in conjunction with the page title, meta description, keywords and keyword-targeted content, it helps improve your search engine ranking. Search engines generally give this tag more weight over other headings.
Heading tags (H1) SEO tips
Always include an H1 tag.
Use only one per page.
Include the primary keyword for your content.
Avoid populating the tag with too many keywords.
Ensure that your target audience can easily read the H1 tag.
Use up to 70 characters in the tag length.
Make the tag unique.
What about H2, H3, H4, etc?
Whereas your H1 tag is used for your document’s main heading;
Your main points are wrapped in subheadings known as H2s. In other words:A <h2> tag defines the second-level headings in your webpage.But, heading tags don’t stop at H2s.Sub-points below your <h2> tags use <h3> heading tagsSub-points below your <h3> tags use <h4> heading tagsSub-points below your <h4> tags use <h5> heading tagsSub-points below your <h5> tags use <h6> heading tagsH4, H5, and H6 tags are used less frequently. They are useful for breaking up content in long reads.But be careful about using too many H tags, as that could be interpreted as spammy and decrease the value of all the headings in the eyes of search engines. Google treats such content as less informative.
SEO tips for your headings
Write a brief, well-articulated H2 through H6 tags.
Do not use other tags within your H tags.
Don’t use links in heading tags unless you want to take readers away from your content.
Conclusion
To make your content effective and actionable, heading tags optimization is vital. In short, make sure to:Use one <h1> tag.Don’t forget about hierarchy <h1> through <h6>.Apply keywords within headings based on their search volume.Keep headings brief and to the point.Don’t overuse H tags.Clear styles and format headings within the CMS to avoid unexpected/extra symbols within the tags.Do you have additional tips for creating SEO-friendly headings that convert and meet the target audience? Please share them in the comments below.
Defining title tags rightly is very crucial for your business. The title tags in SEO are the title of your document to your most important types of readers; people and robots. The page title is used by search engine algorithms to decide the order when listing pages in search results. Title tags are shown in the browser’s title bar or in the page’s tab and are the most prominent and noticeable part of a SERP result. The contents of a page title are very important for search engine optimization (SEO). People need to know what they can expect to find on your page when they click the link.
What are Title Tags?
The <title> tag defines the title of the document.
Your title tag is the “headline” that people will see in the search results. It’s also one of the primary factors for the search engines in determining your ranking for a given search phrase, although that’s declining in importance.
In the HTML code of your web page, they should appear as:
<head><title> Your Title Goes Here </title></head>
These titles can appear in:
Search engine results
Social media posts
Unfurled chat messages
Browser tabs
Why are title tags important?
Defining title tags are important because they let readers know what information will be present when a user clicks on a page. They also function to determine the relevancy of the web page as a result of a search query. If your title tags do not appeal to Google, then they may change it to better suit their/user needs. If this happens, you can bet it most likely won’t be to your liking.
Tips to defining your title tags
Here are some tips and best practices to ensure your title tags are optimized for crawlers and readers alike.
Your wording
Stay away from all capital letters in your title tag as they’ll use up more character space than lower case letters will and like emails, it is considered improper. Instead of the title, “BEST SELLING SHOE SHOPS IN GHANA” use “Best Selling Shoe Shops In Ghana”.
Search engines will display about 50-60 characters of the title, so try not to have titles longer than that. Keep your titles shorter. This makes for a nice headline for the SERPS and prevents the title from being cut off in the mid-sentence. Google has not specifically come out and said that title tags should be this length; however, if your title is longer than 60 characters, you risk the chance of it becoming cut off in the middle.
Avoid stop words in your title tags such as A, And, But, So, On, Or, The, Was, With, etc. Sometimes it might not seem impossible to have a title tag without stop words, but if you try different combinations of the same title, you can find them.
Your creativity
Write the title in plain English, using proper grammar, make it easily readable, and not just stuff a jumble of keywords in there. As a headline, it should captivate the reader’s attention and motivate them to click. What do you think is more effective to draw in a customer” “SEO Ghana – Evans Stevens” or “SEO Ghana – Secrets to Boosting Your Online Presence”?
Put in your most relevant and desired keywords you want to be ranked in the title, but don’t overdo it. Google can easily recognize keyword stuffing and may change the title of your web page if it feels you’re just throwing different variations of a keyword into it.
Having action words in your title tags can help entice users to click through. Some examples of action words often used in titles are: Get, Take, Boost, Learn, Make.
Try to feature your brand at the end of the title if there’s space. If not, shorten your page title and make space. Having your brand featured can further convince users that the web page is reputable, trustworthy, and has solid information. By using your company name in the title tag, you’re possibly also wasting space that could otherwise be used for a secondary persuasive keyword or phrase. What do you want here? New customers or bragging rights? You decide!
Conclusion
Title tags play an extremely important role and the way you use them can impact your SEO significantly. Use all the SEO tools at your disposal wisely and ensure that you’re getting the most out of each SEO facet, no matter how small it seems.
Remember this is the headline for your search listing!
Many website owners don’t give their websites the needed care, and so they get astonished when things get bad. Rebuilding your website can be costly but this can be avoided by having simple tools to regularly check on your site. This will ensure that your website is competitive and up-to-date with changing trends in your field of work. You can use many free website tools to grow your business in Ghana. However, in this article, we shall talk about these 3 free website tools: SEO analyzer, keyword planner, and site health checker.
SEO Analyzer free website tool
SEO simply consists of multiple strategies, which have the end goal of improving your website’s position in search engines.The analyzer, a free website tool is used by businesses to improve their website’s ranking on search engines. With an SEO analyzer, you can spot issues on your site and get a full list of strategic actions you can take to fix them. SEO analyzer tells you what aspects of your SEO strategy are working and what isn’t working. You can utilize SEO analysis results to help you rank higher, expand your reach, and drive traffic.If you want to get more visitors to your site, Get a FREE report of your website here. If you want more search traffic, all you have to do is follow the website analysis report. It will give you a complete list of errors that are hindering you from achieving the top spot on Google. Our SEO Analysis tool doesn’t just point out errors but gives you step-by-step instructions on how to fix each of them. Once you make changes, you can re-run the report and check to see if you did it correctly.
Keyword planner free website tool
Are you familiar with Keyword Planner? Choosing the right keywords and phrases can get your promotions closer to the top of Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs) and in front of the right clients. After all, to drive increased traffic, you need to know which keywords customers are using when looking for your site and the role these words play in SEO. If you don’t know how searchers are looking for your products or services, you are working blind. The right keywords planner is a tool that every search marketer needs to familiarize themselves with. The good news is that keyword research doesn’t need to be a daunting task. One of the best places to start to gain an insight into the search terms you need is free here. With this free digital checker, just start with a solid list of keywords, and a column or two of variables, and you’re good to go. This free tool sits at the core of your SEO or PPC toolset and helps to discover new keywords, and plan your Google Ads budget. If you need to find the right keywords for your business, it is a great place to start.
Site health checker free website tool
Often when we’re asked to build a website, the client expects it to work flawlessly forever. The truth is, it won’t. Websites break most of the time because they’re out-of-date, or some plug-ins just stopped working, or it’s taking time to load. With 2020 properly underway, it’s a good time to take a step back and assess the health of your website. While you’re unable to tell immediately if your website is performing at its best, there are a few regular checks that can help. We all know how important page speed is, slow site drive visitors and search engines will drop your ranking. On-site SEO should always be top of mind. As your website grows, remember that good on-site (or technical) SEO is the foundation for any successful SEO strategy. Also, having a responsive website is essential. In 2019, 80% of users used a mobile device to search the internet. Besides, your site in 2021 should be using several security measures such as an SSL security certificate (HTTPS). This is both for ranking and for customers to have confidence in your website’s security. If your website gets hacked, it will have a big impact on your brand. Check the health of your website for free by simply pasting the URL here, with no other characters, and wait for the magic to happen!
Conclusion
Regular analysis of your site with these free website tools will ensure your site always performs at its best. If you’ve found this analysis useful, you may even want to do it once a month. Constant small improvements are the most direct path to a high-performing website.
Email marketing is the oldest form of online marketing. It is the most direct and effective way of connecting with your leads, nurturing them and turning them into customers. Most digital marketers use email marketing to advertise special deals, highlight content or promote an event.Email marketing is one of the most popular and effective tools to help you boost sales online. In this article, we’ll share how email marketing can help your business grow and few tips to get you started.
What is email marketing?
Email marketing is a powerful digital marketing strategy used to promote products or services to prospects and customers. Effective email marketing can convert prospects into customers, and turn one-time buyers into loyal, raving fans. Using emails can also help your customers to become aware of your latest items or offers. Email marketing can play pivotal roles in lead generation, building relationships and also driving traffic to your blog, and social media.
How email started
Engineer Ray Tomlinson, the father of emails, in 1971 launched the world’s first email while in a windowless room in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The message was nothing special, a series of numbers and letters that looked more like a password than a message, but its significance was profound.The email was sent from one computer to another, travelling through a network of machines not unlike the internet we know today. Tomlinson also introduced the “@” symbol in email addresses to the world.In 1978, Gary Thuerk, a marketing manager for the now-defunct computer company Digital Equipment Corporation, sent out the first commercial and unsolicited mass e-mail promoting his firm’s computer products. Sent to hundreds of computers over ARPANET (a precursor to the Internet; see DARPA), Thuerk’s message immediately gave birth to email marketing. There were only a few hundred people on the list, but that was enough for Thuerk to claim the mantle, “Father of Spam.”Today, we’re inundated with email marketing campaigns, and spams, but there’s no denying the impact a well-crafted message can have on your customers.
Why is email marketing important?
You now know what email marketing is. Let’s talk about why email marketing is relevant for your business.Despite the rise of social media, and a hundred other forms of messaging, the traditional email format feels relatively old. However, it still remains one of the most powerful and effective way to nurture leads and boost customer loyalty. That’s why almost every social media platform requires you to have an email. The email list can yield dramatic rewards for business owners. According to Direct Marketing Association, email marketing on average sees a 4300 percent return on investment (ROI) for businesses in the US.
Importance of email marketing
1. Email is the #1 communication channel. You can go for a few days or weeks without checking social media like Facebook or Twitter, but most people use email every day, if not multiple times a day, so it’s safe to say that email marketing is good for business. At least 99% of consumers check their email daily. That can’t be said of any other communication channel.2. You own your list. On any social media platform, your account (along with all your fans and posts) could be suspended or deleted at any time, for any reason, without notice. However, you own your email list. No one can take those leads away from you.3. Email converts better. People who buy products marketed through email spend 138% more than those who do not receive email offers. In 2015, a study by the U.K.-based Direct Marketing Association (DMA) found that for every $1 spent, email has an average return on investment (ROI) of $38. That’s huge! The average order value of an email is at least three times higher than that of social media.4. Email marketing allows you to run A/B tests. With email marketing, you can run A/B tests of a subject line or call to action to identify the best performing message using email marketing software that can also be configured to easily send out emails.
How to get started with email marketing?
Email marketing is made up of several moving pieces, but that doesn’t mean it has to be complicated. Here’s how it breaks down:
Step 1: Establish your goals
But signing up to an email marketing tool and jumping to send your first email, it’s worth taking a minute to think about your goals and what you really want to achieve with email, as that will dictate the type of campaigns you send, who you target, the content you include, and how you measure success.
Step 2: Build your email list
Now that you have identified your goals and what you want to achieve from email marketing, it’s time to build your email list so you can start sending campaigns that those goals. There are a couple of different ways you can build your email list, but the right method depends on the goals you establish in Step 1.
First, create a branded opt-in pop-up form for your website
Pop-up forms provide visitors with a quick, convenient way to share contact information and subscribe to your list while they’re browsing your site, making them a powerful tool for audience growth.
Create marketing campaigns to find your people with Facebook ads
Facebook ads can help you reach new audiences and find new customers by targeting people who’re similar to your existing contacts. But Facebook ads aren’t just used for selling stuff, but also to generate leads by collecting emails through ads that link to your landing pages with opt-in forms. In just a few steps, you can create an ad that drives people to your site so they can quickly and easily sign up for your email list.
Step 3: Select the type of campaigns you want to send
There are several different types of email campaigns you can send to subscribers, and the type you choose really depends on the goals you established in Step 1. The campaigns could be newsletters (about one main topic of interest), Marketing Offer (offering discounts and special promotions), announcement (announcing a new product, feature, or service), and event invitation.
Step 4: Create your first campaign
Now that you’ve decided on your goals, built a bit of an audience and selected the type of campaign you’re going to send, it’s time to start building your email. Find tips to making the most of your email marketing campaigns in the next heading.
Step 5: Measuring your success
After publishing your email campaign, it is now time to keep track of your progress and learn exactly how many new people join your email list. You can track the success of your email marketing campaigns: using tools like Google Analytics.
Email Marketing Strategies
Effective email marketing takes effort. Here are a few strategies for making the most of your email marketing campaigns:
Send relevant emails
Once someone has trusted you with their email address, don’t abuse that trust. Inundating your audience’s inbox with emails will cause them to lose interest or unsubscribe entirely. Focus on sending them relevant, engaging messages about the stuff they like, and they’ll be loyal for a long time to come.
Attract your subscribers
Grow your email list, you need to attract people with a compelling offer. You need a lead magnet, something awesome that you give away for free in exchange for an email address. It doesn’t have to cost you anything to create. Some popular lead magnet examples are: eBooks, resources or consultation.
Seek permission
Probably the most obvious problem is when your email gets sent to a subscriber’s spam folder. Before you can email anyone, you need their permission.
No purchased emails
While buying email lists may sound like a great shortcut, it isn’t. And we do not recommend it. We also do not recommend adding emails from people’s business cards that you collected at seminars or workshops unless you have their permission. People who don’t opt-in specifically for your email list are not interested in your services. Emailing them, therefore, is a complete waste of your resources.
Consistency
it’s important to email your subscribers consistently, so your list doesn’t go stale. So to keep your list fresh and filled with engaged subscribers, it’s a good idea to periodically remove inactive subscribers. An inactive subscriber could be anyone who has not engaged with any email in the past 6 months or more.
Timing
Timing can have a huge effect on subscribers opening your emails, so think carefully about what time and day you send your emails.
Make subject lines stand out
When it comes to email open and click rates, your subject lines are everything. Your job is to make your subject lines stand out. The subject line should entice curiosity, include numbers, be friendly and speak in a language and style that your subscribers use themselves.
Be friendly
When you draft your subject line and message content, write as though you are speaking to a person, with a personal subject line and a personalized message.
Mobile friendly
Mobile email accounts for 67% of all email opens, depending on your target audience, product, and email type. Make sure your email is responsive and includes easily loadable media. Also consider the fact that mobile screens are smaller, so long subject lines may get cut off on mobile devices.
Content must be engaging
If a subscriber is happy with your content, they are more likely to open your emails in the future. Conversely, if a subscriber is displeased with what they get, they probably aren’t going to open your emails again, and they may even unsubscribe. Simply make your content engaging and appealing t your subscribers.
Conclusion
Email marketing is a powerful driver of sales & revenue for your business, and has a greater reach and return on investment than any other channel available to marketers today.Follow the steps outlined in this guide for a quick start to email marketing and campaign success.Get started with email marketing today with SEO Digital!
Social media marketing first started with publishing where businesses were sharing their content on social media to generate traffic to their websites and, hopefully, increase sales. But social media has matured far beyond being just a place to share content. These days, businesses use social media in a myriad of different ways. Some ways in which businesses use social media are, monitoring social media conversations and analyzing their reach, views, likes, follows, engagement, and sales.
Social media marketing is simply digital marketing that involves connecting with your audience to market your brand and boost sales for your business or company. Social media marketing activities involve publishing radically different social actions such as sharing short messages/texts, videos, media links, joining events/groups. It also involves the use of paid social media advertising to drive audience engagement, build brand awareness and increase sales.
We’ve created this guide to help you understand the relevance of social media marketing and how to develop a compelling social media marketing plan for your business this year.
The major social media platforms in 2021 are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat
Why is social media marketing relevant in 2021?
While it may seem overwhelming, the importance of social media cannot be overstated. It’s so important that 97% of marketers and 78% of salespeople are using social media for their business. Plus, its benefits extend far beyond increasing sales. However, not all businesses are aware of the benefits of social media marketing. 50% of small businesses aren’t using social media to promote their business. That’s an alarming number. Even more concerning is that an additional 25% don’t plan to use social media in the future either.
How Will Social Media Boost Your Business Online
1. Makes it easy to promote your business
2. Help you increase your clients reach
3. Promotes brand recognition and awareness
4. Increase traffic to your website
5. Build your conversions
6. Enhance communication and engagement with target audiences
7. It is mostly FREE!
Do you now see the relevance of using social media marketing to boost your brand online and drive sales? Are you ready to get started with marketing on social media? Here are a few things to consider before you kick-start your social media marketing
1. Start With a Strategic Goal
Social media strategy planning starts with identifying your brand’s goal. Maybe, you want to use social media to increase your brand awareness, generate engagement around your brand, or even drive website traffic and sales this year. Either way, your goals will define your content strategy and how much time and energy you’ll need to dedicate to your campaigns. Additionally, the goals you set for your business must be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound). Starting a social media marketing campaign without a strategy goal in mind is like going to visiting a new city without a map—you might have fun, but probably get lost.
Second, research to know which social media platforms your competitors are and where they have their largest reach/following. Your competitors can provide valuable data for keyword research and other social media marketing insight. Start by creating accounts on the same platforms to beat the competition, but always do it better! You can also figure out which social media platforms you want to focus on.
Aside from the major social media platforms, there are also social messaging platforms like Messenger, WhatsApp, and WeChat you can explore. Always start with a few platforms that you think your target audience is rather than to be on all platforms.
Here are quick questions to ask yourself when defining your social media marketing goals:
Why do I want my brand on social media?
What am I hoping to achieve with my brand through social media campaigns?
Who is my realistic target audience?
Where does my target audience hang out and how would they use social media?
What message do I want to send to your audience using social media marketing?
Your business type should inform and drive your social media marketing strategy.
Last, think about what type of content you want to share to attract your target audience best? Will they be images, videos, or links? Is it going to be informational, educational, or entertaining? With time, you can always change your strategy according to how your social media posts perform by tracking the data using analytical tools.
2. Plan and Create (curate) compelling content
By now, you have managed to figure out your strategy goal through research and planning. But how about your content strategy? The next thing to consider after setting out your goal is to develop your content strategy with great, compelling, and innovative ideas.
Publishing content to social media is as simple as sharing a blog post, an image, or a video on your personal Facebook or Instagram profile. But in this case, you will want to plan your content ahead of time instead of creating and publishing content spontaneously. Also, your content must be informative, educational, or entertaining depending on the goal you set for yourself in the beginning. Examples of content you can consider are stories, images, short-lived videos, and showing your audience the human behind the posts they see. To ensure you are maximizing your reach, always publish content at the right time and frequency.
There are a variety of social media scheduling tools that can help you publish your content automatically at your preferred time. This saves you time and allows you to reach your audience when they are most likely to engage with your content.
3. Listen and Interact With Your Audience
As your business and social media following begins to grow, conversations about your brand will also increase if you strategise well. One key to being successful in social media is to listen and interact with your audience. People will comment on your social media posts, tag you in their social media posts, or message you directly. Always find time to respond and address their concerns. This will show you are reliable and they can trust you for a quick response to your products.
So what is social listening? Social listening involves tracking conversations around your brand and in your industry and using the information to review your marketing strategies. Social listening and interacting will help you understand your audience better, where they like to hang out, and what they like to talk about. It is simply finding out what people are saying about you. If you’re not using social listening, you’re leaving a lot of great insights on the table.
Social listening and social monitoring are however two different things. Social listening involves what your audience does and social monitoring is about why they do what they do.
People might even talk about your brand on social media without letting you know. So you will want to monitor social media conversations about your brand. If it’s a positive comment, you get a chance to surprise them. Otherwise, you can offer support and correct a situation before it gets worse. There are several social media listening tools out there that you can use, explore and find the one that best suits you and your budget.
4. Track your analytics
Along the way, you will want to know how your social media campaign is performing. Are you reaching more people on social media compared to months back? How much positive feedbacks do you get? How many people used your brand’s hashtag on their social media posts? The social media platforms themselves provide a basic level of such information.
To get more in-depth analytics information or to easily compare across social media platforms, you can use a wide range of social media analytics tools. For example, Google Analytics can be used to measure your social media marketing techniques, as well as determine which strategies are better off abandoned.
Metrics you can measure with analytical tools
1. Reach
The number of unique accounts that have seen any of your posts.
2. Clicks
Refers to the number of clicks on your post or account. Tracking clicks per campaign are essential to understand what drives curiosity or encourage people to buy.
3. Impressions
The total number of times all of your posts have been seen.
4. Engagement
This refers to the total number of social interactions divided by the number of impressions and sheds light on how well your audience perceives you and their willingness to interact. It can also be measured by the number of times your post was liked, saved or commented on.
5. Hashtag performance
What were your most-used hashtags? Which hashtags were most associated with your brand?
6. Saved
This refers to the number of unique users that saved your post.
7. Profile visits
Times your profile was viewed.
8. Following
The number of accounts that started following you.
Having these answers can help shape the focus of your content going forward.
5. Advertising
When you have more funds to grow your social media marketing, an area that you can consider is social media advertising. Social media ads allow you to reach a wider audience than those who are following you. These platforms are so powerful nowadays that you can specify exactly who to display your ads to. You can create target audiences based on their demographics, interests, behaviours, and more.
When you are running many social media advertising campaigns at once, you can consider using a social media advertising tool to make bulk changes, automate processes, and optimize your ads.
CONTACT SEO DIGITAL NOW TO HELP YOU DEVELOP A COMPELLING SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGY
At SEO Digital Ghana, we use social media marketing to build your brand and boost your sales. Get all the benefits of social media with SEO Digital Ghana Now!
Defining title tags rightly is very crucial for your business. The title tags in SEO are the title of your document to your most important types of readers; people and robots. The page title is used by search engine algorithms to decide the order when listing pages in search results. Title tags are shown in the browser’s title bar or in the page’s tab and are the most prominent and noticeable part of a 
In the HTML code of your web page, they should appear as:
<head>
<title> Your Title Goes Here </title>
</head>
These titles can appear in:
While it may seem overwhelming, the importance of social media cannot be overstated. It’s so important that 97% of marketers and 78% of salespeople are using social media for their business. Plus, its benefits extend far beyond increasing sales. However, not all businesses are aware of the benefits of social media marketing. 50% of small businesses aren’t using social media to promote their business. That’s an alarming number. Even more concerning is that an additional 25% don’t plan to use social media in the future either.
1. Makes it easy to promote your business
2. Help you increase your clients reach
3. Promotes brand recognition and awareness
4. Increase traffic to your website
5. Build your conversions
6. Enhance communication and engagement with target audiences
7. It is mostly FREE!
Do you now see the relevance of using social media marketing to boost your brand online and drive sales? Are you ready to get started with marketing on social media? Here are a few things to consider before you kick-start your social media marketing
Social media strategy planning starts with identifying your brand’s goal. Maybe, you want to use social media to increase your brand awareness, generate engagement around your brand, or even drive website traffic and sales this year. Either way, your goals will define your content strategy and how much time and energy you’ll need to dedicate to your campaigns. Additionally, the goals you set for your business must be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound). Starting a social media marketing campaign without a strategy goal in mind is like going to visiting a new city without a map—you might have fun, but probably get lost.
Second, research to know which social media platforms your competitors are and where they have their largest reach/following. Your competitors can provide valuable data for keyword research and other social media marketing insight. Start by creating accounts on the same platforms to beat the competition, but always do it better! You can also figure out which social media platforms you want to focus on.
Aside from the major social media platforms, there are also social messaging platforms like Messenger, WhatsApp, and WeChat you can explore. Always start with a few platforms that you think your target audience is rather than to be on all platforms.
By now, you have managed to figure out your strategy goal through research and planning. But how about your content strategy? The next thing to consider after setting out your goal is to develop your content strategy with great, compelling, and innovative ideas.
Publishing content to social media is as simple as sharing a blog post, an image, or a video on your personal Facebook or Instagram profile. But in this case, you will want to plan your content ahead of time instead of creating and publishing content spontaneously. Also, your content must be informative, educational, or entertaining depending on the goal you set for yourself in the beginning. Examples of content you can consider are stories, images, short-lived videos, and showing your audience the human behind the posts they see. To ensure you are maximizing your reach, always publish content at the right time and frequency.
There are a variety of social media scheduling tools that can help you publish your content automatically at your preferred time. This saves you time and allows you to reach your audience when they are most likely to engage with your content.
As your business and social media following begins to grow, conversations about your brand will also increase if you strategise well. One key to being successful in social media is to listen and interact with your audience. People will comment on your social media posts, tag you in their social media posts, or message you directly. Always find time to respond and address their concerns. This will show you are reliable and they can trust you for a quick response to your products.
So what is social listening? Social listening involves tracking conversations around your brand and in your industry and using the information to review your marketing strategies. Social listening and interacting will help you understand your audience better, where they like to hang out, and what they like to talk about. It is simply finding out what people are saying about you. If you’re not using social listening, you’re leaving a lot of great insights on the table.
Social listening and social monitoring are however two different things. Social listening involves what your audience does and social monitoring is about why they do what they do.
People might even talk about your brand on social media without letting you know. So you will want to monitor social media conversations about your brand. If it’s a positive comment, you get a chance to surprise them. Otherwise, you can offer support and correct a situation before it gets worse. There are several social media listening tools out there that you can use, explore and find the one that best suits you and your budget.
Along the way, you will want to know how your social media campaign is performing. Are you reaching more people on social media compared to months back? How much positive feedbacks do you get? How many people used your brand’s hashtag on their social media posts? The social media platforms themselves provide a basic level of such information.
To get more in-depth analytics information or to easily compare across social media platforms, you can use a wide range of social media analytics tools. For example, 
When you have more funds to grow your social media marketing, an area that you can consider is social media advertising. Social media ads allow you to reach a wider audience than those who are following you. These platforms are so powerful nowadays that you can specify exactly who to display your ads to. You can create target audiences based on their demographics, interests, behaviours, and more.
When you are running many 