Many marketing departments have a cookie-cutter process for sharing content on as many platforms as possible. Fortunately, there is a better way.

We all know that it’s a good idea to be active on social media as part of our marketing efforts. But too often, the way we do that is like throwing spaghetti at a wall, hoping some of it will stick. Instead, more effective use of your marketing time and money is spent on the right platform. But how do you choose the right social media platform for your business?

Why Do You Have to Choose?

It might seem like more platforms are better for your marketing, but as in most business efforts, the Pareto Principle explains why you should choose 2-3 social media platforms rather than try to use them all. You are probably familiar with the Pareto Principle, commonly referred to as the 80-20 precept. It states that 80% of your outcomes result from 20% of your efforts.

The important takeaway for this is that you become far more efficient (thus profitable) if your figure out which efforts give you the most benefit. So focus your energy on those things.

Not All Social Media Platforms are Created Equal

For example, retirees, stay-at-home parents, and 15-year-olds aren’t likely to be on LinkedIn. Likewise, Tik-Tok isn’t the ideal place to look for employees. And Pinterest is a far better place to find craft ideas than Facebook.

As a social media consumer, you likely know which platforms you enjoy and for what qualities. Yet, many marketing departments have a cookie-cutter process for sharing content on as many platforms as possible. There is a better way.

What Audience Do You Want to Reach?

It’s essential to be very clear on who you are trying to reach. So, for example, if you are a fitness company for women over 50, and your goal is to find clients who want to take classes, you wouldn’t target men in their early twenties.  And who you are targeting matters because you can then use the social media platforms where they are most active. So here are some broad statistics on this demographic:

By Gender—Women

75% use Facebook

63% use YouTube

By Age—Adults 50-64

70% use YouTube

68% use Facebook

It’s important to use platforms on which your audience will practically stumble over you each day. For example, looking at gender and age alone would indicate that Facebook and YouTube are where a fitness company for women over 50 should be spending their social media efforts. But it is more complicated than that.

What is the Tone and Personality of the Platform?

Does it match the tone and personality of your company? And what are some of your company’s broader goals? For example, if you want to find clients who want to take classes, you can go the Facebook route, maybe posting an encouraging post or a mini-lesson each day to give potential clients a taste of who you are. But what if you want to build a community? You can start a Facebook group for that community. Or you could venture into the realm of Tik-Tok, which is known for its strong communities.

Do You Have the Skills to Match the Needs of the Platform?

Depending on which platform you use, you will need to have specific technical abilities to take advantage of its benefits. For example, to have a successful account on video platforms like YouTube and Tik-Tok, you need to have a charismatic personality that comes across well on camera, decent video taking abilities and equipment (newer smart phone’s work for Tik-Tok), and the ability to edit video well. In addition, LinkedIn requires the proper use of keywords. And for any social media platform, you should understand the unique algorithm that favors one type of content over others.

Need Help with Your Marketing?

Our Digital Marketing team has you covered. Find out how we can help your audience see more of you!

Contact us today!

The post Choosing a Social Media Platform for Your Business appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

Automated messaging offers a lot of benefits to business owners who wish to use it. Best of all, it is easy to set up. While you can integrate this functionality into your website by embedding Messenger into your site using a plugin or through Facebook’s integration, this article will only focus on automation through Facebook Messenger.

Getting Started

• To automate your Messenger, you must have admin access to your Facebook business page.
• On the left-hand side of the page is a column of options. You will want to click on “Business Suite.”
• Now you will be looking at your inbox.
• From your Inbox, you will be able to see your messages from both your Facebook and Instagram accounts.
• Just below the Facebook and Instagram links on the left-hand column, you will see “Automated Responses.”

Instant Reply

There are several things we can do within this feature. Let’s start with “Instant Reply.” Instant Reply will pop up when someone first attempts to message you.  It can do anything from alleviating the frustration that customers often feel waiting for you to respond to steering your visitors in the right direction. For example, if you primarily use email rather than Messenger, you can let them know that with a link to your email address.

Personalized Response

There are some great features built into Instant Reply. For example, you can personalize the message by having their name automatically inserted in your response. Messenger pulls this directly from their account. It will instantly add warmth and humanity to your automation.

Embedded Links

Then, you can write whatever reply you would like to go out to the people who message you. You can embed links, including your website. Note that you can only link to your main website, not particular pages. These links will not look like links as you create them on the backend, but when you send them in Messenger, they will show up correctly. You should always do a test run to check it out to be sure everything looks right.

Away Message

Many businesses like to have an after-hours message letting their visitors know that their business is closed for the day. Often these messages include business hours and the assurance that they will return and reply and when to expect the reply.

Frequently Asked Questions

This is another place that business often post their hours. You can also add service costs, how to schedule an appointment, Covid policies, or anything else people may have questions about. It is ideal to have questions to answer with a link to a page on your website. This will be efficient for the customer and will improve your web page’s ranking over time. Keep in mind that you can only use four FAQs in a conversation, so choose your four best questions.

Contact Information & Location

Thankfully, you do not need to include “Where are you located?” in your Frequently Asked Questions. Messenger knows this is such a common question that they have added it as an automatic option. If you choose to turn this on, it can give directions to the person needing your location.

Contact Information is another option. With that, you could link right to your Contact Us page on your website or have your phone or email address.

Schedule Appointments

If you schedule appointments through Facebook’s appointment scheduler, you can add this feature to your automatic messaging.

Finally, save your answers, and you are all set!

Need More Answers to Your Marketing Questions?

Iceberg Web Design has them. We specialize in website-based solutions to your business needs. We build custom websites, turn-key websites and have a host of services that can improve your ability to communicate your message. Contact us online today or call 763-350-8762 to learn more!

The post Let Facebook Messenger Automation Work for You appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

In today’s world, where 77% of Americans own a smartphone as well as 76% of people in 18 developed countries, it just makes sense that the race to reach consumers would lead online. For any business serious about expanding their reach, they must have an online presence, which includes being active on social media.

Nonetheless, not all social media platforms work well with every business, and not choosing the right one can even do more harm than good. So, here are a few things to keep in mind for some of the most popular social media platforms to help in determining which one will be the right fit for your business.

Facebook

Facebook is, by far, is the largest social media outlet with 2.23 billion monthly active users. With that many people, it can easily be the ideal place to grab the interest of customers, spread your branding, and the overall messaging of your company. It also has a large variety of advertising options such as event ads, lead generation forms, video ads, Instagram-specific ads, and more, which allows for a range in budgeting when creating marketing materials.

However, its greatest benefit is also its biggest obstacle. Since there are many people on Facebook, it is easy to get lost in the crowd. Facebook does provide efficient data and the ability to target your ideal customer. But, unless you have a pretty hefty marketing budget behind your content, it’s difficult to gain any real traction with new customers.

For smaller businesses that don’t have a large media budget, it might be better to utilize smaller social media outlets to reach new customers, although Facebook is excellent for keeping up with existing consumers.

YouTube

The next largest social media outlet behind Facebook is YouTube, with 1.9 billion monthly active users. If you are not familiar with YouTube, it is a video sharing platform. Not only is it the largest video sharing site on the web, but it is 2nd behind Google in internet searches.

Of course, the best thing about YouTube is that it revolves around videos. Videos are a more effective delivery system in terms of content because they’re easier for people to digest, remember, and connect with as opposed to reading text. When you include this with YouTube’s sharing-friendly interface, videos can not only more easily reach customers but even go viral.

The downside is that some services, as opposed to products, don’t always lend themselves to videos. For example, if you are a website design company or freelancer, you will have to pull out your creative thinking cap to repeatedly create engaging content that ties back into promoting your business.

Also, any kind of video won’t do. You need to create short, high-quality, interesting videos to capture the easily distracted attention span of viewers. Anything less than high-quality can even reflect negatively on your business. However, if you can overcome these hurdles, investing in a YouTube channel would be beneficial.

Instagram

Another prominent social media outlet behind a few messaging apps like WhatsApp is Instagram. Instagram has a monthly active user count of 1 billion. It is different from Facebook and YouTube in that it is purely a video and photo-sharing site that can only be updated by a mobile device.

As explained with YouTube, visuals are always better when it comes to capturing the attention of viewers. Creating visuals can sometimes be much faster and easier than writing content, although you do need a mixture of both.

The challenge of utilizing Instagram is the demand to create a mixture of high-quality videos and photos, which again is easier for businesses that are selling physical products instead of services. Those businesses that face a bit of a challenge with videos can have an even harder time with photos. Videos allow for movement, explanations, and demonstrations, pictures don’t. And unless you have a highly visual business, Instagram might be more of a challenge than its worth.

Also, Instagram’s demographics are much different from Facebook and YouTube’s. While Facebook and YouTube appeal to a wide range of audiences, Instagram is primarily used by people between the ages of 18-29. So, if that’s not your target audience, Instagram may not be a good fit for your business.

Twitter

Twitter, which is further down the list in terms of popularity, has over 335 monthly active users. It is more similar to Facebook in terms of the platform, except it’s known more as a source for real-time information on a plethora of categories (which helps you narrow down your audience), and there is character cap on posts/tweets.

However, like Facebook, they allow a variety of ad options from pushing a promoted tweet to posting images and videos, which again allows for flexibility with content creation.

The drawback is that because it is real-time, users expect quick responses, which means constant monitoring of your Twitter account. Also, because there is a continuous stream of real-time information, your ad or content can easily be missed.

This faster pace may even prove to be difficult when it comes to growing your customer base even with paid ads, which is one of the highest costs among social media sites. Like Facebook, unless you have a flexible budget for ads, you can struggle to see any real results.

If you’d prefer a slower pace and demand for social media on your time, Twitter is likely not the best option for your business.

Need Help?

There are many other social media platforms not mentioned here that may be worth exploring for your business, such as Tumblr, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and even the WhatsApp business app. All of them allow you to set up an account for free, but maintaining a presence on them requires a commitment of time, a steady stream of fresh ideas, and a media budget.

Many business owners simply don’t have the time to research sites, let alone decide which ones would be the most lucrative for them. If you could use the help of trusted professionals to take this “new age” extra work off your hands, contact us today. We can help you build your social media presence, improve your SEO, and handle your paid digital advertising.

The post Which Social Media Platform is Right for Your Business? appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

In our fast-paced, technology-driven world, we anticipate 2018 will see some exciting new website design trends. Here are a few design features that we expect to see become more popular in modern 2018 website design:

1. Animated Logos

(Move your mouse over the logo above to re-animate)

One of the largest up and coming trends for websites in 2018 is the use of animation – particularly animated logos. Businesses can accentuate their brand, or add a bit of fun to their website, through the use of some simple animation.

2. Animated Website Elements

As flash website elements are nearly extinct, new technology is allowing for animations that are compatible with every web browser and mobile device. Animations are a great way to keep users engaged in your website, and they will likely click around more, navigating to other pages to see what else they can find. They may even increase the number of social media shares your website receives!

We expect to see businesses creating SVG and jQuery animations on their websites to draw attention to specific services or special offers. Eventually, animations will be common place on nearly every business website.

3. Better Photography

Pictures can be the only difference between a mediocre website and a great website. With so many options for free stock photography (Unsplash and Pixabay are just a few), and lower cost stock photography subscription services like Envato Elements, web designers have more access to great photos than ever before.

Companies are also investing more in their own brand image, working more and more with professional business photographers to create custom images for their website. In 2018, we will continue to see large photos dominating the web space, and we predict to also see full website color schemes revolving around the photographs used.

4. Improved Mobile Friendliness

As we approach 2018 it is no secret that website mobile friendliness is an important factor to any business that relies on generating business online.  On April 21st, 2015 Google rolled out changes to its algorithms that expanded its use of a websites responsiveness and user friendliness on mobile devices as a ranking factor.  According to Statista, 43.03% of online traffic Q3 of 2017 was from mobile phones.  While that number can vary depending on industry it is obvious that to succeed mobile friendliness can’t be ignored.

How do we maximize mobile conversions?

1. Think with your fingers.  Make sure the user doesn’t have to zoom in our out to find information.
2. Be Responsive.  Keep all devices and sizes in mind.  In this day and age there are a plethora of screen sizes visitors will be viewing your website.
3. Make it fast.  Your customers don’t have a long attention span.
4. Make it easy to find your location, name, phone number and contact form.
5. Keep the design simple on mobile.  Its ok to have a big beautiful website display on large desktop monitors, but make it easy for your mobile visitors.
6. Take advantage of geolocation.  Geolocation can be used to give directions, check in-store availability, offer targeted promotions, and connect to social platforms among other features.
7. Test, Test, Test!  (and then test again).  Check on all devices regularly.

Take advantage of your mobile presence by optimizing your website to make it easy for your visitors to use.

5. Big, Bold Typography

Aside from your physics professor, no one wants to read a term paper when landing on your website. In 2018, we will see more websites using large, bold text as design elements.

Catch your website visitor’s attention with your tagline, a good question or a creative snippet that is easy to read and delivered in a unique way.  Pick a font that makes your brand stand out and drives the message home.  The human attention span is not one that affords us the time to have a long message to absorb.  Make your message big, bold and creative and it will be easily digestible by the average web visitor.

6. High-End Graphic Design Elements

More and more, companies are engaging graphic designers to be part of their website development project. We predict that high-end graphic design will be used on websites, engaging users and creating more interest.

7. Increasing Use of Video

Since the inception of the TV era, video has become an integral part of our everyday lives as the medium to convey information.  This is no different as it relates to your website.  Video is an easy way for your visitors to engage in your message. Using a video is a great way to showcase your brand’s personality in a way that sticks with potential customers.

Search Engine Optimization is another benefactor of well thought out video content.  The longer your visitors stay on your website the better Google rankings will be achieved.  Hold your customers’ attention and the search engines will see that your website has good content relating to specific search terms.

Use video to tell your company’s story, display powerful testimonials or demonstrate a product use.  The more often you provide content that captures your potential customers attention, the better results your website will produce.

8. Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Marketing

While not technically a website design trend, we believe that business owners will become more aware of how customers are finding them online, and will pay more attention to their search presence. Increased investment in SEO and online marketing services has been a trend for the last few years, and will most definitely continue into 2018.

Many business owners will hire in-house Marketing Managers to work on their SEO and social media. Others will work more closely with their website development or SEO company to help bring their website higher up the search ranks. We predict that the average amount a business owner spends on social media advertising will peak this year as well, and social media websites will again adjust their algorithms for business pages to keep up with the influx of paid ads.

Will You Take Advantage of New Web Design Trends?

Graphic design elements and animation can add a lot to an otherwise static website, but they can be costly to implement. Will your company invest more in their website design this winter, to stay on top of the up and coming website design trends for 2018?

To learn more, reach out to our skilled website development team. We are constantly learning new tricks of the trade, and look forward to the challenges that 2018 brings to our design team!

The post Our Predictions for 2018: Up and Coming Website Design Trends appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

You’ve written a blog post for your website.  The topic is on-point, the picture you picked is perfect, you have edited and re-edited every sentence, and you have posted it on your website.

Of course, with a post that amazing you want to share it on Facebook.  You write a great post to catch your potential readers attention and add the link to your blog. Instead of that perfect picture you picked to accompany your wonderful writing you get a box with a title and text, not the most eye-catching thing to promote your blog.

 So, where does the picture on Facebook come from?

The short answer, Facebook is pulling in the Featured Image for that page/post from your website. The technical answer is that, if your website specifies a featured image in the meta tags for the page you are sharing, Facebook will use that image. If your website does not specify a featured image, Facebook will usually grab the first available image on the page.

Did you know that you can actually tell Facebook which image to post for your article? If you have a WordPress website, it only takes a few quick steps. 

Featured Image

First things first you need to set a Featured Image for the blog you are sharing.  The Featured Image (AKA post thumbnail) is a feature that WordPress has for allowing a representative image to be set for pretty much any place on your site you may want to share on Facebook (like a new blog).

Depending on how your site was built this can move around, but it is usually in the editing mode of the post somewhere below or to the side of the text field.  On the custom websites that we have built this is always on the right-hand side of the page below the categories and tags sections.  You can select any photo from your media library or upload one special. Make sure to optimize your photos before adding to the site – we recommend 1200 by 630 pixels for best result on Facebook.

Facebook Debugging

Once you have set the Featured Image you will want to check to make sure Facebook is showing what you want it to.   Because Facebook cache’s images of website pages to make loading times quicker this is recommended anytime you change the Featured Image.

There is a special tool that lets you do this, you can find it here.

Just put the URL for the page/blog in the empty field and select the “debug” button.

If the URL has never been shared on Facebook (common with new blog posts) you will need to tell it to “Fetch new information” by clicking the button that appears.

Don’t see your new picture? 

If this is an old page/post it may show you an old picture or no picture at all.  If that is the case, you can select the “Scrape Again” button.  This will tell Facebook to go look for new information at the website instead of falling back on their cached images.

We encourage using this feature to make your post on Facebook pop and drive website visits!

What will you write your next blog post about?

The post Facebook & Featured Images appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

Many businesses face the same struggle with their marketing.  How do I generate a high number of qualified phone calls?  This post focuses on some best practices to increase qualified phone calls to sales and customer service representatives.

Make it easy for your visitors to find your digits

May seem pretty obvious, but many websites make it difficult to find your companies phone number.   We recommend having the phone number at the top, bottom, and contact drop down of your website.  Another good technique is to have the phone number listed below a well-written call to action on the home page or squeeze page.

Make it a click to call

Another common mistake is simply listing your business number on your website.  Take it a step further and make it a hyperlink.  This way if your potential customer wants to call all they have to do is click the number on their mobile device.  Make it easy and remove as many barriers as you can for your customers.

Business directories generate too

Don’t overlook your business directories like Facebook, Google My Business, Bing Places for Business and any pertinent directory that generates good exposure.   Make sure the correct phone number is listed on these profiles and they match up.  Adding a location?  Having a unique phone number for that location is essential to generating local business as many customers want to work with businesses in their community.

Maximize opportunities by collecting phone numbers after hours

Most business aren’t answering calls 24/7, but are getting calls afterhours.  Make sure you are letting your customers know that you will get back to them in a timely manner.  A good voice message can also give them a warm fuzzy feeling that your staff will be taking care of them during regular business hours.  Giving good information and following through with what you say will let them know you are a well-oiled machine that cares about customer service.  Letting these opportunities slip through cracks only opens the door to your competition.

Engaging content gives your visitors the information they need to take action

It is very important not to skimp on the quality of content on your website, particularly the home page.  Potential customers are searching for the product or service that fits them.  Keeping this in mind make sure that your content is simple and gets to the point of why your business is the right fit for them.  This coupled with a strong or tempting Call-to-Action is a good formula to generate calls of interest.

Don’t forget to stay in touch after the sale

It’s no secret that a customer that has already bought your goods or services is likely to make another purchase.  Listing your number on thank you pages, newsletters, and email drip campaigns is another way to make it easy for your customers to be repeat buyers.  It is just as important if to nurture your current client base as it is to generate new customers.

Track your progress!

It is nearly impossible to know what marketing avenues are working and what are not unless you know where the calls are coming from.  There is a myriad of ways that people will find your phone number and making sure that you are tracking all your campaigns will help you decide where to invest and where not to.  Whether you opt to use a full-service company software like dialog tech or opt to set up your tracking numbers it is important that good systems are in place to track incoming calls.  Inbound calls lead to business and not knowing where they are coming from can lead to an inefficient marketing budget.

The post Optimizing Your Website to Convert Your Visitors Into Qualified Phone Calls appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

What is my online presence?

Your online presence is made up of all the different ways your company appears online. Think of it as your digital footprint. A building has a footprint which can be made up of many different rooms. Similarly, there are many different pieces that can make up your online presence, and your website is just one of them.

Other components of your online presence include:

• Social media profiles
• Google My Business
• Keyword targeting
• Online reputation
• SEO efforts
• Email campaigns

Why does my online presence matter?

Your online presence is what will ultimately get you found by your target customers. 94% of business buyers do some form of online research before purchasing a product: 77% use Google search, 84% check business websites and 34% visit 3rd party websites ₍₁₎. So, it’s pretty safe to say people will interact with your company online in more ways than just your website before becoming your customer. In order to maximize on this attention, it is important that you not only have a robust online presence, but one that sends a cohesive brand message.

So, where should I start?

The first step for many business is to set up and manage social media profiles on some or all of the following social media sites: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. All of these different platforms have their own personality and unique features. It can be pretty overwhelming to know where to start and what efforts will turn into qualified leads. To help you out, here are our top five tips:

Five Tips for Generating Leads with Social Media

1. Be Selective

It is unrealistic and ineffective to be actively engaged in every social media platform. Choose the platforms that best fit your company and target market. A good mainstay is Facebook, but if your target customer base is young and tech-savvy, you may want to have a strong presence on Snapchat. If your product is or services have strong visuals, Pinterest would be a good fit.

2. Be Consistent

You should be sure to use your brand consistently across different social media platforms. Use the same logo, colors and images to strengthen your brand recognition. This is much easier to do if you are only focusing on a few social media platforms.

3. Understand Trends

You don’t need to jump on every new fad the second it comes out, but you should be aware of major trends in social media use. This will help you leverage these platforms to see the biggest return on your efforts.

4. Be Authentic

This is the place to let the personality of your organization show through. Your customers are more likely to connect and engage with you if they see there are real people behind your business. Take the time to find the right brand voice that reflects your organization in a real and honest way. Just be sure to post content that is relevant to your business.

5. Use Scheduling Tools

Many companies neglect social media management because they don’t feel they have time to spend posting on Facebook all day. There’s actual work to be done, after all. Or, the time they do have to read and post blogs is not the time when their customers are most actively engaged. One great strategy that we use here at Iceberg is to carve out a chunk of time to write up a bunch of blog posts, then schedule them to go out at regular intervals.

Still need help?

We can get your business profile set up on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and other social media platforms. To learn about our social media special offers, contact Shane Bader 763-350-8762 or email shane@icebergwebdesign.com.

Stay tuned! The next posts in this series will discuss:

• Google My Business
• Keyword research
• Keyword targeting
• Online reputation

₍₁₎ State of B2B Procurement study from the Acquity Group, 2014

The post Maximizing Your Online Presence appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.